Abstract: Disclosed is a manufacturing system having isolated islands of "clean room" environment connected by inter-process transfer containers for transfering in-process workpieces. The system has airlock transfer ports between the process enclosures and the inter-process transfer containers. The make and break airlock transfer ports have facing sealable doors in the process enclosure and the transfer container. These doors are in air sealable facing recesses of the process enclosure and the transfer container. At least one peripheral gasket surrounds the recesses and the pair of doors. This provides a substantially clean room environment in the airlock. The sealable door in the interprocess transfer container is fabricated of a ferromagnetic material and is seated on a ferromagnetic gasket, while the sealable door in the process enclosure has a controllable electromagnetic clamp.

Abstract: A method of testing semi-conductor chips is disclosed. The individual semiconductor chips have I/O, power, and ground contacts. In the method of the invention a chip test fixture system is provided. The chip test fixture system has contacts corresponding to the contacts on the semiconductor chip. The carrier contacts have dendritic surfaces. The chip contacts are brought into electrically conductive contact with the conductor pads on the chip test fixture system. Test signal input vectors are applied to the inputs of the semiconductor chip, and output signal vectors are recovered from the semiconductor chip. After testing the chip is removed from the substrate.

Abstract: Disclosed is a system for handling large area, in-process, circuit panel layers. The circuit panel layers are thin and flimsy, and require rigid support for certain processing steps. The system includes a peripheral frame fixture for surrounding and supporting the in process circuit panel layer, and a a loading chuck for mounting the in-process circuit panel layer in the peripheral frame fixture. The peripheral frame fixture includes a bottom plate having a central opening to expose the circuit panel layer, a top frame having a corresponding central opening to expose the opposite surface of the circuit panel layer, and a compressive apparatus, as screws, bolts, or the like, for applying a z axis compressive force to the bottom plate, the top frame, and a panel layer therebetween. Optionally, the fixture may include alignment pins or fiducials for aligning the bottom plate, a panel layer, and the top frame, and a robotic interface for a robotic arm to grasp and transfer the peripheral frame fixture.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method of manufacturing a printed circuit panel. The method is carried out without a cleanroom, but in a clean room environment. The first step is to place a thin, non-rigid panel in a suitable fixture, for example, for transfer and also for processing. The fixtured panel is then placed in an air tight transfer container, which has a substantially contaminant free atmosphere. The transfer container has a sealed door at one end. The transfer container is then brought into a seaiable, substantially airtight interlock with a process enclosure. This process enclosure also has a substantially contaminant free atmosphere, and a sealed door at one end. An airtight seal is formed between the transfer container and the process enclosure, and also between the surfaces of the two doors. This is to avoid introducing surface contaminants into the process enclosure and transfer container atmospheres. Next, the two doors are opened simultaneously.

Abstract: Disclosed is a transfer container for carrying circuit panels in and between substantially contaminant free environments. The walls of the transfer container are fabricated out of substantially particulate free, unfilled polymers, such as polycarbonate. One of the end walls is an access wall. The access wall has an opening surrounded by a ferromagnetic gasket. This gasketed opening is adapted to receive a ferromagnetic door panel. The side walls, and the top and bottom walls may extend beyond the access wall, with the ends of said walls defining a plane, so that the access wall is recessed with respect to the plane defined by the said extensions. Each of the side walls have co-planar bracket pairs for holding circuit panels. Either one of, or preferably both brackets of a bracket pair have pyramidal or conical positioning pins. These pins extend upwardly from the brackets and are adapted to receive and hold a workpiece in place.

Abstract: A solar recharge station is described having a contact area, a battery bank charge area and a solar panel array for maintaining the battery bank charged. The contact area includes electric contacts formed for engagement automatically by contacts on an electric powered vehicle as the vehicle enters the contact area. The battery bank is connected so that its energy is available for either recharging the vehicle or other use, and in case the vehicle needs a recharge but the battery banks lacks sufficient charge, ordinary house voltage is used.

Abstract: The present invention is an apparatus and method for maximizing light beam utilization in patterning applications by positioning a plurality of mask mirrors in the light beam path to form patterned light onto a plurality of work pieces. Each mask mirror is designed so that a portion of the light beam area needed for exposing a work piece to patterned light is reflected from the mask mirror, while the remainder is passed through the mask mirror to another mask mirror. Alternatively, each mask mirror can be designed so that a portion of the light beam area needed for exposing a work piece to patterned light is passed through the mask mirror, while the remainder is reflected to another mask mirror.

Abstract: The method and apparatus described in the disclosure utilizes the known technique of extrusion to form a plurality of very small pins, with diameters of 0.020 inch or smaller, in a substrate of electrically nonconductive material. The number of pins is 360 or more, and the electrically conductive material described in the extrusion process is copper. A pin die is formed with the same number and pattern of holes as are in a blank substrate, and it is positioned over an extrusion die with matching orifices that is fixed on an extrusion press. A head die presses the blank substrate firmly on the pin die during the extrusion operation, and when completed, the pins are sheared and the substrate is ejected as a new blank is positioned to repeat the cycle.

Abstract: A pin which has a compressive strength less than the tensile strength of a substrate can be fixed into a hole in the substrate when the substrate is held between a stopping block and a clamp by transporting the pin into the hole with sufficient kinetic energy that the pin is forged into a shape defined by the hole upon impacting the stopping block.The pin can be retained in the substrate by forging it into a headed and bulged shape defined by recesses in the stopping block and the clamp on either side of the hole.

Abstract: An insertion device for two or four pin dual in-line electronic insertion machines which include a radial array of transfer units associated with a picker unit which grasps a component and inserts it into a circuit board.

Abstract: A dispensing device for small parts arranged in a compact shape from when the parts can be withdrawn from a single point including a plurality of vertically stacked trays slidably disposed upon banks of spaced flanges which are rotatable about a central axis of the device and reciprocable in a plane parallel to the central axis. The uppermost and lowermost trays in the stack are free to rotate with the flanges and the balance of the trays are restrained from rotation so as to be disengaged from one bank of flanges and received between the planes of another bank of flanges.

Abstract: An electronic component insertion apparatus having an inserter assembly rotatable from a drive position to a feed position where a feeding subassembly feeds a component along the longitudinal axis of the inserter assembly into the inserter and subsequently the inserter assembly is rotated back to the drive position where it is driven along its longitudinal axis to insert the component into a circuit board.