PCB Chat

Episode # 3 of the Concept to Creation Podcast is now available. My guest is Mike Scimeca of FCT Assembly. Mike founded his first business in 1991. Today, he owns nine businesses units. Mike shares his successes, failures, challenges, and advice for budding entrepreneurs.   Mike may be reached at: mscimeca@fctassembly.com  

Norman Mier is a retired veteran of the US Marine Corps with over 20 years of experience in the electronics rework and repair industry. He received his training through the Navy's Micro Miniature (2M) Electronic Repair Program. He has progressed through every level of rework and repair recognized in the industry. Norman has also earned the highest certifications awarded by IPC in electronics training, being certified as a Master Instructor in IPC A-610, IPC J-STD-001D, IPC/WHMA-A-620 and IPC 7711/7721. He has worked through BEST for several electronics industry leaders and created tailored courses for their equipment. This also includes providing training to technicians and engineers in surface mount and advanced surface mount technology. The knowledge Norm has brought to these companies has been invaluable to their process improvement efforts. His skill has also been a major factor in keeping BEST training at the forefront in the electronics-training field. Norman may be contacted at nmier@solder.net. Video version: https://youtu.be/VpFBJtiRl1U    

Concept to Creation Episode 2  Allison and Chad Budvarson are a husband and wife team that founded and operates Out of the Box Manufacturing, a Renton Washington-based contract manufacturer. They share how they founded their company, their challenges, successes, and what motivates them. They also provide sage advice for navigating both business and home life. Allison Budvarson: allison@obmfg.com Chad Budvarson: chad@obmfg.com

David Bernard, Ph.D., describes a coming presentation on x-ray inspection, including understanding how the system works, how magnification works, detectors and sensitivity, handling various solder types (hint: it's the material density that matter), and why users should "stop wasting time with things their x-ray cannot do." Bernard's three-hour webinar, Getting the Best from Your X-Ray Inspection System, takes place May 20. For information, click here: pcb2day.com/webinars.

Dr. Ron Lasky (Professor at Dartmouth College) and three of his students -- Annaka Balch, Nadia Clement, and Raaga Kannan -- talk about the papers they wrote and presented at SMTA's Pan Pacific Microelectronics Symposium in Hawaii in 2020, as well as a new paper to be presented at the same conference in 2022.

Welcome to Mike Konrad's new podcast is called “Concept to Creation - The Entrepreneurs of the Electronic Assembly Industry.”  On this podcast, Mike will interview industry founders to talk about the following topics:  Concept  Creation  Execution  Growth  Challenges  Successes / Failures  Motivating Insights     The first episode features Dr. Bill Cardoso of Creative Electron. Bill earned his AA degree at the age of 13. He went on to earn his BS, MS, and Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering as well as an MBA in economics, strategic management and entrepreneurship. In 2008, he founded Creative Electron, a manufacturer of x-ray equipment. Bill discusses his journey of concept to creation including his success, failures, and challenges along the way. Future episodes will air on the first and second Tuesday of each month. The second episode (airing on May 4) features an interview with the husband and wife team behind Out of the Box Manufacturing, a contract assembler in Renton, WA. They discuss, among other things the challenges of starting a new business one month after they were married in 2008 as well as their strategies for successful growth. The third episode (airing on May 18) features a conversation with FTC Assemblies (soldering materials manufacturer) founder Mike Scimeca. The fourth episode features an interview with Kyzen’s Dr. Mike Bixenman and Tom Forsythe.

