Electronics Manufacturing Technical Articles

May 16, 2013

John Davignon, iNEMI Chair

In response to a growing concern within the Electronic Industry to the transition to Halogen-Free laminates (HFR-Free) within the Client Market space (Desktop and Notebook computers) iNEMI initiated a HFR-Free Leadership Workgroup to evaluate the readiness of the Industry to make this transition. The HFR-Free Leadership WG concluded that the electronic industry is ready for the transition and that the key electrical and thermo-mechanical properties of the new HFR-Free laminates can meet the required criteria. The HFR-Free Leadership WG verified that the laminate suppliers can meet the capacity demands for these new HFR-Free laminates and developed a "Test Suite Methodology" (TSM) that can facilitate the comparison and choice of the right laminate to replace brominated FR4 in the Client space... First published in the 2012 IPC APEX EXPO technical conference proceedings....

May 10, 2013

Paul Groome

In today’s manufacturing environments, optimizing manufacturing costs and, especially Test and Inspection costs are high on most company’s agendas. Resources are tight and many employees have multiple roles to fulfill across the whole manufacturing line so, time is limited. Test suppliers need to provide a suite of tools to ensure the highest level of quality for customer shipments. ...

May 09, 2013

Bo Song, Michael H. Azarian and Michael G. Pecht

Atmospheric dust consists of solids suspended in air. Dust is well known for its complex nature. It normally includes inorganic mineral materials, water soluble salts, organic materials, and a small amount of water. The impact of dust on the reliability of printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs) is ever-growing, driven by the miniaturization of technology and the increasing un-controlled operating conditions with more dust exposure in telecom and information industries... First published in the 2012 IPC APEX EXPO technical conference proceedings....

May 02, 2013

Don Banfield

Summary of some new and existing technologies for printed electronics outside of traditional membrane switch manufacturing. Discussion of requirements for understanding the technology of these applications in order to capitalize on them... First published in the 2012 IPC APEX EXPO technical conference proceedings....

Apr 25, 2013

Scott Hinaga, Soumya De, Aleksandr Y. Gafarov, Marina Y. Koledintseva, James L. Drewniak

Specification and control of surface roughness of copper conductors within printed circuit boards (PCBs) are increasingly desirable in multi-GHz designs as a part of signal-integrity failure analysis on high-speed PCBs. The development of a quality-assurance method to verify the use of foils with specified roughness grade during the PCB manufacturing process is also important... First published in the 2012 IPC APEX EXPO technical conference proceedings....

Apr 18, 2013

Carlos Montemayor

Conformal coatings are considered a method of providing corrosion protection to electrical assemblies used in high-humidity or harsh environments. They are applied to PCBs for various reasons: to protect from moisture and contamination, to minimize dendritic growth, to provide stress relief, and for insulation resistance. These contribute to more durable handling, enhanced device reliability, and reduced warranty costs. Increased miniaturization of new circuit board designs requires flexible, low stress coating material to protect delicate components and fine-pitch leads. Silicone conformal coatings offer many advantages that address the general trend of ongoing PCBs designs, such as: high flexibility and low modulus to reduce stress on delicate or small components... First published in the 2012 IPC APEX EXPO technical conference proceedings....

Apr 12, 2013

John Mayes, Managing Director - The Paragon Electronics Group

There is much to read about the shifting sands of electronics manufacturing, including current moves by OEMs to alter their EMS relationships to better mitigate risk and cost, while EMS companies look for additional ways in which to adjust their business models in an attempt to improve their profitability. Electronics outsourcing over time evolved from a means to buffer manufacturing demand fluctuations into a wide scale shift in capabilities, in part in order to deal with vastly shorter product life cycles. Following the global economic crash of 2000, aka “the internet bubble,” more and more EMS providers responded by transferring their manufacturing to low cost labour regions, and in particular China. ...

Apr 12, 2013

Ben Farrer, Business Development Manager, Vigilant Components

As change is inevitable, therefore so is obsolescence. In the electronics sector, stocks of components used in subassemblies will eventually run out, no surprise there! However on many occasions, particularly in the often long product life cycles associated with the traditional UK OEM’s in the industrial, military and medical sectors, to name but three, component supply gets ‘difficult’ long before the customers products themselves reach their ‘end of life’. Component manufacturers work to a commercial agenda; when the popularity of a specific device wanes, or indeed when new features are demanded by the market, they will cease production and redeploy their manufacturing capacity to devices that are being demanded by their high volume customers; the global players....

Apr 12, 2013

Chris Johnson is Group Chief Executive of Paragon Electronics Ltd

Here Chris talks about the pitfalls, the paucity of safe options for manufacturers seeking rare components, and his exasperation with organisations that appear to shelve common sense at the first sign of a shortage. He shares his ‘no nonsense’ approach to getting things right first time, and explains his thinking in establishing an independent distributor focused exclusively on delivering 100% component integrity....

Apr 11, 2013

Eric Bastow

With the explosion of growth in handheld electronics devices, manufacturers have been forced to look for ways to reinforce their assemblies against the inevitable bumps and drops that their products experience in the field. One method of reinforcement has been the utilization of underfills to "glue" certain SMDs to the PCB. Bumped SMDs attached to the PCB with a no-clean soldering process offer the unavoidable scenario of the underfill coming in contact with a flux residue. This may or may not create a reliability issue... First published in the 2012 IPC APEX EXPO technical conference proceedings...