IPC Working Group Focuses on Nuances of Conformal Coating

As products get smaller and denser, factors that used to be fairly easy to deal with can become areas of concern. Conformal coatings are getting increased interest now as usage grows and the quality of coatings comes under more scrutiny.

These coatings have typically been applied and examined using a range of related standards. For example, IPC-CC-830 addresses some basic testing of materials properties, while IPC J-STD-001 and IPC-A-610 define how a cured film should look.

A new IPC working group, 5-33awg, Conformal Coating Requirements Working Group, was formed to leverage the considerable amount of coating experience of the 5-33c IPC Conformal Coating Handbook Task Group, and focus on areas not covered by existing specifications. Among their areas of interest are the differences in the ways that an aerospace OEM might test coatings for NASA for outer space, or for the FAA’s tests on humidity condensation. Testing automotive OEM coatings in a damp heat environment is another area being examined.

5-33awg is working to develop criteria for conformal coating application and evaluation. Its goal is to come up with methods that allow a user of conformal coating to determine how conformal coating performs in particular end-use environments.

Learn more about conformal coatings market and  IPC Standards that provide informed perspective and relevant analysis of emergent technologies.

 

 

IPC Working Group Focuses on Nuances of Conformal Coating

Magnetic Field Sensors Market Analysis

ELECTRONICS.CA PUBLICATIONS announces the availability of a new report entitled “Magnetic Field Sensors Market by Type, Technology, Applications and Geography – Forecasts & Analysis to 2013 – 2020″. The market size of the magnetic field sensors market is expected to grow from the $1.6 Billion that it accounted for in 2013 to $2.9 Billion by 2020, at an estimated CAGR of 8.04% from 2014 to 2020. The volume of the magnetic sensors is currently estimated to be 5.9 billion units and is expected to rise up to 9.6 billion units at an estimated CAGR of 6.75% from 2014 to 2020.

A magnetic field sensor identifies the position of an object on the basis of a magnetic field. This is built up either by an external permanent magnet or by a magnet integrated in the sensor. For example, movements of gear wheels or approximation of objects result in alterations inthe magnetic field. These changes are detected by the sensor and evaluated by the integrated electronics. Depending on the sensor type, the output signal may be digital or analog.Magnetic sensors are non-contact electronic sensors. They detect magnetic fields or their alteration by ferromagnetic objects.

There are many approaches towards magnetic sensing, which include Hall effect sensors, AMR magnetic sensors, GMR magnetic sensors, tunnel magnetoresistance sensors, nuclear precession magnetic field sensors, optically pumped magnetic field sensors, fluxgate magnetometer, search coil magnetic field sensors, and SQUID magnetic field sensors. MEMS-based magnetic field sensors can offer small-size solution for magnetic field sensing. Smaller device can be placed closer to the measurement spots, thereby achieving higher spatial resolution. Additionally, MEMS magnetic field sensor does not involve the micro fabrication of magnetic material. Therefore, the cost of the sensor can be largely reduced. Integration of MEMS magnetic field sensor can further reduce the size of the entire magnetic field sensing system.

New developments in the automobile infotainment systems will also increase the demand of the magnetic field sensors.The largestapplications of the magnetic field sensors in the automobile sectorare found in theAnti-Lock BrakingSystems (ABS) and engine control management systems, which are gaining popularity in the emerging markets.

This report covers the vital driving and restraining factors for this market. Encouraging government legislations and policies foreco friendly vehicles, increase in the need of efficient products, and rise in the applications of magnetic sensors in the automobiles and consumer electronics are acting as the driving factors for this industry. However, there are few factors, which are acting as obstacles in the growth of the magnetic sensor market. These factors are inconsistency of a magnetic body, distortional variation, temperature fluctuations, and low resistance in magnetic field detection. Unavailability of aftermarket is a strong restraint for the magnetic field sensor market.

The worldwide market of the magnetic field sensors is segmented into North America, Europe, APAC, and RoW. APAC is the leading geography in this market due to the supporting factors present in the APAC region; such assupportive government policies, increasing demand for automobiles and smart phones in this region,and presence of key industry players. However, North America which is another vital market is expected to show a significant growth in the coming years due to revised government policies and expansion of the magnetic sensorsbusiness in this region, by players such as Honeywell International (U.S.) and Allegro MicroSystems Inc. (U.S.).

This report profiles the major companies which have beencontributing significantlyin this market; these include Allegro MicroSystems Inc. (U.S.), Infineon (Germany), Asahi Kasei Microdevices Corporation (Japan), Austria microsystems AG (Germany), Honeywell International (U.S.), Robert Bosch GmbH (Germany), MEMSIC Inc. (U.S.), Melexis Microelectronic Systems (Belgium), Micronas Semiconductor (Switzerland), and NXP Semiconductors (The Netherlands).

