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AUGUST 2026 I I-CONNECT007 MAGAZINE 57 Figure 2: Test results, demonstrating that the more a slot resembles a circle, the shorter the plating "throw" capability, and that the longer the slot, the easier it is to plate. 2 equipment or processes from those used in tradi- tional PCB fabrication for drilling/routing or plating. The slot system in VeCS is created through stan- dard CNC drilling, or micromachining to create the specific shape at different slot depths for VeCS-1 (blind vias) and VeCS-2 (buried vias) connections. In his 2019 article, 3 he acknowledged that this idea was not completely new, but there was limited research available, which he sought to rectify with his work: "Cutting holes into multiple sections has been on the research and development agenda of the interconnect industry for some decades, how- ever, work to turn the technique into a process has not been successful to date." He addressed the challenge of CAF migration in bringing vias and microvias closer together and stated that forming slots reduces or eliminates this potential defect. He also stipulated that this method may require more lines of code than some older CNC machines can handle and that achieving good depth control remains a challenge. By 2021, Joe Dickson of Wus stated that most CAD programs had caught up and could provide the necessary software support for VeCS programming, and that the bigger issue was simply learning how best to use VeCS concepts. It is noteworthy to mention that Joan acknowl- edged that it took time for NextGin and Wus to per- fect their cross routing technique, and that alternate drill or rout bits may be required for the intended result. Also, via fill prior to routing is a critical part of this process. In the early stages of R&D and testing with a handful of OEMs and fabricators at that time, results showed a significant cost reduction between 15– 40% when VeCS was employed due to the reduc- tion in lamination cycles and use of more standard materials. CNC drill/rout time remains significant, creating a potential process bottleneck, but newer VeCS techniques (VeCS-R, VeCS-X) have been added to the VeCS profile to increase speeds. Though researchers initially believed cost would be the key driver to more substantial adoption of VeCS technology, that has not been the case. There remains a strong interest in any cost savings to be Figure 3: Practical examples of plating deep blind structures with VeCS. 2