Although plenty of part numbers go through our shop which are classified and their end use is unclear, it is still quite possible to recognize the end users and the importance of performing quality work.  Products, processes, and chains are only as strong as their weakest link; and narrowing our focus too far on one spot in the product development cycle can have catastrophic consequences.  Our company, Cirexx International, does a fair bit of work within the defense industry.  For this reason, I will use the following hypothetical example as a reference.

“Although PN xxxxxxx is a simple 6 layer rigid-flex, it plays a critical role within a hand-held communications device our warfighters in Iraq rely on and expect to be functioning regardless of extreme conditions.  It’s failure, delamination, improper design could mean life or death for a whole troop.  And we all know who our military serves… us.”

If we focus on and remember who our end user is, the technical nature of our boards, our workplace morale, and our general business practices will all be affected.

Technical
If we were to keep in mind the big picture of who we serve with our products, many technical aspects of our products would be affected.  Most notable, I believe quality and quality assurance would improve.  Technicians, managers, suppliers, etc would all hold themselves to a high moral standard above and beyond their ISO or corporate quality mandate.  Responsiveness to issues and concerns on the part of the customer would increase.  Recognizing that each delay in the product life-cycle keeps a potentially life-saving product out of production and out of the hands of our soldier, nurse, pilot, etc for a greater period of time.  Paperwork and voicemails will have less likelihood of being put off until the afternoon, the end of the week, etc.  And lastly, collaboration will improve.  Although it is not necessarily the job of the lamination technician to determine proper materials for use in the final product, they may have some knowledge of past performance that the designers did not.  Whether it’s that they heard from a colleague that a particular thickness of laminate has been having issues in extreme temperatures, or in humidity.  Knowing that the board will be in a product in use in the rain forest may happen to be a huge help.

Workplace Morale
Not only will the technical integrity of your boards increase, but also workplace morale and spirit.  Employee sense of ownership and duty will grow when their understanding of the big picture increases and the tunnelvision we often fall susceptible to is countered.  This will lead to increased attention to detail, greater job satisfaction, and a greater sense of community within your organization and between organizations.

Business Practices
Lastly, recognition of the true impact your company’s product has will lead to changes in how your business operates.  Customer service and support will take greater precedence.  Also, capital improvements and research/development will take greater priority.  Recognition of the ways we need to remain competitive, and provide the most cutting edge products to our customers will occur when we step back and think about the importance we play in the lives of so many people.

Who are your customers?  Your real customers… probably people who have never and will never hear of you.  Yet it is them who you serve, it is for them that we work day and night, providing the highest quality products with the best customer support and responsive attitudes possible.

What other improvements do you feel would occur if we were to all continually remind ourselves of these things?  Feel free to comment below.

This is a complex question with a large number of factors.  One focus of the discussion could be on the pure technical limitations which will be reached according to the laws of physics, or you may consider the unlikelihood that we will ever meet a need that PCB’s can’t handle due to the high costs which would surround that new technology.

I hope to hear your input and comments.  Where do you see the technology going and needing to innovate?  How do you see system-in-a-package and 3D Integration being a factor?  I don’t even have all of the appropriate questions surrounding this topic, but I hope that the comments below will be full of insight and discussion.

Thanks!!

P.S. Someone should add to the wikipedia article about system-in-a-package.  It could use some help.

In addition to a large number of PCB enterprises in Taiwan, many PCB operations are located in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces.

Among them are leading PCB makers earning hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenues and employing thousands of workers.

They also spend huge sums on environmental protection, including the disposal of manufacturing wastes from production processes and everyday operations.

The major pollution source of PCB industries is the copper content in the spent etchant and wastewater streams.

Traditionally, liquid resin is used to chelate spent etchant, forming copper ions and converting them into a copper sulfate solution for industrial applications.

Although this process can recover most of the copper from PCB waste streams, a considerable amount of the metal is unrecoverable. This metal is discharged into the environment, which can cause severe water pollution problems.

For any major plant, the daily amount of wastewater, along with untreated sludge, can total thousands of tons. This wastewater and sludge contains copper and also lead, tin and other metals used in soldering processes.

Stricter environmental protections adopted in recent years have forced PCB manufacturers to seek new technologies to promote better, yet cost-efficient waste recycling methods.Shortly after the State Council announced its 4 trillion yuan stimulus package to boost the domestic economy, attention turned to reviving industrial sectors battered by the ongoing global economic crisis.

During a series of meetings by the State Council in January and February this year, an “industrial restructuring” policy was adopted that focused on “10 key sectors.” The PCB industry is among those key sectors.

The government asked that PCB manufacturers focus on two elements: cleaner production (CP) and a circular economy (CE) to make this industry environmentally clear and economically stronger.

A semi-annual PCB technical conference in May at Suzhou, Jiangsu province, answered this CP/CE challenge with green technology sessions and economic discussions.

Hundreds of Chinese companies were represented – all eager to learn innovative technologies and international market trends.

Papers were presented on energy-saving measures, emissions reductions and also proposed CP/CE practices.

Seven universities in Taiwan established an incubator to study “best practice” CP/CE applications at the Center for Innovation and Incubation at Chung Yuan University.

The center has invited the participation of industry representatives, academic institutions and the government.

A persistent challenge is the incomplete recovery of copper from plant discharges, wastewater and sludge.

A recovery procedure recently developed by Taiwan-based Trinity Resource Technology Inc has employed a CP/CE solution.

The procedure involves separating copper compounds from wastewater in a way that recovers most of the copper, resulting in near-zero discharge.

