Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1507822
SEPTEMBER 2023 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 33 Johnson: Tell me about the investment and the effort involved with setting up iNPACK. Thanks to the U.S. and European legislation and discussion, advanced packaging is critical to moving forward. You must invest in a substrate-like PCB and packaging solution. Our current setup is for one million modules. Each module can typi- cally replace five or six micro BGAs. If you are looking for form factor, you will see a 40% or more reduction than the current alternative. In terms of volume for military and defense, they need quantities in the tens to hundreds to thousands, but they don't need many mil- lions. is is also the case for medical or indus- trial; those are the projects getting our atten- tion now. e electric vehicle sector and solar power companies are also coming to us for NPI and initial design. If they need mass pro- duction, then we have a solution for them. e NRE will oen be costly because most of the setup in the Far East is for high volume. If you want to develop a module in the Far East, it can be up to $1 million. Now, if you produce millions of these for white goods or mobile, that's acceptable. However, we offer the same proj- ect for up to hundreds of thousands and the flexi- bility to produce initial low-volume quantities of 10,000, 5,000, or even 100. is is the infrastructure and resources currently miss- ing in the States and the EU. Johnson: You mentioned that you have engineering staff for these new capabilities. Do you find that your customers have expertise in their team concerning advanced packaging? No, and this is the big story here. When we used to do PCBs, most of our business was build-to- print. Today, most of the advanced packag- ing knowledge is in the Far East. For advanced packaging, you need more know-how in Israel, Europe, or the U.S. Most of the projects we do today are build-to-spec, not build-to-print because it comprises the packaging design. is is something that the customer can out- source, not just the production or technology capability but also the engineering capability. at is a big difference and a missing link in the Western world regarding advanced packaging engineering. Johnson: If a fabricator wants to move their printed circuit board manufacturing facility into advanced packaging, one of the sig- nificant strategic steps is to find engineers, because transitioning from build-to-print to build-to-spec is a philosophical change. It does require different people. We changed R&D spending. When I joined the company, spending was zero. Today, we spend in the vicinity of $2 million every year on R&D, engi- neering, and design. Some of it is invested in developing the process and technology, but a lot of it is invested in design and technical sup- port to the customer. Johnson: What is your perspective on how large a company would need to be to successfully invest in adding advanced packaging? e government should incentivize companies to get into this technol- ogy because of the shi to bring back chip manufacturing to the U.S. and Europe. PCB shops need to shi their mindset to be substrate manufacturers. e significant change that we made here was different from microelectronics. You can find facilities that will make flip-chip or wire bonding and micro- electronic technology in general. However, you can make a big difference if you can do the substrates and advanced packaging, especially if you have the engineering support. Today, we spend in the vicinity of $2 million every year on R&D, engineering, and design.