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10 The PCB Magazine • November 2016 Patricia Goldman is a 30+ year veteran of the PCB industry, with experience in a variety of areas, including R&D of imaging technolo- gies, wet process engineering, and sales and marketing of PWB chem- istry. Active with IPC since 1981, Goldman has chaired numerous committees and served as TAEC chairman, and is also the co- author of numerous technical papers. To contact Goldman, click here. Pointers column, Mike Jennings and Patrick Riechel of ESI provide a step-by-step guide for installing laser equipment, from transportation and initial setup through verification testing and initial operation. And now on a rather sad note, we include Karl Dietz's very last regular column, number 225. Karl has been such a (wonderful) fixture in our magazine and we will certainly miss his insight into so many varied subjects. He prom- ises to be back on occasion; I truly hope that he finds many topics to pique his interest and in- spire him to write more columns over the next years. Thanks so much, Karl. We will miss you! And that brings us to Barry Lee Cohen and his latest Launch Letters. This month, Barry writes about trade shows—appropriate as the season is almost upon us. He offers much useful and ex - pert advice on graphics as well as other media for your booth. I can fully attest to Barry's expertise, having worked with him for several years at En- thone. His suggestions are well worth following. And there you have it. Much meat for the te- chies plus some tidbits for others in your organi- zation. Want more assembly-related info? Then by all means check out SMT Magazine. Looking for articles and info on PCB design? Then open a few issues of The PCB Design Magazine. Next month our topic is sales and market- ing. We will be bringing you insightful articles and columns to help get you ready for the New Year. Hit this subscribe link to get any or all of these magazines delivered right to your email inbox—and while there, make sure you are get- ting our Daily Newsletter as well. See you all next month! PCB In a final question, we asked, "Are you aware of landless vias?" About 57% of respondents an- swered yes, which was good news considering we published an article on that subject just a few months ago. More interesting was the fol- low-up response on how often they were used. Roughly 95% said never, with a few mentioning ongoing evaluations and several bringing up re- liability concerns. I personally know of two PCB facilities that can absolutely produce reliable landless vias based on their internal process. It's easy if you have the right process. Now on to our lineup this month. As I men- tioned, Keith Sellers of NTS-Baltimore leads our discussion with a wonderfully detailed explana- tion of vias in his column. He includes plenty of photos and clearly explains the difference be- tween blind and buried vias. He is followed by none other than the fa- ther of HDI, Happy Holden, who writes on four old ideas for increasing density on a PCB—all involving vias. He then delves into each and provides highly detailed explanations including layout and manufacturing processes. While the discussion may seem overwhelming, as always, there is much useful information within. Dig in. The bailiwick of RBP Technology's Mike Cara- no is troubleshooting and electroplating, no doubt about it. This month he turns his attention to drilling through-holes (aren't these vias, too?), re- viewing mechanical drilling basics while pointing out potential causes for problems down the line. There is no doubt that advances in laser technology have been a big facilitator for small- er vias and finer features. Spectra Physics' Jim Bovatsek provides us with a thorough overview of laser technology as it relates to vias, micro- vias, and things like patterning in flex coverlay. We are happy to have an excellent paper originally from IPC APEX EXPO 2016, writ- ten by Amphenol's Cynnthia Verbrugge, et al., which presents a unique packaging solution for a server involving a loose-leaf rigid-flex circuit board with backdrilling and LGA interconnect. The profusely illustrated article includes details from initial concept through design and build and onto qualification and full production. As I mentioned, lasers have become a ne- cessity for microvia processing, as well as for flex circuit manufacture. In this month's Laser EVERYTHING YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT VIAS BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK