Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1361971
80 PCB007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2021 more and more customers need to miniaturize their products and one of their constraints is the size of the electronics. A number of tech- nologies and industries were developed in the last 10 to 15 years to "bridge the gaps" between the die, the chip, and the semiconductor and the PCB itself. When you think about it, the semi- conductor industry fol- lows Moore's law, making things smaller at an expo- nential pace whilst leav- ing the PCB behind. e first solution for this gap was the creation of the IC/substrates industry that took some processes from the semiconductors combined with processes and materials from the PCB production. What we figured out is that we can save many headaches for our customers by creating 1-mil line and space, and by that, simplify the design of the system along with promoting its minia- turization. For example, smaller sensors can help medical companies that work with us— especially ones that produce systems for sur- gery and other invasive devices; most of them are using FPC (ultra-flex PCB) which they de- sign with us and buy from us. We also found out that the aerospace industry wants miniaturiza- tion to reduce the loss of signals in dB per mil. As long as the line and space is smaller and fine- shaped, then the loss will be lower. We under- stood that this 1-mil line/space capability will allow us not only to support customers who want to minimize their product, whether it's in aerospace, medical, or military, but also im- prove the performance of their systems. Johnson: As you made your roadmap, un- doubtedly you found gaps between what you can do now and what you needed to achieve to be able to fulfill your customers' requests. How did you invest? Was it equipment, staffing, fa- cilities? Eliya: Yes. First, it's very easy to buy an off- the-shelf machine that was designed to make a particular product. It is more complicated when you need the machinery and process- es that match the full range of your products, your R&D activity, plus future products. We al- ready invested two, three years ago in a very special etching and developer system to create the dense and fine line. Our next gap was the lithography process, and without getting into everything we did to close this gap, I will say that we purchased an LDI with the wavelength to create 18 microns line and space. And when, in the future, customers will want a 20-micron line and space, it's achievable. In fact, we are al- ready running a product with 20-micron lines with this machinery. e most challenging and expensive part was the wet processes. It's a 22-meter-long auto- matic machine for etching the copper and de- veloping and stripping the photoresist. Along- side the machine and the process, we had to re- place our regular photoresist and upgrade to a photoresist that can support a 1-mil line and space or 20-micron line and space, and that can be sensitive enough for the wavelength that the LDI creates. is also changed our vendors' base. When we went to the market with this pro- cess and took it to a medical customer, they designed a flex board that had those fine lines, 20- or 25-micron lines and space. Now we will have not only the production but the OEM feedback. Johnson: It sounds to me like your customers were quite involved in defining your process? Eliya: Of course. Our customers see us as an integral part of the design and production for their products, so when they want to have a better and smaller system they need us to have better capabilities. is is the relationship we hold with our long-term customers. We have customers from aerospace in the U.S. who have been working with us for 25-30 years. We have Yaad Eliya