Electro Scientific Industries, Inc.

Doug J Garcia

Nick A Tubbs

William J Saunders

Yunlong Sun

Edward J Swenson

Jay Johnson

Manoj Kumar Sammi

David James McKeever

Martin Frederick Bamberger

Rupendra M Anklekar

Blaine Michael

A component loader orients a component along its long-axis for transfer from a rotatable load plate. The load plate has an outer peripheral edge and an upper surface inclined from a horizontal plane. Slots on the upper surface terminate at the outer edge of the load plate and are sized to receive at least one elongate chip lying with its long axis perpendicular to the axis of the load plate and in parallel with radius of the load plate. An outer wall conforms to the curvature of the outer edge and is mounted adjacent thereto. A transfer slot extends axially from and into the upper surface of the load plate on outer ends of the slots and terminates at the outer edge of the load plate. Each transfer slot is shaped so that a chip descending therein from a slot has a ninety degree rotation about the long axis.

Long axis component loader

A gap set device for an electronic component handler is provided. The electronic component handler includes a linear bearing having a test accessory mounted to it. The test accessory is movable between a first position away from a tool and a second position closer to the tool. A setting post is extendable from the test accessory such that when the test accessory moves from the first position to the second position the setting post can fix a gap between the test accessory and the tool.

Electronic component handler having gap set device

An apparatus for testing electric components supported on a test plate for transport along a of travel path through a test station includes an electrical contactor at the station for contacting the plate surface and at least one electronic component transported to the test station by the test plate for testing. An adjustable force applicator supplies contact pressure to the contactor to apply a substantially constant force over a large working travel range. The applicator can include an air cylinder having a force applying pin applying force to a position located between a working point of the contactor and the pivot point such that the applied force variation is reduced as a result of a lever reduction ratio between the working point and the pin position.

Adjustable force electrical contactor

A component loader for orienting a component along its long-axis for transfer to transmission means such as a carrier belt. The loader includes a rotatable load plate having an outer peripheral edge and an upper surface where the upper surface is inclined from a horizontal plane. A plurality of slots is on the upper surface, and each is located about the outer edge of the load plate. Each of the plurality of slots is sized to receive at least one chip, preferably lying with its long axis perpendicular to the rotational axis of the rotatable load plate. An outer wall conforms to the curvature of the outer peripheral edge and is mounted adjacent thereabout. A transfer slot extends axially into the upper surface of the load plate. Preferably, each transfer slot is shaped so that a chip descending into each transfer slot from a respective slot has a ninety degree rotation about the long axis. The loader can include an inner wall mounted above the plurality of slots and interior of the outer wall, also along the rotational axis of the load plate.

A method of forming a scribe line having a sharp snap line entails directing a UV laser beam along a ceramic or ceramic-like substrate such that a portion of the thickness of the substrate is removed. The UV laser beam forms a scribe line in the substrate without appreciable substrate melting so that a clearly defined snap line forms a region of high stress concentration extending into the thickness of the substrate. Consequently, multiple depthwise cracks propagate into the thickness of the substrate in the region of high stress concentration in response to a breakage force applied to either side of the scribe line to effect clean fracture of the substrate into separate circuit components. The formation of this region facilitates higher precision fracture of the substrate while maintaining the integrity of the interior structure of each component during and after application of the breakage force.

Method of forming a scribe line on a passive electronic component substrate

A method of profiling the border of termination paste applied to a chip capacitor electrode comprising the steps of casting a layer of termination paste of finite thickness; passing a profiling element through the upper part of the layer of paste, the element having an exterior profile that is arranged to dip into the paste and scrape some of the paste from the upper part of the paste layer to form a reverse profile in the layer of the paste; and, dipping a chip capacitor electrode into the paste layer at the reverse profile formed therein, to terminate the capacitor with the profile formed in the paste.

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Beaverton, OR, United States of America

Doug J Garcia