Printed Circuit Design & Fab Online Magazine - Products

New Products

WILSONVILLE, OR – Mentor Graphics Corp. has announced the availability of PADS2007. The release is said to offer layout designers and engineers the ability to implement RF and microwave circuitry using highly automated functionality, perform design for fabrication (DFF) checking early in the design process and optimize performance with advanced high-speed analysis/verification functionality, thus significantly improving their productivity and design quality.

Reported PADS2007 enhancements include:

High-speed routing improvements – Controls for matched length nets and differential routing improvements.
Square and chamfered corners, DXF-in import and via matrixing enhancements for RF design.
Blind/buried via drill table improvements – Designs with partial vias (blind or buried) are automatically updated with the layer pairs and drill count of the partial vias in the design.
Alphanumeric pin improvements – Simplifies creation of large BGA-based parts.
ECO enhancements – Includes comparison of design rules between the schematic and layout databases.
Design for fabrication (DFF) analysis – Powerful fabrication checks, such as acid trap, starved thermals, solder mask slivers are checked in the CAD environment and database, allowing the designer to identify and correct manufacturing problems in PADS Layout, before Gerber generation.
Pin number visibility – The user has the ability to turn on/off the visibility of the component pin numbers, either numeric or alphanumeric, improving designer productivity during routing.
SI analysis – Integration of DxDesigner and the HyperLynx LineSim tool through a new interface allows fast transfer of a circuit for analysis and back annotation of termination resistor values.
Analog simulation - Provides a board level simulation analysis and verification through a common schematic editor for both simulation and PCB design entry.

"Mentor Graphics continues to invest in the future of PADS by strengthening the capabilities of designers to integrate RF circuitry design, high-speed net analysis and routing, and DFF into the PADS design flow," said Dan Boncella, director of marketing, System Design Division, Mentor Graphics.

CONCORD, CA – March Plasma Systems has released an improved PCB panel pre-etch conditioning technology. With it, the company's PCB series products can reportedly increase the throughput in applications such as desmear and etchback. It is said that productivity improvements of more than 30% can be achieved with this new system enhancement. The new product feature will be implemented on all new PCB series shipments, and is also available for retrofit on existing systems.

The typical three plasma process steps required for high uniformity treatment in desmear and etchback applications include a pre-etch segment, a desmear or etchback segment, and a residual reactant removal segment. The PCB panel pre-etch segment is required to ensure controlled etch across each panel within an individual processing cell as well as from processing cell to processing cell. The new pre-etch conditioning technology reportedly reduces this segment's time by more than 65%, resulting in improved PCB system throughput.

“March has always been a technology-driven company and this latest innovation adds to our list of continuous improvement to our PCB product platform,” said James Getty, director of Applications Engineering at March Plasma Systems. “Our technology gives us a competitive edge in the marketplace with our advanced plasma processing equipment. We are confident that this new technology addition will find rapid acceptance with our customers.”

WILSONVILLE, OR – LPKF’s MicroLine UV 3000 is a compact laser system designed to cut precise openings in polyimide coverlayer foils and to cut flex circuits. It reportedly reduces product changeover time.

The MicroLine UV 3000 contains a new high speed linear drive for flexible circuits, featuring greater positioning accuracy, higher speed and faster acceleration resulting in reduced processing times. It is said to encompass tools with the ability to perform precision cutting, routing, skiving, drilling, cutting pockets, structuring of etch/solder resist, micromachining of ceramic substrates and more.

Vice President of Sales Jim Greene said, “These capabilities noticeably reduce changeover time, making it an efficient component of any fabrication process, especially where physical space is a premium.”

CARSON CITY, NV – Taiyo America has released PSR-9000FXT, a liquid photoimageable covercoat or soldermask for flexible printed circuit boards. It is said to have excellent flexibility and low warpage throughout the fabrication process for high yields, as well as flexibility after cure.

PSR-9000 FXT is available in amber and green colors, and is RoHS compliant. A laser direct imaging version of this product is available called PSR-9000FXT LDI that has the same properties as the standard product.

KEMPEN, Germany – Lackwerke Peters GmbH has released Elpeguard conformal coatings for the SL 1400 ECO-FLZ series. The one-pack conformal coatings are said to exhibit optimum climatic protection at high temperatures and high humidity (85 °C/85 % relative humidity), making them suited to meet the highest requirements of electrical properties.

Application is effected in standard layer thicknesses of approx. 30 µm. After application, the conformal coatings initially cure physically and then finally cure by reacting with humidity. They are colorless transparent conformal coatings based on chemically reacting polyurethane resins.

The coatings are also ecologically advantageous products. They have a high solids content, are free of aromatic solvents and heavy metals, and fulfill the requirements of the RoHS directive 2002/95/EC and the WEEE directive 2002/96/EC.

SAN JOSE – Sanmina-SCI Corp. has launched MTS-Via to improve the signal integrity of high-speed data links in printed circuit boards.

MTS stands for match terminated stub, which uses resistors embedded in the internal PCB layers to eliminate parasitic reflections that can interfere with data signals. The approach is said to be less expensive and complex than other effective methods, such as backdrilling, particularly as the number of high-speed signals increases.

The company reported the patent-pending MTS-Via will work in tandem with Opti-Via, another new technology. Opti-Via is designed to improve signal integrity by optimizing internal layer features.