Circuits Assembly articles from March 2004

Circuits Assembly archives from March 2004

The waiting game.(Editorial)
March 1, 2004... Here's a scenario: You're a well-known router manufacturer based in the U.S. Unfortunately, as most in the router business have, you've taken your fair share of knocks over the past couple of years with the failing economy and now you're faced...

Web sites worth mentioning.(Net Gain)
March 1, 2004... www.pcbrc.com The Printed Circuit Buyer's Resource Center has expanded its free "Ask an Expert" service to professionals with PCB assembly questions. The service connects users with hundreds of technology experts, ranging from fabricator and...

Industry resources.(Net Gain)
March 1, 2004... www.pcdandm.com/pcdman/resource/pcb_basics.shtml The fourth edition of Printed Circuit Board Basics is now available. From design and manufacturing to purchasing to considerations for managing the business, concepts are explained in simple...

Surveys and Guides.(Net Gain)
March 1, 2004... www.circuitsassembly.com/bg_intro Visit our recently updated Online Buyers Guide, a comprehensive source of supplier information. You can search for specific products, supplier contact information or industry services. If you are a supplier, be...

Celestica CEO Polistuk retires.(Industry News)
March 1, 2004... Celestica Inc. (Toronto, Ontario, Canada, www.celestica.com), an electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider, has announced that Eugene V. Polistuk, chairman and chief executive officer, decided to retire on January 29. Polistuk has...

Reptron confirms Plan for Reorganization.(Industry News)
March 1, 2004... Reptron Electronics Inc. (Tampa, FL, www.reptron.com), an electronics manufacturing services company, reported that its Second Amended Plan of Reorganization under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code was confirmed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court on...

Digi-Key, Murata announce distribution agreement.(Industry News)
March 1, 2004... Digi-Key Corp (Thief River Falls, MN, www.digikey.com) has added Murata Electronics (Smyrna, Georgia, www.murata.com), a supplier of ceramic passive components, to its vendor and product offering. Mark Larson, president of Digi-Key, said,...

MIT professor to keynote NEPCON/Assembly East.(Industry News)
March 1, 2004... Professor Deborah Nightingale, PhD., of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, Cambridge, MA) Lean Aerospace Initiative (LAI, http://lean.mit.edu) will present a keynote presentation, "Transforming the Lean Enterprise Value Stream," on...

Siemens Dematic, Rochester Institute partner for process training.(Industry News)
March 1, 2004... Siemens Dematic Electronics Assembly Systems (EAS, Norcross, GA, www.siemens-dematic.us) announced its intention to provide comprehensive surface-mount technology process training for the Americas in partnership with the Center for Electronics...

SMTA seeks submissions for student grant.(Industry News)
March 1, 2004... The Charles Hutchins Educational Grant, co-sponsored by the Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA, Minneapolis, MN, www.smta.org) and Circuits Assembly magazine (Atlanta, GA), is seeking submissions for its 2004 award. The grant was...

RIT selects Glenbrook for x-ray inspection.(Industry News)
March 1, 2004... Glenbrook Technologies (Randolph, NJ, www.glenbrooktech.com) has announced that the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT, Rochester, NY) has selected a Jewel Box 70-T real-time x-ray inspection system for use in the surface-mount technology...

Wafer-Level event to track IC packaging.(Focus On: HDI/Advanced Technology)
March 1, 2004... The first annual International Wafer-Level Packaging Congress (IWLPC) to explore semiconductor packaging and test technologies, with special emphasis on three-dimensional (3-D) stacked packaging, will be presented in San Jose, CA, on Oct....

IPAC announces QFN production onshore.(Focus On: HDI/Advanced Technology)
March 1, 2004... Integrated Packaging Assembly Corp. (IPAC, San Jose, CA, www.ipac.com), an integrated circuit (IC) packaging foundry in Silicon Valley, announced that it is the only U.S. source for high-volume quad flat package, no-lead (QFN) package assembly....

ESEC names Steinbichler chief operating officer.(Focus On: HDI/Advanced Technology)
March 1, 2004... The Board of Directors of ESEC (Cham, Switzerland, www.esec.com) appointed Jurgen Steinbichler as chief operating officer on Feb. 1. ESEC provides chip assembly equipment and processing techniques for use in the semiconductor industry. ...

