Circuits Assembly articles from April 2006

Circuits Assembly archives from April 2006

Finger pointing.(Caveat Lector)
April 1, 2006... So now China's heavy-handed approach to human rights is the tech industry's fault. For those who have better things to do than follow C-SPAN all day, here are the accusations Congress is leveling at our industry (courtesy of the Associated...

EPIC Technologies.(In Brief)
April 1, 2006... EMS provider EPIC Technologies (epictech.com) completed a rapid deployment of Camstar's (camstar.com) Medical Device Suite to control production for the electronic top housing of a new transdermal drug delivery device. EPIC jointly developed...

DEK.(In Brief)
April 1, 2006... DEK's (dek.com) Shekou, China, manufacturing facility has obtained ISO 9001 quality management system certification, following an independent assessment by accreditation body BSI.

Digi-Key.(In Brief)
April 1, 2006... Digi-Key (digikey.com) will distribute Taiyo Yuden's (yuden.us) line of surface-mount and leaded passive components.

Aqueous Technologies Corp.(In Brief)
April 1, 2006... Aqueous Technologies Corp. (aqueous tech.com) appointed Kurt Whitlock Assoc. as its representative in Florida.

Cobar BV.(In Brief)
April 1, 2006... Cobar BV (cobar.com) is the latest solder vendor to use color-coding packaging to distinguish its Pb-bearing from Pb-free materials. Pb-free solder pastes will now be packaged in green containers.

DesignAdvance Systems.(In Brief)
April 1, 2006... DesignAdvance Systems (designadvance.com), an EDA and CAD software developer, has secured $3 million in funding and has debuted its first product, Circuit-Space. Partners include Cadence, Mentor and Valor.

Sparton Corp.(In Brief)
April 1, 2006... EMS provider Sparton Corp. (sparton.com) won three contracts worth more than $24 million to manufacture sonobuoys for the U.S. Navy. Production will take place in Sparton's DeLeon Springs, FL, facility and is expected to be completed by June...

Kulicke & Soffa Industries.(In Brief)
April 1, 2006... Kulicke & Soffa Industries (kns.com) will sell its wafer test assets to SV Probe (svprobe.com) and its package test assets to Investcorp Technology Ventures (investcorp.com), and tighten its focus on semiconductor assembly equipment and...

Endicott Interconnect and VisiLED.(In Brief)
April 1, 2006... Endicott Interconnect (endicott interconnect.com) and VisiLED (visiled.com) entered a development and manufacturing agreement for LED lights for medical offices.

EMS firms continue buying ways.(Industry NEWS)
April 1, 2006... Boston -- EMS firms are on a first-quarter merger and expansion spree that makes up in quantity what it lacks in size. Top tier EMS firm Celestica (celestica.com) in February acquired the Philippines manufacturing operations of Powerwave...

Solectron raising $150M.(Industry NEWS)
April 1, 2006... Cayman Islands -- Solectron Corp.'s (solectron.com) financial arm has sold $150 million worth of 8% notes. The transaction was conducted by Solectron Global Finance Ltd., an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of Solectron based in the Cayman...

Malaysia: the quiet hot spot.(Industry NEWS)
April 1, 2006... Kuala Lumpur -- Overlooked by the media, but not by investors, Malaysia continues to be a quiet hot spot for foreign investment in electronics manufacturing. Outside investors poured $4.9 billion into manufacturing facilites in Malaysia...

Reptron Electronics.(People)
April 1, 2006... Reptron Electronics appointed Chris O'Brien as VP of sales and marketing. He has been an executive with Nu Horizons Electronics, Arrow/Wyle Electronics and Marshall Industries/Sterling Electronics.

FocalSpot.(People)
April 1, 2006... FocalSpot named David Phillips operations manager and Rolando Asuncion production manger. Phillips previously served at Nicolet Imaging Systems/SRT, GenRad, Teradyne and SAIC. Asuncion also previously worked at GenRad/Nicolet and Teradyne.

OK International.(People)
April 1, 2006... Tom Seratti joined OK International as VP of global sales and marketing. He previously ran Marshall Industries/Avnet Production Supply and Test.

