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ACI Technologies: The Center of Excellence
Automated production floor.
By Paul Bratt, Senior Materials Manufacturing Engineer, ACI Technologies Inc., Philadelphia, PA
ACI Technologies Inc. (ACI) is a very special kind of operation. It is dedicated to the advancement of electronics manufacturing processes and materials, training, consulting, testing, analysis, and engineering services to the electronics industry. ACI also operates the U.S. Navy's Center of Excellence in Electronics Manufacturing (Electronics Manufacturing Productivity Facility, EMPF), and the U.S. Army's Electronics Sustainment Center (AESC). The EMPF focuses on the development, application, and transfer of new electronics manufacturing technology by partnering with industry, academia, and government centers and laboratories in the United States to maximize available research capabilities at the lowest possible cost. The AESC supports legacy systems with electronics technology upgrades by inserting commercial off the shelf (COTS) components into existing designs to enhance performance and reliability, reduce costs, and to mitigate component obsolescence issues.

ACI was established in 1992 by its founder and current CEO, Alan J. Criswell. His vision was to develop a vehicle to bridge the gap between leading-edge applied research efforts in electronics manufacturing and the successful integration of the developed technologies on the factory floor. Relying on a thorough understanding of the dynamics of the electronics industry and knowledge of the ever-increasing void in successful technology insertion, ACI successfully privatized a regional, government-operated laboratory known as the EMPF in 1995. ACI transformed this facility into a National Center of Excellence offering best-in-class technical resources in electronics manufacturing to the U.S. Navy, the Department of Defense, and industry.

Excellence Center Model
Today, ACI's National Center of Excellence Model serves as a conduit to leverage the nation's best technical resources from government, industry, and academia in a cooperative and cost-efficient effort to maximize the development and insertion of electronics manufacturing technologies across a broad base of industrial partners. This leveraged technical capability has and will continue to contribute greatly to ensuring the competitiveness of the U.S. industrial base in electronics manufacturing.

ACI occupies over 36,000 square feet of office and laboratory space in a contemporary office campus adjacent to the Philadelphia International Airport. The facility houses a 10,000 square foot demonstration factory containing the latest electronics manufacturing equipment, fully equipped classrooms for skill-based and professional level technical training, an analytical laboratory for materials and environmental testing, and conference and lecture rooms. Most importantly, ACI has achieved excellence in electronics manufacturing training, research, and consulting services by recruiting and retaining the best engineers and technicians in the field, most with advanced degrees in their respective disciplines. The latest equipment is available for assembly, inspection, test, and analysis.

ACI offers a full range of results-oriented technical capabilities available to both its commercial and government customers. These include:

  • Rapid prototyping.
  • Preproduction assembly.
  • Manufacturing engineering support.
  • Chip scale manufacturing.
  • Rework and repair (BGA, CSP, PCB).
  • Design for manufacturability and testability (DFM, DFT).
  • Lead-free manufacturing process development.
  • Manufacturing process development support.
  • Independent vendor survey and qualifications.
  • X-ray inspection services.
  • Endoscope inspection services.
  • Consulting services.
  • Transition to advanced packaging.
  • Wire bonding services.

The company's competitive advantage lies in its talented, matrixed technical staff that supports its manufacturing services. A wide range of technical expertise is available on-demand to support client needs and specifications, not just a menu of standard off-the-shelf services.

Engineering Support
ACI offers a full range of engineering support from component selection, to design and system engineering. Since it is critical to incorporate leading edge manufacturing technology during the design phase of any project, ACI engineers can assist in developing solutions, including design for manufacturability, analog and digital designs, power electronics system design, RF systems analysis, mechanical design and thermal analysis of electronics. The company also offers a wide range of expertise dealing with electronics technology obsolescence issues, including

commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) implementation, circuit redesign due to package technology changes, and a full range of reverse engineering capabilities. With its best-in-class partnerships in industry, academia and government laboratories, in addition to resident expertise, ACI can provide real-time manufacturing support and operate as a resource conduit.

