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Happy Thanksgiving From the I-Connect007 Team

As we each take a moment to enjoy life and reflect on the goodness in our lives today, everyone here at I-Connect007 wishes you and yours a Thanksgiving full of family, friends, and lots of delicious carb-laden food. Today, we are also thankful our readers, our columnists and contributors, and our team members.

Marcy’s Musings: Productronica 2023 and Coming Home

Productronica has concluded and I have wrapped up my first two weeks back on the I-Connect007 team. I’m exhausted, and I am looking forward to bit of a “lie in” as they say around here. It’s time to be home. It was a great week in Munich. The show had 42,000 visitors, all descending on 88,000 square meters of show space over eight sprawling halls, to see some 1,400 exhibitors, representing 45 countries worldwide and all parts of the PCB/SMT provider supply chain. It appears the show has regained pre-pandemic levels of engagement, and we congratulate them.

I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week

On a global scale, productronica has been dominating the news this week, mostly with announcements and show preliminaries. It’s been a long and full week for those who have exhibited and attended the trade show (despite the November rain), and I encourage you to review our productronica coverage from this week. In the coming days, we’ll be showcasing more photos, videos, and interviews, so please stay tuned.

Productronica 2023: It’s a Wrap!

It’s the last day of productronica 2023, the doors are closed, and will not reopen until November 2025. The show was a success, however, there is still talk about uncertainty in the economy. Of course, those that service the defense industry are busy, while other industries lag behind. As exhibitors finished up their last conversations, the halls began to empty out, final sales were made, and IPC wrapped up its World Hand Soldering Championship. Even the rain let up for a bit.

Productronica 2023: Day 2 Review

After a rainy Tuesday for the start of productronica, we had a brief respite on Wednesday morning, so we were able to walk from the U-bahn to the west entrance of Messe München without getting wet. We were accompanied by a horde of eager exhibition attendees mobbing the turnstiles to get into what promised to be an even livelier second day of the show. Yes, productronica has come back to life after COVID and re-established its identity as a premier event with more than 1,300 exhibitors from 45 countries, together with an exclusive supporting program.

Productronica 2023: Day 1 Review

The November rain didn’t stop the long line of attendees waiting at the door for productronica 2023 to open Tuesday, November 14 in Munich, Germany. Exhibitors and attendees came from all over the world to be part of this biannual event, and the crowds were strong. The most recent productronica, held in 2021, drew over 19,000 visitors from 68 countries.

Advice From a Young Professional

As I reflect on my opportunity to as the IPC Student Board Member, I'm eager to share three impressions with our wonderful community: Executive leaders of IPC value the input of students and young professionals; the electronics manufacturing industry is undergoing a changing of the guard, and many of the most experienced players are looking to share their hard-earned wisdom. I've been exceptionally fortunate to receive invaluable career advice that I wish to pass on to anyone else beginning their professional career.

Munich Opening Its Doors to productronica 2023 This Week

Messe Munchen's productronica 2023, one of the world’s biggest electronics manufacturing trade shows, begins Tuesday in Munich. The key topics for this year’s forums and live demonstrations are power electronics, AI, and sensors in electronics production. The show features more than 1,300 exhibitors occupying nearly 90,000 square meters in eight halls of the massive 200,000 square meter venue.

I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week

This week's edition focuses almost entirely on young people. This in itself is quite a feat as not long ago, there were no young people coming into this industry. Now, we have a small but steady stream of young folks entering the industry, and we’re focusing on providing them with the latest training and education. Our industry, for a variety of reasons, is now attractive to people born in this millennium. Didn’t see that coming!

Simplifying Your Design

For this issue on simplifying PCB designs, the I-Connect007 Editorial Team spoke with IPC instructor Kris Moyer about ways that designers can avoid over-constraining their designs and making them needlessly complex. As Kris says, streamlining your design comes down to having a solid understanding of fab and assembly processes and the silicon tradeoffs that can simplify or overcomplicate your design, as well as the need to start working with fabricators early in the cycle.

PCB Carolina 2023 Breaks Attendance, Exhibitor Records

Call it a good problem to have. PCB Carolina 2023 was so big that that exhibitors were literally spilling out of the show floor at NC State’s MacKimmon Center for Continuing and Lifelong Education. This year, PCB Carolina drew 1,200 attendees and so many exhibitors that some “overflow” booths had to be set up in a classroom near the show floor, as well as in the registration area. Where did all these attendees come from? The line for lunch and dinner looked what you’d see at DesignCon

Meet the New Workforce at IPS

I recently visited IPS in Cedar City, Utah, which has been manufacturing wet process equipment for printed circuit boards fabrication for more than 30 years. While there, I conducted candid one-on-one interviews with several of the team members. They shared their views on manufacturing, their roles and challenges, their burgeoning passion for what they do, and valuable advice for others looking at manufacturing as a career.

