The venture at U.S. assemblies at Hallstead is relatively new in comparison to the team's presence at UIC and Dovatron. The research here started off on a relatively small scale (in Spring 1997) with the project on the assembly of fine pitch components. Since then, the team has met with considerable success and diversified into areas such as BGA assembly process development, solder material characterization and has even extended into software projects such as development of a simulation model of the PCB assembly line at USAH.

The list of projects involving process research are listed below:

Process Research - Non Consortia

• BGA and UFP Assembly ~ 1997
• BGA Handbook ~ 1997
• Pin-in-Paste Process Implementation ~ 1997 - 1998
• Solder Paste Testing and Evaluation
• Reflow Process Optimization ~ 1998
• High Speed Stencil Printing ~ 1998
• Implementation of No - Clean Processes
• Implementation of Statistical Process Control (SPC) in a Contract Assembly Environment

Software Development

• Process planning for BGA / UFP
• Pin-in-Paste Advisor
• Digital Simulation to Assist with Production Control
• Job Release and Sequencing Mechanisms to 'Optimize' Different Objective Functions