Electro Scientific Industries (ESI; Portland, OR), a division of MKS Instruments (Andover, MA) and an innovator in laser-based manufacturing solutions for the micromachining industry, has received an order for its CapStone laser drilling solution for processing flexible printed circuits (FPC). This follows an extensive onsite system evaluation at Compeq Manufacturing (Huizhou, China), where CapStone delivered exceptional throughput and performance.
"Our testing and evaluation process for CapStone has been rigorous and extensive," says Cathay Wu, director of purchasing for the Material Division at Compeq. "We have processed thousands of panels over the last few months with the CapStone system. We evaluated the system on a wide range of applications and material stacks, as well as numerous via types and sizes—in both panel and roll-to-roll processes—and achieved excellent yield. CapStone showed significant increases in throughput and savings in cost-per-panel, and has met or exceeded our expectations. We look forward to leveraging CapStone for a number of applications and taking advantage of its throughput and yield to stay competitive in this very demanding market.”
"CapStone offers twice the throughput of our previous-generation system while maintaining yields, increasing uptime, and significantly reducing maintenance costs," says John Williams, ESI's vice president of marketing. "These all translate directly into greater productivity and lower cost per panel. In the simplest analysis, doubling throughput doubles return on investment and halves the payback period."
"Since we put our first CapStone systems in the field, we have processed over a hundred thousand panels," Williams continues. "All systems are currently qualified and running in high-volume production. Given the cost-driven nature of the printed circuit board (PCB) processing industry, and CapStone’s extraordinary value proposition, the system continues to generate significant interest and early customer adoption."
For more information, please visit esi.com.