By Utilizing Optical Sighting Device Patents (Class 29/833)
  • Patent number: 6857182
    Abstract: A mounting system for mounting an electronic component on a substrate includes a component identifying apparatus that identifies an electronic component to be mounted on the substrate. The component identifying apparatus includes a holding mechanism that holds the electronic component, a color-perceptive sensor that perceives a color of a predetermined region on the electronic component, and a data processor that identifies the electronic component on the basis of the color perceived by the color-perceptive sensor. The mounting system also includes a controller that controls an electronic component mounting operation on the basis of a result of identification obtained by the component identifying apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 2000
    Date of Patent: February 22, 2005
    Assignee: Shibaura Mechatronics Corporation
    Inventor: Shinichi Ogimoto
  • Patent number: 6854179
    Abstract: A circuit feature that is interior to a packaged integrated circuit is modified by first identifying a trimming point on the interior circuit feature using an x-ray inspection system. Coordinates of the trimming point are then related to the coordinates of a visible reference marker. The relationship between the visible reference marker and the trimming point is then used to position a cutting tool over the trimming point. Finally, the cutting tool is used to make one or more cuts into the packaged integrated circuit, until the interior circuit feature has been acceptably modified at the trimming point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2002
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2005
    Assignee: Agilent Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Albert An-Bon Yeh, Regina Nora Pabilonia, Robert William Kressin, Wei Liu
  • Patent number: 6845555
    Abstract: A method of picking a component having an alignment indicating fiducial marker according to a predetermined alignment is provided. The method includes detecting the alignment of the fiducial marker of the component, comparing the detected fiducial alignment with a predetermined fiducial alignment, determining an alignment offset and picking the component in accordance with the alignment offset.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 1999
    Date of Patent: January 25, 2005
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Darryl L. Gamel, Kreg W. Hines
  • Patent number: 6842974
    Abstract: An electronic component mounting method for placing electronic components successively to component placing positions on a board by component holding devices equipped with a plurality of removable suction nozzles which is operable to hold the electronic components. The method, as an example of its various manners, includes: in placing the electronic components onto a multiple board composed of a plurality of sub-boards, applying a placement step to all the sub-boards, the placement step being a step of placing onto the board all of electronic components that are holdable by an identical suction nozzle; and after completion of the placement step, changing the suction nozzle to another and moving to a next placement step, whereby electronic-component mounting for the individual sub-boards is carried out.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2000
    Date of Patent: January 18, 2005
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yasuhiro Maenishi, Takahiro Inoue, Ikuo Yoshida
  • Patent number: 6839959
    Abstract: There are disclosed an apparatus for mounting electronic components, with which the electronic components can be reversed, up and down, and mounted onto a circuit board in a short mounting process time by performing picking up, delivering and receiving of components between heads, and mounting of the components onto the circuit board in parallel. A plurality of reverse-supply heads are mounted on a component supply holder for performing indexing rotation, while a plurality of mounting heads are mounted on a component mounting holder for performing indexing rotation in synchronization with the indexing rotation of the component supply holder. By (i) picking up an electronic component, (ii) delivering the electronic component from the reverse-supply head to the mounting head, and (iii) mounting the electronic component onto the circuit board at prescribed positions, operations from (i) to (iii) can be carried out in parallel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 2000
    Date of Patent: January 11, 2005
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Naoto Hosotani, Youichi Nakamura, Wataru Hirai, Kunio Sakurai
  • Patent number: 6839960
    Abstract: Method for taking out electronic parts from a parts supply section by a transfer head and transporting and mounting the electronic parts to and on a board positioned on a transfer passage. In an image pickup step, a board recognition camera moves independently of the transfer head and advances to and retreats from the board for picking up an image of the board to detect the position thereof in a position detecting step. The image pickup step of the board by the board recognition camera and the parts taking out step in the parts supply section by the transfer head are performed concurrently. Thus, the tact time can be shortened and the electronic parts can be mounted on the board efficiently.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 2002
    Date of Patent: January 11, 2005
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Wataru Hidese, Toshiaki Nakashima, Hiroshi Haji
  • Publication number: 20040255455
    Abstract: An apparatus and method for allocating and positioning back-up pins for supporting a substrate are provided. The apparatus includes a substrate guide rail for guiding a circuit board to a predetermined position; a plurality of magnetic back-up pins for supporting the circuit board; a back-up pin plate for placing the back-up pins thereon; a back-up pin stand disposed near the back-up pin plate and for holding the back-up pins; a camera for photographing an image of a surface of the circuit board; a display means for displaying a virtual or composed image of the entire circuit board scanned by the camera and a real-time image of a portion of the circuit board for aiding a user to allocate the adequate support locations of the circuit board; and a transfer means for transferring the back-up pins onto the allocated locations on the back-up pin plate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 17, 2004
    Publication date: December 23, 2004
    Inventors: Won-keun Yu, Yun-hyuk Son, Jae-jin Lee
  • Patent number: 6826822
    Abstract: One embodiment is directed to a method for trimming a rubber plate which is configured to be placed on a platform of an ion implanter, wherein the platform of the ion implanter includes a plurality of primary holes and a plurality of primary notches. The method comprises providing a template including a plurality of secondary holes corresponding to the plurality of primary holes of the platform of the ion implanter and a plurality of secondary notches corresponding to the plurality of primary notches of the platform of the ion implanter; and trimming the rubber plate using the template as a guide to form a plurality of tertiary holes in the rubber plate corresponding to the plurality of secondary holes of the template and to form a plurality of tertiary notches in the rubber plate corresponding to the plurality of secondary notches of the template.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2002
    Date of Patent: December 7, 2004
    Assignee: Mosel Vitelic, Inc.
