CircuiTree articles from November 2006

CircuiTree archives from November 2006

Inbox.(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2006... Dear Sir, In your September issue you carried a letter from Matt Holzmann, Christopher Kalmus, and Lionel Fullwood (worthies all) addressed to the IPC, asking them to address the wrongs the imposition of RoHS has brought. I would...

Flex for free; Flexible Circuit Technology: completely updated Third Edition released.(Flexible Circuit Technology, 3rd ed.)(Brief article)(Book review)
November 1, 2006... BR Publishing--Joseph Fjelstad has completed the much-anticipated latest version of his Flexible Circuit Technology. Now in its third edition, this text on flex circuits has sold thousands of copies to engineers, designers and flex PCB...

Is there a "diamond in the rough" for European PCB manufacturers?(The Way We See It)
November 1, 2006... Ukraine. To me, when I hear the name, I think of a place I used to build my armies in games of Risk back in high school, or where people might hunt for Moose and Squirrel (Editors note: Yes, I know Boris and Natasha were from Pottsylvania, but...

Elimination of immersion silver plating defects: a discussion of the root cause and elimination of immersion silver plating defects through process optimization.
November 1, 2006... The increasingly successful application of immersion silver as a final solderable finish for printed circuit boards (PCBs) has generated a considerable amount of performance data, at both the fabrication and assembly levels. A survey carried...

Lean sigma (Part III).(View from the Middle)
November 1, 2006... "If you are not shutting down the assembly plant, it means that you have no problems. All manufacturing plants have problems. So you must be hiding your problems. Please take out some inventory so the problems surface. You will shut down...

MacDermid retains Merrill Lynch as financial advisor.(Data Transfer)
November 1, 2006... MacDermid Inc. announced that the Special Committee of its Board of Directors has retained Merrill Lynch & Co. as its financial advisor after the CEO of MacDermid made a buyout offer for the company. On September 5, 2006, Daniel Leever,...

M.E. Baker signs new distributor.(Supply Line News)
November 1, 2006... M.E. Baker Company announced the appointment of WKK Distribution Ltd. as its exclusive representative to the Asia PCB market, excluding India, Korea, and Japan. In this capacity, WKK will serve as a full-service distributor of Baker's line of...

Endicott Interconnect Technologies selects FASTechnologies.(Supply Line News)
November 1, 2006... Big Lake, MN -- FASTechnologies announced that Endicott Interconnect Technologies of Endicott, NY, has purchased and installed FASTechnologies' SmartParts Classics & Cassetting automation software. According to Ofer Ton, President,...

Isola: new plant in Dueren, Germany, upgrades to Singapore facility.(Supply Line News)
November 1, 2006... Chandler, AZ -- Isola Group, SARL announced that they are close to completion of a new energy self-generation station at their Dueren, Germany facility. The self-generation station is a multimillion dollar collaboration with the independent...

SchmartBoard signs new distributors.(Supply Line News)
November 1, 2006... Fremont, CA -- SchmartBoard, the developer of a new technology that has significantly simplified the creation of electronic circuits for hobbyists, education, and industry, has signed three new specialty distributors to market its line of...

D.B. Management Group, Robbins Consulting for alliance.(Supply Line News)
November 1, 2006... Waterville, ME -- D. B. Management Group announced a strategic alliance with Robbins Consulting, a new sales and marketing consulting firm recently started by long time industry veteran Keith Robbins, formerly of Photocircuits. "With this...

Valor acquires manufacturing execution technologies.(Supply Line News)(Valor Computerized Systems Ltd. acquires EO Tech GmbH)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... Israel -- Valor Computerized Systems Ltd. announced the acquisition of numerous technologies from Swiss company EO Tech GmbH. Under the terms of the agreement, Valor has acquired the exclusive rights to EO Tech's electronics assembly, QA, test,...

Park Electrochemical reports 2Q results.(Supply Line News)
November 1, 2006... Melville, NY -- Park Electrochemical Corp. reported sales of $66,518,000 for its 2007 fiscal year second quarter ended August 27, 2006 compared to sales of $52,442,000 for the second quarter of last year. Park's sales for the first six months...

Flextronics sees charges from property disposal.(Supply Line News)
November 1, 2006... New York, NY -- Contract manufacturer Flextronics International Ltd forecast second-quarter pre-tax charges of $90 million to $95 million for the disposal of both company owned and leased real estate. Flextronics said the pre-tax charges would...

