Patents Assigned to St Assembly Test Services Pte.
  • Patent number: 6372553
    Abstract: A substrate and method of encapsulating a substrate based electronic package using injection molding and a two piece mold is described. The substrate has a barrier material formed on a gating region of the substrate. The barrier material can be formed directly over circuit wiring traces formed on the substrate thereby avoiding restrictions on the location of circuit wiring traces. The barrier material and encapsulant are chosen such that the adhesive force between the barrier material and the encapsulant is greater than the adhesive force between the barrier material and the substrate. When the mold runner is broken away the barrier material is also peeled away without damage to the substrate or circuit wiring traces.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 1998
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2002
    Assignee: ST Assembly Test Services, PTE LTD
    Inventor: John Briar
  • Patent number: 6359336
    Abstract: The present invention provides a boat and method for holding one or more substrates during a ball grid array packaging assembly. The boat comprises a base and one or more spring locks. The base has one or more openings which provide access to both faces of said substrates. The base has bottom supports protruding into the openings to retain the substrates from below and top supports protruding into the openings to retain the substrates from above. The spring locks apply lateral pressure to the substrates forcing the substrates over the bottom supports and under the top supports, whereby the boat can be flipped with the substrates retained between the top supports and the bottom supports. In one embodiment, substrates are installed in the boat, and the entire boat is flipped when the opposite face needs to be accessed, rather than manually flipping each substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2001
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2002
    Assignee: ST Assembly Test Services Pte Ltd
    Inventors: Loreto Yeong Cantillep, Ernesto A. Opiniano
  • Patent number: 6355199
    Abstract: A molded flexible circuit assembly and method of forming a molded flexible circuit assembly which use a molded stiffener, and do not require any additional type of stiffener, are described. A molded stiffener is formed on a flexible tape at the same time molded encapsulation units are formed to encapsulate circuit die which are attached to the flexible tape. The molded stiffeners provide adequate rigidity for processing of the molded flexible circuit assembly. When the stiffeners are no longer needed they are removed at the same time the mold runners are removed. No additional processing steps are required for either the formation or removal of the molded stiffeners.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 1999
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2002
    Assignee: St. Assembly Test Services Pte Ltd
    Inventors: John Briar, Raymundo M. Camenforte
  • Patent number: 6319418
    Abstract: A new pattern is provided for the bus lines that are used to facilitate plating of layers of electrical lines that form a Printed Circuit Board. Where Prior Art bus lines have a straight-line geometry, the bus lines of the invention have any geometry that is not a straight-line geometry. The geometry of the bus lines of the invention can be of any design as long as this design allows for interrupted cutting of the bus line, that is the cutting tool does not, during the process of cutting the bus line, make constant and continuous contact with the bus line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 1999
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2001
    Assignee: St. Assembly Test Services Pte Ltd.
    Inventors: Arvin Verdeflor, Albert Loh, Steven Liew, William S. Villaviray
  • Patent number: 6300781
    Abstract: An arrangement of three plates where the top plate interfaces with the BGA device, the center plate has a structure of channels or openings which is matched with the size and ball pitch of the BGA device that is being handled while the bottom plate interfaces with the tester or target plate. A plurality of center plates is provided to match and equal the plurality of BGA devices that is handled in the BGA testing or BGA semiconductor-manufacturing environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 1998
    Date of Patent: October 9, 2001
    Assignee: ST Assembly Test Services PTE Ltd
    Inventors: Liop Jin Yap, Wee Boon Tan, Chee-Keong Tan
  • Patent number: 6282812
    Abstract: An apparatus is provided for the drying of electronic components. The invention provides multiple holes through which air is passed before striking the components. This provides the apparatus of the invention with multiple air knives, thereby breaking major air flow into multiple eddy currents whereby these eddy currents have a low enough air pressure gradient such that the electronic components are not damaged or lifted from the conveyer belt on which they are transported.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 1999
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2001
    Assignee: St Assembly Test Services Pte Ltd.
    Inventors: Hwee Nam Wee, Peter Hock Ming Ng, Sean Shiao Shiong Chong
  • Patent number: 6284572
    Abstract: The present invention provides a boat and method for holding one or more substrates during a ball grid array packaging assembly. The boat comprises a base and one or more spring locks. The base has one or more openings which provide access to both faces of said substrates. The base has bottom supports protruding into the openings to retain the substrates from below and top supports protruding into the openings to retain the substrates from above. The spring locks apply lateral pressure to the substrates forcing the substrates over the bottom supports and under the top supports, whereby the boat can be flipped with the substrates retained between the top supports and the bottom supports. In one embodiment, substrates are installed in the boat, and the entire boat is flipped when the opposite face needs to be accessed, rather than manually flipping each substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 14, 2000
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2001
    Assignee: St Assembly Test Services Pte Ltd.
