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New positioning system doubles positioning speed for 450 mm

Known for innovation, Swiss firm Schneeberger AG Lineartechnik is currently developing a new positioning and movement system that will bear the name Twin Gantry. Initial tests and analyses prove that speed of positioning can be almost doubled in applications such as wafer production. The Twin Gantry should be on the market from mid-2014.

Mobile telephones, tablets, laptops and many other, routine electronic products are becoming ever more efficient and/or smaller. This is due to the semiconductor chips, miniaturisation of which seems to be endless. Inserting and testing structures (data highways) in these tiny electronic parts requires systems whose accuracy of movement has to be within micrometres and nanometres. The major chip manufacturers also expect optimum speed, as this has a direct impact on profit. In addition to the optical system, in order to best satisfy the requirements efficient positioning units are in great demand in production and test facilities. They ensure that the wafers dotted with hundreds of chips are quickly and accurately positioned.

Schneeberger AG, based in Roggwil, Switzerland, is a leading provider of such movement systems. Markus Kindler, the company''s Engineering Systems Manager, explains: "There are major differences between the precision requirements of our customers and end users. Ever greater positioning accuracy, which falls within tolerances of tens or hundreds of nanometres for a movement area of 250,000 mm2 is, however, expected with progressive miniaturisation." To explain: the ratio between a nanometre and a metre is roughly equivalent to the difference between the size of a hazelnut and the Earth.

Schneeberger has for years achieved the requisite approach and positioning precision. Amongst other things, use of hybrid materials combining carbon fibre and aluminium, for example, have played an important role in this. "We thus achieve a very high degree of rigidity at a low weight", explains Markus Kindler, adding: "The lower the masses to be moved, the faster and more accurately we can accelerate and brake. Improved dynamics mean that chip manufacturing systems are achieving higher throughputs, which is more economic."

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