Flex on the Brain: The Future of Neural Interfaces

The SMTA Additive Electronics TechXchange took place virtually on October 14, with presentations from a wide variety of technologists involved in additive processes. Andy Shaughnessy describes how one of the highlights was a presentation titled “Flexible Electronics for Neural Interfaces” by Dr. Jonathan Viventi, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Duke University.

Real Time with… AltiumLive Europe: If You Don’t Know How It’s Made, How Can You Possibly Design It?

Designers attending the AltiumLive Europe 2020 Virtual Summit had the opportunity to see at first-hand how circuit boards were made to help them make informed design-for-manufacturing decisions. Pete Starkey details how Würth Electronik welcomed AltiumLive to its Niedernhall factory to take a virtual tour.

I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week

After a crazy year like this, we shouldn’t be surprised that this trade show season is unlike any other. Here’s one of the many “silver linings” of 2020: We actually dodged a bullet earlier this year when COVID-19 hit after most of our industry’s big events had taken place. In this week’s top five, we have an assortment of trade show and conference news items, plus a few examples of technological trends and innovation.

Northrop Grumman: 3D Nanomaterials May Counter Gaps in Additive Supply Chain

The best technology is dead in the water if your domestic supply chain won’t support it. That was just one of the takeaways from Dr. Judy Dickson’s talk during the SMTA Additive Electronics TechXchange. In her presentation, titled “Advanced PWBs: A Collaboration Between Design, Operations, and the Supply Chain,” Dickson, a senior principal systems engineer at Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, laid out the many challenges her department faces in fielding HDI advanced packaging into the next decade. Most of these challenges are related to sourcing the necessary materials in the U.S.

Real Time with… AltiumLive 2020: Early Communication Key to Success of OSV Project

Rob Cooke, director of engineering at Calumet Electronics, discusses his role in the Open Source Ventilator (OSV) project that yielded ventilator PCBs in record time. He and project partners, Dugan Karnazes of Velocity Research and Chris Denney of Worthington Assembly, recounted this story during a panel at the virtual AltiumLive.

Understanding MIL-PRF-31032, Part 4

Continuing with Part 4 of the discussion on understanding the military PCB performance standard MIL-PRF-31032, Anaya Vardya explains how the next step in the process is to create four new procedures to address the unique requirements of the military.

SMTA Additive TechXchange Keynote: An Outlook on Advanced PCB Fab

Organised as a virtual event by Lenora Clark of ESI Automotive and Tara Dunn of Omni PCB, SMTA’s Additive TechXchange addressed additive technology specifically in the context of the electronics industry. Pete Starkey details the keynote presentation, an outlook on advanced printed circuit board fabrication, from Jeff Doubrava, managing partner at Prismark Partners.

90% Solder Dross Recovery: Eliminate Waste, Save Money

The impact of 90% solder dross recovery can have a substantial impact on reducing waste and increasing cost savings. Nolan Johnson recently spoke with Jay Hardin, MS2® product manager at P. Kay Metal, about the process and benefits of efficient solder dross recovery, as well as product roadmaps, the soldering machine market, and raw materials supply chain for solder alloy manufacturing. As Jay says, “For many companies, the savings are in the thousands or millions” of dollars.

EIPC Technical Snapshot: Automotive Technology

Although current circumstances have forced the postponement of its live conferences, seminars, and workshops, EIPC continues to provide a platform for the exchange and dissemination of the latest knowledge and technical information to the European interconnection and packaging industry. Pete Starkey details how its current series of technical snapshots, delivered in webinar format, address technology challenges facing the automotive, telecom, and high-speed sectors of the industry.

Real Time with… AltiumLive: Eric Bogatin on Unlearning What You’ve Learned

The second day of the virtual AltiumLive 2020 event got off to a great start with a class by Dr. Eric Bogatin. It was officially titled “You Must Unlearn What You’ve Learned,” but it could have just as easily been called “Designing Interconnect That Sucks Less.”

I-Connect007 Editor's Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week

Trade shows and technical conferences haven’t died; they’ve just moved online. The trade show season continues in virtual full force this week, and event coverage dominates the top five this week. Surprisingly, I don’t see events as this week’s theme. No, this week’s theme is “pundits.” We have Walt Custer’s industry outlook, seven experts on additive electronics, a designers conference keynote, and the IPC’s government relations expert. Don’t get me wrong: These folks are asked to speak to the industry for a good reason. They know their subject matter, and they present it skillfully. This week’s top five picks are worth reading.

