GotFlex? PremiereIsue

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1 Quartrly Aprl2018 GotFlx? Flx007Magazns ddcatdtoflxsystmdsgnrs,lctrcal ngnrs,flxpcbdsgnrs,andthosrsponsblfor ntgratngflxntothrproductsatthoem/cemlvl. PrmrIsu

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3 2500 ngnrs and dsgnrs 100% can't Commtmnt. b wrong! Thy hav all downloadd Th PCB Dsgnr s Gud to... Flx and Rgd-Flx Fundamntals. Gt your copy today and start larnng from th xprts! Download Now

4 APRIL 2018 FEATURED CONTENT FLEX Prmr Issu! Wlcom to th frst ssu of Flx007 Magazn. Ths nw quartrly magazn s ddcatd to flx systm dsgnrs, lctrcal ngnrs, flx PCB dsgnrs, and anyon rsponsbl for ntgratng flx nto thr products at th OEM/CEM lvl. For ths frst ssu of Flx007 Magazn, w askd som of th top flx xprts to shar thr thoughts about flx, rgd-flx, and th ovrall flx markt. 30 Exprts Dscusson: Th Flx Tchnologsts Spak by th I-Connct007 Edtoral Tam 38 Exprts Dscusson wth John Talbot, Tramonto Crcuts by th I-Connct007 Edtoral Tam Fld Trp: CID Class Ss How Flx s Mad at Stramln Crcuts by Klly Dack Excrpt: Th Prntd Crcut Dsgnrs Gud to Flx and Rgd-Flx Fundamntals by Dav Lacky and Anaya Vardya 56 APCT Movs nto Rgd-Flx wth Cartl, Crtch Acquston Intrvw wth Stv Robnson 4 FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018

5 nsulctro.com PYRALUX FLEXIBLE CIRCUIT MATERIALS Pyralux AP hgh rlablty flx & multlayr crcutry Pyralux AC for thn, lght, hgh dnsty wth chp-on-flx attachmnt Pyralux HT for hgh tmp, hgh prformanc flx Pyralux TK Tflon /Kapton Pyralux LF ndustry standard for hgh rlablty Pyralux FR flam-rtardant for products rqurng UL ratng Pyralux APR rlabl rsstor, tmpratur tolrant DuPont offrs a comprhnsv, ndustry-ladng portfolo of Pyralux flxbl crcut matrals and systms dsgnd to mt LAMINATION & PREPREG today's and nxt gnraton dsgn challngs. SELECTOR Th Pyralux portfolo ncluds a dvrs collcton of cor dlctrc matrals and customzd dmnsonal constructons that nabl th dsgnr and manufacturr of complx crcuts to dlvr hgh prformanc solutons. DuPont Pyralux coppr clad lamnats, bondplys, covrlays, and adhsv systms offr xcllnt functonal prformanc and hgh rlablty and allow for th fabrcaton of thn, soldrabl, hgh dnsty lctrcal ntrconncts for sngl and doubl-sdd, multlayr flx and rgd flx applcatons. PROUDLY DISTRIBUTED BY WINDROW DRIVE LAKE FOREST, CA INSULECTRO.COM

6 APRIL 2018 ADDITIONAL CONTENT FLEX COLUMNS: Got Flx? by Andy Shaughnssy Flxbl Thnkng Rdux by Jo Fjlstad RMAs: Ngatv Exprnc or Valuabl Opportunty? by John Talbot Why s Rgd-Flx So Expnsv? by Bob Burns Causs of Trac Fracturng n Flxbl Crcuts by Dav Bckr DEPARTMENTS: Evnts Calndar Advrtsr Indx & Masthad SHORTS: Flx Survy: Advc Somthng Nw for Evryon: Flx Talk by Tara Dunn Vdo: DuPont s Jonathan Wldon on Controlld Impdanc Flx Lns Flx Survy: Challngs 6 FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018

7 Innovatv solutons for complx crcut board manufacturng Clck to s what w brng to ach sctor of th ndustry: RF/Mcrowav PCBs Powr Elctroncs Hgh-Spd Data Automotv Elctroncs Lamnaton Startups Our tchnology producs what our customrs dram! (416)

8 Got Flx? RFLEXons by Andy Shaughnssy, I-CONNECT007 Wlcom to th frst ssu of Flx007 Magazn. Ths nw quartrly magazn s ddcatd to flx systm dsgnrs, lctrcal ngnrs, flx PCB dsgnrs, and anyon rsponsbl for ntgratng flx nto thr products at th OEM/ CEM lvl. Som of you ar longtm radrs of our Flx007 Wkly Nwslttr. Aftr svn yars, w ralzd that t was tm to xpand from a nwslttr to a magazn. Flxbl prntd crcuts (FPC) hav bcom all but ubqutous, and t s tm that flx has ts own magazn. Flx and rgd-flx crcuts ar now found n many vryday handhld dvcs, such as tablts, laptops, and smartphons, not to mnton automotv lctroncs, mdcal, mltary, and arospac applcatons. In a futur that ncluds autonomous and lctrc vhcls, vrtual and altrd ralty dvcs, you can xpct flx to contnu to grow. W now s all mannr of flx crcuts: Sngl-sdd, doubl-sdd, multlayrd, doublaccss, sculptd, and, of cours, rgd-flx. Flx has gon through qut a fw fals starts ovr th yars. As rcntly as th 90s, flx was just on mor xpnsv typ of boutqu crcut. FPC was hp and cool, but ngnrs had to hav a ral nd bfor thy spcfd a flx crcut. Thn th cost of flx matrals bgan droppng, and flx standards startd to mor or lss catch up wth th ndustry. Fast-forward to today. Many EDA tools now fatur flx dsgn capablts, and many fabrcators hav mastrd th procss of makng ths flxtos, as som dsgnrs rfr to thm. Flx s not just a boutqu procss anymor. (It s stll a custom procss n many ways, but that s anothr story.) Mor rgd board dsgnrs and fabrcators ar consdrng movng nto flxbl crcuts, bcaus flx s stll a prmum product compard to rgd PCBs. (For som of th mor succssful doubl-dppr fabrcators, flx maks up only 25% of thr workload but 60% of thr rvnu.) No wondr flx s an attractv markt for US compans. Flx and rgd-flx offr numrous opportunts, but thy com wth a varty of challngs as wll. For ths frst ssu of Flx007 Magazn, w askd som of th top flx xprts to shar 8 FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018

9 thr thoughts about flx, rgd-flx, and th ovrall flx markt. For our frst xprts dscusson, w spok wth Jonathan Wldon of DuPont Elctronc Matrals, Mark Fnstad of Flxbl Crcut Tchnologs, and Scott McCurdy and Scott Mllr of Frdom CAD about how thr compans approach flx and th many rlatd ssus. In our scond xprts dscusson, John Talbot of Tramonto Crcuts dscusss th flx trnds h s sng n th ovrall markt, along wth som of th unquly dmandng flx products such as xtra-long flx crcuts. Nxt, Klly Dack, CID+, gvs us a rvw of hs CID class s trp to Stramln Crcuts, and thr xploraton of flx fabrcaton procsss. From Dav Lacky and Anaya Vardya of Amrcan Standard Crcuts, w hav an xcrpt from thr I-Connct007 Book, Th Prntd Crcut Dsgnr s Gud to Flx and Rgd-Flx Fundamntals. And Stv Robnson of APCT xplans hs plans for th futur aftr acqurng nw flx and rgd-flx capablts wth hs acquston of Cartl s subsdary Crtch. Jo Fjlstad marks th rturn of hs column Flxbl Thnkng wth a dscusson about how much flxbl crcuts hav changd ovr th yars. John Talbot s column Consdr Ths, h xplans how to handl rturnd matral authorzatons. In All About Flx, Dav Bckr shars a varty of ways that flx tracs can fractur, and som solutons for kpng fracturs away. And n hs nw column Flx Tm, Bob Burns of Prntd Crcuts braks down som of th many rasons that rgd-flx s so xpnsv compard to rgd and rgular flx crcuts. W hop you njoy ths naugural ssu of Flx007 Magazn and w ll s you n thr months. FLEX007 Flx Survy: Advc In a rcnt survy, w askd our radrs who work wth flx th followng quston: What advc, tps, or tchnqus would you lk to shar wth our radrs rgardng flx or rgd-flx crcuts? Hr ar a fw of th rpls, slghtly dtd for clarty. Involv th supplr arly n th dsgn. Ths s ky. Compard wth rgd PCBs, th tolrancs and matrals for flx and rgd-flx ar dffrnt and rqur dffrnt ruls and thr ar dffrnt ptfalls. Also, flx rqurs th dsgnr to thnk n 3D, and somtms th most lgant soluton may not occur to us. W ar an OEM wth rlatvly lttl xprnc dsgnng and assmblng flx and rgd-flx. W hav avodd countlss hadachs by nvolvng th xprts among our supplrs to hlp us at th arlst stags of layout vn bfor w hav an outln. In som cass, thy hav hlpd us sav mony by suggstng dffrnt orntatons that hlp mprov panl utlzaton, or avod th nd for xtra layrs. Todd McFaddn, componnt rlablty ngnr wth Bos I dsgn flx crcuts much lss frquntly than rgd boards. I hav found that t s hlpful to rach out to your vndor wth your rqurmnts to hlp dtrmn stackups or aras of uncrtanty. Most vndors hav a bst dsgn practcs documnt that s usful to skm ovr bfor startng dsgns. Lt th popl who actually hav to buld th thng you r dsgnng gud you; vrybody wll b happr and you ll gt a bttr product. Jarrod Schult, ngnrng support spcalst wth Cadwll Industrs Andy Shaughnssy s managng dtor of Flx007 Magazn and Dsgn007 Magazn. H has bn covrng PCB dsgn for 18 yars. H can b rachd by clckng hr. APRIL 2018 I FLEX007 MAGAZINE 9

10 Flxbl Thnkng Rdux Flxbl Thnkng by Jo Fjlstad, VERDANT ELECTRONICS Wlcom to th rsurrcton of Flxbl Thnkng, a flx crcut monthly column I wrot mor yars ago than I car to rmmbr, but prhaps som of thos radng ths stll do. I am gong to guss that gvn th passag of tm, many of th arlr radrs may hav movd to rtrmnt or prhaps nto othr ndustrs. To thos of you who do rmmbr, I xtnd my grtngs and my thanks for chckng back n to rad my humbl musngs and obsrvatons on what I thnk w can agr s on of th most ntrstng and usful of all lctronc ntrconncton tchnologs. To thos of you who ar nw to th ndustry or frst-tm radrs... Wlcom! It s my hop that n th columns to follow, you wll fnd usful thoughts and das about ths fascnatng and contnually volvng branch of lctronc ntrconnctons. Flxbl crcuts ar known by a fw dffrnt nams dpndng on on s global locaton and languag: flxbl prntd crcuts, FPCs, flx crcuts, flx crcuts, flxbls, bndabls and a fw othrs that ar applcaton-spcfc such as flxbl hatr crcuts and controlld mpdanc cabl constructons. Whl flx crcuts ar an orgnal and foundatonal ntrconncton tchnology for lctrcal and lctronc products (on of th frst patnts for lctrcal ntrconnctons, ssud at th turn of th last cntury, was arguably a flxbl crcut), ovr th yars thr hav bn svral forays nto tchnologcal xtnsons of th basc da. On such ara of hgh and ncrasng ntrst n th last svral yars has bn strtchabl crcuts, whch th Europan Unon has mad sgnfcant nvstmnts n ovr th last dcad n th pursut of tchnologs that facltat th ntgraton of lctroncs nto warabl products for a wd array of prospctv applcatons from mdcal montorng, to communcatons and fashon. As th nam mpls, ths flx crcut varaton s producd on strtchabl substrats. Th basc manufacturng s not all that dffcult but dsgnng and manufacturng conductv crcuts that match th strtchnss of th substrat has bn a sgnfcant challng and has had rsarchrs workng dlgntly to fnd ways to accomplsh th objctv. (For thos ntrstd, thr s a chaptr on ths subjct n th 4 th dton of my book Flxbl Crcut Tchnology.) Thr has also bn growth of ntrst n a nw branch of lctronc ntrconncton usng flxbl crcut tchnology that s bng calld by som flxbl lctroncs, whch s an ntgraton of componnts and snsors and to 10 FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018

11 TRAMONTO CIRCUITS TM Worldwd Provdr of Flxbl Crcuts & Prntd Crcut Boards Prntd Crcut Boards Flxbl Hatrs Dsgn Srvcs Flxbl Crcut Boards Unwavrng Commtmnt W put th customr frst by lstnng to thr nds, allowng our tam to maxmz accuracy and consstntly dlvr hgh qualty products. Wth our on tm dlvry rcord of 94.96%, you can xpct your product to b dlvrd on tm and to your standards, makng us th bst choc n th ndustry. Contact us today for a consultaton. TRAMONTO TM CIRCUITS tramontocrcuts.com nfo@tramontocrcuts.com

