IPC — Association Connecting Electronics Industries announced today the October findings from its monthly North American Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Statistical Program. Modest sales growth continued in October and the book-to-bill ratio retreated to 1.02. Total North American PCB shipments increased 1.4 percent in October 2015 compared to October 2014. Year-to-date shipment growth continued [...]
A lot of companies talk about the importance of good data management, but for some firms, this amounts to little more than lip service. Then there are companies like fabricator Bay Area Circuits. I recently sat down with Bay Area Circuits President Stephen Garcia and COO Brian Paper to discuss how automating and upgrading [...]
As an attendee at the IPC Flexible Circuits–HDI Conference held October 28–30, I found myself in a room of people, all eager for technical information, with the opportunity to reconnect with industry friends and to make new connections. The audience was diverse with young people, new to our industry, sitting alongside industry veterans willingly sharing [...]
Flexible PCB is a common term that is synonymous with flexible circuits. While the term “PCB” is generally used to describe rigid printed circuitry, “flexible PCB” is a little contradictory because “boards” aren’t really flexible. Some companies, like All Flex, design and manufactures flexible PCBs, but not rigid PCBs. There are many similarities between the [...]
ORBOTECH LTD announced today that Eagle Electronics, Ltd, a US-based manufacturer of quality printed circuit boards (PCBs) and a long-time customer of Orbotech, has successfully integrated the Fusion 22 Automated Optical Inspection (AOI) System into its production facility in Schaumburg, IL. The Fusion 22 AOI system, with its powerful multi-image technology, offers the lowest [...]
Future integrated circuitry is expected to look a lot like skyscrapers: units will be stacked atop one another and interconnects will link each level to its adjacent neighbors, much like how elevators connect one floor to the next. The problem is how do integrated-circuit designers remove heat from these tightly packed 3-D chips? The smaller [...]
I sat down with American Standard Circuits President Anaya Vardya at the recent SMTAI show and conference in Rosemont, IL. Anaya wanted to share all the great new things going on at his company. Among the topics we discussed: new equipment, new processes, new people, and what it all means for ASC’s growth. Patty [...]
IPC — Association Connecting Electronics Industries® announced today the September findings from its monthly North American Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Statistical Program. Sales growth continued in September and the book-to-bill ratio fell back to a more normal but still positive 1.05. Total North American PCB shipments increased 3.3 percent in September 2015 compared to [...]
By the '90s, Asia had become a great player on the electronics industry, driving companies all over the world, especially those in Europe and the Americas, to compete against its low prices. More recently, Asian manufacturers have been delivering more high-quality products to the market. These phenomena resulted in little space for mass production companies [...]