Circuits Assembly articles from May 2002

Circuits Assembly archives from May 2002

The state of optoelectronics.(Editorial)
May 1, 2002... Some optoelectronics (OE) companies folded and a lot of jobs were lost since last year, so attendance at OFC (Optical Fiber Communication Conference) 2002 this March was down by almost 40 percent. Nevertheless, more than 25,000 people came to...

NET gain: the latest the Internet has to offer.(Industry News)
May 1, 2002... Web sites worth mentioning www.barnant.com Now fully interactive, the Barnant Co.'s Web site offers complete access to a full-line catalog, as well as downloadable software to assist in the selection of the right product to meet a specific...

Agilent Labs hosts first press, analyst briefing.(Industry News)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... On March 12, Agilent Technologies Laboratories (Agilent Labs) held a one-day press and analyst briefing at the lab's headquarters in Palo Alto, CA. At the first event of its kind for Agilent, spokespeople briefed the media and researchers in...

IPC battles EPA, claims partial victory.(Industry News)
May 1, 2002... IPC (Northbrook, IL) has announced a victory in its efforts to pass a realistic depreciation bill for the electronics assembly and printed circuit board industries. Congress and the Bush Administration recently reached an agreement to pass an...

SMTA recognizes two speakers.(Industry News)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... To reward exceptional achievement at two recent SMTA (Minneapolis, MN) educational programs, Glenn Woodhouse, Plexus (formerly MCMS, Neenah, WI), and Janet Semmens, Sonoscan (Elk Grove Village, IL), were named winners of the Best of Conference...

EPA announces training opportunities.(Industry News)(Environmental Protection Agency)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, Washington, D.C.) has released its Spring 2002 Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA)/Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) workshop schedule. Under the TRI program, facilities that...

SMT/HYBRID/PACKAGING 2002 to arrive in Germany.(Industry News)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The SMT/HYBRID/PACKAGING 2002 Conference, to be held June 18-20, in Nuremberg, Germany, will focus on the packaging of optoelectronics and microsystems. Companies worldwide use the conference and exhibition as a platform to present solutions on...

Sanmina-SCI Corp. (San Jose, CA) and Umachines, Inc. (Pasadena, CA), a developer of MEMS optical networking modules, have entered into a technology licensing and manufacturing services agreement.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Sanmina-SCI Corp. (San Jose, CA) and Umachines, Inc. (Pasadena, CA), a developer of MEMS optical networking modules, have entered into a technology licensing and manufacturing services agreement. Umachines will license to Sanmina-SCI certain...

DEK-USA.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... DEK-USA (Flemington, NJ) has announced a new service for purchasers of pre-owned 265 series machines. DEK will offer customers the opportunity to register their machines, which will provide the new owners with access to engineering support,...

Coreco Imaging (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) has formed the new Intelligent Products Division (IPD, Billerica, MA), which will provide pre-packaged machine vision products to end users.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Coreco Imaging (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) has formed the new Intelligent Products Division (IPD, Billerica, MA), which will provide pre-packaged machine vision products to end users. IPD will leverage Coreco Imaging's expertise in frame grabber...

Chase EMS Group (West Bridgewater, MA) recently purchased the Sunburst facility building at 70 Pleasant Street, West Bridgewater, MA.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Chase EMS Group (West Bridgewater, MA) recently purchased the Sunburst facility building at 70 Pleasant Street, West Bridgewater, MA. Chase EMS consists of three divisions, which include RWA in Melrose, MA; Sunburst EMS in West Bridgewater, MA;...

Petroferm Inc.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Petroferm Inc.'s (Franklin, KY) Contract Services Division is now operating under ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management. According to Jeff Hook, division manager, division engineers are currently collecting objective evidence for an anticipated...

VJ Electronix (Bohemia, NY), a division of V.J. Technologies, Inc. (Bohemia, NY), has announced that their Northern California sales firm, Manufacturing Technology (San Jose, CA), is now offering complimentary evaluation of semiconductor packages.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... VJ Electronix (Bohemia, NY), a division of V.J. Technologies, Inc. (Bohemia, NY), has announced that their Northern California sales firm, Manufacturing Technology (San Jose, CA), is now offering complimentary evaluation of semiconductor...