    Inventors: Cheng-Min Pan, Hua-Jen Tseng, Chun-Chieh Lee, Sheng-Feng Hung
  • Publication number: 20040237297
    Abstract: There is provided a plurality of mounting apparatuses for sucking a plurality of components by a mounting head section and successively mounting the components onto a board located at a board positioning section. The component mounting apparatuses are arranged in parallel to one another, and a board transfer path is provided so that it penetrates the component mounting apparatuses. Even when the number of components to be mounted onto the board increases, the components are mounted on the component supply tables of the component mounting apparatuses as distributed thereto, and therefore, the whole apparatus is not dimensionally increased. The component supply tables are fixedly installed so as to become free of vibration, and the mounting head section executes the suction and the mounting of the plurality of components. Therefore, the component mounting operation speed can be remarkably increased.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 2, 2004
    Publication date: December 2, 2004
    Inventors: Kanji Hata, Noriaki Yoshida
  • Publication number: 20040237298
    Abstract: Methods for mounting electrical components on a substrate and securely retaining the components are described. The methods include altering solder paste compositions, interposed between component retentive pins and retentive through holes, during a reflow process. Electronic assemblies including circuit boards and electrical components mounted thereto are also described. In one of the electronic assembly embodiments, materials originally associated with a mounted electrical component migrate into solder paste coupling the electrical component to the circuit board.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 6, 2004
    Publication date: December 2, 2004
    Applicant: FCI Americas Technology, Inc
    Inventor: Yakov Belopolsky
  • Patent number: 6814121
    Abstract: In measuring the position of a bonding tool accurately in offset correction in a bonding apparatus, the tool is moved to approach a reference member, the tool is illuminated with a reference pattern by a laser diode, and the deviation between the reference member and tool in one horizontal direction is measured based upon the image of the reference pattern projected on the tool. A position detection camera images the tool in another horizontal direction, thus measuring the deviation of the tool and reference member. The position detection camera is moved to approach the reference member, and the deviation between the position detection camera and the reference member is measured by the position detection camera. The accurate offset amounts between the position detection camera and the tool are determined based upon these measured values and amounts of movement of the position detection camera and the tool.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 9, 2002
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2004
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Shinkawa
    Inventors: Shigeru Hayata, Ryuichi Kyomasu, Satoshi Enokido, Toshiaki Sasano
  • Patent number: 6807726
    Abstract: Electric-component mounting system includes a member fixedly disposed on one of a main body and a movable portion, an image-taking device fixedly disposed on the other of the main body and movable portion to take an image of the member. The member and the image-taking device are positioned relative to each other such that an error of relative positioning therebetween detected on the basis of the image of the member substantially represents a positioning error of the member due to thermal expansion of the system. A controller determines a drive signal to operate a drive device, on the basis of the image of the member, so as to reduce an amount of influence of the positioning error of the member on the actual position of the movable portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 2002
    Date of Patent: October 26, 2004
    Assignee: Fuji Machine Mfg. Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Jun Iisaka, Koji Shimizu, Masahiro Tanizaki, Toshihiro Kondo
  • Publication number: 20040205961
    Abstract: In this electronic component mounting apparatus, a mounting head is movably arranged between the electronic component supplying unit and the board holding unit. A first camera for taking an image of the board in the board holding unit and detecting an electronic component mounting position, and a second camera for taking images of the chips of the electronic component supplying unit are arranged in such a manner that the first camera and the second camera can be entered/evacuated as against the electronic component supplying unit. Therefore, the electronic component supplying unit and the board holding unit are defined as a range to be transported, and the mounting head, the first camera, and the second camera are relatively traveled in conjunction to each other, a loss-time in both the electronic component supplying unit and the board holding unit can be avoided, and tact time can be shortened to improve a work-efficiency.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 4, 2004
    Publication date: October 21, 2004
    Applicant: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Haji, Wataru Hidese
  • Patent number: 6802119
    Abstract: A device and method for insuring the separation between a leadless chip carrier and printed wiring board, comprising aligning and attaching conductive pedestals to contact pads of either member and embedding the pedestals into the solder columns which are used to provide electrical connection. The conductive pedestals are comprised of an electrically conducting metal, solder, alloy or composite which will also provide thermal dissipation in selected designs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2002
    Date of Patent: October 12, 2004
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
    Inventor: Steven O. Dunford
  • Patent number: 6802118
