Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - Current

Press Releases

MORRISVILLE, NC – iNEMI, along with several industry and academic partners, is developing the 5G/6G mmWave Materials and Electrical Test Technology Roadmap (5G/6G MAESTRO) as part of NIST’s Advanced Manufacturing Technology (MfgTech) Roadmap. The goal of MAESTRO is to create a foundation of knowledge and expertise in the U.S. to support the development and manufacturing of leading edge 5G and 6G products.

Join iNEMI, Georgia Institute of Technology and Florida International University on February 9 for an introduction to the roadmap creation and a status update from Urmi Ray (iNEMI), Principal Investigator, along with highlights of progress made to date:

Identification of Next-Generation Materials and Testing Needs — a status report on dielectric properties together with suggestions about where work is needed to move into the 5G and 6G bands, presented by David Citrin (Georgia Institute of Technology).
mmWave System Design Analysis/Trends and Recommendations — key advances in system architectures and package integration that will enable future mmWave systems, presented by Raj Pulugurtha (Florida International University).

Registration

Advance registration is required (see link below). If you have any questions or need additional information about MAESTRO, please contact Urmi Ray (urmi.ray@inemi.org) Get additional workshop details.

Thursday, February 9, 2023
9:00-10:30 a.m. PST (US)
12:00-1:30 p.m. EST (US)
6:00-7:30 p.m. CST (Europe)
Register for this webinar

FARNBOROUGH, UK – Gen3, Global leader in SIR, CAF, Solderability, Ionic Contamination & process optimisation equipment, is pleased to announce that it released its new Objective Evidence website during the 2023 IPC APEX EXPO.

Objective Evidence is the new/latest requirement from J-STD-001 – Cleaning and Residue Requirements – for qualifying a manufacturing process. The purpose is to demonstrate the reliability and robustness of your circuit assemblies.

Those who work according to IPC J-STD-001 will need to qualify your manufacturing process by producing data demonstrating compliance with the standard. Previously, the ROSE test identified the pass/fail limit. This test has now been removed and is no longer a requirement for quality. OE is the replacement.

The primary objective is to mitigate the phenomenon of Electro-Chemical Migration (ECM). ECM affects all board manufacturers whether they clean or not! There are two ways to achieve Objective Evidence:

The first part is to initially demonstrate that your assembly meets the requirements of OE. J- STD-001 states to use SIR or Ion Chromatography. The second part is to demonstrate that you are meeting your OE requirements continuously i.e every day of the week or every week of the year. For this, it is recommended to use Process Ionic Contamination Testing (PICT).

Being a specialist in Quality Assurance for electronic assembly with more than 100 years of combined electronics industry experience, Gen3 is ideally placed to help clients determine the most suitable process control for their production process. The company provides Training and Consultancy Services.

For more information about Gen3, visit www.gen3systems.com. To learn more about Objective Evidence, visit www.objectiveevidence.org

OULU, FINLAND – Scanfil has decided to invest in new manufacturing technology in Sieradz, Poland. The investment includes a new electronics production line and warehousing automation. The total investment is about EUR 6 million.

In addition, Scanfil will initiate a plan to expand the existing factory with the additional manufacturing building of approximately 8,000 m2. The pre-planning of the project will be started immediately and the final decision of the new manufacturing building will be done later in 2023.

“The new electronics production line will be fitted in the existing factory building and will increase Sieradz electronics manufacturing capacity already during the third quarter of 2023”, says Petteri Jokitalo CEO of Scanfil. If the new building project will be initiated, it will increase Sieradz factory floor space close to 26,000 m2 by 2025.

The investment decision is based on existing strong customer demand and projected growth potential driven by our Industrial and Medtech customers.

“We are very excited about the expansion plans in Sieradz. New manufacturing capacity will enable us to serve our customers better than ever and realize the seen growth potential”, states Scanfil Sieradz factory’s managing director Pawel Kurowski.

Sieradz factory is a modern so-called close-to-customer market factory specializing in serving our demanding global customers. Largest customers are from Energy & Cleantech, Automation & Safety and Medtech & Life Science.

NEWMAN LAKE, WA – Hentec Industries/RPS Automation is pleased to announce that TopLine Corporation has installed their Hentec/RPS Odyssey 1750 robotic hot solder dip component lead tinning system in their Orange, California facility. The Odyssey 1750 is a MIL spec complaint high-volume, high-mix component lead tinning machine equipped with auto load/unload functionality and is capable of processing dual solder alloys. Designed to tin component leads for re-conditioning, gold removal and re-tinning applications, including high reliability and military applications including DIP, SIP, QFP, BGA, axial and radial components as well as BGA de-balling. The Odyssey 1750 complies with all applicable GEIA-STD-006, MIL-PRF-38535, MIL- PRF-38524E and ANSI-J-STD-002 standards.

HAYWARD, CA – C3Nano, Inc. (C3Nano), the performance leader in nanowire-based technologies and conductive inks, today announced the development of SuperGrid™, a novel ink which combines remarkable conductivity and flexibility with room temperature processing – an extension of C3Nano’s ActiveGrid LT (low temperature) ink series, which was announced in 2022.

