January 2025 Newsletter

 

PCEA

CHAPTER NEWSLETTER – January 2025

Greetings!

Hope your new year is off to a rousing start!

The core of PCEA is its membership: sharing of technical information and networking. That's why I'm pleased to see some of our newer chapters getting together regularly for tech talks and check-ins.

Two chapters in particular stand out. The Portland (OR) chapter meets each month online over lunch. In January, the guest speaker was Tony Lentz of FCT Solder, who presented on low-temperature solders and processes. The chapter is also conducting a local study on electronic design data transfer.

And the new Missouri chapter holds a kickoff meeting next month with a special presentation titled "Manufacturing by Design is the New DfM" from Dale Lee of Plexus. See the Chapter News below for more on these and other upcoming events.

We are pleased to announce a new technical event, PCB Detroit, which is coming to Michigan on June 2-3. See pcea.net for more details.

And a reminder to register now for PCB East, coming April 29-May 2 to the Boxboro (MA) Regency Hotel and Conference Center in Boxborough, MA. It offers more than 75 hours of the best in-depth technical training for printed circuit board design and engineering you can find on the East Coast. Plus, there's a full day of free sessions on April 30, and you can connect with 60+ exhibitors representing the leading companies in the PCB industry. All attendees will be treated to a free lunch on the show floor on the exhibition day.

The scope of classes ranges from the basics of design engineering, documentation, libraries and circuit grounding to more advanced fare such as RF and mixed signal design, DDR5 routing, board stackups, simulation, controlling EMI, and power delivery system design.

More than half the presentations are new to the conference, including ones on maximizing routing channels, successful design release, differential pair design for 112 Gbps and faster systems, EMI shielding, flex design, UHDI design, controlling for tin whiskers, and AI and other upcoming changes in PCB design.

The discounted price for the PCB East 2025 technical conference ends March 29, so register now!

The winter/spring schedule for the Certified Professional Circuit Designer training and certification program is underway. It includes 40 hours of classes taught one day a week over five weeks. The next classes start on February 28 and May 9, respectively. Each class includes a copy of Printed Circuit Engineering Professional, a 400-page handbook on circuit board design, and the optional certification exam. More details are here.

Interested in presenting at PCB West this fall? Submit your abstract now for the September 30 – October 3 event, which takes place at the Santa Clara (CA) Convention Center.

Stay warm!

Mike Buetow
PCEA President
mike@pcea.net

 

Local Chapters

Please forward your chapter news to pcea@pcea.net for inclusion on our website and in future newsletters.

National: The annual PCEA meeting will be held September 30 during PCB West at the Santa Clara (CA) Convention Center. An update on all association programs, plus the annual awards, will be presented.

Missouri: The new PCEA Missouri chapter will sponsor a talk on DfA by Dale Lee, staff DfX process engineer at Plexus, on Feb. 18 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. CST. To register, click here.

Abstract: Today’s SMT and PTH assembly processes are driven by component packaging technology and functional design requirements. These requirements, combined with the growth in automobile electrification, space commercialization, wearable/disposable medical electronics and no touchup/rework allowed assembly designs, are driving manufacturing/test toward “build right” and increased reliability requirements.

With this transition, DfM needs to migrate away from general assembly design guidelines primarily driven by general assembly equipment/process capability toward component/printed board-specific driven assembly and understanding the requirements and tolerances of each solder connection on a single device location on the assembly. Manufacturing now has to be able to report design issues not only from assembly-level effects/process customization but also to be able to communicate with designers on potential functional design mitigation strategies and/or cost impacts.

Manufacturing by design is now required to match the assembly/test processes to the functional requirements of the design and address when traditional material limitations, industry standards and assembly tolerances are not adequately addressed with traditional DfM reviews.

The presenter, Dale Lee, is a principal DfX engineer with Plexus, primarily involved with printed board/printed board assembly DfX analysis, root cause failure analysis and definition/correlation of design, process and tooling impacts on assembly processes and manufacturing yields including impacts of new technologies.

Portland, OR: A big shout-out to Tony Lentz from FCT Solder for joining us in January to talk about low-temperature solder. If you’d like to check out Tony’s presentation, you can download it here.

Our next meeting is Feb. 20 at 12 p.m. PST. Contact Stephan Schmidt at stschmidt@pcea.net for details.

San Diego: The chapter is planning on hosting a one-hour presentation at a local library in February. Our planned presenter is a material vendor that has some unique additive materials. Contact Luke Hausherr at lucashausherr@gmail.com for details.

Upcoming conferences:

  • PCB EastApr. 29 – May 2 in the Boston suburbs.
  • PCB WestSept. 30 – Oct. 3 at the Santa Clara (CA) Convention Center.
  • PCEA Training. PCEA will hold Printed Circuit Engineering Professional curriculum and certification classes as follows:

                   – Feb. 28, Mar. 7, 14, 28, Apr. 4

                   – May 9, 16, 23, 30, Jun. 6

Reading Material

See below for highlights of the recent issues of PCD&F/Circuits Assembly. Read it all here.

Have an idea for an article? Contact us at pcea@pcea.net. No writing experience required!

  • Clearance and creepage in PCB design. An overview of standards and guidelines for high-voltage applications.
  • Maximizing yields with minimal iterations. Design practices that help prevent common fabrication and assembly defects.
  • Comparing coated and uncoated stencils. Implications of using uncoated stencils are weighed against the more-expensive, but more-effective, nanocoated versions.
  • Board procurement. Managing the buyer-supplier relationship.
  • STI Electronics. A look inside the North Alabama-based EMS company.
  • The profession. Can EDA tools keep up with workforce needs?
  • Additive manufacturing in EMS. 3-D printing gains ground in assembly.

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