SMTA Conducts First UHDI Symposium

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SMTA’s first UHDI Symposium in Peoria, Arizona, on Tuesday, March 26 featured a standout full-day technical program with 11 separate presentations on what will be required for our companies to move to ultra HDI manufacturing.

The event was the brainchild of Tara Dunn, SMTA director of training and education. It included a compelling and collaborative presentation by David Haboud of Altium, John Johnson of American Standards Circuits, and Chrys Shea of Shea Engineering, who had spent the past several weeks creating and building an appropriate SMT test board vehicle for UHDI, something that was passed around for all conference goers to see and touch. Peoria Mayor Jason Beck offered opening remarks, emphasizing the importance of the electronics industry to Arizona and, specifically, Phoenix’s West Valley, where much effort has been made to create a business-friendly environment for location and expansion. Beck is owner of Tyr Tactical, a defense supplier that manufactures tactical personal gear for police and military personnel and understood the importance of manufacturing support for defense.

In recent years, Arizona has been a draw for tech and industry and hosts a significant semiconductor presence, most notably Intel’s $20 billion fab in Chandler, the new TSMC $40 billion fab in Phoenix, and more recently, the announcement of Tempe-based Amkor to build a $20 billion expansion to build a testing facility in Peoria near the TSMC site.

Much of the day’s presentations were focused on the absolute need to move to various additive manufacturing processes to achieve sub-10-micron lines and spaces, even down to 1.5 micron features and 0.5 micron spacing. “The Way to UHDI: From Subtractive through mSAP to SAP” was presented by KLA’s Nava Shpaisman. She cited etched copper thickness as the key parameter, moving from wet to dry additive processes, and starting with 100% metal and no glass. This sentiment was echoed later in the day by Paul Cooke of Ventec International Group, who commented that for very high-technology UHDI designs, it likely makes sense to remove all glass in substrates. He discussed very thin, high-performance Bondply materials and how Ventec is responding to the frequent contradictory high-tech requirements by creating hybrid solutions.

Later in the day, Brian Sinclair of AGC Multi-Material America Inc., headquartered locally in Tempe, reinforced the information presented in earlier sessions and briefly discussed build-up film (BUF) as a material of the future. He also adeptly outlined some of the technology push points that have landed us where we are, describing this as a unique time in history. Steve Karas of GreenSource Fabrication presented a UHDI case study, argued for the superiority of D Coupon testing, and shared what GreenSource has been able to accomplish regarding data aggregation, organization, and meaningful deployment. Throughout the day, several presenters and representatives of NSWC Crane provided excellent insight on the reliability of vias, root cause testing, and even workforce issues.

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