Details of the new report, table of contents and ordering information can be found on Electronics.ca Publications’ web site.  View the report: Magnetic Field Sensors Market by Type, Technology, Applications and Geography – Forecasts & Analysis to 2013 – 2020.

Magnetic Field Sensors Market Analysis

IPC Standards For PCB Design and CAD

IPC-7351B Requirements for Surface Mount Design and Land Pattern Standard

IPC-7351B includes both the standard and an IPC-7351B land pattern calculator on CD-ROM for accessing component and land pattern dimensional data. The calculator includes the document’s mathematical algorithms so users can build a land pattern for a corresponding surface mount part quickly and accurately.The tool also allows for modification of dimensional attributes of IPC approved land patterns.

This popular document covers land pattern design for all types of passive and active components, including resistors, capacitors, MELFs, SSOPs, TSSOPs, QFPs, BGAs, QFNs and SONs. The standard provides printed board designers with an intelligent land pattern naming convention, zero component rotations for CAD systems and three separate land pattern geometries for each component that allow the user to select a land pattern based on desired component density.

Revision B now includes land pattern design guidance and rules for component families such as resistor array packages, aluminum electrolytic capacitors, column and land grid arrays, flat lead devices (SOFL and SOTFL) and dual flat no-lead (DFN) devices. The revision also discusses the usage of thermal tabs and provides a new padstack naming convention that addresses the shape and dimensions of lands on different layers of printed boards.Purchasers also receive a 10-day trial of the IPC-7351 Land Pattern Wizard developed by Mentor Graphics, which is an advanced version of the IPC-7351B Land Pattern Calculator. The IPC-7351B Land Pattern Wizard tool enables users to not only save their land patterns within new land pattern library files, but also to instantly export land patterns to their preferred CAD format, such as Allegro, Board Station, Expedition, PADS, CADSTAR, OrCAD, Pantheon and P-CAD. 102 pages. Order and Download IPC Standard 7351B.

IPC-2221B Generic Standard on Printed Board Design

IPC-2221B is the foundation design standard for all documents in the IPC-2220 series and is included i the IPC-2220 series. It establishes the generic requirements for the design of printed boards and other forms of component mounting or interconnecting structures, whether single-sided, double-sided or multilayer. Among the many updates to Revision B are new criteria for conductor characteristics, surface finishes, via protection, board electrical test, dielectric properties, board housings, thermal stress, compliant pins, panelization and internal and external foil thicknesses. Appendix A provides new test coupon designs used for lot acceptance and quality conformance testing. Order and Download IPC Standard 2221B.

IPC-2220 Set of IPC Standards for PCB Design and CAD

The series is built around the IPC-2221B, Generic Standard on Printed Board Design, the base document that covers all generic requirements for printed board design, regardless of materials. From there, the designer chooses the appropriate sectional standard for a specific technology. IPC-2221B and all five sectional standards are included with the series: IPC-2222A, Sectional Design Standard for Rigid Organic Printed Boards; IPC-2223C, Sectional Design Standard for Flexible Printed Boards; IPC-2224, Sectional Standard for Design of PWBs for PC Cards; IPC-2225, Sectional Design Standard for Organic Multichip Modules (MCM-L) and MCM-L Assemblies; and IPC-2226, Sectional Design Standard for High Density Interconnect (HDI) Printed Boards. This series provides coverage on material and final finish selection, current carrying capacity and minimum electrical clearances, test specimen design, guidelines for V-groove scoring, dimensioning requirements and conductor thickness requirements. Order and Download IPC 2220 Family of Design Documents.

 

All IPC Standards are available from Electronics.ca Publications

 

IPC Standards For PCB Design and CAD

5G Wireless Ecosystem Research and Trial Investments to Reach $5 Billion by 2020

While LTE and LTE-Advanced deployments are still underway, wireless carriers and vendors have already embarked on R&D initiatives to develop so-called “5G” technology, with a vision of commercialization by 2020.

5G is essentially a revolutionary paradigm shift in wireless networking to support the throughput, latency, and scalability requirements of future use cases such as extreme bandwidth augmented reality applications and connectivity management for billions of M2M (Machine to Machine) devices.

Although 5G is yet to be standardized, some of the collectively accepted attributes of the technology include new air interface transmission schemes, new spectrum bands, spectrum aggregation, Massive MIMO, beamforming, D2D (Device to Device) communications and self-backhauling, among others.