This Month in PCB007 Magazine: The Acceleration or Deceleration of Change

Things have changed a lot in the last year, especially in the realm of technology. Just a year ago, 5G networks were on a smooth path to unquestioned rapid growth dominance. Today, while there has been much progress, and while there are some 5G capable devices available, it is far from universal. In some areas, such as near schools and residential areas, people were putting up roadblocks to 5G towers. Overall, there has been much progress, but the pace seems slower than was expected just a year ago. Some limitations are being identified, and there is already talk of 6G becoming available well before the end of the decade.

Just Ask Paul: Automotive and Lead-Free Solders

We asked you to send in your questions for Happy Holden, Joe Fjelstad, Eric Camden, John Mitchell, and Greg Smith in our “Just Ask” series. Now, MacDermid Alpha Electronics Solutions’ Paul Salerno gets a chance to answer a question. Paul Salerno is a global portfolio manager for SMT applications focused on the automotive and consumer market segments. He holds a bachelor’s degree in materials engineering as well as an MBA in finance and marketing from Rutgers University.

Real Time with… AltiumLive 2020: Eli Hughes’ Full-Stack Hardware Engineer Keynote

Nolan Johnson details TZero Co-founder Eli Hughes' keynote presentation titled “Crossing the Chasm: The Road to Becoming a Full-Stack Hardware Engineer,” demonstrating how it takes cross-disciplinary thinking to truly innovate.

Real Time with… AltiumLive 2020: Würth Virtual Factory Tour

Since AltiumLive this year is a virtual event, coverage is limited to watching some of the presentations virtually. Dan Feinberg describes how he was pleasantly surprised with the quality and excellence of the Würth virtual factory tour.

An Update on Walt Custer’s EIPC Business Outlook Webinar

“We’re not out of trouble yet, but it’s a whole lot better than a couple of months ago.” Walt Custer’s business outlook update, with emphasis on the European electronics industry, attracted a capacity audience to EIPC’s webinar on October 2. Pete Starkey details how it wasn’t all bad news.

I-Connect007 Editor's Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week

It’s showtime! This past week, we saw quite a bit of news about virtual trade shows. It’s great to see show managers pivot from live, in-person events to virtual shows with only a few months to make it all happen. How would you like to be a show manager today?

Real Time with… SMTAI 2020: Reflections on the Technical Conference

This year’s SMTA International Conference and Exposition went virtual! Pete Starkey explains how the SMTA team did a fine job in difficult circumstances to present an interactive show and technical conference. Here, he highlights four of the papers that particularly caught his interest.

Combatting Thermal Challenges With TRM Software

Johannes Adam is the creator of a simulation tool called Thermal Risk Management (TRM) used to help PCB designers and design engineers predict hot spots on the board before during layout. He and Douglas Brooks, founder of UltraCAD Design, have used the tool to produce several technical articles and a book on the subject. In this interview, they tackle the biggest misconceptions they see from designers and engineers who deal with thermal management issues.

My Experience at SMTAI 2020 Virtual

Denny Fritz shares his experience while attending SMTAI, concentrating on the exhibition portion of the virtual show. He also compliments SMTA on organizing and operating the virtual event.

Real Time with… SMTAI 2020: Technical Conference Review

SMTAI 2020, which was converted to a virtual event, took place from September 28–30. I attend every year, but since there was no keynote in the virtual format, I went straight to the technical conference. This event covered a broad range of topics related to everything in assembly. Over 90 technical presentations are available, but this report covers just some of the sessions I attended.

Just Ask John Mitchell: The Exclusive Compilation

We asked for you to send in your questions for IPC President and CEO John Mitchell, and you took us up on it! We know you all enjoyed reading these questions and answers, so we’ve compiled all of them into one article for easy reference. We hope you enjoy having another bite at the apple. And if you’d like to hear more from John Mitchell, view his column series “One World, One Industry.”

Real Time with… SMTAI 2020: SMTA Announces Members of Distinction Annual Awards

SMTA recognized exceptional individual and corporate members for their immeasurable contributions to the association since 1994. And while the SMTA International Technical Committee announced the best presentation and paper awards from the 2019 conference on March 18, 2020, recipients were also recognized at SMTAI 2020.

I-Connect007 Editor's Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week

Most all the action this week involved the STMA International Conference and Exposition. I-Connect007’s Real Time with… video interviews generally led the way for views and clicks. In each item, the intent was to make things better in some fashion. Whether it was pivoting on trade show delivery, optimizing the metalization process in the fab, adding more AI to manufacturing capital equipment, unifying and furthering the concept of the digital twin concept, or responding to company growth by upgrading systems with the help the equipment manufacturers, all these news items speak to being adaptable and forward-thinking.

