Le Mans, France — Using Asymtek’s innovative dispensing technology, Philips Consumer Communications Division has achieved measurable improvement in their mobile phone reliability and is experiencing faster cycle times that were previously unattainable.  The result is significant cost savings.

“Since integrating Asymtek’s Millennium® dispensing systems into our multiple production lines,” explains Claude Boennec, Technical Operations Manager for Philips Consumer Communications Division, “we have experienced significant improvements in both volumetric repeatability and cycle time. We have established a very robust, automated process using one component material with a long working life.”

Philips’ production lines, which are integrated with Asymtek’s dispensing systems, currently operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Each line is identical. First, boards on the production line are screen printed with solder paste. Following the screen printing, a placement system automatically puts the components on the board. Boards are then reflowed, tested, and conveyed in an Asymtek Millennium M-620 system for underfilling the BGAs with a 3Bond epoxy. After dispensing, the boards are cured, depaneled, and integrated inside their housing.

The M-620 dispensing systems are configured with a DP-3120-02 servo-controlled volume displacement pump, a height sensor, and pattern recognition system for automatic correction of board misalignment. Asymtek’s patented Mass Flow Calibration® system automatically senses the dispensing pump’s flow rate and adjusts system parameters to ensure consistent volumetric accuracy.

Prior to these operations, operators were hand-dispensing a bead of two-part epoxy to underfill BGAs on FR-4 PC boards, 150 x 120 mm in size. Manual dispensing was difficult. Unsatisfactory volumetric repeatability was also affecting product reliability. Since the boards could not be reworked once underfilled, rejected boards were scrapped and labor costs were high. According to Boennec, integrating Asymtek’s technology at Philips has enabled them to achieve measurable improvement in mobile phone reliability and faster cycle times not previously available.

Royal Philips Electronics is one of the world’s largest electronic companies and Europe’s largest. With manufacturing facilities in 60 countries, Philips offers a variety of products, including consumer electronics, domestic appliances, components, semiconductors, medical systems, and lighting. Their Consumer Communications Division, located in Le Mans, France, manufactures mobile and cordless telephones and speech devices that includes voice control, dictation software, and speech recognition.

Asymtek supplies award-winning automated fluid dispensing systems to the semiconductor, surface mount, electronics packaging and industrial markets. Together, Asymtek and parent company Nordson Corporation (NASDAQ: NDSN) form one of the world's largest businesses dedicated to dispensing. Their unique partnering of applications engineering and product expertise is a solid testimonial of their commitment to offer total dispensing solutions and local support to customers throughout the world. A complete review of Asymtek's automated fluid dispensing systems may be found on their Web site at http://www.asymtek.com.