David Savastano, Editor12.04.13
For any company, manufacturing one billion items is an amazing accomplishment. Hutchinson Technology Inc. (HTI) recently reached this milestone, as the company shipped the billionth flex circuit produced on its additive processing line, and the company is clearly poised to continue to grow.
Hutchinson Technology Inc. got its start in 1965 in Hutchinson, MN. Dan Roach, business development manager for HTI, said that Hutchinson Technology’s two founders, Jeff Green and Jon Geiss, were intrigued with photoetching technology.
“They decided to locate in Geiss’ hometown of Hutchinson when they found a low cost building for rent – a chicken coop,” Roach said. “From these humble beginnings, the company gradually added various capabilities to their core photoetching to become a vertically integrated supplier of precision components to the demanding hard disk drive industry. Key technologies now include precision stamping, plating, sputtering, laser welding, polymer coating and automated assembly.”
Roach noted that while the hard disk drive market still remains HTI’s largest market, the company also supplies precision components to several other industries that require fine features and tight tolerances, including the medical device, consumer electronics, telecom, automotive and military/aerospace markets.
Additive and Subtractive Processes
Hutchinson Technology has the capability to produce both additive and subtractive flexible circuits, and while subtractive circuitry is more common, the additive approach offers significant benefits.
“The subtractive approach is the standard approach used by most producers of rigid and flexible circuits today where the leading edge capability is generally regarded as 75 micrometer (3 mil) line and space,” Roach said. “The subtractive approach starts with a substrate that has copper that spans the entire length and width of the substrate. The copper conductors are patterned by etching most of the copper away, leaving a small portion of the original copper in the desired locations to form the copper traces.
“Responding to the demanding requirements of the hard disk drive industry, HTI has pushed the capabilities of the subtractive process beyond industry standards, down to 25 micrometer (1 mil) line and space,” Roach added. “For many years, subtractive circuits were HTI’s standard product offering, with the finest lines and spaces in high volume (1 million per day) at the 25 micrometer level using 12 micrometer thick copper (1/3 ounce).”
HTI’s additive line, utilizing automated reel to reel processing was developed to produce ultra-fine line circuits. The line started mass production five years ago.
“In 2008, HTI developed and launched an additive circuit offering to reach even finer lines and space,” Roach said. “The additive approach does not rely upon etching, but rather uses plating to build-up copper in just the areas where conductors are desired. The additive approach is advantageous in terms of material waste, but more importantly, is capable of finer lines and spaces.”
“The finer pitch capability enables our customers to pack more functionality into the same footprint or reduce the footprint given the same functionality,” Steve Young, director of new business development and technology development, added. “Either way, our customers are able to differentiate their products through smaller form factors, higher performance, new features, or lower cost.”
Another advantage is the possibility to take a multi-layer circuit and reduce the layer count to a two layer circuit or even a single layer circuit. HTI is currently shipping circuits with 15 micrometer lines and spaces, sampling 12 micrometer lines and spaces and has a roadmap with 10 and 8 micrometers lines and spaces.
Roach said that in HTI’s additive approach, a polyimide surface is the starting point for the formation of the copper conductors. The polyimide surface is seeded with metal using vacuum deposition. The copper conductors are created by plating copper to the seed layer through a patterned plating mask, which defines the shape of the conductors.
One key to HTI’s success was overcoming the challenges in developing its roll-to-roll additive manufacturing line. Roach noted that this was a multi-year, enterprise-wide effort that necessitated changes in every aspect of the manufacturing process.
“The basics of HTI’s additive process is the semi-additive approach developed over two decades ago by the semiconductor industry,” Roach said. “While the basic process is not novel, implementing the semi-additive approach to flex circuits required development in many areas, including materials, process equipment and measurement and inspection equipment.”
One of the largest changes was the move to roll-to-roll material handling.
“While HTI’s subtractive approach starts with relatively thick multilayer sheets that can be handled manually, the thin starting substrate of the additive approach is less sturdy and required the move to roll-to-roll,” Roach said. “The transition to roll-to-roll handling has several side benefits, including better plating thickness control and reduced manual handling damage.
“HTI made a significant investment in new manufacturing equipment,” Roach noted. “While HTI’s subtractive lines share many of the core process technologies of an additive approach, such as photolithography, cleaning and plating, the move to roll-to-roll necessitated new equipment to enable the new material handling method.
“A key process technology that HTI had to add to its toolbox was vacuum deposition,” Roach added. “Vacuum deposition required not only new equipment with custom specifications, but also building the fundamental knowledge to ensure good adhesion of the conductors to the underlying dielectric layer. To obtain high yields, new measurement and inspection equipment was also developed, including over 30 in-line locations for auditing and inspecting the product.”
Development of a custom polyimide was another key change for the additive approach. The hard drive market was moving towards product that required higher resolution dielectric for smaller features, as well as improved thermal and mechanical properties.
While Hutchinson Technology’s primary end market has been the hard disk market, the company sees its capabilities as a well-kept secret of its hard disk drive customers and its new customers in other markets.
“The hard disk drive industry has extreme precision, quality and cleanliness requirements that exceed those of many other industries,” Roach said. “Many industries, such as medical device and consumer electronics, to name a few, are approaching the more stringent requirements that require a supplier with Hutchinson’s capabilities.”
