EIPC Winter Conference

Citation

Ling, J. (2013), "EIPC Winter Conference", Circuit World, Vol. 39 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/cw.2013.21739baa.017

EIPC Winter Conference

Article Type: Conferences and exhibitions From: Circuit World, Volume 39, Issue 2

BerlinDay 1 – 30 January

EIPC Chairman Alun Morgan welcomed the many international delegates to the Winter Conference which was held at The Ramada Hotel Alexanderplatz in Berlin at the end of January. His presentation showed how versatile much of the latest IT equipment is, and the diversity of applications of modern communications, not least of which is the new EIPC web site which has undergone a major re-design and contains a much greater amount of information.

The keynote speaker is Dr Hayao Nakahara of NT Information Ltd He recalled speaking at the 1973 EIPC Winter Conference, which was when the world of the PCB industry was a very different place. Dr Nakahara confirmed that there had been a sudden and massive global shift in the geography of production. Most people think that China is now the biggest producer, but 43 per cent of production in China is with Taiwanese companies, and Europe now accounts for only 5.7 per cent of world production, worth some €2.5 billion. The USA has about $3 billion in domestic production while its overseas production was $3.2 billion in 2011. Domestic production will continue to oscillate in the vicinity of $3.0 billion per annum unless someone adds capacity, which is unlikely in any near future.

The list of major manufacturers of automotive PCBs shows that of the European companies, AT&S at No. 8, Schweizer at No. 13, and Fuba Tunisia at No. 18. Japanese production peaked in 2007, and is now going down at the same rate at the USA and Europe. However, the number of Japanese companies operating in other countries is large. The diversity of the geographic spread of production is by itself an interesting phenomenon. There are, for example, 300 million Samsung smartphones coming from a factory in Vietnam, where Meiko have 80,000 m² per month of laser drilling capacity. One good example is the iPhone, which has 18-layers in the PCB, which are all made in Asia, at the rate of two million pieces a month. Pertinent to a later presentation in the conference, Dr Nakahara said that LDI is the way forward. In Penang, Malaysia, there is a new Ibiden plant, supplying ten-layer boards to Apple, which has 25-30,000 m² capacity, and it is evident that 70 per cent of South-East Asia’s PCB output is made by Japanese transplants as the Japanese continue to make mega investments in these countries, and soon 50 per cent of Japanese production will be offshore.

Dr Nakahara underlined the difference between the scale of operations taking place in the Far East with those with which most delegates might be more familiar. He showed the Wu Qing Song plant in China, which will have 190,000 m² of floor space, and another planned for Elec and Eltek, which will have 1 million m² per month capacity, with some 1,000 drilling machines, and yet another PCB plant in China which will have 5 million ft² capacity. By the time that these plants are commissioned and in production, Taiwan will control more than 50 per cent of PCB [production in China.

In Korea, Dr Nakahara thought that whilst Samsung is presently going like a steam train, alas, the buffers are not too far ahead. They are fast growing in Thailand, and one of the largest in Asia; Vietnam is very interesting for the future, but neither Brazil nor India are likely candidates for major investment, the infrastructure is not there, with unreliable utilities, and there are no materials and no equipment made locally and everything has to be imported. Possibly a $10-20 million investment in India and/or in Brazil can be justified, but not $100-200 million investment. It would be too risky.

He showed some very interesting forecast tables, which tended to confirm, sadly, that when it comes to growth in the Western world, there would not be very much of it.

Walt Custer of Custer Consulting happily had some positive signs for the future. He knows that the PCB capital equipment cycles pretty much mirrors the semi-conductor cycle, so the indications are favourable. Walt uses the PMI (Purchasing Manager’s Index) as a guide, and sees a turn-up coming. Inventories are low, so orders are now picking up, with Smartphones leading the way, as do iPads, with these even displacing toys for the younger generation.

Michael Gasch of Data4PCB said that the general global problems have slowed down the electronics industry considerably. Debts in Europe and the downgrading of some European countries had aggravated the situation. Austria, Germany and Switzerland cover about two-thirds of European PCB production, but there is still a decline in production in these countries of some 10 per cent compared to 2011. France and the UK contributes about 7-10 per cent each to European PCB production, but the cuts in defence spending had reduced sales in that sector by about −15 per cent.

