Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1116895
MAY 2019 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 45 and carbon that makes conductive carbon black. Modifying carbon to do multiple things is not revolutionary. I think it will be some time from graphene in these novel, single-lay- er, crystalline constructions of being conduc- tive or insulating and transitioning that to a mass production scale. I haven't seen anybody making that jump yet. If it doesn't compete conductively with copper, it shouldn't have a whole lot of time there because copper is king, and it will stay that way for some time. As an insulator, if it's not as good as PTFE, what are the major benefits to me? There are still some challenges to work out technically before it be- comes any real adoption. Andresakis: And if it does get adopted, it's going to be mostly in sensor technology or displays— things where they need the very thin layers of these materials—so it's going to be very appli- cation specific when it comes around. I don't see it in traditional circuit boards. Weldon: I agree. Holden: I won't mention my chicken feather laminate (laughs). That's a real product and enormously low loss because it uses air as the dielectric thanks to the unique structure of chicken feathers. Matties: To that end, bringing new products to the market is a rather lengthy process. First, how do we shorten the process? And second, how do you look ahead to develop a product for the future when it can take a couple of years to bring a new product to market? Weldon: Going back to Happy's comment on chicken feathers, the biggest challenge isn't that we're not working on materials as an in- dustry to fit the needs of the OEM; it's that there's a big gap between what that materi- al property is, what we can make, and how it is processed into a final product. The biggest gap to adoption or even fielding to the middle ground between the supplier of the material and the company that turns that material into a product to meet an OEM's specification is for something that has a lot of void space and per- forms extremely well electrically but can't per- form mechanically or survive processing. And until we start correcting that process step to make it more in line with novel materials that will increase performance, it's going to take some very special development of materials to get through all of that and meet the OEM need at the same time. Andresakis: That's a good point, Jon. Again, we're at the front end. We're material suppli- ers, but we have to make them work through the whole supply chain to ensure that what we come up with can be processed through the board shops, assembled, and gives the custom- er what they want. We're not the only ones do- ing it, but most of the material suppliers now have a pretty significant OEM marketing group that listens to customers, attends trade shows, and tries to help them develop the roadmap. Sometimes, customers don't know everything that they need right away, but we have to try to anticipate based on our knowledge what they need and work on the right products at the right time. It's a long process, which is why we have to be vigilant in monitoring the needs of the industry and make sure we're working on the right things. And having a good rela- tionship with the fabricators is also important Jonathan Weldon