    Inventors: Loreto Yeong Cantillep, Ernesto A. Opiniano
  • Patent number: 6278613
    Abstract: A new method is provided for the connection of heat conducting copper pads, eliminating the need for these heat conducting pads to be connected directly to the ground ring, further eliminating the need for the ground ring to be the external ring that is provided on a surface of the package.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2000
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2001
    Assignee: St Assembly Test Services Pte Ltd
    Inventors: Elstan Anthony Fernandez, Chow Seng Guan
  • Patent number: 6271658
    Abstract: An apparatus for quickly and reliably aligning a semiconductor handling apparatus with a semiconductor tester. Two docking plates are attached, one to the device handler and one to the device tester. On the docking plates a substructure is mounted which first allows initial alignment of the handler plate with the test head plate after which the substructure provides the means of securely positioning and interlocking the handler plate with the test head.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 1998
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2001
    Assignee: ST Assembly Test Services Pte, Ltd.
    Inventors: John Zenon G. Vallinan, Chee-Keong Tan
  • Patent number: 6255143
    Abstract: A new method is provided for the conduction of heat between a flip-chip and the motherboard and heatsink onto which the flip-chip is mounted. In a flip-chip package of the invention the heatsink is in direct contact with the flex circuit, the contact balls of the flip chip make contact with the flex circuit. The flip-chip is attached and reflow is performed thereby attaching the contact balls to the flex circuit. The flip chip is encased in a molding compound in a one step process procedure that is in accordance with Ser. No. 09/640,534, assigned to a common assignee. The flip-chip is now placed on the motherboard with the contact balls and the underfill facing upwards. The underfill provides direct contact between the flip-chip and the flex circuit/heatsink. This direct contact significantly increases the heat flow between the flip-chip and the heatsink.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 1999
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2001
    Assignee: St. Assembly Test Services Pte Ltd.
    Inventor: John Briar
  • Patent number: 6184047
    Abstract: An apparatus for effecting a semiconductor device handling method which includes picking up a semiconductor device by vacuum at the tip of a sleeve assembly nozzle having a longitudinal axis situated parallel to a Z axis of an orthogonal XYZ coordinate system and being movable in X and Y directions laterally of the Z axis in order to translate the sleeve assembly nozzle between different pick-up sites and a test site, and placing the semiconductor device onto a test contactor for testing, the improvements include means, operatively associated with the sleeve assembly nozzle, for adjusting the tip relative to a top surface of the semiconductor device and means, operatively associated with the sleeve assembly nozzle, for controlling the semiconductor device contact pressure by the mechanical arrangement of device members of the sleeve assembly nozzle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 1999
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2001
    Assignee: ST Assembly Test Services Pte Ltd
    Inventors: B. S. Chandra Shekar, Chee-Keong Tan
  • Patent number: 6176066
    Abstract: An antistatic strapping apparatus for binding and securing a plurality of semiconductor device carrier trays, the apparatus including a strap member having opposed ends and a side defined as a top side spaced from a side defined as a bottom side and a major surface defined by the opposed ends and top and bottom sides. A loop portion of a hook and loop fastening combination constitutes the major surface area on the top side of the strap member. A piece of hook portion having the same width as the strap member of the hook and loop fastening combination secured to the top side at a first end of the strap member, the hook portion extending the length of said strap member by at least about 80 mm. A conductive thread is sewn in a multiplicity of lengthwise tracks on said second side of said major surface to prevent build-up of static electricity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 1999
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2001
    Assignee: ST Assembly Test Services Pte Ltd.
    Inventors: Kester Ong, Francis Chang, Chee Keong Tan
  • Patent number: 6168975
    Abstract: This invention provides an extended lead package and method of forming the extended lead package for electronic circuit packages. A lead frame having extended leads is used. The extended leads extend under the bottom side of an integrated circuit element or chip. The bottom side of the chip is attached to the extended leads using bonding material which is a thermal conductor and an electrical insulator. Electrical connections between the chip input/output pads and the leads are provided by wire bonds using standard wire bonding techniques. The bonding material can be a tape having adhesive on one or both sides which attaches the chip to the lead frame using mechanical pressure, and/or other means such as curing or the addition of heat. Thermal energy is removed from the package by the thermal conduction path provided by the bonding material. The completed assembly can be encapsulated using standard methods.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 1998
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2001
    Assignee: ST Assembly Test Services PTE LTD
    Inventors: Tong Long Zhang, John Briar
  • Patent number: 6103550
    Abstract: A molded electronic circuit package is described to which stabilizing tape can be attached using automatic or semi-automatic means. The stabilizing tape stabilizes the assembly for further processing operations such as dicing or attachment to a higher level package. The assembly comprises a substrate to which devices are attached. Molded caps are formed over the devices. Molded tape supports are formed at the same time as the molded caps and are located adjacent to opposite sides of the molded cap. The molded tape supports have the same height as the molded cap. The stabilizing tape can then be attached to the tops of the molded tape supports and the molded caps using automatic or semi-automatic means.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 1998
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2000
    Assignee: ST Assembly Test Services, Pte Ltd.
    Inventors: Raymundo M. Camenforte, John Briar