AT&S Internship Report 2023

Chapter 1 – About AT&S

1.1 AT&S
AT&S is an Austrian-based company that designs and manufactures PCBs and substrates for
semiconductors, it was founded in 1987. It has manufacturing plants all over the world, it has about six
production plants worldwide. It has plants in Vienna, China, India, and Korea. In India, the AT&S plant
is located in . AT&S has about 13,000 employees worldwide. Currently, there are about 1200
employees at Nanjangud. The Nanjangud plant was opened in 1999, AT&S acquired Indal Electronics
Ltd. which was then India’s largest PCB manufacturing plant. In 2010, production at the Nanjangud
plant began. In 2013, AT&S enters the IC substrate market in cooperation with a leading manufacturer
of semiconductors. AT&S mainly supplies PCBs to AIM (Automotive, Industrial, and Medical) and
MS (Mobile Devices
& Substrates) sectors. AT&S is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of high-end printed circuit
boards for smartphones, tablets, digital cameras, portable music players, etc. AT&S supplies PCBs to
companies like Apple and Sony Ericson. Today AT&S has an annual revenue of € 1.6 billion.

1.2 Vision and Mission

Vision – First Choice for Advanced Solutions. Advances in smartphones, the spread of tablet PCs, the
introduction of new mobile telephony standards such as Long-Term Evolution (LTE) as well as the
increased use of electronics in all segments will change the world and increase the need for more
complex printed circuit boards. In the past two years, AT&S has invested heavily in expanding capacity
and in new technologies to keep pace with these trends.

Mission -

• We set the highest quality standards in our industry

• We industrialize leading-edge technology

• We care about people

• We reduce our ecological footprint

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AT&S Internship Report 2023
AT&S (Austria Technologie & Systemtechnik Aktiengesellschaft) is a leading manufacturer
of high-end printed circuit boards (PCBs) and substrate-like PCBs (SLPs) headquartered in
Leoben, Austria, founded in 1987, with a global presence through production facilities in
Austria, China, India, and Korea, as well as sales offices worldwide, serving various industries
such as automotive, industrial, medical, and telecommunications, known for its commitment
to technological innovation, particularly in advanced PCB technologies like high-density
interconnect (HDI), flexible PCBs, and embedded components, while maintaining strict
environmental standards, focusing on energy efficiency, waste reduction, and the use of
environmentally friendly materials, and recognized as a market leader in the PCB industry,
with a reputation for high-quality products and reliable customer service, fostering long-term
partnerships with leading electronics manufacturers globally.

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AT&S Internship Report 2023
Overall Process Flow

1.3 Multilayer PCB Production Process Flow:

1. Inner layer Photo
2. Automatic Optical Inspection (AOI)- Inner layer
3. Re-lamination
4. Mechanical drilling
5. Wet Process-Copper Plating
6. Outer layer Photo
7. Automatic Optical Inspection (AOI)- Outer layer
8. Solder mask
9. Surface Finishing
10. Screen Printing
11. Mechanical Routing
12. Electrical Testing
13. Final Inspection
14. AQL- Assurance Quality level
15. QAL- Quality Assurance Certificate
16. Packing

FLOW CHART:

Fig 1.3.1: Flow diagram of OVERALL PROCESS FLOW

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AT&S Internship Report 2023

1.3.1 Inner layer Photo

In this process, copper pattern which forms the circuit area of the PCB is printed on the
laminate (Panel/ core) by making use of selective etching methodology .

Above process is achieved with the help of DFPR, photo tool, UV radiation and chemicals to
selectively etch out copper and DFPR.

As first step, panels are cleaned off dust and oxidation, and DFPR (photo sensitive
material) is laminated onto it. Later taking this laminated panel to exposing stage. Photo
tool ( consisting of PCB image as transparent and opaque area) is kept over the panel and
UV rays are radiated over it. DFPR under transparent area of the photo tool gets
polymerized (hardened) and it in turn protects the copper under it from etching solution
at DES process. In contrast, copper under the opaque area of the photo tool is not
protected and gets etched out. This leads to formation of customer image on the panel.

Above steps are common for both inner and outer layer photo printing In outer layer photo
printing, alignment of the circuit design to holes already drilled in process previous to it
becomes critical (photo to drill registration)

1. PRE-Clean:
This process is required to clean & micro etch the surface of the panel and make it free from
finger prints oxide contamination and other foreign contaminations. This process also creates
roughness on copper surface, which is essential to have better adhesion of Dry Film
Photo Resist onto panel in the subsequent Lamination process

Fig 1.3.2: Surface preparation of the panel

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AT&S Internship Report 2023
2. Photo Lamination:
In this process try film is laminated on both sides of the panel. DPR is a non polymerised
and photosensitive material which is used as the media to transfer the customer image.

Fig 1.3.3: Basic cross section of DFPR

3. Photo Exposing:
In exposing process, customer image is transferred onto the panel. Here photo tool
containing opaque and transparent areas (which forms customer image) is used as
template.

UV light passing through transparent area of the photo tool, polymerizes the DFPR
laminated on the panel. Thus customer required circuit area gets transferred as
polymerized DFPR and non circuit area will remain as it is.

4. DES:
In this process unwanted copper area is removed by retaining the customer required
circuit area on the panel.

Developing: The technician firstly uses the developer solution to wash off the dry film
that has not been polymerized, while the film that has been polymerized remains on the
board surface as a protective layer against erosion during etching.

Etching: Next, the inner layer panels of the multi-layer PCBs enter the etching area. The
unexposed dry film is removed by the developer and the copper surface is then exposed.
The exposed copper surface gets dissolved and etched away in the copper chloride to
obtain the desired trace.

Stripping: The stripping step is to strip off the exposed dry film protecting the copper
surface with a sodium hydroxide solution. Operators remove any remaining resist to
ensure that no substances affect the conductivity of the copper. After stripping is
completed, the entire PCB circuit has been shaped. Next, the panels are transferred to the

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