HDQFP packing in Tape & Reeland Tray:

Technical Challenges, Improvements and Results
Edward Liu, Product Engineer
Michael Fitchett, Product Engineer
Quality of NXP’s products is the company’s highest priority. After packaging and testing
to guarantee electrical parametric performance, parts must be delivered to arrive at thecustomer in impeccable condition.
HDQFP is a brand new development by NXP Tianjin,
qualified in 2022, which adds ~70% more pins to a
standard QFP. These leads are delicate and requireprecise and careful handling to avoid deformation.
The physical packing materials used are keycontributors to the quality of the deliveries.
Two types of deliveries are offered: Tape & Reel andTray. Both of these carriers demanded fundamentallynew designs to avoid bent leads. The designs weredeveloped with iterative improvements using Six
Sigma methods to analyze and correct weaknesses.

Table of contents

This paper introduces Tape & Reel, trays and HDQFP
and explains the iterations made to successfullycomplete the project qualifications without schedule
impact.

Keywords
HDQFP; Tape & Reel, Tray, Drop Test, Visual MechanicalInspection, ATE, Burn-In

Keywords......................................................................................... 1

Tray and Tape & Reel Initial Design .............................4Introduction.................................................................................. 2

Tray and Tape & Reel New Concept.............................5Trays.................................................................................................. 2

Conclusions..................................................................................5

Tape & Reel................................................................................... 2

Acknowledgements.................................................................5HDQFP............................................................................................... 2

About the Authors.....................................................................6Drop Test......................................................................................... 3White paper

Automotive Processors

Introduction

Tape & Reel

Trays

Tape and Reel was promoted in the 1990s by
Japanese manufacturers to improve automation of
the steps for IC unpacking and subsequent mounting.
Machines are used by NXP to pick ICs from trays andplace them in the pockets of a specific carrier tape,which are then closed with a thin plastic seal tape.
The sealed tapes are wound onto reels before
packing in boxes for final delivery.

Trays have been used for handling of ICs since
packages moved away from dual-inline to denser
designs such as Quad Flat Pack, where legs areplaced on all four sides of the package perimeter, oreven more compact designs such as Ball Grid Array,
where one complete surface of the package isdedicated to contacts.
Trays are used for all pick and place handling of ICs.
They are usually molded from plastics or carbon fiber
materials which are electrically conductive or
dissipative in order to protect electrostatic-sensitive
devices.
Trays are used throughout NXP’s final manufacturing
to carry packaged ICs from one machine to another,or during loading and unloading of test and stressequipment, e.g., automatic test equipment (ATE)testers or burn-in ovens. They have standardized
external dimensions (X, Y, Z) and are laid out withrows and columns of cavities which are designed tocarry a single IC of a particular package. Trays arestackable, so that by the inclusion of one empty tray
at the top, every IC nestles in its own protected cavity
with limited X, Y, Z movement.
By tightly wrapping the stacks of trays and placing
them in precisely sized cardboard boxes, ICs can bedelivered to customers. They can then unpack the ICs
and use pick and place machines to populate theirPrinted Circuit Boards (PCBs). ICs will be typicallysoldered by reflow to these PCBs.

Figure 2: (c/o ePAK, Inc.) Tape & Reel for IC Transportation

HDQFP
Two types of leaded packages succeeded dual inline
designs to obtain higher density; Plastic leaded chip
carrier and Quad Flat Pack. In particular, QFP became
a popular industry standard as it allows mediumdensity packaging while offering good solderability
and optical inspection, highly valued in automotiveapplications.

28-, 44-, 68-, 84-pin PLCC

32-, 44, 80-, 100-pin QFPFigure 3: Plastic Leaded Chip Carrier and Quad Flat Pack

Figure 1: (c/o ePAK, Inc.) Trays Used for IC Handlingwww.nxp.com

2Size and weight of packages are important factors
which catalyzed iterative decreases of packageheight and lead pitch (from 0.8 mm to 0.65 mm, 0.5mm and 0.4 mm.) 0.4 mm size is not popular due tothe solderability concerns with the close proximity of
the legs to their neighbors.

Drop TestDrop tests can be conducted manually but are best
executed with a specific machine:

HDQFP is a completely new NXP Tianjin innovation
which merges the lead shapes of PLCC and the QFP.
It uses generous pitch dimensions of 0.65 mm whichsimplifies solderability. Standard visual inspection
tools can be used by adjusting camera angles tomonitor both the gullwing (QFP) and J-lead (PLCC)
legs, which will allow HDQFP to become a popular andsuccessful package.

