PRIMA ELECTRO – High volume process chain zero-defect manufacturing

Interview to Roberto Paoletti – Diode Fab Senior Manager

What is the core activity of Prima Electro and which technologies are mainly developed in the iQonic project?

PRIMA ELECTRO is part of the PRIMA INDUSTRIE Group. Its mission is developing and producing electronics and high power lasers (with the Convergent brand) to PRIMA INDUSTRIE Group and to external markets. Convergent Division is strongly vertically integrated from the fiber laser to the optical components: this includes internal production of high power diode lasers, whose technology is based on a new diode fab located in Torino. Laser diode realization process is the key technology under analysis and development in the framework of the iQonic project .

Can you  explain Prima Electro’s use case and the main objectives you’re pursuing through iQonic?

 The PE demo will be linked to the optimization of a diode modules manufacturing process, core of the technology of high power multi-emitter laser diodes.

PE mainly has 2 distinguishable use cases in the following way:

• Automation of a Visual Inspection quality screening; with respect to the current approach which is based on a manual implementation by an highly skilled operator team.
• Micro-optics automatic assembly inside the multi-emitter module, whose process is implemented by a Ficontec optics bonder kit

Which benefits do you expect from the iQonic project?

From the IQONIC project, PE expects:

• In the automation of the Visual Inspection process, to reduce lead time and scrap rate of diodes, together with an increased output quality, eliminating defects and / or over-rejection and by a deep control and engineering analysis of the process itself;
• To optimize the FiconTEC hardware and algorithms as requested by the Convergent products, including new generation of sensors which will enable improved process control, improved programmed maintenance of the system (by the analsysis of the key system parameters), eventually leading to a reduced lead time, improved yield and product quality.

Which activities have you carried out within the project?

 The main activity carried out by PE has been the analysis of the diode process flow, mainly focusing on the back end processes: precisely the Chip on Carrier (CoC) Visual Inspection, the CoC Burn-In and screening, and the multi-emitter packaging process:

• Analysis of the Visual Inspection process, collecting pictures of the main categories of rejection;
• Analysis of the CoC Burn-In data, description of the parameters and database extraction of one year of production data.
• Description of the Multi-emitter assembly process flow, description of the parameters and database extraction of one year of production data.
• Description of the Multi-emitter rework procedure: definition of testing and screening process flow, description of the failure analysis approach and consequent re-work strategies.
• Definition of the cost model for the final package assembly step and re-work strategies

These activities have been provided (power point presentations, description of sections from Product Defintion Document,  organised data extraction from database) to support the consortium activities versus the CPS definition and the inline inspection tools for an early detection of defective parts.

Which partners are you collaborating with the most and how?

PRIMA ELECTRO is collaborating with the whole iQonic Consortium, however at the moment, it is mainly working with FiconTEC, for the use  and development of Ficontec assembly machines, POLIMI, for what concerns CPS and monitoring systems, SENSAP Swiss, for the development of a digital platform for visual inspection.