“We are finding as we expand into new markets after focusing primarily on the hard disk drive industry for nearly three decades, that many companies are both unaware and then pleasantly surprised once they learn of our capabilities,” Young added. “We are finding customers in multiple industries, including med device, telecom and consumer electronics, that are able to leverage our capabilities to make their products better and bring them to market fast.”
Photo courtesy of Hutchinson Technology Inc. |
“They decided to locate in Geiss’ hometown of Hutchinson when they found a low cost building for rent – a chicken coop,” Roach said. “From these humble beginnings, the company gradually added various capabilities to their core photoetching to become a vertically integrated supplier of precision components to the demanding hard disk drive industry. Key technologies now include precision stamping, plating, sputtering, laser welding, polymer coating and automated assembly.”
Roach noted that while the hard disk drive market still remains HTI’s largest market, the company also supplies precision components to several other industries that require fine features and tight tolerances, including the medical device, consumer electronics, telecom, automotive and military/aerospace markets.
Additive and Subtractive Processes
Hutchinson Technology has the capability to produce both additive and subtractive flexible circuits, and while subtractive circuitry is more common, the additive approach offers significant benefits.
“The subtractive approach is the standard approach used by most producers of rigid and flexible circuits today where the leading edge capability is generally regarded as 75 micrometer (3 mil) line and space,” Roach said. “The subtractive approach starts with a substrate that has copper that spans the entire length and width of the substrate. The copper conductors are patterned by etching most of the copper away, leaving a small portion of the original copper in the desired locations to form the copper traces.
“Responding to the demanding requirements of the hard disk drive industry, HTI has pushed the capabilities of the subtractive process beyond industry standards, down to 25 micrometer (1 mil) line and space,” Roach added. “For many years, subtractive circuits were HTI’s standard product offering, with the finest lines and spaces in high volume (1 million per day) at the 25 micrometer level using 12 micrometer thick copper (1/3 ounce).”
HTI’s additive line, utilizing automated reel to reel processing was developed to produce ultra-fine line circuits. The line started mass production five years ago.
“In 2008, HTI developed and launched an additive circuit offering to reach even finer lines and space,” Roach said. “The additive approach does not rely upon etching, but rather uses plating to build-up copper in just the areas where conductors are desired. The additive approach is advantageous in terms of material waste, but more importantly, is capable of finer lines and spaces.”
“The finer pitch capability enables our customers to pack more functionality into the same footprint or reduce the footprint given the same functionality,” Steve Young, director of new business development and technology development, added. “Either way, our customers are able to differentiate their products through smaller form factors, higher performance, new features, or lower cost.”
Another advantage is the possibility to take a multi-layer circuit and reduce the layer count to a two layer circuit or even a single layer circuit. HTI is currently shipping circuits with 15 micrometer lines and spaces, sampling 12 micrometer lines and spaces and has a roadmap with 10 and 8 micrometers lines and spaces.
Roach said that in HTI’s additive approach, a polyimide surface is the starting point for the formation of the copper conductors. The polyimide surface is seeded with metal using vacuum deposition. The copper conductors are created by plating copper to the seed layer through a patterned plating mask, which defines the shape of the conductors.
One key to HTI’s success was overcoming the challenges in developing its roll-to-roll additive manufacturing line. Roach noted that this was a multi-year, enterprise-wide effort that necessitated changes in every aspect of the manufacturing process.
“The basics of HTI’s additive process is the semi-additive approach developed over two decades ago by the semiconductor industry,” Roach said. “While the basic process is not novel, implementing the semi-additive approach to flex circuits required development in many areas, including materials, process equipment and measurement and inspection equipment.”
One of the largest changes was the move to roll-to-roll material handling.
“While HTI’s subtractive approach starts with relatively thick multilayer sheets that can be handled manually, the thin starting substrate of the additive approach is less sturdy and required the move to roll-to-roll,” Roach said. “The transition to roll-to-roll handling has several side benefits, including better plating thickness control and reduced manual handling damage.
“HTI made a significant investment in new manufacturing equipment,” Roach noted. “While HTI’s subtractive lines share many of the core process technologies of an additive approach, such as photolithography, cleaning and plating, the move to roll-to-roll necessitated new equipment to enable the new material handling method.
“A key process technology that HTI had to add to its toolbox was vacuum deposition,” Roach added. “Vacuum deposition required not only new equipment with custom specifications, but also building the fundamental knowledge to ensure good adhesion of the conductors to the underlying dielectric layer. To obtain high yields, new measurement and inspection equipment was also developed, including over 30 in-line locations for auditing and inspecting the product.”
Development of a custom polyimide was another key change for the additive approach. The hard drive market was moving towards product that required higher resolution dielectric for smaller features, as well as improved thermal and mechanical properties.
While Hutchinson Technology’s primary end market has been the hard disk market, the company sees its capabilities as a well-kept secret of its hard disk drive customers and its new customers in other markets.
“The hard disk drive industry has extreme precision, quality and cleanliness requirements that exceed those of many other industries,” Roach said. “Many industries, such as medical device and consumer electronics, to name a few, are approaching the more stringent requirements that require a supplier with Hutchinson’s capabilities.”
“We are finding as we expand into new markets after focusing primarily on the hard disk drive industry for nearly three decades, that many companies are both unaware and then pleasantly surprised once they learn of our capabilities,” Young added. “We are finding customers in multiple industries, including med device, telecom and consumer electronics, that are able to leverage our capabilities to make their products better and bring them to market fast.”