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

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

To cover the electronics industry, travel is a requirement to the job. If one reads back through previous Top 5 posts from both Andy and me, it’s a key to keeping connected to the news of the industry. The wide-angle view at a trade show, the use of peripheral vision and picking out an intriguing detail with one’s ears; these are so very important to how we discover news. Don’t get me wrong; news gathering has a system and a method. We’re not out there willy-nilly waiting for news to accidentally appear in front of us. It’s just that online teleconferences force us into blinders and more tightly controlled environments, making some of those serendipitous moments simply unavailable to us. Personally, what I miss most about a year without tradeshows, is when I’m having a conversation with someone at the show, and the content is so meaningful that I pull out my microphones, fire up my cell phone recorder, and capture an interview on-the-spot. 

So, as we start to cautiously return to in-person conferences and exhibitions, the I-Connect007 staff is also excited to see you there, at the event. We’ll be at DesignCon this month, and at SMTAI later in the year. Of course, we’ll be at IPC APEX EXPO, as well as other events in-between. If you see us, say hello. Tell us how you’ve been and what you’re working on. It’ll be good to see you. 

This week’s must-reads include: a recently-run interview with Travis Kelly from Isola; IPC Chief Economist Shawn DuBravac discussing economic trends that will touch the industry; new high-speed materials; technique for copper pour from Design007’s recent “Just Ask…” series; and maintaining continuous manufacturing knowledge throughout your enterprise. 

Knowledge Continuity in Manufacturing 
Published July 30 

Lockheed Martin’s Ben Gumpert starts this article with, “’Why do we do it that way?’ ‘Because we always have.’ Those can be some of the most dreaded words on the manufacturing floor. It means that someone decided at one point to do things a certain way, and you don’t know whether it’s a critical aspect of the assembly process, or just another roadblock to improvement. Knowledge is a significant asset to manufacturing; it is critical for manufacturing a reliable product…”
Read Ben’s entire article for more insight. 

Isola Responding to the Market 
Published August 5 

Travis Kelly provides an overview of many important topics that the industry is facing, including how the global supply chain is being strained by materials, and what companies are trying to do to best manage the items within their control. This is timely commentary and a must-read. 

Ask the Experts: Copper Pour on Unused Layer Sections? 
Published August 2 

Design guru Rick Hartley answers the question, “Is it best practice to flood with copper (tying all areas to GND as needed) all unused portions of all layers?” As Rick says, copper pours can be a "double-edged sword."

Economic Drivers Take Us ‘Up, Up, and Away!’ 
Published August 3 

IPC Chief Economist Shawn DuBravac looks at the effect of some key economic drivers, such as misaligned supply chains, and pent-up demand, and their current effect on our industry. Another must-read as we work our way through the lingering effects of the pandemic. 

EMC, Technica to Introduce New Extreme High-Speed Materials at DesignCon 2021 
Published August 4

Design teams working with the challenges of low loss design constraints may be interested to know that EMC has developed new extreme low loss laminate materials, EM892K and EM892K2, for use in switch and router applications, as well as HPC, 5G and AI applications.