Circuits Assembly articles from July 2003

Circuits Assembly archives from July 2003

Misery loves company?(Editorial)
July 1, 2003... Ioften attend local networking meetings for business publication editors. These cocktail hours give the journalists present a chance to see how other publishing companies are doing more with fewer resources and braving today's economy. Blah,...

www.snd.com.(Web Sites Worth Mentioning)(Smart Network Devices GmbH)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... SND, a hybrid distributor of electronic components and computer and communications products, has added both traditional and simplified Chinese to its multilingual Web site. The company is one of the largest Intel and Microsoft distributors in...

www.uic.com.(Web Sites Worth Mentioning)(Universal Instruments Corp.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Universal Instruments recently launched a new product Support Status Tool on its site to help users locate the support status of the company's produces, along with information about product service and support coverage. Users can search for...

www.cotronics.com.(Web Sites Worth Mentioning)(Cotronics Corp.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Cotronics Corp.'s new high-temperature materials Web site gives up-to-date information on specialty materials for electrical, structural and industrial applications. The site contains detailed product descriptions, pictures and downlodable data...

www.lemonadegame.com.(Web Sites Worth Mentioning)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Relive your childhood this summer by setting up a virtual lemonade stand to see how many cups you can sell. Based on the weather forecast for each day, you decide how much to charge per cup and how much inventory to buy. (If you like this game,...

www.circuitsassembly.com/resource/dems. html.(Survey and Guides)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Are you an EMS provider wanting to attract more OEM customers? Then, don't miss the opportunity for your free listing in the original Directory of Electronics Manufacturing Services Providers (DEMS).

Circuit assembly online: www.circuitsassembly.com.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... * Inspection Equipment Specifier CA Staff * IPC Standard Features Jack Crawford, IPC * 0201 Processing and Materials Considerations David Suraski, AIM * Improving DFM by Resolving Component Polarity Problems Jack C. Olson, 10G...

Flextronics, Celetron enter manufacturing agreement.(Industry News)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Flextronics (Singapore, www.flextronics.com) and Celetron (India, www.celetron.com), an electronics manufacturing services (EMS) and products provider, have signed a licensing agreement that allows Flextronics to manufacture power supply units...

Asymtek receives Intel preferred quality supplier award.(Industry News)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Asymtek (Carlsbad, CA, www.asymtek.com), a Nordson company, was named a recipient of Intel Corp.'s (Santa Clara, CA, www.intel.com) Preferred Quality Supplier (PQS) award for outstanding performance in providing products and services deemed...

Sanmina-SCI develops lead free, reduces hazardous substances.(Industry News)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Sanmina-SCI Corp. (San Jose, CA, www.sanmina-sci.com), an electronics contract manufacturer, is proactively developing lead-free processes and implementing its Reduction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) program in all facilities worldwide. The...

NEMI Project: free model compares costs of test strategies.(Industry News)(National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative)
July 1, 2003... The Test Strategy Project of the National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (NEMI, Herndon, VA, www.nemi.org) has released a manufacturing test strategy cost model designed to help printed circuit assembly (PCA) manufacturers determine the...

A.P.E. announces completion of JSTD certification.(Industry News)(A.P.E. South )(Joint Industry Standard Instructor Course)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... A.P.E. South (Key Largo, FL, www.ape.com), a supplier of rework equipment to the electronics manufacturing marketplace announces the completion of the Joint Industry Standard Instructor Course (IPC/EIA J-STD-001C) by all of its field service...

Elcoteq acquires Dallas EMS provider NPRC.(Industry News)(electronics manufacturing services)(New Product Resource Company Inc.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Elcoteq (Irving, TX, www.elcoteq.com), an electronics manufacturing services (EMS) company for the communications technology industry, recently announced the acquisition of New Product Resource Co. Inc. (NPRC, Dallas, TX). NPRC is a new product...

At the mid-May Atlanta Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA) chapter meeting at Engent AAT Inc. (Norcross, GA), Dick Russell, chapter president, announced the results of the April Atlanta SMTA Expo held at the Gwinnett Civic Center.(Surface Mount Technology Association)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... At the mid-May Atlanta Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA) chapter meeting at Engent AAT Inc. (Norcross, GA), Dick Russell, chapter president, announced the results of the April Atlanta SMTA Expo held at the Gwinnett Civic Center. The...

