Precision Handling of electronic components for PCB rework

The paper focuses on the study of strategies and tools to handle miniaturized components in the electronic industry. In particular,the paper presents an innovative device and method to manipulate microcomponents by vacuum. The device includes an original releasing system, that does not require any external actuation, to assist their release. Indeed, at the microscale, adhesion forces predominate over the gravitational force due to the small masses of the microcomponents, often leading to the failure of the release phase if a release strategy is not implemented. The device, able to eliminate the adhesion problem, is compared with a traditional vacuum microgripper in terms of grasping and releasing error and percentage. The results of preliminary experimental tests are discussed, demonstrating that the innovative microgripper represents an interesting solution for handling electronic components as well as different microparts.