Trouble in Your Tank: Causes of Plating Voids, Pre-electroless Copper
Dan’s Biz Bookshelf: ‘Growth Hacker Marketing’
Happy’s Tech Talk #38: Novel Metallization for UHDI
MKS Instruments Unveils Significant Investment in its Yokohama TechCenter at Expansion Ceremony
March 14, 2023 | MKS Instruments, Inc.Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
MKS Instruments, Inc., a global provider of technologies that transform our world, unveiled a significant investment in its Yokohama Technical Center (YTC) in Japan, which will enable an industry leading integrated approach to creating solutions for complex package substrate manufacturing, satisfying current requirements as well as those needed for future roadmaps.
The YTC is an integral part of the most comprehensive portfolio of global TechCenters in the industry. These TechCenters combine unique analytical capabilities, state of the art full scale equipment, and highly proficient expert teams to conduct extensive research and development, providing world-class service to more than 8,000 customers around the globe. Working closely with customers and industry partners helps anticipate the industry’s future requirements, which in turn enables MKS to help customers stay ahead in a rapidly changing environment.
The recent investment in the YTC delivers the latest capabilities for the production of next generation package substrates. Offering a unique combination, the YTC utilizes dedicated lasers, optics, and motion systems for high precision, high-speed via formation in ABF build-up laminates, in combination with the latest process chemistry and equipment for desmear and electroless copper metallization. Using the latest Equalized Curtain Flow (ECF) plating tool, the YTC is able to support customers in their yield optimization and next generation process development for advanced packaging applications.
During the YTC Expansion Ceremony, Dr. John T.C. Lee, President and CEO of MKS Instruments, escorted visitors around the state-of-the-art facility showcasing the two new systems, the ESI GeodeTM A CO2 laser system and the Atotech G-Plate® plating tool, as well as demonstrating the Vitrocoat® process for Plating on Glass (PoG).
“We are highly committed to driving and leading technology development within our industries,” Dr. Lee said. “With these key installations, we are accelerating time to market through our combined capabilities, which allow us to view problems holistically and design solutions faster. This helps us to drive innovation for next generation electronic devices and offer customers and OEMs quicker development cycles for new products and materials enabling high-end SAP technology requiring <=5/5µm lines and spaces. Our unique portfolio of MKS combined services at our Yokohama technical center allows us to reduce the cycle time for a typical ABF sample from three months or more to less than one month.”
MKS Instruments’ Optimize the InterconnectSM offering drives MKS’ focus on next-generation advanced PCB and package substrate development. The investment in the YTC will further solidify MKS as a leader in the next frontier for miniaturization and complexity by enabling increasingly smaller feature sizes and offering new solutions by combining ESI laser drilling technologies with Atotech chemistry and plating equipment.
Share on:
Suggested Items
RF PCB Design Tips and Tricks
05/08/2025 | Cherie Litson, EPTAC MIT CID/CID+There are many great books, videos, and information online about designing PCBs for RF circuits. A few of my favorite RF sources are Hans Rosenberg, Stephen Chavez, and Rick Hartley, but there are many more. These PCB design engineers have a very good perspective on what it takes to take an RF design from schematic concept to PCB layout.
Trouble in Your Tank: Causes of Plating Voids, Pre-electroless Copper
05/09/2025 | Michael Carano -- Column: Trouble in Your TankIn the business of printed circuit fabrication, yield-reducing and costly defects can easily catch even the most seasoned engineers and production personnel off guard. In this month’s column, I’ll investigate copper plating voids with their genesis in the pre-plating process steps.
Elephantech: For a Greener Tomorrow
04/16/2025 | Marcy LaRont, PCB007 MagazineNobuhiko Okamoto is the global sales and marketing manager for Elephantech Inc., a Japanese startup with a vision to make electronics more sustainable. The company is developing a metal inkjet technology that can print directly on the substrate and then give it a copper thickness by plating. In this interview, he discusses this novel technology's environmental advantages, as well as its potential benefits for the PCB manufacturing and semiconductor packaging segments.
Trouble in Your Tank: Organic Addition Agents in Electrolytic Copper Plating
04/15/2025 | Michael Carano -- Column: Trouble in Your TankThere are numerous factors at play in the science of electroplating or, as most often called, electrolytic plating. One critical element is the use of organic addition agents and their role in copper plating. The function and use of these chemical compounds will be explored in more detail.
IDTechEx Highlights Recyclable Materials for PCBs
04/10/2025 | IDTechExConventional printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing is wasteful, harmful to the environment and energy intensive. This can be mitigated by the implementation of new recyclable materials and technologies, which have the potential to revolutionize electronics manufacturing.