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Saturday, April 21, 2018

VOLUME - NUMBER

AMBER's Wireless Applications Kit for Raspberry Pi Makes Evaluation Simple

By Selina Schuler, Software Developer, AMBER wireless GmbH
From decentralized intelligence and cyber-physical systems to the smart home and smart factory — the Internet of Things (IoT) is being brought to the fore. However, the IoT does not only mean connecting devices using the Internet. When cables get in the way and Wi-Fi is not practicable ...

Design-for-Testability Verified with Hardware Emulation

By Dr. Lauro Rizzatti, Verification Consultant
On the production/testing floor, is it better to pass a failing device or to reject a good one? Obviously both are bad choices. If you reject a good device, you shoot yourself in the foot, since you lower the yield of your manufacturing facility and take a hit to profits. But, if you ...

Machine Vision Products: Designing the Future's Inspection Machines

By Paul Groome, Semiconductor Business Director, Machine Vision Products
When Machine Vision Products, Inc., (MVP) was founded 25 years ago, cell phones were in their infancy and portable electronics simply didn't exist. The majority of manufacturing was through-hole, the i486 was the main computing platform and Windows 3.1 was flashy and new.

Measuring Surface Flatness with Acoustic Micro Imaging Tools

By Tom Adams, Consultant, Sonoscan
Acoustic micro imaging tools, or acoustic microscopes, are well-known for their ability to pulse ultrasound into a sample, collect the echoes and create acoustic images. These images show the desired depth without harming the sample. These tools can even create nondestructive cross-sections ...

Precise Measurement of Surface Free Energy Promotes Superior Adhesion

By Jeff Elliott
The process of determining the ideal plasma treatment that will resolve a challenging bonding or adhesion issue is an exact science, often the domain of chemists and physicists. However, with multiple options and chemistries at their disposal, coming up with the ideal plasma "recipe ...

STI's Multifaceted Organization Meets Next-Gen Assembly Needs

By Troy Moore, Systems Design Engineer, STI Electronics
For STI, a multifaceted technical organization that offers electronics assembly, training and other specialized services, flexibility allows it to put customers first and to focus on the highest possible product quality.

Successfully Measuring LED Modules, Lamps and Luminaires

By Mikolaj Przybyla, Managing Director, GL Optic Lichtmesstechnik
In March 2015, the International Commission on Illumiation (CIE) published the first international standard with guidelines on LED light source measurements. Previous standards only addressed measurements of traditional light sources.

Accuracy in 3D AOI Enables M2M Communications

By Yasuo Watabe, Sales Promotion Group Leader, Saki Corporation
There have been many obstacles to overcome in the process of developing machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. But, with more diversity in electronics, increased global competition, and demand for shorter lead times, M2M communications are becoming a necessity.

Electrically Testing Long Cables

By Christopher E. Strangio, Founder and President, CAMI Research, Inc.
Despite a growing number of applications for fiber optics in communications, we continue to employ copper conductors to deliver power, effect electrical control and inexpensively carry signal data. And as long as the industry demands copper cables, they will require testing to ensure ...

From Selective to Fully-Intelligent Fluxing

By Will Hunter, Area Director — North America, mta automation
Citing issues with quality and the messiness of the process, many companies are moving away from wave soldering. Ironically, these problems are not caused by the wave soldering itself. In all likelihood, the inconspicuous fluxer is the source of most of the problems. Most issues arise ...

Industry Voices: Perspectives on the Internet of Manufacturing

By Philip Stoten (@philipstoten)
We've been hearing about Industry 4.0, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and the Internet of Manufacturing (IoM) for some time, but the concept is finally being realized. The smart factory movement is poised to completely overhaul conventional manufacturing. We asked a number ...

JTAG Integrated with PCB Design Tools Broadens Capabilities

By Philip Ling
Many engineers think that JTAG is simply an interface for inserting breakpoints to debug the software running on a CPU. It may surprise them to learn that JTAG is included in many integrated devices that do not have a debug interface. While this includes FPGAs and CPUs, it also extends ...

Probing the Future of Battery Array Testing

By Jasmin Bauer, Marketing, Acculogic, Inc.
Acculogic has developed a novel way to test battery arrays, using its automated flying probe system, the Flying Scorpion. With a marked increase in demand for batteries on the horizon, such as for electric vehicles (EVs), mobile energy storage, solar power, and energy-efficient homes ...

The Benefits and Risks of Copper Pillar Bumped Flip Chips

By Craig Hillman Ph.D., CEO, DfR Solutions
Traditional solder bumps are being bumped aside by copper pillar technology. Used as a first-level interconnect, copper pillar technology is increasing in popularity as a way to deal with decreasing feature sizes on silicon, mobile device form factors, and other technical challenges ...

Are All Cleaning Wipes Created Equal?

By Mike Jones, MicroCare Corp.
Wipes are used across almost every type of industry for a huge variety of cleaning tasks. In fact, wipes are so widely available that it is all too easy to take them for granted and to treat them as little more than a throwaway commodity. Like Rodney Dangerfield might have put it, wipes ...

ASM Presents World-Class Placement for Mid-Speed Applications

By Nick Crocker, E by SIPLACE Business Development Manager, ASM
Mid-speed, high-mix manufacturers have often found themselves between a rock and a hard place when deciding on the best placement technology for a dynamic assembly environment. While many features of higher-speed systems, such as vision inspection, placement head flexibility and easy ...

Direct Manufacturing and Support Integral to Scienscope Success

By Todd O'Neil, Global Business Development and National Sales Manager, Scienscope International
Starting out by manufacturing basic stereo zoom microscopes used for SMT inspection and rework, Scienscope was founded in 1995 to meet the growing need for reliable, general-purpose optical and video inspection solutions for the electronics and PCB industries. Since then, through painstaking ...

Good Chemistry: Studying PCB Cleaning Processes

By Patrick Duchi, Inventec Performance Chemicals
The ability to effectively clean a PCB has been complicated by the ban of CFCs and HCFCs, which offer outstanding solvency power and low surface tension to dissolve and remove contaminants within minutes, leaving electronics clean and dry. Meanwhile, the exponential growth of miniaturized ...

How to Properly Calculate Reflow Temperature Gradients

By Vitor Barros, General Manager, KIC Europe
The theory is simple: Process electronic assemblies in spec every time and the result is a quality product. In practice, however, this is much more difficult for numerous reasons, including normal and abnormal process variations, human error, and many other factors.

In and Out of Flux: Choosing the Right Flux for Selective Soldering

By Eddie Groves, Selective Soldering Academy, and Jonathan Wol, Pillarhouse USA
The flux chosen for the selective soldering process has a direct and significant impact on solder joint quality, long-term reliability and overall soldering performance. Fluxes essentially fall into three basic categories: low-solids/no-clean fluxes, rosin fluxes (full/high-solids rosins ...