Featured – Page 3 – Spirit Electronics

Laura Bowling Retires, Celebrating 29 Years Working at Spirit Electronics

Laura Bowling Retires after 29 years with Spirit

Every employer dreams of retaining star employees for their whole career, but we really think it was Laura who decided to keep us. Over time, Spirit has changed, shifted gears, and started to grow exponentially. Being our constant, and the keeper of our history, loyalty, and values, Laura’s hard work and heart for service have given us our team foundation.

Laura started with Spirit Electronics in March 1992. Our business was conducted by phone and over fax machines. When customers ordered parts, POs were sent and received by fax, and then Laura and the team had to track them manually. Customer requirements were fewer, and the DOD had just decided to open up the military supply chain to using commercial off-the-shelf parts with upscreening.

Following the growth and changes of the industry, the Spirit team grew up and down with the ups and downs of the market. Laura and team responded to challenges like counterfeit prevention, cybersecurity implementation, and supply chain delays. Laura saw Spirit through our AS9100 Quality Management certification. In her podcast interview, she says “It’s quality every day, and that’s infused into everyone here at Spirit.” Laura remembers with a laugh how a warehouse employee suddenly moved to Texas, and all the AS9100 preparation materials disappeared with her.

Laura has many stories of our small business challenges. But even though small, Spirit still kept up with industry trends toward automation and improvement. While shifts to customer portals, emails, and automation have streamlined the industry, Laura does miss the personal interaction pre-automation. Laura has represented every one of our prime customer accounts at one point in her career, as well as supporting many other smaller customers.

Laura helped to implement our ERP system, JDE Edwards, to manage ordering and inventory. It was a rocky start with such a massive system, but Laura says she’s been impressed with it. “There was a lot of behind the scenes to get that updated,” says Laura, “but now we’re actually beginning to dive into it more, and I see great things for Spirit because we have JDE.”

The last 4 years have seen major shifts in Spirit’s business. CEO Marti McCurdy acquired the company, and our team has moved to a larger renovated facility, adding test services and contract manufacturing to our long-standing distribution business. “It’s been insane growth,” says Laura, “but good growth.”

Sticking with us for so long, Laura has really set the tone for our team with her hard work and dedication. What’s kept her motivated? “Supporting the troops, and supporting the vision our customers have for new directions,” says Laura. “We support their mission.” Supply chain delays and challenges have made this hard, and often all Laura could do was look for the best solution for her customers. But Laura’s determination has earned Spirit awards for multiple years running from customers like Raytheon and Boeing.

Join us in sending Laura off with well wishes on our LinkedIn page.

Want to work for a company worth 29 years of your career?

The Four Pillars of Protection You Need Against EMP/HEMP Damage in Ep. 24

We’re talking high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) on this week’s episode 24 of Spirit: Behind the Screen. HEMP is a particularly devastating type of electromagnetic pulse (EMP) caused by a nuclear detonation above the Earth’s atmosphere. Dan Rebeck, HEMP/EMP product expert with Infinite Electronics, explains this generates 3 EMP waves: a “triple whammy” that can damage electronic systems in our power grid, data networks, communications, and critical infrastructure.

HEMP/EMP Solutions Consider Your Whole System

HEMP events aren’t the only type of EMP capable of damaging electronics. Natural EMP events like lightning or solar flares or other man-caused events like local sabotage could also compromise sensitive electronics.

You might picture electronics being fried by a lightning zap, but minor damage from an EMP can also compromise an electronic system’s reliability over time. You may not notice minor damage until later when a system fails.

But Dan doesn’t leave us with a doomsday scenario. Infinite brands Transtector and PolyPhaser offer products that you can implement as system-level protections against HEMP and EMP to meet government recommendations. Dan breaks these product categories down to the Four Pillars of Hardening.

How you use the Four Pillars will depend on the electronics you need to protect from EMP/HEMP, how critical your systems are, and what kind of outage risk you can tolerate. Personalized solutions can protect everything from our nuclear codes to residential homes.

Grounding

Grounding offers a connection to the Earth, allowing a surge of electromagnetic energy to drain out to the ground. The best example of this is lightning, which is electromagnetic energy that moves through a system looking for a connection to the ground. Grounding directs the energy to the Earth ground and away from sensitive electronics connected to a network through power or data lines.

