Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1088168
56 SMT007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2019 for current HDI capability, but they are grow- ing their capacity significantly with the new HDI factory about to come online. Dudnikov explained, "Our plan and philoso- phy is to put a dedicated front-end engineer on a medium- or large-sized customer who gives repeat orders." He further said, "The first de- signs may come in and require a little more work on average, but we try to get what's called global deviations, and then we have a database where the approvals are entered into a computer system, and we don't have to ask the question again. That minimizes the amount of work that has to be done to the package." Also, "VGT offers quick-turn service of 10 days or less on new NPI orders, so streamlining the front-end process is strategic." Factory One After a tour of the front-end engineering de- partment, Dudnikov led us to factory one. Dudnikov: Factory one was built in 2005. This factory is still going to do some basic volume, but it will start building higher layer server products. Right now, we're running up to 14– 20 layers and the target is 24–28 layers. In this factory, we have basic loaders and off loaders. PTH is horizontal and inline, so we're not load- ing baskets for electroless copper; however, the plating is still done in traditional vertical tanks with dip-and-rinse plating. We have three panel plate lines and three pat- tern plate lines in this building, which is like the conventional U.S. plating operation. We also converted some of the tanks to pulse plat- ing on the pattern side, and we've added ad- ditional LDI equipment to support higher mix, higher technology, and higher layer count, but not the super high volume. Matties: Is the plan to automate this whole area? Dudnikov: We're actually de-automating here. This factory is being set up for higher-end layer counts, server products, and things you can't as efficiently build on a fully automat- ed line. In China, most people do panel plate, but when your microstrip lines and spaces are around three mils and below, it's hard to etch, so you go pattern plate and add a process for base foil reduction; same with higher aspect ratios because the plating process has to be dif- ferent. We still have older types of equipment, but it runs well, and there is some automation al- ready. VGT pioneered a lot of automation even in the beginning factory. This is the old factory, so it has been upgraded a little bit. But to give you an idea, on our inner layer DES line, the standard AOI is inline. All of our etchers here are vacuum etchers, which helps with side-to- side etching. However, we still currently use offline digital micrometer microscopes to mea- sure line width. CAM sends down a file and tells the operator locations to measure line width on a core, and what that line width needs to be. Then, we put it into a database and calculate out etch fac- tors, Cpks, etc. What we're trying to do now, working with Optima, is to get an assessment of line and space readings 100% inline—every core coming off. In the future, this data could be used to monitor the etchers and raise an alarm when some- thing starts drifting out of control. This type of real-time me- trology is the basis for a smart process. Matties: What other shared resources are there?