GSI Lumonics announces major laser trim order.(Focus On: HDI/Advanced Technology)
March 1, 2004... GSI Lumonics Inc. (Billerica, MA, www.gsilumonics.com) has announced the receipt of an order for multiple WaferTrim M310 systems from a U.S.-based integrated circuit (IC) manufacturer. The total value of this order is approximately $6 million....

Matsushita invests 130 billion yen in semiconductor facility.(Focus On: HDI/Advanced Technology)
March 1, 2004... Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (MEI, Osaka, Japan, www.panasonic.co.jp/global/top.html), best known for its Panasonic brand name, has announced a plan for the construction of a new 130 billion-yen ($1.2 billion) semiconductor...

Competition, excess manufacturing capacity impact optoelectronics profitability.(MarKet Watch)
March 1, 2004... The recent economic slowdown has reduced demand from end-user industries, heightening competition and flattening the growth rate in the world optoelectronics market. New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (Palo Alto, CA, www.electronics.frost.com)...

Consumer base for electronics products evolving.(MarKet Watch)
March 1, 2004... Reflecting an expansion from the industry's traditional consumer base, women, African-Americans, Hispanics, teens and seniors are rapidly adopting consumer electronics products, according to a study released by the Consumer Electronics...

December 2003 Book-to-Bill.(MarKet Watch)
March 1, 2004... The North American IMS/PCB Industry Book-to-Bill Ratio for December 2003 remained positive at 1.11. The ratio is calculated by averaging the index numbers for orders booked over the past three months and dividing by the average index numbers...

Hover-Davis opens sales and support center in China.(Asia Watch)
March 1, 2004... Hover-Davis Inc. (Rochester, NY, www.hover Davis.com) has announced the opening of a sales and support center based in Shenzhen, China. The company has been a developer and manufacturer of component delivery systems for the electronics assembly...

Toshiba establishes new company in China.(Asia Watch)
March 1, 2004... Toshiba Corp. (Tokyo, Japan, www.toshiba.co.jp) has established a new company in Shanghai, China, to coordinate the activities of present semiconductor sales, marketing and production subsidiaries in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Since the...

Report: double-digit growth in China's connector industry.(Asia Watch)
March 1, 2004... Global Sources Ltd. (Singapore, www.global sources.com) has released a new report, Connectors: Supplier Capability in China. The report cites that more than two-thirds of connectors being produced in mainland China are designed for use in...

EV Group to supply Beijing Nanotechnology Center.(Asia Watch)
March 1, 2004... EV Group (EVG, Scharding, Austria, www.evgroup.com), a manufacturer of microelectro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and semiconductor wafer processing equipment, has announced the successful installation of several advanced wafer processing tools at...

Adhesives Research celebrates new center in Singapore.(Asia Watch)
March 1, 2004... Adhesives Research Inc. (Glen Rock, PA, www.adhesivesresearch.com), a developer and manufacturer of custom pressure-sensitive adhesive tapes, coatings, specialty films and laminates, has announced the grand opening of its new technical center...

Kester - changing to meet the future of electronics.(Advertorial)(Advertisement)
March 1, 2004... For over a century, Kester, a Chicago solder company has been delivering superior products and technology to customers worldwide. Before the latest 90 nm wafer technology hit, before the electronics boom, before the industrial age, there was...

Q&A with Pierre de Villemejane, President & CEO, Speedline Technologies Inc.(New! The Fine Pitch)
March 1, 2004... Circuits Assembly: The purchase of Speedline Technologies Inc. by KPS Special Situations Fund II from Cookson Electronics was announced late last year. For you, was this a relief? The realization of more hard work? What's your state of mind?...

A bright outlook for 2004; barring unforeseen events, 2004 is projected to be good year.(On the Forefront)
March 1, 2004... The year 2004 promises to be one for improved economic growth in the electronics industry. Foundries such as TSMC, UMC and Chartered are reporting high capacity utilization. Contract assembly operations report increases in capacity utilization...

The new need in screen printing; achieving flexibility in entry-level pre-placement.(Cover Article)(Cover Story)
March 1, 2004... The technology supporting pre-placement for surface-mount assembly has advanced rapidly over the last decade. This advancement has been driven by Western manufacturers to raise their levels of automation and improve cost-effectiveness in...

