The SMTA is pleased to announce four symposia to be featured at SMTA International: the Evolving Technologies Summit, AIMS Harsh Environments Symposium, Contract Manufacturing Symposium, and Lead-Free Soldering Technology Symposium.

New research from Bloomberg New Energy Finance reveals that despite many platitudes and pledges, governments of the world are spending substantially more on subsidizing dirty forms of energy than on renewables and biofuels.

The Republic of Korea ship Sejong the Great, supported by the U.S. Navy and Lockheed Martin, successfully completed a three-week series of trials for the ship's combat system.

Despite many platitudes and pledges, governments of the world are spending substantially more on subsidizing dirty forms of energy than on renewables and biofuels, according to a new research from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

"Our goal is ensure customers have the tools needed to easily conduct business every day," said Dan Bisaillon, Chief Information Officer at America II Electronics. "Whether they need immediate access to our inventory of three billion parts or they need to submit an RFQ, we want to be certain we're providing the tools to support our customers' business."

During the quarter, Motorola generated positive operating cash flow of $242 million, reduced long-term debt through a $500 million tender offer and ended the quarter with a total cash position of $8.3 billion.

Northrop Grumman Corporation reported that second quarter 2010 earnings from continuing operations increased to $711 million, or $2.34 per diluted share, from $368 million, or $1.13 per diluted share, in the second quarter of 2009.

Winland Electronics will host a conference call and webcast to discuss its second quarter fiscal 2010 results on Thursday, August 12, 2010.

Teledyne Technologies today reported second quarter 2010 sales of $442.5 million, compared with sales of $441.1 million for the same period of 2009. Net income for the second quarter of 2010 was $28.6 million ($0.78 per diluted share), compared with net income of $25.2 million ($0.69 per diluted share) for the second quarter of 2009.

"By expanding our presence in Europe, Labtech is a welcome addition to our portfolio of businesses," said Russell Shaller, VP and GM of Teledyne MEC. "Coupled with our Teledyne Cougar microwave component business in the U.S., Labtech's component business augments our already strong position in the field of custom, high-performance microwave components."

"By expanding our presence in Europe, Labtech is a welcome addition to our portfolio of businesses," said Russell Shaller, VP and GM of Teledyne MEC. "Coupled with our Teledyne Cougar microwave component business in the U.S., Labtech's component business augments our already strong position in the field of custom, high-performance microwave components."

Siemens is selling its SIPLACE placement equipment business to ASM Pacific Technology Ltd., Hong Kong, a move which is expected to take effect by early 2011. With the acquisition, ASM adds the SIPLACE placement technology brand to its portfolio and strengthens its global presence, particularly in Europe.

Lou De Rose asks: With so many notions of value, how do we avoid the danger of oversimplifying its attributes, even its reality? How do we reduce the risk of acting on the assumption that decisions will have desired outcomes, when in fact they're invitations to disaster?

This paper outlines the process associated with soldering stacked packages using dip flux and dip solder pastes specifically designed to overcome the incidence of package warp. Based on the process issues involved, inspection results are presented to better illustrate the challenges in implementing PoP into production.

Solder-free and 3-D assembly will help bridge the performance and density gaps needed to extend Moore's Law, as lithography on silicon runs out of steam. It will offer America the chance to restore her electronic manufacturing mojo and provide for her security. Please, America, don't miss this chance to leap-frog the rest of the world!

"Our business environment remains healthy. Despite what appears to be an uncertain macro-environment, our orders and forecast continue to improve and we are forecasting sequential growth in the upcoming quarter across all the markets we serve," said Mike McNamara, CEO.

According to Mark Thompson, timing can make or break your controlled impedance board. With many jobs going through turnkey environments, late communication about impedance issues takes valuable time out of the fabrication process and can delay delivery of product, leaving the end-user and the turnkey assembler unhappy.

President and CEO, Jouni Hartikainen, said, "The second quarter of 2010 clearly proved that we have been able to restore customer confidence through the actions executed earlier this year to strengthen the balance sheet. Revenues increased by 51% from the previous quarter due to increased volumes from existing customers and the new customer programs started this year."

Computational tools that render digitally processed images in pseudo-color can enable inspectors to recognize soldering defects, such as lifted leads and cold solder, in SMT mounting processes. With enhanced images, comparative evaluations to determine cases of defects or no defects are easily accomplished.

W. Barry Gilbert, Chairman of the Board and CEO, said, "This was an especially good quarter. Operating profit of over 8.5% of sales is unique in our industry. Sales growth of more than 50% and operating profit growth of more than 70%, as compared to the third quarter of fiscal 2009, were especially gratifying.

