Philips Electronic Manufacturing Technology (EMT)
Philips Electronic Manufacturing Technology (EMT)
Keyword Philips
The biennial press gathering for Productronica was held in the convivial surroundings of Philips EMT in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. For a company not normally noted for its press conferences, Philips senior management laid on a presentation and factory tour as professionally as if it were a daily occurrence.
Philips Electronic Manufacturing Technology (EMT) originated in 1984 as an internal supplier of component pick-and-place machinery to the Philips Consumer Electronics division. The company has since grown to become a major global force in state-of-the-art hardware and software in surface mount technology. Philips EMT, a business unit within Royal Philips Electronics, offers a comprehensive range of machinery,software and services to an increasing number of electronics manufacturers(Plate 1). Royal Philips Electronics of The Netherlands is one of the world's largest electronics companies and the biggest in Europe, with sales of over US$33.9 billion in 1998 and an average annual R&D investment of 6 per cent of sales.
Broad customer base
Prime customers are the basis of strategic and key accounts for Philips EMT and are among the largest consumer and professional electronics companies in the world. In 1998 Philips EMT's installed base had increased to more than 4,000 systems with companies which vary from medium to ultra-high volume manufacturers in areas such as telecommunications, computers, automotive and other professional and consumer electronics products. This broad customer base means that Philips EMT has a high number of world-class references which include, among others, such companies as Ericsson, Bosch and Nortel (in telecommunications); IBM, Compaq and Samsung (in computers); Ford, Chrysler, Delphi and Bosch (in automotive); and Philips and Thomson/RCA (in consumer electronics). Some of these companies are also strategic or key accounts with other Philips divisions for example Semiconductors and Components with benefits that can be gained by cross-client and crosssupplier relationships.
Alliances
Business and technology partnerships have been built up with internal and external companies to further develop systems and software to address the continuing changes and needs of the electronics manufacturing industry. Alliances have been formed to explore hardware and software surface-mount and related technologies for future products and systems. Philips' partners include, among others, Philips Centre for Manufacturing Technology, Philips Machine Factories, Philips Semiconductors,Philips Components and Philips Design; and outside companies such as Yamaha,CyberOptics, GR Software and ESI. Related technologies being covered are in the areas of laser alignment of components and multi-vendor line software, all of which support the basic open-platform architecture and design philosophy of the Philips EMT product lines.
Similar objectives have been defined with selected user groups, whose members are mainly key account customers with whom valuable manufacturing technology information is exchanged and through which application and technology road maps can be jointly defined. With these partners and the availability of Philips' considerable research facilities, Philips EMT has access to one of the world's most advanced and largest pools of knowledge in surface-mount technology innovation.
Plate 1 Philips EMT's advanced manufacturing facility can build, deliver, install and commission new production lines within as little as eight weeks
Steady growth
With its head office and International Competence Center (ICC) located in Eindhoven, The Netherlands,Philips EMT currently employs almost 1,000 people who, in addition to the headquarters and ICC, are deployed in the three regional offices with more than 50 sales and service offices throughout the world bringing decentralized services close to clients. The EMT workforce is supplemented with additional capacity through selected specialized codevelopment activities. Development and manufacturing facilities are located in Eindhoven and are both ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certificated.
Annual sales growth has averaged more than 30 per cent in the last seven years and in the same period the number of employees has more than doubled. The company is currently in a leadership position, ranking in the top three in its field and is gaining increasing awareness throughout the entire electronics industry. In 1998 external sales accounted for more than 80 per cent of the business. The geographical markets are the Americas and Europe, each with more than 40 per cent of world sales. Asia accounts for the rest. Business growth for the next two to three years is expected to continue at the same rate it has done up to now.
