PAL LOOKS TO A STRONG FUTURE

Joseph P. Kennedy, U.S. politician, businessman and father of U.S. President John F. Kennedy had a favourite family saying: ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going’, it is said that it is a sentiment that he drummed into his children. “It sums up the PAL attitude splendidly,” says Geoff Paterson, Managing Director of PAL – Process Automation International Ltd.

“There’s no escaping the fact that the going IS tough at the moment for all involved in the industry. We believe there is little point in looking anywhere other than to a positive future. Here at PAL we are investing heavily in R&D to be ready to meet market needs around the globe when the upturn comes. Our New Technologies Department under the talented leadership of Paul Henington has never worked harder. Just a few months ago, in early August, we called together the global PAL team for our Fifth International Marketing Meeting (IMM) to tell them in considerable and fascinating detail about the R&D work going on so that they could keep their customers, and potential customers fully in the picture.

“Here in PAL News, we can only cover our developments in broad terms. We met for three full days and it would take a very large issue of PAL News to be able to cover everything we discussed! Benny Hong, Section Leader of our New Technologies Department and Paul Henington the Department’s Manager, shared their thoughts on major market trends and evaluated projects in the New Technologies Department in a “Road Map for PAL R&D”. I would like to hint at the developments being actively worked on and customers around the globe can find out much more about each one from their PAL Regional Manager, Representative, or Agent.”

The New Technologies Department presentations looked in detail at all of the following:

• The PALTECH horizontal plater has now been issued with four patents with a further eight pending. With machines in the field in Taiwan and Italy, plenty of practical experience has been gained since the machine was launched at Productronica two years ago. Since that launch and the installation of the five lines, constant improvement has been the name of the game, with particular attention being paid to increasing the space for the cathode roller, maintaining module length <3m, increasing the module width, cutting down the overflow level of the plating cells, improving the flooding of the secondary cathode compartment, and improving secondary cathode maintenance. Further developments including a tailor made pulse unit are under way.
• Via Filling using Electroplating. Since the IMM, trials have been run in the field to determine which technologies and conditions are required for successful fill plating of blind vias for future HDI PCB production.
• Throwing Power Correlation Analysis. Vibration displacement, eductor flowrate, time ratio, current ratio and dry film pattern are all areas under investigation in field trials that will continue throughout the autumn.
• Plating of Ultra High Aspect Ratio PTH – the New Technologies Department has been looking at the high AR ratio PTH applications, and at conventional methods and the relative problems. Their study into improving high AR thick panel plating seems likely to come up with firm recommendations.
• Semi-permeable membrane for DSA. The task the New Technologies Department set itself was to investigate which semi-permeable membranes are suitable for separating organic additives from anodic to cathodic areas, while allowing normal ion exchange. The objective of this investigation is to save on additive consumption.

“Naturally there is other development work under way in the New Technologies Department, some of it blue-sky, some of it very much concerned with the very immediate future,” explains Geoff Paterson. “All of it will have a resounding impact on the future of plating. We are looking forward to sharing the fruits of their labours with you at TPCA in Taiwan and at Productronica in Germany and throughout the coming months. We are more than ready for the future!”