Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture articles from November 2003

Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture archives from November 2003

Storage stalls.(Market Watch)(Illustration)
November 1, 2003... Trends in the U.S. electronics equipment market (shipments only). % CHANGE JUNE JULY AUGUST * YTD Computers/electronics products 4.9 0.7 0.4...

Manufacturing steady in September.(Market Watch)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... TEMPE, AZ -- U.S. manufacturing grew in September for the third straight month, according to a monthly survey taken by the Institute for Supply Management (ism.ws). Yet employment tightened again and has remained below breakeven for three...

Q2 PCB/MCM layout sales up 17%.(Market Watch)(Printed Circuit Board and Multi-Chip Module )(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... SAN JOSE--EDA revenue rose 8% in the second quarter to $946 million, the EDA Consortium (edac.org) reported in September. Revenue from PCB and MCM layout tools was $85 million, up 17% year-on year. It was the second consecutive quarter of...

Study: Wi-Fi hotspots heat up.(Market Watch)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... OYSTER BAY, NY -- Forecasts for Wi-Fi "hotspots"--locations which provide wireless communications access to multiple users simultaneously--show a tremendous upside, aided by lower pricing points and standardization and fueled by an increasing...

Industry market snapshot.(Market Watch)(Illustration)
November 1, 2003... Book-to-bills of various components/equipment. MAY JUNE JULY AUGUST Semiconductor equipment (1) 0.9 0.93 0.97 0.91 Semiconductors (2) 2% 3.2% 10.5% 4% PCBs (3) (North...

Cadence updates OrCAD tool suite: covers design entry through routing.(Around the World / Design)(Cadence design Systems)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... SAN JOSE--Cadence design Systems in September began shipping its OrCAD 10.0 PCB design suite. The update introduces three configurations covering design entry at the basic level to layout and routing at the comprehensive end. Unison EE...

Freeware.(UltraCAD )(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Freeware. UltraCAD (ultracad.com) introduced a new freeware calculator (uccalc,exe), superseding its popular transmission line impedance calculator. The new version is more powerful and accurate and is useful for common single-ended PCB...

DownStream up.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... DownStream up. DownStream Technologies (downstreamtech.com) said first-half revenues rose 10%. The company cited market adoption of its CAM350 software.

Designer friendly.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Designer friendly. Park Electrochemical Corp. (parknelco.com) has streamlined the technical and product reference areas on its Web site; data are now searchable by electrical values, mechanical requirements and other categories.

Not a 'fine' day.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Not a 'fine' day. Toppan Electronics has agreed to pay $278,000 in fines relating to its treatment of hazardous waste at its now shuttered PCB plant. An official at the county Department of Environmental Health said an investigation revealed...

Or of them, either.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Or for them, either. A jury found Flextronics (flextronics.com) in breach of a contract to supply PCB assemblies and awarded Beckman Coulter $934 million, Saying it was "appalled;' Flextronics is appealing the verdict,

Wise releases GerbTool v. 13.(Wise Software Solutions Inc.)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... NEWBURG, OR--Wise Software Solutions has released version 13 of the company's GerbTool CAM software. The new tool introduces fully automatic solder and paste mask optimization/generation features, and now supports a wide array of intrinsic...

'Track' team: with new tool OEMS 'see' status.(Around the World / Manufacturing)(Original equipment manufacturers)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... MILFORD, MA -- EMS firm Milford Manufacturing Services (miltordmfg.com) is inviting OEMs to enter The Looking Glass, a comprehensive software program that permits MMS' customers and suppliers to "see" into the MMS factory to check everything...

History repeats? U.S. PCB shops form Trade Association.(Around the World / Manufacturing)(U.S. Printed Circuit Association)
November 1, 2003... CHICAGO--A group of disenfranchised owners of circuit board manufacturing firms, displeased with the direction of the IPC and governmental trade policies, has formed a new association and is calling for U.S. firms to join. A dozen companies in...

There was prior art, ZBC inventor says: 'distributed' capacitance covered by now-expired patent.(Around the World / Manufacturing)
November 1, 2003... MINNEAPOLIS--In a stunning sequence of events, the inventor of the predominant material for buried capacitance revealed at a major technical conference his finding of several pieces of prior art that, in his words, "were not considered" when...

Events.(Happenings)(Calendar)
November 1, 2003... November 6-7 Electroplating Know How II Chicago, IL Contact: platingschool.com 11-14 Productronica Munich. Contact: munichtradefairs,com/Productronica/default.htm 13-14 Electroplating Know How...

