Driven by high-profile regulations compliance like the TREAD Act, warranty management has become a hot topic across industries worldwide....

Radio frequency identification (RFID) ICs are a popular alternative to barcodes for PCB tracking applications. This article outlines some of the challenges that may be encountered when implementing an RFID system...

The advantages of the Compression Mount Technology (CMT) when using AdvancedTCA and MicroTCA connectors....

The silver end termination plays an important role for multilayer chip inductors. A basic requirement is to achieve excellent electrical properties with superior adhesion to the chip. Driven by the increasing price of silver, interest has been shown to ...

This article looks at each of the roles of the engineer and PCB designer, considers the traditional design process, and makes suggestions on how the designer can contribute significantly to improving a design’s overall signal integrity while simultaneousl...

Variability analysis is important in successfully deploying multi-gigabit backplane printed wiring boards (PWBs) with growing numbers of high-speed SerDes links. We discuss the need for large sample sizes to obtain accurate variability estimates of SI me...

The introduction of the 01005 chip components in 2004 was a challenge to the whole electronics equipment assembly industry. The components’ miniature size made them difficult to see, let alone place reliably with high accuracy. Designers were reluctant to...

The utilisation of Automated Optical Inspection systems has become an integral part in quality assurance of electronic assemblies. Depending on batch size and product mixture, AOI systems as Inline integration or as a stand-alone solution benefit efficien...

When reworking more complex SMT components such as finer pitch SMT components, SMTconnectors and even area array devices, the most common method of printing on the printing selectively on the PCB has some serious shortcomings. The most significant problem...

As technology becomes increasingly reliant on electronics, understanding the reliability of lead-free solder also becomes increasingly important. This research project focused on phase transformation kinetics with the lead-free solder SAC 305. Today in ...