    Abstract: A method of mounting electrical components on a printed circuit board includes moving the printed circuit board to a first mounting location, picking up a plurality of electrical components with a corresponding plurality of mounter heads, and then placing the electrical components onto the printed circuit board with the mounter heads. The mounter heads are arranged so that they can move with respect to each other in both the X and Y directions, which allows the mounting device to mount a plurality of electrical components onto the printed circuit board substantially simultaneously, thereby reducing the amount of time required to produce a finished PCB. In some embodiments of the invention, the printed circuit board may be moved from a first position at which a first mounting head mounts electrical components onto the printed circuit board to a second mounting position at which a second mounting head mounts electrical components on the printed circuit board.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2000
    Date of Patent: October 12, 2004
    Assignee: Mirae Corporation
    Inventor: Yun Hyung Yi
  • Publication number: 20040194301
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for fabricating a three dimensional array of semiconductor chips is disclosed. The method uses a multiple step fabrication process that automates the surface mounting of semiconductor chips with unique chip carriers to achieve the three dimensional array of chips. The method includes a step of depositing solder on a multitude of chip carriers at one time, placing the chip carriers with chips on a printed circuit board and then running the board with chips and carriers arranged in a three dimensional array through a single reflow oven to complete a single reflow process to permanently connect all of the components. The apparatus includes a unique chip carrier pallet and print fixture pedestal that work in combination to position the chip carriers for the automatic deposition of solder on a multitude of carriers at once and then position them for addition to the circuit board.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 21, 2004
    Publication date: October 7, 2004
    Inventor: Kenneth J. Kledzik
  • Patent number: 6792674
    Abstract: A recognition camera images an electronic component, and a recognition processing unit performs recognition processing of the electronic component based on the result of the imaging. The recognition processing is performed using the component data of group 1 data, group 2 data, group 3 data, and group 4 data that are stored for the images taken in a random access memory (RAM). The group 1 data is used for lead inspection (for inspecting positioning error and bending of the lead), the group 2 data and the group 3 data are used for calculating amounts of adjustment in the X and Y directions, and the group 4 data is used for calculating the amount of adjustment in the &thgr; direction. This makes it possible to mount accurately components with pins and extrusions extruded from the molding, such as connectors, such that the pins and extrusions are accurately engaged with the holes formed in a print board.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2001
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2004
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Tech Instruments Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Takashi Yoshii, Hideaki Fukushima, Akihiro Kawai
  • Patent number: 6792676
    Abstract: An electronic parts mount apparatus for taking out semiconductor chips from a semiconductor wafer held on a wafer hold section by a transfer head comprising a plurality of suction nozzles and transporting and mounting the semiconductor chips to and on a board has a parts recognition camera disposed in a manner that it can advance to and retreat from the wafer hold section for picking up an image of the semiconductor wafer. A parts mounting step for mounting a plurality of semiconductor chips on the board by the transfer head and an image picking up step for picking up a plurality of semiconductor chips to be next taken out by the parts recognition camera are performed concurrently. Thereby, the number of electronic parts per mount turn can be increased, the tact time can be shortened, and the electronic parts can be efficiently taken out and mounted on the board.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2002
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2004
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Haji, Wataru Hidese
  • Patent number: 6790703
    Abstract: A method and process sequence for accurately aligning (die to interconnect metal on flex substrate such as polyimide flex is described. A mask for via formation is first patterned in a metal layer on the bottom surface of the flex substrate. Die attach means such as die attach adhesive is then applied to the top side of flex substrate. The bond pads on die are locally, adaptively aligned to the patterned metal via mask on the flex with high accuracy. Vias down to the die bond pads are then created by either plasma etching or excimer laser ablation through the existing aligned metal mask on the flex substrate, and interconnect metal is then deposited, patterned and etched. As a result of this process, the flex metal interconnect artwork does not have to be customized for each die misplacement using “adaptive lithography”. Lower cost commercially available lithography equipment can be used for processing, reducing capital equipment and processing cost.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2002
    Date of Patent: September 14, 2004
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Richard Joseph Saia, Kevin Matthew Durocher, James Wilson Rose, Leonard Richard Douglas
  • Patent number: 6789310