C3Nano’s SuperGrid™ has electrical properties on par with traditional conductive electrodes like thin film copper and silver pastes, but is more flexible. Additionally, it can be deposited directly from solution and can be cured very quickly (in ambient temperature ~ 25 °C within seconds). As a result, SuperGrid™ can be deposited on a much broader range of substrates and through a variety of methods which are features a wide range of industries have been searching for to bring new innovative products to market.

Customers can utilize SuperGrid™ for bezels, microLED interconnects, grounding, traces around sharp/3D surfaces and EMI and RF shielding applications. Additionally, the low-temperature process gives users more design flexibility, higher throughput, and lower production costs. Compared to other low temperature processed inks, SuperGrid™ is stable at room temperature and only forms the conductive film or circuit after deposition.

“We believe SuperGrid™ is a game changer,” said Dr. Xiqiang Yang, Vice President of Research & Development at C3Nano. “For years customers have been requesting silver nanowire based conductive inks that can achieve very low resistivities while still maintaining excellent mechanical properties. With SuperGrid™ we are introducing a product that is not only less expensive but also more versatile through our low temperature curing process. Its enhanced flexibility will create unprecedented new product and market opportunities for our electronic device, biomedical, automotive, and display customers.”

C3Nano foresees large opportunities for the application of SuperGrid™, especially in advanced displays and interconnects, semiconductor packaging, electronic and RF component shielding. The growing selection of applications in emerging electronics, which require highly flexible and malleable conductive traces to be deposited on ever-shrinking and complex architectures, provide promising application scenarios. The combination of SuperGrid™ with C3Nano’s ActiveGrid™ functionality provides a total package and solution with wide substrate ranges for existing and future customers in the flexible display, touch, and other application fields.

C3Nano’s ActiveGrid™ LT innovation is part of its conductive materials platform composed of nanowires, nanomaterials, formulations, thin films, and coatings, further adding to its broad and industry-leading technology and IP portfolio. In addition to providing the highest quality and largest scale silver nanowires, and the top performing flexible, and stretchable transparent conductive inks, C3Nano now also provides the lowest temperature and fastest curing conductive inks on the market.

SuperGrid Conference Demonstrations

C3Nano will showcase SuperGrid™ and ActiveGrid™ Gen 8 throughout 2023 at key events and conferences, including:

Nanotech 2023 Japan, February 1 - 3, 2023
LOPEC 2023 Germany, February 28 - March 3, 2023
Display Week SID, Los Angeles USA, May 21 - 26, 2023

Partner Development Platform

As part of the development of SuperGrid and the launching of Ultra-Nanowires product line C3Nano is seeking customers and development partners for its novel Ultra-Nanowires technologies. C3Nano believes several unique applications including, heating, direct conductive filler inclusions into melt/extrusion plastics, conductive adhesives and composites, 3D printing, biomedical, and aerospace may all be viable and attractive applications to target.

REDDITCH, UK – Altus Group, a leading distributor of capital equipment for electronics assembly in the UK and Ireland has announced the release of its new 2023 product brochure which includes full turnkey solutions for SMT, THT and component management.

The 32-page, full-colour document highlights Altus’ products and services including the industry’s most highly-advanced technology. With a mix of tier-one suppliers and equipment, the selection of systems and solutions will help to optimise processes, improve production through turnkey solutions, increase the level of quality and cut down overall costs for electronic manufacturers.

Joe Booth, Altus CEO said: “We are really proud of the range of equipment and class-leading suppliers we can utilise to support our customers. What’s more is that we can comfortably support individual system improvements and be a trusted partner to implement full turnkey lines. This includes solutions across SMT, conventional production, post production processes, and full component management.

“Our customers want a partner that understands production from end to end, offers solutions, and highlights the considerations to reduce their risk. That is the value we aim to bring to our discussions with them and in our support for their pre-sales and post sales lifecycle with Altus.”

As well as highlighting the most innovative equipment available to the electronics sector, the brochure underlines Altus’ unrivalled customer support. Joe said: “We appreciate that the selection of a provider is not just about buying the best technology available. What is just as important is working with a partner you can trust and this is why we focus on our support offering. With a team of experts in each area of electronic production, we also have the knowledge to offer sound advice which is important for manufacturers looking for the right solutions.”

New for the 2023 brochure are automatic optical inspection products from Magic Ray Technology. Featured in the brochure is the highly capable 2D THT AOI utilises 2D technology for post wave and post selective soldering applications.

Also featured for the first time is Lazipur high-speed pin insertion machines, including the all new INSERT H2 and INSERT H1 which have been developed with several benefits including being faster, more compact, modular in designed, adaptable, intuitive and user-friendly.

The new brochure also includes our long-standing pre-eminent suppliers including Koh Young, YJ Link, Heller Industries, and Cencorp Automation to name but a few.

To download your copy of the 2023 Altus brochure visit www.altusgroup.co.uk