Surge Protection

Surge protection, according to Dan, is the most important pillar of the four. A surge protector is a neutral part of an electronic system during day-to-day operations. But when it detects a high voltage greater than what the system can handle, it kicks into action. The surge protector opens a low-impedance path that connects to the Earth ground. This path diverts the high voltage to the ground, protecting electronics connected downstream in the system.

Filtering

“Filtering changes the wave shape of the pulse coming into your facility,” says Dan. “It can slow the EMP down a little bit and can give your surge protector a chance to take more of it away from the system.” Filtering doesn’t stop the EMP. It disrupts it to weaken the EMP to make it possible for your other protection measures to handle the wave.

Shielding

In theory, you could build a full shield to stop an EMP from entering an electronic system. But most of our systems need outside connections to power and data to function. Our electronics need to receive and communicate data in order to operate.

Shielding a building or system to protect against EMP must be used in tandem with the other pillars to be effective. Transtector and PolyPhaser offer surge protection that can be mounted to a shield for higher protection needs. Shielded boxes and cabinets can also provide protection to strategic parts of your system.

HEMP/EMP Protection that Works for Your Application

These Four Pillars can work together to harden your system against damage from a HEMP/EMP event. The exact products you need to put in place around your electronics depends on your applications, how critical your operations are, and how much downtime you can tolerate.

Spirit is an authorized reseller of Transtector and PolyPhaser products, and we can work with you to design a hardened solution to protect your electronics from HEMP and EMP.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our podcast interview with Dan Rebeck publishing September 20. In the meantime, you can hear all about HEMP and EMP in Part 1.

Electrmagnetic Pulse EMP filtering grounding HEMP PolyPhaser shielding surge protection Transtector

Ep. 23: Which Electrical Tests Do I Need for My Component?

Spirit’s Sean Macdonald is chatting with Marti this week on our Spirit: Behind the Screen podcast about how to determine the electrical testing and ranges you need to run a successful component test program.

Tailor Electrical Tests to Application Requirements

Product applications in aerospace and defense run the gamut from a missile performing for mere seconds to a satellite surviving in low earth orbit for 5 years. The test and qualification needs for parts on these applications vary wildly. That’s why Spirit’s testing services start with an in-depth discussion around what your application is and in which conditions you need your components to perform.

Sean talks about two approaches: the data sheet vs the source control drawing. You may be working from a source control drawing that details tests and ranges you’ve been measuring for years. Or you may be working from a product’s data sheet that offers performance specs, but you need to know if the product can truly perform at the extremes.

“We can screen to that type of depth within each component, but in a lot of cases that tends to be overkill,” says Sean. “It’s a lot more cost and effort and time than what might be required. So our preference is to really engage with the customer and understand exactly what is your mission.”

Understanding Requirements to Drive Efficiency

When working to specs and standards, there can be an “it’s always been done this way” mentality. If your electrical test parameters are chosen just because your workflow has always run that way, you may be running more tests than needed for your specific application.

With the right testing partner, you can find ways to tease out electrical performance in the exact range that you need to eliminate extra cost and shorten your production schedule. Spirit can even produce a custom data sheet and part number to support your unique test flow.

“We certainly understand the amount of time and engineering support and effort and internal cost for our customers to develop these types of data sheets,” says Sean. “We’ll put the technical data sheets and documentation in place for you. Your procurement team just needs to order this dash part number, and that tells us to perform all of the specified screening.”

More Tips in Episode 23!

Listen in to this week’s episode for more insight on how to streamline electrical testing and give your production schedule and budget a boost. And if you’re interested in working on a custom workflow, you can reach out to Spirit for a quote or check out our full offering of test services.

Behind the Screen Test Program

Supplier-Managed Inventory (SMI) Offers Protection Against Shortages, Long Lead Times

Aerospace and Defense companies are already starting to see lead times 52 weeks and beyond. While the microchip shortage is front and center in the news, many related components are starting to extend as well. Supplier-Managed Inventory can be a tried-and-true strategy for avoiding allocation shortages.

While the defense industry can sometimes prioritize their components, the risk of delays and shortages won’t be going away soon. Smaller aerospace companies may also feel the pinch of competition with defense primes. The best time to prevent line-down impacts is now, while there is still time to plan.

