There’s a lot that’s cutting-edge. It’s certainly not simply new equipment and materials to build the PCBs we’ve been producing forever; there are as well new ways to build a whole various type of PCB. You’ve probably heard lots of buzz about printing– not just ink-jetting circuit patterns, but constructing whole PCBs, from layer 1 to layer n. Is it a possibility? Will it have effect the industry by storm? Or will we proceed producing our boards the traditional way, but with some modifications and with new, enhanced processes to get us there? Will PCBs as we know (and love) them disappear?
Of course, the jury is out. However my practical experience is that the old never really is gone. Thirty or so years ago the termination of single-sided boards was commonly forecasted as multilayer PCB technology matured and came into its own. But I was working with a Chicago company that made a bunch of those “punch-and-crunch” pcb board by discovering ways to fit the circuits from two sides onto

one side, removing much processing (PTH and electroplating processes) and reserving their customers big bucks. And those are still with us in greater amount than ever– when your cat’s toy has a circuit in it, you know they are every where. So too, I think, with the techniques we have nowadays. They don’t go away but other techniques will grow up beside them, possibly cannibalizing some amount of square photographs in the process. Viewing the seemingly end- less applications that arise at an ever-increasing rate these days, I believe there is room for all.

We talk about fairly a ton of ground in this month’s topic, from write-ups on what is definitely unique and very unique in the way to build a PCB to better procedures for building the tradi- tional ones. We also have a couple pieces for you guys out on the ground who require a minimal how- to info. Let’s get going and do it!
Joe Fjelstad of Verdant Electronics starts us off with a dissertation on one of those new techniques

to build a printed board circuit, this time by printing a conductive sterling silver paste to make both the circuit pattern and stuff the vias.
We comply with this fascinating info with an interview with Nano Dimension’s Simon Fried, who advises us relating to techniques to print the entire PCB — yes, dielectric and , multilayers included– on a 3D printer. This technology looks like excellent for making PCB prototypes in a rather short time period and we can envision every designer desiring just one right next to his/her desk. Sounds great for every PCB manufacturer, too, to be able to reduce their pcb prototype turnaround time to just a several hrs rather than the typical 24– 48.

Next, Tara Dunn of Omni Printed Circuit Boards fills us in (pun intended) on a new via fill technology, this one based on a nano copper ink developed by In- trinsiq. One nice conveniences is that the sintering process can be done applying devices already in the PCB factory.
In another conversation, Amir Tzhori of Camtek tells us about their inkjet-printed solder mask

Osamu Sekine of Nano System shows us a helpful conversation on the various types of lasers which can be used in PCB manufacturing processes to create vias of all sizes and shapes. He then shares flexible machinery that can evolve with one’s innovation advances and accommodate all these styles.
Then, Josh Goldberg of Taiyo shows a very informative primer on producing solder masks for the LED industry, consisting of the problems of producing white truly white and staying it that way by way of the different heat patterns experienced by a PCB.
Back to via fill and one other technology, this one using your enduring nickeling line. Uyemura’s George Milad goes into detail on how to set up the copper electroplating procedure to efficiently and properly plate blind vias. A great, useful paper for you process technicians out there. And in another one for developers, we have Steve Williams of The Right Approach Consulting with a review on RCA– root cause anal-ysis. This official approach to troubleshooting provides a rather effective plan to keep you on track in your problem-solving endeavours. And of course your customers will more than appreciate the outputs.