Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture articles from November 2004

Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture archives from November 2004

Politicians as technologists.(Our Line)
November 1, 2004... Joe Fjelstad kicked off his PCB Design Conference East keynote speech, "The Impact of Lead Free on PCB Design," by stating that the sun would rise tomorrow. But after that, any other good news was obscured by clouds. Fjelstad, a veteran...

A/V humming.(Market Watch)
November 1, 2004... Trends in the U.S. electronics equipment market (shipments only). % CHANGE JUNE JULY AUG. * YTD Computers/electronics products 0.2...

Sept. manufacturing slightly slower.(Market Watch)
November 1, 2004... TEMPE, AZ -- The rate of growth in the manufacturing sector ticked down in September as customers shed inventories ahead of the holiday buying season. New orders slipped, but production increased as manufacturer inventory levels rose. ...

Report: Chinese EMS, ODM to surge.(Market Watch)
November 1, 2004... EL SEGUNDO, CA -- Contract electronics manufacturing and ODM work will surge in China in the coming years, according to new research conducted by iSuppli Corp. Compounded annual growth will top 21% between 2003 and 2008 for each of the two...

Smart cars ahead?(Market Watch)
November 1, 2004... The "Intelligent Vehicle Highway Safety Act of 2004," a recently proposed law introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives could help stimulate the adoption of intelligent vehicle technology sensing and control systems in U.S.-sold vehicles,...

Study: Flextronics top in EMS sales last year.(Market Watch)
November 1, 2004... SAN JOSE -- Flextronics was the world's largest EMS firm in 2003, with revenues of $13.8 billion, a new study found. Solectron was number two at $11.1 billion, followed by Sanmina-SCI ($10.8 billion), Celestica ($6.7 billion) and Jabil...

Industry market snapshot.(Market Watch)
November 1, 2004... Book-to-bills of various components/equipment. MAY JUNE JULY AUGUST Semiconductor equipment (1) 1.10 1.07 1.04 1.00 Semiconductors (2) 36.9%...

Costello wins Kaufman Award.(Design)
November 1, 2004... SAN JOSE -- Former Cadence Design Systems CEO Joe Costello is the 2004 recipient of the EDA Consortium's (www.edac.org) Phil Kaufman Award. Costello is now chairman and CEO of Think3, an industrial design company. Costello led Cadence from...

Flex maker StrataFLEX offers design services.(Flexibility)
November 1, 2004... TORONTO -- Flex maker StrataFLEX Corp. (www.strataflex.com) will begin offering a full state of design services as part of its strategy to provide an enhanced offering to its customers. The company has hired a dedicated PCB designer and is...

Mentor updates PADS tools.(Design)
November 1, 2004... WILSONVILLE, OR -- Mentor Graphics (www.mentor.com) has released the latest version of its PADS PCB design suite, PADS2004 Service Pack 2. This version is said to be easier to install and use, with enhancements added to every tool in the flow....

Cadence releases new OrCAD tools.(Interactivity)
November 1, 2004... SAN JOSE -- Cadence Design Systems (www.cadence.com) has unveiled two new product suites, OrCAD PCB Designer and OrCAD PCB Designer with PSpice. Both are included in the new OrCAD 10.3 release, which features additional enhancements to the...

IPC: book-to-bill still positive.(Good Numbers)
November 1, 2004... BANNOCKBURN, IL -- The IPC (www.ipc.org) book-to-bill ratio for August 2004 continued positive at 1.04. Separately, the ratios were 1.05 for rigid PCBs and 0.98 for flexible circuits. For rigid PCBs and flexible circuits combined, industry...

One year later, USPCA seeks new members.(Recruitment Time)
November 1, 2004... WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The U.S. Printed Circuit Alliance (www.uspca.org) wants you, if you're a PCB manufacturer or supplier located in the U.S. The organization celebrated its first birthday in September. The USPCA was founded by nine...

Fast times in Colorado.
November 1, 2004... Advanced Circuits has landed on Deloitte & Touche's Technology Fast 50 list for the sixth consecutive year. Deloitte & Touche LLP ranked the 50 fastest-growing technology companies in Colorado based on the percentage of growth in fiscal-year...

