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An exclusive look into a high density interconnect flexible circuit facility-one that might revolutionize the packaging world by making ceramic packages obsolete.
More than a few PWB manufacturers have been wondering when they'll see post 9/11 and Homeland Security funding trickle down to the circuit board level. Most haven't seen much increases in defense-related circuit board spending. But when this market heats up, a fabricator in Tempe, Arizona, will be ready.
HEI Inc. (Nasdaq:HEII) is a Minnesota-based company that designs and manufactures high-performance microelectronic packages and devices, along with building products that incorporate those devices. With annual revenues of approximately $30 million, most of its business is in the hearing, medical, and communications markets. HEI's Microelectronics division, based in Victoria, Minnesota, operates a 50,000 square foot microelectronics assembly operation that includes direct chip attach using wire bond, flip chip and a new wafer-die stud bumping process. This Victoria division is the prime customer of the HEI Tempe branch that promises to turn a lot of heads in the next twelve months: the High Density Interconnect Division in Tempe Arizona.
This circuit board manufacturing facility in the desert isn't threatened by rapid price erosion or Asian labor advantages. It's playing to a more sophisticated end-user audience, one that demands higher functionality. HEI's High Density Interconnect division specializes in high-density laminate production. Its product mix climbs a ladder from common telecom applications to millimeter microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) chip carrier packaging--a 46-50 gigahertz alternative to ceramic packaging in a low-cost laminate application. End uses for this complex package might be found in "anything that has to do with RF frequency devices," said HEI Director of Technical Marketing Jeff Flammer, a 24-year flexible circuit veteran who was hired to design and build this division from scratch. He cited applications ranging from hearing improvement, medical capabilities, small dish satellites, thermally enhanced chip carriers for cell phones, and small wireless land systems.
This is a tremendous leap up from, say, cell phones, which operate only up to 3 gigahertz. It stands to reason that the more function integrated into products, higher frequencies will be required. Yet since the technology sector absorbed the one-two punch of the dot-com bust and 9/11, this expensive high-tech market has yet to recover. "Everybody's...