Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1453746
FEBRUARY 2022 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 33 the U.S. will remain woe- fully dependent on Asia for the advanced substrates, cir- cuit boards, materials, chem- istries, recipes, processes, and R&D necessary to be globally competitive. e U.S. govern- ment should be saying, "We must have the capability to wholly manufacture in Amer- ica what we can imagine and design in America." Matties: So then, does the gov- ernment have a role to play? Brassard: Yes, the U.S. government will very likely be required to bootstrap U.S. PCB and substrate manufacturers at a cost somewhere between $1-3 billion in funding to help close the gap with Asia. e real question is, when will the U.S. government and Department of Defense figure this out and start looking at the entire electronics ecosystem and not just the chips? Matties: How about the individual board shops? LaBeau: With respect to individual PCB manu- facturers venturing into additive technologies, it really depends on the interests, financial position, workforce, and existing capabilities of each shop. It's important to understand that small-to-medium-sized PCB shops will never mass produce the interposers used with high- volume computing microelectronics, CPUs, or GPUs. is is a billion-dollar venture as IPC has explained. However, production of high- mix, low-to-medium volume organic sub- strates used with OEM ASIC chips packaged onto organic substrates is well within reach of those manufacturers who catch the substrate bug. ink microelectronics advanced pack- aging. OEMs are already scouring the coun- tryside in search of domestically produced IC substrates. Brassard: For those manu- facturers who do not catch the substrate bug, which will be many if not most, noth- ing is necessarily lost. e demand for domestically pro- duced PCBs, at least the more advanced technologies, is off the charts and is likely to stay this way for many years to come, with the most acute imbalances between supply and demand being the very complex PCBs for next-gen- eration systems. Elegant tech- nologies such as A-SAP allow traditional PCB manufacturers to push down to 18-microns with relative ease and Merck's Ormet allows PCB complexity to soar while significantly reducing manufacturing com- plexity. ese non-traditional manufacturing technologies are game changers for PCB shops and the United States. To give domestic PCB shops and the domestic electronics industry a fighting chance, the U.S. government needs to kickstart the industry by enacting favorable legislation. en let econom- ics take it from there—if the government wants to be able to attach the chips to something with- out sourcing or going outside the country. As the Printed Circuit Board Association of Amer- ica teaches, "chips don't float" in thin air. Matties: e PCBAA is driving some of this awareness in Washington now. Are you part of that and is that part of the impetus? Brassard: Yes, we are a founding member of the PCBAA which is a new association laser- focused on rebuilding the PCB industry in America, our industry. e member compa- nies of the PCBAA, which include a rapidly growing list of PCB manufacturers and PCB supply chain companies, are committed to raising awareness and driving a resurgence of PCB manufacturing in the United States. Meredith LaBeau