Pick-and-place apparatus and method
AssigneeNexperia B.V.
InventorsSteven Verstoep, Niels de Koning, Tim Ellenbroek
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Aspects of the present disclosure relate to a pick-and-place apparatus that is configured to cause components to be placed on a substrate in a number of passes, and during each pass, components among a plurality of components are placed on the substrate in a respective placement pattern among a collection of interleaved placement patterns.
Claims15
A pick-and-place apparatus, comprising:
- a pick-and-place apparatus, comprising:
- a
- source supporting unit, that is a moveable source table, configured to hold a carrier that is provided with and/or supports a plurality of components;
- a target supporting unit, that is a moveable target table, configured to hold a substrate;
- a first drive unit for driving the source supporting unit;
- a second drive unit for driving the target supporting unit;
- a transport unit for collecting a component from the carrier and for placing the collected component on the substrate;
- and a controller for controlling the first drive unit, the second drive unit, and
- the transport unit;
- and
- a pattern determination unit that is configured to:
- receive a wafer map that indicates the performance and/or characteristics of the components on the carrier that are to be placed on the substrate;
- determine, for each combination of interleaved collect patterns and/or interleaved placement patterns among a plurality of the combinations:
- a value of a uniformity metric that describes the uniformity of the performance and/or characteristics over the substrate if the components are pick-and-placed on the substrate on the basis of each predefined combination;
- a value of a throughput metric that describes the throughput of the pick-and-place apparatus when using the predefined combination;
- a value of a general metric based on a weighed combination of the value of the uniformity metric and the value of the throughput metric;
- determine an optimal combination of interleaved collect patterns and interleaved placement patterns among the plurality of combinations using the determined values of the general metric;
- and
- provide the optimal combination of interleaved collect patterns and/or interleaved placement patterns to the controller;
- wherein the controller is configured to:
- cause the components to be collected from the carrier in a number of passes, wherein during each pass, components among the plurality of components are collected from the carrier in accordance with a respective collect pattern among the optimal combination of interleaved collect patterns;
- and/or
- cause the components to be placed on the substrate in a number of passes, wherein during each pass components among the plurality of components are placed on the substrate in a respective placement pattern among the optimal combination of interleaved placement patterns.
A pick-and-place system, comprising:
- a pick-and-place apparatus, comprising:
- a source supporting unit, that is a moveable source table, configured to hold a carrier that is provided with and/or supports a plurality of components;
- a target supporting unit, that is a moveable target table, configured to hold a substrate;
- a first drive unit for driving the source supporting unit;
- a second drive unit for driving the target supporting unit;
- a transport unit for collecting a component from the carrier and for placing the collected component on the substrate;
- and
- a controller for controlling the first drive unit, the second drive unit, and the transport unit, wherein the controller is configured to receive data describing collect patterns and/or placement patterns to be used during the pick-and-place process;
- and
- a pattern determination unit that is configured to:
- receive a wafer map that indicates the performance and/or characteristics of the components on the carrier that are to be placed on the substrate;
- determine, for each combination of interleaved collect patterns and/or interleaved placement patterns among a plurality of the combinations:
- a value of a uniformity metric that describes the uniformity of the performance and/or characteristics over the substrate if the components are pick-and-placed on the substrate on the basis of each predefined combination;
- a value of a throughput metric that describes the throughput of the pick-and-place apparatus when using the predefined combination;
- a value of a general metric based on a weighed combination of the value of the uniformity metric and the value of the throughput metric;
- determine an optimal combination of interleaved collect patterns and interleaved placement patterns among the plurality of combinations using the determined values of the general metric;
- and provide the optimal combination of interleaved collect patterns and/or interleaved placement patterns to the controller;
- wherein the controller is configured to:
- cause the components to be collected from the carrier in a number of passes, wherein during each pass, components among the plurality of components are collected from the carrier in accordance with a respective collect pattern among the optimal combination of interleaved collect patterns;
- and/or cause the components to be placed on the substrate in a number of passes, wherein during each pass components among the plurality of components are placed on the substrate in a respective placement pattern among the optimal combination of interleaved placement patterns.
A method for collecting components from a carrier that is arranged on a source supporting unit and for placing the collected components on a substrate that is arranged on a target supporting unit, the method comprising:
- receiving a wafer map that indicates the performance and/or characteristics of the components on the carrier that are to be placed on the substrate;
- determining, for each combination of interleaved collect patterns and interleaved placement patterns among a plurality of the combinations:
- a value of a uniformity metric that describes the uniformity of the performance and/or characteristics over the substrate if the components are pick-and-placed on the substrate on the basis of each predefined combination;
- a value of a throughput metric that describes the throughput of a pick-and-place apparatus when using the predefined combination;
- a value of a general metric based on a weighed combination of the value of the uniformity metric and the value of the throughput metric;
- determining an optimal combination of collect and placement patterns among the plurality of combination using the determined values of the general metric;
- collecting the components from the carrier in a number of passes, wherein during each pass, components among the plurality of components are collected from the carrier in accordance with a respective collect pattern among the optimal combination of interleaved collect patterns;
- and/or
- placing the components on the substrate in a number of passes, wherein during each pass components among the plurality of components are placed on the substrate in a respective placement pattern among the optimal combination of interleaved placement patterns.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.