Patent ID: 6666997
Filing Date: 2003-12-23
Classification: B08B,B29C,H01L,Y10S,Y10T

Abstract:
A method of cleaning debris from an injection mold used to mold integrated circuit packages, the mold having a plurality of mold cavities, a respective injection inlet adjacent each of the mold cavities, and a respective mold vent adjacent each of the mold cavities on adjacent an edge of the mold cavity opposite the injection inlet for the mold cavity; the method comprising:placing a leadframe in the mold, the leadframe having a pair of leadframe rails extending along opposite sides of the leadframe with an attachment area formed on the leadframe rail adjacent each of the mold vents, each of the attachment areas comprising at least one aperture formed in the leadframe rail that cause the attachment area to adhere relatively well to a cleaning compound; injecting the cleaning compound into the mold in a manner that permits some of the cleaning compound to enter at least some of the mold vents, thereby forming flash; allowing the cleaning compound to solidify; after the cleaning compound has solidified, removing the leadframe and cleaning compound, including any flash that has formed, as a unit; and returning the mold to service without manually scraping flash from any of the mold vents.