But in a very detailed market outlook, Walt concluded that 2014 looks promising, especially for capital equipment, so one does not need to despair quite yet.

Raymond Gales of Circuit Foil in Luxemburg said that low loss laminates are a niche market, but it has shown strong growth over recent years. As frequencies increase, so overall transmission losses are getting higher. At 10 GHz, the skin effect is <1 um deep, which is less than the copper treatment. Signals are therefore forced to follow the copper roughness, increasing the attenuation losses. Circuit Foil has produced a new copper treatment process, which reduces the average of 5 um down to 2 um. No more the big pyramids, the deep valleys, it is now more uniformly flat, with the next generation down to 1 um. Combined with very thin proprietary primer resin coating, this new generation of ultra-low profile foil is designed for high speed and high density applications, including embedding techniques.

Christian Borget of FELA GmbH in Germany spoke about capacitive input systems based on glass, which effectively is the FELAM GLASLINE®-Technology. In this way electronics are applied directly onto a glass panel for touch-key applications, incorporating background illumination and functionality. Christian described how the circuitry is built up on the glass substrate, how the operating interface is made of glass which provides advantages like attractive design, modern operating, hygiene and endurance to the customer when built in devices or machines. Advantages include immunity to changes of temperature and air humidity, and applications include markets like building, automation, gastronomy, and medical.

Tim Von Werne of Semblant held the attention of the delegates with a fascinating talk about a new a no-mask conformal coating which is ReacH and RoHS compliant, and has neither water nor energy requirements. It is a fluoropolymer film, which adheres to most substrates, is very resistant to corrosion, and is applied by plasma deposition. They are in partnership with Nordson March, who manufacture the plasma systems, represented in Europe by Adeon, and with Stevenage Circuits who are doing the manufacturing. It can protect any surface – and the hydrophobic nature of the SPF prevents flux from spreading along the pad. SPF shows best corrosion resistance against all other surface coatings, such as ENIG, OSP on Cu, with no creep-corrosion, no tarnishing, and the gold remains bright and clean. This was further proven in tests, for which the results were excellent both before and after reflow. SPF also shows better insertion loss performance, with Rockwell Collins claiming that SPF causes no signal loss for high RF up to 10 GHz. How it works with wire bonding was not clear. However, shelf-life and solderability are excellent.

Mustapha O˘zko˘k from Atotech Deutschland GmbH introduced the conference to PallaBond, a direct palladium with direct gold on copper. The development of this product can be traced back to 1997, but the price of palladium meant that this was not commercially sensible, but now that palladium is cheaper than gold, it is more acceptable. The price difference is $1,000/oz., in fact. RoHS also leant weight to the advantages of palladium, and with the move of mass production to China, who take the environment very seriously, as well as technology changes, resulting in demands for lines and spaces of10 um, and of RHF applications, it became clear that palladium is better, displacing the normal ENEPIG finishes which are too thick. For very fine line work, PallaBond was excellent, as well as for copper wire bonding, which is rapidly increasing. Compared to all the other surface finishes, such as ENIG, ENEPIG, EPAG, PallaBond was the most cost-effective (i.e. it had the lowest material cost), and can be used for flex application as well -

The afternoon of Day 1 was taken up entirely by a visit to the impressive Berlin R&D Centre of Atotech GmbH. Here all were welcomed by the VP Europe and Americas Gertjan van der Wal, who explained how Atotech is now a truly world-encompassing organisation with no less than 17 Technical Centres, 16 production plants, employing some 4,000 people. Company turnover in 2012 was €965 million, and their growth rate is presently 7 per cent p.a. Much of the R&D is done in Berlin, in a new (2008) building, and Atotech devoted €75.6 million to research last year. They have most of their business in the Far East (61 per cent), with 24 per cent in Europe and 15 per cent in North America.

Hannes Hofman gave some further information on the foundation of their Technical Centres, and their Material Services Laboratories, which are based in Shanghai, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong as well as in North America. Training in the use of Atotech products also takes place within these, and at any one time there are some 500 people undergoing such training.