Key findings:

• Driven by regional, national government, wireless carrier and vendor initiatives, we expect 5G Wireless Ecosystem R&D and trial investments will account for nearly $5 Billion by 2020, following a CAGR of nearly 40% over the next 5 years


• Nearly 70% of these investments will target large scale commercial trial networks in Japan, South Korea and other early pioneering countries


• Despite a lack of standardization, vendors are aggressively investing in 5G development efforts with a principal focus on new transmission schemes, antenna technologies, and higher frequency bands


• 5G networks are expected to utilize a variety of spectrum bands, ranging from established cellular bands to millimeter wave frequencies


• 5G standardization activities are expected to commence between 2015 and 2016

5G Wireless ecosystem research report covers the following topics:

• 5G requirements, use cases & vertical market applications


• 5G market drivers and barriers


• Air interface & antenna technologies: Massive MIMO, waveforms, phased array antennas & beamforming


• Spectrum technologies: Cognitive radio, spectrum sensing, aggregation & LSA (Licensed Shared Access)


• D2D communications & self-backhauling networks


• Complimentary technologies for 5G: NFV (Network Functions Virtualization), SDN (Software Defined Networking), HetNet (Heterogeneous Networking), C-RAN (Cloud RAN), drones & satellites


• Spectrum options for 5G


• Standardization & research initiatives


• Competitive assessment of vendor strategies & commitments to 5G


• 5G investment and subscription forecasts from 2015 till 2025

The “5G Wireless Ecosystem: 2015 – 2025 – Technologies, Applications, Verticals, Strategies & Forecasts” report presents an in-depth assessment of the emerging 5G ecosystem including key market drivers, challenges, enabling technologies, use cases, vertical market applications, spectrum bands, wireless carrier deployment commitments and vendor strategies. The report also presents forecasts for both 5G investments and subscriptions.

The report comes with an associated Excel datasheet suite covering quantitative data from all numeric forecasts presented in the report. Details of the new report, table of contents and ordering information can be found on Electronics.ca Publications’ web site.  View the report: “5G Wireless Ecosystem: 2015 – 2025 – Technologies, Applications, Verticals, Strategies & Forecasts”.

 

 

5G Wireless Ecosystem Research and Trial Investments to Reach $5 Billion by 2020

Worldwide ROADM Market Will Grow From $5.4 billion in 2015 to $8.8 Billion in 2020

Network Transmission Market Report and Analysis of Proposed Nokia / Alcatel-Lucent Merger

Nokia has recently announced that it is buying French telecom equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent for $16.6 billion. The merger of Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent will no doubt change the competitive landscape of the optical networking industry. A new report provides a quantitative forecast of a major part of the optical networking market that Nokia is buying into from its proposed purchase of Alcatel-Lucent.

According to a new market report “Network Transmission Market Analysis and Equipment Forecast: ROADMS, DWDM, Routers and Switches and the Impact of Net Neutrality”, the worldwide ROADM market will grow from $5.4 billion in 2015 to $8.8 billion in 2020. In addition to the ROADMs market, the report provides detailed analysis and forecasts for DWDM, Routers, and switches in North America and Worldwide.

This report is focused on forecasting demand for specific types of carrier-class network transmission equipment: ROADMS, DWDM, Routers and Switches.

To make that forecast it will investigate the demand parameters of this situation, which are primarily traffic forecasts. After reviewing the regulatory climate (Net Neutrality), and the market demand, the Report will look at capital expenditure forecasts as a surrogate for Supply. Then it will provide forecasts for various classes (ROADMs, DWDM, Routers and Switches) of optical network equipment in this environment.

Network Transmission Market Analysis Provides:

• Equipment descriptions and sales forecasts for ROADMS, DWDM, Routers, and Switches through 2020.


• A discussion of Net Neutrality, the players, the issues, and its impact on equipment sales.


• Traffic forecasts for the North American Internet through 2020


• N.A. and World forecasts for Mobile Traffic, Advanced Access Architecture lines(FiOS, U-Verse, Google), High-Speed lines (XDSL and cable modems) and International Traffic (North America only) through 2020.


• Capital Expenditure forecasts for the major telecom companies through 2020.


• Listing of Major Vendors in the Transmission Equipment space.

This report covers the very current topic of Network Neutrality, which is much in the headlines as this is being written, and its forecasted impact on network equipment sales.

The study also examines the network traffic and, through analysis, shows that traffic from four major sources (AAA lines, H-H lines, Mobile lines and International) is responsible for the vast preponderance of traffic and traffic growth. Forecasts are provided (through 2020) for these classes of traffic and for the Internet as a whole. Based on the information from the traffic forecasts, the uncertainty from regulation (Net Neutrality) and the capital investment plans and forecasts, the Report will then provide equipment sales forecasts (units and dollars) for ROADMs, DWDM, Routers, and Switches (all carrier class) through 2020 for North America and for the World. Detailed descriptions of each type of equipment being forecast is also provided.

