Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture articles from April 2007

Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture archives from April 2007

All that glitters.(OUR LINE)
April 1, 2007... The Oscars came to town on heels of this year's IPC Apex/Expo trade show. I didn't stay over, but I heard a few people say they were taking advantage of the timing. For most of us, however, there was already enough going on during the week...

The defense rests.(MARKET WATCH)
April 1, 2007... THE DEFENSE RESTS Trends in the U.S. electronics equipment market (shipments only). % CHANGE NOV. DEC. (1) JAN. * YTO Computers/electronics ...

February manufacturing orders, production up.(MARKET WATCH)
April 1, 2007... TEMPE, AZ -- Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in February following a decline in January; the overall economy grew for the 64th consecutive month, ISM reported in March (ism.ws). Supplier deliveries fell for the 44th...

Excess inventories remain high, says iSuppli ...(MARKET WATCH)
April 1, 2007... EL SEGUNDO, CA -- After increasing its holdings of excess semiconductors during the first half of the year, the electronics supply chain finished 2006 with its highest level of end-of-year overstock in five years, says iSuppli (isuppli.com)....

... But issues 'worked out,' says SIA.(MARKET WATCH)
April 1, 2007... SAN JOSE -- Semiconductor Industry Association (siaonline.org) president George Scalise in March said that consumer confidence continues to boost semiconductor demand, and is easing worries about inventory levels. "Concerns about...

Report: military electronics to slow.(MARKET WATCH)
April 1, 2007... LOS ALTOS, CA -- The change in the Congressional majority will likely result in slower growth rates for U.S. military electronics production. Analyst Ed Henderson (hendersonventures.com) predicts military electronics will grow 2.3% next year,...

Industry market snapshot.(MARKET WATCH)
April 1, 2007... INDUSTRY MARKET SNAPSHOT Book-to-bills of various components/equipment. SEPT. OCT. Semiconductor equipment (1) 0.98 0.94 Semiconductors (2) 9.3% 9.8% Rigid...

The PCB industry reliability summit.(AROUND THE WORLD)
April 1, 2007... In the last several years the interconnect technology industry has undergone numerous changes. Some of theses changes are small and hardly noticeable; others genuinely change the industry. Recent changes like System in a Package (SIP)...

Chinese develop PCB recycling technology.(PCB MAKEOVER)
April 1, 2007... SHANGHAI, CHINA -- Chinese scientists say they have developed a recycling and recovery technology designed for the disposal of printed circuit boards, according to the United Press International. A team at Shanghai Jiao Tong University...

EDA CEOs predict strong 2007.(Iron Men)
April 1, 2007... SANTA CLARA, CA -- CEOs who spoke at the EDA Consortium's annual forecast panel in February said 2007 is expected to be another strong year for the EDA industry. For the most part, however, the CEOs did not predict specific revenue targets. ...

ESI forms Scientific Advisory Board.(ALL IN FAVOR)
April 1, 2007... PORTLAND, OR -- Electro Scientific Industries Inc. has formed a Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). ESI created the SAB to provide technical and industry insight to support the development of innovative laser systems solutions. With the insight...

China's e-commerce business blasts off.(3 ... 2 ... 1)
April 1, 2007... BEIJING, CHINA -- In the last quarter of 2006 China's business-to-business e-commerce services and customer-to-customer on-line auction businesses skyrocketed. Business transactions generated through these Web based portals accounted for 8.899...

January book-to-bill ratios weak.(Sub Par)
April 1, 2007... BANNOCKBURN, IL -- IPC, Association Connecting Electronics Industries, reported the North American rigid PCB industry book-to-bill ratio for January 2007 stayed below 1 at 0.91 while the flexible circuit book-to-bill ratio crept up to 0.93. The...

Hunter Technology Corp.(FACES)
April 1, 2007... Hunter Technology Corp. appointed Michael Collins to handle their New England Territory. An industry veteran with a specialty in military sales, Collins has worked with a number of industry leaders, including Herco, Gul Technologies and...

Electro Scientific Industries Inc.(FACES)
April 1, 2007... Electro Scientific Industries Inc. has named Dr. R.A. Srinivas as its new vice president of marketing. Dr. Srinivas previously worked at Applied Materials, where he spent nearly 15 years in several positions. At ESI, his duties will include...

