Printed Circuit Design & Fab Online Magazine - New Products

New Products

PCB "Make vs Buy" Worksheet PCB design decision tool poses 15 questions along with varying answer scenarios reflecting important PCB design criteria. Suggests numerical scoring values for each of the 15 questions. Totals worksheet numerical scores and compares sum to predetermined scores for five "Make vs Buy" recommendations. For product managers, design engineers and buyers.

White Knight PCB, a division of Quarter Century Design, www.whiteknightpcbcom

NP-200 flatbed inkjet printer is designed to create functional electrical circuits for the printed electronics market. Has a 13" by 24" print area capable of printing on rigid or flexible substrates up to 6" thick. Circuit patterns can be created in layout program, or uploaded from an AutoCad or PDF file. Is designed to accommodate properties of conductive and resistive inks.

Methode Development Co., www.methode.com

SpiTAN IV web-based simulation tool for tantalum, polymer, and niobium oxide capacitors features data mined from AVX’s previous PSpice models and S-parameters S2P software. Offers a user-friendly program for reviewing critical electrical and performance characteristics for individual part numbers by temperature and frequency, for identifying and selecting the optimum capacitors for an application. Searchable by part number or product type — the list of which currently includes: low profile, high CV, low ESR, polymer, niobium oxide, and high reliability capacitors — results can be refined by capacitance, rated voltage, case size, and ESR. Frequency and temperature can be manipulated on interactive graphs to access part-specific electrical and performance data over frequency, including: capacitance, ESR, DF, impedance, ripple voltage, and ripple current. Allows inputting of application voltage and temperature information to chart DCL over time, and provides an equivalent circuit diagram with characteristics for each parameter.

AVX, http://spitan.avx.com

Cadstar Board Modeler Lite 9.1 is a full 3D modeler for close collaboration with MCAD. Can import or export mechanical constraints like chassis and heatsinks through STEP, ACIS (SAT), STL or IDF. Can conduct 3D collision checks and measurements; can correct issues and back-annotate changes to MCAD and Cadstar. Reportedly has a 3D model wizard for creating almost any 3D part.

Zuken, http://www.zuken.com/en/products/pcb-design/cadstar/compare/pcb-layout/board-modeler-lite

Altium Vault 2.5 enterprise printed circuit board design data management software update reportedly improves automation and management of design data, with updates to component management, data management, project collaboration, and infrastructure management. Reportedly automates data management tasks, and provides greater control and specificity in those domains that rely on human precision and analysis. New features include component update notifications; lifecycle change approvals; NIS deployment packages; automated project notifications, and binary file storage.

Altium, www.altium.com

Pulsonix 8.5 schematic capture/PCB design software now outputs in Gerber X2 and exports netlists in IPC-2581. New Panel Editor feature controls pre-fabrication processes, enabling multi-PCB designs to be panelized, and adds test coupons, fiducial markers, documentation and fabrication details. Defines tab-routing paths. Multiple group selection for design reuse has been added to enhance current reuse placement algorithm. When a selection has been made, this can now be applied to multiple groups in the design. Once placement has been made, multiple positional rearrangement options can also be applied to the existing design using a new placement pattern from the original design. Introduces dynamic graphical positioning tool for adding STEP models to the footprint, for accurate visual association between the two items.

Pulsonix, pulsonix.com