GREAT NECK, NY – Thermaltronics USA, Inc., a manufacturer of award-winning solder robots, today announced that the Ormond, FL office and demonstration facility is now fully operational and can provide customers with complete “sample board” processing and programming for robotic soldering applications.

Ed Zamborsky, the Technical Support Manager, was confident that the evaluation and reporting process would give customers a clear understanding of the unique features and benefits of the Thermaltronics award-winning systems. Zamborsky commented, “While there were several competitive systems available on the market, yield rates could not compare to those achieved by Thermaltronics’ solder robots. The use of high- precision hardware and intelligent software ensures precision soldering and low operator training costs.”

All of Thermaltronics’ demonstration facilities allow potential customers to see the benefits of the Thermaltronics soldering robots, which include dynamic laser height control, vision, mapping, and advanced software controls.

In addition to its award-winning hand soldering product line, Thermaltronics also provides an extended range of accessories to support both production and rework applications. For more information about the range of Thermaltronics solder robots or to request a visit by one of the company’s technical support staff, e-mail info@thermaltronics.com or visit www.thermaltronics.com 

CAMBRIDGE, UK – Asked whether electronics is a 'digital technology', almost everyone would reply in the affirmative. However, while printed circuit boards (PCBs) enable digital technologies, the manufacturing processes used to produce them are still largely analog.

'Digital manufacturing' refers to any method that is directly controlled by a computer - simply using software in the design process doesn't count. Well-known examples are CNC (computer numerical control) machining, a subtractive method in which a rotational cutting tool selectively removes material, and 3D printing, an additive method that involves selective deposition of metal, plastic, or even ceramic. In both cases, direct computer control means that every part produced can have a different design and even that the design can be adjusted once manufacturing is in progress.

In contrast, conventional PCB manufacturing takes an analog approach. The desired pattern is transferred to a mask that is used for photolithography. Regions of material, typically copper laminate on a PCB, that are not coated with the patterned resist are then removed with an etchant. While this approach enables efficient high-yield production, introducing digital manufacturing methods would bring additional benefits.

Why Do We Need Digital Electronics Manufacturing?

Arguably, the main benefit of digital over analog manufacturing is that every item can be different with no additional setup time or costs. This is why inkjet printers (digital) are used at home since only a single copy is typically needed, whereas offset printing (analog) is used for mass-produced newspapers. With electronics, digital manufacturing enables rapid prototyping, accelerating the design process. It facilitates mass customization, where every circuit has a different design if desired without dramatically increasing production costs. Furthermore, high-resolution digital manufacturing methods can be used in conjunction with conventional photolithography to repair any unwanted circuit breaks.

Digital Manufacturing Methods for Electronics

Interest in digital manufacturing methods for electronics has increased rapidly over recent years. While inkjet printing is by far the best-established method of digitally depositing conductive ink, there are a variety of emerging techniques that are both digital and additive. They all offer the direct control of digital manufacturing while spanning a range of throughputs, resolutions, material viscosity, and substrate dimensionality.

Print-then-plate utilizes inkjet printing of a thin layer of silver nanoparticle conductive ink to selectively pattern the substrate. This 'seed layer' is then fully metalized by electroless plating, producing a copper circuit. This method is already used for mass production. It combines the customizability of digital manufacturing, the reduced waste of additive manufacturing, and the conductivity of copper metal (rather than printed conductive ink).

Laser induced forward transfer (LIFT) can be regarded as a hybrid of laser direct structuring (LDS) and inkjet printing. Briefly, a laser heats conductive ink coated underneath a 'transfer plate', with evaporating solvent ejecting the ink. The lack of nozzle is a major benefit since it enables viscous inks typically used for screen printing to be used. There is potential for LIFT to be used in tandem with R2R production, enabling rapid, cost-effective production of customized circuits.

Aerosol printing is a relatively established technique that is well suited to printing onto 3D surfaces. A low-viscosity ink is atomized and formed into a thin collimated jet within a gas sheath layer, enabling resolutions as fine as 10 um with a working distance of up to 5cm. It's already being used in the semiconductor packaging production process and will soon be applied to larger area conformal surfaces such as automotive glass.

Electrohydrodynamic printing (EHD) uses an electric field to 'pull' ink from a nozzle rather than relying on pressure to 'push' out the ink. Capable of traces as narrow as 1um, this technique is currently being used to repair defects in TFT backplanes. An emerging approach is to combine hundreds of individually addressable nozzles within a single MEMS (micro electromechanical system) chip promises to break the resolution/throughput trade-off for small-scale additive electronics manufacturing.

