PCB Chat

Norman Mier is a retired veteran of the US Marine Corps with over 20 years of experience in the electronics rework and repair industry. He received his training through the Navy's Micro Miniature (2M) Electronic Repair Program. He has progressed through every level of rework and repair recognized in the industry. Norman has also earned the highest certifications awarded by IPC in electronics training, being certified as a Master Instructor in IPC A-610, IPC J-STD-001D, IPC/WHMA-A-620 and IPC 7711/7721. He has worked through BEST for several electronics industry leaders and created tailored courses for their equipment. This also includes providing training to technicians and engineers in surface mount and advanced surface mount technology. The knowledge Norm has brought to these companies has been invaluable to their process improvement efforts. His skill has also been a major factor in keeping BEST training at the forefront in the electronics-training field. Norman may be contacted at [email protected]. Video version: https://youtu.be/VpFBJtiRl1U

Concept to Creation Episode 2 Allison and Chad Budvarson are a husband and wife team that founded and operates Out of the Box Manufacturing, a Renton Washington-based contract manufacturer. They share how they founded their company, their challenges, successes, and what motivates them. They also provide sage advice for navigating both business and home life. Allison Budvarson: [email protected] Chad Budvarson: [email protected]

David Bernard, Ph.D., describes a coming presentation on x-ray inspection, including understanding how the system works, how magnification works, detectors and sensitivity, handling various solder types (hint: it's the material density that matter), and why users should "stop wasting time with things their x-ray cannot do." Bernard's three-hour webinar, Getting the Best from Your X-Ray Inspection System, takes place May 20. For information, click here: pcb2day.com/webinars.

Dr. Ron Lasky (Professor at Dartmouth College) and three of his students -- Annaka Balch, Nadia Clement, and Raaga Kannan -- talk about the papers they wrote and presented at SMTA's Pan Pacific Microelectronics Symposium in Hawaii in 2020, as well as a new paper to be presented at the same conference in 2022.

Welcome to Mike Konrad's new podcast is called “Concept to Creation - The Entrepreneurs of the Electronic Assembly Industry.” On this podcast, Mike will interview industry founders to talk about the following topics: Concept Creation Execution Growth Challenges Successes / Failures Motivating Insights The first episode features Dr. Bill Cardoso of Creative Electron. Bill earned his AA degree at the age of 13. He went on to earn his BS, MS, and Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering as well as an MBA in economics, strategic management and entrepreneurship. In 2008, he founded Creative Electron, a manufacturer of x-ray equipment. Bill discusses his journey of concept to creation including his success, failures, and challenges along the way. Future episodes will air on the first and second Tuesday of each month. The second episode (airing on May 4) features an interview with the husband and wife team behind Out of the Box Manufacturing, a contract assembler in Renton, WA. They discuss, among other things the challenges of starting a new business one month after they were married in 2008 as well as their strategies for successful growth. The third episode (airing on May 18) features a conversation with FTC Assemblies (soldering materials manufacturer) founder Mike Scimeca. The fourth episode features an interview with Kyzen’s Dr. Mike Bixenman and Tom Forsythe.

