180 billion is the annual production capacity of stamped lead frames of Ningbo Kangqiang Electronics Co., Ltd.

Since 1992, Kangqiang Electronics has been deeply involved in the field of semiconductor packaging materials, driven by technological innovation, crossing industry cycles, and growing continuously. Its three major business areas, lead frames, bonding wires and electrode wires are all domestic leaders. Among them, the production and sales volume of lead frames has ranked first among domestic peers for several consecutive years, and the global market share ranks among the top seven. It has won the honorary titles of “Top Ten Chinese Semiconductor Materials Enterprises” and “Top 50 Chinese Electronic Materials Enterprises”.

In October 2022, the recognition of the fourth batch of national-level specialized and new “little giant” enterprises not only strengthened Kangqiang Electronics’ confidence in the development of this segment, but also opened a new window of opportunity for Mitsubishi Electric to plan for the future.

Customer pain points: Striving for excellence and empowering efficiency

“As the semiconductor industry becomes a hot topic, a lot of capital has poured into this track, and competition is becoming increasingly fierce. For the field of semiconductor packaging materials, customer requirements are also getting higher and higher. Not only must there be a high level of mold design and good basic processing technology, but also stable and reliable high-precision processing equipment to ensure product quality.” Cao Guangwei, deputy general manager of Kangqiang Electronics and general manager of Kangdipurui, said that striving for excellence and empowering efficiency have become the focus of development.

Since its inception, the founding team of Kangqiang Electronics has been carrying the sentiment and dream of serving the country through industry, and has moved towards excellence through continuous excellence. Looking back on more than 30 years of development, Kangqiang Electronics attributes its achievements to the quality policy of “leading technology, fine management, continuous improvement, and customer satisfaction”.

In recent years, the semiconductor industry has received much attention as a basic supporting industry for the national economy. Lead frames, as important materials for integrated circuits, have also gradually developed towards ultra-wide rows, high precision, and high stability.

“The core of stamping lead frame manufacturing is high-precision progressive die, and its processing accuracy requires high-precision machine tools to ensure it.” Duan Huaping, technical director of Contipur, pointed out that we must carry out continuous technological innovation to improve production processes and processing accuracy, maintain technological leadership, and meet customers’ current and future expectations and needs.

Solution: From technological transformation to process optimization, continue to promote machine tool upgrades

Since 2008, Mitsubishi Electric and Kangqiang Electronics have started a two-way cooperation and mutually beneficial win-win process. For more than ten years, as a business partner of Kangqiang Electronics, Mitsubishi Electric has actively connected with industry needs, carried out in-depth cooperation from technological transformation to process optimization, and helped Kangqiang Electronics to continue to innovate and lead the development of the semiconductor industry.

Automatic wire threading transformation

In 2016, Kangqiang Electronics began to promote the optimization and upgrading of high-precision equipment, and put forward key technical requirements including processing accuracy, automatic wire threading, K-method processing, surface finish and other indicators.

Based on the actual production on site, Mitsubishi Electric recommended the high-end model MX600 oil cutting machine to Kangqiang Electronics. Because of its industry-leading technology and functions, especially the core components that determine the high speed and high precision of the EDM are all developed and produced by Mitsubishi Electric, it gives customers strong confidence.

However, at the beginning of the introduction of the equipment, due to the influence of many factors, the success rate of automatic threading was relatively low, which seriously affected the production capacity of mold production; under the high-intensity production rhythm, the fatigue risk of manual threading is a test of the quality of the product.

“The Japanese headquarters specially sent technical experts to the site in two batches to carry out localization transformation.” Ye Jun, the project leader of Mitsubishi Electric, said that the entire transformation was a new challenge, especially the suspended processing method, which increased the difficulty of automatic threading.

Thanks to the controllability of its own system, Mitsubishi Electric took advantage of the technical advantages of the Japanese headquarters and successfully realized the transformation of automatic threading through tension control, software updates, structural adjustments and other methods. The success rate was close to 100%, greatly improving the production efficiency and processing quality of the equipment.