12 whch th trm flx hybrd lctroncs has bn appld. Ths s anothr ara of ncrasng ntrst, and th U.S. govrnmnt has sponsord rsarch and dvlopmnt by both corporatons (manufacturrs of both matrals and fnshd products) along wth a numbr Insttutons of hghr larnng. Thr s no ral brght ln btwn an assmbld flxbl crcut and a flx hybrd lctronc assmbly, but t rally dos not mattr f t hlps brng nto focus th numrous advantags that can b scurd by th ntgraton of flxbl ntrconnctons and componnts. On of th cntrs for nformaton gathrng and nvstgaton nto matrals and procsss s NxtFlx, n Slcon Vally. A lttl ovr two yars old, NxtFlx s rapdly gttng th word out and facltatng consortum mmbrs communcatons and ntracton to flsh out th possblts n a world whr lctroncs ar ncrasngly bng ntgratd nto an vrxpandng unvrs of cratv applcatons, from th whmscal to th hghly practcal. It should b vdnt that thr wll b a lot of subjcts that can b covrd n th world of flxbl crcuts and ths spac wll b usd to xplor as many as possbl n th futur. It s a shard objctv of th ntrty of ths nw publcaton cratd n srvc to th lctroncs ndustry. I s ths spac as a shard on and your ndvdual commnts, qustons and suggstons ar not just wlcomd but actvly rqustd. Plas fl fr to shar wth m or th dtors any thoughts rlatv to what you mght want to s covrd n th comng ssus, and I wll do my bst to addrss th subjct mattr n a futur column. Agan, wlcom on and all and I look forward to sharng th path to growth and dscovry that ls ahad. FLEX007 Jo Fjlstad s foundr and CEO of Vrdant Elctroncs and an ntrnatonal authorty and nnovator n th fld of lctronc ntrconncton and packagng tchnologs, wth mor than 150 patnts ssud or pndng. To rach Fjlstad, clck hr. Somthng Nw for Evryon Flx Talk by Tara Dunn Just th othr day, I was rcordng a podcast wth Altum dscussng flxbl crcut cost drvrs. Durng that dscusson, I was askd a quston about what I s as a trnd n th markt. My frst thought was that I am sng an ncras n frquncy of qustons comng from popl that ar just nw to flx and rgd-flx dsgn. Thr ar nough dosyncrass wth flx that popl ar a lttl unsur and ar rachng out wth qustons. Around ths sam tm, I had bn contmplatng what would b a good topc to wrt about for th Nw Tchnology thm of th March ssu of PCB007 Magazn. Th lght bulb wnt off; thr s such a rang of xprncs on can hav wth flx and rgd-flx that vn mor xprncd usrs can fl lk thy ar workng wth t for th frst tm, whn n fact thy r not. Imagn what t s lk for popl who ar totally unfamlar wth t! So at th nd of th day, brand nw to flx and flx-rgd or not, most popl who us t fl lk thy ar workng wth nw tchnology. 12 FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018 Sngl- and Doubl-Sdd Flx Sngl-layr flx, flx wth on layr of coppr, s a plac many nw to flxbl crcuts start. Ths s usd whn all conductors can b routd on on layr of coppr. Ths may b rplacng wr, solvng a packagng problm or vn b usd for asthtc rasons n a packag that wll b vsbl to th nd usr. Whn crcutry can t b routd on a sngl layr, or shldng s ndd, th progrsson s to mov to doubl-sdd (two coppr layrs) flx, or vn multlayr flx. (Contnu radng at Flx007.com) Tara Dunn s th prsdnt of Omn PCB, a manufacturr s rp frm spcalzng n th prntd crcut board ndustry. To rad past columns or to contact Dunn, clck hr.

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14 RMAs: Ngatv Exprnc or Valuabl Opportunty? Consdr Ths by John Talbot, TRAMONTO CIRCUITS Rturnd product s nvtabl f you work n manufacturng. That dos not mply that t s asy to addrss. No mattr what th rason for th rturnd matral, t dsrupts th normal flow of th qualty and manufacturng tams. An nspctor must frst rvw th dfct and agr that t s ndd a dfct. Ths sms lk a smpl task and can b f th matral dosn t match a customr spcfc rqurmnt. Howvr, f th matral must adhr to an ndustry-wd standard, such as an IPC standard n th crcut ndustry, t bcoms a lttl mor tdous. In most cass th manufacturr wll b mor famlar wth th spcfcaton than thr customr. Also, thy ar mor lkly to kp th latst rvson of th rqurmnts n thr lbrary. Ths can caus a stuaton whr th customr has dntfd a rjct that sn t agrd upon whn compard to th standard t was bult to. Tdous ndd! As wll, thr ar othr cass that hav bn wtnssd by th author that crat a lssthan-asy stuaton. For nstanc, f th customr snds back rjctd matral that wasn t bult by your company. Ths s typcally asy to dtrmn by company markngs. Or thy snd back matrals that hav obvously bn damagd by handlng at thr own faclty. It complcats an alrady dffcult procss. How dos t happn? In th flxbl crcut ndustry (and any othr ndustry, for that mattr), thr ar tms whn all th matral dlvrd to th customr fals to mt th spcfcatons. Ths can happn for a numbr of rasons and typcally dpnds on th fnal nspcton procss. Two common fnal nspcton procsss usd ar samplng and 100%. Whn a product utlzs th 100% nspcton procss, vry part that s shppd to your customr wll also hav bn nspctd. A samplng procss s ntutvly a partal nspcton, typcally 10-25% of 14 FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018

15 Spcalty CHEMISTRY DESIGNED FOR SPECIAL MATERIAL NEEDS 50+ YEARS OF INNOVATION IN FLEX CIRCUITRY MacDrmd Enthon Offrs a Full Rang of Products, Srvc and Innovaton to th Flx Crcutry Industry Shadow Grapht Drct Mtallzaton Blackhol Carbon Drct Mtallzaton Va Dp 4550 Blstr-fr Elctrolss Coppr MultFlx Formaldhyd-fr Coppr Dposton Surfac Fnshs Complt Offrng 227 Frght Strt, Watrbury, CT USA 2018 MacDrmd For mor nformaton: lctroncs.macdrmdnthon.com nfolctroncs@macdrmdnthon.com

16 th total, and s usd on products that hav a long hstory of zro dfcts. Th product may hav startd out wth a 100% nspcton and provd ovr tm that th manufacturng procss was sold nough that t ddn t output any rjcts. Anothr xampl of whn th samplng practc may b usd s on vry hgh volums whr 100% nspcton would prov too costly. In thr cas, thr ar tms whn a part could b shppd wth a dfct. In th cas of samplng, t s obvous that a dfct could b shppd bcaus not all of th product s nspctd at th fnal stag. Wth th 100% nspcton procss on would thnk that nothng shppd would hav a dfct. Howvr, t s undrstandabl that an nspctor could mstaknly plac a rjctd crcut n th approvd contanr for shpmnt to th customr, or smply mss a dfct. No mattr th caus, any matrals that rach th customr wthout mtng all spcfcatons should b addrssd and rctfd xpdntly. No mattr th caus, any matrals that rach th customr wthout mtng all spcfcatons should b addrssd and rctfd xpdntly. What s to b don? A typcal procss for addrssng a customr rqust s to ssu a rturnd matral authorzaton (RMA) and ask thm to snd th product back for r-nspcton and confrmaton. It s bst to trust your customr and trat thm wth utmost rspct. At ths tm mor than any othr thy count on you to hlp rsolv a problm. Communcatons should b swft and thorough to assur your customr that you ar thr partnr whn thngs go wrong as wll as whn thy ar gong smoothly. Onc th rturnd matral has arrvd, t should b confrmd and, f ncssary, th ntr shpmnt should b nspctd to sgrgat all products that ar suspct. It s asy at ths pont to cut cornrs bcaus of th dsrupton t causs. You can fault th customr s mploys for handlng mproprly. You can stat dfantly that all products mt th rqurmnts that w hav on fl and blam poor documntaton. Or you can tak a dp brath and handl th ssu for th customr th sam way you would handl th ssu f t wr yours. Aftr all, thy trust you nough to buld thr prcous products. Assstanc whn thngs ar not qut rght should b th last thy can xpct. Root Caus Analyss Wth th matral n hand and th non-complanc rcognzd and accptd, t s tm to fnd out what happnd. Or n th cas of a rcurrng product, what has changd. Th qualty tam s th frst to s th rturnd products. But aftr th rjct s dntfd thy wll nd to rcrut assstanc and xprts from th manufacturng tam. An nspctor may b vry good at dntfyng th non-complanc, but t wll ultmatly tak collaboraton wth th tam that bulds th product to dntfy th root caus. Ths s a vry mportant stp and may tak a lot of tm and patnc. Thr ar many tms whn th frst caus dntfd s not th culprt. Each thory should b dntfd and tstd to vrfy th caus. It s mpratv to fnd th root caus of th dfct and tst solutons untl th bst on s agrd upon. As you may guss from th dsrupton mntond arlr, ths s not always an asy procss. Th manufacturng tam must ntrrupt thr ongong schdul to hlp th qualty tam, who has also ntrruptd thr schdul to fnd dfntvly both th root caus and th corrctv acton takn to rsolv t. Documnt and Vrfy Now that all th hard work has bn don to dntfy th caus and soluton, t s tm to documnt our fndngs. Ths s don formally 16 FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018

17 on a so-calld corrctv acton rport (CAR). Durng th arduous tstng that was don to confrm th fndngs and thn rsolv thm, a lot of nformaton was gathrd. That nformaton s nvaluabl to th manufacturr. It has addd xprnc and knowldg to th tam that could not hav bn offrd wthout gong through th procss proprly. A typcal CAR wll nclud th ntal fndngs from th customr, analyss don by th supplr, corrctv masurs that rsolv th currnt problm and prvntv masurs that assur th sam ssu s not rpatd on futur bulds. At ths pont on may thnk that th procss has bn compltd. Howvr, th rsoluton should b tstd and vrfd for at last thr futur bulds to confrm ts valdty. At that pont, on may b confdnt that th root caus was proprly dntfd and rsolvd! ngatv xprnc. Howvr, f t s prcvd as an opportunty to larn and support th customr t bcoms a much mor plasant and satsfyng ndavor. Th knowldg gand, howvr panful t may b, s an asst to th manufacturr. It can and should b usd to nform and ducat th ntr tam, from th dsgnrs to th fnal nspcton tam and anyon who touchs products n btwn. Whn a story s rportd n th nws today about on strangr who hlpd anothr, t s trmd a fl-good story. In flxbl and rgd PCB manufacturng, th flng s th sam ach tm w rsolv a customr s ssu wth confdnc and nthusasm. FLEX007 John Talbot s prsdnt and ownr of Tramonto Crcuts. Ngatv Exprnc or Valuabl Opportunty Non-conformng matral that s snt back by th customr can asly b ntrprtd as a DuPont s Jonathan Wldon on Controlld Impdanc Flx Lns Edtor Pt Starky spaks wth Jonathan Wldon of DuPont Elctronc Matrals about svral factors that affct th sgnal ntgrty of controlld mpdanc lns on flx crcuts wth cross-hatchd ground plans. Jonathan dscusss thr mpact on lctrcal prformanc, and hs work wth th Hgh-Dnsty Packagng Usr Group. APRIL 2018 I FLEX007 MAGAZINE 17

18 Anothr yar of grat convrsatons! W would lk to thank vryon who stoppd by for a chat durng ths yar s IPC APEX EXPO. I-Connct007 s Ral Tm wth... has bn covrng th ndustry s most mportant vnts for mor than 15 yars and w look forward to sng and mayb talkng wth YOU at an vnt soon! Download our post-show covrag magazn!

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20 Why s Rgd-Flx So Expnsv? Flx Tm by Bob Burns, PRINTED CIRCUITS On quston that I har farly oftn, partcularly aftr an ntal quotaton, s Why s rgdflx so xpnsv? In ths artcl, I ll shar wth you th cost drvrs n rgd-flx rlatv to standard rgd boards and flx crcuts wth stffnrs. A typcal rgd-flx PWB wll cost about svn tms th cost of th sam dsgn on a hard board, and two to thr tms an quvalnt flx crcut wth stffnrs. A good way to stmat th cost of rgd-flx board n lowlvl producton quantts s 35 to 40 cnts pr squar nch, pr layr. So, f you hav an ghtlayr board that masurs 4 x 6, your costng would look lk ths: 8 layrs x 4 x 6 x.4 = $ ach Agan, ths appls only to lowlvl producton quantts. Ths s a hlpful calculaton for gttng a quck, rough da of what your part mght cost as a rgd-flx. Rgd-flx PWBs cost qut a bt mor, prmarly bcaus of th hghr cost of th raw matrals w us to buld thm, rlatv to standard rgd boards or vn flx boards. Th numbr on cost drvr s th no-flow prprg. Rgd-flx manufacturrs hav to us no-flow, or somtms low-flow prprg, so that th rsn dos not flow out onto th flxbl aras of th board. No-flow prprgs ar dsgnd to offr just nough flow to fll th crcuts n th hardboard aras, but not nough to flow out onto th flxbl aras of th boards. No-flow and low-flow prprgs run from $1.50 to $3 pr squar foot. Convntonal rgd board hgh-flow prprgs run around $.25 pr squar foot, so thr s a larg dffrntal n prc just for th prprg. A coupl of othr thngs contrbut to th cost as wll. No-flow prprg s only avalabl n 1080 and 106 glass cloth styls, whch typcally prss out at.0025 and.002 rspctvly, so thy ar thn. Rgd-flx manufacturrs don t hav 2113, 2116, 7628 glass styls avalabl to manufactur your board. It s ws to us two pls of prprg btwn layrs wthn your constructon. Th no-flow rsn rssts flowng, so to assur adquat fll, w us two pls of prprg btwn ach layr. Also, prprg, lk all manufacturd tms, has som varablty across th sht, Fgur 1: Rgd-flx crcuts com n all shaps and szs. 20 FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018

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22 whch ncluds rsn contnt. If thr s an ara that s low(r) n rsn contnt, you mght not fll adquatly, causng rsn starvaton and ultmatly shorts. Thr ar tms whn w do buld boards wth a sngl sht of prprg (wth half-ounc coppr or lss), but thr s always a rsk of nadquat flow, whch wll allow ar ntrapmnt, and ultmatly shortd crcuts. A smpl, straghtforward 8-layr rgd-flx wll hav 10 shts of no-flow prprg. Eght shts ar usd to bond th packag, and two shts ar usd to mat up to th covrlayr to crat a cut back covrlayr dsgn for hgh rlablty packagng (Fgur 2). Now, 10 shts of prprg at thr squar ft ach, and $2 pr squar foot s $60. Th quv- Fgur 2: An 8-layr rgd-flx crcut. 22 FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018