EPIC Technologies.(People)
April 1, 2006... EPIC Technologies promoted Todd Baggett to vice president of business development and an officer of the company. He was previously director of business development.

Data I/O Corp.(People)
April 1, 2006... Data I/O Corp. appointed Megan Miller as director of marketing. Miller served at Data I/O from 1986 to 1998, and rejoined the company in 2002 after working for an enterprise software company.

Henkel.(People)
April 1, 2006... Henkel promoted Dr. Gordon Fischer to vice president of sales, marketing and technical service, Americas. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Promation Inc.(People)
April 1, 2006... Kevin Brennan joined Promation Inc. as sales manager, PCB Handling Solutions division.

VJ Electronix.(People)
April 1, 2006... VJ Electronix hired Robert Kerwin as worldwide service manager. He joins from Brooks Automation where he was director of North American field service.

Cencorp Corp.(People)
April 1, 2006... Cencorp Corp. appointed Timo Hannukainen as vice president, quality and HR. He has worked in quality management at Nokia since 1994.

SMT Resource Group.(People)
April 1, 2006... After five years at SMT Resource Group, Philip Newbury has established a new company, Ananta Enterprises, that provides used SMT assembly equipment market.

Orbotech S.A.(People)
April 1, 2006... Orbotech S.A. named Joachim Barthold VP of sales for Central Europe and customer support for electronics assembly Europe. He has been with Orbotech since 1999 and was managing director of Orbotech's R & D center for electronics assembly in...

Circuits Assembly launches blog.(Industry NEWS)
April 1, 2006... Atlanta -- CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY has launched its new Web log featuring up-to-the-minute reports and commentary on the electronics manufacturing industry. The Web log (or "blog") is managed by CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY editor in chief Mike Buetow, and...

SMTA, IPC cite best papers.(Industry NEWS)
April 1, 2006... Minneapolis -- Shatil Haque of Lumileds Lighting (Malaysia), Julia Y. Zhao of Analog Devices and Lars Boettcher of Fraunhofer IZM Berlin took home best paper honors for the SMTA International conference in September 2005. Michael Freda of...

New iNEMI roadmap to include printed electronics.(Industry NEWS)
April 1, 2006... Herndon, VA -- With products using organic or printed electronics coming online in prototypes, the emerging technology will be highlighted in International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative's 2007 Roadmap. The technologies are required...

Circuits Assembly parent partners with netComponents.(Industry NEWS)
April 1, 2006... Atlanta -- UP Media Group Inc. (upmediagroup.com) and netCOMPONENTS (netcomponents.com) will provide a parts search capability on the Websites of Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture (pcdandm.com) and CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY (circuitsassembly.com)....

Jabil lands FAA repair certification.(Industry NEWS)
April 1, 2006... Billerica, MA -- Jabil Circuit (jabil.com) in March announced that its facility here has been granted Federal Aviation Administration repair station certification. This certification permits Jabil to provide repair and support services on...

China RoHS law available, starts March 1, 2007.(Industry NEWS)
April 1, 2006... Beijing -- China has issued its version of the Restriction of Hazardous Substances directive; the Chinese version was promulgated on Feb. 28 and takes effect March 1, 2007. An copy of the law in English is available at...

UK RoHS study shows cos. won't be ready.(Industry NEWS)
April 1, 2006... London -- A survey conducted by the SMART Group during its annual Lead-Free Seminar in February found the majority of respondents will either not be ready or are uncertain about meeting requirements by the compliance date. Also, a large number...

Study: cost not top factor in siting R & D.(Industry NEWS)
April 1, 2006... Kansas City, MO -- A study of more than 200 multinational companies across 15 industries found that intellectual capital and university collaboration--and not just lower costs--are primary attractions for companies to locate R & D activities in...

Correction.(Correction notice)
April 1, 2006... In the February 2006 issue, page 34, an incorrect unit was provided for force. The correct units are newtons or pounds. We regret the error.

Militarily speaking.(Market WATCH)
April 1, 2006... Trends in the U.S. electronics equipment market (shipments only). % Change Nov. Dec. (r) Jan.* YTD % Computers and electronics...