Endicott Interconnect Technologies Inc.(FACES)
April 1, 2007... Endicott Interconnect Technologies Inc. has announced the appointment of Rajinder Rai as vice president, Research and Development. He will assume responsibility for the management of resources and support functions for current and future R&D...

Prototron Circuits.(FACES)
April 1, 2007... Prototron Circuits has appointed Kim S. O'Neil as general manager of its Tucson Facility. O'Neil has held numerous positions at many fabricators, including Hadco, Sanmina and Teradyne. During the past few years he has held the position of...

Tyco International Ltd. announced that Paul Fitzhenry is the new vice president of corporate communications.(FACES)
April 1, 2007... Tyco International Ltd. announced that Paul Fitzhenry is the new vice president of corporate communications. He will be responsible for leading the company's internal and external communications at the corporate level, and overseeing the...

RBP Chemical Technology, a supplier of process chemicals to the worldwide printed circuit and graphic arts industries, has signed an agreement with Pata Chemicals and Machinery Co. Ltd. in Bangkok, Thailand.(IT'S A DEAL)
April 1, 2007... RBP Chemical Technology, a supplier of process chemicals to the worldwide printed circuit and graphic arts industries, has signed an agreement with Pata Chemicals and Machinery Co. Ltd. in Bangkok, Thailand. The agreement calls for Pata...

Design Solutions Inc. (DSI) has acquired Paradigm Manufacturing Partners, an EMS and contract manufacturing services provider.(IT'S A DEAL)
April 1, 2007... Design Solutions Inc. (DSI) has acquired Paradigm Manufacturing Partners, an EMS and contract manufacturing services provider. Sean O'Neil, president and CEO of DSI, described the acquisition as growth-driven, adding a greater range of...

DesignAdvance Systems Inc. has appointed Parallel Systems Ltd. as its distribution partner.(IT'S A DEAL)
April 1, 2007... DesignAdvance Systems Inc. has appointed Parallel Systems Ltd. as its distribution partner. Parallel Systems, based in the UK, is a Cadence Channel partner. Parallel Systems will provide DesignAdvance products and technical support to PCB...

Events.(HAPPENINGS)(Calendar)
April 1, 2007... APRIL 1-5 Embedded Systems Conference Silicon Valley McEnery Convention Center, San Jose, CA Contact: embedded.com 9-12 Advanced Technology Workshop on Automotive Microelectronics Dearborn, MI Contact: jmorris@imaps.org 10-12...

The IPC at 50: a celebration of the past often leads to optimism for the future.(ROI)(Company overview)
April 1, 2007... I'M NOT ONE who usually likes to go to celebrations, especially for milestone birthdays or anniversaries. But I attended one in February that was not only enjoyable, it also reminded me what celebrations are all about. The event was IPC's...

Designing with decoupling capacitors: mount the decoupling capacitor on the side of the board with the smallest rectangular loop area to net the lowest inductance.(EMC FOR THE REAL WORLD)
April 1, 2007... WITHIN THE PCB community there are many different, and often conflicting, design rules-of-thumb. Sorting out which makes the most sense is typically not difficult if we consider the basic physics involved. Usually, we can simplify the problem...

Effects of plane splits on high-speed signals, Part 2: signal and power integrity degradation can occur in PCBs and IC packages due to high-speed traces traversing plane-splits.(INTERCONNECT STRATEGIES)
April 1, 2007... THE PROPER ANALYSIS and design of current return path for high-speed PCBs can be critical for achieving optimum system performance. The return current loop is often unclear from design's schematic drawing (10), which mainly illustrates...

Designing for high layer count: the design team plays a major role in reducing emissions, increasing immunity and improving signal quality for complex, high-speed PCBs.(PCB DESIGN)
April 1, 2007... Today's PCB is not just a plain electrical interconnection device. It is a multifarious, highly specified component in its own right. It brings an increased requirement for board design verification prior to manufacture. Ever-increasing speeds...

Next generation PCB design constraint management: new design systems support multiple users and concurrent rules--and they automate repeat tasks and use net topology templates--to reduce the time needed to complete complex designs.(DESIGN CONSTRAINT)
April 1, 2007... As systems become more complex, the need to control physical routing and electrical elements is growing to such an extent that constraint entry is firmly on the critical path of the design process. Electronic system capabilities have exploded...