Celestica sells Power Systems unit.(Out Of The Blue)
November 1, 2004... TORONTO -- Celestica Inc. (www.celestica.com) has signed a definitive agreement to divest its Power Systems business to C&D Technologies in an all-cash transaction, the terms of which were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close...

Plexus closes WA plant, opens Malaysian unit.(Open And Shut)
November 1, 2004... NEENAH, WI -- Plexus Corp. (www.plexus.com) is shutting down its Bothell, WA, manufacturing facility and moving work to other Plexus locations, primarily the seven in the U.S. The company plans to open a 164,000 [ft.sup.2] facility in Penang,...

Events.(Happenings)(Calendar)
November 1, 2004... EVENTS NOVEMBER 8-12 Photonics Asia Beijing, China, Contact: www.spie.org/events/pa 9 LEAD-FREE READINESS SEMINAR Dallas. Contact: UP Media Group, www.pcbshows.com/leadfree...

Excellon Automation.(Faces)
November 1, 2004... Excellon Automation has appointed Kurt Weber VP of the Advanced Manufacturing Technology group. Formerly VP of engineering, Weber will work from the company's Torrance, CA headquarters. The AMT group is resuming its regional user group...

Atotech.(It's A Deal)
November 1, 2004... Atotech has begun a 4 million Euro expansion of its plant in Werder near Berlin, Germany. The production facilities will almost double to 10,000 [m.sup.2], while annual production output will increase to 20,000 tons. The expanded project is...

Sanmina-SCI Corp.(It's A Deal)
November 1, 2004... Sanmina-SCI Corp. has received the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) certification from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. C-TPAT is a joint government-business initiative designed to strengthen supply chain and border...

Altium Japan KK, a subsidiary of Altium, has signed a distribution agreement with Memec Japan, a semiconductor distributor.(It's A Deal)
November 1, 2004... Altium Japan KK, a subsidiary of Altium, has signed a distribution agreement with Memec Japan, a semiconductor distributor. Memec Japan will resell Altium's board-level design solution, Protel, and its board-on-chip development system, Nexar....

California-based PCB manufacturer Hallmark Circuits has installed Orbotech's InPlan.(It's A Deal)
November 1, 2004... California-based PCB manufacturer Hallmark Circuits has installed Orbotech's InPlan manufacturing process planning software operation-wide.

March Plasma Systems sold a PCB 2800 plasma treatment system to US Circuit Inc.(It's A Deal)
November 1, 2004... March Plasma Systems sold a PCB 2800 plasma treatment system to US Circuit Inc. The system will be installed in its Escondido, CA facility and used for desmear and etchback of commercial and military printed circuit boards.

Littelfuse Inc.(It's A Deal)
November 1, 2004... Littelfuse Inc. is consolidating its North American distribution network. The new distributor line-up is geared toward accelerating demand creation and design-in activity. By focusing on a select group of distribution partners, the company...

Selling to board shops: fabricators have to buy from someone. Here's how to get your foot in the door.(Power Selling)
November 1, 2004... LET'S TRY SOMETHING different. Instead of explaining to board shops how to sell, I will focus the next two columns on teaching vendors how to sell to board shops. First, you have to understand that the market is always changing. According...

Communication breakdown: the best ideas in the world are worthless if we can't communicate them to our employees, partners and customers.(ROI)
November 1, 2004... WE HAVE A big problem, and that problem is communication! Communication between co-workers, subordinates and supervisors, customers and suppliers and even investors is not at all what it should be. How can we improve communication so...

Virtual prototyping: this extra step can virtually pay for itself in time and money, from simulation through DFM.(Simulation)
November 1, 2004... EDA tool vendors have continued to expand their R&D innovation, even during parts of the recent recession. The main reason for this? Design complexity and time-to-market continue to ride on the heels of technology. Factors include innovations...

The PCD&M Design Engineer Salary Survey: as the economy recovers, engineers' salaries edge upward. But many are still unsure about the industry.(Cover Story)
November 1, 2004... It's time for the results of our 2004 PCD&M Design Engineer Salary Survey. Yes, you read that correctly. This year's survey is a bit different from previous years' efforts. In the interest of clarity, we decided to break with tradition and...