Stop Relating Trace Temperature to Current Density

Many design engineers and even many software suppliers make the significant mistake of equating changes in trace or via temperature with current density. This is incorrect at best and dangerous at worst. There is little if any correlation between temperature and current density. Current and trace dimensions (among other things) are the relevant variables, but current density is not. I hope by the end of this article you will see why. Here are four illustrations that will help you understand this.

Real Time with...SMTAI 2020: MacDermid Alpha’s Single-Step Metalization Paper

Nolan Johnson talks with MacDermid Alpha Electronics Solutions about a new process for filling through-holes with copper in a single step. Carmichael Gugliotti, the primary author and an applications specialist, and Richard Bellemare, director of electrolytic metalization, address why this new process matters and what’s in Gugliotti’s technical paper presentation for SMTAI.

Just Ask John Mitchell: Blurring the Lines of Technology

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.”

Just Ask John Mitchell: Plans For Knowledge Transfer?

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.”

Just Ask John Mitchell: Global Book-to-Bill Number

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.”

Real Time with…SMTAI 2020: ASC Makes Lemonade Out of Lemons

Steve Williams and Anaya Vardya, president and CEO of American Standard Circuits (ASC), discuss the upcoming virtual SMTAI show and how the company is “making lemonade out of lemons.” As they point out, there may be no face-to-face interaction, but virtual shows are open to attendees from around the world with no travel or hotel costs. Anaya explains how the COVID-19 lockdown has caused ASC to become more creative in its marketing efforts, including holding webinars and publishing two eBooks with I-Connect007. They also discuss ASC’s holistic approach to the marketplace, with a diversified product mix across various segments.

I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week

In this week’s picks, we bring you news about the upcoming SMTA International 2020, IPC’s plans for the fall, a move for Burkle North America’s headquarters, and advice on how to select the correct CAD tool. And we have the first installment of our newest series: “Just Ask John Mitchell.”

Just Ask John Mitchell: Advice on Selling Tech in Asia

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.”

Real Time with...SMTAI 2020: MacDermid Alpha’s Flash Etching Electroplating Paper

I-Connect007’s Nolan Johnson catches up with Sean Fleuriel, a chemist for MacDermid Alpha Electronics Solutions, and Richard Bellemare, director of electrolytic metalization, to discuss the SMTAI technical paper presented by Fleuriel, titled, “Pit Resistant Acid Copper Electroplating Process for Flash Etching.” Fleuriel and Bellemare highlight the challenges, processes, and conclusions from the paper, as well as which PCB fabricators are most likely to benefit from this new process.

Just Ask John Mitchell: Greenfield Capacity in North America?

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.”

Just Ask John Mitchell: Emerging Engineers and Managers

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! Today, John answers this question: Does IPC have an interest in emerging managers, as well as emerging engineers?

Just Ask John Mitchell: Are IPC’s Positions Dictated by Politics?

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.”

I-Connect007 Editor's Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week

Two weeks ago, when it was my turn to pick the top 5, I made a comment about themes. I’m making a stretch here, but this week’s theme is technical education. Three out of the five most popular news items this last week reported on upcoming technical events or publications.

Mentor and Z-zero Collaborate on New Stackup Tool

I recently spoke with Max Clark, business unit manager with Mentor, a Siemens Business, and Z-zero founder Bill Hargin about the newly formed partnership that resulted in a new stackup tool that Mentor is now selling worldwide. Fun fact: Hargin used to work for Mentor as part of the HyperLynx team, which now has an interface with Z-planner Enterprise. Talk about coming full circle.

Real Time with…SMTAI 2020: KYZEN on How Maximized Stencil Life Improves Yields

KYZEN Executive Vice President Tom Forsythe shares company updates on stencil cleaning with Nolan Johnson. KYZEN recently announced its newest stencil cleaning product—KYZEN E5631. Forsythe details how the product is best used, as well as the benefits it brings to maximizing stencil life and improving manufacturing yields.

This Month in PCB007 Magazine: The Pillar Roadmap

As I spoke with Happy Holden about the four pillars of manufacturing, it became clear that they don’t stand on their own; they are intertwined. Happy pulls from his experience at Hewlett-Packard as he discusses benchmarking your capabilities, the competition, and market forces. He then turns that into a technology roadmap, which further drives the other pillars. Happy is adamant that to make all four pillars function properly in your business, you first need to benchmark your business and then create a roadmap. He says the roadmap identifies the specific functions required from the four pillars, and how each pillar supports the others.

