Latest Articles

“Supply Chain Management”: Overused, Underused or Just Misunderstood?

In a world of buzz words, "supply chain" and "supply chain management" have certainly been right up there in our industry. Everyone sort of knows what the terms mean, or at least what they want them to mean. Everyone has assigned their own level of importance and interest to the idea of supply chain management, so it made perfectly good sense for us to highlight that subject in our July issues.

EIPC Summer Conference: Day 2

Refreshed after an excellent conference dinner, and for most, a good night’s sleep, delegates returned for the second day of the EIPC Summer Conference in Berlin, continuing the theme of improving profitability through technical leadership and innovation to meet future market requirements, with sessions on materials and processes for high performance PCBs and advanced material testing strategies to meet OEM and ODM needs.

TTM: Consult Fabricators Early for PCB Designs

Recently, I attended the Designers Council “Lunch and Learn” at Broadcom’s office in Orange County, California. One of the speakers at this event was Julie Ellis, a field applications engineer with TTM Technologies. She sat down with me to discuss her presentation and some of the ways fabricators can assist PCB designers.

EIPC Summer Conference, Berlin: Day 1

Berlin, capital of Germany and a world city of culture, politics, media and science, was the venue for the 2015 EIPC Summer Conference, which attracted delegates from sixteen countries, including Russia, Hong Kong, Japan, Israel, USA and Canada, as well as the European Union, to experience a programme of 21 technical presentations over two days. Also included was a visit to the Berlin laboratories of Fraunhofer Institute, Europe’s largest application-oriented research organisation.

Book Review: Brian Tracy’s “Business Strategy”

If you’re serious about your company’s strategic planning, this book is for you. And if you’re not serious, then you won’t be around much longer anyway. Pick up this little volume, the latest from The Brian Tracy Success Library.

Kelly Dack Discusses His Recent Move

Dan Beaulieu has known the Prototron staff for years, and worked with them for a number of years as well. So, when he heard that they had hired Kelly Dack, a longtime PCB designer and guest editor for PCBDesign007, Dan wasted no time meeting with Kelly to talk about his new position, the future of PCB design, and the nascent interest millennials are showing in the PCB industry.

Catching Up with Vector Fabrication’s Quang Luong: Here Comes Vietnam!

I have known Quang Luong, the owner of Vector Fabrication, for many years now, and I have always been interested in his business and how it operates, especially since he is the only PCB shop owner I know of who has a company in the U.S. and in Vietnam.

Enabling Smart Wearable Technology: Flexible, Stretchable Interconnect

In this article, Joan Vrtis highlights the current and forward-looking interconnect technologies enabling the stream of amazing new smart wearable electronic devices connecting the user to their personalized experience.

A Review of the Opportunities and Processes for Printed Electronics (Part 1)

As microsystems continue to move towards higher speed and microminiaturization, the demands for interconnection are opening up new opportunities for "innovative" interconnects. In the first part of this five-part article series, Happy Holden gives a brief background on printed electronics, as well as presents key technologies that are being employed for PE production.

UK PCB Industry Leader Brian Haken Passes Away

Brian Haken helped steer the UK PCB industry to wider markets, forging close ties with the IPC in the United States and JPCA in Japan.

Institute of Circuit Technology 41st Annual Symposium

ICT Technical Director Bill Wilkie has always excelled in locating interesting and unusual venues for the Institute of Circuit Technology Annual Symposium, and this year was no exception. For the 2015 event, the 41st, he chose the Black Country Living Museum, an open-air museum of rebuilt historic buildings in Dudley, in the West Midlands of England, home of the original Industrial Revolution.

Flexible and Stretchable Circuit Technologies for Space Applications

This article describes two original technologies developed at imec-CMST--the ultra-thin chip package (UTCP) and stretchable moulded interconnect (SMI)--and how they could be offering new form factors with increased functional density, as well as improved reliability in harsh environments .