Key manufacturing index looking good.(Market WATCH)
April 1, 2006... Tempe, AZ -- The PMI index of U.S. manufacturing rose in February as the sector grew for the 33rd straight month. The February PMI rose 1.9 points to 56.7%, according to the latest Institute for Supply Management (ism.ws) poll. A score over 50%...

Industry market snapshot.(Market WATCH)
April 1, 2006... Book-to-bills of various components/equipment. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Semiconductor equipment (1) 0.90 0.95 0.93 0.96 0.97 Semiconductors (2) 5.2% 6.75% 7.2%...

ATE gear sales improving.(Market WATCH)
April 1, 2006... Palo Alto, CA -- Makers of automatic test equipment for PCBs are likely to obtain a major share of their revenues from functional testing and the boundary scan segment in the next five years. Frost & Sullivan (frost.com) in February projected...

December server sales down.(Market WATCH)
April 1, 2006... Framingham, MA -- Fourth quarter sales of servers fell 0.2% year-over-year to $14.5 billion, the first such drop since the first quarter of 2003, IDC (idc.com) said. Worldwide unit shipment growth slowed to 10.6%. Volume systems grew 7.3%...

Fabrinet: inquisitive and acquisitive.(Talking Heads)(Interview)
April 1, 2006... Don't be surprised if you walk into a Fabrinet manufacturing plant and recognize someone from JDS Uniphase. The Thailand-based EMS company has purchased no less than six plants from JDSU, one of its biggest customers. It's one big reason why,...

Improving business intelligence: new tools keep your shop running like a finely tuned engine.(Global Sourcing)
April 1, 2006... Ever been driving along in your car, glanced down at the dashboard and seen the CHECK ENGINE light on? The first thought that goes through your mind is, How long has that been on? You wonder when it was you last actually looked at your...

From hospital to home: the next advance in medical electronics is treatment that electronically links patient to specialist, a move that can sharply cut costs.(On the Forefront)
April 1, 2006... Medical electronics is alive and well in the U.S., and will probably remain centered here far into the future. The medical electronics field is advancing on many fronts, from massive imaging machines to small portable and personal products....

What do we control? Optimizing a process with limited access to process factors.(Screen Printing)
April 1, 2006... If all the individual manufacturing steps required to assemble a "typical" circuit board are evaluated, one step is truly a process: material printing. No other step requires the integration and optimization of as many individual factors to...

Would you buy a used machine from this guy? What to do if you can't find an oven owned by a little old lady who only soldered on Sundays.(Better Manufacturing)
April 1, 2006... "If you're offered a pizza with mushrooms at a Grateful Dead concert, it probably isn't what you think it is."--Anonymous With every new package or material the demands on processes increase and change. So, too, must equipment. However,...

The effect of an optimized reflow oven recipe on energy use: better thermal profiling and process optimization tools reduce energy use.(Thermal Profiling)
April 1, 2006... Ed.: For the full article, please visit circuitsassembly.com/cms/content/view/3024/ Due to the higher melting point of SnAgCu alloys, higher reflow soldering temperatures are required for Pb-free PCB assembly. Consequently, reflow oven...

How nanotechnology applies to electronics: active programs are evaluating the use of nano-sized tin, silver and copper particles in Pb-free solders that can be processed below 200[degrees]C.
April 1, 2006... Following completion of the 2004 International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative Roadmap, a conference on innovation was convened at which international speakers and participants looked at how the industry could extricate itself from what...

Conversion of ongoing products to RoHS compliance: the cumbersome process is filled with minutia and hiccups.(Part Conversion)
April 1, 2006... Ed.: For the full article, please visit circuitsassembly.com/cms/content/view/3026/ Rabbit Semiconductor has about 615 products on the market. Building these products uses almost 4,000 component manufacturer part numbers and over 1,400...

The creation and building of a Pb-free product: a case study in designing and building Pb-free 128Mb USB memory modules.(Pb-Free Case Study)
April 1, 2006... Ed.: For the full article, please visit circuitsassembly.com/cms/content/view/3025/ Over the past five years, Speedline Technologies has actively worked with numerous customers on Pb-free process implementation, both in process equipment...

