CircuiTree articles from August 2003

CircuiTree archives from August 2003

Trade associations must keep members' needs first.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2003... As always I enjoyed the May edition of CircuiTree. With reference to your column ("Addressing Trade Show Overcapacity," May 2003), I would like to make the following comments. At an ECWC (Electronic Circuits World Conference) event held in...

Web spotlight.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Each month CircuiTree offers our readers articles and columns found exclusively on our Web site: www.circuitree.com COLUMNS: Value Selling--Lou De Rose Are your company's procurement people mere paper shufflers, or an...

Taiwan: gaining orders but losing money.(The Way We See It)
August 1, 2003... During the keynote address of last year's ninth Electronic Circuits World Convention in Cologne, Germany, Compeq's Chairman Charles Wu was a man on a mission. While delivering his speech, he warned against the dangers of submitting to the...

Signal integrity: it pays to consider design for manufacture: your best designs may be compromised unless fabricators can realize them repeatably within their production processes. Ensuring your designs translate to repeatable production boards requires an ongoing dialog with your PCB fabricator.
August 1, 2003... Signal Integrity is such a widely used term that it is worth defining the word "integrity" before looking deeper into the subject with relation to PCB design and manufacture. Integrity is "The state of being unimpaired; soundness. The quality...

Purchasing: the pendulum swings both ways.(Fein-Lines)
August 1, 2003... How this industry has changed over the past ten to fifteen years is one of the prime topics discussed today among industry veterans. One function that acts in a radically different way these days is purchasing. Those selling to the PWB industry...

Teradyne.(People)(Michael A. Bradley)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Boston, MA--Teradyne Inc. named Michael A. Bradley president of the company. George Chamillard will continue as the company's CEO and chairman, and will work with Bradley on a transition of duties. Bradley, 54, joined Teradyne in 1979. He has...

Electro Scientific Industries.(People)(James Dooley)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Portland, OR--Electro Scientific Industries Inc. terminated the employment of James Dooley. On April 15, 2003, ESI's Board of Directors placed Dooley, then its CEO, on paid administrative leave pending further investigation. Based on the Audit...

Polyclad Europe.(People)(Erik J. Bergum)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Londonderry, NH--Erik J. Bergum was appointed Vice President Sales--Polyclad Europe, by Cookson Electronics PWB Materials & Chemistry. He will be responsible for growing the sales and directing the technical service of the company. Bergum was...

Eltek Limited.(People)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Tel Aviv, Israel--Eltek Ltd. appointed Jim Barry as National Sales Manager to lead the company's foray into the North American PCB market. With 20 years of experience in the industry, Barry has worked for companies such as Hadco, Teledyne and...

Mentor Graphics.(People)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Wilsonville, OR--Mentor Graphics Corp. promoted Joseph Sawicki to vice president and general manager of the company's Design-to-Silicon division. Sawicki was most recently the general manager of Mentor's Physical Verification division and has...

Shipley.(People)(Shipley Company L.L.C.)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Marlborough, MA -- Shipley Company LLC announced that IPC honored two employees at its IPC 'SMEMA Council's APEX[R] 2003 exhibition and conference. Curt Lustig and William Tran were awarded IPC Distinguished Committee Service Awards for their...

Adapt and overcome.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2003... In response to Larry Fisher's letter (June 2003), I am very sympathetic to his concerns about offshore PWB manufacturing and the loss of American jobs to foreign competition, but I have to remind him that there is no stopping the world economy....

The disaster on Tokyo Bay.(Asian Aspects)
August 1, 2003... It is hard to know what to say about the recent JPCA Show in Tokyo (June 4-6) that hasn't been said about other trade shows recently. Adding my own hyperbole, however, I would say the show was "shocking" even though I knew attendance would be...

Kyoden to acquire Unison Capital.(Fabrication)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Tokyo, Japan--Kyoden Company said it would lead a management buyout of Unison Capital Inc. Kyoden plans to acquire the plastic molding business for approximately 5 billion yen by the end of June. The new company, dubbed "Tacmic SP Co.," will...

Bureau of Engraving closes doors.(Fabrication)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Minneapolis, MN--The Bureau of Engraving announced that it closed its doors in early June. The company, founded in 1954, had served North America's electronics community. Dale Blanchfield, a company executive, cited the struggling economy and...

Merix opens Chinese Rep office, inventory hub.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Forest Grove, OR--North American PWB manufacturers are increasingly being divided into two camps: those who remain strictly focused on North America, and those that also serve customers in Asia. Merix Corp. joined the latter camp in June,...

China's Dalian Pacific Multilayer PCB Company to expand.(Fabrication)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Dalian, China--Dalian Daxian Group Co. Ltd. and Dalian Pacific Multilayer PCB Co. Ltd. formed a joint partnership for PCB production. Investing RMB 800 million ($96.6 million), the two companies will control Dalian's newest PCB manufacturing...

Circuit World licensed for Nortel's Channel Routing.(Fabrication)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Toronto--Circuit World Corp. is the first PCB manufacturer to be licensed under Nortel Networks "Channel Routing" Technology Licensing Program to make and market PCBs using PCB Channel Routing technology. PCB layout has become very challenging...