23 MEPTEC2018 HOSTED BY A Spcal On-Day Evnt Prsntd By MEPTEC NEW GENERATION FLEXIBLE HYBRID ELECTRONICS Cost-ffctv Assmbly & Packagng Tchnologs THURSDAY, APRIL 26, :00AM - 4:00PM NEXTFLEX MANUFACTURING FACILITY TOUR 4:00PM 4:30PM NEXTFLEX FACILITY SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA Unlk computrs and mobl phons, th Intrnt of Thngs dmands a wd rang of dffrnt functons n dffrnt products, and most of thm nd flxblty, thnnss, and ultralow powr consumpton. Ths rqurmnts can only b satsfd wth nw mthods of packagng. Ths vnt wll xplor th markt opportunts, mrgng applcatons, and matrals and procss rqurmnts to provd ths functonalty at an affordabl cost. You ll har from xprts n polymrs and othr flxbl matrals, ffcts of complx packagng structurs on sgnal ntgrty, spd and powr consumpton, and th latst and most promsng tchnology for htrognous packagng. Topcs wll also nclud cuttng dg/nch concpts n mdcal mplantabl dvcs and synthtc skn, tc. Th challngs nclud: Handlng and protctng thn and small componnts mad from brttl matrals (slcon, III-V compounds, tc.) Flxbl ntrconncts on a wd rang of scals from mcrons to mllmtrs Rlablty wth thrmal xpanson coffcnts of dffrnt componnts rangng from a fw ppm to hundrds Cost-ffctv procss tchnqus for puttng t all togthr KEYNOTE SPEAKER Flxbl Hybrd Elctroncs Dsruptng Convntonal IC Packagng and Systm Dsgn Solutons WILFRIED BAIR Snor Engnrng Managr, Dvc Intgraton & Packagng NxtFlx KEYNOTE SPEAKER An Altrnatv Hstory of th Elctroncs Manufacturng Industry JOSEPH (JOE) FJELSTAD Foundr and Prsdnt Vrdant Elctroncs INDUSTRY SPONSOR REGISTER TO ATTEND TODAY! Sponsorshp Opportunts ar Avalabl for ths Evnt. Emal gdwards@mptc.org REGISTER AT TODAY! MEPTEC2

24 alnt n standard prprg would b $7.50. Ths costs can add up prtty quckly, vn for basc low-layr-count dsgns. Wth hgh-layr-count dsgns, th cost mpact s vn mor profound. If your dsgn s prmarly half-ounc and/or on-ounc coppr wghts, w wll usually us 1080 glass styls, whch ar lowr n cost. If your dsgn has twoounc or thr-ounc coppr wghts, w wll us th 106 glass styls, bcaus of thr slghtly mor favorabl flow charactrstcs, but thy cost 50% mor than th 1080 prprg. Usng multpl pls of 106 to fll th thckr coppr wghts can drv up th panl prc vry quckly. A smallr cost drvr n rgd-flx constructon s th flxbl coppr-clad lamnat. W us adhsvlss flx matrals almost xclusvly, whch ar rcommndd by IPC (IPC ) for hgh-rlablty rgd-flx constructons. Adhsvlss flx matrals run $6 to $10 pr squar foot. Equvalnt hard board lamnats ar closr to $2 pr squar foot, so w can s that thr s a 3 5x cost ncras whn usng flxbl adhsvlss lamnats. Howvr, f your dsgn has controlld mpdanc rqurmnts (most of our multlayr work now s controlld mpdanc), w usually us thckr flx dlctrcs to mt th most popular valus. Thos thckr flx matrals hav an xponntal prc curv th prc doubls wth ach addtonal ml of thcknss. In rgd boards, a cor lamnat s farly quvalnt n prc to a lamnat; ths s not th cas n flxbl lamnats, whr thcknss of th bas dlctrc dtrmns prc. Controlld mpdanc rgd-flx boards usually ncorporat th thckr dlctrcs at an lvatd prc. Rgd-flx manufacturrs start buldng wth som rlatvly xpnsv matrals to bgn wth. Thy fac th addtonal challng of gttng matrals wth wdly varyng X and Y CTE valus to stll ln up wthn your dsgn, so that all th pads ar whr thy ar supposd to b. A Kapton flx dlctrc movs dramatcally dffrntly, and lss consstntly, than a glass rnforcd cor matral. Addng covrlayr, multpl lamnaton cycls to buld th ntrnal flx layrs maks matral movmnt vn hardr to prdct accuratly. Ths s spcally tru wth frst-run dsgns. Thos ar som of th man cost drvrs n rgd-flx PWBs. Thr ar othrs too, but thy tnd to b lss mpactful than th ons lstd abov. In my nxt artcl, I ll shar whn and whr rgd-flx packagng maks th most sns and can b mor conomcal than tradtonal rgd and flx packagng. Thn, n futur ssus of Flx007 Magazn, w ll dscuss what you can do to manag and rduc your dsgn s cost, n addton to tps and tchnqus to kp rgdflx costs as low as possbl. FLEX007 Bob Burns s natonal sals and marktng managr for Prntd Crcuts. 24 FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018

25 Wh yr g d F l x? Wh ych o o s Us? E x t r m l yr l a b l E x c l l n t nh a r s h n v r o n m n t s Gr a t rp a c k a g n gd n s t y Ul t r a t h n, u l t r a l g h tp a c k a g n g E x p r n c d r g d f l xo u rf o c u ss n c C o mp l x, h g h r l a b l t yr g d f l xo u rs p c a l t y S t a t o f t h a r t q u p m n t Wa r a s yt owo r kw t h 1 2L ay rr g dfl xboar dw t hl as rv as P r o v d d s g na s s s t a n c a sr q u r d T h mo s t x t n s v ULq u a l f c a t o na v a l a b l M l s p cc r t f d : MI L P RF , M l P V s tou rw b s t f o r I S O , I T AR, J C P c r t f d R g d F l xd s g na d s Co n t a c tpr n t dc r c u t st o d a y! p r n t d c r c u t s. c o m

26 All About Flx by Dav Bckr, ALL FLEX Flxbl crcuts ar usd n applcatons rqurng mllons of flx cycls. But ths dos not suggst thy ar ndstructbl. In fact, occurrncs of prformanc ssus as th rsult of fracturd tracs hav bn xprncd n a varty of applcatons. Solutons ar oftn th rsult of dsgn, constructon, and fatur locaton modfcatons. But a much bttr soluton s to avod th problm n th frst plac! A flxbl crcut s ablty to b bnt, twstd, foldd and contnuously flxd s a sgnfcant advantag offrd as a dsgnr consdrs ths ntrconnct mthod n a nw product. Th dsgn optons ar myrad, wth orgam-styl packagng bng an accurat dscrpton of how th product s oftn usd. But t s tru that mpropr dsgns and/or spcfcatons hav rsultd n bad xprnc ancdots about trac fracturng problms. Th followng ar som ptfalls to avod and hlp mnmz th chanc a dsgn wll xprnc prmatur falur. Cratng Hgh-Strss Ponts Thr ar svral ways a dsgnr mght nadvrtntly lay out tracs and crat a hghr lvl of mchancal strss durng bndng. Dsgns wth tracs on oppost sds of th dlctrc layng drctly ovr ach othr wll crat an I-bam affct (Fgur 1). STAGGERED CONDUCTORS Prfrrd Constructon I-BEAM CONSTRUCTION NOT Rcommndd Fgur 1. Staggrd conductors ar mor rlabl than th I-bam format. 26 FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018

27 ᰠ 䄀挀漀洀瀀爀攀栀攀渀猀椀瘀攀琀漀甀爀琀栀爀漀甀最栀琀栀攀眀漀爀氀搀漀昀琀栀攀爀洀愀氀洀愀渀愀最攀洀攀渀琀 刀攀焀甀椀爀攀搀爀攀愀搀椀渀最昀漀爀搀攀猀椀最渀攀爀猀愀渀搀攀渀搀甀猀攀爀猀眀椀猀栀椀渀最琀漀甀渀搀攀爀猀琀愀渀搀琀栀攀猀挀椀攀渀挀攀愀渀搀瀀爀愀挀琀椀挀攀漀昀甀猀椀渀最椀渀猀甀氀愀琀攀搀洀攀琀愀氀猀甀戀猀琀爀愀琀攀洀愀琀攀爀椀愀氀猀 ᴠ 䄀氀甀渀䴀漀爀最愀渀䌀栀愀椀爀洀愀渀 Ⰰ 䔀䤀倀䌀 䐀漀眀渀氀漀愀搀一漀眀 圀爀椀琀攀渀戀礀䐀椀搀椀攀爀䴀愀甀瘀攀愀渀搀䤀愀渀䴀愀礀漀栀漀昀嘀攀渀琀攀挀䤀渀琀攀爀渀愀琀椀漀渀愀氀䜀爀漀甀瀀 Ⰰ 琀栀椀猀戀漀漀欀栀椀最栀氀椀最栀琀猀琀栀攀渀攀攀搀琀漀搀椀猀猀椀瀀愀琀攀栀攀愀琀昀爀漀洀攀氀攀挀琀爀漀渀椀挀搀攀瘀椀挀攀猀 䤀 ⴀ 㜀攀戀漀漀欀猀 挀漀洀

28 OVERLAP DISTANCE (Mnmum.030 ) EXPOSED FINGER COVERLAY STIFFENER Ths s th PREFERRED METHOD bcaus thr s not a common ndng pont of th covrlay and stffnr. EXPOSED FINGER COVERLAY STIFFENER NO OVERLAP (Potntal Strss Pont) Ths form s NOT RECOMMENDED bcaus t allows potntal strss and crackng ponts whr th covrlay and stffnr nd at a common dg. Fgur 2: Ovrlappng th covrlay s th prfrrd mthod. Wth tracs mappd drctly ovr ach othr, addd strss occurs on th tracs locatd on th outsd of a bnd radus. Th tracs on th outsd of a bnd radus ar n tnson mod, and th layrs on th nsd ar n comprsson. Tracs n tnson tnd to dvlop mcrofracturs f thy ar flxd rpatdly. Ths can b partcularly dffcult to dntfy as th opn crcut oftn occurs ntrmttntly. Anothr mchancal strss pont occurs at th nd of a stffnr, whch wll tnd to focus strss at th stffnr trmnaton ln. A smpl dsgn fatur soluton s oftn to ovrlap th covrlay trmnaton on th oppost sd (Fgur 2). Soldr Jonts/Vas too Clos to Bnd Ponts Whl coppr fol s ductl, th alloy rsultng on a soldr jont s much mor brttl. Ths rgons ar partcularly suscptbl to trac fracturs as th rgon dfnd by th juncton of covr flm and soldr pad cannot tak sgnfcant bndng. Fgur 3 shows a saf dstanc btwn th bnd locaton and a soldr jont or platd through-hol. Unbalancd Dlctrc Thcknss Ths ssu s avodd by locatng th coppr tracs n th nutral axs (.., by havng quvalnt matral thcknsss abov and blow coppr n rgons to b rpatdly flxd). Polymd flm has bn provn as a robust matral for dynamc flx applcatons R=10xT BEND RADIUS R (RADIUS).050 (1.27mm) PLATED THROUGH-HOLES SOLDER JOINT T (THICKNESS OF MATERIAL) Fgur 3. Bnd radus of a flxbl ntrconnct should b approxmatly 10 tms th matral thcknss and at last.050 away from th platd through hol. 28 FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018

29 and s usd almost xclusvly n ths applcatons. Although scrn prntd and photo-magd soldr mask ar somtms usd as dlctrcs, t s rar to fnd ths altrnatv matrals usd n applcatons rqurng hgh-flx lf, bcaus thy tnd to b brttl and ar lkly to craz or crack whn foldd or rpatdly bnt. In som applcatons, t s ncssary to us photo-magd soldr mask for ts hgh-rsoluton capablty for componnt opnngs. But f ths parts ar also to b dynamcally flxd, polymd s agan usd n th flxng rgon of th crcut, cratng a crcut wth dual nsulaton matrals and procssng. Errors n Coppr Slcton Thr ar two basc typs of coppr fol: lctrodpostd (ED) and rolld annald (RA). Thy hav sgnfcantly dffrnt gran structurs and bndng proprts. Usng ED coppr for hgh-flx applcatons may caus nfant mortalty. RA coppr offrs sgnfcantly bttr flx lf. Also mportant s th coppr gran drcton on RA coppr, as flx lf s much hghr whn th fold or bnd ln s prpndcular to th gran. Coppr thcknss of on ounc or thnnr s also a good dsgn practc. Coppr slcton rrors can also occur wth flx crcuts of two layrs or mor whn cratng platd through-hols. Avodng th addton of lctroplatd coppr n a flx rgon s possbl by maskng durng coppr platng. Ths rstrcts lctroplatd coppr to th coppr pads and th vas. Ths fabrcaton mthod avods th addton of lctroplatd coppr n a flx zon and kps coppr thcknsss to a mnmum. Ths s a prtty common procss known as pads only platng or button platng. Both ths faturs can b ky to a robust dsgn and ar oftn calld out spcfcally as rqurmnts on a customr s drawng. FLEX007 Ths column orgnally appard n th Flx007 Wkly Nwslttr. Flx Survy: Challngs In a rcnt survy, w askd our radrs who work wth flx th followng quston: What ar th bggst challngs you fac whn workng wth flx or rgd-flx crcuts? Hr ar a fw of th rpls, slghtly dtd for clarty. Bnd rad of flx crcuts nd to b takn nto consdraton. On a multlayr rgd-flx crcut, you wll hav comprssv strsss on th nnr layrs of a bnd and tnsl strsss on th outr layrs. Thr ar mnmum bnd rad that you can spcfy. Ths must b dfnd arly n your dsgn. If you hav mpdanc-controlld flx crcuts, consdr doubl-sdd flx matral rathr than sngl-sdd flx matral. If th flx s dynamc (a movng flx), th coppr should b rolld annald rathr than lctro-dpostd, whch s mor brttl. Stv Knobl, spcalst PCB dsgnr wth Dnl Dynamcs Customrs who do not undrstand that ths ar not rgd boards. Th dsgn consdratons ar not th sam. Stv Klly, gnral managr wth PFC Flx Crcuts Lmtd Whn dsgnng flx crcuts, my bggst challng s dtrmnng whch matrals ar avalabl from th vndor and thr rspctv thcknsss whn tryng to ht a spcfc bnd radus, for xampl. I also fac ssus wth my softwar (Cadstar), as t dosn t sm to lk curvd tracs whn routng n a dynamc nvronmnt that allows push/ pull and sprng back. Jarrod Schult, ngnrng support spcalst wth Cadwll Industrs Dav Bckr s vc prsdnt of sals and marktng for All Flx Inc. APRIL 2018 I FLEX007 MAGAZINE 29

