Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture articles from July 2006

Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture archives from July 2006

One door closes, another opens.(OUR LINE)
July 1, 2006... Anyone who has read this magazine for the past two years has probably noticed that I'm a big music lover. I've been a music aficionado since my fourth birthday, when I received an album by The New Vaudeville Band entitled "Winchester...

Secure communications.(MARKET WATCH)
July 1, 2006... SECURE COMMUNICATIONS Trends in the U.S. electronics equipment market (shipments only). % CHANGE FEB. MARCH (r) APRIL * YTD ...

Manufacturing dampened in May.(MARKET WATCH)
July 1, 2006... TEMPE, AZ -- May completed three straight years of growth in the manufacturing sector, while the overall economy grew for the 55th consecutive month, the Institute for Supply Management (www.ism.ws) reported in June. The PMI manufacturing index...

Industry market snapshot.(MARKET WATCH)
July 1, 2006... INDUSTRY MARKET SNAPSHOT Book-to-bills of various components/equipment. DEC. JAN. FEB. MARCH APRIL Semiconductor equipment (1) 0.93 0.97 1.01 1.03 1.11...

Mobile music.(MARKET WATCH)
July 1, 2006... ARLINGTON, VA -- More than a fourth of consumers own MP3 player equipment for their vehicles, according to the Consumer Electronics Association (www.ce.org). MP3 players, cell phones, mobile and portable video navigation and factory-installed...

Europe's PWB market to grow 3.5%.(MARKET WATCH)
July 1, 2006... BERLIN -- The global market for printed wiring boards in 2005 grew by 5.7% to $38.5 billion, according to German trade groups VdL and ZVEI. Japan and Southeast Asia combined for 58.3% market share, with the largest growth--12.9%--coming in...

IDC: servers facing commodization.(MARKET WATCH)
July 1, 2006... FRAMINGHAM, MA -- Factory revenue from servers sold in Europe, the Middle East and Africa fell 4.3% year-over-year in the first quarter, according to IDC (www.idc.com). Sales totaled $3.8 billion, down from $4.9 billion a year ago....

Solectron EVP resigns.(AROUND THE WORLD / DESIGN)
July 1, 2006... MILPITAS, CA -- Solectron Corp. reported Mark Onetto, executive vice president for worldwide operations, has resigned. Mike Cannon, president and CEO of the company since January 2003, will assume Onetto's duties on an interim basis while the...

Dai Nippon licenses B2it to Samsung.(AROUND THE WORLD / DESIGN)
July 1, 2006... TOKYO -- Dai Nippon Printing Co. has signed an agreement to license its patented B2it PCB build-up technology to Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co. of Korea, according to a Nikkei news article. The B2it technology creates via connections by...

Gartner: growth, consolidation in IC sector.(MORE CHIPS, FEWER COMPANIES)
July 1, 2006... SAN JOSE -- Market research firm Gartner Inc. has updated its chip forecast, according to a Reuters article. In May, Gartner predicted IC industry growth of 10.6% in 2006 compared to 2005, with chip sales slated to grow 14% in 2008 before...

WISE releases GerbTool v. 15.(WISE GUYS)
July 1, 2006... NEWBERG, OR -- WISE Software has released version 15 of its GerbTool DFM tool. This release is a precursor to WISE's new VisualCAM product, which will establish the strategic direction for all future product releases. This release of...

Ansoft Q4 income up 75% YOY.(WAY, WAY UP)
July 1, 2006... PITTSBURGH -- Ansoft Corp. posted a net income of $8.3 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006, a 75% increase over the previous fourth quarter's $4.7 million net income. Revenue for the fourth quarter totaled $24.7 million, an increase...

Altium releases Designer 6.3.(AROUND THE WORLD / DESIGN)
July 1, 2006... SYDNEY -- Altium Limited has released Altium Designer 6.3, which is said to deliver new features targeted at accelerating the design process. It also includes upgraded translation capabilities for accurate, efficient and cost-effective...

Closed Isola UK plant latest site for fire.(AROUND THE WORLD / MANUFACTURING)
July 1, 2006... CHANDLER, AZ -- Isola Group, SARL, reported that a fire broke out Thursday, May 25 in empty tanks at a closed plant in Cumbernauld, Glasgow. According to a spokesman for Strathclyde Fire and Rescue, the fire was quickly contained and no...

UMC acquires equipment, Velie personnel.(AROUND THE WORLD / MANUFACTURING)
July 1, 2006... WOODINVILLE, WA -- Board maker Universal Manufacturing Corp. (UMC) has acquired two Pluritec autoloading CNC drilling machines, a Lohr Herman CNC jump scoring machine, an X-ray registration/verification system, a thin core/fine line copper...

Circuitronics fined for waste violations.(WASTE NOT, WANT NOT)
July 1, 2006... WHEATON, IL -- Circuitronics LLC has settled alleged hazardous waste violations at its PCB and plating operation in Illinois. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fined the company for allegedly violating the Resource Conservation...

