South Devon College welcomed iMAPS UK Industrial and Academic members as it hosted the “Interactive workshop on Die Bonding and Wire Bonding” workshop for the second time. 

The delegates travelled from all over the UK to learn more about the core back-end packaging processes and key skills used in the world of Photonics, as well as across industries such as Aerospace and Defence, Automotive, Medical and Bio Tech.  

Joining the event were engineers from Space Forge Ltd who are leading a revolutionary concept of ‘In Space Manufacturing”; and Oxionics, a world-leading company based in Oxford which is creating unique technologies to bring Quantum Computing from the theoretical to the indispensable.  

Other attendees included Craig Seymour from Gen3, a Farnborough based company which is a specialist British manufacturer and distributor of Test and Measurement equipment; and Anthony Oh, the Automated Optical Inspection specialist from Altus Group Inspection Systems.  

Another delegate was Hanuushah Vizabaskaran from the University of Southampton, a Photonics academic who is part of the Europractice Cornerstone team, working at the world-renowned University of Southampton Nanofab.  

Bay Photonics, specialists in Advanced Photonics Assembly and Packaging, were also in attendance.  

The event was split into three learning environments – Session 1 was a theory session on Photonics and Micro Electronics Back End Packaging principles and processes, run by Steve Riches and Andy Longford from iMAPS UK.  

Session 2 was a hands-on practical session on Epoxy Die Bonding and Gold Wedge Wire Bonding process development in the Kao Hockham Training Suite with Martyn Davies and David Taylor from Davies & Bell Ltd.  

Session 3 was a Q&A Surgery Session with Jason Elder, a Test Engineering specialist from Bay Photonics, and Martin Richardson, a Front-End Wafer Fab Specialist from Micro Engineering Consultancy.  

Martyn Davies, Skills Development Coordinator at South Devon College, said: “I would like to thank iMAPS UK for running this event again here at South Devon College and thank our key collaborators from Bay Photonics Ltd, Micro Engineering Consulting Ltd and Davies & Bell Ltd. It was another very successful event, highlighting the importance of these skills and knowledge in these key back-end packaging processes. These are critical for Photonics, but also add value and support to so many other next generation industrial and technology sectors.”