Bare die tape and reel for high volume manufacturing

The use of bare die tape and reel has become more popular in recent times due to the advent of newer more accurate pick and place equipment designed for smaller and smaller parts. This equipment finds itself capable of picking small parts down to 20 mils square. The use of bare die loaded onto tape and reel is typically found on chip on board applications. This is true of the MRSI 505 machines and others that have been strictly precision MIC and hybrid assembly equipment. However, as the technology advances and SMT and COB assemblies mix, the use of bare die tape and reel has been making its way into the surface mount Arena. An example is the Universal GSM-LM equipment and others that are now capable of placing 0402 type devices and similar. Mixed technology is made possible by way of the SMT board with selective gold plating located on the board for chip on board installation with standard tin/lead plating on the rest of the board. This allows wire bonding to an SMT populated board in a discrete area where a die has been placed. The use of similar profile oven cure silver epoxy and secondary dam and fill over the die and wire bond area makes the mixed technology complete