APPLETON, WI – Contract manufacturer Surface Mount Technology Corp. today announced the release of its proprietary SMART Platform.
 
Scalable Modular Automated Reusable Test is said to be a means for testing low- to mid-volume PCB assemblies without high tooling costs.
 
The platform consists of a set of commercial off-the-shelf USB-based instrumentation, as well as standard software drivers. To develop a test for any assembly, a fixture is developed from a standard fixture kit that interfaces to the SMART platform through a standard set of connectors. The fixture provides probing to the unit under test and connectivity to the instruments in the platform.
 
A test program is created using software libraries that provide an efficient test development environment. The libraries have support for standard tests, user interface development, report generation, troubleshooting and fixture maintenance, and interfacing to data collection facilities for statistical process control.

HERNDON, VA – The International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative’s board has recognized Tetsuro Nishimura, president of Nihon Superior, for support of several iNEMI projects. 

iNEMI cited Nihon’s generosity in providing human resources and testing capabilities, as well as financial support, to several of its Pb-free projects.

Specifically, the firm supported the Pb-free wave soldering, Pb-free rework optimization, Pb-free alloy alternatives, Pb-free early failures, and solder paste deposition projects.

Nihon Superior supplies Pb-free soldering materials.

WASHINGTON – Dozens of public interest groups have signed a petition urging President Obama to make more transparent the negotiations on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, continuing this week in Korea.
 
That the agreement is being negotiated privately has been a common complaint, and the petition indicates many observers do not feel the steps the Obama administration has taken to provide more information on the agreement have been sufficient.
 
US officials have said the objective of the ACTA negotiations is to create a state-of-the art agreement that will help governments combat more effectively the proliferation of counterfeit and pirated goods, which undermines legitimate trade and in some cases contributes to organized crime and exposes consumers to dangerous fake products.
 
The agreement aims to build on existing international IP rights rules, in particular the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, and is intended to address enforcement issues where participants have identified an international legal framework does not exist or needs to be strengthened.
 
There has been some concern it could include measures that impose new restrictions on imports and exports of even legitimate goods, require additional documentation at entry, result in more importer audits, and give border officials greater authority to examine, seize and destroy goods thought to be infringing.
 
Trading partners taking part in the talks include Australia, Canada, the EU and its 27 member states, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Switzerland.
 
Earlier this year, USTR released a summary of the issues under negotiation, established a dedicated ACTA web page, and vowed to hold town hall meetings to engage with members of the public. More recently USTR broadened its consultations on ACTA to include domestic stakeholders representing a broad range of views and expertise on Internet and digital issues.
 
Nevertheless, the public interest group petition expressed a number of concerns regarding the conduct of the negotiations. For example, the groups found fault with USTR’s policy of “access by invitation and NDA,” which agency officials have said “fully addresses the legitimate demands for more transparency” and “is being considered as a model for the future.” Under this policy, the opportunity to see ACTA documents was offered to a large number of business interests, but only a few public interest or consumer groups, and not to academic experts or the public.
 
The petition asserted this approach “creates a small special class of citizens who have rights superior to the majority of the population” and “gives the government too much discretion in deciding who can monitor and criticize its operations.”
 
The petition also asked proposals for ACTA texts to be “shared with everyone” instead of being limited to government officials and “Washington, DC insiders.” It is “an insult to our intelligence,” the groups said, “to claim that the secrecy of the ACTA text has anything to do with national security concerns, as the term is commonly understood.”

PCD&F/CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY welcomes outside contributions. Those interested in writing a technical article or contributing product announcements or other news items of note should contact the PCEA Editorial Staff. There are specific guidelines for submitting articles to PCD&F/CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY. These guidelines are based on achieving simplicity both in communicating to our audience and in working with the editors.

Submission Requirements

Most of the editorial content in PCD&F/CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY is in the form of technical articles. Every article must address or conform to the following items:

• Explain how the new technology helps an assembler do their job better.
• Explain – specifically – how it works, and the impacts (again, specifically) on the assembly process.
• Contain hard data. (This is not to be confused with generalities and potentials and possibilities). Further, any data should be current, not rehashed statistics. Data should be presented in a visually stimulating form (graphs and models, not just tables and formulas). Data should be comparative to a current process or a competitive method.
• Draw conclusions and state them prominently; don't just let the reader draw their own conclusions.

  Articles should be submitted electronically via email.

  Articles must contain complete contact and author information, author biographies, and reference information, and should adhere to the general format requirements. Reference materials should be noted in a separate section and provide the following:

• Source.
• Author.
• Page numbers.
• Date.
• Place (if presented at a conference).

Complete artwork information including captions and figure references must also be provided.

Finally, authors must document any relationship they or their employers have to equipment, materials or patented processes named in the article.

Electronic Transfer

Electronic transfer is mandatory. Articles transferred by email should be sent to PCEA at pcea@pcea.net. Text files should be in Microsoft Word format.

Copyrights

PCEA retains the copyright for all published material unless otherwise agreed upon by the author and a designated representative of PCEA. If your article is originally published in PCD&F/CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY, reprinting it elsewhere is permissible. However, the following credit line must be published with the article:

"This article was originally published in the (month/year) issue of PCD&F/CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY and is reprinted with permission."