Just Ask Eric: Selecting the Right Lead-Free Solder for Your Application

First, we asked you to send in your questions for Happy Holden and Joe Fjelstad in our “Just Ask” series. Now, it’s Eric Camden’s turn! A regular SMT007 columnist, Eric is a lead investigator at Foresite Inc., an analytical testing and consulting laboratory. As a reliability expert, Eric has worked with many large OEMs and contract manufacturing companies to optimize their manufacturing processes and assist with the identification of electronic hardware failures utilizing various analytical techniques. He also specializes in optimizing PCBA processes and identifying hardware failures through analysis. We hope you enjoy “Just Ask Eric.”

I-007eBook Review: Thermal Management From a Fabricator’s Perspective

The Printed Circuit Designer’s Guide to… Thermal Management: A Fabricator’s Perspective, written by Anaya Vardya, founder and CEO of American Standard Circuits, is an important book for a number of reasons. The most important reason is right there in the title; it is from the fabricator’s perspective. Besides explaining all aspects of thermal management—from thermal vias and metal-core boards to mixed technology—this book also describes the various applications of thermal dielectrics, their properties, and their incorporation into the actual fabrication of PCBs.

Introducing SMTA’s 2020 Additive Electronics TechXchange, Part 2

I-Connect007’s Nolan Johnson spoke with TechXchange organizers, Tara Dunn, President of OmniPCB, and Lenora Clark, Director of Autonomous Driving and Safety at ESI Automotive, about this year’s version of the event. In this second installment, Dunn and Clark discuss the target audience for the Additive TechXchange: What sort of businesses and roles should be in attendance and why?

I-Connect007 Editor's Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week

This week, we have a little bit of everything. There’s quite a bit of new technology news, along with an I-Connect007 eBook on thermal design techniques, trade show talk, and an interesting take on trading in capital equipment. We’ve been following the “digital twin” for the past few years, and when Siemens released a webinar on the topic this week, Happy Holden got a sneak peek and wrote a review that turned out to be one of our most popular recent articles.

Introducing SMTA’s 2020 Additive Electronics TechXchange, Part 1

I-Connect007’s Nolan Johnson spoke with the organizers of the Additive Electronics TechXchange—Tara Dunn, president of Omni PCB, and Lenora Clark, director of autonomous driving and safety at ESI Automotive—about this year’s version of the event. Look for follow-up conversations with Dunn and Clark as additional information about the Additive Electronics TechXchange becomes available.

American Standard Circuits’ New Book Covers Thermal Management From a Fabricator’s Perspective

I had the opportunity to speak with Anaya Vardya, president and CEO of American Standard Circuits, about "The Printed Circuit Designer’s Guide to…Thermal Management: A Fabricator’s Perspective," which serves as a desk reference for designers on the most current thermal management techniques and methods.

I-Connect007’s Latest Innovation: Joe Fjelstad’s E-Workshop on Flexible Circuits

Denied the prospect of physically attending conferences, symposia, or live workshops by travel and social-distancing restrictions, Pete Starkey welcomed the opportunity to enjoy a privileged preview of I-Connect007’s latest innovation in technical webinars: a series of e-workshops on flexible circuit technology with the industry’s leading authority—Joe Fjelstad.

NVIDIA’s Three Next-Generation GPUs Excite Consumers

Finally, the product release that many had been waiting for. NVIDIA recently announced its next-generation RTX 3000 Series GPUs, and the stated capabilities are amazing. Dan Feinberg has all of the details.

Catching up With Nate Doemling, New CEO of IMS

Dan Beaulieu recently interviewed Nate Doemling with Intelligent Manufacturing Solutions (IMS) in New England about his new role at the company. After serving on the IMS board of directors for several months, Doemling joined the company as CEO in January 2020.

An Excerpt From the Book ‘Thermal Management: A Fabricator’s Perspective’

Thermal management in the printed circuit board (PCB) world is big business! A recent Markets and Markets report projects the thermal management market to reach $16 billion by the year 2024 with an average CAGR of 8% over that period. We have chosen to focus this book on providing designers a thermal management desk reference on the most current thermal management techniques and methods from a PCB fabrication perspective, including a case study on an extreme mixed-technology design that we recently produced. We hope you find value in our efforts.

