CircuiTree articles from July 2002

CircuiTree archives from July 2002

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2002... Incremental Circuit Fabrication: An Ignored Solution? In the context of Steve Gold's column "Without Research There Is No Development" [January 2002, page 9] and in response to Ron Rhodes' recent columns on "Collaborative R&D" [March 2002,...

Transition time in Tokyo. (The Way We See It).(electronics industry)
July 1, 2002... This year's JPCA Show followed the trend of every other trade show we've covered so far this year. Booths are smaller, the aisles are wider and attendance is down. But as I sit in my postage-stamp-sized hotel room, I think the real story here...

Electrochemical migration testing results: evaluating PWB design, manufacturing process, and laminate material impacts on CAF resistance.
July 1, 2002... This article documents some of the difficulties faced in developing a temperature-humidity-bias test and data analysis methodology for comparing the electrochemical migration or CAF resistance of various standard and alternate PWB laminate...

Frequency tripled (355 nm wavelength) lasers. (Seeing the Light).
July 1, 2002... After the [CO.sub.2] laser, the most visible laser used in the Printed Circuit industry is the frequency tripled [Nd.sup.3]+ laser. The UV wavelength and high pulse repetition rate, coupled with excellent beam quality, compact size and high...

An overview of hybrid laser drilling: parallel processing offered by hybrid laser drilling is ideal for PCB manufacturers that demand flexibility and quick manufacturing turn-around.
July 1, 2002... Laser drilling has become the process of choice for PCB manufacturers wishing to offer high-density interconnect solutions that include microvias (blind, buried, stepped, etc.). Manufacturers can select from three common laser drilling...

IPC's Technical Activities Executive Committee. (People).(Doug Sober )(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Northbrook, IL--IPC announced that Doug Sober has been named the new chairman of the Technical Activities Executive Committee (TAEC). Sober, vice president, quality assurance at GIL Technologies, Inc., was elected at IPC Printed Circuits Expo...

Cookson Electronics Chemistry (Enthone). (People).(Steven J. Corbett )(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... West Haven, CT--Steven J. Corbett has been appointed President, Cookson Electronics Chemistry (Enthone), by Cookson Electronics, Foxborough, Mass. Corbett is responsible for leading and growing the Enthone [R] chemistry business worldwide....

Park Electrochemical Corp. (People).(hired Anthony W. DiGaudio )(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Lake Success, NY--Park Electrochemical Corp. hired Anthony W. DiGaudio as product director. DiGaudio will be responsible for management of a portion of the company's current high volume and advanced technology products. He will coordinate...

GCA Technology. (People).(Blaine Shelkey )(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... GCA Technology appointed Blaine Shelkey as its U.S. East Coast sales representative. Jerry Antoine, president of GCA said, "Blame's technical capability and knowledge of the CAM and Electrical Test market have made him a powerful force. His...

Polyclad Laminates. (People).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Londonderry, NH--Rick J. Richesin has been appointed president, Polyclad Laminates, by Cookson Electronics PWB Materials & Chemistry. Richesin has global responsibility for leading and growing the company's laminate materials business. He...

Teltec acquisition signals confidence in integrated circuit market. (People).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... San Jose, CA--Teltec Corp., the oldest printed circuit board manufacturer in Silicon Valley, has been acquired by Hershel Petty (president), Bill Lewis (VP of sales and marketing), Larry Pieper and Jim Craik. "Our team believes in the long term...

IPC forms new Photonics Manufacturers Association Council.
July 1, 2002... Northbrook, IL--The IPC announced the creation of the Photonics Manufacturers Association (PMA) Council, a newly formed PC council which plans to organize and coordinate roadmapping, standardization, legislative, market research and education...

Minimizing footprint. (Hard-Man-uscript: An Eye on Automation).
July 1, 2002... I worked my way through college in a cabinet shop assembling hotel room furniture. One hotel room usually includes one dresser with 6 identical drawers, and 12 nearly identical drawer sides. A 200-room contract equated to 1,200 drawers. As I...

The real history of chip on flex.
July 1, 2002... Let's start with the present use of electronic chips on flex circuits and chip carriers and then move backwards in time for a surprising conclusion. Flexible circuitry, an important enabling technology for many decades, is ideally suited for...

Tyco closing Melbourne PCB plant. (EMS Report).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Melbourne, FL--Tyco Printed Circuit Group announced it will close its PCB plant (Melbourne, FL) in September, laying off over 200 workers. The plant closure, formerly owned by Advanced Quick Circuits, is part of Tyco International's downsizing...

