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Serving Up Fresh and Hot: PCB007 Magazine's November 2023 Issue
November 16, 2023 | I-Connect007 Editorial TeamEstimated reading time: 1 minute
The Registration Sweet Spot
Registration is underrated and underappreciated. You can try to argue with us about this, but after diving into the current state of registration, we're convinced. What’s key here is ensuring proper registration from layer to layer across the entire printed circuit board. It’s a holistic process requiring anticipation, prediction, precise attention at each step, and detailed data tracking and monitoring, because a slight error up front will only snowball as the process continues.
In IC fabrication, working with crystalline silicon, the IC engineers have the luxury of a remarkably stable foundation. Study the challenges in obtaining consistent, high-quality printed circuit registrations at today’s PCB geometries, and it starts to feel like a moonshot: when the coefficient of thermal expansion in your substrate can be larger than the features you are fabricating, getting all of them to line up across multiple layers is an exercise in managing multiple moving targets.
In this issue of PCB007 Magazine, we talked to industry experts about getting it right with registration, with an overarching theme on how to keep all your steps in their respective sweet spots. Features include Alex Stepinski sharing his from-the-field lessons on how to design fabrication processes for improved registration, and some of his signature “hacks.” Happy Holden returns to the value of coupons, and XACTPCB’s Andrew Kelley discusses the use of planning software tools to anticipate misregistration and compensate. We also visited with Aidan Salvi from Amitron, a PCB fabricator committed to improving registration—to the tune of 60+ pieces of new equipment and development of a Factory 5.0 model.
So, pour yourself a coffee or a tea, grab one of your favorite donuts, and see how your registration processes stack up.
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IMI’s Subsidiary, VIA optronics AG, Announces Intention to Voluntarily Delist its ADSs from the New York Stock Exchange
04/11/2024 | IMIIntegrated Micro-Electronics, Inc.’s subsidiary, VIA optronics AG (VIA), a leading supplier of interactive display solutions, announced on April 9, 2024 its intention to voluntarily delist its American Depository Shares (ADSs) from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), terminate its registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (US SEC), and terminate its ADS program.
ASMC 2024 to Spotlight Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Innovations and Excellence
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Recent Practices in PCB Fab Registration System Architecture
12/13/2023 | Alex Stepinski, Stepinski GroupThe registration of copper features, both to interconnects and to each other, is a topic about which documented cases in the public space are less than abundant, other than individual supplier marketing with minimal back-up data. Traditionally, this area is known to individual fabs as it involves multiple processes with a lot of variation in equipment makes/models, and even base materials between different shops. This article endeavors to document the current Pareto frontier of registration system design architecture for use by PCB fab engineers.
Amitron's Leap Into the AI Frontier
12/12/2023 | Nolan Johnson, PCB007In a conversation with Aidan Salvi, Amitron’s chief transformation officer, he spoke of the interaction of machine learning on registration. Amitron has been modernizing much of its manufacturing equipment, and Aidan points out that improving registration is a key objective. He sees registration as a holistic system. To make smart improvements, you need data. To get data, you need equipment and sensors which capture the data. To make sense of the data, you need analysis and, eventually, predictive tools.
Happy’s Tech Talk #24: Performance and Registration—Coupons to the Rescue
12/06/2023 | Happy Holden -- Column: Happy’s Tech TalkRegistration is one of the most important features for any PCB fabricator, but the capability for multilayers is a lot of work on the fabricator’s part. CAM settings, multilayer lamination, X-ray analysis, AOI measurements, imaging capability, and drill accuracy all play an important part in this capability. Software and panel parametric coupons are important because they aid in registration performance.