International management team
The Philips EMT business unit managing director is Cor Scholten (Plate 2) who leads an international team of managers committed to maintaining the company's leading position as a value-added supplier of SMT component placement products and services to the medium- and high-volume electronics manufacturing industries. Regional managers are Ton Cornelissen (Europe) (Plate 3), Mike Buscher (Americas) and Alfred Low(Asia). Manager of the International Competence Center (Eindhoven) is Jan Mansveld. The company's mission "to make our customers more competitive by providing leading-edge surface mount technology products and services, around the corner, around the clock, around the world" is being implemented by focusing on the key areas of reduction in overall cost of production, improvement of up-time, overall quality and time-to-market, and open, honest and clear communication and cooperation between people, to ultimately maximize shareholder value.
Plate 2 Cor Scholten is managing director of Philips Electronic Manufacturing Technology (EMT) and is also a member of the board of directors of Philips Business Electronics
To meet these manufacturing demands, Philips EMT has developed two series of component mounting systems, the PowerLine™ and the GemLine™.
Plate 3 Ton Cornelissen is regional manager for the European organisation of Philips Electronic Manufacturing Technology (EMT). Mr Cornelissen is responsible for the total European organisation, which includes sales, marketing communication and service activities
PowerLine
The PowerLine family of board mounters is designed for all ultra-high volume manufacturing needs, with fast set-up, shared modules and common software. Its members are the multivolume FCM (fast component mounter), the multi-tasking ACM (advanced component mounter)system and supporting software. The FCM provides high throughput, up to 96,000 components per hour, while the ACM is designed to handle fine-pitch, including flip-chip, large and odd shaped components with extreme accuracy at speeds of up to 4,500 components per hour.
The whole series is designed to meet all high and very high volume manufacturing needs, with maximum flexibility.
Capable of handling the latest component technologies, the combination of the FCM and ACM offers manufacturers the best output and performance coupled with lowest cost of placement of any systems on the market.
Fast component mounter FCM
The FCM is a compact chip and IC shooter. Based on the successful and proven multi-robot concept,introduced in 1992, the current FCM series adds feeder trolleys, tape feeders,large component capability and twin bulkfeeders, which double the amount of feeder positions to 192.
The "multi-volume" FCM series is a highly flexible solution for high- and very high-speed component placement (Plate 4). It has a maximum placement rate of 96,000 components per hour yet its flexibility and easy handling can be adapted to variable workloads. The FCM is also fast when it comes to reconfiguring the system for new products:new configurations can be simply prepared off-line, allowing changeover to be completed in around 20 minutes.
Central to the FCM multi-volume system is its low cost-per-placement. The combination of speed,minimum downtime and high accuracy makes it a highly cost-effective placement system. Its compact dimensions take up little expensive floor area, which contributes further to the overall low cost of ownership.
Innovative technologies,like laser in-flight alignment and CCD vision alignment, have been ensuring very high placement accuracy and a low fall-out rate on the FCM since 1993. It can easily handle high-mix PCBs with combinations of QFPs and chips components. The FCM is a highly scalable chip and IC shooter for high volume electronics production.
Plate 4 Philips EMT's fast component mounter (FCM) has interchangeable placement modules giving it the capability to handle everything from 0201 packaged components up to 25mm square devices with lead pitches as fine as 0.5mm
Two placement modules types
The FCM can be configured with compact laser modules, which use the proven "on-the-fly" laser alignment concept for chips and small ICs. Recently Philips EMT added wide vision modules to its program, which take the space of two compact modules for larger packages like QFPs, PLCCs, large ICs, and TSOPs. This configuration flexibility provides optimal balancing between chip shooting and QFP placement in one compact system.
Modular flexibility
The FCM consists of a base with a printed circuit board transport and 16 compact laser modules or eight wide vision modules or any mix of these placement modules to meet the required functionality. All placement modules as well as the fiducial alignment unit work simultaneously, saving throughput time.
Component versatility
The very modular construction of the FCM with its compact laser modules makes it possible to handle different product and component mixes from 0201s up to 25mm square IC packages.
Advanced component mounter ACM
The ACM is the first true multi-tasking placement system (Plate 5). The ACM has the unique ability to place three different categories of components using the same machine. These include:
advanced packages, such as flip-chips, bare die, micro BGAs and other chip-scale packages;
conventional fine pitch components, such as QFPs, BGAs and other ICs;
odd form components, such as RF shields, transformers and connectors.
