Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/782967
8 The PCB Magazine • February 2017 Way back when, in the early 1980s, I worked for a small PCB manufacturer in Danbury, Con- necticut. We all loved new stuff, as in nobody wanted to make normal PCBs—just crazy im- possible stuff. We did full panel soft gold (for wire bonding); we made about 90% of the first circuits (all gold-plated) that went in the early digital watches (for TI and Timex); we worked with Ohmega material and embedded resis- tors; we were making 5-mil line/space innerlay- ers in volume for IBM and even prototyped a 2-mil line/space multilayer (this was more than 30 years ago, mind you); we made the first (or darn close to the first) polyimide gold-plated chip-on-board multilayers to which something like 42 chips were gold wire-bonded (HP). Talk about new technology—we were deep into it! And now, have we seen or done it all? Not even close! As technology moves faster and fast- er, so do our equipment, materials and chem- istry suppliers to help us to enable that next greatest invention. We are all at the forefront of IoT, the fifth industrial revolution, autonomous and connected—everything, all those things that were unimaginable even 10 years ago. It's hard work, there is no sitting back or relaxing, and those looking for an easy 9-to-5 job, forget about it. Are you ready for the next thing, to keep pushing forward? As an excellent introduction to this issue, IPC's John Mitchell gives us a wonderful over- view of what emerging technology is and what we need to do to keep up. One thing he em- phasizes is a trained and competitive workforce. Indeed, in our recent hiring survey we learned that an overwhelming percentage of you are concerned about a shortage of skilled and quali- fied people. John's column is a great call to ac- tion. Next, we have a very intriguing interview with Joan Tourné of NextGIn Technology BV, conducted by I-Connect007's Pete Starkey. Joan talks about a new interconnect technology he calls "vertical conductive structures" or VeCS. by Patty Goldman I-CONNECT007 New Technology Heading our Way— Faster than Ever! PATTY'S PERSPECTIVE