LED Pick-and-Place machines and SMT technology lead future electronics manufacturing packaging.

Nowadays, LED lighting products have slowly gained worldwide market recognition due to their environmentally friendly, energy-saving, and cost-effective characteristics. Incandescent lamps are slowly being phased out and which comes with the LED lightings. The LED industry has become a pioneer in solving energy and environmental issues, and the LED lighting market has flourished accordingly. The rapid expansion of this market has undoubtedly driven the rapid progress of the LED chip mounting machine and production equipment industry. In this article we will dive deep into the relationship between the LED industry and the corresponding SMT technology specifically designed for it.

First, let’s discuss about some of the advantages of SMT mounting technology and how they directly impact the manufacturing of LED lights. First, high-density assembly components enable the miniaturization and lightweight design of electronic products. SMT technology enables components to be assembled at higher densities, significantly reducing the size and weight of electronic products. This advantage not only enhances product portability but also helps reduce costs and promote innovation. For example, it has high degree of automation, significantly improving production efficiency; Exceptional reliability and its automated production technology ensures a secure connection at each solder joint, while the leadless or short-lead design of surface-mount devices (SMDs), combined with their secure mounting on the PCB surface, provides high reliability and robust vibration resistance; Superior high-frequency performance that not only minimizes the impact of distributed characteristics but also significantly reduces parasitic capacitance and inter-lead parasitic inductance through secure mounting on the PCB surface. This greatly reduces electromagnetic interference (EMI) and radio frequency interference (RFI), effectively improving high-frequency performance; Cost savings and because SMT technology increases PCB routing density, it reduces the number of drill holes and PCB area, and simplifies the number of layers for PCBs with the same functionality. These factors collectively lower PCB manufacturing costs. Additionally, the leadless or short-lead SMC/SMD design saves on lead materials and eliminates processes such as wire cutting and bending, further reducing equipment and labor costs. Improved high-frequency performance also reduces RF debugging costs. The reduction in electronic product size and weight, along with enhanced soldering reliability, all contribute to lowering overall system costs. 

Second, we will first give a brief description of the process of standard SMT manufacture and then compare it with LED SMT manufacture in the next step. The core equipment of an SMT production line includes printers, dispensing machines, placement machines, and reflow ovens or wave soldering machines. With the advancement of surface mount technology, particularly the widespread use of bottom lead integrated circuit packages such as BGA and QFN, the limitations of wave soldering have become increasingly apparent. As a result, the mainstream process has now shifted to reflow soldering. From a better perspective, the most basic model of a pick-and-place machine includes a frame, a circuit board clamping mechanism, a feeder, a pick-and-place head, a nozzle, and X, Y, and Z axes. Among these, the Z axis is ingeniously designed. It can not only move up and down along the Z direction, but also rotate in the θ direction. This design cleverly solves the problem of adjusting the rotation angle when components deviate from the solder pad.

Third, let’s compare the standard SMT pick and place machines with the LED pick and place machines. LED chip mounters are SMT mounting equipment customized for the LED industry, designed to achieve efficient, large-volume LED circuit board assembly. They require moderate precision but high speed. It is a highly integrated, high-precision automated device controlled with precision by a computer. It integrates mechanical, optical, and electrical technologies and includes a frame, PCB conveyor mechanism, drive and servo positioning system, placement head, feeder, optical recognition system, sensors, and computer control system. Through a series of complex operations, such as suction, displacement, positioning, and placement, it can quickly and accurately mount SMD components onto PCB boards. 

Not only this, LED pick and place machines are primarily optimized for the placement accuracy of LED chips such as 3014, 2835, 3528, 5050, 5630, and 5730. Although their processing accuracy is lower than that of traditional placement machines, LED placement machines place greater emphasis on performance, particularly machine stability, operating speed, ease of operation, and size control. Here are some facts regarding why LED pick and place machines are on an upward trend: (1). LED-specific chip mounters have widely adopted intelligent technology and are equipped with high-performance sensors to collect operational data in real time and send it to a computer for processing, thereby ensuring the stability and reliability of the mounting process; (2). The placement speed of LED chip mounters must reach at least 18,000 points per hour to meet the demands of efficient production. Nectec’s NT-L12 can easily surpass this requirement with an impressive placement speed of 70000 CPH; (3). Simple, easy-to-understand, and user-friendly operation methods can significantly shorten staff training cycles, reduce operational errors in production, and thereby improve production efficiency and product quality; (4). LED chip mounters must be capable of mounting PCB boards with a length of at least 1200 mm to meet the demand for long PCB boards in LED lighting products. Nectec’s NT-L12 also can easily surpass this requirement with an impressive supported PCB size up to 1200mm.