CircuiTree articles from September 2005

CircuiTree archives from September 2005

Is U.S. defense being compromised?(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2005... I've occasionally seen various references to our defense industry technology being compromised by production of military electronics and equipment off shore. As IPC's Jack Crawford put it, "Technical knowledge and capabilities potentially being...

Defining 'trust'.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2005... Once upon a time, OEMs built PCBs for the military. Today, however, most do not. This presents a number of problems if the U.S. military must support a system for an extended period of time. First, when the military purchases the PCB...

Countdown to compliance.(restriction of the use of hazardous substances in electronic and electrical components)
September 1, 2005... CircuiTree has created this new monthly synopsis of news articles to familiarize our readers with the latest developments and issues as they prepare for a lead-free--and hazardous substance-free--world. According to Design News, "If the...

Rising oil prices, rising tensions.(TheWayWeSeeIt)
September 1, 2005... With the Chinese government allowing its currency, the yuan, to float in a limited basket of foreign currencies, Chinese-made printed circuit boards just became two percent more expensive. That doesn't provide much solace for most North...

Laser developments expand LDI capabilities: the development of more efficient, high power, ultraviolet lasers will enable laser direct imaging systems to utilize lower cost dry films and reach throughput levels that are more competitive with traditional fabrication methods.
September 1, 2005... Laser Direct Imaging (LDI) in the production of PCBs produces more accurate registration than traditional, phototool based contact printing, and provides substantial savings in terms of film costs and setup time. However, deployment of LDI has...

Back to basics (part 5): flexible circuit construction materials.(FlexibleThinking)
September 1, 2005... Having reviewed in three earlier parts of this series the three fundamental constructional elements of a flex circuit (base film, metal foil and adhesive), it is possible to look at how these materials are mixed and matched to produce the...

GPV opens Chinese PCB facility.(Fabrication)(Printed circuit boards)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... GPV Printed Circuits Co. Ltd. opened its new production site in Suzhou, China. GPV Group Chairman N.E. Nielsen lighted the eyes of the "Chinese Lion" and the ribbon was cut together with local representatives. Anders D. Larsen said, "Together...

Aspocomp boosts stake in Thai subsidiary.(Fabrication)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Aspocomp Group will increases its stake in its Thai subsidiary PCB Centre Co. Ltd. from 51 percent to 75 percent by buying a 24 percent portion worth Bt150 million from minority shareholders. Under the plan, the company will bolster its...

Advanced Circuits invests $1 million in PCB equipment.(Fabrication)
September 1, 2005... Aurora, CO -- Advanced Circuits invested more than $1 million in new equipment. The new equipment purchases include: stripetch-strip (SES) line, debur equipment, a lead-free HASL unit, HASL pre-clean and post-clean lines, and handling...

AT & S to expand into industrial, automotive sectors.(Fabrication)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Vienna -- AT & S plans to expand to the industrial sector and car part production in order to reduce its dependence on telecommunications, CEO Harald Sommerer said. He also hopes for more telecoms orders. At the start of June 2005 AT & S said...

BEST completes lead-free solder roadmap.(trends in fabrication of printed circuit boards)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Rolling Meadows, IL -- BEST Inc. has finalized its lead-free soldering roadmap. Included is the roadmap for BEST's lead-free repair, PCB prototyping, solder training and PCB repair material businesses. As part of this document are BEST plans on...

Celestica recognizes LG Electronics with award.(Fabrication)
September 1, 2005... Seoul, Korea -- LG Electronics was awarded a first-year Partners in Performance award by Celestica for its contribution to the company in 2004. "LG Electronics is proud to be recognized by Celestica," said UB Lee, VP of the company's PCB...

Global Flex builds new plant in China.(Fabrication)
September 1, 2005... Suzhou -- Global Flex, a maker of flexible printed circuits, will spend $60 million building a plant in northern China in a bid to expand its customer base into Japan and South Korea. The company hopes to raise up to $75 million in an initial...

