Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture articles from April 2004

Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture archives from April 2004

Back to the phones.(Letters: our readers respond)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2004... READ YOUR EXCELLENT column about your desk (Our Line, February 2004, p. 64). And there's no doubt that you are 100% correct: face-to-face is becoming ever more rare, even to those of us who have "real" offices. With head down and nose to the...

Via-in-pad limitations.(Letters: our readers respond)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2004... I WORK FOR a contract manufacturer that designs, produces and assembles PCBs. In "BGA Land Pattern and Assembly Issues," (February 2004, p. 24), Table 1 is misleading by referring to (blind) via-in-pad as a solution for BGA interconnects. The...

Cost is king.(Letters: our readers respond)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2004... I JUST READ "Built for Speed" (February 2004, p. 30). A true article for buying production PCBs. Who wants to take chances on a production run? On prototype buying, cost is king! I buy only two-layer and four-layer SMT/mixed technology...

Defensive position.(Market Watch)
April 1, 2004... DEFENSIVE POSITION Trends in the U.S. electronics equipment market (shipments only). % CHANGE NOV. DEC. JAN. * YTD Computers/electronics products...

Manufacturing still in full swing.(Market Watch)
April 1, 2004... TEMPE, AZ -- The manufacturing recovery remained in full swing in February as the sector grew for the ninth consecutive month. All 20 manufacturing industries reported growth. New orders and production decelerated but remained at very positive...

Gartner: 30% hike in ICs in 2004.(Market Watch)
April 1, 2004... SAN JOSE -- First-quarter sales of semiconductors were up 22.6% from 2003, according to preliminary data from Gartner DataQuest (www4.gartner.com). The research firm said revenue growth could "easily exceed" 30% if price stability and longer...

In-Stat: 6.5% CAGR ahead for PDAs.(Market Watch)
April 1, 2004... Despite pressure from smart phones, PDA shipments will rise at a 6.5% compound annual clip through 2008, says research firm In-Stat (instat.com). PalmOne was the leader in unit volume in 2003, with nearly twice the share of No. 2 HP. ...

Industry market snapshot.(Market Watch)
April 1, 2004... INDUSTRY MARKET SNAPSHOT Book-to-bills of various components/equipment. OCT. NOV. DEC. JAN. Semiconductor equipment (1) 1.01 1.05 1.23 1.18 Semiconductors (2) 6.8% 4.5% 11%...

EEs for hire: unemployment at all-time high.(Around The World/Design)
April 1, 2004... WASHINGTON, DC -- The unemployment rate for U.S. electrical and electronics engineers averaged a record 6.2% in 2003, a 2% increase over the previous year, according to data compiled by the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. The...

Land pattern tool set released.(Around The World/Design)
April 1, 2004... NORTHBROOK, IL -- A set of library generation tools for surface mount land patterns released in March form the backbone of a plan to create a global standard for CAD libraries. "Our goal is to create a one world CAD library and eliminate...

Papers sought for PCB East 2004.(Around The World/Design)
April 1, 2004... ATLANTA -- UP Media Group has issued a call for abstracts for PCB Design Conference East 2004, to be held Oct. 4-8 in Manchester, NH. Sponsored by Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture and Circuits Assembly, PCB East annually provides attendees...

Offspring comes out: but will new data format take off?(Around The World/Design)
April 1, 2004... NORTHBROOK, IL -- An industry task group in February put the finishing touches on the latest attempt to replace Gerber as an electronic data format. The standard, IPC-2581, "Generic Requirements Printed Board Assembly Products Manufacturing...

Cadence releases new Allegro platform: spotlights system level co-design.(Around The World/Design)
April 1, 2004... SAN JOSE, CA -- Cadence Design Systems released the latest version of the Allegro PCB design suite, with a focus on the system level. The new platform integrates Cadence's IC package design tool with its PCB and IC analysis technology. The...

Epoxy on rise.
April 1, 2004... Dow Chemical will raise prices on several epoxy resins in North America effective April 1, its second price hike in three months.

Compliance grant.
April 1, 2004... A U.K. tech consulting firm been awarded a contract by the Department of Trade and Industry to investigate ways in which manufacturers can demonstrate compliance with requirements of the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive. ERA...

Merger mania.
April 1, 2004... UK based Spirit Circuits in February bought plants in Thacham and Waterlooville. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Big plans.
April 1, 2004... HannStar Board Corp. (hannstarboard.com.tw) this quarter will build a high volume factory in Jiangyin, China, its second. The estimated monthly capacity is 300,000 [ft..sup.2].

