Systems and methods in which dot-like portions of a material (e.g., a viscous material such as a solder paste) are printed or otherwise transferred onto an intermediate substrate at a first printing unit, the intermediate substrate having the dot-like portions of material printed thereon is transferred to a second printing unit, and the dot-like portions of material are transferred from the intermediate substrate to a final substrate at the second printing unit. Optionally, the first printing unit includes a coating system that creates a uniform layer of the material on a donor substrate, and the material is transferred in the individual dot-like portions from the donor substrate onto the intermediate substrate at the first printing unit. Each of the first and second printing units may employ a variety of printing or other transfer technologies. The system may also include material curing and imaging units to aid in the overall process.

A battery pack including a supporting structure, a battery cell housed within the supporting structure, a sleeve partially surrounding the battery cell, a bus bar, and a wire. The sleeve extends over a portion of a first end of the battery cell and has a laser-cut cutaway portion exposing a laser-cleaned first bonding area of the first end of the battery cell. The laser-cleaned first bonding area is positioned adjacent to an outer perimeter of the first end of the battery cell. The bus bar has a laser-cleaned second bonding area. The wire is bonded to the first and second laser-cleaned bonding areas to electrically connect the battery cell to the bus bar.

A system includes a fixture, a laser assembly, and a positioning assembly. The fixture is configured to hold (i) a substrate of a distal-end assembly of a catheter and (ii) a lead placed on a given solder pad disposed on the substrate, the laser assembly is configured to emit a laser beam, and the positioning assembly is configured to move the fixture, with the substrate and the lead, relative to the laser assembly, so as to mark a soldering position, at which the lead is to be attached to the given solder pad, with a laser spot of the laser beam.

By a method of determining the state of an iron tip according to the present invention, in a soldering device including: an iron tip that includes a solder hole into which a solder piece is supplied and that heats and melts the solder piece in the solder hole; a gas supply source that supplies a gas; and a gas supply portion that makes the gas supply source communicate with the solder hole and that supplies the gas from the gas supply source into the solder hole, the total flow rate of the gas flowing through the gas supply portion or a supply pressure is constant, a physical quantity of the gas flowing within the gas supply portion is measured and the measured physical quantity is compared with a previously provided reference value or table such that the state of the iron tip is determined. In this way, it is possible to constantly accurately determine the state of the iron tip.

A sleeve soldering device has a displacement sensor and a heat flux sensor. The displacement sensor detects a physical quantity related to a pressure from a heated sleeve heated by a heater onto an electric board when the heated sleeve presses the electric board. The displacement sensor detects a physical quantity related to a deformation amount of the electric board due to thermal energy from the heater. The heat flux sensor detects a physical quantity related to a heat transfer amount from the heater to the electric board when the heated sleeve is pressed to the electric board. A control part compares each of detection values obtained from the displacement sensor and the heat flux sensor with a respective judgment reference so as to detect whether each detection value satisfies the respective reference.

A rechargeable battery pack. The rechargeable battery pack includes a housing, at least one rechargeable battery cell including a cell connector, and a circuit board. The at least one rechargeable battery cell being electrically connected to the circuit board via the cell connector. The circuit board includes a connection point for the materially bonded connection of the cell connector to the circuit board, the connection point being situated on a side of the circuit board facing away from the rechargeable battery cells.

A flux dotting tool is provided that includes: a housing having an internal space and a plurality of through-holes extending from the internal space to an outside of the housing; a plurality of flux pins disposed in the internal space to correspond to the plurality of through-holes, respectively, wherein each of the plurality of flux pins includes a flux holding portion extending in a first direction and that is exposed to the outside of the housing, and a flux blocking structure protruding in a second direction, perpendicular to the first direction, from a side surface of the flux holding portion, and the flux blocking structure is configured to limit a flux wetting region; and an elastic structure disposed on the plurality of flux pins in the internal space and configured to impart elastic force in the first direction.

A method for interconnecting multiple components of a head-gimbal assembly with a solder joint, including the steps of positioning a first component adjacent to and at an angle relative to a second component to provide a connection area between the first and second components, dispensing a solder sphere to a capillary tube having tapered walls, wherein the capillary tube is positioned with an exit orifice above the connection area between the first and second components, pressurizing the capillary tube until a predetermined pressure is reached, applying a first laser pulse to the solder sphere to liquefy the solder sphere until it falls from the exit orifice, waiting for a predetermined time period after the liquefied solder sphere has exited the exit orifice of the capillary tube, and applying a second laser pulse to reflow the solder sphere to create the solder joint between the first and second components.

An electronic component includes a lead frame; a semiconductor chip arranged above the lead frame; and a connection layer sequence arranged between the lead frame and the semiconductor chip, wherein the connection layer sequence includes a first intermetallic layer including gold and indium or gold, indium and tin, a second intermetallic layer including indium and a titanium compound, indium and nickel, indium and platinum or indium and titanium, and a third intermetallic layer including indium and gold.

Method and apparatus for producing RFID transponders (400) arranged on a carrying substrate, comprising:providing a first substrate (100), the first substrate having at least one antenna element (101) arranged thereon, and preferably several antenna elements arranged sequentially thereon along a longitudinal extension of the first substrate, each antenna element being formed by an electrically conductive pattern; providing a second substrate (200), the second substrate (200) having at least one RFID strap, each RFID strap comprising an IC (202) and at least one contact pad (201) coupled to the IC, and preferably several RFID straps being arranged sequentially along a longitudinal extension of the second substrate; and electrically connecting an antenna element (101) on the first substrate to the at least one contact pad on the second substrate by bringing said first and second substrates together, thereby bringing said antenna element in mechanical contact with said at least one contact pad, and heating the contact pad(s) to a temperature at least equal to a characteristic melting point of said at least contact pads, thereby electrically connecting the antenna element to said at least one contact pad.