On part 2 of this series , we dive into oven profiling best practices. In part one, we looked at void mitigation and how vacuum reflow technology can help reduce or eliminate voiding.  Our guests are Tim O’Neill from AIM Solder and Fred Dimock of BTU. Tim will discuss voiding mitigation from a materials standpoint while Fred will bring cover equipment and profiling strategies. Tim O'Neill is technical marketing manager for AIM Solder. Operating out of AIM’s US headquarters, Tim is responsible for developing and optimizing product and technical information, collaborating with complementary suppliers and equipment manufacturers and ensuring AIM's products exceed expectations and meet market requirements. Tim is also a technical writer and presenter for industry trade publications and events. He has coauthored several papers on PCB assembly subjects. Tim is also an IPC-A-610 Certified IPC Specialist. Fred Dimock is manager of process technology at BTU International and recently started a consulting business, FCD-Global services. Fred holds an associate degree in mechanical design from Wentworth in Boston and a bachelor's degree in ceramic engineering from the State University of New York. He has authored numerous articles on lead-free solder, process control, and the operation of continuous furnaces. His papers have been published in English, Chinese, and German. He has taught numerous SMTA solder reflow classes and participated in the 5-45 Subcommittee for the development of IPC-7801 Reflow Oven Process Control Standard. Additionally, he wrote the chapter on solder reflow for the Handbook of Electronic Assembly and A Guide to SMTA Certification by Dr. Ron Lasky and Jim Hall. He received Distinguished Speaker status at SMTA Guadalajara Mexico and is a key presenter for the SMTA Jump Start program for new engineers.   Timothy O'Neill is the Technical Marketing Manager for AIM Solder. Operating out of AIM’s U.S. Headquarters, Tim is responsible for developing and optimizing product and technical information, collaborating with complimentary suppliers and equipment manufacturers and ensuring AIM's products exceed expectations and meet market requirements. Tim is also a technical writer and presenter for industry trade publications and events. He has co-authored several papers on PCB assembly subjects.   Tim is also an IPC-A-610 Certified IPC Specialist.   Fred Dimock is the Manager of Process Technology at BTU International and recently started a consulting business, FCD-Global services.   Fred holds an Associate Degree in Mechanical Design from Wentworth in Boston and a Bachelors Degree in Ceramic Engineering from the State University of New York.   Fred has authored numerous articles on lead free solder, process control, and the operation of continuous furnaces. His papers have been published in English, Chinese, and German.   He has taught numerous SMTA solder reflow classes and participated in the 5-45 Subcommittee for the development of IPC-7801 Reflow Oven Process Control Standard. Additionally, he wrote the chapter on solder reflow for the Handbook of Electronic Assembly and A Guide to SMTA Certification by Dr Lasky and Jim Hall.   He received Distinguished Speaker status at SMTA Guadalajara Mexico and is a key presenter for the SMTA Jump Start program for new engineers.   Tim O’Neill may be contacted here: toneill@aimsolder.com   Fred Dimock may be contacted here: fdimock@btu.com    

On this episode, we’ll have a conversation with two industry experts on the subject of solder voiding mitigation and oven profiling, two subjects which influence solder voiding. This will be a two part episode. Here, we dive into void mitigation and how vacuum reflow technology can help reduce or eliminate voiding. Part two (episode 65) will discuss profiling best practices. Our guests are Tim O’Neill from AIM Solder and Fred Dimock of BTU. Tim will discuss voiding mitigation from a materials standpoint while Fred will bring cover equipment and profiling strategies. Tim O'Neill is technical marketing manager for AIM Solder. Operating out of AIM’s US headquarters, Tim is responsible for developing and optimizing product and technical information, collaborating with complementary suppliers and equipment manufacturers and ensuring AIM's products exceed expectations and meet market requirements. Tim is also a technical writer and presenter for industry trade publications and events. He has coauthored several papers on PCB assembly subjects. Tim is also an IPC-A-610 Certified IPC Specialist. Fred Dimock is manager of process technology at BTU International and recently started a consulting business, FCD-Global services. Fred holds an associate degree in mechanical design from Wentworth in Boston and a bachelor's degree in ceramic engineering from the State University of New York. He has authored numerous articles on lead-free solder, process control, and the operation of continuous furnaces. His papers have been published in English, Chinese, and German. He has taught numerous SMTA solder reflow classes and participated in the 5-45 Subcommittee for the development of IPC-7801 Reflow Oven Process Control Standard. Additionally, he wrote the chapter on solder reflow for the Handbook of Electronic Assembly and A Guide to SMTA Certification by Dr. Ron Lasky and Jim Hall. He received Distinguished Speaker status at SMTA Guadalajara Mexico and is a key presenter for the SMTA Jump Start program for new engineers.

Design engineers are paying close attention to materials. It’s not just about the routing anymore. Keshav Amla and Tarun Amla are founder and CEO and cofounder and CTO, respectively, of Avishtech, a San Jose, CA-based developer of simulation and design software, specifically stack-up and 2D field solvers.  They discuss how their signature software enables better board design and how it came to be endorsed by Lee Ritchey, one of the leading experts in signal integrity and PCB design.

Dock Brown brings his more than 30 years of electronics reliability experience to clients of Ansys. Prior to joining Ansys, he spent 20 years at Medtronic where he most recently concentrated on cross business unit implementation of reliability initiatives for Class III medical devices. He was also responsible for supplier assessment and approval, on-going supplier audits, failure analysis, corrective actions, MRB, sampling, and ultimately full accountability for quality and reliability of commercial off-the-shelf and custom parts and assemblies from a worldwide supplier base. Earlier in his career, Mr. Brown also spent time at Sundstrand Data Control where he led the implementation of Boeing’s Advanced Quality System program and with Olin Aerospace. As a volunteer, he has been involved with ASQ, IEEE, IPC, and SMTA. He was the keynote speaker at the SMTA Cleaning Conference and won the best paper award at the SMTA Microelectronics Conference. He has taught on the subjects of design for reliability, tin whiskers, statistics, design of experiments, and contributed to standards development. Today’s episode is a little different than others. Dock will be sharing a very interesting presentation on the subject of reliability. If you’re listening to the audio-only version of this episode, you may want to view the video version so you can see Dock’s slide-deck. The video version of this episode, and several others are available on the Reliability Matters YouTube channel.