Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1424540
82 SMT007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2021 depending on your flow through your line. at gives you not only efficiency in the capital cost, but in manufacturing. What's interesting is that there is much more emphasis on physi- cal space taken. e most precious commodity at most electronic factories is floor space. We help customers with that return on in- vestment. Typically, that's measured in time, or by the cost of the system. But we're deliv- ering a return on investment, in many cases, in less than a year. Compared to the amortization period that finance typically uses, which is five or even seven years, that's not bad for a piece of capital equipment. at means aer that pe- riod (less than one year), aer getting back the return on investment made on the i7090, test costs now become profit margin. Johnson: Of course, you face some interesting challenges with this sort of an application being very parallel. You mentioned that some of the value add to a facility could be fewer test ma- chines, which would normally indicate a bottle- neck, but when you're doing the kind of preven- tative maintenance, analysis, and early warning, it's no longer a bottleneck. It is a throughput. Cain: at's correct. roughput and yield. We've helped manufacturers achieve literal- ly greater than 99% yield. at is not easy in printed circuit assemblies. It's doable, but that is not simple. ey require a huge investment of continuous improvement. Johnson: Where do customers start to improve yield? Cain: Most people will say that they have 90% yield. Of course, yield is a funny thing as it de- pends on where you measure it. Are you mea- suring it at the point that the boards were com- ing, ready to be turned on or tested? As an as- sembly? ere are other test stages prior to that. ere's no doubt about that, and there are test stages aer that, but if you look at the point where they come out of the reflow oven, or they have most of the parts assembled and soldered onto the board on a printed circuit assembly, most people would probably have a realistic yield of 70–80%, and that's not too bad. Now they'll say it's higher, because they'll measure it at a later stage. For 98%, that means, likely, one out of 400 boards failed. You must wait a half hour for that to occur and if you think about that, that's a high volume into fac- toring a line. Again, not everybody needs to get to that yield. We're not trying to get everybody to 99%, because that requires a very large invest- ment, and it must match your business out- come. We're just trying to give them the tools to match their situation. Johnson: It's interesting about getting 99% yield because once you're doing that, it usually comes with even tighter tolerance, and results more centered in the process window, which then sets you up for longevity of your prod- uct in the field. It's just a better-quality prod- uct overall. Cain: Correct. Some companies specialize in that kind of perspective. at's how they're dif- ferentiating in the market. You must pick the business outcomes that are most important to your business. What are the tools you will use to get there quicker and sustain it at a very ef- ficient level? Johnson: What advice do you have for those who are manufacturing and might need mas- sively parallel testing? Also, what advice do you have for the manufacturers who are look- The most precious commodity at most electronic factories is floor space.