Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1529988
DECEMBER 2024 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 13 ese tools have been in full-use produc- tion for almost 10 years for cell phone displays, solar cells, a variety of RFID tags, antennas, and electronics applications. e soldering piece is what's relatively new. e tools them- selves are TRL 9. We already know what the maintenance costs are, and what service agree- ments look like. All that maturity now comes to the soldering space. Soldering may be a new application, but when customers visit the factory, they see the results of 20 years of development, with tool sets that are multiple generations beyond con- cept. e technology has been continually improved. We've been doing this for a long time now and it's pretty astounding to see their reactions. e soldering application is what's exciting to us. Is it feasible to use both soldering technologies on the same board? Absolutely, once photonic processing is avail- able in the facility, and we see that type of use with customers as they run cases through this process. Maybe the test case is a product they've been producing for a satisfied client, but they need to take out a half-penny of cost per board. Do they need to change one of the components to make it higher performance, or add some functionality to an existing board through low temperature components? Maybe they need to increase throughput but don't have room for another long oven, they're removing some packaging around the component to create a slightly smaller total box size, or they're shav- ing the board thickness. Our tools have been used in all these scenarios. Now they can take that same board and put in these additional components. We can mask the rest of the board, so it doesn't even see the light. At a rate of a second or two per board, when loaded on a cassette, we can fire these things through the flash lamp almost like a deck of cards. ink of this as a secondary step that takes very little time and energy but can add tremendous value for their customer. You have been researching where you thought the applications were, and where you actually found applications. Did they line up, or did you find a Venn diagram comprised of two separate circles? Where we thought we would get good align- ment—battery use and flexible substrates— is where we see a one-to-one alignment. at has been excellent. Another hot topic has been wearables. Now, my sense is that the wearables community has been trying to understand the functionality necessary to create a "buy me now" proposition with customers. We've worked with organic-inorganic com- binations, and another idea extends that a step further: biological-type materials such as enzymes on chips, lab on chip, and so forth. ese are another type of hybrid devices, which likely would not be able to withstand a jour- ney through a reflow oven, but still need to be bonded using electronics best practices to the circuit materials. Photonic soldering can do this work. e total exposure time is very short, and that changes how these materials can be used. Are wearables still looking for that killer app? Yes, I think so. As that market matures, I con- tinue to throw these advanced application teasers out there (and maybe this is just a per- sonal project of mine). Even though both are illuminated by the process- ing flash, the temperature rise of the solder is faster than that of the substrate due to the higher optical absorption of the solder. The solder will melt and reflow before the substrate is damaged.