Eliminating Frequent Machine Assists through Process Plate Enhancement on Wirebonding Process

New devices and technologies in the semiconductor industry are getting more challenging to process because of inherent issues especially on quad-flat no-leads (QFN) packaging assembly. This paper is focused on the improvement done for QFN leadframe device to address the major machine assist during the lot processing at wirebond process. Illumination and visual of the leadframe and the sand blasting process plate on the machine are difficult to separately distinguish due to similar color shade of the materials, thus frequent machine assists ensued. To reduce the frequent machine assist occurrence, an improvement is done through enhancing the process plate by using a black chrome to totally separate the illumination of leadframe and the process plate. Ultimately, the machine assist during wirebonding process is improved (the longer the better) from 16 minutes to 6 hours continuous and uninterrupted running.