Tool time.
April 1, 2004... SPEA will market eM-Test Expert software from Tecnomatix Technologies (tecnomatix.com) to its global customer base. SPEA (spea.net) manufactures ATE equipment.

DDi gets stacked.
April 1, 2004... DDi Corp. (ddiglobal.com) has unveiled a patented technology for reducing layer count in PCBs. Stacked MicroVia, or SMV, describes 0.004" laser-drilled holes, each plated with copper, used to create blind and buried stacked microvias on any...

Up and down.
April 1, 2004... PNE PCB Bhd will halve, to 100,000 [m.sup.2] per month, PCB production at its plant in Malaysia by the end of next year and double, to 200,000 [m.sup.2], monthly production at its wholly-owned subsidiary in Dongguan.

Mentor gets with program.
April 1, 2004... Mentor Graphics (mentor.com) has joined an industry consortium conducting R&D for military weapons systems. Crane Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center, (crane.navy.mil), an R&D facility that develops sophisticated weapons systems, will use...

New life for tin-lead? RoHS rule may contain major loophole.(Around The World/Manufacturing)
April 1, 2004... BRUSSELS -- What if we started an environmental movement and no one followed? That's the question European Union member states are coming to grips with following the revelation that the Restriction on the Use of Certain Hazardous Materials...

TTM adding on: invests $14m in plant expansion.(Around The World/Manufacturing)
April 1, 2004... CHIPPEWA FALLS, WI -- TTM Technologies will invest $14 million in a two-phase expansion that will increase production by 85% at its plant in Chippewa Falls, WI. Due to increased customer demand, the company will immediately begin construction...

Gould adds high Tg version of resistor foil.(Around The World/Manufacturing)
April 1, 2004... EASTLAKE, OH -- Gould Electronics is increasing the availability and lowering the price on its TCR resistor foil. The company (gould.com) also rolled out a high Tg version, in widths up to 51". The high Tg version, called TCR+, is said to...

Air freight prices on rise: congestion at the hubs.(Around The World/Manufacturing)
April 1, 2004... HONG KONG -- Air-freight prices rose in March amid factory output ramps and heavy traffic at major transit hubs in Asia. Taipei, Seoul and Narita (Tokyo) were experiencing the tightest conditions, and Hong Kong was also enduring heavy...

NWSC Crane adding major R&D site: will partner with industry.(Around The World/Manufacturing)
April 1, 2004... CRANE, IN -- The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane has broken ground on a 67,000 [ft..sup.2] electrochemistry engineering facility that will house joint industry-government R&D studies. NSWC-Crane (crane.navy.mil) will use the new plant to...

CT SMTA chapter looks at Pb-free: finds most shops ready.(Around The World/Manufacturing)
April 1, 2004... NEW HAVEN, CT -- When it comes to lead-free products most U.S. fabricators are in a wait-and-see mode, but are already processing some laminates demanded by the new alloys. Members of the Connecticut chapter of the SMTA (smta.org) in...

New shop shows 'flexibility'.(Around The World/Manufacturing)
April 1, 2004... FRANKLIN, NH -- A new board shop? In the U.S.? In 2004? That's right. Quickturn Flex Circuits in January opened its doors in Franklin, NH, and is already processing a flex cable for Textron. Jim Mahoney, VP of engineering, quality and...

Taipei shows flex side.(Around The World/Manufacturing)
April 1, 2004... TAIPEI -- Several major Taiwanese based PCB companies are adding rigid-flex to their circuit board offerings. The flex boards are in some cases being produced by third parties, then integrated by the Taiwanese shops. According to published...

Events.(Happening)(Calendar)
April 1, 2004... EVENTS 1-2 Electroplating Know How Basics APRIL Cincinnati Contact: info@platingschool.com 5-6 Electroplating Know How Basics Providence. RI. Contact: info@platingschool.com 5-7 ...

Aspocomp Group Oyj.(Faces)
April 1, 2004... Aspocomp Group Oyj named Maija-Liisa Friman president and CEO. She was managing director of Vattenfall Oy and president of Gyproc Oy. Friman has a master's in engineering, and is a director for Metso Corp., Sponda Plc, Rautaruukki Oy and...

DownStream Technologies.(Faces)
April 1, 2004... DownStream Technologies (downstreamtech.com) named Kenneth Tepper principal, responsible for overseeing research & development and manufacturing, and some operations. He was engineering director, systems design division at Mentor Graphics, and...