See the Author’s Agreement for more information. Contact PCD&F/CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY for a copy.

Deadlines

The deadline for editorial falls approximately six week prior to the printing of the issue. For example, the deadline for the July issue is May 15.

Competition for publication is fierce. While CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY generally follows a first-in, first out publication process, we do on occasion assign deadlines. If you cannot meet the deadline for your article or any of the accompanying artwork, contact the editors promptly. Failure to notify the editors may result in your article getting rescheduled.

Editorial Calendar

Detailed information for each month's editorial emphasis is included in the Editorial Calendar. 

Article Length

In general, articles should be as long as necessary to fully explain the author’s thesis, study or commentary. That said, the length of the article should depend on the breadth and depth of the topic. Every technical article should detail the methodology and results, including specific equipment, materials and software used.

Articles should be between 1800 and 3500 words. Articles that are extremely long – more than 5000 words – may be serialized in successive issues.

Graphic Requirements

Digital illustrations and photographs are preferred. They must be originals, high resolution (300 dpi or higher) and in Photoshop EPS, TIF, or JPEG format. Email these as individual files with the article submission. Preprinted material is not acceptable.

All figures referenced in the article should be clearly marked on the artwork (e.g., Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.)

PCD&F/CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY does not generally return photo prints or other hard copy artwork, unless prearranged with the editor.

Suggestions

Outline:

Composing a brief outline before writing the article will help to organize your thoughts. It will also help keep the flow of information smooth and organized.

Use Short Sentences: Cramming too much information into one sentence is a common mistake. Use two or more sentences, if needed, for clarity.

Sidebar: Background information needed to fully explain your article may take the form of a "sidebar." This is a supplement to your article and might contain definitions, addresses, or a lengthy explanation.

Introduction: An abstract of the article is not required.

Avoid Cliches: Nothing can sap reader interest faster than these exhausted, overworked phrases. (You know what they are – you’ve heard them before!)

Skip the Commercial: Readers and editors will see through veiled product pitches. Save time; omit the endorsement.

Keep It Simple: A technical article should not be used as a showcase for an extensive vocabulary. Don't use four or five words when you can use one. Don't use large words when simple ones will do the job.

There are many other suggestions concerning grammar, spelling, structure, and so on that could be offered here, but then what are editors for? Your local library or bookstore offers many reference sources. One of our favorites is The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White. It is informative, funny, inexpensive and it will help you compose a better article.

JASPER, IN -- Kimball International reported net sales of $274.7 million and net income of $1.8 million for the period ended Sept. 30.

COLLEGE PARK, MD –The United States Air Force has named DfR Solutions to its Small Business Innovation Research program to study Physics of Failure-based reliability predictions of Pb-free solder.

BANNOCKBURN, IL -- An IPC committee yesterday took to task a California’s agency's proposal to regulate chemistries used in electronics manufacturing and other applications.

MYSLOWICE, POLAND -- EMS company PartnerTech will invest 6 million euros ($9 million) to open a production unit for enclosures and system integration here, the company said.

BANNOCKBURN, IL – A new PCB roadmap outlines the needs for US military contractors over the next few years.

The roadmap is intended to facilitate better communication between the PCB industry, OEMs designing and manufacturing military hardware, the US Department of Defense and the military electronics supply chain. It was developed with input from top military OEMs under the auspices of an IPC task force.

The task force, composed of North American manufacturers, developed the roadmap to assist the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division in identifying technologies, designs and materials that will be required to meet future DoD and OEM needs. Crane has been appointed by the DoD as its PCB Executive Agent.

The IPC Printed Board Defense Roadmap will be released a Dec. 9-10 IPC meeting in Washington, DC.

For more information, visit www.ipc.org/defense-roadmap.

MINNEAPOLIS – EMS provider Nortech Systems Inc. today reported third-quarter net sales of $18.7 million, down 41% year-over-year.

SAN JOSE – Sanmina-SCI today reported a fourth-quarter loss of $32.3 million, compared to a loss of $473.9 million in the same period in 2008.

OWEGO, NY – More than 75 attendees from 29 member companies descended upon Universal Instruments’ Advanced Process Lab last week for its annual Advanced Research in Electronics Assembly consortium.

Topics during the Oct. 28-29 event ranged from Pb-free solder microstructure and reliability to environmental stress screening procedures.

The opening session reviewed systematic results of thermal cycling of Pb-free soldered assemblies and discussed network analysis of this and previous thermal cycling data. Other topics included pad cratering research and new thermal interface materials, reliability testing of various TIMs, as well as a discussion on insights into Pb-free metallurgy. Also examined was the evolution of Pb-free solder microstructure.

The event included updates on edge and corner bonding and efforts to define a practical, safe screening test for the identification of inferior electrolytic nickel; i.e., NiAu coatings that may give “missing balls” or brittle failure of the intermetallic bond subsequent to reflow.

Other topics included flux dipping of flip chips, reballing, ENEPIG coatings, and an overview of all past consortium reports and how to effectively use them for reference.