    Abstract: There is provided a plurality of component mounting apparatuses for sucking a plurality of components by a mounting head section and successively mounting the components onto a board located at a board positioning section. The component mounting apparatuses are arranged in parallel to one another, and a board transfer path is provided so that it penetrates the component mounting apparatuses. Even when the number of components to be mounted onto the board increases, the components are mounted on the component supply tables of the component mounting apparatuses as distributed thereto, and therefore, the whole apparatus is not dimensionally increased. The component supply tables are fixedly installed so as to become free of vibration, and the mounting head section executes the suction and the mounting of the plurality of components. Therefore, the component mounting operation speed can be remarkably increased.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 1998
    Date of Patent: September 14, 2004
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kanji Hata, Noriaki Yoshida
  • Publication number: 20040172815
    Abstract: Semiconductor chip mounting apparatus 90 is provided with semiconductor chip supply unit 10, semiconductor chip carrier unit 20, lead frame carrier unit 30, sensor unit 60 and a control unit 70. Semiconductor chip carrier unit 20 picks up a semiconductor chip 3 from semiconductor chip supply unit 10 and carries the same to mounting position 50 of lead frame 31 and mounts it on mounting position 50. Sensor unit 60 measures first and second positions of semiconductor chip carrier unit 20 before and during mounting operations, respectively. Control unit 70 compares the first position of semiconductor chip carrier unit 20 with the second one of semiconductor chip carrier unit 20 and calculates position deviations. Control unit 70 further provides position adjustment instructions when the position deviations are greater than a predetermined value thereby to improve the throughput and precision of semiconductor chip mounting apparatus 90.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 8, 2003
    Publication date: September 9, 2004
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Noriyuki Murata, Seiichi Yoshimura
  • Publication number: 20040163243
    Abstract: An electronic component placement machine and an electronic component placement method are disclosed. A takeout and transfer head, provided on rotary chip takeout and transfer mechanism, removes a chip from a feeder and flips it. A placement head receives the flipped chip and places it onto a board. An image of the chip at a pre-centering recognition position is captured during a takeout and transfer operation, during which the takeout and transfer head transfers the chip to the placement head at a receiving position, so as to recognize the position. Based on this positional recognition result, the chip and the placement head are positioned by controlling a placement head driving mechanism. Moreover, the takeout and transfer head is rotated to a position which does not hinder image capturing of the electronic component for placement positioning.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 20, 2004
    Publication date: August 26, 2004
    Inventors: Kazuhiko Noda, Hitoshi Mukojima, Yasuhiro Narikiyo, Toshiro Hirakawa, Hiromi Kanaki, Akira Nishimura, Osamu Uchida, Takatoshi Ishikawa
  • Publication number: 20040163242
    Abstract: A suction head is inserted between first and second cameras relatively disposed facing one another with aligned optical axes, so that the first camera takes images of a head reference mark on the suction head, and the second camera of a first part suctioned to the suction head. Next, a stage is inserted between the first and second cameras so that the first camera takes images of a second part held on the stage, and the second camera of a stage reference mark thereupon. The relative positions between the first part and the suction head, and between the second part and the stage, are calculated based upon image information from the cameras, and the suction head and the stage are positioned, the first and second parts being relatively positioned based upon positional information and relative positional information from the first and second cameras, and mounting is performed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 22, 2003
    Publication date: August 26, 2004
    Applicant: Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Shigeki Fukunaga
  • Patent number: 6779259
    Abstract: Two or more parts feeding sections are provided, and in each of the parts feeding sections, identical combinations of parts cassettes aligned in the same arrangement are prepared. If one or more type of components that are to be picked up at one time by a plurality of suction nozzles is exhausted, the mounting head moves to the other parts feeding section, which provides the same combination of components for all the suction nozzles to pick up the components at one time, so that the mounting operation can be continued without stopping the apparatus for replenishment of components.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 2002
    Date of Patent: August 24, 2004
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Naoto Mimura, Hirofumi Obara, Hiroshi Ogata, Chikashi Konishi
  • Patent number: 6779252
    Abstract: The present invention provides an assembly apparatus employing at least a robotic or automated assembly apparatus to manipulate the components to be assembled and at least a first vision alignment system to align the components prior to their assembly. An adhesive dispense system is provided to connect, attach or otherwise adhere the components together. In a method in accord with the present invention for assembling components, a source of the components is provided is located relative to a global reference system. The components held by the source are then located relative to the global reference system based upon the determined location of the source. An adhesive is dispensed onto a first of the components and a second component is manipulated into an initial attachment position relative to the first component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2001
    Date of Patent: August 24, 2004
    Assignee: Applied Kinetics, Inc.