30 Fatur Intrvw BY THE I-CONNECT007 EDITORIAL TEAM For our frst ssu of th Flx007 Magazn, w nvtd a group of flxbl crcut xprts to dscuss thr work n ths rapdly growng sgmnt. Partcpants ncludd Jonathan Wldon of DuPont, Mark Fnstad of Flxbl Crcut Tchnologs, and Scott McCurdy and Scott Mllr of Frdom CAD. In a fr-whlng dscusson wth Andy Shaughnssy and Barry Matts, ths tchnologsts shar thr thoughts on th challngs and opportunts n flxbl crcuts, as wll as what consttuts th cuttng dg of flx rght now. Andy Shaughnssy: Why don t w just start wth som ntroductons? Jonathan, would you tll us about yourslf? Jonathan Wldon: I v bn wth DuPont for about two and a half yars. I m an RF applcaton ngnr so I focus prmarly on Pyralux flxbl coppr-clad lamnats and th Kapton flms that go wth thos. Thy r usd n vrythng from consumr lctroncs through ndustral applcatons. I m an EE undrgrad, EE grad, and all focusd n lctromagntcs. I was n th Ar Forc for about ght yars dong lctro-optcs, radar work, and all sorts of jammr work dvlopng jam pattrns and a fw othr thngs for th systms. And thn I workd at Sanda Natonal Labs bfor comng to DuPont. I m typcally an analog guy. I cam from th dfns sd. I stll try to stay clos to th dfns sd, but hav bn sort of mxng nto th consumr lctroncs world snc bng n ths ndustry. Shaughnssy: Scott McCurdy, how about your background? Scott McCurdy: I m wth Frdom CAD. I v bn n th PCB dsgn world for th last dozn yars. In a past lf, I ownd a prntd crcut board manufacturng company for 32 yars. Also, I v bn th prsdnt for th last 15 yars of th Orang County IPC Dsgnrs 30 FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018

31 Innovaton: t s what ladrs do. For ovr a dcad, th world s top flx PCB procssors hav rld on ESI s advancd lasr procssng solutons to drv nnovaton and stay ahad. Can you afford to mak th wrong dcson? Futur-proof your nvstmnt n flx PCB wth ESI s famly of lasr procssng solutons, and mantan your nnovaton advantag. Algn yourslf wth th ndustry ladr and lt ESI tak car of your flx PCB drllng nds. ESI s famly of FPC lasr procssng solutons. TM TM TM TM TM TM For mor nformaton, vst us at

32 Councl, th largst chaptr n th country. I just startd my 50th yar n th prntd crcut world. I startd whn I was four. (Laughs) Scott Mllr: I m th chf opratng offcr at Frdom CAD Srvcs. W prform contract prntd crcut board dsgn and layout srvcs and provd prototyp assmbls. I startd my carr wth DuPont back n 1978 and t was a dvson of DuPont calld Brg Elctroncs, whch was a connctor manufacturr. I v bn wth Frdom CAD for about 15 yars and I always njoy kpng up on what s gong on btwn th matrals and th dsgn world. Shaughnssy: All rght. Gv us a lttl background, Mark. Mark Fnstad: I m th snor applcaton ngnr at Flxbl Crcut Tchnologs. I v bn thr for about ght yars. Pror to that, I was wth Mnco for 27 yars. Durng that tm, I was havy nto th mltary and avoncs. Now, at Flxbl Crcut Tchnologs, I dsgn flx for commrcal and non-mplantabl mdcal and othr applcatons lk that. I v bn dong ths for 35+ yars. I co-char th IPC 2223 commtt and I m on th 6013 commtt, and th Flx Matrals commtts. I v bn on thos commtts for dcads now, so I guss I m a lfr at ths pont. Shaughnssy: Jonathan, what s mportant to you and your flx customrs? Wldon: It s bn knd of Jonathan Wldon tough startng nto th 5G world. I throw t out thr just to gt th words out bcaus I know t s sort of a hot topc rght now vrywhr. For m, I stll vw t as hgh-spd/hgh-frquncy matrals, rght? But, 5G has bcom th trnd n all of thos dscussons. On thng that sms to b tru s that I m not sng anybody brak any of that down nto what I ll call componnts. Thy ll talk about bas statons, thy ll talk about nods, and thy ll talk about handsts. But non of that trckls down to rqurmnts, constructons, antnna typs, matral chocs, and fabrcaton challngs, or any of thos sorts of substs that ar th ral mat of 5G. I don t know f othr popl ar fndng good sourcs for that, but vrywhr I v lookd t s stll bn a lttl thn or a lttl ambguous. It s stll vry hgh lvl. So, that would b on of th frst thngs I would add to th frst flush. Ths would b usful for m lookng at a magazn, gttng nto thos sorts of dtals about that whol markt and what that s gong to look lk. Shaughnssy: How about flx matrals? That s on of th thngs w always har. Th dsgnrs ar always sayng that thy nd to know mor about matrals. Wldon: Thr ar two sds to vry story, rght? I work on on sd, lookng at nw matrals and how w can gt our currnt matrals n. I har a lot of talk about LCP stll. I har a lot of talk about othr sorts of xotcs that ar out thr. But I don t rally hav any fldcovrd rvws. If I look at an Phon or somthng lk that, mayb t has 10 to 20 flx crcuts n thr and thos flx crcuts all hav dffrnt rqurmnts. Dffrnt flx rqurmnts, dffrnt matrals rqurmnts. Nowhr s that rally brokn down. Obvously, that s proprtary to that spcfc fabrcator, but whr dos LCP nd to go thr? Mayb that may b th knd of fd ln and antnna. Whr you can go wth th polymd? Whr can you go wth a lowr prformng polymd? Whr can you swap out ED coppr for RA coppr? That s som of th spcfc dtals that I mght b lookng at. 32 FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018

33 From th matral choc, I d lk to s what th actual rqurmnts ar. A lot of tms, and from th OEM sd, thy ll just spc n th bst thy can possbly gt. If w look at polymd for nstanc, as an xampl, f you go look at cast on coppr products lk snglsdd coppr-clad, you ll s ths xtrmly awsom mchancal numbrs. And thn thos can gt transfrrd somtms from th OEM lvl down to othr flx crcuts. It mght b th doubl-sdd coppr clad wth th sngl- sdd coppr-clad rqurmnts down thr and not knowng that makng a doubl-sdd clad s a lot dffrnt than makng a sngl sdd clad. Th matrals ar vastly dffrnt, too. Ths ar th sort of thngs that provd us fdback, outsd of whn popl call to complan that somthng s undrprformng. So how do you brdg th gap? Mark Fnstad Mayb ths could b a way to do that. Thn you could say, What ar th actual rqurmnts for prformanc n th systm? Not Ths s what w r usng and t works, so thos ar th rqurmnts. What dos an antnna fd ln nd to b? What do th dlctrc proprts nd to b? What dos th flux prformanc nd to b? What do dgtal ntrconnctons nd to b? Whr can you gt away wth ED vrsus RA? Whr can you gt away wth a lowr prformng polymd or dffrnt systm? Shaughnssy: Mark, what do you thnk? Fnstad: Wll, I d lk to addrss what Jonathan sad. On of th bggst ssus that a lot of popl don t undrstand s that all of th flx dlctrcs that hav low dlctrc constant and low loss rqur rally hgh-tmpratur lamnaton. Wth th LCPs, DuPont DK, prtty much all of thm, you hav to lamnat around 300 C. Not a lot of flx supplrs hav prsss that go up that hgh, so you rally lmt your vndor bas. And I know that th frst tm that I lookd at LCPs I was talkng to a guy from Rogrs and h spcfcally sad, Don t try to do ths wthout havng us nvolvd bcaus t s a ral bar to work wth. It s a thrmoplastc so thngs don t stay put whr thy r supposd to and so thr s a lot of challngs. And I don t know f th prc has com down rcntly, but t usd to b outragously xpnsv and f you had multpl layrs of th stuff you could hav anywhr from $50- $100 or mor pr squar foot n matral costs bfor you start dong anythng wth th matral. It rally mad t tough to mak commrcal applcatons wth that matral bcaus prc-ws t was off th charts. That s a bg problm wth th LCPs. Now I know that thr s som nw lowr tmp matrals comng out that hav a dlctrc constant n th 2.8 rang. I thnk whn that coms out t would b good to stay n touch wth th manufacturrs to hav th trals that vrfy that th nd products ar lctrcally and mchancally good but also that th matrals ar asr to procss. Bcaus havng somthng that dos vrythng you nd lctrcally and mchancally on th fnal crcut dosn t do a whol lot of good f nobody can work wth t to gt to that fnal product. Wldon: I want to cho Mark on that pont. Bcaus you look at th LCPs for nstanc, rght? You r rally payng for that loss tangnt numbr whch s and t s a bar, or you can just sacrfc and go wth an poxy whch can procss asr, t s chapr and much bttr to work wth. And all you do s go from.001 and.002 up to.002 to.003. I m gong to go through all ths troubl for that xtra loss tangnt numbr? I thnk that s knd of th ky, rght? Ar popl lookng at that? APRIL 2018 I FLEX007 MAGAZINE 33

34 Fnstad: Rght, I thnk a lot of that gts up nto th supr-hgh frquncs. You start lookng at 10 ggs and hghr, that s whr you gt som popl that ar rally snstv to that. I v got on rght now whr I sad, Ar you runnng anythng wth hgh spd? and thy wr lookng mor n th 10+ gg rang. Thy sad, W can t hav th polymd and th thrmosttng adhsv proprts at 10 ggs, vn though th transmssons lns ar vry short. Somtms I wondr f t s an lctrcal ngnr who s lookng too much at th numbrs and not at ral lf, bcaus anyon who s dsgnd flx knows that that s your whol lf. If you gt th lctrcal ngnr and th mchancal ngnr togthr n th sam room, thy r spakng oppost languags. Evrythng that maks a flx bttr lctrcally maks t wors mchancally and vc vrsa. And thr s always a comproms. You rarly gt vrythng you want. If you mak t prfct and prstn from an lctrcal standpont, but Scott McCurdy as soon as you bnd t your conductors crack, t dosn t do you any good. Thr s always that balancng act and most of th tm both sds hav a lttl bt of gv and tak. Thy can handl a lttl bt lss n mpdanc to gt a lttl bt thnnr, so you can stll bnd t; you may not gt as thn as you want but t wll b accptabl. Thr s always that balanc on what you nd, and somtms I wondr f som popl dsgnng th front-nd stuff, thy r so wrappd up n just th numbrs thy don t ralz that you probably could gt by wth somthng that dosn t prform at th lvl of an LCP and t wll work almost as wll. You gt 90% of what you ndd and popl can actually buld t. Shaughnssy: Do thy ovr-constran t bcaus thy r worrd about t? Fnstad: Ys, unfortunatly a lot of ngnrs com out of collg and thy don t know squat about prntd crcuts. No on tachs flx crcuts n collg. You larn lctrcal thory. All you v got ar a bunch of numbrs and you r larnng th ladng-dg stuff thr and so whn you gt dumpd n th ndustry, t s knd of th school of hard knocks. That s how you fgur thngs out, by larnng what actually works and what dosn t, and gttng push-back from manufacturrs on what can and can t b don. Shaughnssy: Scott or Scott? Ethr of you want to chm n hr? McCurdy: Wll, I v got a coupl of thngs. I spnt two days last wk at th CES show n Vgas. And you walk around that 2.7 mllon squar ft and you s t all. You s a glmps of th futur, and I can s whr th flx busnss s gong to hav way mor applcatons n th futur n a lot of aras lk robotcs and thngs, and crtanly automotv s gong to suck up so many dffrnt ntrconnct thngs. And comng from th dsgn world now, I thnk th dsgnrs nd to knd of com to grps wth mayb thy havn t had flx xprnc bfor but I thnk thr s mor comng. So bng abl to undrstand mor about th dsgn for manufacturablty. It s not just a rctangl anymor that you put sx up on an 18 x 24 panl. Thy don t undrstand th panlzatons and th fact that whn thy gt to manufacturng, thy r not rgd. You hav to b thnkng about dffrnt arrays, dffrnt ways of ntrlockng boards to gt th maxmum amount of panl. I man, thr s just a lot of that that s just knd of out of th norm of what most crcut board dsgnrs ar usd to. Th dsgnrs arn t ncssarly choosng th matrals, but thy r tryng to mak sur 34 FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018

35 allflxnc.com

36 that t s not just connct th dots, but thr s mchancal thngs that thy nd to undrstand mor about bnd radus and stuff lk that but thy just havn t had a lot of xprnc. Fnstad: I would lk to scond that. All th dffrncs btwn rgd and flx ar mportant. It s just thr ar so many dsgnrs that hav only don rgd and thy just com n and thnk, Wll, I ll just us th sam ruls for flx. And you must coach thm that thr ar a lot of dffrncs. Thr s mor dffrncs than smlarts btwn rgd and flx crcuts. Scott Mllr McCurdy: W rcntly dd a projct for a hadst that th ngnrs at th company had com up wth and wantd to do n rgd-flx, and by th tm w got through th projct t ndd up bng so xpnsv. Thr ar tradoffs thr wth tryng to connct two thngs togthr that mayb a pc of flx btwn two rgd boards n a consumr dvc would hav bn a bttr soluton. And undrstandng thos tradoffs would hav savd thm a lot of mony. Thy wnt down th wrong tral. Mllr: Yah, I would say, too, that IoT has had a bg nflunc on th us of flx and spcally from th applcaton of drct attach to flx for componnts, agan t s th DFM ssus, but th dsgnrs just ar not thnkng about t n trms of robustnss and th applcaton. Thy r usng flx typcally for a rason and that flx puts strsss on sold jonts that arn t normally thr. So agan, t s th mldng of lctrcal dsgn and mchancal dsgn on strods at th PCB and flx dsgn lvl. Matts: From a dsgnr s pont of vw, ar thr componnt ssus that thy nd to b awar of whn dalng wth flx? Mllr: Wll placmnt, locaton, proxmty to th bnds, thos ar thngs that you nd to b awar of as thy r gong to b a strss put on that ara. Shaughnssy: It sounds lk what all of you ar sayng s that thr ar a lot of qustons about flx. Thr s a lot of uncrtanty at ach lvl of th procss wth flx. Fnstad: Ys, absolutly. Evn th SMT stuff. I was n Boston mtng wth a customr last wk and h askd, How clos can I put th componnt to th dg of th board? And how clos can I put t to th flx rgd transton ara? I gav hm th numbrs that I flt comfortabl wth. H wantd vn closr. You r always gttng pushd. Thy r tryng to us up vry squar mllmtr of spac and thy don t want to lav anythng opn. Shaughnssy: In what markts do your flx typcally wnd up? What sgmnts of th ndustry? Fnstad: Th frst 27 yars t was all mltary, avoncs, arospac, mplantabl mdcal, and now t s hgh-nd commrcal, camras, cll phons and hadphons ar full of flx now. It s gong vrywhr; GPS, anythng that s handhld s gong flx. It s probably asr to tll you what dosn t hav flx n t than what dos. As I sad, whn I workd at Mnco, vrythng w dd was Class 3. I don t know f I vr saw a drawng n 27 yars that sad Class 2 on t. If t dd, you stll got Class 3. It was mor dffcult and xpnsv to try to sgrgat a sngl run and run t to a Class 2 than just run t at Class 3. FCT nvr compts aganst Mnco bcaus w do Class 2 vrtually across th board. Onc n a whl w ll do a lttl bt of Class 3, but rarly. Th long and short s, anybody who can buld n Asa s gong to buld n Asa, and 36 FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018

