CAPACITY PLANNING AND SCHEDULING

The implementation of design requirements and system development of a Decision Support System to calculate Yield and Defect Tracking for all business lines within the organization. Data abstraction and integration from internal modules of SAP: Business Warehousing (BW) and Open Data Sources (ODS) to obtain the newly calculated values of: To-Stock Starts, Closed Lot Yield/Stock Yields (in comparison with Yield Targets), and Actual Cost of Yield (ACOY) for all closed orders. The closed lot yields aides in enriched decision making process to accurately determine the stock yields for both low/high volume products. The closed lot yields will incorporate business logic for recoveries to assign credit for scrap thereby negates the cost hit and scrap on an order. The defect tracking aspect of the project has the capability of capturing the scrap not rung in the manufacturing lines. The DSS will provide further granulated information to facilitate in routine and non-routine business decision making in Yield Tracking, Product Readiness Review (PRR), qualification studies, and quote generation.

The determination of ideal drilling run times using statistical analysis in order to provide the Drill Matrix for the overall run time including setup and teardown handling times. The validation of the setup and teardown times will provide handling accuracy in the model which is inputted into the standard values in order to determine costing and scheduling measures obtained from SAP. The identification of non-value added activities as well as alternatives to the process flow at the drilling operation to reduce the overall cycle time within the department. A database housing the records for each job run will provide the user the ability to determine values which were previously unavailable include: Finish Date, Finish Time and Job Batch Size (Complete Order) and Average Run Time. The tool loading program will thus have accurate measurements depicting the throughput time and alternative batch size matrixes.

PROCESS DEVELOPMENT

The objective of this project is to identify and qualify various lead free solder pastes to help Endicott Interconnect Technologies reduce lead content in their product. The evaluation process encompasses various kinds of test which include printability test, wettability test, solder ball test and slump test. These tests are conducted according to the various assemblies used at Endicott Interconnect. This project enables Endicott Interconnect transfer from lead to lead free in order to follow the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) law scheduled to go into effect on July 1, 2006 across at least 15 countries.

Some of the assemblies manufactured at Endicott Interconnect Technologies use the lead bearing components. The objective of this project is to find lead free alternatives for the existing lead bearing components. Based on Bill of Materials (BOMs) of the boards, the lead bearing components are identified and the lead free alternative components for them are found. The alternative components are suggested to the customers.

A Study Designed to Determine Standard Specifications for Reworking Through-Hole Assemblies With Copper Nodule Defects The purpose of this study was to determine the standard specifications for processing through-hole assemblies which encompass copper nodule defects that protrude into the open barrel of the plated through-holes (PTHs). These standard specifications define the maximum size, detailed shape, and specific location of the copper nodule defects such that the final product can be assembled, and even reworked up to 2X, without compromising the reliability of the assembly. The installation and retention forces of the connector pins were recorded for a variety of nodules. Following connector installation/removal several of the test samples were cross-sectioned to evaluate the condition of the PTHs as well as the eye of the compliant pin. Samples were examined for bent pins, cracks in the PTH barrels, cracks in the compliant pins, and damage done to the internal circuitry/structure of the boards. The results of the study establish that press-fit connector assemblies can be processed despite the presence of copper nodule defects. This is due to the resilience of the compliant pins, which will either bend or break off a substantial copper nodule, despite its location, while simultaneously retaining the reliability of the electrical connection.

The objective of this study was to determine the induced strain amplitudes and rates imposed on ball grid array flip chip solder joints throughout the printed circuit board assembly and test processes. Test boards were partially assembled and strain gages were attached in close proximity to the solder joints. These boards then proceeded through several ¡®critical strain¡¯ assembly and test procedures, during which strain amplitudes and rates were recorded. The observed values were then compared to the acceptable denominations of an industry standard designated by the customer. Processes that exposed a component¡¯s solder joints to critical strain values were classified, and then amended such that the component¡¯s exposure to the induced strain would ultimately fall within the acceptable specification limits of the designated industry standard.

The interaction of underfill and flux residue plays a crucial role in determining the reliability of flip chip packages. The presence of flux residues on the solder bumps, die surface and/or substrate surfaces reduces both the adhesion and flow of the underfill which in turn affects the reliability of the flip chip package. In order to improve the reliability of the flip chip package, there is a need for a good cleaning process after die attachment. The project focuses on studying the impact of the cleaning process on flux residues for various chip sizes. The experiment consists of identifying the impact of different solder types (Eutectic, high lead, lead free), different flux types, different surfactants and different equipment types with respect to cleaning.

Linux is a stable and open-source operating system that can be used to freely replace many of the commercial operating systems currently used and implemented at Endicott Interconnect Technologies (EIT), while maintaining the same or higher level of robustness, stability, security and scalability. It allows for the replacement of a wide range of commercial software/products (e.g. IBM DB2, IBM Websphere, Oracle Database and Oracle Application Server, etc.) with open-source sodftware/applications such as (e.g. Apache/Tomcat, OpenOffice.org, NetBeans, MySQL and Wine). Therefore, by implementing Linux, Endicott Interconnect Technologies (EIT) can save on the number of commercial operating systems licenses (such as MS Windows). Moreover, these savings can be further enhanced by replacing other commercial applications/software used at EIT with open-source alternatives (such as IBM Websphere which can be replaced by Apache/Tomcat). Red Hat Fedora Core 4 is being used in this project which is the latest release (at this time) and it has all of the required features/programs needed by EIT including the latest Linux kernel (v2.6).

Paging system is used to send pagers to the employees in case of emergencies or problems. Current application is using the IBM Universe database to pick up information about the employee (Pager number, Email id) and then send the details to the e-paging server which formats it and send it to the paging modem. EIT plans to shut-down the IBM Universe database and setup a direct link between SAP and e-paging server. Tasks involve studying the database and identifying the link and path through which Universe is sending the page and modify the source code to adapt to the SAP environment.