On part 2 of this series , we dive into oven profiling best practices. In part one, we looked at void mitigation and how vacuum reflow technology can help reduce or eliminate voiding. Our guests are Tim O’Neill from AIM Solder and Fred Dimock of BTU. Tim will discuss voiding mitigation from a materials standpoint while Fred will bring cover equipment and profiling strategies. Tim O'Neill is technical marketing manager for AIM Solder. Operating out of AIM’s US headquarters, Tim is responsible for developing and optimizing product and technical information, collaborating with complementary suppliers and equipment manufacturers and ensuring AIM's products exceed expectations and meet market requirements. Tim is also a technical writer and presenter for industry trade publications and events. He has coauthored several papers on PCB assembly subjects. Tim is also an IPC-A-610 Certified IPC Specialist. Fred Dimock is manager of process technology at BTU International and recently started a consulting business, FCD-Global services. Fred holds an associate degree in mechanical design from Wentworth in Boston and a bachelor's degree in ceramic engineering from the State University of New York. He has authored numerous articles on lead-free solder, process control, and the operation of continuous furnaces. His papers have been published in English, Chinese, and German. He has taught numerous SMTA solder reflow classes and participated in the 5-45 Subcommittee for the development of IPC-7801 Reflow Oven Process Control Standard. Additionally, he wrote the chapter on solder reflow for the Handbook of Electronic Assembly and A Guide to SMTA Certification by Dr. Ron Lasky and Jim Hall. He received Distinguished Speaker status at SMTA Guadalajara Mexico and is a key presenter for the SMTA Jump Start program for new engineers. Timothy O'Neill is the Technical Marketing Manager for AIM Solder. Operating out of AIM’s U.S. Headquarters, Tim is responsible for developing and optimizing product and technical information, collaborating with complimentary suppliers and equipment manufacturers and ensuring AIM's products exceed expectations and meet market requirements. Tim is also a technical writer and presenter for industry trade publications and events. He has co-authored several papers on PCB assembly subjects. Tim is also an IPC-A-610 Certified IPC Specialist. Fred Dimock is the Manager of Process Technology at BTU International and recently started a consulting business, FCD-Global services. Fred holds an Associate Degree in Mechanical Design from Wentworth in Boston and a Bachelors Degree in Ceramic Engineering from the State University of New York. Fred has authored numerous articles on lead free solder, process control, and the operation of continuous furnaces. His papers have been published in English, Chinese, and German. He has taught numerous SMTA solder reflow classes and participated in the 5-45 Subcommittee for the development of IPC-7801 Reflow Oven Process Control Standard. Additionally, he wrote the chapter on solder reflow for the Handbook of Electronic Assembly and A Guide to SMTA Certification by Dr Lasky and Jim Hall. He received Distinguished Speaker status at SMTA Guadalajara Mexico and is a key presenter for the SMTA Jump Start program for new engineers. Tim O’Neill may be contacted here: [email protected] Fred Dimock may be contacted here: [email protected]

On this episode, we’ll have a conversation with two industry experts on the subject of solder voiding mitigation and oven profiling, two subjects which influence solder voiding. This will be a two part episode. Here, we dive into void mitigation and how vacuum reflow technology can help reduce or eliminate voiding. Part two (episode 65) will discuss profiling best practices. Our guests are Tim O’Neill from AIM Solder and Fred Dimock of BTU. Tim will discuss voiding mitigation from a materials standpoint while Fred will bring cover equipment and profiling strategies. Tim O'Neill is technical marketing manager for AIM Solder. Operating out of AIM’s US headquarters, Tim is responsible for developing and optimizing product and technical information, collaborating with complementary suppliers and equipment manufacturers and ensuring AIM's products exceed expectations and meet market requirements. Tim is also a technical writer and presenter for industry trade publications and events. He has coauthored several papers on PCB assembly subjects. Tim is also an IPC-A-610 Certified IPC Specialist. Fred Dimock is manager of process technology at BTU International and recently started a consulting business, FCD-Global services. Fred holds an associate degree in mechanical design from Wentworth in Boston and a bachelor's degree in ceramic engineering from the State University of New York. He has authored numerous articles on lead-free solder, process control, and the operation of continuous furnaces. His papers have been published in English, Chinese, and German. He has taught numerous SMTA solder reflow classes and participated in the 5-45 Subcommittee for the development of IPC-7801 Reflow Oven Process Control Standard. Additionally, he wrote the chapter on solder reflow for the Handbook of Electronic Assembly and A Guide to SMTA Certification by Dr. Ron Lasky and Jim Hall. He received Distinguished Speaker status at SMTA Guadalajara Mexico and is a key presenter for the SMTA Jump Start program for new engineers.

