HDI is a necessity when the component pitch requires it, or the board size demands it. When properly designed, HDI PCBs are smaller, thinner, and weigh less (board downsizing trend). HDI has a myriad of constructions and variables that all affect density. To understand how blind vias, skip vias, staggered vias, stacked vias, and buried vias contribute to density, you must do a “routing test” and play with all these different stack-ups and constructions. By measuring the metrics (inches/square inch and pins/square inch), you can create a table that relates these density measures to the corresponding construction.