We all know the buzz words: impedance, 50 ohms, 10%, balanced lines, CTE, dielectric constant and loss, and countless more. In this new series, PCB 101, I will break down some of these buzz words in layman's terms in the hopes that more people will understand what's happening inside the circuit.

If you're on software maintenance, you're really paying for your software vendor to be your team partner, 24/7/365. But if your support call gets lost in a black hole, you're left wondering, "What's the point of paying maintenance anyway?" Let me walk you through maintenance, from a product manager's point of view.

Lou De Rose asks: With so many notions of value, how do we avoid the danger of oversimplifying its attributes, even its reality? How do we reduce the risk of acting on the assumption that decisions will have desired outcomes, when in fact they're invitations to disaster?

Solder-free and 3-D assembly will help bridge the performance and density gaps needed to extend Moore's Law, as lithography on silicon runs out of steam. It will offer America the chance to restore her electronic manufacturing mojo and provide for her security. Please, America, don't miss this chance to leap-frog the rest of the world!

I recently converted a pair of 75-year-old headphones into some absolutely mega-cool retro iPod headphones. I'll show you how you can create these amazing headphones yourself, at very little cost, and be the envy of everyone you meet. Or at least you'll be the envy of anyone interested in old electronics, and who isn't?

These images of SMT defects and attributes were compiled by consultant Tom Clifford. Section 8 includes images of BGA PCW-related defects, including stand-offs, non-wetting, dead shorts, bridging and more.

According to Mark Thompson, timing can make or break your controlled impedance board. With many jobs going through turnkey environments, late communication about impedance issues takes valuable time out of the fabrication process and can delay delivery of product, leaving the end-user and the turnkey assembler unhappy.

With proper planning, stiffeners can be designed to aid assembly through the designed manufacture of a flex circuit that can be handled as if it were a rigid circuit board. Such constructions can be accomplished by using any one of several methods.

Engineers can now work concurrently--on the same database--entering schematics and constraints. As they are working, they can even see edits from other project engineers in real-time, set protection barriers, reduce wasted communication efforts and coordinate efforts to maximize productivity.

Editor Joe Fjelstad talks with Calvin Mackenzie of LPMS and Doug Downie of Bostik about a new low-pressure molding process. The new process allows resins to be extruded at approximately 70 psi to encapsulate fragile PCBs and flexible circuits.

We all know the buzz words: impedance, 50 ohms, 10%, balanced lines, CTE, dielectric constant and loss, and countless more. In this new series, PCB 101, I will break down some of these buzz words in layman's terms in the hopes that more people will understand what's happening inside the circuit.

If you're on software maintenance, you're really paying for your software vendor to be your team partner, 24/7/365. But if your support call gets lost in a black hole, you're left wondering, "What's the point of paying maintenance anyway?" Let me walk you through maintenance, from a product manager's point of view.

Lou De Rose asks: With so many notions of value, how do we avoid the danger of oversimplifying its attributes, even its reality? How do we reduce the risk of acting on the assumption that decisions will have desired outcomes, when in fact they're invitations to disaster?

Solder-free and 3-D assembly will help bridge the performance and density gaps needed to extend Moore's Law, as lithography on silicon runs out of steam. It will offer America the chance to restore her electronic manufacturing mojo and provide for her security. Please, America, don't miss this chance to leap-frog the rest of the world!

I recently converted a pair of 75-year-old headphones into some absolutely mega-cool retro iPod headphones. I'll show you how you can create these amazing headphones yourself, at very little cost, and be the envy of everyone you meet. Or at least you'll be the envy of anyone interested in old electronics, and who isn't?

According to Mark Thompson, timing can make or break your controlled impedance board. With many jobs going through turnkey environments, late communication about impedance issues takes valuable time out of the fabrication process and can delay delivery of product, leaving the end-user and the turnkey assembler unhappy.

With proper planning, stiffeners can be designed to aid assembly through the designed manufacture of a flex circuit that can be handled as if it were a rigid circuit board. Such constructions can be accomplished by using any one of several methods.

Many Internet sources provide education and training in our respective fields. You just have to know where to look. It's not quite like attending a live training event, but you can improve your skill set through the Internet, and you can often do so free of charge.

Polar Instruments CEO Martyn Gaudion will be exploring a number of themes. A major SI topic that is set to grow is the emergence of new silicon families designed to push traditional materials into the multi-gigahertz arena. These new chipsets lift transmission speeds up to a point where signal losses rather than reflections become the predominant concern from an SI perspective.

Corner cracks are observed less often than barrel cracks, but with high-rel boards, we can't be too careful. Unlike barrel cracks, which can fail catastrophically, knee cracks tend to propagate over time. The damaged pad actually resembles a funnel and the warp and weft of the glass give the funnel an uneven, puckered shape.