    Inventors: Joseph Patrick Tracy, Mark T. Girard, Ryan A. Jurgenson, Roger Rhea Livermore, David Richard Swift
  • Publication number: 20040148769
    Abstract: An electronic parts mount apparatus for taking out semiconductor chips from a semiconductor wafer held on a wafer hold section by a transfer head comprising a plurality of suction nozzles and transporting and mounting the semiconductor chips to and on a board has a parts recognition camera disposed in a manner that it can advance to and retreat from the wafer hold section for picking up an image of the semiconductor wafer. A parts mounting step for mounting a plurality of semiconductor chips on the board by the transfer head and an image picking up step for picking up a plurality of semiconductor chips to be next taken out by the parts recognition camera are performed concurrently. Thereby, the number of electronic parts per mount turn can be increased, the tact time can be shortened, and the electronic parts can be efficiently taken out and mounted on the board.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 23, 2004
    Publication date: August 5, 2004
    Applicant: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Haji, Wataru Hidese
  • Publication number: 20040148768
    Abstract: An apparatus has a holder that receives a component from a component supply and then places the component on a substrate. In operation, it is determined whether the holder would make an interference with another component already mounted on the substrate. If this judgement is affirmative, mounting of the component held by the holder is prohibited. If, on the other hand, this judgement is negative, the component held by the holder is mounted onto the substrate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 23, 2004
    Publication date: August 5, 2004
    Inventors: Junichi Hada, Shozo Fukuda, Shigeki Imafuku, Akira Noudo, Yoshiyuki Hattori
  • Patent number: 6769172
    Abstract: An electric-component mounting system including: nozzle holders each carrying suction nozzles and rotatable to bring selected one of the suction nozzles; a turning device to turn the nozzle holders about a common axis of turning, for stopping each nozzle holder at predetermined working positions including nozzle-selecting, component-receiving and component-mounting positions; a holder rotating device which includes an engaging member engageable with and disengageable from an engaging portion of each nozzle holder, and which is disposed at the nozzle-selecting position, to rotate the nozzle holder, with the engaging member engaging the engaging portion; and an engaging-and-disengaging device to move the engaging member for engagement and disengagement with and from the engaging portion, and wherein each nozzle holder receives an electric component at the selected suction nozzle when each nozzle holder is located at the component-receiving position, and mounts the electric-component onto a circuit substrate whi
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2002
    Date of Patent: August 3, 2004
    Assignee: Fuji Machine Mfg. Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shinsuke Suhara, Yusuke Tsuchiya, Takayuki Mizuno
  • Patent number: 6763578
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for fabricating known good semiconductor dice are provided. The method includes the steps of: testing the gross functionality of dice contained on a semiconductor wafer; sawing the wafer to singulate a die; and then testing the die by assembly in a carrier having an interconnect adapted to establish electrical communication between the bond pads on the die and external test circuitry. The interconnect for the carrier can be formed using different contact technologies including: thick film contact members on a rigid substrate; self-limiting contact members on a silicon substrate; or microbump contact members with a textured surface. During assembly of the carrier, the die and interconnect are optically aligned and placed into contact with a predetermined contact force. This establishes an electrical connection between the contact members on the interconnect and the bond pads of the die.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 1997
    Date of Patent: July 20, 2004
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Warren Farnworth, Alan Wood
  • Patent number: 6762848
    Abstract: In measuring the position of a bonding tool accurately in offset correction in a bonding apparatus, the tool is moved to approach a reference member, the tool is illuminated with a reference pattern by a laser diode, and the deviation between the reference member and tool in one horizontal direction is measured based upon the image of the reference pattern projected on the tool. A position detection camera images the tool in another horizontal direction, thus measuring the deviation of the tool and reference member. The position detection camera is moved to approach the reference member, and the deviation between the position detection camera and the reference member is measured by the position detection camera. The accurate offset amounts between the position detection camera and the tool are determined based upon these measured values and amounts of movement of the position detection camera and the tool.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2001
    Date of Patent: July 13, 2004
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Shinkawa
    Inventors: Shigeru Hayata, Ryuichi Kyomasu, Satoshi Enokido, Toshiaki Sasano
  • Patent number: 6757966
    Abstract: A component mounting system which includes a printer for printing solder on electrodes formed on a board; a first inspection unit for detecting positions of printed solder and outputting solder position detection results; a component mounting unit for picking up components from a component feeder carriage and placing the components on the board using mounting heads; a second inspection unit for inspecting positions of the components placed and outputting component position detection results; a soldering unit for soldering the components onto the board by heating and melting solder; and a main controller for updating at least a control parameter for controlling the printer operation or a control parameter for the component mounting unit operation based on at least the solder position detection results or component position detection results. The above configuration enables the accurate and efficient quality control throughout the mounting process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2001
