IEEE Manufacturing Technology

Specification Highlight of Positioning Systems for Electronic Markets

Electronic manufacturing systems include a great variety of machines such as: wire bonding, die bonding, surface mount technology (SMT), flying

probes, Automated Optical Inspection (AOI), Printed Circuit Boards (PCB) drilling, screen printing, Ink jet printing, electron beam testing (EBT), Tape

Automated Bonding (TAB), Flip Chip Bonding, solder ball Inspection, glue dispensing, PCB laser skiving, PCB laser scribing, PCB laser marking,

 etc'. Most of these applications are characterized by the following positioning requirements:

 

Long travel - on order of 1 m'

High precision - on order of 1 um

High throughput - on order of 1-3 m/sec max velocity and 1-5 g max acceleration

Smoothness of motion - on the order of a few microns error at 1KHz sampling rate

Short setting time - on the order of a few msec to settle to a 1 um window

 

Axes of motion - XYZR

XY Gantry configuration is very common in electronic manufacturing, since it provides best utilization of floor space and lends itself to transfer line

processing, where one machine feeds the other. Rotary stages are often required for registration, where fiducial marks on the PCB are being oriented

to their start position after loading. Z stages are often required for auto focus of the tool. Other configurations are often used in various mounting

 combinations

 

Configuration - For XYZR degrees of freedom, there are theoretically 3 * 3 * 2 = 18 combinations of compounding the stages one on top of the

other. There are additional 3 * 3 *2 = 18 combinations of split axes, including three compounded axes and one separate axis. Finally, there are

additional 3 *3 * 2 = 18 combinations of split axes, where each split set includes two axes. Altogether there are 54 possible combinations (assuming

X and Y are interchangeable when mounted to each other). Most of these optional combinations, such as XY riding the Z or the R axes, may be ruled out

due to mounting complexity and cantilever effects. However a few options, as shown below, are feasible solutions and should be selected on the

basis of optimal price performance. Optinet tools are designed to assist the user in making the right choice.  The main options of XYZR configurations

are as follows:

  • XYZR   - where the part is moving on XYZR and the tool is stationary
  • XYR, Z - where the part is moving on XYR and the tool is moving on Z
  • XZR, Y - where the part is moving on XR and the tool is moving on Y
  • XR, YZ - where the part is moving on XR and the tool is moving on YZ
  • ZR, XY - where the part is moving on ZR and the tool is moving on XY
  • R, XYZ - where the part is moving on R and the tool is moving on XYZ