CPCA joins electronica & Productronica China.(Supply Line News)
November 1, 2006... Messe Munchen International, an organizer of electronics trade shows around the world, and the China Printed Circuit Association (CPCA) will be cooperating closely in the future. Within the framework of this cooperation, the CPCA Show will be...

Rohm and Haas receives R & D 100 Award.(Supply Line News)(Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials, Packaging and Finishing Technologies, a leading supplier of advanced materials and surface finishing processes for electronics, optoelectronics and industrial applications, announced the company is the...

Ticer Technologies opens new facility.(Supply Line News)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... Chandler, AZ -- Ticer Technologies, a manufacturer and marketer of TCR[R] thin film embedded resistor foil, announced that it is officially open for business in its new production and testing facility. The company will sell TCR[R] under an...

HKPCA product preview: a quick review of HKPCA offerings from CircuiTree advertisers.
November 1, 2006... Atotech -- Booth #1001 Atotech is one of the world's leading suppliers of chemistry and equipment to the PCB and Electroplating Industry. With our Technology teams, we are committed to truly understanding our customer's business to create...

Evolution of a wiring concept: 30 years of flex-rigid circuit board production.
November 1, 2006... The development of printed circuit boards (PCBs) can be traced by looking at the evolution of rigid flex boards--starting with a simple single sided PCB going on to multilayer boards with controlled impedance, high density interconnections...

Fine lines in high yield (Part CXXXIV): copper-copper peelers.(Tech Talk)
November 1, 2006... This dreaded defect, as the name suggests, refers to a situation where two layers of copper have insufficient adhesion so that the two layers can peel apart if stress is induced, e.g. during IST testing or other similar thermal cycling tests....

Endicott Interconnect Technologies.(Power People News)(Eric Hills appointed as director of program management)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... ENDICOTT, NY -- Endicott Interconnect Technologies Inc. has announced the appointment of Eric Hills as Director of Program Management, Military and Defense Programs reporting to James J. McNamara. He will assume responsibility for the internal...

IPC.(Power People News)
November 1, 2006... Bannockburn, IL -- IPC--Association Connecting Electronics Industries[R] honored 51 members for their contributions to the association and the electronics interconnect industry at IPCWorks 2006. Two members earned special recognition awards...

Park Electrochemical.(Power People News)
November 1, 2006... Melville, NY -- Park Electrochemical Corp. announced the appointment of Martin ("Marty") Choate as Product Director of Park Electrochemical Corp. In this position, Mr. Choate will be responsible for management of a portion of the company's...

Chemcut.(Power People News)
November 1, 2006... State College, PA -- Chemcut Corp. announced that one of its representative sales organizations, Atlan Dyess Inc., has expanded its service area to include the entire state of Illinois and Southern Wisconsin. Atlan Dyess has been representing...

How to be rigid, yet flexible: rigid-flex PCBs continue to evolve and fabricators continue to push the technology envelope outward.
November 1, 2006... Rigid-flex PCB (printed circuit board) fabrication has similarities to a multi-layer, two dimensional substrate, but there are many nuances that must be carefully managed during the design process. If a design is confined to a small package,...

When good passives go bad.(embedded passives update)
November 1, 2006... It seems like Mother Nature gave us just the right number of passives. We have one whose impedance goes up with frequency, one that goes down, and one that stays the same. Ideally, a given passive would be a pure component. For instance, a...

Titan Global Holdings PCB divisions announce record shipments.(Fab Focus News)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... Titan Global Holdings, Inc. announced that its PCB divisions shipped a record $5.86 million during the quarter ended August 31st, 2006, which represents a 30% increase over the $4.50 million shipped in the fourth quarter of its prior fiscal...

Elprint successfully manufactures 16-layer boards.(printed circuit boards)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... Elprint has successfully produced its first 16 layer board batch. The total production time was 26 hours, revealing the effect of a highly automated production process and continuous flow production philosophy. "I am very pleased with the...

German PCB makers increase revenue.(Fab Focus News)(printed circuit boards)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... In H1, Germany's PCB sales reached a 10% growth increase, compared with H2/2005 sales, according to the German Printed Circuit Association (VdL) and the German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers Association (ZVEI). Despite being 10 percent...

GBM plans capacity expansion.(Fab Focus News)(Global Brands Manufacture )(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... Taiwan-based PCB maker Global Brands Manufacture (GBM) plans to expand its PCB and PCB assembly (PCBA) capacity in China and the company's consolidated sales stand a good chance of exceeding NT$50 billion (US$1.52 billion) in 2006, according to...