Flextronics acquires NatSteel China; closes Microsoft deal. (EMS Report).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Singapore--Flextronics offered to acquire NatSteel Broadway Ltd. The offer, priced at S$3.23 cash per share, equates to a deal value of about S$653 million (approximately US$364 million) for all of the outstanding shares of NatSteel Broadway....

Plexus closes plants to reduce expenses. (EMS Report).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Neenah, WI--Plexus Corp. announced its intent to consolidate its Neenah, Wis. manufacturing operations and to close its Minneapolis, Minn. New product introduction (NPI) center. The facilities will be closed permanently when Plexus completes...

Sanmina jumps into flex production. (EMS Report).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... San Jose, CA--Sanmina-SCI Corp. will produce high density interconnect (HDI) multilayer flexible PCBs at its HDI manufacturing and research center (Costa Mesa, CA).

Sanmina-SCI acquires Siemens' IC facilities in U.S., Europe. (EMS Report).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... San Jose, CA--Sanmina-SCI Corp. entered into a memorandum of understanding with Siemens AG to acquire the electronic giant's Information and Communication Networks (IC Networks) Group's final system assembly and test operations in Lake Mary,...

MSL wins Samsung PCB contract. (EMS Report).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Concord, MA--MSL announced that Samsung Electronics Iberia Co. has selected MSL to manufacture the main circuit board for its TFT flat panel displays. MSL will manufacture PCBs for Samsung Electronics Iberia in its Valencia, Spain,...

IPC adopts DoD assembly standard. (EMS Report).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Northbrook, IL--IPC adopted the IPC-A-610C, Acceptability of Electronic Assemblies, by the U.S. Army for use by the Department of Defense (DoD). "The 1995 cancellation of DoD soldering standards, particularly those with color reference...

Atotech divests D-E-S business; Chemcut continues. (Suppliers).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... State College, PA -- Atotech USA Inc. divested its U.S.-based develop/etch/strip (DES) electronics equipment business to an employee-led buyout group on May 1, 2002. Chemcut Corp. will continue to design and produce DES equipment in State...

Sanmina-SCI selects Ceco Hole Checker. (Suppliers).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Anaheim, CA--Ceco Industries announced the sale and installation of the new Seiren HC-7 Hole Checker to Sanmina-SCI (Phoenix, AZ). The HC-7 was selected after an extensive evaluation.

GCA Technology upgrades MicroCraft service bureaus. (Suppliers).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... MicroCraft USA upgraded its electrical test service bureaus to use GCA Tecnology's Fixture Magician and NetSpeed software products. MicroCraft chose GCA because of its fast, accurate ability to calculate complicated Netlists without troublesome...

ACD North America appoints sales reps. (Suppliers).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Edgewood, NY--ACD North America appointed the following sales organizations in the United States: East Coast, JCL Nationwide; Midwest, Hamlet & Smith; Texas, Interconnect Sourcing; West Coast, Technica USA. They will be assisted by ACD sales...

ECI Technology launches Web site. (Suppliers).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... ECI Technology officially launched its new Web site (www.ecitechnology.com). The site provides detailed product information, and makes every piece of ECI literature downloadable in PDF format. Also posted is technical information supporting all...

Camtek wins multiple order. (Suppliers).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Migdal Ha'Emeq, Israel--Camtek Ltd. earned an order for several Pegasus systems from a major semiconductor packaging and testing house. The system is used for automatic surface inspection of high density interconnect (HDI) substrates, such as...

ESI installs equipment. (Suppliers).(Electro Scientific Industries Inc. )(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Portland, OR--Electro Scientific Industries Inc. (ESI) received multiple orders from UST Technology for back-end semiconductor inspection equipment. Based in Singapore, UST Technology is an exclusive distributor of ESI's test and inspection...

Leading Edge Devices sells more photoplotters. (Suppliers).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Brea, CA--Leading Edge Devices Inc. sold several First EIE Photoplotting Systems in North America. South Coast Circuits (Santa Ana, CA) purchased an RP348, a large-sized raster photoplotter, Precision Circuits (San Marcos, CA) purchased an RP24...

Mentor Graphics, Innoveda merge. (Suppliers).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Wilsonville, OR--Mentor Graphics Corp. and Innoveda Inc. signed a definitive merger agreement providing for Mentor Graphics to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Innoveda for $3.95 per share in cash, for a total purchase price of...

Hitachi Via Mechanics licenses optical technology. (Suppliers).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Londonderry, NH--NanoVia LP licensed its hybrid optical technology for laser microvia drilling to Hitachi Via Mechanics, Japan. This announcement marks the culmination of several program milestones for NanoVia LP, which included a direct...

Lloyd Doyle provides technology upgrade. (Suppliers).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... San Jose, CA--Lloyd Doyle installed a Phasor inspection machine at Janus Technologies Corp (San Jose, CA), its San Jose demo center. Janus Technologies will use this installation to promote its sub-contract AOT service in addition to the...