Daniel Schmidt was in charge of the tours of the R&D Centre, no mean feat with nine groups of ten people in each, but with some skilful organisation and a degree of mass choreography, everyone was given a very good insight into the various sections – Materials Science, Topographic Imaging (X-Ray Tomography & Gallium-Ion Electron Beam), Process Development, On-Line Analysis, Organic Analytics, Electroplating Technology, Plating on Plastics, and wafer plating for Semiconductors. Some idea of the scale of operations was obtained from the information that they carry out 1,200 analytical samples for customers per week, and some 25,000 m² of plated samples. Analysis can be carried out on-line, as well as from received samples. A look at the electroplating department revealed that they have now sold 728 their Uniplate IP (In-Pulse) two plating lines around the world since their introduction in 1998, and their new horizontal plating line, with a touch-less transport system, was demonstrated. This line runs at 1 m/m, whereas the IP2 system can achieve about twice that. Plating on plastics was illustrated, ABS and polyamide, and the application of this process for the automotive industry was clearly seen. A final visit was made to see the Multiplate system for ICs, mostly for 200 mm wafers, but able to accommodate 300 mm wafers. They have some new technology coming out at the end of this year for this sector, which guarantees void-free plating, so essential in chip manufacture. 450 mm was not mentioned, however.

Such a visit to a magnificently-designed, superbly-equipped, professionally-run R&D Centre was a treat, and gave a welcome insight into the work that goes behind the success of one of the world’s largest chemical companies, serving both the international PCB industry, and through their GMF division, many other industries as well for the last 13 years.

Day 2 – 1 February

The first session was chaired by Professor Martin Goosey who encouraged speakers to keep to time – something to do with reliability and testing, possibly.

Professor Rimantas Ramanauskas from the Lithuanian Institute of Chemistry is one of the partners of the ASPIS Project funded under the FP7-SME of the EU. Others include the ICT, ITRI, EIPC, TNO Netherlands, The University of Leicester, Merlin Circuit Technology, Graphic PLC, Global IC Services, Atotech and Somacis.

Black pad failure of ENIG/solder bonding caused by excessive NI corrosion was the subject of investigation by his institute. Corrosion behaviour studies indicated that surface roughness of the substrate has much to do with it. Ni-P alloys have become an essential coating in the electroless Ni-P/immersion Au process for printed circuit board “ENIG” surface finishes, however, an excessive (hyper) corrosion of the alloy in Au+ containing electrolytes takes place under certain conditions, and results in a defective structure formation. The results obtained during the ASPIS project activities indicate that the “black pad” phenomenon is related to the specific structure of the Ni-P coatings and some peculiarities of the immersion Au deposition processes. It was established that inadequate base metal (Cu) surface preparation results in deposition of Ni-P layers with nodular morphology and serious structural defects, such as pores and cavities, which eventually leads to a direct contact between the substrate (Cu) and the immersion Au solution components.

Dr Klaus Ritz is an industry specialist who is a physicist by inclination, and works on solder cracks by necessity. His detailed presentation covered the work done developing a model which would allow horizontal microsections of PTH holes where barrel cracking has occurred during thermal cycling. It seems that resistance increase depends only on the angle at the centre of the circumferential barrel crack, the nominal copper thickness at the entrance of the hole, the hole diameter and the board thickness, but not on the vertical position of the crack.

Yvonne Weiz of Atotech GmbH was working on interconnect stress tests for PTH reliability. Interconnect defects come in three forms – Type 1 is between the inner-layer copper and the electroless copper, Type 2 is between the electroless copper and the electrolytic copper, and Type 3 is a seperation that occurs within the electroless copper layer itself. The Interconnect Stress Test (IST) uses special test coupons, with a daisy chain circuit for power, and another for sensor circuitry. The standard test conditions, comprising heating through current flow to 150°C, then cooling, over a 5 min cycle, and also as a tool for interconnect reliability. During these tests the plated copper is exposed to stresses and strains which lead to a fatigue failure mechanism, namely fractures at the barrel. Normally these tests are used to measure the reliability of the plated copper. Yvonne clearly demonstrated the results and conclusions for the impact of the electroless copper process on the reliability performance.

Accelerated mechanical testing as an alternative method for assessing reliability was the subject of a paper from Dr Golta Khatibi of the University of Vienna. In recent years electronics manufacturers have been looking for efficient and reliable accelerated testing methods to keep up with market demands. At present, accelerated power and temperature cycling tests count as the state of the art for reliability assessment of microelectronic devices. Decreasing the time to failure is commonly achieved by increasing the temperature swing or reduction the duration of testing which may result in occurrence of damage mechanisms other than those encountered in real application or suppressing these failures.