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2004
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Masafumi Inoue, Mitsuhaya Tsukamoto, Masat Fujioka
  • Patent number: 6754949
    Abstract: The object of the present invention is to form individual packaged ICs by using a single apparatus to cut wiring boards on which a plurality of IC chips are mounted. The first cutting device 23 cuts the wiring boards 3 into separate parts along one direction, so that the cut wiring boards 3 constitute strip-form cut wiring boards 3a. The cut wiring boards 3a are conveyed to the second cutting device 33, and are fed by the second conveying device 43 along the direction of length and are then cut by the second cutting device 33 with the orientation altered by 90 degrees relative to the first cutting direction. The wiring boards 3b resulting from the cutting performed by the second cutting device 33 constitute the original forms of the IC packages. The wiring boards 3b that have been cut and conveyed from the second cutting device 33 enter a cleaning step.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 29, 2004
    Assignee: Ishii Tool & Engineering Corporation
    Inventor: Mitoshi Ishii
  • Patent number: 6752962
    Abstract: A miniaturized integrated sensor (50) useful for indicating the presence of a sample analyte is disclosed. The sensor (50) has a platform (52) with an upper surface (53) and a detector (62), light source (60), waveguide (58), and reflective fixtures (60, 62) embedded in the platform (52). The light source (60) is preferably a light emitting diode and sits in a cup-shaped dimple (68) that directs light from the light source (60) toward one of the reflective fixtures (64) to uniformly distribute light across the waveguide (58). The waveguide (58) is coupled to an upper surface (53) of the sensor platform (52) and is coated with a thin film of indicator chemistry (70) which interacts with the sample analyte to produce optic signal changes that are measurable by the detector (62). A lead frame (51) in the platform (52) has pins (54, 55, 56) which provide the interface to the outside world.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2001
    Date of Patent: June 22, 2004
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
    Inventors: Richard A. Carr, Jose L. Melendez, Kirk S. Laney
  • Patent number: 6748649
    Abstract: A holding head includes an axially driveable shaft having a nozzle at one end of the shaft for holding a component, a motor for driving the shaft in an axial direction in response to power supplied to the motor, and a detecting device for detecting movement of the shall in the axial direction. A method of operating the component holding head comprises using the detecting device to detect movement of the shaft in the axial direction resulting from the shaft being driven by the motor, and controlling power supplied to the motor in response to the movement of the shaft as detected by the detecting device such that the distance that the shaft is driven by the motor in the axial direction is controlled.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2001
    Date of Patent: June 15, 2004
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Osamu Okuda, Akira Kabeshita, Satoshi Shida, Makoto Sueki
  • Publication number: 20040098857
    Abstract: A method of detecting a positioning error of an electric component with respect to a suction nozzle by which the electric component is held by suction under a negative pressure, wherein image data representative of images of the suction nozzle and a dog disposed near the suction nozzle are processed to obtain a relative position between the suction nozzle and the dog, a second image-taking step of taking an image of said electric component held by said suction nozzle and an image of said dog, and the positioning error of the electric component with respect to the suction nozzle is obtained on the basis of image data representative of images of the electric component and the dog, and the obtained relative position between the suction nozzle and the dog. Also disclosed in a method of mounting the electric component on a circuit substrate, on the basis of the obtained positioning error of the electric component.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 13, 2003
    Publication date: May 27, 2004
    Applicant: Fuji Machine Mfg. Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Tosuke Kawada
  • Patent number: 6739036
    Abstract: A mounting system for an electric component operates by transferring the electric component from a component supply device to a suction nozzle of a component-holding head on a circuit substrate. A relative position between a sucking surface of the suction nozzle and an axis of rotation of the component-holding head is obtained. A component-holding head and the component supply device are moved relative to each other on the basis of the obtained relative position, so as to minimize an error of relative positioning between the sucking surface and a predetermined sucking position of the electric component positioned at the component-supply portion. The head and the component supply device are then moved toward each other, for transferring the electronic components from the component supply device to the suction nozzle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2001
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2004
    Assignee: Fuji Machine Mfg., Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hirokazu Koike, Toshiya Ito, Shinsuke Suhara
  • Patent number: 6735856