Solectron Corp. (Milpitas, CA) has been selected as the primary provider of electronic manufacturing services for Pace Micro Technology (Shipley, West Yorkshire, England), a developer of digital set-top boxes and home gateways, global product range.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Solectron Corp. (Milpitas, CA) has been selected as the primary provider of electronic manufacturing services for Pace Micro Technology (Shipley, West Yorkshire, England), a developer of digital set-top boxes and home gateways, global product...

Speedline Technologies, Inc. (Franklin, MA) has named Laser Optronic S.p.A. (Milano, Italy) as the designated distributor for the Italian market.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Speedline Technologies, Inc. (Franklin, MA) has named Laser Optronic S.p.A. (Milano, Italy) as the designated distributor for the Italian market. Laser Optronic, with more than 25 years of capital equipment and assembly expertise, will begin...

NEPCON East/Electro/SMTA Boston features a variety of learning opportunities.(Industry News)
May 1, 2002... NEPCON East/Electro 2002 will take place June 10-12, at the Bayside Expo and Conference Center in Boston, MA, and will feature a comprehensive showcase of manufacturing solutions for design, assembly and test, plus a conference program...

IPC.(People)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... IPC (Northbrook, IL) announces that Paul Engstrom has been named as the organization's director of communications. In this position, he is responsible for all IPC communications, including the monthly IPC Review newsletter, several on-line...

Indium Corp. of America.(People)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Indium Corp. of America (Utica, NY) announces the promotion of Wayne Hosey to the position of vice president, operations. Hosey has been with the company for 20 years and began his career in the manufacturing engineering department developing...

LaBarge, Inc.(People)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... LaBarge, Inc. (St. Louis, MO) has named Harvey Baker vice president of enterprise systems and Vernon Anderson vice president of operations for the company's contract electronics manufacturing business. Baker will now oversee the efforts to...

Universal Instruments Corp.(People)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Universal Instruments Corp. (Binghamton, NY) has appointed Karen Moore-Watts as director, global marketing. The newly created post encompasses global responsibility for directing marketing strategy, the introduction of new products and the...

Saturn Electronics & Engineering, Inc.(People)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Saturn Electronics & Engineering, Inc. (Saturn, Auburn Hills, MI) has appointed Peter Scheffler to the position of chief operating officer. He will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the company and will oversee operations,...

Events calendar.(Industry News)
May 1, 2002... May 1-2 Assembly East 2002, Fort Washington, PA. Contact Reed Exhibitions, (800) 467-5656; www.atexpo.com. 2-3 Ceramic Technologies for Microwave and Photonic Packaging Workshop, Providence, RI. Contact ...

Workshop focuses on optoelectronic cost reduction.(Industry News)
May 1, 2002... TechSearch International's (Austin, TX) third optoelectronics packaging workshop, held recently in Austin, TX, focused on one of the most important issues in the optoelectronics industry today--cost reduction. Representatives from companies...

Correction.(Industry News)
May 1, 2002... In the March 2002 issue, an Acknowledgments was inadvertently omitted from the article, "Through-Hole Rework of Thermal Dissipating Assemblies." The authors wished to acknowledge the contributions of Rob Rice III and Marvin Nash, both of...

PMI shows growth in March.(Market Watch)
May 1, 2002... The Institute for Supply Management's (Tempe, AZ) purchasing managers index (PMI) reached 55.6 percent in March, an increase of 0.9 percent from February. The new-orders index rose 2.5 points to 65.3 percent, and the production index dropped to...

February PCB stats. (Market Watcht.(IPC Northbrook, Illinois)
May 1, 2002... IPC (Northbrook, IL) has released the U.S. PCB industry book-to-bill ratio for February 2002 as 1.00. Sales billed (shipments) in February 2002 decreased 39.5 percent over February 2001, and orders booked for February 2002 decreased 36.3...

Flextronics provides reverse logistics, signs agreement with Newport.(Asia Watch)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Flextronics (Singapore) has announced it will provide customers with worldwide reverse logistics and repair services. The company will leverage global operations with strong logistics operations, to provide customers with reverse logistics,...

Amkor and Grace form alliance.(Asia Watch)(Amkor Technology Inc.)(Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp.)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Amkor Technology, Inc. (Chandler, AZ), a provider of contract microelectronics assembly and test services, and Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (Shanghai, China) have signed a letter of intent to form a multi-purpose alliance offering...

