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July 2014 • The PCB Magazine 15 ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY WITH SOLDER continues The Great File Format Transfer Debate altium's Ben jordan moderates a multi-perspective look into file format transfer options with panelists Karel tavernier (ucamco), dave Wiens (Mentor graphics) and hemant Shah (cadence). CliCk To View I-ConneCt007 Panel DIsCussIon VIDeo ther than the titles of papers in publications. Presently, this and other industry/academic journals and proceedings on electronic manu- facturing are rife with articles, papers, commen- taries and advertisements offering new materi- als, processes and equipment both for manu- facture and inspection to try and beat lead-free solder into submission. Unfortunately, solder appears a wily and crafty adversary that always seems to offer another challenge to each new solution proposed. This situation begs the ques- tion: "Is there any alternative?" The answer, in the opinion of this author, is "Yes." The answer is to assemble electronics without solder. The potential benefits of eliminating solder is significant in many areas of current concern or high interest in electronic manufacturing, including: cost , reliability, performance, envi- ronmental impact, design security, a means of addressing some elements of counterfeiting, sustainability, a means of sidestepping conflict metals concerns and others. So how can it be done? It is really quite simple: Build assemblies in reverse and instead of placing and joining components on circuit boards with solder, build up circuits on "component boards" using copper plating, thereby bypassing the sol- dering process completely along with all of its many extra processing steps, ongoing challenges, and problems. The potential economic, environ- mental and reliability benefits are substantial as will be shown. The concept of SAFE assembly and its practicality will be examined in more detail in a future paper. PCB Verdant electronics Founder and President joseph (joe) Fjelstad is a four-decade veteran of the electronics industry and an inter- national authority and innovator in the field of electronic inter- connection and packaging tech- nologies. Fjelstad has more than 250 u.S. and international patents issued or pending and is the author of Flexible circuit technology.