Case Studies

The Customer
Global semiconductor company with operations in more than 25 countries and revenue of $4.2 billion.

Case Background: The customer has significant focus on the automotive industry that has increasing hunger to make vehicles safer and more efficient. With this has come the need for a higher concentration of technology within the vehicle. Of course, as with other products, space constraints paired with energy efficiencies mean that less and less space is available within the vehicle. As a result, the use of bare die is becoming very common within the components manufactured for use in the automotive industry.

The Challenge
The customer requires a packaging medium that can offer the following benefits:

• Efficient and automated packaging of die at point of manufacture.
• Protection of die in transit from both physical and electrostatic damage.
• Enable automated insertion at point of use by system manufacturer.

Solution
Acupaq developed a carrier tape solution that addressed the above challenges, and has enabled the customer to make a 100% switch to our materials. An ESD safe polycarbonate material was chosen as the raw material in order to create an ESD safe environment for the die, while reducing stretch possibility on the automated equipment. The carrier tape pockets are formed utilising a system that creates pockets with near vertical sidewall draft angles, raised ‘lips’ (‘T’ zones) and tolerances down to +/- 0.05mm. All of these factors ensure:

• Die rotation is well within EIA standards
• Die migration is prevented
• Die movement within the pocket is restricted

In addition, the use of a heat seal cover tape with highly consistent adhesion, excellent clarity and smooth, light refracting adhesive improves the overall protection of the die while enabling in-pocket inspection of the component.

This combined solution has enabled the customer to switch from a punched, bottomless carrier with a flexible PSA base, to a carrier tape that creates automation, precision and protection for the customer’s bare die.

For more information on bare die carrier tape, or any of Acupaq’s component packaging solutions please contact us.

The Customer
Established in 1939, Farnell is a world leading, high service, low volume distributor of electronic, electrical, industrial and maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) products. The company offers customers fast, easy access to over 430,000 stocked products, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The Challenge
Excellent customer service is a key feature of Farnell’s selling proposition. The company’s quality team identified an inherent problem with shipping small amounts of electronic components, usually packaged in Jedec trays. A significant number of customer complaints were being received relating to damaged products as a result of poor packaging. In addition, there was negative feedback from distribution staff, who found the packaging difficult to use.

The Brief
Farnell approached us to find a way of shipping integrated circuits (ICs) and other leaded products in a safe, compact form, not only to ensure safe delivery, but also to reduce packaging wastage.

The Solution
Drawing on our experience in the medical sector, we designed a blister pack, allowing each component to sit in its own protective cell, sealed with a static sensitive TYVEK TM lid.

The Benefits

• Significantly reduced risk of product damage in transit
• Better customer satisfaction levels
• Increased bin accuracy
• More efficient packing procedure
• Cost savings

The Customer
Acupaq’s customer base with component distribution, prototyping, SATS or EMS activities.

The Challenge
As large scale carrier tape manufacturing followed the semiconductor industry shift to Asia, the “local” support infrastructure were left with supply challenges. This became further apparent as volume requirement reduced leaving customers with the challenge of absorbing long lead times, high minimum order quantities, tooling charges and shipping costs.

The Brief
Acupaq embarked on a project to create a process that would eliminate all our customers purchasing barriers, enabling rapid, small to medium volume tape production without tooling charges and high shipping costs.

The Solution
Drawing on our experience in carrier tape manufacture, Acupaq developed a rapid manufacturing process utilising our proprietary engineering techniques. This process is named swiftTape.

The Benefits

• Reduced lead times from weeks to days.
• Eliminated tooling costs.
• Enabled purchase of small to medium volumes locally.
• Create a portable solution that could be installed anywhere globally.

The Customer
TRW Automotive is among the world’s ten largest automotive suppliers. The company is at the forefront of developments in vehicle dynamics, driver assist systems, foundation brakes, inflatable restraints and seat belt technologies, as well as electronics and software advancements to enhance vehicle safety, convenience and comfort.

The Challenge
Components for TRW’s steer-by-wire system are highly sensitive and fragile. However, they need to be transported safely to motor manufacturers such as BMW, Renault and Hyundai.

The Brief
TRW briefed us to supply a bespoke packaging solution which would minimise transit damage and contamination to the steer-by-wire system components.

The Solution
Our solution was derived from the medical sector, drawing on principles used in the transportation of artificial hearts. The packaging is manufactured in a class 10,000 clean room environment.

The Benefits

• Bespoke, particle free packaging solution to minimise damage and contamination
• Cost effective solution
• Thoroughly tested and manufactured to high quality standards