BANNOCKBURN, IL – The first draft of a proposed standard covering protection of IP designed into PCBs will be released next month during Apex.
The Intellectual Property Committee will release the draft during its scheduled meeting on April 6.
Members from all segments of electronics manufacturing are invited to attend to review the draft standard and provide input.
The draft, Best Industry Practices for Intellectual Property Protection, is intended to assist printed board manufacturers in the protection of IP for their customers in commercial, industrial and military/high reliability markets.
Developed as a high-level roadmap to best industry practices for printed board manufacturers, the draft IP standard addresses issues such physical and information security, employee data access, computer networks, destruction of scrap material, and more.
Also, under direction from Congress, the Department of Defense’s new executive agent for PCBs will develop a trusted source program for PCB manufacturers supplying the DoD. Similarly, many leading OEMs in the commercial sector are auditing their supply chain to ensure protection of their IP, says IPC, under whose auspices the standard is being written.
HAVERHILL, MA – DKN Research has developed a process for screen-printing resistors and capacitors using fine silver thick-film circuits on flexible substrates.
The new technique mimics traditional etched circuits, the inventors say, and is made possible through an advanced screen-printing process using special silver, carbon and dielectric inks and related materials that include substrates and insulating materials as the fundamental technology for printable electronics.
Technical advances with ink materials and printing equipment over the past few years have trickled down, and the wiring capabilities from the new thick-film circuits are closer to traditional etched copper circuits, says DKN.
The firm developed the advanced screen-printing technology, and can build functional thick-film circuits by partnering with equipment and material manufacturers.
The process reportedly can produce silver traces down to 30 µm lines and spaces for double and multilayer circuits with 80 µm via holes.
The conductivity of the new silver traces is one order higher compared to traditional thick-film circuits, the firm says. The traces also are solderable.