| Working in Advanced Technology Machine Development for the semiconductor industry, FALA's manufacturing and engineering staff developed a proprietary machining process to solve a specific customer problem. As IBM was developing its Automated Test Equipment for a semiconductor manufacturing process, the company needed to solve a critical cooling problem with a system-on-a-chip testing machine. "IBM knew what they wanted but they didn't know how to make it," said Frank Buffa, vice president of FALA Manufacturing. "They required a very accurate, high density, thin copper cooling lattice, sealed in a leak-proof chamber and buried underneath a precisely-positioned, metal-to-metal contact surface. The original design looked good on paper but it couldn't be manufactured. We figured out a way to do it." FALA used a custom-designed blade to cut the highly accurate slotting details required to produce the surface area needed to meet the cooling requirements. FALA then sealed the entire assembly in an electron-beam welded enclosure that was specially designed to prevent thermal bypassing. "This was all done by our manufacturing team - just a bunch of guys with good, practical manufacturing know-how," said Buffa.
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