Metal working – Means to assemble or disassemble – Means to assemble electrical device
Reexamination Certificate
1998-07-27
2002-10-22
Chang, Rick K. (Department: 3729)
Metal working
Means to assemble or disassemble
Means to assemble electrical device
C029SDIG004, C029S720000, C029S739000, C029S743000, C029S832000, C029S833000, C029S834000, C198S395000, C901S040000, C294S064200, C414S737000, C414S752100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06467158
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for feeding a component, and particularly to a component feeder by which an electronic component on a tray or an expanded sheet is picked up by a suction nozzle which is then turned over 180-degree so as to reverse the face of the picked-up component and is fed for mounting, and further to a component mounting method using such method and apparatus for feeding a component for carrying out component mounting operation onto the circuit substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, flip-chip mounting has become a main stream procedure in the field of semiconductor mounting technology as the miniaturization of a circuit substrate has been progressing as represented by a multi-chip module or a chip-size package.
An apparatus for flip-chip mounting is constructed such as shown in
FIG. 3
, in which an integrated circuit (IC) chip
102
located on a tray
101
with its circuit face upward is picked up by a suction nozzle
103
, which is then rotated 180-degrees so as to turn over the IC chip
102
before feeding it to a mounting nozzle
104
a
of bonding head
104
which mounts the chip onto a circuit substrate
119
.
Alternatively, as shown in
FIG. 4
which illustrates another conventional component mounting apparatus, a chip
112
on an expanded sheet
111
is picked up by the suction nozzle
103
, flipped by turning movement of the suction nozzle
103
, and transferred to the mounting nozzle
104
a.
The mounting nozzle
104
a
of the bonding head
104
attracts the IC chip
102
which has been reversed to have its circuit face downward, transfers it to a mounting position and mounts it on a prescribed location on the circuit substrate
119
with the circuit surface of the chip facing down. The IC chip
102
is then mounted on the circuit substrate
119
by connecting terminals on the circuit surface of the chip and a conductive pattern on the circuit substrate
119
by soldering or similar procedure.
The apparatuses shown in
FIGS. 3 and 4
are capable of positioning the tray
101
or the expanded sheet
111
at a desired location in a Y direction, and for that purpose it is provided with a moving robot
105
for driving the tray
101
or the expanded sheet
111
in the Y direction. In addition, these apparatuses include another moving robot
106
for causing the suction nozzle
103
to move in an X direction which is orthogonal to the Y direction, so that the nozzle
103
can be positioned at a necessary location in the X direction. With this arrangement, an IC chip
102
(
112
), wherever it is located on the tray
101
or on the expanded sheet
111
, can be brought to confront a predetermined suction nozzle
103
and be picked up. The state of the IC chip
102
(
112
) being positioned in relation to the suction nozzle
103
is monitored by a recognition camera
107
. The suction nozzle
103
moves upward and downward for the action of picking up the IC chip
102
(
112
), and such movement of the nozzle
103
is effected by a vertical motion mechanism
108
mounted on the moving robot For the purpose of reversing the face of the IC chip
102
(
112
), the suction nozzle
103
is supported by a turning mechanism
117
which is mounted on the vertical motion mechanism
108
and has its turning center line Q which is orthogonal to a plane including an axis line P of the suction nozzle
103
, so that a suction nozzle
103
facing down which has picked up an IC chip
102
(
112
) can be turned 180-degrees around the turning center line Q and be faced upward.
In the above-described component mounting apparatus, it is often the case that the IC chip
102
at a prescribed position on the tray
101
as shown in
FIG. 5A
is displaced as shown in
FIG. 5B
due to vibration or the like during transfer of the tray
101
. In order for compensating such displacement, the position of the IC chip
102
on the tray
101
is recognized by a recognition camera
107
before the suction nozzle
103
picks it up, whereupon a necessary amount of position correction is obtained from positional relationship between the center axis of the camera and the center of the IC chip
102
, based on which the position of the suction nozzle
103
is adjusted in X- and Y- directions. The position of the IC chip
102
in relation to the suction nozzle is thus corrected before it is picked up.
However, in case IC chip
102
is displaced at a predetermined angle in a rotating direction, even with the above described position correction in X- and Y- directions, IC chip
102
is not in register with the tip of the suction nozzle
103
as shown in Fig.
5
C. Picking up of an IC chip in such condition with the suction nozzle
103
may cause a risk that the suction surface of the nozzle
103
hits the circuit surface of the IC chip
102
rather than bump portions
120
, resulting in a flaw or damage on the circuit face of the IC chip
102
.
In another component mounting apparatus shown in
FIG. 4
, a diced wafer
113
is placed on the expanded sheet
111
which is given tension and separated into individual chips
112
by means of expansion of the expanded sheet
111
. Here, position correction is necessary since the wafer
113
itself may be displaced in relation to the expanded sheet
111
, or each of the chips
112
may be displaced in X- and Y- directions and/or in rotating a direction due to unevenness in the expansion of the expanded sheet
111
.
Furthermore, there have been demands that the IC chip
102
(
112
) must be picked up with the suction nozzle more precisely at a predetermined position for the following reason. After the component has been fed from the suction nozzle
103
to the mounting nozzle
104
a
of the bonding head
104
, the circuit surface of the IC chip
102
(
112
) is recognized again on its way to the mounting position so as to inspect the condition of bumps or the position of circuits with another recognizing camera
117
. Such recognition is made with a higher number of pixels in this camera in order to accurately recognize electronic circuits which have become more and more complex due to miniaturization of circuit substrates in recent years. There is thus a problem that the IC chip
102
held with the mounting nozzle
104
a
of the bonding head
104
may not come into the field of view of the recognizing camera if the IC chip
102
is displaced from a predetermined position on the mounting nozzle
104
a.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for feeding a component by which components can be picked up precisely at a predetermined position even when a target component is shifted at a certain angle around the axis line of the suction nozzle.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for mounting a component using such method and apparatus for feeding components by which the number of errors in a mounting operation can be reduced.
In order to achieve the above objects, in a component feeder which picks up a component arranged in a row from above with a suction nozzle and turns over the suction nozzle upwards by 180-degree rotation so as to feed the component of which face has been thereby turned over, the present invention is characterized by having: a rotary mechanism mounted on a turning mechanism which causes the suction nozzle to turn, by which the suction nozzle is rotated around an axis line thereof; a detector which detects an amount of displacement of the component in a rotating direction around the axis line of the suction nozzle which is going to pick up the component; and a controller for controlling the rotary mechanism such as to cause the suction nozzle to rotate at a necessary angle around the axis line thereof before picking up the component according to detection results.
The method of feeding a component according to the present invention comprises the steps of: detecting an amount of displacement of the component in a rotating direction around the axis line of a suction no
Kanayama Shinji
Kiyomura Hiroyuki
Matsumura Nobuya
Nasu Hiroshi
Takahashi Kenji
Chang Rick K.
Matsushita Electric - Industrial Co., Ltd.
Price and Gess
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