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The Story Behind the News: ESA Approval at Invotec

Starkey: And what pressures are placed on your manufacturing capacity?

Tatton: This sort of work is well within our manufacturing capability. We have many years’ experience of the sort of technologies involved. In terms of capacity, it fits smoothly into our production flow; we are, by nature, a low-volume, high-mix, high-reliability PCB manufacturer. There are some challenges, for example in front end engineering, electrical testing and final inspection. ESA are extremely cautious and demand high-voltage electrical testing on many of their designs. It’s not practicable to build grid-test fixtures for such complex boards in such small quantities, so we have to adapt our flying-probe testers to suit.

Starkey: What are typical characteristics of ESA work?

Tatton: Often large boards, all polyimide, high layer count--generally 20- to 30-layer sequential build, and with finish requirements like reflowed tin-lead with a minimum of 2 microns at the knee of the hole, often in combination with fully-encapsulant electroplated gold over nickel. And the QA testing requirements are not for the faint-hearted. Look at the active circuit area on this panel and compare it with the area dedicated to coupons for a whole catalogue of release tests. The job probably spends as long in inspection and laboratory test than it does in manufacture, but that’s the reality of ESA work.

Starkey: How long did it take to go through the qualification procedure?

Tatton: It was a three year programme--pretty challenging--with many iterations of test coupons. We were sponsored by Airbus Defence and Space, a division of Airbus Group that was part of EADS Astrium before they re-structured. We had been supplying them with high-reliability HDI product for 10 years in advance of the ESA approval and we are now able to support their ESA-qualified requirements, a big benefit to them as well as to us. And our ESA accreditation represents a formal acknowledgement of our technological and manufacturing capability as well as the strength of our commitment to ultra-high reliability.

Starkey: Tim, you already mentioned the unprecedented market response following the announcement of your approval. Are you able to disclose what proportion of your business is attributable to ESA work?

Tatton: It’s obviously an area of rapid growth for us, and currently constitutes about 5% of our turnover. We believe that we can progressively increase this to 15%, which will represent a significant share of the European space market. From our point of view, that’s a manageable share in view of the year-on-year variance in demand, and puts in a much more secure position than companies with 60 to 70% of their turnover committed to the space sector. We have the strength and resources to cooperate with our customers to find ways to control and manage change, where change is necessary, to realise meaningful continuous improvements.

Starkey: Sounds like a pretty good strategy to me, Tim. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us. Every success, and please invite me back to see your new laboratory when it’s ready.

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