Design engineers are paying close attention to materials. It’s not just about the routing anymore. Keshav Amla and Tarun Amla are founder and CEO and cofounder and CTO, respectively, of Avishtech, a San Jose, CA-based developer of simulation and design software, specifically stack-up and 2D field solvers. They discuss how their signature software enables better board design and how it came to be endorsed by Lee Ritchey, one of the leading experts in signal integrity and PCB design.

Dock Brown brings his more than 30 years of electronics reliability experience to clients of Ansys. Prior to joining Ansys, he spent 20 years at Medtronic where he most recently concentrated on cross business unit implementation of reliability initiatives for Class III medical devices. He was also responsible for supplier assessment and approval, on-going supplier audits, failure analysis, corrective actions, MRB, sampling, and ultimately full accountability for quality and reliability of commercial off-the-shelf and custom parts and assemblies from a worldwide supplier base. Earlier in his career, Mr. Brown also spent time at Sundstrand Data Control where he led the implementation of Boeing’s Advanced Quality System program and with Olin Aerospace. As a volunteer, he has been involved with ASQ, IEEE, IPC, and SMTA. He was the keynote speaker at the SMTA Cleaning Conference and won the best paper award at the SMTA Microelectronics Conference. He has taught on the subjects of design for reliability, tin whiskers, statistics, design of experiments, and contributed to standards development. Today’s episode is a little different than others. Dock will be sharing a very interesting presentation on the subject of reliability. If you’re listening to the audio-only version of this episode, you may want to view the video version so you can see Dock’s slide-deck. The video version of this episode, and several others are available on the Reliability Matters YouTube channel.

By now, most of us have heard of Industry 4.0, or the Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT), or Smart Factory, or Factory of the Future. The key all of these acronyms is Connectivity, Data Management, Material and Process Control, Traceability, and Analytics. It’s not as simple as collecting data. The data much be understood, useful, and contextual. François Monette, is cofounder and chief business development Officer at Cogiscan, a company specializing in Track Trace Control products for the electronics industry. François cofounded Cogiscan in 1999 with two other partners in Canada. François earned his mechanical engineering degree from McGill University in Montreal. François started his career at IBM, and worked at contract manufacturers, C-Mac and Solectron, before joining Universal Instruments.

A little over two years ago DuPont opened its Silicon Valley Technology Center. It is also finishing work on a major investment at its laminates manufacturing plant in Circleville, OH. Andy Kannurpatti, global business leader - Films & Laminates, Interconnect Solutions of DuPont Electronics & Imaging, explains how DuPont is helping the domestic industry grow.

This year’s APEX Expo is a virtual event. Matt Kelly and Mike Konrad discuss IPC's new technical conference focus and review a small sample of the upcoming technical presentations and professional development courses.

Tara Dunn and Mike Konrad discuss the world of flex and rigid-flex circuits including flex best practices when it comes to design and use of flex technology. They also discuss the new world of additive electronics. Tara Dunn is a seasoned professional with more than 20 years in the electronics industry exclusively focused on the PCB sector. Her experience spans roles from manufacturing to sales and marketing. Tara was the founder of Omni PCB, a technical manufacturers representative for the printed circuit board industry which specializes in quickturn projects, PCB design, high-density interconnects, and RF/microwave PCBs. Tara is also the vice president of marketing and business development for Averatek which develops and licenses advanced manufacturing processes – and the key chemistries that enable them – for a variety of electronic products, including: • very high-density printed circuit boards • semiconductor packaging • RF and millimeter-wave passive components She was also a founder of Geek-a-Palooza. They get into that and so much more.

AJ Incorvaia is executive vice president of Siemens EDA, more familiarly known as Mentor. He joined Mentor in 2013 after more than 25 years in software engineering at OEMs and other major EDA vendors. He discusses the mainstream (desktop) PCB CAD market, its shift to internal sales channels, its upsides, and limitations with PCB Chat host Mike Buetow.

