American Standard Circuits: Leading the Way in Medical Electronics

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

When it comes to innovative fabricators, American Standard Circuits is always at the front of the pack. Naturally, when Editor Andy Shaughnessy asked me to talk to a fabricator about PCBs for the medical market, ASC was the one company that immediately came to mind. I spoke with CEO Anaya Vardya about fabricating medical PCBs, the medical electronics market, and the future of this fast-growing segment.

Dan Beaulieu: Anaya, it’s good talking to you again.

Anaya Vardya: Thanks, Dan. It’s great to catch up again.

Beaulieu: Please give us a little background on American Standard Circuits.

Vardya: ASC has been in business for more than 27 years. Throughout, we have migrated from a simple double-sided shop to a company that builds a wide variety of products. Today, we build flex, rigid-flex, RF/microwave, metal-backed PCBs and IMPCBs. We are able to build prototypes, quick-turn, high-mix/low-volume and low-mix/high-volume products. We are continuously reinvesting in our business in terms of people and equipment. This year, we have invested over $1.5 million. We are also investing in improving our quality systems.

Beaulieu: When did you get involved with medical PCBs?

Vardya: We first started building parts for medical products in 2009. Often, these products start out as prototypes and take quite a few years to ramp up. We have built flex, rigid-flex, RF/microwave and metal-backed product for the medical industry 

Beaulieu: Without getting into specific customers, what sort of medical products do you build PCBs for? What do your boards go into?

Vardya: That’s a good question, because we cover a very wide variety of applications including medical. For example, we build flex boards that are used in a digital inflation device for heart stents. We also build boards, both flex and rigid-flex, that are used in blood analyzers. Then we have boards that go into a wide array of markets, such as small boards used as RFID tags in operating rooms. We build metal-backed boards that are used for LED lights for chairs in dentists’ offices. One of our most challenging projects was building small rigid-flex boards for a pill camera. These boards are all built from a variety of materials, from Rogers ceramic materials to simple FR-4.

Beaulieu: So you pretty much cover the gamut of medical electronic needs. Are there special or unique technologies that apply to this market?

Vardya: While medical electronics use a wide variety of printed circuit board technologies, there appears to be increasing application of flex and rigid-flex PCBs in this market place. 

To read this entire article, which appeared in the January issue of The PCB Design Magazine, click here.