I-Connect007 Editor's Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week

When compiling my Top Five, I tend to let the reader views guide my choices. Oh, sure, sometimes a news item is significant well beyond the reads it receives; that’s why this is an editor’s picks, not a strict Top Five. Still, readership habits inform my choices. That makes it even more interesting when a week demonstrates a theme so convenient as to seem contrived. Take this week, for example. In this week’s top five, four of the top five are news reports on mil-aero topics. You, dear readers, gobbled up the military and aerospace news this week. The outlier is, as we all would expect, a conference report from our very own Pete Starkey.

Real Time With…I-Connect007: The App Notes and Fab Notes Roundtable

Most of our readers are familiar with our Real Time With... video program. For over a decade, we’ve been a staple at trade shows and conferences around the world, doing on-camera interviews with the industry’s top technologists, managers, and executives. Now, Real Time With…I-Connect007 is turning the cameras around to focus on recent issues of our magazines. In this first installment, four of our recent contributors—Dana Korf, Jen Kolar, Mark Thompson, and Kelly Dack—review the June and August issues of Design007 Magazine, which covered app notes and fab notes, respectively.

Promoting a Circular Economy in Electronics Manufacturing

The sixth international Electronics Goes Green Conference was held as an online virtual. Pete Starkey provides a recap of the event, which provided insight into innovative eco-design and extended reliability from the perspective of iNEMI’s roadmap.

Rethinking Interconnects With VeCS Technology

Nolan Johnson and Happy Holden chat with Joe Dickson of WUS about the work he’s done with VeCS, the continuing development of the technology, and the potential impact it can have on the manufacturing floor.

I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week

This week, we have quite a potpourri for you. There's good news about the PCB market. And as this year continues to surprise us at every turn, companies are discovering the true nature of their leaders. Todd Kolmodin has a great column about bosses and leaders and why the two words are not synonymous. Not to be outdone, columnist Barry Olney found a way to explain the wavelength of electromagnetic energy by using a chocolate bar and a microwave oven. We also have great articles by Sagi Reuven and Pete Starkey.

Catching up With VirBELA’s Glenn Sanford

Have you been disappointed by trade shows and conferences being canceled or postponed? Have you wondered how some of these events are going virtual? Dan Beaulieu speaks with Glenn Sanford, chief strategy officer of VirBELA, about the company’s platform and its impact on events.

iNEMI 2019 Roadmap Webinar Review: Aerospace and Defence Products

The iNEMI Roadmap is recognised as a valuable tool for defining the state-of-the-art in the electronics industry, identifying emerging and disruptive technologies, and setting industry R&D priorities over the next 10 years. Pete Starkey provides an overview of iNEMI's latest in a series of webinars highlighting the roadmap’s assessments of evolving product requirements, manufacturing infrastructure issues, and technological needs and gaps.

Just Ask Joe: The Occam Process

First, we asked you to send in your questions for Happy Holden. Now, it’s Joe Fjelstad’s turn! Inventor, columnist, instructor, and founder of Verdant Electronics, Joe has been involved with rigid PCBs and flexible circuits for decades, and he’s ready to share some of his knowledge with our readers. We hope you enjoy “Just Ask Joe.”

I-Connect007 Survey on Leadership: More Important Now Than Ever

The I-Connect007 research team recently conducted a survey on leadership, covering everything from leadership qualities to stories and lessons learned from inspirational leaders. Read what respondents from the industry had to share on the topic of leadership.

Just Ask Joe: The Land Warrior Project

First, we asked you to send in your questions for Happy Holden. Now, it’s Joe Fjelstad’s turn! Inventor, columnist, instructor, and founder of Verdant Electronics, Joe has been involved with rigid PCBs and flexible circuits for decades, and he’s ready to share some of his knowledge with our readers. We hope you enjoy “Just Ask Joe.”

I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week

This week, the top five is full of progress in technology and financial performance. It’s more evidence that the electronics industry, at its core, continues to thrive.

Got a Question? Just Ask Joe!

A few months ago, we launched our “Just Ask” series with Happy Holden. Many readers took us up on it, sending all manner of questions for happy to answer. Now, Joe Fjelstad—inventor, technologist, author, and Flex007 columnist—is getting in on the action. Here’s your chance to pick Joe’s brain. What’s the one question about this industry that you’ve always wanted to ask Joe?

This Month in PCB007 Magazine: Blue Box—Leading a Cleaning Revolution

Jim Metropoulos, CEO and founder of Blue Box, talks about the innovative foam solution he developed to clean the coils of HVAC systems in large facilities, ranging from casinos and manufacturing plants to some of the top hospitals in the country.

