Dec 16, 2015 | By Kira
Ultra Clean Holdings, Inc. (UCT), a provider of broad-based manufacturing capabilities and owner of the largest 3D printing facility in South East Asia, has announced a partnership with Kulicke & Soffa (K&S) for the use of their commercial scale 3D printing services, making K&S the first known company in the semiconductor equipment market to adopt the mass customization capabilities of 3D printing technology.
Through the partnership, K&S has already designed and manufactured a valuable 3D printed component for its Atserion i-MULTI wedge bonder: the contamination removal kit built, which was designed to assist in cleaning the surface of the bonding materials in rigorous high-volume manufacturing environments. By utilizing UCT’s 3D printing technology, the K&S was able to design the contamination kit so that it can optimize the use of space near the bonding device, making it compact and easily customizable.
Kulicke & Soffa is a global leader in the design and manufacture of semiconductor, LED and electronic assembly equipment. Essentially, they provide equipment and tools that are used in the production of various semiconductor devices. In turn, their customers use these tools to produce the chips that enable everything from computers to LED TVs and pacemakers. By being one of, if not the first, semiconductor equipment company to adopt 3D printing, they hope to open new frontiers in the advanced manufacturing industry.
“With this 3D printing concept, the time required for transforming and fully customizing an idea to a prototype and a product is greatly reduced. We are very impressed with the 3D printed product and appreciate the efforts put in by UCT," said Chan Pin Chong, Vice President of the K&S Wedge Bonders, Capillaries and Blades business lines. "The success of this technology adoption injected more confidence for us to explore the possibilities to do the same for the other parts built into our equipment."
While K&S may just be discovering the many benefits of additive manufacturing now, UCT made its entry to the 3D printing market earlier this year when it acquired Prototype Asia LLC and opened the UCT Additive Manufacturing Center in Singapore, adding 3D printing to its traditional manufacturing services as a leading developer and supplier of critical systems and subsystems for the semiconductor capital equipment, flat panel, medical, energy and research industries.
UCT offers a variety of 3D printing technique options, including FDM 3D printing, PolyJet modeling, SLA and SLS metal 3D printing, DMLS, full color powder binding and wax jetting, all of which allow the company to provide comprehensive solutions to aerospace, medical, machinery, computer, electronics, and of course semiconductor businesses.
“We are pleased that our 3D expertise and capabilities enabled K&S with a customizable product," said Lavi Lev, Senior Vice President, Asia Division at UCT. "K&S is at the leading edge of manufacturing as the first known company to integrate 3D printing into the production of semiconductor assembly equipment on a commercial scale.”
The partnership is just one more step towards bringing 3D customization capabilities to new industries and markets, and will surely open new doors for 3D printing and advanced manufacturing within the semiconductor equipment market specifically.
Posted in 3D Printing Application
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