Recorded conversations and interviews on electronics design and manufacturing with the editors of PCD&F/Circuits Assembly, brought to you by the Printed Circuit Engineering Association (PCEA)
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Adhesive failures can be frustrating because the problem isn’t always obvious. The adhesive may have been properly selected, the part may look clean, and the process may seem under control. But weeks or months later, a coating lifts, an encapsulant separates, or a bond fails in the field. So what went wrong? In this episode of Reliability Matters Mike Konrad is joined by David Dworak, material…
Thermal management is a “hot” topic right now, and with today’s rising power densities, thermal issues are moving into more mainstream PCB designs. If you’ve ever wondered whether you could squeeze another heat sink onto your board, you won’t want to miss this episode of PCB Chat. Chris Parker is the director of product engineering at TCLAD, a company that develops PCB materials designed for…
Tom Kastner is the founder of GP Ventures, a company that provides M&A advisory services. He's been involved in PCB industry mergers and acquisitions for decades, and he's written extensively about M&A challenges and opportunities. In this episode of PCB Chat, Tom discusses his background and the career path that led him to become an M&A expert. He also examines some of the trends he's seeing in…
Artificial intelligence is everywhere right now. It’s in the headlines, it’s being built into software tools, and it’s showing up in more and more conversations about engineering, manufacturing, quality, and process improvement. But here’s the problem. A company can buy the software. A team can attend the training. Everyone can walk away impressed by what AI might be able to do. And then, a few…
What if PCB design respins were a thing of the past? What if updating hardware was as easy as updating software? Itera CEO AJ Cooper co-founded the company to address this exact issue. And now, Itera has developed the world's first "fluid" PCB that can rewire itself in real time. AJ will discuss this groundbreaking technology in his PCB West keynote speech, "It's Time to Retire the Respin." In…
Wally Rhines is the spokesperson for the ESD Alliance, part of Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International. He joins Andy Shaughnessy every quarter to share details from the latest ESD Alliance report on sales of computer-aided engineering tools, semiconductor tools, PCB design software, related IP and services, and employment. In this interview, Wally discusses the results for Q1 2026,…
What if passing the test is not enough? In reliability engineering, we often place a great deal of confidence in laboratory validation. We test, measure, analyze, and document. And when the product passes, we naturally assume it is ready for the field. But what happens when a product passes the lab test and still fails in the hands of the customer? Today, we are going to explore the gap between…
Today, we’re going to explore a topic that seems to be touching nearly every industry, every workplace, and increasingly every part of our daily lives: artificial intelligence. But this conversation is not just about what AI can do. It’s about what AI assumes, what it values, what it misses, and what happens when powerful technologies are deployed into environments they were not designed to…
This is part two of a two-part series. In Part One, we explored how the electronics industry transitioned from a clean-everything approach to one where cleaning became optional. But what happens when the assumptions behind “no-clean” collide with modern electronics design? In this episode of Reliability Matters, Mike Konrad examines how the definition of cleanliness has fundamentally changed. As…
Tomachie has quite a few tricks up its sleeve. Its eponymous platform provides AI-assisted analysis of PCB schematic data. It optimizes DfT and identifies the ideal locations for physical test point insertion. And it generates a 0-100 layout-readiness score, providing design teams with an objective, data-driven metric. Tomachie is the brainchild of CJ Clark, a veteran test engineer with a…
For decades, cleaning circuit assemblies after soldering was not optional. It was standard practice across the electronics manufacturing industry. Then, almost overnight, that changed. In this episode of Reliability Matters, Mike Konrad takes you back to the origins of that shift. From the widespread use of CFC-based cleaning solvents to the global impact of the Montreal Protocol, this episode…
