The Styrian technology company continues its expansion offensive and expanded its plant in Ansan, Korea, where high-quality interconnect solutions for medical technology are produced.
In order to be able to continue supplying the medical sector with the latest technology in the future, AT&S implemented a comprehensive technology upgrade at its Ansan site in Korea, raising production technologies at the plant to a new level. “Following the upgrade, a total of around 8,000m² of additional production space was created, most of which is used for the manufacture of connection solutions for medical technology applications. At the same time, our production equipment was brought up to date,” explains Christian Fleck, COO of AT&S’ Automotive, Industrial and Medical business unit.
A technological revolution is currently taking place in medical technology. Today, hearing aids, insulin pumps and implants are already important tools for doctors. Future applications – for example, artificial hearts, implants for targeted pain suppression, or new generations of arm or leg prostheses that support natural movement in the best possible way – will further increase the demands on technology in medicine. Just as in other high-tech industries, products are becoming increasingly complex and multi-layered: a diagnostic device that contains two sensor functions today will need five tomorrow.
The technology is becoming increasingly powerful, but still has to fit into the smallest of spaces and process an increasing amount of data. This trend will be further strengthened by new technological approaches. In the future, artificial intelligence will also be increasingly used for data evaluation in diagnostics, for example, which will require the integration of new, specialised components. AT&S’ printed circuit boards, substrates and interconnect solutions provide the necessary platform for such highly integrated, miniaturised electronic systems.
The installed equipment, such as multilayer flex presses, e-copper coating machines and highly innovative UV lasers, increases production capacity by more than 25%. On the other hand, the infrastructure contributes significantly to a more efficient and resource-saving PCB production, for example in the area of water treatment.
“The medical technology sector is an important part of AT&S’s strategy and an exciting business area that we are constantly developing,” says AT&S CEO Andreas Gerstenmayer. “With our interconnection solutions, we are among the global market leaders in this segment, and together with our partners, we are already thinking quite intensively about solutions that will revolutionise diagnostics and therapy in a few years’ time.”
The AT&S plant in Ansan specialises in the production of high-tech printed circuit boards for a wide range of medical applications. For example, it produces connection solutions for hearing aids with special sensors for targeted noise suppression in certain situations, or circuit boards for cardiac catheters that enable 3D internal images of the human heart. Some manufacturers also rely on AT&S technology for smart medicine pumps that can automatically dispense controlled quantities of a substance when needed.