Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/626587
20 The PCB Design Magazine • January 2016 heart stents. We also build boards, both flex and rigid-flex, that are used in blood analyzers. Then we have boards that go into a wide array of markets, such as small boards used as RFID tags in operating rooms. We build metal-backed boards that are used for LED lights for chairs in dentists' offices. One of our most challenging projects was building small rigid-flex boards for a pill camera. These boards are all built from a variety of materials, from Rogers ceramic mate- rials to simple FR-4. Beaulieu: so you pretty much cover the gamut of medical electronic needs. Are there special or unique technologies that apply to this market? Vardya: While medical electronics use a wide variety of printed circuit board technologies, there appears to be increasing application of flex and rigid-flex PCBs in this market place. Beaulieu: can you tell me roughly what percent- age of your business is for medical electronics? Vardya: Today we estimate about 5% of our business is associated with Medical electronics. We anticipate that this will be a growing market segment for ASC. Beaulieu: obviously, when you are dealing with medical applications, it is not over dramatic to talk about being a matter of life and death. can you talk about what you do in terms of quality assur- ance and reliability to make sure you are giving your medical customers the very best product when it comes to those features? Vardya: Dan, one thing that helps us is that we build everything in our facility assuming it needs to be certified to a minimum of IPC Class 3. Reliability is a critical part of what we do espe- cially since we do build a lot of products that are safety related—including boards for active safety automotive electronics. We have invested and trained our quality manager to be an IPC-600-A trainer. We have subsequently certified many of our quality inspectors to IPC-600-A. We are also currently pursuing our AS9100C certification. While this does not directly apply to medical electronics, it is clearly improving our quality system which benefits all of our customers. Beaulieu: What do you see for the future of medi- cal electronics? Vardya: I believe that the future for medical electronics is very bright. Beaulieu: And what are you doing to continue be- ing on the cutting edge when it comes to meeting technology needs? Vardya: We are investing in people and equip- ment. We recently appointed Jim Zeman, an industry veteran, to be our director of quality. Jim has many years of experience at Ibiden as a quality manager and is well versed in Japanese techniques. In addition, we hired another in- dustry veteran earlier this year, Rob Coleman, as our VP of operations. Beaulieu: so you are putting together a real top- rate team. i know those guys, and they're very strong. have you invested in technology with equipment as well? Vardya: Yes, we have also invested in both soft- ware and equipment to improve our capabilities. We invested in TrueChem software to enable us AMERICAN STANDARD CIRCuITS: LEADINg THE WAY IN MEDICAL ELECTRoNICS feature Anaya Vardya, Ceo, American Standard Circuits.