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PCB007-Oct2021

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20 PCB007 MAGAZINE I OCTOBER 2021 Feature Interview by the I-Connect007 Editorial Team In this interview with Joe Dickson of WUS, we examine capital expenditure strategies to remain competitive on the technology curve. Dickson discusses how PCBs are moving into 3D interposer technologies vs. the traditional 2D, CPU-centric, flat printed circuit boards. Joe also outlines the massive amount of capi- tal equipment and capital expenditure that cut- ting-edge manufacturing requires, with some insight on lower-cost alternatives as well. Nolan Johnson: Joe, you've been making the point recently that the volume disruptive tech- nology is going to Asia. at's what we wanted to talk about: capital expenditure and where that's headed. Let's start by discussing why the disruptive technology is going to Asia. North America seems to be taking a pass in this arena, and yet, historically, it's been the U.S. that's embraced disruptive technologies. What gives? Joe Dickson: I look at it not so much as the U.S., but I call it the West, because people whom I've worked with over the years, my peers and competitors, were either in the Netherlands or other areas, Canada, etc. e Western markets today have advanced technologies that they're working on, but they're typically focused on where their current revenue stream is, which is military application and high reliability capabilities. ere's nothing wrong with that, because a lot of times in the past, those tech- nologies leveraged into volume. But I see that separating more and more, and Happy is very familiar with this. HDI took forever to integrate into either mil- itary or advanced structures like that because the volume manufacturing and process knowl- edge was all overseas. It wasn't that this tech- nology was unknown; it was just so expen- sive for the infrastructure to build up for a small market. I mean, to justify high volume laser capability that could do dense mother- boards at 10,000 a day, it's difficult for a small board shop in the West to justify that. ey get The Truth About Capital Expenditures

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