New standards on tin whisker mitigation: a soon-to-be-released GEIA standard covers strategies for high-rel electronics.(Soldering Tips)
April 1, 2006... For the past several months, industry has scrambled to bring its components into compliance with the RoHS directive. The emergency drill has been mostly about whether companies can become compliant by the legislated deadline of July 1, 2006....

Preventing micro solderballs: it all starts with the right soldermask and flux.(Wave Soldering)
April 1, 2006... Tiny solder balls that stick to the solder side of the assembly after wave soldering are a type of soldering defect that has become more of a problem due to several new developments: [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] [FIGURE 2 OMITTED] *...

BGA opens detection: a DfT approach; How an oval pad design aided defect detection using x-ray inspection.(Test and Inspection)
April 1, 2006... For ball grid array packaging, the high number of hidden solder joints combined with the inability to verify defects with visual or electrical inspection leads to the need for other techniques. Specifically, BGA opens continue to be one of...

A common solution for materials declaration: the new IPC-1750 series standardizes the collection, tracking and disclosing of material content.(Countdown to Pb-Free)
April 1, 2006... Ed.: The IPC-1750 standards and users guide are available as a free download at ipc.org/175x. For the complete article, see circuitsassembly.com/cms/content/view/2987. The European Union's RoHS Directive is driving electronics...

Stray voltage on low standoff components: the Doctor diagnoses an acute weak organic acid problem.(Process Doctor)
April 1, 2006... This is a short excerpt of a patient visit with the Process Doctor. This is a fictional depiction of an industry problem and customer communication. Any similarities to any actual conversations are purely coincidental. Client: One specific...

Managing the project: Transition Automation's self-cleaning squeegee.(Equipment Advances)
April 1, 2006... The Permalex Paste Manager self-cleaning squeegee is said to eliminate solder paste sticking to squeegees. The squeegee swipes away solder paste after each print stroke, eliminating interruptions to the printing cycle to manage the solder paste...

Portable XRF analyzer.(Product PREVIEW)
April 1, 2006... Niton XLt 797 series x-ray fluorescent analyzer has a new algorithm to help ensure RoHS compliance by testing for cadmium, mercury, lead, chromium and bromine in real-time. Provides rapid screening of components, PCBs and completed assemblies,...

Compact rework system.(Product PREVIEW)
April 1, 2006... Fineplacer CRS 10 offers a fixed configuration for small- to medium-scale series assembly or rework of soldered components on medium to large SM boards. Features a plug-and-work design, vision alignment system with stationary beam splitter,...

Flexible screen printer.(Product PREVIEW)
April 1, 2006... Horizon 03i is equipped with the Instinciv user interface, optimized frame for mechanical and thermal stability, and ISCAN control area network to support advanced features. Has 12-sec. cycle time. Paired with HawkEye post-print verification...

Fine-pitch aqueous cleaner.(Product PREVIEW)
April 1, 2006... Aquanox A4520T cleans under low standoffs and in tight spaces caused by smaller, more heavily populated devices. Effective on Pb-free, no-clean and eutectic materials. Works at low temperatures and low concentrations. Effective without sump...

No-flow underfill.(Product PREVIEW)
April 1, 2006... NF260 is a Pb-free, reworkable, air-reflowable, no-flow underfill. Is said to deliver increased reliability one order of magnitude over other underfills and two orders of magnitude over using no underfill. Integrates with existing SMT processes...

Rework station.(Product PREVIEW)
April 1, 2006... Summit 1800A Pb-free rework system has a 65-mm alignment field of view with digital and optical zoom and split image. Has programmable, motor-controlled top heater positioning and independent pick-up motion. Includes motor-controlled board...

Static dissipative work surface material.(Product PREVIEW)
April 1, 2006... Dualmat RoHS-compliant material is an industrial grade elastomer for use on tables and grounded workbench surfaces. Its 0.08" thickness adds durability and prevents curling. Meets standards for surface resistivity in all humidities. Has low...

In case you missed it.(Technical Abstracts)
April 1, 2006... Design "PCB Design and Assembly Process Development of 01005 Components with Lead Free Solder" Authors: Yueli Liu, Shaunte Rodgers and Dr. R. Wayne Johnson; johnson@eng.auburn.edu. Abstract: Chip components in 01005 dimensions are...