Deciphering Your Chinese PCB Supplier
Not knowing who you are buying from can present a host of problems that will end up coming out of your pocket and have a direct impact on your clients’ satisfaction. Faulty boards, suppliers refusing to refund money, upfront payment made for boards that never arrive, and delivery issues are the most popular problems I hear.
Aluminum Base Circuit Technology: Structures and Manufacturing Methods
Aluminum is an attractive material for use in the manufacturing of electronic assemblies due to its low cost, good thermal properties, and stability. But due to its innate thermal spreading ability, it's not easily used when solder is required to make interconnections to components. This article describes ways to manufacture electronic assemblies using aluminum as a base and eschewing the use of solder.
Aluminum Base Circuit Technology: Structures and Manufacturing Methods
Aluminum is an attractive material for use in the manufacturing of electronic assemblies due to its low cost, good thermal properties, and stability. But due to its innate thermal spreading ability, it's not easily used when solder is required to make interconnections to components. This article describes ways to manufacture electronic assemblies using aluminum as a base and eschewing the use of solder.
Amitron: Success Via Diversification & India Expansion
Tom Massman, account manager at one of the largest privately-owned board shops in the country, Amitron, joins Editor Ray Rasmussen to discuss how diversified offerings have accelerated growth. The company's facility in India, designed for inline production runs, offers three-week turnaround at costs that rival those found in China.
Buying in China: Pitfalls From Expat PCB Sales Manager
With China becoming a manufacturing superpower, companies can buy boards that are cheaper than ever before. And, because of the Internet, many companies can buy directly from China from anywhere in the world--but it comes at a cost. While prices in China are low, many quality, return/exchange, payment, shipping, and language issues need to be understood when working with them.
MacDermid Focuses on OEM Needs
Lenora Toscano, MacDermid's director of OEM applications, joins Editor Ray Rasmussen to discuss how her division works to discover what challenges OEMs are currently facing, and what their future needs will be, to build a better pipeline--formulating chemicals and processes to benefit the entire industry.
Candor Develops Positive Photoresist
Sunny Patel, technical sales manager at Candor Industries, discusses his company's new positive-acting liquid photoresist process. The process, which Patel says Candor has perfected, has opened up new areas of business and improved overall quality.
Conductive Ink Market: Photovoltaic and Touch Screen Sectors
The photovoltaic market is a large, addressable market, which is growing again after several years of difficulty, when the prices crashed from $3.5/W in 2008 to $0.75/W in 2012. This period of overcapacity was characterised by many companies going bankrupt, closing, or selling. However, the market is showing signs of recovery.
Why Companies Fail at Social Media and What to Do About It
Sales executives should embrace social media more than anyone in a company, but this usually isn't the case. Done well, social media is a means of communicating a company's story to a wide network of people, raising awareness and credibility amongst prospective customers, and solidifying the company as a viable option for when a prospect needs the company’s product or service.
Making Microstrip Coupled Circuits Work
Microstrip transmission lines are widely used throughout the high-frequency industry, for both active and passive circuits. They are building blocks for many components, including couplers, filters, resonators, and power dividers/combiners, along with various coupled features formed from microstrip lines that help transfer energy from one point in the circuit to another.
RF Capacitor Material for Use in PCBs
Using ceramic-filled organic-based composite material, the authors successfully achieved low DF of ~0.002 at GHz frequencies, higher dielectric strength, and better TCC by optimizing size of the filler and controlling its distribution in the polymer matrix. This material can be applicable for use in discrete RF components or embedded within the packaging substrate as an embedded RF capacitor material.
IPC Strengthens Position in China with HKPCA
The 2014 theme, "Building Through Resilience," conveys what the industry is seeing in China. Philip Carmichael, president of IPC Greater China, says, "Steady growth, new technology, and the resilience to take on new challenges in the competitive global printed board industry are all part of China's business environment."
Book Review: Nonstop Sales Boom
"If you plan to buy, read, study, teach from, and hand out just one book this year, it must be 'Nonstop Sales Boom: Power Strategies to Drive Consistent Growth Year After Year' because it has everything you need to be a successful sales manager, salesperson, sales team, and company," writes Columnist Dan Beaulieu.
MorTech's CircaPrint: Advantage for Smaller PCB Shops
Praveen Arya, owner of Canadian Circuits, and Lino Sousa, president of MorTech, join Guest Editor Dan Beaulieu to discuss the advantages of MorTech's low-cost digital ink jet printer. The CircaPrint offers the industry the first three-color (black, white, and yellow) digital Legend printer for small- to medium-sized PCB shops.
Basic Principles of Polymer Thick Film Flexible Circuits
Polymer thick film circuits are similar to their rigid and flexible counterparts; however, because of the materials and processes, they have their own very specific design rules. Because most PTF processing is most commonly based on screen printing technology, the limits of design are intrinsically linked to the printed ink's processing considerations and limitations.
Cutting-edge Materials & Solutions from Aismalibar
Jeff Brandman, president, North America for Aismalibar, joins Guest Editor Mark Thompson to discuss a new line, Cobritherm HTC Ultra Thin, which features a 35-micron dielectric. He also talks about a new diamond-coated router that allows routing as fast as FR-4 and a 200 to 400% increase in productivity.
Bay Area Circuits: 39 Years and Still Growing
Stephen Garcia, president of Bay Area Circuits, joins Guest Editor Dan Beaulieu to discuss the longevity of his company--started by his grandfather in 1975, a move into a new facility in Freemont, California, and the drive to provide excellent customer service and fast turnarounds--some even the same day.
