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Trouble in your Tank: Are PCB Fabricators Ready for the Next Technology Curve?

The electronics industry’s demand for smaller, faster, and more powerful devices is driving major advances in PCB manufacturing. One of the central priorities is to increase circuit density while maintaining performance and reliability.

Manufacturers produce finer lines and spaces so more components can fit on smaller, more sophisticated boards. They are also refining SMT features to support tighter pitches without compromising performance.

As components shrink, smaller-diameter microvias and through-holes are becoming essential for connecting multiple PCB layers. Stacked microvias support dense signal routing and chip-to-chip communication, while 6+2+6 build-up constructions are becoming standard.

Meeting Future Market Demands
By advancing fabrication technologies and continuously improving manufacturing processes, PCB manufacturers must position themselves to meet the electronics market’s growing requirements for miniaturization, density, and performance.

In the electronics manufacturing industry, the imperative to uphold signal integrity and ensure overall design reliability cannot be overstated. Designers are recognizing these critical challenges by addressing several key aspects to achieve optimal outcomes. Foremost among these considerations is the vital need for efficient heat dissipation, a paramount factor in averting overheating issues that could lead to debilitating component failures.

As a result, the integration of innovative heat dissipation techniques into PCB designs has become a pivotal endeavor, enriching thermal management capabilities and safeguarding the seamless functioning of electronic systems. The design of a PCB entails a rigorous focus on long-term reliability, and necessitates an intricate analysis of diverse operating conditions and stress factors. Engineers ensure the device's longevity and enduring performance, bolstering end-user trust and confidence.

Furthermore, the pursuit of higher data rates and unparalleled performance necessitates the adoption of cutting-edge materials with low loss and ultra-low-loss properties. Such innovative materials decisively minimize signal loss, thereby preserving signal integrity and leading to superior electronic device performance. We are moving from 800G to 1.6T and, as some predict, 3.2T in the next decade.

Material science has yielded remarkable advancements, manifesting in the development of high-performance and ultra low loss materials tailored to meet the exacting requirements of cutting-edge electronic devices. By enhancing the mechanical properties of PCBs, these materials instill exceptional robustness and resilience, thereby mitigating vulnerabilities to external stresses and enhancing the overall reliability of electronic systems.  

Manufacturing Process Innovation
To support denser, more complex designs, PCB manufacturers are moving from traditional subtractive processing to more efficient additive techniques. These methods improve precision, reduce material waste, and, when combined with build-up films, enable higher-density multilayer boards with greater feature integration. Advanced surface finishes are also replacing conventional solderable options to improve performance and reliability.

Business and Workforce Challenges

These advances also create significant financial and operational pressures. Key challenges include:

• Funding advanced manufacturing technologies and regular equipment upgrades
• Maintaining a stable supply chain to protect production schedules and control costs
• Recruiting and developing skilled workers who can operate increasingly sophisticated processes

Without sustained investment in equipment, supply resilience, and workforce development, companies may struggle to adopt new manufacturing techniques.

Compliance and Environmental Priorities
The electronics manufacturing industry must address compliance and environmental concerns. Current priorities include:

• Evaluating safer alternatives to PFAS because of environmental and health concerns
• Complying with the Restriction of Hazardous Substances directive to reduce hazardous materials in electronic products
• Reducing water use and adopting more resource-efficient manufacturing practices
• Managing the additional production costs associated with the transition to lead-free materials

Addressing these priorities will be essential to balancing continued industry growth with environmental responsibility. Investing in equipment and processes to reclaim and reuse metals such as copper that have been etched from the board will reduce costs and help conserve vital resources.

The Path Forward: Jumping the Technology Curve
The electronics industry urgently needs more efficient process flows and sustained technological transformation. Advanced packaging is now the norm, while growth is shifting from consumer electronics such as smartphones and tablets toward millimeter-wave technologies, 5G/6G, high-performance computing, CoWoS (chip-on-wafer-on-substrate), ADAS, and AI.

Supporting these advances requires substantial upgrades in materials, processing equipment, laser drilling, in-circuit testing, registration, and lamination. Progress demands more than a change in mindset; it requires strategic investment in technology, capacity, quality, and workforce development. Companies must prepare engineers and manufacturing personnel to manage critical aspects of workflow, quality, delivery times, and yield. These improvements carry significant costs, but they are essential to moving up the technology curve.

PCB fabricators should think like a semiconductor company: razor-sharp focus and relentless pursuit of higher yields, even as technology becomes more complex. Moving into sub-50-micron lines and spaces, and 75-micron-or-less blind-via diameters, is the new norm. To be even modestly successful, mastering laser via formation, laser direct imaging, precise registration, improved lamination presses, thin materials handling, precision metallization, electroplating, and etching is essential.

Look outside the box and think about how you can minimize handling (to improve workflow as well as yields). A good example is the adoption of modular plating equipment that performs like a semiconductor wafer plating tool. Horizontal processing, including precision etching and metallization, is a game-changing process investment. As HDI and UHDI add more layers, why not invest in alternative processes to make the vias conductive? Direct metallization is an alternative that not only reduces impact on the environment but also offers a precise, highly productive process compared to conventional electroless copper.

Investments Needed
Jumping the technology requirements curve today and moving forward requires significant investment. You can no longer bootstrap your way to prosperity. It is not only about microvias and substrates. There will always be a need for higher aspect ratio plated through-hole circuit boards. High layer counts and aspect ratios reaching and exceeding 30:1 are here. Just look at the server board requirements for AI. Mechanical drilling and plating of these high aspect ratio boards will require the latest in drill-bit design and CNC drilling equipment. Layer counts are exceeding 32 layers.

If that is not enough, thermal management becomes more difficult as these AI devices generate significant heat. Tight control of stub length and back-drill depth tolerance is important for high-speed designs. This matters for 800G/1.6T switch PCBs. Of course, blind and buried vias eliminate the unwanted stub. However, HDI with many sequential laminations is not always the best solution, especially for large, high layer count networking boards.

First, however, fabricators must master key technologies and processing if they wish to be a credible supplier of this growing technology. This includes:

• Tooling and materials selection
• Small hole drilling and micro-drilling
• High aspect ratio via formation
• Back-drilling expertise
• Laser via formation
• Desmear, metallization, and hole plugging
• Fine-line and tight-registration, image transfer, and etching
• Blind via plating (super fill copper)
• Quality control and qualifications (test vehicles, reliability verification)

Table 1: At a minimum, these investments must be made

The investments noted in Table 1 should not be considered trivial. They are the cost of entry for competing in a lucrative, less crowded market. The industry is pushing technological boundaries and creating unprecedented opportunities. Demand from AI, high-performance computing, electric vehicles, aerospace, defense, and autonomous systems is accelerating the adoption of heterogeneous integration, chiplet architectures, advanced substrates, and HDI technologies.

These developments increase the importance of coordinating design, materials, assembly, testing, reliability, and manufacturing capabilities. Investment in technologies, materials, tools, and processes will enable fabricators to improve yields, increase productivity, and enter the realm of advanced packaging and high-performance circuit board fabrication.

This column originally appeared in the October 2026 issue of I-Connect007 Magazine.