Woven glass reinforcement patterns: they can have various effects--pro and con--on PCB spatial electrical properties.(Laminate Properties)
November 1, 2004... The impedance and electrical property variations resulting from spatial patterns in woven glass reinforced laminate materials are greatly impacting high-speed interconnect designs. As the transfer rates of PCB interconnects increase, the...

Best materials for 3-6 GHz design: fighting signal loss at higher frequencies can be an uphill battle. But the right substrate can tilt the odds back into your favor.(High-Speed Materials)
November 1, 2004... Wireless communication and broadband applications are moving digital circuitry into the analog world. High-speed circuit designs emphasize the usefulness of passive circuit elements. When designing below 1 GHz, passive elements such as the...

Japan's summertime blahs: Japans PCB market grew slightly in July, with double-sided and multilayer flex at the head of the pack. But the rest of the year is a toss-up.(The Flex Market)
November 1, 2004... JAPAN'S METI IN September released July's PCB production data, and they paint a cloudy picture of the board market in that country. Usually, Japanese PCB manufacturers enjoy a busy month every July, right before the annual summer vacation....

Clicking your way to a job: sure, it's not that easy. But the Internet is a great tool for job-hunters who keep up with the latest tricks of the cyberspace trade.(Career Care)
November 1, 2004... WHEN YOU ENTER the job market, the task of finding a job can be very daunting and intimidating. The good news is that there are many resources available, with the Internet being the largest single resource. However, the Internet will only be a...

RF/microwave software.(off the Shelf)
November 1, 2004... Microwave Office 2004 integrates 3D planar EM simulation with circuit simulation and layout tools, permitting arbitrary physical structures to be embedded within linear and nonlinear circuit simulations. Has an EM extraction capability for...

PCB prototyper.(off the Shelf)
November 1, 2004... The FP73AT prototyper is said to rapidly produce large, high-density in-house boards without the need to manually change tools during the milling, drilling and routing operations. Provides positional accuracy of 4 [micro]m in all axes. Uses...

Stackup viewer.(off the Shelf)
November 1, 2004... The SB200a stackup/buildup viewer accompanies the SB200a Professional PCB layer stackup design and documentation system.The SB200a Viewer can also display controlled impedance information included in the stack. Said to allow users to...

Parametric analyzer.(Others Of Note)
November 1, 2004... The Agilent 4157B can be configured with a variety of modules, Modular approach separates the system controller from measurement resources, said to allow users to upgrade and protect their investments in equipment from shifts in PC technology....

Collaboration software.(Others Of Note)
November 1, 2004... The client/server edition of AutoVue 18 is available for Sun Solaris servers v.8 and v.9. New features include the ability to test PCB layouts for design and manufacturability violations; cross-probe layouts, schematics and PCBs in 3D; and...

Inspection system.(Others Of Note)
November 1, 2004... The VJE X2500 is said to be the first fully automated x-ray inspection system for inspection of lead-free solder. Reportedly provides high contrast resolution at higher viewing angles than provided by any other x-ray system currently available....

PB-free wave soldering.(Others Of Note)
November 1, 2004... Wave Solder Flux 3592-35 was developed for the Pb-free wave soldering of mixed-technology and through-hole electronic assemblies. The no-clean, halide-free material provides enhanced heat stability for higher temperatures, Said to exhibit a...

Connector systems.(Others Of Note)
November 1, 2004... Micro Rugged connector systems include board-to-board, one-piece, power and I/O interfaces. Interfaces feature interconnect systems with friction locks, latches, keys, screw-downs and guideposts. Three contact systems available for high...

PCB design software.(Others Of Note)
November 1, 2004... Pantheon version 5.0 generates embedded ink resistors based on parameters of pre-defined ink pastes and the requirements of hybrid technology. Features improved area fill performance, parametric wire bond breakout generator, area rules,...

Insertion loss and return loss: never heard of them? Meet the new universal characterization metrics.(No Myths Allowed)
November 1, 2004... HOW WOULD YOU describe the high-speed performance of an interconnect (backplane, connector, package or even a test socket) in a way that yields a good first-order estimate of how the interconnect might distort high-speed signals, or whether it...