Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd says it has made a breakthrough in developing denser circuit boards to make it possible to reduce the size of products such as portable phones, notebook computers and video camera-recorders. The development, called ALIVH*, Any Layer Inner Via Hole, is claimed to cut the size of circuit boards by between 30% to 50%. The new circuit boards are made of nonwoven aramid, a fibre used in bullet-proof vests; the holes are drilled by lasers and instead of using solder, the electrical connections are made by plugging the holes with a paste of copper powder and resin. The components are then pressed onto the boards. This process eliminates the need for mechanical drilling and wave soldering. The boards can be multi-lay ered to an unlimited degree, the firm claims, adding that 10 layers would likely be enough for the most complex systems currently envisaged. Its Matsushita Electronic Components Co Ltd subsidiary was also involved in development and Matsushita has registered or applied for 32 domestic and six overseas patents on the technology. The boards will initially be used in-house for Matsushita’s own products, giving it time to perfect mass production of the boards and master stuffing techniques, but it intends to license the technology in a year or two. Sample shipments of the ALIVH* multi-layered wiring board will be out in the autumn, with the first applications likely to be in portable telephones, pagers, personal computers, CD-ROM drives and camcorders.
