Karl-Peter Fritz

Precision Micro Assembly of Optical Components on MID and PCB

At HSG-IMAT the precision assembly of micro systems became increasingly important in recent years. The challenge is to reach a high accuracy of about 10 μm between the assembled elements. At the same time it is important that the applied processes are suitable for low cost manufacturing. Attempts were made to achieve these requirements by means of automatic assembly processes based on MID and PCB. The results of the development at HSG-IMAT are shown in this contribution using the example of an optical module of a rotary encoder. Thereby, the assembly of the laser diode and lens requires special attention to achieve the specified positioning tolerances.

A Product Development Approach in the Field of Micro Assembly with Emphasis on Conceptual Design

Faster product lifecycles make long-term investments in machines for micro assembly riskier. Therefore, reconfigurable manufacturing systems gain more and more attention. But most companies are uncertain if a reconfigurable manufacturing system can fulfill their needs and justify the initial investment. New and improved techniques for product development have the potential to foster the utilization and decrease the investment risk for such systems. In this paper, four different methods for product development are reviewed. A set of criteria regarding micro assembly on reconfigurable manufacturing systems RMS is established. Based on those criteria and the assessment, a novel approach for a product development method is provided, which tries to combine the strengths of the beforehand presented approaches. It focuses on the conceptual design phase to overcome the customers’ uncertainty in the development process. For this, an abstract representation of a micro-assembly product idea as well as a decision tree for joining processes are established and validated by real product ideas using expert interviews. The validation shows that the conceptual design phase can be used as a useful tool in the product development process in the field of micro assembly.

Reliability in MID

The MID technology is used in more and more industrial applications. There are strong interactions between the materials used and the manufacturing process, which can have a direct influence of the quality and reliability of the final product. Hence, a comprehensive product and process qualification is necessary, because the available guidelines and directives are not sufficient to fulfill the specific requirements around MID.