The semiconductor industry used several classes of handlers to process ICs. Most small parts were handled as arrays in lead frames for volume processing. The market for Motorola cell phones was driving a huge demand for chips.

The lead frames were always larger than the mark field for a typical laser marker. This required adding the handler index time to reposition the lead frame in the mark field for every single lead frame and could often take as much time as marking it. There were some systems that would switch the beam to save the index time, but the process throughput was still limited to one scan head at a time.

A single scan head system were re-designed to support simultaneous operation of multiple beams (up to 4 actually) with a GUI for intuitive job setup for an entire lead frame. A compact footprint using an intra-cavity beam path with robust beam steering optics was designed for easy integration with the parts handler. Optics included polarization independent beam splitting and beam balancing.

Doubling the throughput by marking the leadframe in one pass with a dual beam essentially doubled the capital utilization and capacity without increasing clean room footprint or COO. The systems cost more than a single head marker, but payback was well within the 12 month ROI mandate. The first system was shipped 4 months ARO much to the surprise of both the customer and the systems integrator.