Circuits Assembly articles from April 2002

Circuits Assembly archives from April 2002

Moving on.(Editorial)
April 1, 2002... When the electronics manufacturing market comes back, is it coming back to the U.S.? That's the million dollar--literally--question these days, isn't it? From where I sit in the Southeast, things aren't looking so good. In the past two...

Net gain: the latest the Internet has to offer.(Industry News)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Web sites worth mentioning www.asymtek.com This site now features an e-mail shipment notification system that alerts customers the day their machine is shipped and the day the machine arrives. With certain carriers, the system also tracks...

CCA expands resources.(Industry News)(California Circuit Board Association)
April 1, 2002... After 30 years of growing pains, the IPC California Circuit Board Association (CCA) has matured into a responsible and helpful trade association--a fact made clear at a recent meeting of the CCA's board of directors, held at the Hyatt Hotel in...

UP Media Group acquires CMP Media's PCB group.(Industry News)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Newly formed UP Media Group, Inc. (UPMG, Atlanta, GA) has announced the acquisition of CMP Media LLC's PCB group (Atlanta, GA), which includes Printed Circuit Design (PCD) magazine, Circuits Assembly (CA) magazine, PC FAB magazine and the PCB...

IPC announces TMRC dates, APEX totals.(Industry News)
April 1, 2002... The IPC (Northbrook, IL) has announced that the 2002 Spring Technology Market Research Council (TMRC) meeting will take place May 14-15, 2002, at the Hotel Inter-Continental in Chicago, IL. The theme for this year's meeting is "A New World."...

Intellectual property report made available.(Industry News)(International Interconnection Intelligence)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... International Interconnection Intelligence (III, Montara, CA) has just completed its latest intellectual property (IP) report--a comprehensive review of all waver-level package (WLP), chip-scale package (CSP), bottom leaded package (BLP) and...

January PCB stats.(Industry News)(IPC Northbrook, Illinois)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... IPC (Northbrook, IL) has released the U.S. PCB industry book-to-bill ratio for January 2002 as 1.01. Sales billed (shipments) in January 2002 decreased 48.5 percent over January 2001, and orders booked for January 2002 decreased 39.3...

IMAPS, SMTA announce hardware conference.(Industry News)
April 1, 2002... The first Telecom Hardware Solutions Conference and Exhibition, sponsored by IMAPS (Washington, D.C.) and the SMTA (Minneapolis, MN) will be held May 15-16, 2002, at the Doubletree Hotel in Plano, TX. The conference will focus on hardware...

Agilent names TTA as official channel partner.(Industry News)(Agilent Technologies Inc.)(Test Technology Associates)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Agilent Technologies, Inc. (Palo Alto, CA) and Test Technology Associates (TTA, Richardson, TX), a test programming house, have announced that TTA has been named an Agilent Channel Partner. TTA is diversifying and expanding its technology...

SMTA organizes conferences for upcoming shows.(Industry News)
April 1, 2002... The SMTA (Minneapolis, MN) is organizing two conference events for NEPCON West and FiberOptic Automation Expo on December 2-6, 2002, in San Jose, CA. Dr. Ken Gilleo, of Cookson Performance Solutions, is chairing both conferences. The...

Solectron Corp.(People)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Solectron Corp. (Milpitas, CA) has announced that Koichi Nishimura, the company's chairman, president and chief executive officer, has been selected to serve on the U.S.-Japan Private Sector/Government Commission. The commission was initiated...

IMAPS.(People)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... IMAPS (Washington, D.C.) has appointed Steve Capp to the position of treasurer. Capp is currently president and chief executive officer of Laserage Technology Corp. (Waukegan, IL). He is currently active in the Chicago/Milwaukee chapter of...

Qualcon.(People)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Qualcon (Flowery Branch, GA) has appointed Lisa Stovall to director of sales and marketing. She brings 12 years of successful business experience to the company. Stovall replaces Avery Wilson, company founder and vice president of sales and...

