26 HDI PWB Reliability April 2014 by Paul Reid 36 From Single-Sided to HDI: The “Three Phone Call Method” Works! by Dan Smith New Dimension in 40 Pinless Multilayer Registration Video Interview HDI ISSUE Show Review Page 42 Lead-Free Reflow for High-Layer- Count PCBs by Happy Holden and Michael Carano Page 12 April 2014 • The PCB Magazine 1 Designers: when you choose a fabricator, what guarantee do you have that they won't deliver scrap? We can connect you with manufacturers that we have audited and are qualified to deliver the product that you need, on time and on budget. How we qualify PCB manufacturers CLICK TO VIEW (360) 531-3495 A PCB AUDITING COMPANY www.nextlevelpcb.com HDI APRIL FEATURED CONTENT APRIL FEATURED We take a look at the special attributes of HDI boards this month, including reliability issues, high-layer count multilayer boards, pinless reg- istration, and how to bridge the divide between design and fab. 12 Lead-Free Reflow for 26 HDI PWB Reliability High-Layer-Count PCBs by Paul Reid by Happy Holden and Michael Carano 36 From Single-Sided to HDI: The “Three Phone Call Method” Works! by Dan Smith FEATURED VIDEO INTERVIEW 40 New Dimension in Pinless Multilayer Registration 4 The PCB Magazine • April 2014 “No great thing is created suddenly.” -Epictetus No tricks: Lunaris makes current lithography virtually disappear. Lunaris plays by a whole new set of rules. By digitizing Meet the inner layer manufacturing processs, Lunaris eliminates 11 of 15 steps needed. Besides dramatically reducing cost and complexity, Lunaris goes from CAM to etch in just 5 minutes and 100% yield is guaranteed. It's time for a new set of rules. It's time for Lunaris. CLICK TO VIEW www.mutracx.com HDI APRIL 2014 CONTENTS VOLUME 4 NUMBER 4 THE DEFINITIVE INTERACTIVE MAGAZINE DEDICATED TO THE GLOBAL PCB INDUSTRY thepcbmagazine.com SHOW REVIEW VIDEO INTERVIEWS 42 IPC APEX 67 The Impact of EXPO 2014 Miniaturization on Fab Processes COLUMNS 81 Printed Circuit 8 Sustainability—What and Why? Handbook, 7th Ed., by Joe Fjelstad Coming Soon 56 Is Your DAM Job Killing You? SHORTS by Gray McQuarrie 11 Smarter Smartphone with “Deep Learning” Innovation 64 Green Technologies in PCB Fabrication 34 Unavoidable by Karl Dietz Disorder Used to Build Nanolaser 68 Customer Feedback: Perception is Reality by Steve Williams NEWS HIGHLIGHTS 62 Mil/Aero007 74 PTH Drilling Revisited: Fundamentals, Part 1 72 Supplier/New Product by Michael Carano 82 Markets 78 A Summary of Various Test Requirements 88 Top Ten PCB007 News Highlights by Todd Kolmodin 84 The Conundrum of EXTRAS RF/Microwave and 90 Events Calendar High-Performance PCBs by Judy Warner 91 Advertisers Index & Masthead 6 The PCB Magazine • April 2014 Discover the Best-in-Class Laminate for High Voltage, Tight-pitch PCB Designs I-Speed® High Speed Digital Materials I-Speed laminate and prepreg products are manufactured with Isola’s patented high-performance multifunctional resin system, reinforced with electrical grade (E-glass) glass fabric. This system delivers a 15% improvement in Z-axis expansion and offers 25% more electrical bandwidth (lower loss) than competitive products in this space. These properties coupled with superior moisture resistance at reflow, result in a product that bridges the gap from both a thermal and electrical perspective. I-Speed CAF Test Vehicle Results I-Speed Features • Passed: 85°C/85% RH/100V after 1,000 • Global constructions available in all regions hours at 0.65 and 0.75 mm pitch • Optimized constructions to improve lead-free • Passed: 35°C/85% RH/10V after 500 hours performance at 1.0 mm pitch • Improved Z-axis CTE 2.70% • IPC 4101 Rev. C /21 /24 /121 /124 /129 • A low Df product with a low cost of ownership • VLP-2 (2 micron Rz copper) standard offering • Offer spread and square weave glass styles (1035, 1067, 1078, 1086, 3313) for laminates and prepregs The Base for Innovation www.isola-group.com/i-speed SMT CONNECTIONS C OLUMN OLUMN Sustainability—What and Why? by Joe Fjelstad VERDANT ELECTRONICS In 2013, Earth welcomed roughly 140 mil- maintain the delicate balancing act to assure lion new citizens, replacing approximately 60 that Spaceship Earth will allow us to survive fu- million who passed away, netting a growth in ture trips around our sun. the world’s population of 80 million people—a The resources of our planet are unquestion- number which happens to roughly match the ably limited and thus are diminishing as we population of Egypt. The Earth’s population continue to unleash and ramp up a seemingly now stands at more than 7.2 billion. (For those never-ending flow of products to both serve and interested, real-time statistical estimates for amuse us with