Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1116895
46 PCB007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2019 because they have to live with the material. We just can't throw it over the wall and say, "Figure out how to make something with it." Shaughnessy: Most design engineers say that when new materials come out, they have to test them. They're used to doing it, and it takes so long to release a new material. Is it even possible to do all of the testing and simula- tions? Weldon: I would say it's nearly impossible. If you asked me to give you a perfect dataset or set of information for all of the processing and use conditions for an older product—such as a Pyralux® LF or even AP, for instance, which has been around for almost 30 years—then the answer would be no. Every day, we receive questions that we don't have answers to, and we have to develop methods and test proce- dures to collect that data. There's a minimum threshold that we try to meet to make sure we can get a viable product to the customer. From there, it's going to be a lifetime of test and iter- ation to gather more comprehensive informa- tion. Andresakis: As material suppliers, we'll do all of the initial testing. We'll measure all of the electrical properties as well as the relevant IPC testing. This forms the basis to determine if it looks like it could be used in our industry. Then, we'll go ahead and work with a fabrica- tor. OEMs and fabricators come up with some test vehicles, such as a CAF test vehicle to check for reliability. Certain test vehicles have to be run before a material will even be con- sidered a viable alternative. Besides CAF, we'll also run signal integrity test vehicles. We will use this data to compare against existing ma- terials and make sure we meet the minimum requirements. And to Jon's point, we can't cover every pos- sible combination, especially if these are go- ing to be used in hybrid constructions where we don't know what the other material might be used in the stackup. There might be some sort of interactions that occurs, but we try to do the best that we can and stay on top of it. That's why when we introduce a new prod- uct into the field, you want to control where it goes. It's not wise to just shotgun the market with a brand new material. We want to have a more controlled rollout, so if something does develop, we can try to work on it and correct it before it becomes a major issue. Shaughnessy: That's interesting. I think they look forward to it. For example, Lee Ritchey looks forward to when a new material comes out because he can start generating some num- bers on it. Andresakis: The other thing that's important is material suppliers have to work together. Dur- ing my years at Oak-Mitsui, we always com- plained to the laminate suppliers, saying, "You come up with this new resin system, and then at the end, you try and stick copper to it?'" Then, they come back to us and ask, "Can you come up with a copper that works?" It would have been nice if we had talked about it sooner since there are three major components—the resin, reinforcement, and copper; all of them should be working in conjunction with each other.