Circuit Express

Circuit Express Officially Begins Laser Microvia Offering With Shipment to Raytheon

TEMPE, February 5, 2010 - Circuit Express, Inc., a leader in the quickturn and prototype PCB manufacturing industry, today announced that it has begun offering copper filled laser drilled microvias as part of its advanced technology offering. "After months of hard work from our engineering and manufacturing departments, CEI partnered with Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems in El Segundo, California, to build our first laser-drilled microvia order. The shipment was delivered on-time in October 2009. Since October Circuit Express has built many more microvia boards and we are excited to formally announce this technology as our newest product/service offering," said Chris King, Director of Sales/Marketing.

At this time Circuit Express is focusing on building only Type I and Type II microvia constructions and will be using Micron Laser Technology as their outsource partner for microvia drilling.

All plating operations are performed in house using the MacDermid MacuSpec VF 100 plating bath for copper filled microvia plating. "Use of this advanced plating solution puts Circuit Express at the forefront of advanced technologies for high reliability microvia processing," says Kevin McClelland, Director of Operations. MacDermid states the VF 100 bath "provides exceptionally wide capabilities including double deep vias of 1.4:1 aspect ratios, and surface copper of less than 25 microns. Able to minimize surface copper, it requires no planarization, and reliably delivers through hole micro distribution of 87% at 6:1 aspect ratio. MacuSpec VF 100 deposits the right amount of copper at the knee of the holes, with no cracks after 6x solder shock."

While we were excited to offer this new technology, Raytheon was extremely pleased with our performance. "First let me say that I have been truly amazed at Circuit Express' commitment and delivery of quality product. In my eyes, you are a company that walks the walk (and doesn't just talk). Your ability to meet very tight deadlines on "non-trivial" product requirements was truly a source of inspiration for us at Raytheon. You and your fellow employees have saved us over a month slip in a highly visible program. For that I'm very grateful. Secondly, I'd like to congratulate you on your quality. When we ask for quick responses we typically prepare ourselves for "noncompliance issues." I'm quite pleased to say that this was not the case on this order. In fact, we acknowledge that we pushed the boundaries and you were able to meet the challenge," said Alan Kovacs, Sr. Principal Mechanical Engineer, Raytheon SAS.

Travis Bice, President of Circuit Express, stated "Coupling our advanced technologies with mission-critical process control and quality system certifications and registrations (MIL-PRF-55110, ISO 9001, AS9100, and ITAR) makes Circuit Express the right choice when faced with time-critical PCB requirements and the need for product that is built to print without exception."

Circuit Express has been a Raytheon supplier for over 15 years and is currently supplying Raytheon's requirements for both prototype and true flight-grade production, from 2-20 layers with advanced technologies that include microvia, blind/buried via(sequential lamination), controlled impedance, and lines/spaces down to .003".