37 so that s all th Class 2 products. Class 3 stuff s th mltary, avoncs, arospac, mplantabl. That s all gong to stay n th Untd Stats. In automotv you r gong to hav shock and vbraton, you r gong to hav xtrm tmpraturs, both hgh and low, thngs lk that whr you wouldn t s that n a cll phon. Cllphon s gong to b xprncng prtty much room tmpratur and unlss you drop t thr s not gong to b any shock and vbraton. It s a compltly dffrnt anmal btwn thos two. Anothr thng for automotv s cost. Thy ar tryng to shav off vrythng thy can, whras n hgh-nd commrcal thy v got a lttl bt mor spac bcaus thy r provdng a prmum product and popl ar wllng to pay for th nwst lctronc wdgt out thr. Whn you start gttng prssd for cost, thn you start lookng at lss xpnsv matrals that can affct th nd prformanc, whch you r tryng to kp up on th top nd also. Matts: So, th stratgy for cost s rally mportant. Wldon: That s a good pont about th rqurmnts, bcaus th rqurmnts ar dffrnt, but thr ar vn standards that ar dffrnt, rght? So automotv mght us IEC. A guy who uss softwar mght us IPC. Wth automotv, you don t hav to hav UL. Thr ar crtan thngs that ar vry dffrnt. If you r nw to automotv, makng flx, ths s what you nd to know. Buld accordng to ths spcs or ths spcs. Ths ar thngs you nd to b worrd about. Ths ar thngs you don t nd to b worrd about. I rally lk that pont, thank you. Matts: Whn w look at dsgn, I know w talkd about PCB dsgnrs, but how nvolvd s th systm dsgnr n ths procss? How much nflunc do thy hav ovr th actual paramtrs? Thy gt vrythng ls put togthr but now thy v got to hook t up and mak a bunch of flx to do t. You nd up tryng to work wth th avalabl spac that s lft ovr aftr vrybody ls got thr porton of th volum. Matts: W har frquntly that thngs ar just thrown ovr th wall and you hav to hammr t n. Frdom CAD probably knows that th bst, corrct? McCurdy: W s that sam thng. It s prtty accurat. I thnk, too, what w s at tms s th us of flx for powr applcatons, and that s probably somthng that has ts own unqunss bcaus t s don for dffrnt rasons but havng coppr poss a dffrnt problm. Fnstad: I agr wth that. W v lookd at rplacng a lot of wr harnss and cabl n automotv wth flx and cost s th prmary ssu but vn gttng down to what thcknss of coppr do you us to rplac thos hgh currnt powr lns. You r talkng 12 volts and 20 amps. That s a bg coppr trac. And wth a cabl that s bradd t s not much of an ssu, but you try to turn that nto a flx crcut, what do I do? Do I us two ouncs of coppr that s thr nchs wd? What th hck do I run hr and thn how do I buld a crcut around t and mak that vn rmotly cost ffctv? It gts vn mor ntrstng whn thy say, Lt s run a coupl of dffrntal lns rght nxt to t. And, of cours, thy say that vry tm. Matts: I thnk w r prtty clos to wrappng up. Andy, s thr anythng ls that w nd today? Shaughnssy: I thnk w covrd t. Thank you all for your tm. McCurdy: Thanks, vryon. FLEX007 Fnstad: Sms lk rally oftn th flx s th last thng that gts dsgnd nto th systm. APRIL 2018 I FLEX007 MAGAZINE 37

38 Exprts Dscusson wth John Talbot, Tramonto Crcuts Fatur Intrvw BY THE I-CONNECT007 EDITORIAL TEAM For ths frst ssu of Flx007 Magazn, w ntrvwd John Talbot, prsdnt and ownr of Tramonto Crcuts. Hadquartrd n mtro Mnnapols, Mnnsota, Tramonto manufacturs flxbl and rgd PCBs for a varty of ndustry sgmnts. Edtors Andy Shaughnssy, Patty Goldman and Stphn Las Maras askd John to dscuss th challngs and opportunts n th world of flxbl crcuts, and som of th trnds h s sng n ths markt. Andy Shaughnssy: John, what trnds ar you sng n flx ths yar? John Talbot: I thnk warabls wll b a bg topc for th nxt thr or four yars. W r sng a lot of ntrst n arospac and automotv rght now. Assmbly s somthng nar and dar to my hart; vn though th flx ndustry has bn around for a long tm, t s stll a rally small part of th ovrall ndustry, and w stll hav customrs who ar not comfortabl wth th assmbly porton of flx crcuts. Shaughnssy: Do you all offr flx assmbly and dsgn? Talbot: Ys, w buld bar crcuts and w do assmbly and dsgn. W stll don t s a whol lot of customrs that ar lookng for dsgn hlp. Thy tnd to dsgn th crcuts as thy would a prntd board, and thn gt som hlp from us to just adjust t or rvs t to mak t manufacturabl n th flxbl crcut world. Patty Goldman: How much of your dsgn work s for flx? Talbot: Mayb 10% ar dsgnd from th bottom up. Evrythng ls s at last a dsgn put n front of us and thn w hlp thm adjust t. Goldman: So that 10%, do thy just say, Hr, dsgn somthng for us plas? Or ar thy just throwng up thr hands and sayng W don t vn know how to dsgn ths? Talbot: Not qut. It s mor lk thy don t hav th tm, or thy v dsgnd crcut boards for a long tm, but now thy r startng to gt nto flxbl crcuts and thy just nd som hlp fgurng thngs out, typcally wth th standards. For yars and yars, 38 FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018

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40 w all know what th prntd crcut board ndustry lks about trac wdths and spacs and drll hol szs, annular rngs, and soldr mask claranc; all that knd of changs a lttl bt whn t coms to th flx ndustry. So, 90% of what w gt s popl who ar comfortabl wth crcut board standards but not so much wth th flxbl standards. Shaughnssy: Ar flx standards kpng up wth th ndustry, John? Talbot: Not ntrly not for a company lk ours anyway. W r stll an tch company. W ar stll rmovng coppr and I thnk that w ar sng a pattrn for svral yars now, of thngs gttng smallr and tghtr smallr hols, smallr tracs, and that sort of thng. Stphn Las Maras: You mntond arlr that som of th compans ar stll not comfortabl wth th assmbly of flxbl crcuts. Why do you thnk that s so? Talbot: It s probably two-fold, Stphn. On rason would b bcaus thy r vry comfortabl wth prntd crcut board assmbly, and two bcaus you can t smply put a flxbl crcut through th SMT ln th way you would a crcut board. Thr ar mor fxturs and mor carrrs; thr s mor plannng and mor toolng rqurd to do t. Las Maras: Dos that man that you hav to sort of customz your assmbly ln whn you r workng on flxbl crcuts? Talbot: Ys, on almost vry product. Lt m gv you an xampl: If you panlz a crcut board, and you put th tradtonal mous bts n that w us to hold th crcuts nto th panls, that panl wll stay nc and rgd all th way through th scrnng procss, th pck-and-plac, and th ovn. Now, f you panlz a flxbl crcut, th tabs ar not th sam. W don t hav mous bts ncssarly. W hav ltrally just a tab of matral lft opn. So, handlng that panl, vn f you r usng fxturs and carrrs, somtms just handlng th panl out of th packagng wll brak th tabs, and now you v got floppy crcuts. You r tryng to scrn vry small pattrns nto a past, and thn also tryng to ht t wth th pck-and-plac machn as wll. Ths causs a lttl mor of a problm than th tradtonal crcut board would. Shaughnssy: What ar som of th sgmnts drvng flx now? What about automotv? Talbot: W r sng som automotv rght now, and w r stll sng a lot of arospac, and mdcal s vry hgh. Anothr topc that I would add to ths s vry long crcuts. Goldman: Whch of th ndustrs has th gratst nflunc on chang or kpng you at th hghst lvl of tchnology? Talbot: That s a hard quston to answr. Mdcal for sur, and I wouldn t vn know aftr that. Mdcal ar th customrs who gv us th most challngs. Goldman: I just wondrd f t was automotv, but I wouldn t s that as qut th sam knd of challng, rght? Talbot: No, automotv for th most part dosn t. Thy r not makng thngs as small and tght as th mdcal ndustry dos. Goldman: That s tru. Th mdcal ndustry maks vrythng tnr and tnr. 40 FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018

41 Shaughnssy: And mdcal you v got to go dal wth FDA rgulatons; t s a whol dffrnt st of hoops to jump through. Talbot: It s, and rally th trck wth mdcal s to gt th dsgn rght and consstnt. Onc t gts approvd t has to b that way for th lf of th part. Th man automotv challngs, I would say, nvolv rcord kpng. And for mdcal, whatvr th procss s, you hav to stck wth t for th lf of th product. Shaughnssy: In automotv thy r also a lttl mor concrnd wth cost, rght? Talbot: Mdcal s, of cours. So s automotv. To b honst wth you, Andy, rght now w r only 24 days nto th nw yar and narly half of our customrs ar shoppng all thr products. Ths conomy that w v had for about a yar now sms to b boomng and makng vrybody happy, and now w hav a tax cut, and vrybody s gttng mony n thr pockt. That s ncrasng prcng bcaus, for nstanc, n 2017, payroll ncrasd 40% at Tramonto. Shaughnssy: A lot of compans gav out rass and ndd up havng lowr numbrs for th 4th quartr bcaus of th rass. Talbot: And thy r hopng that t s gong to catch up, but th bg push I m sng rght now s that by th nd of 2018, you r gong to har a lot of manufacturrs say that w r gttng back to a stuaton whr vrybody s tryng to sav a nckl or a pnny. Shaughnssy: Hav you had any ordrs that ar usng 5G? Talbot: W don t hav anythng n-hous that s a concrn for hgh-spd rght now. Evn th LCP matrals s lgacy stuff, so w r not sng any nw stuff lk that. And to b honst, w don t hav a whol lot of communcatons customrs. Wth th communcatons customrs w do hav, typcally w r buldng thm crcuts for thr racks, srvrs and that sort of thng. Shaughnssy: Do your customrs tnd to work wth you from th gt-go startng at th dsgn lvl? Talbot: Not all of thm, Andy. Usually t s just f thy hav a problm, or f thy thnk thy mght hav a problm. W hav lots of customrs who hav xprncd dsgnrs, and w hlp whn thy hav qustons. Shaughnssy: What knd of matrals do you typcally us for flx? Talbot: Standard polymd typcally, som DuPont and som Rogrs and som othrs. APRIL 2018 I FLEX007 MAGAZINE 41

42 But th dlctrc proprts tnd to b gnralzd, I would say. W hav a common dlctrc constant that w us for mpdanc control typ calculatons, and of cours whn you gt a dsgn lk that from an RF ngnr or from a hgh-spd ngnr, thy r usng dffrnt calculators than w ar and typcally thy gt rally clos. Th bggr problm that w hav whn w r talkng about dlctrcs and stackups for that sort of dsgn s th thcknss of matrals that ar bult. W hav a standard ln of thcknsss, and f th customr has dsgnd t and put t through th calculator and mayb t says thr nds to b 5 mls n btwn coppr layrs, and that s just not a common thcknss for us. That s whn w gt nto stuatons whr ltrally w wll go out and purchas spcal matral just for that. Dlctrc proprts, though, ar or hav bn hstorcally bascally gnralzd n our ndustry. Goldman: I v hard that f you v changd your paramtrs or your tmpraturs, for nstanc, thn th dlctrc proprts chang and so you almost hav to pck a pont and go from thr. Could that b why thy r so gnralzd? Talbot: I would assum so. For nstanc, n th summr whn thr s hgh humdty, w gt a lot of mostur n th matrals and that changs th dlctrc proprts as wll. W v had to lv wth that for a long tm, but th truth s f w stck to th normal typcal standards and dsgn a crcut around thm, and adjust as ncssary aftr masurng mpdanc coupons, w s vry lttl falurs aftr that. And ths ar th gnral publshd numbrs. Yah, you r sort of just jumpng n th mddl and usng thos spcfcatons, but thy work wll n th fld. Shaughnssy: You mntond th vry long flx. Do you guys do any of that? Talbot: W do. Probably about 10% of th crcuts that w buld ar outsd of th standard lngth. W can go up to a mtr prtty comfortably and hav gon much longr than that for svral othrs. Th last on that w quotd for sombody, thy wantd a 12-foot or 14-foot long crcut, and thy wantd 5 ml tracs and 5 ml spacs. And that s just not possbl, for us, along that lngth. Shaughnssy: How do you vn know how to bd a job lk that? Talbot: W don t bd t. W can t. If w thought that w could buld t wth a yld bttr than 1 out of 10 w would. But f not, thn th cost s normous, and w can thr bd t that way and tak up a whol lot of tm and ffort, or just say no. Ths dsgn just dosn t ft our capablts wll. W v had som customrs who kpt comng back to us bcaus thy couldn t fnd anybody ls to quot t. Shaughnssy: What do you thnk about th nw tchnology at CES, lk th drons and 3D vwrs and vrtual and altrd ralty that hav flx nsd. Talbot: That s grat. But thr s on thng I havn t sn, Andy. Evry yar, th ovrall crcut ndustry publshs th amount of crcut boards that ar bult vry yar vrsus th amount of flx, and I havn t sn th amount of flx rally ncras much. It knd of hovrs btwn 10 and 15% of th ovrall ndustry. Whn that gts up to 25% or 35% or somthng lk that, w ll know that t s nto a lot of products. 42 FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018

