What Designers SHOULD KNOW about LDI

摘要

"My customers do not care how the board is made. They just want me to meet the specifications, the quality and, above all, the price requirements." That's the common refrain I hear from PCB manufacturers. The thinking from buyers seems to be that there is a set of tolerances for standard, leading-edge and "state-of-the-art" PCBs which anyone can - and must -meet at the price determined by the market. This is patently false: fabricators vary tremendously in ability to make various types of PCBs at "reasonable" prices. Also, as process technologies improve, designers should be aware of any advantages they offer. Laser direct imaging (LDI) is one such technology. Many "standard" design rules for registration can be changed to increase board functionality, and costs of high-end PCBs could be decreased through LDI. LDI is not just a tool to make fine lines and small lot sizes. It is unique in its ability to individually register and scale every image used in PCB production. More than 50 PCB companies today use LDI in production.