AI Revolution Reshaping the Future of PCB Manufacturing 

In the rapidly evolving landscape of PCB manufacturing, the integration of machine learning (ML) in the context of smart factories is ushering in a new era of efficiency, adaptability, and competitiveness within the industry. This article explores how ML is revolutionizing various facets of smart factories, including predictive maintenance, quality control, production, and inventory optimization.

I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week

When I use our analytics to see what’s of most interest to our readers, what comes to the top of list are topics such as sustainability, materials, reshoring, upskilling, and high reliability. It makes sense, doesn’t it? In today’s business climate, we must be ever aware of the impact we’re having on the environment while maintaining a high-quality product that supports our national economic and security interests.

New Materials Simplify Fab and Design Processes

During PCB West, Andy Shaughnessy and Kelly Dack met with Paul Cooke, senior director of business development, Ventec International Group. In this interview, Paul discusses some of the global trends he’s seeing in new materials that address the issue of stacked microvia failure, and his drive to educate North American designers about the use of pure resin and no-flow materials. 

Financial Risks of Ignoring Copper Grain

The topic of intrinsic copper structure has been largely neglected in discussions regarding the PCB fabrication quality control process. At face value, this seems especially strange considering that copper has been the primary conductor in all wiring boards and substrates since they were first invented. IPC and other standards almost exclusively address copper thickness with some mild attention being paid to surface structure for signal loss-mitigation/coarse properties. 

Planning, DFM, and Inspection: Key to High-reliability Fab

At PCB West, Andy Shaughnessy and Kelly Dack spoke with Marc L’Hoste, VP of West and South Americas for ICAPE Group, a company that supplies and manufactures high-tech PCBs at locations around the world. We asked Marc to share some advice regarding high-reliability fab. In this conversation, Marc is clear that planning, pre-work, and inspection are the key ingredients to high-reliability success.

I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week

I don’t know everything, but I know one thing: This job is never boring. Here’s just a sample of what we’ve published online in the last week: an article on zero liquid discharge technology, an interview with a flex fabricator about avoiding DFM issues, a feature on the use of AI in smart assembly processes, a news item about investment in advanced substrate development in the U.S., and a story about one woman’s journey in electronics, starting when she learned to solder at 11 years old.

With Flex and Rigid-flex, Ask the Right Questions

I recently met with Tony Plemel, senior applications engineer with Flexible Circuit Technologies. In this interview, Tony discusses when flex designers need to break the rules, when they can’t break the rules, and why it’s so important for fabricators to ask designers the right questions to ensure a successful build.

Advanced Materials Update with John Andresakis

At PCB West, I sat down for an interview with John Andresakis, the director of business development for Quantic Ohmega. I asked John to update us on the company’s newest materials, trends in advanced materials, and the integration of Ticer Technologies, which Quantic acquired in 2021. As John explains, much of the excitement in materials focuses on laminates with lower and lower dielectric constants.

Forecasting the Wind: IPC's Expert Economist on the Impact of Inflation Rates

In the enchanting world of Shakespeare's plays, prophecies often set the stage for unforeseen twists and turns. Just as Macbeth could not have anticipated the tumultuous journey that lay ahead after encountering the three witches, the financial markets and policymakers find themselves in a similarly uncertain terrain. Take prices, which rose sharply in 2022. The Federal Reserve was slow to respond. Although the rate of inflation has declined since reaching its zenith last year, it continues to exceed the Federal Reserve's 2% inflation goal. “Higher for longer” is likely the mantra for interest rates. This prolonged period of higher interest rates will have a ripple effect on various sectors of the economy.

Reducing Waste Makes Good Business Sense

Alex Stepinski, president of Stepinski Group, and Mike Brask, president of IPS, announce a new partnership to bring Alex’s latest generation zero liquid-discharge (ZLD) waste control systems to market. Alex first developed the ZLD concept 10 years ago at a state-of-the-art PCB manufacturing facility. Over the years he refined and improved the entire system to increase efficiency and lower cost, and different versions of the system are currently used in several facilities around the world. 

Alex Stepinski on High-reliability Fabrication 

Alex Stepinski, principal and president of Stepinski Inc., and principal of Smart Process Design, has designed leading-edge PCB facilities and introduced a variety of novel systems and technologies into PCB manufacturing. We asked Alex to share his thoughts on high-reliability fabrication techniques, where manufacturers go wrong, and what fabricators need to do to step up their reliability game.

PCBflow Fosters Collaboration Between Design and Manufacture 

During PCB West, I spoke with Susan Kayesar, program manager for PCBflow, a business unit of Siemens that provides a collaboration environment for designers and manufacturers. We discussed the intent behind PCBFlow and how this platform helps to improve pre-manufacture communications. 

I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week

My must-reads for this week all seem to be forward-looking: an introduction to Factory 5.0, an interview from the floor at SMTA International on rework stations, announcement of a merger of two components suppliers, board of directors news, and an insightful PCB CAD tool market projection report.
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