Supplier-Managed Inventory, or SMI, is not new, but it may be a better strategy now than ever. In our 19 years of experience running SMI programming, it can be very effective. In an SMI program, a distributor like Spirit takes a material requirements plan (MRP) from a customer and manages ordering, inventory, and warehousing of product months in advance of the program’s needs.

For our customers, ordering higher volume and then protecting it on the shelf in the warehouse with space, manpower, and physical controls for risks like ESD can be costly. But letting a supplier manage that inventory instead can relieve cost, logistical effort and quality challenges while making sure product is on-site and ready for the production line.

For our customers, ordering higher volume and then protecting it on the shelf in the warehouse with space, manpower, and physical controls for risks like ESD can be costly. But letting a supplier manage that inventory instead can relieve cost, logistical effort and quality challenges while making sure product is on-site and ready for the production line.

How SMI Works

Setting up an SMI program starts with an MRP analysis. The program can be tailored to meet the customer’s workflows and procurement systems to manage ordering and make sure order requirements are flowed down correctly. The supplier can then manage those requirements and order quantities that support the production schedule long before the needed date. One program can manage just a few components or your full BOM.

When ordering direct, a customer often must manage minimum and multiple quantity requirements from manufacturers. Packaging, screening, and inspection of products can also be costly and require sending parts to multiple suppliers and locations for value-add work.

A supplier-managed program takes that burden off the customer. Quantities can be ordered and shipped as demand requires, and the supplier can manage any remaining stock. Bringing value add services like packaging, XRF analysis, board assembly, and testing in-house can also reduce the need for multiple stops along the supply chain.

Manage & Protect Inventory

SMI program providers experienced with aerospace and defense requirements can also warehouse parts under careful ESD, FOD, and environmental protections that are essential for high-reliability parts. Warehousing provides the same level of protection, control, and transparency as if the parts were at the customer’s facility. SMI can even be customized for on-site consignment programs, allowing customers to have the product at their facility until it is consumed for production.

Supplier-Managed Inventory makes your supply chain more efficient in times of allocation and shortage. By simply analyzing production needs, your SMI program can fill your production pipeline with the right supplier.

Allocation BOM Lead Time logistics SMI Supplier-Managed Inventory

XRF Analysis Adds to Spirit’s Test Services

Spirit has expanded our testing and screening services to include X-ray fluorescence (XRF) testing and analysis.

Spirit’s new Hitachi EA6000VX bench analyzer can inspect the material composition of your product. XRF inspection is essential in military and aerospace supply chains to verify that leads and finishes contain the correct ratio of lead to prevent whiskering.

Results are delivered with the product to our customers in a detailed report showing composition values and detailed images. If your product fails analysis, Spirit can identify the issue and replace your failed lot before the product ever arrives at your dock.

Our XRF machine can also inspect coating thickness and visually map a product and inspect internal connections down to 0.025 microns. Both mapping and composition analysis are inspection tools that can save you time and effort, allowing you to receive your product fully qualified and ready to use in production.

“The cool thing about our Hitachi EA6000VX is that it’s very versatile in the workplace and for exploratory devices,” says Nick Freeman, Spirit’s XRF Test Engineer. “It will tell you how much lead, how much chrome, how much of each element is inside because you want a proper ratio. It tells you what percent it is off from the industry standard, and then it gives you back that information per pin or per solder dot.”

For a limited time with our service launch, customers can receive a sample XRF analysis with a regular electronic component order.

composition leaded screening test XRF

Transtector HEMP/EMP Surge Protection Now Available at Spirit

Spirit Electronics is now an authorized reseller of Transtector’s HEMP/EMP surge protection products. Transtector’s surge protection offers risk mitigation and preparation for emergency event management and can prevent critical equipment and infrastructure failures.

Transtector’s products offer a wide range of surge protection to prevent damage during a HEMP/EMP event and support operational readiness. Products include AC and DC surge protection, RF surge protection, data line surge protection, and power distribution.

An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is a burst of electromagnetic radiation. EMP can result from natural sources, like a solar flare, but can be especially damaging if man made, as in a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) from a high-altitude nuclear explosion.

