Paul: Here's my two cents worth-

It gets worse if you think that the PCB manufacturers aren't talking to
their customer base. They definitely do not talk to the component
manufacturers. Over the past 24 months, I have had the unusual happenstance
to visit virtually every IC assembly facility in Asia, as well as many in
Europe. These include both captive houses, as well as foundry services.

In only one case (IBM) did I find that any PCB manufacturer had ever
inquired  as to where the IC interconnect industry was headed, either
strategically or short term. How can one industry understand what its future
requirements will be if they do not understand where their greatest
challenges are coming from.

The art of copper placement on FR4 is not new; great strides have been made
to create finer and finer line widths at greater and greater planar
densities. However, these are mere drops in the bucket when you consider the
available of 50um wire bonding at 10um pitches. The IC industry can do this
today if it only had a FR4 substrate capable of accepting it.

As a end user of the PCB industry, it seems the only time we get to talk to
our PCB suppliers is when there is trouble- either in product performance
(quality, line yields, etc.), pricing or delivery.

Best regards,
                Bill Davis, Ph.D.
                Sr. Scientist
                (408) 325-7868
                [log in to unmask]



-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Brown [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 1999 2:39 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [TN] PCB Manufacturers


Well

So far we have managed to obtain about 5 replies from PCB manufacturers out
of how may thousands worldwide

Can anyone suggest a way of getting them involved ?

Surely its about time that the people that use PCB,s( PWB,s) started talking
to the people that make them!

I used to be a specialty chemical supplier to the PCB industry in the UK and
realized a long time ago that users of pcbs don't talk to the manufacturers,
they send them a design and that's it
The problem is users don't often understand the processes involved in
manufacture

Any comments

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