Promex Industries Inc. (Promex) is expanding its manufacturing operations by adding advanced systems that support the medical device industry’s most demanding microelectronics applications. The newly installed LPKF CuttingMaster 2127 ultraviolet (UV) laser de-panelling and Koh Young aSPIre 3 automated solder paste inspection (SPI) systems will improve flexibility and throughput in Promex’s assembly process offerings. The new systems allow for continued high-level integration, from the chip/wafer level to finished boards, on various substrate materials.
“These investments reinforce our commitment to helping medtech OEM customers build more advanced, compact, and reliable electronic assemblies,” said Dave Fromm, Chief Operations Officer at Promex. “Together, the new laser and SPI systems expand our core capabilities and allow us to deliver higher quality, yield, and consistency—from prototype to production—reflecting our commitment to not just meeting but staying ahead of industry and customer needs.”
UV laser de-panelling
Laser de-panelling provides precise UV laser singulation, micromachining, and cutting for various organic and composite materials commonly found in medical microelectronics devices, especially those employing heterogeneous integration to co-package electronic and non-electronic components.
Materials processed include polyimide and liquid crystal polymer (LCP) flexible circuit boards, FR4 circuit boards, organic/laminate substrates and interposers, and overmoulded plastics/composites. With a <20 µm spot size and ±25 µm positional accuracy, the laser allows engineers to design boards with complex form factors and tighter layouts. Additionally, the precision reduces up to 30% of dead space between components on the panel.
Ensuring clean, stress-free singulation of flex and rigid-flex circuits is important when meeting customer demand for chip-on-flex and flexible packaging for medical devices. By providing this in-house, the company can improve turnaround times, process controls, and quality.
“This laser cutting technology is imperative for OEMs with micro medical devices,” said Fromm. “It provides the cleanest cut through a variety of materials – including titanium, steels, glass, and sapphire – which is critical for device functionality and reliability.”
Inline SPI metrology
Promex has also added inline SPI metrology capabilities to meet fine-pitch surface mount technology (SMT) demands. The system inspects solder paste deposits in all locations and every panel, capturing statistical data and building paste libraries for each device design.
This data-driven approach ensures high standards in the True 3D SPI market, improving yield, providing predictive quality control, and ensuring tighter process windows that are essential in the assembly of advanced components like ball grid arrays (BGAs), chiplets, and high-density interconnects. These capabilities are critical in advanced medical device assembly on thin, flexible circuit boards, where solder printing may not be consistent across the print area.
“There’s also the connection to flex itself – medical devices (often implantables) are pushing the limits for ultra-thin flex with small (down to 008004) part sizes at high part placement densities,” said Fromm. “Automated SPI is necessary to create a robust process to assemble these devices and to ensure ongoing quality.”
