Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1529411
NOVEMBER 2024 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 9 Marcy LaRont is the editor of PCB007 Magazine. Marcy started her career in PCBs in 1993 and brings a wide array of business experience and perspective to I-Connect007. To contact Marcy, click here. of ICAPE, who provides an overview of the things in a PCB design that can significantly affect cost. Matt Stevenson of ASC Sunstone adds to this discussion by providing a customer case example. Hitting the manufacturing floor, Dr. Pat Valentine of Uyemura discusses the value of process yield statistics as powerful tools that help an organization see how defects impact their scrap, rework, and ultimately customer satisfaction, and cites that "companies operating at a three-sigma quality level can spend about 25% of their annual sales remediating poor quality costs." Happy Holden also takes us through first-pass yields. Of course, there is more to one's total product cost and total cost to operate than just what is encompassed on the manufacturing shop floor. Dan Beaulieu drills down on the intangible costs in your business that can make or break you. is month our book excerpt is from Happy's, 24 Essential Skills for Engineers, where he dives into knowing your break-even costs. Finally, Doug Palladino, also of ASC Sunstone, takes us through the basics of depreciation, or as I like to call it, "depreciation for dummies" (or non-accounting people). e alternate metallization conversation continues in my interview with Mike Carano and Happy Holden, discussing whether the time for tin-nickel as a surface finish has finally come. Lastly, Manfred Huschka talks about China Plus One in the first of a two-part series, entertaining the question, "Does China Plus One Really Work?" Now fully immersed in the fall season and end-of-the-year holidays, we're already looking ahead to a brand new year. A hard look at real costs seems wholly appropriate. So, let's dig in. PCB007 A recently developed block copolymer could help push the limits of integration and miniaturization in semiconductor manufacturing, report scientists in Tokyo Tech and TOK. Chemically tailored for reliable directed self- assembly, the proposed compound can arrange itself into perpendicular lamellar structures whose half-pitch width is less than 10 nanometers, outperforming conventional and widely used block copolymers. Miniaturization is one of the fundamental qualities of modern electronics and is largely responsible for the incredible increments in performance witnessed over the past decades. To keep this momentum going, it is necessary to achieve circuit patterns finer than the existing ones on semiconductor chips, which are a crucial part of all electronic devices. Some experts estimate that, by 2037, the smallest distance between features in semiconductor devices, known as 'half-pitch,' will need to be as small as 8 nm to support next- generation electronics, emphasizing the need for advancements in lithographic processes (method of creating highly complex circuit patterns on semiconductor parts). (Source: Tokyo Institute of Technology) Breakthrough in Semiconductor Patterning: New Block Copolymer Achieves 7.6 nm Line Width