SANTA CLARA, CA – SigmaQuest Inc., a provider of software for managing product quality throughout manufacturing and a product’s lifecycle, has announced that its software helps OEMs track the quality and performance of products that have been revamped to adhere to the RoHS Directive.
“Adhering to the RoHS Directive has been a huge obstacle for many electronics companies, as removing the newly banned substances can impact the performance and reliability of products from cell phones to automotive components,” said Nader Fathi, CEO of SigmaQuest. “It is well understood that replacing a substance such as lead from the soldering joints on a printed circuit board with another substance can cause all kinds of product performance issues, including the higher melting requirements of the newly revamped soldering points. SigmaQuest’s SigmaSure suite helps OEMs find, fix, detect and avoid issues resulting from the transition from non-RoHS to RoHS compliance.”
SigmaSure on-demand, web-based software features several modules where the impact of moving to RoHS compliance can be checked. Through its Manufacturing and Test Insight software, it is reported that users can continuously monitor their manufacturing chain’s product quality data anytime and anywhere, and OEMs can measure the impact of how new, RoHS-compliant components affect their end products.
Through the Supplier Quality Insight module, it is said that OEMs can track the quality of their core suppliers’ components, including those modified for RoHS compliance, before committing to the assembly of broader product offerings. Further, SigmaQuest’s RMA Insight module reportedly delivers instant knowledge about defects, trends and the root cause of failures on products returned by end customers.
In addition to helping OEMs better manage product performance and quality the software helps to provide “due diligence” information by creating technical files that are loaded with supporting documentation that confirms RoHS compliance.
TAIPEI, Taiwan – C Sun Manufacturing Ltd. has released the UVE M720manual exposure unit for solder mask imaging and the UVE-M525 high performance solder mask system.
Developed for high reliability/high volume applications, the UVE M720 uses high output metal halide lamps that reportedly deliver over 60 Mw/cm2 output at the image plane, as well as dual 24” x 36” exposure frames to ensure high throughput. An LCD touch screen panel allows precise control of all operating parameters
The UVE-M525 uses an in frame dual target/dual camera CCD registration system and glass/glass tooling said to ensure proper substrate alignment and the ability to photo pattern very fine line geometries. Metal halide lamps reportedly ensure high throughput on panels up to 22” x 26”.
Both systems have features that include touch screen control, system self-diagnostics, and dual air/indirect water cooling for longer lamp lifetimes and precise frame temperatures.
FLEMINGTON, NJ – DEK has released a new CAD platform that utilizes standardized design rules to maximize the quality of tooling used during high accuracy mass imaging. It is completely automated, enabling repeatable and optimized interpretation of PCB data in the production of dedicated custom tooling. The system enables DEK to share CAD resources between different CAD offices, facilitating the consistent delivery of the same capacity and product, regardless of other variables. “DEK’s ongoing commitment to innovation, coupled with the increasingly high demand for our tooling means that it is absolutely imperative that we consistently refine our processes to extend capacity, efficiency and end-user benefits,” said Phil Lambert, DEK European tooling manager. “The new CAD platform is a great example of this, as a significant technical advance born entirely out of customer demand. Previously, manual interpretations meant that mistakes could be made during the manipulation of customer data. With our new, automated approach, customers are guaranteed consistently high quality tooling at an impressive two day turnaround for standard PCBs.”
According to the company, the initiative to develop a new CAD platform was primarily a response to particular customer demand in the automotive industry.
MONTREAL, Canada – Cimmetry Systems Corp. has released 2D and 3D native document visualization for AutoCAD 2007, Mechanical Desktop 2007, Inventor 11 and Pro/Engineer Wildfire 3.0.
Native document viewing is said to enable customers, suppliers and partners to instantly view original documents without undergoing costly and error prone file conversions.
Service Pack 1 for AutoVue 19.1 (Windows) is immediately available to AutoVue customers that are currently under maintenance.
GARBSEN, Germany – The LPKF ProtoLaser 100 is said to combine the capabilities of an advanced milling and drilling circuit board plotter with a sophisticated laser system.
The ProtoLaser 100 is reportedly ideal system for the laser structuring, milling and drilling of circuit carriers. A special laser system removes the copper layer between the conductive strips without affecting the substrate. Printed circuit board prototypes with 50 µm (2 mil) structures can be manufactured quickly and flexibly.
Completely integrated LPKF software automatically manages all tool parameters, as well as the interaction between laser and mechanical machining. With its operating speed and precision, the LPKF ProtoLaser 100 is said to produce excellent results on varied materials like FR4, FR3, G10, PTFE-based substrates, ceramics or Duroid.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – Synopsys Inc. has added extensions to its Liberty library format that will reportedly allow engineers to control design margins, improve design robustness and increase parametric yield. According to the company, the new extensions are meant to allow a high level of accuracy and are built on the Composite Current Source (CCS) models that aim to unify timing, signal integrity and power.
Process variation models allow variation-aware design and emerging applications such as statistical static timing analysis, which account for uncertainties due to variability in device and interconnect at sub-65nm technology nodes.
The Liberty library extensions are a key part of the company’s strategy to address the emerging DFM challenges at sub-65nm by allowing variation-aware design and furthering openness and interoperability in the industry.
