Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture back issues from March 2007:
Build to print.(OUR LINE)
Mar 01, 2007; ... A FEW weeks ago the iNEMI roadmap was officially released. PCD&M will be covering some of the iNEMI chapters that relate to our industry during 2007. This roadmap is important because it provides R&D insights for the entire electronics industry. It pinpoints disruptive and emerging ...
Growth in storage: trends in the U.S. electronics equipment market (shipments only).(MARKET WATCH)
Mar 01, 2007 ... <Pre> GROWTH IN STORAGE Trends in the U.S. electronics equipment market (shipments only). % CHANGE OCT.NOV. (r) DEC. *YTD Computers/electronics products 1.02.0 -5.6...
New orders steady, inventories decline.(MARKET WATCH)
Mar 01, 2007 ... TEMPE, AZ -- The manufacturing sector stalled in January, following a one-month expansion, as companies shed inventories, says the Institute for Supply Management (ism.ws). The PMI sank 2.1 points to 49.3, falling below the benchmark 50 level which generally indicates expansion ....
Analyst: Q1 component pricing 'weak'.(MARKET WATCH)
Mar 01, 2007 ... SAN FRANCISCO -- Weak component pricing bodes well for OEMs this quarter, a leading tech analyst said in February. DRAM and NAND prices are down 20% and 35%, respectively, so far this quarter, vs. their fourth quarter average selling prices. Intel (intel.com), which owns roughly ...
IC sales hit record in '06.(MARKET WATCH)
Mar 01, 2007 ... SAN JOSE -- Global sales of semiconductors reached a record $247..7 billion in 2006, up 8.9%, the Semiconductor Industry Association (sia-online.org) reported. December sales were up 9% to $21.7 billion. The trade group reiterated ...
Auto electronics to slow in '07.(MARKET WATCH)
Mar 01, 2007 ... LOS ALTOS, CA -- Chinese vehicle production is estimated to have risen 12.1% during 2006, according to analyst Henderson Ventures (hendersonventures.com). The research group says world unit vehicle sales rose 4.4% last year, after a 5.2% gain in 2005. Unit production of cars and ...
Industry market snapshot: book-to-bills of various components/equipment.(MARKET WATCH)
Mar 01, 2007 ... <Pre> INDUSTRY MARKET SNAPSHOT Book-to-bills of various components/equipment. AUG. SEPT. OCT. NOV. DEC. Semiconductor equipment (1)1.00 1.000.95 0.97 1.05 Semiconductors (2)11.6% 9.3%9.8% 9.8%9.0% (p) ...
IPC releases December 2006 book-to-bill ratios.(LACKLUSTER CLOSE FOR 2006)
Mar 01, 2007 ... BANNOCKBURN, IL -- IPC, Association Connecting Electronics Industries, reported that the North American rigid PCB industry book-to-bill ratio for December 2006 held steady at 0.92. The North American flexible circuit book-to-bill ratio went up to 0.90. The combined (rigid and flex) ...
EDAC reports continued growth in 2006 Q3.(GROWTH SPURT)
Mar 01, 2007; ... SAN JOSE -- The EDA Consortium's Market Statistics Service (MSS) reported that EDA industry revenue for Q3 2006 grew to $1.3 million compared to $1.1 million in the same quarter of 2005. This increase reflects both the continuing growth of the industry as a whole and the growth of the MSS ...
EMA acquires TimingDesigner product line, Chronology Division from Forte.(AROUND THE WORLD)(Chronology)
Mar 01, 2007 ... ROCHESTER, NY -- EMA Design Automation has acquired the Chronology Division of Forte Design Systems, which includes the TimingDesigner product line from Forte Design Systems. "EMA has been selling TimingDesigner for a couple of years, so we had become intimate with the product, its ...
Latest solder mask spec addresses lead-free.(STANDARDS UPDATE)
Mar 01, 2007; ... CARSON CITY, NV -- For its latest revision, the task group behind IPC-SM-840D, "Qualification and Performance of Permanent Solder Mask," focused on terminology, consolidation, the lead-free dilemma and test methods. In a recent interview with Circuits Assembly, longtime task ...
Titan to spin-off PCB business.(AROUND THE WORLD)
Mar 01, 2007; ... RICHARDSON, TX -- Titan Global Holdings Inc. stated that the company's board of directors has authorized the spin-off of Titan's PCB manufacturing business to its shareholders. The spin-off will reportedly allow the company to accelerate strategic transaction flow at all divisions, which ...
Chemcut employee honored with PCMI award.(HEAD HONCHO)
Mar 01, 2007; ... STATE COLLEGE, PA -- Chemcut Corp. employee Don Ball was honored by the Photochemical Machining Institute (PCMI) for his contributions to the field of photochemical machining. Ball received the career achievement award at PCMI's fall conference in Milwaukee. "Don's research and ...
Events.(HAPPENINGS)(Calendar)
Mar 01, 2007 ... MARCH 6-8 RTS Embedded Systems CNIT Paris La Defense, France Contact: birp.com/rts2007/en/index.htm 19-22 IMAPS International Conference and Exhibition on Device Packaging Doubletree Hotel, Scottsdate, AZ Contact: imaps.org/devicepackaging 20-22 2007 ...
