Elementary, Mr. Watson: Rein in Your Design Constraints
Target Condition: Are Autorouters Friend or Foe?
Fresh PCB Concepts: Assembly Challenges with Micro Components and Standard Solder Mask Practices
Reliability and Harmonization of Global Standards at Forefront of EIPC Efforts
March 18, 2015 | Pete Starkey, I-Connect007Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
At IPC APEX EXPO 2015, I caught up with EIPC’s Michael Weinhold and Alun Morgan for a discussion on both recent and ongoing focuses for EIPC, and the importance of the alignment of global standardization processes, especially for Asia.
Pete Starkey: I'm here with two gentlemen from the European Institute of Printed Circuits Technical Director Michael Weinhold, and Chairman Alun Morgan.
Alun, can you get us started by describing the successes of recent times since you joined EIPC? You had a conference recently. What was the outcome of the conference?
Alun Morgan: Yes, we had a very successful conference in Munich at the beginning of February. In fact, that marks the fifth event that we've had this year, so we've carried out four workshops and one conference in the space of the first, say, five weeks of the year. That’s pretty encouraging. The conference was in Munich. We attracted nearly 90 delegates from 11 different countries to attend. We usually find the conferences work very well when we have a good agenda, which means we have good technical presentations. We have an accessible venue, which Munich certainly was. And third we have a good attraction. We were able to organize a visit to the Eurofighter production line in Manching, courtesy of Airbus Defence and Space, which I was very pleased they agreed to. I think those three things came together and gave us a very exciting conference.
Highlights include a session on reliability, which was very well reviewed and commented upon, and we will certainly run a road show of workshops on reliability. So we'll bring together some of the key speakers from the events and we'll run those out into the next few months where we hope to attract a lot of interest.
The other item we covered in some detail was signal integrity, which is becoming more and more important in many applications. We had a very nice overview of that, including an aspect from a chemical supplier, who has proposed a new treatment for the oxide side of copper. We know very well what the profile of copper does to signal integrity. Then we got another view that we haven't really had in the last couple of years that really made it nice and rounded. So now we have a very nice view from the people like Polar Instruments, who provide the test equipment, from the board shops, the fabricators, from chemistry supplies and for laminate suppliers.
All in all, a great package that we can also road show as a training workshop. So I think we'll certainly roll that out in the next few months. We're looking forward now to SMT in May which will be in Nuremberg, where again I've been invited to deliver a keynote speech in the PCB forum. And then our next conference in June will be in Berlin.
Starkey: May I ask you what will be the topic of your keynote speech?Page 1 of 3
Share on:
Suggested Items
Happy’s Tech Talk #40: Factors in PTH Reliability—Hole Voids
07/09/2025 | Happy Holden -- Column: Happy’s Tech TalkWhen we consider via reliability, the major contributing factors are typically processing deviations. These can be subtle and not always visible. One particularly insightful column was by Mike Carano, “Causes of Plating Voids, Pre-electroless Copper,” where he outlined some of the possible causes of hole defects for both plated through-hole (PTH) and blind vias.
Trouble in Your Tank: Can You Drill the Perfect Hole?
07/07/2025 | Michael Carano -- Column: Trouble in Your TankIn the movie “Friday Night Lights,” the head football coach (played by Billy Bob Thornton) addresses his high school football team on a hot day in August in West Texas. He asks his players one question: “Can you be perfect?” That is an interesting question, in football and the printed circuit board fabrication world, where being perfect is somewhat elusive. When it comes to mechanical drilling and via formation, can you drill the perfect hole time after time?
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.