Why Philips-founded equipment outfit ITEC is going at it alone

As two 4-arm mills rotate, tiny components are carefully picked up from the diced wafer, optically inspected, handed over from one mill to the other to flip the chip over, and finally placed onto a lead frame or tape. Of course, you can’t see any of these steps without slowing down the video footage, since they’re performed at dazzling speed. The latest-generation pick-and-place equipment developed by ITEC is capable of transferring 72,000 dies per hour.

The ADAT3XF die bonder is ITEC’s pièce de résistance. “Our double-mill technology is unique, no other company offers it. It enhances efficiency because every arm is handling a die at all times. In traditional pick-and-place equipment, the single arm has to move back empty-handed to pick up the next component,” explains Marcel Vugts, general manager of ITEC.