Happy Holden's Blog

Challenge For Dynamic Flex: Impedance Control

By Happy Holden, Foxconn Advanced Technology One of the advantages of working for Foxconn is that it is now the worlds largest manufacturer of electronics products. This brings us into contact with the worlds finest OEMs and their designs. Understanding those designs provides a wonderful and rich learning experience, it also provides the opportunity [...]

Technology Drivers For Printed Circuits-REVISITED

BY: Happy Holden, MIPBG-Foxconn, DaYuan, Taiwan In May of 2005 I wrote my column about the five (5) technology drivers I believe are important for printed circuits. Five years later, it is a good time to revisit and see how those Technology Drivers are doing and “what has changed” in five years. The five [...]

EIGHT (8) KEY HDI DESIGN FEATURES

Now that I am retired and working on PCB Fabrication Projects here in Taiwan, I have collected some of my HDI design strategies and condensed them down into 8 KEY DESIGN FEATURES. Let me list them now before I forget them: Where to place the blind vias BGA Breakout Reduction of the BIG [...]

“Made In America”

“Manufacturing has long been viewed as an essential pillar of a powerful economy. It generates millions of well-paid jobs for those with only a high school education, a huge segment of the population. No other sector contributes more to the nation’s overall productivity, economists say. And as manufacturing [...]

Process Automation: Various Ways To Automate

One of my favorite topics is process automation. This comes from it being my first job at Hewlett-Packard in printed circuit manufacturing. I had no background in plating or wet processes, but my chemical engineering had prepared me for process automation – - and my computer process control specialization was just ‘itching’ to look for [...]

New Chapters for the HDI HANDBOOK

Hopefully, you have taken the opportunity to download my free E-book, the HDI HANDBOOK. NOW is your chance to tell me what would make interesting reading for FUTURE chapters in the SECOND EDITION of the HDI Handbook. Here are some brief descriptions of what I am planning to add now. But this book isn’t for [...]

HDI Training for Fabricators

I’m sure all of you are aware of the rapid progression of HDI technology used in mobile phones, telecom and advanced consumer products. But HDI is rapidly being introduced into military and space programs as well. The HDI for military and space has to be ultra-reliable and capable of harsh environments. The cost to develop [...]

Self-Learning Educational Opportunities for Designers

Improving your personal performance is a large topic. But a critical area is high-frequency electrical performance for the board in both signals and plane PDN. Other new trends are incremental design/validation methodologies and the improved use of constraint-autorouting, as well as re-use of circuits and DfT. More on this in future BLOGS. Here is where [...]

Buried Capacitance Materials for Power Integrity

For everyone using the new HyperLynx PI tool, here is a list of available PCB Laminates that are candidates for the PWR/GND pair in your stackup. This table is from page 217 (Fig 32) of my HDI HANDBOOK. The entire Chapter 5 is about “Materials for HDI” and you might find it interesting. Some of [...]

Free Download ! All You Wanted To Know About HDI….and MORE!

The HDI Handbook – A comprehensive high-density interconnection resource for designers, fabricators and assemblers First Edition, Written by Happy Holden, et al., Edited by Happy Holden and Diane Neer Here is the link to DOWNLOAD the HANDBOOK (53 MB ZIP) I have finally finished my book on high density interconnects (HDI). Along with the help [...]