PCB Chat

Business Challenges with STI Electronics’ President David Raby

This episode was recorded live at the SMTA Pan Pacific Microelectronics Symposium in Hawaii.

David Raby is president of Madison Alabama-based STI Electronics, a contract manufacturer for the EMS industry. David worked at the family business since he was a child and eventually took over the family business when his father (and company founder) Jim Raby retired.

The electronics industry moves at the speed of light and any business within the EMS industry must learn to stay ahead of technology and trends. David shares some of his experiences in taking over the family business and some of the challenges his business (and many other businesses) face on a near daily basis.

 

This podcast is brought to you by PCB East, the original conference for the #electronics #design, #manufacturing and #assembly industry on the East Coast. Coming to Boxborough, MA, on May 9-12, with the one-day exhibition and a day's worth of free technical sessions on May 10. Visit pcbeast.com for details.

 

PCB Chat 109: Wally Rhines on the PCB Design Software Market

On this episode of PCB Chat we discuss the third quarter 2022 printed circuit design software market data from the ESD Alliance, which were released Jan. 23, 2023.

Our guests are Wally Rhines, who spent more than 45 years in in semiconductor and PCB design as an executive with Mentor Graphics and before that, TI; and Merlyn Brunken, whose is the longtime market intelligence director with Siemens Digital Industries, formerly Mentor.

 

This podcast is brought to you by PCB East, the original conference for the #electronics #design, #manufacturing and #assembly industry on the East Coast. Coming to Boxborough, MA, on May 9-12, with the one-day exhibition and a day's worth of free technical sessions on May 10. Visit pcbeast.com for details.

PCB Chat 108: Travis Kelly on Government Support of the US PCB Industry

Travis Kelly, president and chief executive of Isola and chairman of the Printed Circuit Board Association of America, joins PCB Chat host Mike Buetow to discuss the latest policy plans in support of the US printed circuit industry, and the new president of the trade group.

Kelly gives updates on HR 7677, the bill introduced last year in support of the US PCB industry, and weighs the impact of the Chips Act on similar legislation for circuit boards. 

 

RM 112: ESD Mitigation with ESD Expert Christopher Almeras

Electricity is the life blood for all circuit assemblies. It can also afflict significant damage via electrostatic discharge. Today, Christopher Almeras of Raytheon reviews the various ESD mitigation strategies as well as some ESD horror stories!

Almeras began his career in process engineering for a small electronics manufacturer in the late 1990s. There he became responsible for the sites ESD compliance verification. His next career move took him to a high-volume manufacturer where he added ESD Coordinator to his process duties. He eventually made the jump into the Military/Aerospace side of electronics manufacturing (with Raytheon) in 2010 where he has remained working in process, capital installations, continuous improvement, and ESD.

In 2009, he completed the ESD Certified Program Manager from the ESDA. He serves as a member on several ESD Association standards committees including S20.20, TR53, Process Assessment, High Reliability, Electrostatic Attraction among others. In 2022 he took over the working group chair for Soldering/Desoldering Hand Tools.

Almeras was elected to the ESD Association Board of Directors and continues to be active with the ESD Symposium each year. In 2018 he presented his technical paper “An ESD Case Study of Defect Analysis in High Speed Electronics Manufacturing” at the symposium. Almeras has a BS in mechanical engineering from Purdue University and an MS in industrial engineering from Oklahoma State University. He is an ESD Certified Program Manager (ESDA).

 

During this episode, host Mike Konrad references the following:

• Reliability Matters Episode 104: A Conversation about ESD Flooring with Thomas Ricciardelli
• 4 Easy Ways to BLOW UP Your Test Gear Daniel Bogdanoff - Keysighthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDvue5whx0s

RM 111: Liquid Metal’s Potential Future in Electronics

Historically, circuit assemblies are rigid devices. IoT (Internet of Things) has opened up the opportunity to embed electronics into a near limitless array of form factors. Some of these form factors require the electronic assembly to be flexible such as in wearable and medical applications.

To complicate matters, the metal conductors on the assembly are rigid, not flexible or malleable. That may change with the adoption of liquid metals.

We were exposed to the concept of liquid metal in the 1991 film "Terminator 2." Will science fiction become reality?

Mike Konrad's guest is Dr. Michael Dickey. Michael is currently the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Professor in the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at NC State University. 

Michael Dickey received a bachelor's in chemical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas. From 2006-2008 he was a post-doctoral fellow in the lab of Professor George Whitesides at Harvard University. Michael completed a sabbatical at Microsoft in 2016. Michael’s research interests include soft matter (liquid metals, gels and polymers) for soft and stretchable devices (electronics, energy harvesters, textiles, and soft robotics), and hopefully, for the sake of humanity, not liquid metal T1000 villains.

