2015 Magazine Archives

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HOLE RELIABILITY
Conductive Inks vs. Nonconductive Inks for Via Fill
Just 15 years ago, filling a via was considered a specialty process limited to a small group of product applications and almost exclusively to one material: conductive ink. Today, many nonconductive inks are superior in performance, and much less expensive, than their conductive cousins.
by Roy Akber

PB-FREE ASSEMBLY
Hybrid Assembly Qualification and Process Control
The key to any hybrid assembly process is the original verification or process control of the thermal profile for the production build, and ongoing checks to verify the thermal profile is within the temperature controls set by the BoM review. Second, a robust product result qualification must be established to ensure the quality output is equal to or better than existing product, and product destructive analysis is conducted to ensure sphere collapse and lead intermixing is present.
by Scott Mazur

JABIL CIRCUIT
For Jabil, Blue Sky is Ahead
While other EMS companies duke it out for a larger piece of the electronics outsourcing pie, Jabil has mapped an ambitious strategy to win over nontraditional customers like Hyatt and Disney. A trip through the new Blue Sky Center shows why some 300 of its finest engineers have relocated from its 101 locations around the world to San Jose, where the full breadth of Jabil’s formidable array of products and services are on display.
by Mike Buetow

RETROSPECTIVE
In Memoriam
A look back at friends and colleagues who left us in 2015.
by Mike Buetow

FIRST PERSON

• CAVEAT LECTOR
  At Productronica, rise of the machines?
  Mike Buetow

MONEY MATTERS

• ROI
  Sharpen your profitability plan.
  Peter Bigelow
  

• FOCUS ON BUSINESS
  Sizing up the strategic vs. tactical model conundrum.
  Susan Mucha

TECH TALK

• SCREEN PRINTING
  Isolating tolerance issues through use of printer software tools.
  Clive Ashmore
• TECH TIPS
  Paste viscosity, and its effect on solder performance.
  Tim O’Neill and Karl Seelig
• GETTING LEAN
  Lean test strategies.
  Michael Ford
• DEFECTS DATABASE
  Black tar and board burns.
  Dr. Chris Hunt

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