43

44 Goldman: I would hav xpctd t to b hghr or to b ncrasng. Talbot: Agrd. Shaughnssy: I rmmbr t was about 5% whn I startd wrtng about PCBs n Flx was so xpnsv thn that you ddn t us t unlss you absolutly had to, and now a lot of popl look to t frst. Talbot: As soon as that prcntag starts ncrasng, thn our matral costs wll go down and t wll b mor n ln wth crcut board costs, bcaus w r stll mor xpnsv than crcut boards. Goldman: Do you do anythng ls othr than flx? Talbot: W also do crcut boards. Evrythng w do s tchd, though. W can put flx on dffrnt matrals, polymds and polystrs and that sort of thng, but w r stll an tch company. W havn t startd any sputtrng procsss or lasr tchng or anythng lk that. Shaughnssy: What about rgd-flx? Talbot: W do, and t s about 5% of our work. Shaughnssy: What do you thnk s th bggst bottlnck for you as far as flx gos? Or for your customrs? Talbot: Matrals as of lat. You know, a yar ago w wnt through a tm whn coppr wasn t bng sourcd n as bg of quantts as t was arlr. Coppr prcs go up and down all th tm, but matral costs too for a whl mad matrals vry dffcult to gt. Now t s not so dffcult gttng matrals, but I thnk that s knd of cyclc. Rght now, I would say our bggst challng wthout quston s labor. Labor would b numbr on. Goldman: What do you man xactly? Talbot: Sklld labor. W actually hav a tranng program at Tramonto for th assmbly porton. W ll brng popl n who hav nvr assmbld bfor and w ll run thm through th IPC or th J-standard tranng program. Th thng about brngng popl nto a tranng program s som of thm hav nvr bn n manufacturng bfor. Whn thy gt nto th nvronmnt, thy may fnd out thy don t lk t. But tryng to fnd sklld popl rght now s vry dffcult. Goldman: I wasn t sur whthr you mant dollars and cnts, or f you mant lk you sad sklld and capabl popl. Talbot: It s both. Lk I sad, last yar our payroll ncrasd 40%, whch s a prtty bg chunk. And ths yar w don t s that changng at all. To gt th sklld popl and rtan thm, t s gong to tak that. I v rad thr ar 5 to 8 mllon mn from th ags of 25 to 40 who ar just sttng on th sdlns, and thy r just not n th workforc lk thy usd to b. That s a lot of popl that ar capabl, tranabl, and not avalabl. 44 FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018

45 Shaughnssy: I v rad that thr ar a lot of popl who hav knd of optd out. Thy r not vn gong to bothr lookng for anothr job. Talbot: Rght. I thnk anothr problm w r gong to s n 2018 s gong to b a squz on prc. I v alrady sn t, and I thnk comptton s gong to b frc. Goldman: Mor and mor popl ar gttng nto flx, that s for sur. Whthr or not thy r good at t rmans to b sn. Talbot: W ll fnd out, rght? Bcaus th compans that hav bn out thr for a long tm dong ths, f thy r losng customrs to th nwcomrs, and thn thy start sng thos customrs com back, w ll know f thy r good at t or not. It s not th asst thng n th world to do. Goldman: Evrybody can do a coupl. Evrybody could do a fw prototyps. Talbot: Rght, t s th producton that s anothr story. Shaughnssy: How dd you wnd up dong ths for a lvng? Talbot: I cam from th dvlopr sd of th fnc. I m an lctrcal ngnr by trad and I v dvlopd hardwar and softwar, and back n th day I was dvlopng for UL and th FCC, so I v bn on th othr sd of th fnc. I know th problms, qustons and challngs that popl hav whn thy say, Ths s th board w want to buld but our supplr can t buld t ths way, so w hav to adjust t hr and thr and whatvr. That s why w cond th phras dsgn for applcaton as opposd to dsgn for manufacturng. Shaughnssy: How about IoT? Dos IoT fgur nto what you guys do? w r actually thnkng about puttng a systm nto our factory just to follow a product along. W v toyd wth th da of havng a way for our customrs to log n to our wbst and follow thr product around so thy don t hav to call and gt updats or thy don t hav to gt th systm updats. Thy can just log n at any tm and s f thy r on tm, s f thy r bhnd schdul, and so forth. It rally just ddn t work wll bcaus popl wouldn t us t, bcaus t was asr for thm to just call or snd an mal than to log n and fnd thr password, log n, chck on thr product, know xactly what ordr numbr thy r talkng about. W r toyng wth anothr da that would actually ft nto th IoT and snd updats through an app to a cllphon. Customrs could gt rgular updats, and thy d consstntly know as th product movd to th nxt stag, how many days wr lft. At a glanc thy d know how thr product s gong. W fl comfortabl dong that bcaus t s on of our ky progrss ndcators and t s on of th thngs that w track rgularly vry yar. I don t know f anybody ls dos t, but w publsh our on-tm dlvry rsults and our RMA rsults vry yar. W fl comfortabl puttng n a systm lk that for our customrs. Shaughnssy: As an EE, dd you vr dsgn flx yourslf? Talbot: I ddn t. Whn I was dsgnng hardwar and softwar t was all gong on rgd crcut boards at th tm. I knd of stumbld nto flx almost accdntally, and hav bn thr now narly 20 yars. I v spnt about half my carr n th flx ndustry and half my carr n th ngnrng world, on th othr sd of th fnc. Shaughnssy: Wll, w apprcat your nsght hr, John. Thanks so much for your tm. Talbot: Thank you, Andy. FLEX007 Talbot: W r startng to s mor and mor of t ths days. Evn n th manufacturng world, APRIL 2018 I FLEX007 MAGAZINE 45

46 by Klly Dack, CID+ EPTAC I v bn dsgnng PCBs and flxbl crcuts for dcads now. I v hard a lot of advc ovr th yars, but what rally stcks n my mnd ar th ws words of a mchancal ngnr I workd wth back n th 80s. H was an oldr guy namd Clarnc. On day, Clarnc and I wr dong a dsgn rvw, and h gav m som sag advc: Klly, nvr dsgn somthng that can t b bult. I got a chuckl out of hs statmnt. Wll, duh! Of cours, t must b manufacturabl. Evry dsgnr knows that, rght? But as th yars wnt by, I ngagd wth mor dsgnrs, dsgn tams and manufacturng stakholdrs. (In my vw, th stakholdrs ar anyon wth skn n th gam. W don t want to lt down any of our fllow stakholdrs.) I soon ralzd that Clarnc s words wr a prophtc warnng for my futur carr path as a PCB dsgnr. Whl I was thnkng duh, I had only bgun to start rachng out to supplrs and manufacturrs n th PCB ndustry. As I spok wth ths manufacturng stakholdrs about what thy nd from a dsgnr to mak succssful crcut boards, I hard woful tals of PCB dsgns that wr unmanufacturabl. Som dsgns had lns that would tch away, or va pads that would b obltratd f ovr-drlld to allow for platng. Multlayr PCB stack-ups would oftn nd to b a quartrnch thck to achv th spcfd mpdanc rqurmnts. It was as f ths PCB dsgnrs had nvr st foot nsd a fabrcaton faclty bfor. And that turns out to b th cas mor oftn than you mght thnk; many dsgnrs hav nvr vstd a board shop. Aftr many yars, I m stll dsgnng rgd PCBs and flxtos, and I m stll rachng out to PCB manufacturng supplrs and makng qurs to fnd out what dsgnrs can do to hlp our manufacturng countrparts b succssful. And you know what? I m am harng Clarnc s words chong from an ntr ndustry of fabrcators: Nvr dsgn somthng that can t b bult. If you ar a PCB dsgnr, ar you surprsd? Mayb you ar rspondng Duh, as I dd FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018

47 IPC Global Marktplac Dlvrs Intllgnt Sarch Tchnology IPC Global Marktplac s an nnovatv buyr s gud that nabls lctroncs ndustry profssonals to asly locat th products and srvcs thy nd to ffctvly run thr busnss. Wth ts ntllgnt sarch tchnology, mobl rsponsv dsgn, and nhancd company profls, IPC Global Marktplac tak th usr xprnc to th nxt lvl, all whl puttng your company n front of th rght profssonals n our ndustry. It s th plac to s and b sn. IPC Global Marktplac s avalabl on IPC s wbst, or drctly through pcglobalmarktplac.com.

48 yars ago. In th sprt of Clarnc, I m hr to warn you that duh s an nadquat rspons. Unmanufacturabl dsgns ar stll prvalnt n th PCB ndustry, on a worldwd scal. To hlp allvat ths ssu, I m tryng to convnc dsgnrs that thy nd to vst a board shop vry now and thn. I rcntly had th opportunty to tak a group of dsgnrs on a tour of Stramln Crcuts, a rgd and flx fabrcator n Santa Clara, Calforna. As a dsgn nstructor for EPTAC, I was tachng an IPC Crtfd Intrconnct Dsgnr (CID) class n Santa Clara. Ths four-day class drw a group of fv PCB dsgnrs, all hopng to achv thr CID crtfcaton by th nd of th wk. Durng th sgmnt of th cours matrals that covrs th mportanc of rachng out to othr PCB procss stakholdrs, I always ask th class f anyon has vstd a PCB fabrcaton supplr to s th procss up clos. I am constantly amazd that a vry small prcntag of dsgnrs hav vr don so. Durng ths class, I had larnd that th tranng faclty that EPTAC uss n Santa Clara s a block away from Stramln Crcuts. Stramln dos a lot of mltary and arospac work, as wll as communcatons and ndustral lctroncs. Th company manufacturs qut a bt of multlayr flx and rgd-flx crcuts, n addton to rgd boards. Ths would mak a grat fld trp for my CID class! I had alrady prachd th story about Clarnc and hs admonton to nvr dsgn somthng that can t b bult. Thn I askd how many dsgnrs n th class had tourd a flx manufacturr, or vn a rgd PCB shop. Th answr was non. I askd our class f thy would lk to tak a lunch brak th day bfor our tst, off th class clock, to vst Stramln Crcuts. Th rspons was unanmous. Absolutly! I calld Stramln wth my da, and Applcatons Engnr Randy Thompson sad h d lov to host a tour of thr faclty. Fabrcators Fgur 1: From lft to rght: Jrmy Dunn, nstructor Klly Dack, Lakschm Chaturbhuj, Yubn (Vctor) Ma, Trry Chld, Stramln Applcatons Engnr Randy Thompson, and Dugan Karnazs. All CID studnts passd th xam and ar now CID-crtfd. 48 FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018

49 Fgur 2: Lakschm Chaturbhuj nspcts crcutry durng th Stramln tour. gnrally lov to host tours to ducat dsgnrs about th fab procss and thr own unqu capablts. Thy host tours n th hop that th dsgnr wll bcom mor n touch wth th matrals, procsss and popl nvolvd wth th procss and, wll, dsgn bttr! W ndd up spndng hours at Stramln. Randy provd to b qut th tour gud. Th dsgnrs wr abl to smll, touch and obsrv flxbl crcuts as thy wr bng manufacturd. Th class larnd that thr s much mor to flx manufacturng, and thrfor flx dsgn, than thy could hav magnd. Th bst rason to tak a board shop tour: Dsgnrs gt to us snss that don t usually com nto play whl workng on thr CAD systms n thr offcs. Ths CID studnts wr abl to smll, touch, and s flxbl crcuts and rgd boards n th procss of bng bult, somthng whch can only happn durng an on-st tour. Latr, I askd th class for thr thoughts on th CID class, and Dugan Karnazs, a brandnw CID-crtfd dsgnr, smd to spak for th group. Evn though I v bn dsgnng boards for yars, I found th cours to b prtty valuabl and nformatv. I would rcommnd CID tranng for anyon lookng to gan a bt mor knowldg about how PCB manufacturng works, sad Karnazs. Thr s an ncrdbl amount of prspctv that coms wth undrstandng how upstram dsgn dcsons affct th nd manufacturablty, rlablty, and prc of a PCB assmbly. Ths crtfcaton s not just for dsgnrs anymor; ngnrs nd to know ths procsss as wll. PCBs ar only gttng mor complx. It s hard to argu wth that! I hop to tak mor of our CID classs on tours of board shops n th futur. Whr ls can dsgnrs smll, touch, and s rgd and flxbl crcuts bng manufacturd? FLEX007 Klly Dack, CID+, s an IPC CID nstructor for EPTAC. H has ovr 30 yars of PCB dsgn xprnc. APRIL 2018 I FLEX007 MAGAZINE 49

50 Fatur by Dav Lacky and Anaya Vardya AMERICAN STANDARD CIRCUITS Dsgnng Flx Crcuts for Frst-Pass Succss, Part 1 Th dsgn procss s arguably th most mportant part of th flx crcut procurmnt procss. Th dcsons mad n th dsgn procss wll hav a lastng mpact, for bttr or wors, throughout th manufacturng cycl. In advanc of provdng mportant dtals about th actual constructon of th flx crcut, t s of valu to provd som sort of undrstandng of th xpctd us nvronmnt for th fnshd product. Th lctroncs ndustry srvs svral dffrnt markts that do not always shar th sam product accptablty or rlablty xpctatons. For ths rason, th lctroncs ndustry, through IPC and othr standards organzatons, has dvlopd a classfcaton systm that spcfs what s xpctd of products for dffrnt classs. Th systm of classfcaton s not ntndd to b a masur of qualty. Rathr, qualty s a mattr of conformanc to a st of stablshd rqurmnts for a product n a gvn applcaton. Thrfor, qualty products can b cratd n ach of th classfcatons wthn th systm. It s gnrally accptd that thr ar thr classs of product. Ths hav bn dfnd by IPC standards as follows: Class 1 Consumr products and products for non-crtcal applcatons whr cost s normally th prmary drvr. Class 2 Hghr-ordr products n trms of qualty and rlablty xpctatons, ncludng tlcommuncatons, computrs and gnral ndustral. Class 3 Hgh-rlablty applcatons ncludng mltary, arospac, automotv and mdcal products. By dfnng th class of th product bng dsgnd, th purchasr s lttng th manufacturr know what addd controls to apply to th manufacturng procss and th lvl of car thy wll nd n th nspcton procss to 50 FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018

51 ITI & IPC Confrnc on Emrgng & Crtcal Envronmntal Product Rqurmnts Jun 4 BOSTON, Massachustts Jun 6 CHICAGO AREA, Illnos Jun 8 SILICON VALLEY, Calforna It s a contnung challng to stay currnt on global nvronmntal rgulatons and ssus such as: Th EU Crcular Economy Stratgy EU RoHS xmptons REACH rgulaton rgstraton and nforcmnt Chna and Southast Asa nvronmntal rstrctons Th Toxc Substancs Control Act (TSCA) Calforna Grn Chmstry Intatv That s why IPC and ITI ar agan jonng forcs to hlp kp you ahad of th curv and connct you wth ladng ndustry spakrs, updat you on th latst trnds and offr ntworkng opportunts at th 2018 Emrgng & Crtcal Envronmntal Product Rqurmnts Confrnc. Ths confrnc wll provd anyon who s rsponsbl for kpng thr organzaton n complanc wth nvronmntal rgulatons th tools thy nd to comply wth lgal, rgulatory, and customr rqurmnts. Rgstr today and stay ahad of th curv on th changng stat of global nvronmntal rgulatons! For mor nformaton, contact Kn Schramko, IPC drctor of govrnmnt rlatons, at KnSchramko@pc.org.

