NSW Automation Sdn Bhd

Penang,  Bayan Lepas 
Malaysia
https://nswautomation.com/

• Booth: 6045

A company does R&D and ODM in precision dispensing solution.

Overview

NSW Automation (NSW) is a Malaysia-based company specializes in precision fluid dispensing systems in the microelectronics and semiconductor industries. Headquartered in Penang, the company provides solder paste micro-dispensing solutions to achieve tiny dispensed dots or lines sizes from as small as 80μm. This solution has huge demand in today's microelectronics packaging industry, including Electric Vehicle (EV) components, 5G devices, MEMS, SiP or PoP packages as well as active and passive components like 01005, 008004 assemblies in Hybrid SMT assembly process. Aside from solder paste, NSW's microdispensing solution is also applicable for various materials such as conductive silver epoxies, UV adhesives, silicone gel, epoxies, etc. NSW has expanded its business footprints around the world with professional sales and technical service authorities in the USA, China, Taiwan, South Korea, SEA countries, Germany and Russia, among others. With over 18 years of experience in the advanced dispensing industry, the company remains committed on delivering precision liquid dispensing solutions to support the customer's automated dispensing needs.

  Press Releases

• How to Prevent Solder Paste Dispensing Clog Issues? (Jul 03, 2023)

  Best Practice and Tips to Prevent Solder Paste Dispensing Clogging Issues.

  How do you prevent solder paste dispensing clog, blockage or choke? As the dispensing industry continues to grow, there has been a demand for intelligent, innovative new ideas to make dispensing easier. However, one of the major problems with solder paste dispensing is clogged or jammed dispensing valves.

  Adhesive dispensing systems constantly process dispensing applications with fluids like solder paste, epoxies, and other types of adhesives. When dealing with such materials and maintaining control of repeatable, accurate, and measurable results, it is essential to upkeep your dispensing systems properly to avoid potential clog problems.

  What are the top issues that dispensing equipment operators usually deal with? Here are some situations we often hear from industry players. You may be familiar with some of these issues too:

  1. Loss of Yield and Unwanted Downtime Due to Clogged Needles

  Under normal conditions, a dispensing valve can handle a wide range of viscosities, but if the viscosity increases past a certain threshold, the valve tends to clog. Not only is it an inconvenient hassle, but operators also need to spend time to change and clean the clogged needle. The whole operation is halted as you need to set up the machine to re-run the process again. Such downtime can hamper your efficiency and production.

  2. Clog Time Can Be Tiresome and Costly

  What are other losses besides production efficiency and volume of output? You would also spend unnecessarily on replacement needles to gain optimized results. You cannot rely on a clogged needle for optimum yield. Not only that, but you also waste solder paste during the removal of material and cleaning process. It disrupts work cycles to clean the needle and valves so that work can go on again.

  3. Product Failure Due to Inconsistency

  The last thing you would want to encounter a batch of products that are unsalable to the market. Tiny issues like clogged valves lead to big output problems causing product output to drop. It significantly lowers your UPH (Unit Per-Hour) productivity and quality output of your dispense operations, causing you to redo batches and productivity interruptions.

  
  A clogged dispensing valve is a problem because it can cause the dispensing of a product to stop, which can be both frustrating and expensive.  You certainly do not want to face such pointless downtime and potentially costly repairs.

  
  So how to prevent dispensing clogging? To prevent fluid dispensing clogging problems, here are some of our before, during, and after best practices to help prevent dispensing clogging in your operations.

  

  What to Do Before Dispensing to Prevent Blockages and Clogging?

  For optimum dispensing outputs, it is best to prepare and check on certain conditions before you start. Here are some situations that you might want to take note of to prevent solder paste dispensing clog.

  1. Use Dispensing Grade Solder Paste.

  For best performance, use dispensing grade solder paste for dispensing process. Using non-dispensing grade solder pastes (like for stencil printing and reusing unused paste from other processes) may seem like a good idea to save cost, but however its quality may be questionable and may cause more harm than good. One of the major setbacks is inconsistency. This is due to tiny micro bubbles that jams up your needle – hindering smooth quality prints.

