Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/636678
February 2016 • The PCB Magazine 43 PCB market actually didn't grow this year—it shrank a bit—so you don't see a big capacity de- mand, only for new factories. But in terms of technology, there are a lot of demands. The big smartphone producers are pushing for 100% in- spection. It wasn't there on the flex boards and it wasn't there in the laser via application. They didn't demand it. They don't only focus on the quality of the product itself. Regardless of the quality, they demand 100% inspection. You also see an additional trend that is re- lated to liability. The end-users are pushing the smartphone producers to push down the liabil- ity in terms of failure. So the entire food chain is trying to protect themselves. The only way to protect yourself is to provide reports that you did 100% inspection and attach the report showing that it's not you, but somebody else in the food chain. One of the challenges for us is that we usu- ally sell our AOI equipment to the production managers. What we're trying to educate the market about is the QC tool, and that salespeo- ple need to be involved. What we provide now is automated reports that are being generated from a complex database that allow you to at- tach a report saying, "Okay, look, for this batch I measured the copper thickness on a specific coupon that the customer designed, and the copper thickness is fine, the critical dimension is fine, and I proactively attached a report." So what we're trying to do is work with QC and also with the end user. We have a long re- lationship with some big end users, and they are actually approaching the PCB producers and saying, "Okay, you have to do 2D or 3D mea- surement and provide me the report on every batch that you send back." Matties: How do you see the marketplace coming up in 2016? Tzhori: Obviously there is a slowdown in Chi- na, over the economy. The PCB industry, spe- cifically the 4G infrastructure, will slow down. I don't know if it's my feeling or based on my experience, but I feel that we are in the bottom now and the market will recover in China. The U.S. is doing relatively okay. Japan is doing so- so. They're moving a lot of production away from Japan to Southeast Asia, but not to China. The Korean market is very soft, but I believe it's just a matter of time until they really recover. So overall I think 2016 will be better than 2015, but marginally. It's not going to be a big jump. Matties: If you look at this show and the people that are here, the activity is good; it looks like equipment is being sold, and the energy is positive. It's not like the crash of late '90s. Tzhori: No doubt the energy is positive. Also in terms of our business, 2015 was much bet- ter compared to 2014, and our focus for 2016 is even better so we don't see any slowdown in our business. We also will take some market share from our competitors, based on technology, and so we feel very comfortable about next year. Matties: Amir, I appreciate you spending time with us and sharing what's going on here. Thank you so much. Tzhori: Sure, thank you very much. PCB Phoenix. CaMtek takes inkjet teChnology into the future