Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/898297
50 The PCB Magazine • November 2017 is properly vetted, that you know is stable, all the delamination and via micro-cracking, etc., address all the reasons that people say why we shouldn't do it (challenge all paradigms). This means that we have to have DOEs go- ing continually to make sure that we didn't just jump off the cliff. I'm al- ways jumping off the cliff; Hap- py knows that. You really need to own it, and owning it is doing the look-aheads that you talked about—talk to your assembler, talk to your fabricator, and talk to the guy on the plating line. Talk to the guy who's running the laser drill. So this position two years ago did not exist and it does now, and the reason was because we were failing some of our substrates. Now, with proper vetting in place, we can explore just about anything that makes sense to us, as long as we qualify it before production. At this advanced level, PCB and flex technology roadmapping, PCB reliabil- ity, and the DFM process cannot be separated. Matties: Tony, from your point of view and your role in marketing, just give us a quick over- view of what you see in the marketplace. What's the feeling out there right now? Torres: From a marketing standpoint, the goal is to keep your company "top of mind" to your customer or prospect. Because the industry had been close to flat over the past few years, I've noticed companies pulling back on their mar- keting efforts, when in fact I believe you should increase those efforts during challenging times. However, now in 2017, the industry is showing slow growth and more companies are coming back into the marketing arena. What's interesting from my perspective is that the message being sent to the industry is what I see as the "standard" message: "These are my capabilities, these are my capacities, these are my cycle times, this is my equipment list and I have the lowest price!" Few, if any, talk about their people. And that's where APCT is different. Yes, you have to have the tools and equipment and the technology to be successful; however, it's the people that make the differ- ence and I believe APCT is among the very best in that category. From a marketing perspective, I think the feeling is wait and see. If the overall in- dustry is showing growth, more com- panies will invest in marketing; if there's a downturn, companies will cut back. I strongly disagree with that perspective. The job of the marketing manager is to keep their company top of mind. Al- ways invest in that philosophy to stay strong through upturns and downturns. Holden: I have a question for Vince and his team. One of the problems HDI brings is limited access for in-cir- cuit tests. Have you worked out solu- tions to help people who use HDI in terms of being able to use it for assemblies? Steve Jervey: That' s a big concern of ours. As a contract manufacturer, our in-circuit test tradi- tionally has been a big part of our test solution. Over the last couple of years, I see that dying out very quickly. Our response to that in the immediate mode was to transition a lot of our work into flying probe with very small-pitch flying probe leads down to three mils on the point of the probe. We're doing a lot of flying probe work. The obvious extension to a physi - cal test is to utilize boundary scans where we're capable of using vectorless type tests or physi- cal access isn't there to test things. It's going to be a challenge. As things get smaller and small- er, ultimately you have to touch it somewhere to test it in some fashion and it's a challenge every day. Holden: Technologies would help that where instead of looking for a via hole, you make an opening in the solder mask to touch any partic- ular trace that may be available. Jervey: Right, so that technology was pioneered by HP, I think, in the HP3070 (tester) days. They used to call it beads, where they would just eliminate the mask and put a little solder paste HDI: TODAY, TOMORROW AND THE FUTURE Steve Jervey