MRSI.(People)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... MRSI (North Billerica, MA) has announced the appointment of Bruno Miquel to the position of product manager. He will support company dispensing product lines, providing the interface between market needs and the internal company team. Miquel...

Bostik Findley, Inc.(People)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Greg Jones has been appointed as distribution group territory manager, responsible for sales of industrial products across a seven-state region, for Bostik Findley, Inc. (Middleton, MA). Jones is based in Ohio and oversees sales and related...

Events calendar.(Industry News)
April 1, 2002... April 2-5 Electrocoat 2002, Orlando, FL. Contact Anne Von Moll, (513) 527-8800; www.electrocoat.org/ecoat2002. 4-5 The Original SMT Bootcamp, Phoenix, AZ. Contact Process Sciences, Inc., (512)...

Flextronics Design, a business unit of Flextronics (San Jose, CA), and Ericsson Mobile Platforms (Richardson, TX) have announced the signing of a general engineering service agreement for Ericsson's reference designs and platforms for UMTS, the third generation of mobile phones.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Flextronics Design, a business unit of Flextronics (San Jose, CA), and Ericsson Mobile Platforms (Richardson, TX) have announced the signing of a general engineering service agreement for Ericsson's reference designs and platforms for UMTS, the...

UTZ Engineering (San Marcos, CA) has announced a corporate name change to UTZ Technologies, Inc.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... UTZ Engineering (San Marcos, CA) has announced a corporate name change to UTZ Technologies, Inc. The company, established in 1968, with complete operating facilities in Clifton, NJ, and San Marcos, CA, offers products and services on a national...

The Six Sigma Surface Mount Technology project's, sponsored by NCMS (Ann Arbor, MI), final report is now available.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... The Six Sigma Surface Mount Technology project's, sponsored by NCMS (Ann Arbor, MI), final report is now available. The project objective was to significantly improve assembly process yields, with an ultimate goal of developing a methodology to...

Technical Devices Co.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Technical Devices Co. (Torrance, CA) is proud to announce the celebration of its 50th year in the electronics manufacturing industry. The official year-long celebration began at APEX 2002--coinciding with the release of the company's updated...

Eltek Ltd.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Eltek Ltd. (Petach-Tikva, Israel), a manufacturer of advanced circuitry solutions, has announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding to purchase 76 percent of a privately held German printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturer for...

EST Testing Solutions (Zeeland, MI) announced the addition of a new test laboratory located in Plymouth, MI.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... EST Testing Solutions (Zeeland, MI) announced the addition of a new test laboratory located in Plymouth, MI. The laboratory will provide a full range of testing capabilities with a focus on electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testing. The new...

ECI Technology.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... ECI Technology (East Rutherford, NJ), a provider of cyclic voltammetric stripping (CVS) for copper electrodeposition bath analysis, introduced a newly established U.S. West Coast division responsible for developing and supporting the company's...

Technology Forecasters present Quarterly Forum at Siemens Dematic.(Market Watch)
April 1, 2002... Technology Forecasters, Inc. (TFI, Alameda, CA) recently presented a Quarterly Forum, Making the Right Software Investments: Software Best Practices for EMS and OEM Companies, at the Siemens Dematic Advanced Assembly Technology Center...

Teradyne expands Asian operations.(Asia Watch)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Since GenRad, Inc. (Westford, MA), a provider of electronics testing and production solutions, merged with Teradyne (Boston, MA) in October 2001, Patrick Tong of GenRad, who is based in the company's Hong Kong, China, office, has become the...

iSuppli expert identifies major shift.(Asia Watch)
April 1, 2002... While the rest of the global printed circuit board (PCB) fabrication industry fights a major battle due to a downturn in the electronics marketplace, the latest forecasts from iSuppli Corp.'s Market Intelligence Service Group (El Segundo, CA)...

