Circuits Assembly articles from January 2004

Circuits Assembly archives from January 2004

The art of negotiation.(Editorial)
January 1, 2004... One of the most insidious words in this industry today is partnership. Killer line. Wish I could have said it. Instead, it came from Charlie Barnhart of Technology Forecasters, Inc. (TFI) at that company's recent Quarterly Forum at...

The latest the internet has to offer.(NETgain)
January 1, 2004... Web Sites Worth Mentioning www.cadtransformers.com This site provides online collaboration for the electronics industry. The completely Web-based service provides a printed circuit board and schematic viewer with markup tools that helps...

Cookson Electronics launches CE Analytics.(Industry News)
January 1, 2004... Responding to the electronics and surface finishing industries' growing need for qualified analytical resources to help solve specific and complex application problems, Cookson Electronics (Foxborough, MA, www.cooksonelectronics.com) has...

Ticona, LPFK sign license agreement.(Industry News)
January 1, 2004... LPKF Laser & Electronics (Wilsonville, OR, www.lpkfusa.com) has entered a know-how and license agreement with Ticona (Kelsterbach, Germany) for the material Vectra liquid crystal polymer (LCP). The agreement enables Ticona to modify its LCP...

Feinfocus partners with BIR.(Industry News)
January 1, 2004... Feinfocus (Stamford, CT, www.feinfocus.com) has announced a partnership with Bio-Imaging Research Inc. (BIR, Lincolnshire, IL, www.bio-imaging.com), a manufacturer of computed tomography (CT)/digital radiography (DR) systems. BIR will supply...

Juki, Universal sign business alliance.(Industry News)
January 1, 2004... Juki Corp. (Tokyo, Japan, www.jas-smt.com), a manufacturer of mid-range surface-mount equipment, and Universal Instruments Corp. (Binghamton, NY, www.universalinstruments.com), a manufacturer of surface-mount equipment, have signed a...

FlexLink Systems.(In Brief)
January 1, 2004... FlexLink Systems (Bethlehem, PA) has promoted Paul Jarossy to marketing manager for the Americas. Jarossy has held various product and segment management positions since he joined the company five years ago. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

ASAT Holdings Ltd. (Hong Kong, China) and ASAT Inc.(In Brief)
January 1, 2004... ASAT Holdings Ltd. (Hong Kong, China) and ASAT Inc. (Pleasanton, CA) have appointed Jay Carlos Nunez as vice president of North American sales. During his career, Nunez has held numerous senior level management positions at semiconductor...

SMTC Corp.(In Brief)
January 1, 2004... SMTC Corp. (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) recently appointed John Caldwell as interim president and chief executive officer (CEO), replacing Paul Walker, founding partner and CEO. Caldwell is a member of SMTC's board of directors and previously...

GE Global Electronic Solutions.(In Brief)
January 1, 2004... GE Global Electronic Solutions (San Diego, CA) has appointed Roger Innes, a founder of Equipment Lifecycle Management for the semiconductor industry, as Managing Director-Capital Markets and Business Expansion. Innes was co-founder and...

DEK (San Jose, CA) has named Raj Lakhotia to the position of financial controller for U.S. operations.(In Brief)
January 1, 2004... DEK (San Jose, CA) has named Raj Lakhotia to the position of financial controller for U.S. operations. Lakhotia has over a decade of financial management experience and has spent the last seven years of his career in the semiconductor industry....

Wolf Electronix.(In Brief)
January 1, 2004... Wolf Electronix (Orem, UT) has promoted Dennis Gleason to senior vice president and Wallace Harkness to director of marketing and sales. Gleason will manage current and future customers' needs, and Harkness will enhance his current...

Elcoteq, Siemens enter manufacturing agreement.(Industry News)
January 1, 2004... Elcoteq Network Corp. (Irving, TX, www.elcoteq.com), a provider of electronics manufacturing services (EMS), and the Networks Division of Siemens Information and Communication Mobile Group (Munich, Germany, www.siemens-mobile.com) have signed...