ACT accepted for type 4 rigid flex.(Fabrication)(Advanced Circuit Technology Inc.)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Nashua, NH--Advanced Circuit Technology Inc. received acknowledgment of acceptance for designing and fabricating type 4 MIL-P-50884 product. An independent laboratory granted acceptance based on the engineering and fabrication of a 10-layer...

Japanese fabricator announces metal-based PCBs.(Fabrication)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Tokyo, Japan--Denki Kagaku Kogyo announced it began sending samples of a low-cost, metal-based PCB that achieves a thermal conductivity of 8 watts per meter-kelvin (w/mk), compared with the conventional level of 4 w/mk. With its thermal...

Prestwick circuits wins contract.(Fabrication)(Prestwick Circuits)(Snell and Wilcox)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... UK--Prestwick Circuits won a contract from Snell & Wilcox, an electronics design, manufacture and engineering group dedicated to the world's broadcast television, video, satellite, cable, film and image communications industries. Prestwick, a...

PWB dielectric substrates for lead-free electronics manufacturing: this article compares four different PWB substrate materials, including one produced specifically to handle lead-free soldering, using both traditional thermal shock testing and accelerated thermal cycling.
August 1, 2003... Despite the relatively low consumption of lead by the electronics industry (Ref. 1), there is currently a strong drive globally to replace the use of lead. This drive seems to be primarily related to both legislative initiatives (Ref. 2) and...

Purchasing laser services.(Seeing The Light)(Column)
August 1, 2003... This month's column is meant as an aid to those considering purchasing laser services. Given the current state of capital spending, I am assuming that most companies who don't already have a laser tool in-house and need laser work done on...

Enthone Espana receives OHSAS 18001 certification.(Suppliers)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... West Haven, CT--Enthone Inc. received certification to the OHSAS 18001 specification for its Enthone Espana operation (Barcelona, Spain). The certification shows that Enthone has documented and understood management systems in place to enable...

Live web auction site launched.(Suppliers)(Cyclone Products)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Clearwater, FL--Cyclone Products launched the industry's first live auction Web site: Cycloneauctions.com. Cyclone Auctions is dedicated to selling equipment, and support items used in the Metal Finishing, PCB and Microelectronics industries....

Luther & Maelzer goes 'Chinese'.(Suppliers)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Wunstorf, Germany--Luther & Maelzer activated a Chinese Web site (www.luthermaelzer.cn) citing the high demand for information coming from China and Taiwan. The site presents the entire product range, from Universal test systems, Flying Prober...

Dielectric Polymers announces new corporate identity.(Suppliers)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Holyoke, MA--Dielectric Polymers Inc. launched a new corporate identity tagline: "Solutions as unique as your business." In addition to manufacturing pressure sensitive tapes and films for use in a wide range of industrial applications,...

Viking test services sells another 'Emma'.(Suppliers)(Viking Test Services)(Garner Osborne Circuits)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... UK--Viking Test Services sold an Emma ELX6146 high-speed flying probe test system to Garner Osborne Circuits (Newbury, UK). Garner Osborne said it chose the Emma over other systems available due to its speed, accuracy, easy operation and...

Shipley joins ApiA.(Suppliers)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... San Jose, CA--The Advanced Packaging and Interconnect Alliance (APiA), a global group of leading semiconductor equipment and process suppliers, named Shipley Company as the latest member to the growing alliance of industry experts. APiA has...

Suzhou company to mass produce copper clad laminate.(Suppliers)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... China--Guangdong Shengyi Science & Technology Co. Ltd opened a new facility in the Suzhou Industrial Park. Dubbed Suzhou Shengyi Science & Technology Co. Ltd., it will begin mass production during the end of 2003. Jointly established by...

WDM Technologies--Passive Optical Components.(Book Review)
August 1, 2003... By Achyut Dutta, Niloy Dutta & Masahiko Fujiwara Academic Press Publishers, a Division of Elsevier Science (ISBN 0-12-225262-4) This recent publication is, according to the Butterworth-Heinemann Web site, the second of a series of four,...

Membrane switches: the 'invisible' flex circuit.(Flexible Thinking)
August 1, 2003... Membrane switches are ubiquitous. Anytime one interfaces with the world of electronics, the odds are that he is doing so through a membrane switch of some type. As common as they are, membrane switches are also perhaps one of the more unsung...

Materials requirements for high performance digital systems: the PWB design process must be more efficient as the industry seeks the optimum balance between design features, material properties, and total cost of ownership.
August 1, 2003... There are only two important electrical properties of dielectric materials that affect performance in a high-speed digital system: the dielectric constant and the dissipation factor. There are only two applications of dielectric materials...

Fine lines in high yield (Part XCV): dry film photoresist components and their functions (Part B).(Tech Talk)
August 1, 2003... Non-chemists involved in PWB fabrication are often mystified by the variety of chemistries employed in numerous processing steps such as surface preparation, imaging, development, stripping and plating. This is not helped by the fact that most...

