Invotec install laser drilling
Article Type: Industry news From: Circuit World, Volume 35, Issue 1
Invotec Circuits Tamworth Limited are now in production with its new state of the art laser drilling machine (Figure 1). This is the latest phase of a multi-million pound investment program demonstrating Invotec’s commitment to supporting the technology and service requirements of the European marketplace.
Commenting on the installation, Invotec’s Operations Director Tim Tatton commented, “This £1/2 Million investment will make a huge impact on Invotec’s capability. We already have a worldwide reputation for high technology products and premium quality in very demanding markets such a military, space and civil aviation.
This facility will have a major impact on cycle times and flexibility of service for laser drilled product. It also opens up capacity for our Blackburn facility to produce greater volumes of microvia product.”
In addition to the higher processing speed of the UV/CO2 laser system, the automatic load/unload system makes a significant impact on cycle time, throughput and utilization of the equipment. “Automatic load/unload can be associated with high volume facilities, but in a low volume high mix environment like ours, the correct flexible automation can also have huge benefits in allowing 24/7 operation without regular operator intervention or extended shift patterns.”
Technically, the combi laser allows smaller holes sizes without compromising plating integrity which is a known limitation of current UV systems, due to glass protrusion. The smaller hole size will not only allow tighter geometries to be manufactured, but it also aids the copper via fill process by reducing the cycle time significantly. This in turn allows filled microvias to be manufactured far more quickly, particularly for sequential bonded and stacked microvia designs.
The existing UV laser will be retained by Invotec in order to provide flexibility for many applications which are suited to a UV only operation, such a precise flexible circuit profiling, unreinforced material and Thermount products. The system will of course, continue to provide capacity for current microvia designs at times of peak loading also.
