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What happens when the rule book is no longer useful, or worse, was never written in the first place? In today’s fast-moving electronics landscape, we’re increasingly asked to design and build what has no precedent, no proven path, and no tidy checklist to follow. This is where “Design for Invention” begins.
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From the growing role of AI in design tools to the challenge of managing cumulative tolerances, these articles in this issue examine the technical details, design choices, and manufacturing considerations that determine whether a board works as intended.
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IPC Releases Five New Standards
March 17, 2020 | IPCEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
IPC announces the release of five newly revised standards covering several areas of the supply chain.
- IPC/WHMA-A-620D, Requirements and Acceptance for Cable and Wire Harness Assemblies
- IPC-2223E, Sectional Design Standard for Flexible/Rigid-Flexible Printed Boards
- IPC-2591-Version 1.1, Connected Factory Exchange (CFX)
- IPC-1791A, Trusted Electronic Designer, Fabricator and Assembler Requirements
- IPC- 6012E, Qualification and Performance Specification for Rigid Printed Boards
Details on some of the changes for the newly released standards:
IPC/WHMA-A-620D provides several changes that were requested by the industry. The task group addressed the target conditions in the document by moving some conditions to acceptable criteria while other cases were moved to training.
- There are several new or revised graphics
- The solderless wrap section was completely revised
- A new section was added for over-molding of flexible flat ribbon
IPC-2223E establishes the specific requirements for the design of flexible and rigid-flexible printed board applications and its forms of component mounting and interconnecting structures.
- Several figures are updated
- New sections and comments on microvia stacking
- Back-drilled holes and dual row zero insertion force (ZIF) connectors updated
IPC-6012E establishes and defines the qualification and performance requirements for the fabrication of rigid printed boards.
- Provides new acceptance criteria for back drilled holes
- Establishes new requirements for copper wrap plating of holes in new designs
- Discusses reliability issues for microvia structures in class 3 products
IPC-2591 V1.1 establishes the requirements for the omnidirectional exchange of information between manufacturing processes and associated host systems for assembly manufacturing.
- provides changes made to message sections, and message structure sections
- Appendix A was added with a short description of all changes from V1.0
- Appendix B provides acronyms and abbreviations
IPC-1791A provides minimum requirements, policies and procedures for printed board design, fabrication and assembly organizations and/or companies to become trusted sources for markets requiring high levels of confidence in the integrity of delivered products.
- New Appendix D covering requirements for trust certification of non-U.S. electronic design, fabrication and assembly organizations
- Several sections have been updated from Scope through and including 3.0—requirements
- Classifications of Class I, 2 and 3 have been added
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