PCB Chat

In this new addition to PCB Chat called The Screw-Ups, we talk to experts in electronics manufacturing about specific problems they’ve encountered, and offer up some potential solutions. Episode one features Tom Forsythe, vice president of Kyzen, who deconstructs rinsing.

Reliability Matters is a new podcast from Mike Konrad of Aqueous Technologies. Konrad is an industry expert on the removal ofcontamination from circuit assemblies. He has been part of the electronic assembly cleaning industry for more than 30 years and  has designed several automated cleaning and cleanliness testing machines and published scores of technical articles on cleaning and cleanliness assessment. This episode of Reliability Matters features an interview with SMT guru Bob Willis.

Joe Fama shares his impressions of electronica, the electronics industry’s largest trade show. He also explains the latest trends in outsourcing in Southeast Asia, including the cost structures of Vietnam, Malaysia and China, and says Vietnam and the Philippines are in line for growth.

PCB Chat host Mike Buetow catches up on the weekly news in electronics manufacturing.

The first IPC Technology Roadmap meeting was held 25 years ago. What have we learned since then? Host Mike Buetow reflects on lessons learned in researching a recent retrospective on that inaugural landmark document.

The Hitchhikers Guide to PCB Design is a new eBook designed to teach all the things industry experts wish they knew when starting out. Authored by a group of experts representing diverse disciplines, it's a great, tool-agnostic resource for designers and engineers. PCB Chat's Mike Buetow speaks with several of the authors and the sponsor of the book, Manny Marcano, about some of the highlights and what they learned along the way.

Since 1994, the PCB industry has relied on technology roadmaps to guide investment decisions. But have roadmaps kept up with the times? PCB Chat host Mike Buetow explores whether the time has come to position the roadmap not as a snapshot of industry capabilities at a given point in time but to get back to the original intention, which was to guide the supply chain to ensure limited resources weren’t spent chasing technologies that might not meet customers’ needs.

What’s in a name? We probably ask that question about 10,000 times over the course of our lives. A name is just a name, but for many, it’s their introduction to branding. PCB Chat host Mike Buetow ponders whether rebranding is needed for designers today.

Marc Benowitz became CEO of iNEMI in January. This followed nearly 40 years at AT&T, Lucent, Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Bell Labs, where he began as a member of the technical staff in the interconnect technology lab, and ultimately worked his way up to senior director of the reliability, hardware test and eco-environmental engineering organization.  Marc was no stranger to iNEMI, having been a member of the consortium’s board of directors since 2001 and chairman since 2013.

He speaks with Mike Buetow about the transition from the private sector to fulltime consortia work, and his goals and priorities for iNEMI.

Mark Finstad is senior application engineer for Flexible Circuit Technologies. He has over 30 years of experience designing and manufacturing flexible circuits for commercial, medical, and military/avionics applications. He co-chairs the IPC-2223 Design Standard for Flexible Printed boards and coauthors the Ask the Flexperts column for PCD&F magazine.

Nick Koop is a senior field application engineer for TTM Technologies and has over 30 years of design, manufacturing and management experience in the flexible circuit industry. He developed and applied advanced PCB technologies to support a wide range medical, military, and global security applications. He is vice chairman of the IPC Flexible Circuits Committee, co-chair for the IPC-6013 Qualification and Performance Specification for Flexible Printed Boards Subcommittee, and coauthors the Ask the Flexperts column for PCD&F magazine.

They discuss real-life flex circuit struggles and how to overcome them with PCB Chat's Mike Buetow.