Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1525368
AUGUST 2024 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 13 adjustments in real-time wasn't working prop- erly. e probes were fouled, and no one was checking them. It turned out that the electro- less copper controller wasn't even zeroed in and maintained. So, I asked, "How do we even know where your processes are?" ey had no answer, which surprised me for a $15 million company. ey had made costly mistakes like not checking their probes on their electroless copper controller. Automating a facility with controls is very simple. At the very least, you should have cyclic voltametric analysis on the electrolytic copper plating solution. You'll spend about $2,000 for it, but you should be doing it because we're not making six-layer boards with 0.030" holes anymore. LaRont: What is the root cause of that sit- uation? Why aren't fabricators doing what seems to be so simple and so advantageous toward their quality and yields? PCB fabricators have a fundamental lack of understanding between the chemistry and the reliability. It is more than controlling the cop- per ions and the sulfuric acid. When you're not controlling the organic addition agents, your physical properties will go out of control. Obviously, the suppliers understand it. Some of the larger fabricators understand it too. But most small- to medium-sized fabricators still use empirical controls, like doing a bath anal- ysis once every four hours. ey look at the boards coming out of the line and make the assessment based on whether the operator feels the boards look good or not. at doesn't cut it anymore; it's not a quality control process you want to share with your customers. ese folks are at a ree Sigma vs. Six Sigma process con- trol point. Today, you have to be Six Sigma. You must continuously improve and focus on reduc- ing defects, or you will no longer be around. ere will always be variability in your pro- cesses, but that variability must be kept within a manageable range, and you must understand that variability. e process window is not as wide as it was 10 years ago. Instead of a thou- sand cycles to product failure, the customer goes to 2,000 cycles. We need to have 24/7 per- formance. We can't afford to fail. ese boards we're building in the U.S. will get much more scrutiny from the OEM.