World most prominent partner for your IC, Discrete and LED assembly

ASM has produced some of the semiconductor assembly equipment that has made an impact to the world semiconductor industry since 1975.

The Camera module in-line system, about 54% of world CMOS Sensor on your camera is in fact assembled by the ASM solution. Likely your hand phone cameras module was once assembled by ASM equipment. As the larger the number of Pixel on the CMOS sensor, the smaller the foreign particle down to size of 1.5 microns that the CMOS sensor can not tolerate this contamination. As ASM is the only company that has in-line -solution from Die bonding, curing wire bonder, inspection and lens holder attached line with full clean cell solution to prevent FM contamination. Top 3 World EMS company is in fact the users.

Numerous ASIC, SOIC, BGA and QFN was in fact made by ASM auto-line which has only 2 operators to take care one line each produces 8,000 to 10,000 assembled chip with dies at the input and fully functionable IC chips were made at the output… the whole process has undergone Die bonding, curing, wire bonding, inspection, molding, saw singulation, test auto inspection and taping…The turn around time from a new production wafer to finished assembly chip is possible to be made within 30 hours. Only Auto-line can do that.

Industry first auto molding system that can deliver 170Tons Clamping tonnage at the same time handle world largest 100MMx 300MM leadframe size… a few machine are being running in qualification mode in one of the World Largest Subcon houses , with this Hi Density Lead frame solution, the cost of the leadframe, encapsulation compounds could be saved, and that is becoming additive to your profit… the Only way to move into volume production devices like SOIC, TSSOP and in future QFN…

Dual head Flip Chip bonder, dual Dispenser 12 inch Die bonder, and precision die bonder for stack die on 12” wafers. Dual head copper wire bonders for the QFN application, that one US IDM is using the Copper wire bonder for assembling more than 6 million ICs a day.

Not less than 50% of world hi brightness LED is likely using ASM LED equipment for assembly production. Well, the low power LED below 0.2W is different area as there are more choice of equipment from Taiwan, China, and other makers at much lower cost besides ASM. Still ASM is the leader in the LED assembly as they have 25 years experience in designing, manufacturing the LED bonding, testing and assembling equipment.

If you are going Copper from Gold wire, if you are running SOIC, TSSOP with low profit margin, if you are building CIS Camera Module for no matter Apple and Samsung. If you are not using ASM equipment,, it may be good for you to contact ASM for more technical information. This may be a way for helping you to increase your profit margin. Today’s economy situation is dull, and yet this might be the best time for you to Invest…as you may get a better terms of delivery, price...support.

HK Snob

Rare Earth and LED Phosphor Material

The 17 rare-earth elements comprise the lanthanide series in the periodic table (elements 57 through 71), plus scandium (Sc) and yttrium (Y). The most common LED phosphor is yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) doped with cerium (Ce), another rare earth, while TAG phosphor contains terbium (Tb). Silicate phosphors such as BOSE and nitride phosphors are commonly doped with Ce or europium (Eu).

The availability of these materials is currently causing some concern, particularly because of new export quotas introduced by China.

The LED industry uses a wide and growing range of phosphor materials to convert the light emission from LED chips into a different wavelength spectrum. LED makers rely on their supply of phosphor materials as a crucial aspect of the production process. The most common use is the combination of a blue LED chip with one or more phosphors to create a white LED. Many of the phosphors used in LEDs contain rare-earth elements.
I speculate the Phosphors material will become expensive in end of the year and onwards. Luckily There is juts one wire connecting the LED diode and normally they are quite short as the Gold price soars high, the LED assembly material price will not be dropped.. and hence the cost of a LED will not be able to drop. This will affect the penetration rate of LED for Lighting application. On the contrary, the assembly equipment price would like to drop 30% a year, plus the speed of the equipment will be increased at a speed of 20% a year .Thus these will overcome the rise of the phosphor and gold wire…

Hence as overall, the ASP of a LED will still be able to be reduced at a rate of 20% over the year.

HK Snob

Together No.1, SIPLACE Team is Now ASM Assembly Automation Systems

On January 7, the former Siemens subsidiary SIPLACE officially became a part of ASM Pacific Technology. Under the new name ASM Assembly Systems.

The announcement of the SIPLACE sale in the summer of 2010 made it sound as if the unwanted stepchild of Siemens is becoming the new member of the family that ASM Pacific Technology was looking for.

We would think that this merge is a nice analogy, with a kernel of truth. Siemens indeed had not considered its placement machine business to be part of its core activities for quite some time.

In ASMPT they found an industrial investor who is intimately familiar with the extremely dynamic and cyclical electronics industry and is obviously very comfortable in this environment. Both, were prepared for this transfer, both mentally and by restructuring themselves and adopting a very lean and flexible global cluster organization.

The management and the employees of SIPLACE and ASMPT place similar emphasis on innovation, engineering exellence and quality. In short they fit well together, as has become even more apparent over the last very hectic and active months. They are looking to the future with a great deal of enthusiasm and confidence.

ASMPT has advanced in past decade and since 2002 became a World No.1 supplier of machines and systems in the chip assembly, wire bonding and packaging fields while these markets were developing. In the meantime, the entire electronics production field has evolved into a mature and highly competitive warfield. Entering into adjacent markets such as SMT placement from nowhere and only with their own resources would not be advisable. That's why the purchase of SIPLACE makes so much strategic sense for ASMPT.

In the future, the back-end processes being served by ASM’s machines will increasingly merge with the SMT placement processes – the success of SIPLACE CA with its ability to place bare dies and flip-chips directly from the wafer is a prime indicator of this trend. At the same time, both ASMPT and SIPLACE are better positioned for this development than their competitors.

Customers want efficient solutions that require experience and skills in both the back-end and front-end segments of electronics production. ASM and SIPLACE will be able to offer these in the future.
The two companies also complement each other in their regional focus. ASMPT has most of its customers in Asian markets, while SIPLACE contributes its market leadership in Europe, the Americas and with global key accounts.

When managers talk about synergies in connection with a merger or acquisition, they usually mean saving costs by eliminating redundancies. With their two companies it’s different: the acquisition of SIPLACE focuses on generating growth for both companies. Both of them want to move full speed ahead.

We would expect that the new team would be leading the world in supplying World class equipment for this Electronics Assembly in meeting the demand of the fast growing consumer electronics, Automobile, Medical and lighting industries.

HK Snob