Shipley's technology center nears completion. (Suppliers).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Marlborough, MA--Shipley Co. is nearing completion of the first of three phases of construction of its Advanced Technology Center (ATC). This center is targeted at fast-cycle development of new 193 nanometer photoresists and anti-reflectant...

QPG offers executive retreat. (Suppliers).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... The Quantum Performance Group LLC will produce an exclusive senior executive retreat at Aviara Four Seasons (Carlsbad, CA) this fall. The theme of the meeting is "Succeeding in Difficult Times." The program will provide an understanding of the...

Viking Test Services announces installation. (Suppliers).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Norfolk, UK--Viking Test Services installed another Emma flying probe test system. One Way Circuits Ltd. (Norfolk, UK) took delivery of an EL6146 high-speed flying probe test system.

Fine lines in high yield (Part LXXXII): fighting the etch factor and etch non-uniformity. (Tech Talk).
July 1, 2002... In February and December of 2001, this column (Ref. 1, 2) dealt with the phenomenon of the shift from fully subtractive processing to semi-additive processing when approaching 3040 micron circuitry features. This shift is driven by IC designs...

Pricing and the global economy. (View from the Middle).
July 1, 2002... Once upon a time, discussions on pricing were a much simpler matter that could be reduced to square inch terms without much consequence. A quick calculation could be estimated with only the knowledge of the number of holes, layers and...

Honeywell advanced circuits to close more plants. (Fabrication).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Minneapolis, MN--Honeywell International is planning to fire up to 900 employees and close four of its printed circuit plants near Minneapolis. In May, Honeywell closed its facility in Buffalo, firing 200 workers. The company also plans to...

Matsushita, Ya Hsin Industries announce production agreement. (Fabrication).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Tapei, Taiwan--Matsushita Electronic Components Co. Ltd. plans to buy multilayer boards sold by Matsushita to Taiwan-based Ya Hsin Ind. (YHI) Co. Ltd. Matsushita signed a technology transfer agreement with YHI in 1999, and commissioned...

PPC Electronics announces U.S. representation. (Fabrication).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... PPC Electronic AG announced it is now represented in the U.S. The company recruited Mike Kallbrier and Selmark Associates Inc. (Dave Morrison, Jim Beauchamp) to make the technological abilities of PPC available to customers in the U.S. Mike...

Teradyne delivers VHDM and VHDM-HSD connector design. (Fabrication).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Nashua, NH--Teradyne Inc. Connection Systems Division (TCS) announced DFM Guidelines for its VHDM and VHDM-HSD connector platforms. TCS's DFM Guidelines are unique in offering a detailed level of design assistance based on real-life...

Cais Circuit builds new PCB facility in Meizhou. (Fabrication).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Meizhou, China--Gals Circuit Corp. announced plans to build a PCB facility in Meizhou, China. The 30,000 sm plant will cost an estimated $3.6 million, and make both multilayer and double-sided PCBs. Cais Circuit is capable of making 20-layer...

DDi to close two facilities, reduce workforce by 13%.(DDi Corp. )
July 1, 2002... Anaheim, CA--In a move that indicates PCB fabricators are still suffering from the economic downturn, DDi Corp. announced its decision to close or sell its Dallas, Texas backplane facility, as well as its Moorpark, California assembly facility....

Topsearch uses top talent to move into multilayer production.
July 1, 2002... It is now a well-known fact that high-volume PCB production has found a new center of gravity in China. What's not so well known is that domestic Chinese manufacturers were there long before multinational corporations jumped on the low-cost...

The Death of Common Sense. (Flexible Thinking).(electronics industry)
July 1, 2002... Over the last few years, there has been a tremendous effort to convert the electronics industry to lead-free electronics. The effort began in either Europe or Japan, depending on whose history you wish to use. I have read papers from Japan...

Shipley announces Circubond 2200, SOLAR. (Products).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Marlborough, MA--Shipley recently announced the roll-out of Circubond 2200, a new generation of its advanced Oxide Alternative process. "It's the industry's first Oxide Alternative to provide high peels across the Tg range," explained Chris...

Lloyd Doyle, GCA reveal AOT data preparation solution. (Products).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Walton-on-Thames, UK--Lloyd Doyle and GCA announced a solution for reference data preparation on all AOT products. GCA's software tools, Fixture Magician and NetSPEED, enable PCB makers to prepare netlist data for reference in optical test. The...

MLI develops new high temperature resin system. (Products).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Hatfield, PA--Mass Lamination Inc. developed an FR-4 epoxy resin system of bond plies and laminates that meets the requirements of high temperature applications reserved for polyimide or BT. This non-dicy system, called MF3, offers a Tg of...

