Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture articles from June 2003

Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture archives from June 2003

'IT's' been a pleasure. (Letters: our readers respond).(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2003... THANKS FOR SAYING so many nice things about me ("Passion Nonpareil," PC FAB, March 2003). Yes, I approached my job with passion, originally as an IT (important things) reporter and later as a comic strip creator. Important technological...

Armchair fan. (Letters: our readers respond).(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2003... WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT to learn that the editorial team at UP Media will not include Jerry Murray. [His] features offered an insider's take on the news of the day, and I became an armchair traveler when you wrote about site visits in Wisconsin...

Get in gear. (Letters: our readers respond).(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2003... I OWN A manufacturers rep company and agree wholeheartedly with [Dan Beaulieu's] column ("Garbage Today, Gold Tomorrow," April 2003). We are not giving up! It is hard: Some days I want to scream at those who get boards offshore (I am forced to...

Computers rebound. (Market Watch).(Illustration)
June 1, 2003... Trends in the U.S. electronics equipment market (shipments only). % CHANGE JAN. FEB. MARCH YTD Computers and electronics products 4.2 ...

U.S. manufacturing loses momentum. (Market Watch).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... TEMPE, AZ -- Manufacturing has lost its momentum as April shipments and orders contracted, according to a survey of U.S. purchasing executives. The April PMI was 45.4%, down 0.8 points from March. New orders declined 1 point, to 45.2%....

Forecasts: soft market for electronics hardware. (Market Watch).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... BOSTON -- "Collective jitters" are weighing on the world economy and, in turn, dampening forecasts for global production and sales of electronics equipment. Falling oil prices haven't been enough to overcome global anxiety and prop up the...

Armed for recovery? (Market Watch).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... WASHINGTON, DC -- March brought improvement in orders for manufactured durable goods, the Department of Commerce reported on April 25. New orders rose 2% to $173.6 billion, reversing February's 1.5% drop. Driven by a double-digit hike in...

Industry market snapshot. (Market Watch).(Illustration)
June 1, 2003... Book-to-bills of various components. DEC. JAN. FEB. MARCH Semiconductor equipment (1) 0.94 0.94 0.98 0.99 Semiconductors (2) -2.3% 2.4% -3.3% 2.6% PCBs (3) (North...

Boardtalk: PCD&M readers give their views. (Around The World / Design).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... "What do designers need to know, but don't, about laser drilling?" A lot of designers aren't even thinking of what [lasers] are capable of. Holes that are 0.003" to 0.005" can with lasers be reduced to 0.0005". Not too many people are...

Mentor reports record Q1 revenues. (PCB Design Tool Bookings Triple).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... WILSONVILLE, OR -- Mentor Graphics Corp. (mentor.com) reported record first-quarter revenues of $159 million, up 25% from a year ago. Bookings rose 33% and also reached a Q1 high. GAAP net income was $3.6 million. Pro-forma net income was...

Cadence takes Q1 loss. (Sees Gain in Market Share).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... SAN JOSE -- Cadence Design Systems Inc. (cadence.com) reported first-quarter revenue of $256 million, down 25% from a year ago. Cadence took a net loss of $19.1 million, down from a $21.4 million profit last year. "We executed against our...

Scotland's new 'yard'.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Pittsburgh Simulation Corp. (pitsim.com), a supplier of simulation and timing products, will locate its European headquarters in Dundee, Scotland. "The factors include access to the high-level design skills we need to continue to grow and the...

A winner and a scholar.(Mentor Graphics; Jonathon Andrews)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Mentor Graphics (mentor.com) and HP (hp.com) selected Jonathon Andrews of Virginia Commonwealth University as winner of its annual Technology Leadership Scholarship. The award promotes innovation for PCB designers at colleges. Andrews will...

Open gate.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Cadence's (cadence.com) Incisive verification platform was instrumental in the development of Xilinx Inc.'s (xilinx.com) Spartan-3 FPGA, the first 90 nm FPGA. Incisive permitted rapid design, verification and PCB implementation of the Spartan-3...

Wise reports 8% Q1 growth.
June 1, 2003... Wise Software Solutions Inc. (wssi.com), a privately held supplier of CAM software and services, reported first-quarter revenues rose 8% year-on-year. Wise attributed the growth to a "significant" hike in end-user business in the eastern U.S....

