Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1398328
44 SMT007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2021 Feature Interview Excerpt from the I-Connect007 Editorial Team In a recent discussion with John Vaughan and Kelly Dack (see page 20), we explored how parts availability information can rever- berate back to the design team in unexpected ways. Dack starts this topic by pointing out a real-world situation that happens almost daily at a production EMS facility. In this part of the interview, Dack details how a parts availabil- ity issue can restart the design all the way back with the OEM design team. Barry Matties: Kelly, you've been on the design side, and you've probably been in both circum- stances where you've known the fabricator and where you have not known the fabricator at the beginning of the design process. What's the contrast between those two? Kelly Dack: e contrast is the different levels of communication. When I say communication, I mean documentation. I've got a story that will explain the chal- lenge. ere's a big shortage in the supply chains right now forcing us to swap out chips. Chips are becoming unavailable. In the EMS industry, there is a lot of redesign required because of chip availability issues. A board that's been designed for five or eight years around a chip packaged in a quad-flatpack is suddenly unavailable and the only replace- ment may be a half millimeter pitch BGA. An outside designer, typically, will incorpo- rate that new half millimeter pitch BGA into the existing design and lo and behold, they have to use a different scale in their routing technology. e designer takes the existing 0.006" wide line and reduces it to get it down to 3.5 mil to break out of the BGA. at's fine; it looks great on the screen. However, the fabricator, who has been building this board for years and years, doesn't have the level of outer layer capability for print, etch, and plate of a three and a half mil line. Now what? at's the prob- lem. e designer says, "Any of our bare board prototype suppliers can do that." Which is true. e existing offshore supplier, however, cannot. is is the communication element. We must figure out a viable solution for the disconnect The EMS/Designer Relationship: Kelly's Story Kelly Dack