Automating inspection in secondary assembly operations.

One of the first lessons in quality management is the difference between quality assurance and quality control. Quality assurance focuses on eliminating defect opportunities before they occur, while quality control focuses on inspection strategies that eliminate defects before they escape the factory. There is universal agreement that quality assurance is more cost effective than quality control. Lean manufacturing principles are based on a quality assurance focus. That said, use of automated inspection equipment has been growing dramatically in recent years because increasing density and complexity in printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs) is driving the need for a blended quality assurance/quality control approach that includes mass inspection.

Over the past 18 months, SigmaTron International's facility in Tijuana, Mexico, has been exploring the best way to automate inspection and integrate the captured data into real-time corrective action throughout its entire PCBA assembly process. A July 2022 PCD&F/CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY column, "An Industry 4.0 Approach to Employing 3-D AOI on an SMT Line," discussed the journey of integrating Industry 4.0 capabilities in a Lean Six Sigma framework in this facility's SMT area. Once that phase was completed, implementation of 3-D AOI capability began in secondary assembly work cells. Typical secondary assembly operations include soldering cables and components such as switches which can't be reflowed, adding rubber caps and placing QR labels.

Lessons learned from dealing with “the most important guys in the room.”

“Move fast and break things.” – Attributed to Mark Zuckerberg

This morning, on my inbound commute, I stopped at a red light. I stopped just in time to see an expensive-looking SUV turn, oblivious to oncoming traffic, into my lane from the crossroad. It accelerated rapidly in the same direction I was traveling. Really rapidly. Propelled like a medical emergency. An impending birth, perhaps? This anxious vehicle exuded affluence. It was coming from the venture capital side of the Bay. Perhaps headed east to merge and acquire. It had that private equity look to it. You know the kind. Maybe the driver was late for surgery, living out his college-age nightmare in real time. Or he forgot his online bank account password, and, in an instant of thoughtless panic, was racing to make an in-person withdrawal from an almost-shuttered Silicon Valley funding source. Not to name names. Whatever the impetus, they drive with. Because they can. Nobody ever told them “No.”

The rebalancing of high-tech power must involve the entire supply chain – and will increase prices for everyone.

Advanced technology is an important instrument of power on the world stage. Arguably more than at any previous time in history, it's closely linked to economic influence, energy generation and management, healthcare delivery, international diplomacy, and military strength including cyber capabilities. Access to advanced technology is the issue at the heart of the current maneuvering between western nations and China, in particular.

Concerned about the potential for Chinese control over its communication networks, the West has restricted involvement in 5G infrastructure projects. It's currently limiting shipments of advanced industrial technology. Of course, China has responded, announcing export controls on raw materials like gallium and germanium, which are basic ingredients for producing compound semiconductors: a critical enabling technology for future generations of equipment such as optical networking, 5G infrastructure, and high-efficiency power conversion needed to ensure affordable renewable energy and e-mobility.

Adaptability in all aspects is the PCB industry's greatest strength.

“Change is inevitable – except from a vending machine.” – Robert C. Gallagher

It’s an amusing quip (although perhaps increasingly incongruous given the rapid adoption of contactless payments) that lets me comment on some of the transformations we have experienced in the PCB industry over recent years. Some challenges, such as thermal management, had receded for a time but are now back and more urgent than ever. Others, like the constant demand to support faster and faster signal speeds, demand that we continue to extend the limits of performance from the materials and techniques at our disposal.

The PCB’s role has become hugely more significant and influential as electronic systems have gotten more complex, more performance hungry, and more mission critical. It has extended from providing basic mechanical support and connectivity to becoming a comprehensively engineered part of the system.

The electronics industry of today is vastly different from the way things were as recently as the 1980s. Thermal management was a great challenge, largely due to the inefficiency of circuits such as linear power converters and power amplifiers. The adoption of much more efficient switched techniques, as well as exponentially smaller chip fabrication processes, solved that challenge for a while.