output of the global electronics population and other subjects of significance industry likely to be nearing the top of the list including health and environmental matters of “offenders.” In that regard, we are becom- can be found at www.worldometers.info.) ing victims of our own success, to one degree The numbers are staggering and border on or another. For better or for worse, the engine the incomprehensible. They also present an on- of economics runs on the fuel that the con- going challenge to us all to find ways to make sumers’ wants must always exceed their needs. certain that those just joining the human race Moreover, product developers and promoters have a chance to realize their potential. With- are putting forth their best effort to make sure out question, it is a huge challenge we collec- that as many of their products as possible can tively face. Presently and throughout history, be perceived as needs rather than simple wants. there has existed a great divide between more Presently, their focus remains targeted on those advanced and exploitative cultures and nations of us who inhabit the top of the world’s eco- and the many still developing peoples and na- nomic pyramid and our numbers exceed 3.5 bil- tions of the world that coexist on this, our little lion people. A substantial market to be sure and ‘blue marble’ in space, or as futurist and vision- already there is evidence that we are, or soon ary Buckminster Fuller aptly called it, “Space- will be, stretching the limits of natural resourc- ship Earth.” He asserted, and rightly so, that we es. This leaves half of the world’s population on are all astronauts and as its crew, we needed to the outside looking in. It would seem that, if 8 The PCB Magazine • April 2014 FILLING YOUR CHALLENGES ONE VIA AT A TIME Via Fill Products Thermal: THP-100 DX1 Series - 100% Solids/Low Shrinkage - Hightest Tg (173°C)/Lowest CTE (19/56ppm) Available THP®-100DX1 VF (HV) LPI: PIHP-200 UV: UVHP-100 THP®-100DX1 (HTG) 2675 Antler Drive • Carson City, NV 89701 • Phone [775] 885-9959 • Fax [775] 885-9972 www.taiyo-america.com sustainability—what AND WHY? continues we are going to satisfy the expectations of those The above checklist is succinct but it also of- billions of people not fortunate enough to be fers the user targets, which are reasonably clear born in the right place at the right time, we are and measurable. This is important for as every going to have to make some adjustments in our scientist and engineer knows, until you can ap- approach to the design and manufacture of fu- ply numbers to any effort you have no way of ture products. In short, we are going to have to knowing how well you’re doing. The one thing look very seriously at what we might need to do that appears to be missing from the list in the to create a truly sustainable electronics manu- view of this writer is a statement about the need facturing industry in the future. for greater reliability. If we can make products This begs the question: “What is a sustain- that will last indefinitely, we don’t have to make ably manufactured product?” Unfortunately them again. This may fly in the face of the sen- this is not a simple question, and without sur- sibilities of product marketers today who seek prise one finds that the answer is not simple ei- to have a new product on the shelf every 12–18 ther. That said, there are think tanks out there months, if not sooner. However, such product where people grapple with the problem. One marketers have little or no appreciation of the such is the Lowell Center for Sustainable Pro- situation of the peoples who inhabit much of duction. They have created a reasonably com- the developing world. If one is making as little prehensive checklist for those seeking to make as two dollars a day, the products they purchase an effort to create products and processes that must be durable, for they cannot afford to re- are sustainable. Following is a condensed sum- place them on a whim. mary of their “litmus test” checklist[1]. Fortunately, the CEOs of corporations large Sustainable products are: and small are beginning to appreciate the im- portance of sustainability even as they wrestle 1) Safe and ecologically sound throughout with the challenge of addressing it. This is evi- life cycle and: dent based on results of a recent and broadly cited Accenture study on sustainability where- • designed to be durable, repairable, in 1,000 CEOs in 27 different industries were readily recycled, compostable, or questioned about the importance of sustain- easily biodegradable ability on the future success of their businesses. • produced and packaged using the The answers to the questions were promising.