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88 SMT Magazine • November 2016 Welcome Dinner and golf tournament will pro- vide abundant opportunities to network with peers in a relaxed environment. Yu: What can attendees expect at this show re- garding current hot-button issues, such as the en- vironment, smart manufacturing, and automotive electronics? Chan: As a leading indicator of industry devel- opment, we follow market trends and stay on top of technology breakthroughs and innova- tions. Green development is still a sustainable topic in the industry and green production has increasingly become a typical configuration for PCB manufacturing. This year, the show's Green Pavilion will continue to provide the in- dustry with a whole host of innovative green energy technology, new materials, and energy- saving production methods, to help enterprises carry out greener production. To promote Industry 4.0 and Made in Chi- na 2025, and to strengthen our understanding of smart production, the Smart Automation Pa- vilion will be further enhanced this year to offer the latest automation equipment, technologies, and effective solutions that will help the indus- try move toward intelligent production and re- duce labor cost. The International Technical Conference will be held concurrently at the show, with industry experts sharing their insights on latest issues or solutions. Details will be announced soon. Yu: Does PCB production technology development face any serious challenges today? What technology breakthroughs are you looking forward to seeing? Chan: As the value-add of electronic products has increased, circuit board production technol- ogy is facing different challenges. From the HDI board point of view, as customer requirements and technology keep improving, manufacturers can now make 3+N+3 HDI boards, and 4+N+4 HDI boards are already on the way. After press- ing the PCB more than three times, mostly be- cause of alignment problems, the yield decreas- es. After multiple pressing, the movement be- tween layers increases, posing a great challenge to the material. On top of this, circuit boards to- day are more sophisticated and signal transmis- sions are faster, requiring more accurate routing of boards. High-end boards now use semi-addi- tive methods for production, which poses an- other challenge for HDI board production. As the circuit boards get smaller and more compli- cated, width and spacing will become even nar- rower, from the current 50 microns to 25 mi- crons, and production yield of mobile phone PCBs will face a great challenge. From the multilayer board point of view, high-frequency boards are facing signal integ- rity challenges. With the advent of 5G, rout- ers and base stations' transmission speeds are expected to increase; in this case, material re- quirements and Df/Dk requirements are facing huge challenges. Circuit boards for supercom- puters have as many as 40–50 layers. By using sequential lamination method, the alignment and drilling of the PCB and the connection of the inner hole of the HDI board are the tech- HKPCA & IPC SHOW PREVIEW Daniel Chan