SMT007 Magazine

SMT-Sept2016

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10 SMT Magazine • September 2016 see it winning anytime soon because of matters that I won't bother to discuss here. So as I've said, quite simply, such threats to national se- curity are driving the growth of the military/ defense industry. And that's just in the Philip- pines alone. On the aerospace front—let me touch on commercial aerospace—the growing middle class in the Philippines, and in fact all over the ASEAN region, for example, is fueling the growth of international travel within and out- side of Asia. This, coupled with the lingering low cost of oil, is driving airline companies to modernize and expand their fleet. Meanwhile, the military satellites market is also on the rise. According to market analyst vi- siongain, the military satellites market is set to be worth $14.37 billion in 2016, driven by na- tional governments' ever-greater demands for military satellite bandwidth to ensure informa- tion superiority. Another growing market is the smart weapons segment, which, according to Mar- ketsandMarkets, is estimated to reach $15.64 billion by 2021. The global man-portable mil- itary electronics market, on the other hand, is poised to rise from a value of $15.1 billion in 2012 to $19.67 billion in 2019, according to a recent study by Transparency Market Re- search. Man-portable military electronics com- prise portable electronics equipment that en- hances the capabilities of military personnel in the battlefield. All these broader trends are providing con- text to the rise in activities in the SMT, PCB as- sembly, and EMS industries catering to the mil- itary/defense and aerospace markets. After all, these systems—which are getting more and more advanced—have in their hearts the one thing that connects them all: electronics. I don't know if you read about this, but in December 2014, AirAsia Flight 8501 bound for Singapore from Surabaya, Indonesia, crashed into the Java Sea—killing all 155 passengers and seven crew on board. One of the key points mentioned in Indonesia's transportation au- thorities' report about the incident after a year of investigation was a cracked solder joint in the rudder travel limiter (RTL) unit. A cracked solder joint. Who would have known, right? But then again, someone should know—the electronics assemblers and manu- facturers. In this industry, failure is not an op- tion. Therefore, all checks and tests should have been made to ensure the reliability of these elec- tronics systems given the harsh conditions they operate in. According to our recent survey, among the greatest challenges faced by electronics assem- blers when it comes to the military and aero- space markets are compliance, obsolete and fake components, and reliability—and in par- ticular, long-term reliability. Miniaturization is also an issue, leading to challenges in soldering these smaller and smaller devices in smaller and smaller footprints, and the huge amount of test- ing involved to ensure the quality of the fin- ished products. This leads me to this month's issue of SMT Magazine, which includes strategies to address the manufacturing challenges and compliance issues when dealing with military and aero- space products and systems. First, Mitch Holtzer of Alpha Assembly So- lutions writes about reworking defective mili- tary and aerospace electronics assemblies, and recovering the value of the substrate and com- ponents without compromising the top secret design of the circuit. David Pinsky of Raytheon Integrated De- fense Systems, together with Tom Hester of Ray- theon Space and Airborne Systems, Dr. Anduin Touw of Boeing, and Dave Hillman of Rockwell Collins write about a study performed by IPC Task group 8-81f about mitigating risks associ- ated with whisker growth from pure tin solder- able terminations to guide high-reliability end- users on the applicability and limitations of this mitigation strategy. Michael Ford of Mentor Graphics, mean- while, discusses the need for traceability stan- dards in certain critical segments of the elec- tronics manufacturing industry, including aero- space, automotive, and medical devices. Dr. Reza Ghaffarian of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory writes about an inspection tech- nique to detect defects in flip-chip packages and assemblies. I interviewed Albert Yanez of Asteelflash, Americas, to discuss the challenges and oppor- FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION

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