Satellite Trade-offs Require a Broad View
Electronics in the defense industry continue to evolve as designers find different ways to trade cost and performance in one part of a system versus another. These trade-offs continue to occur in...
View ArticleAutomakers Look Beyond Modeling and Simulation
The auto industry’s blend of high volumes, high reliability and low costs makes it a harbinger of trends. A show like the SAE World Congress attracts a lot of technical people, ranging from CEOs to...
View ArticleTransition to Handhelds Impacts Business, Technology Strategies
We’ve been in a period called the post-PC era for several years, yet there’s still an ongoing transition to new devices. Smart phones, Tablets and Netbooks are seeing spectacular growth while sales of...
View ArticleAiming to Trim Tin Whiskers Down to Size
Tin whiskers don’t occur very often, but worries about how to avoid them pop up quite often. IPC is teaming up with the Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE) at the University of Maryland...
View ArticleAdditive Processes Move into High Reliability Environments
It’s almost becoming difficult to pick up a magazine or newspaper without reading about the benefits of additive manufacturing. From Time to Forbes to the Chicago Tribune, the consumer press has...
View ArticleManufacturing Moves Show Promise
Apple recently announced plans to beef up its domestic manufacturing by investing $100 million in a production facility in Texas. Though there are plenty of questions about the state of manufacturing...
View ArticleInfrastructure has a Bearing on Manufacturing Equipment
Manufacturing equipment and systems today are incredibly sophisticated, as well as incredibly complex. Keeping them running at maximum efficiency is a difficult task that requires constant monitoring...
View ArticleEnthusiasm Marks the IPC Difference
All too often, we’re forced to deal with people who are largely apathetic about their jobs, or those who pay little attention to detail. One of the refreshing aspects of IPC involvement is the high...
View ArticleIPC Offers Seminars to Explain Changing ITAR Regulations
Recent and additional expected changes to International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and Export Administration Regulations (EAR) will impact electronics companies that manufacture for the...
View ArticleStaying Up to Date with Changes in Materials
The properties of materials don’t really change, but that doesn’t mean that people who work with them don’t have to make changes when they develop new applications. When one aspect of a printed board...
View ArticleLittle Particles Yield Big Advances
The nanomaterials revolution is continuing to evolve, with little steps that will eventually combine to create major changes. In printed boards, new materials are providing improvements that make it...
View ArticleChips, Packaging Get Closer as Industry Moves to 3-D Packaging
The fact that all technologies in a system are increasingly interconnected is one of the truisms of this era. As densities get finer, cost pressures increase and quality requirements rise, it’s...
View ArticleSlow but Steady
A couple national manufacturing studies out this week highlight the continuing resurgence of American manufacturing. The economy may not be roaring back with any real speed, but it’s seeing steady...
View ArticleStacked Packages, ‘Boardless’ Mountings Step Forward
Semiconductor packaging constantly changes, impacting the printed board industry. A couple interesting directions popped up recently when I talked with ams AG, an analog semiconductor house based in...
View ArticlePicturing Rejuvenated Market Growth
For the past few years, IPC has been expanding its focus on printed electronics knowing that these additive processes are beginning to play a significant role in the future of substrates, among other...
View ArticleSubstrates Provide Base for LED Revolution
LEDs are slowly but surely transforming the lighting industry. Reduced power consumption, smaller size and programmability are helping to drive growth, particularly in fields where different lighting...
View ArticleTurning Copper into Gold
The adage that the only constant is change always holds true in electronics. In some areas, like wire bonding inside chip packages, change doesn’t occur too quickly, but it inevitably comes. Many...
View ArticleCombining Electronics and Mechanical Manufacturing into a Single Additive...
Additive manufacturing is expected to transform both electronics and mechanical manufacturing over the next couple decades. Right now, they’re considered distinct fields. But that may eventually...
View ArticleEDA Consortium Report Indicates a Good Sign for Board Markets
If the design tools market is an indicator of future development for the combined circuit board and multichip module (MCM) industries , then they are in pretty good shape. Over the past four quarters,...
View ArticleFocusing on Fluxes
The drive to improve the long-term reliability of printed boards forces researchers to look at several different factors. Many of those factors are quite subtle, like the corrosion fostered by fluxes....
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