Applied Materials Updated Producer Platform
Applied Materials updated its longstanding Producer Platform. Through the years, the Producer platform’s modular design and architecture has allowed it to continue evolving with expanded capabilities including etch, selective removal and treatment technologies. The platform helped enable several industry inflections including copper, strain engineering, high-k metal gate, FinFETs and, most recently, 3D NAND.
Now, in the dawn of the artificial intelligence (AI) era, the Producer platform remains useful amidst a time of transformation for the semiconductor industry.It can be used as an integrated process platform, offering various combinations of deposition and treatment, deposition and etch, or deposition and selective removal, in the same system and under vacuum.
For more information, visit Applied Materials’ website.
ASM Placement Modules
ASM Assembly Systems released an improved version of its SIPLACE TX placement modules. Equipped with the SpeedStar head, the model’s placement performance has been increased by 23 percent to up to 96,000cph (components per hour), while its component spectrum now ranges from 0201 to 8.2 x 8.2mm. Other features include reduced power consumption and the planned long-board option for boards with lengths of up to 510mm.
In addition, the placement force can now be reduced to 0.5 N in order to place sensitive components more gently than before. The new placement head suspension allows for easier and faster head changeovers—for example, to the SIPLACE MultiStar.
Information concerning pricing and availability can be found on ASM’s website.
Bruker Probe Technology
Bruker announced the iProbe HRMAS, which provides full automation of high-resolution magic angle spinning (HRMAS) NMR. Built on the recently introduced iProbe platform, the HRMAS technology offers the benefits of automated tuning and matching for all RF-channels, along with accurate automated adjustment of the magic angle position.
Similar to liquid NMR, the iProbe HRMAS features automatic sample insertion and ejection from the top of the magnet. Automated tuning and matching is performed with the enhanced 2nd generation ATMA uses Cartesian coordinates-based algorithms, while the adjustment of the magic angle outperforms the precision and reproducibility of manual optimization.
For more information, visit Bruker’s website.
EVG Wafer Bonding
EVG unveiled the SmartView NT3 aligner, which is available on the company’s GEMINI FB XT integrated fusion bonding system for high-volume manufacturing (HVM) applications. Developed specifically for fusion and hybrid wafer bonding, the SmartView NT3 aligner provides sub-50nm wafer-to-wafer alignment accuracy, a two to three times improvement, as well as higher throughput, up to 20 wafers per hour, compared to the previous generation’s platform.
Vertical stacking of semiconductor devices has become an increasingly viable approach to enabling continuous improvements in device density and performance. Wafer-to-wafer bonding is an essential process step to create 3D-stacked devices.
Additional technical specifications are available on EVG’s website.
Nordson Automated Cartridge Dispenser
Nordson introduced the JetStream automated cartridge dispenser. Designed for sealant dispensing applications in aerospace manufacturing, the robot-mounted JetStream system features an articulating cartridge holder that opens to load and unload pre-mixed cartridges. Its built-in volumetric dispense valve assembly eliminates material supply hoses and increases the accuracy of bead, volume and placement through automation.
JetStream provides consistent and accurate automatic application of cartridges in order to increase production’s first-pass quality and reduce material costs and unnecessary structure weight.
For more information, visit Nordson’s website.
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