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50 I-CONNECT007 MAGAZINE I SEPTEMBER 2026 Marcy LaRont: Laurent, tell me about the work SCHMID is doing in advanced manufacturing. What are you work- ing on? Laurent Nicolet: There are two significant things that are worth talking about. One is our em- bedded trace process for PCBs, though we are still quite early in the game in terms of industry readi- ness for adoption. The other has to do with the tremen- dous amount of interest we are seeing in redistribution layers (RDL), the microscopic network of fine copper wiring built directly onto a glass substrate or glass core, and photo-imageable poly- imide (PID) material for panel leveling, which is easier to proceed through a lithography process than ABF, although it has some material issues compared to ABF. Our InfinityLine C+ is a vertical rotating wet- processing cluster system designed specifically for high density panel-level packaging (PLP), in that it treats both sides of HDI PCB or substrate simulta- neously. We are going close to the submicron level: 0.8-micron vias and 1-micron line-and-space. That is also quite a significant development for the industry right now. What are some of the technical nuances specific to panel-level packaging and working with glass substrates? When working with these glass-core substrates, you are ultimately looking at a thickness of 0.8 to 1.10 millimeters. Because it is glass, the handling is more delicate. For PLP you have material thickness- es up to 6 millimeters, including carrier systems, and weights up to 4 or 5 kilograms, with warpage up to 4–6 millimeters. Because of these intense physical dimensions, handling the material safely through the machine becomes incredibly critical. The working environment for PLP is approaching semiconductor-grade levels. These process tech- nologies are beginning to show similarities. This also means we are now playing in an ISO Class 5 clean environment. The filtration of the solu- tions, liquid, in use in these tools needs to have filtration down to 0.05 µm. Our machines will be modified to meet ISO Class 5 standards. We have also created a new product called QuantumLine, a manufacturing equipment plat- form designed specifically for producing next-generation glass- core substrates for advanced semi- conductor packaging. It is built to run in a Class 5 cleanroom and is aimed at manufacturing quantum-level computing. Where are you primarily seeing this activity and interest? There is significant demand in Asia. We recently de- livered lines for panel-level packaging: one Infinity- Line C+ rotating with six chambers that can handle five different processes, one InfinityLine C+ with four chambers handling four different processes, and two InfinityLine H+ horizontal lines for stripping and cleaning processes. We just delivered nine lines in Texas for panel- level packaging, along with customized features for what this company wants to do, but they are not yet at cleanroom level 5, only ISO 6. By contrast, the projects we have in Asia are for cleanroom environments and are all for panel processing, which requires high levels of cleaning at every process step. We have also been working with the chemistry suppliers for the InfinityLine C+ to adapt the chem- istry to this type of tool. As you said, worlds are coming together as tech- nology is now pushing us toward semiconduc- tor manufacturing processes. Is this where glass comes in? Yes, panel processing and panel leveling are an important focus point right now. The next most im- portant area is the glass substrate. We are invest- ing in developing tools for processing glass sub- strates and glass interposers. We are also seeing a development in the mindset around it. At first, people thought it would be quite easy to laser drill L a u re nt N i c o l et