Knocking Down the Bone Pile: Gold Mitigation for Class 2 Electronics
Punching Out: Your Financial Preparation for a Sale
I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week
April 1, 2022 | Nolan Johnson, I-Connect007Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
According to a quick look at history.com, “Some historians speculate that April Fools’ Day dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. In the Julian Calendar, as in the Hindu calendar, the new year began with the spring equinox around April 1.” All well and good, but why April Fools’?
“People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved to January 1 and continued to celebrate it during the last week of March through April 1 became the butt of jokes and hoaxes and were called “April fools.”
Ahhh, so that seems logical enough, doesn’t it? Some other cultures around the globe have also celebrated the vernal equinox with joyful, celebratory, or even “foolish” revelry. There’s a theme in general, but the April Fools’ we recognize today does seem to be thanks to the French.
History.com points out, finally, that, “In modern times, people have gone to great lengths to create elaborate April Fools’ Day hoaxes. Newspapers, radio, and TV stations and websites have participated in the April 1 tradition of reporting outrageous fictional claims that have fooled their audiences.”
Much as I love a good-natured prank or a bit of silliness, I promise that there are no April Fools’ pranks in this week’s must-reads. So, enjoy this week’s most impactful news, and remember that glitter bomb packages look especially inviting to open.
IPC Issues Call for Participation for IPC APEX EXPO 2023
Published March 29
IPC is now accepting abstracts for technical paper presentations, technical posters, and professional development courses for IPC APEX EXPO 2023. The technical conference will be held January 21-26, 2023, and professional development courses will take place January 24-26, 2023, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego. Click through to the article for the details about how to make your contributions to the industry known.
AltiumLive 2022: Design for Availability
Published March 28
Andy Shaughnessy spoke with Rodrigo Contreras Lopez of SnapEDA about Rodrigo’s AltiumLive presentation, which is now available online. It’s a changing world, he says, and designers need to approach their designs from a different perspective: Creating designs with parts that may or may not be available now may just set up your design team and your customer for failure in a few years. Is design for availability going to enter the PCB design lexicon?
Pincered by Russian-Ukrainian War and Inflation, DRAM Price Drop Forecast to Continue in 2Q22 by 0-5%
Published March 28
According to TrendForce forecasts, average overall DRAM pricing in 2Q22 will drop by approximately 0~5%, due to marginally higher buyer and seller inventories coupled with the demand for products such as PCs, laptops, and smart phones being influenced in the short-term by the Russian-Ukrainian war and high inflation weakening consumer purchasing power. At present, the only remaining source of demand is on the server side, so overall DRAM stocks will remain oversupplied in 2Q22.
North American EMS Industry Down 9.7% in February
Published March 25
IPC announced the February 2022 findings from its North American Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) Statistical Program. The book-to-bill ratio stands at 1.52. Total North American EMS shipments in February 2022 were down 9.7% compared to the same month last year. Compared to the preceding month, February shipments fell 0.3%. Is this typical for February, or is there more to worry about. Get the details from IPC.
IPC News: North American PCB Industry Sales Up 12.8% in February
Published March 25
IPC announced the February 2022 findings from its North American Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Statistical Program. The book-to-bill ratio stands at 1.16. Total North American PCB shipments in February 2022 were up 12.8% compared to the same month last year. Compared to the preceding month, February shipments rose 8.9%. What’s the story here?
Share on:
Suggested Items
Hunting for Clues: Feng Xue Solving Circuit Board 'Crimes' With AOI Standard
05/08/2025 | Linda Stepanich, IPCWhen residents in sleepy English villages needed a top-tier detective to solve a murder, they called on Belgian super-sleuth Hercule Poirot, author Agatha Christie’s fictional detective famous for using his “little grey cells” to solve crimes. In the same way, IPC standards development committees, when creating a standard to detect defects in circuit boards using Automated Optical Inspection (AOI), call on IPC A-Team, Hercule.
IPC Strengthens Global Focus with Promotion of Sanjay Huprikar to Chief Global Officer
05/08/2025 | IPCIPC, the global electronics association, announces the promotion of Sanjay Huprikar to chief global officer. This newly created position reflects the association’s forward-looking strategy and industry needs to strengthen the electronics supply chain.
Navigating Global Manufacturing in an Era of Uncertainty
05/07/2025 | Philip Stoten, ScoopThe EMS industry faces unprecedented challenges as global trade tensions rise and tariff announcements create market uncertainty. In an overview of IPC Europe’s podcast, MADE IN EUROPE, industry experts from GPV and Zollner examine how these developments impact our businesses and customers, and what strategies will prevail in this new landscape.
Nick Koop Launches IPC Flex Design Class
05/06/2025 | Andy Shaughnessy, Design007 MagazineNick Koop is director of flex technology for TTM Technologies, and he’s been a staple of IPC’s flex committees for decades. He’s also a longtime flex design instructor, and he’s about to debut a new IPC class, Flex and Rigid-Flex Design for Manufacturability, which will run May 12–21. In this interview, Nick tells us about this new class and what attendees can expect to learn.
The Government Circuit: Trump’s Trade War Disrupts the Electronics Ecosystem
05/06/2025 | Chris Mitchell -- Column: The Government CircuitThere is certainly no shortage of work to be done in the IPC Government Relations department, as the U.S. waged a tariff campaign on practically every industrial country in the world and several countries embarked on high-tech initiatives with a mix of approaches to the crucial foundations of electronics manufacturing. Indeed, the breadth and speed of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff campaign continues to be a serious challenge for our industry.