This decade will see enormous growth in the semiconductor industry and achieving this growth requires advancing assembly, packaging, and testing (APT) capabilities. APT capabilities are rapidly evolving with advanced packaging techniques becoming increasingly common. This growth requires increased use of automated material handling (AHRS) systems to autonomously move material in APT facilities to increase productivity and yield as well as overcome global labor challenges.
Microlocation --- the ability to position at the sub-millimeter scale hundred of times per second --- provides highly precise and valuable location data to enable the next phase of automation to achieve increased productivity and quality. We introduce a radio-frequency (RF) based microlocation system that, for ATP machine tending applications, provides 40 micron positioning hundreds of times per second. In the ATP use case, an RF based microlocation base station is installed on an automated guided vehicle (AGV) equipped with a co-robotic arm and RF transponders are placed on machines in the ATP facility. As the AGV approaches a machine, RF based microlocation positions the AGV and co-robotic arm in front of the machine to 40 micron accuracy enabling the robotic system to place and remove material on the machine.
This presentation discusses the capabilities of RF microlocation, outlines how a RF microlocation system can be installed on an AGV and used in different configurations, how it differs from camera solution, and how it increases productivity and yield while enabling labor to be focused on other more valuable tasks.
