Nolan’s Notes: Finding Your Sweet Spot
Standard of Excellence: Delivering Excellence—A Daily Goal
Knocking Down the Bone Pile: Tin Whisker Mitigation in Aerospace Applications, Part 3
I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week
April 23, 2021 | Andy Shaughnessy, I-Connect007Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
This week, we bring you a wide swath of news, columns, and articles from the past week. Altium announced a new cloud platform that connects design stakeholders with users of its Altium 365 environment. Cadence Design Systems has acquired a company that develops computational fluid dynamics technology to help expand its system analysis offerings.
Columnist Michael Ford clarifies what the term “smart” means, and what it doesn’t. And Hu Yang of Zhongtai Securities has written a great feature that delves into the worldwide price increase of copper-clad laminates, which he predicts could rise to 20% in early 2021. Finally, we bring you the 2020 “Just Ask” Compilation, which features all your questions for some of our experts: Happy Holden, John Mitchell, Joe Fjelstad, Tara Dunn, and Heidi Barnes, as well as their answers. Don’t forget to bookmark this handy compilation!
I-Connect007 'Just Ask' Q&A Compilation Available Now
Published April 21
Last year, we asked readers to send in questions for a who’s who of industry experts: Happy Holden, John Mitchell, Joe Fjelstad, Tara Dunn, and Heidi Barnes. Now, we have compiled all of your questions and the experts’ answers into one handy compendium for your easy access. And don’t forget to pose your questions for our next “Just Ask” series expert, “Trouble in Your Tank” columnist Mike Carano.
Altium’s New Cloud Platform Connects Electronics Industry Ecosystem
Published April 20
Altium continues to expand the technology around Altium 365. The new cloud-based platform Nexar allows design stakeholders to provide their software and services to existing users of Altium 365. After joining the Nexar community, fabricators, EMS companies, and component distributors and manufacturers can offer up-to-date information to PCB designers and engineers during the design cycle.
Cadence Acquires Pointwise to Expand System Analysis Offerings
Published April 16
Cadence moves further into system analysis with its acquisition of the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) development company Pointwise. The Pointwise mesh-generation technology reads in data from the leading CAD formats and will build upon Cadence’s Clarity and Celsius product line.
Time, Space, Structure, and Model Analysis of CCL Price Increase
Published April 19
Hu Yang of Zhongtai Securities Research Center authored this investigative article for our partners at PCB China Magazine. As Hu explains, prices of materials are expected to increase, possibly up to 20%, in 2021. He also describes the considerable bargaining power that our industry has regarding material cost.
Smart Is Not A Binary Concept
Published April 21
For all the talk about “smart” technology and processes, there’s still a lot of confusion about exactly what the term entails. Michael Ford comes to the rescue with this column that describes what “smart” is and what it is not. He provides a smart process IQ test to measure the intelligence of smart technologies, starting with the smartphone and continuing up through industry processes such as IPC-CFX.
Share on:
Suggested Items
The Evolution of Picosecond Laser Drilling
06/19/2025 | Marcy LaRont, PCB007 MagazineIs it hard to imagine a single laser pulse reduced not only from nanoseconds to picoseconds in its pulse duration, but even to femtoseconds? Well, buckle up because it seems we are there. In this interview, Dr. Stefan Rung, technical director of laser machines at Schmoll Maschinen GmbH, traces the technology trajectory of the laser drill from the CO2 laser to cutting-edge picosecond and hybrid laser drilling systems, highlighting the benefits and limitations of each method, and demonstrating how laser innovations are shaping the future of PCB fabrication.
Day 2: More Cutting-edge Insights at the EIPC Summer Conference
06/18/2025 | Pete Starkey, I-Connect007The European Institute for the PCB Community (EIPC) summer conference took place this year in Edinburgh, Scotland, June 3-4. This is the third of three articles on the conference. The other two cover Day 1’s sessions and the opening keynote speech. Below is a recap of the second day’s sessions.
Day 1: Cutting Edge Insights at the EIPC Summer Conference
06/17/2025 | Pete Starkey, I-Connect007The European Institute for the PCB Community (EIPC) Summer Conference took place this year in Edinburgh, Scotland, June 3-4. This is the second of three articles on the conference. The other two cover the keynote speeches and Day 2 of the technical conference. Below is a recap of the first day’s sessions.
Preventing Surface Prep Defects and Ensuring Reliability
06/10/2025 | Marcy LaRont, PCB007 MagazineIn printed circuit board (PCB) fabrication, surface preparation is a critical process that ensures strong adhesion, reliable plating, and long-term product performance. Without proper surface treatment, manufacturers may encounter defects such as delamination, poor solder mask adhesion, and plating failures. This article examines key surface preparation techniques, common defects resulting from improper processes, and real-world case studies that illustrate best practices.
RF PCB Design Tips and Tricks
05/08/2025 | Cherie Litson, EPTAC MIT CID/CID+There are many great books, videos, and information online about designing PCBs for RF circuits. A few of my favorite RF sources are Hans Rosenberg, Stephen Chavez, and Rick Hartley, but there are many more. These PCB design engineers have a very good perspective on what it takes to take an RF design from schematic concept to PCB layout.