Optimize the Interconnect:
What This Means for the Future of Manufacturing
At some point, every technology conversation stops being about tools. It becomes about direction.
In the final episode of On the Line with MKS, the Optimize the Interconnect (OTI) story comes full circle. Kuldip Johal—Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Business Development at MKS—steps back from individual processes and asks the question that matters most:
What happens to manufacturing when interconnects become as advanced as the silicon they support?
Episode 6 of the OTI Story
Author: Ryan Wagner
Released: August 24, 2026
Silicon Sets the Pace—Interconnects Decide Who Keeps Up
The driving force behind OTI is not theoretical innovation. It is market reality.
As Kuldip outlines, silicon technology continues to advance relentlessly—driven by smartphones, AI accelerators, machine learning, and increasingly complex packaging. Each new generation of silicon forces interconnect technology to evolve alongside it.
The mistake, historically, has been underestimating the PCB.
A system can have the most advanced silicon imaginable, but without a reliable, manufacturable interconnect structure beneath it, performance stalls, yield collapses, and cost spirals out of control.
OTI exists because interconnect complexity has caught up with semiconductor complexity.
From HDI to UHDI: The Inevitable Shift
Episode 6 frames OTI as part of a broader transition—one the industry cannot avoid.
Printed circuit boards have progressed from:
- Double‑sided boards
- To multilayer architectures
- To HDI
- And now toward Ultra‑HDI (UHDI), where feature sizes, via diameters, and layer counts resemble semiconductor manufacturing from decades ago
As dimensions shrink and densities increase, the tolerance for disconnected process thinking disappears.
OTI is not an optional optimization at this scale—it is mandatory discipline.
Yield, Cost, and the Reality of High‑Volume Manufacturing
One of the most grounded insights in Episode 6 is the reminder that high‑volume manufacturing and successful demos are not the same thing.
Anyone can build a few perfect panels in a lab. The real challenge is building millions—identically—at acceptable yield and cost.
As Kuldip explains, every technological leap creates tension:
- Smaller features vs. higher yield
- New materials vs. reliability
- Innovation vs. manufacturability
OTI addresses this tension by aligning process development across laser drilling, chemistry, equipment, and metrology—so technology progression doesn’t outpace production reality.
Learning From the Semiconductor Playbook
A recurring theme in this final episode is convergence.
PCB manufacturers are starting to adopt:
- Semiconductor‑style process discipline
- Statistical control at micro‑scales
- Modeling and simulation before production
- Cross‑functional design‑for‑manufacturing thinking
This is not coincidence. It is necessity.
As PCB and substrate technologies move closer to silicon in scale and complexity, they must also adopt the same rigor. OTI accelerates that transition by embedding semiconductor‑level thinking into interconnect development.
Designers Want to Push—Manufacturing Has to Enable
Kuldip makes an important observation: designers are rarely the limiting factor.
Design teams want smaller vias, tighter lines and spaces, new architectures, and more aggressive packaging strategies. What holds them back is uncertainty—about reliability, yield, and cost.
OTI closes that gap.
By giving manufacturers predictive insight into interconnect performance—and by proving manufacturability early—OTI allows designers to push boundaries without gambling production stability.
Innovation becomes a managed process instead of a leap of faith.
Collaboration Is No Longer Optional
Perhaps the clearest takeaway from Episode 6 is this:
No single company can solve the next generation of interconnect challenges alone.
Materials suppliers. Equipment manufacturers. Chemistry developers. Inspection and metrology partners.
All must operate as part of a coordinated ecosystem. OTI reflects MKS’ recognition that deep collaboration across the supply chain is now a competitive advantage, not just a nice‑to‑have.
That collaboration is what shortens development cycles, reduces risk, and allows new technologies to reach high‑volume production faster than ever before.
Beyond Today’s Roadmap
In closing, Episode 6 looks beyond UHDI—toward emerging concepts where interposers disappear, substrates evolve, and the PCB itself becomes the central connection between silicon and system.
That future will demand:
- Near‑perfect interconnect consistency
- Extremely tight process control
- Predictability at microscopic scales
OTI is not a reaction to this future. It is preparation for it.
The OTI Mindset
Across six conversations, Optimize the Interconnect reveals itself not as a product line or a marketing framework, but as a mindset:
- Treat the interconnect as the product
- Engineer reliability, don’t inspect it in
- Align physics, chemistry, and manufacturing
- Optimize for scale, not just success
That mindset will define who leads as electronics continue to shrink, densify, and accelerate.
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