This episode was recorded at SMTA's Pan Pacific Strategic Electronics Symposium on the Big Island of Hawaii. Mike Konrad's guests on this episode are Dr. Chuck Bauer, founder of PanPac, Keith Bryant, and Dr. Ron Lasky. We discussed the history of PanPac, technologies introduced at PanPac, and what makes PanPac so unique. We also discuss Dartmouth C…

Optimization has become an important goal within the electronics assembly industry. While modern electronics assembly techniques utilize a variety of equipment, one specific type of equipment often consumes a disproportionate percentage of the overall equipment budget, that is the place machine. The cost of the machine, associated conveyors and fee…

Electronic System Design (ESD) industry revenue increased 14% to $4.4 billion in the fourth quarter 2023, with printed circuit board design software leading the way, up 21% for the period. Wally Rhines, executive sponsor of the SEMI Electronic Design Market Data report, gives his quarterly update on the state of the electronics design software mark…

The High-Density Packaging User Group, the nonprofit consortium of electronics manufacturers and suppliers that collaborate on various technical problems in order to reduce cost and time to market, has nearly 25 projects underway, several of which are due to be completed this year. We spoke this month with Madan Jagernauth, marketing director and p…

Today, we delve into an increasingly critical aspect of technology and electronics manufacturing - the pursuit of environmentally responsible electronics manufacturing. Our industry has witnessed many environmental revolutions. The elimination of popular cleaning solvents brought on by the Montreal Protocol in 1989, soon followed by strict VOC regu…

Matthias Wagner is chief executive and cofounder of Flux, a developer of a browser-based PCB design platform and programmable simulator. When spoke with Matthias last spring, the company was introducing Flux Copilot, an AI-powered hardware design assistant. Flux Copilot uses a large language model that the company’s engineers trained and integrated…

Today we're diving deep into the world of precision and craftsmanship—two crucial elements in the realm of hand soldering and rework of circuit assemblies. Whether you're a seasoned electronics enthusiast, a hobbyist, or just someone with a curious mind, this episode promises to demystify the art and science behind hand soldering and rework. We'll …

Today, we delve into the crucial aspects of maintaining well-being on this journey — how to sidestep the notorious burnout, and perhaps more importantly, how to fuel and maintain your motivation. Because, let's face it, the road to creating a meaningful impact can be demanding, and it's essential to navigate it with resilience and purpose. Join Mik…

We welcome back one of our favorite guests, David Schild, the executive director of the Printed Circuit Board Association of America. PCBAA was founded about three years ago to advance US domestic production of PCBs and base materials. The organization is made up of corporate members of all sizes, and includes fabricators, assemblers and suppliers.…

Artificial intelligence is perhaps the most discussed – and least understood – topic in technology today. We in electronics design and manufacturing know, of course, that automation is part and parcel of what we do. But while the landscape has changed, be it the transition from mechanical drawings to CAD tools with their autorouters, or from manual…

Reliability Matters covered the topic of ultrathin conformal coatings back in November. We covered various conformal coating materials from traditional acrylics and silicones to ultrathin parylene coatings. What other coating materials are available? Where do these types of coatings fit within specific applications? Where do health and safety, envi…

EMA Design Automation has for years been the exclusive distributor of OrCAD Cadence in North America. Through acquisitions and internal development, EMA now has a series of its own software products for library management, component supply chain data. And this year EMA announced it would spin off those CAD-agnostic products into a new subsidiary ca…

Printed circuit board and multichip module design software revenue soared 24% year-over-year to a record $426 million in the third quarter 2023, according to the ESD Alliance's latest Electronic Design Market Data (EDMD) report. ESD Alliance spokesperson Wally Rhines joins Mike Buetow to explain the latest data trends.…

In today's increasingly connected and digital world, PCBs are the unsung heroes that power our devices, from smartphones to spacecraft. Yet, the art and science of designing these crucial components often go unnoticed. That’s where this episode comes in.   Today, we shine a spotlight on the critical role PCBs play in modern technology and explore t…

Episode 134 - 2023 Podcast Season Wrap-Up On this episode, I have no guests as this is the final episode of the Reliability Matters Podcast for the 2023 season. Instead, let's review what happened on the podcast this year. A special thanks to my guests and listeners/viewers for making this podcast so successful. Chapters: 00:00:00 - Introduction to…

We are all aware of the damage electrostatic discharge can wreak on components and electronic products. We mitigate ESD damage through various forms of monitoring. We wear wrist and heel straps, stand on ESD-safe flooring, utilize ESD workstations, and more. We even have ESD testing locations that will test a human standing on a specialized testing…

