PCB Chat

PCB Chat Episode 28 - Joe Fama

Joe Fama shares his impressions of electronica, the electronics industry’s largest trade show. He also explains the latest trends in outsourcing in Southeast Asia, including the cost structures of Vietnam, Malaysia and China, and says Vietnam and the Philippines are in line for growth.

The Week Today - Dec. 10-14, 2018

PCB Chat host Mike Buetow catches up on the weekly news in electronics manufacturing.

PCB Chat Episode 26 - Thoughts on the Past and Future

The first IPC Technology Roadmap meeting was held 25 years ago. What have we learned since then? Host Mike Buetow reflects on lessons learned in researching a recent retrospective on that inaugural landmark document.

PCB Chat Episode 25 - "The Hitchhikers Guide to PCB Design" Authors Roundtable

The Hitchhikers Guide to PCB Design is a new eBook designed to teach all the things industry experts wish they knew when starting out. Authored by a group of experts representing diverse disciplines, it's a great, tool-agnostic resource for designers and engineers. PCB Chat's Mike Buetow speaks with several of the authors and the sponsor of the book, Manny Marcano, about some of the highlights and what they learned along the way.

 

PCB Chat Episode 24 - Mike Buetow

Since 1994, the PCB industry has relied on technology roadmaps to guide investment decisions. But have roadmaps kept up with the times? PCB Chat host Mike Buetow explores whether the time has come to position the roadmap not as a snapshot of industry capabilities at a given point in time but to get back to the original intention, which was to guide the supply chain to ensure limited resources weren’t spent chasing technologies that might not meet customers’ needs.

PCB Chat Episode 23: Just Who is the Designer or Engineer of Today?

What’s in a name? We probably ask that question about 10,000 times over the course of our lives. A name is just a name, but for many, it’s their introduction to branding. PCB Chat host Mike Buetow ponders whether rebranding is needed for designers today.

PCB Chat Episode 22 - Marc Benowitz

Marc Benowitz became CEO of iNEMI in January. This followed nearly 40 years at AT&T, Lucent, Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Bell Labs, where he began as a member of the technical staff in the interconnect technology lab, and ultimately worked his way up to senior director of the reliability, hardware test and eco-environmental engineering organization.  Marc was no stranger to iNEMI, having been a member of the consortium’s board of directors since 2001 and chairman since 2013.

He speaks with Mike Buetow about the transition from the private sector to fulltime consortia work, and his goals and priorities for iNEMI.

PCB Chat Episode 21 - Mark Finstad and Nick Koop

Mark Finstad is senior application engineer for Flexible Circuit Technologies. He has over 30 years of experience designing and manufacturing flexible circuits for commercial, medical, and military/avionics applications. He co-chairs the IPC-2223 Design Standard for Flexible Printed boards and coauthors the Ask the Flexperts column for PCD&F magazine.

Nick Koop is a senior field application engineer for TTM Technologies and has over 30 years of design, manufacturing and management experience in the flexible circuit industry. He developed and applied advanced PCB technologies to support a wide range medical, military, and global security applications. He is vice chairman of the IPC Flexible Circuits Committee, co-chair for the IPC-6013 Qualification and Performance Specification for Flexible Printed Boards Subcommittee, and coauthors the Ask the Flexperts column for PCD&F magazine.

They discuss real-life flex circuit struggles and how to overcome them with PCB Chat's Mike Buetow.

PCB Chat Episode 20 - Brenda Baney

Brenda Baney has been addressing product environmental regulations for over 20 years.  She began with General Motors as a materials engineer, where she was at the forefront of the automotive industries material compliance reporting.  Brenda has led internal company projects on elimination of CFCs, lead solder, hexavalent chromium, and a myriad of other substances of concern. She has been a leader within both automotive and electronics industry groups covering topics like ionic cleanliness of printed circuit boards, lead-free solder, End-of-Life Vehicle, RoHS and REACH compliance, and is considered a supply chain expert for material content reporting.

​Baney was the Product Stewardship Manager for Delphi, where she led the reporting of complex material compliance data on hundreds of thousands of parts successfully. She also created an internal Conflict Minerals cross-functional team leading Delphi to be named as the Number One automotive component supplier in the 2015 Assent Conflict Minerals rating.

​In March 2016, Baney founded B Cubed Consulting, where she works with automotive & other durable goods suppliers to keep strategies on course and stay up-to-date on the latest negotiations between industry and global government enforcement bodies.

She speaks about the new latest amendment to California Prop 65, plus REACH, RoHS and other related regulation issues with Mike Buetow.

PCB Chat Episode 5 - Joe Fjelstad

Verdant Electronics founder and president Joe Fjelstad has more than 40 years of international experience in electronic interconnection and packaging technology in a variety of capacities from chemist to process engineer and from international consultant to CEO. A well-known author and magazine columnist writing on the subject of electronic interconnection technologies, he has more than 180 US patents and another 100-plus international ones to his name. Prior to founding Verdant, Joe co-founded SiliconPipe, a leader in the development of high speed interconnection technologies. He was also formerly with chip-scale package developer Tessera, where he was appointed to the first corporate fellowship for his innovations. Joe speaks with Mike Buetow about the Occam Prize, a new award for design innovation.