Latest Articles

RBP Discusses New Management and Plans for the Future

Ernie Litynski, president of RBP Chemical Technology and Dan Carey, incoming executive vice president, brief Nolan Johnson on the recent organizational changes that brought Carey on board. Both Litynski and Carey outline how they see these changes benefiting their customers and partners, including in the defense and aerospace sectors. As they explain, it's their expertise at helping solve problems that customers value most.

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

This month—and this year, really—has just flown by. As someone mentioned to me recently, “There are basically only three full work weeks before New Year’s Day.” Yikes. Thanksgiving is next week, which means most of your customers and suppliers will be hard to reach. Unless there’s a problem, that is! In that case, they’ll find you, even if you’re carving a turkey with the kids and grandkids. So, with a short week on the horizon, most of us are in overdrive now, trying to get ahead of the game.

New Methods for Quantifying PCB Design Weaknesses and Manufacturing Challenges

Gerry Partida explains, "The industry is at a new point in evolving how we look at building boards. Our industry has historically built boards and then tried to find a test for them. Then, when they found a test for it, they figured out that it needed to be analyzed before they built the board. We did this with electrical test. We built boards and down the road, as people started asking, “Why am I buying bad boards? We should electrically test them,” electrical test was introduced, reluctantly, into the test part of manufacturing printed circuit boards by suppliers or fabricators. Then they embraced it. But when we started testing boards, we did comparison tests."

DuPont Discusses Acquisition of Rogers Corporation

Nolan Johnson gets the latest news from Avi Avula, vice president and general manager of Interconnect Solutions at DuPont, regarding the recent announcement of DuPont’s intent to acquire Rogers Corporation. Avula outlines the motivation for the acquisition, and how the two companies complement each other. Avula also gives some detail on how this might affect customers and business operations, under the proviso that it is early in the process and that many details have not yet been worked out.

Fascinating Opportunities in Flying Probe Testing

Pete Starkey visits with Peter Brandt, director of sales, Europe and Japan for atg Luther & Maelzer, who reflects upon joining the Mycronic group and goes on to discuss market and technology trends in testing, and what to expect from atg at this year’s productronica. "There are big challenges regarding accuracy and measurement methods for our flying probe. But this is a high-volume business. This means we only participate in smaller production quantities, because you can say 99.9% of this market for electrical testing will be covered by dedicated testers, using high-density, and high-cost fixtures," Brandt says.

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

Welcome to Friday in mid-November. If you're celebrating Thanksgiving, have you made up your menu and bought the turkey? It will be here before you know it. Around here, we're talking financial news and I've selected my top five financial news items of the week. There was plenty to choose from and my picks this week highlight a few of the most-read financial news pieces from our industry, as well as a couple high-interest technology related pieces. We also released our latest webinar, an 11-part series from the expert at GEN3. Definitely check that one out!

Aismalibar on Thermally-Conductive Solutions

Pete Starkey chats with Eduardo Benmayor about the products Aismalibar will be bringing to productronica 2021, and how the pandemic gave the company time to really work on internal processes.

Honoring Those Who Served

On this Veteran’s Day holiday, the I-Connect007 staff takes a moment to honor those men and women over the years, who served to protect and defend their country. Just on the I-Connect007 staff, we have loved ones who served, ranging from World War I to present-day active-duty military. The holiday isn’t intended to be a political statement, but rather a reflection on service, duty, and personal sacrifice. In some cases, the ultimate sacrifice. Our staff has submitted images of veterans who are near and dear to their hearts. Check them out!

Do You Really Need to Buy New Equipment?

When we began looking into CapEx strategies for PCB manufacturing, we ran into a few company owners who were proud of making their old fabrication equipment last for decades. We recently spoke about CapEx planning with Alex Stepinski, former VP of GreenSource Fabrication, who built a zero-wastewater PCB fabrication facility from the ground up. As Alex explains, your old equipment might actually last for decades, and if you need new equipment, you might find what you’re looking for in another industry.

Taiyo Discusses New Inkjet Technology and Solder Mask for Flex

At PCB West, Nolan Johnson spoke with Brian Wojtkiewicz of Taiyo about some of the company’s new inkjet technology, which will be manufactured in the U.S. Brian also discusses a new solder mask that has been developed especially for the flexible circuit segment of the industry. "They basically want to keep all the same specifications with regular solder mask, so we’re trying to keep all of that: the printability of it and how it looks. We’re getting a lot more interest on the colors. They just don’t want green anymore. They want it to be standard blue, reds, and whites and stuff like that."

