Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1116895
106 PCB007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2019 organic formula to do that, the material be- comes untenable for other properties. Materi- als become more brittle, more prone to frac- ture and increases in the coefficient of thermal expansion, and have more problems with ad- hering to the glass. It creates a bunch of prob- lems that people have worked to fix for ap- proximately 15 years. Resin systems now are very complex and usually make up three, four, or sometimes even five different resin systems, fillers and additives that prevent fracturing, and bonding promoters, UV blockers, etc. Peo- ple don't realize how complex the makeup of these materials is. As you add complexity to a batch process, there are more opportunities for things to go wrong. That's where a lot of the materials have changed over the years. You also have a change in operating frequency. There are lots of changes happening in RF and autonomous driving that require lidar or radar, which are all happening in the high GHz range. Typical or- ganic materials don't do well in that area; they tend to absorb the radiation, which isn't good. These devices are very low radiation, and if your material is absorbing all of the radiation, it doesn't get to your chips. Companies have had to change materials to adjust to that, or they've had to use different combinations of these materials or multilayers that might have a layer of material specifically for high fre- quency. Other materials deal with lead-free, expan- sion, and holding holes together, so you have all these weird composites. The advent of rigid- flex has become more mainstream because an average vehicle has kilometers of wiring in it. All of that cable adds weight and cost; there's a big interest now in reducing that with flexible cables. The flex industry has also made bigger movements from a standpoint of where they were percentage wise to where they are today. Matties: When you look at the different mar- kets here, aside from automotive, where do you see the larger areas of growth? Neves: In addition to automotive, which is an established industry that's growing rapidly with a lot of R&D and engineers and a mar- ket that everybody is chasing, there's also the whole 5G market and everything that will eventually connect to 5G, including IoT. There are things that you never thought would be connected to the internet. Now, there's an ex- pectation of having 30–40 devices connecting to your home network. Buying a router and plugging it in is not a good solution anymore because that might not connect to a camera in the far corner of the house or the doorbell, thermostat, or oven that wants to tell your smartphone or watch that your turkey is done. All of these things now have to be integrated, and some companies that need to do this are not used to dealing with electronics at all. Some are used to making mechanical parts, but now they have to bolt on electronics that talk to the internet or an internal router or server through a combination of sensors, CPUs, RF, and soft- ware. Many companies are trying to figure out Thermal shock (RTC) lab 2.