  

  2. Storage Climate Stability.

  Store fluid materials like solder paste at the proper temperature according to the manufacturer’s guidelines. It is best practice to store your materials in a cool room of <15 °C/ 59 °F or according to the recommended manufacturer’s advice.

  3. Place the Solder Paste in a Tip-down Position.

  This placement avoids separation between flux and solder ball.

  

  4. Take Note of the Expiry Date of your Materials. 

  Surprisingly, many operators tend to overlook this vital factor. Expired material may have dried by the time you use it, causing unwanted clogging.

  5. Pair the Right Needle to Solder Paste Type.  

  It is essential to pair the right needle according to the specific dispensing requirements. It is recommended to use type 5 solder paste and above for general dispensing. Solder paste types depend on the dispensing size requirements. (Refer below “Chart Figure 1.0” to understand more.)

  Best Practices During Dispensing to Avoid Clogging Issues.

  Now that we have covered what you can do during pre-dispensing, you have already prepared yourself for smooth dispensing. However, this does not mean that clogging will not happen after knowing what to do during the pre-dispensing period. Here are some of our recommended best practices are during the dispensing process to follow to ensure optimum no-clogging dispensing.

  1. Needle Inner Diameter (ID)

  Make sure to use needle ID that is at least 5x the solder particle size. Here is a chart below for your easy reference.

  Note: Clogging issues might occur if you use smaller than recommended needle sizes. For accurate details please consult your dispensing needle manufacturer.

  Type	Range (max-min)	Recommended Needle Size	Dispensed Size Range
  Type 5	25–10 μm	125 μm above	150-200 μm
  Type 6	15–5 μm	80 μm above	80-150 μm
  Type 7	11–2 μm	50 μm above	Below 80 μm
  Type 8	8–2 μm	50 μm above	Below 50 μm

  Chart Figure 1.0

  2. Use Low Pressure When Dispensing

  The mixture of solder paste is a combination of flux and solder paste. It is essential to keep the pressure low at this point because higher pressure may result in separation at the syringe, causing clogs to happen.

  3. Go Low But Not Too Low (Z-Axis)

  It is important to keep a suitable gap between your needle and workpiece surface. Operators who have exceptionally low gap settings often find themselves in a solder paste dispensing clogging situation. Low gaps trigger solder balls getting trapped in the needle resulting in clogging. Do not leave gaps too high as well. If you go too high, fluids will not stick on the surface of the workpiece you are dispensing on.

  

  What to Do After Dispensing?

  We have covered our best recommendations on our best practices during the dispensing process. However, what happens after that? The dispensing process is not over yet – at least if you want to prevent fluid dispensing clogging issues.

  Here is our follow-up guide to avoid future dispensing clogging headaches.

  

  NSW custom specialized needle cleaning tool.

  i. Remove Excess Solder Paste and Seal Off Instantly After Use.

  After a dispensing process is completed, it is best practice to remove the syringe and instantly seal the cap without delay. Store all left over solder paste at proper storage according to manufacturer guidelines at the recommended temperature.

  ii. Cleaning Prevents Clogs.

  Essentially, all needles must be thoroughly cleaned after use. Dirty needles with prior material residues significantly increase the chances of clogs. It is essential to clean all needles properly with a specialized needle cleaning tool. We recommend dipping the pump and needle at ultrasonic levels with IPA. This optimally removes all solders to ensure there is no more remanence in the needle.

  iii. Use the Right Cleaning Tool.

  With NSW’s next-gen cleaning tool, we ensure that your needles are always spick-and-span, ready for the next dispensing job.

  NSW Equipment Can Eliminate & Prevent Solder Paste Dispensing Clog.

  Before

  After

  With the proper dispensing techniques, you can improve your process control and, in the end, saves costs and increases productivity. Clogged dispensing valves are indeed a headache when you do not carefully evaluate the process parameters, application, and limitations of the dispensing process.

  As industry experts, NSW focuses on smart productivity and automated intelligent micro-dispensers. We aim to help operators increase productivity. We hope that our best practice guidelines can help you optimize processes and avert future liquid dispensing congestion issues.

  Prevention of solder paste dispensing clogging can be indeed challenging. NSW dispensing equipment are innovatively built to give you clog-free dispensing optimization so that you won’t have to go through all these minute clogging headaches.