The Christopher Group.(Faces)
April 1, 2004... The Christopher Group (christopherweb.com) named William J. Boyle to its technical staff, responsible for applications, engineering, sales and support of inspection technology products, He has a bachelor's in electrical engineering from The...

ZMC-Singapore.(Faces)
April 1, 2004... ZMC-Singapore promoted Alex Wong to general manager, responsible for marketing and sales of Pro-mation's (pro-mationinc.com) equipment fines in China, southeast Asia and India.

Polyclad Laminates.(Faces)
April 1, 2004... Polyclad Laminates (cookson.com) named Curt Mitchell applications engineer, Getek Products, responsible for technical assistance and field applications. He was a global applications and training leader at GE Electromaterials. He has a...

Merix Corp. (merix.com) ordered multiple Spiron-8800 VIP AOI systems.(It's A Deal)
April 1, 2004... Merix Corp. (merix.com) ordered multiple Spiron-8800 VIP AOI systems from Orbotech Ltd. (orbotech.com).

Lloyd Doyle (lloyd-doyle.com) installed a Redline AOT system at Century Circuits (centurycircuits.com).(It's A Deal)
April 1, 2004... Lloyd Doyle (lloyd-doyle.com) installed a Redline AOT system at Century Circuits (centurycircuits.com) and two Excalibur 5000X2 systems at Yoo Hyun (Incheon City, Korea).

New System (new-system.com) sold a Newprint Legend printer to Quality Circuits (qualitycircuits.com).(It's A Deal)
April 1, 2004... New System (new-system.com) sold a Newprint Legend printer to Quality Circuits (qualitycircuits.com) and two soldermask printers to Electropac (electropac.com).

Electropac Montreal also purchased a DP-1500 for vertical double-sided screen coating.(It's A Deal)
April 1, 2004... Electropac Montreal also purchased a DP-1500 for vertical double-sided screen coating from Circuit Automation (circuitautomation.com).

Camtek Ltd.(It's A Deal)
April 1, 2004... Camtek Ltd. (camtek.co.il) received an order for multiple Pegasus systems from a Taiwan-based maker of CSP and BGA substrates. The order was valued at $2.2 million.

Electro Scientific Industries (esi.com) sold a model 2100 laser trimmer.(It's A Deal)
April 1, 2004... Electro Scientific Industries (esi.com) sold a model 2100 laser trimmer to Analog Devices Inc. (analog.com).

Sovereign Circuits (sovereign-circuits.com) installed a PTH Speedline horizontal electroless plating line.(It's A Deal)
April 1, 2004... Sovereign Circuits (sovereign-circuits.com) installed a PTH Speedline horizontal electroless plating line from HMS Hollmuller (hms.ag).

The dreaded 'P' word: partnerships are the football that fabs can't seem to kick.(Power Selling)
April 1, 2004... HERE'S A WORD I would like to have back: partner. Not even "lead-free" makes your friendly board fabricator's blood pressure rise faster. Partnership used to be a useful term, one happily used the industry over. We first heard it from our...

The mating dance: is it time to change how we choose our suppliers?(ROI)
April 1, 2004... WHEN IT COMES to the mating dance that takes place between prospective customers and potential suppliers, every industry seems to have its unique ritual. By ritual, I mean an activity that over time is universally considered the preferred...

Deterministic jitter: by understanding the relationship between 'aggressor' line and 'victim' line bit switching, designers can keep crosstalk-induced deterministic jitter at bay. Or, just use embedded technology.(No Myths Allowed)
April 1, 2004... A TIMING BUDGET is one of a number of performance metrics all high-speed digital products must meet. The timing budget allocates how much time is assigned for each source of delay. One element is jitter, the variation in expected arrival time...

Using signal integrity analysis to achieve EMC: SI and EMC engineers usually take different routes to get to the same destination. Now EMC engineers may not have to spend so much time out on the test range.(Designing For EMC)
April 1, 2004... In the area of high-speed design, power and signal integrity pose increasing challenges to PCB designers. It is necessary to analyze the power and signal integrity issues at the upfront design level before the prototype board is fabricated....

Achieving impedance control targets: the standard tolerance for characteristic impedance of a line--[+ or -] 10%--is changing fast. Use of field solvers can get Zo within [+ or -] 1%.(Impedance Control)
April 1, 2004... The standard for the tolerance in characteristic impedance is [+ or -] 10%, but this requirement is being reduced to meet more difficult noise budgets. The only way to meet this goal is by applying engineering discipline to design and...

