Fundamental analyses of fixture tooling design for flexible substrate assembly

This paper focuses on developing a theoretical foundation of fixture tooling design for double-side thin flexible substrate assembly. A thin flexible substrate populated with electronic components on the first side is defined as a closed thermodynamics system. It experiences internal energy change, assembly load work input, and heat transfer during an isothermal assembly process on the second side. Based on the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics, a new fixturing analysis methodology is developed for studying theoretical fixturing solution of minimizing the assembly load work. The Network locating principle is proposed as a locating method of establishing a datum reference frame on the thin flexible substrate with the minimum fixturing interference to the isothermal assembly process. Using a commercial Siemens´ Siplace placement machine, the predictive capability of the Network locating principle is verified in a series of placement experiments on the thin flexible substrate