David Schild is executive director of the Printed Circuit Board Association of America. PCBAA was founded in 2021 to advance US domestic production of PCBs and base materials. We discuss major investment announcements by US PCB companies, industry funding from the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, the need for intense engagement at every level o…

Robert Feranec is a hardware designer with over 20 years’ experience in the electronics industry, and specializes in PCB design, signal integrity and high-speed digital design. In addition, he is also a self-described passionate content creator on YouTube, where he has developed a large series of help-guides for PCB design and electronics engineeri…

Today we’ll dive deep into the world of conformal coating. More and more assemblies are being subjected to conformal coating to protect the assembly from harsh environments. What’s leading the drive to conformal coat electronics assemblies? What types of conformal coating options are available? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each type…

We are all aware of the supply chain issues our industry has faced. Beginning with electronic components, it has spread to so many other types of parts are industry relies on. Fortunately, it looks like we are beginning to come out the other end of the supply chain shortage. But the supply chain problems have further spread to the labor market. If …

Printed circuit board and multichip module design software revenue increased 6.3% in the second quarter to total $369 million, according to the ESD Alliance's latest Electronic Design Market Data (EDMD) report. The four-quarter moving average for PCB and MCM, which compares the most recent four quarters to the prior four, rose 11.7%. As a whole, ES…

Baby Boomers are entering retirement in greater numbers. From now until 2030, 10,000 Boomers each day will hit retirement age. Millions will begin to officially retire. This is creating a terrific opportunity for young college graduates to enter our industry. Several years ago, I was a speaker at the SMTA, Pan Pacific Strategic Electronics Symposiu…

The Reliability Matters podcast is almost exclusively about reliability. Specifically, reliability of circuit assemblies. We discuss production best practices, design for manufacturing and reliability. Failure analysis, and more. We’ve reviewed the latest trends in industry 4.0, the connectivity of machine to machine and machine to management. We d…

HDP User Group is an industry consortium made up of more than 50 leading companies that collaborate on research in order to reduce cost and time to market. Madan Jagernauth, marketing director and a project facilitator, discusses recently completed programs on low silver solder paste reliability, copper surface roughness models, the Pb-Free bare bo…

In recent episodes, we’ve covered high-level issues, such as hiring best practices, novel, training, methods, design for manufacturing, highly accelerated, life, testing, and more. On this episode, we’re going to go back to the basics. What common problems are assemblers experiencing today? What are the basics of assembly best practices? Which prob…

Moisture. The industrial world has been fighting moisture since the beginning of the industrial world. From a general point of view, moisture leads to issues such as Mold and mildew Rust Wood rot Damage to building materials Microbial growth And so much more. In the electronics world, moisture creates a host of reliability problems including: Popco…

As all of you are well aware, Reliability Matters is all about reliability, specifically reliability of circuit assemblies. One challenge that seems to be persistent within our space is design for manufacturability, or DfM. If you’re a contract manufacturer, no doubt you’ve had the experience of being asked to build a product that seems unbuildable…

Industry icon Dave Hillman completed a 3,600 mile solo kayak journey down the Missouri River. Mike Konrad spoke with Dave about the inspiration for the journey, insights gained over his four-month expedition, and how his experience as an engineer helped him prepare for this epic experience. This episode features many photographs taken by Dave Hillm…

David Schild, executive director of the Printed Circuit Board Association of America (PCBAA), discusses the latest government policy and legislation for printed circuit board manufacturing in the US, the roadmap for government investment, the trade group's recent annual meeting in Washington, and "exposing the flaw" in the US Defense Department's p…

Thermal interface materials are used for heat transfer in a variety of electronics applications. On this episode of PCB Chat, Claire Wemp, Ph.D, a thermal applications engineer at DuPont, discusses TIM1 materials (and explains the difference between TIM1 and TIM2), when and where they are used, who specifies them, and how they work. Wemp is also a …

We all strive to build products that are reliable. If you’re listening to this podcast, chances are you are concerned about or at least interested in reliability. Where does reliability start? Who is responsible for reliability? What types of reliability testing can be performed? Mike Konrad's guest on this episode will help answer these and other …

The PCB/MCM design software market grew in the first quarter 2023, the ninth straight quarter of growth, according to the latest data from the ESD Alliance. Mike Buetow speaks with Wally Rhines, ESD Alliance spokesperson, and Merlyn Bruncken, market intelligence director with Siemens Digital Industries, about the record quarter, booming employment …

When it comes to circuit assemblies, defects result in one of two situations. The preferred result of a defect is to capture it on your factory floor and repair it before it ships to the customer. The second scenario is referred to as an escape. That’s when the board ships to the customer and fails in the field. This is a scenario, all assemblers d…