Compeq and Unitech to see strong handset PCB growth in 2006.(Fab Focus News)
November 1, 2006... Compeq Manufacturing and Unitech Printed Circuit Board will see their handset printed circuit board (PCB) shipments grow about 36-42% and 38%, respectively, this year, according to market sources. Compeq will ship 190-200 million units of...

Invotec's business strategy in PCB market recognized by Frost & Sullivan.(Fab Focus News)
November 1, 2006... Palo Alto, CA -- Frost & Sullivan selected Invotec Group as the recipient of the 2006 Business Development Strategy Leadership Award in the printed circuit board market. The company's business strategy is based on diversification into new...

Merix launches new web site.(Fab Focus News)
November 1, 2006... Forest Grove, OR -- MerixCorp.announced the launching of their new web site, www.merix.com. The redesigned web site integrates information regarding Merix global capabilities, technology offerings and factories into a single platform. "We are...

Back to basics Part 12: flex circuit design--service loops and bookbinder constructions.(Flexible Thinking)
November 1, 2006... The topic of Part 11 of this series on flex circuit basics dealt with methods for conserving material and minimizing waste in flex circuit manufacture. This column will discuss design approaches that will actually increase material use but for...

How high can LDI fly? Can laser direct imaging meet the needs of HDI mass-production and packaging manufacturers?(High Density Interconnect)(Laser Direct Imaging)
November 1, 2006... Demand and sales of LDI (Laser Direct Imaging) machines continue to increase all over the world and especially in the Pacific area. More and more PCB shops are using LDI today, mainly for sampling, small volume and quick turn jobs. The main...

2006 is shaping up as a decent year ... modest growth likely in 2007.(Market Outlook)
November 1, 2006... Domestic electronic equipment orders softened slightly in August (Chart 1). The key cause of the modest drop was a non-recurrence of July's military electronics "bookings bubble." Other end markets (communications, computers, instruments &...

Microscan releases new software.(Technology Today News)
November 1, 2006... Renton, WA -- Microscan announced the release of a new image capture and storage software application called EZ Trax[TM]. The new software complements Microscan imagers by providing a tool to manage images as they are captured. EZ Trax[TM]...

Arlon launches CLTE-XT Microwave Laminate.(Technology Today News)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... Bear, DE -- Arlon Inc. announced the availability of the CLTE-XT Microwave Laminate. CLTE-XT represents the extended Technology of the existing CLTE product line. CLTE-XT has both "Best-in-Class" Insertion Loss (S21) and Loss Tangent (0.0012 at...

PROMS and Direct Logix offer new technology for PCB manufacturing.(Technology Today News)(computer aided manufacturing technology)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... Direct Logix and PROMS Inc. announced a technology partnership and immediate availability of a fully developed bidirectional interface between applications from both organizations. The Direct Logix's Control Center Auto CAM Automation, and DFM...

Mentor Graphics: new Board Station release.(Technology Today News)
November 1, 2006... Wilsonville, OR -- Mentor Graphics Corp., announced the release of the latest version of its Board Station[R] design flow for large, enterprise customers. The Board Station flow includes tools for design creation, layout and manufacture, and is...

Topology planning and routing.(printed circuit board layout design)
November 1, 2006... Over the years, designers implementing dense boards have largely ignored the use of auto-routers for the simple reason that they cannot route with the intelligence of an experienced designer. The basic problem is that while an engineer or...

Isola to increase prices.(Data Transfer)
November 1, 2006... Chandler, AZ -- ISOLA GROUP, SARL announced a fourth quarter price increase for the North American market to cover the unprecedented raw material increases incurred in the third and fourth quarter of this year. According to Ray Sharpe,...

How to get brainier kids--try brainier robots.(Happy Thoughts)
November 1, 2006... I was reading the latest Business Week (Sept. 4, 2006) and noticed the Lego Robot in Stephen H. Wildstrom's column "Tech & You." I'm not one to pass up anything about robots since first being introduced to them in the famous movies; "Gort" in...

Events.(Calendar)
November 1, 2006... electronica 2006 November 14-17, 2006 New Munich Trade Fair Centre Munich, Germany Website: www.global-electronics.net Printed Electronics USA 2006 December 5-6, 2006 Phoenix, AZ Website: www.printelec.com...