102 The PCB Magazine • August 2017
1
Weiner's World—
June 2017
On the return from Hong Kong
last week I had the good for-
tune of meeting an officer of
Allegro Microsystems and en-
joyed a wide-ranging discus-
sion with him. One of the "take
home" items was concern
about an expanding shortage of rare earth metals
used to make ICs for the burgeoning automotive
sensor market.
2
Mr. Laminate Tells All:
PTFE is about to be Banned
by IEC TC111
Technical Committee 111 of the
International Electrotechnical
Commission (IEC) is preparing
to effectively ban PTFE (polytet-
rafluoroethylene) materials from
electronics. As history goes, the
electronics industry has focused
on only two of the four halogens (bromine and
chlorine) to be limited to be called "halogen-free"
or more accurately "low-halogen."
3
EPTE Newsletter: Transparent
Flex Circuits, Stretchable
Flex Circuits
Most of the products on dis-
play at the JPCA Show were re-
lated to electronics, the electron-
ics industry, packaging and elec-
tronic circuits. Flex circuit man-
ufacture and material companies
that featured flexible circuits at the exhibition fo-
cused their attention on transparent flex circuits
and stretchable flex circuits.
4
One World, One Industry:
Three Ways to Close the Skills
Gap in U.S. Manufacturing
The skills gap is a chronic prob-
lem in the manufacturing sec-
tor. Most manufacturing com-
panies have a hard time aligning
the talent needed to run their
businesses with the talent that is
available to work locally. And as
new innovations emerge, new skills requirements
emerge as well.
TOP
TEN
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