Systems, apparatus, and methods of manufacturing an article using electroadhesion technology, either as a sole modality of handling such materials or in concert with vacuum for the pick up and release of materials, respectively.

Systems, apparatus, and methods of manufacturing an article using electroadhesion technology for the pick-up and release of materials, respectively.

An end of arm tool (EOAT) for use during manufacture of parts using one or more pre-impregnated composite plies is disclosed. In an embodiment, the EOAT includes a mechanical gripper arrangement with first and second fingers configured to supply a compressive force to grip a pre-impregnated composite ply therebetween. At least one of the first and second fingers include a roller member to engage opposite surfaces of the pre-preg ply and supply a compressive gripping force. The roller member on either or both the first and second fingers preferably include a torque regulator to selectively adjust an associated roller member's resistance to rotation via supply of a rotational torque resistance.

A high-speed lamination machine includes a hinged, clamshell lid, and clamped lamination chamber that uses localized and thermally isolated heating and stepper driven separation pin motion. Pneumatically actuated rollers in a track clamp the lamination chamber closed during operation. The clamshell design obviates the need for a hydraulic press and makes the lamination chamber easily accessible to other automated systems, so robots may be used to place lamination elements within the chamber.

An assembly station includes at least one build platform table configured to move about three orthogonal axes, at least one part placement robot configured to position and hold components on and above the at least one build platform table, and at least one fused filament fabrication robot with a printer head configured to fused filament weld at least two components together. The at least one build platform table is configured to rotate during assembly of a plurality of components such that the fused filament is extruded vertically from the printer head during fused filament welding of the at least two components together. Also the at least one part placement robot is configured to position and hold a first component a predetermined distance from a second component during fused filament welding of the first component to the second component.

Compositions and designs are described for a sectional porous carrier used in processing microelectronics where thin device substrates are affixed by adhesive to the carrier and form an impervious bonded stack that is resistant to thermal and chemical products during processing and is easily handled by a substrate handling vacuum robot, and subsequently allows rapid removal (debonding) in batch operations by directional penetration into sectional porous regions by selective liquids which release the carrier from the device wafer without harm. The invention carrier with porous regions is used for temporary support of thin and fragile device substrates having capabilities of selective penetration of chemical liquids to pass through the porous regions, access and breakdown the bonding adhesive, and allow it to release without damage to the device substrate. The sectional porous nature of the carrier allows passive diffusion of chemical liquids, the manner which in contrast to mechanical, thermal, or radiative methods, is considered to be a higher yield practice and one which enables batch processing in a manufacturing environment utilizing practices of high throughput and low cost. Preferred designs include the use of porous metal forms, including laminates, as well as surface treatment of the porous regions to facilitate exclusion principles and achieve an inert support mechanism during the stages of device manufacture. These benefits allow design flexibility and low-cost batch processing when choosing practices to handle thinned device substrates in the manufacture of semiconductors and other microelectronic devices.

Systems, apparatus, and methods of manufacturing an article using electroadhesion technology, either as a sole modality of handling such materials or in concert with at least one mechanically actuated modality for the pick-up and release of materials, respectively. The mechanically actuated modality in one embodiment is configured as a netting configured to be placed over a contact surface of an electroadhesive plate to facilitate the handling of an object.

An apparatus to automatically place layers of a printed circuit board on a fixture includes a robotic device having a base that is secured to a surface, an upright column that extends upwardly from the base, and a movable arm rotatably coupled to the upright column. The movable arm is configured to rotate about a vertical axis defined by the upright column. The movable arm is further configured to rotate from a position in which the movable arm is disposed over a laminate sheet fixture and to pick up a laminate sheet to a position in which the movable arm is disposed over a board layup fixture to deposit the laminate sheet in the board layup fixture, and from a position in which the movable arm is disposed over a bond film fixture and to pick up a bond film to a position in which the movable arm is disposed over the board layup fixture to deposit the bond film in the board layup fixture.

A method includes bringing into contact respective first sides of a plurality of dies and a die attach film on a major surface of a carrier wafer, and simultaneously heating portions of the die attach film contacting the plurality of dies in order to simultaneously bond the plurality of dies to the die attach film.

A method includes bringing into contact respective first sides of a plurality of dies and a die attach film on a major surface of a carrier wafer, and simultaneously heating portions of the die attach film contacting the plurality of dies in order to simultaneously bond the plurality of dies to the die attach film.