Exception help Microtech to reduce lead time

Microtech International Ltd, is providing software and electronics solutions to the military and industrial sectors, among others. Exception conducted a review of Microtech’s design requirements for the board prior to production. The company’s engineering designers were able to reduce its client’s costs and turnaround times significantly, without compromising the board’s performance. “The original board design specified a 16-layer PCB with seven sub-stack bonding operations and a final eighth bond,” explained Gordon Holden, managing director of Exception’s PCB manufacturing division. “The inherent issue with this approach is that one can only determine whether or not the layers have successfully registered once the eighth bond has been applied, meaning that it can lead to high losses throughout the manufacturing process. “In consultation with the client, our NPI technical manager, Mike Devine, was able to redesign the board layout using only 14 layers as opposed to 16 and using microvia technology to allow for greater interconnect density and reduce the amount of tracking required. Although the new approach involved spending three days on redesign, the time invested was more than recouped in the reduction of turnaround time from 20 days to only seven and with significantly higher output yields.”