Moore's Law states that the number of transistors in a chip doubles every two years. Ever smaller, lighter, faster and more energy-efficient products are being realized thanks to the ongoing trend of miniaturization of components in integrated circuits. However, this has consequences for production processes, especially in terms of speed and accuracy. More products have to be assembled, inspected and machined very precisely in the same time, also from a cost perspective. Here, the point is reached where the positioning accuracy required exceeds the positioning errors already present on the component carriers.
No Equal
‘Material deposition is one of the critical actions when realizing a product consisting of a carrier - e.g. a PCB or flex foil - and electrical components’, says Plak, System Architect. 'To do this even more precisely and faster, the product carrier must also be able to be positioned more precisely and faster. We solve this problem with our Accelerated XY Table, or AXYT. A second trend in material deposition concerns the increase in operations such as conductive contact deposition and conductive trace printing. Moreover, material deposition is not limited to printed electronics. In the medical sector, for instance, research into various applications is also in full swing, including bio-sensors and lab-on-a-chip. In this area, too, our planar stepping stage is groundbreaking. There is no equal in the market.'
Motion Architecture
The high stage accelerations (40 m/s2) allow for >200 position steps (1µm to 100µm) per second. Precise and fast feedforward is of paramount importance to realize sub-micrometer accuracy. Larger index steps (>100µm) a high control bandwidth (>200 Hz) is needed. The drive chain topology to facilitate the motion specifications have been realized by dividing the design in a primary stage that carries the product and additional secondary follower stages. The contactless driven primary stage is supported by air bearings to realize frictionless guiding in X (5 mm) and Y (300 mm) direction and holds an optical 3 DOF measurement system with respect to a metrology frame. Applying the construction design principles as practiced commonly in precision equipment, the potential control bandwidth limiting eigenmodes moved beyond 1000 Hz. The secondary slave stage carries the magnet tracks of the linear motors to realize the large actuation forces (to facilitate 40 m/s2) in lateral (Y) direction. These ‘slaves’ absorb disturbance forces of the cable slab. The relatively large weight of the magnet tracks is effectively used to balance out the primary body actuation forces, thus reducing excitation of the metrology.
Integrated Inspection
The ultra-precise positioning is combined with advanced optical design, to allow inspection and diagnostic processes in high-tech environments. Once an object’s position is measured with sub-pixel accuracy using an integrated camera, it is exactly placed where it needs to be. Clever metrology design ensures consistent and repeatable accuracy, even in an uncontrolled environment. This approach allows predictable production conditions where functions like defect detection, pattern recognition, and data-driven decision-making can take place with minimal human intervention.
Supermodels & Holodeck
To make all this possible, we gathered and exchanged a lot of knowledge from all our competences. Input was given from all disciplines within Sioux - mechanics, electronics, mechatronics, optics, physics, software, mathware, and realization & testing.
This asks for optimal collaboration and efficient sharing of ideas and progress. Not everyone working in hardware will be able to interpret software code. Sioux therefore developed Supermodels, a model-driven software development tool that facilitates transparent multidisciplinary development processes.
AXYT comes with its own digital twin. A tool that offers engineers and clients the opportunity to test the system under different conditions in a virtual world. In recent years, Sioux has developed a language-independent interface with a Holodeck to generate such a 3D simulation.
Your R&D one-stop-shop
Plak: ‘With the proto of the AXYT, we demonstrate that Sioux is one of the top companies worldwide in the field of fast and accurate positioning and has the corresponding system knowledge in-house. With this, we can now start working towards applications in the semicon, analytical and medical industries. This has also been taken into account in the design. We can adapt this as required - in terms of size and length of working area, among other things - and expand it for optimal results at system level. We therefore expect a lot from this development. After all, it will enable our customers to make faster, better products with a higher yield and at a lower cost. In doing so, we also hope to inspire them to come up with new applications where we can provide them with multidisciplinary support in realization.'
If you want to know more about the AXYT or are interested in collaboration contact us to set up a meeting!