    Abstract: The present invention includes a component placement apparatus that can obtain information on the presence/absence of hold members inexpensively and easily, and a component placement method carried out by the component placement apparatus. A replacement hold member detector for detecting the presence/absence of replacement hold members at a hold member change part is installed at a placement head. The presence/absence is detected by moving an XY-robot so as to scan the hold member change part equipped with the replacement hold member detector. At the same time, type information attached to the replacement hold members is rendered readable by the replacement hold member detector. One replacement hold member detector is enough according to the apparatus and method of the present invention. The presence/absence information of the hold members can be obtained inexpensively and easily.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 8, 1999
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2004
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Naoyuki Kitamura, Osamu Okuda, Noriaki Yoshida, Akira Kabeshita
  • Patent number: 6729020
    Abstract: An instrument panel of an automotive vehicle has an original circuit board (10). An LED (16) is disposed on a bridge (34) in the board and faces a driver of the vehicle. Two terminals (16T1, 16T2) extend through the bridge to conductive continuity with respective conductive traces (24, 26) on the rear board face 12. Should the LED fail, it is replaced by severing the bridge from the board and removing it along with the LED on it. The severing creates a through-hole (36) in the board. A socket (40) that contains a replacement LED (16R) is installed in the through-hole and provides conductive continuity of the respective traces on the board with respective terminals of the replacement LED.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 2002
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2004
    Assignee: International Truck Intellectual Property Company, LLC
    Inventors: Robert V. Brown, Robert D. Dannenberg
  • Patent number: 6725532
    Abstract: A plurality of self-propelled system heads (5) are made to independently travel along a closed-loop travel track (6) in a manner that the heads do not interfere with each other by controlling respective drive devices (4). Components (2) from a component supply device (8) are held by component holding members (3) of the heads, and thereafter, the components held by the component holding members are mounted on boards (1) positioned by board positioning devices (7).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2001
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2004
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takeshi Okada, Seiichi Mogi, Hiroshi Ota, Hirokazu Honkawa, Makito Seno, Kunio Sakurai, Ken Takano
  • Patent number: 6722028
    Abstract: A method of manufacturing an electronic device including a first electronic component mounted on one main surface of a wiring board by being thermo-compression bonded by means of a thermo-compression bonding tool with an adhesive resin interposed between a first area of the one main surface of the wiring board and the first electronic component, and a second electronic component mounted on a second area different from the first area of the one main surface of the wiring board by melting a soldering paste material and higher than the first electronic component in post-mounting height, and wherein the first electronic component is mounted before the mounting of the second electronic component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 2003
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2004
    Assignees: Renesas Technology Corp., Hitachi Hokkai Semiconductor, Ltd.
    Inventor: Shigeru Nakamura
  • Patent number: 6718626
    Abstract: An apparatus for detecting a positioning error of an electric component with respect to a suction nozzle by which the electric component is held by suction under a negative pressure, wherein image data representative of images of the suction nozzle and a dog disposed near the suction nozzle are processed to obtain a relative position between the suction nozzle and the dog, a second image-taking step of taking an image of the electric component held by the suction nozzle and an image of the dog, and the positioning error of the electric component with respect to the suction nozzle is obtained on the basis of image data representative of images of the electric component and the dog, and the obtained relative position between the suction nozzle and the dog. Also disclosed is a method and apparatus for mounting the electric component on a circuit substrate, on the basis of the obtained positioning error of the electric component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2001
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2004
    Assignee: Fuji Machine Mfg. Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Tosuke Kawada
  • Patent number: 6718630
    Abstract: An apparatus has a holder that receives a component from a component supply and then places the component on a substrate. In operation, it is determined whether the holder would make an interference with another component already mounted on the substrate. If this judgement is affirmative, mounting of the component held by the holder is prohibited. If, on the other hand, this judgement is negative, the component held by the holder is mounted onto the substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2001
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2004
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Junichi Hada, Shozo Fukuda, Shigeki Imafuku, Akira Noudo, Yoshiyuki Hattori
  • Patent number: 6715192
    Abstract: A fabricating method of a piezoelectric/electrostrictive device including a driving portion having thin plates facing each other and a film-like piezoelectric/electrostrictive element formed on the surface of at least one thin plate of the thin plates, and a fixing portion and a movable portion in rectangular solid form. The thin plates are spanned so that the side faces of the movable portion and the fixing portion are continuous. The fabricating method includes steps of preparing a laminated body of green sheets comprising at least one green sheet to constitute the thin plate, and at least one green sheet with at least one hole formed thereon, sintering a green-sheet laminated body, and forming a piezoelectric/electrostrictive element on an outer surface of the thin plates of the sintered body obtained.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 3, 2001
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2004
    Assignee: NGK Insulators, Ltd.
