Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1534953
MAY 2025 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 9 Nolan Johnson is managing editor of SMT007 Magazine. Nolan brings 30 years of career experience focused almost entirely on electronics design and manufacturing. To contact Johnson, click here. the challenging stuff. It's already happening. But then, I'm pretty sure you already know that. As a culture, we're moving past the fas- cination with AI itself, embracing its applica- tion potential instead. is month, SMT007 Magazine examines AI through the lens of test and inspection. With all the data created by test and inspection, it's an obvious place to start putting AI on your line, given its potential to maintain your pro- cess windows and increase yields. I start by including two interesting and com- plementary pieces that touch on how AI enables greater connectivity between two disciplines. Bill Cardoso, CEO of Creative Electron, is well- known for his X-ray inspection equipment, while Dr. Eyal Weiss, chief technology officer at Cybord, provides AI-capable counterfeit detec- tion solutions. ey each share their respective vision for the future of component inspection and counterfeit detection. is is followed by excerpts from an inter- view with Cogiscan's new CEO Martin Drolet and Benoît Ouellet, vice president of technol- ogy and operations, and from Cogiscan's book, e Printed Circuit Assembler's Guide to… Fac- tory Analytics. I'm including an interview with Ben Rach- inger, the NextGen Best Paper winner at IPC APEX EXPO 2025. He talks about his research on federated data libraries, which could create safe, industry-wide inspection AI models. In the first of a two-part series on CFX 2.0, IPC's Chris Jorgensen takes us down the data stack to learn what's new at the intermachine message transfer level. We also serve up an interview with Roberto Gatti from Delvitech, who shares details on a groundbreaking inno- vation on AI-driven inspection technology. Columnist Josh Casper explores AI through automated optical inspection, where he says that integrating AI to combat common inef- ficiencies and contextualize data will open new doors into how we supplement our tradi- tional processes. If you saw our booth at IPC APEX EXPO, you know we were busy talking to today's top industry experts. As you can imagine, many of them spoke about integrating AI into their business models. In this issue, we've collected relevant videos from Real Time with... IPC APEX EXPO 2025. Just click the links to visit our site and watch these (and other) videos directly. e Real Time with... site contains more than 80 interviews, as well as articles and photo galleries from IPC APEX EXPO. Our columnists this month touch on a vari- ety of hot topics: Nash Bell on gold mitiga- tion for Class 2 electronics, Tom Yang on the competitive advantage of creating "global cit- izenship," and Mike Konrad on the benefits of SMTA membership. Kicking off a new feature this month, we're proud to introduce "In-depth with…"— an exclusive, ongoing series that takes you behind the scenes of groundbreaking prod- ucts and ser vices from the industr y's most influential players. In this inaugural edition, we spotlight com- pelling conversations with innovators from GEN3 and Critical Manufacturing, who both offer fresh insights into the technologies and strategies shaping the future of electronics manufacturing. Finally, don't miss a timely and important interview with Rich Cappetto, a member of IPC's government relations team, who speaks about the long-term effects of tariffs and other government programs aimed at helping the electronics industry to thrive in the U.S. You can expect more coverage on AI applica- tions in future issues. If you're talking about it, so are we. If you have an AI application story or a concern, let me know. is topic is an indus- try dialogue we intend to continue. SMT007