Multilayer printed circuit boards

A many-layered success story

Multilayer printed circuit boards are AT&S’s core business and form the basis for most technologies used for further miniaturizing electronic circuits and systems. At the dawn of modern electronics, printed circuit boards were simple resin-bonded paper with circuits printed on one side. But technology soon developed in response to increasing demands for integrating and miniaturizing electronics.

Modern circuits on printed circuit boards have a structure comprising multiple functional layers, so they can make the most of their short signalling pathways and accommodate complex systems within tiny spaces. Many applications would simply be unfeasible without the possibilities that this opens up for more complicated circuits. The rapid miniaturisation that we have seen in consumer electronics, mobile communications and smart devices over the past few years would be almost inconceivable without the invention of multilayer printed circuit boards.

Today, AT&S can produce printed circuit boards with four to 78 layers, which can be adapted to almost all system manufacturer requirements. Multilayer printed circuit boards have contributed to technological progress in a wide range of areas, including satellite communications, information processing, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), control technology in the automotive industry and flight control. Multilayer designs also play an important role in networked devices to make homes and workplaces smarter, so they will remain an integral feature of microelectronic systems in high-tech applications.