Printed Circuit Design & Fab - October 2008 - (Page 10)

AROUND THE WORLD in BRIEF Antenna Design Tool Simulates Metamaterials. Vector Fields has developed a design tool that can simulate metamaterial structures as a way to reduce the costs and the size of antennas for wireless applications. Metamaterials can be used to tailor the effective impedance of a substrate or ground plane or to improve an antenna’s radiation pattern and efficiency. Metamaterial structures could additionally be used to integrate common filtering requirements such as band pass filters into the two-dimensional PCB structure to reduce the cost and size of a wireless product’s electronic bill of materials (BOM). Consumer Electronics Association Lobbying Tab: $480K. According to a disclosure report filed on July 21, the Consumer Electronics Association spent $480,000 in the second quarter to lobby on several issues, including electronics recycling, energy efficiency, free trade agreements and digital television conversion. In a three-month period, covering April through June, the trade group lobbied Congress, the EPA, the Department of Commerce and several other federal agencies. German Electronics Industry Sales Up. According to ZVEI, the electronics industry in Germany is expected to see a 4% growth in sales for 2008, as well as a further 2% jump in 2009. The reason for the improvement is due to the increase in turnover being twice as strong as the overall economic growth in Germany. AEA Q2 Lobbying Tab: $256K. The American Electronics Association spent $256,000 in the second quarter to lobby on tax issues, customs and tariffs and trade measures, according to a mandatory disclosure form filed July 17 The trade group also lobbied . on H-1B visas and immigration legislation, as well as funding for science, technology, engineering and math education. Other lobbying efforts covered the regulation of online advertising and the rollout of high-speed Internet connections. M-Flex to Open Malaysian Operations. MultiFineline Electronix Inc (M-Flex) is set to lease a factory in Malaysia and buy manufacturing equipment totaling about $1 million. The company plans to transfer a small portion of its medical and industrial circuit board manufacturing operations from Anaheim and Suzhou, China to the Malaysian operation. The new factory will provide continued production while a new, permanent factory in China is completed. The Malaysian factory, scheduled to open in December of this year, will employ about 125 workers. A spokesperson for M-Flex said the company did not foresee job cuts at the CA facility as a result of the new factory. New Verilog-Analog Mixed-Signal Standard Approved NAPA, CA – Accellera announced that its Board of Directors and Technical Commit- tee members approved a new version of the Verilog-Analog Mixed-Signal (AMS) standard, Verilog-AMS 2.3. The new Verilog-AMS standard unifies the VerilogAMS 2.2 specification with the IEEE Std. 1364 and the Verilog hardware description language (HDL) standard. Verilog-AMS 2.3 allows EDA software tool developers to implement EDA tools without ambiguities in the language interpretation. This version encompasses analog and mixed-signal extensions to IEEE Std. 1364 used in digital circuit design and verification. PROTOTYPiNG MADE EASY Agilent and T-Tech Collaborate on RF PCB Design and Fab Solution SANTA CLARA, CA anD NORCROSS, GA – Agilent Technologies Inc. and T-Tech Inc. will collaborate on a turnkey approach for fast RF printed circuit board (PCB) design, verification and fabrication. The collaboration combines Agilent’s Genesys RF and microwave circuit design and verification software with T-Tech’s Quick Circuit System for PCB prototyping. “Collaborating with T-Tech, Agilent can provide a complete turnkey design and fabrication flow for high-speed/high-frequency PCB designers,” said Todd Cutler, marketing and services manager of Agilent’s EEsof EDA division. “It will enable our customers to work from idea to physical prototype all within the Genesys software environment.” “By partnering with Agilent to integrate its Genesys suite of EDA tools with our high-frequency, precision PCB fabrication machines, we will give our shared customers the ability to go from desktop design to physical prototype in hours instead of weeks or months,” said John Taylor, president of T-Tech. SlOw GOiNG IPC: July PCB Shipments Up 6.9%, Orders Down 6.9% BANNOCKBURN, IL – North American industry PCB shipments in July increased 6.9% year-over-year and orders fell 6.9%, IPC said. The combined July industry book-to-bill ratio was 0.94. A ratio of more than 1.00 suggests that current demand is ahead of supply, a positive indicator for sales growth over the next two to three months. Through July, shipments were up 5.8% and bookings were up 3.6%. Sequentially, shipments were down 15% and bookings were down 17.6%. July rigid PCB shipments were up 5.3% and bookings were down 8% year-over-year, according to the association. Year to date, rigid PCB shipments were up 5.7% and bookings were up 4.4%. Sequentially, rigid PCB shipments decreased 15.9% and rigid bookings decreased 18.1%. The bookto-bill ratio for the rigid PCB industry remained at 0.94. Flexible circuit shipments for the month were up 31.8% and bookings were up 9.9% compared to 2007. Year to date, flex shipments were up 7.7% and bookings were down 6.5%. Compared to June, flex shipments were down 1.5% and bookings declined 11.8%. The flex book-to-bill ratio for July was 1.01. 10 PRINTED CIRCUIT DESIGN & FAB OCTOBER 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Printed Circuit Design & Fab - October 2008

Printed Circuit Design & Fab - October 2008 Contents Our Line Market Watch Around the World Happenings Test and Inspection ROI Tip Jar Interconnect Strategies Final Finish Forum The New Wave in High-Speed Modeling The PCB Design Library Mixed Signal Design Considerations Modeling Conductor Surface Roughness Copper Erosion: The Influence of Metallurgy on Copper Dissolution The Wave of the Future Ad Index Building a Profitable Niche Marketplace Off the Shelf BGA Bulletin

Printed Circuit Design & Fab - October 2008

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