PCB Chat

Can reliability training be both entertaining and effective? The Manufacturing Game's Michelle Ledet Henley has a different approach to traditional training methods. Henley has worked with The Manufacturing Game since 1998 as a developer of new simulations and training material. She has traveled worldwide in her capacity as a facilitator and trainer for The Manufacturing Game and other simulations developed by Ledet Enterprises. Henley has been instrumental in developing simulations with a focus on reliability, project management and distribution. She began her career with KPMG Peat Marwick in San Francisco, and then worked for a real estate management and development firm in the Washington, DC area. Before joining The Manufacturing Game, Henley formed her own company, Innovative Interfaces, which provides computer programming services around the United States. Henley has a bachelor's of business administration degree from the University of Texas - Austin in accounting and information services.

Mike Konrad's guest is Dr. James Whitfield. Dr. Whitfield is an associate professor of physics at Dartmouth. He earned a bachelor's of science and chemistry and mathematics from Morehouse University and a Ph.D. in chemical physics from Harvard University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University in New York, Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology in Vienna and Gant University and Belgium, and he is currently an Amazon visiting academic.

Wally Rhines, the former chairman of Mentor Graphics and now spokesperson for the ESD Alliance, updates us on the latest PCB design software and semiconductor market trends (spoiler alert: sales were up again), and addresses why ECAD companies are hiring even in the face of layoffs among Big Tech. He is joined by Merlyn Brunken, director of marketing strategic planning at Siemens Digital Industries Software to provide the quarterly report, which showed gains across a number of sectors and geographies.  

Flux says every step of the electronic design process is slow, expensive, and error-prone. The startup company’s engineers think they have a solution: a browser-based PCB design platform and programmable simulator.  Matthias Wagner, CEO and cofounder, and Kerry Chayka, product expert, both veterans of PCB design with companies like Facebook and Apple, discuss the problems that led them to develop an all-encompassing tool that includes a programmable SPICE simulator for testing circuits with real parts and environments. 

The subjects of Industry 4.0 and Big Data have been widely discussed on this podcast. What is Industry 4.0? What data is our industry collecting? And, perhaps more importantly, how can we sift through all of that data to make it useful and actionable? To help answer these and other data-related questions, Mike Konrad interviews Ryan Gamble, CEO and Founder of Intraratio. Intraratio is a company that provides on-premise and cloud hybrid software with platforms to track, manage, control, and automate the manufacture of advanced electronics. Intraratio serves the semiconductor, SMT, space/military, medical device and EV markets. Ryan earned a dual electrical and computer engineering degree and spent many years in the semiconductor industry. He’s responsible for improving product manufacturing and testing of commercial and space/military product lines including multi-core DSP, RF and silicon photonics devices. During this period he developed software systems to automate and manage quality and reliability of complex electronics, extending this to hyperscale web-based platforms that interconnect factories globally. His passion is working with all levels, to identify and recommend solutions to business problems, based on a deep technical understanding of operational processes and product complexities.  

Eric Camden (lead investigator with Foresite) and Mike Konrad discuss electrochemical migration (ECM) and other failure modes caused by residues on circuit assemblies.

On this episode, Mike Konrad speaks with Mark Goodwin, COO of Ventec Europe, a supplier of copper-clad laminates and prepreg bonding materials for the circuit board fabrication industry, about supply chain challenges.

The Printed Circuit Board Association of America, or PCBAA, was founded in 2021 to advance US domestic production of PCBs and base materials. The organization is made up of corporate members of all sizes, and includes fabricators, assemblers and suppliers. My guest today is David Schild, executive director of the PCBAA. We discuss government investment in printed circuit board manufacturing in the US, the just announced allocation for PCBs as part of the Defense Production Act, and how innovation can't stop at design.   This episode of PCB Chat is sponsored by PCB East, the Electronics Industry’s East Coast Conference and Trade Show. Coming to the Boston suburbs May 9-12, and registration is now open at pcbeast.com.  

VVDN Technologies is perhaps best known as a provider of end-to-end engineering and manufacturing of hardware, mechanical and electronic assemblies, and embedded software, among others. Founded in 2007, it now has 11 product engineering centers worldwide, plus seven manufacturing plants across India where its capabilities include SMT, injection molding, tooling, die casting, and metal stamping, among others. The company in February announced plans to invest $100 million over the next five years in a new 100-acre factory in Tamil Nadu. That plant will add PCB fabrication capability, rounding out the firm's vertical integration strategy. Vivek Bansal, co-founder and president of engineering, discusses the company's plans and future expansion in India and elsewhere with PCB Chat host Mike Buetow. This episode of PCB Chat is sponsored by PCB East, the Electronics Industry’s East Coast Conference and Trade Show. Coming to the Boston suburbs May 9-12, and registration is now open at pcbeast.com.  

Metallic Resources is a developer of high purity solder for electronics applications, making paste, bar, and cored wire products, among others. Metallic Resources’ slogan is “not your typical solder,” and one big reason for that is the high purity solder it supplies. This is credited to the company’s electrolytic refining process. David Bao, Ph,D., director of New Product Development, Erik Ozan, senior manager and head of the recycling division, and Jeff Giles sales manager of Metallic Resources talk about that refining, reclaiming, the pros and cons of risk aversion, and why some companies are wasting money stuck in higher cost solder assembly processes with PCB Chat host Mike Buetow. This episode of PCB Chat is sponsored by PCB East, the Electronics Industry’s East Coast Conference and Trade Show. Coming to the Boston suburbs May 9-12, and registration is now open at pcbeast.com.