Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1520956
12 PCB007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2024 a higher ratio of additive plating than histori- cally has been commonly experienced in the market. e other aspect is 3D printing, an additive method that's been growing in recent years. We started talking about solder mask 20 years ago. Finally, some companies are lead- ing the way in advanced 3D printing of solder mask. Now, we are also starting to see additive in materials in conductive and dielectric layers. ere are a host of different additive process- ing methods being applied today. ere is still a lot of due diligence that needs to be done. In 2013, I helped build the first additive fac- tory globally. It was 100% inkjet for resists and solder mask. No one has done a fully additive facility since that time. It worked very well for low-tech products. e challenge was that the process window was very small and required a lot of customization. Unfortunately, that ink- jet supplier went out of business years later because nobody else could hold the process window that tightly without an inline process like ours. To really have a fully additive process, and not just 3D printing, you need a lot of pro- cess control that we don't generally have in the market. Barry Matties: It seems like you are describ- ing a process engineer, someone who pays close attention to monitoring and controlling processes. Do you see a lack of process engineers? What I am talking about with the addi- tive factory example is a case study from 10 years ago. A lot of process development was needed to identify the process control specifications. Once that was done, we were able to hold the specifications without significant supervision. Unfortunately, a lot of what we learned back then relative to addi- tive is lost knowledge. From what I've seen in the market, people are relearning many of those lessons now. Adoption is still in its infancy, but I am happy to see it finally pick- ing up. In addition to inkjet solder mask, there are electrochemical methods for 3D printing. One is a light-based system known as laser-induced forward thrust (LIFT). is was from a com- pany in Israel that was printing with a laser. ey would coat material on a carrier and hit it from the backside with a laser, which determines the resolution and volume of the drop. e smaller the spot size in the laser, the higher the resolution. Lasers are fast. is same gentleman invented a copper additive process for the company he worked for at the time. He was interested in the board fab side of things but the barriers to entry were too high. So much material science still needs to be developed. So, there is the material aspect, the specifi- cation aspect, and the communication plan to educate customers that the product will look a little different than the product manufactured through the traditional subtractive processes. But potentially, there are so many gains. e pluses far outweigh the minuses. Matties: Inkjet technology is where this is going. e actual board buildup is more complicated, but yes. Alex Stepinski