Just Ask Joe: Optimum Copper Plating for Thermal Via Farms

First, we asked you to send in your questions for Happy Holden. Now, it’s Joe Fjelstad’s turn! Inventor, columnist, instructor, and founder of Verdant Electronics, Joe has been involved with rigid PCBs and flexible circuits for decades, and he’s ready to share some of his knowledge with our readers. We hope you enjoy “Just Ask Joe.”

Understanding MIL-PRF-31032, Part 2

In Part 2 of this series on understanding the military PCB performance standard MIL-PRF-31032, Anaya Vardya explains how the first step in the process is to develop a quality management plan (QMP).

New Solder Joint Technology From Schmartboard

Schmartboard has a surprisingly simple patented process to improve solder joint reliability; in this interview, they discuss the process in detail, along with their search for a go-to-market partner.

The Pros and Cons of Working Remotely

For this issue of Design007 Magazine, Managing Editor Andy Shaughnessy asked Patrick Crawford if IPC had any insight into how the “new normal” of working from home has impacted their members. Here is what the IPC technical staff had to say about the advantages and disadvantages of working remotely, as well as working with IPC volunteers who are new to working from the dining room table.

I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week

This week’s picks include a little of everything. We have an interview with the founder of Avishtech, a new EDA software company that has a spin on field solvers and stackup tools. We also have an interview with Mike Carano, who discusses the need for mentors. Then, there’s news about partnership between Koh Young and Mentor, and an iNEMI "best practices" guide for disinfecting your facility. Finally, we've compiled all of the "Just Ask Happy" entries into a single document for your viewing pleasure. Happy Friday!

Joe Fjelstad Updates His Online Flex Workshop

Joe Fjelstad has been an innovator in flexible and rigid-flex technology for four decades. About 10 years ago, I-Connect007 helped Joe produce an online workshop on flex technology based largely on his book Flexible Circuit Technology, which was first published in 1994 and is now heading into its fifth edition. In this online video course, Joe offers a primer on flexible circuits, covering everything from the history of this technology through the most cutting-edge technologies.

Avishtech: A New Player in the Field Solver and PCB Simulation Tools Market

It has been a crazy year with lots of ups and downs. But within the clouds, we’ve seen plenty of silver linings, too. Case in point: Avishtech, a brand-new company lead by founder and CEO Keshav Amla. (You may be familiar with his father, Tarun Amla, a veteran PCB materials technologist who is now with ITEQ.) We recently caught up with Keshav and asked him to discuss his company’s simulation tools, his plans for the company, and what it’s like launching a company in this “new normal.”

Just Ask Happy: The Exclusive Compilation

We asked for you to send in your questions for Happy Holden, and you took us up on it! We loved them so much, and we know that you did too, so we’ve compiled all 21 questions and answers into one document for easy reference.

W. Edwards Deming’s Lost Chapters Recovered

I was cleaning up my bookcase recently and came across a tired, dog-eared set of papers that was Dr. Deming’s initial draft of his book "On The Management of Statistical Techniques for Quality and Productivity," which I received when he came to HP to lecture about quality and productivity on March 11, 1981.

8 Measures for Sales and Operations Planning in Turbulent Times, Part 8

In this series, CEPHAS principal Fane Friberg highlights the interdependent elements of an effective S&OP process for leaders of supply chain management. While some companies tend to fall back on the status quo, Friberg highlights why it’s critical to actually increase the frequency of the S&OP rather than decrease the operations. He has reviewed the importance of staying committed, strategic imperatives, participation, technology, rough-cut capacity planning, suppliers, and financials. Today, he concludes with key performance indicators.

This Month in Design007 Magazine: Dear Designers—Please Include a Sanity Check

We recently asked Rick Almeida, DownStream co-founder, and Technical Sales Manager Ray Fugitt to discuss why so many fabricators are still receiving (and correcting) inaccurate and incomplete data from their customers. And if fabricators and designers are content with this current process, is it really a problem after all?

8 Measures for Sales and Operations Planning in Turbulent Times, Part 7

In this series, CEPHAS principal Fane Friberg highlights the interdependent elements of an effective S&OP process for leaders of supply chain management. While some companies tend to fall back on the status quo, Friberg highlights why it’s critical to actually increase the frequency of the S&OP rather than decrease the operations. He has reviewed the importance of staying committed, strategic imperatives, participation, technology, and rough-cut capacity planning. Today, he discusses financials.