Author Archives: Mike

About Mike

Mike Buetow is president of the Printed Circuit Engineering Association (pcea.net). He previously was editor-in-chief of Circuits Assembly magazine, the leading publication for electronics manufacturing, and PCD&F, the leading publication for printed circuit design and fabrication. He spent 21 years as vice president and editorial director of UP Media Group, for which he oversaw all editorial and production aspects. He has more than 30 years' experience in the electronics industry, including six years at IPC, an electronics trade association, at which he was a technical projects manager and communications director. He has also held editorial positions at SMT Magazine, community newspapers and in book publishing. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois. Follow Mike on Twitter: @mikebuetow

IPC Apex Expo Programs Highlight Technology and Innovation

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Ed.: This is a guest blog from IPC.

No matter where you are in the global electronics supply chain, you’ve probably heard the phrase, “I need it now.” In this fast-moving, ever-evolving industry, we hear that a lot.

What drives what happens now? A critical combination of the latest technology and knowledge, which is what you’ll find at IPC Apex Expo 2015.

Starting with the opening keynote with Robbie Bach, former president of entertainment and devices at Microsoft and Xbox visionary, you’ll learn about the triumph of a strategic process that brought together a disparate group of talented individuals who applied entrepreneurship to build a successful consumer business within the larger Microsoft structure.

On the show floor, you’ll see and compare equipment from more than 440 of industry’s top suppliers, discover new processes to gain greater efficiency and uncover news solutions that will help improve your bottom line.

In keeping with the event’s theme, “Upgrade Your Tech-NOW-ledgy” the technical conference will feature approximately 100 technical papers detailing original research and innovations from industry experts around the world.

For best practices in design, lead-free technologies, materials, process improvement, solder joint reliability, PCB fabrication and materials, quality and reliability, the more than 30 professional development courses will go beyond theory to provide practical solutions you can implement now.

With so many outstanding courses and technical papers to choose from, and the world’s elite subject matter experts to interact with, your best registration option is the All-Access Package. This package will save you a significant amount off a la carte options, but more importantly provide the maximum learning experience for your investment.

The All-Access Package includes the technical conference, conference proceedings, standards development committee meetings, a choice of up to five half-days of professional development courses, event essentials, luncheons, design forum, and if you’re a senior-level executive – PCB supply chain leadership or EMS management council meetings.

If you want to upgrade your tech-NOW-ledgy, IPC Apex Expo 2015 is the place to be. For more information or to register, visit www.ipcapexexpo.org.

 

 

The December Issue of PCD&F/CA

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Our December issue hits the digital streets today and features a cover story from Terry Munson at Foresite, who performed a comparison of analytical techniques using 25 conformal-coated no-clean assemblies after environmental testing for 40°C/90%RH for 168 hr. Terry found FTIR, SEM/EDS and ion chromatography need an assist when determining the true source of contamination.

Another major feature reviews system design methodology for complex PCB designs.

Other highlights include discussion of pad-to-via clearance’s effects on solder joint strength, minimizing bottom termination component voiding, printer tooling, controlling solder paste slump and how to deal with an unhappy OEM.

As always in December, we look back at our industry friends and colleagues who passed away this year.

Finally, is free CAD a good thing? That’s the question I ask in my editorial this month.

Actual and Potential Use of Drones in Precision Agriculture

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Ed.: This is a guest blog by Alex Danovich of San Francisco Circuits.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) or more commonly referred by mass media as drones are gaining popularity and often discussed for many new approaches to old applications. In the last couple years drones are rapidly gaining attention not only due to the traditional military applications but also civilian uses. This transition brings the drone industry closer into new commercial applications that literally pop up every day.

There are many directions of potential use but according to this economic report provided by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) in 2013 more than 80% of civilian drone applications will be connected with precision agriculture (PA), creating many new jobs and billions in market value.

San Francisco Circuits took a look at the growing precision agriculture industry with a supplier and expert in this field, Michal Ruš of e-Dron. “We believe that a low-cost drone can be effective tool for precision agriculture. Our Skyhunter fixed wing configuration (under 2000 EUR) is able to map an area of 150 hectares in less than 30 minutes.”

A few hours after the drone’s flight and scan, an accurate orthophoto map and 3D surface model with RGB and NDVI imagery is created. Such models/images can be exported directly into farm management programs and variable rate prescription maps.

By providing a service-based operation instead of drone ownership, e-DRON believes it is able to remove the burden of operation, maintenance and certification of such drones by farmers. Farmers rely on timely and accurate data to make better decisions. They are focused on their crops and if drones are not bulletproof or easy to maneuver for anyone without proper training, it makes sense to leave its operation to service providers.

Skyhunter fixed wing with RGB and NIR camera dual configuration

e-DRON is currently building such a bulletproof drone with the help of some consultation on custom PCB fabrication and PCB assembly from San Francisco Circuits.

Drone hardware and software. But what is the drone made of? The difference between a drone and a model aircraft/copter is the flight controller with autonomous features. In this case, the heart of the Skyhunter model consists of a Pixhawk autopilot developed jointly by the PX4 open hardware project and 3D Robotics.