SMTA announces Pan Pacific Symposium program, keynotes.(Industry News)
January 1, 2004... The ninth annual Pan Pacific Microelectronics Symposium and Exhibit will take place on Feb. 10-12, 2004, at the Turtle Bay Resort, Kahuku, Oahu, HI. The event promotes international technical interchange and provides a forum for networking...

Productronica 2003: the numbers are in.(Industry News)
January 1, 2004... Messe Munchen GmbH, the organizers of Productronica (www.productronica.de), the electronics manufacturing tradeshow that occurred Nov. 11-14, 2003, in Munich Germany, recently released exhibitor and attendance numbers for the show. ...

Powell-Mucha Consulting to present EMS tutorial at APEX.(Apex News)
January 1, 2004... Why aren't there only three large electronics manufacturing services (EMS) providers dictating pricing to original equipment manufacturer (OEM) customers as has been predicted for nearly five years? How can EMS providers differentiate their...

IPC announces APEX/Printed Circuits Expo 2004 keynotes.(Apex News)
January 1, 2004... IPC (Northbrook, IL, www.ipc.org) has announced the three keynote speakers for its APEX/Printed Circuits Expo/Designers Summit exhibition and conference, taking place Feb. 22-26 at the Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, CA. Michael...

Kulicke & Soffa, Nidec Tosok form alliance.(Focus On: HDI/Advanced Technology)
January 1, 2004... Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc. (K&S, Willow Grove, PA, www.kns.com) and Nidec Tosok Corp. (Tosok, Zama City, Japan, www.tosok.co.jp) have agreed to combine products and technologies to provide integrated solutions for high-speed, reel-to-reel...

DALSA selects EV Group to supply MEMS wafer bonding equipment.(Focus On: HDI/Advanced Technology)
January 1, 2004... EV Group (EVG, Scharding, Austria, www.evgroup.com), a manufacturer of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), nano and semiconductor wafer processing equipment has been selected by DALSA Semiconductor (Waterloo, ON, Canada, www.dalsa.com), a...

RFID in the supply chain: the Wal-Mart factor.(Market Watch)
January 1, 2004... Venture Development Corp. (VDC, Natick, MA, www.vdc-corp.com) attended the Wal-Mart radio frequency identification (RFID) meeting in Springdale, AR, in November 2003. Wal-Mart announced in June of last year that it will require their suppliers...

ECA cautious despite continued growth in components.(Market Watch)
January 1, 2004... Electronic component orders continued their upward movement in October 2003, according the Electronic Components, Assemblies & Materials Association (ECA, Arlington, VA, www.eccentral.org). October marked the third consecutive month of gains...

October 2003 Book-to-Bill.
January 1, 2004... Climbing for the sixth consecutive month, the North American IMS/PCB Industry Book-to-Bill Ratio for October 2003 was 1.18. The ratio is calculated by averaging the index numbers for orders booked over the past three months and dividing by the...

Li appointed president of Data I/O China.(Asia Watch)
January 1, 2004... Data I/O Corp. (Redmond, WA) has announced the appointment of Robert C. M. Li, Ph.D., as president of Data I/O China. Dr. Li grew up in China and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese as well as English. After spending several years in academia...

Is China alpha or omega for the rest of the world?(Asia Watch)
January 1, 2004... A new, free white paper from In-Stat/MDR (Scottsdale, AZ, www.instat.com) addresses a number of questions with regard to China and its continuing and significant impacts on the rest of the world. As the U.S. continues to lose dominance in...

Nam Tai subsidiary J.I.C. expands.(Asia Watch)
January 1, 2004... Nam Tai Electronics Inc. (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, www.namtai.com), an electronics manufacturing and design services provider, has announced that its Hong Kong subsidiary, J.I.C. Technology Co. Ltd., an LCD panel manufacturer, has...