• Why We Need Micro-volume Solder Paste Dispensing? (Jul 03, 2023)

  Facilitate Smaller SMD Manufacturing Capability with Tiny Volume Solder Paste Dispensing Technology.

  In the era of complex Industry 4.0, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G. These Smart Digitalization and data industries enhance the globally fast-growing of smaller advanced microelectronics for the packaging market. We need to find a new way to dispense into a smaller component with complicated heterogeneous design, this is why we need low volume solder paste dispensing capability.

  Unfortunately, huge challenges are found on the packaging miniaturization processes such as 008004 capacitor especially the fluid material handling portion. Neither a conventional screen-printing method nor a common dispensing process could feasibly transfer an exact amount of ultra-fine dots or lines onto a complex tiny package accurately and consistently.

  Therefore, to achieve the capability of low volume transfer of solder paste into a challenging area of a tiny package. Our Revolutionized Micro-volume Solder Paste Contact Dispensing Technology is used to dispense an exact amount of liquid into a tiny area with gaps and uneven surface at precise volume. This enabling better accuracy for a complex and high-value product such as 5G optical component or complex 008004 capacitor. It can also use for other packaging miniaturization market which is infeasible with normal dispensing equipment.

  

  World’s Smallest 008004 Size (0.25 x 0.125 mm) capacitor enables the opportunity for microdispensing.

  

  It Let You Breakthrough Your New Product Development Threshold, Redefines All-new Milestones

  NSW Automation is globally recognized precision fluid dispensing equipment’s ODM and OEM supplier, our famous invention and unique Solder Paste Micro-Dispensing Technology has achieved the smallest solder paste dispensed volume in the world with size as small as Ø80µm (dots diameter and micro lines) via industry-standard Type-6 solder paste.

  

  

  Image above shown detailed magnification examines and measurement of dispensed type-6 solder paste microdots.

  The Key for Enabling Your Solder Paste Micro-dispensing Work as Small as 80µm, What’s Special Behind It?

  The beauty of our solder paste micro-dispenser is to help you to dispense onto your miniaturized microscopic products without crushing or deforming the solder balls in the dispenser. Additionally, our unique dispensing mechanism could probably avoid certain flux separation issues due to environment conditions uncertainty like fluctuation of humidity, temperature level.

  Other than the micro-dispenser pump head, a perfect combination of a reliable dispensing handler integrated with NSW designated precision motion platform is another huge know-how topic to support and optimum our great micro-dispensing achievements.

  

  

  

  Images above shown diameter and linewidth measurement of dispensed type-6 solder paste microdots and lines.

  How about other materials? Can they handle challenges?

  On top of that, our micro-dispenser could also support others’ micro-dispense materials like fluxes, conductive silver epoxies and UV adhesive etc. We have another breakthrough in non-filler and Nano-filler material dispensing as tiny as 40µm size. Commonly this is an extremely infeasible mission for conventional dispensing equipment to realize it.

• Contact Dispensing and Non-Contact Jetting (Jul 03, 2023)

  

  Why Choose Contact Dispensing Over Fluid Jetting When Miniaturizing Modern Electronics?

  Do you know the secret of why most Semiconductor, SMD Manufacturing professionals prefer contact dispensing over fluid jetting for precise micro dispensing applications such as wafer-level packaging, 008004 solderings, 01005 dispensing, PoP, SiP, 3D-mid jobs? In this article, we’ll be discussing the advantage of contact dispensing and non-contact dispensing (Jetting).

  Well, to illustrate our point, here is an exciting story about effectively getting a ball in a very small tight area. It depicts a scenario of why contact dispensing wins over the other.

  Throwing vs placing a ball: Contact dispensing and non-contact dispensing

  Let’s use this example: Peter wants to put a ball in a tiny and narrow targeted area. He has two choices. He can either:

  

  Placing (Contact Dispensing)

  Move over to the targeted area and place the ball at its designated place.

  

  Throwing (Jetting – Non-Contact Dispensing)

  Throw the ball from a distance and hope it will land it in that very small and narrow spot— perfectly.

  When comparing these two scenarios of throwing and placing, which one should Peter do for the best accurate result? Surely placing would be the best option. It is the most effective headache-free solution. There will not be any worries of misplacements or imprecision.