52 nsur that th customr gts th product that s bst sutd to th applcaton. Th followng ar dscussons on mattrs of hgh mportanc to achvng frst-pass succss n scurng qualty flxbl crcuts from a flx crcut vndor. It s mportant to provd som nformaton about th opratonal rqurmnts for th flx crcut, spcally f th crcut s to b usd n a dynamc flxng applcaton, such as for a dsk drv rad/wrt had assmbly. Th rason for ths s th crcut vndor nds to provd a plan for propr layout stratgy for manufacturng; a plan whch accounts for th gran drcton of th coppr fol durng th manufacturng procss. Ths s bcaus thr s a masurabl dffrnc n trms of flxng prformanc btwn th machn and transvrs drctons of th coppr fol. Fabrcaton Spcfcaton Dtals Aftr th basc crcut dsgn layout s compltd, th nxt most mportant pc of nformaton rqurd s th fabrcaton spcfcaton. Ths documnt communcats to th fabrcator all th prtnnt dtals for th physcal constructon of th crcut and what s ndd and xpctd n th fnal product. If ths nformaton s ncomplt or naccurat, or f a customr has rqurmnts that cannot b rasonably mt by a comptnt manufacturr, tm wll b unncssarly lost, at a cost to both th customr and th vndor. For ths rason, t s vtally mportant that th fabrcaton spcfcatons ar chckd and rchckd bfor puttng thm out for bd. In th sag words of th mastr carpntr, Masur twc, cut onc. Manufacturng Tolrancs Manufacturng systm oprators nd not only th dmnsons of th part thy ar to manufactur, but also th tolranc for th mportant faturs of th product. Wth flxbl crcuts, ths s somthng that must b don wth thought, car, and consdraton of th ralts of flxbl crcut matrals. Wth som faturs, dsgn tolrancs may b crtcal for th prformanc, ft, or furthr procssng of th product (ln wdths, spacs, hol szs, physcal sparaton of faturs, postonal accuracy, tc.). In ths cass, th manufacturr can oftn mploy mthods to dal wth th rqurmnt on a localzd bass. In th cas of othr faturs, th tolranc may b lss crtcal, sgnfcantly lss crtcal, or vn non-crtcal. An mportant thng to kp n mnd s that flxbl matrals ar not as dmnsonally stabl as rgd matrals, and whl local faturs may b hld n tght tolranc rlatv to ach othr, faturs from nd to nd may b lss prdctabl. Gvn that flxbl crcuts ar normally nstalld n som 3D form aftr assmbly, th tght tolrancs on planar masurmnts ar oftn not ncssary. If thr ar qustons about a tolranc callout, th dsgnr should contact th manufacturng ngnr. It s always bst to solv th problm bfor t bcoms a problm. Unclar Layr Dsgnaton (Rgd or Flx) Th purpos of a product spcfcaton s to provd clar, unambguous nstructons on th product s constructon. In th cas of a multlayr crcut dsgn, ths s vtally mportant. Th rlatonshp of ntrnal crcut layrs rlatv to on anothr has bcom ncrasngly mportant n not only assurng that corrct ntrconnctons ar bng mad, but also n product prformanc, spcally wth controlld mpdanc dsgns and sgnal ntgrty ssus. Svral dffrnt systms hav bn dvlopd ovr th yars to hlp assur that thr s no uncrtanty n th ordr of th crcut layrs n th fnal constructon. Th fabrcators ngnrng staff can provd rcommndatons f ndd. Not th thcknss and constructon of ach cor n Fgur 1. Covr Layr Rqurmnts Not Proprly Calld Out or Dfnd Covrlayr and covr coat ar trms normally rsrvd for flxbl crcut constructons and thy ar by dfault a dfnng structural lmnt of both flx and rgd flx crcuts. Covrlayrs srv as a flxbl soldr mask of sorts, protctng th dlcat crcuts from damag and potntal wckng of soldr 52 FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018

53 RIGID SECTION FLEX SECTION RIGID SECTION LAYER 1 MASK 1/2 OZ. COPPER MASK 1/2 OZ. COPPER RIGID LAMINATE CORE 10 MILS RIGID LAMINATE CORE 10 MILS LAYER 2 LAYER 3 NO-FLOW PREPREG 6 MILS NO-FLOW PREPREG 6 MILS COVERLAY 1 MIL POLYIMIDE ADHESIVE 1 MIL ACRYLIC 1 OUNCE COPPER ADHESIVELESS Adhsvlss POLYIMIDE Polymd FLEX Flx 1 1 MIL ml 1 OUNCE COPPER ADHESIVE 1 MIL ACRYLIC COVERLAY 1 MIL POLYIMIDE NO-FLOW PREPREG 6 MILS NO-FLOW PREPREG 6 MILS RIGID LAMINATE CORE 10 MILS RIGID LAMINATE CORE 10 MILS LAYER 4 1/2 OZ. COPPER 1/2 OZ. COPPER MASK MASK Fgur 1: Exampl of four-layr flx constructon. along crcut tracs, whl lavng opn accss to dsgn faturs whr ntrconnctons ar to b mad to componnts by soldrng. It s mportant to dtrmn th thcknss of a covrlayr to allow for maxmum flxblty whn dsrd, and nsur you hav chosn a covrlayr wth a suffcnt amount of adhsv on t to accommodat th coppr wght. Covrlayrs ar also of mportanc n th dsgn of aras whr th crcut s to b bnt thr just on tm, ntrmttntly, or dynamcally, mllons or vn bllons of tms ovr ts usful lf. Th lattr cas, th dmnsons and mak of th flxbl crcut covrlayr s crtcal. In dynamc flx crcuts, thr s nd to balanc th amount of flxbl matrals on th sds of th conductors whr flxng s to occur. It s mportant to know and undrstand that thr ar dffrnt typs of matrals avalabl for us as covrlayr matrals, and that thr s no sngl, dal soluton. Ths matral chocs nclud: matrals that ar lamnatd to th coppr crcuts usng hat and prssur; matrals that can b lamnatd and thn pho- tomagd, lk soldr mask, to dfn ponts of conncton; and matrals that ar smply scrn prntd on to sal tracs, whl lavng opn faturs of ntrst for furthr procssng or for makng ntrconnctons. Numbr of Flx Layrs Th clar majorty of flxbl crcuts hav just on or two mtal layrs. Howvr, an ncrasng numbr of hgh-prformanc products now rqur hgh layr counts and hghdnsty ntrconnct (HDI) dsgn tchnqus. As layr count ncrass, so dos th nd for control n dsgn gnraton to accommodat manufacturng procss ralts. It s also worth notng, whl on th topc of layr count, that stffnss ncrass as a cub of thcknss. That s, f on doubls ts thcknss, th stffnss gos up ghtfold (2 3 = 8), and thus small ncrass n thcknss du to ncrass n layr count can gratly dcras crcut flxblty. Th convrs s also tru, of cours. Th followng ar som ky concrns to b undrstood and addrssd n th dsgn procss rlatv to flx layr count. APRIL 2018 I FLEX007 MAGAZINE 53

54 As s th cas wth any multlayr constructon, cor thcknss must b provdd wth th assumpton that coppr s clad on at last on surfac. Th cor thcknss s gnrally undrstood to b th thcknss of th dlctrc matral btwn th coppr layrs. Th cor matral can b a smpl sngl-sdd pc of coppr clad polymr, or t can b clad wth coppr on both sds. Many dffrnt cor thcknsss ar commonly avalabl for flxbl crcuts, but th most common s 75 mm, typcally comprsd of 25 mm of bas polymr (.g., poly- ALL RIGID WITH FLEX BONDED TOGETHER FLEX AREA ALL RIGID WITH FLEX BONDED TOGETHER LAYER 1 RIGID CORE RIGID CORE NO-FLOW PREPREG COVERLAYER NO-FLOW PREPREG LAYERS 2/3 FLEX CORE WITH COPPER BOND PLY LAYERS 4/5 FLEX CORE WITH COPPER BOND PLY LAYERS 6/7 NO-FLOW PREPREG FLEX CORE WITH COPPER COVERLAYER NO-FLOW PREPREG LAYER 8 RIGID CORE RIGID CORE RIGID WITH FLEX BELTS FLEX AREA RIGID WITH FLEX BELTS LAYER 1 RIGID RIGID LAYERS 2/3 LAYERS 4/5 LAYERS 6/7 NO-FLOW PREPREG NO-FLOW PREPREG NO-FLOW PREPREG NO-FLOW PREPREG COVERLAYER FLEX CORE WITH COPPER COVERLAYER COVERLAYER FLEX CORE WITH COPPER COVERLAYER COVERLAYER FLEX CORE WITH COPPER COVERLAYER NO-FLOW PREPREG NO-FLOW PREPREG NO-FLOW PREPREG NO-FLOW PREPREG LAYER 8 RIGID RIGID Fgur 2: Bondd vs. unbondd flx. aras. 54 FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018

55 Fgur 3: Compltd PCB flx blts sparatd. md, polystr) wth 25 mm of adhsv (.g., acrylc, modfd poxy) on thr sd to bond coppr fol to th surfac of th bas polymr. Thnnr and thckr cor matrals can b procurd both wth and wthout adhsv. It s rcommndd that dsgnrs chck wth thr flx vndors for both thr rcommndatons and th avalablty of th chosn matral. Whl th dscusson so far bn lmtd to flxbl crcut cor matral, rgd matrals ar mployd n th fabrcaton of rgd-flx crcuts. Of cours, any of th myrad cor matrals usd n rgd multlayr crcuts ar also avalabl to mak rgd-flx crcuts. Howvr, onc agan, t s advsabl to chck wth th flx manufacturr for advc as to what optons ar most common and radly avalabl. Sparaton Dstanc Btwn Flx Crcut Cors Whn a product rqurs two or mor cors, thr s a nd to dfn n th spcfcaton what th spacng rqurmnts ar btwn cors. Th spacng can mpact product prformanc (physcal and lctrcal) and, most obvously, thcknss. In som dsgns, th spacng btwn flx crcut cors may b flld wth dlctrc matral, but wth othr dsgns th dlctrc btwn flx cors n th flx ara may b omttd to assur maxmum flxblty (Fgur 2). If th cor layrs must b unbondd, ths should b notd n th documntaton. Thos aras whr bondng s to b avodd should b dntfd n th dsgn artwork packag. Th unbondd aras must hav a covrlayr appld to ach xposd sd (Fgurs 2 and 3). In lamnatd aras, t s not rqurd and arguably a lablty whn platd through-hol rlablty through th assmbly procss s consdrd. Obvously, n aras whr ntrconncton s rqurd btwn multpl layrs of ntrnal crcuts, a dlctrc s rqurd as shown n Fgur 2. In th nxt nstallmnt w wll contnu ths thr-part srs by addrssng crcut layup symmtry, dsgnng for bndng, and controlld mpdanc. FLEX007 Dav Lacky s vc prsdnt of busnss dvlopmnt at Amrcan Standard Crcuts. Anaya Vardya s CEO of Amrcan Standard Crcuts. Rlatd Contnt Vst I-007Books to download your copy of Amrcan Standard Crcuts mcro Books today: Th Prntd Crcut Dsgnr s Gud to Flx and Rgd-Flx Fundamntals E Th Prntd Crcut Dsgnr s Gud to Fundamntals of RF/Mcrowav PCBs E APRIL 2018 I FLEX007 MAGAZINE 55

