Effect of Rapid-Feed Step-Drilling Cycle and Super-High-Speed Spindle for High-Speed Micro Drilling in Printed Wiring Boards

A drilling technique using micro-drills of 0.2 mm or less in diameter and a super-high-speed spindle of 160000 rpm or more has been developed for drilling ultra-micro holes in printed wiring boards (PWBs). The drilling process requires higher reliability and quality to maintain the reliability of the electrical connection between circuit layers. On the other hand, higher processing efficiency is also required in PWBs manufacturing. To maintain high productivity, drilling is normally performed using a non-step method, but heat damage called B-RING occurs around the drilled holes with this method. To solve these problems without the loss of processing efficiency, we applied the rapid-feed step-drilling cycle method. We investigated the B-RING for drilling quality and evaluated the drilling time for processing efficiency under various drilling conditions. We found that using a rapid-feed step-drilling cycle with an appropriate number of steps and feed rates ensures a higher level of hole quality and processing efficiency compared with the conventional non-step drilling.