    Inventors: Yukihisa Takeuchi, Tsutomu Nanataki, Toshikazu Hirota, Koji Kimura
  • Patent number: 6708402
    Abstract: In a component mounting device in which a component is picked up and mounted on a circuit board by a suction nozzle, an amount of displacement between a center position of the suction nozzle 11 and that of the picked-up component 12 is measured, and when it is larger than a preliminarily determined value, a warning is generated indicating that the parts cassette 3 from which the component 12 has been fed is in abnormal condition, as well as the mounting action of the component 12 is stopped.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2001
    Date of Patent: March 23, 2004
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Masato Hirano, Yoshinori Sakai, Tateo Nakashima
  • Patent number: 6708401
    Abstract: A package is formed by covering a circuit board with a thermoplastice film. The cylindrical or sheet-like thermoplastic film is decompressed and used to cover the circuit board to protect the board and components mounted on the board.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2001
    Date of Patent: March 23, 2004
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hidenori Miyakawa, Yoshio Maruyama, Hiroshi Yamauchi, Mikiya Nakata, Takashi Akiguchi, Yoshinori Wada, Kazuhiro Mori
  • Publication number: 20040046243
    Abstract: An electronic package that may include a first bond pad and a second bond pad located on a bond shelf. The bond shelf may have an edge. The package may have a first conductive bus that may be connected to the first bond pad by a first conductive strip that extends along the edge of the bond shelf. The package may also have a second conductive bus that may be connected to the second bond pad by a second conductive strip that extends along the edge of the bond shelf.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 8, 2003
    Publication date: March 11, 2004
    Inventors: Elissa E. Carapella, Mark J. Palmer
  • Patent number: 6678944
    Abstract: An electric-component mounting system, including a board supporting device, a movable member, a main moving device which moves the movable member, a rotatable body attached to the movable member, a rotatable-body rotating device which rotates the rotatable body, suction nozzles supported by the rotatable body along a circle whose center is located on an axis line of the rotatable body, such that each suction nozzle is not rotatable relative to the body and is movable relative to the body in a direction parallel to the axis line, an engaging member rotatable relative to the rotatable body about the axis line, movable relative to the body in the direction parallel to the axis line, and including a nozzle-engaging portion engageable with one suction nozzle, an engaging-member rotating device which rotates the engaging member to two rotation phases of the rotatable body at each of which the nozzle-engaging portion is engageable with one suction nozzle, an engaging-member moving device which moves the engaging mem
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2000
    Date of Patent: January 20, 2004
    Assignee: Fuji Machine Mfg. Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Tosuke Kawada
  • Patent number: 6671940
    Abstract: The object of the present invention is to form individual packaged ICs by using a single apparatus to cut wiring boards on which a plurality of IC chips are mounted. The first cutting device 23 cuts the wiring boards 3 into separate parts along one direction, so that the cut wiring boards 3 constitute strip-form cut wiring boards 3a. The cut wiring boards 3a are conveyed to the second cutting device 33, and are fed [into the second cutting device 33] by the second conveying device 43 along the direction of length. [The cut wiring boards 3a] are then cut by the second cutting device 33 with the orientation altered by 90 degrees relative to the first cutting direction. The wiring boards 3b resulting from the cutting performed by the second cutting device 33 constitute the original forms of the IC packages. The wiring boards 3b that have been cut and conveyed from the second cutting device 33 enter a cleaning step.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2001
    Date of Patent: January 6, 2004
    Assignee: Ishii Tool & Engineering Corporation
    Inventor: Mitoshi Ishii
  • Patent number: 6665928
    Abstract: A method of mounting electronic components on a circuit substrate using an electronic component mounting device. The electronic component mounting device is operatively associated with (1) a component-supply table which includes a displaceable table and a plurality of component-supply units on the displaceable table and (2) a table displacing device which displaces the displaceable table in a desired direction and which positions the component-supply portion of each component-supply unit at a predetermined component-supply position. The electric component mounting device includes a plurality of component holders which are positioned at a component received position opposed to the component supply position. The method includes causing the component holder to receive, at the component receive position, an electric component from the component-supply portion of each component-supply unit which is positioned at the component-supply position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2001
    Date of Patent: December 23, 2003
    Assignee: Fuji Machine Mfg., Co. Ltd.
    Inventor: Shinsuke Suhara
  • Patent number: 6662437
    Abstract: In the invention, there is provided an apparatus for mounting electronic components in which a plurality of mounting heads pick up electronic components concurrently from a plurality of component feeding units for mounting the electronic components on a print circuit board, with assured pick-up and holding of the electronic components. The component feeding units 3 do not always have an identical pick-up position 10 among all the units 3 used in a mounting operation because of the variation in the manufacturing and the mounting of the units. The shift due to the variation along the direction of feeding, the Y direction, is corrected by moving the position of the nozzle 21 along the Y direction with a controlled rotation of the mounting head 7 around an horizontal axis using the nozzle selection motor 22 for selecting the nozzle 21.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2000
    Date of Patent: December 16, 2003
    Assignee: Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Tomio Kawashima