Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture articles from September 2007

Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture archives from September 2007

The mother of invention.(OUR LINE)
September 1, 2007... IN pursuit of improvement of processes and end-products, the electronics industry--from the design engineer's seat to the fab shop floor, and on through to the assembly process--have long been a focus of research and new product development...

Defense dives.(MARKET WATCH)
September 1, 2007... DEFENSE DIVES Trends in the U.S. electronics equipment market (shipments only). % CHANGE APR. MAY (r) JUNE * YTD Computers/electronics 8.9 ...

Manufacturing moderates.(MARKET WATCH)
September 1, 2007... TEMPE, AZ -- "Following a strong second quarter, the manufacturing sector moderated somewhat this past month. In July, manufacturing expanded at its slowest pace in the last four months, but continuing strength in new orders and production...

Auto electronics IC sales to grow 34%.(MARKET WATCH)
September 1, 2007... PALO ALTO, CA -- Revenues of ICs used in the world's automobile market will grow 34% by 2010 from $6.8 billion last year, Frost & Sullivan (frost.com) said in a recent report. The proliferation of automobile electronic content is a result...

Report: stronger H2 in store for electronics equipment.(MARKET WATCH)
September 1, 2007... EL SEGUNDO, CA -- Following three years of strong growth, the global electronic equipment market's expansion will decelerate slightly in 2007, iSuppli Corp. (isuppli.com) predicts. Electronics equipment revenues will grow 12% in the second...

Metals prices in flux.(MARKET WATCH)
September 1, 2007... LONDON -- Tin prices are slipping--slightly--on the London Metal Exchange after matching an 18-year high of $15,700 a ton in mid July. Supplies of the metal, a key element in electronics solder and plating, have been under pressure because of...

Complex HDI PCBs, Shanghai style.(AROUND THE WORLD)
September 1, 2007... SHANGHAI -- PCB producer ATS&S has started to equip its third plant in Shanghai. Operations at AT&S's first plant in Shanghai began in 2002; the second plant now is also completely operational. The company is currently ramping up its...

Japan PCB production up.(AROUND THE WORLD)
September 1, 2007... TOKYO -- Japan May PWB production rose 7.9% year-over-year to 80.3 billion yen, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry reported last week. May production dropped 5% from April. The sequential drop is unusual as a rebound typically...

Handset race heats up.(SAMSUNG A COOL NO. TWO)
September 1, 2007... FRAMINGHAM, MA -- Handset vendors shipped a total of 272.7 million units worldwide in the second quarter, about 6.9% more than the previous quarter, and 16.5% more year-over-year, according to researcher IDC. Samsung beat Motorola for the...

EDA industry growing.(DOUBLE-DIGIT GROWTH)
September 1, 2007... SAN JOSE -- The EDA Consortium announced that the EDA industry revenue for Q1 of 2007 rose 10 percent to $1,345 million, up $122 million versus Q1 2006. The companies that were tracked employed 25,820 professionals in Q1 2007, up by nearly...

ODMs design expertise fuels growth.(STRATEGIC DESIGN)
September 1, 2007... PALO ALTO, CA -- Current market dynamics point to further outsourcing by OEMs, and as a result, both EMS providers and ODMs will enjoy steady growth during the forecast period, says Frost & Sullivan. Compared to the EMS market, ODMs have...

PCB shipments in summer slump.
September 1, 2007... Rigid PCB shipments among North American fabricators fell 10.7% and bookings dropped 9.8% percent in June, IPC said today. However, rigid shipments were up 12.3% and bookings rose 20.8% sequentially. The book-to-bill ratio for the rigid PCB...

Laboratory expansion.
September 1, 2007... Enthone Inc. has begun construction on a plating applications laboratory here, with a operations scheduled to begin in September. The site will evaluate and validation Enthone processes prior to beta-site field testing, conduct training and...

UIC on the move.
September 1, 2007... Uyemura International Corp., developer of final finishes for the printed circuit industry, has completed its move to an expanded North American headquarters in Ontario, CA. The new location houses corporate staff, human resources and offices...

Complex HDI PCBs, Shanghai style.
September 1, 2007... PCB producer AT&S has started to equip its third plant in Shanghai. Operations at AT&S's first plant in Shanghai began in 2002; the second plant now is also completely operational. The company is ramping up its third production line, completing...

