Local collaboration offers substantial benefit to aerospace and defence industries

Citation

(2006), "Local collaboration offers substantial benefit to aerospace and defence industries", Soldering & Surface Mount Technology, Vol. 18 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ssmt.2006.21918cab.015

Local collaboration offers substantial benefit to aerospace and defence industries

Local collaboration offers substantial benefit to aerospace and defence industries

Keywords: Aerospace industry, Defence sector, Manufacturing industries

St Ives-based contract electronics manufacturer Prism Electronics and Newmarket based Micro Circuit Engineering Ltd (MCE) have combined their expertise to integrate ”chip-on-board” and surface mount assembly for both printed and flexi- rigid circuit boards.

Collaboration on the project has brought together the specialist skills of both companies. The benefits of using this approach to electronics manufacture could be significant for Hi-Rel (high reliability) applications and in particular the aerospace and defence industries, where the market is expected to be substantial in the future.

The companies can now supply high density, high reliability electronic assemblies. This combination of technologies increases the flexibility of circuit board design, reduces the weight and space of electronics and improves the reliability and response rate of systems.

MCE is part of Smiths Aerospace Electronic Systems, a leading global supplier to builders and operators of military and civil aircraft and engines. MCE designs and produces electronics systems for these industries.

Prism has developed its surface mount and board cleaning expertise to support the initiative. It has also devised ways to supply circuit boards that are suitable for chip-on-board assembly. MCE has invested in specialist machinery for chip-on-board assembly, automatic aluminium wire bonding and for component encapsulation and has run comprehensive environmental tests on the assembled boards.

“This is an exciting development for both Prism and MCE and has the potential to bring significant benefits to the customers of both our companies,” said David Dickin, business development director at Prism.

“Together we have carried out extensive research and development to perfect this manufacturing process and are now at a stage where we can supply these products to our customer bases.”

Steve Riches, business development manager at MCE, said: “The combined expertise of our companies has enabled us to expand our scope for custom electronic module manufacture.

“The constant drive towards reducing costs of high reliability products without compromising their performance initiated this development. Prism Electronics was selected as our partner due to its technical ability and focus on customer service” (Plate 7).

Plate 7 Steve Riches, business development manager at MCE (left) and David Dickin, business development director at prism electronics (right) with their new development which integrates ”chip-on-board” and surface mount assembly for both printed and flexi-rigid circuit boards