  What if you were to throw many balls at a fast speed, what would the percentage of accuracy be?

  It is the same with dispensing. Jetting is throwing while contact dispensing is placing.

  

  While jetting (throwing) can be rapid in quickening production, contact dispensing (placing) is highly accurate and precise but slightly slower in speed. It enables the possibility to dispense smaller droplets. For this reason, contact dispensing is highly suitable for high-value products with uneven topographies, deep cavities, and dense holes.

  Advantages of Both Jetting and Contact Dispensing

  Let’s take a closer look at both the advantages of jetting and contact dispensing methods. In this study, we have included some in-depth characteristic review of each approach.

  List of Advantages of contact microdispensing (placing):

  • Denser Droplets Pitch – Spaces between each droplet can be squeezed to provide a compact array pitch. It is capable of creating an array of dots and lines (e.g. ball grid array) with closer spacing tighter with each other. This means smaller footprints for each dot and line.

  

  • Dynamic Lines and Artful Shaping – More agile and flexible in dispensing pattern formations. It is capable of plotting a variety of complex applications and device packaging such as wafer-level dispensing, 01005 solderings, 008004 dispensing, PoP, 3D-MID. Microcontact dispensing capabilities consist of multiple dynamic shapes/pattern dispensing such as curve lines, asterisks, spiral, double-crosses, boxes, and circles. (refer image below)

  

  • Create Higher Droplets Heights – Able to build higher droplets height with the same volume. When applying directly on surfaces, it can make fluid droplets taller by “pulling” and controlling dispensations towards your desired height. This makes the fluid droplets taller in height. It has a higher “HoW” (Height over Width) ratio rate for the same droplet of liquid when being dispensed by a non-contact jet. This greatly benefits applications such as wafer bumping, substrate pumping, solder paste bumping and epoxy damming.

  

  • Less Wear and Tear – Microdispensing placing does not require consistent vigorous moving of internal parts as compared to jetting. Jetting requires machinery to work at extreme speed with continual repetition, causing damage after a period of time.

  • No Satellites issue – Satellites are unwanted splashes made when droplets collide against the product surface. Placing solves this problem so dispenses are always neat and tidy.

  • Suitable for Particle-Filled Fluids – Fluids such as solder paste are tricky to jet. Dissimilarity, placing can easily perform microdispensing of solder paste without crushing or deforming solder balls with our latest NSW SynchroPULSE contact dispensing pump heads.

  

  • Finer droplets/lines & Smaller Dispensing Volume  – Contact microdispensing can disburse microscopic fluid volume at a very low microliter. It is suitable for applications such as 008004 soldering or 01005 dispensing.  There are no physical limitations to dispense minuscule liquid droplets hence tiny volume dispensing applications smaller than 200μm are easily achievable. It’s difficult to dispense micro lines (size below 200μm) in a single cycle when via jetting. Its spray distance to the surface of the product is not ideal. Contact microdispensing solves this because its needle tip can draw closer to the product facet, allowing better consistency and control.

  • Angled Trench/Cavity Capability – Able to dispense at angled positions into tight dense holes or cavity walls. Placement methods are suitable for production applications such as 3D-MID, PoP, SiP. In certain cases, high-density deep cavities and complex SMD boards may not be feasible with jetting due to its jetting distance.

  • Lower Cost – Since placement has lesser wear and tear issues, part replacements are also significantly reduced. This helps lower maintenance and purchasing costing.

  • Better Accuracy – Placing utilizes z-axis motion for droplets dispensing. This extra axis provides finer precision degrees compared to jetting.

  • Lower Noise – Compared with jetting, contact microdispensing works quietly and has no annoying high pitch noise.

  List of Advantages of non-contact jetting (Throwing):

  • Swift Liquid Distributions – Fluids are applied with faster speed compared to placing methods. It does not have z-axis motions when dispensing liquid. Its jet head motion only focuses on x or y-axis when distributing liquid—resulting in faster-dispensing rates. Speed (droplets per second) could reach as fast as 3000hz with epoxy or 50hz with solder paste. 

  • Time-saving – Production time is significantly reduced through the ejection of liquid onto products at a higher speed.

