Manufactured and developed in Switzerland, the Automated Gallium Arsenide Wafer Mounter WM-650 GaAs from Powatec is the ideal solution for precisely and reliably mounting 6-inch Gallium Arsenide wafers onto commercially available dicing tapes and frames.

This variant of the WM-650, which has been an industry standard for over 25 years, is adapted to accept Gallium Arsenide wafers, but also any other fragile, ultrathin, warped, or broken wafers mounted on Gel-Pak carriers.

Process Steps

The frame is placed on the loading table followed by the Gallium Arsenide wafer on a Gel-Pak.
A laser overlay assists the user to center the wafer, and the splitfield optic monitor allows the user to align the x-axis, y-axis, and theta of the wafer relative to the frame without ever having to touch the wafer itself.
The wafer and frame are then moved into the device where a vacuum chuck fitted with a protective carbon tissue securely removes the wafer and frame from the loading table and holds them in the upper chamber by preventing any lateral movement between the sensitive active wafer surface and the chuck.
The tape is then pressed onto the upper chamber and the mounting membrane is filled with air to bring the radially symmetrically tensioned tape into contact with the wafer and frame, creating a bubble-free mount.
The tape is then automatically cut, and the used tape is collected on a spare roll while the mounted wafer is gently placed in the collection area below the loading table.

By accepting wafers pre-mounted on Gel-Pak carriers, any process flow can be simplified, and handling risks can be drastically reduced. The automated mounting steps reduce the likelihood of operator errors and provide consistent results in an efficient manner.