Applications
Where plasma earns its place.
Our core team has worked on plasma cleaning and surface treatment for more than twenty years. Awing systems run in IC and LED packaging, IGBT and DBC / AMB power modules, component and thick-film circuit packaging, and on engineering plastics, hard materials and medical devices.
What plasma does
Four things plasma does to a surface.
Cleaning and activation are what packaging lines ask for most. Etching and coating use the same equipment with a different gas and recipe.
MATERIAL CLEANING
Clean surfaces, down to molecular residues.
Plasma removes surface contamination ahead of the next process step and breaks down residues made up of molecules. The gas and recipe are chosen for the contamination and the substrate.
- Removes surface contaminants
- Breaks down molecular residues
- Selective removal by process choice
MATERIAL ACTIVATION
A surface that wets, bonds and holds.
After plasma treatment the surface wets well — the precondition for good adhesion when bonding, molding, printing or coating.
- Raises surface wettability
- Better adhesion of mold compound, potting and coatings
- Verified by water contact angle
MATERIAL ETCHING
Isotropic or anisotropic etching.
Plasma etches isotropically by chemical etching and anisotropically by physical etching — including photoresist strip and descum on wafers.
MATERIAL COATING
Thin, even coatings from the gas phase.
In low-pressure plasma, gaseous or liquid precursors fed into the vacuum chamber link from short-chain monomers into long-chain polymers, forming an even, adherent coating on the substrate.
Twelve places plasma shows up.
The stations where customers use plasma most often. Marked stations sit in semiconductor packaging.
- S01Before IC wire bondingSemiconductor packaging
- S02Carrier cleaning before die attachSemiconductor packaging
- S03Before wire bonding and sealing of package shellsSemiconductor packaging
- S04Before LED wire bondingLED packaging
- S05Before IGBT wire bondingPower modules
- S06Plasma descumWafer processing
- S07Before PCB copper deposition and component mountingElectronics
- S08Before coating optical componentsOptics
- S09Before coating engineering plasticsPlastics
- S10Before printing on glassGlass
- S11Before printing on rubberRubber
- S12Surface treatment of biological and medical devicesMedical devices
Six results customers look for.
Removes surface contaminants
Clears the contamination left on the surface by earlier process steps.
Increases wettability
A lower water contact angle and better wetting, measured before and after treatment.
Improves adhesion to the substrate
For mold compound, potting gel, coatings and printing inks.
Raises shear and pull strength
Ball shear and stitch pull, checked against their lower spec limits.
Reduces weak and non-stick bonds
Fewer wire bonds that fail to stick or pull off early.
Reduces delamination
Less separation between mold compound and the lead frame or substrate.
Start from your line.
Semiconductor packaging
IC packaging: before wire bonding and before molding.
IC packagingLED / IGBT packaging
LED strips and power modules, including DBC / AMB substrates.
LED and power modulesAutomotive electronics / Medical devices
Application notes in preparation — tell us about your part.
Read moreWhich step is yours?
Tell us the part and where plasma sits in your line — before bonding, molding or coating. A process engineer recommends the format.
Inquiry
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