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58 SMT007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2021 partners and the local community. As well as their training at GreenSource, new team mem- bers would be encouraged to work within SEL to understand the needs and constraints of upstream and downstream customers. Vicor Corporation G r e e n S o u r c e ' s second turnkey client was Vicor Corporation, ( w i t h h e a d q u a r t e r s in Andover, Massa- chusetts), designer s and manufacturers of modular power com- ponents. The presen- ta t i o n w a s g i v e n b y Vicor's senior strategic sourcing manager Jeff LeBlanc. He explained that Vicor was an engi- neering-driven operation with a history of vertical integration and a fully automated manufacturing environment. ere was a goal to develop competences aligned with the company strategy and a willingness to develop and invest in resources, with a focus on continued automation and improvement, along with a need for flexibility. Extensive use of business intelligence throughout the manu- facturing process enabled a significant reduc- tion in cycle time. Vicor built a large mix of product, more than 9,000 active models with many common platforms and components, and all new designs were built on the produc- tion line. "So why is a power-solution manufacturer talking at an IPC summit about plating integra- tion?" LeBlanc asked. "Why do you or anyone want to get into plating? Why not continue to partner/outsource these operations?" Looking at the product going forward, Vicor's next generation and future architecture was built on the foundation of plating, imag- ing, and etching defined features. Processes became part of the product portfolio offering. So, it was not considered a return-on-invest- ment discussion but more a risk of not invest- ing in capability and what that would mean to Vicor's future portfolio, together with the risks to revenue if there were any gaps in the supply chain. Another consideration was that Vicor's products were not traditional and did not nec- essarily fit into a conventional PCB operation. ere had already been a strategic alignment with GreenSource and a lot of development from which Vicor could leverage. One of the benefits of working with GreenSource and AWP was the knowledge that the significant amount of engineering involved would not fit well into a high-volume PCB operation and would be better carried out internally. And lastly, the process development going forward would enable new-technology product to be brought to market faster, in line with Vicor's strategy to accelerate NPI, to be a pioneer, to be first-to-market and to be fully automated. Looking at Vicor's surface-mount chip tech- nology, the growth rate had been exponential with main markets being in computing, auto- motive, and advanced industrial applications. Other areas of market development included defence, aerospace, and artificial intelligence, all focused on high-end power with high effi- ciency and low thermal output. LeBlanc described the 90,000 square foot expansion plan for manufacturing at the Ando- ver facility, which now incorporated a large area committed to the plating cell, with a combina- tion of mechanical and laser drilling, thickness capability from 0.05 mm to 8 mm, weight up to 10kg, and a capacity of up 8.8 panel square feet per week. Construction was in progress…oh, the joy of building in New England in the winter-time! As Gene Weiner brought the session to a close, he agreed that yes, there is definitely an exciting future for this new generation of vertical integration, led by visionaries like Alex Stepinski. SMT007 This article originally appeared in the March 2021 issue of Real Time with... IPC Show & Tell Magazine. Jeff LeBlanc