Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1207026
8 SMT007 MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2020 Nolan's Notes by Nolan Johnson, I-CONNECT007 Fine Pitch As much as I'd like to report on baseball, based on our cover, that's not what we're addressing this month. For those of us who do follow the American major leagues, how- ever, baseball season begins with spring train- ing. Sure, the regular season is what counts, but it all begins in Florida or Arizona every February. The first players to report to spring training camp are the pitchers and catchers. This year, the day to report is February 12. Position players, of course, report on Febru- ary 17, give-or-take. Why does the pitching staff show up early? Because pitching is a pre- cise business. It's no surprise, then, that this issue targets finer pitches in manufacturing and packag- ing in our industry. We dove into the dynam- ics driving smaller components and finer dimensions in board fabrication. This led us to some interesting interrelationships. The dynamics—smaller component packages, courtesy of ever-shrinking semiconductor pro- cesses, which lead to smaller pitches between pads and more pads per package—allow boards to be packed more densely with very small devices. In baseball, there are three basic pitches: fast- balls (five separate grips), breaking balls (four grips), and changeups (three grips). Throw in the infamous "knuckleball," and that pretty much covers all the legal, practical pitches in professional baseball. The pitcher's ability to