Autron opens center in Taiwan.(Asia Watch)(Autron Corp. Ltd.)(Taiwan Autron Corp.)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Autron Corp. Ltd. (Singapore), an integrated supplier of assembly equipment and services to the electronics industry, has opened a subsidiary company, Taiwan Autron Corp. At the opening ceremony in Taiwan, Autron's group managing director, Tan...

GSI Lumonics expands support in Japan.(Asia Watch)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... GSI Lumonics, Inc. (Northville, MI), a provider of advanced manufacturing systems, instrumentation and components, has expanded sales support for its full range of laser-based processing products for the electronics manufacturing industry in...

Shanghai: the new Silicon Valley? A booming electronics industry creates IC demand.(On the Forefront)
May 1, 2002... China represents a growing electronics market--a target market for companies around the globe. While many countries suffered a decline in the electronics sector in 2001, China saw a 16 percent growth rate. The electronics market in China is...

Back to the basics: a reader asks Les to help with some basics of the assembly process.(Ask Les)
May 1, 2002... I recently received a request to answer several questions concerning solderability testing and no-clean flux. The sender writes, "We operate a small, low-volume shop, and management is planning to switch to no-clean liquid flux. On the shop...

Optimizing component placement: CMM vs. AOI: together, non-contact coordinate measurement machines and automatic optical inspection systems can provide placement process control.(Component Placement)
May 1, 2002... The importance of quality control in printed circuit board (PCB) assembly is intensifying in proportion to the shrinking geometries of boards and components. The challenge for placement equipment is also increasing as these shrinking components...

A strategic approach to automating photonics manufacturing: full automation in manufacturing and assembly is the key to success in photonics industry.(Photonics)
May 1, 2002... Consider this opportunity: Despite the recent telecom slowdown, the long-term market for photonic devices is forecast to rebound to a 30 percent growth rate in 2002 and reach $20 billion in the next five years. As telecom companies guard their...

Should you automate control of moisture-sensitive devices? Perhaps. A return-on-investment analysis confirmed the benefits of an automated control system for MSDs.(Process Control)
May 1, 2002... Shorter development cycles, ever-smaller device sizes, new materials and larger chips are resulting in a rapid increase in the quantity of moisture-sensitive devices (MSDs) and higher levels of moisture/reflow sensitivity. In the electronics...

New study reveals component defect levels: an extensive study of almost one billion solder joints reveals the defect levels and most common defects for components on PCBAs.(Inspection)
May 1, 2002... In 1999, a study was conducted of certain production data from 15 different companies in Europe and North America; eight original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and seven electronics manufacturing services (EMS) providers were included. All of...

Turning boards in hours instead of days: ready for improved communication, productivity and product quality? Try a Web-based data management system that links the production floor with other departments.(Data Management)
May 1, 2002... As a contract manufacturer with three production facilities, we compete in the mid-volume, high-part-count, turnkey printed circuit board (PCB) and integration assembly market. Accordingly, we must turn products, processes and engineering...

Enhance your BGA x-ray inspection process: understanding x-ray signatures allows operators to rapidly diagnose the BGA assembly process and improve quality control.(Inspection)
May 1, 2002... The use of x-ray inspection for quality control of ball grid array (BGA) bonding has become widespread in surface-mount assembly. The numbers of equipment suppliers and features have proliferated, but the understanding of what a BGA x-ray image...

A cure for BGA's warped sense of humor: rework can result in BGA warpage--find out how it can be prevented.(Rework and Repair Depot)
May 1, 2002... Most would agree that ball grid array (BGA) rework is nothing to laugh about, but some of the antics exhibited by large BGAs, when heated, are definitely un-funny! I'm referring to the tendency of larger, and thinner, BGA components to warp...

Finding residue sources: Part I: finding residue sources in PCBs using Six Sigma techniques.(Process Doctor)
May 1, 2002... Dorian Shainin, a quality improvement consultant, teaches, a problem solving technique called the dictionary search. The premise of the dictionary search is that the source of a problem can be located by subdividing the solution space. This...

