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Monday, September 26, 2016

VOLUME - NUMBER

Advancements in RH Measurements in Wafer and Reticle Environments

By Allyn Jackson, CyberOptics Corp.
Certain IC fabrication steps are very sensitive to moisture in semiconductor wafer environments. As the technology advances, the need for characterizing and minimizing the exposure to relative humidity (RH) has become critical in all 29 nm geometry fabs and below. These RH control requirements ...

Dual Applicators Improve High-Volume Non-Atomized Coating

By Camille Sybert and Michael Szuch, Nordson ASYMTEK
Atomized spray is currently the most common method for applying conformal coating and works by dispersing material into a fine mist. Non-atomized coating, or selective coating, controls the coating material's dispense shape while maintaining its original liquid form. Selective coating ...

Implementing the Internet of Manufacturing: A New Paradigm

By Michael Ford, Senior Marketing Development Manager, Mentor Graphics Corp.
For electronics manufacturing machine vendors, the ability to meet Industry 4.0 and smart factory needs is quickly becoming a must. A majority of those who are purchasing these systems have started or are about to start projects related to Industry 4.0 and require the level playing ...

New Technology Platform Increases Functionality in the Smallest of Spaces

By Karl-Heinz Fritz, Vice President of Technology and Development, Cicor Group, and Barbara Stumpp
Hearing aids are a necessary part of life for many people. The devices should be as discreet as possible and are often fixed behind the ear or made to disappear completely into the ear canal, and must therefore be built very small. In any case, they must be reliable, interference-resistant ...

Using Machine Vision to Improve Laser Material Processing

By Wolfgang Lehmann, Raylase AG
The use of today's laser technology has become standard in industrial manufacturing due to its speed, accuracy and effectiveness. Lasers are used to engrave parts, PCBs or chip cards. They perforate packaging, structure semiconductor wafers, drill, cut and weld plastics or metals, and ...

	What Makes a Reflow Oven "Smart?"


	By Bjorn Dahle, President, KIC Thermal The ultimate objective for an electronic manufacturer is to manufacture the required quality product in a sustainable way, to deliver the product to the customer within the allotted timeframe, and to do so at a cost that allows the manufacturer to be profitable and the price to be competitive. ...

Advances in Thick-Film Ceramic Technology

By Sebastian Löeffler, Günter Reppe, Angela Rebs, Marcus Herrmann, Christopher Mauermann, Alexander Kaiser, and Karl-Heinz Fritz, Cicor Advanced Microelectronics & Substrates GmbH
Thick-film, hybrid ceramic substrates have provided a base for high-reliability circuits in the space, avionics, medical, and industrial markets for years. Along with new interposer substrates for mass production based on polymers, silicon and glass, thick-film ceramic can be a solution ...

Breathing Easy: Indoor Air Quality and Production

By Scott Snell, Purex, Inc.
For many of us, long gone are the days of working outdoors in the sunshine, with a satisfying breeze to keep us moving when we feel fatigued. These days, most of us work inside. Although being out of the elements is nice, most of us breathe the air that is available at our workplace ...

Customized Logistics Systems with Electronic Interfaces

By Christine Schulze
As the smart factory ideal becomes reality, a well-developed system of supply chain management with intelligent interfaces for procurement automation is of particular importance. Such systems increase the security of supply and the quality of processes, which leads to both reduced process ...

Infrared Technology is Bringing the Heat

By Ed Sullivan
Infrared heating technology has become prevalent among the industrial ovens, dryers and heaters used by a multitude of manufacturers. The OEMs that manufacture these ovens and heaters use infrared heating elements, which are more energy efficient, cheaper to operate, provide controllable ...

The Case for PC-Based Machine Control over Traditional PLCs

By Michael L. Martel
Over time, PC-based machine control has encroached upon, and ultimately gained dominance over, traditional, reliable PLC (programmable logic control) controllers. There are many different reasons, but perhaps the most important benefit directly attributable to this development has been ...

IC Temperature Test: Thermal Stream vs. Direct Thermal Head Systems

By Lior Yosef, CTO, Mechanical Devices Ltd.
Temperature forcing systems allow engineers to test ICs and other devices for reliability in different environments under controlled conditions. Thermal stream systems and direct thermal head systems can be used to create extreme temperatures that mimic real-world scenarios in order ...

Product Highlight: PI's HexAlign Microrobot

By Scott Jordan, PI (Physik Instrumente) L.P.
Since the first photonics/telecom boom in the late 1990s, PI (Physik Instrumente) has been creating microrobots for optics alignment. Originally developing the technology for astronomical telescopes, the positioning systems are now put to use in a variety of ways throughout the photonics ...

Redefining Benchtop ATE with Mixed-Signal IO Systems

By Peter van den Eijnden, Managing Director, JTAG Technologies
Many digital electronics designs now contain some form of JTAG/boundary-scan to aid structural board testing or in-system device programming. However, accessing the JTAG feature in a reliable and repeatable manner has always been somewhat neglected by boundary-scan technology and programmable ...

Smart Assembly and Test in Cable and Harness Manufacturing

By Margaret Bishop, Ph.D., CAMI Research, Inc.
Since quality and productivity are the main priorities in cable and harness manufacturing, test engineers typically turn to PC-based cable and harness testers. PC-based systems are operated by an autonomous (rather than embedded) computer and offer superior flexibility when developing ...

Soldering for Aerospace's Harsh Environment

By Yusaku Kono, Marketing Director, Japan Unix Co. Ltd.
Environmental conditions are harsh at the edge of space. The temperature is extremely cold, reaching -50°C (-58°F) and ultra-low air pressure of 240 hPa at altitudes above 10,000 meters (33,000 feet). Winds whip at speeds up to 190 mph (300 kph) in the jet stream. Aircraft ...

The Transition to Flexible Automation

By Kristi Schilloff, Channel Marketing Manager, Universal Instruments Corp.
If implemented correctly, automation can help a company scale its demand requirements, reduce and fix production costs, improve quality, eliminate health and safety issues, and most importantly, realize a more substantial ROI faster and more efficiently.

Top-Side Preheat and Avoiding Board Warp in Selective Soldering

By Jonathan Wol, President, Pillarhouse USA, Inc., and Simon Smith, Marketing Manager, Pillarhouse International Ltd.
Closed-loop top-side preheat generally refers to any preheating unit that presents energy from above the PCB and is used for heating the board to a specific temperature, as well as holding it at this value throughout the process. The system must include some form of temperature measuring ...

Wearables for Health: Hybrid Electronics with Medical Sensors

By Agnieszka Kurylo, Dr. -Ing., Thomas Knieling, and Lars Blohm, Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology
In an effort to meet the growing demand for hybrid electronics production, a team at the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology in Germany has been developing prototypes of hybrid electronics systems. The focus is on the combination of both silicon and flexible electronics manufacturing ...

A Solution for Press-Fit Pin and Receptacle Applications

By Stephen Capitelli, Manager of Product Engineering, Mill-Max Mfg.
Press-fit pins and receptacles are among the most versatile types of interconnection components for electrical and electronic applications. As with other types of pins and fasteners, they play an integral role in product quality, but are easily taken for granted. For example, the fasteners ...