Pick-and-place machine

SMT (surface mount technology) component placement systems,

commonly called pick-and-place machines or P&Ps, are robotic
machines which are used to place surface-mount devices (SMDs)
onto a printed circuit board (PCB). They are used for high speed,
high precision placing of broad range of electronic components, like
capacitors, resistors, integrated circuits onto the PCBs which are in
turn used in computers, consumer electronics as well as industrial,
medical, automotive, military and telecommunications equipment.
Similar equipment exists for through hole components.[1][2][3] [4][5]
[6] This type of equipment is sometimes also used to package

microchips using the flip chip method.[7][8][7][9]

Internal details of a two head, gantry
style pick-and-place JUKI SMT
machine. In the foreground are tape
Contents and reel feeders, then the (currently
empty) conveyor belt for printed
History circuit boards, and in back are large
1980s and 1991 parts in a tray. The gantry carries two
pickup nozzles, flanking a camera
2000 to present
(marked "do not touch" to avoid
2010 onwards fingerprints on the lens).
Operation
Component feeds
Conveyor belt
Inspection
Variations
References Tape-and-reel feed mechanism used
to load components into a pick-and-
place machine
History

1980s and 1991

During this time, a typical SMT assembly line employed two

different types of pick-and-place (P&P) machines arranged in
sequence.
SMD pick-and-place machine (with
The unpopulated board was fed into a rapid placement machine.
simulated motion blurs)
These machines, sometimes called chip shooters, place mainly low-
precision, simple package components such as resistors and
capacitors. These high-speed P&P machines were built around a single turret design capable of mounting up
to two dozen stations. As the turret spins, the stations passing the back of the machine pick up parts from
tape feeders mounted on a moving carriage. As the station proceeds around the turret, it passes an optical
station that calculates the angle at which the part was picked up, allowing the machine to compensate for
drift. Then, as the station reaches the front of the turret, the board is moved into the proper position, the
nozzle is spun to put the part in proper angular orientation, and the part is placed on the board. Typical chip
shooters can, under optimal conditions, place up to 53,000 parts per hour, or almost 15 parts per second.

Because the PCB is moved rather than the turret, only lightweight parts that will not be shaken loose by the
violent motion of the PCB can be placed this way.

From the high speed machine, the board transits to a precision placement machine. These pick-and-place
machines often use high resolution verification cameras and fine adjustment systems via high precision
linear encoders on each axis to place parts more accurately than the high-speed machines. Furthermore, the
precision placement machines are capable of handling larger or more irregularly shaped parts such as large
package integrated circuits or packaged inductor coils and trimpots. Unlike the rapid placers, precision
placers generally do not use turret mounted nozzles and instead rely on a gantry-supported moving head.
These precision placers rely upon placement heads with relatively few pickup nozzles. The head sometimes
has a laser identifier that scans a reflective marker on the PC Board to orient the head to the board. Parts are
picked up from tape feeders or trays, scanned by a camera (on some machines), and then placed in the
proper position on the board. Some machines also center the parts on the head with two arms that close to
center the part; the head then rotates 90 degrees and the arms close again to center the part once more. The
margin of error for some components is, in many cases, less than half a millimeter (less than 0.02 inches).
The process is a little slower than rapid placement, necessitating careful line balancing when setting up a
job, lest the precision placement machine become a production bottleneck.

2000 to present

Due to the huge cost of having two separate machines to place parts, the speed limitations of the chip
shooters, and the inflexibility of the machines, the electronic component machine manufacturers abandoned
the technique. To overcome these limitations they moved to an all-in-one modular, multi-headed, and multi-
gantry machines that could have heads quickly swapped on different modules depending on the product
being built to machines with multiple mini turrets capable of placing the whole spectrum of components
with theoretical speeds of 136,000 components an hour. The fastest machines can have speeds of up to
200,000 CPH (components per hour).[10]

2010 onwards

Swapping heads onboard placement machines required more inventory of heads and related spare parts for
different heads to minimize the downtime. Placement machines have an all-in-one head that can place
components ranging from 01005 to 50 mm × 40 mm. In addition to this there was a new concept wherein
the user could borrow performance during peak periods. There is a big change in the industry approach these
days with more focus on software applications for the process. With new applications like POP and wafer
placement on substrate the industry is moving beyond conventional component placement. There is a big
difference in the needs of SMT users. For many, the high speed machines are not suitable due to cost and
speed. With recent changes in the economic climate the requirement for SMT placement becomes focused
on the machine's versatility to deal with short runs and fast changeover. This means that lower cost machines
with vision systems provide an affordable option for SMT users. There are more users of low end and mid-
range machines than the ultra fast placement systems.

SMT pick and place machine manufacturers include:

Juki
Fuji
Panasonic
 Yamaha (bought I-Pulse[11])
Hanwha precision machinery (former Samsung Techwin and later Hanwha Techwin)
Kulicke & Soffa (K&S) (former Philips and later Assembleon)
Sony (Now Juki[12])
Asm Siplace (former Siemens)
Universal Instruments
Mycronic
Europlacer
NEODEN
Essemtec
Nordson (Bought Dima[13])
Hitachi (Former Sanyo,[14] SMT division sold to Yamaha[15])
DDM Novastar

Operation
The placement equipment is part of a larger overall machine that carries out specific programmed steps to
create a PCB Assembly. Several sub-systems work together to pick up and correctly place the components
onto the PCB. These systems normally use pneumatic suction cups, attached to a plotter-like device to allow
the cup to be accurately manipulated in three dimensions. Additionally, each nozzle can be rotated
independently.

