Past projects.

(please: all content Copyright ©Volant Systems, Inc. 1998-2008)

Pick and place handler

This customer needed to "productize" a piece of test equipment they had recently purchased the manufacturing rights to. Designed originally in Japan, and though mechanically excellent, the controls as well as the user interface, needed to be re-designed. Developed in less then 4 months, this machine exceeded 3000uph (a significant achievement at the time).

Precision Die Sort Machine

Our customer wanted to pick semiconductor die smaller than 10 mils, from an expanded film frame to as many as 72 different sort bins, at over 1200uph. This system was designed for small die and because of it's precision, was also suited for MCM die stacking die. We were responsible for optical, electronic and software design.

Die Sort machine with integrated inspection

This Die Sort machine will autoload wafers, align them, and then pick to a carousel. This carousel places the die under two cameras so that they can be inspected - top and bottom. Good die are placed to tape. This machine was designed to handle CSPs (chip scale packages) and other small die. One pc controls the entire machine with throughput greater than 3000 uph. This system uses 15 axes of simultaneous motion and uses our vision system for component alignment.

Load/Unload/Sort Machine for Flash Memory Production Line

This machine loads Flash Memory ICs into Tester Pods so that they can be programmed and tested. On the pods' return, the pod's barcode is read and the pod's test results are requested from a test database and parts sorted into as many as 12 output trays. Some of these trays automatically stack as they they are filled or emptied. Components optical inspection is also performed. This simulation was done prior to actual hardware design to determine throughput, efficiency and error handling. This machine has almost 32 axes of simultaneous motion, as well as uses two different vision systems for alignment and inspection.

 

Simulation Tools

We had realized for some time, that rapid development of products did not really proceed until hardware in place. But it usually took several months before the first hardware prototype was operational (even as much as a year). So we designed a hardware description language that afforded 6 degrees of freedom, implemented a 3D engine and UI to it. These two simulations were used to test and debug our simulator. The first was a loader simulation and it was developed to identify mistakes in a pick and place algorithm, so as to preclude collisions between the two SCARA-styled robots. The second, a simulation of a Cincinnati Milacron styled robot, was an exercise to test how the 3D engine would handle the tolerance error "stack up". This 3D simulation engine allows software, developed for the simulation, to be used in the delivered application - a valuable addition to our set of tools for rapid application development.

Past Products Include:

Contact Angle system for surface energy measurements (VB C++)
Low-cost semiconductor die inspection system (VB C++)
Industrial Vision PCI Video Board (VB,VC,Win32)
Pattern recognition and Blob analysis (VB,C++,Win32)
Semiconductor Prober Tester Interface (VB,C++,Win32)
Power Control interface for Telecom Burn in oven
Power Supply Tester (C,WinCE)
Radio-controlled Duck decoy (yes; really!)
Control Software for Die stacker (Automation,VB,C++)
Control Software for BGA Sort (Automation,VB,C++)
Control Software for Die Sort (Automation,VB,C++)
Control Software for CSP/Die Sort (Automation,VB,C++)
HVAC Predictive Steam Control Unit (AVR ASM)
Biometric research project (Plastics, AVR C/ASM)
Pick and Place 64 site programmer (C VB Win32)
LED Flare (Plastics, Hdw/software, thermal design)