Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1104607
72 PCB007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2019 most electronic systems. There is a good mar- ket for those low-conductivity kinds of prod- ucts. But beyond the rapid prototyping, there are only a few applications that can really take advantage of it. Perhaps for some of the areas in the military or space travel where they need rapid repair, that would be very advantageous. However, we're seeing a need for more conduc- tive circuits in very fine traces other than what a lot of printed technologies are bringing. Matties: What's the challenge for someone who wants to move into an additive process? Vinson: There are a few, and it really depends on what your end product is going to be. If you're trying for a more conventional product, the challenges are going to be in the equip- ment set and what you need to purchase to get into the additive process. With our process, it's less of the equipment set and more of the advanced lithography technology to make the finer circuits that we provide for. Matties: Can you describe your process and how it works? Vinson: With our process, we're putting down an extremely thin catalyst ink—one- or two- nanometer catalyst ink—that then we can build upon with a very dense electroless met- allization. We can work with a variety of elec- troless metallizations—those that work well with the palladium catalysts. Then, we'll put on an electroplated circuit that is defined by photolithographic methods, usually. We have a couple of other methods that are currently un- der development right now that I can't go into too much detail on, but those should be able to take us down to the five-micron range. Matties: What sort of growth do you expect to see in this market segment? Vinson: Right now, it's a little slow because it requires not only our capability but the rest of the infrastructure to grow along with it. Peo- ple are hesitant because the current infrastruc- ture doesn't support everything that we can achieve. But there are a lot of leading-edge in- dustries looking at our technology, and we're seeing a lot of the mobile markets adapting roadmaps that will require our technology or technologies that can deliver what we deliver. Matties: What standards are in place or need to be put in place for this technology? Vinson: One of the biggest issues that we see is a lot of the standards around adhesion, etc., that were developed for laminated circuit boards with laminated foils don't really apply when you're doing an additive process. So, we need to investigate how additive processes are evaluated in the simplest forms. A lot of the other requirements are currently in place once we have a finished product and are running it through thermal cycles and that sort of thing; those are pretty good. Matties: In terms of reliability, you're talking about product testing. What sort of reliability comparisons are made between a traditional process and an additive process? Vinson: One of the things in a traditional PCB is they'll do something like peel test where they'll use very thick copper and peel it off to see what kind of strength it had between the copper and substrate. With our technology, we're typically using very thin copper, so you won't be able to generate those same kinds of forces because the copper simply won't sup- port it. In light of that, we think there's a need to investigate other methods for testing for this With our process, it's less of the equipment set and more of the advanced lithography technology to make the finer circuits that we provide for.