Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1339822
64 PCB007 MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2021 Gautero: I'll do my best to keep it short. My ex- perience throughout time and market is best de- scribed as someone who improves the given equip- ment toward a cheaper, faster, or enhanced pro- duction. is started dur- ing my academic time at Fraunhofer ISE, where a complete photovol- taic pilot line gave the possibility for PhD can- didates like me to make the most of each tool installed. Once in the private sector, this ap- proach has continued on several kinds of coat- ings: anti-reflective, passivation, moisture bar- rier, semicon packaging, and now, solder mask coating. All of these need a cheaper manufac- turing on a larger surface area. Starkey: You have certainly had broad process engineering experience. How does this help you in your role now? Gautero: My contributions to the company's ef- fort were different for each application; some- times the whole equipment was non-existing, sometimes the tool needed additional parts, and sometimes the game was to squeeze higher performances from "what's on the floor." ese look like different situations, though there is a common line: how the equipment manufactur- er brings expectations into the tool. Plenty of lit- erature explains why specifications (in the larger sense this includes MRS, FDS, RI, FMEAs, safe- ty, etc.) and acceptance documents exist, and what they contain—as well as how these interact during the tool lifetime as a product. Still, see- ing their positive and negative interactions first- hand shows the fluidity of such concepts. Now as a product manager for inkjet solder mask, my role is to orchestrate, not manage, this fluidity. A successful tool fits the market needs at the right time and with the right cost of owner- ship. is match and its coming of age are in front of everyone. It is a challenge we share with few other excellent companies—which, by the way, makes it even more fun. Starkey: Luca, we're familiar with the PiXDRO family of inkjet printers. I understand that PiX- DRO is now part of the SUSS MicroTec organ- isation. Could you briefly describe how this came about, and how PiXDRO fits into the SUSS MicroTec portfolio? Gautero: PiXDRO is a vision and a brand that existed well before I joined the team. rough- out the years we have applied inkjet printing across many applications in the electronics in- dustry. SUSS MicroTec, as a leading supplier of process equipment for microstructuring in the semiconductor industry, recognized the importance of patterning and the role that inkjet can play in this. It recognised the poten- tial of inkjet printing in the semiconductor in- dustry and acquired PiXDRO for this reason. e idea is to create a future in which the fo- cus of SUSS MicroTec, namely high yield for backend and packaging aspects of the semi- conductor industry, can benefit from precise additive technology. is calls upon all the knowledge that PiXDRO has in house. Inkjet solder mask is very relevant and already com- mercially successful. Starkey: What's your installed base of inkjet printers, and what typical applications are they employed in? Gautero: e PiXDRO team disseminated the inkjet capabilities very well. ere are hun- dreds of R&D printers (the PiXDRO LP50, under the care of Dennis Kuppens) all over the world, most of them in printed electron- ics, from conductive lines to solder mask; tens of production printers in several business ar- eas (such as semicon, photovoltaic, printed electronics); and, coming back to today's top- ic, two installed PiXDRO JETx-Ms for solder mask printing in Europe currently running production. Luca Gautero