Ready for action: shops seeking DoD work: (Dozens Undergoing MIL-PRF-31032).(MIL-PRF-31032 compliancy)
June 1, 2003... COLUMBUS, OH -- Dozens of printed circuit board manufacturers are working toward MIL-PRF-31032 compliancy, according to a report prepared in January by the agency that oversees the qualification program. During the last quarter of 2002,...

Kaneka expands polyimide capacity. (Dozens Undergoing MIL-PRF-31032).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... TOKYO -- Kaneka Corp. will invest 4 billion yen in a new line its fifth overall--for production of polyimide film. Coupled with planned equipment upgrades to its facility in Shiga, Japan, Kaneka's capacity in Japan will rise 33% to 1,800 tons a...

Motorola grants material license.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Motorola Labs (motorola.com) has licensed its embedded mezzanine capacitor material to Unimicron Technology Corp. (umc.com). The material is used in large volumes of Motorola cellphones.

KeyTek opens new doors.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... KeyTek Marketing opened a new facility in May and added R&D capabilities for CAD/CAM workstations. KeyTek represents MicroCraft, TTI, GCA and other suppliers.

Isola's sales drop 28%.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Isola (isolausa.com) posted sales of 454 million euros in 2002, down 27.5% year-on-year. It posted a pretax loss of 277 million euros, down 200 million euros from 2001. Isola is the world's third largest laminate supplier, behind Matsushita...

Innovex gains 7% in Q2.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Flex circuit maker Innovex Inc. (innovexinc.com) reported second-quarter revenue of $37.1 million, up 7.5% sequentially and 6% from a year ago. The company took a net loss of $1.4 million for the March quarter. Gross margins were 11%, up from...

Big gains at Rogers.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Rogers Corp. (rogers-corp.com) posted first-quarter net sales of $51.9 million and after-tax profits of $5.7 million, up from $3.9 million a year ago. Printed circuit materials sales were $24.2 million, up 24% year-on-year and 12% sequentially....

'Dear Pacothane.'.(Pacothane Technologies)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Pacothane Technologies (pacothane.com) has launched an online technical help service for PCB lamination. The site offers process solutions for common lamination problems. Pacothane's technical support staff may be contacted directly for free...

Big spender.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Gul Technologies (gultech.com) in April received a $20 million loan from Anhui Prime Cord Fabrics Co. Ltd., a Chinese investor, in exchange for a stake in GulTech's operations in China. GulTech will use the loan to add capacity in Wuxi, China,...

Flextronics CEO: 'pricing about to improve'. (Multek Loses $10M During Quarter).
June 1, 2003... SAN JOSE -- Flextronics (flextronics.com) posted a net profit of $25.4 million on sales of $3.1 billion for the March quarter, down 7.2% from a year ago. Pro-forma net income was $25.4 million. GAAP earnings were $19.5 million. Flextronics...

Park heads west. (Manufacturing).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... LAKE SUCCESS, NY -- Park Electrochemical Corp. (parkelectro.com) will realign its North American FR-4 business operations, cutting production and employees in New York and scaling up production and staffing in California. The maker of circuit...

Burkle, Schmoll seal distribution deal. (Equipment Big Top).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... FREUDENSTADT, GERMANY -- The North American divisions of Burkle (burkleusa.com) and Schmoll Posalux will jointly distribute companies' lamination, coating, drills and routers in North America. Burkle's current rep network will market the lines....

Events.(Calendar)
June 1, 2003... JUNE 3-5 JPCA Show Tokyo. Contact: JPCA, jpca.org 4 Upper Midwest SMTA Vendor Show St. Paul, MN. Contact: SMTA, smta.org 9-11 SMTA Boston/Nepcon East/Assembly East Boston. Contact: SMTA,...

Amitron Corp. (amitroncorp.com) purchased two Test Technology International (ttiusa.com) model 2600 dual-access, universal grid bare board testers. (It's A Deal).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Amitron Corp. (amitroncorp.com) purchased two Test Technology International (ttiusa.com) model 2600 dual-access, universal grid bare board testers. Also, DDi (ddiglobal.com) purchased a TTI model 9800 double-density, large-format, universal...

