Press Releases
DALLAS, TX – StenTech® Inc., a leading global company specializing in SMT Printing Solutions, has completed a major technology update to their Photo Stencil Specialized Products Division in Golden, Colorado. The phase-one overhaul included upgrades to key areas, including imaging, chemical plating, metrologymetrology, and chemical coating, along with refreshed offices and board room.
"Following our growth strategy, we have invested a substantial amount of time, energy, and funds to upgrade this vital facility.” says Brent Nolan, CEO of StenTech. “Photo Stencil is the leading provider of complex electroforming precision paste, flux, ball-drop, wafer bump, and 3D stencils and screens. We offer cutting-edge products with micron-level precision and a wide range of specialized solutions, techniques, and materials not available elsewhere in North America.”
A key element of this facility upgrade is the introduction of StenTech's latest innovation in stencil coating technology – the all-new StenTech BluPrint™ CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposited) Surface Treatment. Engineered to enhance Surface Mount Technology (SMT) processes, this advanced coating offers a comprehensive set of benefits that collectively contribute to improved stencil performance, longevity, and the overall quality of the SMT assembly process, streamlining production.
In the SMT industry, precise stencils and tooling are indispensable. These components demand meticulous design and prompt delivery, leaving no room for compromise on quality, speed, or reliability. Any issues or delays can lead to substantial costs in an environment where timing is paramountparamount, and faults are expensive. StenTech's Photo Stencil Division excels in offering unmatched quality, specialized products and reliability.
“Our new brochure is now available for download and outlines the services, solutions, and exclusive coatings produced at PhotoStencil.” remarks Tony Miranda, PhotoStencil Manager.” We extend an open invitation to all interested parties to visit the facility, meet the team, and witness the high-end equipment in production.” Download brochure: https://www.stentech.com/thebuzz/17-ST-PS-2024/
AUSTIN, TX – ROCKA Solutions is proud to announce that Justin Worden, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, has been appointed as President of the Austin (Central Texas) Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA) Chapter.
Austin is home to industry giants such as Tesla, Dell, BAE Systems, Continental and Infineon, among others. As the tech movement to Austin continues surge, the SMTA Austin Chapter aims to play a pivotal role in fostering collaboration, networking and professional development within the local electronics manufacturing community. Under Worden's leadership, the Austin SMTA Chapter will serve as a valuable resource for electronics manufacturers, engineers, and industry professionals in the region.
"I am honored to accept the role of President of the Austin SMTA Chapter and am eager to work alongside a dedicated team to reinvigorate the chapter," said Worden. "With Austin's booming tech scene and the increasing demand for electronics manufacturing expertise, there is a tremendous opportunity for the SMTA to play a pivotal role in supporting and advancing the industry in this region."
With a successful career spanning multiple industries, including SaaS, FinTech, Real Estate, Electronics, and Manufacturing, Worden has a track record of driving profitability and growth. His expertise in business development, scalable sales strategies, and revenue generation will be instrumental in guiding the Austin SMTA Chapter towards achieving its goals and objectives.
As the VP of Membership for the Central Texas Electronics Association (CTEA), Worden has already demonstrated his commitment to making a positive impact within the electronics industry. His passion for fostering collaboration and driving innovation aligns perfectly with the mission of the SMTA, and his leadership will undoubtedly inspire others to contribute to the chapter's success.
HALFMOON, NY – PVA, a global supplier of automated dispensing and coating equipment, is excited to announce its participation in productronica China 2024, one of the leading trade fairs for electronics development and production, scheduled to take place from March 20-22, 2024, at the Shanghai New International Expo Center (SNIEC). PVA will be exhibiting alongside its distributor, FOCI, in Hall E6, Booth #6746, where attendees can experience firsthand the latest advancements in conformal coating and dispensing technology.
PVA will have two demo machines at PILOTM's booth:
Delta 8 Thermal Dispensing Machine with PDP Progressive Cavity Dual Pump and SB300 Suck Back Valve: This innovative solution offers precise thermal dispensing capabilities, featuring PVA's proprietary Progressive Cavity Dual Pump (PDP) technology and SB300 Suck Back Valve for exceptional control and accuracy in dispensing applications.