Solder voiding has been with us longer than we know. Modern x-ray inspection technology has allowed assemblers to see and quantify voiding. Metallurgical expert Dave Hillman from Collins Aerospace explains the causes and possible remedies for solder voiding. Dave Hillman is a metallurgical engineer in the Advanced Operations Engineering Department of Collins Aerospace in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He serves as a consultant to manufacturing on material and processing problems. He served as a subject matter expert for the Lead-free Manhattan Project in 2009. He has published numerous technical papers and was presented with the 2008 SMTA International Conference on Soldering & Reliability “Best of Conference” award and was the recipient of the SMTA “Member of Technical Distinction” Award. Dave was awarded the Da Vinci medal as a Rockwell Engineer of the Year. He serves as the Chairman of the IPC JSTD-002 Solderability committee. He’s also a member of the SMTA where he serves on the SMTA Journal and Soldering & Surface Mount Technology Journal Technical Paper Review committees. He’s a member of the American Society for Metals, the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society, and IPC. If you’re in the electronics assembly industry, you’ve probably seen Dave at numerous technical conferences, imparting wisdom with a style unique to Dave. Dave Hillman may be reached at [email protected]

Matt Wrosch is senior products specialist at EMD Performance Materials. An expert in materials science, Matt has held a range of research, engineering and business development roles in the electronics industry in 1997. He has a master’s in materials science and engineering from UC San Diego and a bachelor’s from Michigan. He joins PCB Chat host Mike Buetow to discuss transient liquid phase sintering (TLPS) materials, how they compare with solder paste, conductive adhesives and TIMs, and their applications in printed circuit fabrication and assembly.

Eric Fossum is best known for the invention of the CMOS image sensor better known as the “camera-on-a-chip” used in billions of cameras, from smart phones to web cameras to ingestible pill cameras to DSLRs. In 2017, Eric was a co-recipient of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, the world's top engineering prize (and considered by many as equivalent to the Nobel Prize) for the invention of digital imaging sensors. Eric was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame and is member of the National Academy of Engineering. He is a solid-state image sensor device physicist and engineer, and his career has included academic and government research, and entrepreneurial leadership of several startups. He is the John H. Krehbiel Sr. Professor of Emerging Technologies at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth college. Eric also serves as Associate Provost of Dartmouth College for Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer, and directs Dartmouth's PhD Innovation Programs. Eric recently co-founded another startup with his former students, Gigajot Technology, Inc.

Smart manufacturing, generally defined as the use of fully integrated, collaborative manufacturing systems that respond in real time to meet changing demands and conditions in the smart factory, in the supply network, and in customer needs, is quickly becoming reality. Is the US ready, or has it already been beaten by offshore companies? Mike Buetow considers the possibilities.

On this last episode of 2020 there are no guests, no experts, no best-practice advice. Just a short recap of 2020. We just reached more than 10,000 downloads of the podcast! A HUGE thank you to my audience and my guests for making this podcast possible! On this episode I'll announce the first few guests of the 2021 season of Reliability Matters. This is looking like a terrific season! We are now producing an audio-only format and a video format. The video format may be viewed on our new YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC43S4--AIuSqlXvxmdsA7AQ Please keep your questions and topic suggestions coming! Email me at: [email protected] Thanks everyone for making this podcast successful! Mike Konrad

Kent Balius has been at the forefront of front-end engineering for 30 years at some of the world's largest PCB fabricators. He spent the past 20 years at TTM / Viasystems, where he managed software applications and automation solutions for North America and Asia-Pacific operations. He just launched EPIC Front-End Engineering, which provides consultation, project management, software applications and development support to the PCB manufacturers, with the objectives of driving advanced automation to achieve productivity, improved quality, reduced labor costs. He speaks about how the automation of design-to-fabrication the affects Industry 4.0 implementation with PCB Chat's Mike Buetow.

