PCB Design When It Comes to CAD, Function Beats Speed A veteran PCB designer's question – "What sort of data is available to benchmark the top four CAD tools out there?" – sparks a huge survey and reveals some surprising answers. by Chelsey Drysdale
TPCA Report The Mitchell Plan IPC's new president is wasting no time remaking the trade group in his own (attentive) image. by Matthew Holzmann
Reliability Technical Diagnostics of Electronics Products: Application of Bayes Formula and Boltzmann-Arrhenius-Zhurkov (BAZ) Model For systems where failure-free operation is critical, technical diagnostics can recognize, in a continuous fashion and without dismantling, the ability to continue to function as expected over the long-term. by Ephraim Suhir, Laurent BECHOU and Alain Bensoussan
Retrospective Our dearly departed. Mike Buetow
FIRST PERSON
Caveat Lector 'Cooking' up some changes. Mike Buetow
MONEY MATTERS
ROI No day at the beach. Peter Bigelow
Focus on Business SMTAI was worth the trip, even if it was Orlando. Susan Mucha
Advanced Packages Stepping Out With 0.4mm Pitch BGA/PoPs OEMs are finding the move from 0.5mm pitch BGA PoP to the next generation, 0.4mm ultra-fine pitch BGA PoP tough, indeed. These rules-of-thumb will help make the jump. by Syed W. Ali
Associations The Mitchell Plan IPC's new president is wasting no time remaking the trade group in his own (attentive) image. by Mike Buetow
PCB Design 7 Manual Routing Tips Manual routing allows the engineer to apply all their experience to the design. An autorouter is an algorithm, and as such is limited in performing analysis or making decisions. But routing by hand, while time-consuming, can offer several advantages. by Alex Mykhaylenko and Vlad Khomenko
Training DfE Instruction Goes Online Some 80% of the environmental impact of a product occurs during design. A new Web-based training program teaches cost-savings using best-of-breed design and purchasing practicesp. by Mike Buetow
Procurement Best Practices for Improving the PCB Supply Chain PCBs should always be considered a critical commodity. Without stringent controls in place for board supplier selection, qualification and management, long-term product quality and reliability is neither achievable nor sustainable. Here are best practices and recommendations for improving your supply chain by Cheryl Tulkoff and Craig Hillman, Ph.D.
PCB Design Resolving EMI Effects in High-Speed Boards The biggest effect EMI has on a design is that a product that doesn’t pass government requirements (FCC, for example) for radiated emissions cannot be shipped. But even if the product passes, and it is still radiating, it means reduced margins for signals and possible reliability issues – and usually increased susceptibility to outside noise. Most problems can be avoided simply by making sure all currents travel in a closed loop. by Patrick Carrier
NTI-100 The 90-10 Split Currency fluctuations had a big impact on the largest 104 printed circuit board manufacturers in 2011. Still, while making up less than 4% of the world's shops, the NTI-100 contributed more than 80% of the revenue. by Dr. Hayao Nakahara
CAM CAM in the Cloud A handful of PCB industry veterans are vying to be the first to offer pre-CAM analysis through the cloud. But will users prefers a pay-as-you-go model? by Mike Buetow
Plating Successful Formulation of ENIG Plating As Pb-free solder can leave bumps on the traces during HASL (hot air solder leveling), many alternate surface finish processes have been investigated to overcome this challenge. Several formulations of ENIG plating have been tried. A successful formulation of ENIG in continuous use in volume production for more than two years is discussed. by Dr. T.S. Krishna Ram
FIRST PERSON
Caveat Lector Why Apple will revive onshoring. Mike Buetow
MCAD-ECAD Integrating PCB Layout and Mechanical Design The integration of PCB layout with mechanical design is a tough problem to solve. Not only does the shared information have to bridge the 2D to 3D gap, the amount and type of information that need to be shared varies from design to design and company to company. The longtime preferred format, IDF, represents only "snapshots" of the design and does not support incremental changes. However, a new data format, known as IDX, provides a new level of collaboration between board layout and mechanical design. by David Kehmeier
Careers PCB Designers, Rev. 2 Has anyone seen the next generation of PCB designers? The window to identify and train them is closing. What we can do about it. by Mike Creeden and Jeff Kuester
FIRST PERSON
Caveat Lector Model behavior. Mike Buetow
MONEY MATTERS
ROI No such thing as too big to fail. Peter Bigelow
