FEATURES

• Program Management
  Maximizing Lean
  While customers want flexibility and long-term paths to cost reduction that Lean supports, they aren’t always agreeable to the necessary internal changes. But the smaller the effort, the smaller the result.
  By Todd Baggett

• Component Packaging
  Copper as a Viable Solution for IC Packaging
  As gold prices spike, some are turning to copper in ball-bonding processes for its conductivity and lower cost.
  By Sheila Rima C. Magno, Jean Ramos, Eduardo Pecolera and Chris Stai

• Recent Patents
  Embedded Active Components for High-Rel Products
  Inside the missile, a heavy module on the board surface was breaking loose and failing. The answer: A solderless, wire-bonded chip-to-board solution covered with copper "lids" to quell vibration.
  By Jim D. Raby

• COVER STORY
  XRF Equipment as a RoHS Screening Tool
  A jointly funded industry/DTI collaborative project, led by the National Physical Laboratory, investigated the suitability of XRF techniques for determining the presence and levels of RoHS-restricted substances in typical electronics components. The 15-system study found most – but not all – are viable.
  By Martin Wickham and Dr. Christopher Hunt

FIRST PERSON

• Caveat Lector
  Rabid for Raby.
  Mike Buetow

• Letters

MONEY MATTERS

• Global Sourcing
  Bad parts, like colds, come from anywhere, and no one is immune. A new database might help.
  Mike Buetow

TECH TALK

• Better Manufacturing
  Keep an eye on vision.
  Phil Zarrow

• Tech Tips
  Large BGA attachment profiling.
  American Competitiveness Institute

• Selective Soldering
  Wave or selective for high-rel products?
  Ursula Marquez de Tino

• Test and Inspection
  The fixture is in.
  Stacy Kalisz Johnson

• Process Doctor
  Localized extraction clearly shows residue volumes at isolated spots.
  Terry Munson

• Pb-Free Lessons Learned
  Wake up to the value of boards.
  Chrys Shea

• Technical Abstracts

DEPARTMENTS

Industry News
Market Watch
Product Spotlight
Ad Index
Assembly Insider

On the cover: An NPL study finds XRF systems beat chemical analysis for unit and operational costs, and time to results. (Photo courtesy RMD Instruments)