Dan, Please fill me in. Mark "Dan R. Johnson" To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask] cc: COM> Subject: Re: [TN] Depanelization - Cracked Chip Caps Sent by: TechNet <[log in to unmask] RG> 04/16/02 11:35 AM Please respond to "TechNet E-Mail Forum."; Please respond to "Dan R. Johnson" Hi Earl & Steve, I build assemblies which start at .5 X .5 and go down in size to .175 X .175 with smaller stuff in development. There are two simple solutions to the quandary of depanelizing these little $&%'ers. Most of our low volume stuff is tab routed with tiny tabs holding them into the array, flush cutters remove them. Higher cost but higher margin on low volume so that's OK. High volume stuff goes out to the dicing service. I also have a dicing saw in house for medium volume stuff. You can pick up a used dicing saw cheap, it doesn't need to be accurate enough for die, even a really badly aligned saw can hold +/- .0005 over 5" of travel. The facilities requirements can get pricy but you probably already have air and vacuum available, so all you need is a re-circ/ chiller for the water. I kluged ours together out of a stock tank and a sump pump (welcome to cow country). My panels have standard tooling holes and sizes regardless of the unit size so one size tooling fits all. Panels set up for dicing really maximize your PCB yield since there is almost no waste, the saw kerf is .008 - .010", and the cost of a service is less than labor to cut the things out of a tab routed array. If you want to contact me offline I can but you in touch with a reliable dicing service and a good used equipment vendor. Be careful of the guys in silicon gulch, they have a lean and hungry look right now. Dan --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------