"Outstanding operational performance and increased customer demand across most key market sectors propelled LaBarge’s sales and earnings to record levels in the company’s fiscal 2010 fourth quarter and full year," said Craig LaBarge, CEO and President.

I've been busier than a one-armed paper-hanger lately, and I wanted to give you all an update: Great books, cool electronic projects and more Grammar 4 Engineers. Can you think of a better way to lead into Labor Day? I certainly can't! Then again, I am an engineer ... regardless, read on!

CST is hosting a series of technical Webinars focusing on the benefits that full-wave simulation brings to high-frequency/high-speed design. The events will focus on challenging applications and how advances in numerical techniques and computing technology have enabled fast turnaround and reduced prototyping costs.

Ryder Industries Ltd., a Swiss-owned group of companies headquartered in Hong Kong with production facilities in China, expands its activities in Europe: The company established a sales office in Waldkraiburg (65 kilometres southeast of Munich).

"Many of our customers are asking for full turnkey solutions," said Anish Somaiya, COO. "They see the value in being able to deal with one vendor that can provide design services, manufacturing and assembly. The turnkey process gives them fewer vendors, shorter lead times and overall lower costs."

Maffei, a known champion in small business advocacy, applauded IEC for its on-going expansion creating jobs for hundreds of people in New York's 25th District. "Congratulations to the IEC Electronics team for performing so well during such challenging economic times...and being one of the top employers in Wayne County," he said.

Traditionally, we've understood that a good, quiet power delivery system is one with lots of bypass capacitors. And it was easy to extend the understanding to the concept that more (bypass capacitors) is better. But there is another, better way to look at this whole issue. The concept of an "ideal" PDS impedance curve can be useful to keep in mind.

IPC has just released the B revision of IPC-7351, Generic Requirements for Surface Mount Design and Land Pattern Standard. IPC-7351B gives designers and board makers updated information on the diverse requirements of land pattern geometries for active and passive components designed for surface mounting.

Andrew Goodwin, President of NorthBridge, said, "By working closely with OCM Manufacturing we can offer a true one-stop shopping experience for customers who wish to bring their ideas for electronics products to life without the overhead of hiring design engineers or bringing manufacturing assets in-house."

The deadline for DesignCon 2011 abstracts is this Friday, August 13, 2010. DesignCon is soliciting proposals for two types of sessions: technical papers and tutorials. DesignCon 2011 takes place January 31 - February 3, 2011 at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

"Outstanding operational performance and increased customer demand across most key market sectors propelled LaBarge’s sales and earnings to record levels in the company’s fiscal 2010 fourth quarter and full year," said Craig LaBarge, CEO and President.

Today's video equpment operates at gigabit rates, necessitating the use of large coaxial BNC connectors. Non-optimized BNC footrpints can cause impedance mismatches, reflections and signal loss. In this paper, Tsun-kit Chin of National Semiconductor discusses some common issues with BNC footprints, such as problems with the connector-to-board transition, and offers techniques for transparent footprint designs.

I've been busier than a one-armed paper-hanger lately, and I wanted to give you all an update: Great books, cool electronic projects and more Grammar 4 Engineers. Can you think of a better way to lead into Labor Day? I certainly can't! Then again, I am an engineer ... regardless, read on!

Is North America falling behind the rest of the world in HDI technology development? Not if Dan Smith can help it. "The New Mr. HDI" is putting together the first IPC HDI certification course and exam. We caught up with him and discussed the HDI course, what it takes to be an instructor and Happy Holden's 400-gig "data dump."

Interconnect separation is usually expressed as a crack that propagates at the internal interconnection. This failure mode produces a crack that is wedge-shaped, with the large end on the side of the foil closest to the middle of the PWB. An interconnect failure frequently develops slowly over time, accumulating damage at a constant rate after onset.

Andrew Goodwin, President of NorthBridge, said, "By working closely with OCM Manufacturing we can offer a true one-stop shopping experience for customers who wish to bring their ideas for electronics products to life without the overhead of hiring design engineers or bringing manufacturing assets in-house."

This paper examines the thermal properties of various halogen-free laminates used in handheld electronic products and correlates these properties with manufacturing requirements. Thermal properties investigated include z-axis CTE, time to delamination at 260°C and 288°C and temperature to decomposition.

