Capabilities

Design:

As a custom component manufacturer (see here) our customers all have a hybrid manufactured exclusively for their product. These hybrids all require different designs, sizes and have varying complexity. Accordingly, it is not possible to indicate with any certainty a time scale to build a prototype hybrid or complete a production run. Bearing that in mind, a rule of thumb is that it takes 2 to 8 weeks to move from concept to prototype (or production).
For example:

If the customer has a concept but no design, it can take up to 2 weeks (depending on how advanced the concept is) to develop a design. Alternatively, if the customer has a design for a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) and wants to take advantage of conversion to a hybrid, it can take up to a few days, depending on the complexity.
Prototypes can then usually be completed within one week depending on complexity and the availability of components (including substrate material) required for manufacture.
Once the prototype hybrid is approved and design is final, it can take less than two weeks for the first production unit to become available (this depends on complexity, availability of substrate material of the correct size and availability of components required for assembly).

Printing:

Our standard line width and spacing is 0.25 millimetres. We are able, using standard printing technology, to produce line widths as small as 0.13 millimetres. Using "photo exposure" thick film technology lines and spacing can be reduced to 0.025 millimetres.

Paste (Ink):

We use many types of pastes (also called ink). Usually for Conductors we use silver palladium or the lower cost platinum silver. For Resistors we use high performance pastes that have temperature coefficients of 50ppm. We use Strain Element pastes for transducer applications and we have a high performance Thermistor paste that we use for temperature sensing and calorimetric fluid flow sensors. We use various dielectric pastes for multi layered circuits and for capacitor printing.

Size:

Our standard substrate size is approximately 3.3 inches by 3.1 inches and we can manufacture using a maximum substrate size of 6 inches by 4 inches.

Substrates:

Substrates (ceramic, stainless steel or titanium) often contain multiple units of the one design. For example a substrate 3.3 inches by 3.1 inches can have one unit or several hundred units on it, depending on the size and shape of the individual hybrid.

Laser Trimming:

We have two ESI laser trimming machines which are used for fine tuning printed resistors. Common laser trimmed resistor tolerance is +/-1%. Resistors can be precision trimmed to within +/- 0.5% (or less) where necessary.
Not only do we trim our own resistors but we also offer precision trimming to other hybrid manufacturers from around the world.

Assembly:

We have an experienced team both here in Australia and in the Philippines with excellent hand soldering and assembly skills. We also utilise a high speed surface mount (SMT) or pick-and-place machine which is fully automatic, and uses laser technology for unrivalled accuracy.

Quantity:

We accept orders ranging from 10 hybrids to 10 million hybrids. Our Customers needs are different — some require only our printing capabilities, some require both printing and trimming (no assembly) and some require assembly or trimming only.

Quality Control:

As well as comprehensive inspection at each step in the manufacturing process, all hybrids are thoroughly tested before shipping to the customer.

Competitiveness:

We are a very adaptable innovative company. We are very competitive with other hybrid companies in the world in development and production and usually can offer a price advantage over equivalent PCB circuits.