Book-to-bill: rigid strong, flex down.(UPS AND DOWNS)
July 1, 2006... BANNOCKBURN, IL -- The North American rigid PCB industry book-to-bill ratio for April 2006 remained strong at 1.08, but the North American flexible circuit book-to-bill ratio continued its decline to 0.87. According to IPC's monthly statistical...

Advanced Circuits wins wastewater award.(AROUND THE WORLD / MANUFACTURING)
July 1, 2006... AURORA, CO -- Advanced Circuits has been awarded a Gold Award from the Metro Wastewater Restoration District (MWRD) of Colorado for the third consecutive year. The Gold Award expresses 100% compliance with pre-treatment requirements. The...

The Elprint AS facility in Bergen, Norway, has invested around .4 million euros in a developing-etching-stripping system from Hollmuller Maschinenbau GmbH.(IT'S A DEAL)
July 1, 2006... The Elprint AS facility in Bergen, Norway, has invested around .4 million euros in a developing-etching-stripping system from Hollmuller Maschinenbau GmbH. This new DES system will work in tandem with a recently installed ComPlate system from...

Endicott Interconnect Technologies won several new contracts for the fabrication of wirebond PBGA substrates resulting from alliances with Silicon Valley-based companies Singulated Technology and CORWIL Technology Corp.(IT'S A DEAL)
July 1, 2006... Endicott Interconnect Technologies won several new contracts for the fabrication of wirebond PBGA substrates resulting from alliances with Silicon Valley-based companies Singulated Technology and CORWIL Technology Corp. El will provide wirebond...

4th Dimension PCB.(IT'S A DEAL)
July 1, 2006... Sunrise, FL-based PCB design bureau 4th Dimension PCB has been certified as a Top 20% Performer based on the Past Performance Evaluation survey responses of its reference customers. 4th Dimension PCB had a PPE score of 96/100. PPE is run by the...

Endicott Interconnect Technologies.(FACES)
July 1, 2006... Endicott Interconnect Technologies has appointed Doug Gotelli director of sales, Western region. He will report to Michael Hills, senior VP of sales and account services, and assume responsibility for sales and service activities on the West...

The Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology has chosen new officers for the term beginning July 1.(FACES)
July 1, 2006... The Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology has chosen new officers for the term beginning July 1. Gordon Ely is the new lEST president. Ely is currently validation manager at Nelson Laboratories. He is also involved on various...

IPC.(FACES)
July 1, 2006... IPC has appointed Paul Langston, CEO of Coretec, to the position of vice chairman and Nilesh Naik, CEO of One Source Group to the secretary/treasurer slot. Langston and Naik will serve until February 2008. Langston is a member of the IPC...

Nu Horizons Electronics Corp.(FACES)
July 1, 2006... Nu Horizons Electronics Corp. named Kurt Freudenberg VP and CFO, effective July 15. He replaces Paul Durando, who is retiring as CFO but will remain on the board.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.(FACES)
July 1, 2006... John W. Cox resigned from his position on Benchmark Electronics' board of directors to serve as CFO of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

FKI Logistex Manufacturing Systems North America.(FACES)
July 1, 2006... Martin Clark has been promoted to director of marketing and business development for FKI Logistex Manufacturing Systems North America. Clark has more than 20 years of material handling experience. Clark joined FKI Logistex in 1999, and was...

Events.(HAPPENINGS)(Calendar)
July 1, 2006... EVENTS JULY 3-7 Practical RF/Microwave Design University of Oxford, England Contact: electronics@conted.ox.ac.uk 4-5 PCB Design Excellence Premier EDA Solutions Ltd.,...

A turning point: we survived the RoHS deadline, but what now?(ROI)
July 1, 2006... WELL, WE MADE it to July. The new world of RoHS is officially here and we will all supposedly be better for it. But then again, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Remember Y2K? Think back to 12:01 AM on Jan. 1, 2000....

What's next on the environmental front: new priorities must be defined and industry must proactively drive for harmonized regulatory standards.(COUNTDOWN TO LEAD-FREE)
July 1, 2006... THE ROHS DIRECTIVE goes into effect in the EU this month. Last month's column demonstrated that industry, for the most part, is ready. However, much work remains to be done to reduce the ongoing costs of maintaining RoHs compliance, address...

Lead-free FR-4 Specs: facts and fiction: Just in time for July 1, what you need to know about IPC-4101B--what it does and what it doesn't do.(GUEST COLUMNIST)
July 1, 2006... NOT SINCE THE 1997 cancellation of MIL-S-13949H has the electronics industry been in such a fervor about a base material specification. Remember the proclamations? No MIL-SPEC! No QPL! IPC-4101 is the replacement! Planes will fall from the sky...

Thermal prototyping: optimizing etched-foil heater performance can complement other approaches, such as thermal estimation programs and FEA.(THERMAL DESIGN)
July 1, 2006... Thermal prototyping is a challenge for many design engineers. Many do not understand that a heater must be properly configured to the thermal demands of the intended application for it to perform most effectively. The complex physics of heat...