California assembly rep visits Ambitech.(Assemblyman Joseph Simitian's office, Steve Rogaway)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Santa Clara, CA -- A representative from Assemblyman Joseph Simitian's office, Steve Rogaway, visited and toured Ambitech International in June to learn about the issues facing printed circuit manufacturers. The meeting was coordinated by...

GenCAM-ODB++ Convergence: a usable PCB design standard waits to be born: a call for a single, merged PCB design solution promises to become an official industry standard. Meet Offspring.( "Data Exchange Convergence Project" )
August 1, 2003... In a combined effort that would be remarkable in any industry, the printed circuit community has brought together resources to produce a new standard that is expected to have profound and far reaching consequences in the way printed circuits...

3M adds demo feature on web site.(Products)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... 3M added a new feature to its Web site. The company produced one- and two-metal layer sample circuits to demonstrate 3M's advanced design and manufacturing capabilities in such areas as wiring density, controlled impedance, front and back...

New MicroClimate Benchtop chamber with humidity.(Products)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Cincinnati Sub-Zero released its new MicroClimate test chamber, now available with both temperature and humidity simulation. The MicroClimate is a 1.2 [ft.sup.3] Benchtop chamber used for testing small components, assemblies, and products. Each...

Intelicoat introduces Stratfx[TM] hardcoat films.(Products)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Mathews, NC -- InteliCoat Technologies introduced a new line of flexible, abrasion-resistant optically clear hardcoat films called StratFX ("strat effects"). The new films, in gloss and anti-glare versions, are designed to offer clarity and...

Douthitt announces Model DMZ Screenmaker.(Products)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Douthitt announced that its Model DMZ Screenmaker is ergonomical, self-contained, and easily accommodates large size screens. Simply load at the convenient loading position and close the frame. The vacuum and exposure is automatically...

EIE's RP525: new high resolution photoplotter.(Products)
August 1, 2003... First EIE launched the RP525: a new high resolution Raster photoplotter with a four-micron spot size, capable of imaging up to 25,000 dpi (one-micron resolution). This new model offers a new multi-beam exposing head, a precise light beam...

Japan PWB makers still strong despite downturn.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2003... I read [Asian Aspects] (June 2003) with great interest as someone also engaged in consulting in Japan's PWB industry. While I completely agree with your view ("for those firms that continue to innovate and invest in leading-edge technology,...

Law of the jungle.(Market Outlook)
August 1, 2003... SARS now seems to be under control, Mideast tensions have lessened, and the Bush administration appears to be increasingly focused on bolstering the domestic economy in preparation for a re-election run. However, we obviously have a long way to...

Flextronics, Celetron close deal.(Board Buyers)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... San Jose, CA -- EMS providers Flextronics and Celetron signed a licensing agreement that allows Flextronics to manufacture power supply units for Celetron's OEMs.

Xanoptix, Tyco Electronics sign manufacturing agreement.(Board Buyers)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Merrimack, NH -- Xanoptix, a maker of high-speed optical connection products for data links, and Tyco Electronics announced a multi-year, multi-million dollar manufacturing services agreement for Xanoptix's XTM Series of optical transceiver...

NEC signs with Jabil; switches to lead-free solder.(Board Buyers)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Tokyo, Japan -- NEC Corp. and Jabil Circuit Inc. signed an agreement that allows Jabil to manufacture and assemble NEC's broadcasting systems and video equipment. Jabil will use the plant in Gotemba, Japan, which it leased from NEC in February....

Kulicke & Soffa to relocate wire bonder ops.(Board Buyers)(from Haifa to its Yokneam, Israel facility)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Willow Grove, PA -- Kulicke & Sofia Industries Inc. will relocate the manufacturing operations of its manual wire bonders from Haifa to its Yokneam, Israel facility. The move will combine its manual wire bonder operations with its bonding tools...

Sanmina-SCI gets military certification.(Board Buyers)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... San Jose, CA -- Sanmina-SCI Corp. said its PCB plant in Wilmington, Mass., has successfully completed certification and qualification assessment by the DSCC (Defense Supply Center, Columbus, Ohio). The facility meets all the requirements...

Solectron forms JV with Guangzhou Soutec.(Board Buyers; )(joint venture)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Milpitas, CA -- Solectron Corp. signed a definitive agreement to form a joint venture with Guangzhou Soutec (Group) Technology Co. Ltd. (Soutec), a cell phone provider in China. The joint venture, Soutectron Technology (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd....

Events.(Calendar)
August 1, 2003... September 23, 2003 CEMCEX 2003 Advanced SMT & Packaging Prague, Czech Republic Visit www.cemcex.com September 25, 2003 CEMCEX 2003 Advanced SMT & Packaging Gyor, Hungary Visit www.cemcex.com October 27-29,...

CircuiTree: first annual buyers guide 2003-2004.(Directory)(Cover Story)
August 1, 2003... Welcome to the CircuiTree Annual Buyers Guide, a comprehensive supplier directory that will help you find the suppliers you need over the next year. The prolonged industry downturn has led to an unprecedented shakeout of businesses across...