Honourable mention for PRIA and KLIC developments in the following special report on packaging.
supersite.net
...
Similar developments are under way at other suppliers. PRI Automation Inc. in Billerica, Mass., and partners such as K&S have one now under construction in the Philippines for Amkor/Anam Pilipinas Inc. The new facility is expected to place more equipment on its production floor for plastic BGA assembly by using material-transporting automation and work-tracking software.
Automating these advanced packaging plants, should make it possible to move final assembly operations back to the U.S. and Europe from the low-labor cost regions of Asia, predicts Ron France, PRI's manager of industry solutions. Experts agree that chip makers are now seriously considering plans that would call for moving backend and frontend chip manufacturing operations more closely together in order to reduce cycle times.
Motorola, for example, is starting to locate frontend and backend operations on a single site by locating bump-assembly-test (BAT) packaging lines next to its wafer fabs. "As assembly and test move into newer packaging technologies, like flip-chip, we are [making this move]," says Bill Walker, Motorola's senior vice president running manufacturing operations. "We have [located] BAT1 in Austin and we will be doing [the same thing] in our next major facility." For example, he says, Motorola is "looking at doing this in China to reduce cycle times."
... |
