Episodes

Saturday Jan 16, 2021
PCB Chat 72: Matt Wrosch on Transient Liquid Phase Sintering
Saturday Jan 16, 2021
Saturday Jan 16, 2021
Matt Wrosch is senior products specialist at EMD Performance Materials. An expert in materials science, Matt has held a range of research, engineering and business development roles in the electronics industry in 1997. He has a master’s in materials science and engineering from UC San Diego and a bachelor’s from Michigan.
He joins PCB Chat host Mike Buetow to discuss transient liquid phase sintering (TLPS) materials, how they compare with solder paste, conductive adhesives and TIMs, and their applications in printed circuit fabrication and assembly.

Tuesday Jan 12, 2021
RM Episode 59: CMOS Inventor Dr. Eric Fossom
Tuesday Jan 12, 2021
Tuesday Jan 12, 2021
Eric Fossum is best known for the invention of the CMOS image sensor better known as the “camera-on-a-chip” used in billions of cameras, from smart phones to web cameras to ingestible pill cameras to DSLRs.
In 2017, Eric was a co-recipient of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, the world's top engineering prize (and considered by many as equivalent to the Nobel Prize) for the invention of digital imaging sensors.
Eric was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame and is member of the National Academy of Engineering. He is a solid-state image sensor device physicist and engineer, and his career has included academic and government research, and entrepreneurial leadership of several startups. He is the John H. Krehbiel Sr. Professor of Emerging Technologies at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth college. Eric also serves as Associate Provost of Dartmouth College for Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer, and directs Dartmouth's PhD Innovation Programs.
Eric recently co-founded another startup with his former students, Gigajot Technology, Inc.

Thursday Dec 31, 2020
PCB Chat 71: Is the US Ready for Smart Manufacturing?
Thursday Dec 31, 2020
Thursday Dec 31, 2020
Smart manufacturing, generally defined as the use of fully integrated, collaborative manufacturing systems that respond in real time to meet changing demands and conditions in the smart factory, in the supply network, and in customer needs, is quickly becoming reality. Is the US ready, or has it already been beaten by offshore companies? Mike Buetow considers the possibilities.

Monday Dec 28, 2020
RM 58: 2020 Round-Up
Monday Dec 28, 2020
Monday Dec 28, 2020
On this last episode of 2020 there are no guests, no experts, no best-practice advice. Just a short recap of 2020.
We just reached more than 10,000 downloads of the podcast! A HUGE thank you to my audience and my guests for making this podcast possible! On this episode I'll announce the first few guests of the 2021 season of Reliability Matters. This is looking like a terrific season!
We are now producing an audio-only format and a video format. The video format may be viewed on our new YouTube channel at:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC43S4--AIuSqlXvxmdsA7AQ
Please keep your questions and topic suggestions coming! Email me at:
mike@mikekonrad.com
Thanks everyone for making this podcast successful!
Mike Konrad

Sunday Dec 27, 2020
PCB Chat 70: Kent Balius on Front-End Engineering
Sunday Dec 27, 2020
Sunday Dec 27, 2020
Kent Balius has been at the forefront of front-end engineering for 30 years at some of the world's largest PCB fabricators.
He spent the past 20 years at TTM / Viasystems, where he managed software applications and automation solutions for North America and Asia-Pacific operations.
He just launched EPIC Front-End Engineering, which provides consultation, project management, software applications and development support to the PCB manufacturers, with the objectives of driving advanced automation to achieve productivity, improved quality, reduced labor costs.
He speaks about how the automation of design-to-fabrication the affects Industry 4.0 implementation with PCB Chat's Mike Buetow.

Friday Dec 11, 2020
RM 57: A Conversation with CAF Expert Graham Naisbitt
Friday Dec 11, 2020
Friday Dec 11, 2020
Conductive anodic filament (CAF) is a form of electrochemical migration (ECM). Unlike surface-level ECM, CAF exists beneath the surface of the circuit assembly. Graham and Mike Konrad discuss the causes of CAF and methods to test for and mitigate CAF.
Graham has an extensive history working in the electrical and electronic manufacturing industry. Graham was the IEC 1906 Lord Kelvin Award Winner. IEC TC91 WG2, 3 and 10 Maintenance Leader of 4 Standards. He is vice chair of the IPC 5-30 Cleaning and Coating Sub-Committee overseeing 15 IPC Standards Development Committees. He has received 14 IPC Standards Awards and is a BSI British Standards Institution (EPL501) Member.
Graham is a Specialist in Insulation Resistance Testing, Ionic Contamination Control, Solderability, Conformal Coating materials and application systems, including Cleaning, Inspection and Test.

Wednesday Dec 02, 2020
PCB Chat 69: Manny Marcano on Changes in the Mainstream PCB CAD Market
Wednesday Dec 02, 2020
Wednesday Dec 02, 2020
EMA Design Automation has recently added the Mentor ECAD sales staff from Trilogic EDA. Manny Marcano, president and founder of EMA, explains what this means for the PCB CAD marketplace, and how the mainstream CAD market is shaping up.

Wednesday Dec 02, 2020
Wednesday Dec 02, 2020
Voiding is the cause of multiple failure mechanisms. Mike Konrad speaks with solder material expert Tim O'Neill of Aim Solder, stencil manufacturer Prakash Gango of StenTech, and cleaning materials manufacturer Kalyan Nukala of Zestron about how solder voiding leads to product failures and methods to reduce voiding.
The guests may be reached here:
Tim O'Neill
AIM Solder
Prakash Gango
StenTech
Kalyan Nukala

Tuesday Nov 10, 2020
RM 55 - A Conversation with SMTA President Dr. Martin Anselm
Tuesday Nov 10, 2020
Tuesday Nov 10, 2020
Dr. Martin Anselm is a professor at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and is also the newly elected president of the Surface Mount Technology Association or SMTA.
Martin also worked for Universal Instruments. During his 12-year career at Universal Instruments, Martin was, among other positions, a process research engineer and manager of Failure Analysis Services.
Martin completed his Ph.D. in materials science and engineering through Binghamton University. His research topic involved copper-nickel-tin intermetallic formation kinetics on electroless nickel substrates. Martin also has a master's in mechanical engineering from Clarkson and a bachelor's in physics from SUNY Geneseo.

Friday Nov 06, 2020
PCB Chat Episode 68: The IPC-2581 Consortium on Electronics Data Transfer
Friday Nov 06, 2020
Friday Nov 06, 2020
IPC-2581 is a standard format for describing and transferring printed circuit board design and assembly manufacturing data from the OEM to fab and assembly. It is an open format developed by industry consensus through the auspices of IPC, and it is vendor-neutral.
IPC-2581 is being rebranded as IPC-DPMX, which stands for Digital Product Model Exchange.
On this episode of PCB Chat, host Mike Buetow is joined by IPC-2581 Consortium chair Hemant Shah, DfM expert Dana Korf, Cisco technical leader of electrical engineering Terry Hoffman, and IPC manager of design standards Patrick Crawford. They discuss the latest revision to IPC-2581, which is set to be released in November.