The autopilot contains a six-layer PCB with isolated power nets for the main and safety processor. It’s a 1.6mm FR-4 board with 0402 standard components, minimum pitch of 0.2mm and 0.15mm spacing. Copper thickness and stackup are standard with 0.35um copper. The challenge in autopilot electronics is not the base technology, but to ensure highest quality throughout the complete production process from PCB manufacturing to assembly.

Pixhawk – advanced 32bit autopilot by 3D Robotics

The payload itself consists of 2 consumer grade point-and-shoot cameras; one is the original RGB camera and the second is converted to NIR (near infrared).

The processing chain to obtain orthophoto/3D imaging of a desired piece of land has a pretty simple workflow. The mission starts with a drawing a polygon around the desired area in Mission Planner software. Once the mission is complete, the images are transferred to a powerful PC to process the remaining steps.

Depending on customer requirements, ground control points (GCPs) are measured with RTK GNSS (2cm accuracy) before the mission start. These points are then manually assigned together with images from the cameras on the software to produce an accurate geo-referenced orthophoto and 3D model. The NIR-produced orthophoto is then the most useful product for the farmers to spot the crop health immediately. Although more advanced sensors exist that would outrun the performance and accuracy of such a converted NIR camera, this is the lowest cost solution.

Applications in precision agriculture. Drone use in PA is all about saving inputs to farmers. Whether it’s an indication to use fewer pesticides, fertilizers or water for irrigation, PA will make billions of cost savings and greener food products.

The drones are good at monitoring crops for a very low relative price. When compared with satellites or manned planes/helicopters, low cost drones are cheaper and can be deployed every day, even in a cloudy day. The farmers have no other cost effective way to scout their large fields than by drones. Other than the RS detection of the crop health, drones are already able to effectively manage fields by crop dusting with variable rate technology.

Future of drones in PA. Multi-sensor drones with more advanced micro-sensors (like hyperspectral, thermal, LiDAR, etc.) and smart zonal auto-classification analytics are in development.

Swarm operations (multiple drones) with continuous remote sensing (day passive sensors and night active sensors) for larger fields and applications are all viable for scaling.

Powering the drones using solar energy with hydrogen fuel cell technology (unlimited endurance, 24/7 operation), making instant real-time cloud processing of acquired data streamed via high-bandwidth telemetry (no need for many SSD/HDDs onboard of multi-sensor drones) is also a very real application. Drones may eventually be programmed to automatically take actions of the whole lifecycle – from RS detection to immediate application of inputs. Harvest or seeding may be the next drone activity.

The future is in the sky!

Peter Biocca, RIP

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Peter Biocca, the longtime face of Kester Solder in the southern US and Mexico, passed away Monday from cancer.

I knew Peter for more than 15 years, dating back to his time with Multicore, when he was one of the regulars at the J-STD-004 and J-STD-005 meetings. Besides contributing to the standards, Peter could always be counted on to prepare papers at all the various technical conferences, participate in road shows, and fill whatever role was needed whenever anyone asked. More than that, he was simply a super nice guy, with nothing but good things to say about other people.

I knew Peter was really ill when he starting missing conferences over the past year. I filled in for him with his old friend Ray Chartrand on a session on alloy selection at SMTAI in 2013.  It didn’t occur to me at the time that I wouldn’t see him again. Knowing that now makes me very sad.

Condolences may be sent to Peter’s wife, Sandy, at:

Sandy Biocca
203 Fairfax Drive
Allen, TX 76013

RIP, Peter.

Wilk the Winner

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Congratulations to Edward Wilk of Facts Engineering, who won the incentive prize for filling out a recent survey of PCB West 2014 technical conference attendees.

Edward, a $50 AMEX gift card is headed your way. Thanks for your support, and thanks to everyone who took the time to respond!

Optimal at Optimum

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As corporate models go, Optimum Design Associates isn’t unique. Several firms have launched as design shops only to add EMS capability as they matured.

But one thing ODA does that I really like is provide a much greater level of detail about its financials on its website.  See below:

Financial Disclosure

Financials through 12/31/2013

Ownership Private
Annual Revenue $19 million
Credit Access $5 million
Loan Balance $133,000
Principal Payments $3,700
Access to additional financing Yes
Executive changes last 90 days No
Ownership changes last 90 days No
Return on Assets (last quarter) 3.6%
Current Ratio 2.2
Quick Ratio 1.21
Capitalization 23%
Cashflow 5.45
Debt to Equity Ratio .003

 

For a privately held company, that level of public disclosure is unusual. For a small business, it’s unheard of. Certainly any OEM worth its salt would ask for verification of financial stability prior to engaging, but having that data on hand upfront makes determining whether ODA is the right fit a little easier for potential customers (which could also be a time-saver for ODA), and moreover offers a high degree of confidence that ODA will be above board.

Perhaps that’s willingness to break the mold is why ODA is again on the Inc. list of the fastest-growing companies. (It also made the 2007 and 2008 rankings.)

Congratulations to Nick and the gang at ODA.

