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Liu: We have over about 2,000 active customers. We are producing 26,000 new part numbers a year.
Matties: Wow, 26,000 new part numbers a year?
Liu: It's massive; therefore, we need a systematic way of working and cannot be just like fire fighters.
Matties: What market segment do you primarily focus on?
Liu: Industrial, medical, aerospace, automotive and so on.
Matties: So you're across the board, basically. Automotive?
Liu: Yes, automotive is fast-growing for us.
Matties: It sounds like you guys are doing a lot of great things.
Liu: Thanks for saying that. NCAB is also a really “glocal” company which become even more attractive for global electronics companies that need global support. There's no player like NCAB right now, and we also want to take advantage of this opportunity.
Matties: And you have a global footprint already in place, so you're in a good position to service that changing dynamic.
Stephen Las Marias: You were mentioning earlier about the higher tolerances. One of the issues that was reflected in our survey is that plating and etching is one of the big problems that companies face when it comes to this particular miniaturization trend. What can you say about that? Are you seeing that as well?
Liu: Yes, people talk about and 2.5 mil, 3 mil, and even smaller. Plus, the size of the board itself becomes smaller which give limited space for PCB layout. Therefore, just like IC substrate, embedded capacitors become more popular.
Las Marias: Having said that, if a customer is approaching you for that particular challenge, what can you suggest they do?
Liu: This is all related. There are so many parameters in design, and they're not isolated. You talk about minimizing the hole, but this is of course related to the thickness of the board. If it is thicker, then the hole cannot be that small. All these factors are connected. That is why we're providing the DFM report to our customers. We need to understand all the connections and the constraints between each factor and look at different angles of where the constraint comes from. It's not isolated.
Las Marias: Can you help your customers with that?
Liu: Yes, one of our strengths is seamless production, which support the customer from design to manufacturing. The earlier we get involved with the customer, the better result it will be.
Matties: All right, well thank you so much.
Liu: Thank you.
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