Lloyd Doyle (lloyd.doyle.com) installed a Redline automatic optical tester at Adaptive Circuits (adaptivecircuits.com). (It's A Deal).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Lloyd Doyle (Lloyd.doyle.com) installed a Redline automatic optical tester at Adaptive Circuits (adaptivecircuits.com). Also, Circuits West (circuitswest.com) purchased an Excalibur AOT.

Process Automation International Ltd. (Faces).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Process Automation International Ltd. (palhk.com) promoted C.W. Chart to director. Chan, who was deputy general manager and director of PAL Shenzhen, has been with the company since 1981.

Lloyd Doyle.(Andreas Neuhaeuser)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... AOT supplier Lloyd Doyle (lloyd-doyle.com) named Andreas Neuhaeuser as sales agent for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. He has 15 years of PCB manufacturing experience.

Prototron Circuits. (Faces).(Jody van Maastricht)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Prototron Circuits (prototron.com) has hired Jody van Maastricht to handle sales in the Midwest territory, van Maastricht has sales experience with Bare Board Group and Multicircuits.

Endicott Interconnect Technologies. (Faces).(J. Michael Sapienti )(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Endicott Interconnect Technologies (endicottinterconnect.com) named J. Michael Sapienti [pictured, top] vice president of sales and marketing. He was senior VP of sales at Gold Circuit Electronics, and has also held sales and business...

W.L. Gore Associates. (Faces).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... W.L. Gore Associates (wlgore.com) named Glen Walther technical leader of its new R&D lab. Walther was applications engineering manager at Multek and also worked at IBM. He has bachelor's degrees in aerospace engineering and industrial arts and...

Matsushita Electronic Materials. (Faces).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Matsushita Electronic Materials (memor.com) named Tetsusuke Mizuma as president. He takes the place of Tony Higuchi, who returned to Matsushita Electric Works, MEM's parent company, in Japan.

Industrial Laminates Norplex. (Faces).(Denny Ford vice president )(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Industrial Laminates Norplex named Denny Ford vice president and general manager. ILNorplex produces thermoset laminate for automotive, electronics and other applications. Ford is the former president of Isola Laminate Systems.

StrataFLEX Corp. (Faces).(Jeffrey T. Shook)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... StrataFLEX Corp. (strataflex.com) promoted Jeffrey T. Shook to president and CEO. to president and CEO. He was executive vice president of operations.

Ferrari Technical Services. (Faces).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Gary Ferrari has launched Ferrari Technical Services, a consulting business. He was executive director of the IPC Designers Council.

The marketing mosaic: sales and marketing relies heavily on knowing and executing a lot of basics. (Power Selling).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... WARNING: WHAT FOLLOWS will, for many, seem boring. If you lack interest in sales and marketing, or if you don't see the connection between a great sales force and increased business, then perhaps you'd be better served by skipping this column...

Pride and respect: could the secret to improved performance be in how we treat each other? (ROI).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... I THINK IT is safe to say that business really stinks for all aspects of our industry. We've gone to hell in a handbasket, with irrational capacity build-up while demand falls, ridiculous (and unsustainable) pricing and complete disregard for...

Up in smoke: laser processing produces hazardous particles and fumes. But proper purification isn't just "a pump in a box." (Green Thoughts).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... LASER-GENERATED AIRBORNE contaminants, or LGACs, is a term used for the dust and smoke generated when a material is processed with a laser. International health and safety regulations mandate fume extraction for most laser operations in order...

Designing for EMC: the top 4 guidelines: the problem with design guidelines is the more you have, the harder it is to comply with all of them. Knowing how to prioritize makes the difference. (Cover Story).(electromagnetic compatibility )(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Suppose you're laying out a high-speed multilayer PCB. You need to route a trace carrying a high-frequency analog signal from a transistor in an analog circuit to the input pin of a digital component. You want to minimize the chance of having...

So far, so close: understanding return current in a differential pair. (No Myths Allowed).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... SOME BELIEVE THAT in a differential pair the return current of one signal line is carried by the other signal line. There is only one situation where this is true, one that, unfortunately, rarely happens in board-level interconnects. This...