IMI Inc. (imipcb.com) bought a Coherent (coherent.com) CO2 laser.(It's A Deal)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... IMI Inc. (imipcb.com) bought a Coherent (coherent.com) CO2 laser from Laser Advantage.

KCE Thailand (kce-hq.com) installed a Stealing immersion silver line.(It's A Deal)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... KCE Thailand (kce-hq.com) installed a Stealing immersion silver line from MacDermid (macdermid.com).

ACS Technologies Inc. has sold a TruCure modelTC243 curing system.(It's A Deal)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... ACSTechnologies Inc. has sold a TruCure modelTC243 curing system to South Coast Circuits (sccircuits.com). ACS also sold aTruCure mode[TC245 five-zone IR curing system to Circuit-Tech (circuittech.com).

Tyco Electronics Printed Circuit Group (tpcg-inc.com) has bought five DP-100 direct imaging systems.(It's A Deal)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Tyco Electronics Printed Circuit Group (tpcg-inc.com) has bought five DP-100 direct imaging systems from Orbotech Ltd. (orbotech.com).

Unicircuit Inc.(Faces)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Unicircuit Inc. (unicircuit.com) named Michael A. Berg director of operations. The PCB maker also promoted Rachel Matthews to global account manager, and Laura Laffler to corporate account manager for Northrop Grumman. Matthews joined...

FlexLink Systems.(Faces)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... FlexLink Systems (flexlink.com) named Pat Ortiz corporate sales manager, responsible for managing FlexLink's manufacturers representative network throughout North and South America. Ortiz has held previous positions with Electrovert, Dynapace,...

Rogers Corp's.(Faces)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Frank Gillem was named vice president of Rogers Corp's (rogerscorporation.com) Advanced Circuit Materials Division, responsible for manufacturing operations. Gillern, who joined Rogers in 1975, has a bachelor's in mechanical engineering from...

Pacothane Technologies.(Faces)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Pacothane Technologies (pacothane.com) named David M. Griesel managing director, Asia Pacific, responsible for sales, distribution and marketing. Griesel has 25 years of experience in PCB lamination materials, most with Isola including a terms...

Eternal Chemical.(Faces)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Eternal Chemical (eternal.com.tw) named Kerry Grimes director of sales and marketing. He will be based in Illinois.

Enthone Inc.(Faces)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Enthone Inc. (enthone.com) promoted Tim Packwood to global director, PCB marketing, responsible for PWB chemistries. Packwood was with Cookson Electronics' European team, responsible for R&D, sales and marketing, including introduction,...

MEC.(Faces)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... MEC (perfect-product.corn) named Jim Winistorfer general manager, responsible for all operations and functions at MEC Midwest for sales and marketing efforts company-wide. MEC also promoted Jim Scholler from director of sales to vice president...

Stan Plzak.(Transitions)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Stan Plzak, 56, passed away Sept. 22. He was founder of Pensar Corp. and executive vice president of SMTC, which acquired Pensar, and chairman of IPC.

Dr. John (Jack) Balde.(Transitions)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Dr. John (Jack) Balde, 80, a pioneer in microelectronics packaging, died Sept. 8. During a nearly 60-year career, Balde received 18 patents, 11 in tantalum thin films. He assembled the task force in the 1970s that first standardized package...

Who's afraid of the big, bad CEM?: lay out or miss out? Don't be bullied into revealing your costs of goods.(Power Selling)(Customer Experience Management )
November 1, 2003... OK, I'VE GOT a gripe--a big one. And guess what: For a change, I am going to nail some of our customers. I know--the customer is always right--but there are times, frankly, when they obliter ate the line of decency and fairness. To wit: In...

Business planning: most companies fail to see the value of planning. Could it be why most companies ultimately fail?(ROI)
November 1, 2003... WINTER SIGNALS A shift in focus by managers to one of the rituals of corporate America: the upcoming year's Annual Business Plan. Hate to say it, but based on the recent collective performance of our industry it surely appears that not enough...

The relationship between speed and its effects: signal speed is not a function of line resistance.(No Myths Allowed)
November 1, 2003... I'M PARKED IN front of the longest coal train I have ever seen in Kansas. I've learned to pay attention to the number of engines as a measure of the size of the train; this one has five. It's stopped in the middle of the crossing, its...

