NEW STENCIL TECHNOLOGY IMPROVES PASTE RELEASE AND DEFINITION

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NEW STENCIL TECHNOLOGY IMPROVES PASTE RELEASE AND DEFINITION
21 June 2006 - Tecan

Subtle stencil design enhancements have been introduced by leading specialist manufacturer Tecan, actively promoting better aperture filling and printed deposit definition, leading to improved consistency across the printing process.

Ongoing development and optimisation has led to the implementation of a proprietary technique known as Paste Roll Activation across the company's range of enhanced stencils, including electroformed, precision etched and laser-formed variants. PRA is effectively a micro-fine pattern created on the squeegee side of the stencil which has been designed to significantly improve paste roll. The PRA wave pattern assists in activating and 'conditioning' the paste to improve its rheology. This paste conditioning also extends the printing life of the paste.

Effective paste roll is an important pre-requisite for successful solder paste printing and the PRA pattern encourages paste roll within 5mm to10mm of the start of the printing stroke, thereby reducing the run-on and run-off distances which ultimately increases the print area. The PRA pattern delivers a better aperture filling capability than non-PRA stencils and is proven to be particularly beneficial for fine pitch applications in both leaded and lead-free production.

The company recognises that optimum paste condition is critical to the printing process. In response, it has also developed highly-polished electroformed squeegee blades that help to overcome rheology problems associated with no-clean and less dense lead-free pastes. These specialised squeegees reduce paste hang-up when the squeegee has completed the print stroke. They are designed to optimise performance when used in conjunction with PRA stencils to ensure that apertures with even the smallest dimensions are filled appropriately.

http://www.tecan.co.uk

About: Tecan
Tecan is a world-class, ISO 9001:2000 registered precision metal part and tool manufacturer, based in Weymouth, UK. Formed in 1970, Tecan offers the 'total' one-stop contract-manufacturing solution - from technology development through to rapid prototyping and volume production.

Tecan's team of experienced engineers work closely with the customer to develop manufacturing solutions to meet their exact cost and tolerance requirements. Years of process development have culminated in Tecan being able to cost-effectively manufacture metal parts with feature sizes down to 2-micron at sub-micron accuracy - and to put that into perspective, there are 1,000-microns to one millimetre.

Technological innovation and expertise form the basis of Tecan's success, and have provided the platform for the development of competences in several process technologies, including:

• Photo Chemical Machining (PCM)
• Photo ElectroForming (PEF)
• Precision photolithography
• Precision electroplating

Tecan works on a global basis with a diverse range of OEM customers, who are involved in a wide array of industries. The nature of Tecan's competences, combined with its commitment to R&D, allows it to stretch to meet the requirements of virtually any application.

More News:
  • For June 2006
  • From Tecan
  • For Photochemical Machining (PCM)