  • No needle tip damage  – Jetting is a non-contact dispensing fluid application. Fluids are applied without touch (physical contact). Hence there’s no risk of costly broken needle tips which could cause downtime for parts replacement.

  • Non-contact dispensing operation – Jetting prevents damages to fragile products as there is no physical contact during its application process. With its “drop on fly” dispensing method, its non-touch system avoids damages against sensitive substrates.

  • Surface Topographies – Since there are no z-axis motions, jetting is capable of rapidly applying fluid to surfaces with different topographies at accelerated speed compared to contact jetting. Unlike contact dispensing, there is no necessity to spend avoidable time to scan for height differences before the dispensing process begins.

  Furthermore, needle tip residuals and air variation could affect dispensing performance and deposit repeatability on both non-contact jetting and contact dispensing. With the use of NSW in-house master-crafted needle tips, residual materials are less likely to clot fluid outlets.

  Jetting Drawback: Accuracy Decreases If Distance of Z-Axis Height Increases.

  Microdispensing precisions could be negatively affected due to fluids being “thrown” (jet) at a high distance between the liquid outlet and its target. Besides that, fluids that are being applied “on the fly” happens at extremely high speed. It could be as fast as 3000 Hz (droplets per second), hence reducing dispensing accuracy.

  

  • Jet dispensing’s z-axis ranges from a distance of 0.5mm to 5mm during production operations. 
  • Contact micro-dispensing applications operate with “placing” methods at 0.05mm to 0.5mm from needle tip to target surface.

  These Z-axis values are determined by material properties. Certain material allows greater distances while others require lower Z-axis ranges.

  Disclaimer: Data shown in the chart is according to our in-house performance test results. Dispensing results and performance are subjected to material characteristics and properties. Different materials require different dispensing methods. Please contact your material supplier for compatibility enquiries. 

  Which Situation Would Be Best For Contact Dispensing?

  NSW Automation proudly specializes in contact dispensing that you can trust. Since contact dispensing has Z-axis motion features, it allows the needle tip to come close to the product surface for fluid dispensation. This added advantage enables the dispense capabilities of micro-droplets sized below 100μm, suitable for applications such as MEMS, 008004 component, Sip, Pop or complex miniaturized application. 

  Using the contact dispensing approach, (such as NSW SynchroPULSE and PistonPRO 4+ fluid pumps) our system dispenses without splashing and significantly reduces deposit satellites in acceptable tolerances. Besides that, our superior dynamic fluid volume control enables the possibility of ejecting dynamic fluid volumes within each dispensing cycle. This feature allows you to dispense a wide range of layout patterns on microscopic packages.

  

  Can Jetting Dispense Micro Solder Paste Droplets Effectively?

  In contrast to placing (contact dispensing), jetting saves time as it has higher dispensing speed properties. Its drawbacks are its infeasibility to flawlessly jet highly-abrasive fluids and particle-filled materials such as solder paste at microscopic volume. Jet dispensing is generally used to dispense silver epoxy, adhesive and encapsulant underfill for flip chips or other applications which are not sensitive to accuracy and droplets volume.

  So is non-contact jetting or contact dispensing better for me?

  With massive demands, today’s electronic devices are gradually shrinking day by day. The industry now requires smaller manufacturing capabilities as new varieties of materials emerge. There are huge demands for microscopic dispensations with greater accuracy and consistency requirements. 

  For instance, complex high-value microscopic dispensing applications such as 008004 solderings, 01005 dispensing, MEMS, 3D-mid soldering, SiP, PoP require tinier fluid droplets to be applied. These challenging applications are easily achievable with our latest NSW SynchroPULSE pump heads.

  Alternatively, jetting has the advantage of high production speed and lower time cost. However, its limitations are its accuracy on microscopic dispensation (100μm or below) as it may not be able to perform as precisely as contact dispensing.

  The verdict is that since there are a lot of factors to consider, we are unable to conclude which is eventually the best method for your dispensing application. 

  Ultimately, both non-contact jetting or contact dispensing performances are subjected to the characteristics and suitability of your materials. However, we highly suggest the use of contact dispensing for microscopic high-value products, if high production speed is not a concern.

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