Achieving significant and sustainable cost advantages has long been recognized as critical for success by PCB manufacturers vying for business in the highly competitive arena of HDI and RF/Flex mass production. Profits can be as small as pennies per panel, yet the pressure to produce increasingly smaller and more feature-packed products is relentless. Ensuring profit by reducing costs is essential.
One area that can have a major impact in a shop’s cost reduction strategy is the choice and type of equipment used. The key is to bring in production systems that can ensure operational cost-savings, while, at the same time, have the advanced capabilities necessary to keep pace with continuous technological innovation. Laser direct imaging (LDI) has emerged as an enabling tool that can print even the most complex and miniaturized designs more accurately than conventional methods with higher yields and at the throughput needed for mass production.
With the superior quality imaging results of LDI already well-proven, latest system advancements, in conjunction with the use of LDI resist have boosted performance to surpass the speed requirements of high volume manufacturing. This throughput achievement without having to compromise on quality represents a crucial milestone in the progress of modern PCB digital imaging. It has opened the door to the widespread utilization of LDI for HDI mass production and, as a result, to the attainment of greater reductions in imaging cost per panel.
Figure 1: Paragon-Xpress 9 LDI System for Mass Production.
With LDI in the mass production line, manufacturers have the two-fold advantage of imaging speed and quality.
Digital Imaging Up to 5,000 Panels per Day
Newest generation LDI technology using LDI resist can deliver up to double the effective capacity of conventional exposure solutions on the production floor:
|
Set of LDI* |
Set of Exposure** |
|
5,000 panels / day |
2,000-2,500 panels / day |
|
470,000ft2/month |
<=230,000ft2/month |
*Set of LDI is defined as: Automated, in-line set of two of the most advanced LDI systems (Paragon-Xpress 9 by Orbotech)
**Set of Exposure is defined as: Automatic exposure system.
Example 1: Throughput comparison (panels / day)- Paragon-Xpress LDI Systems using LDI resist vs. automatic exposure systems.
Less Floor Space
By using an LDI system set with LDI resist, only half of the equipment is needed for the imaging operation. While today’s LDI systems are generally the same physical size as exposure systems, less actual hardware is needed for the LDI solution to produce the same volume. This results in a significant reduction of the space required in the yellow room and its related costs.
Figure 2: An LDI system with LDI resist saves considerable floor space.
Highest Yields
The introduction of LDI into HDI mass production ensures higher yields than can be achieved with conventional automatic exposure or other DI solutions. LDI’s maskless imaging technique reduces scrap panels caused by defective artwork or glass masks (such as scratches), scaling changes due to expansion and shrinkage of film, contamination above/below the artwork, etc.
More accurate registration and less panel re-work on different artworks also greatly contribute to higher yields. High registration accuracy can be accomplished including: pattern features-to- grid and top-to-bottom with on-line UV markers. Dynamic imaging modes adjust the uniqueness of each panel to the job requirements while matching the post-processing of the next layer. There is a wide range of scaling and measurement capabilities including fixed scaling, partial printing (step & repeat or stepper-type method) and other global and local scaling options.
Exceptional flexibility ensures seamless processing of any type of applications and materials using the same system including; rigid, rigid-flex in one shot with the highest depth of focus and high layer count (HLC) panels.
The performance results of hundreds of LDI systems installed worldwide show that mass production yields can be improved between 3 to 5% and above by moving from exposure systems to LDI.
LDI also supports advanced quality control programs with many features for traceability: different dynamic data stamps (date and time, serial number per panel, per PCB or per area, machine ID or scale factors) and different stamping methods (alphanumeric, 1-D barcode, 2-D barcode).
Figure 3: Image quality examples (Source: Orbotech Paragon™LDI System).
Lower Panel Cost
The major reduction in imaging cost per panel is a result of the sharp increase in LDI throughput now possible with latest LDI technology using LDI resist.
Because of the greater LDI capacity, fixed imaging costs can be distributed over a larger number of panels. Variable costs, including the price of LDI resist, have been, and continue to be, lowered as well. The higher the volume, the greater the savings possible.
Superior imaging quality from LDI also contributes to cost-savings, as it leads to less scrap related to imaging defects.
By moving from automatic exposure systems to LDI solutions, a PCB shop can easily save hundreds of thousands of dollars per year as shown in Example 2.
Example 2: Yearly Saving ($M): Paragon-Xpress Laser Direct Imaging versus Automatic Exposure.
With the quality benefits of LDI well-proven for even the most complex PCB designs, the development of higher throughput system capabilities using LDI resist to meet mass production criteria has provided a strong justification for its prevalent use in high volume applications. The many advantages of LDI promise new opportunities for fabricators to achieve much-needed reductions in cost per panel, making LDI one of the most powerful production tools available to meet today’s PCB mass production challenges.
This article was published on http://www.pcb007.com/ under the title: “Mass Production Imaging: LDI for Lower Cost Per Panel” (December 23, 2009).
|
Company Overview
