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54 I-CONNECT007 I REAL TIME WITH... IPC APEX EXPO 2023 SHOW & TELL MAGAZINE 54 I-CONNECT007 I REAL TIME WITH... IPC APEX EXPO 2023 SHOW & TELL MAGAZINE Patrick Stockbruegger Demystifying Laser Technology Nolan Johnson speaks with Patrick Stock- bruegger of LPKF Laser & Electronics AG, whose paper, "Temperature Behavior of FR4 Substrates When Processing During Laser Depaneling," co-authored by Stephan Schmidt of LPKF Laser & Electronics Inc, won the Best Technical Paper award in the NextGen category at IPC APEX EXPO 2023. His paper demonstrated that the risks of heat damage to both FR-4 substrates and components during laser depaneling may not be as high as once thought, a finding he believes could poten- tially make laser technology more accessible in a wider range of applications. Patrick, congratulations. You are the recipient of one of the awards for Best Technical Paper this year at IPC APEX EXPO 2023. Yes, thank you very much. I'm very honored that I got awarded for this paper. So well appre- ciated. You mentioned that this is your first paper at IPC APEX EXPO. Tell me about your paper. What was the research that you presented? The topic of our paper was temperature behav- ior of FR-4 substrates during laser depaneling. We measured the temperature during pro- cessing at different distances to the cutting channel to see what kind of behavior the tem- perature has in the substrate; we integrated thermocouple elements into the substrate and then got a good measure of the temperature at each distance. We did this for different circumstances. We tested different laser variants because results can vary depending on whether you're using UV or green wavelength, or different laser pow- ers. The paper shows that what is also special about basic planning is that it is very versatile. You can cut very clean on the one hand, but on the other hand, you can also cut very fast. Also, we added a view of the clean cuts and the fast cuts on both sides because usually, we are only looking at the temperature behavior. If you are somewhere in between, you will also be some- where in between those temperatures we mea- sured, and that's a very interesting topic. Tell me a little bit about your methods. How did you set up your tests? Interview by Nolan Johnson