September 2016 • The PCB Magazine 13
light
[6]
session and invite you to attend. This
will be a particularly informative Spotlight as
we have both Mack Miller from Naval Surface
Warfare Center–Crane and Chuck Richardson
from iNEMI slated to present. Plan to join us for
a forward technology look and to identify your
technology gaps to best prepare your business
for future success.
Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Crane
Division
[7]
is chartered by the DoD as the Execu-
tive Agent for Printed Circuit Board and Inter-
connect Technology to ensure access to trusted
technologies for critical national defense and
Warfighter superiority. The NSWC-Crane Road-
map will look closely at PCB fabrication and
technology, supply chain and counterfeit is-
sues, PCB assembly, constrained materials and
lead-free issues. A preview of iNEMI's Q2 2017
release of the 2017 Technology Roadmap will be
presented by Chuck Richardson with particular
emphasis on IoT/Wearables, Board Assembly
and Optoelectronic Technologies.
I look forward to your comments, seeing
you in Chicago at SMTAI to explore future tech-
nology roadmaps, and continuing to explore
the expanding FMS opportunities in my next
column.
PCB
References
1. www.F35.com
2. Electronic Subsystems on the F-35 Plat-
form
3. IPC Validation Services
4. Defense Security Cooperation Agency
(DSCA)
5. Defense News
6. SMTAI Spotlight sessions
7. Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC)
Crane Division
John Vaughan is vice president of
Zentech Manufacturing. To contact
the author, or to read past columns,
click here.
F-35 DECLARED COMBAT-READY
A DARPA program to prevent at-
tacks involving radiological "dirty
bombs" and other nuclear threats
has developed and demonstrated a
network of smartphone-sized mo-
bile devices that can detect the tini-
est traces of radioactive materials.
Combined with larger detectors
along major roadways, bridges, etc., and in vehicles,
the new networked devices promise significantly en-
hanced awareness of radiation sources and greater ad-
vance warning of possible threats.
The demonstration of efficacy earlier this year was
part of DARPA's SIGMA program, launched in 2014
with the goal of creating a cost-effective, continuous
radiation-monitoring network able to cover a large
city or region. Although radiation detectors have in re-
cent years been installed in a number of key locations
in the United States and around the world, the SIGMA
program has sought to increase ca-
pabilities while lowering their costs,
in order to network an unprece-
dented number of advanced detec-
tors and provide a comprehensive,
dynamic, and automated overview
of the radiological environment.
The demonstration was con-
ducted at one of the Port Authority of New York and
New Jersey's major transportation hubs where DARPA
tested more than 100 networked SIGMA sensors. Dur-
ing the month-long test, the system provided more
than a 100-fold increase in ability to locate and iden-
tify sources of radiation as compared to currently in-
stalled systems. All sources of radiation that SIGMA
sensors identified were non-threatening, but the sys-
tem proved how it could pinpoint the location and
intensity of a source and specify, in each case, the type
of radiation to which it was alerting authorities.
Ushering in a New Generation of Low-Cost,
Networked, Nuclear-Radiation Detectors
