J P Sercel Associates (JPSA), a world leader in innovative laser micromachining systems and automation technology, announces worldwide shipments of its new Integrated Automation Platform (IAP) to semiconductor and LED manufacturers. The IAP is a high volume production robot dedicated to providing uninterrupted processing of wafers, which lowers LED manufacturing costs. The IAP provides ultimate flexibility with dual load ports, a wafer pre-aligner, cassette mapping, and compatibility with un-mounted wafers up to 300mm, and mounted wafers up to 200mm. The first IAP systems are currently being installed with JPSA Laser Lift-Off and wafer scribing systems for 24x7 LED production.

JPSA designed the IAP to be a flexible robotic system that maximizes throughput by reducing wafer transfer times to a minimum. In addition to supporting dual load ports and customized end effectors within the IAP, the robot reach extends to cover three wafer stations, enabling the IAP to fully integrate with associated processing modules. The IAP software is a powerful interface that provides fully programmable sequencing of dual wafer paths, and allows system processing to begin as soon as a wafer cassette is loaded.

The IAP comes standard with two load ports that can be configured for cassette, SMIF or FOUP carriers, and is easily customized to accommodate other LED or semiconductor manufacturers. In addition to being an option on the JPSA IX-6000 series systems, the IAP is available as an OEM component.

In making the announcement, Charlie Cuneo, President of JPSA said, “JPSA invested a concerted R&D effort to develop an innovative robotic module to allow wafer manufacturers to increase their processing capacity in response to explosive market demand. With this versatile robot, JPSA can configure automation for customers’ applications and production environments to increase the volume and yield of their wafer production process. The IAP integrates seamlessly with JPSA’s high throughput laser systems in wafer scribing, LED lift-off, and silicon wafer processing applications.”