Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - Current Issue

News

Plymouth, MI -- Hella, a supplier of automotive electronics and lighting systems, has restructured its North American operations by forming three distinct business units for its lighting, electronics and aftermarket businesses.

Dr. Raymund Heinen has been named president of Hella Lighting North America. Heinen will also be responsible for the management of corporate finance, personnel, IT, facilities management and corporate communications within the NAFTA region.

Steve Hubble is now president of Hella Electronics North America. He was previously VP of operations and engineering. Heinen and Hubble will be based in Plymouth.

Wolfgang Benz will serve as president of Hella's North American Aftermarket and Special Equipment operations, with offices in Peachtree City, GA..

The North American lighting group has nearly 2,500 employees at facilities in York, SC; Plymouth, MI; Mexico City and Guadalajara, Mexico, while its electronics group includes 530 employees in Flora, IL, and Plymouth. The aftermarket operations in the NAFTA trade region currently employ 150 people with approximately 1,800 distributors.

PALO ALTO, CA -- Agilent Technologies Inc. has introduced the Versatest Series Model V5500, a final test solution for multichip package devices (MCP) and discrete flash memory. The tester-per-site architecture and optional Programmable Interface Matrix are said to optimize single-insertion testing of MCPs with multiple memory types (Flash, DRAM and SRAM).

Has 16,384 pins per testhead, to fully utilize x320 handlers at up to 320 NAND devices in parallel. Enables parallel testing of high-pin-count NOR and MCPs at up to 256 devices in parallel.

BOSTON -- Teradyne Inc. is laying off 400 employees, or approx. 7% of its workforce, with the cuts falling on the semiconductor test unit. The division produced nearly half of Teradyne’s net bookings in the first quarter, according to a release published by the Boston Business Journal.

The company did not immediately specify what locations would be affected. In June it sold its PCB manufacturing unit in North Reading, MA, to a division of Solectron.

Teradyne expects to complete the current layoffs by the end of the year, and said it would record severance charges of approximately $12.7 million and $4 million, respectively, for the third and fourth quarters.