Q&A: Turning New Designs into Reality Through Innovative Manufacturing http://electronicdesign.com/print/boards/qa-turning-new-designs-reality-...

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Electronic Design
William Wong
Tue, 2016-03-22 10:52

Manufacturing plays a critical role in todays fast-paced design environment.

Designers and manufacturers in the microelectronics industry face major challenges.
Getting some help can reduce costs, improve time to market, and boost product
quality.
Orbotech helps deliver enhanced production solutions for manufacturers of printedcircuit boards, flat-panel displays, advanced packaging, microelectromechanical
systems, and other electronic components. I talked with Asher Levy, Chief Executive
Officer, about Orbotech and the challenges faced by designers and manufacturers.
Wong: Due to consumer-driven demand for increased functionality and faster times to market, designers of
new electronic devices are now looking to production to ensure product success. Have you seen significant
changes in the relationship between design and production in the industry?
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Levy: As smartphones and other electronic devices become smaller, slimmer, and faster with almost unlimited
features, technical pioneers, product designers, and global brands require new technologies and processes from
manufacturing service providers and equipment suppliers to enable more complex functionality and in smaller
form factors.
The brands that succeed will be from companies that leverage new manufacturing equipment to increase
manufacturing capacities so that they can produce smaller, low-cost electronics-based solutions in high volume
in anticipation of future demands.
Wong: What do you see as the major challenges facing designers and manufacturers in the microelectronics
industry?
Levy: Designers and manufacturers are faced with solving increasingly complex designs inside smart devices
and their accompanying infrastructure requirements, while maintaining the flexibility to react to the
fast-changing demands of the consumer-driven market.
Many obstacles exist in the pipeline between the device designer and the manufacturing floor. For example, if

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ure manufacturing a smart watch, how do you accommodate an array of sophisticated MEMS on a curved
surface? Can you properly connect the advanced packages necessary to perform the myriad functions expected
from such a device? Whats the best substrate to use? Do you have the proper inspection and repair systems in
place to assure high yield and quality?

Orbotech solves multiple challenges that arise in the potential disconnect between a design and its realization,
and not just about producing capital equipment. We consider the broader scope of the manufacturing
environment to help manufacturers meet any design challenge thrown at them.
Wong: Your website claims that Orbotechs solutions have helped produce virtually every electronic device in
the world. How is this so?
Levy: Orbotech provides a broad offering of mission-critical solutions that serve product designers, global
brands, and electronics manufacturers. With the overall breadth of our technological competencies and leading
systems, Orbotech transitioned from a solution supplier to an enabler of new design concepts, from an
equipment vendor to a full-fledged process innovator that makes a significant impact on the electronics
manufacturing environment.
With this breadth of electronics manufacturing touch points, we can comfortably say that every fabricator in the
world is using one or more of Orbotechs solutions.

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ong: What role do you see Orbotech playing in supporting the fast-paced electronic design industry? How
does manufacturing play a significant role?
Levy: The electronics industry certainly needs to support miniaturized electronics packages, new form factors,
and different substrates. In 2014, to accommodate this need, we acquired SPTS, a leading supplier of etch and
deposition process equipment for the global semiconductor- and microelectronic-device manufacturing
industries. SPTS was a crucial strategic piece that expanded our offering even further into the realm of
electronics connecting, enabling increasingly smaller and more sophisticated components to be implemented
within the most challenging smart-device designs.
But well before the acquisition, Orbotech launched a strategic exploration process that took a long view of the
electronics landscape to identify new growth areas where we could make our impact in next-generation device
design and manufacturing. We identified several areas of transition in which we decided to invest our efforts.
Orbotech expanded its offerings from inspection, verification, and yield-enhancement or electronics reading
solutions to being a significant player, through the acquisition of SPTS, in the semiconductor arena. We also
have an extensive array of groundbreaking solutions for automated optical repair for both PCB and FPD
manufacturing environments.
Wong: Name some of the Orbotechs most
significant manufacturing solutions and explain how
they help device manufacturing.
Levy: Our direct imaging solutions for high-volume
manufacturing environments are capable of imaging
on almost every photo-resist type. These solutions
represent a major breakthrough in quality mass
production, generating up to 7000 panels per day.
They provide PCB manufacturers with ultimate
flexibility by providing a fully automated in-line
solution that uses the most advanced imaging
technologies available regardless of the substrate,
while reducing their total cost of ownership.
Flat-panel repair systems like Orbotechs Prism
offers state-of-the-art repair capabilities to support
production of the most advanced display
technologies, including OLED displays. This is the
essence of process innovation, because its a true
game changer. In the past, ablationthe removal of
excess deposed metalwas performed manually by
removing a panel from the assembly line and literally
scraping off excess with a knife. Beyond being a slow
and inefficient process, it also could potentially
damage the unit, which ultimately impacts yield. By
combining both deposition and ablation in a single
automated solution, Prism represents a total
transformation of the flat-panel repair process since it leaves no room for error.
Automated optical shaping systems for PCBs also combine short and open repair capabilities in a unified

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gh-yield system, again representing a significant innovation in how actual manufacturing processes are
conducted in the electronics manufacturing environment.
Wong: What do you see for the future of micro-electronics manufacturing, and what kinds of advances can we
expect to see from designers as the result?
Levy: First, we need to understand that if, in the past, electronics manufacturers dictated the boundaries of
what is or isnt possible from a production standpoint, todays agenda is being driven by new advances in
science, engineering, and device design. The introduction of wearables, smart glasses, and watches poses
significant challenges to every link in the electronics manufacturing ecosystemespecially in terms of
translating designs that take their inspiration from Star Trek into functioning intuitive products that have the
intended wow effect for end users.
And thats just the tip of the iceberg. Were looking at the manufacturing opportunities available for the myriad
new possibilities on the horizonthe inter-connectability of devices and systems that will hasten the arrival of
the next stage in electronics: the Internet of Things, the smart home, the self-driving or autonomous car,
next-generation medical devices, wearables.
Looking for parts? Go to SourceESB.
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