50 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I JULY 2018
The Augmented World Expo: Go XR or Become
Extinct E
Now on its ninth year, the Augmented World
Expo (AWE USA) is perhaps the largest event for
professionals focused on providing science fic-
tion-like abilities through XR (cross reality) and
associated wearable
technology. This year's event
showcased over 100,000 square feet of exhibit
space and featured numerous presentations and
discussions covering topics ranging from the lat
-
est and greatest uses and devices for XR to the
business of marketing
and monetizing it.
The Institute of Circuit Technology Annual
Symposium 2018 E
ICT technical director Bill Wilkie is well-known
for choosing notable venues for Institute of Cir
-
cuit Technology events, and his choice for this
year's Annual Symposium was the National
Motor Museum, located in the village of Beaulieu
in the heart of the New Forest, a national park in
the county of Hampshire in Southern England.
The region is known for its heathland, forest
trails and native ponies.
The Shaughnessy Report: Got Flex? E
Welcome to the first issue of Flex007 Magazine.
This new quarterly magazine is dedicated to flex
system designers, electrical engineers, flex PCB
designers, and anyone responsible for integrating
flex into their products at the OEM/ CEM level.
Standard of Excellence: Making Your
PCB Fabricator Your PCB Partner E
Are your PCB needs exceeding your vendor base's
capabilities? Do you feel that your suppliers are no
longer able to keep up with your PCB needs? Are
you finding an issue locating alternate sources for
PCBs due to the consolidation of the larger shops
in our industry? If so, you are not alone.
ACE's AccuWrap Simplifies Multiple
Sequential Laminations with Blind Vias E
At DesignCon 2018, I spoke with James Hofer,
general manager for Accurate Circuit Engineer-
ing, a quick-turn fabricator based in Santa Ana,
California. James gave me a preview of Accu-
Wrap, a new type of processing technology that
lets designers
reduce the amount of copper dur-
ing sequential laminations while still meeting
IPC specs,
which should be of great interest to
RF designers.
APCT Moves into Rigid-Flex with Cartel,
Cirtech Acquisition E
When I spoke with APCT President Steve Robin-
son a year ago, he said he was interested in add-
ing flex and rigid-flex capabilities, and working
closely with designer
s and engineers. With the
recent acquisition of Cartel and their subsidiary
Cirtech, APCT now has a flex and rigidflex facil
-
ity, along with military and aerospace certifica-
tions. At DesignCon 2018, I asked Steve to dis-
cuss these acquisitions and what they mean for
APCT and their customer
s.
Candor is Breaking Boundaries with
Flex-Core Boards E
Sunny Patel, Candor's technical sales manager,
remarked about the accomplishment, "We are
pushing the limits on our flex manufacturing,
going for much thinner laminates and different
material stiffeners."
It's Only Common Sense: Producing the
Greatest Products Possible
E
Laurene Powel Jobs, wife of Apple Co-Founder
and CEO Steve Jobs, was once quoted describing
how her husband and legendary designer Jony
Ive would spend hours discussing corners. Yes,
that's right—corners.
