Printed Circuit Design & Fab, July 2008

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Printed Circuit Design & Fab, July 2008

Printed Circuit Design & Fab, July 2008 Printed Circuit Design & Fab provides a forum to enable design and manufacturing managers, executives and their suppliers to understand and implement techniques, methodologies, processes and technologies that compliment and improve competitiveness in the electronic interconnect industry.

Printed Circuit Design & Fab is the result of the fusion of PC FAB and Printed Circuit Design magazines. The lines between design and manufacturing continue to blur and communication between these two areas is critical for product success. For this reason, UP Media Group made the decision to combine these two leading brands into one dynamic product.

The entire, unduplicated subscriber bases from both PC FAB’s and Printed Circuit Design’s subscription files were used to create the 37,300 circulation database of PCD&M. Likewise, the editorial product combines the best of both disciplines and, for the first time, provides experts in the electronic interconnect industry with one resource for all of their technical and market needs. The first issue of Printed Circuit Design & Fab premiered in April 2003.

Printed Circuit Design & Fab’s editorial coverage is determined by working members of the PCB design industry - professionals who face the same problems as you do on a daily basis. These editorial review board members help develop Printed Circuit Design & Fab's editorial content for each year, as well as review and contribute articles to the magazine.

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FEATURES:

20 SYSTEM DESIGN
The Cost of Advancing Technology
New collaborative systems connect designers and extend their reach beyond the PCB to other disciplines, enhancing the product development cycle. by HENRY POTTS

24 THERMAL MANAGEMENT
SOLVING SYSTEM LEVEL THERMAL MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES
Thermal management is critical to overall system performance so mechanical designers need to consider thermal issues from the earliest stages of the design. by DR. JOHN PARRY

28 CO-DESIGN
Innovative Modeling Supports Co-Design of the Power Supply Chain, Part 1
New software tools ease problems associated with power delivery design in large computer systems. by DAVID QUINT and CHARLES KEEN

32 EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES ‘WARM’ MANUFACTURING HEATS UP
Nanotechnology poses an attractive solution for lower-temp soldering. by DR. ALAN RAE, DR. ANDREW SKIPOR and MARC CHASON

36 ENVIRONMENT
Greener PCB Coatings
Balance cost, performance and environmental impact when selecting a conformal coating. by KENT LARSON

40 SOLDER MASK
Environmentally Friendly Digital Inkjet Solder Mask Printing
The advantages of inkjet processing provide the PCB fabricator with a new tool to improve product quality and reduce waste.
by YEHUDA DAVID and DR. YIFAT BAREKET

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What Keeps You Up at Night?
Written by Kathy Nargi-Toth

Kathy Nargi-Toth A few years ago, when I was working for a chemical supplier, I chaired the PCB Suppliers Leadership Meeting Subcommittee, part of the IPC Suppliers Council. As a matter of course we held annual meetings and inevitably the final afternoon session would turn into a roundtable discussion where we could vent on the latest series of challenges facing the industry. I don’t think we solved many problems in those two-hour therapy sessions, but they were extremely cathartic, so we continued to include them in the program.

Over the past few years, the need for this type of open dialog between companies and within our industry has grown exponentially. We face very serious challenges today and will continue to be stress-tested in the years to come. While peer discussions may not help us solve all the problems, this constructive interaction and the precipitating brainstorm that results can certainly help us focus on those things most critical for success.

One of the biggest hurdles to address, especially in technology sectors, is our aging workforce. Don’t get me wrong – I’m rapidly becoming one of them – but it has been estimated that nearly 50% of U.S. scientists and engineers will reach retirement age by 2012. They may not all retire then, but as they exit the workforce there are limited resources waiting in the wings. By 2013 the number of workers 54 to 64 years of age in the U.S. will mushroom to 12 million. Meanwhile, the younger, yet still experienced, workers – those aged 35 to 44 – will shrink by 15%. As a result there will be a labor shortage of major proportion, particular for highly skilled positions.

We know from analysis of our annual Salary Survey that the average age of the PCB designer rises each year. There are not enough engineers entering the field to offset the advancing age of the bulk of U.S. PCB designers. In 2007, the average age for PCB designers responding to our survey was 48, up from 46.8 in 2006. In all likelihood, the age will advance to over 49 in the 2008 survey. This should be a call to action for our industry. From where are the new engineers that will be needed over the next five to 10 years going to come?

We can all appreciate the relentless progression of technology, Moore’s Law marching to its own drummer. But have you considered that such rapid advancement in technology is creating enormous education gaps? The half-life of an engineer’s knowledge is considered to be five years. In the electronics industry it’s even worse. More than 50% of what you learn as a freshman is obsolete by the time you reach your senior year. The only answer to keeping up and moving ahead is to actively engage in continuous training and re-education. ...

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