PerfecTest announces Version 4.0. (Products).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
July 1, 2002... Redmond, WA--PerfecTest Corp. released the Version 4.0 PerfecTest system for managing innerlayer registration. Version 4.0 provides a major advance for the fabricators ability to predict corrected artwork scale factors, by searching the...

Christopher Group upgrades path for EPC verification stations. (Products).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Santa Ana, CA--The Christopher Group and EPC (Dallas, TX) now offer upgrades for the EPC 4600 and 4400 verification/repair stations. These upgrades were developed to improve both speed and performance at low cost, and include an improved X/Y...

Qualitek introduces non-refrigerated no-clean solder paste. (Products).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Addison, IL--Qualitek's DSP #850 is a no-clean solder paste requiring no refrigeration storage up to six months. Tests on the paste after six months storage at 20-27[degrees]C (room temperature) have proven the paste to maintain the highest...

Eastman Kodak creates Accumas Photoplotter Film ARD7. (Products).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
July 1, 2002... Rochester, NY--Eastman Kodak Co. introduced Kodak Accumax Photoplotter Film ARD7, which will allow manufacturers to produce smaller and more complex PCBs. The film is printed onto the boards as a template for the circuitry that is etched...

OEM Press Systems introduces vacuum press system. (Products).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Orange, CA--OEM Press Systems Inc. has developed a vacuum press system for quick-turn and prototype production environments. The compact, self-contained lamination press system is designed with accurate pressure control, temperature...

Are four-dimensional wiring designs required for today's packaging technology? (Asian Aspects).
July 1, 2002... There have been many discussions about semiconductor packaging and high density circuit boards involving the extreme miniaturization of portable electronic products. However, one must consider other technologies to design a compact portable...

Ericsson establishes sixth R&D facility in China. (OEMs).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Beijing, China--Ericsson China created a new research and development facility in Beijing, the sixth R&D site owned by the company in China. Ericsson has established ten joint ventures and four solely funded enterprises in China, dealing in...

Lucent sells China facility to Jabil Circuit Inc. (OEMs).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Shanghai, China--Lucent Technologies China and its joint venture partners in Lucent Technologies of Shanghai (LTOS) agreed to sell the venture's manufacturing assets to Jabil Circuit Inc. Lucent Technologies and Jabil Circuit have also signed a...

Solectron, Lucent close $100 million deal. (OEMs).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Murray Hill, NJ--Lucent Technologies announced it has concluded its agreement with Solectron for certain equipment and inventory at its manufacturing operation at North Andover, Mass., and has commenced its three-year manufacturing supply...

Motorola seeks Chinese supply base. (OEMs).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Beijing, China--In an effort to attract more foreign suppliers to China, Motorola announced it will buy raw materials from local Chinese vendors to supply its electronics manufacturing operations. Motorola said it plans to spend up to $10...

Toshiba establishes Chinese joint venture. (OEMs).(with Guangzhou Baiyun Electrical Appliance Group Co. Ltd.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Guangzhou, China--Toshiba Corp. announced it entered into a joint venture with the Guangzhou Baiyun Electrical Appliance Group Co., Ltd. a Chinese electrical appliance producer. Toshiba has a 40 percent stake in the arrangement. The...

NEC shifts computer production to China. (OEMs).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... China--NEC Corp. announced plans to shutter its Scottish and Malaysian facilities later this year. The Japanese company's Malaysian plant is capable of producing 100,000 personal computers annually, while its Scottish facility can make 350,000...

Accutech 'scores' four straight months of record profits.
July 1, 2002... It's not often that the current economic woes in the electronics industry actually benefit PCB service providers. But that's exactly the case for one Silicon Valley start-up: Accutech Drilling and Fabrication Services. Like most entrepreneurs,...

Waiting for the light (at the end of this tunnel). (Market Outlook).
July 1, 2002... Uncertainties in the Middle East coupled with a slow and painful electronics industry recovery make writing these columns very difficult. At the May TMRC meeting in Chicago, we learned that global PCB dollar shipments declined 24% from 2000 to...

PCB database provides board buyers with all the facts.
July 1, 2002... Both OEMs and PCB fabricators want to standardize process capability tests forming one database that provides detailed information on PCB manufacturing capabilities and quality will it succeed? During the IPC President's Meeting in 2000,...

Manna from Heaven. (Moving Down Stream).
July 1, 2002... I'm writing this from Heaven. I bought a new car last Christmas, and in the ensuing three months, I almost had a dozen collisions. The thirteenth time was not the charm, and here I am. What happened was (so a couple of celestial...