From End to End
10/01/2008
In semiconductor manufacturing, there’s a lot of talk about ends. First, there’s the front-end and the back-end. But the front-end has a back-end, and the back-end has a front and back-end. Quite frankly, it’s difficult to keep it all straight. I’ve discovered its best to digest it one end at time.
Equipment manufacturer, DEK International, has leveraged its printing platform technology into wafer-level applications at the beginning of the back-end, performing processes such as solder ball placement for wafer bumping applications, and wafer backside coating. And our visit to top-ten SATS provider Unisem Group’s test-only facility in Sunnyvale CA, demonstrated for us once and for all, the very end of the line.
 |
1 Most of DEK’s welcoming committee have authored articles in Advanced Packaging. (L-R, back row) Tom Falcon, senior process development specialist, Clive Ashmore, senior process development specialist; (front row) Karen Moore Watts, global marketing director; Mark Whitmore, future technologies manager; Françoise von Trapp, managing editor, Advanced Packaging Magazine; David Foggie, semicon and alternative applications manager, and Michael Brown,semicon and alternative applications product specialist.
 |
2 A beautiful Sunnyvale day at Unisem. (L-R) Jean Ramos, Ph.D. Unisem Group; Jim Cook, president and GM; von Trapp; Chris Stai, director, marketing and communications, Unisem; Gail Flower, editor-in-chief, Advanced Packaging, Greg Phipps, design manager, Unisem, and Lisa Zimmerer, west coast sales manager, Advanced Packaging.
DEK International, Weymouth, UK
 |
David Lucas, manufacturing systems manager, explains the 5S @ DEK lean manufacturing process to von Trapp. 5S stands for sort, set in order, standardize, shine all leading to sustainability.
 |
This platform is in the USC fit and final wire build area; the last step before the enclosure is put in place.
 |
The completed platform is ready for final testing.
 |
The engineering design and development lab is outfitted with older, current, and future machines, offered a glimpse of the tool’s evolution over the years.
 |
This system is fitted with a hopper that will be filled with solder spheres for screen printed wafer bumping processes.
 |
In the buy-off room, a customer tests his process on a new machine.
Unisem Group, Freemont, CA
 |
Donning visitor lab coats, Flower and von Trapp head to the test floor with Cook and Stai.
 |
This Multitest handler and Teredyne tri-temp test head is retrofitted with an ordinary hairdryer to keep moisture from building up on the test head when it’s cable-docked. When the head is direct docked, it has its own moisture control system.
 |
Cook explains the features of the SRM XD 248, which is an integrated bowl feed test handler.
 |
DUT boards and sockets, like the ones shown here, are provided by the customers.
 |
This RVSI lead and ball scanner also inspects laser marks and sorts parts into good and bad trays. It remembers the empty spot and fills it with the next available good part.
 |
Delia Cabrieto, visual inspecter, lends an expert eye to check the good parts, making sure they really are good.