Patent ID: 6892740

Claim:
A chip handling system for integrated circuit (IC) chips each having circuitry on a first face, comprising: a delivery station for receiving, from a first transfer device, a row and column array of chips with the first face upward; a second transfer device enabled to move chips row-by-row across the delivery station from a first side to a second side; a delivery path aligned with a row of chips at the second side of the delivery station; a first linear transfer mechanism for moving a row of chips at the second side of the delivery station into and along the delivery path; a rotary transfer device having platforms arranged around a central axis, each platform having a groove parallel to the central axis for accepting rows of chips on each platform, and a drive rotating the device in angular increments to align the grooves with the delivery path; an elongate track and a second linear transfer mechanism located at a position relative to the rotary transfer device 180 degrees from the first delivery path, for receiving rows of chips from the grooves in the platforms of the rotary transfer device; an output tray for holding an array of rows and columns of chips in the same array as in the delivery station; a third transfer device enabled to transfer rows of chips from the elongate track to individual rows of the output tray; a delivery arm enabled to pick up a column of chips in a line at a right angle to the rows of the output tray, the number picked up equal to the number of rows in the output tray, and to move the column past an inspection station for inspecting one chip at a time; and a packaging station for receiving chips from the delivery arm.