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

It’s merger mania! Yes, there’s been a lot of M&A activity lately in our industry over the past few months. This week was no different when it comes to merger activities. In this week’s selections, we have news about DuPont’s acquisition of Rogers, Nano Dimension’s merger with Essemtec, and NCAB’s acquisition of Elmatica. We also have news from SMTA International, and an interview with Joe Clark of DownStream Technologies about their new flex and rigid-flex technology.

NCAB Discusses Recent Merger with Elmatica

I-Connect007’s Nolan Johnson catches up with Anders Forsén, chief financial officer at NCAB Group, to get an update on the recently announced acquisition of Elmatica by NCAB. In this audio interview from the NCAB headquarters in Sweden, Anders details how he sees Elmatica and NCAB working together to deliver a stronger solution for customers.

DFM 101: PCB Via Structures

One of the biggest challenges facing PCB designers is not understanding the cost drivers in the PCB manufacturing process. This article is the latest in a series that will discuss these cost drivers (from the PCB manufacturer’s perspective) and the design decisions that will impact product reliability.

Polar Instruments: Pandemic and Parts Shortage Lead to More R&D Time

During PCB West, I met with Geoffrey Hazelett, VP of sales for Polar Instruments. He explained how the pandemic actually helped Polar’s R&D in the long run, and why the current parts shortages may offer a similar benefit for OEMs, who can now spend more time in what he calls “forced R&D.”

Real Time With... productronica: SÜSS MicroTec on Supply Chain Options

Dr. Luca Gautero, product manager at SÜSS MicroTec, discusses marketing strategies for inkjet printing of solder mask, and explains how collaborative development along the supply chain has introduced new options for the designer and demonstrated the real benefits of this technology to the OEM.

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

This week’s top picks, as influenced by readership interest, don’t seem to hold to a particular theme. Previously, I’ve referred to this as a potpourri, and now that I’ve done that once, I can’t really do so again, can I? How about a mixed bag? No, I don’t think so. While the news is certainly a diverse assortment, this just feels too obvious.

Bring Our Industry Back? Shift Your Attitude

Dan Beaulieu discusses some comments he made in a recent column and why this is an opportunity for our industry in North America to retool, refocus, and make one fundamental shift in our plan to bring our industry back.

EIPC Technical Snapshot Review: Packaging Trends and a PTFE Masterclass

In circumstances that forced the postponement of its live conferences, seminars and workshops, EIPC has continued to provide its platform for the exchange and dissemination of market knowledge and technical information to the European interconnection and packaging industry. October 22 brought the 12th in the sequence, introduced and moderated by Martyn Gaudion, EIPC board member and CEO of Polar Instruments.

Real Time With... SMTAI: Anaya Vardya of American Standard Circuits

Anaya Vardya, president and CEO at American Standard Circuits, speaks with Nolan Johnson ahead of the SMTA International exposition. Vardya shares why American Standard Circuits will be exhibiting at the show, and outlines the topics ASC will be presenting on the show floor.

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

There’s a lot going on in the industry this week, and my top five picks have a little bit of everything.

Soldering to Aluminum With Mina

At DesignCon, I caught up with Divyakant Kadiwala of Averatek Corporation. He spent a few minutes explaining a special process developed by Averatek that allows technologists to solder to aluminum.

Made in the USA

Barry Matties interviewed Thomas Walsh and Travis Houchin of Integrated Process Systems regarding industry trends they’re seeing in capital expenditure and the changes they have noticed in their customers’ requirements.

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

Well, William Shatner finally did the field research for his role as Captain James T. Kirk this week, going sub-orbital on the Blue Origin launch platform. No, I’m not making fun of Shatner’s flight, quite the contrary. He’s the first actor in the entire Star Trek franchise to go into space while still living. And at 90 years old, he’s now the oldest person to make the trip as well!

Making Process Decisions in a Greenfield

While SEL is new to manufacturing PCBs, we have more than 35 years of experience in manufacturing. In addition to assembling our own PCBs and building completed units, we also manufacture many of the critical components used in our products and solutions, such as transformers and plastics.

Tribal Knowledge and Design Data Formats

I recently began to investigate “tribal knowledge” in PCB and PCBA operations. My goal was to determine whether anything of value would be lost if it were not recorded or preserved for future industry technologists. In the face of modern material science and industry standards, the descriptive title “tribal knowledge” suggests that one must determine what is fact, what is fiction, and what may just be plain embellishment, coincidence, or even magic. In many cases, tribal knowledge seems to be composed of memories of problems solved due to trial and error, coupled with observations of resulting causes and effects.
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