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10 PCB007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2023 Feature Article by Alex Stepinski STEPINSKI GROUP e registration of copper features, both to interconnects and to each other, is a topic about which documented cases in the public space are less than abundant, other than indi- vidual supplier marketing with minimal back- up data. Traditionally, this area is known to individual fabs as it involves multiple processes with a lot of variation in equipment makes/ models, and even base materials between dif- ferent shops. is article endeavors to docu- ment the current Pareto frontier of registration system design architecture for use by PCB fab engineers. In g e n e r a l , r e g i s t r a t i o n s y s te m d e s i g n involves managing the interaction of the bill of materials and the bill of process relative to feature alignment. e bill of process involves the equipment, associated procedures, and sequence of operations. e bill of materials involves the materials and tooling files speci- fied in the ERP documentation. e bill of process steps can be broken into three categories: 1. Compensation and measurement steps (imaging, drilling, punching, mechanical alignment of masks, alignment of inner layers, AOI). 2. Inelastic process steps (plating, multilayer lamination, mechanical scrubbing, >Tg bakes). 3. Elastic and noise steps (panel handling, edge machining, dry film lamination, plasma, micro-etching, etc.) Recent Practices in PCB Fab Registration System Architecture