Inventor of the reverse interconnect process keynotes PCB East.(AROUND THE WORLD)
September 1, 2007... ATLANTA -- UP Media Group Inc., parent company of Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture, announced Joseph Fjelstad, founder and president of Verdant Enterprises, will deliver the keynote address at PCB Design Conference East 2007 in Durham, NC,...

Gene H. Weiner & Associates.(FACES)
September 1, 2007... Gene H. Weiner & Associates adds Marc Chason as a senior associate. Chason is a recognized industry expert in the high-tech electronics industry with skills that include engineering management, strategic visioning, technology transfers and new...

Some of the electronics industry's best and brightest have joined Verdant Electronics' Board of Advisors to support the introduction and rollout of the Occam Process.(FACES)
September 1, 2007... Some of the electronics industry's best and brightest have joined Verdant Electronics' Board of Advisors to support the introduction and rollout of the Occam Process. These advisers include: Paul Benke, Dr. Eric Bogatin, John Burke, Tom...

Uyemura International Corp. (UIC).(FACES)
September 1, 2007... Uyemura International Corp. (UIC) hired Gerard O'Brien, a well-known industry expert formerly with Photocircuits, to cover North America. O'Brien joins as an advanced technology/reliability specialist. Franz Glaser (pictured), surface finishing...

Valor Computerized Systems.(FACES)
September 1, 2007... Valor Computerized Systems appointed Kobi Rozengarten as chairman of the board. Rozengarten holds an M.Sc. in industrial management and a B.Sc. in industrial engineering. He served as the president of Saifun and continues as a member of...

Sedona International.(FACES)
September 1, 2007... Sedona International, a provider of specialized engineering, CAD and prototyping services based in Nashua, NH, announced Tom McCole has joined its North American sales team. McCole will be responsible for Northeast Sales.

The Electronic Industries Alliance's board of directors has approved a plan that would split the assets of the trade goup coalition across five distinct organizations.(IT'S A DEAL)
September 1, 2007... The Electronic Industries Alliance's board of directors has approved a plan that would split the assets of the trade goup coalition across five distinct organizations. Under the plan, EIA will distribute its assets equally among its four...

InteliCoat Technologies, manufacturer of coated paper, film, and specialty substrates, announced it has sold its electronic and engineered films business unit to Exopack Holding Inc., a flexible packaging converter and provider of paper and plastic packaging solutions.(IT'S A DEAL)
September 1, 2007... InteliCoat Technologies, manufacturer of coated paper, film, and specialty substrates, announced it has sold its electronic and engineered films business unit to Exopack Holding Inc., a flexible packaging converter and provider of paper and...

NBS Design Inc.(IT'S A DEAL)
September 1, 2007... NBS Design Inc., an integrated contract manufacturer based in Santa Clara, CA, announced the opening of two additional PCB layout facilities. The first, in Dallas, TX, has been in operation since mid-July. Well-known industry veteran Russ Wirth...

Events.(HAPPENINGS)(Calendar)
September 1, 2007... EVENTS SEPTEMBER 17 IDTechExRFID Europe 2007 Churchill College, Cambridge, England Contact: cjennings@idtechex.com 18-21 Embedded Systems Conference Boston Hynes Convention Center, Boston,...

Training for success: understanding the specific needs of your company is key to developing an employee development and training program.(ROI)
September 1, 2007... TRAINING RETAINING AND developing the right people is job one for business success. Most would agree that the most challenging aspect of running a business, regardless of its size, offerings or markets served, is finding, hiring and...

Electro-mechanical design team collaboration: new tools help global design teams meet time-to-market constraints.(DESIGN TOOLS)
September 1, 2007... Regardless of the industry segment, today's consumer products nearly universally follow the trend of greater complexity in a smaller package. In this scenario, the electronics must not only meet the electrical guidelines, but also must meet...

Building and maintaining CAD libraries: choose library tools that store component and land pattern data in a generic format that can be used with any CAD tool.(COMPONENT LIBRARIES)
September 1, 2007... Three driving forces are radically changing CAD library construction. The first is lead-free solder. The next is metric units. And lastly is component manufacturer chaos. This term describes component manufacturers who no longer follow JEDEC...