The HP Split

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Those wondering how the HP split might shake out should read this piece in Bloomberg today. In summary, HP’s PC group just lost some of its pricing advantage, as the servers and other business-oriented gear are going with the new Hewlett-Packard Enterprise company. HP is currently Intel’s largest customer, but that will change as the two primary hardware lines are separated. (HP’s server gurus have been working on a competitive line using Applied Micro chipsets, so that ranking might eventually have been in jeopardy either way.)

On the other hand, given HP’s deservedly stodgy reputation in tablets and handheld PCs — despite, or perhaps because of, its acquisition of Palm in 2010 — the shakeup could enable the new HP Inc. to focus on trendier designs for the mobile market.

What’s not clear is whether each group will retain a certain number of chip designers. This is an area of strength for Apple, and HP Inc. will need to ensure it has the internal talent to advance in the hypercompetitive PC space.

Red Makes Green

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The arrival of India’s Mars Orbiter is an achievement on many levels. Much will be made of the fact that it is the first Asian satellite to reach the red planet’s orbit. That they accomplished it on their first try will open some eyes to India’s hardware capability as well, given than the success rate for the rest of the world is just 40%.

What I’d like to focus on is the price: India spent a reported $74 million on the Mars Orbiter Mission. That’s barely 10% of what NASA spent on the Maven mission.

Coincidentally, the F-22 Raptor saw action for the first time this week. But the fighter has been under fire for years for what critics call a bloated price tag and unmet performance objectives. The DoD has spent $67 billion for 188 planes, and no more will be produced.

Wall Street Journal

Should the US government wake up and realize that a huge price tag does not necessarily translate into performance, what will be the impact on the electronics supply chain, especially in the US where so much of it relies on military spending?

The End of the Viasystems Era

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At long last, the hunter became the hunted.

TTM Technologies today announced its pending acquisition of Viasystems. The deal, expected to close in early 2015, will vault TTM to second place among the world’s largest PCB fabricators.

No matter how the deal turns out for TTM, Viasystems will remain one of the most talked about PCB companies in the industry’s history, held in awe for its audacity and blamed on multiple continents for nearly single-handedly devastating local supply chains.

For the entirety of its 18 years, Viasystems was worth 10 times its revenue in industry controversy and chatter. It sprung on the scene in fall 1996, the brainchild of New York investment firm Hicks, Muse, which in quick order bought up AT&T’s board shop in Virginia, Circo Craft, Kalex, Forward Group, ISL, Mommers and Zinocelere, plus several EMS and peripheral businesses. They were the Yankees of the PCB world, albeit without the same level of success.

Then came the Tech Recession of 2001, and Viasystems’ debt ballooned to over $1 billion. Two Chapter 11 restructurings and countless lawsuits later, the company stabilized and managed to spend the better part of the rest of the decade simply managing the business.

In 2010 the veil was lifted. Viasystems resumed its buying ways, snatching up Merix and then, two years later acquiring DDi (which in turn had gobbled up Coretec). Yet consolidation didn’t bring happiness. Over the years Viasystems found it nearly impossible to turn a consistent profit. Debt, a persistent problem dating to its Hicks, Muse days, now sits at $561 million.

TTM is getting Viasystems for $16.46 per share, or about 6.8 times adjusted EBITDA. You tell me if that’s worth it.

I would expect TTM will sell off Viasystems’ wire harness business, which is small ($174.6 million in 2013) relative to the rest of the business and has shown operating losses in five of the past seven quarters. Viasystems has already consolidated its China manufacturing base, so I would not expect much change there. TTM is running at 75% capacity in China but only 60% in North America. TTM has seven sites in North America and Viasystems has nine, including a combined three in the Silicon Valley and two in Orange County. Perhaps they will seek to consolidate here in order to boost rates.

Viasystems changed the way the world viewed the industry. It forced Wall Street to take notice. It laid waste to the regional landscape, ultimately closing millions of sq. ft. of some of the once-best shops in the world. Some will say this was inevitable. Viasystems bought plants that were obsolete or quickly headed that way, whose workforces could not change even while the technology was quickly shifting away from them. And the firm tied up enormous amounts of capital in dubious debt deals that may have enriched a few but certainly did not leave their business units with the balance sheets necessary to operate in such a cyclical market.

There’s still time for the deal to fall through, and it took about 18 seconds before shareholder lawsuits began piling up. No matter what happens on the ground, come next spring, Viasystems will again occupy the rarest air of the PCB world. It just won’t be as Viasystems.

Who Needs 2 Newspapers?

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Juxtapositions can funny, even when the subject is serious.

From DigiTimes today:

Foxconn considering lawsuit over leukemia report

“Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) is considering taking legal action against UK-based Daily Mail for its recent report claiming Foxconn employees working in Shenzhen plants have developed leukemia.”

Foxconn promises assistance for ill workers in response to leukemia report

“Foxconn Electronics’ (Hon Hai Precision Industry) plants in Shenzhen, China reportedly have seen many of their workers develop leukemia because of long-term operations in the presence of electronic cleaners.”