Technical Library | 2017-07-24 16:28:06.0
Professionally assembling circuit boards used to be slow. Many circuit board manufacturers still take up to two weeks or longer to produce circuit boards according to customer design specifications.
Technical Library | 2019-05-01 15:19:19.0
"Sealing" in dispensing and potting technology describes a process in which sensitive electronics surfaces are coated with a very thin layer of casting resin or protective varnish. It serves to protect against environmental influences and corrosion, resulting in a longer service life and operational reliability of the components. To ensure that the material is distributed homogeneously across the surface, this well-known "conformal coating" process is employed using low-viscosity casting resins.
Technical Library | 2001-04-24 10:38:38.0
Many PCB designers are interested in taking advantage of Multichip Modules, but are unfamiliar with the technology. While the design process is very much the same, MCM manufacturing processes vary dramatically. MCM routing requirements are dictated by the manufacturing process and types of components. Components mounted on MCM substrates are predominantly, if not exclusively, bare chips. As a result, the component body and I/O pins are no longer constrained to industry standard pin counts and form factors as are packaged components...
Technical Library | 2008-10-29 18:45:53.0
Growing demand for compact, multi-function electronics products has accelerated component miniaturization and high-density placement, creating new challenges for the electronics manufacturing industry. It is no longer adequate to simply place parts accurately per a pre-defined CAD assembly program because solder paste alignment errors are increasing for numerous reasons. The solution to this problem is a system in which the placement machine can automatically detect and compensate for misalignment of the solder paste to produce high-quality boards regardless of the process errors beforehand.
Technical Library | 2011-03-03 16:54:47.0
Most of the electronics industry by now knows about tin whiskers. They know whiskers are slim metallic filaments that emanate from the surface of tin platings. They know these filaments are conductive and can cause shorts across adjacent conductors. And they know that these shorts can cause some really bad failures (see nepp.nasa.gov/whisker/ for a list longer than you need). But, with all of this knowledge, the industry is still struggling on how to predict and prevent these "Nefarious Needles of Pain".
Technical Library | 2012-12-14 14:25:37.0
The popularity of low voltage technologies has grown significantly over the last decade as semiconductor device manufacturers have moved to satisfy market demands for more powerful products, smaller packaging, and longer battery life. By shrinking the size of the features they etch into semiconductor dice, IC manufacturers achieve lower costs, while improving speed and building in more functionality. However, this move toward smaller features has lead to lower breakdown voltages and increased opportunities for component overstress and false failures during in-circuit test.
Technical Library | 2018-05-05 21:37:12.0
With the growing demand for manufacturing facilities, authorities took many actions to escalate the efficiency of production processes. Many formal methods were implemented for a longer period of time without acquiring significant growth in the field. But with the introduction of Autonomous Maintenance (AM) to the modern manufacturing facilities they achieved an increment in efficiency and productivity in a historical brisk pace. This article is about AM Step Zero too.
Technical Library | 2016-05-05 15:19:39.0
For many years, manufacturing has sought to increase competitiveness by moving off-shore to countries with lower labour costs. Electronic manufacturing services (EMS) companies provided an essential element to make off-shore transfer happen more quickly, offering further cost reduction opportunities from load balancing. Fierce arguments were put forward to protect the loss of local jobs, although the result was, in almost all cases, inevitable. Today, however, the whole market of PCBbased electronics products has changed significantly. The "pros" of off-shoring are no longer what they once were, and the "cons" are becoming more significant because off-shore manufacturing can no longer satisfy the needs of the market. In this paper, we expose the real costs of off-shore manufacturing, and put labour cost differentials into perspective. We demonstrate how practically, using existing technologies, re-shored manufacturing can yield better business return, either for an OEM, or through EMS providers.
Technical Library | 2020-12-10 15:49:40.0
Electronic assemblies should have longer and longer service life. Today there are partially demanded 20 years of functional capability for electronics for automotive application. On the other hand, smaller components, such as resistors of size 0201, are able to endure an increasing number of thermal cycles until fail of solder joints, so these are tested sometimes up to 4000 cycles. But testing until the end of life is essential for the determination of failure rates and the prognosis of reliability. Such tests require a lot of time, but this is often not available in developing of new modules. A further acceleration by higher cycle temperatures is usually not possible, because the materials are already operated at the upper limit of the load. However, the duration can be shortened by the use of liquids for passive tests, which allow faster temperature changes and shorter dwell times because of better heat transfer compared to air. The question is whether such tests lead to comparable results and what failure mechanisms are becoming effective. The same goes for active temperature cycles, in which the components itself are heated from inside and the substrate remains comparatively cold. This paper describes the various accelerated temperature cycling tests, compares and evaluates the related degradation of solder joints.
Technical Library | 2022-03-02 21:52:34.0
In today's consumer-driven electronic marketplace many products have a limited useful life and component suppliers are moving to shorter product lifecycles. However, there are several industries that require semiconductor components to have a much longer lifecycle. In many cases application lifecycles within the Industrial, Automotive, Medical, Aerospace and Defense sectors may extend up to 30 years or more. As a result, an ongoing component supply becomes critical to sustaining these applications throughout their useful lifecycle. For this reason, it is often a requirement that semiconductor components be stored for extended periods of time after production ends.