Component feeds

Surface mount components are placed along the front (and often back) faces of the machine. Most
components are supplied on paper or plastic tape, in tape reels that are loaded onto feeders mounted to the
machine. Larger integrated circuits (ICs) are sometimes supplied arranged in trays which are stacked in a
compartment. More commonly ICs will be provided in tapes rather than trays or sticks. Improvements in
feeder technology mean that tape format is becoming the preferred method of presenting parts on an SMT
machine.

Early feeder heads were much bulkier, and as a result it was not designed to be the mobile part of the
system. Rather, the PCB itself was mounted on a moving platform that aligned the areas of the board to be
populated with the feeder head above.[16]

Conveyor belt

Through the middle of the machine there is a conveyor belt, along which blank PCBs travel, and a PCB
clamp in the center of the machine. The PCB is clamped, and the nozzles pick up individual components
from the feeders/trays, rotate them to the correct orientation and then place them on the appropriate pads on
the PCB with high precision. High end machines can have multiple conveyors to produce multiple same or
different kind of products simultaneously.

Inspection
As the part is carried from the part feeders on either side of the conveyor belt to the PCB, it is photographed
from below. Its silhouette is inspected to see if it is damaged or missing (was not picked up), and the
inevitable registration errors in pickup are measured and compensated for when the part is placed. For
example, if the part was shifted 0.25 mm and rotated 10° when picked up, the pickup head will adjust the
placement position to place the part in the correct location. Some machines have these optical systems on
the robot arm and can carry out the optical calculations without losing time, thereby achieving a lower
derating factor. The high end optical systems mounted on the heads can also be used to capture details of the
non-standard type components and save them to a database for future use. In addition to this, advanced
software is available for monitoring the production and interconnect database — of the production floor to
that of supply chain — in real time. ASM provides an optional feature for increasing accuracy while placing
LED components on a high end product where in the optical center of the LED is critical rather than the
calculated mechanical center based on the component's lead structure. The special camera system measures
both physical and optical center and makes the necessary adjustments before placement.

A separate camera on the pick-and-place head photographs fiducial marks on the PCB to measure its
position on the conveyor belt accurately. Two fiducial marks, measured in two dimensions each, usually
placed diagonally, let the PCB's orientation and thermal expansion be measured and compensated for as
well. Some machines are also able to measure the PCB shear by measuring a third fiducial mark on the
PCB.

Variations

To minimize the distance the pickup gantry must travel, it is common to have multiple nozzles with separate
vertical motion on a single gantry. This can pick up multiple parts with one trip to the feeders. Also,
advanced software in the newer generation machines allows different robotic heads to work independently
of each other to further increase the throughput.

The components may be temporarily adhered to the PCB using the wet solder paste itself, or by using small
blobs of a separate adhesive, applied by a glue-dispensing machine that can be incorporated on to the pick
and place machine. The glue is added before component placement. It is dispensed by nozzles or by using
jet dispensing. Jet dispensing dispenses material by shooting it towards the target, which in this case, is the
circuit board.

References
1. https://smt.fuji.co.jp/e/products/smartfab/detail.php?id=1
2. "PCB Assembly Example" (https://web.archive.org/web/20180401075352/https://smt.fuji.co.jp/
e/products/smartfab/detail.php?id=2). Fuji. Archived from the original (https://smt.fuji.co.jp/e/pr
oducts/smartfab/detail.php?id=2) on April 1, 2018.
3. "SMT-JUKI, pioneer of "Multi Task Platform JM-20" " (https://www.juki.co.jp/smt_e/introduce/pr
oducts/JM-20.html). www.juki.co.jp.
4. "Hanwha Precision Machinery" (https://www.hanwhaprecisionmachinery.com/product/product_
view.asp?pagesize=8&sort=&dscYN=N&cid=101&clvl=0&page=1&idx=8529).
www.hanwhaprecisionmachinery.com.
5. "Panasonic PTH AV132 | Axial Lead Component Insertion Machine" (http://www.panasonicfa.c
om/content/av132-axial-inserter).
6. "SMT-JUKI, pioneer of "Multi Task Platform JM-10" " (https://www.juki.co.jp/smt_e/introduce/pr
oducts/JM-10.html). www.juki.co.jp.
7. https://smt.fuji.co.jp/e/products/mounter/detail.php?id=12
 8. "YSB55w" (https://global.yamaha-motor.com/business/smt/placer/ysb55w/). Yamaha Motor
Co., Ltd.
9. "YSH20" (https://global.yamaha-motor.com/business/smt/placer/ysh20/). Yamaha Motor Co.,
Ltd.
10. "Z:TA-R" (https://global.yamaha-motor.com/business/smt/mounter/ysm40r/). Yamaha Motor
Co., Ltd.
11. "Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - Component Placement – SMT" (https://circuitsassembly.
com/ca/index.php/menu-research/smt-equipment-suppliers/393-smt-equipment-suppliers/2197
0-smt). circuitsassembly.com.
12. "EMCS | Sony | Juki | Take Over |" (http://jukiamericas.com/blog/juki-takes-over-sony-emcs/).
December 12, 2013.
13. "Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - Nordson Acquires Dima Group" (https://circuitsassembl
y.com/ca/index.php/news-itemid-fix/24230-nordson-acquires-dima-group).
circuitsassembly.com.
14. "Hitachi High Technologies America, Inc" (https://smtnet.com/company/index.cfm?fuseaction=v
iew_company&company_id=50093). smtnet.com.
15. "Hitachi's SMT Exit" (https://www.hotwires.net/hitachis-smt-exit/). Hot Wires. September 5,
2014.
16. Ford, Michael. "Circuit Assembly Online Magazine - A History of Placement Programming and
Optimization" (http://circuitsassembly.com/ca/magazine/25128-line-balancing-1508.html).
circuitsassembly.com. Retrieved 2016-05-10.

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