“Take the cavity with a diameter of 0.156 as an example. After the transformation, it not only realizes the automatic threading of a single hole, but also meets the needs of automatic threading of multiple holes in a moving state, which was unimaginable before the transformation.” Zhou Yong, a senior employee of Kangdipurui and the person in charge of slow wire walking, introduced that after the automatic threading transformation, only one worker is needed to control five devices, which greatly reduced the operating cost. “The whole workshop is also better managed, and my work is also easier.” For Mitsubishi Electric, the nearly half-year transformation was full of twists and turns, but it also achieved better equipment performance and won the trust of Kangqiang Electronics; the three additional devices also paved the way for future cooperation between the two parties. Optimization of production process As Moore’s Law of chips approaches its limit, advanced packaging has been pushed into the spotlight. Due to the interconnection of multiple chips and the increasing miniaturization demand, customers have higher and higher requirements for the precision of packaging materials. In the production workshop of Kangqiang Electronics, several MX600 oil cutting machines with Mitsubishi Electric logos are being produced in an orderly manner, and various high-precision lead frame molds are placed next to them. Some cavities have such small precision that they are difficult to detect with the naked eye.

But at the beginning of production, the problem of wire marks at the feed edge has always troubled Kangqiang Electronics.

“Wire marks at the feed edge involve many aspects of production, such as R angle overcut, wire breakage during angle processing, K method processing, 100% automatic wire threading, cavity step, rough waste, wire breakage residue, nozzle contact alarm, high-precision point position, etc.” Duan Huaping pointed out that if any of these problems are not handled properly, it will affect the processing accuracy and quality.

After going to the site for investigation, the Mitsubishi Electric project team gave optimization suggestions based on the actual production, and adjusted the order of the cutting process to stabilize the accuracy to 2μm. Considering the differences in manual operation, the Mitsubishi Electric project team stayed on site for 2 months to organize targeted practical training and technical support to reduce the accuracy loss caused by the adjustment of processing conditions.

“At the beginning, the requirement was 3μm, but now the general requirement is 2μm.” Zheng Bo, production director of Kangdipurui, said that it seems that there is only a 1μm improvement, but the implementation process is difficult. She admitted that the improvement of precision involves all aspects of factors, including production environment, equipment performance, operating status, etc., and has now reached its limit.

Customer benefits: annual production capacity of 180 billion pieces, all “cores” starting

“Whether it is a nearly 100% automatic threading success rate or a 2μm processing accuracy, it is a great improvement for the production site.” Kangqiang Electronics said that with the joint efforts of both parties, the production efficiency and processing quality of stamping lead frames have been greatly improved, with an annual production capacity of up to 180 billion pieces.

Looking back on the cooperation over the past decade, Zhou Yong, who is on the front line of production, has deep feelings. He said that Mitsubishi Electric’s technical support has brought great help to Kangqiang Electronics, especially the response speed, which has solved many urgent problems and ensured continuous and stable production on site.

“The future of Kangqiang Electronics is to provide more excellent products for more chip packaging companies in China and the world, so that China and the world can enjoy our high-end quality.” As the latest promotional video said, looking to the future, Kangqiang Electronics will serve the international market with higher quality. Under the wave of digital transformation, Kangqiang Electronics, which is committed to “smart transformation and digital transformation”, is bound to take the automation of production equipment, the intelligence of production processes, and the intelligence of production scheduling as important means of high-quality development.

At present, Mitsubishi Electric has more than 50 types of EDM machines and wire cutting machines, which are widely used in the processing of molds and high-precision parts such as precision electronics, semiconductors, and automobiles, supporting the advanced manufacturing industry in more than 30 countries around the world. For Mitsubishi Electric, it is equally expected to work hard, start from the “core”, and take into account precision, efficiency and quality, and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results with Kangqiang Electronics.

About Mitsubishi Electric Automation (China) Co., Ltd.

As a leading manufacturer in the global automation field, Mitsubishi Electric serves users in various industries around the world with its excellent automation products and technologies. In China, Mitsubishi Electric’s PLC, inverter, servo, CNC, low-voltage electrical appliances, industrial robots, processing machines and other products are operating in various industries.
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