Assembly insider.(Special Advertising Section)(Advertisement)
March 1, 2004... MOST IMPROVED WIRELESS ECO PROCESS There's a better way to handle ECOs: ADDITIVE SERVICES, INC.'s Wireless ECO process, called additive circuitry modification (ACM). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] BEST ACM TECHNOLOGY EVER! * Lowest...

MEMS packaging is still a challenge; opportunities exist, though, for innovative service providers.(Focus on: HDI/Advanced Technology)
March 1, 2004... Forecasters and analysts predict the market size for micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and microsystems to be $68 billion by the year 2005 (NEXUS Market Study 2002). The markets for nanotechnology are expected to far exceed microtechnology...

Considerations for lead-free reflow soldering; before drawing conclusions about lead-free reflow, take a detailed look at all the features of an oven.(Reflow)
March 1, 2004... The electronics industry is on the move to lead-free assemblies. This trend is an effort to remove lead from electronic packages and reduce the dependency on lead materials that can leach into the environment during processing or eventual...

Short-term profits in exchange for IP risk; electronics manufacturers lured by China should be cautious to preserve IP.(EMS Insight)
March 1, 2004... Electronics company executives are pressuring their operations management to move manufacturing and related services to China. Seeking a quick recovery in profits--on the heels of revenue decline that started in 2001--executives saw few...

EMS differentiation through branding.(Focus on Business)
March 1, 2004... In the early days of the electronics manufacturing services (EMS) industry, formal marketing was a luxury in which only a few EMS providers engaged. The fact that most of those companies are now in Tier One, either through their own efforts or...

The flaws and obsolescence of product forecasting; one EMS provider has defined a new model that competes against low-cost, offshore suppliers by being more efficient in all aspects of production.(EMS)
March 1, 2004... Bad forecasting has been the cause of many headaches in companies within the electronics manufacturing services (EMS) industry. Indeed, the latest economic bubble might be easily blamed by it--that is, errors in market demand by too many...

Imbedded Component/Die Technology: increased reliability--coupled with reduced size and weight--has demanded the evolution of assembly technology.(Tech Watch)
March 1, 2004... The U.S. Navy's Program Executive Office (PEO) Integrated Warfare Systems (IWS) 3A has authorized and funded a research and development contract for Soldering Technology International's (STI), patent-pending manufacturing technology, Imbedded...

Thermal Compound Application system.(Product Spotlight)
March 1, 2004... The Thermal Compound Application Technology (T-CAT) system uses electrostatic discharge (ESD)-safe nesting to secure components for the application of the thermal compounds. The stencils isolate the component's leads, making it hard to...

Inspection and defect review software.(Product Spotlight)
March 1, 2004... The ProcessNavigator for Inspection (PNI) suite is a range of software applications and components targeting defect inspection equipment suppliers and manufacturing facilities using defect inspection. The software encompasses requirements from...

Upright workstation.(Product Spotlight)
March 1, 2004... The Ergomation 1-2-1 Universal Upright System has height-adjustable frames and a mobile trolley. Providing vertical organization and structural support, the systems can be customized to meet specific needs and are offered in simple single- and...

Lead-free heatsink.(Product Spotlight)
March 1, 2004... The PL-001-01-XX-0400-32 surface-mount technology heatsink for Dpac and D2pac is now available in a lead-free version. The product is based on technology that designs, simulates, produces and tapes special mechanical parts for surface-mount...

Lead-free reflow oven.(Product Spotlight)
March 1, 2004... The RO300FC full convection reflow oven, designed for high temperature soldering of sensitive electronics, is ideal for lead-free soldering. The convection heating enables high throughput with a small footprint and homogeneous heat distribution...

Surface-mount placement machine.(Product Spotlight)
March 1, 2004... The C5 is a medium speed, fully flexible surface-mount technology placement machine. With Cognex vision processing, it can place components from 0201s to 50 mm sq. The machine has a small footprint and feeder capacity for 192 feeders. By...

Spray coating system.(Product Spotlight)
March 1, 2004... Prism Ultra-Coat programmable spray coating system is designed to precisely apply fluxes, conformal coatings or conductive inks. It features ultrasonic spray technology providing accurate thin coatings. The nozzle-less spray technology with...

