PICA Product Development (PPD), an industry leading manufacturer of intelligent music-on-hold, in-store messaging and loss prevention systems and its affiliate company, PICA Manufacturing Solutions (PMS), a leading manufacturer of Flexible and Rigid Circuits, announced the securing of a $4.5 million line of credit from Bank of America to assist the market introduction of PPD's Skyhawk line of IoT remote monitoring devices.

Solder paste jetting overcomes a lot of the solder deposition issues with today’s Flex Circuit Assembly. The amount of shrink associated with Flex Circuits becomes an issue when dealing with 0201 and 0.4mm and below pitch components.  A solder paste stencil cannot shrink and stretch to match up with the Flex.

As Director of PICA Manufacturing Asian Operations for over seven years, I’ve had the honor of leading our team to achieve the company’s objectives while staying true to the corporate strategy. So far we’ve exceeded our expectations, not only in terms of company revenue and profit, but also in employee engagement. And what’s the number one lesson I’ve learned from the PICA Manufacturing success? No one can be successful without the help of teammates—it’s all about team building and team spirit.

While mass soldering processes dominate soldering applications, hand soldering remains critical in the electronic manufacturing.  Existing processes (e.g. convection oven reflow, vapor phase, wave flow, selective wave flow, etc.) are very efficient and offer high volume capacity but may not always be suitable. One of these special situations is when the thermal mass of a few components to be soldered are relatively larger than the other components on the same substrate. In that case, we must consider a separate process for these components (i.e. separate reflow step or hand solder). While hand soldering may appear to be simple, the same critical process elements exist as in mass soldering and must be controlled to achieve reliable solder joints. These include:

Consumer electronics and many commercial applications have demanded more be packed into thinner and lighter constructions; this puts a literal “squeeze” not only on the flexible circuits required but also the engineer who needs to satisfy the demand for thinner and thinner electronics.  Adding layers is a good way to get more “action” within the same footprint but there are some considerations we must take into account if we want a reliable circuit.