Gamechangers Come in Many Forms

Merriam Webster defines a game changer as "a newly introduced element or factor that changes an existing situation or activity in a significant way". First known use of "game changer" -- 1993.

            

In just the past month, at least two "gamechanger" examples have come about in the electronics world. One is a product developed by Henkel called Loctite GC 10 solder paste, which the company has touted as the first-ever temperature stable solder paste. Up to now PCB solder paste, with all of the various additives needed for optimum process soldering, required refrigeration from manufacturer to user and until use. It also had a brief shelf life, generally between 3-6 months.  Imagine the challenges involving a PCB manufacturing facility in Ecuador, India, or Indonesia, and the need for "fresh" solder paste that may or may not have remained refrigerated en route to delivery.

            

Yes. This new "temperature stable" solder paste may be an important game changer for the worldwide electronics manufacturing community.

            

A second "gamechanger" example is the recent development by Columbia University Engineering researchers of a technology that enables full-duplex radio integrated circuits (ICs) -- that can be implemented in nanoscale CMOS-- to enable simultaneous transmission and reception at the same frequency in a wireless radio, something never done before.  This, too, may be a bona fide gamechanger.     

Gamechangers in the development and manufacture of passive electronic components such as those produced by ETI companies sometimes (but, not often) come in the form of breakthroughs or discoveries. More often, our engineers are found working behind the scenes with customers who have need for our circuit design and application experience, in addition to our excellent products.

            

Our engineers' suggestions often improve performance, or, achieve the required performance for less cost (see example). We call it "Component Design For Manufacturing" (CDFM), a process by which our component design engineers work with customers' circuit design engineers to work through the circuit's requirements, tolerances, and alternatives (including variations in component design) to arrive at the most cost effective solution.

            

Is CDFM a gamechanger? Our customers might think so. To us, it's just a better way of doing business.

(Example) 

Mother Nature in Manufacturing

Sometimes it's difficult to understand why certain things we make work so poorly or so well. When they work poorly, we look for problems. When they work even better than expected, we hope we can repeat the good fortune over and over, unit after unit.

In other words, manufacturing repeatability can be a tricky thing, and replicating a process in a different place -- even with step-by-step cookbook instructions -- may produce disappointing end results.  

The reason may be that environment, in certain instances, has more to do than we know with the original success.  Whether the environment’s influence is upon materials, storage factors, curing -- all of these, or none of these, we simply may not know

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For example, we're all familiar with Stradivarius violins and their reputation of outstanding resonance and tonal quality. Despite the best modern day efforts, Stradivarius violins produced in the late 1700's and early 1800's are still considered unique -- the best violins ever. 

Many theories have attempted to explain why these instruments are so remarkable. Here's a recent one. Between 1400 and 1800 a “Little Ice Age” took place, which peaked between 1645 and 1715 during the coldest period called the "Maunder Minimum." Trees growing during that peak period showed the slowest growth rates of the entire last 500 years. 

In other words, Stradivarius and his contemporaries had access to and used especially dense spruce and other woods produced during this very cold period, without realizing their instruments would be unique because of Mother Nature.

Back to modern times, a wound film capacitor hardly compares in stature or importance to a Stradivarius violin in most people's minds. Also, Tucson, Arizona in 2015 is nothing like La Casa Nuziale, Italy in the 1700's. Oddly, however, certain capacitors built in Tucson may share a reason for excellence with those special violins -- the environment in which they are manufactured.

Tucson's consistently hot and dry conditions enable an ETI company, Arizona Capacitors, Inc., to make the very best wound film capacitors available today. So special are models of these capacitors that they are widely used in today's highest quality audio reproduction and amplification equipment. 

Because engineers can't be sure exactly "why" these audio capacitors work so well, they refuse to tinker at all with the manufacturing circumstances (location, environment, processes) in which they are built. And they’re certainly not seeking an offshore manufacturing source. 

After all, if the capacitors are helping amplify the music of a Stradivarius violin some evening, they have to do their job just right. 

New ETI Acquisition - Nova Microwave

Clearwater, FL – Electro Technik Industries, Inc. of Clearwater, Florida has purchased Nova Microwave of Morgan Hill, California.  Nova Microwave designs and manufactures RF/Microwave isolators and circulators for both commercial and defense applications.   With almost 20 years of experience in the microwave business, Nova Microwave offers a number of different styles from drop-ins to surface mounts.  The frequency ranges from 380 MHz to 23.6 GHz with average power ratings from 2 to 250 watts. 

Address: 380 Tennant Ave., Suite 5   Morgan Hill CA 95037

Phone: 408-778-2746

E-mail: novasales@electrotechnik.com                                          

Web: www.novamicrowave.com

See You at MTT-S in Seattle

Res-net Microwave, Inc., a subsidiary of Electro Technik Industries, will once again be exhibiting at the MTT-S Show this summer.  This year the show will be held in Seattle from June 4th to the 6th.  We will be located at Booth 1529.  We hope if you are there, you will come by and visit us and check out some of our new products.

Electro Technik Websites Revamped

After talking to some of our sales representatives it became apparent that there was some confusion with our websites.  Not the Electro Technik Industries site (http://www.electrotechnik.com), but some of the subsidiary sites. 

The problem was that on those sites we had at the far left, a button in red that said "ETI Home".  When someone on the Res-net Microwave site (http://www.res-netmicrowave.com) would click it they thought they were going back to the Res-net homepage, when in actuality they were heading to the parent company's (ETI) homepage.  This of course not only confused and frustrated customers and potential customers, but increased our bounce rates as well.

So, we listened to our customers and reps and have modified the website to avoid this confusion in the future.  The "Home" button on the left, is now the actual company's homepage and the ETI Corporate page is off to the right and labeled as such.  Thank you to all those that brought this to our attention.

Can a Website Have Too Much Information?

I frequent an electronics magazine website that currently does not want to load.  I end up receiving a message at the bottom about a "long running script".  This actually happens periodically with this specific website, although I have run into this problem at other sites as well.

So, the question becomes, is my computer too slow?  I am not currently having the issue with the other websites I visited today.  Does the website have too much information and graphics for a laptop to download?  Perhaps it is the server.  Whatever the cause it is frustrating and a good lesson to us that have websites like: http://www.electrotechnik.com.  I just checked and it loaded rather quickly, but maybe I just don't have enough information.

Funny Commercial?

I generally do not like commercials, but Pepsi MAX has a very funny one with Jeff Gordon that was worth viewing.  I thought the advertising agency was brilliant by peeking consumers interest via the TV and then having them go to the Internet to see it in its entirety.  It currently has over 33 million views.  so, saying it went viral, might be an understatement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5mHPo2yDG8

Now, however, the video has been revealed to be a fake and that Jeff Gordon, didn't even drive the car.  http://www.usatoday.com/story/gameon/2013/03/14/jeff-gordon-test-drive-fake/1988255/

So, what does that do to a brand like Pepsi?  Do consumers/customers feel duped or worse, lied to?  Perhaps it all plays into their "in disguise" mantra.  I guess we will just have to wait and see.