Columnists

Dis-integrated circuits

Joe Fjelstad — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 22:19:00 +0000

The IC is moving smartly ahead into its second half century of employment.

Venus/Mars revisited

Jennifer Read — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 22:01:00 +0000

CBA has written before about this, and we’ll say it again: the electronics manufacturing services (EMS) industry is populated by some of the hardest working, most underappreciated professionals in the global business community.

BGA optical joint inspection criteria

Bob Willis — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 00:53:00 +0000

Visual examination of ball grid array (BGA) solder joints is best achieved using an enderscope system, available from a number of suppliers world wide.

Rising labor costs in China - Some observations for medical device manufacturers

Jennifer Read — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 21:12:00 +0000

Widely reported rising labor costs in China (CBA warned clients of this back in 2009) should finally be enough to convince C-Suite executives that are just now jumping on the bandwagon and thinking of moving electronics manufacturing to so-called low labor cost regions to think again.

Thermal management, part 2

Joe Fjelstad — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 21:10:00 +0000

Last month opened this discussion of thermal management, providing background as to the importance of thermal management predicated on transistor density increase, and the rise in on-chip frequencies that are combining to increase thermal energy densities on the IC.

Enhancing the solder joint reliability of ceramic components for harsh conditions

Werner Engelmaier — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 20:54:00 +0000

Last month I wrote about inappropriately severe testing requirements and the consequences on the solder joint reliability of ceramic components.

Blind via hole failures—first level FA

Bob Willis — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 21:25:00 +0000

While the use of blind vias has become fairly common in electronics manufacturing today, inspection of via holes during fabrication is still problematic. We take a look at a simple and easy way of assessing blind vias that makes failure analysis easier to perform and produces less controversy.

Thermal management, part 1

Joe Fjelstad — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 00:39:00 +0000

As chip features shrink, transistor density increases, on-chip frequencies rise, and so also do the thermal energy densities on the IC.

Solder joint accelerated test reliability requirements—a bad example

Werner Engelmaier — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 00:23:00 +0000

Specifying solder joint reliability requirements requires understanding of solder creep-fatigue behavior.

MIDs in our midst: A look at molded interconnection devices

Joe Fjelstad — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 23:58:00 +0000

Molded interconnection devices (MIDs) are a useful and interesting subset of the family of electronic interconnections.