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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Touchless Automation (A touchless microcomponent gripper for precision handling and microassembly)

Teaser

Summary

Touchless Automation invented a contactless solution to handle microcomponents of any shape and material. It addresses the acute problem of microcomponents frequently getting damaged, contaminated or scratched and, as a result, discarded during the precision assembly processes. Also, the lack of contact allows for new concept of manipulations currently forbidden, such as ultra-light components, where gravity is less than electrostatic or adhesion forces.

Our novel microgripper combines ultrasonic pressure and vacuum to make the microcomponents levitate underneath it at the distance of <50 Î¼m. It is the smallest solution of this kind on the market. Furthermore, the contactless approach could unlock potential component designs opportunities currently impossible to be manipulated after production.

We are targeting two main industries, the watchmaking and semiconductor industries, while receiving inbound requests from other segments such as MedTech and Aerospace.

Touchless Automation plans to serve these industries by providing equipment based on its technology, with the ultimate aim of improving their processes and unlock new technologies to scale to the consumer markets.

Work performed

During this feasibility study we have been able to deep dive into these segments and identify the most promising opportunities. By talking with tens of potential customer and partners, we were able to identify a clear application in the semiconductor industry, related to the die attach processes. These processes take the delicate semiconductor dies after front end processing and ultimately puts them into their packaging. High rejection rates and process/design limitations are common and solutions currently employed by the markets require strong tradeoffs. Furthermore, several innovative semiconductor processes are not able to scale due to handling problem. Those components are currently handled by hand and our technology could potential unlock those limit and allow their scaling.

With an overall market above 2Bn USD worldwide for equipment dealing with these processes, we have been able to identify a niche that could allow to start deploying our solution in the market. By using our technology to solve the acute problems of these niches we would maximize both the customer return on the investment and our profitability.

The feasibility study also shown how the equipment market would be far more preferable than the module market for Touchless Automation, both from a technological and strategical point of view. For this reason, we are already testing the market with a complete solution.

Overall, the feasibility study allowed us to identify a sharp customer use case and a clear business model to serve it, hence allowing Touchless Automation to strongly improve its strategy.

Final results

The equipment based on Touchless Automation technology are already being presented to the industries we want to target. Multiple industry experts have stated that our unique approach to manipulation could potentially revolutionise their field and disrupt how manipulation is intended today.

The first results to be obtained would be higher efficiency, lower defect rates and ultimately better products for customers. With higher efficiency and defect rates the waste and defect controlling process would be lowered, hence decreasing pollution and better allocating resources.

In the future, we expect that the possibility of assemblying components without any mechanical contact could unlock a wide range of design possibilities for may industries, empowering the development of new technologies to scale.