The Atlanta chapter of Women in Electronics (WIE) held a dinner meeting in May to honor its scholarship recipients.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The Atlanta chapter of Women in Electronics (WIE) held a dinner meeting in May to honor its scholarship recipients. After a brief presentation, each of the students received a $750 award. The winners included: Abhiruchi Agarwal, Regan Towal,...

U.S. demand for EMI/RFI shielding options to Exceed $600 million by 2008.(Market Watch)
July 1, 2003... Significant changes in EMI/RFI shielding have taken place recently, primarily in the level of shielding required, the number of small, new applications requiring shielding, the restructuring of industry participants and the disparity in growth...

Stacked die CSPs see double digit growth.(Market Watch)(TechSearch International Inc.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Driven by growth in mobile phones, shipments of stacked packages are expected to grow at a rate of more than 50% in 2003, according to TechSearch International Inc. (Austin, TX, www.techsearchinc.com). Mobile phone makers increasingly need...

April 2003 IMS/PCB Book-to-Bill.(Market Watch)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The U.S. IMS/PCB Industry Book-to-Bill Ratio for April 2003 was 0.97. Sales billed (shipments) in April 2003 decreased 29.5% from April 2002, and orders booked decreased 32.6% from April 2002. Compared to 2002, bookings of PCBs are down...

AMD promotes executives in Asia Pacific and EMEA.(Asia Watch)(Advanced Micro Devices Inc.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... AMD (Sunnyvale, CA, www.amd.com), a supplier of integrated circuits for the personal and networked computer and communications markets, announced the promotion of two key sales executives in its Asia Pacific and Europe, Middle East and Africa...

IPC PCQ[R.sup.2] test laboratory established in Hong Kong.(Asia Watch)(IPC-Association Connecting Electronics Industries)(Conductor Analysis Technologies Inc.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Conductor Analysis Technologies Inc. (CAT, Albuquerque, NM, www.cat-test.info) and IPC-Association Connecting Electronics Industries (Northbrook IL, www.ipc.org) have created the first test laboratory outside of the U.S. equipped to test the...

Tyco Electronics Automation Group, Mirae enter distribution agreement.(Asia Watch)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Tyco Electronics Automation Group (Harrisburg, PA, www.automation.tycoelectronics.com) recently entered a distribution agreement with Mirae Corp. (Korea, www.mirae.co.kr), a designer and manufacturer of semiconductor test handlers and...

Universal, Asymtek form technology partnership in Suzhou.(Asia Watch)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Universal Instruments (Bingamton, NY, www.uic.com) and Asymtek (Carlsbad, CA, www. asymtek.com) have announced a partnership that will place an Asymtek Millennium 2020 dispenser in Universal's new Technology Excellence Center (pictured) in...

IPC, HKPCA postpone International Exhibition for PCB, assembly industries.(Asia Watch)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... IPC (Northbrook, IL, www.ipc.org) and Hong Kong Printed Circuit Association (HKPCA, Hong Kong, www.hkpca.org) have postponed the International Printed Circuit and Electronics Assembly Fair to Dec. 10-12, 2003, at the Guangzhou International...

Are embedded passives ready for prime time? Key players and innovations shape the future of embedded components.(On the Forefront)
July 1, 2003... Along with the demand for cost savings and size reduction in electronics components has come the push for embedded passives in organic substrates. Embedded passives in ceramics have made this technology a lasting choice for many applications,...

Selecting the optimal test strategy: how to find the right balance among all the choices--ICT, AOI and AXI.(Test/Inspection)
July 1, 2003... Today's printed circuit board (PCB) assembly test engineers face significantly more test challenges than just a few years ago. Board complexity is dramatically increasing with more components, more joints, higher densities and new package...

Minimizing radiation to components: filters during x-ray can reduce radiation without compromising image quality.(X-Ray)
July 1, 2003... X-ray inspection has become ever more important for checking product quality as it allows investigation within optically hidden areas, such as the quality of post-solder reflow of area array devices like ball grid arrays (BGAs), chip-scale...

The costs of going green: environmental requirements are forth coming but at what costs to industry (and consumers)? A primer on meeting WEEE and other laws.(Environment)
July 1, 2003... After years on the backburner, environmental awareness is returning to the forefront. Interest in legislation on electronics disposal has moved from the state to federal level, and the EU and U.S. are now talking lead-free implementation. ...

