Printed Circuit Design & Fab Online Magazine - New Products

New Products

MINNEAPOLIS – Minco has created a new Flex Circuits Design Guide, which, when used in conjunction with IPC design standards, provides the necessary information to successfully design flexible circuits.

Demands from manufacturers for smaller and lighter applications are bringing flexible circuits to the forefront as a viable way of meeting these goals.

"Flexible circuits offer compact, low mass packaging that can reduce space and weight by up to 75%," said Mark Finstad, principal applications engineer for the Flex Circuit Division of Minco and Chairman of IPC-2223 Workgroup. "Due to limited education available in the industry, engineers are only just beginning to learn the new ways that flexible circuits can be integrated into their designs."

Minco's Flex Circuits Design Guide includes design guidelines, specifications, detailed illustrations and instructions on how to build a flex circuit mock-up. It offers recommendations on how to design flex circuits to optimally fit applications while providing superior electrical interconnection. The guide also provides a tutorial on different types of flex circuits, including rigid-flex and flex-coils.

DNEPROPETROVSK, Ukraine – Novarm Ltd. has released DipTrace 1.30, ECAD software bundled with 4 Novarm's front-end modules – schematic, PCB layout, pattern editor and component editor.

Among its new features are improved color settings, part rotation by a desired angle, static vias placement, Electra autorouter support and enhanced manual routing tools.

DipTrace 1.30 supports ConnectEDA Electra autorouter. A three-step high-quality routing is available now with Electra autorouter where users can export an unrouted board into .dsn file, route it with Electra and import it back into DipTrace.

A series of handy hotkeys, trace length measurement tool, locking objects and more new features have been added. The new version also includes netlist support of widely used formats.

GARBSEN, Germany – LPKF Laser & Electronics AG has released LPKF ProtoMat S42 circuit board plotter, an entry-level circuit board plotter for in-house rapid PCB prototyping. This compact system is said to provide precision and performance for quick and easy milling and drilling of single-sided and double-sided circuit board prototypes in a single day.

The ProtoMat S42 was designed for colleges and technical institutions, allowing students and instructors to produce PCBs that are production quality and chemical free, immediately in the classroom environment. Easy handling can be increased with the addition of an optional fiducial recognition camera, as well as a vacuum table.

CANONSBURG, PA – Ansys Inc. has released Version 4.3 of its Icepak electronics cooling design software. Direct representation of CAD geometries expands the ability of Icepak software to handle complex geometry, reportedly providing additional flexibility and a higher degree of automation while modeling complex shapes. Icepak 4.3 also has direct import of trace and via details from MCM/BRD and Gerber files of PCB layout, along with a new method to accurately represent these details.

The automatic hex-dominant mesher can be used to mesh CAD geometries quickly and efficiently. It is said to be a robust and highly automated unstructured mesh generator that can handle grids of virtually unlimited size and complexity, consisting mostly of hexahedral elements but including triangular, tetrahedral or pyramidal cells. In addition, Icepak 4.3 comes with enhanced libraries including thermo-electric cooler modules and new materials, modeling of temperature-dependent powers, enhanced macros and improved correlations for automatic specification of heat transfer coefficients.

CHANDLER, AZ – Isola Group, S.a.r.l. reported that IS620, low loss high-speed space product, is now available with enhanced electrical attributes and improved thermal performance. IS620 reportedly offers 25% lower dielectric loss and much improved thermal performance. The dielectric loss numbers at 10 GHz using the stripline test method would now be in the 0.007 range and with the split post method in the 0.005 range.

Successful simulated assembly testing was carried out using Isola’s seven zone reflow oven on numerous designs with multiple excursions up to peak temps ranging from 230º C to 290º C.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – Blue Ridge Numerics has released a new version of its CFdesign electronics cooling software that reportedly enables users to set up and view a first-pass airflow and heat transfer simulation in minutes while generating high-fidelity design reviews faster than with previous versions.

CFdesign V9 is CAD-driven electronics cooling and thermal management simulation. The CAD model drives the simulation the same way a physical prototype drives a lab test.

The revised automation process is based on two new features: auto mesh sizing and rules on parts. The auto mesh sizing performs a comprehensive topological interrogation of the geometric model, assigning mesh sizes based on curvature, geometric gradients and proximity to neighboring features.

"This was the last aspect of our software that required some guru-like CFD expertise," says Ed Williams, president of Blue Ridge Numerics. "With auto mesh sizing, that headache has left the building."

According to the company, CFdesign V9 beta customers report that the mesh is cleaner and smoother, critical transition regions are instantly and expertly managed, and the ultimate CFD solution is achieved faster than before.

The new rules on parts feature in the software intelligently detects MCAD part names within an assembly and automatically assigns volumetric boundary conditions and material properties. Boundary conditions include heat generation and total heat generation, both of which can be steady state, transient or temperature dependent.