Matsushita develops eco-friendly solder.(Asia Watch)(Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Ltd.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., (Osaka, Japan), a developer and manufacturer of electronics products for a wide range of consumer, business and industrial needs, has developed the industry's first tin/zinc lead-free solder that can be...

Autron and Assembleon announce partnership.(Asia Watch)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Autron Corp. Ltd. (Singapore), a system integrator and distributor of surface-mount equipment, and Royal Philips Electronics, a subsidiary of Assembleon NV (Eindhoven, the Netherlands and a manufacturer of surface-mount placement equipment,...

Assembly innovations: sweet dreams are made of these: a review of amazing new products and technologies.(On the Forefront)
April 1, 2002... The two premier trade shows in the electronics assembly industry are Productronica, held every other year in Munich, and APEX, held annually in California. Each is a showcase of new equipment and materials. If a manufacturer is going to present...

Reflow process anomalies: the reflow process is not new technology, so why does the process still confound some engineers? Les guides two readers through possible solutions for paste drop-through and ripples on joint surfaces.(Ask Les)
April 1, 2002... Q: I work with surface-mount assemblies that include a few leaded components and connectors. My facility is attempting to use the intrusive reflow process to solder these leaded items. The solder paste continually drops through the holes during...

Lead-free wave soldering: with the adoption of lead-free alloys in the electronics industry, soldering is the most critical assembly process!(Problem Solved - lead-free soldering)
April 1, 2002... Problem To manage a lead-free wave soldering process, a number of equipment and process issues to should be considered. Implementing a lead-free wave solder process requires a solid plan. One must ask: "How does lead-free soldering compare...

The backbone of circuit connections: a look at how wire harness and cable standards were developed by association partnerships.(Standard Features - circuit connections)
April 1, 2002... The transition from cancelled military standards to industry-developed standards has been in progress for many years. As liaison to committees developing standards for assembly and joining, I've already encountered the next generation in our...

Selective fluxing comes of age: a new fluxing technology offers advantages over conventional foam, spray and ultrasonic nozzle fluxers in wave soldering.(Wave Soldering)
April 1, 2002... Electronics manufacturers are in an increasingly competitive environment that places continual pressure on margins. To ensure profitability, every part of a manufacturing process must be examined and improved to increase yields and reduce...

New avenues for wave soldering and lead-free conversion: an electro-magnetic-based technology provides cost-effective lead-free wave soldering.(Wave Soldering)
April 1, 2002... Several areas still need researching when switching to lead-free solders. So far, most research projects have concentrated on the properties of the new solders and the reliability of the joints, as these factors are of immediate importance....

Automated reflow process control: a new system provides electronics assemblers with automated real-time control of their reflow process.(Reflow Soldering)
April 1, 2002... Process data is readily available for the screen printer and pick-and-place phases of surface-mount production. Thus, determining whether these steps are in control is a relatively simple task. However, until recently, this task has not been...

Solder preforms in electronic packaging: selecting the correct solder preform helps assemblers avoid the difficult task of dispensing paste in through holes.(Materials - printed circuit boards)
April 1, 2002... How many times have you looked at a mixed technology assembly job and wished you could eliminate the wave soldering step? Printing paste over or near a through hole is one method that engineers try, usually with marginal results. Dispensing...

All that glitters: gold edge contacts can become worn, damaged or contaminated by solder and must be either repaired and restored, or replaced.(Rework and Repair Depot)
April 1, 2002... Generally, two options are available to confront problem gold edge contacts: replace the contact or re-plate with gold. Both procedures result in a high conformance level of repair that is reliable and long lasting. Sizing up the Options...

"A-GIFT" from quality: quality results in meaningful improvements at your facility.(Guest View)(Editorial)
April 1, 2002... Some organizations perceive quality as a policing agent, a taker from the bottom line. Quality only shows tangible benefits once a problem occurs and the quality assurance (QA) organization steps in to provide guidance or corrective action. In...

