Recorded conversations and interviews on electronics design and manufacturing with the editors of PCD&F/Circuits Assembly, brought to you by the Printed Circuit Engineering Association (PCEA)
Episodes
Wednesday Mar 08, 2023
Wednesday Mar 08, 2023
On this show, we’ve discussed many aspects of the electronics assembly process. We talked about reflow, thermal management, printing, soldering materials, additives, and so much more. What do all these topics have in common? When done correctly, they all contribute to the reliability of circuit assemblies.
Today, we’re going to dive into the subject of cleaning circuit assemblies after reflow. For many assemblers, the cleaning process was replaced by the use of no clean flux technology. Time and technology have eroded the concept of allowing all residues to remain on the assembly. Today, residue caused failures are such a concern, that IPC recently and radically changed the way circuit assemblies are considered to be clean.
Mike Konrad's guests are Sal Sparacino and Eric Camden. Sal is sirector of sales at Zestron Americas, located in Manassas, VA. Zestron is a manufacturer of cleaning chemicals for the electronics industry. Eric is lead investigator for Foresite, an analytical laboratory based in Kokomo IN. Eric, is the person you call when things go wrong. Together with my experience as a cleaning equipment manufacturer, we’ll discuss how cleaning contributes to increased reliability, and we’ll review the reasons cleaning has returned as a mainstream assembly process.
Thursday Feb 09, 2023
Thursday Feb 09, 2023
We are all aware of the “oldest profession in the world.” Perhaps the second-oldest is counterfeiting. Whenever a product is introduced, a counterfeit version soon follows. While the electronics industry has experienced counterfeit components from its inception, recent events such as the pandemic and supply chain shortages have fueled the counterfeit industry.
Statistics by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reveal that the counterfeiting of electronic parts in the US alone cost the chip industry more than $7.5 billion in revenue annually. According to new data from the ERAI, a global information board for counterfeiting, reports of counterfeit electronic products are growing. Although it is difficult to put an exact figure on just how many counterfeit products are in circulation, estimates suggest that consumer and industrial businesses lose approximately $250 billion each year due to counterfeit parts.
To talk more about counterfeit components and detection technologies is Dr. Eyal Weiss, Founder and CTO of Cybord. Dr. Weiss received his Ph.D. in electronic and computer engineering from BGU (Ben-Gurion University) in Israel as well as a master's in plasma physics and bachelor's (cum laude) in mechanical engineering from the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology.
He worked as a researcher on pulsed plasma at Soreq Research Center (SNRC). He then worked as a technology department manager in the high-tech fiber-optics industry. He was the technology manager at Lynx Photonics and then at Explay, developing state-of-the-art silicon and optical chips production, packaging, and assembly production lines. He developed a new fiber-pigtailing and packaging technology and built full-scale production lines utilizing this new technology.
He returned to Soreq SNRC and for 15 years served as manager and leading scientist of the R&D Systems Department. He built mass-production lines and assembly lines for new sensors technology and developed their test equipment. He has twice received the prestigious Israel Defense Prize.
In 2018, he founded and became CTO of Cybord, developing electronic component qualification and authentication technologies. He is a member of the Israel Innovation Authority, Euramet, SAE, and IPC committees. He specializes in multidisciplinary technology development and has received significant awards and accolades in the fields of machine learning, plasma physics, optical assemblies, laser technology, and electromagnetics.
Dr. Weiss is an expert in technology development and manufacturing technology and has published over 20 peer-reviewed articles, 4 patents, and a book.
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.
Thursday Feb 02, 2023
Thursday Feb 02, 2023
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.
Tuesday Jan 31, 2023
Tuesday Jan 31, 2023
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.
Friday Jan 27, 2023
Friday Jan 27, 2023
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.
Thursday Jan 26, 2023
Thursday Jan 26, 2023
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
Tuesday Jan 10, 2023
Tuesday Jan 10, 2023
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
Monday Dec 19, 2022
Monday Dec 19, 2022
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.
Wednesday Dec 07, 2022
Wednesday Dec 07, 2022
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.
Monday Dec 05, 2022
Monday Dec 05, 2022
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.