How SMT technology manufacturing and applications together moving forward.

In the 1980s, SMT chip mounting technology began to emerge, whereby components are directly mounted on the surface of PCBs without the need for holes, greatly improving assembly density and production efficiency. There are a few advantages of SMT worth noting: components are small in size and light in weight, enabling high-density assembly, high degree of automation, greatly improving production efficiency, good welding quality and high product reliability and low production costs, suitable for large-scale production. SMT chip mounting has evolved from early 0805 and 0603 packages to the current 0201 and 01005 micro packages, with increasingly stringent requirements for mounting accuracy. Our Nectec’s NT-T5 pick and place machine can easily handle 0201 chips during mounting. Modern SMT chip mounting equipment can now achieve mounting accuracy of ±25μm, meeting the most stringent micro-miniaturization requirements. 

For another aspect, smartphones, tablets, smart wearable devices, and other consumer electronics are the main application areas for SMT assembly. The demand for miniaturization, lightweight design, and high performance in these products has made high-density SMT assembly technology a necessity. To deal with the specific size of the chip components, our Nectec’s NT-P5 pick and place machine is another great option for flexibly processing chip components sized from 0201 to large integrated chips mounting tasks. While customers can enjoy the flexibility of NT-P5’s efficiency at mounting varies sizes of chip components, it also has high-precision multifunctional head and linear scanning camera to ensure the components are placed at the correct spots with impressive speed.

Other than consumer electronics, automobile industry has gained huge demands over SMT machines. Key components such as engine control units, ADAS systems, and in-vehicle infotainment systems all rely on highly reliable SMT surface mount technology. High reliable can be delivered by high speed mounting, which our Nectec’s NT-B5, NT-T5, NT-L12 and NT-LT are all capable of functioning at high speed during the process of mounting the chip components. Next, industrial control equipment such as PLCs, HMIs, and servo drives need to operate stably in harsh environments, which places higher demands on SMT assembly. Thick copper PCBs, high-power components, and high-density assembly are typical characteristics of industrial control products. In order to deal with these challenges in such harsh working environments, Nectec’s NT-NB can be used to mount all kinds of shapes of chip components in any environment. We have developed specialized process solutions tailored to the characteristics of industrial applications. Through optimizing steel mesh design and adjusting welding parameters, we have also resolved reliability issues associated with high thermal capacity solder joints, providing industrial customers with high-quality chip mounting services. 

The last aspect to show the high demand of SMT machines is medical electronics field. Medical electronic devices have high requirements for reliability and accuracy, and any welding defects can lead to serious consequences. Medical-grade SMT chip processing requires strict control of every process step to ensure product consistency and traceability. Thanks to our Nectec’s NT-P5, which comes with the latest finished technology for high-precision placement module. The best machine so far demanded for high-precision requirements.

Lastly, our Nectec’s pick and place machines also follow medical electronic SMT assembly system that complies with ISO 13485 standards, from material management to process control, fully meeting the special requirements of the medical industry. Whether it is portable medical equipment or large imaging systems, we can provide SMT assembly services that meet medical certification standards.