I-Connect007 Editor's Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Welcome to the Halloween issue of the I-Connect007 Top Five Editor’s Picks! This year’s Halloween lands on a doozy of a day. Astronomers among us will, undoubtedly, already have noticed that not only does the spooky holiday fall on a Saturday night, but it also falls exactly on a full moon—and a Blue Moon, at that! The last time a Halloween Blue Moon occurred in all time zones was in 1941. As if there weren’t enough “ghoulishness” already, 2020 delivers yet another rare occurrence.

This week’s editor’s picks all hinge on cooperation in the form of standards, industry guidance, and collaboration. Additive electronics, 5G, cybersecurity, IoT, and milspec topics all make an appearance.

As you mark the passing of another socially distanced “All Hallows Eve,” however you celebrate in your corner of the world, kindly catch up on this week’s editor’s picks.

NIST Releases Draft Cybersecurity Guidance
10/23/2020

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has drafted guidelines for applying its Cybersecurity Framework to critical technologies that use positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) data. This is part of a larger NIST effort to implement a recent Executive Order to safeguard systems.

Perspecta Labs to Improve 5G Security for DARPA
10/23/2020

Perspecta Labs received two awards for DARPA 5G security work. Petros Mouchtaris, Ph.D., president of Perspecta Labs, said, "Perspecta Labs looks forward to expanding its leadership in the development of secure 5G networks by developing a portable, standards-compliant network stack for 5G that is open, plug-and-play and secure by design."

Additive Electronics TechXchange: NSWC Crane and Lockheed Martin Presentations
10/27/2020

I-Connect007 Technical Editor Happy Holden, who is also a PCB fabrication pioneer, reports on two of the technical presentations included in the recent Additive Electronics TechXchange virtual conference. Happy discusses Steve Vetter’s “Very High-Density Investigation Project” from NSWC Crane Naval Facility and Kourtney Wright’s Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center work on “Electronics Additive Manufacturing for Defense and Space.”

Würth Elektronik Develops CHARM for Robust Electronics for Harsh Industrial Environments
10/28/2020

In June 2020, Würth Elektronik started the EU project CHARM (Challenging Environment Tolerant Smart Systems for IoT and AI) together with 36 European partners. CHARM’s goal is to develop industrial IoT solutions more tolerant to harsh industrial environments. Harsh environmental conditions in manufacturing processes and in the end-user environment can slow down the opportunities that IoT and AI present. The CHARM project, which runs over a period of three years and is a comprehensive project with 37 partners from 10 European and a total budget of 29 million euros, is designed to solve this challenge.

IPC Standards Development: Business Challenges and an Inside View
10/28/2020

Gen3 Systems’ Graham Naisbitt discusses IPC standards progress on some key standards under development, raising awareness that industry involvement is crucial. As Naisbitt writes, “With increasing frequency, standardising the standards, such as ISO 9201, imposes certain rules that must be met to ensure ‘fair play’ amongst the supply chain…with that in mind, much of what follows is based on comments we learn about from our industry around the world, many of whom are not yet IPC members.” He continues, “Yes, this is a membership recruitment drive, unashamedly, as well as a search for volunteers willing to help create the standards of tomorrow.” Read more from Naisbitt in The Printed Circuit Assembler's Guide to...Process Validation.