Package routing considerations: left uncompensated for, IC packages can skew the routing process. How to keep your timing tight.(Interconnect Strategies)(integrated circuits)
November 1, 2003... HIGH PERFORMANCE SYSTEM-LEVEL memory architectures such as Rambus and QDR means PCB designs with subnanosecond interconnect timing budgets. Device technologies that in the past have provided programmable I/O cell timing to compensate for...

Manufacturing considerations of embedded passives; designing and building PCBs with EPs means knowing the tolerances of the different material sets.(Getting Embedded)(printed circuit boards)
November 1, 2003... AS I CONTINUE with my objective of helping stimulate the adoption of embedded passive technology by systematically providing a collection of useful reference materials for the future adaptors, I feel the next appropriate step is providing an...

A year of transition: many design professionals are still doing, well, not too badly. Our annual look at the bottom line--the PCD&M Salary Survey--may surprise you.(Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture)(Cover Story)
November 1, 2003... The results of the PCD&M 2003 Salary Survey of PCB designers and electrical engineers are in, and they're better than I'd expected. What did we find? The average base salary of U.S. respondents rose slightly, to $68,106; most respondents are...

Multek's Variation Reduction Initiative, Part 2: the second half of how Multek implemented its statistical-based defect elimination and cycle-time reduction program.(Defect Elimination)
November 1, 2003... Every director, manager, and engineer received the same level of advanced training in statistical methods regardless of their individual involvement with the Variation Reduction Initiative implementation plan. Why? Because there is no reliable,...

Fabrication guidelines for backdrilling: for higher designs and thick boards backdrilling--the removal of plating from the unused portion of the via--reduces via capacitance and mitigates resonance.(Via Formation)
November 1, 2003... Ed.: To see the entire article, including design guidelines, visit pcdandm.com/pcdmag/rnag/0311/11cohen.pdf. Backdrilling, or controlled-depth counter boring, is a process in which plating is removed from the unused portion of the via....

Desktop CAD suite.(off the Shelf)
November 1, 2003... CADStar Express PCB tool suite, a fully functional version of CADStar 6.0, provides a complete design solution from schematic capture to manufacturing output within a single GUI. For analog or digital designs. Has pin and component limits of...

Product costing tool.(off the Shelf)
November 1, 2003... InPlan v. 1.7 manufacturing process planning tool includes a product costing module, bill of materials editor, multiple "hold" mechanism and new CAM graphic viewer. Also has panel design tools that optimize automatic and manual design of a...

Advanced panelization cam.(off the Shelf)
November 1, 2003... GerbTool v. 13 features advanced psnelization and fully automatic solder and paste mask optimization/generation features said to cut tooling time to minutes from hours. Supports an array of intrinsic apertures, permitting focus on specific...

EMI/RFI shielding gaskets.(Others Of Note)
November 1, 2003... The Spider series of low-profile EMIJRFI shielding gaskets features a continuous web of fingers on each side of the gasket. Features no breaks over the length of the beryllium copper gasket, said to eliminate the possibility of snagging while...

Controlled impedance field solver.(Others Of Note)
November 1, 2003... Polar SiS0OOm v. 2,0 dielectric controlled impedance field solver is capable of modeling multiple dielectric layers, and can cater co the presence of resin-rich areas between closely spaced differential pairs. Optional modules model 28 coplanar...

Noise signal analyzer.(Others Of Note)
November 1, 2003... PT-9610 handheld meter measures laser powerwith a noise analysis function. IS designed for Jaser applications where changes in intensityor inherent instability can negatively impact the process, Measures average power, time structure of the...

RAM connector.(Others Of Note)
November 1, 2003... VHDM 8-row right-angle male connector provides t00 signals per in, and, accommodates backplane components in a right-angle orientation, Applications include cable I/0 interfacing directly "to the edge of the daughtercard; planar extender-card...

Team collaboration tool.(Others Of Note)
November 1, 2003... TeamPCB design collaboration tool features automated design process to manage and synchronize layout design data, allowing multiple designers to work on the same PCB layout simultaneously, Partitions boards, during layout and has interactive...

UV LDI.(Others Of Note)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... The DP-100SL direct Imager comes with a UV diode pump solid-state laser said to last longer and consume 15 times less power than UV gas lasers. Reportedly exposes up to 120 prints per hour, and Prints an entire panel in one scan at a rates of...

Buried treasure.(Our Line)
November 1, 2003... THE great thing about printed circuits is, you never lack for things to write about. Events of the past six weeks underscore this point. In September, a group of small PCB firms, upset over a perceived lack of a forum to promote their...