Hon Hai, better known as Foxconn, has been the largest EMS/ODM company in the world since 2005, when it catapulted Flextronics to gain the top spot. To be sure, Foxconn’s revenues then and now are enhanced by ample non-electronics manufacturing segments, but the depth and breadth of the company is by any measure staggering. In calendar 2019, it reached roughly $150 billion, a mark that is all the more impressive when you consider it doesn’t include sales from some of its largest subsidiaries, such as Innolux, Sharp, and its connector and cable units. Its quarterly revenue alone would make it the largest EMS/ODM in the world. And its annual output not only eclipses all its customers’ electronics sales, sans Apple, but also the next four largest competitors combined.

In pursuit of the almighty dollar, Foxconn is the almightiest. Nothing seems out of its reach. Its founder and erstwhile chairman ran for president of Taiwan. It also dabbled in American politics, putting a massive (if mostly empty) facility smack dab in the soy and corn fields of the district of the then-US House Speaker.

Never one to rest on its success, Foxconn is pushing further upstream into the semiconductor market. Having already snared Albit, three years ago it took a shot at the Toshiba memory business. And as we go to press, Foxconn is making a play for Silterra, the Malaysian maker of ICs, MEMs and sensors.

Hon Hai is on high. In mythical terms, toppling Foxconn would be like defeating Voldemort and Sauron. And then for good measure, maybe kicking the butt of that creepy emperor from Star Wars. Any company would be foolish to take that on, right?

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For 01005 parts, some apertures are better than others.

Continuous reduction in component size has been at the forefront of electronics product innovation, assembly process development and the industry conversation for years. Readers will no doubt recall the papers presented, tools developed, and processes modified to accommodate the “coming soon” metric 03015 and 0201 components. That preparation is essential. In my opinion, however, it is more likely than not that widespread use of these ultra-small chips is far in the future; it will come, but probably not in the next generation.

Another reality presents, perhaps, a more immediate challenge: increasing component density beyond current norms. Realistically, for next-generation mobile phones and wearables, the primary consumers of the most miniaturized components, board designs will continue to incorporate the 01005 chip (metric 0402). There are a gracious plenty of reasons for this, not the least of which are cost and component availability. The challenge for product designers is how to get the most function from chips that may be larger than they would prefer. What’s the solution? Squeeze the 01005s closer together, of course!

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Sales pitches from Chinese board shops should come with arthritis medication.

Dramatis PersonaE (in order of appearance):

1. Saleswomen from Chinese printed circuit board fabricators, all with curiously westernized first names.
2. Marketing types trying to sell me lists of attendees at nonexistent trade shows.
3. Serial killers.
4. Clowns (sometimes indistinguishable from #3). Generally speaking, disturbing.
5. SBA-approved loans. (I have one qualified offer right now from capitaldrip.com. I’m not making this up.)
6. Webinars about I-9 forms and Covid-19 mitigation and prevention.
7. Virtual trade shows (and the people lurking behind them).
8. SAM renewal.
9. Persons wanting me to sell our business.
10. Search engine optimization (SEO) companies, which often lead to:
11. Website developers from India named Mike.

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Results of experiments on PTH parts.

Use of low-temperature solders (LTS) is growing in popularity. LTS are predominantly composed of tin and bismuth, with a small quantity of a “special blend” of other elements to suit a given manufacturer’s performance specifications. The opportunity, as the name suggests, is to create solder joints at far lower temperatures than those required for tin/silver/copper (SAC) alloys, and which are even lower than that needed for the (historic?) tin/lead eutectic solder. These LTS have a melting temperature of ~138°C. The benefits of using LTS mean no Pb is present in the joint, and lower processing temperatures can be used. Using lower temperatures means reduced energy consumption during manufacture, lower manufacturing costs and reduced greenhouse emissions. In addition, it offers the opportunity to use different, thinner and possibly cheaper PCB substrates and components compared with those used today. This obviates the “overengineering” required of today’s boards and components to mitigate warpage, which due to LTS are operating close to the glass transition temperature of the board material. It also makes it possible to rework SAC area array package joints with low-temperature alloys.

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