Cimnet Systems, Multicircuits Ink BPO agreement.(business process outsourcing services agreement)
September 1, 2005... Downers Grove, IL -- Cimnet Systems Inc. signed a long-term BPO services agreement with Multicircuits Inc. "Due to Cimnet Systems' unique start-up and operational methodologies, we were able to perform the knowledge transfer in a very short...

FUBA Printed Circuits gets bank credit.(Fabrication)
September 1, 2005... Shortly after filing for insolvency, managers Walter Drach and Andreas Ebeling sent out a letter confirming that FUBA Printed Circuits had been granted a 3 million euro line of credit. According to the management, "Incoming orders have...

Trackwise snags Queen's Award.(Fabrication)
September 1, 2005... Gloucestershire, UK -- In July, Trackwise celebrated the presentation of the Queen's Award for Enterprise for International Trade to the company by the Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire, Henry Elwes. The award recognizes Trackwise's success in...

'Forcing' the issue: NVIDIA girds for PCB challenges; NVIDIA's co-founder sounds off on lead-free compliance, technical hurdles, and the company's relentless pursuit of lower costs.(Cover Story)
September 1, 2005... CircuiTree first covered NVIDIA in our November 2001 issue because of the dynamic (and for board fabricators, lucrative) nature of the graphics card market. This market is driven by both video display and computer gaming's rise to entertainment...

The impact of green technologies.(Calendar)
September 1, 2005... Monday, September 26 Donald Stephens Convention Center Room 28 (Upper level) 5555 N. River Rd., Chicago, IL www.smta.org/smtai 8:00am-4:00pm Understand the impact of environmental legislation on PCB design,...

AT & S shows stronger operating profits, acquires Indian PCB design firm.
September 1, 2005... Vienna -- AT & S Austria Technologie und Systemtechnik AG, the largest printed circuit board manufacturer in Europe and India, and one of the world's leading contractors in the high-tech sector, was once again able to accelerate growth in the...

Materials for electronics division.(ASK THE EXPERT)
September 1, 2005... Featured Arlon Expert [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Ronald Kirby, Director of Euro Sales & Product Support Q: We are looking for a material to be able to form laser microvias that also has CTE control for leadless component attach...

iNEMI schedules innovation leadership forum September 15-16.
September 1, 2005... Herndon, VA -- The International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (iNEMI) is convening the iNEMI Innovation Leadership Forum at its corporate headquarters in Herndon, VA on September 15-16. The forum is intended to launch a coordinated...

Fine lines in high yield (part CXX): moving thin, flexible substrates--part B.(TechTalk)
September 1, 2005... As flexible and rigid-flex boards have become increasingly popular, especially in hand-held devices, the need for damage-free handling and transportation of very thin base material through processing equipment has gained even greater...

DuPont Electronic Technologies, Sanmina-SCI sign licensing agreement.
September 1, 2005... Research Triangle Park, NC -- DuPont Electronic Technologies announced an agreement with Sanmina-SCI to become a licensee of Sanmina-SCI's patented Buried Capacitance [R] technology. DuPont[TM] Interra[TM] HK polyimide laminates can now be used...

Embedded inductors: the forgotten passive.(EmbeddedPassivesUpdate)
September 1, 2005... Many experts in embedded passives do it, and I'm often guilty of it myself. Someone will ask me to give a talk about EPs, and I'll spend almost the entire time on resistors and capacitors, with little attention paid to inductors. In fact, the...

TPCA 2005 product preview: a quick preview of new products you can find exhibited this year at the TPCA show in Taipei.
September 1, 2005... The annual Taiwan Printed Circuit Association (TPCA) Show 2005 will be held October 5-7, 2005, in Taipei, Taiwan. CircuiTree has once again solicited information from its advertiser-exhibitors to create a product preview section high-lighting a...

'SuperPulse' laser.(SeeingTheLight)
September 1, 2005... In the past I have presented new and emerging laser technologies that might be of interest for applications in the interconnect industry. This is part of my never-ending search for the "perfect laser," with characteristics described in previous...