Dr. Michael Dickey's contact information: mddickey@ncsu.edu

RM 109: A Decade of Industry 4.0 - What it Was - What it Wasn’t

Industry 4.0, the fourth industrial revolution. Beyond the buzzwords, what does this mean?

David Graham is chief technology officer of 4IR.UK, a wholly owned subsidiary of Internet of Things-focused British Systems. 4IR.UK specializes in creating monitoring, control and automation solutions, often based on the MultiPlug Edge Computing Platform, for manufacturing environments. They also provide consultancy and development for other Industry 4.0 platforms.

Host Mike Konrad was intrigued by a webinar presented by David titled “A Decade of Industry 4.0 – What it Wasn’t, What it Was,” and they speak about his thoughts, experiences, and opinions of Industry 4.0.

 

PCB Chat 107: Valentina Ratner and Kyle Dumont of AllSpice

Allspice has developed a software platform that supports users of CAD tools for collaboration, design and schematic reviews and commenting, and tracking various hardware-specific attributes such as order status, manufacturing, and connection to the PLM.

Allspice CEO Valentina Ratner and CTO Kyle Dumont have extensive experience in electronics hardware and software, both with startups and some of the largest companies in the industry.

They share the origins of the company, and how their personal experience drove development of the AllSpice platform, which seeks to wean the supply chain off PDFs as a product development tool.

PCB Chat 106: Madan Jagernauth on the Latest HDP Projects

HDP User Group is an industry consortium made up of more than 50 leading companies that collaborate on research in order to reduce cost and time to market.

Madan Jagernauth, marketing director and a project facilitator, discusses the latest programs, including ones on Pb-free manufacturing, with PCB Chat's Mike Buetow.

 

RM 108: SMTA Pan Pacific Microelectronics Symposium Preview

SMTA is well known for producing high-quality relevant technical conferences and symposiums. This includes, among others, the technical conference held at SMTAI, the High Reliability Cleaning and Coating Conference, the Symposium on Counterfeit Parts and Materials, the Advanced Electronics Assembly Conference, the Wafer-Level Packaging Symposium, the Electronics in Harsh Environments conference, and the Pan Pacific Microelectronics Symposium, often referred to as Pan Pac.

Pan Pac is unique in many ways, beginning with its venue. Pan Pac is held annually at one of the Hawaian islands. This fact alone makes this symposium stand out. But there are many other factors that make this symposium unique. As Pan Pac’s steering committee says:

"The Pan Pacific Microelectronics Symposium strives to build bridges and nurture relationships across all boundaries, oceans and cultures, industries and technologies, companies and individuals. Its location in Hawaii always provides the requisite isolation from day-to-day distractions necessary to support these goals and enhance personal face to face interactions. The Pan Pacific continues its mission of building the vision and future directions for the electronics industry!"

Pan Pac 2023 is scheduled for January 30 - February 2, 2023, at the Sheraton Kauai Resort on the island of Kauai.

To talk more about the upcoming Pan Pacific Symposium, Mike Konrad invited two colleagues who are instrumental in curating the technical contact for this symposium. Dr. Chuck Bauer, one of the creators of this symposium, and Keith Bryant join him to discuss the conferences technical tracks and presentations as well as their view on what makes this conference unique.

RM 107: IPC Validation Services & the Trusted Supplier Program

Like most manufacturers, the electronics manufacturing industry relies on countless suppliers to fulfill its manufacturing needs. I'm quite certain there is no one within the EMS space who fabricates their own boards using materials produced in house, operates their own semiconductor foundries, designs and manufacturers their own components, and produces soldering materials for their reflow process. 

 

Our industry relies on a vast network of manufacturers throughout the world to build even the simplest electronic assembly. Intellectual property security, cybersecurity, national security, are all hot topics today. No one wants their hard-earned intellectual property stolen. This is most true within the US military establishment. There are, at present, numerous policies, procedures, and regulations designed to protect various parts of our supply chain from unscrupulous people and companies. Today, companies are concerned about “controlled unclassified information” (CUI) and “controlled technical information” (CTI).

That brings us to IPC-1791. What is IPC-1791? 

 

Randy Cherry, Mike Konrad's guest on this episode, explains. 

Randy Cherry has over 30 years' experience in engineering and is a certified SMT process engineer and an IPC auditor.  He is director of Validation Services at IPC. Validation Services is a series of certification programs that qualify products and processes to the IPC industry standards.