Legend has it that a pot of gold is to be found
at the end of the rainbow. For Rainbow Technology Systems, a company
that arrived at Hillington Park last September to take up residence in
Kelvin Avenue, the electronic equivalent is already in place.
What Rainbow is developing at Hillington, from scratch, offers electronics manufacturers the world over a chance to reduce their printed circuit costs by a considerable margin. It could prove to be a ’pot of gold’ in the world of smart electronic devices.
Managing director Jonathan Kennett is quite certain that what they have under active development will also revolutionise the production of flat-panel and touch-screen display systems, large and small.
“It’s a ‘disruptive technology’ that we have in our hands,” he says with some pride – and with the experienced knowledge that a serial engineering entrepreneur can bring to such a statement.
“It should allow substantial reductions in labour and production costs, energy use and processing times for the manufacture of printed circuit boards (PCBs).”
His company’s product supplants a typical production line of half a dozen different processes – normally carried out by separate items of machinery over a space of 35 metres length and consuming over 70 kilowatts of power – with a single unit no more than six metres long that could be plugged into a socket in the wall.
This marvel of modern high-precision production machinery has been designed and is being built in-house by chief engineer Robert Gibson, applying the chemical technology developed by John Cunningham, the company’s chief chemist.
The machine uses patented optical techniques to reduce feature sizes on PCBs to less than 10% of the current standard dimensions.
The key to the patented Rainbow process – seven years in development, at a cost of over £2 million – lies in the creation of solvent-free ‘resists’ – the chemical ‘inks’ with which the circuits are printed onto the copper sheeting, which dry instantaneously when exposed to ultra-violet light.
Mr Kennett says: “Although laser-based machines are an improvement on the traditional method of making PCBs, our system can now beat the best lasers by printing circuits down to a width of 5 microns (a micron is one-millionth of a metre).
“This will enable electronic designers to pack more processing power into a much smaller space with ‘high density interconnect’ techniques and – as far as we know – no-one else has been able to image to this size using conventional phototools.”
Mr Kennett and his colleagues have returned from recent trade fairs elated by the reactions to their test results, and are confident there is a world market of perhaps 200 printed circuit board ‘shops’ who would be desperate to be among the first to use the new Rainbow system.
Robert Gibson is in the middle of constructing the first full production Rainbow machine, to be used as an active demonstration unit. Each client will demand a bespoke configuration, but each machine will command a price of up to £750,000.
“We are confident of securing two or three orders in the next few months. And we will also be the sole suppliers of the chemical consumables,” says Jonathan Kennett, anticipating the next question. “We know where the market is, our product ticks lots of boxes, and the results are easy to demonstrate.”
Some of the technology Rainbow is using was developed by his previous company Teknek, based at Inchinnan, now sold on. “We are delighted to have set up anew at Hillington Park,” he added. “There is great connectivity here, both to points west such as the airport and to central Glasgow.
“Our landlords have been very constructive and helpful. And there is plenty of space for expansion. But now we are looking to recruit more top-notch mechanical design engineers.”
Contact: 0141 892 3322
Web: www.rainbow-technology.com
What Rainbow is developing at Hillington, from scratch, offers electronics manufacturers the world over a chance to reduce their printed circuit costs by a considerable margin. It could prove to be a ’pot of gold’ in the world of smart electronic devices.
Managing director Jonathan Kennett is quite certain that what they have under active development will also revolutionise the production of flat-panel and touch-screen display systems, large and small.
“It’s a ‘disruptive technology’ that we have in our hands,” he says with some pride – and with the experienced knowledge that a serial engineering entrepreneur can bring to such a statement.
“It should allow substantial reductions in labour and production costs, energy use and processing times for the manufacture of printed circuit boards (PCBs).”
His company’s product supplants a typical production line of half a dozen different processes – normally carried out by separate items of machinery over a space of 35 metres length and consuming over 70 kilowatts of power – with a single unit no more than six metres long that could be plugged into a socket in the wall.
This marvel of modern high-precision production machinery has been designed and is being built in-house by chief engineer Robert Gibson, applying the chemical technology developed by John Cunningham, the company’s chief chemist.
The machine uses patented optical techniques to reduce feature sizes on PCBs to less than 10% of the current standard dimensions.
The key to the patented Rainbow process – seven years in development, at a cost of over £2 million – lies in the creation of solvent-free ‘resists’ – the chemical ‘inks’ with which the circuits are printed onto the copper sheeting, which dry instantaneously when exposed to ultra-violet light.
Mr Kennett says: “Although laser-based machines are an improvement on the traditional method of making PCBs, our system can now beat the best lasers by printing circuits down to a width of 5 microns (a micron is one-millionth of a metre).
“This will enable electronic designers to pack more processing power into a much smaller space with ‘high density interconnect’ techniques and – as far as we know – no-one else has been able to image to this size using conventional phototools.”
Mr Kennett and his colleagues have returned from recent trade fairs elated by the reactions to their test results, and are confident there is a world market of perhaps 200 printed circuit board ‘shops’ who would be desperate to be among the first to use the new Rainbow system.
Robert Gibson is in the middle of constructing the first full production Rainbow machine, to be used as an active demonstration unit. Each client will demand a bespoke configuration, but each machine will command a price of up to £750,000.
“We are confident of securing two or three orders in the next few months. And we will also be the sole suppliers of the chemical consumables,” says Jonathan Kennett, anticipating the next question. “We know where the market is, our product ticks lots of boxes, and the results are easy to demonstrate.”
Some of the technology Rainbow is using was developed by his previous company Teknek, based at Inchinnan, now sold on. “We are delighted to have set up anew at Hillington Park,” he added. “There is great connectivity here, both to points west such as the airport and to central Glasgow.
“Our landlords have been very constructive and helpful. And there is plenty of space for expansion. But now we are looking to recruit more top-notch mechanical design engineers.”
Contact: 0141 892 3322
Web: www.rainbow-technology.com