Chairman Tony Abri, said, "Although we have a limited design capability, this new partnership will enable us to offer a much broader service--giving customers the satisfaction of knowing their products will be designed for manufacture, prototyped and, ultimately, built in production all managed through one channel."

Werner Engelmaier, noted author and expert in all things reliability, discusses reliability issues related to lead-free and RoHS. He notes three failure modes he's seeing more of: Pad cratering, trace lifting/buckling and "eyebrow" cracking. Adjusting board cooling rates can help tackle such issues, but, sometimes, that's not enough.

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.

Today's video equpment operates at gigabit rates, necessitating the use of large coaxial BNC connectors. Non-optimized BNC footrpints can cause impedance mismatches, reflections and signal loss. In this paper, Tsun-kit Chin of National Semiconductor discusses some common issues with BNC footprints, such as problems with the connector-to-board transition, and offers techniques for transparent footprint designs.

I've been busier than a one-armed paper-hanger lately, and I wanted to give you all an update: Great books, cool electronic projects and more Grammar 4 Engineers. Can you think of a better way to lead into Labor Day? I certainly can't! Then again, I am an engineer ... regardless, read on!

Is North America falling behind the rest of the world in HDI technology development? Not if Dan Smith can help it. "The New Mr. HDI" is putting together the first IPC HDI certification course and exam. We caught up with him and discussed the HDI course, what it takes to be an instructor and Happy Holden's 400-gig "data dump."

Interconnect separation is usually expressed as a crack that propagates at the internal interconnection. This failure mode produces a crack that is wedge-shaped, with the large end on the side of the foil closest to the middle of the PWB. An interconnect failure frequently develops slowly over time, accumulating damage at a constant rate after onset.

In Part III of a series, we'll take a look at loop or mounted inductance. Loop inductance is important, for instance, when we need a reasonably accurate estimate for the Series Resonance Frequency (SRF), or for the anti-resonance peaking between two different-valued capacitors or between the capacitor's inductance and the static capacitance of the power/ground planes it connects to.

Traditionally, we've understood that a good, quiet power delivery system is one with lots of bypass capacitors. And it was easy to extend the understanding to the concept that more (bypass capacitors) is better. But there is another, better way to look at this whole issue. The concept of an "ideal" PDS impedance curve can be useful to keep in mind.

The characteristic impedance of a microstrip line is a complex function of frequency. Impedance changes are usually measured with time TDR, but does the observed impedance value depend upon rise time? What impedance value is actually visible in TDR of a line segment? Yuriy Shlepnev investigates in this app note.

This paper examines the thermal properties of various halogen-free laminates used in handheld electronic products and correlates these properties with manufacturing requirements. Thermal properties investigated include z-axis CTE, time to delamination at 260°C and 288°C and temperature to decomposition.

Werner Engelmaier, noted author and expert in all things reliability, discusses reliability issues related to lead-free and RoHS. He notes three failure modes he's seeing more of: Pad cratering, trace lifting/buckling and "eyebrow" cracking. Adjusting board cooling rates can help tackle such issues, but, sometimes, that's not enough.

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.

I've been busier than a one-armed paper-hanger lately, and I wanted to give you all an update: Great books, cool electronic projects and more Grammar 4 Engineers. Can you think of a better way to lead into Labor Day? I certainly can't! Then again, I am an engineer ... regardless, read on!

Is North America falling behind the rest of the world in HDI technology development? Not if Dan Smith can help it. "The New Mr. HDI" is putting together the first IPC HDI certification course and exam. We caught up with him and discussed the HDI course, what it takes to be an instructor and Happy Holden's 400-gig "data dump."

Interconnect separation is usually expressed as a crack that propagates at the internal interconnection. This failure mode produces a crack that is wedge-shaped, with the large end on the side of the foil closest to the middle of the PWB. An interconnect failure frequently develops slowly over time, accumulating damage at a constant rate after onset.

In Part III of a series, we'll take a look at loop or mounted inductance. Loop inductance is important, for instance, when we need a reasonably accurate estimate for the Series Resonance Frequency (SRF), or for the anti-resonance peaking between two different-valued capacitors or between the capacitor's inductance and the static capacitance of the power/ground planes it connects to.

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.

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?

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.

No one likes to take tests, but passing the CID certification exam just might help you differentiate yourself the next time you're searching for employment. Here are some firsthand certification study tips from CID instructor Kate Mayer, a veteran PCB designer and consultant.