International Rectifier breaks ground in Xi'an.(Asia Watch)
January 1, 2004... International Rectifier Corp. (IR, EI Segundo, CA, www.irf.com) broke ground in October 2003 on a new manufacturing site in Xi'an, China. The new assembly and test facility, which will manufacture key power management components needed to...

Cadence inaugurates Beijing IC system design institute.(Asia Watch)
January 1, 2004... Cadence Design Systems Inc. (San Jose, CA, www.cadence.com), Beijing Zhongguancun Software Education Investment Co. Ltd. (Beijing, China)--a consortium of investment companies, and the Beijing government have opened the $30 million Zhongguancun...

Future R&D for the electronics industry: who's in charge? Can the lost art of R&D be regained?(On the Forefront)
January 1, 2004... With recovery on the way, the electronics industry is experiencing the need for new materials, process developments and reliability analysis. Where will the research and development come from? Who will pay for it? The Old Days In the...

Publishing an industry--consensus standard: the pros and cons of an open process.(Standard Features)
January 1, 2004... The IPC Technical Department is preparing for an audit by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). As audits go, it will be pretty typical. We will set out stacks of papers, and the auditor will examine them for errors. A question will...

Optimizing solder paste for wafer bumping: this investigation examines the variables of wafer bumping using solder paste printing techniques.(Wafer Bumping)
January 1, 2004... Solder paste is used for an array of electronics assembly applications and is finding more uses for the microelectronic and semiconductor industry. Wafer or substrate bumping, which is creating bumps or interconnects on wafers and substrates...

2-D or 3-D inspection: do you have to choose? Flexibility in x-ray inspection combines 2-D real-time imaging with 3-D axial computed tomography.(Test & Inspection)
January 1, 2004... The role played by x-ray systems in the inspection of today's electronic assemblies is well understood. Unlike machine vision and optical inspection equipment, x-ray systems penetrate materials to expose hidden solder joints on area array...

Reliable solder joints for 0201s; a summary of the eutectic and lead-free solder reliability testing that has been performed while developing the 0201 process.(0201s)
January 1, 2004... Over the past few years, numerous experiments have been conducted to design a robust process for 0201 assembly. (1-6) Optimal pad designs have been developed, stencil designs have been fine tuned, pick-and-place equipment has been evaluated,...

Welcome to Circuits Assembly's 2004 Buyer's Guide.(Product and Service Listings)(Cover Story)
January 1, 2004... The Product Listings (pg. 33-43) are ordered alphabetically, from Adhesives to Wire Processing. Associations, Exhibition Companies and Training Centers (pg. 33), Manufacturers' Representatives (pg.37) and Services (pg.40) are also listed in...

Supplier listings.(Cover Story)
January 1, 2004... A A-Laser, Inc. 6190 SW Arctic Dr Beaverton, OR 97005 tel: 503-641-9428, fax: 503-643-7698 web: http://A-Laser.com A.P.E. 106240 Overseas Hwy Key Largo, FL 33037 tel: 305-451-4722, fax: 305-451-3374 ...

#1--Witness the difference.(Assembly Insider: Special Advertising Section)
January 1, 2004... Leading the x-ray inspection field of competitors, Dage announces the XiDAT a groundbreaking Digital X-Ray System with outstanding image resolution, grayscale analysis and ease of operation. The XiDAT system acquires images with a resolution of...

Stay cool in critical applications.(Assembly Insider: Special Advertising Section)
January 1, 2004... T-CAT, or Thermal Compound Application Technology, is the direct result of the need for a quicker, easier, more accurate, and much more cost effective way of applying heat-dissipating compounds to critical components. Instead of applying...

X-ray inspection system.(APEX Product Preview)
January 1, 2004... The Dual-VU is a real-time x-ray inspection system with added vision image display. Unlike other x-ray inspection systems, this one provides simultaneous and congruent images of the device under inspection. The system provides both vision and...