Simple cost modeling for EPs: a continuation of last month's discussion of how to create an accurate, user-friendly methodology.(Getting Embedded)
April 1, 2004... IN ORDER FOR the modeling tool to have reliable outputs, the tool designer would have to obtain reliable inputs from every IMS company, every embedded passive material supplier, every EMS company, and every discrete resistor and capacitor...

The great recession: often confused, hole-wall pullaway and resin recession have different causes and require different remedies.(The Plating Rack)
April 1, 2004... WE DEVOTED THE past several columns to voids and hole-wall pull-away. Before moving on to other defects, this column will be devoted to resin recession and finish with a case study on hole-wall pullaway. The two issues are independent of one...

Micro-machining of trenches to form shielded transmission lines: a laser and metalization method for forming a shield around a conductor, permitting 10 Gb/s signals with no crosstalk or EMC.(Cover Story)
April 1, 2004... The introduction of laser micro-machining in PCB manufacturing has led to cavities or non-round "features." These features can be used for via holes and embedded components. Another idea is the formation of electromagnetic shielding. By cutting...

Is the supply chain finally unchained: after two years of stagnation and recession, changes are afoot. While the buzz was of pending environmental laws, the feel-good story was the mood swing.(IPC Expo Recap)
April 1, 2004... The days of the industry just acquiring companies for the purpose of revenue growth are history, says the chief executive of a tier 1 EMS firm. Michael Cannon said Solectron is increasing its emphasis on design collaboration and lean...

Ultra-thin, loaded epoxy materials for use as embedded capacitor layers: use of <25 [micro]m high capacitance power-ground cores can eliminate hundreds of discrete capacitors, not to mention improving signal integrity and EMI.(Thin Laminates)
April 1, 2004... 3M began developing embedded capacitor materials in the mid 1990s. 3M has been involved in an embedded capacitor DARPA program, the NCMS Embedded Distributive Capacitance (EDC) consortium and most recently, the NIST Advanced Embedded Passives...

MLB stackup tool.(off the shelf)
April 1, 2004... SB200a PCB stackup design and documentation tool handles multilayer stackups. Conveys layer information, and finished thickness compensation for plated copper and post-press thickness for prepregs. Garber file data can be attached to...

High-frequency CAD.(off the shelf)
April 1, 2004... Nexxim circuit simulation tool, for analog/mixed-signal applications, is integrated with Designer to support co-simulation with system and planar EM solvers. Toolset also includes the HFSS 3D electromagnetic solver, and Q3D Extractor. Runs...

EMI shield.(off the shelf)
April 1, 2004... SnapSHOT EMI Shield is a low-profile, multi-cavity board-level shield. Is electrically insulative on the inside, and is said to be thinner than other shields. Installs and removes by hand or machine. Composed of metalized, high-temp lightweight...

Pb-free laminate.(Others Of Note)
April 1, 2004... 370HR CAF-resistant, lead-free assembly compatible laminate and prepreg is for high-density designs requiring multiple soldering steps. Contains a unique resin said to offer more cycles to failure than any other FR-4. For servers,...

CAM panelization.(Others Of Note)
April 1, 2004... CAM350 version 8.5 contains new panelization capabilities, design rule checks and CAD tool support. Permits edits of imports into the panel editor, including panel templates and Gerber, mill and drill data. Also permits rotating or mirror...

3D electrostatic software.(Others Of Note)
April 1, 2004... Coulomb 6.1 3D electrostatic design and simulation software is for striplines, transmission lines and MEMS. Features variable surface transparency, improved geometry healing commands and parametric GUI. Multi-physics material editor defines...

1+ GHz dielectric.(Others Of Note)
April 1, 2004... N4000-12 enhanced epoxy dielectric materials are for high-speed digital and RF applications in the 1+ GHz range. Reportedly has high Tg and robust thermal stability, low z-axis expansion and is compatible With conventional high Tg fabrication...

Universal verification/repair.(Others Of Note)
April 1, 2004... Universal Verification/repair station is said to be compatible with virtually all electrical test systems, offers a large field of view and uses novel CAR 800 software for prioritizing defects. Comes in Windows 2000 version, and includes a...

PCB screen printer.(Others Of Note)
April 1, 2004... Optical Alignment System fits most flatbed printers, and features registration (to [+ or -] 5 [micro]m) on almost any substrate in under 4 sec. Uses four cameras which move with the table, keeping alignment independent of printer tolerances....

For lead, no blue sky.(Our Line)
April 1, 2004... THE sky was the limit for lead-free, literally. Declarations from Europe and elsewhere led us to believe that electronics for military and aerospace applications would be exempt from bans on lead. Suppliers to companies in those sectors were...