This multi-tasking capability eliminates the need for additional systems to handle different types of components, while maintaining speed and accuracy.
Plate 5 Philips EMT's advanced component mounter (ACM) is the first true, multi-tasking placement system, designed to handle fine pitch, flip-chip, large and odd shaped components with extreme accuracy at speeds of up to 4,500 components per hour
The ACM is a flexible and modular system, designed to handle fine-pitch large and odd shaped components with extreme accuracy at speeds of up to 4,500 components per hour. It is ideal for the long runs involved in ultra-high volume manufacturing yet it can be quickly and easily reconfigured, making it perfect for the rapid changes of a complex product mix.
Path to zero placement defects: accuracy of 17.5 micron (0.0007in.) @ 5 Sigma
The ACM exceeds the accuracy required for advanced packages, such as flip-chips and micro BGAs. Its placement repeatability is 3.5 microns or 14/100,000 of an inch. Long term stability is exceptional, leading to a statistical placement error rate of only one error per year of production.
System core of the ACM
The core of the system is an H-drive robot with four servo controlled placement heads, each of which has automatically exchangeable tool-bits, both vacuum and gripper. The component feeders and the board remain stationary while the robot uses three independent linear motors to provide frictionless positioning in 1 micron steps for pick and place.
The ACM is self calibrating, with intelligent cameras providing both fiducial and component alignment. Between each pair of heads is a downward facing camera, which provides global fiducial alignment and compensates for artwork off-sets. Two upward-facing cameras with transmission, reflective and back-lighting, carry out both component checking and alignment. Components with missing, bent or irregular leads or BGA balls are rejected and a reference plate is used to determine the exact orientation of a component.
Each head is supplied from up to 25 trolley mounted feeders, giving the ACM access to up to 100 different components. Having such a large quantity of feeder slots available allows the user to have numerous board set-ups on the machine at the same time.
In addition to intelligent tape feeders, identical to those used in the FCM, the ACM supports stick, tray and special feeders. Again the trolleys are loaded offline, and replacing a trolley takes only seconds. Other changes are equally easy, since the conveyor automatically adjusts to different width boards, while software reconfiguration takes only minutes.
GemLine
For mid- to high-volume demands, the GemLine, developed with our partners Yamaha, is ideal. It provides a family of top-of-the-line pick-and-place machines which feature high accuracy and reliability for electronic manufacturing, and a full suite of software. The Topaz is a flexible machine that handles a wide range of components at speeds of up to 14,000 devices per hour, the Emerald is an ultrafine pitch placer that will run at up to 6,500 components per hour, and the Gem Sapphire uses parallel processing to provide chip-shooting at up to 25,000 devices per hour (Plate 6).
All three machines can easily be connected together to create a manufacturing line and the line can easily be altered, even split into separate modules, to reflect changing requirements. The extremely compact dimensions mean that GemLine products occupy far less space than competitive products. All machines share the same trolley feeders, and the Topaz and Emerald have many components in common.
Plate 6 The multi-nozzle head of Philips EMT's Topaz pick-and-place machine can simultaneously handle up to eight different components, making it one of the most versatile machines on the market
The machines are rigid and vibration free, which, together with robust construction and brushless maintenance-free servo motor drives, provides accuracy and reliability and contributes to the 99.99 up time.
Conclusion
Currently, the market for mid- to high-volume placement machines continues to grow unabated, with the trend for OEMs to outsource their boards and the explosion of contract equipment manufacturers (CEMs).
The unique combination of the modular PowerLine series and the versatile GemLine have provided Philips with a solid position in this market. The strong emphasis on customer service,using only Philips engineer, ensures that the maximum up-time is maintained, and this is rewarded by the high number of loyal customers who contribute towards the average sales growth of 30 per cent, year on year.
Coupled with the high level of R&D investment (6 per cent), the active user groups that help guide the future road maps and the charismatic and strong leadership of Cor Scholten,Philips EMT will continue to lead the field for many years to come.
Trevor Galbraith