Impulse printing is an innovative technique in the early stages of development that promises high throughput printing onto 3D surfaces, such as the edges of glass backplanes or 2.5D semiconductor packaging. The approach utilizes a rapid heat pulse from a controllable array of heating elements to expel ink from a flat 'transfer surface' onto the target object. Since no nozzle is used, ink can simultaneously be expelled from across the heated 'transfer surface'.

Comprehensive Overview

The digital electronics manufacturing methods outlined are predicted to gain further traction, driven by a desire for greater customizability, shorter product development cycles, and demand for 2.5D/3D electronics. IDTechEx's report, "Manufacturing Printed Electronics 2023-2033", builds on 20 years of covering printed and flexible electronics to explore these technologies and many others, including roll-to-roll manufacturing. Drawing on information from conference attendance and primary interviews, it outlines the players, capabilities, trends, and requirements across the printed electronics manufacturing space, helping to support choices in product development and when scaling up to mass production.

To find out more, including downloadable sample pages, please visit www.IDTechEx.com/ManufacturingPE.

CLINTON, NY – Following a successful inaugural season which included six episodes and five high-profile guests from the EV industry, Indium Corporation’s EV InSIDER Live webcast series is set to launch its second season on April 13. EV InSIDER Live is co-hosted by Indium Corporation’s global head of e-Mobility and infrastructure, Brian O’Leary, and Loren McDonald, EV consultant and CEO of EVAdoption.

EV InSIDER Live is conducted in a candid and conversational format suitable for business executives, casual observers, and seasoned engineers alike. On each episode, O’Leary and McDonald are joined by a different high-profile guest from the EV industry. Season two will focus on three primary topic areas:

• Reliability and customer experience: Recent studies have shown that EVs have more defects than internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles and EV chargers are suffering from unacceptable levels of down time and poor user experience. Guests and hosts will delve into the root causes of poor EV and charging hardware reliability and explore what steps the industry needs to take to turn things around.
• Supply chain/scaling production: From chips and battery minerals for EVs to backlogs for DC fast chargers and the transformers and switchgear needed to power them—supply chain issues continue to wreak havoc with the EV and charging industries. The challenges and approaches to scaling production and minimizing parts shortages, reducing timelines, and increasing quality will be explored.
• Battery storage and new technologies: Experts will tackle the synergy of EVs with battery storage systems and the challenges of an endless influx of new electronics, technologies, and software updates into the EV ecosystem.

“The enthusiastic reception we received from season one of EV InSIDER Live demonstrated the timely need for a forum like this to examine not only the rapidly evolving EV industry, but the larger e-Mobility landscape,” said O’Leary. “Loren and I are looking forward to welcoming more EV game-changers as guests and investigating the hot button issues facing our industry together.”

Season two will kick off on April 13 at 11:30 a.m. EST with a session titled EV Fast Chargers: Can America Deploy Them Quick Enough? With dozens of new and increasingly compelling electric vehicle (EV) models with near or more than 300 miles of range coming to market, the biggest hurdle to mass adoption of EVs is a reliable and convenient charging infrastructure.

O’Leary and McDonald will be joined by John Thomas, COO of Autel, a fast-growing EV charging hardware company. He will share his views and expertise from being on the frontlines of this race to help America build out both Level 2 and DC fast-charging infrastructure. The conversation will focus on three core topic areas: the current state of the industry, the ability of charging infrastructure to meet demand, and the future of EV charging.

Click here to register for season two’s premier episode or, optionally, register for all upcoming season two episodes. All sessions will be made available for on-demand viewing afterward. EV InSIDER Live is driven by Indium Corporation.

MANASSAS, VA – ZESTRON, a leading global provider of high precision cleaning products, services, and training solutions for the electronics manufacturing industry, is pleased to announce that Senior Application Engineer, Ravi Parthasarathy, will be presenting his paper "Process Considerations for Defluxing Ultra-Fine Pitch Die on CoWs" at the SMTA High Reliability: Strategic Technology Advancement Research Forum on April 18, 2023, in Kansas City, MO, USA.

SMTA High Reliability: Strategic Technology Advancement Research Forum:

The SMTA High Reliability Forum is a highly anticipated annual event that provides a platform for leading industry experts to discuss and share their latest research findings and insights on emerging trends and challenges in the electronics manufacturing industry. This year's theme, "Advanced Packaging Technologies for High Reliability Applications," will focus on the latest advancements in packaging technologies for applications such as automotive, aerospace, and medical devices.

As a Senior Application Engineer at ZESTRON, Ravi Parthasarathy has extensive experience in the development and implementation of innovative cleaning processes for electronics manufacturing. His paper will highlight the challenges associated with defluxing ultra-fine pitch die on CoWs (Chip-on-Wire) and will provide insights into process considerations for achieving reliable and effective cleaning results.