Just Ask John Mitchell: Greenfield Capacity in North America?

Reading time ( words)

First, we asked you to send in your questions for Happy Holden, Joe Fjelstad, and Eric Camden in our “Just Ask” series. Now, it’s IPC President and CEO John Mitchell’s turn! A regular PCB007 columnist, John focuses on many of the challenges affecting the global electronics industry supply chain. Over the years, he has served as an engineer, manager, and executive at a variety of companies and organizations. We hope you enjoy “Just Ask John.” 

Q: What do you think will drive more greenfielding/new PCB capacity in North America? And when do you think we will see a new PCB facility built from the ground up to meet the demand in North America for locally built PCBs?

A: Greenfield opportunities appear to be highest for high-mix, low-volume PCB manufacturing within North America. Customers requiring special supply chain security measures, rapid turn early-stage co-development, or increased new product introduction capability are well suited for North American operations, situated close to North American OEM facilities.

Operations having high levels of automation may also be attractive for North America. North American PCB operations have not historically been utilized for high volume commodity PCB supply. Instead, these plants are best utilized for their higher complexity skill, new product introduction expertise, design for manufacturing design reviews, and high-quality yield production.

As for when we will see a new PCB facility built in North America: Suppliers that are considered a trusted source are likely to be able to service special supply chain security requirements being issued by North American governments and military organizations, so now is absolutely feasible for new PCB facilities to be built.

To submit your questions to John, click here.

 

12/21/2020 | Anaya Vardya, American Standard Circuits

Insulated metal PCBs (IMPCB) or metal-clad PCBs (MCPCB) are a thermal management design that utilizes a layer of solid metal to dissipate the heat generated by the various components on the PCBs. When metal is attached to a PCB, the bonding material can either be thermally conductive but electrically isolative (IMPCBs or MCPCBs), or in the case of RF/microwave circuits, the bonding material may be both electrically and thermally conductive. The reason that RF designers usually have the bonding material thermally and electrically conductive is that they are using this not only as a heat sink but also as part of the ground layer. The design considerations are quite different for these different applications.

12/15/2020 | Happy Holden, I-Connect007

This is the first Electronic Circuits World Convention that I have not attended in person since 1978. To refresh your memory, these are held every three years on a rotating basis. The HKPCA hosted this year’s conference and they kept up the fine tradition of collecting outstanding keynotes, nearly 60 technical presentations and myriad poster papers. HKPCA was also kind enough to provide English slides and translations. It is still possible to sign up and view the presentations. I have listened to 20 of the presentations, and hope to attend even more in the coming days as they are all worth watching.

12/04/2020 | Andy Shaughnessy, Design007 Magazine

Around the holidays, we often see a slowdown in PCB design and manufacturing news. But this holiday season, there’s been no rest for the newsmakers in our industry! In the last week, our daily and weekly newsletters have been chock-full of breaking news and up-to-the-minute technical information that readers like you rely upon every day.