Foundational Assessment

We greatly appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts.

The PCB Market Catalyst is an effort being undertaken by the U.S. Partnership for Assured Electronics (USPAE) to address the lack of domestic capabilities to produce substrate-like printed circuit boards (PCB) containing ultra-high-density interconnect (UHDI) features including traces in the 20 to 25 micron range. These finer traces, or copper lines, are needed for advanced designs that can integrate the latest microchips while reducing size and weight.  For purposes of this effort UHDI and Substrate-Like PCB (SLP) are used interchangeably. 

UHDI/SLP Fabrication has been identified as an area where the supply and demand sides of the market are at an impasse, and require government intervention to stimulate demand by generating supply – that is, proactively creating a new industrial base capability that the market is not creating on its own. Your input will assist us in developing a robust plan to bridge this gap. 

Responses will be anonymized.  Please feel free to answer as many or as few questions as you wish.  There are no mandatory questions.

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* 1. How much do you agree or disagree with the premise that the US is behind other regions in terms of UHDI/SLP Fabrication Technology?

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* 2. What is your level of support for the following PCB Market Catalyst objectives:
- Quickly delivering UHDI PCB capabilities
- Rapidly transitioning capabilities to domestic industry
- Providing Education & Workforce Development (E&WD) to support capabilities
In order to accomplish the above objectives and maintain a no-compete relationship with existing PCB manufacturers, the PCB Market Catalyst shall be stood up and operated by a trusted 3rd party organization.

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* 3. What do you view as the most important output(s) of this effort?

  Lowest Level of Importance Highest Level of Importance N/A
Establishment of Domestic UHDI capability
Establishment of Domestic UHDI capacity
Workforce Training and Development
Benefits of showcasing factory of the future, Automation, ML, AI tools and techniques
Getting UHDI performance benefits into the Defense supply chain

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* 4. What additional outputs would you like to see as part of this endeavor?

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* 5. As a core objective of this effort is to expand the Industrial Base of PCB Fabricators capable of producing UHDI, what level of Facilities of Companies would need to be achieved for this effort to be viewed as successful? 

  1 - 3 3 - 5 5 - 10 10 - 15 Over 15
In terms of number of qualified FACILITIES:
In terms of number of qualified COMPANIES:

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* 6. What do you see as the largest disconnects between the Defense Electronics Industry and the PCB Fabrication Industry as they pertain to UHDI Technology?

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