Title: Printed Circuit Handbook
Author(s): Clyde M. Coombs, Editor
Publisher:  McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing
Date Published: August 2001
Edition: Fifth
Pages: 1200
ISBN: 0071350160

If the building were on fire, on the way out the door, I'd grab the picture
of my wife from my desk and from the bookshelf my copies of Coombs' "Printed
Circuit Handbook" and Kline-Wassink's "Soldering In Electronics".

The "Printed Circuits Handbook" is THE printed circuit answer book,
resolving more workaday questions than any other single source in
electronics, covering the fundamentals of printed circuit design,
fabrication, assembly, test, and quality.  Top contributors from Motorola,
Cisco, Compaq, Agilent, Hewlett-Packard, and other major companies have
authored chapters.

This handbook does everything correct.  Even with almost 50 chapter authors,
the book refers to material in other chapters, has minimal repetition
between chapters, is well written and edited, and contains a comprehensive
glossary and an index that is useful.  AND it includes a CD-ROM with the
entire book in searchable format [although only one chapter at a time],
which is very cool, because when you need an answer, there are few things
more frustrating than being unable to find the answer that you KNOW is in
the book.

As the reader would expect by the time a book reaches this level of
refinement, improvements to the "Printed Circuits Handbook", which is an
outstanding book, are incremental.  Owners of the fourth edition should
determine if the improved chapter-to-chapter flow, the rewritten and focused
chapters, and the updated and expanded content of this edition suit their
needs.

The book contains 60 chapters grouped in the following ten sections:
Section 1: "Introduction To Printed Circuits" introduces electronic
packaging and high-density interconnect, semiconductor packaging, advanced
packaging [i.e., SOP/SOC, MCM, etc.], and the types of printed wiring
boards.
Section 2: "Materials" discusses base materials and their components,
fabrication processes, and properties; issues of increasing densities;
properties of base materials that require qualification; HDI microvia
materials; and laminate qualification and testing.
Section 3: "Engineering And Design" overviews physical characteristics of
PCB; design process; electrical and mechanical design parameters; controlled
impedance; multilayer design considerations; and manufacturing issues of
planning, information requirements, and contract assembly.
Section 4: "High-Density Interconnect" covers HDI generally and the
specifics of build-up and microvia technologies.
Section 5: "Fabrication Processes" focuses on drilling, imaging, plating
[i.e., electroplating, direct plating, electroless copper], etching and
resists, machining, and testing of bare boards.
Section 6: "Assembly" concentrates on the production processes for printed
circuit assemblies.
Section 7: "Soldering" addresses design for soldering and solderability,
solder materials and processes, no-clean assembly process, lead-free
soldering, fluxes and cleaning, and press-fit connections.
Section 8: "Quality Control And Reliability" describes acceptability of
fabricated boards and assemblies, assembly inspection, design for testing,
loaded board testing, and printed circuit assembly and component-to-PWB
reliability.
Section 9: "Environmental Issues And Waste Treatment" reviews the changing
environment for process waste minimization and treatment for board
fabricators.
Section 10: "Flexible Circuits" outlines applications and materials, design,
manufacturing, termination, special constructions, and quality assurance of
flexible circuits

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