FPGA Planner System from Cadence Design Systems Inc. is a scalable co-design solution for designing FPGAs onto PCB systems. The FPGA Planner System (for OrCAD and Allegro) was developed by Taray Inc. and is available to Cadence customers through an exclusive OEM licensing agreement.
According to Cadence, the FPGA System Planner shortens the time it takes to integrate FPGAs on a PCB, enhances FPGA performance through the optimal utilization of FPGA resources and can reduce PCB manufacturing costs through a reduction in the number of PCB layers required to route dense, complex, large pin-count FPGAs.
The technology is available in a series of scalable solutions from the OrCAD FPGA System Planner to the Allegro FPGA System Planner L, XL and GXL tiers, and is tightly integrated with OrCAD Capture, OrCAD PCB Designer, Allegro Design Entry HDL and Allegro PCB Design products.
Ucamco reports that its front-end engineering throughput has increased up to 30%, following the launch of its new PCB CAM productivity service. Based around advanced remote-access software, the service provides secure access to a customer’s workstation, no matter where it is located. The company’s software support engineers are able to observe and to record the complete data preparation process for several jobs. Based on UCAM software and industry best practices, a report is generated with suggested process changes and itemized timesavings. New features can be downloaded to the customer’s workstation through the remote-access software, and online training is provided. “Our reports quantify the specific benefits to be gained before the customer commits his cash,” says Filip Vermeire, head of software customer care. “The first audits we have done for customers have shown productivity increases up to 90% for specific operations and up to 30% overall.”
Rogers Corporation introduces an online tool to support the PORON gap fillproduct line. The tool helps designers select the best PORON Urethane to meet their specific application needs.
The PORON Gap Filling Tool is an interactive tool that designers can customize to help select the right material to meet final gap thickness requirements. Designers can select a final gap thickness and optional adhesive thickness from a drop-down menu and get a list of suitable PORON materials for their specific application.
Designers select one or more of the PORON products to create a custom compression force deflection graph. This graph enables the user to "mouse-over" product curves to show actual compression force and final thickness values along any point on the curve.
The NanoBond bonding material manufactured by Reactive NanoTechnologies, Inc. (RNT) has exceeded testing through 1000 thermal cycles with no degradation in thermal performance or bond strength.
The product was tested at -40ºC to +110ºC, per IEC 62108, Test 10.6. Testing at 110ºC typically concludes at 500 cycles, but the testing was continued through 1000 cycles. Thermal conductivity was measured by laser flash technique.
NanoBond is used to bond microelectronic and photovoltaic components to PCBs or heat sinks at room temperature.
The PicoStar package from Texas Instruments uses up to 80% less board space. According to TI this ultra-thin package is the first to give system designers the option to embed silicon components inside the PCB to decrease the board space used for EDS protection.
The TPD2E007 is a two-channel electrostatic discharge (ESD) solution with a back-to-back diode array that allows AC-coupled data transmission without compromising signal integrity. Designers have the option to surface mount or embed the TPD2E007 into the board/connector for ESD protection. The ability to embed this device can save up to 80% board space compared to typical ESD solutions.
Ecliptek Corp. introduces IPC-1752-2, an automated one-step process for IPC-1752. The company has added second-level interconnect terminal plating material composition information for its crystal resonator and quartz crystal oscillator product lines. Available through Ecliptek’s online RoHS tool, customers are able to enter a part number and to generate a product series IPC-1752-2 material composition declaration. The IPC-1752-2 generates RoHS certification based on a specific part number and is designed to automatically provide certifications and material declarations on available Ecliptek RoHS-compliant equivalent part numbers. www.ecliptek.com