Conductive anodic filament (CAF) is a form of electrochemical migration (ECM). Unlike surface-level ECM, CAF exists beneath the surface of the circuit assembly. Graham and Mike Konrad discuss the causes of CAF and methods to test for and mitigate CAF. Graham has an extensive history working in the electrical and electronic manufacturing industry. Graham was the IEC 1906 Lord Kelvin Award Winner. IEC TC91 WG2, 3 and 10 Maintenance Leader of 4 Standards. He is vice chair of the IPC 5-30 Cleaning and Coating Sub-Committee overseeing 15 IPC Standards Development Committees. He has received 14 IPC Standards Awards and is a BSI British Standards Institution (EPL501) Member. Graham is a Specialist in Insulation Resistance Testing, Ionic Contamination Control, Solderability, Conformal Coating materials and application systems, including Cleaning, Inspection and Test.

EMA Design Automation has recently added the Mentor ECAD sales staff from Trilogic EDA. Manny Marcano, president and founder of EMA, explains what this means for the PCB CAD marketplace, and how the mainstream CAD market is shaping up.

Voiding is the cause of multiple failure mechanisms. Mike Konrad speaks with solder material expert Tim O'Neill of Aim Solder, stencil manufacturer Prakash Gango of StenTech, and cleaning materials manufacturer Kalyan Nukala of Zestron about how solder voiding leads to product failures and methods to reduce voiding. The guests may be reached here: Tim O'Neill AIM Solder [email protected] www.aimsolder.com Prakash Gango StenTech [email protected] www.stentech.com Kalyan Nukala [email protected] www.zestron.com

Dr. Martin Anselm is a professor at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and is also the newly elected president of the Surface Mount Technology Association or SMTA. Martin also worked for Universal Instruments. During his 12-year career at Universal Instruments, Martin was, among other positions, a process research engineer and manager of Failure Analysis Services. Martin completed his Ph.D. in materials science and engineering through Binghamton University. His research topic involved copper-nickel-tin intermetallic formation kinetics on electroless nickel substrates. Martin also has a master's in mechanical engineering from Clarkson and a bachelor's in physics from SUNY Geneseo.

IPC-2581 is a standard format for describing and transferring printed circuit board design and assembly manufacturing data from the OEM to fab and assembly. It is an open format developed by industry consensus through the auspices of IPC, and it is vendor-neutral. IPC-2581 is being rebranded as IPC-DPMX, which stands for Digital Product Model Exchange. On this episode of PCB Chat, host Mike Buetow is joined by IPC-2581 Consortium chair Hemant Shah, DfM expert Dana Korf, Cisco technical leader of electrical engineering Terry Hoffman, and IPC manager of design standards Patrick Crawford. They discuss the latest revision to IPC-2581, which is set to be released in November.

Brad Griffin, product management group director at Cadence, returns to PCB Chat to discuss Clarity 3D Transient Solver, a new system-level simulation solution that solves EMI system design issues up to 10 times faster than legacy 3-D field solvers, and handles workloads that previously required anechoic test chambers to ensure EMC compliance.

Michael Ford and Mike Konrad talk about Digital Twin, its purpose, value, and its future. Michael Ford, senior director of emerging industry strategy at Aegis Software, has more than 30 years working within the electronics assembly manufacturing space. With a degree in electronics from the University of Wales, he started his career with Sony in the UK, creating software solutions as he acquired a broad range of manufacturing knowledge. He spent eight years working in Japan, which provided Ford the opportunity to expand his innovation and leadership on a global enterprise scale. Today, Ford is senior director of emerging industry strategy for Aegis Software. Having worked with specialized software solution providers in the industry, he is an established thought leader for Industry 4.0 and smart factories. He is also actively working on industry standards with the IPC, including his position as chair of new traceability standard, IPC-1782. Earlier this year, Ford's thought leadership on Industry 4.0 manufacturing and development of the IPC Connected Factory Exchange (CFX) was formally recognized when IPC awarded him with its President’s Award.