Sanmina-SCI acquires manufacturing locations from Alcatel.(EMSI News, People, Places)
April 1, 2002... Sanmina-SCI Corp. (San Jose, CA), an electronics contract manufacturer, has announced the asset purchase of Alcatel's (Paris, France) manufacturing facilities in Cherbourg, France; Gunzenhausen, Germany; and Toledo, Spain. Financial terms of...

Tellium selects Jabil's turnkey services.(EMSI News, People, Places)(Tellium Inc.)(Jabil Circuit Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Tellium Inc. (Oceanport, NJ), a network solutions provider, has selected Jabil Circuit Inc. (St. Petersburg, FL), an electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider, to assemble circuit board and subassemblies for its Aurora family of core...

Aspect and Solectron announce agreement.(EMSI News, People, Places)(Aspect Communications Corp.)(Solectron Corp.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Aspect Communications Corp. (San Jose, CA), a provider of business communications solutions, and Solectron Corp. (Milpitas, CA) have announced an agreement under which Solectron will manufacture and repair Aspect's automated call distributor...

SMTC offers first quarter and 2001 results.(EMSI News, People, Places)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... SMTC Corp. (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), an electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider, has reported fourth quarter revenues of $132 million and an adjusted net loss, per share, of $0.19, before the amortization of goodwill, restructuring...

Plexus and Tessera sign agreement.(EMSI News, People, Places)(Plexus Corp.)(Tessera Technologies Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Plexus Corp. (Neenah, WI), a provider of engineering, manufacturing and testing services, and Tessera Technologies Inc. (San Jose, CA), a provider of intellectual property for chip-scale packaging (CSP), have signed a licensing and services...

Outsourcing smarter: five outsourcing mistakes that could have a deadly impact on your company's bottom line.(EMS Insight)
April 1, 2002... Outsourcing of electronics manufacturing continues to be popular. More original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are delegating a greater portion of their design, manufacturing and logistics processes to contract electronics manufacturers....

The customer is always right: how would customers rate your service? Several brave EMS providers allowed their customers to judge, and reward, excellence in customer service.(2002 Service Excellence Awards)
April 1, 2002... The 2002 Service Excellence Awards (SEAs) for Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) Providers is the only awards program honoring companies in the manufacturing industry for excelling in the critical area of customer service. This year is...

Color CCD camera.(Product Spotlight)
April 1, 2002... The CV-M77, a one chip 1/3" progressive scan RGB output color CCD camera for machine vision, medical imaging and other vision system applications, provides approximately 2.5 times higher pixel resolution (1034 x 779 versus 659 x 494) than the...

Life test system.(Product Spotlight)
April 1, 2002... The LD 960-32 life test system, for semiconductor laser diodes, uses patented conductive thermal control technology for precise control of diode temperature during the life test process. The system also allows laser diode manufacturers to...

Dual output converters.(Product Spotlight)
April 1, 2002... New 3.3V input, sub-miniature, 1W dual-output DC-DC converters offer space and component count savings to low-voltage industrial distributed power architectures requiring dual DC outputs from a single DC rail. Featuring a printed circuit board...

Washable rotary switches.(Product Spotlight)
April 1, 2002... The MR series of half-inch diameter, washable, printed circuit board (PCB) mount rotary switches are available in single, double and four pole versions. All models feature adjustable stopper settings, continuous rotation and break-before-make...

Label printer.(Product Spotlight)
April 1, 2002... The POD600 Print-on-Demand Label Presenter prints and presents custom labels on demand at 600 DPI. The product is supported by a software interface allowing for increased productivity. The system fits easily onto OEM pick-and-place machines by...

Mechanical drilling machine.(Product Spotlight)
April 1, 2002... Excellon 688 is a mechanical drilling machine with standard integrated microvia drilling. The six-spindle machine can drill blind vias to 0.101 mm, from any drill program on six stations, with low-energy spindles. Compact electronics allow...