UCAM Version 7.1-2 delivers higher shop-floor productivity, yields.(Products)
September 1, 2005... Mania announced the release of its UCAM Version 7.1-2. New features prepare tooling for advanced manufacturing technologies, cut manufacturing times on the shop-floor and increase process yields. Karel Tavernier, Business Unit Director Plotter...

FocalSpot reveals X-Ray Inspection System.(Products)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... San Diego, CA -- FocalSpot Inc. announced that its Verifier HR X-Ray Inspection System performed equal to or better than many of the high-end/high-priced x-ray systems during a blind test using a pre-faulted PCB containing 10 faults. The faulty...

Free software program advances 2D handheld scanners.(Products)
September 1, 2005... Renton, WA -- Microscan's free user interface software ESP[TM] (Easy Setup Program) now makes it easy to read bar code and 2D direct part marks with the MS-Q series of handheld imagers. Previously designed for use with Microscan's line of fixed...

Polar Instruments announces precision line gage PLG100.(Products)
September 1, 2005... Polar Instruments' new PLG100 is designed for high repeatability optical measurement of track and via geometry. The PLG100 makes PCB trace dimension measurement easy accurate and repeatable. With a resolution of 0.75 microns and accuracy of 1.5...

Isola Group launches new product for the RF/microwave market.(Products)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Chandler, AZ -- Isola Group S.A.R.L. announced the launch of the IS640-333. IS640-333 has a nominal dielectric constant of 3.33 at 10 GHz and a dissipation factor of 0.0038 at 10 GHz. The new product is available in standard 20-, 30- and 60-mil...

DownStream Technologies announces CAM350[R] V.9.(Products)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Bolton, MA -- DownStream Technologies, LLC announced the latest version of CAM350[R], its solution for verification and optimization of PCBs. CAM350 V. 9 now includes Streams Rule Check, a new method of performing PCB design analysis. Streams...

Taconic launches low loss bromine-free prepregs and laminates.(Products)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Petersburgh, NY -- Taconic expanded the TacPreg[R]/TacLam family of products by offering low loss bromine-free prepregs and laminates. The new family of "green" materials, TLG-2.9 & 3.0, was designed with lower dissipation factor (df = 0.0030...

Flexible PCBs and plating through holes: challenges and solutions; With high demand for flex and flex-rigid panels there is a need for improved PTH processing.(Printed circuit boards)
September 1, 2005... There is currently a strong demand for flex and flex-rigid PCBs (FPCs) due to the popularity of clamshell cell phones, laptops, cameras, and high-resolution screens that accompany them. The need to mass produce these panel types--and to reduce...

Adeon Technologies, Epigem ink deal.
September 1, 2005... Adeon Technologies B.V. announced that it sold a KLG Speedstar 1 drilling machine to Epigem (Redcar, United Kingdom). The Speedstar 1 is a result of KLG latest developments, especially designed for fast and accurate drilling into PCB and other...

PEWA announces Research & Marketing Group for Electronic Materials Division.
September 1, 2005... Panasonic Electric Works Corporation of America (PEWA) announced the August 1st, 2005 formulation of a new Research and Marketing Group "EMD R & M" as part of its Electronic Materials Division. The Electronic Materials Division (EMD) will focus...

American Standard Circuits.(People)(appoints Dr. Sandy Kumar)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Dr. Sandy Kumar has been named Director of Technology at American Standard Circuits (Franklin Park, IL). He is a certified six-sigma black belt and holds a Ph.D. in materials science from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) New Delhi. He is...

GSPK Electronics.(People)
September 1, 2005... Knaresborough, UK -- GSPK Electronics Ltd. appointed Mark Gibson its sales director. He has spent the last 15 years working within large EMS companies around the world, and joins GSPK Electronics directly from Benchmark Electronics. "As a...

