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

The Tao of Steve

Posted on by

What will Apple look like after Steve Jobs? And will it remain as successful as it has been over the past decade?

I’ll say it now: No.

Apple won’t sustain its success because its success is unsustainable.

This is a company that has achieved market share as high as 93% for some devices, and continues to dominate in the uber-competitive consumer electronics space. This is a company that has gone from being so close to the grave that none other than rival Microsoft ponied up $500 million just to keep them alive in order to fend off anti-trust regulators (think Bill Gates regrets that decision?) to being the world’s second-most valuable company.

There clearly is something associated with Apple that Sony, Samsung, Dell, HP and legions of other companies haven’t been able to identify, let alone bottle. But even if Steve Jobs were to live to 90 (he’s 56 now, and in failing health), Apple will slide because gravity has this funny way of bringing everything back to Earth.

It doesn’t matter who takes over for Jobs or what he or she does (or doesn’t do). Apple will always be Apple, but it won’t always be the reigning king of consumer electronics.

Where Design is King

Posted on by

Just posted a profile of Automated Circuit Design, a Dallas-area electronics manufacturing services provider that I visited last week.

ACD started as a design bureau and VAR, and one of the interesting things I noticed was how it has stayed true to its designer roots: all its designers have their own offices (not cubicles), and seven of them are CID+.

Drawing ‘Boards’

Posted on by

Now’s as good a time as ever to be in school, it seems.

At the University of Illinois, scientists have created a roller ball pen that can be used to draw functioning circuit boards. The silver-inked pen can write on paper, wood and other substrates, and “allows one to construct electronic devices ‘on-the-fly,’ ” said the lead researcher, Dr. Jennifer Lewis. “This is an important step toward enabling desktop manufacturing (or personal fabrication) using very low cost, ubiquitous printing tools.”

Also, because robots apparently need to be more sensitive, Technical University Munich researchers have produced small hexagonal plates composed of circuit boards that, when joined together, form a responsive robot skin. Cool stuff. Just don’t tell the movie producers who brought you “The Terminator.”

 

What’s Ahead

Posted on by

It’s a slowdown, but not a meltdown.

That’s what Sherri Scribner from Deutsche Bank is forecasting for the second half of 2011.

In a research note today, she says their checks suggest “near-term demand is slightly softer than prior expectations, although weakness in telecom, networking, servers and storage had been well telegraphed heading into the quarter.” Optical appears “stalled” due to overinventories but second-half forecasts are strong.

Most companies have not been hurt by Japan, and even automotive is expected to “recover significantly” later this year, she writes.

My concern with all this is that for the past decade, slowdowns in EMS have been dramatic, not soft. We have lived through boom-bust cycles since 1995.

Not trying to be a pessimist here; just melding the data with the history.

PCB West is Back!

Posted on by

Registration is open for PCB West, our annual conference for printed circuit board design, fabrication and assembly.

We have more than 50 presentations at this year’s show, which takes place Sept. 27-29 at the Santa Clara, CA, Convention Center. As with last year, several sessions on the exhibition day, Sept. 28, are free.

A big shout out to the SMTA Silicon Valley chapter, which put together the assembly tracks. Some of the proceeds will benefit the chapter.

Mark your calendars — and don’t forget to register!

PCB West: Back for More!

Posted on by
Registration is open for PCB West, our annual conference for printed circuit board design, fabrication and assembly.

We have more than 50 presentations at this year’s show, which takes place Sept. 27-29 at the Santa Clara, CA, Convention Center. As with last year, several sessions on the exhibition day, Sept. 28, are free.

A big shout out to the SMTA Silicon Valley chapter, which put together the assembly tracks.

Mark your calendars — and don’t forget to register!

Trading Places

Posted on by
I’ve spent a good part of my life watching electronic data transfer formats come and go and at the end of the day, Gerber, warts and all, has remained the one to beat. So I’m not prepared to rise up and shout to the heavens that IPC-2581, the latest iteration in 40 years’ worth of attempts at an “industry” standard, is at long last the answer.

But there are enough notable differences in the process this time around to make it newsworthy. First and foremost, there are real, live CAD tool vendors not just showing up at the meetings, but actively participating (!).

Going back to my IPC-D-350 days, Digital Equipment and the late, great Harry Parkinson were instrumental in trying to revive interest, and they had support from several smaller software folks like Dino Ditta at Router Solutions and Steve Klare at Intercept. But they never managed to break through, and a big part of the problem was the CAD vendors’ collective refusal to offer IPC-D-350 as an output (or input). The response always was, “We’ll do it if our customers ask us.” But what they were really saying was, “We don’t want to make it easy for our customers to migrate their designs to a competitor’s tools.”

In the meantime, AT&T offered up RS-274X (aka extended Gerber), which UCamco continues to support, and Valor developed ODB++, and while it is more of a machine language than a format for electronic design data, it was accepted by fabricators desperate for something, anything more intelligent than Gerber.

A new task group is attempting to update IPC-2581, recognizing that design needs will at some point “break” Gerber. Many of the players are new to the game, and a lot of the old rivalries appear to have died off due to retirements and, well, death. That’s good, because the industry needs a better standard than Gerber. It’s not something anyone ever will make any money off of, but every day we go without it, everyone will lose some.

Pease’s Last Words

Posted on by
It’s been a rough couple of weeks for chip designers.

First, analog guru Jim Williams died of a stroke on June 9. Then fellow guru/author Bob Pease, known for his folksy “Pease Porridge” columns died in a one-car accident — possibly due to a heart attack — while leaving Williams’ funeral.

Given the disaster in Japan and the loss of these two legends (not to mention reliability guru Werner Engelmaier), 2011 is shaping up as a sad year.