Modular chip shooter.(NEPCON East Product Preview)
March 1, 2004... Part of a modular automated assembly concept, the KE-2050 high-speed chip shooter acts as the base of a flexible placement line designed to place devices with low assembly cost. The multi-nozzle laser head design allows four parts to be picked...

Soldering system.(NEPCON East Product Preview)
March 1, 2004... The PS-800 soldering system is designed for repetitive manual assembly and touch-up. The system uses heater tips rather than cartridges. The two-piece design separates the heater coil from the tip, which is easily removed and replaced. The...

X-ray inspection system.(NEPCON East Product Preview)
March 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...

Surface-mount/BGA rework system.(NEPCON East Product Preview)
March 1, 2004... The ONYX29 ball grid array (BGA)/surface-mount rework system includes: seven motorized axes--including motorized-field-of-view; alignment of 01005 to 75 mm devices; 19 x 19 in. laser-etched multi-zone preheater; a 2000-watt top heater that is...

ESD wipes.(NEPCON East Product Preview)
March 1, 2004... ACL Mat & Table Top Wipes quickly clean and restore electrostatic discharge (ESD) mats and workstations in one step. They are pre-moistened and ready to use--just wipe and toss. The wipes leave no film and effectively remove flux oil, finger...

Bench top cable tester.(NEPCON East Product Preview)
March 1, 2004... The Signature 1100H+ hipot cable tester features a large display with a simple, menudriven user interface. Capable of hipot testing up to 1000VDC, the tester is ideal for testing cables, harnesses and other wiring assemblies up to 1024 points....

Hand-held video microscope.(NEPCON East Product Preview)
March 1, 2004... The HD-5000 hand-held video microscope is a portable, high-resolution inspection system that observes and records small objects. Its lightweight (one pound) scope is easily positioned and re-positioned, giving the operator flexibility not...

Horizontal depaneler.(NEPCON East Product Preview)
March 1, 2004... The VPD5 depaneling machine is designed to separate circuit boards from pre-scored panels without stress. The machine is a pneumatically operated shear with two wedge-shaped knives that shear panels with a gentle rocking motion as the knives...

Water-based flux remover.(NEPCON East Product Preview)
March 1, 2004... VIGON A 300 is a water-based cleaning agent using patent-pending MPC technology. It operates effectively at room temperature and is able to clean hard-to-remove flux residues. The technology provides the user with a cost effective cleaning...

Lead-free cleaning/defluxing system.(NEPCON East Product Preview)
March 1, 2004... The SMT1000-LF aqueous cleaning/defluxing system is designed specifically for post-reflow lead-free defluxing applications. To overcome the cleaning challenges presented with a lead-free process, the system is equipped with an...

Lead-free rework system.(NEPCON East Product Preview)
March 1, 2004... The Compact Rework System (CRS) handles the complexities of lead-free rework using an advanced automated place and lift-off. Lead-free rework requires higher reflow temperatures and excellent temperature uniformity across the package. Due to...

Horizontal convection oven.(NEPCON East Product Preview)
March 1, 2004... The GF-120HC reflow oven can be used for standard or lead-free reflow soldering. With horizontal convection, air is circulated horizontally in one direction across the top of the board and in the opposite direction beneath the board, preventing...

Continuing education: locating educational resources can be easy--if you know where to look.(ESD)
March 1, 2004... Over the course of a year, the ESD Association (ESDA) receives a number of questions concerning electrostatic discharge (ESD). The questions often refer to specific situations, such as: "Our boards are being damaged by ESD in the production...

The key to success: examine key parameters for a successful no-clean assembly.(Process Doctor)
March 1, 2004... While investigating a medical product sensitive to stray voltage, my company discovered that the original bare hot-air solder level (HASL) boards passed all process validation and accelerated environmental stress screening (ESS) when built up....

Leading the lead-free transition: a look at how lead free is changing the assembly landscape.(Guest View)
March 1, 2004... As we move closer to 2006--the lead-free enforcement date of the WEEE and RoHS Directives--leading original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and electronics manufacturing services (EMS) companies are getting ready for lead-free printed circuit...