In this episode, Mike Konrad speaks with Mike Buetow, Editor in Chief of PCD&F/CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY, Trevor Galbraith, publisher of Global SMT and Packaging, and Philip Stoten of Scoop TV. We discuss the state of the electronics assembly industry, the effects of COVID-19 on our industry, emerging technologies, and more.

We hear a lot about the graying of the PCB industry. Charles Hutchins Award Andrew Daya has been working in the industry fulltime for about six years and has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology. He talks about his jobs to date, which include Garmin, Anaren and Bose, how design and manufacturing can and do (or don't) work together, and what winning the Hutchins Award and getting involved in SMTA has meant for his career.

Dr. Sean Clancy and Mike Konrad discuss the various types of conformal coatings designed to protect circuit assemblies from moisture and other hazards. They discuss coating best-practices and current IOT-based products that are increasing the need for protecting circuit assemblies from harsh environments. Clancy is director of coating technology at HZO, where he leads a group developing thin-film conformal coatings. Throughout his career, he has assisted hundreds of organizations with electronics manufacturing failure analysis, as well as developed functional coatings and materials for corrosion protection, charge storage, chemical sensing, light emission, and medical research. Sean holds an Adjunct Professor appointment at the University of Utah's Materials Science and Engineering Department and has previously provided consulting services in the STEAM fields (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics). Sean earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Southern California, his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of North Florida, and his Certificate in Project Management from the University of Delaware. Dr. Clancy may be reached here: [email protected]

Bill started his first company in Brazil at age 17 and sold it a few years later to move to the US to work for the Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory to do nuclear and high energy physics research. As the Department Head for Systems Engineering and after a 10-year long career at Fermilab, He moved from Chicago to southern California to start Creative Electron from his garage Bill was what could be described as an early achiever, earning his associates degree at age 13! Bill earned a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul and MS and a Ph.D. from the Illinois Institute of Technology, and an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Moriah Root is quality manager at Z-AXIS, an EMS firm in New York state. She just won a “Millennials in Manufacturing” Award from FuzeHub, the statewide Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) center for New York State, for "young professionals doing their part to strengthen New York State’s manufacturing industry." She speaks with Mike Buetow about the award, what attracted her to electronics manufacturing, and whether being a millennial shapes her perspective of the industry.

IPC’s new chief technologist Matt Kelly will help IPC’s members to engage in latest technology trends and supply chain transformation that continues to evolve across the electronics industry. He will work to define the scope of what future products and services the association should develop in the areas of standards, education and advocacy. Kelly’s primary areas of focus will be leading the following initiatives: “factory of the future” standards and technical research; industry intelligence funding; and creation and launch of an Industry CTO Council. Kelly comes to IPC following a 14-year career at IBM Corporation, holding several senior technology and engineering leadership positions within IBM Systems Division. His technical contributions include 25 patents, 80 publications, and numerous industry awards from NAM, ASM, SMTA, IPC, and IBM. Very familiar with IPC’s standards development process, Kelly has served on seven technical committees and currently serves as vice chair of the 5-21H Bottom Termination Components Task Group and co-chair of the 2-17 Connected Factory Initiative Subcommittee.

What are electronics companies doing, strategically and tactically, to adjust to today’s sourcing and manufacturing climate? Hassan Tawawalla, business unit director of the Printed Circuits Solution division at Molex, and David Palos, materials supervisor at Molex, join Mike Buetow to discuss inventory levels, double-bookings, supply chain transparency, and the need for companies to insulate themselves against shortages.

Numerous exhibitors are taking part in this new format. More than 100 technical presentations and papers will be available on-demand. Additionally, nine 3.5 hour professional development courses will be presented live!

We are all familiar with the pros and cons of importing goods from China. China supply chain expert David Alexander discusses pros and cons of doing business in China. David also discusses the lesser known opportunities of exporting US goods to China and China's appetite for western brands. David is founder and president of Baysource Global, company which provides management of offshore factories, US sales and distribution of Chinese products as well as distribution of US products in to China.

