Special receptacle or package – Holder for a removable electrical component – Including component positioning means
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-31
2001-05-15
Sewell, Paul T. (Department: 3728)
Special receptacle or package
Holder for a removable electrical component
Including component positioning means
C206S564000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06230896
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a shipping tray. The present invention has particular applicability in shipping packaged semiconductor devices.
BACKGROUND ART
Certain widely-used semiconductor device packages having high lead counts, such as thin small outline plastic packages (TSOPs), side small outline plasctic packages (SSOPs), pin grid arrays (PGAs), ball grid arrays (BGAs), etc. are typically loaded into trays for shipping to customers and for in-process handling or transport (e.g. for shipping to a test facility from a packaging facility). The trays protect the packages from electrical and mechanical damage during handling and shipment, and are also suitable for presenting the packages to processing equipment, such as test stations and circuit board assembly equipment. Trays are usually made of a polymer, such as polyvinylchloride (PVC), either carbon-filled or antistatically coated to provide electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection.
The trays are typically uniformly sized, in compliance with standard JEDEC outlines, and have an internal configuration to prevent excess motion of the package within the tray and to orient the package in a JEDEC standard way (e.g., “pin one orientation”) to enable pick-and-place equipment to be compatible with all the packages. An example of a typical tray is depicted in
FIG. 1
, wherein five trays
100
are stacked for shipment, with a sixth tray
100
serving as a cover. Conventionally, a different tray is required for each specific package design. As a result, there are at least hundreds of different tray types in use. This requirement of a customized tray for each new package design is disadvantageous because customized trays are costly, and each new tray design typically has a long lead time associated with its development and manufacture. Since a new product cannot be shipped to customers or test facilities without a proper tray, tray customization undesirably increases the time to market for a new package design.
There exists a need for a shipping tray for packaged semiconductor devices that is usable with more than one package design, thereby reducing manufacturing costs and decreasing the time to market for new package designs.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An advantage of the present invention is a universal shipping tray for packaged semiconductor devices that is usable with many different package designs.
Additional advantages and other features of the present invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from the practice of the invention. The advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained as particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
According to the present invention, the foregoing and other advantages are achieved in part by a tray for holding an article, the tray comprising a plurality of hollow tubular pedestals, each pedestal having an open top end and an open bottom end in communication with each other, the open top end having a surface area less than a surface area of the article; a manifold commonly connecting the bottom ends of the pedestals; a membrane for covering the top ends of the pedestals; and a vacuum valve attached to the manifold and connectable to a vacuum source for evacuating the manifold, the vacuum valve being for maintaining a vacuum in the manifold when the manifold is evacuated. The membrane is piercable to expose the top end of at least one of the pedestals to hold the article against the membrane when the manifold is evacuated and the article placed over the exposed top end.
Another aspect of the present invention is a method of preparing an article for transport, the method comprising providing a tray comprising a plurality of hollow tubular pedestals, each pedestal having an open top end and an open bottom end in communication with each other, a manifold commonly connecting the bottom ends of the pedestals, and a vacuum valve attached to the manifold and connectable to a vacuum source for evacuating the manifold, the vacuum valve being for maintaining a vacuum in the manifold; placing a flexible membrane over the pedestals; piercing the membrane to expose the top end of at least one of the pedestals; placing the article over the exposed top end; and evacuating the manifold to hold the article against the membrane.
Additional advantages of the present invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in this art from the following detailed description, wherein only the preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown and described, simply by way of illustration of the best mode cotemplated for carrying out the present invention. As will be realized, the present invention is capable of other and different embodiments, and its several details are capable of modifications in various obvious respects, all without departing from the invention. Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature, and not as restrictive.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3545606 (1970-12-01), Pennett
patent: 4778326 (1988-10-01), Althouse et al.
patent: 6105783 (2000-08-01), Sato
Advanced Micro Devices , Inc.
Luong Shian
Sewell Paul T.
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