Headquartered in Montauban, France, Novatec is a research laboratory that develops new technologies for the electronics assembly industry. In the electronics assembly industry, where sophistication and complexity reign, Novatec strives for simplicity. The company’s technologies are robust, efficient and accessible worldwide.

Known as an electronics assembly process specialist, Novatec develops technologies based on knowledge of the electronics industry and a capability to perceive the future needs of electronics manufacturers, whatever their specialty. A significant advantage of Novatec is that it does not propose incremental improvements but real breakthroughs that have significant potential across a range of processes and applications. One example is the ‘ProFlow®’ closed–loop paste cassette system used in many of today’s printers.

Another breakthrough is Europlacer’s new solder ball feeders, which provide a low–cost solution for solder ball assembly. By using exclusively licensed, patent–protected techniques developed in conjunction with Novatec, Europlacer’s feeders enable reliable assembly of solder balls as part of the standard surface mount pick–and–place process.

The sphere is well known as an interconnection device, and most board manufacturers are used to mounting BGAs and CSPs. At the same time, designers are looking for solutions to increase the density and reduce the size of boards. The use of an array of spheres as interconnection devices enables them to achieve that goal.

Until now, sphere placement equipment was exclusively used in the semiconductor industry (back–end) to produce BGAs and CSPs using dedicated equipment designed specifically for ball placement. The equipment is very expensive (because it is both complex and not produced in large volumes) and inflexible (each new production batch requires several setup hours).

Therefore, Novatec decided to work on new solutions to give SMD board designers and manufacturers access to solder spheres as an interconnection device. The target was to create the capability to place spheres in an efficient manner with standard SMD placement equipment.

The advantages of using standard placement machines are numerous:
• They are well known in the electronics industry and are reliable
• Placement speed and accuracy is important
• They are manufactured in large quantities so the price compared to dedicated equipment is very low
• They are very flexible
• They can be used for placing SMD components and/or spheres.

Novatec’s ultimate solution uses a specific feeder and a specific nozzle to allow spheres to be placed with standard pick–and–place equipment, allowing one machine to place both spheres and standard SMD components.

This technology now gives SMD designers and manufacturers the capability to use spheres in their products, with all their corresponding advantages. New possibilities are opened in terms of design, including higher density, lower cost, smaller electronic modules and more. As an example, Figures 1 and 2 illustrate how the ball feeder makes it possible to produce electronic modules quite efficiently.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Europlacer incorporated Novatec’s technology into the design of two types of solder ball feeder (rotary and linear), providing a low–cost solution for solder ball assembly. Both types enable reliable assembly of solder balls as part of the standard surface mount pick–and–place process. This technology has been designed to fit as standard on all Europlacer pick–and–place machines so that ball assembly can be seamlessly integrated into existing surface mount lines. The rotary solder ball feeder enables picking of single balls from a reservoir while the linear feeder features special nozzles that are used for picking from one ball to a matrix of 50 x 50 mm. Eight different nozzle types can be picked from the same feeder.

Traditionally used as a PCB interconnection medium for BGAs, solder balls today are being increasingly used in other areas with electronics assemblies, including many of the latest product designs for mobile phones, Bluetooth, Wi–Fi, PDAs, laptops and other products. Many other products are now incorporating solder balls, usually as an attachment method for multi–component modules, daughter boards, shields, memory–stacks, special components and other parts.

The Europlacer solder ball feeder (and resultant assembly process) offers numerous features and benefits including automatic assembly of solder balls with very high first–pass yield, easy–load intelligent feeders and nozzles for single or multiple ball assembly, and extremely fast product changeover. Furthermore, the feeders fit as standard to all Europlacer pick–and–place machines  no restrictions of ‘dedicated’ equipment. The feeder designs enable quick and simple replenishment of the solder ball reservoir, while placement of PCBs or other mediums on pallets are possible.

For more information on the Surface Mount Ball Assembly contact Europlacer on +44 (0) 1202 266550 or visit their website at www.europlacer.com.

Keywords : Novatec, Europlacer, solder ball assembly, solder balls, BGAs, CSPs

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