Delta 8 4-Axis Conformal Coating and Dispensing Machine with FCS300-ES-UF Ultra Fine Spray Valve, FCM100 Micro Dispense Valve, and FC100-CF Film Coating Valve, along with the New PathMaster X Programming Software: This versatile system combines advanced conformal coating and dispensing capabilities with PVA's state-of-the-art PathMaster X Programming Software, offering manufacturers enhanced control, precision, and efficiency in their production processes.
Don't miss this opportunity to explore PVA's cutting-edge conformal coating and dispensing solutions at productronica China 2024. Visit Hall E6, Booth #6746, to learn more about how PVA's innovative technologies can enhance your manufacturing processes.
For more information about PVA, please contact PVA at info@pva.net or (518) 371-2684.
TOKYO – Saki Corporation, an innovator in the field of automated optical and X-ray inspection equipment, is pleased to announce that its Shanghai Solution Center now offers the complete line up of inspection solutions with the addition of its award-winning, state-of-art X-ray automated inspection system (AXI) 3Xi-M110.
Since the relocation of Saki China’s Shanghai office in August 2023, the demonstration area has undergone continual enhancements. With the addition of its 3Xi-M110 X-ray machine to the lineup of demonstration equipment that features an AXI 3Xi-M200, ideal for IGBT power module inspection, and advanced optical inspection solutions, Saki has established a Solution Center that is fully equipped to address client requests for demos and queries about its services.
The latest 3Xi-M110 is a high-speed, high-precision 3D-CT X-ray inspection system designed for today’s demanding SMT and through-hole manufacturing requirements. It boasts the industry’s fastest processing speeds and superior 3D inspection quality for the detection of the full spectrum of solder defects on PCBs. Offering full in-line capability, self-diagnostics and unparalleled ease of maintenance, Saki’s latest 3D CT-AXI provides all the key functionality essential for quality X-ray inspection including serviceability and ease of maintenance.
The 3Xi-M110 model inherits the high-definition image inspection quality of its predecessor, while optimizing the entire image capture process from hardware control to image calculation algorithms to achieve the industry’s fastest cycle time. It is the ideal solution for smart factories that require in-line X-ray inspection for total inspection of PCBs mounted with electronic components.
“We invite customers to visit us in Shanghai to experience the industry's finest automatic X-ray inspection system, which combines high inspection quality and speed performance while maintaining operator-friendly operation, high maintainability, and ease of maintenance,” said Mr. Yi Zhang (Andy), who oversees sales at Saki China.
To request a demonstration of Saki's complete total inspection line solutions, please call the Saki Shanghai office on +86-21-6282-2266 or visit the Saki website at www.sakicorp.com/contact/
CAMBRIDGE, UK – Advanced semiconductor packaging technologies like 2.5D and 3D hybrid bonding, along with emerging solutions like silicon photonics, are critical in optimizing system performance and fostering the next wave of AI and HPC chip innovation.
The "Advanced Semiconductor Packaging 2024-2034: Forecasts, Technologies, Applications" report recently published by IDTechEx explores the evolving landscape of semiconductor packaging, with a focus on 2.5D and 3D hybrid bonding packaging. It covers technology trends, industry challenges, and the advancements made by key players while forecasting market trends in the semiconductor packaging sector.
Large Language Models (LLM) challenges:
The emergence of large language models (LLMs) marks a milestone in AI, revolutionizing natural language processing (NLP) and related fields. Models like OpenAI's GPT series demonstrate high accuracy in understanding, generating, and translating human language. While they find diverse applications, they also present challenges.
LLMs have seen exponential growth in the model size, from 340 million parameters in BERT-L in 2019 to 1.76 trillion parameters in the upcoming GPT-4. This expansion results in high computational complexity, with GPT-4 requiring over 1010 petaFLOPS. Compared to other neural networks, LLMs demand significantly more computational resources; for instance, training GPT-3 takes 3841 GPU hours versus 11 hours for a ResNet-60 (a convolutional neural network used for image classification). LLMs have low operational intensity, meaning they rely heavily on matrix-vector operations. This requires moving more data to perform the same number of arithmetic operations. Memory bandwidth is thus critical for their performance.