It goes without saying finding talent is a big deal in electronics design and manufacturing. John Watson is customer success manager at Altium, with more than 20 years' experience as a senior PCB designer. Watson also teaches classes on printed circuit design at Palomar Community College in San Marcos, CA. We discuss the Printed Circuit Board Desig…

Can reliability training be both entertaining and effective? The Manufacturing Game's Michelle Ledet Henley has a different approach to traditional training methods. Henley has worked with The Manufacturing Game since 1998 as a developer of new simulations and training material. She has traveled worldwide in her capacity as a facilitator and traine…

Mike Konrad's guest is Dr. James Whitfield. Dr. Whitfield is an associate professor of physics at Dartmouth. He earned a bachelor's of science and chemistry and mathematics from Morehouse University and a Ph.D. in chemical physics from Harvard University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University in New York, Vienna Center for Quantum Sci…

Wally Rhines, the former chairman of Mentor Graphics and now spokesperson for the ESD Alliance, updates us on the latest PCB design software and semiconductor market trends (spoiler alert: sales were up again), and addresses why ECAD companies are hiring even in the face of layoffs among Big Tech. He is joined by Merlyn Brunken, director of marketi…

Flux says every step of the electronic design process is slow, expensive, and error-prone. The startup company’s engineers think they have a solution: a browser-based PCB design platform and programmable simulator. Matthias Wagner, CEO and cofounder, and Kerry Chayka, product expert, both veterans of PCB design with companies like Facebook and Appl…

The subjects of Industry 4.0 and Big Data have been widely discussed on this podcast. What is Industry 4.0? What data is our industry collecting? And, perhaps more importantly, how can we sift through all of that data to make it useful and actionable? To help answer these and other data-related questions, Mike Konrad interviews Ryan Gamble, CEO and…

Eric Camden (lead investigator with Foresite) and Mike Konrad discuss electrochemical migration (ECM) and other failure modes caused by residues on circuit assemblies.By PCEA

On this episode, Mike Konrad speaks with Mark Goodwin, COO of Ventec Europe, a supplier of copper-clad laminates and prepreg bonding materials for the circuit board fabrication industry, about supply chain challenges.By PCEA

The Printed Circuit Board Association of America, or PCBAA, was founded in 2021 to advance US domestic production of PCBs and base materials. The organization is made up of corporate members of all sizes, and includes fabricators, assemblers and suppliers. My guest today is David Schild, executive director of the PCBAA. We discuss government invest…

VVDN Technologies is perhaps best known as a provider of end-to-end engineering and manufacturing of hardware, mechanical and electronic assemblies, and embedded software, among others. Founded in 2007, it now has 11 product engineering centers worldwide, plus seven manufacturing plants across India where its capabilities include SMT, injection mol…

Metallic Resources is a developer of high purity solder for electronics applications, making paste, bar, and cored wire products, among others. Metallic Resources’ slogan is “not your typical solder,” and one big reason for that is the high purity solder it supplies. This is credited to the company’s electrolytic refining process. David Bao, Ph,D.,…

You don't have to be in the tech industry you understand importance and value of data. Industries have always collected various sets of data, first manually and, in modern times, automatically. The volume of data has historically been limited to the ability to capture and store it. Recent advances in technology have vastly increased the ability to …

APCT in February completed the acquisition of Advanced Circuits, a printed circuit board fabricator located in Aurora, Colorado. The acquisition nearly doubles APCT’s annual revenue, to $200 million, which immediately thrust it to the number 2 spot among PCB fabricators in North America, behind TTM. Steve Robinson, president and CEO of APCT, discus…

On this show, we’ve discussed many aspects of the electronics assembly process. We talked about reflow, thermal management, printing, soldering materials, additives, and so much more. What do all these topics have in common? When done correctly, they all contribute to the reliability of circuit assemblies. Today, we’re going to dive into the subjec…

We are all aware of the “oldest profession in the world.” Perhaps the second-oldest is counterfeiting. Whenever a product is introduced, a counterfeit version soon follows. While the electronics industry has experienced counterfeit components from its inception, recent events such as the pandemic and supply chain shortages have fueled the counterfe…

This episode was recorded live at the SMTA Pan Pacific Microelectronics Symposium in Hawaii. David Raby is president of Madison Alabama-based STI Electronics, a contract manufacturer for the EMS industry. David worked at the family business since he was a child and eventually took over the family business when his father (and company founder) Jim R…

On this episode of PCB Chat we discuss the third quarter 2022 printed circuit design software market data from the ESD Alliance, which were released Jan. 23, 2023. Our guests are Wally Rhines, who spent more than 45 years in in semiconductor and PCB design as an executive with Mentor Graphics and before that, TI; and Merlyn Brunken, whose is the lo…