Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/950499
28 PCB007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2018 ing from the industry. There are, of course, people who are looking at newer equipment, but I think maybe not something as advanced as what's been put together at GreenSource with all those dots connected. I can't under- estimate the work around the equipment that we've provided, which is also very important. But we are seeing more interest in the indus- try, certainly. Matties: And maybe one final question from me. Through this whole process, what has been the greatest surprise? Kruse: That is a good question for our project manager to answer, who unfortunately cannot join us today. But what I saw, and what I expe- rienced with these lines is that we have had no unexpected events. Everything was quite nor- mal. Of course, as I said earlier, what Atotech normally provides to the industry are lines which possess a very high conveyor speed with a target to have a high output with a very high availability. And this is something that's differ- ent at GreenSource. They want to reduce the conveyor speed. They want to unload after one process and to load in front of the next process at whatever time they want. From my perspec- tive, the high demand for flexibility was a chal- lenge and maybe still is. Goldman: Well, I think that most people who buy equipment simply come and say, "I need equipment to run this many parts per hour, etc." They don't make the kinds of demands that Alex has made on you. And you guys picked up the challenge, which was great. I take it that it was a challenge—you couldn't just say, "Oh, well, yes, we'll use this and we'll use that." I'm sure it took a lot of collaboration and I think that needs to be recognized and congratulated. Alex, maybe you have some thoughts on that, too? Stepinski: I do. This is the result of a lot of col- laboration. The real bottom line here is Atotech is an advanced HDI equipment and chemical supplier on the electronics side, amongst oth- er things. They really are focused on the mass production Asian market, and to take those ideas and turn it into a high-flexibility, green, North American solution was a great chal- lenge. It took a lot of face-to-face time and a lot of conference calls. It was a very good ex- perience overall. We're happy with the state of things right now, and look forward to continu- ing to work together. Goldman: Did you ever doubt that it would hap- pen? That you would meet all these require- ments? Stepinski: Well, we didn't doubt it would hap- pen. I think the challenge was all in how much time we had to put into it. Matties: Is there anything we haven't talked about here that you feel we should have cov- ered? Stepinski: The only other open topic is that we are doing collaboration on vertical chemis- try for a unique tool that we've had built here that's being installed in the next six weeks. Those chemistries are associated with semi- additive processing as well as ultra-high as- pect ratios of 50:1. This is something rather new. Some chemistry is being built specifical- ly for this application, or at least modified for this application. It's just getting started now. There's not much to talk about, but we are partnering with Atotech on this over the next Figure 4: T1 Electroless copper, with better throwing power than standard, followed by high throw electroplate copper HT.