“As the Covid-19 vaccine rollout continues, we felt the best course of action was to adjust our dates accordingly, so the largest number of PCB industry professionals would be able to attend,” said Mike Buetow, conference director. “At this time, Mass-achusetts is scheduled to begin vaccinating the general population in April, and the adjacent states are planning similar schedules. Mid-June looks to be a safe time to at long last return to face-to-face interaction.”

Registration for the event is now open. Visit pcbeast.com for details. (MB)

All processes, equipment and raw materials will continue to be the same during the ownership transition, and Ticer’s thin-film resistor copper foil products will remain unchanged.

“As we begin 2021, Ticer Technologies is pleased to be in a stronger position technically, have greater flexibility and expanded capacity for volume business growth. We are looking forward to offering our expanded benefits to our global customer base,” said David Burgess, president, Ticer. (CD)

AEM is offering S$1.15 in cash, or a mix of cash and new AEM shares, for each ordinary share in mainboard-listed CEI.

CEI shareholders can opt to accept the offer for either 85% cash and 15% new shares or 70% cash and 30% new shares at an issue price of S$3.55 for each new share in AEM.

Founded in 1999, CEI has annual revenues of about $100 million primarily from customers in the industrial equipment market. It operates sites in Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam. (CD)

Earlier, President Trump had approved regulations that increased the share of a product’s components that must be produced domestically to qualify as US-made. He also imposed a 25% tariff on goods imported from China.

The $740 billion 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which took effect in January, includes a provision forbidding the purchase by the Department of Defense of printed circuit boards manufactured in potentially adversarial countries such as China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. Many in our industry have welcomed this new directive as a means of rebuilding the once-robust PCB manufacturing climate in the United States. But shoring up the domestic PCB industry will require much more.

Footprint model accuracy is an enabler, but that work can be undone by improper routing and copper-flooding techniques. Placement too near the edge of the board where the temperature fluctuates to a greater degree can decrease yields through the soldering process. Tombstoning is one thing to watch for, but other dangers are present on the frontier.

Gartner predicts the wearables market will grow 18% in 2021, reaching $81.5 billion. Ear-worn devices represent almost 50% of this market, with the current strong sales attributed to the WFH trend – as people upgrade from standard headphones for video conferencing – and the latest smartphones that have no 3.5mm jack.

Gartner notes, however, the increasing contribution of smart patches in the wearables space, rising to third in importance as sales of wristbands decline. This technology has ample potential to realize innovations in fields such as medicine and wellbeing that are so far undiscovered.

A few customer encounters this past month caused an issue to ricochet around in my mind like a 1970s pinball machine. I’m referring to a trap we’ve all fallen into: analysis paralysis.

Three interrelated definitions I have for analysis paralysis are worth enumerating:

1. The condition of being indecisive while overanalyzing alternatives. (Classic analysis paralysis.)
2. Allowing a project to mushroom into something bigger than it needs to be to get the job done. (This column is a good example.)
3. Using data from the most expensive tools you own just because you have the tools or the data (e.g., it’s expensive and took a lot of time, so it must be good).

It’s not that analysis or expensive tools aren’t good, but their employment is an optimization process.

An additional challenge is that while some ECAD tools may now support state-of-the-art embedded components – e.g., face-up (flipped), pins on both top and bottom, formed (etched, printed) – the handoff to manufacturing formats has not evolved to support them at the same pace.

Applications for millimeter-wave (mmWave) circuits are growing rapidly, from collision-avoidance radar systems in autonomous vehicles to high-data-rate fifth generation (g5G) new radio (NR) cellular wireless networks. Many such applications are driving higher frequencies, above 24GHz, where wavelengths are smaller and the smallest attention to circuit design and fabrication can make the biggest differences in electronic product performance. Understanding the differences between PCBs at mmWave frequencies and lower frequencies can help avoid circuit manufacturing mishaps for many applications that are soon to require millions of double-sided and multilayer PCBs at those higher frequencies.

Compared to lower frequency circuits, high-frequency RF/microwave circuits are sensitive to circuit materials and fabrication processes. Whereas some electrical circuit functions such as power lines and digital control may be well-supported with low-cost FR-4 circuit materials, RF, microwave and mmWave circuits require much higher performance circuit materials to minimize signal losses and distortion. Many multilayer mixed-signal PCBs with many different electrical functions are a blend of different types of circuit substrate materials, with materials selected according to behavior best suited for the types of circuit functions fabricated on that layer.

For decades the printed circuit industry has asserted the lack of government support has a deleterious effect on the supply chain’s ability to properly supply the US military. Attempts to correct this over the years have been numerous but largely unsuccessful.

Led by IPC, industry has lobbied the US Congress since the early 1990s to reduce barriers to winning military contracts, and, as margins were slashed beginning in the early 2000s, to fund research and development that could be shared among Defense Department suppliers to help their competitiveness.

CA: In the wake of Covid-19, have factory qualification procedures changed? If so, how?

Ryan Hagemeier (director quality and product regulatory assurance, Plexus): Overall, audit/inspection criteria have not changed. However, regulatory authorities, notified bodies and even our customers have had to modify their approach given the current limitations for traditional onsite inspections, including: extending certifications to allow revised audit scheduling, performing remote audits/inspections, and leveraging other regulatory authority inspection/documentation history to focus on performing higher-risk inspections in the short term.

ANY SUPPLY CHAIN management executive will likely tell you that 2021 is 2020 on steroids. Reason: While 2020 had supply-chain disruption, the worst part of that disruption was followed by drops in customer demand due to Covid-19-related lockdowns, so the situation never worsened beyond spot shortages or transportation delays. This year, pent-up consumer demand combined with historic low interest rates supporting consumer spending is spiking product demand in multiple industries as consumers make purchases they delayed in 2020. 5G infrastructure is rolling out, demand has increased for electric vehicles, which have substantially more electronic components per car, and Covid-19 continues to drive higher medical equipment production. As a result, demand variations are changing schedules weekly. At the same time, constraints developing in the materials market are driving higher prices and longer lead-times. Transportation and freight resources are stretched, and pricing and lead-times are increasing. Covid-19 continues to cause some level of disruption as hot zones develop around the world. In short, 2021 will be a year where multiple variables are constantly in flux.

This flexible and rechargeable battery is 10 times more powerful than state-of-the-art. University of California researchers working with ZPower have developed a flexible, rechargeable silver oxide-zinc battery that provides five to 10 times greater energy density than current state-of-the-art. The battery also is easier to manufacture, as it can be screen-printed in normal lab conditions. The areal capacity for this innovative battery is 50ma/cm2 at room temperature, which is 10 to 20 times greater than the areal capacity of a typical lithium-ion battery. The device can be used in flexible, stretchable electronics for wearables as well as soft robotics. (IEEC file #12027, Science Daily, 12/7/20)

First Circle: Those who begin an email with the salutation “Hey.”

As in, “Hey Robert, our driver just dropped off 1,594 boards for flying probe testing.” No prior warning. “Can we come back in two hours to start picking them up?”

FIGURES 1 and 2 show the impact of dewetting on the surface of plastic components in conformal coating. Figure 2 illustrates dewetting on solder mask. In both cases if the coating does not cover all the critical areas of the assembly, it must be reworked. It is up to the quality and design departments to agree what level, if any, of dewetting is acceptable to the product and the customer, rather than just quoting a standard. In some cases, the position or level of the problem may not affect the product operation or reliability.