Valor Computerized Systems Ltd.(FACES)
Mar 01, 2007 ... Valor Computerized Systems Ltd. appointed Stephan Hafele as the new president of its European operations, Valor Computerized Systems NV. He ...
Mentor Graphics Corp.(FACES)
Mar 01, 2007 ... Mentor Graphics Corp. named Ananthan Thandri CIO. He most recently worked at Oracle Corp. as vice president of Information ...
DDi Corp.(FACES)
Mar 01, 2007 ... Jerry Barnes is DDi Corp.'s new senior vice president of Sales. He has over twenty years of sales experience in ...
Artetch Circuits.(FACES)
Mar 01, 2007 ... Artetch Circuits hired Matthew Beadel as product development manager. Previously with Quantum Production, DDi, ...
Park Electrochemical Corp.(FACES)
Mar 01, 2007 ... Park Electrochemical Corp. appointed Howard Elliott as vice president of Asian Business Development and Louis Starts as vice president of R&D. Elliott will be responsible for business development relating to all of the company's product lines in Asia. He will continue to serve as president ...
InteliCoat Technologies.(FACES)
Mar 01, 2007 ... Joseph A. Lupone was appointed president and CEO of InteliCoat Technologies. He replaces Robert Champigny who had been CEO since June 2002. Lupone most ...
Mentor Graphics Corp. and Actel Corp. signed a new OEM agreement expanding the companies' existing technology and marketing partnership.(IT'S A DEAL)
Mar 01, 2007 ... Mentor Graphics Corp. and Actel Corp. signed a new OEM agreement expanding the companies' existing technology and marketing partnership. With this agreement, Actel will provide the rich feature set of ...
Tapco Circuit Supply (TCS) has signed a deal with Sheldahl to be the U.S. distribution channel partner for certain Sheldahl products including flexible printed circuit laminates and coverlay films.(IT'S A DEAL)
Mar 01, 2007 ... Tapco Circuit Supply (TCS) has signed a deal with Sheldahl to be the U.S. distribution channel partner for certain Sheldahl products including flexible printed circuit ...
Firan Technology Group Corp. (FTG) has acquired the PCB fabrication business of Action Circuits.(IT'S A DEAL)
Mar 01, 2007 ... Firan Technology Group Corp. (FTG) has acquired the PCB fabrication business of Action Circuits. Terms of the sale ...
Jaltek Group has acquired Wavesight, the designer, manufacturer and supplier of ruggedized, wireless transmission solutions that supports intelligent data, voice and video applications for transportation, surveillance and enterprise.(IT'S A DEAL)
Mar 01, 2007 ... Jaltek Group has acquired Wavesight, the designer, manufacturer and supplier of ruggedized, wireless transmission solutions that supports intelligent data, voice and video applications for transportation, surveillance and enterprise. With the acquisition, Jaltek plans to further expand its ...
CADParts & Consulting formed a strategic alliance with Miemie Design Services Inc.(IT'S A DEAL)
Mar 01, 2007 ... CADParts & Consulting formed a strategic alliance with Miemie Design Services Inc. The two companies have been working together for the past two years designing products for customers in the telecommunications and audio markets. This alliance is said to allow CADParts ...
Make the most of your partnerships: a valued supplier/customer relationship begins with mutually beneficial long-term goals.(ROI)
Mar 01, 2007; ... I LIKE MEETING with customers; seeing what they are doing, where they are going and what their needs might be. It helps me figure out how to best provide them with long-term value. There are, however, two types of customer meetings that really frost me: the annual price shake down and the ...
Solving PCB design interconnect challenges: new design tools that incorporate strategic planning, routing guidance and design feedback.(PCB PROBLEM SOLVERS)
Mar 01, 2007; ... THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PCB interconnect challenges and the CAD tools needed to address them has always been one of leapfrog. In years past, as new interconnect challenges such as surface-mount technology, differential pairs and simple high-speed constraints have emerged they have ...
Selecting the right SerDes device: OEM designers and their EMS partners should evaluate SerDes device characteristics and match them to know PCB design constraints to improve overall performance.(HIGH-SPEED DESIGN)
Mar 01, 2007; ... Serializer/deserializer (SerDes) technology is pushing parallel-based architectures out of the way and rapidly becoming an integral part of high-speed PCB designs. Many designers are learning that SerDes device specifications vary and are difficult to fully grasp since the technology is ...
Cost-optimized PCB power integrity design: new analysis tools measure the performance of the power delivery system and consider both cost and electrical performance resulting in a functional and cost-efficient design.(POWER DELIVERY SYSTEM)
Mar 01, 2007; ... Power delivery system (PDS) design has become an important issue as power consumption of electronic products increases and internal power supply voltages decrease. As a result, design resources that were once exclusively reserved for signal integrity (SI) have now shifted to address power ...
