Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1269815
58 PCB007 MAGAZINE I JUNE 2020 Feature by Happy Holden I-CONNECT007 Before productronica last year, the I-Con- nect007 team had the opportunity to visit Atotech's equipment R&D and production site in Feucht, Germany (near Nuremberg). Atotech started more than 60 years ago in this location as multilayer and PTH processes were being adopted by PCB fabricators. They also have a manufacturing facility in Southern China (Guangzhou), as well as 14 chemistry produc- tion sites and 17 tech centers around the world. Atotech's product lines started with chemi- cal processes and expanded early into equip- ment and services. Today, Atotech offers sur- face-finishing solutions with 4,000 experts in over 40 countries, generating an annual rev- enue of $1.2 billion in 2019. Through a sys- tems-and-solutions approach, the company delivers chemistry, equipment, and service to support diverse industries, such as consum- er electronics—especially mobile devices and computing—global automotive, communica- tion infrastructure, and many other industrial end-markets. Atotech's R&D efforts and global tech center presence allow the company to de- liver pioneering and sustainable products with on-site customer support. Atotech can supply a total systems solution for electronics (IC, packaging, and PCB), as well as for general metal finishing. The com- pany introduced significant new products in 2019 for wafer fabrication, panel-based pack- age substrates, and advanced PCBs (substrate-like PCBs, HDI substrates, flex/rigid-flex, and MLBs). The three major product categories are: • Chemistry (wafer, package substrates, PCB, GMF) • Equipment and spare parts (wafer, package substrates, PCB, GMF) • Service/training (all) Product Lines: Horizontal The two traditional equipment product lines for horizontal pro- cessing of panels (Uniplate and Horizon) were augmented by a new lower-cost horizontal ma- chine, the Polygon series, and by two vertical panel process- ing lines, MultiPlate and vPlate (Figure 1). Atotech: A System Supplier With Total Solutions Figure 1: Atotech now has five different panel processing equipment (three for horizontal processing and two new vertical systems).