Through a chemical treatment method operated outside the plant premises, the recovered copper compound is purified to form copper oxide, which can be recycled and used in the PCB electrolysis process.

Trinity is working with Chung Yuan University to build a pilot plant employing this new procedure.

This new approach is an example of the innovation that is being sought by the PCB industry to produce useful, profitable and environmentally sound products.

The author is a scientist and advisor to Trinity Resource Technology Inc of Taiwan
(For more biz stories, please visit Industries
(China Daily)

John has only been raising horses since 2005.  The strong housing market allowed the Cardones to move up to Grenada and begin that venture.  Prior to this, John worked with JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) in Pasadena as part of the Electro-Mechanical Engineering Group.   JPL happened to send a recruiter to John’s College, Cal-State Northridge, where he was majoring in Mechanical Engineering.  Having experience as an Associate Engineer while in college was a great bonus.  Samples of work in hand, he met with a recruiter who later hired him to JPL where he would spend 22 years.

John moved into design because he found it to be more exciting than project management.  He enjoys the “hands-on, actually-doing-the-work” feel of being a designer.  Within JPL he was an integral part of three Mars Rover projects.  Space constraints and bulky insulation complicated the design of the electrical components.  The Mars Pathfinder Rover which landed on July 4, 1997 contained John’s first very complex board.  He was convinced that rigid-flex was the best way to handle the difficulties presented by the various constraints.  The result was a 30 Layer Rigid-Flex board with a long flex finger that could travel outside to the various instruments.

Each new Rover has included significant improvements and John has been right there effecting change and development.  The MER (Mars Exploration Rover) was sent to Mars with the understanding that 90 days of operation would be a success.  However, the new designs and improvements made over the initial rover have made it such that the Rover has been working for over 5 years.

John’s work left an impression on his Co-Workers at JPL and he was asked, even after leaving JPL, to be a part of the new Mars Rover project set to launch in 2011.  He is still designing and continues to seek out various contracting opportunities.  Feel free to take a look at JMC Design Services’ website.  Hosted on HotPCB is also current copy of his resume.

If you are interested in being a Featured Designer, be sure to read the Background article and get in touch with Liam.

APPLICATIONS

Static v. Flex to Fit:

• Static; the flex circuit is installed flat between two or more stationary parts.

• Flex to fit; the flex circuit is bent or molded into position then installed between two or more stationary part.

Dynamic:

• The flex circuit is installed between one or more moving parts.

Bend radius:

• Single-sided flex 6X circuit thickness.
• Double-sided flex 10X circuit thickness.
• Multilayer flex 10-15X circuit thickness.
• Dynamic Application 20X circuit thickness.

FLEXIBLE CIRCUIT MATERIALS

Pyralux LF Military/Commercial Adhesive Based.

IPC CERTIFIED CLASS 3

FC 241/1 CLADS

FC 232/1 CS/BP

FC 232/18 ADHESIVE

Pyralux FR Commercial Adhesive Based.

IPC CERTIFIED CLASS 2

UL VTMO

FC 241/1 CLADS

FC 232/1 CS/BP

FC 232/18 ADHESIVE

Pyralux AP Military/Commercial Adhesiveless.

IPC CERTIFIED CLASS 3

FC 241/11 CLADS

FLEX CONSTRUCTIONS

Single sided

Dual access

Double sided

Multilayer

Rigid-Flex

BUILDS

Adhesive:
Adhesive systems are easy to use, but have limitations. The major drawback is hole wall cracks due to excessive Z-axis expansion. Drill size is the driving factor in whether adhesive is used or not.

No-flow prepregs:
No-flow or sometimes called low-flow pre-pregs are harder to process, but work best in flex-rigid applications. Z-axis expansion is close to that of kapton.

Bookbinding:
Bookbinding is used when a flex-rigid or multilayer flex has a section that needs to bend at a tight radius.

PLATING FINISHES

Copper plate, pattern: Used for static and flex to fit applications.
Copper plate, pads (button plate): Used for dynamic applications.
Electroless Ni-Au (ENIG): Used in coverlay openings.
Hot air level (HAL): Used in coverlay openings
Tin Immersion: Used in coverlay openings.
Silver Immersion: Used in coverlay openings.
Both Tin and Silver immersion oxidize easy, and can cause problems.

FINAL ROUT

Ziff connectors: With a tolerance of +-.002 will need laser rout at that location.
Array: If the part is going to be arrayed we need to know at the quote stage.
Edge to feature: With a tolerance of +-.005 will need laser rout.

click the picture to read more about the contact lenses

Below is a short description of what Flex Circuits are, pulled from Cirexx International’s Corporate website.

Flex Circuits are thin, lightweight, flexible, and durable. They can be designed to meet a wide range of temperature and environmental extremes. Flex Circuits are excellent for designs with fine line traces and high-density circuitry, and are more suited for dynamic applications and vibration conditions than are conventional printed wiring boards.

Flexible Circuits are built to bend, fold, twist, and wrap in extremely tight areas. Flex Circuits benefit designers faced with space restrictions. Cirexx has designed and fabricated Flex Circuits and Flex Cables with high density, lightweight, redundant circuitry for satellites and avionic instruments, advanced scientific sensors, flexible heating elements, devices and sensors, medical equipment and robotics, security devices and controls.

It is amazing how flexible circuits allow intricate and complex electronics continue to decrease in size.  As flex and rigid-flex are developed, unique applications will continue to arise.  This picture really makes you wonder how complex in the inner workings of our most common, taken for granted, electronics are.