PRODUCTRONICA RECAP
At Productronica, the Machines Did the Talking
At the largest electronics trade show outside Asia, equipment vendors emphasized their ties to one or more of the various machine communication protocols under development.
by Mike Buetow
COUNTERFEIT MITIGATION
Attack of the Clones
The black market for parts continues to proliferate, despite extensive work to “search and destroy.” Could safe-haven regions be the answer to preventing counterfeit intrusions?
by Joseph Fama
EMS COMPANY OF THE YEAR
The DNA of Firstronic
America’s fastest growing Tier II EMS is applying its amped-up version of Lean manufacturing to conquer the automotive electronics market.
by Mike Buetow
In Memoriam
A look back at friends and colleagues who left us in 2017.
CAVEAT LECTOR
Lots of talk about machine communication.
Mike Buetow
ROI
Annoyed by the acronyms.
Peter Bigelow
PANELIZATION
Reducing PCB Costs through Panel Optimization
Many OEMs consider panelization a manufacturing task and blindly delegate those decisions to their fabricators and assemblers. In doing so, they are missing an opportunity to affect material expenses, a leading cost driver for PCBs.
by Patrick McGoff
EMS PROFILES
3 Days with EMS in the Valley
For every Silicon Valley-area EMS plant, large or small, there are almost as many business models. On recent trips to the area, our editors visited and spoke with three companies that are blazing very different trails on their paths to success. On the road at Sunnytech/Kaga, Rocket EMS and Tempo Automation.
by Mike Buetow and Chelsey Drysdale
INSPECTION
Imaging and Analysis Using Matched Acoustic Tools
Acoustic micro imaging can be used for internal inspection of everything from simple
plastic packages to stacked die wafers without causing damage or affecting the results.
And it's proving to be an effective means to boost yield and cut costs.
by Tom Adams
Upbeat Mood, and Talk of Parts Issues, at SMTAI
The (stellar) keynote might have promoted augmented reality, but improved mood among exhibitors and attendees alike at SMTAI was anything but imagined.
by Mike Buetow
CAVEAT LECTOR
Voice prompts.
Mike Buetow
ROI
Putting an end to the endless inspections.
Peter Bigelow
PLATING
Black Pad Revisited
Black pad is often the root cause of solderability issues. How do you differentiate it from other soldering defects? And why should you care?
by Martine Simard-Normandin and Christina Banks
PURCHASING
Industry 4.0 and Supply Chain Disruption
A pure electronic data interchange (EDI) model works well for projects that are up and running, assuming no constraints. The challenge comes when component demand exceeds capacity – and it is.
by Wally Johnson
SOURCING
Navigating Supply Chain Disruption: One EMS Provider’s Approach
With lead times for some parts out to 63 weeks, understanding planning tools and methods becomes more critical than ever.
by Priyanka Dobriyal
'Pushing the Cart': 25 Years of Zestron
As it reaches its silver anniversary, the cleaning company's CEO, Harald Wack, reflects on the inspirations of his father and Zestron founder Oskar Wack.
by Mike Buetow
CAVEAT LECTOR
Big problems.
Mike Buetow
ROI
What the P in IP really stands for.
Peter Bigelow
NTI-100
Automotive Driving Fabricator Gains
For fabricators whose major customers were Apple and Samsung, growth was hard to come by in 2016. But suppliers to the auto sector were revving up.
by Dr. Hayao Nakahara
FACTORY 4.0
Lights-Out Electronics Assembly
Running PCB assembly lines without operators for an extended period of time is the holy grail of manufacturing. A look at the state-of-the-art technologies to put that goal within a robot’s reach.
by Ranko Vujosevic, Ph.D.
LEADERSHIP
The Women’s Leadership Program is Not Just for Women
Speakers for the annual SMTAI event discuss their backgrounds, mentors, and why engineering was the right field for them.
by Priyanka Dobriyal
CAVEAT LECTOR
Soldering out of thin air.
Mike Buetow
ROI
North America: Better than you think.
Peter Bigelow
SALARY SURVEY
Among Designers, Compensation, Job Satisfaction on the Rise
If PCD&F’s latest data are any indication, more than half of today’s PCB designers plan to work in the field for no more than the next 10 years. The good news: Salaries are at their highest point yet – and so is job satisfaction.
by Chelsey Drysdale
CLEANING
Evaluating Rinsing Effectiveness in Spray-In-Air Cleaners
In general, spray-in-air systems include wash, rinse and dry cycles. Engineered cleaning agents are critical to the process. In addition to the ability to solubilize the residues, they exhibit low surface tension averaging about 30 dynes/cm, whereas pure DI-water has an average surface tension of 70 dynes/cm. Given the low-standoff heights of components on today’s PCBs, low surface tension is required to enable the cleaning agent to penetrate underneath components for contact and solubilize the residue. The rinse cycle is critical to the process, for the rinse water must penetrate the same low standoff components in order to “rinse” or remove the residue-laden cleaning agent. However, rinsing uses pure DI water. Given the surface tension of water, how effective is this process?
by Umut Tosun and Jigar Patel
CAVEAT LECTOR
What making PCBs looks like at 14.
Mike Buetow
ROI
Making a point about the “single point of failure.”
Peter Bigelow
CLEANING
Failure Analysis of PCBA Contamination
In general, ionic contamination requires a few catalysts to grow: ions, moisture and a power source. Failure analysis of PCBA contamination starts with understanding the makeup of the contamination.
by Scott Mazur
ZOLLNER
Coming to America
Germany’s Zollner, the largest privately held EMS in the world, has been inching into the Americas for years. Has its time to shine finally come?
by Mike Buetow
CAVEAT LECTOR
Jim Raby, RIP.
Mike Buetow
ROI
Supply chain separation.
Peter Bigelow