Dr Khatibi described a novel concept for qualification of microelectronic devices as a cost and time saving alternative to the conventional testing procedures. The idea is to replace thermally induced strains by means of equivalent mechanical strains. Using accelerated mechanical fatigue set-ups, the test structures can be subjected to single and multi-axial cyclic loading at high-testing frequencies and lifetime curves can be obtained. Following a physics of failure approach, the suggested procedures enable detection of the weak sites of the devices in a very short duration of time.

Insoluble titanium anode technology for sustainable copper plating was the topic discussed by Ing. Jacko Piper of Magneto Special Anodes BV from The Netherlands. Since 1957 his company has been producing insoluble anodes for specific customer requirements. Based in Schiedam in The Netherlands and Suzhou in China, MSA are anodising specialists, and know about corrosion resistance, which is useful when your country is below sea level. Insoluble anodes have several advantages, including dimensional stability, reduced handling costs, and improved plating precision.

His company has been working on a new product called Selecta, an IR MMO anode, which is made up from titanium and palladium, and he described on how the Ta205 and Ir02 layers are added, which is a slow process, the values of various other metals, such as platinum, and how that improved the plating process, reduced additive consumption, gave better and more reliable product quality and improved plating process stability.

Dennis Price is pretty supersonic himself, so was well-suited to speak about megasonic agitation in the manufacture of high-aspect ratio PCB blind microvias. At Merlin Circuits, they have been working on the ASPECT project, getting the aspect ratio higher than 1:1. A typical 26-layer board was described, 2×10 layers with a three-layer top and bottom layer, all laser-drilled together, a process which Dennis described as having more advantages than disadvantages. Laser drilled holes are easier to plate, avoiding bottle-necking, and here the application of acoustic streaming was described, which dramatically improves the effectiveness of plating into microvia holes through the action of micro-bubbles caused by the acoustics. Dennis has been working with Heriot-Watt University, and with Greenwich University, as well as Schlotter Co.

Prof. Martin Goosey delivered a paper on behalf of Professor Sudipta Roy, who has developed a new maskless electrochemical surface modification process called EnFace. The challenges are in fluid dynamics across a large area, with 500 μm gaps, which is where an electrochemical reactor can be employed. Professor Roy’s new process use electrochemical means and a specialised electrochemical reactor for pattern transfer. This process uses a metallic material with a resist pattern, which serves as an electrochemical tool. The substrate, which is fully exposed, is placed facing the tool, in close proximity, and both the tool and the substrate are electrically connected. Electrolyte is pumped through the system to deliver fresh solution to the anode and cathode as well as remove reaction by products. Metal is plated or etched from selective areas of the substrate by passing an appropriate current or potential. Since a single tool can be used to transfer a pattern numerous times, this opens the possibility of greatly reducing the use of photolithography for pattern transfer on to metallic substrates. The technique has been used to fabricate micron scale structures of copper and nickel on metallic substrates using bench-scale laboratory scale electrochemical reactors, and the results look very promising.

Direct Imaging was the subject of a paper from Karel Tavernier of Ucamco in The Netherlands, who introduced a system from Dainippon Screen. They have been active in DI since the 1990s, initially with mercury lamps, and latterly with UV-LED, with the benefits of a short-optical path, auto focus, and efficiency. For optimal resist curing you need a range of wave-lengths, and a tunable light source. DoF is 3 mm and this is held dynamically during the scan. This light source is contained in the new LEDIA machine, the first of which has been installed somewhere in Europe, and the results of tests with various solder-masks are looking very promising: there is total track encapsulation with no undercut, and definition can be down to 30 μm.

Uwe Altmann from Orbotech S.A. in Israel spoke about LSO Technology (Large Scale Optics) over DMD (Digital Micromirror Devices). Orbotech have a comprehensive range of equipment for PCB production, it is the Paragon family which are used in the IC, PCB and PV industries. With LSO you have one light source, with uniform light distribution, high depth of focus, equipped with optics from Jena; he felt that over time the LEDs would become less efficient, whereas with LSO you get better light uniformity, with 50 um gaps and tracks possible, and the sharp beam gives a Depth of Focus that is good for distorted PCB topography. Low DoF gives thicker lines, too.