AT & S confirms advisory board.(Willibald Dorflinger, Albert Hochleitner and Karl Fink elected for the supervisory board)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... AT & S elected a new supervisory board. Willibald Dorflinger, former CEO of AT & S, Albert Hochleitner, CEO of Siemens AG Austria, and Karl Fink, Deputy to the CEO of Wiener Stadtische Versicherung, are the three newly appointed members of the...

Plexus.(People)
September 1, 2005... Neenah, WI -- Plexus Corp. promoted Kristian Talvitie to sector vice president industrial/commercial/defense. David Ward has been promoted to director of supply chain solutions manufacturing; Don Wollersheim to customer director; Scott Theune...

Printar.(People)
September 1, 2005... Rehovot, Israel -- Printar Ltd., a manufacturer of digital printing equipment for the PCB industry, announced that Jean-Marc Blum joined the company as corporate VP Sales and Marketing. Blum oversees all sales and marketing activities for...

Electropac.(People)(Guy Arsenault appointed at Canadian office )(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Electropac opened its Canadian Sales Office in Pointe-Claire, Quebec. Guy Arsenault is the manager of the sales team which will focus exclusively on the needs of Canadian customers. Guy has more than 20 years of progressive experience in...

Here comes the 'busy' season.(MarketOutlook)(electronic equipment production growth)
September 1, 2005... On a global basis 2005 is not shaping up as a bad year (Chart 1). Recent SIA (6.1% chip growth) and Henderson Ventures (9.6% electronic equipment growth) forecasts are heartening (if you are a SE Asian producer!). Only the highly cyclical...

Automa-Tech swings to profit.(Suppliers)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... French PCB equipment manufacturer Automa-Tech posted a 300,000 euro ($365,000) net profit for fiscal 2004/05, ended March 31, 2005, versus a 2.8 million euro ($3.4 million) net loss for fiscal 2003/04. The company registered a 500,000 euro...

Matsushita reorganizes U.S. operations, inks distributor deal with Matrix.(Suppliers)
September 1, 2005... In August, Matsushita Electric Works Ltd. (MEW) will establish a new "Research and Marketing Group" from within the Electronic Material Division (EMD) of Panasonic Electric Works Corp. of America (PEWA). PEWA (formally Aromat Corp.) currently...

RBP Chemical Technology expands distribution network.(Suppliers)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Milwaukee, WI -- RBP Chemical Technology added Amelex to its distributor network. The agreement calls for Amelex to be RBP's distributor of products to the electronics sector in the South Central Region of the U.S. Amelex will warehouse and...

Christopher Associates installs 3D solder paste inspection systems.(Suppliers)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... OEM requirements for improved manufacturing yields have led to very strong demand for the Koh Young three-dimensional solder paste inspection systems. The KY 3030VAXL (24" X 27" panel size) high speed 3D solder paste inspection system was...

Polyclad Laminates publishes Lead-free Materials Guide.(Suppliers)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Franklin, NH -- Polyclad Laminates Inc. published the Polyclad[R] Lead-free Material Selection Guide. The guide provides comprehensive solutions for selecting lead-free capable laminate base materials, while also defining a "best practice"...

Nippon Steel Chemical raises CCL laminate output.(Suppliers)
September 1, 2005... Tokyo -- Nippon Steel Chemical Co. aims to raise the production of two-layer copper clad laminate (CCL), a pliable material used to make PCBs for cell phones and other gadgets. The company will increase the total output capacity for the...

WISE gets order for chemclean and jet scrubbing lines.(Suppliers)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Parma, Italy -- WISE Worldwide Enterprise srl received new orders from Dynamic & Proto Circuits (Canada) for Chemstar, chemical pre-treatment line, and for JetStar the latest pre-treatment technological evolution of jet scrubbing machine before...

Events.(Calendar)
September 1, 2005... September 15-16, 2005 iNEMI Innovation Leadership Forum Herndon, Virginia Visit www.inemi.org/ or email Bob Pfahl at bob.pfahl@inemi.org September 25-29, 2005 SMTA International and Assembly Technology Expo Rosemont...