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Mike Carano is an industry pioneer with deep expertise across multiple domains. In his latest course for the Global Electronics Association’s ElectronicsU platform, “Advanced Packaging: HDI Enabling Technology,” Carano delivers some of the first educational material introducing advanced packaging to the printed circuit supply chain. In this interview, he discusses the course content, target audience, and motivation for creating the course.
Nolan Johnson: Mike, what is the objective of your new online training course?
Mike Carano: At the Global Electronics Association, particularly under Matt Kelly’s leadership on the technology side, there's a major push to explore the technology in advanced packaging. It’s the new paradigm in the electronics industry. Whether we’re talking PCBs or IC substrates, advanced packaging is the driver.
You've heard the phrase, “Chips don't float.” It’s our way of saying that chips must go somewhere to be useful. There's a renewed emphasis on technology, processes, and materials—enablers, if you will—for advanced packaging, particularly, along the entire semiconductor chain. Everything follows silicon.
Johnson: What was the driver?
Carano: I've done other professional development courses over the years for the Association, everything from advanced troubleshooting to basic courses, and even final finishes, and there was definitely a need to provide industry people who wanted to learn with more information about how HDI and UHDI fit into the advanced packaging technology segment. Experienced people just didn't understand: “What materials do I use? Can I just keep fabricating the same way I’ve been doing rigid? Is drilling the same? Is lamination the same? Are the materials the same?" And the short answer to all those questions is, “No, they're not.”
Everything is a little amped up. Things are smaller and finer. There are unique issues with the IC substrate and UHDI. Microvias are getting smaller, and they’re stacked. We have new challenges with registration, reliability, and high-frequency materials. Fabs are asking, “How do we process these materials?”
Johnson: Knowing that, did you approach the course differently?
Carano: Yes, I approached this as a process course, rather than a design course. I wanted to give people a background into processes and materials—all the potential ramifications upstream and downstream, when you need to make high density substrates and high-density circuit boards.
In addition, ultra-high density features are becoming even finer. These are 20-micron lines and spaces that are now 15-micron lines and spaces. You can imagine what kind of stress these dimensions put on the fabricator. To achieve finer lines, it's driving photolithography to the limits and driving the wider adoption of laser direct imaging.
We still have to drill through-holes, but how? Some of these AI boards have 18 to 30 layers; that means drilling them as well. These are HDI and UHDI boards.
I developed this four-part course to give people an easy learning opportunity. The course is eight contact hours over four sessions, with quizzes and a test. Students take the course live through ElectronicsU, and they can also access the course material for up to one year afterward.
Johnson: Mike, this point in the technology evolution is an inflection point. These feature sizes, say, 20 microns, are where semiconductors were 25 years ago or so. A lot had to change in our semiconductor manufacturing as we reached those dimensions. Now, we have similar dimensions and feature sizes, but on the interconnect boards. Like semiconductor, we have to adopt a new set of manufacturing paradigms.
It sounds like this course is a great place to start understanding the shifting paradigm. Who should attend?
Carano: It’s important for both designers and manufacturing engineers, obviously, to take this course. I would also include process engineers and anyone in the supply chain: laminate material and copper foil suppliers. I talk about signal integrity, ultra-smooth foils, and the importance of those foils in signal integrity.
Even salespeople would benefit from a deeper understanding of the processes when talking to customers and OEMs.
Johnson: How important is it for the people you just mentioned to get up to speed on advanced packaging?
Carano: It’s very important. This is just one opportunity, though. Don't wait until the board is designed and say, "Okay, here it is. Build it." It’s not a good moment when the fab says, "This can't be built," or "The yields will be terrible." There is much to learn and understand; this course is a launch pad.
Johnson: You’re talking about technical knowledge, but also communication as a best practice.
Carano: Very true. In fact, I would also like everyone to take on a larger role within the Global Electronics Association and in all the standards development efforts. Standards are important, and we've got a group of volunteers led by various staff liaisons really upping our game in terms of standards for HDI, UHDI, and advanced packaging. It's all connected. It's so very important that they get involved in that way.
Upping our game also means taking any educational courses offered by ElectronicsU. Just go to the website, and you’ll see what is offered. Kristin Moyer and others are teaching some great design courses. Other people are also teaching courses on additional topics like Jeff Gotro’s two- session Polymers in Advanced Packaging course starting August 18 & August 20. When it comes to getting involved in designing for HDI and UHDI, these are great courses.
For all the fabricators and engineers, it’s time to think like a semiconductor company. Think about clean rooms, handling, metrology, and controls. Don’t think that the old way of building an eight-layer circuit board is sufficient anymore and think that's sufficient.
Johnson: We really are moving into what used to be semiconductor protocols. When I started my career in semiconductors, the clean room staff were starting to wear respirators with their bunny suits. Why? Because if they were a smoker, they could percolate a nicotine molecule through their breath or the pores of their skin, and if that nicotine molecule landed on the chip, it could create a short. Now we're facing those same feature sizes and issues in PCBs.
Carano: Yep. We are at those dimensions. It’s all about yields and enhancing them. Since so much of the fabrication process is manual, everything we can do to minimize the risk of mishandling is critical. You're laying up the prepreg, and the copper foil by hand, so it's easy with these thinner materials to get crinkles, cracks, and stress in the copper. Preventing contamination of any type, whether it's things like your fingerprints, shop oils, or oils from your fingers. I'm not opposed to having people wear smocks and bunny suits in IC substrate fabrication.
Johnson: How is the class structured?
Carano: It is live, online via Teams and instructor-led. When you sign up, you get a password, and on the first day of the class, Oct. 5, you can log in. It will be a live two-hour session recorded by the Association. Each class will have a Q&A discussion. Course materials include six IPC Standards.
At the end of the course, you’ll take a quiz, which will be delivered to me electronically. I'll grade them, and then we'll meet again on Wednesday. You will receive a course certificate of completion for all scores above 70% (passing).
Even after the course has concluded, attendees can send a note via email to the instructor, if they have a question. For example, I get emails from people watching the recordings from my earlier classes who say, "Hey, I have a question on module three." It comes right to me, and I’m happy to answer it.
Johnson: Thank you, Mike. This sounds like a course that is needed at just the right time.
Carano: I agree, Nolan. The cost is minimal for Association members, and they can get a better understanding of what they’re doing in terms of advanced packaging.
Advanced Packaging: HDI Enabling Technology
Mondays and Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET, Oct. 5–14, 2026.
Click here to register.