Creating a more flexible manufacturing line: one company changed successfully from producing a few high-volume products to greater quantities of more diverse products.(Odd-Form Placement)
July 1, 2003... Traditionally, our customers, who are consumers of electronic ballasts for lighting systems, have been primarily interested in reliable, cost-effective products. The best way for our company to meet that demand had been with dedicated,...

Automatic stencil printing system.(Product Spotlight)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... TouchPrint is a combined stencil printing and dispensing technology system with the ability to dispense dots on boards for low-to mid-volume applications. The printer can load, & align, print and unload boards without operator intervention....

No-clean flux.(Product Spotlight)(Amtech)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... NoVOC is a water-based, no-clean liquid flux for use in wave soldering. The low solids liquid flux contains no rosins, resins or volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The flux leaves no insulating residue on test or conductive pads and does not...

CSP solution.(Product Spotlight)(Tessera Inc.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The Pyxis platform is a chip-scale packaging technology for highly integrated radio frequency (RF) modules. The platform builds upon the company's micro ball grid array ([micro]BGA) technology and integrates flip chip, integrated passives in...

Solder inspection system.(Product Spotlight)(Omron Electronics L.L.C.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The Windows 2000-based VT-WINII PCB solder inspection system can be used either in-or off-line for accurate identification of a variety of circuit board assembly defects. A zoom lens allows magnifications down to 10[micro] per pixel, accurate...

Microcontroller programming.(Product Spotlight)(Data I/O Corp.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Data I/O now has support for Flash-based microcontrollers on its FlashCORE programming architecture. The architecture underlies the company's automated inline programming system, the high-speed offline-handler and desktop programming systems....

Brushless motor.(Product Spotlight)(ThinGap Motor Technologies)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The TG3600 series half-horsepower slotless brushless DC servo motor uses a winding technology without wire windings that eliminates eddy current, hysteresis losses and cogging. The NEMA 23 size motor delivers high torque to weight ratios and...

Lead-free thermal profiler.(Product Spotlight)(KIC Ltd.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The SlimKIC 2000-LF kit is a profiler and process development tool whose capabilities are designed specifically for optimizing the lead-free thermal process. The kit incorporates up to 12 thermocouples and has both real-time and datalogging...

Witness the difference.(Assembly Insider)(Dage Corp.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Leading the x-ray inspection field, Dage announces the XD6600--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 1300 X...

PCB depaneling systems.(Assembly Insider)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Tab-routed and scored board depanelers are showcased in this new Fancort brochure. Seven different pneumatic and electrically powered benchtop systems are described, including the NE52 programmable tab router for processing densely populated,...

Quality Systems Integrated Corporation.(Assembly Insider)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Contract Electronics Manufacturing Partner * Prototype to Production * Consignment, Turnkey * Cable & Harness Assembly * Chassis / Box Build * Testing / Rework Services * PCB / System Design Serving Military,...

Recon.Inc.(Assembly Insider)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... RECON.INC is located in Concord, minutes from Charlotte North Carolina. Our 30,000 sq. ft. facility is equipped to meet the needs of the industry. Our normal hours of operation are Monday through Friday 9am. to 6pm EST. Emergency technical...

Electronic reprints.(Assembly Insider)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Electronic reprints show your clients, partners and employees that you have been recognized in a well-respected industry magazine. They also serve as an attractive endorsement, adding credibility to your company and its products and services....

ESD Clip.(Product Spotlight)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) Clip electrically connects a wire shelf to a shelf post to reduce the ESD risks caused by ungrounded shelving. The clips install without tools in about 5 sec. to fully assembled and loaded shelving and provide...

Tray feeder.(Product Spotlight)(Besi Die Handling Inc.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The JTF tray feeder automatically delivers trays to assembly equipment non-stop, increasing throughput and reducing operator handling. Stacks of up to 20 thick or 30 thin standard trays are loaded and unloaded without interrupting production....

X-out board replacement: don't let one bad board spoil the whole bunch.(Rework and Repair Depot)
July 1, 2003... We all know the old proverb about one bad apple; luckily, when dealing with multi-up bare board panels in the manufacture of circuit boards, one bad board does not have to spoil the whole bunch. X-out board replacement, which involves removing...