Analog laser sensor.(Product Spotlight)
April 1, 2002... The BOD-66M analog laser sensor allows low-cost, long-range, continuous measurement of parameters such as distance, height and length in industrial applications. The sensor's 2 m range and new-technology background suppression allow for...

Dispense systems.(Product Spotlight)
April 1, 2002... Users of MRSI-170 and MRSI-175Ag dispense systems, with cartridge style pumps, now have the flexibility of swapping out changeable cartridges in minutes. The pump may be switched from a high-volume dispense application, such as dam and fill, to...

Conductive adhesive.(Product Spotlight)
April 1, 2002... QMI 527 is a silver-filled conductive adhesive for attachment of integrated circuits and components to advanced substrates including plastic ball grid arrays (PBGAs), chip-scale packages (CSPs), stacked die and array packages based on flexible...

Conveyor system.(Product Spotlight)
April 1, 2002... The Zone Control[TM] Conveyor system (ZCC) is an electronically controlled, non-contact transport and accumulation conveyor used for sensitive manufacturing processes that require buffering and accumulation, without product-to-product contact....

Silver-filled epoxy.(Product Spotlight)
April 1, 2002... Tra-Duct 2916 is a room temperature, electrically conductive, silver-filled epoxy recommended for electronic bonding, coating and sealing applications that require high flexibility. This two-part, smooth paste adhesive is free of solvents,...

Oscilloscope probes.(Product Spotlight)
April 1, 2002... A new series of microline oscilloscope probes are designed to speed up and simplify the testing of high frequency, high-density circuits in limited space areas. The new 500 MHz bandwidth probes provide the capability to test a broad range of...

Inline dispensing system.(Product Spotlight)
April 1, 2002... The Axiom[TM] X-1010, a mid-range, high-volume inline dispensing system for surface-mount applications, is a new platform incorporating features that allow higher levels of performance and accuracy. The system may be used for applications such...

Solder mask application.(Product Spotlight)
April 1, 2002... Manufactured for ball grid array (BGA) and chipscale package (CSP) applications, ecospheres[TM] are produced using a patented process. Spheres are formed between 0.152 and 0.762 mm in diameter, within tightly controlled tolerances. The product...

Bonding System.(Product Spotlight)
April 1, 2002... The B-3100 Series Bonding System is designed for joining heat seal connectors to liquid crystal displays (LCDs), printed circuit boards (PCBs) or other substrates using a well controlled, low-cost system. Each system contains a...

Power interface.(Product Spotlight)
April 1, 2002... The One-Piece Power interface (OPP Series) is rated at up to 5 amps and provides a rugged interface for power boards. Connectors are soldered to the main board and the power board is attached by either metric or English mechanical fasteners....

Fuseblock packaging.(Product Spotlight)
April 1, 2002... The OGN-SMD fuseblock series is specifically designed for surface-mount automation, with packaging options that allow faster pick and place at a lower cost. Pre-loaded with 5 x 20 mm fuses and optional cover, the product is inserted in one step...

Miniature line transformers.(Product Spotlight)
April 1, 2002... A new family of miniature asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) transformers reduce the amount of board space used on high-density access equipment. This reduction in board space enables service providers to increase the number of available...

LED Array.(Product Spotlight)
April 1, 2002... The new 10-Segment LED Array includes 10 horizontally-lit bars, plus programmable driver circuitry, all mounted on a mini circuit board that can either be plugged into a connector or soldered directly into a circuit. The array is a...

Chemical analyzer.(Product Spotlight)
April 1, 2002... The Quail-line[R] QLPC on-line chemical monitoring system (CMS) is designed specifically for control of the printed circuit board (PCB) production plating process. The system is a self-contained, fully automated analysis tool for closed-loop...

Oven cleaner.(Product Spotlight)
April 1, 2002... A new surface-mount oven cleaner removes all types of flux residues to revitalize and clean reflow ovens and wave soldering systems. The cleaner is designed to work with the heat of the oven--resulting in minimal downtime for production lines....