Western Electric Company, Inc.

At&t Technologies, Inc.

Norman Bahnck

Jack J Monahan

Raymond H Booth

John A Boyer

Philip Kloap

Apparatus (11) for handling articles (12), such as semiconductor devices, temporarily mounted to an adhesively coated surface of a diaphragm (29) of a mounting frame (21) includes an index table (31) for positioning a selected one of the articles (12) at a pickup axis (34). The article (12) is removed from adhesive contact with the diaphragm (29) by first engaging the underside of the diaphragm with spaced support pins (72) and urging the engaged portions of the diaphragm and the selected article upward while pulling adjacent regions of the diaphragm out of contact with the article by means of an applied vacuum. Then a vacuum tip (112) moves downward toward the selected article as supported in its original orientation in a position raised above a plane of an array of the articles. As the vacuum tip (112) engages the selected article, a central pushpin (78) urges the device out of supportive relationship with the support pins (72) and into contact with the vacuum tip (112) to effect a removal of the article (12) from the diaphragm (29) without tilting the article out of its original orientation.

Methods of and apparatus for handling semiconductor devices

A bonder for attaching in succession small articles such as electronic devices to substrates has eight stations located along the path of a rotary member. The rotary member supports eight holders for substrates which are moved in sequence from station to station. At a first station a substrate is loaded onto one of the holders. The holder is then moved to an alignment station and transferred from the support member to a planar manipulator. An optical alignment control system recognizes a position of the substrate on the holder and controls the manipulation of the holder to align a substrate to a predetermined reference axis. The holder is then transferred back to the support member to fix the position of the substrate with respect to the support member. At the next station an article is also aligned to a corresponding reference axis and then tack-bonded or preliminarily attached to a bond site on the substrate. The article is then permanently bonded and the substrate with the bonded article is unloaded at an unload station. Prior to the completion of the cycle, the substrate holder is recentered to a starting position to prevent cumulative movement of the substrate holder with respect to the support member.

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Bethlehem, PA, United States of America

Norman Bahnck