The system is operating in a production environment at Silicon Valley-based PCB manufacturer, Bay Area Circuits Inc.
Camtek Ltd. (NASDAQ: CAMT and TASE: CAMT), today announced that it has received a conditional purchase order from Bay Area Circuits Inc. for a Gryphon system. The purchase order will become firm upon successful completion of an evaluation process. This is a milestone event, marking the first customer purchase order for the Gryphon following the successful conclusion of the beta-testing phase of the system.
Gryphon provides a one-stop-shop process designed to replace the traditional solder mask and legend deposition process in the manufacture of Printed Circuit Boards (PCB). Gryphon enhances production, while significantly improving the reliability and yield of the process.
The Gryphon system has been installed in the customer's facility in California and is now working in a production environment. Bay Area Circuits is using the Gryphon primarily for the direct deposition of the solder mask following the manufacture of the circuit boards.
Rafi Amit, Chairman and CEO of Camtek commented: "This is an important commercial achievement for Gryphon, marking our first customer order and installation. Bay Area Circuits is an innovative company, constantly looking to improve its manufacturing processes and service to its customers, and this order is a vote of confidence in the commercial viability of our solution. The commencement of customer installations demonstrates that the Gryphon is starting to achieve market recognition and we look forward to further installations at additional customers in the coming months."
Dr. Boaz Nitzan, Vice President of Camtek's Functional Inkjet Technologies (FIT) Division added: "Gryphon's technological breakthrough provides advanced alignment, short cycle time, significantly improved yield and an environmentally friendly process. FIT, Camtek's proprietary Functional Inkjet Technology, brings an innovative process that promotes the digitalization of PCB manufacturing thus addressing the most demanding standards of the PCB industry."
Stephen Garcia, President of Bay Area Circuits commented: "We see the Gryphon as a ground breaking improvement to the PCB manufacturing process. We have been impressed with the results from our early tests and we now have the system working on the production floor. We are expecting to see a high return on investment through reduced manufacturing time, reduced manpower, zero waste and increased accuracy. More importantly, we believe that the digital 3D printing of solder masks on PCBs will also enable us to offer a higher quality end-product for our customers."
