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Latest News in Testing, Inspection and Certification

NTS News Center - Latest News in Testing, Inspection and Certification

Tag Archives: IPC Testing

Review of the 2017 IPC Reliability Forum

The IPC held their inaugural Reliability Forum this April in Chicago and by all accounts, the event was a resounding success!

NTS participated along side other industry experts from raw material and equipment suppliers, PCB fabricators, contract manufacturers and OEMs.

William Graver, NTS senior analyst, presented on a number of major reliability concerns in today’s environment in his session “Is test an unnecessary evil, or a life-saving necessity?”

You can read a full write up of the event, as well as other news from the IPC here: The PCB Magazine, July 2017.

IPC Emerging Engineer Program

NTS is pleased to participate in the new IPC Emerging Engineer Program. Launched in 2016, this program provides professionals who are beginning their careers the opportunity to learn from dedicated industry volunteers.

2017 Emerging Engineers including Rene Michalkiewicz of NTS and her mentee Tayler Swanson a student at RIT in NY (3rd and 4th from right)

To learn more about this program, visit the IPC website.

NTS Volunteers Honored for Contributions to IPC and the Electronics Industry

NTS is proud to announce that our own Debora Obitz, Elizabeth Allison, Renee Michalkiewicz, and Russ Shepherd were among the seventy-five individuals who were presented with Committee Leadership, Special Recognition and Distinguised Committee Service Awards at the IPC Fall Standards Development Committee Meeting this past September in Rosemont, IL.30153606905_3577b56ce1_z

For their contributions to IPC-A-600J, Denise Chevalier, Amphenol Printed Circuits, Inc.; Lorraine Hook, Streamline Circuits; Chris Mahanna, Robisan Laboratory Inc.; Debora Obitz, NTS – Anaheim; and Joey Rios, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earned a Distinguished Committee Service Award.

Leaders of the 7-31AT IPC-A-600 Technical Training Committee that developed the training and certification Program for IPC-A-600J, Acceptability of Printed Boards, Leo Lambert, EPTAC Corporation and Debora Obitz, NTS – Anaheim, received a Committee Leadership Award.

30118587106_5c59f025c8_zFor their extraordinary contributions to the training and certification program for IPC-A-600J, Elizabeth Allison, NTS – Baltimore and Renee Michalkiewicz, NTS – Baltimore, received a Special Recognition Award. Helena Pasquito, EPTAC Corporation; Russell Shepherd, NTS – Anaheim; and Debbie Wade, Advanced Rework Technology-A.R.T., received a Distinguished Committee Service Award for their contributions to the training and certification program.

For their leadership of the 5-32e Conductive Anodic Filament (CAF) Task Group that developed IPC-9691B, User Guide for the IPC-TM-650, Method 2.6.25, Conductive Anodic Filament (CAF) Resistance and Other Internal Electrochemical Migration Testing, Karl Sauter, Oracle America, Inc. and Russell Shepherd, NTS – Anaheim, earned a Committee Leadership Award.

29524746043_44027d8efe_zDistinguished Committee Service Awards were presented to Douglas Eng, PPG Industries Inc.; Todd MacFadden, Bose Corporation; Renee Michalkiewicz, NTS – Baltimore; and Bhanu Sood, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, for their contributions to the document revision.

NTS Engineers Honored at IPC APEX Conference

IPC-APEX-2C_PosCongratulations to Renee Michalkiewicz, Russ Shepherd and Debora Obitz on their recognition at the IPC APEX conference held in Las Vegas, NV this week.

Renee Michalkiewicz, current chairman of the IPC TAEC committee, received an award for her leadership of the Technical Activities Executive Committee (TAEC), the top committee that makes IPC policy and procedure decisions. Additionally, Renee was recognized for her outstanding contribution to the D-33at Task Group in the development of IPC-6012D, Training and Certification Program.  NTS developed the latest IPC-6012 training program and will be soon working to update the IPC-A-600 training program.  These two documents drive Printed Circuit Board (PCB) production and conformance.

Russ Shepherd and Debora Obitz also received awards for their outstanding contributions to the 7-12 Microsection Subcommittee in the development of IPC-TM-650, Method 2.1.1F, Microsectioning, Manual and Semi or Automatic Method.  This method is at the core of the NTS materials laboratories capabilities.  Russ is the current chair of this committee and will be stepping into two additional positions, Chairman of the IPC D-15 Flex Test Methods Committee and Vice Chairman of the 7-10 Testing Committee. Deborah participated as an expert panelist on the APEX Buzz session on Conformal Coatings.

NTS Subject Matter Experts lend their expertise to the IPC through committee membership and participation in panels at the IPC APEX Conference.  Our SME’s will also be teaching a number of IPC courses at our Anaheim and Baltimore labs, click here to review the currently scheduled courses.

Renee Michalkiewicz, Vice President / MIT (IPC-A-600 / IPC-6012)

  • Expertise: Testing of PCB’s, Soldering Materials and Coatings, Assembly Process Qualification, SIR, ECM, CAF, Developer of Latest A-600 and 6012 Training Programs
  • Chair / Vice Chair: TAEC, 7-10 Testing Committee, 5-20 Assembly and Joining, 5-24 Assembly & Joining Materials

John Radman, Senior Applications Engineer

  • Expertise: Test Techniques, Failure & Contamination Analysis, Counterfeit Component Analysis
  • Chair / Vice Chair: 5-32a Ion Chromatography/Ionic Conductivity

Debora Obitz, Manager of IPC Training Programs / MIT (IPC-A-600 / IPC-6012)

  • Expertise: Conformal Coating, Failure Analysis, Microsectioning
  • Chair / Vice Chair: 5-30 Cleaning and Coating, 5-33b Solder Mask Performance, 5-33 Coatings, 5-33a Conformal Coating, D-30 Rigid Printed Board

Keith Sellers, Operations Manager – Baltimore

  • Expertise: Failure & Contamination Analysis, Ionic Cleanliness
  • Chair / Vice Chair: 5-32b SIR and Electrochemical Migration, 5-24a Flux

Russ Shepherd, Operations Manager / MIT (IPC-A-600 / IPC-A-610 / IPC-6012)

  • Expertise: Failure Analysis, Microsection, Environmental Testing, Training
  • Chair / Vice Chair: 7-12 Microsection, D-15 Flexible Circuits Test Methods, 7-10 Testing Committee, 5-32b SIR and Electrochemical Migration, 5-32e Conductive Anodic Filament (CAF)

Damon Rachell, Applications Engineer

  • Expertise: Failure Analysis of PCBs, PCBAs, and components/ICs; SEM/EDS, Plating systems, solderability, reliability testing, scanning acoustic microscopy, DPAs, and ESS

Emi Lee, UL Program Manager

  • Expertise: Material testing of polymers, solder resists and conformal coatings, films, laminates, and PCB for UL Recognition, Thermal aging of polymers per UL 746B for RTI
  • Member of: UL STP 94, 746A-F, 796, and 796F