Matthew Chalkley has over 26 years of supply chain experience in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector. Chalkley has held a number of senior operational management positions within, engineering, manufacturing, materials management, procurement, and customer order fulfillment. Chalkley was the Global Program Manager for IBM’s Supply Chain Social & Environmental Management System and the Global Tactical Lead for IBM’s Center of Excellence for Product Environmental Compliance. Matthew currently chairs the Environmental Sustainable Electronics (ESE) Technical Work Group for iNEMI. Chalkley has a graduate diploma focused in environmental management from the University of Ulster.

The coronavirus may have taken hold around the globe, but you couldn't tell from the latest printed circuit board design software results. ESD Alliance spokesman Wally Rhines discusses the first quarter EDA market statistics with PCB Chat host Mike Buetow.

Benchmark Lark Technology this month opened the doors to its 122,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art factory in Phoenix. The new site is significant because it includes both a fabrication and assembly capabilities, making Benchmark a vertically integrated manufacturer and creating one of the few greenfield fab shops in the US in the past 20 years. PCB Chat speaks with Kevin Walker, product line director, RF & High Speed Circuits at Benchmark Lark, which is a unit of Benchmark Electronics. He has spent more than 30 years in the electronics manufacturing industry, including 10 with Rogers, Dynaco, the flex circuit fabricator, NEE, Micro Systems Technologies, and AVX. He explains the background and strategy behind the new plant, and gives listeners an auditory walkthrough of its features and capabilities.

On this episode of Reliability Matters, Mike Konrad joins Dr. Jennie Hwang, Phil Zarrow, Bob Willis and Ray Prasad to discuss several industry topics including the pandemic, common technical issues, training and support, and other interesting topics.

Dr. Chris Jackson is founder of Acuitas, a company dedicated to electronics reliability. He has a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of New South Wales, and a master's and Ph.D. in reliability engineering from the University of Maryland. He is an American Society of Quality Certified Reliability Engineer (CRE), and a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng) from Engineers Australia. ​ He has been senior reliability engineer for the Australian Defence Force, and director and founder of multiple research centers at the University of California Los Angeles. He has authored or coauthored multiple textbooks on reliability engineering and implemented several RAM programs across multiple industries. Chris discusses his five-part article titled "Three Ways to do Reliability Allocation." This article may be viewed here: https://accendoreliability.com/?s=3+Ways+to+do+Reliability+Allocation Additional technical works by Chris may be viewed at https://accendoreliability.com/page/2/?s=jackson

Inspectar is a startup company whose signature product is a tool for fast debugging of electronics hardware. The novel system highlights the nets on a board and captures and shares the metadata with other engineers, regardless of the native tool environment. Mihir Shah (CEO), Darryl Day (CTO) and Matt Noseworthy (CIO) talk about Inspectar’s origins and highlights of the just-released InspectAR 2.0.

Dr. Jennie Hwang's wide-ranging career encompasses international business operations, sustained leadership in worldwide manufacturing and technology services, innovative research, intellectual property management, global leadership positions, as well as corporate and university governance. Dr. Hwang has held senior executive positions with Lockheed Martin. SCM Corp., Sherwin Williams., and was the CEO of International Electronic Materials Corp. as well as co-founded entrepreneurial companies. Currently, her company provides business, technology and manufacturing solutions to the global industry. She has served as an advisor to many Fortune 500 multinational companies, as well as the US government programs. Her formal education includes Harvard Business School’s Executive Program, Columbia University Business School Corporate Governance program, and four academic degrees (Ph.D., MS, MA, BS) in engineering & sciences from Case Western Reserve University, Columbia, Kent State-Liquid Crystal Institute and Cheng-Kung University, respectively. She was the first female to earn a doctorate from Case Western Reserve University's Engineering School - Materials Science & Engineering and has served on the university's board of trustees since 1996.