56 Fatur Intrvw by Andy Shaughnssy I-CONNECT007 Whn I spok wth APCT Prsdnt Stv Robnson a yar ago, h sad h was ntrstd n addng flx and rgd-flx capablts. Wth th rcnt acquston of Cartl and thr subsdary Crtch, APCT now has a flx and rgdflx faclty, along wth mltary and arospac crtfcatons. At DsgnCon 2018, I askd Stv to dscuss ths acqustons and what thy man for APCT and thr customrs. Andy Shaughnssy: Stv, good to s you agan. Now, as th top guy at APCT Stv Robnson: I m th had jantor. I clan up all th msss [laughs]. Shaughnssy: That s rght. Stv, gv us a quck background on APCT. Robnson: APCT was foundd n It was Advancd Prntd Crcuts bfor that. Ths wll b th 37th yar of that faclty and that opraton. Whn I lft Mrx, I acqurd ths opraton and w v bn focusng on a hgh lvl of advancd tchnology and hgh ngnrng support for ovr ght yars now. Busnss has bn grat, and w v bn vry fortunat. I thnk w pckd th rght markt sgmnt and th rght busnss modl that w gland at th tm. W just had a nc start to 2018 wth anothr acquston. Shaughnssy: Tll us about ths acquston. Robnson: W acqurd two busnss ntts. Frst, Cartl Elctroncs, run by Bruc McMastr n Orang County, Calforna s a rgd mdum-to-advancd tchnology manufacturr, a hgh-mx commrcal factory. Thn w acqurd an afflat of thrs, Crtch, whch has a markt nch: dfns arospac, mltary-focusd, wth hgh-lvl crtfcaton, and flx and rgd-flx as wll. On of my chartrs n 2017 was to provd a soluton for our customrs n th flx and 56 FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018

57 HloRadrs! CONTACTUS flx.connct007.com

58 rgd-flx arna. And I was happy to gt ths dal don; w startd on t n August 2017 and fnally closd n January It s nc to hav th addtonal capacty and dpth from th Cartl tam, along wth th addtonal offrng of th flx and rgd-flx. Th dfns and arospac crtfcatons of Ml-P and wr hgh-valu targts, and to b honst, t was asr to acqur than t was to mplmnt thm n my currnt opratons. So, w chos that path. Shaughnssy: So you don t hav to tran anyon... Robnson: Ys, you don t hav to chang th cultur of your spcfc factors thr. On s a hgh-rlablty faclty, a lttl bt mor mtculous wth ts focus, whl th othr faclts ar mor advancd tchnology-focusd and spd-focusd. Stoppng to complt 20 pags of paprwork vry othr day s knd of cumbrsom to our task of quck turn, but both strv for hgh rlablty. And I m rally xctd to ntroduc our quck-turn cultur nto thos arnas. In th ntal month, I v bn mtng wth customrs, spcally th flx and rgd-flx. Evn n th dfns and arospac sgmnts, th tchnologs ar volvng vry quckly, and thr s a shortag of supplrs. So whn you hav our stablshd, hgh-rlablty factory and now you ntroduc our advancd tchnology, quckturn capablts, our mtngs hav bn prtty y-opnng. Customrs now know that thy hav a sourc that thy can go to that offrs a broadr rang of tchnology for thm. Bcaus thy r bng prssurd, th dfns ndustry s th sam as ours smallr, thnnr, lghtr, fastr, mor conomcal, mor affordabl, and mor ffcnt. And so that s drvng smallr, tghtr lns, smallr faturs, vrythng that mbracs th advancd tchnology spac that APCT has nchd tslf n. So far th fdback s bn trmndous, and th customr ntrst s through th roof compard to what w xpctd. So t s rally good. W r rally xctd about t, lookng forward to th rst of 2018 and workng wth t. As I sad bfor, as wth any acquston, you don t buy a company; you buy th tam. I m xctd about th dpth of th tam, and th xprnc thy hav. Many of ths popl hav bn buldng prntd crcut boards n thr ndustry nch for yars, so t adds trmndous dpth to APCT. It stll s just popl workng wth popl, so to hav a hug surplus of ndustry vtrans s somthng spcal. Bruc McMastr has bn on of th top ladrs of our ndustry for yars, snc th DDI days. John Stn s runnng our Crtch opratons, and h has many yars n th dsgn and manufacturng of flx and rgd-flx. I thought my tam was th strongst tam n th ndustry pror to ths, so t s rally xctng for m. As CEO, my job s tam buldng, rght? I put th bst playrs on th fld and hav a good gam stratgy, and thn xcut wth a good tam. I am about to roll th PCB Patrots nto th crcut board ndustry. Shaughnssy: You talkd bfor about how you want to rach th dsgnrs and dsgn ngnrs on th front nd to do hgh-rlablty and th hgh-tch work. Robnson: Absolutly. Bcaus as you go to th advancd HDI spac, thr ar stll a lot of struggls n th dsgn stags. Thy don t yt undrstand th crtcal stps to hav hgh rlablty and prdctablty n advancd tchnology bulds. It rqurs balancd constructons, lookng at what you can do, and makng t 58 FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018

59 achvabl for manufacturrs to b succssful. That holds tru for th flx and rgd-flx spac as wll. That ndustry s volvng, and dsgnrs ar stll strugglng to do t rght. Our cor focus s stll ngnrng at APCT, and that s what w ar. W r a srvc company. W happn to buld crcut boards, but ths acquston s stll th sam. W ar a srvcs busnss. W r workng wth dsgnrs, and w r workng wth ngnrs, hlpng thm dvlop a concpt, and thn w buld th soluton for thm. And that starts wth arly nvolvmnt, hlpng thm through th dsgn aspcts of t. And t s fun. It s bn xctng. W grw 40% last yar n that modl, whch was a bg yar of growth for us. I thnk w v found an ara that has valu, and thr s a nd. Wth any busnss modl whr you fnd valu and a nd, f you don t mss up th xcuton, you should hav a succssful opportunty. Ths s what w r sng now. Shaughnssy: And now you hav flx and rgdflx. Th last tm w talkd, you sad flx was on your radar scrn. Robnson: Rght, w had no flx or rgd-flx. That was rally my goal n 2017, to brng that opportunty. You want to dvrsfy your offrngs, but you also want to provd somthng your customrs ar askng for, and most of my customrs wr askng m for that. In 2018 w ar gong to try to prfct that, and now w v got customrs askng for nw tchnologs. Thy r talkng to us about som of th thrmal conductv matrals out thr, spcally n th automotv and th lghtng ndustrs. How do w dvlop that for thm and work on that? As mnaturzaton has gon to lvls vn byond our capablts of 40 mcron or lss trac and spac, w r bng pushd for mor. Our ngnrng tam s now lookng at th addtv procss, buldup procssng, and som of thos nw tchnologs that ar comng out and just startng to mrg. W wll contnu to chas thos procsss, as long as thr s markt bhnd t. I don t want to chas thm just to prov that t can b don; I want to chas thm bcaus thr s som valu and customrs nd t and thr s a markt. Shaughnssy: I v talkd to a coupl of popl hr who say t s hard to fnd sombody who can buld thr flx th rght way. On company ownr told m that th worst thngs thy hav had to dal wth s th assmbly of flx, bcaus wth all th fxturng, t s almost lk startng ovr from scratch. Robnson: It s dffrnt. You know I hav a fw popl on my tam who hav famlarty wth that procssng. I thnk you larn two thngs n that ndustry. Numbr on, you don t s many rgd and flx faclts combnd. Thy v all prtty much abandond that stratgy; you s flx-ddcatd or rgd-ddcatd factors. Flx rqurs a lttl dffrnt mntalty and a dffrnt thought procss. I v larnd that th upfront ngnrng and th tm assocatd wth dvlopng a plan for flx s a lot mor comprhnsv than wth advancd HDI or othr tough tchnologs w can gt on th floor n a coupl hours or a day or so. Wth flx, t taks a fw days to coordnat that. Th challngs w s ar cycl tm, along wth mnaturzaton. You know t s gong that rout as wll. How do you do t rght? How do you do dsgn? That s why I am xctd about havng dsgn guys on my tam that ar at th arly stag wth th flx. Ths gvs us an opportunty to lay th board out n th rght way. It s all about how you lay your crcutry wth th way that product s bndng. Shaughnssy: Do you hav som flx dsgnrs now? Robnson: W do, at th Crtch faclty, and thy supply dsgns to customrs as wll. And th othr pc s assmbly. W r lookng at puttng som of that down thr, too. Most rputabl flx or rgd-flx faclts hav som typ of assmbly n-hous as wll. W ll look at that mayb for that rgon. I v nvr mbracd th assmbly aspct of t bcaus t s a conflct wth a lot of our customrs, and I don t want to crat that. But wth th flx and APRIL 2018 I FLEX007 MAGAZINE 59

60 rgd-flx, t s a lttl dffrnt modl. So w ll s. It s knd of nw, so w ll go wth t and play wth t for a whl and s whr t taks us. It s xctng supr busy. W had alrady compltly flld our capacty for Q1 n th frst two wks of sllng t. That tlls m th ntrst s vry hgh. Shaughnssy: That s good. So what s th bg hol n your capablts now? Robnson: W don t rally hav on. My sals guys lov to tll m t would b nc to fnd a low-cost soluton. You know, a rally compttv low-cost soluton. I m not sur that s fasbl anymor, n North Amrca at last, to try to hav that opraton that can stll sustan tslf. Thr s stll a sgnfcant nd out thr for 2-, 4-, 6-, and 8-layr low-tch stuff that s lowcost compttv. That s what th Advancd Crcuts of th world hav capturd. Thy own that. Som of th Intrnt-basd modl busnsss hav that and thy ar thrvng on t, and I thnk you v got to allow thm to b n that spac. I don t thnk that s gong to chang. W consdr our global busnss a program managmnt busnss, not a cost-drvn busnss. But mor popl com to us to manag th rcp and manag th program. I thnk that wll b my nxt focus ara to try to xpand that and algn that wth mor of th dmand w ar sng. W v addd som dstrbuton n cntral U.S. so w can support th Untd Stats wth t. It s a fun modl to work wth, bcaus ts capacty has no lmts. So t s rally th rght program and th rght customr partnrshps that rally look to us for th NPI and th rcp and manag th program for thm. As far as tchnologs, t s th sam. You know, I thnk w v gon byond th standard PCB manufacturng tchnqus. W hav vrythng that you can do t wth now, wth th addtv I thnk wll b our bggst thng w wll look to mprov. That procss s probably th nwst mrgng. If you r gong to gt down to 10 to 15 mcrons trac and spac, w v got to gt cratv wth that. I thnk that s probably what w ar gong to focus on n a lmtd bass now. Thn th othr aspct s th cycl tm, to contnu to focus on rducng our cycl tms whr w can do multpl lamnaton cycls. W ar currntly buldng thr to four lamnaton cycl products n fv to sx days. That s from 10 to 12 two yars ago, so w hav rally rducd that cycl tm and th dmand out thr for that. Rducng cost and rducng cycl tms of th advancd tchnology I thnk s on of my bg focuss for 2018 along wth th addtv. I thnk that s somthng my ngnrng tam s gong to hav to com to m wth. Connctcut s alrady mbracng th thrmal conductv matrals, so w ar probably gong to roll that out n that opraton. W hav a sgnfcant automotv and lghtng busnss out of that faclty alrady, so t maks sns for that st to do t. And you know, othr than that, you work on th cultur and th ntgraton of th nw famls w now hav n Southrn Calforna. W ll b brngng thm up to spd wth th way ACPT dos busnss and what s mportant to us, and how w focus on our customrs. W want to nhanc th cultur at th nw faclts and captalz on thm, and do som of th thngs always ncssary arly n th procss of an acquston. Shaughnssy: Vry good. Is thr anythng ls you want to talk about? Robnson: I thnk that s t. W ll talk agan, I m sur. Thanks for th opportunty. Shaughnssy: Thank you, Stv. Grat talkng to you. FLEX FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018

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62 Evnts Calndar Thaland PCB Expo 2018 E May 10 12, 2018 Bangkok, Thaland Mdcal Elctroncs Symposum 2018 E May 16 18, 2018 Dallas, Txas, USA IMPACT Washngton, D.C E May 21 23, 2018 Washngton, D.C., USA 2018 EIPC s 50 Yars Annvrsary Confrnc E May 31 Jun 1, 2018 Bonn, Grmany JPCA show 2018 E Jun 6 8, 2018 Tokyo, Japan FLEX Kora 2018 E Jun 20 21, 2018 Soul, South Kora Snsors Expo & Confrnc E Jun 26 28, 2018 San Jos, Calforna, USA IPC E-Txtls 2018 Workshop E Sptmbr 13, 2018 Ds Plans, Illnos, USA lctronca Inda productronca Inda E Sptmbr 26 28, 2018 Bngaluru, Inda lctroncasa 2018 E Octobr 13 16, 2018 Hong Kong SMTA Intrnatonal E Octobr 16 17, 2018 Rosmont, Illnos, USA TPCA Show 2018 E Octobr 24 26, 2018 Tap, Tawan Addtonal Evnt Calndars 62 FLEX007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2018

63 PUBLISHER: BARRY MATTIES SALES MANAGER: BARB HOCKADAY (916) ; MARKETING SERVICES: TOBEY MARSICOVETERE (916) ; EDITORIAL: MANAGING EDITOR: ANDY SHAUGHNESSY (404) ; TECHNICAL EDITOR: PETE STARKEY +44 (0) ; MAGAZINE PRODUCTION CREW: PRODUCTION MANAGER: SHELLY STEIN MAGAZINE LAYOUT: RON MEOGROSSI AD DESIGN: SHELLY STEIN, MIKE RADOGNA, TOBEY MARSICOVETERE TECHNOLOGY SPECIALIST: BRYSON MATTIES COVER: SHELLY STEIN COVER IMAGES: WITOLD KRASOWSKI, ADOBE STOCK FLEX ADVERTISER INDEX All Flx Amrcan Standard Crcuts... 3 Candor... 7 Eltk ESI I-Connct I-Connct007 Books... 2, 27 Insulctro... 5 IPC... 47, 51, 61 Lnthor Engnrng MacDrmd Enthon Matrx Mptc Th PCB Lst Prntd Crcuts Show & Tll Tayo Tramonto FLEX007 MAGAZINE s publshd by BR Publshng, Inc., 942 Wndmr Dr. NW, Salm, OR BR Publshng, Inc. dos not assum and hrby dsclams any lablty to any prson for loss or damag causd by rrors or omssons n th matral contand wthn ths publcaton, rgardlss of whthr such rrors or omssons ar causd accdntally, from nglgnc or any othr caus. Aprl 2018, Volum 1, Numbr 1 FLEX007 MAGAZINE s publshd quartrly, by BR Publshng, Inc. FREE SUBSCRIPTION APRIL 2018 I FLEX007 MAGAZINE 63

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