Miniature magnetic rotary encoders.(APEX Product Preview)
January 1, 2004... The new line of frictionless 9-bit (512 count) miniature magnetic encoders is available in industry-standard absolute, incremental or linear output formats. Speeds of over 30,000 rpm can be achieved with measurement accuracy better than...

Wave solder probe kit.(APEX Product Preview)
January 1, 2004... The low-cost wave solder probe kit can now adapt your Reflow Tracker Thermal Profiling System for monitoring the wave soldering process. Users can view all the critical wave process parameters in one easy-to-read table. The Insight software...

Robotic soldering systems.(APEX Product Preview)
January 1, 2004... The ECHO benchtop selective robotic solder system with Geyan solder feeder eliminates the possibility of solder balls or spattering. Fixturing capabilities securely hold even the most difficult parts, multiple wires or unusual configurations in...

Placement head.(APEX Product Preview)
January 1, 2004... The Lightning placement head has a radial array of 30 modular, individually controlled spindles. The head has a duty cycle of 60 ms--a pick-to-pick or place-to-place performance that delivers chipshooting speeds in a platform system that...

Lead-free solder paste.(APEX Product Preview)
January 1, 2004... To help electronic assemblers meet the rapidly growing global initiatives requiring the removal of lead from their processes, ALPHA OM-338 lead-free solder paste provides soldering performance and a low cost of ownership. In addition, the...

Tape dispenser.(APEX Product Preview)
January 1, 2004... The TDA080 electronic heavy-duty tape dispenser automatically dispenses and cuts virtually any tape, including duct tape. The dispenser is designed for continuous industrial use, accepts tape widths from 0.375 in. (9.5 mm) to 3.15 in. (80 mm)...

Lead-free solder paste.(APEX Product Preview)
January 1, 2004... NC-SMQ230 is an air reflow, no-clean solder paste specifically formulated to accommodate the high processing temperatures required by Sn/Ag/Cu and Sn/Ag lead-free alloy systems. The paste features extended stencil life and tack time. ...

Reworkable underfill encapsulant.(APEX Product Preview)
January 1, 2004... CN-1453 is a new, silica-filled reworkable underfill encapsulant used to underfill flip chips, wafer level chip-scale packages (CSPs), CSPs and ball grid array (BGAs). Removal of defective components is accomplished by heating the component and...

X-ray inspection system.(APEX Product Preview)
January 1, 2004... The TIGER (FXS-160.40) x-ray system now offers proprietary True X-Ray Intensity (TXI) control to assist operators in identifying production anomalies with consistent x-ray images. Unlike conventional techniques for maintaining image consistency...

Manufacturing software.(APEX Product Preview)
January 1, 2004... The Navipoint Enterprise Performance Suite provides original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) with real-time visibility to operational information so that employees, customers and suppliers can be more responsive. It analyzes and presents...

Stencil system.(APEX Product Preview)
January 1, 2004... VectorGuard is an advanced stencil technology that is easier to handle than conventional stencils. It is surrounded by a thin aluminum extrusion that makes it lighter, and, with the risks from sharp edges eliminated, it enhances operator...

Split vision rework station.(APEX Product Preview)
January 1, 2004... The Marksman Intruder offers placement and reflow for all types of boards and components, including ball grid array (BGA) and lead-free applications. The station features a convection panel preheat system available in 900 W, 1600 W and 2400 W...

Tape feeders.(APEX Product Preview)
January 1, 2004... The fast-loading Agilis feeder is now available for 12 and 16 mm tapes. In addition to the new feeder sizes, MYDATA is introducing a new magazine with linear motion, which offer smooth, high speed and precision feeding, for 0201s or smaller...

Lead-free solder paste.(APEX Product Preview)
January 1, 2004... Multicore LF320 is a lead-free solder paste optimized for reflow in air on a range of printed circuit board (PCB) assembly applications. Reflow profiles may also be extended with nitrogen. The paste requires a minimum peak reflow temperature of...