UNLIMITED PART SIZE: Access to remote bond targets on large packages or modules with WEST•BOND’s throat-less chassis and micromanipulator design. All machines components are arrayed above the horizontal bond plane, eliminating any restriction to package size or shape. With the EX version of this system, the bonder can be suspended over very large parts. This manual model can be configured to bond all types of applications from  Microwave – Semiconductor to – RF and – Hybrid production.

CONVERTABILITY: WEST•BOND introduced the first triple convertible wire bonder back in November of 1969, today WEST•BOND introduces a new tool head that can bond it all: 45° wedge, 90° feed for wire and ribbon as well as ball bonding. A simple exchange of clamp assemblies, bond tool, and wire path provided with the software mode will allow conventional 45° wire feed, deep access wire or ribbon, ball bonding, insulated wire and single point tab / lead bonding. All programmed bond variables as well as machine settings for each bond mode are retained in the machines memory.

The machines of WEST•BOND’S Model 7440E Series are dedicated ultrasonic wire bonders for interconnecting insulated, gold plated, copper wire to thin film sliders or Flex-Circuits of Computer Disk Drives, or for other similar insulated wire connection applications.

These machines bond insulated wires of 0.0007 to 0.002 inch diameter directly to thin film gold without the need to first strip off the insulation. This is accomplished by a specially designed wedge tool applied with programmed ultrasonic energy, force, and time, to soften and disperse insulation, then to bond the exposed wire to the work piece metallization. WEST•BOND’S unique single lever X-Y-Z micromanipulator makes it possible to use this process for bonding disk sliders by enabling the operator to engage a free standing end of a twisted wire pair in mid air and direct that end to touch down on the work piece at the bond target, all under microscope observation. Touchdown is sensed by the machine to initiate the bond program.

Embodied in this series is a new and unique WEST•BOND three-axis micromanipulator in which the entire mechanism is arrayed above the work plane, so that there is now no limit to the size of a work piece. Each of the X, Y, and Z axes is straight-line and purely orthogonal, and each can be braked pneumatically on signal. In this application, all axes are braked during the ultrasonic bond time to aid operator control.

CONVENTIONAL 45 degree wire feed and unique clamp design of West·Bond’s Model 7476D Series wedge-wedge wire bonders provide the precision and control for the smallest, most accurate loop formations. Consistent and repeatable profiles are easily achieved with the patented single lever X-Y-Z micromanipulator and optical Z encoder.

CONVERTIBILITY for a variety of bonding methods is pioneered by West·Bond. A simple exchange of wire clamp assemblies, provided with specified models, allows conventional 45o wire feed, deep access 90o wires or ribbon feed, and single point tab/lead bonding. All programmed bond variables and machine settings for each tool head are retained in memory and retrieved automatically upon conversion.

PROGRAMMING for three different device types may be entered into separate buffers. Each device wire may have up to 21 stitch bonds with individual ultrasonic power, time, force (high or low) and loop elevation control data. Program values, action prompts, and fault diagnostics are exhibited on the easy to read 4 line, 40 character LCD sequentially with machine operation.