Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/647109
March 2016 • SMT Magazine 11 Stephen Las marias is managing editor of SMT Magazine. He has been a technology editor for more than 12 years covering electronics, components, and industrial automation systems. ic improvements to line changeover time and, consequently, profits. Firstronic's Tony Bellitto writes about a proper onboarding process that can build a strong organizational culture and help reduce employee turnover. W. Scott Fillebrown of Libra Industries Inc., meanwhile, discusses finding a way to thor- oughly test a fully populated circuit in a timely, cost-effective way, without compromising sig- nal integrity. For his piece, Inovaxe's Ben Khoshnood writes about the business impact of material ac- quisition and handling costs, and discusses how EMS companies can win the race for survival, growth and profitability. Terry Morgan of Voxvia talks about the chal- lenges of finding the perfect partner and the re- wards of having a good partnership. In his article, Jered Stoehr of Milwaukee Electronics details why only a few EMS provid- ers provide design for manufacturability and testability support to their customers, and dis- cusses the benefits of having a combined engi- neering and manufacturing strategy. Focusing on providing cable and harness assembly services in-house, Adrian Nishimoto of Spectrum Assembly Inc. illuminates the ben- efits of a vertically integrated approach to EMS. For his column this month, Michael Ford of Mentor Graphics examines the real issues to tackle when considering automation for PCB assembly processes. Robert Voigt of DDM Novastar, on the other hand, lends his perspective on popular options for wave soldering, and important consider- ations when selecting a wave soldering system. We also feature an interview with Mentor Graphics' Oren Manor regarding what exactly Industry 4.0 brings to manufacturing, and how Mentor's design-to-manufacture solution helps OEMs make the transition to Industry 4.0 with- out a complete factory overhaul. Finally, Stefan Meissner follows up on his article about reducing risk to employees' health with extraction and filtration technology (SMT Magazine August 2015). In this issue, he writes about filtration principles for air pollutant re- moval in electronics production. I hope you enjoy this month's issue of SMT Magazine. Next month, we will talk about im- proving process engineering, while maintain- ing and improving production rates, efficien- cies, yields, costs, and quality standards. Stay tuned! SmT Scientists at Nanyang Technological Univer- sity (NTU) in Singapore, led by Assistant Professor Zheng Yuanjin from NTU's School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, have developed a chip that allows new radar cameras to be made a hundred times smaller than current ones. With this technolo- gy, radar cameras that usually weigh between 50 kg and 200 kg and are commonly used in large satel- lites can be made to become as small as palm-sized. Despite being small, they can produce images that are of the same high quality compared to con- ventional radar cameras. They are also 20 times cheaper to produce and consume at least 75% less power. Developed over the past three years at NTU, the technology has already secured $2.5 million in re- search funding from Singapore government agen- cies. The radar chip has attracted the attention of several multinational corporations, and is now be- ing researched for use in UAVs and satellite appli- cations. Microchip Shrinks Radar Cameras to Fit into a Palm EnSurIng ProfItabIlIty