Socketless probe testing: boards keep shrinking, but the decreasing size of test targets doesn't have to be a problem.(TEST)
July 1, 2006... As technology advances, an ever-larger array of electronic products that do bigger and better things is hitting the market. At the same time, the size of the printed circuit board is shrinking faster than ever to keep up with the demand for...

Distributed autorouting of printed circuit boards: it's true--there is strength in numbers. Learn how to take advantage of multiple CPUs when routing large PCBs.(AUTOROUTING)
July 1, 2006... Many years have passed since the last significant advancement in autorouting PCBs. It can be argued that since the advent of gridless routing, there has been little news on the autorouting front except for enhancements to improve route quality...

Empowering you to meet tomorrow's PCB design challenges.
July 1, 2006... The premier conference and exhibition for PCB engineering, design and manufacture professionals Empowering you to meet tomorrow's PCB design challenges It takes a special individual with a unique skill set to do your job well and reach...

Microvia failure in lead-free assembly, Part 2: failure analysis continues with examples of the effects of thermal excursions on microvias.(HDI)(Cover story)
July 1, 2006... The majority of microvia production within North America is achieved through laser ablation. Two common laser sources, the UV and C[O.sub.2] lasers, can be used individually, but the use of hybrid lasers has increased over the past five years....

Worldwide PCB output for 2005: Asia leads the way in board production, and the U.S. cements its position at the bottom of the list.(MARKETS)
July 1, 2006... The PCB output by Asia Pacific countries accounted for more than 80% of global output in 2005. When it comes to laminate consumption, Asia Pacific's share totaled more than 85%. In 2000, there were seven U.S.-based board makers in the top...

JPCA 2006 recap: the biggest PCB show continues to amaze.(THE FLEX MARKET)
July 1, 2006... THE JAPAN PRINTED Circuit Association (JPCA) Show 2006, the world's largest PCB industry exhibition, was held on May 31 at the Tokyo International Exhibition Center, also known as the Tokyo Big Sight. About 600 companies and organizations...

RF inductor.(off the SHELF)
July 1, 2006... The SMT 2920 is a molded, shielded toroidal inductor designed for RF applications, especially those with high Q requirements. The encapsulated toroids are shielded for use near magnetic fields, and designed to be insensitive to operating...

Insulating pre-preg.(off the SHELF)
July 1, 2006... T-preg HTD is a thermally conductive, electrically insulating pre-preg with high temperature and voltage properties, designed for use in automotive and motor control PCBs. Said to be RollS-compliant, it uses an environmentally-friendly...

Connectors.(off the SHELF)
July 1, 2006... The high-density PowerMod connector family is offered in 3 to 30 circuits, and is available for straight PCB, right-angle PCB, panel or cable mountings. Rated for 30 amps, the connectors feature mechanical polarized UL94V-O housings for proper...

Domain-optimized FPGA.(OTHERS OF NOTE)
July 1, 2006... The new Virtex-5 family of domain-optimized FPGAs is built upon 65 nm triple-oxide technology and new ExpressFabric technology. Said to work at speeds about 30% higher, and with 65% increased capacity, than earlier 90 nm FPGAs, while reducing...

Ultra fine-line AOI.(OTHERS OF NOTE)
July 1, 2006... The Dainippon Screen PI 8700 automatic optical inspection system was developed originally for the packaging substrate industry. Offers adjustable settings for line width geometries from 12.5-50 microns, very low false alarm rates and superior...

Part list management.(OTHERS OF NOTE)
July 1, 2006... Starturn is a part list management add-on toot for Zuken's Cadstar design software. Said to offer four core areas of functionality that enhance the post design documentation process within the Cadstar desktop PCB design environment. Includes...

EDA-PLM software.(OTHERS OF NOTE)
July 1, 2006... EDAConnect offers electronic design engineers a connection from EDA environments to enterprise PLM systems. EDA-Connect provides an out-of-the-box software solution that protects users from changes in either their EDA environment or enterprise...

Lead-free reflow oven.(OTHERS OF NOTE)
July 1, 2006... The ProtoFlow Oven is designed for lead-free reflow soldering, with a maximum process temperature of 320[degrees]C/608[degrees]F Incorporates four internal temperature sensors and a multiprocessor controller board, ensuring even heat...

OrCAD CIS, PADS integration.(OTHERS OF NOTE)
July 1, 2006... PCBNavigator enables OrCAD Capture users to design for the PADS PowerPCB PCB layout tool, defining routing constraints and managing engineering change orders bi-directionally. Is said to speed up the design flow significantly because it's...

Only two knobs to tweak above 3 Gbps: either increase the attenuation budget with more expensive silicon or decrease the attenuation with more expensive laminates. The choice is yours.(NO MYTHS ALLOWED)
July 1, 2006... IF YOU DESIGN interconnects for high-speed serial links at 3 Gbps and above, you are probably up against the limits set by the attenuation in the interconnects. In this case, there are only two knobs in your design you can tweak to affect the...