Routing high bit-rate connectors: the physical characteristics and routing tradeoffs of using 3.125 Gb/s parts. (Interconnect Strategies).
June 1, 2003... HIGH BIT-RATE I/O connectors play an important role in system-level differential signaling to and beyond 3.125 Gb/s. The physical characteristics of these connectors directly influence backplane and plug-in card PCB routing solutions....

Drilling to the source of voids: even optimized plating can't compensate for poor hole formation or desmearing processes. (The Plating Rack).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... IN APRIL, WE began our exploration of PTH voids. This Month we discuss many more of their causes. Seasoned engineers often note the many process steps and variables that will influence the success or failure of getting a continuous,...

Waiting for the 'other' bubble to burst: with no end in sight to its IT recession, American fabs wait (and hope) for China to overheat. (North American PCB Market).(Industry Overview)
June 1, 2003... Last year was notable for capacity reductions and price erosions. Trying to hang onto customers being courted by Asian manufacturers, particularly from Taiwan and China, North American PCB makers dropped prices. Their revenues dropped, too--by...

Handle with care: want better boards? Treat your films better. (Better Phototooling).
June 1, 2003... WHEN WORKING WITH diazo and other phototools, film handling and first-quality finished boards go hand in hand. If your technicians are working with a phototool that has been damaged, you can expect the PCB will require a generous amount of...

Why settle for 1? The best response for recruiters that demand a commitment? Take a hike. (Career Care).
June 1, 2003... I RECENTLY RECEIVED a call from a candidate who had responded to an ad on a well-known comprehensive job board. A third-party recruiting firm retained by the hiring company had posted the position. The candidate submitted his resume and the...

Anti-static spray. (off the Shelf).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... HP 5500 anti-static spray reportedly prevents static build-up on all materials that charge static and attract dust, including plastic, wood and metal. Simple spraying removes the static electricity and prevents new charging for a longer period...

EMI/RFI shielding gaskets. (off the Shelf).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... The S series of EMI/RFI shielding gaskets are for slot mounting and extrusion mounting and are said to provide high attenuation over the life of the product. Need no tape, stiffener or adhesive and are smooth to the touch. Require no secondary...

Auto-analysis tool. (off the Shelf).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Slwave v1.1 power- and signal-integrity software provides automated analysis of IC packages and PCBs consisting of multiple, arbitrarily shaped power and ground layers and any number of vias, signal traces and lumped components. Models: voltage...

PCB tool suites. (Others Of Note).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Ultra suite includes Capture for design entry, PSpice ND for analog and mixed-signal simulation, Layout for place and route, and Specctra for automatic and interactive interconnect routing. Has a schematic capture tool for PCB and FPGA design....

Laser trimmer for passives. (Others Of Note).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... TrimSmart EP 100 embedded passive laser trimmer handles thin- and thick-film resistors to a reported accuracy of 1%. Resistor range said to be 0.1 [OMEGA] to 1000 M[OMEGA]. Trims range of resistors using test pads to 0.006". Handles panels up...

PTFE for high-speed apps. (Others Of Note).(Taconic)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... TacPreg TP-32 PTFE-based laminate is said to beat industry standards for peel strength and has a dielectric constant of 3.2 at 1 MHz and 3.19 at 10 GHz (25 to 35% resin). Laminates at standard temperatures and pressures and can be...

PLM tool. (Others Of Note).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... eM-Assembly Expert 2.0 product lifecycle management software is for electronics assembly and test programming, documentation creation and parametric optimization. Also integrates with a novel parts library. Can be integrated with shop-floor...

High-resolution printer. (Others Of Note).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... The CP 400 printer handles panels up to 24 x 26" and from 0.004 to 0.600" thick. Features CCD camera and motorized table rotation for alignment. Comes in standard (0.005") and high-resolution (0.003") models. Available with manual (locating...

High-rel polyimide. (Others Of Note).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... N7000-2 V0 series of toughened polyimides (laminates and prepregs) are said to enhance drilling and offer improved thermal resistance. Z-axis expansion is 1.7% at 50[degrees] to 288[degrees]C; Dk is 4.2 at 1 MHz with 50% resin content. Designed...

OT dispute no labor of love. (Our Line).
June 1, 2003... IT was just over a year ago when a federal judge approved a settlement between some 1,500 current and former Pacific Bell engineers who alleged that their employer failed to pay them for overtime worked. The plaintiffs claimed that they...