• View the Digital Edition

FEATURES

DfF
Are Your PCB Data Unprepared?
It is great to have a fabricator that can provide its “secret sauce” to make the design work, but be ready to get locked into that supplier, because another fabricator’s recipe will be different. As a designer, is that a risk you want to take?
by Jeff Champa

ESD
Why it is Necessary to Change the IC ESD Target Specification Levels
Since the mid 1980s, it has been industry practice to supply ICs with ESD protection, where possible, to meet 2kV HBM ESD. While IC suppliers make every effort to meet these established levels, customers tend to expect these same levels without exception for product qualification. However, numerous products have been shipped with ESD protection on some pins at lower levels to achieve desired performance. Despite this, field returns have not been observed to be different from the products shipped at, or exceeding, the normal target ESD levels. These observations clearly indicate the target ESD levels must be considerably higher than necessary. After 20 “static” years, more realistic measures are needed.
by Dr. Charvaka Duvvury, Dr. Harald Gossner and Dr. Jeremy Smallwood

Component Placement
High Accuracy 01005 Placement
To place 01005 components, the pick process must be very stable. As component spacing will be very narrow, the pickup point of the nozzle must be in the center of the component. Using laser alignment and novel placement force control, accuracy of 50 µm at 4-Sigma is achievable.
by Satoshi Kataoka and Eric Klaver

FIRST PERSON

• Caveat Lector
  Apple’s rotten core.
  Mike Buetow

• Talking Heads
  iNEMI’s Bill Bader.
  Mike Buetow

MONEY MATTERS

• Sherman’s Market
  Migrational shifts.
  Randall Sherman

• Global Sourcing
  China’s labor shortage.
  Tom Coghlan

• ROI
  Hello? Anyone there?
  Peter Bigelow

TECH TALK

• On the Forefront
  Packaging over chips.
  E. Jan Vardaman

• Better Manufacturing
  The missing link.
  James Fuller

• Selective Soldering
  The iconic (and ionic) residual flux.
  Al Cable

• Tech Tips
  Can DoD crack RoHS plating armor?
  ACI Technologies Inc.

• SMT Troubleshooting
  A bridge too far.
  Paul Lotosky

• Defects Database
  Parylene, under the (UV) light.
  Dr. Davide Di Maio

• Materials World
  Phase-change TIM technology.
  Jie Bai

• Technical Abstracts
  In case you missed it.