The use of Six Sigma principles for successful RoHS implementation: the change over to lead-free creates an excellent opportunity to evaluate new materials and upgrade manufacturing processes that will result in improved quality and a lower manufacturing cost.(QUALITY SYSTEMS)
April 1, 2007... The conversion of electronics manufacturing processes to comply with RoHS regulations provides a great opportunity for process improvement in order to provide efficient, as well as environmentally friendly, design and manufacturing processes....

Transforming the chemical supply chain: chemical management services offer a new business model that can reduce cost and keep companies compliant with regulatory challenges.(BETTER BUSINESS)(Company overview)
April 1, 2007... The printed circuit board industry is just catching its collective breath after complying with the European Union (EU) directive RoHs--the Restriction of Certain Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic equipment. But the industry and...

Metalization of high performance resin materials with a graphite-based direct plating system: graphite systems coat and then bind to resin and glass, making them ideal for use with a wide variety of high performance laminate materials.(PTH METALIZATION)
April 1, 2007... While the interest in alternative metalization processes for the manufacturing of printed circuit boards is extremely keen, there is even greater interest today with respect to the requirement for lead-free and high performance laminates. It is...

Japanese PCB production in 2006: retooling for higher margin product lines keep many Japanese companies profitable in 2006.(THE FLEX MARKET)
April 1, 2007... JAPAN'S MINISTRY OF Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) recently released December's production data for Japanese printed circuit board manufacturers. The release of these figures completes the production data report for 2006, and industry...

Compact laser system.(off the SHELF)
April 1, 2007... The MicroLine UV 3000 is a compact laser system designed to cut precise openings in polyimide coverlayer foils and to cut flex circuits. It contains a new high-speed linear drive for flexible circuits, reportedly featuring greater positioning...

Power entry modules.(off the SHELF)
April 1, 2007... Schurter's new series DD21 and DD22 power entry modules were designed for PCB mounting. The DD21 is equipped with multiple functions including inlet connector, switching and fusing. In addition, the DD22 series offers standard or medical filter...

Acid copper plating solution.(off the SHELF)
April 1, 2007... Atotech's Inpulse 2HF electrolyte coupled with the Uniplate InPulse 2 is said to be ideally suited for blind microvia filling. The process reportedly enables "super filling" which gives unrivalled productivity and blind microvia filling with...

PDS solution.(OTHERS OF NOTE)
April 1, 2007... OptimizePl is a next-generation power delivery system (PDS) solution said to be the first to provide minimum-cost decoupling capacitor selection and placement to achieve desired PDS performance. It reportedly allows designers to assess PDS...

Design software.(OTHERS OF NOTE)
April 1, 2007... AutoVue 3D Pro SME is said to provide users of mid-range 3D CAD packages with the freedom to choose their authoring tools and still work with different mid-range 3D formats from partners, customers or suppliers. It reportedly features powerful...

Design software: PADS2007 is said to offer layout designers and engineers the ability to implement RF and microwave circuitry using highly automated functionality, perform design for fabrication (DFF) checking early in the process and optimize performance with advanced high-speed analysis/verification functionality.(OTHERS OF NOTE)
April 1, 2007... PADS2007 is said to offer layout designers and engineers the ability to implement RF and microwave circuitry using highly automated functionality, perform design for fabrication (DFF) checking early in the process and optimize performance with...

Liquid photoimageable soldermask.(OTHERS OF NOTE)
April 1, 2007... Taiyo America has released PSR-9000FXT, a liquid photoimageable covercoat or soldermask for flexible printed circuit boards. It is said to have excellent flexibility and low warpage throughout the fabrication process for high yields, as well as...

Spice simulation software.(OTHERS OF NOTE)
April 1, 2007... Multisim 10.0 and Ultiboard 10.0 are the latest versions of Nl's interactive SPICE simulation/circuit analysis software used for schematic capture, interactive simulation, board layout and integrated testing. They are said to feature a focus on...

Pre-etch conditioning.(OTHERS OF NOTE)
April 1, 2007... March Plasma has released an improved PCB panel pre-etch conditioning technology that reportedly increases the throughput in applications such as desmear and etchback. It is said that productivity improvements of more than 30% can be achieved...

The proximity effect in differential pairs: tighter trace coupling causes the resistance to increase.(THE SIGNAL DOCTOR)
April 1, 2007... QUESTION FROM RAUL in San Jose: I heard that as you bring two traces together in a differential pair the resistance in each trace dramatically increases due to the proximity effect. How much does the resistance in each line increase? ...