Delta Design’s Matrix Handlers offer higher throughputs, higher accuracies, and longer life than similar devices on the market.

In the semiconductor market reliability is a key requirement. Selecting the supplier that best fits a system’s design means that your equipment will be sought after for years to come.

The development of the Matrix test handler by Delta Design increased productivity in several dimensions: up to three times higher throughputs, four times higher parallelism, and active thermal control per test site.

To design and build such an advanced system, engineers at the company spent a lot of time selecting the right components for the system. Of particular importance are the rollers used in the area of the handler known as the test site. This is where semiconductor devices are socketed into the tester for test.

The engineering team at Delta Design built the entire project in-house. They use a variety of suppliers for OEM components such as bearings, pneumatics, motors and drives, and more. Since the reliability of the machinery has a direct impact on their customers’ downtime, as well as Delta’s warranty costs, the company takes component integration and supplier selection very seriously.

Delta assesses their suppliers by relying on the supplier’s internal engineering expertise. This is done by getting the supplier to help select the components that are best suited for the final machine. According to Craig Gadd, “I will typically “stress test” the supplier by asking for calculations or simulations that will help me to get an understanding of how well they understand their own product.”  

In this close-up of the Matrix Handler with its test head extended, you can see the Intech cam followers in the rear of the handler mechanism.

The most important consideration for the follower, though, was that it would not require lubrication or maintenance over its appointed lifespan. The Matrix test handler was designed with eight heads in all. It would use twenty-four cam followers per machine. Two of the followers would ride on the upper track, while one rode against the cam itself.

Craig was happy to see that Intech produced a set of calculations specific for their follower and how it was to be used on the Matrix machine. “From that data, I could easily see that they had a good theoretical understanding of their components’ capabilities. Plus, Intech took each component of my requirements into consideration separately.” Follow-up discussions included the specifics on the grease to be used and a potential modification to the press fit of the tire to the bearing assembly.

By using suppliers who have an intricate understanding of their products and how they are applied, the engineers at Delta Design can focus more heavily on the design of the end system they’re working on. “In other words, our time is better spent engineering the system than it is re-engineering a supplier’s component,” Craig said.

In the case of the cam followers used in the test site of the Matrix handler, Intech provided specific life calculations based on Delta’s application specifications. The best part of working with Intech, according to Craig, was the strong engineering support they recieved from the Intech engineering team.

Other benefits included cost effectiveness compared to other cam followers on the market, and the fact that the device was grease sealed. What made the Intech Power-Core cam follower stand out above the rest was the advantage of having a component that reduced overall noise, vibration, and harshness.  

The close-up of the handler mechanism shows the cam followers mounted in a row along the bottom of the photograph.

Off-the-shelf cam followers in the size that Delta required for the application were not sealed either. They were only “shielded”. Sealing helps to stretch out the life of the roller because contaminants, which are often the number one reason a lubricant is broken down, refrain from becoming an issue.

For more information visit www.Intechpower.com and www.deltad.com.