Les Round of Spirit Circuits Ltd relayed his experiences in producing PCBs for solar and LED applications, an area in which his company has considerable expertise. It’s all to do with thermal management, and there are two types of PCB in use – FR4 & PTH and MPCB, the latter being superior as they have a built-in heat sink close to the heat source. Les described Metal Core MPCBs, which have a metal heat-sink layer bonded inside the PCB, using ceramic-loaded prepregs. Components can be mounted on both sides of the PCB and the heat is dissipated to the heat-sink (metal-core) through the dielectric foil by thermal vias. Hybrid PCBs are either PTH or multilayer and made from standard dielectrics or from ceramic coated material which are then bonded to a metal base (heat-sink) using ceramic-loaded prepreg. The circuits utilise thermal vias and copper planes to heat-spread and dissipate heat from the PCB’s metal base.

Lars Böttcher of the Fraunhofer IZM in Berlin came to talk about the development of embedded high-power electronics modules. The automotive industry has a strong demand for highly reliable and cost-efficient electronics, and the forthcoming generations of hybrid cars and fully electrical vehicles need compact and efficient 400 V power modules. Within the engine compartment installation space is of major concern, therefore small size and high integration level of the modules are needed. Conventionally IGBTs and diodes are soldered to DCB (Direct Copper Bond) ceramic substrates and their top contacts are connected by heavy Al wire bonds. These ceramic modules are vacuum soldered to water-cooled base plates. Embedding of power switches, and controller into compact modules using PCB (Printed Circuit Board) technologies offers the potential to further improve the thermal management by double-sided cooling and to reduce the thickness of the module.

Jeni Spillane is working at the University of Exeter for Graphic PLC, looking at embedded RFID technology. Her paper described how Graphic plc are developing embedded RFID technology that can be applied to different board designs with minimal requirement for redesign. RFID technology has steadily been expanding into a wide range of industries since the 1990s, but due to technological advancement in chip and tag manufacture as well as strides made in equipment capability, the last six years have seen a jump in the number of applications and the technology garnering more press coverage.

The technology can be used for a number of applications including; traceability (for both the user and manufacturer), secure tracking, technical data storage, counterfeit detection, stock control and through life monitoring. Her presentation looked at the reasons for using discrete embedded RFID chips and the associated antenna technology. She explained why embedding technology is being utilised, the potential applications for securely embedded chips, embedding methods and the effect that embedding has on the performance of the tags was addressed.

Another Fraunhofer IZM member, Karsten Schischke, presented an environment assessment of PCB production to facilitate carbon foot printing of electronic products. It is hard for the smaller PCB shop to provide environmental data on their production processes in a consistent manner, without unveiling confidential process data. For PCB designers, on the other hand, it is impossible to conceive of likely production impacts in their design decisions, as easy-to-use modelling of impacts is not in place yet.

The EU FP7 project “LCA to go” currently researches a streamlined data model to calculate selected environmental parameters, such as carbon footprint, energy and water consumption, based on technical production parameters. A comprehensive assessment of used energy, water, chemicals and materials for most common layer counts and surface finishes has been undertaken by the Polish PCB manufacturer ELDOS and ITR to calculate impacts per technology. These results have been turned in a parameterized model for designers or others who specify PCBs, and in a model framework to be used by other PCB manufacturers to establish customised environmental data inventories based on own production data. A sound data aggregation now allows an assessment without the need to source detailed environmental data from suppliers. Data models will be made available as free webtools for SMEs to use in order to serve the data needs of their customers quite conveniently.

The Chairman thanked everyone for attending, and remarked that this had been a most useful conference in many respects, not least from the point of view of the invaluable marketing and technical information given so well by the many speakers, but also in the impression that many new technologies were changing the traditional PCB world irrevocably.

EIPC have a knack of organising enjoyable and informative conferences that are extremely popular with much of the PCB industry in Europe. It must be said that language can be a barrier, but for those who are comfortable in English the EIPC conferences are obviously not to be missed. For those who are not, the loss is entirely theirs.

John LingAssociate Editor – Circuit World