The Composite Properties of Rigid vs. Multilayer PCBs

Most materials systems used in PWBs (aka PCBs) are composites of resins, fabric substrates and metal cladding. Each of these components has its own unique electrical and mechanical properties that contribute to the final characteristics of the finished laminates, prepregs and fabricated multilayer boards (MLBs). In most cases variables such as glass style and resin content have offsetting impacts on physical vs. electrical properties. Chet Guiles explains.

Revolutionizing Equipment Repair & Service

Guest Editor Steve Williams sits down with Randy Cook of CalTeks and Yash Sutariya of Alpha Circuits to talk about servicing equipment, especially foreign equipment not previously available in North America. With quality service now readily available, one can take advantage of considerably less expensive equipment being manufactured in China.

How to Make Mass Lam Outsourcing Successful

For PCB manufacturers in the United States and Europe, finding a suitable mass lam-outsourcing partner can be a challenge. In this interview with Option Technologies, a Ventec International Group company, I-Connect007 Technical Editor Pete Starkey and Option Managing Director Steve Law discuss the ins and outs of this specialist market.

Novel High-Performance Substrate for Stretchable Electronics

A cornerstone feature of any viable stretchable material is its ability to return to zero after stretching. This article talks about a new transparent, high-performance thermal setting stretchable material that could open doors to a range of new and innovative products.

Wearable Technology and Flexible Circuits

Flexible circuits are an ideal fit for wearable technology. Wearable electronics need to be light, dense and bendable. While what is currently considered standard flexible circuit technology is more than adequate for many the wearable products, there are requirements that may be pushing the boundaries a bit.

American Standard Circuits’ Unique Offerings Contribute to Long-term Success

At the recent IMS RF and microwave show in Phoenix, Arizona, Anaya Vardya, CEO of American Standard Circuits, sat down with I-Connect007's Barry Matties to discuss the current market trends, the company's recent equipment investments, and where American Standard Circuits' growth will likely come from.

A New Source for Laser Drills

Publisher Barry Matties recently visited the West Coast offices of Nano System Inc. to catch up with Sam Sekine, formerly of Hitachi. Nano System is a new company focused on producing and selling laser drill systems to the PCB industry. In this interview, Mr. Sekine discusses his staff, the company’s technology, and Nano System’s strategy for the future.

A High-Reliability, Stress-free Copper Deposit for FPC, Polyimide and Rigid-Flex

Conventional electroless copper systems often required pretreatments with hazardous chemicals or have a small process window to achieve a uniform coverage without blistering. To overcome the challenge of metallizing smooth surfaces, a new stress-free electroless copper was developed to serve this important sector of the printed circuit industry.

Flexible Circuit Materials for High-Temperature Applications

To meet the increasing needs for flexible circuit materials for high-temperature applications, new test methods will need to be developed. These new methods will assign new ratings that are consistent with actual performance.

New Embedded Component Standard Finalized

Solberg Technical Consulting's Vern Solberg talks to I-Connect007 about the recently launched standard, the IPC-7092, which focuses on embedded component technology. According to Solberg, this new standard took the earlier standards involved with passive devices, and combined it with standards on newer technologies using active devices, to help form components that can be manufactured and placed on layers within the PCB.

HDPUG Demonstrates Benefits of Cooperative R&D

The High Density Packaging User Group (HDPUG) is a member-driven, non-profit, project-oriented industry consortium that addresses the integration of new electronics component packaging and interconnection technologies into the supply chains of its member companies.

How to Successfully Purchase PCBs

How do you go about purchasing reliable and durable PCBs at the lowest possible cost? A key success factor is to provide the prospective suppliers with accurate and clear specifications, and to keep a close eye on the quality of the boards once they are in production.

eSurface Breaking Down Barriers for Murrietta

Murrietta Circuits is the first facility in North America successfully processing PCBs made with the eSurface technology. Andy Murrietta talks with Guest Editor Judy Warner about the key benefits, including greatly improved line geometry, trace tolerance, and peel strength.
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