Global Technology Awards 2007 Winners

The third annual Global Technology Awards were held at Productronica and were once again a great success. A team of international judges presided over the contest to select the best new product innovations introduced between July 2006 and July 2007.

The result was a celebration of some extremely innovative technology that deserves the description “the best in the world”. Below is a brief description of each category winner and the products submitted.

Adhesives/Coatings/Encapsulants

Emerson & Cuming
CA-3152 conductive adhesive
This low temperature, snap cure, electrically conductive adhesive snap cures in 10 seconds, allowing RFID tag production at line speeds of several hundred feet per minute, and cures at temperatures of 135°C or less, thus making it compatible with low cost temperature-sensitive substrates. www.emersoncuming.com

Assembly Tools (tie)

Ovation Products
Magna-Print SMT squeegee holder
With the Magna-Print system, blades are changed in seconds without removing the holders from the machine. The quick-change blade holder’s arrangement of magnets and other features assist in the firm holding of the blades, eliminating the need for tools and loose hardware for blade changes. www.grid-lock.com

MYDATA
Agilis Stick Magazine
Unlike stick feeders that rapidly vibrate up and down to feed components, the Agilis Stick Magazine (ASM) utilizes a high precision, short stroke linear drive with a servo-controlled, horizontal motion to significantly reduce time and money spent on operator assists and component waste. www.mydata.com

Bonding Equipment

F & K Delvotec
Wire bonder 64/66000 G5
F&K Delvotec’s fifth generation wire bonder 64/66000 G5 connects semiconductor chips to their substrate using ultrasonic energy to weld the wires. Modular design and flexibility ensures low equipment cost and conserves valuable floor space. www.fkdelvotec.com

Cleaning Equipment

DEK
Cycle understencil cleaning (USC)
The DEK Cyclone system allows manufacturers to perform USC at the optimum interval with minimum impact on overall throughput. Cyclone also dramatically reduces the time necessary to replenish the cleaning paper roll. This delivers an important additional reduction in the overall USC time overhead. www.dek.com

Cleaning Materials

Kyzen Corpration
AQUANOX A4625B aqueous chemistry
Biodegradable AQUANOX A4625B is an innovative MEA-free aqueous blend specifically designed for batch washers to remove pastes, tacky fluxes, rosin flux, no-clean flux, lead-free flux and assembly residues. www.kyzen.com

Components (tie)

Practical Components
Traceability & Control Validation Kit
Practical Components Inc. and Aegis Industrial Software Corp. have partnered to offer an innovative kit designed to validate a manufacturer’s entire process and provide rich product and process traceability detail. www.practicalcomponents.com

Cascade Microtech
Grypper™ BGA Test Socket
Grypper™ BGA test socket is a high-performance, low-cost, fine-pitch BGA test socket ideal for testing 0.4mm and 0.5mm pitch high-frequency devices in applications where PCB holes for external fasteners and additional hardware cannot be accommodated. www.cascademicrotech.com

Contract Services

Panasonic
Advanced Packaging Lab
Cutting edge packaging requires customers, machine vendors and material suppliers to engage early in the design phase with boards, parts, and materials to begin the cycle of prototyping, analysis, and optimization. Panasonic’s new lab offers state-of-the-art production machines for this prototyping effort. www.panasonicfa.com

Dispensing Equipment

Asymtek
SC-400 PreciseCoat™ conformal coating jet applicator
SC-400 PreciseCoat jet applies coating materials to highly selective areas and areas not accessible by other applicators. It’s ideal for small substrates, devices, or substrates with high-component density and tight tolerances between coated and uncoated areas. www.asymtek.com

Environmentally friendly products/services

Aqueous Technologies
SMT-1000ZD batch defluxing system
SMT1000-ZD zero-discharge, high performance automatic defluxing system is the most effective, innovative, fully automatic defluxing system capable of removing all flux types. www.aqueoustech.com

Hand Soldering – Rework & Repair

OK International
APR-5000-DZ advanced package rework system
The APR-5000-DZ rework system with dual convection, bottom-side heating for lead-free rework and high thermal demand applications enables fast ramp and tighter delta temperature control for lead-free rework without affecting adjacent and underside components. www.okinternational.com

