Pete’s Top Ten PCB Articles for 2015
1. Barry Matties and Bryan Bernas: Whelen Engineering Reduces Cycle Time by Building a New Automated PCB Factory
The future of american manufacturing might be found in the small community of charlestown, new hampshire, at Whelen engineering. A company founded and headquartered in connecticut in the 1950s, Whelen is a leading manufacturer of all things relating to emergency lights and sirens for the automobile and aviation industries.
2. Alun Morgan: Fire Retardancy: What, Why and How
Flame retardants are compounds, which when added to materials during or after manufacture, inhibit or suppress the combustion process.
3. Tarja Rapala-Virtanen, et al: Next-Generation Ultra-Thin HDI PCB Manufacturing Challenges
High-density interconnection (HDI) PCB technology is advancing to enable increased miniaturization and functionality of products such as smartphones, tablet computers and wearable devices.
4. Dr. Jon Harrop: Opportunities for 3D Printed Structural Electronics
Today’s 3d printers have many limitations, but the boundaries are being pushed and exciting developments are continuously being made. One of the most promising recent developments in the world of 3d printing is multimaterial printing.
5. Michael Carano: OSP and Selective Electroless Nickel for Mixed-Metal Finish PWBs and BGA Substrates
Pressure to eliminate lead in electronics assemblies is forcing fabricators and OEMs to reevaluate their surface finish and joint attachment procedures.
6. M.Cauwe, et al: Flexible and Stretchable Circuit Technologies for Space Applications
Flexible and stretchable circuit technologies offer reduced volume and weight, increased electrical performance, larger design freedom and improved interconnect reliability. All of these advantages are appealing for space applications.
7. George Milad: ENEPIG—The Plating Process
Electroless nickel/electroless palladium/immersion gold (ENEPIG) is sometimes referred to as the universal finish, because of the versatility of its applications. It is a multifunctional surface finish, applicable to soldering and wire bonding (gold, aluminum, copper and palladium clad copper).
8. Mark Goodwin: A Well-Designed Laminate Supply Chain has to Own It!
Designing a supply chain for the provision of laminates and prepregs to the pcB fabricator shouldn’t be that complicated, should it? The laminate is simply manufactured and then shipped...what could possibly go wrong?
9. Dan Feinberg: Automotive Technology—the Next Driving Force in Electronic Manufacturing
We started with aM and then FM radios, then full stereo systems complete with tape, then disk, then SSD storage; we added speed control then GPS, and then mapping. the higher-end vehicles now have collision and obstruction warning, back-up cameras, driver fatigue warning… and some have self-parking… But in the automotive segment, as the man once said, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
10. Todd Kolmodin: Splitting Hairs—The Manufacture of HDI and Substrate Test Fixtures
Testing of higher-density product has become ever more challenging with the advancement of chip technology. BGAs, CCDs and other active components have decreased in size so much that historical industry accepted test methodology can no longer effectively test these newer substrates incorporating this higher technology.