Special Reviews of Trends in Recent Printed Circuit Technology

Small Hole Drilling and Routing Technology of Printed Circuit Boards

Abstract

As personal electrical equipments such as video tape recorder and personal computer are getting smaller year by year, the component density on printed circuit boards used in these equipments becomes high increasingly. On the higher density board, plated holes which connect outer layer circuits with inner layer circuits electrically become smaller and smaller, and the shape of board becomes more complicated. These issues are bottleneck in printed circuit board manufacturing processes. For drilling machines, Hitachi Seiko Ltd. has developed new technology such as digital software servo-control system combined with machine's microvibration analysis and new drilling techniques. Hitachi Seiko has received many patents with this new technology in several major countries in the world. And also received the prestigious Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers' 1987 Technology Award for of the integrated technology of small hole drilling. For routing machines, we have developed new technology such as spot face routing and pin-less routing system. This paper describes the new technology in small hole drilling and routing process for printed circuit boards.