Honeywell Information Systems Inc.

Conrad John Steigerwald

Dennis E Rich

Apparatus for cutting and removing layers of photoresist overlaying tooling holes in a printed wire board blank. A lower cutter is mounted on a base so that its cutting edge projects above the upper surface of the base a distance substantially equal to the thickness of a layer of photoresist. A cutter head is mounted on the base for movement parallel to the upper surface of the base. An upper cutter is mounted on the cutter head for movement by a cutter actuator to cause the upper and lower cutters to sever segments of layers of photoresist overlaying a tooling hole of a PWB blank positioned between them. Each cutter is provided with a plunger movable within their respective cutters. The upper surface of the lower plunger, when the lower plunger is retracted, projects above the lower cutting edge of the lower cutter; and the upper plunger is biased downwardly so that its bottom surface projects below the cutting edges of the upper cutter. As a result the plungers stress the photoresist layers overlaying a tooling hole prior to the upper and lower cutters engaging them. A plunger actuator then moves the lower plunger toward the upper plunger pressing the severed segments together and against the upper plunger. The upper plunger has a conduit connected to a source of vacuum to cause the two segments, which adhere to one another, to adhere to the upper plunger. The upper cutter is retracted and the cutter head moved to place the upper cutter over a disposal opening in the base. The conduit is then connected to a source of compressed air to discharge the segments into the disposal opening.

Apparatus for cutting and removing dry film photoresist from printed

Apparatus for blanking an integrated circuit (I.C.) chip and the chip's thin flexible ductile leads which extend beyond the four sides of each chip from a segment of film to which the leads are attached and forming the leads including forming a foot at the free end of each lead of the chip in a single operation of a hollow punch having contiguous cutting and forming edges with a contiguous forming surface between them and a hollow die having cutting edges with a forming block having contiguous forming edges and forming shoulders positioned within the die. The punch and die are mounted on a punch press. Alignment means accurately position the chip and its leads with respect to the punch and die. A pressure pad is mounted in the punch and presses the leads against a portion of the forming block to isolate the bonds between the leads and the integrated circuit chip from forces applied to the leads during cutting and forming. The punch then approaches the die until the cutting edges of the punch and die sever the leads, the forming edges of the punch and forming block bend the leads, and the free ends of the leads are formed into feet between the forming shoulder of the forming block and the forming surface of the punch. The forming block is resiliently mounted in the die to accommodate variations in the thickness of the ductile leads. The severed I.C. chip and its formed leads are lifted from the forming block by being held against the pressure pad by a vacuum as the punch returns to its initial position.

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Phoenix, AZ, United States of America

Conrad John Steigerwald