40 The PCB Design Magazine • August 2017
Happy's Essential Skills: Tip of the Month—
The NIST/SEMATECH e-Handbook of
Statistical Methods
In the 1990s, the National Bureau of Standards
was distributing a popular statistical document,
Handbook 91. A request by Patrick Spagon of the
Statistical Methods Group of SEMATECH to update
the NBS Handbook 91, Experimental Statistics, has
resulted in a new web-based statistical handbook
including statistical software.
The Significance of the PCB in the Value
Chain of the European EMS Industry
At SMT Nuremberg, Pete Starkey meets with Di-
eter Weiss, who comments upon the significance
of the PCB in the value chain of the European EMS
industry, and looks to a future where we embrace
an open-minded attitude and a willingness to
work together.
Megasonic Acoustic Surface Treatment
Process for Enhanced Copper
Electrodeposition in Via Interconnects
A printed circuit board is populated with a multi-
tude of electro-mechanical components plus vari-
ous active and passive devices such as transistors,
capacitors, inductors and resistors, which enable
the functionality and assembly of the PCB.
Review of the 2017 IPC
Reliability Forum
IPC continues to lead our industry by example
with their inaugural Reliability Forum, held in Chi-
cago in April. The event was focused on manufac-
turing high-performance products and featured
industry royalty from both a speaker and audience
standpoint.
Jill Scadden Joins Advanced Circuits as
Business Development Manager
Advanced Circuits welcomes Jill Scadden as busi-
ness development manager. She will be respon-
sible for discovering new business opportunities
and enhancing Advanced Circuits' offerings by
working closely with customers and prospects to
create customized solutions for their unique PCB
fabrication needs.
Weiner's World—June 2017
On the return from Hong Kong last week I had
the good fortune of meeting an officer of Allegro
Microsystems and enjoyed 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 auto-
motive sensor market.
Mr. Laminate Tells All: PTFE is about
to be Banned by IEC TC111
Technical Committee 111 of the International Elec-
trotechnical Commission (IEC) is preparing to effec-
tively ban PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) materials
from electronics. As history goes, the electronics in-
dustry
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."
EPTE Newsletter: Transparent Flex Circuits,
Stretchable Flex Circuits
Most of the products on display at the JPCA Show
were related to electronics, the electronics indus-
try, packaging and electronic circuits. Flex circuit
manufacture and material companies that featured
flexible circuits at the exhibition focused their at-
tention on transparent flex circuits and stretchable
flex circuits.
One World, One Industry: Three Ways to
Close the Skills Gap in U.S. Manufacturing
The skills gap is a chronic problem in the manufac-
turing sector. Most manufacturing companies 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.
All About Flex: Etchback on Type 3 and
Type 4 Flexible Circuits
Through-hole etchback is a requirement that is
sometimes specified on medical, military and aero-
space procurement documents for multilayer flex-
ible circuits and combination multilayer flex/rigid
board circuits. It specifically relates to the copper
plated through-holes and the relative dimensions
between the dielectric layers and copper layers.
PCB007
Highlights
