BY PATRICK McLAUGHLIN
Having to drill plated-through-holes (PTH) to make signal connections within printed circuit boards may become a thing of the past, says Endicott Interconnect Technologies (www.eitny.com), thanks to its new HPC-Z interconnections.
The technology provides signal connections only when desired, the company says, with functional isolation for single- or double-sided surface-mount partitions.
The HPC-Z interconnect is aimed at solving thick board-drilling and wire-density problems, while meeting the need for functional isolation, because it is able to isolate high-speed channels on one subassembly and low-speed channels on another.
Endicott emphatically states the technology provides interconnections within the board, eliminating unnecessary PTH drilling.
“Now you only laser-drill the length of the sub-composite,” explains Voya Markovich, chief technology officer and senior vice president of research and development. “You can eliminate PTHs that are blocking other wiring channels, which increases wireability, eliminates PTH stubs, and results in a thinner and faster board.”
Markovich adds, “We’re working to develop full HPC-Z products that will completely eliminate the need for mechanical drilling and result in the introduction of higher-density and higher-speed integrated electronic packaging products.”
According to Endicott, HPC-Z provides a PTH-like connection at lamination with a pad-to-pad connection made with conductive epoxy. Because there is vertical connection with a lamination in place of a PTH, aspect ratios for drill and plate are limited to subassembly dimensions.
Endicott further explains that instead of having to drill a 300-mil-thick board through the entire structure to go from signal plane to signal plane, HPC-Z makes it possible to drill only where necessary.
For example, instead of having to drill three PTHs all the way through the board with a 10-mil drill for each of three subassemblies, it is possible to have three PTHs on one, two PTHs on another, and just one PTH on the third. This PTH minimization results in increased wiring density because of the smaller vias and lands. With HPC-Z, more wiring lines are available than would have been possible with PTH drilling.
“You want to place as much circuitry as close together as possible,” says James Wilson, product manager, printed circuit boards. “When you attach modules to the board, solder balls are at a certain pitch. This [density] has shrunk over the last 10 years from 1.27 mm to 1 mm, to 0.8 mm and even 0.5 mm today. You can’t get this dense a pitch with traditional PTH drilling.”
