New product development (NPD) is often driven by cost and schedule. In the electronics industry, being first to market with a new technology or product is crucial to its success, and enhanced speed to market is what differentiates world class companies from the rest.

This October, the International Microelectronics Assembly and Packaging Society (IMAPS) will hold its 50th Anniversary Symposium in Raleigh, North Carolina. It will be the society's largest event to date, with 25 breakout sessions, 4 keynotes, and more than 140 speakers in a 3-day span, from October 10th-12th. Luckily for us, our own Greg Caswell will be doing more than just speaking at IMAPS 2017, he’s also been named one of the committee chairs of the event and has been nominated for the lifetime achievement award! Last week, I sat down with Greg to get an inside scoop on what to expect, as well as learn more about his involvement with IMAPS.

When designing semiconductor components in modern power electronics, designing a reliable power supply is often not a high priority. However, if the power supply fails, it can cause costly rework. Not only can operation of the power electronic come to an abrupt halt, but if the power supply isn’t designed or constructed to meet its predicted lifetime, it could also lead to the premature degradation of the entire power electronic system as well, as explained in this article.

Achieving high reliability in electronics doesn’t always have to come at the high cost of hundreds of hours of expensive testing and redesign. Following the 3 product reliability fundamentals outlined below can help you hit your electronics reliability targets in a cost- and time-efficient way.

Soft solders have been used for many years, with solder alloy technology remaining relatively unchanged until the 1900s. Tin-Lead (SnPB) solder has been the default joining material in electronics since the first circuits were created. The low melting temperatures, eutectic structure and relatively low cost made the Tin-Lead solder a natural fit for electronics.

Dr. Natalie Hernandez has been a Product Engineer at DfR Solutions since November 2016. Before, she completed her PhD in Physics at Lehigh University and served as a graduate research assistant working on spectroscopic studies of rare-earth doped wide bandgap semiconductor materials, and has since made the jump to electronics reliability engineering. After 7 months in her new role, here are some of the key takeaways she’s learned about the industry.

According to recent reports, the global medical device market is expected to reach $398 billion in 2017, and continue with strong revenue growth through 2023. However, with increased demand comes increased responsibility, and it will be up to medical device OEMs to maintain product quality standards and provide reliable products that can be counted on in life-saving situations. High profile recalls in recent years have given medical device OEMs a reason to be more diligent, but there are many improvements companies can still make to their testing standards.

The increasing complexity of electronic components and assemblies has introduced new challenges to reliability engineers. Of these new challenges, solder fatigue is a primary concern for assemblies undergoing thermal excursions caused by fluctuations in environmental temperature, power dissipation or a combination of the two. Factors which arise due to package-specific construction, mounting conditions, electronic housing and configuration within the printed circuit boards can all influence the thermo-mechanical fatigue of solder interconnects.

The spread of advanced electronic systems has led to incorporating more technology into traditionally non- or limited-intelligence constructions. For example, most gas pumps now contain single board computers used solely to process credit transactions. Additionally, the Internet of Things (IoT) and autonomous transport continues to introduce complex electronic systems into more aspects of the industrial ecosystem.

Electronics are everywhere! Or, at least, it can feel that way. Every day there is another announcement about electronics on our heads, in our beds, in the sky, and all over the future factory (not to mention driving our cars). For those of us knee-deep in technology, all this expansion beyond the normal home and office has been very exciting!