The company assists in manufacturing technology planning for both program-specific and system-wide uses — providing an immediate extension for a client company's engineering resources. In-house expertise includes electrical, mechanical, materials, chemical and manufacturing engineering that can be immediately applied to any electronics manufacturing requirements.

Product Support Services
ACI's product support services provide a full range of solutions tailored for the electronics manufacturing industry. Environmental stress screening and harsh environment testing methods can offer crucial information about product reliability. All testing is conducted in accordance with IPC, JEDEC, ASTM, Bellcore, and MIL-STD specifications.
Hands-on real-world training classes.


The analytical services laboratory aids in solving a variety of industry issues including materials testing, cleanliness analysis, solderability testing, and failure analysis of printed wiring assemblies and electronic components. In addition to routine analysis, ACI can investigate a problem in-depth, utilizing a team of experienced scientists and engineers to perform detailed investigations. Once analyses are completed, recommendations are suggested in implementing a preventative course of action such as: incoming inspection, vendor qualification, process development, quality control improvement, and inspection. Because of this multidimensional approach, the company can provide more than just data; it provides answers and recommendations in order to help the customer find the root cause of problems.

Manufacturing Support
ACI has the expert technical staff and state-of-the-art facilities to assist by providing a multitude of electronics manufacturing and production support services to complement the client's existing production capabilities. It provides a reliable second source for prototyping, materials and process evaluation, or can assist in setting up or operating an advanced packaging production line — working to identify the optimum solution for a product's manufacturing requirements.

Counterfeit Components
ACI has put its arsenal of technology to work to identify and report counterfeit product. In further recognition of the unique needs of the distribution and manufacturing community, the company offers analysis of parts within two business days. This will allow the customer the time to make any financial or production decisions.

Applied R&D
ACI facilitates and stimulates collaborative efforts in applied research activities to advance the state of electronics manufacturing and related technologies in the United States today. By forming best-in-class partnerships with industry, government, and academia, it provides expertise from all areas while broadening the dimensions and breadth of the company's capabilities.

The company has experience managing multi-million dollar cooperative research projects in areas such as:

  • Ruggedization and reliability of electronic assemblies and packages.
  • Design and packaging technologies for power electronics.
  • Failure mode determination and analysis.
  • Packaging solutions and implementation for semiconductors.
  • Production planning and new component integration for military systems.

The company's internal research initiatives have also led to advances in materials characterization and corrosion analysis involving a wide range of electronics production materials and assemblies such as: solder alloys and fluxes (including lead free); polymeric encapsulants, underfill, and molding compounds; thermoelectric assemblies; power integrated circuits; and area array electronics packages.

Training Program
In addition to its manufacturing and engineering support, the company also has an active teaching program. It provides IPC and custom training with value-added failure analysis and manufacturing discussions, as well as equipment demonstrations. With its experienced IPC Master Instructors, state-of-the-art equipment demonstrations, and tours of its electronics factory, the added practical experience gained by the students in the learning center far exceeds that of a basic certification class — all at no additional cost. Custom and onsite training classes are also available. Hundreds of useful technical articles on BGA rework, lead-free processing, conformal coating, failure analysis, and many other topics in electronics manufacturing are available for review in a monthly newsletter, "Empfasis".

Some of the more popular courses offered are:

  • IPC J-STD-001 CIT Certification.
  • IPC-A-600 CIT Certification.
  • IPC-A-610 CIT Certification: Acceptability of Electronic Assemblies.
  • IPC-7711 CIT Certification: Rework, Rework, Repair & Modification.
  • Electronics Manufacturing Boot Camp.

In addition, experienced instructors can provide customized training and certifications where needed.

Advanced scientific capabilities are packaged with years of practical manufacturing experience to deploy the benefits of its research initiatives to its partners. By partnering with ACI, companies of all sizes can maximize their R&D investment by leveraging the expertise and accomplishments of this truly unique national resource.

Contact: ACI Technologies Inc., One International Plaza, Suite 600, Philadelphia, PA 19113 610-362-1320 fax: 610-362-1289 E-mail: info@aciusa.org Web: http://www.aciusa.org  

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