To execute a business strategy, you need to figure out your talent and people piece. So says Audrey McGuckin, a global HR executive, who for more than 25 years has lived and worked across the globe in Singapore, China, Taiwan, Japan, Germany, France, Spain and the US. Audrey spent more than 20 years at Jabil, rising to vice president and chief talent officer. Today, as head CEO of Audrey McGuckin Talent Solutions, she consults with top CEOs and CHROs to solve complex business challenges through innovative talent and people solutions. Her client base includes a broad spectrum ranging from startups to Fortune 100 organizations. She discusses her approach to helping businesses attract and keep key talent with PCB Chat host Mike Buetow.

The HDP User Group is a nonprofit consortium that conducts electronics manufacturing research. Its members run the gamut of the electronics supply chain, from suppliers of raw materials to fabricators and contract manufacturers to OEMs. John Davignon, a project facilitator with HDP, explains the organization's structure and approach.

Dr. Christopher Tang is a UCLA Distinguished Professor and the holder of the Edward W. Carter Chair in Business Administration and editor of Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, the leading journal for the operations management research community. His research spans across different areas including: global supply chain management, retail operations, and social business operations. He has co-authored one book and co-edited four more, and published over 100 academic articles in research journals and management articles in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and The Guardian. He also spent a combined 13 years at HP and IBM in supply-chain management, specializing in lean and just-in-time processes. He offers his view on how the electronics supply chain might respond to the Covid-19 disruption -- and how it might not -- with PCB Chat host Mike Buetow.

With so many people out of work, Reliability Matters speaks with friend and colleague Dr. Mike Stull about entrepreneurship. Dr. Stull is a professor at California State University San Bernardino. He is the director of the Inland Empire Center for Entrepreneurship (IECE) at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB). He also serves as Chair for the Department of Management in the Jack H. Brown College of Business and Public Administration and academic director for entrepreneurship.

Keith Bryant discusses the advantages of x-ray technology, its practical uses, and common mistakes made when using x-ray technology. A fully qualified engineer, Keith has over 30 years’ experience in electronics manufacturing. He is well known and respected for presenting technical papers at many high-profile events around the world and for his many published articles and interviews. He started his career in this industry with bare printed circuit boards in the early days of high-count multilayer technology, moving through to running contract manufacturing operations. He had 10 years’ experience with advanced materials and soldering systems before working with high technology x-ray and AOI systems, again for 10 years. Then for almost three years Keith worked as a technology and business consultant, assisting many of the major industry names. From 2017 to 2019 he was global sales director of a leading x-ray manufacturer. Last year reverting to a technology and business consultancy role allowing him to pursue other interesting projects, including i4.0 and working with an advanced x-ray tube manufacturer. Keith was chairman of the SMART Group for 11 years and is now chairman of SMTA Europe, and in 2018 he was presented with the SMTA International Leadership award.

Fireboard Labs is the creator of a cloud-based smart thermometer for kitchens and the grill. A startup -- Fireboard was founded in 2015 -- the company quickly made the decision to build its circuit boards in-house. Ted Conrad, the founder of Fireboard Labs, discusses that decision and lessons learned, plus a breakdown of their signature products, with PCB Chat host Mike Buetow.

Teresa Huber is president and CEO of Intervala, an EMS company based in Pittsburgh. She has a bachelor’s in electrical engineering technology from the University of Pittsburgh, and an MBA in industrial administration from Carnegie Mellon. Prior to helping launch Intervala, she was chief executive for TMG Electronics, vice president of operations for the commercial electronics division of LaBarge/Ducommun, chief operating officer of Pinnacle Electronics, and spent 10 years with Sony Electronics in engineering, manufacturing and supply chain, including vice president of operations for Sony’s Pittsburgh Television Group. She explains Intervala's strategy and reasons for acquiring Princeton Technology Corp., its expanding target end-markets, and the M&A environment for EMS companies today.