Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1484263
34 PCB007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2022 etch factor automatic adjustments. ere are a lot of things to get. Johnson: Let's dive into each one of those processes. You have laser drilling onsite at Candor? Patel: Not yet, but we should have it between December and March. Johnson: Who are you looking at? Patel: I've had three test vehicles with three suppliers we're evalu- ating. Johnson: You've done demo tests with them? Patel: Yes. We're at different stages with each of the three vendors. Some lasers have some limitations, and we're hoping to find one laser that can handle all our requirements. We didn't need to use plasma for the blind vias thanks to a percarbonate clean. Overall, the regular accuracy of the laser is great. Eliminat- ing that quality risk is very important, espe- cially when you start building up layers. en every via counts. Johnson: You mentioned using some different soware. What specifically? Patel: We work with Ucamco, which was bought by CIMS network, and they have something called Integr8or as a pre-CAM so- ware which paints things like, "is is a pad, this is a ground area, this is a trace via," into the DPS data. ey have a system built in called the YELO, and they adjust the copper based on a set of rules that you use. If it was like UHDI rules, it goes through and does the best copper adjustments for that particular design density. e idea for us is trying to keep the manufac- turing side of things as consistent as possible. e more variables that you start introducing, the more chance of failures. YELO allows the operators to get in the window of their stan- dard work. at's our goal. Johnson: Moving that design as much as pos- sible into the center of your process window. Patel: Yes. Johnson: Do you do any sort of failure analysis or predictive failure analysis? Patel: We don't drill down to a specific via that will cause a failure or a predictive failure, but we can tell you about aspect ratios and the pos- sibility of adjusting the process. Johnson: Going back to the earlier part of our conversation, Sunny, you were talking about using existing equipment to do handcraed small batch prototypes, but not production. Would you characterize your facility as being in production for UHDI? Patel: No, but we're on the cusp. We have maybe 80% of the tools and the process is in place. But we need one more piece of equip- ment; we need to develop our soware a little more and we will be there. We can do pre- production volumes right now for certain spe- cific designs, but it's not a blanket statement. We still must do some development work with it, make sure that we've got it, manufacture a cou- ple of releases, and then go into production. Johnson: I'm sure that there's some additional training knowledge and expertise that needs to be on hand. Can you quantify that?