2015 Magazine Archives
February 2015 Issue
FEATURES
COMPONENT SELECTION
01005: Size Does Matter
Designing PCBs with 01005 components involves tighter constraints in regard to component spacing, layout, and other related considerations, as well as access to higher levels of automation at assembly.
by Arbel Nissan
FLEX DESIGN
Designing Flex Circuits for Wearable Electronics
The human body has very few flat, rigid surfaces, and standard PCBs don’t easily conform to its various contours. This is where flexible circuitry really shines. But while flex circuits are able to conform to the many twists and turns of a human body, they still have limitations.
by Mark Finstad
01005 REWORK
What You Cannot See Can Be Hand Soldered
The extremely small size of an 01005 package presents unique production challenges when it comes to board and pad design, board fabrication, stencil design, solder paste selection, stencil printing placement process, and the reflow process, pushing the limit of current practices. This leads to many situations where rework will be required, no small feat given that dust particles might be as large as the pad itself. Yet, contrary to widely held opinion, a variety of viable 01005 hand soldering rework methods do not rely on capital intensive, difficult to operate, complex rework systems.
by Paul Wood And Bob Wettermann
INSPECTION
Zooming in on Digital Microscopes
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a live high-definition video or high-resolution still is priceless, especially when inspecting small devices, producing documentation or describing problems to multiple viewers simultaneously – even those connected remotely via the Internet.
by Chrys Shea And Kristoffer Tømmergaard
FIRST PERSON
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CAVEAT LECTOR
Data driven.
Mike Buetow
MONEY MATTERS
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ROI
Looking inside.
Peter Bigelow -
FOCUS ON BUSINESS
Avoiding the commodity pitch.
Susan Mucha
TECH TALK
- SCREEN PRINTING
Tooling block height.
Clive Ashmore - DEFECTS DATABASE
Underfill voiding.
Dr. Chris Hunt - TECH TIPS
The hidden corruption of dirty tweezers.
Karl Seelig and Tim O’Neill - TEST AND INSPECTION
What’s in your boundary scan toolbox?
Jun Balangue - GETTING LEAN
Lean cells for the “fat” factory.
Michael Ford
