Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1453746
FEBRUARY 2022 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 13 away from just the PCB layout, I think we're going to find other benefits for electronics. Matties: I would think that the cost of respins is going to come into play with inflation; people have to do it right the first time. What you're talking about is that, with modeling and pre- dictive engineering, your odds of doing it right the first time substantially increases. If readers are interested in getting into addi- tive, is this something that they bring in and then develop the market, or do they wait for market demand? Is it the chicken and egg? en, if there's a typical fabricator, what equip- ment and training would they have to invest in to become proficient at this? Dunn: I think it's very much the chicken and the egg. PCB fabricators, collectively, are oen hes- itant to make capital investment until there's a proven market. Part of what I do is work with the OEMs and the PCB designers, helping to drive some of that interest in market demand information to the fabricators in the industry. Matties: And how's the response? Dunn: It definitely is cautiously positive. Like I said, some people are jumping in with both feet. Others are waiting for reliability data. "Fabricator, here is my test vehicle. I need you to run these repeatedly and show us these reli- ability results." At the same time, we are devel- oping technology that we're expecting to go to production in the next one to two years. PCB fabricators, collectively, are often hesitant to make capital investment until there's a proven market. Vinson: Yes, it does. We're working with differ- ent types of dielectrics. We have a process we call ELCAT™, which allows us to build up addi- tive traces in very, very fine features. Build- ing them up into cavities that we put into the dielectric allows us to make those very fine. We're also doing additive processes where we can put them on 3D structures. If some- body does a 3D printed dielectric or a molded dielectric, that has something other than a flat surface to be able to build up on that curve sur- face with fully additive process, also has a lot of advantages. Many of these applications don't really require very thick metals, so we can do that quite easily. e ones that do require thicker metals that can also be done, it's just not as common. e thicker metals typically will use semi-additive. Dunn: So oen now, when designers are start- ing to look at this technology, I'm being asked for design rules. Most PCB designers rely on their manufacturers' design rules. We've done that for decades, but I push back on that, try- ing not to set too many design rules too early in this development process because I think that challenges the creativity that you could have and limits some of the benefits beyond just the PCB layout. We worked with one project that started out at eight layers—five signal layers and three power and ground layers. We redesigned that using the A-SAP™ technology and we actu- ally didn't go very aggressively with it. I think we started at a 35-micron line and space and reduced it from eight layers to four—two signal layers and two power ground layers. We did run into the impedance issues that you would expect when you shrink those line widths. So, we redesigned that to 50-micron line and 30-micron space, still using four layers. We then took it a step further and found that if you went from the four-layer and increased it to a six-layer, there were a lot of power consid- erations that could have an impact on the over- all electronics. Taking that thought process