Laserssel
Bringing a Paradigm Shift in Laser Technologies

The semiconductor industry is undergoing a paradigm shift, with a rising need for new components and designs of semiconductors for internet-of-things (IoT) applications, wearables, electric vehicles, cell phones, and modern computers. The current assembly of electronic devices is becoming smaller and thinner with every upgrade, making it increasingly challenging for mass soldering, mass convection of reflow of soldering, and wave soldering of semiconductors.

Laserssel, a provider of Area Laser selective soldering technology, solves these challenges in packaging and assembling the next generation of electronic devices with its extensive expertise in laser and process technology.

It provides customers with unique soldering capabilities to solve various problems in thin semiconductor package warpage enhancement, micro-sized LED component reflow or rework in the advanced display, and component bonding thermally sensitive substrates. These and many other challenges are difficult to solve with conventional reflow processes. Laserssel takes common defects, like warpage, for a fine-pitch assembly where it is difficult, if not impossible, to achieve proper coalescence and optimizes those processes to eliminate warpage and gain excellent yield and reliability. The team can also process niche applications like flex-on-flex and flex-on-rigid in an automated, in-line process rather than using hand soldering.

When it comes to lasers, the traditional spot lasers aim at a spot where it applies all the energy and solders one lead at a time. Laserssel uses an Area Laser, which distributes that energy over an area with uniform density. This technology can uniformly and promptly solder components of various sizes, as small as 200 by 200 microns up to 80 by 80mm in size.

Laser Selective Reflow equipped with large size Area Laser covering entire substrates of size up to 80 by 80mm, for example, can also substantially increase productivity by soldering entire substrates only with a single shot of laser within a few seconds and by removing concern for warpage.

The reflow oven takes about thirty minutes to get ready, with the potential for using a nitrogen atmosphere. The machines developed by Laserssel have preheat options. In more than half use cases, pre-heating is not required, along with nitrogen being unnecessary for even the most challenging applications.

These main setup differences and high productivity significantly reduce ownership costs compared to mass convection reflow. In addition, forced convection ovens remain on throughout the shift or day. Compared to Laserssel's machine, the laser is only on when the soldering process requires it. The end user only operates a laser for a couple of seconds and when the product is in there.

"Right now, Laserssel is targeting specific applications. However, we see that depending on the application itself, we can potentially solder an entire board in less time than a reflow process," says JJ Choi, President of Laserssel. While there is a way to solder the entire product, it is not out there to replace reflow soldering, but to provide customers with solutions that address their current challenges and enable them to solder new applications they never thought possible