Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1116895
20 PCB007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2019 sheet values; you have to do it in your context and also in a comparative way. That's where the HDPUG work goes. We test everything us- ing the same methodology. We don't care what they tell us; we ignore all of that and test based on our standardized test methods. Matties: When we look at the way that design- ers are specifying material, often, they're over- materializing. You made that point earlier, and it drives a lot of extra cost into a product. Morgan: Absolutely, and it can be enough to destroy the product from the beginning. That can be a massive problem. But people do it because that's how they've been used to doing things. Usually, you will find specific materi- als on drawings on the design. The designer writes, "Use X material from this supplier," be- cause they know that has worked in a previ- ous project. They carry on doing that without reviewing that decision ever until they can't get hold of that material anymore. Then, they think about it. But once it's on the drawing on the design, it's very hard to remove. The military sector is a classic case. Poly- imide is a big issue I've been discussing with aerospace companies for some years now. They're fully aware that their habit of using polyimide for all of their prod- ucts is costing them money and doesn't work for the new designs because it's too lossy. They need something that has a better property in terms of loss. Now, they know that ma- ny materials from the epoxy family, for example, have the same performance in terms of high-temperature solder- ing that polyimide had in the past. These things are diffi- cult to address because when you've been using a particu- lar product for years, it's very hard to change that mindset. Matties: In the world of Indus- try 4.0, could it be that a piece of material will be X-rayed before being put into a process so that the work can be oriented in the most optimal fashion based on the con- struction of that base material? Morgan: Well, that's possible, but not practi- cal. It's very hard to X-ray the glass fabric be- cause you don't get much contrast. You do that for stability, and when you have copper trac- es, that's entirely possible. But I highly doubt we'll get to that. I think we'll use other tweaks, such as lower Dk and Df glass, spread fibers, etc. In theory, Industry 4.0 allows you to cus- tomize the process for every single panel. In terms of where to put the design, it's an idea. That would probably be a stretch too far. I'm not sure technology exists today to do that. It's possible that may be the last optimi- zation; it might be the last thing that we do to stretch it out a bit further, but that's quite a move. We're aware that AI can do a lot of things, including solving issues like this but it would be tricky. There is scope to optimize the designs though. At the EIPC conference two weeks ago, Robrecht Belis of Elsyca showed software for optimizing plating on panels. He typifies your system, characterizes how your plating works, takes your solution as well as your arrangement of the anodes and every- Ventec International Group factory.