Top View

Bottom View

Side View

Figure 4: HDQFP Images

The mechanical criteria for the legs are determinedby these parameters:
Standof = absolute distance of leg to body
Coplanarity = relative displacement per leg
Bent leg = lateral displacement of each leg

Figure 6: Drop Test Machine• 10 drops from 1.0 m:– 6 faces– 1 corner– 3 edges#6;
Drop

DropideLeft S#8; B

ack Side

Drop #10; Top

Drop #2;
Right
Front
Edge

Drop #7;
Front Side
Drop

Figure 5: Standoff and Coplanarity#4; F

ront Edge

Drop #1;
Corner;Drop #5e
Right Sid
#3;
DropEdge
mot
Bot

Drop #9; Bottom

Figure 7: Drop Test Angles

The criteria to pass the Drop Test after 10 Drops are
Zero- Failure of all Visual Mechanical checks on every
leg on every device with respect to Standoff,
Coplanarity and Bent Legs.

www.nxp.com

3

Tray and TAPE & REEL Initial Design
The original Tray and Tape & Reel designs relied uponfences between the J-leads and the gullwing leads,
as well as stops beneath and above the package
body. The target (standard) quantities are five traysof products or 500 parts per reel.

The drop test failed the coplanarity check on 7% ofthe devices with damage to the J-leads.
Root-cause analysis concluded that lateral
movement of the HDQFP in its cavity could lead todamaging collisions with the fence, See Figure 11:

Figure 11: Drop Test Caused J-Lead to Hit Fence

Figure 8: Tape Pockets with HDQFP in Cavity

A second version of the tray with a smaller pocket
design to reduce movement also caused bad resultswith 5 stacked trays:

The trays and reels were submitted to drop tests withmaximum quantities. See the following diagrams.

Figure 12: Drop Test with Version 2 Damaged GW andFigure 9: Stacked Trays with HDQFP in Cavity

J-leads

A third version of the tray with a larger pocket design
to allow lateral movement caused even worse resultswith five stacked trays after drop tests.
As an interim containment action, successful drop
test results with only three trays of Version 2 allowed
delivery of early customer engineering samples. Tape& Reel delivery was possible but with only 100 parts
per reel.

Figure 10: Stacked Trays with HDQFP in Cavity
www.nxp.com

4Tray and TAPE & REEL new concept
It was concluded that radical changes were needed
to the basic design. Placing fences between thegullwing and J-leads was clearly not going to lead tosuccessful drop-test results. A completely new
concept for tray and Tape & Reel cavities wasdeveloped using corner posts or corner fence. The
corner posts only touched the plastic compound ineach corner of the HDQFP. Lateral movement in X andY direction was not completely prevented, but in every
case, the body of the package hit the corner post andno contact was made between the leads and the trayor tape:Conclusions
Applying Six Sigma analysis methods (DMAIC inparticular) and forming a constructive collaboration
between AP Product Engineering, ATTJ Manufacturing
and a tray and Tape & Reel vendor allowed NXP tosuccessfully engineer solutions for packing materials
for the HDQFP new technology introduction.

Acknowledgements
Major contributions by X.S. Pang, Fiona Guo andDavid Yang, among many others at ATTJ.

Figure 13: Revised Design Concept for Traywith Corner Posts (Without Fence)

Figure 14: New Design Concept:

Tape & Reel Corner Guides (Without Fence)

The revised tray and tape versions with corner posts
and corner guides but with removed fences
successfully passed drop tests for 172HDQFP and100HDQFP with five stacked trays and 500 parts perreel respectively.

www.nxp.com

5How to reach us

About the authors

Home Page: www.nxp.com
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Edward Liu
Product Engineer
After graduating in Electronic Information Engineering from Tianjin
University of Technology and working for four years in Antronix
Electronic Company as an RF design engineer, Edward joined
Foxconn Tianjin in 2009 as a Production Engineer. At Foxconn, hewas responsible for the new product introduction and DFx work inserver manufacturing. In 2015, he joined Continental Tianjin as aquality engineer and was responsible for process and customer
quality. He joined NXP Semiconductors Tianjin in 2016 as an NPI
Product Engineer and participated in the new product introductionof two generations (K1 and K3) of products, particularly theindustry-first HDQFP package development.

Michael Fitchett
Product/Test Engineering Manager
After graduating Summa Cum Laude in Computer Science from
Edinburgh University and working for four years at a Swiss startup,
Michael joined Philips Semiconductors Zurich in 1986 as a TestEngineer. In 1995, he moved to Motorola Munich to work on the first
generation of automotive microcontrollers with embedded NVM
and analog. As of 1998 he managed teams of test engineers andproduct engineers in Toulouse’s Analog division. Since 2016, he has
led the 32-bit Automotive Microcontrollers with Embedded NVM
and Analog Team in Tianjin, China.

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