Other

Xyratex Technology Limited

Reid-Ashman Manufacturing, Inc.

Ried Ashman Manufacturing

Bryan R Riley

Oliver David Jones

Donald Edgar Stephens

David T Frost

Anthony Cramer Jones

Scott T Petersen

Adam Sean Harbison

Lewis R Weiss

Scott Peterson

Steven J Reid

An improved cleaning fluid supply housing assembly for a cascade-type substrate scrubber having a sliding piston configured with a flange with recesses so that the piston is out of contact with the rotating part of the brush core mandrel bearing assembly. Rather, the piston flange outer face only contacts the stationary outer race of the mandrel bearing. The water supply piston is also configured with a full bore to minimize the pressure on the end of the mandrel. A tolerance-controlled leak through the bearing is provided by the configuration of the piston flange to provide a flushing of the area in which wear might be a source of particle generation by a controlled tolerance leak upstream of the brushes. These features substantially eliminate the source of particle generation from contact wear and the contribution of such wear particles into the interface between the brush and the substrate surface being cleaned.

Seal system for irrigated scrubber mandrel assembly

A cascaded disk scrubbing system and method are provided. The cascaded disk scrubbing system includes an array of rows of brush pairs. Each row includes a plurality of counter-rotating brush pairs that are arranged horizontally and longitudinally, and configured to receive and process a disk in a vertical orientation through disk preparation zones defined by each pair of brushes. Below and between the pairs of brushes is a track that is configured to apply a rotation to the disk and to transition the disk in a vertical orientation through the brush pairs. Nozzles dispense fluids on and over the brush pairs, and the brush pairs are configured such that fluids are dispensed through the brush pairs. Nozzles dispense a curtain of fluid between each disk preparation zone, and the cascaded disk scrubbing system is configured to progress from dirtiest to cleanest as the disk transitions through each disk preparation zone.

Disk cascade scrubber

A cascaded wafer scrubbing system and method are provided. The cascaded wafer scrubbing system includes an array of rows of brush pairs. Each row includes a plurality of counter-rotating brush pairs that are arranged horizontally and longitudinally, and configured to receive and process a wafer in a vertical orientation through wafer preparation zones defined by each pair of brushes. Below and between the pairs of brushes is a track that is configured to apply a rotation to the wafer and to transition the wafer in a vertical orientation through the brush pairs. Nozzles dispense fluids on and over the brush pairs, and the brush pairs are configured such that fluids are dispensed through the brush pairs. Nozzles dispense a curtain of fluid between each wafer preparation zone, and the cascaded wafer scrubbing system is configured to progress from dirtiest to cleanest as the wafer transitions through each wafer preparation zone.

Wafer cascade scrubber

Automated apparatus transfers SMDs with leads for contacting mounting pad surfaces of surface mount PCBs from containers to nests on a rotatable dial, such that the nests support the SMDs by the leads without touching the body of an SMD. At a test station an elevator device elevated the nest to place an SMD in the nest in a test socket positioned above the dial so the SMD leads connect to test circuitry through contacts in the test socket. In a preferred embodiment the test socket is the base of a manual insert test socket and the nest performs the function of the lid of a manual insert test socket.

Automatic SMD tester

A package handling apparatus for presenting circuit packages to a test head is provided which uses a soft handling approach throughout the system. The handler works with a plurality of sticks, with each stick adapted for holding a plurality of packages in a substantially horizontal linear array, with the linear array defining a linear axis for the stick. The handler includes an input elevator element for receiving a first stick loaded with a first package, for moving the first stick vertically to an index level. An input drive moves the first stick horizontally to an index position. A first pick-up removes the first package from the first stick and then moves the first package to a stage pick-up position. A stage element receives the first package, and presents it to the test head for testing. Once tested, the stage element moves the package to a stage exit position. A stage pick-up then places the first package in a stage row stick. A third pick-up then removes the first package from the stage row stick, and places it into a storage row stick in response to a signal from the test head. With this approach, packages are transported and stored in sticks, except when on the stage element. Hence, the packages never contact each other or feed trays. Furthermore, gravity is not used for stick transport. Instead, controlled drive systems are used. Hence, the entire system can be configured to avoid problematic accelerations, and hence reduce potential damage to the delicate integrated circuits being transported.

Handler for IC packages

An apparatus is configured to pick up and hold a pin grid array (PGA) and to automatically align it in that process by using the electrical lead pins themselves of the pin grid array as the indexing element for the pick up process. Included are a plurality of grippers, each of the grippers having an alignment surface for engaging from outside the rectangular perimeter of lead pins on the PGA, at least one side of the rectangular perimeter of the pins, each of the grippers having a gripper indexing surface. The apparatus also includes a base for holding the PGA and the plurality of grippers. The base has a base indexing surface for each gripper indexing surface, the base having a spring element for pulling on each of the grippers so as to bring each of the gripper indexing surfaces into juxtaposition with its respective base indexing surface. Each base indexing surface is located such that when the gripper indexing surface is pulled against the base indexing surface, the alignment surface of each gripper is located at a position that would engage that side of the rectangular perimeter of the pins.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Bryan R Riley