Inline system for collecting stage-by-stage manufacturing metrics

• US 20070173970A1
• Filed: 01/20/2006
• Published: 07/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sanmina-SCI Corporation
• Original Assignee: Sanmina-Sci Limited (Sanmina-SCI Corporation)
• Inventors: Shachar, Rony
• Granted Patent: US 7,893,833 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/225
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/128 the workpiece itself serves as a record carrier, e.g. by its form, by marks or codes on it
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4183 characterised by data acquisition, e.g. workpiece identification
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/33199 Transponder
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/45031 Manufacturing semiconductor wafers
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 1/0266 Marks, test patterns or identification means
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 2201/10098 Components for radio transmission, e.g. radio frequency identification [RFID] tag, printed or non-printed antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 3/0052 Depaneling, i.e. dividing a panel into circuit boards; Working of the edges of circuit boards
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 3/0097 Processing two or more printed circuits simultaneously, e.g. made from a common substrate, or temporarily stacked circuit boards H05K3/0052 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

A radio frequency identification (RFID) tag is coupled to a circuit board to track the specific operating and environmental conditions of each manufacturing stage as the circuit board passes through the manufacturing stages. An RFID reader and data collector are used at each stage to read the RFID tag and store its identifying information along with processing information, operating conditions, and results for each stage. This permits to quickly and accurately collect manufacturing information for each circuit board at various manufacturing stages as well as the operating conditions for each stage at a particular time. Such manufacturing metrics can then be retrieved on a stage-by-stage basis for a particular circuit board by an identifier printed on the circuit board.

Claims

1. A substrate comprising:

one or more circuits boards defined on the substrate;

one or more automated optical inspection holes formed on the substrate; and

a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag coupled to the substrate inside an automated optical inspection hole, the RFID tag configured to identify the one or more circuit boards as they pass through one or more manufacturing stages.

2. The substrate of claim 1 wherein the RFID tag is positioned along the perimeter of the substrate outside the areas defining the one or more circuit boards.

3. The substrate of claim 1 wherein an identifier for the one or more circuit boards is stored in the RFID tag.

4. The substrate of claim 3 wherein the identifier is read at each manufacturing stage to identify the one or more circuit boards.

5. The substrate of claim 1 wherein the RFID tag is positioned outside the one or more circuit boards so that when the one or more circuit boards are cut from the substrate the RFID tag remains behind.

6. A system for collecting stage by stage manufacturing metrics for a circuit board during manufacturing, comprising:

a circuit board having a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag with an identifier;

one or more RFID readers positioned at one or more stages of the manufacturing process and configured to read identifiers from RFID tags as they come within reach of its radio signal; and

one or more data collectors coupled to the one or more RFID readers to store the identifiers read from RFID tags along with stage-by-stage manufacturing information for the manufacturing stage.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the circuit board includes an automated optical inspection hole on which the RFID tag is placed.

8. The system of claim 6 further comprising:

an RFID writer to obtain an identifier for the circuit board and write it to the RFID tag.

9. The system of claim 6 further comprising:

a barcode writer for writing a barcode on the circuit board corresponding to the identifier stored in the RFID tag.

10. The system of claim 6 further comprising:

a database to store the identifiers and stage-by-stage manufacturing information collected by the one or more data collectors.

11. The system of claim 10 further comprising:

a reporting server coupled to the database and configured to receive requests for manufacturing information about a particular circuit board;

retrieve the requested information from the database; and

send the requested information to the requesting party.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the requested information includes operating conditions for the manufacturing stages of the circuit board.

13. A method for tracking a circuit board through its manufacturing stages, comprising:

coupling a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag to a substrate including one or more circuit boards;

assigning an identifier to the RFID tag;

scanning the RFID tag for its identifier at various manufacturing stages to track the progress of the one or more circuit boards;

obtaining the operating conditions of the various manufacturing stages; and

storing the identifier and operating conditions for each of the various manufacturing stages of the one or more circuit boards.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

printing a barcode on the one or more circuit boards corresponding to the identifier in the RFID tag.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

retrieving a stage-by-stage manufacturing report based on the barcode on one of the one or more circuit boards.

16. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

generating an alert if an operating condition is outside prescribed limits.

17. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

consolidating stored operating conditions for each of the various manufacturing stages of the circuit board in a database.

18. The method of claim 13 wherein the RFID tag is coupled to the substrate in an area outside the one or more circuit boards.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising:

cutting the one or more circuit boards from the substrate.

20. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

obtaining the processing information for each of the various manufacturing stages; and

storing the processing information,

wherein the processing information includes at least one of an operator identifier, a time and date in which the circuit board was processed at a particular manufacturing stage, test results for a manufacturing stage, or a stage identifier.