Degreasing solvent.(NEPCON East Product Spotlight)
May 1, 2002... AsahiKlin AK-225 is a vapor degreasing solvent designed for removing flux-residue from circuit boards for critical cleaning of high-reliability parts. The solvent is USA EPA SNAP-acceptable as a replacement for CFC-113, HCFC-141b, PFC and...

Magnification system.(Nepcon East Product Spotlight)
May 1, 2002... The S8 APO stereomicroscope offers a fully apochromatic corrected optics system. The microscope, in concert with a variety of available eyepieces and supplemental objectives, produces magnifications from 3.2 to 640X and achieves 600-line...

No-clean solder paste.(NEPCON East Product Spotlight)
May 1, 2002... NC253 is a pin-probeable, no-dean solder paste that can consistently accommodate a broad range of assembly processes and pin testing applications. The paste's residues are probeable from directly after reflow to two months later--even after...

Rework system.(NEPCON East Product Spotlight)
May 1, 2002... The Chipmaster[TM]-Z SMD-1000-Z speeds up rework while helping the operator avoid and clear obstructive component topography on surface-mount PCBs. The system offers an electric z-axis, which provides clearance for the rework system's hot air...

Component placers.(NEPCON East Product Spotlight)
May 1, 2002... The IR550 and PL550 ball grid array (BGA)/surface-mount device (SMD) rework systems offer real-time material temperature measurement of the BGA component during reflow and closed-loop reflow technology, which allows every PCB to follow the...

Paste squeegee.(NEPCON East Product Spotlight)
May 1, 2002... The rotary squeegee is a print head with enclosed print material allotted from inexpensive laminated plastic bags. Real-time paste monitoring ensures that the optimum amount of solder paste is in front of the squeegee at all times. The rolling...

Blasting tool.(NEPCON East Product Spotlight)
May 1, 2002... The Model MV-241, the new Precision Micro Sandblaster, is designed to accomplish numerous applications including the removal of conformal coatings, solder mask and oxidation; component demarking; deflashing lead frames; printed circuit board...

Heat-curable adhesives.(NEPCON East Product Spotlight)
May 1, 2002... The 3-6751 adhesive is a two-part, low-viscosity, non-corrosive formulation that cures with no by-product. The product is suitable for applications where stress minimization and adhesion are important. The 3-6752 adhesive is a one-part...

Printer/Applicator.(NEPCON East Product Spotlight)
May 1, 2002... The APOLLO 1s Printer/Applicator, a thermal transfer label applicator, can be used for small, delicate, high-precision print applications. The system is ideal for electronic components, printed circuit boards, pharmaceutical and medical...

Laser marking system.(NEPCON East Product Spotlight)
May 1, 2002... The DPL Magic Marker laser marking system ensures marking onto a diverse range of materials. The system incorporates thermoelectric cooling--no cumbersome cooling methods are necessary. A focused laser provides marking to a resolution up to...

Stereo microscope.(NEPCON East Product Spotlight)
May 1, 2002... The LYNX[R] stereo-zoom microscope produces high-resolution images to 120X on a large viewing area. The patented Dynascope[R] technology promotes operator comfort while eliminating eye, neck and back strain commonly associated with eyepiece...

Bonding and soldering machines.(NEPCON East Product Spotlight)
May 1, 2002... New machines for pulse heat bonding and soldering, primarily of flex circuits, feature a variety of applications. One machine offers a linear shuttle, and the other features a rotary table with two work positions. The machines are designed with...

X-Ray inspection system.(NEPCON East Product Spotlight)
May 1, 2002... The VJ-1000 LP, a high-resolution x-ray inspection system, provides a cost-effective solution for the surface-mount assembly and semiconductor packaging markets. The system provides high-resolution images of BGAs, micro BGAs and other...

Ergonomic screwdrivers.(NEPCON East Product Spotlight)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Electra Series Electric Screwdrivers are equipped with a motor design that ensures both extended motor life and a comfortable grip temperature. These drivers, which can be used for precise fastening applications, feature an automatic shut-off...

The toxic release inventory: lead reporting thresholds have been reduced. Is your facility affected?(Guest View)
May 1, 2002... The Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) has existed since 1988, but the reporting thresholds for lead and lead compounds have been significantly reduced this year--forcing many previously unaffected facilities to comply. The Environmental Protection...