Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1509873
OCTOBER 2023 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 15 ture and its effect on subsequent processing. It's very interesting. If you know the people involved, from the ones who make the copper foil to the end fab and all the chemical suppli- ers along the way, you realize how little control there is over this throughout the whole indus- try to achieve target performance. Shaughnessy: I always thought copper grain structure wasn't something that you really worried about unless you were working at super high speeds or RF. Sure, but when you look at the electronics mar- ket that advanced economies need to service worldwide, it's all getting pretty fast. Every- thing is spec'd this way more and more. One other aspect is when they have these microvia failures, nobody really looks at the copper grain structure and it's one of the most important variables that's been largely neglected (i.e., low hanging fruit). ere are no industry stan- dards for the modern require- ments. ere is all this infor- mation out there that nobody is aware of. How do you measure it? Does anybody measure it properly? If you want to have high reliability, HDI, and signal integrity, you really need a way to mea- sure copper grain structure and interface qual- ity. It can mean an order of magnitude or more difference in bond strength. Matties: What do you think is the greatest opportunity for fabricators today? e greatest opportunities today are in manu- facturing efficiencies. We have very low manu- facturing efficiencies in the U.S. Matties: It's not like we have to reinvent the wheel to achieve efficiency. There are a lot of roadmaps out there that could offer a place to start, and the 80/20 rule probably applies here too. Sure. e biggest thing I see lacking is bench- marking; it's really poor. I travel a lot world- wide (46,000 miles in September alone), and I see very few folks from companies in the United States trying to learn the best new ideas, and how to do new things. It's always the same couple of companies and mostly non-techni- cal folks (heads of purchasing or non-technical execs, mainly) looking for deals (buying more on price vs. lifecycle value). You see a lot of blind convergence and copying, and supplier reliance as well for stuff that should not be controlled by suppliers. You also see bubbles of people reinventing easily procured solu- tions at high cost. As Gen. Patton once said, "If everyone thinks the same way, someone is not thinking." In my opinion, this just shows us that the U.S. PCB market is a cap- tive market supporting the Department of Defense, and they're not really moti- vated to go to best practices because they have no reason to. ey just match expecta- tions as the defense folks do not benchmark in a sufficiently detailed way either; it is all relative. e taxpayers are paying for it all. We should at least benchmark the detailed cost efficiencies with Asia at ground level and have a roadmap to get to some targets in order to get awards. So far, the benchmarking seems to be only at 30,000 feet or higher with many degrees of sep- aration, and oen without domain expertise. Matties: The other side is that for the people who want great products, companies are just building captive facilities. Right, due to frustration with the market mostly. ey all tried to procure from the mar- ket first. Matties: It's always a pleasure, Alex. Thanks so much. ank you all. PCB007 The biggest thing I see lacking is benchmarking; it's really poor.