Singulation system to be launched at productronica

The Rainbow Singulation System is a fully automated coating and laminating machine that takes a copper panel, cleans it, coats it both sides with solvent-free etch resist and laminates it with a thin layer of mylar. The edges of the panel are then sealed with UV light and panels are ejected ready for imaging in a digital imaging machine such as LDI or DMD.

Key to the process is Rainbow’s solvent-free etch resist which remains in a liquid state after coating. This removes the need for an oven as there is no solvent to release. The resist coating is thin (under 8µm) and protected by mylar plus the machine automatically seals around the edge of each panel to offer easy, safe handling. It also allows a faster throughput through a digital imaging machine as the Rainbow resist is much easier and faster to cure than dryfilm.

After imaging, the mylar is peeled off and the panel goes through the develop, etch and strip stages in the same way as a dryfilm panel. As the thin coating and liquid state of the uncured resist allows faster developing, etching and stripping than normal it means the existing etch equipment can clear out higher density circuits (finer track and gap).