Converging products, expanding supply chain: change is demanded to head off further commoditization and ensure future innovation.(iNEMI ROADMAP)
Mar 01, 2007; ... The iNEMI Roadmap 2007 edition will be available this month, providing a more global perspective than any previous iteration. During this roadmap cycle, we consciously targeted participation from key organizations in Asia and Europe to help ensure that the technology projections truly ...
Consumer electronics reign supreme: Asian control of cell phone and IC substrate production propels growth.(WORLD MARKETS)
Mar 01, 2007; ... For most companies in the PCB industry, 2006 was a terrific year in spite if the high cost of materials that negatively impacted margins. The growth came mainly from Asia, which is not too surprising. The PCB industry in the western world was steady but had no substantial growth, though a ...
The impact of lead-free processing on interconnect reliability: lead-free assembly requires a balance between copper, base material and design to assure reliability.(ROHS AND FABRICATION)(Cover story)
Mar 01, 2007; ... During the last two years there has been a steady migration toward lead-free compliant printed circuit boards. The effects of RoHS compliance have been felt primarily in the areas of PCB design, fabrication and assembly. Following exposure to multiple lead-free assembly and rework cycles, ...
Selecting the right final finish for RoHS compliant PCBs: immersion silver and high temperature OSPs meet the manufacturer's goals of low cost and ease of use, and the assembler's need for high first-pass yields and improved long term reliability.(FINAL FINISHES)
Mar 01, 2007; ... In order to meet the requirements of RoHS, including the elimination of lead from electronic components, the printed circuit board industry is moving away from lead bearing hot air solder leveled (HASL) final finishes to alternative materials. To date, the electronics industry has yet to ...
DFM collaboration solution.(PCB DESIGN CONFERENCE WEST 2007 Conference: March 25-30 * Exhibition: March 27-28, 2007 * Santa Clara, CA)
Mar 01, 2007 ... vShare is a product lifecycle management toolset that supports DFM collaboration between PCB design and engineering teams. Provides a centralized platform with access to important design information and DFM issues. Users can import DFM results from Valor's DFM tools and attach third-party ...
Easy-to- use capture property editor.(PCB DESIGN CONFERENCE WEST 2007 Conference: March 25-30 * Exhibition: March 27-28, 2007 * Santa Clara, CA)
Mar 01, 2007 ... MakeCAP for Cadence OrCAD Capture is said to be an easy-to-use environment for populating the Capture Property Editor. It uses a database linked spreadsheet view where engineers select from the available data objects for assigning values. Entries are error-free and all ...
Design platform.(PCB DESIGN CONFERENCE WEST 2007 Conference: March 25-30 * Exhibition: March 27-28, 2007 * Santa Clara, CA)
Mar 01, 2007 ... A new electronics design platform comprised of NI Multisim 10.0, NI Ultiboard 10.0 and NI measurement technology introduces professional design features including: advanced simulation tools and new microcontroller (MCU) co-simulation, increased quality and breadth of the component ...
PDS design solution.(PCB DESIGN CONFERENCE WEST 2007 Conference: March 25-30 * Exhibition: March 27-28, 2007 * Santa Clara, CA)
Mar 01, 2007 ... OptimizePI is a PDS performance analysis, verification and cost-driven optimization platform with particular emphasis on optimum selection and placement of decoupling capacitors. Is said to provide accurate characterization of PDS performance and enable quick "what-if" ...
Laser machining systems.(CPCA 2007 March 21-23 * Shanghai, China)
Mar 01, 2007 ... The FP1000 laser machining system was created for high performance and high volume manufacturing environments. Features include active pulse shaping for process quality, high-performance motion and laser beam control, windows operator interface, fully automated self-calibration and part ...
Imaging system.(CPCA 2007 March 21-23 * Shanghai, China)
Mar 01, 2007 ... The Quasar engine semi-auto exposure system for fast and "cool" exposures of std PCB soldermasks ink with high resolution and accuracy at speeds approaching or even exceeding DF and LPI materials. The new imaging ...
Resist technology.(CPCA 2007 March 21-23 * Shanghai, China)
Mar 01, 2007 ... In designing the line special attention is given to structuring the photo resist and the panel. As packaging densities further increase, the demands on developing and etching technologies are stepped up. Both inner and outer layers are considered ...
High-speed, low loss laminate.(CPCA 2007 March 21-23 * Shanghai, China)
Mar 01, 2007 ... Nelco N4000-13EP 210[degrees]C TG substrate is said to offer an enhanced performance option that expands the range of the N4000-13 material system within the lead-free assembly market. The Nelco N4000-13EP series of laminate and prepreg materials is designed to ...
Calculating characteristic impedance: when taking measurements or doing simulations, it's good to anticipate your results ahead of time.(THE SIGNAL DOCTOR)
Mar 01, 2007; ... QUESTION FROM SCOTT IN TUCSON, AZ: Everyone says that if you bring a grounded trace next to a signal line, the impedance of the signal line will drop. This is because of the proximity of the ground next to the signal line. If this is true, is there a rule of thumb to use to estimate how ...