Inspection - AOI Systems

CyberOptics Corporation
Flex Ultra AOI test/inspection system
Flex Ultra delivers advanced detection with faster speeds and higher resolution, increasing overall product quality and providing consistency of performance. Flex Ultra is configurable for post-placement and post-reflow inspection applications. www.cyberoptics.com

Inspection - X-ray

Dage Group
Computerized Tomography system
The Dage 3D Computerized Tomography system is the first and only CT system capable of greatly improved processing speed and finer feature recognition making it an ideal inspection methodology for complex 3D devices such as stacked die, package-in-package and package-on-package. www.dage-group.com

Placement equipment

Juki Automation
FX3 high speed mounter
FX3 is the first machine in the marketplace that will do high speed, high quality assembly at a reasonable cost, with a price point at about 30% of a comparable machine. The machine is extremely versatile and can place parts from 00105 to 0402s to 35mm accuracy. www.jas-smt.com

Printing Equipment

DEK
Reel-to-Reel (R2R) continuous substrate printing technology
DEK’s Reel-to-Reel handling system for continuous flexible substrate deploys three vacuum beds and a clamping system to handle different thickness of flexible material without stretching or twisting. Each substrate roll can be up to 150 metres in length and 500mm in width. www.dek.com

Programming

BPM Microsystems
Flashstream vector programming system
Flashstream Vector Programming System offers the fastest flash programming of NAND and NOR flash memory at speeds as low as 2.5 percent over theoretical programming minimum, meeting a significant industry challenge. www.bpmmicro.com

Software

Siemens A&D EAS
SIPLACE Line Exceution System
With the SIPLACE line execution system, a software-based solution for the production scheduling and control of SIPLACE X lines, electronics manufacturers can optimize their production flow in high-mix environments and minimize their setup changeover times. www.siplace.com

Soldering equipment

BTU International
Pyramax 100 reflow oven
With 8-zone air or nitrogen models, 350ºC maximum temperature, flexible platform configuration, low nitrogen and power consumption, and a comprehensive menu of options, the Pyramax 100 is both the industry’s most versatile performer and its best value for lead-free processing. www.btu.com

Soldering Materials

Nihon Superior/Balver Zinn
SN100C solder products
The Lead Free Electronics Project JCAA/JG-PP that concluded it’s research in 2006 found that in addition to matching the performance of tin-copper alloys in thermal cycling, the SN100C outperformed the competitive alloys by a significant margin in vibration testing. www.nihonsuperior.co.jp

Test Equipment

RMD Instruments
LeadTracer RoHS XRF system
LeadTracer-RoHS XRF is the only XRF system designed specifically for the electronic industry to provide fast, accurate and portable screening capability to meet RoHS directives. Its ability to analyze the entire energy spectrum eliminates the possibility of false-negative indications. A new solder analysis and identification feature, helpful when completing rework or repair for finished assemblies,accurately identifies all solder alloys within minutes. www.rmd-leadtracer.com

Wafer Level Products

Milara, Inc.
AWPb 300 wafer bumper system
AWPb 300 is a creative and cost efficient application of Milara’s existing technology and is capable of handling 200/300mm cassettes with either a single or dual FOUP option, meeting a significant industry challenge. www.milarasmt.com

Best Product - Asia

ICON Technologies
Icon i8 printing platform
The Icon i8 was specifically developed to meet the significant industry challenges of the fast-paced Asian electronics market, and it sets the benchmark for assemblers seeking the lowest cost of ownership while delivering superior performance and value. www.iconprinter.com

Best Product - Europe

EVS International
EVS 1000 solder recovery system
The innovative EVS 1000 solder recovery system is a smaller, lighter version of the popular EVS 3000/6000, with all of the recovery performance of the standard and lead-free solder units , while still offering capcity for 10lb/5kg of dross. www.solderrecovery.com

Best Product - North America

Ovation Products
Active Stencil system
The Active Stencil system transform sany in-line screen printer (with 29” x 29” frame capabilities) into a highly accurate fluid dispensing machine in just minutes, and back to a screen printer just as easily, meeting a significant industry challenge. www.grid-lock.com

Awarded by
GLOBAL SMT
& Packaging
The Global Assembly Journal
for SMT & Advanced Packaging Professionals

2008 awards will be
presented at