Holy-moly! 0201's!

I know they're out there, but I ain't looking forward to have to deal with
these "fly-specks"! At the NEPCON show the year before last (didn't get to
make this years show...dad-blame-it!) Sanyo had their 0201 chip-shooter "dry
cycling" a board that had been placed previously...couldn't see it actually
doing it, which causes me to look at that capability with a little bit of
pessimism. If I don't see something live with my own two eyeballs, I  tend to
question why it isn't being actually shown doing it's thing...we always built
product live at the shows when I worked for Zevatech.

From personal experience, I know there's enough machines out there currently
that have their problems with 0402's, and I can't imagine that all of a
sudden all those problems get solved and they immediately become capable of
placing 0201's without problems. Can you imagine how dinky the nozzles need
to be? How easy it will be to bend them? and even further, how much those
hyperdermic needles are going to cost to be replaced! And you know you're
definately going to need very, very precise feeders. Probably going to have
their own special ones. I know on my Zevatech machines (750's and 760's) I
need special 8mm feeders for 0402's. I can use regular 8mm feeders in a
pinch, but the mispick rate goes up quite bit. No siree bob, not lookin'
forward to 0201's at all...

The reflow issues are another thing. I'm no designer, but I can imagine that
the way things are laid-out (thermal mass speaking anyway) will become much,
much more critical. I.E.: you can't have PLCC's at one end of the board and
all your dinky 0201's at the other end and not over cook things or wind-up
with all the passives standing on their heads. I know that's a no-no anyway
(laying boards out like that), but with larger parts and fax paux's like that
you can still build the boards...and REWORK! Hoo-boy, that's another story in
itself don't ya' think?

I know things always go in the direction of smaller, cheaper, faster,
lighter, but I think there comes a point that things are too small. Why don't
they make these things into arrays and get the designers to start using them
more? I still don't see the kind of chip arrays or chip networks being used
to save space and make things smaller. I still see boards with 50 individual
10K ohm resistors and 100 individual .1uf decoupling caps. It would sure make
us worker bee's that are on the production floor lives a lot easier!

C-ya!

-Steve Gregory-

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