Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1513827
34 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2024 Does robotics play a part in repair at this point? Patten: A little. I have robotic placement machines, balling machines, and milling, but it must be a high quantity to afford to program the robotics. How oen do you see high quan- tity in rework and repair? e highest quantity that I've seen are in the thousands, not tens or hundreds of thousands. As you mentioned, if you have a problem that big, you've got a big problem. Patten: I guess we could do robotic removal if it's a simple thing, like robotic epoxies. It's not prevalent in the repair world. To make the cap- ital investment work, you need to be doing it a lot and know more is coming. Just because new technology machines are available, which are exciting to a geek like me, doesn't mean we have to get it. e costs are too prohibitive. What do you see with the emergence of advanced packaging? We're hearing BGAs as much as 100 millimeters per side. Patten: We are absolutely at the razor's edge of Moore's law. Trust me, it is getting too small to repair. ey do not expect these to ever be removed. As soon as you add components onto a component, and if you're using heat or anything like that, everything is out the win- dow. We're still having success with it in very controlled environments, but the smaller they get—and the package-on-package is getting more difficult when it's all built into the BGA or the package—it's getting close to impossible to repair some of the latest packages. What are some of the other challenges you're seeing with respect to efficient repair work? Patten: Some of the biggest challenges in start- ing and finishing projects have nothing to do with the engineer or the project itself; it's the internal politics of the company that is send- ing things to us a certain way. e most logi- cal reason for that would be a chain of com- mand—for example, devices can't go out of the company's hands, but customers bring devices in with them. We've worked on them with the company representative in front of us, or we've gone out in the field and advised. Otherwise, it's things like somebody want- ing to change the due date aer the deal is done because the marketing department found out and now they're asking us, "If you can do 10 in a week, then we'd like 100 the week aer, and we'd like 10,000, the week aer that." It's that kind of communication. e purchasing agents sometimes don't understand what the engi- neers are working on, and management might not understand the purchasing role. ere can be multiple conflicts trying to solve the prob- lem they're facing. e world does not want to even think about us unless they have a problem. Thanks for taking the time to speak with me. Bell: ank you, Nolan. SMT007 Nash Bell