7 March 2012

Owens Design delivers customized automated film frame handlers to semiconductor and LED customers

Owens Design Inc of Fremont, CA, USA, a design and manufacturing service provider for semiconductor, solar and data storage capital equipment, says that it has delivered multiple customized film frame automated handling solutions to customers in the semiconductor and LED industries.

Owens Design says that the large variety of film frames and film frame cassettes has created a need for customizable solutions for various process tool applications. By working with customers in a collaborative design and build approach, the firm has developed an automated film frame handling solution that can easily be customized to address non-standard form factors.

Until recently, the loading and unloading of film frames into a process tool has been mostly a manual operation. However, semiconductor manufacturers now need to automate the process to address the timing needs of back-end-of-line (BEOL) inspection and test applications. At the same time, LED makers need an automated solution to enable greater volume production to support the increasing demand for LEDs in a variety of markets, says the firm.

“LED usage is becoming widespread in an ever-growing number of applications, including aviation and automotive lighting, household appliances, remote controls for electronic systems and traffic signals,” says president John Apgar. “The LED market, however, is extremely price-sensitive, so LED manufacturers are looking for ways to increase productivity, while lowering manufacturing costs,” he adds. “Our customizable automated film frame handler solution provides a low-risk approach to meeting both these needs.”

Owens Design says that it offers semiconductor, solar and LED capital equipment manufacturers a proven methodology to reduce tool development costs, minimize technical risk, and speed their time to market. By working closely with an established design and manufacturing firm, a capital equipment company can focus its internal efforts on its core technology, it claims. In turn, the design and manufacturing services company can focus on integrating this new core technology into a system-level platform that has been optimized to meet the equipment manufacturer’s performance specifications.

“Developing an easily customizable handling solution for our customers required expertise in film frame extraction, alignment and transport, expertise that Owens Design has developed over many years of successfully delivering a wide range of automation solutions to our customers,” says Jack Yao, director of business development. “Our collaborative design and manufacturing approach has a proven record of delivering the kind of low-risk, low-cost, and rapid time-to-market solutions our customers have come to rely on,” he adds. “Automating film frame handling with a customized solution helps our customers leverage existing tool sets and enter new markets, while also enabling their customers to reduce manufacturing costs and increase volume production.”

Tags: LEDs

Visit: www.owensdesign.com