 

 

 

Worldwide ROADM Market Will Grow From $5.4 billion in 2015 to $8.8 Billion in 2020

Worldwide Market for Thermal Management Products to Reach $15.56 Billion by 2018

ELECTRONICS.CA PUBLICATIONS announces the availability of a new report entitled “Electronic Thermal Management – Technologies, Materials, Devices, New Developments, Industry Structure and Global Markets”. According to this study, the worldwide market for thermal management products is predicted to grow from about $8.8 billion in 2013 to $15.56 billion by 2018, at an average annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.1%.

“Thermal management” denotes the array of problem-solving design tools and material technologies that systems manufacturers apply to regulate the unwanted heat caused by the normal functioning of an electronic system. Increasing power densities and decreasing transistor dimensions are hallmarks of modern computer chips. Both trends are increasing the thermal management challenge within the chip and surrounding packaging, as well as accelerating research progress on high conductivity materials.

Dramatic changes are underway in the computer, telecommunications and consumer electronics industries. There is a trend toward systems “convergence,” combining computer, telecommunications and consumer system functions all into one system. There is also a trend toward micro-miniaturization and microsystem technologies integrating digital, optical, radio frequency and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices. Microsystem packaging is at the heart of all of these products, since it is this technology that provides the system integration in addition to controlling the size, performance, reliability and cost of the final microsystem.

High-density packaging has been the trend in electronic circuits during the last decade, and that will continue for at least the next five years. In 2013, a typical megaprocessor could pack a staggering 41 million transistors onto a single chip. Running flat out, that chip would dissipate 130 watts of heat – more than a bright household light bulb – from an area the size of a postage stamp.

The trend line of the thermal management industry aligns with the developments of technology in the semiconductor, microprocessor and computer industries. For every advance in performance of these systems, there is a corresponding increase in the operating heat generated by the system. To simply say, however, that demands for thermal management products have increased as the requirements of applications have increased, does not do justice to the unique character of this industry. It is probably more accurate to state that the development of thermal management as an industry is the result of a synergy of solutions constantly engineered to manage excess heat in today’s electronic systems.

Details of the new report, table of contents and ordering information can be found on Electronics.ca Publications’ web site. View the report: Electronic Thermal Management – Technologies, Materials, Devices, New Developments, Industry Structure and Global Markets.

Worldwide Market for Thermal Management Products to Reach $15.56 Billion by 2018

S. Korean and Taiwanese Companies Control 56% of Global 300mm Fab Capacity

Vast majority of that wafer capacity is local to those two countries.

Information in this Research Bulletin comes from the Global Wafer Capacity 2015-2019 Report, which was released this month.  The new report provides great detail regarding the current status and forecast of global wafer fab capacity.  More information found at the end of this bulletin.

South Korean and Taiwanese chip companies are well known for manufacturing prowess when it comes to efficiently fabricating huge amounts of IC wafers.  Most of the IC industry’s biggest fab facilities are located in these two countries.  Because of their fab operation and wafer fabricating expertise, IC companies headquartered in South Korea and Taiwan lead the way in capital-intensive segments of the IC industry such as high-unit-volume products like DRAM and flash memory or foundry services making ICs for companies without fabs and a growing number of companies with fabs.

Figure 1 shows that South Korea-based companies Samsung and SK Hynix currently account for 35% of global 300mm wafer capacity.  Samsung alone controls about 24% of all the world’s 300mm capacity.  When looking at 300mm wafer capacity according to fab location instead of headquarters location, 28% of worldwide capacity is in South Korea.  Samsung and SK Hynix both own big 300mm fabs outside of South Korea.  In fact, SK Hynix’s largest fab is in China.  Samsung also has a 300mm fab in China as well as two in the U.S.

Global 300mm Fab Capacity Report

Figure 1

Taiwanese companies currently manage 21% of the world’s 300mm capacity, with about 85% of that capacity being committed to foundry services.  The remaining 15% of Taiwan-controlled 300mm capacity is mostly used to produce memory devices.  The vast majority of the 300mm wafer capacity in Taiwan is owned by Taiwanese companies, with the only exception being the 300mm capacity that U.S.-based Micron gets from its Inotera joint-venture with Nanya and its wholly owned fab in Taichung acquired in 2013.  There is only one Taiwanese-controlled 300mm fab located outside of Taiwan and that is UMC’s fab in Singapore.

Figure 1 also shows that even though 15% of the world’s 300mm wafer capacity is located in the North America, 28% of global 300mm capacity is controlled by companies with North American headquarters.  Two other noticeable share differences in the comparison are in China and the ROW region, which in this case is essentially just Singapore and Israel.  The vast majority of 300mm wafer capacity in China and ROW is controlled by foreign companies.

Details of the new report, table of contents and ordering information can be found on Electronics.ca Publications’ web site. View the report: Global Wafer Capacity 2015-2019.

 

S. Korean and Taiwanese Companies Control 56% of Global 300mm Fab Capacity