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AssigneeTexas Instruments Incorporated
InventorRadhakrishnan Menon
Estimating the term…
A wire feed sensor guide, used in fabrication of semiconductor packages, guides a wire W from a wire source to a wire bonding location. The wire feed sensor guide has a unitary slider 1 that can be manually slid into and out of a fixed portion (2 or 2/3). Slider 1 has a slot SL that guides wire W, and includes a hole S for a sensor wire SW (such as optical fiber) that senses the position of wire W within the slot. Slider 1 also includes an air tube hole A that transmits air to urge wire W from a first position W1 toward a second position W2 during a wire bonding cycle. Advantageously, the unitary nature of the slider (including its air tube hole A and sensor wire hole S) ensure that the air blowing and wire position sensing processes do not require manual adjustment. Moreover, the end of the sensor wire is substantially protected from contamination by being substantially enclosed in the slider 1 and exposed only inside slot SL, thus increasing reliability. Further, the insertion and extraction of slider 1 may be performed without tools by an individual having no specialized training or skills, thus avoiding damage to or loss of parts that occurs in conventional arrangements.
A wire feed sensor guide especially suitable for use in fabrication of semiconductor packages, by controllably guiding a wire from a wire source to a wire bonding location, the wire feed sensor guide comprising:
An wire-bonder comprising:
A method of servicing a wire feeding sensor guide;
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.