MicroConnex, a rapidly growing flex circuit fabricator in the Seattle area who has a reputation for producing some of the world’s best complex- fine-line/fine-pitch designs, announced the purchase, installation, and deployment of an Orbotech Paragon 9800m Laser Direct Imaging system — aka the LDI.

This million-dollar investment adds to MicroConnex’ already extraordinary capability in the “sub 1 mil” category of tight lines and spaces within the niche market of complex flexible electronic circuitry. Specifically the new LDI streamlines MicroConnex’ proprietary processes with tighter and consistent trace, space, trace-to-edge and layer-to-layer registration.

Simultaneously, the LDI is helping MicroConnex improve overall efficiency and scale across their spectrum of capability including quick-turn prototypes delivered generally within 5 days or less.

Ethan Fontaine, MicroConnex’ Engineering Manager says, ”We’re only 3 weeks into the deployment and have seen dramatic and amazing improvements with registration accuracies alone.”

Justin Jordan, MicroConnex’ Operation Manager says, “The LDI is key to achieving the most accurate registration results in the area of pad to via, layer to layer, and soldermask alignment. It also provides greater throughput and yield improvements generally associated with standard photolithography processes.

Last year (2012), MicroConnex purchased a significant set of capital equipment including a Chemcut 547 XL 20" Developer and a Chemcut 547 XL Dry Film Stripper configured for ultra-thin transport of sub 3 mil material cores, an Encon Thermal Evaporation and Distillation System along with the 4th ESI 5330HE UV laser system. MicroConnex also implemented “TrueChem” validating the overall process.