Ways to improve system bandwidth:
In recent years, there's been a gap between the rapid rise in processor compute density and the slower increase in memory bandwidth. This "memory wall" issue results in processors frequently waiting for data, leading to underutilization and posing a substantial challenge to future performance improvements.
NVIDIA and AMD have introduced NVLink and Infinity Fabric technology, respectively, to enhance CPU-GPU interconnectivity, which is crucial for improving bandwidth between logic components.
The incorporation of next-generation High Bandwidth Memories (HBMs), which consist of multiple vertically stacked DRAM dies connected by through-silicon vias (TSVs), into architectures offers a substantial boost in logic-to-memory bandwidth. While previously confined to GPUs, HBMs are now being integrated with CPUs, bridging the bandwidth gap between CPU and traditional DRAM. AMD's Instinct MI300 exemplifies this trend by integrating advanced HBMs with both CPU and GPU in a single package. 2.5D semiconductor packaging technologies like TSMC's Chip on Wafer on Substrate (CoWoS) play a crucial role in increasing the number of I/O (Input/Output) points while reducing interconnect length between logic and memory components, enhancing performance and reducing latency. However, emerging HPC workloads, particularly those related to AI training, demand even higher memory bandwidth (over 45x) due to frequent memory accesses. Increasing I/O speed can indeed enhance HBM's bandwidth, but it's limited due to increased power consumption.
To address this, new processor designs have focused on increasing on-chip SRAM capacity, as it's situated near the processing chips, enabling higher bandwidth with denser interconnects and lower latency. Initial implementations used 3D hybrid bonding packaging technology to bond an SRAM die over a logic die at a 9 μm pitch, tripling SRAM capacity. Further bandwidth improvements involve continuously decreasing the hybrid bonding pitch from 9 μm to 0.4 μm, leading to a substantial over 300-fold increase in bandwidth density.
Co-packaged optics is another approach that is gaining significant momentum in recent years. Optical communication offers several advantages over traditional electrical signal transmission. It boasts lower transmission loss, reducing signal degradation over distances. Furthermore, optical communication is less susceptible to crosstalk, which occurs when signals interfere with each other, leading to data errors. Additionally, optical signals can achieve higher bandwidth compared to their electrical counterparts, making them ideal for data-intensive applications.
To summarize, for the next generation AI compute system, high logic-to-logic and logic-to-memory bandwidth are crucial development trends. Advanced semiconductor packaging technologies like 2.5D and 3D hybrid bonding, alongside emerging solutions like optical communication, are pivotal for enabling this growth and overcoming computational challenges.
IDTechEx's new report, "Advanced Semiconductor Packaging 2024-2034: Forecasts, Technologies, Applications", delves into the dynamic landscape of 2.5D and 3D packaging, analyzing technology trends, industry barriers, key player’s technology roadmap, and market forecasts. Gain invaluable insights into not just AI and HPC applications but also 5G/6G, autonomous vehicles, and consumer electronics sectors, understanding how advanced packaging shapes their trajectory. With unbiased analysis and detailed market evaluations, this report provides a comprehensive understanding of the industry's future, making it essential reading for stakeholders navigating the evolving semiconductor landscape.
DALLAS, TX ― ROCKA Solutions is excited to announce that Justin Worden, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, will present at the upcoming SMTA Dallas Expo & Tech Forum. The event is scheduled to take place Tuesday, March 19, 2024 at the Plano Event Center.
In his presentation titled "Elevating Excellence in High-Reliability Electronics: The Personal and Lasting Legacy of PCB Production," Worden will delve into the crucial role of modern equipment and processes in achieving superior quality and reliability in PCB production. The presentation explores how upgrading production lines with modern technology is essential for meeting the increasingly demanding requirements of today's advanced PCBs, particularly in industries such as aerospace, military, medical devices and automotive.
"Business is Personal" is the central theme of the presentation, emphasizing the profound impact that modernized PCB production has on ensuring safety, quality and customer satisfaction in high- reliability electronics. By embracing modernization, manufacturers can establish a legacy built on trust and excellence, driving forward the standard of excellence in electronics production.
Rodrigo Cacho, President and CEO of ROCKA Solutions commented: "Justin’s expertise and insights into the importance of modernization in PCB production will provide attendees with valuable knowledge and strategies for high-reliability electronics."
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