BGA/PCB interconnect design guidelines: a successful BGA design is the right combination of pad diameter, drill diameter, anti-pad and aspect ratio that maximizes the routing density.(BGA GUIDELINES)
September 1, 2007... A BGA is a surface-mount package used for ICs. Solder balls are stuck to the bottom of the package, and the BGA is placed on a PCB that maintains copper pads in a pattern that matches the solder balls. The assembly is then heated in a reflow...

Optoelectronic substrates--will it happen? The economic model for the optoelectronic interconnect favors high data rate transmission over moderate to long distances, limiting applications to high-end telecommunication systems.(OPTOELECTRONIC ROADMAP)
September 1, 2007... Optoelectronic (OE) interconnect is an alternative to copper that can provide increased bandwidth and other advantages for special applications. For example, OE interconnect does not have the problem of "noise" that a copper interconnect can (a...

A familiar picture: Ibiden reigned (again) as the top PCB fabricator in 2006.(NTI 95)(Cover story)(Company overview)
September 1, 2007... Ed: For discussion of the NTI 95 methodology, see the online version at pcdandm.com/cms/content/view/3730/95/ There may be a few fabricators missing from the list, but, to the best of this author's knowledge, this year's NTI study reveals...

Award winning designs: an interview with Peter Dill, 2007 winner of the Mentor Graphics PCB Technology Leadership Award.(FROM THE FIELD)(Interview)
September 1, 2007... Category: PCB design in the area of Telecommunication Switches, Network Servers, Base Stations and Computer Mainframes. Company Name: IBM Zurich Research Laboratory Designer: Peter Dill Design Description: Controller board for a...

Nanotech final finish.(off the SHELF)
September 1, 2007... Ormecon International introduces a new nanofinish that is only 50 nm thin, and consists of less than 10% silver and over 90% of Ormecon's organic nanometal, according to company sources. The performance is said to be superior to any metal or...

Multilayer design tool.(off the SHELF)
September 1, 2007... Speedstack 2.0 is an automated PCB stack-up creation tool. According to Polar, it reduces the time required for electronic engineers or PCB fabricators to create and document multi-layer PCB stackups. Speedstack uses basic information such as...

Flying probe tester.(off the SHELF)
September 1, 2007... Condor MTS-500 Flying Probe Tester incorporates new drive technology, linear motors and closed-loop technology that, according to Digitaltest, results in 30% faster test speed than previous models while continuing to provide high accuracy in...

Process/product management.(OTHERS OF NOTE)
September 1, 2007... TheTraceability and Control Validation Kit is designed to validate the manufacturing process and provide the potential for rich product and process traceability detail. Reportedly the first measurement tool for manufacturers to validate their...

Faster laser photoplotter film.(OTHERS OF NOTE)
September 1, 2007... Accumax Photoplotter Film ABG7 1907 combines the sensitivity of blue and green lasers, reportedly demonstrating faster speed and wider exposure latitude for use in electronics manufacturing. Builds on technology used in ARD7 film. Designed for...

Electromagnetic field simulator.(OTHERS OF NOTE)
September 1, 2007... Slwave v3.5 is a full-wave electromagnetic field simulator optimized for signal integrity, power integrity and electromagnetic interference analysis of high-speed PCBs and IC packages. Features a finite-element-based DC solver optimized for...

Built-in ESD protection.(OTHERS OF NOTE)
September 1, 2007... Sanmina-SCI Corp. announced the production of PCBs with embedded ESD protection, covering 100% of the components on the board. Sanmina-SCI's PCB division collaborated with Viking InterWorks and Shocking Technotogies to manufacture Viking VLP...

Transparent flex material.(OTHERS OF NOTE)
September 1, 2007... Rogers Corp. introduces a halogen-free, transparent epoxy polyimide laminate system. The material is environmentally friendly and designed for use in flexible circuits. The new R/flex JADE[TM] A epoxy adhesive system is ideal for a wide range...

EDA software.(OTHERS OF NOTE)
September 1, 2007... AutoVue v.19.2 is a new EDA centric product offering that addresses the requirements of PCB design and contract manufacturing. Several industry leading electronics and high-tech companies worked in close collaboration with Cimmetry Systems to...

Top the line: reducing the line width, just the right amount, keeps differential impedance constant.(THE SIGNAL DOCTOR)
September 1, 2007... EVERY ENGINEER RESPONSIBLE for stack up design has used a field solver at one time or another to determine how one or more physical features, like dielectric thickness, affects characteristic impedance. The field solver produces a curve (FIGURE...