EMP can disrupt and damage electronic equipment and networks, and a significant EMP or HEMP event could disrupt many of the infrastructure and communication systems that our society relies on daily. This would pose a critical threat to emergency and military operations.

Transtector’s offerings are in cooperation with Department of Defense, Homeland Security, and the FAA to address their unique EMP/HEMP threats and support military standards.

Spirit is excited to offer surge protective products to our aerospace and defense customers. Talk to us today about how to protect your space and military applications.

EMP HEMP Surge Protect Transtector

Spirit Announces In-House Board Assembly Services

Board Assembly Contract Manufacturing Featured News Pick and Place

Like chips falling into place on a printed circuit board, Spirit’s new contract manufacturing services have arrived in our growing list of full turnkey solutions.

We now offer in-house board assembly. Customers can order a bill of materials through Spirit’s authorized OEMs. We inspect and screen your parts. Then we pick and place the parts on the board, perform system-level testing on the finished board, and the board arrives at your dock fully traceable and qualified.

Spirit can manage boards from 50 mm x 50 mm up to 810 mm x 480 mm. Our top-of-the-line equipment can pick and place parts ranging from ultra-small chips to the largest FPGAs.

Our in-house line is capable of surface mount, through-hole and mixed technology assemblies, able to trace a part all the way down to the reference designator on the board.

Assembly services can be custom tailored to your board. Spirit’s screening of both parts and fully assembled systems lets you manage high-reliability requirements and performance. Our account representatives can provide support and data throughout the process to give you visibility into your production schedule and results.

board assembly Contract Manufacturing full turnkey value-add service

EPC Introduces New eGaN FETs Reducing Size and Boosting Efficiency

EPC announced two new offerings in their eGaN FET product line with the EPC2065 and EPC2054. Both offer reductions in size and ultra-high efficiency.

The EPC2065 is ideal for small robotic applications, such as drones, in BLDC motor drives. With 80 V, 3.6 mΩ, 221 A_pulsed, the EPC2065 provides less noise and less EMI.

The even smaller EPC2054 can be used in wireless power transfer and automation, as well as lidar and solar. It comes in a 1.69 mm² package with 200 V, 3.6 mΩ, and 32 A_pulsed.

Both devices perform at high frequency and can be used in DC-DC converters and synchronous rectification.

In their 2021 Phase 12 Reliability Report, EPC affirmed GaN’s high reliability. The new GaN FETs join the family of devices paving the way for increasingly efficient, reliable, and powerful tech development.

EPC FET GaN

TI’s New ADC3660 Family Offers Speed, Efficiency and Control in Data Gathering

TI SAR ADCs available at Spirit Electronics

TI introduced its new ADC3660 family of successive-approximation register (SAR) analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). The eight new ADCs offer higher speeds and reduced power usage, leading the industry in speed with the fastest 18-bit ADC.

These new ADCs range from 10 to 125 MSPS. Sampling speeds include 14-, 16- and 18-bit resolutions. The product features ultra-low latency, up to 80% lower than competitive ADCs, and reduction of up to 65% in power consumption. The ADCs come in 5-mm-by-5mm thin quad flat no-lead (WQFN) packaging.

TI’s ADC3660 solutions support high-speed data gathering and offer real-time control in industrial applications such as portable defense radios, sonar imaging, and GPS. Improvements in latency allow precision data monitoring and quick response to voltage and current spikes.

ADC TI TI Authorized Distributor

Roadmap to Zero Defects

ELES uses Reliability Embedded Test Engineering (RETE) to help manufacturers improve their semiconductor design and component reliability. In the latest episode of our Spirit: Behind the Screen podcast, Marco Paolucci and Marti McCurdy discuss how the ELES approach is a safety net to prevent dangerous product failures.

ELES is an Italian manufacturer of test equipment and systems that exercise and qualify semiconductors around the world. Marco Paolucci is the sales and business development director delivering the ELES zero defect goal to Spirit and the US.

Marco explains how the ELES approach is a safety net to prevent dangerous product failures.

Your test and qualification process is only as good as your test equipment. Not only is Spirit building out a test lab with the best equipment on the market, but we are also offering capital equipment sales to support your test programs. Visit spiritelectronics.com/capital-equipment-sales / to learn more.

podcast reliability testing semiconductor testing

Category: Featured