From Single-sided to HDI: The "Three Phone Call Method" Works
Author Dan Smith writes, "One experiences both extreme joy and anxiety when watching a prototype PCB being powered up for the first time. The test bench surrounding the new board resembles an operating room, with probes attached everywhere to an array of oscilloscopes, multimeters, and other indicators. The silence is broken by this electrical engineer when he erupts with the exclamation, "Wow! The circuit works!"
Modern Marketing Strategies with Omni PCB
Tara Dunn, president of Omni PCB, joins Guest Editor Judy Warner to discuss her company's marketing strategy to increase customer interaction through "Coffee Talks," a quick, fast resource where she sits down with industry experts to talk about materials selection, surface finishes, new materials, rigid-flex design, and much more.
Dave Sommervold on Thermal Substrate Materials Standards
Bergquist Company's Engineering Manager Dave Sommervold discusses the need for standards addressing thermal substrate materials and fabrication. He is part of a task group working on IPC-4105, a metal-based laminate standard, and IPC-6012, a metal-based addendum. The group is also in the process of creating thermal performance testing standards which will also address dielectric performance.
Kosmowski Demos Interdyne's New K6 Flying Wing Machine
Recently, PCB007 had the opportunity to visit Wojciech Kosmowski, CTO and chief designer of Interdyne's impressive new K6 Flying Wing drilling machine. He has been focused on improving machine dynamics to significantly increase productivity. His effort resulted in a unique new machine architecture, which he demonstrates in this video.
Testing Todd: Seven Tips for Choosing the Right Test Service
Do you need to go outside your company for your testing service? Maybe you have capacity issues, maybe your equipment is down, or maybe you just want an established back-up plan? Whatever the reason, it is very important to choose the right outside testing service because, ultimately, you're not just choosing an objective service provider; you're choosing a partner.
UL and Standards: Faster, Less Expensive
Doug Sober, IPC Hall of Fame member and standards engineer at Shengyi Technology, the largest copper-clad laminate maker in the world, joins Guest Editor Dan Feinberg to discuss time-to-market and the concerns over the cost of listing a copper-clad laminate and what the IPC's UL Task Group is doing to address these issues.
Why Procuring Flexible Printed Circuitry is Different
Flexible printed circuit (FPC) specifications and quality controls tend to be too tight; FPC is, by nature, a flexible, easily formed product of thin sheets of plastic film and metal foils bonded together with flexibilized adhesives. It is not carved out of billets of metal in a machine shop and it is not reasonable to assign thousandths-of-an-inch tolerances to every dimension.
Advanced Coatings & Surface Preps from Uyemura USA
Don Walsh, director of operations at Uyemura USA, joins Guest Editor Kelly Dack to discuss his company's finishing technology solutions, including PCB finishes, ENIG, ENEPIG, ENEG, ENAG, and much more. The company has just installed its first Nanofics system in Connecticut for plasma work and is ready to produce sample parts.
IPC Printed Electronics Standards Update
Josh Goldberg, marketing specialist with Taiyo America, joins Editor Andy Shaughnessy to discuss specialty materials in printed electronics and how they are being applied to new technologies. Goldberg is also chair of the IPC Printed Electronics Committee and talks about the association's work to define materials, substrates, design and testing rules, and more.
Panel Discussion: Has Outsourcing Lost its Luster?
Moderator Steve Williams joins panelists Dan Beaulieu of D.B. Management and Joe Fjelstad, founder and president of Verdant Electronics, for the Prototron Circuits-sponsored IPC APEX EXPO 2014 panel, "Has Outsourcing Lost its Luster?" The group discusses the changes happening in the electronics industry and the reasons companies are making their way back to the United States.
Panel Discussion: What's New in Flex?
Moderator Joe Fjelstad, founder of Verdant Electronics, joins panelists Al Wasserzug, senior business development manager at Cirexx, and Michael Jawitz, a member of the Research and Technical Group at Boeing, for The PCB List-sponsored IPC APEX EXPO 2014 panel, "What's New in Flex?" The group discusses flex opportunities in the U.S., new industry applications, and much more.
NCAB Expands U.S. Presence, Acquires M-Wave
One of the world's largest suppliers of PCBs, NCAB Group, has acquired 100% of M-Wave International, LLC's PCB Division. Bob Duke, former president of M-Wave's PCB Division, commented, "Being selected by NCAB to be a part of their U.S. team is a great compliment. As the PCB supply market continues to evolve, I felt this was an excellent time for M-Wave to expand its resources."
EPTE Newsletter from Japan: Anytime, Everywhere
Ten years ago it was difficult to find WiFi service in public areas throughout Japan. Nowadays, we can find WiFi signals in almost any public place, including airports, train stations, hotels, shopping malls, restaurants, and more. WiFi service is now even offered on airplanes!
IPC India Planing May APEX EXPO
David Bergman, vice president of international relations at IPC, and A. Vijayendra, managing director of IPC India, join Guest Editor Dick Crowe to discuss the creation of the association in 2010 and the upcoming APEX India, May 19-22, 2014, in Bangalore. Vijayendra and his team take global programs and finds ways to tailor them for local demand and education.
Thermally Conductive Substrates & Thermal Management
Ventec's Ian Mayoh reviews the status of thermally conductive printed circuit substrate options in terms of performance, construction and processing, and future developments. With particular reference to insulated metal cored substrates, he explores the mechanical, thermal performance, and cost considerations when selecting an appropriate IMS material for a particular application.
Sustainability: What and Why?
Joe Fjelstad writes, "The resources of our planet are limited and thus are diminishing as we continue to unleash and ramp-up a seemingly never-ending flow of products to both serve and amuse us with output of the global electronics industry likely to be nearing the top of the list of 'offenders.' In that regard, we are becoming victims of our own success, to one degree or another."