Printed Wiring Board Research Joint Venture

Abstract

In April 1991, the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) announced that one of its initial eleven awards was to a joint venture led by the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) to research aspects of printed wiring board (PWB) interconnect systems. The ATP project description follows: Printed wiring boards (PWBs) are often overlooked in discussions of microchips and other advance electronic components, but they form the backbone of virtually every electronic product, providing connections between individual electronic devices. Although to date PWB technology has kept pace with the increased speed and complexity of microelectronics, it is approaching fundamental limits in materials and processes that must be overcome if the U.S> industry is to maintain a competitive position. (The U.S. share of the $25billion world market dropped from 42 to 29 percent in 3 years.) Four memebers of the NCMS consortium, AT&T, Texas Instruments, the Digital Equipment Corporation, and Hamilton Standard Interconnect, Inc., will work with the Sandia National Laboratories (U.S. Department of Energy) to develop a more consistent epoxy glass material with improved mechanical characteristics of PWBs, improved processes and process-control techniques to produce more reliable solder connections, improved methods and technologies for fine-line imaging on the boards, and a better technical understanding of the chemistry underlying key copper-planting processes.