Whether in wire or trace form, keep copper thickness in mind for your design.

Once upon a time, about eight decades back, we didn’t have printed circuit boards. We had copper wires that came in various diameters. Carrying a larger amount of current requires conductors of a larger diameter. These various diameters were identified by the American Wire Gauge (AWG) where smaller numbers indicated thicker wires. There is a metric equivalent where the opposite is true – a higher number for a thicker conductor. Set that aside for this discussion.

Heavy gauge wire for power. A 12- to 14-gauge wire is about the diameter of a cooked spaghetti noodle (~2mm) and is commonly found in power cords for smaller electronics such as a table lamp or a fan. An electric dryer running on 220V will require something between 10- and 6-gauge wire depending on the amperage of the appliance. Again, smaller numbers refer to larger cross-sections.

For the sake of flexibility, these thicker wires are typically constructed of several smaller wires twisted like a candy cane prior to adding the insulation coating. The coating itself is not part of the gauge, only the conductor matters in that regard.

On the cusp of 6G, are we also on the verge of a materials breakthrough?

The world has barely experienced a fraction of the services 5G mobile promised to deliver, and already the drive toward 6G is gathering momentum. The standardization process begins this year, and the final specifications are expected to be released in 2028, with rollout beginning in 2030. It’s proof, if more were needed, that we are an impatient and ambitious species.

Ericsson has helpfully described the 6G standardization process, which is expected to permit a much cleaner transition than we have seen in the move from 4G to 5G. Although 6G will leverage some 5G infrastructure, particularly in the core, connectivity will be standalone from the start and should perform better as a result. It’s hard to grasp, but 6G data rates and latency are expected to be about 1000 times faster than those of 5G.

The bigger picture is working toward a pervasively connected world that supports our lives and adapts to our needs, wherever we are and however those needs change in real-time. Wireless is the only connectivity that can do this for us. Realizing the necessary connections is extremely challenging at every level, from the standards-setting efforts undertaken by the 3GPP, the global body managing mobile standards, to the subcomponent level – including the new materials we must develop to build the systems that can realize the performance promised in the specifications.

How does AI contribute to continuous improvement?

Depending on whom you talk to, artificial intelligence (AI) is likely to open amazing possibilities or lead to the end of humanity as we know it. The reality is that when appropriately used, AI eliminates a lot of repetitive tasks that have high levels of variation and cost when done manually. In the quality realm, this opens the door to a discussion about whether a truly automated inspection process is a non-value-added or necessary non-value-added activity.

Manual inspection is costly, and accuracy can vary widely among operators, the time of day the activity is performed, or even the day of the week the activity is performed. Quality philosophy has long held that it is better to prevent defect opportunities (quality assurance) than to try to inspect them out (quality control). If a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) can be 100% visually inspected by machines during SMT and secondary assembly processes without significant throughput time, however, does it make sense to do so? Let’s look at the pros and cons:

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An unwanted constant in my life is weekly unsolicited queries, like this:

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I sent you an email Wednesday explaining that we have set aside $100,000,000 to buy electrical companies.

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Best,
Chad