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NEENAH, Wis., Sept. 22 -- Plexus Corp. will take up to $13 million in restructuring charges and close its Bothell, WA, plant, the company said today.

By the end of its fiscal 2005 second quarter, the company will lay off 160 workers and close 100,000 sq. ft. of capacity, Plexus said in a press statement.

The move is expected to generate $2 million in pretax savings per year.

The closure is not expected to impact fiscal 2004 fourth quarter revenue or EPS guidance (excluding restructuring charges and valuation allowance. Plexus updated its revenue guidance to be at the low end of its previously announced range of $270 million to $280 million.

The company will take charges over the next three quarters, $4 million to $5 million in the fourth quarter and $6 million to $8 million over the following two quarters.

Plexus also said start-up costs of its new Malaysian facility are higher than expected, due in part to a slower-than-expected rate of customer qualifications.

St. Petersburg, FL, Sept. 21 -- Jabil Circuit posted better-than-expected net income of $44.3 million, up from $20.1 million last year.

For its fiscal fourth quarter ended Aug. 31, revenue climbed to $1.63 billion from $1.30 billion. Excluding one-time charges items, Jabil posted a profit of $54.7 million.

The company guided for 2005 revenue of $7.2 billion to $7.4 billion, $1.75 billion to $1.85 billion in the first quarter.

Jabil president Tim Main told analysts during a conference call yesterday that conditions in the industry were stable. "I would characterize the current environment as stable and steady. From my perspective, the prospects for our business and industry are as good as they've been at any time in the last four years,"

The company reported new program wins in consumer, instrumentation and medical, and peripheral applications. However, it said it saw weakness in communications.

Caskh from operations was nearly $100 million, and cash conversion cycle days remained at 26.

Carlsbad, CA, Sept. 10 -- Asymtek has added four teams of distributors to represent its line of automated fluid dispensing systems in China, the company said.

The firms will provide on-site equipment service, training, and applications support.

The firms are:

D-TEK, headquartered in Taiwan, has offices in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Suzhou and DongGuan, China.
Leeport is based in Hong Kong, with offices in Bejing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Chongqin, China. Other locations include Singapore, Taiwan, Macau and Malaysia.
Bejing-based ATS also has offices in Tianjin and Shanghai.
SSI Shanghai is a wholly owned subsidiary of SSI Taiwan, headquartered in Taipei. Other locations include Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hsinchu and Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

Asymtek is retaining an existing rep firm, Electronic Scientific Engineering.

SAN JOSE, Sept. 20 -- Solectron Corp. expects to take fiscal fourth-quarter restructuring charges of up to $25 million due to shutdowns in the electronics manufacturer's operations in Europe and North America.

As part of the restructuring the company will also layoff 500 employees, the firm said in a Sept. 16 filing with the SEC.

Solectron also plans to take a $47 million restructuring charge due to the halting of production of various PC and computing products. According to a Deutsche Bank analyst, the move is "likely a result of a supply agreement being terminated with either HP or IBM (from a previous acquisition)."

Solectron also finalized the sale of its minority interest in ECS Holdings Ltd. for $16 million in cash. Solectron expects fiscal fourth-quarter losses of $6 million to $15 million related to the sale.

ALLENTOWN, PA - Agere Systems has discovered a mix of ingredients said to eliminate lead from component packages. The solution calls for adding a layer of nickel to tin over copper packaging. The recipe simultaneously aims to improve chip reliability and performance, the company said today.

As of July 1, 2006, the European Union will mandate all semiconductor packages be lead-free. Most chip packages shipped today use a layer of tin and lead over copper. Lead-free substitutes will likely use tin over copper and will be processed by higher temperatures (owing to the higher reflow profiles of lead-free solder pastes).

Research at Agere has shown that tin-copper packaging meet current standard tests developed for leaded product. However, when using the products like the customer uses them, Agere has observed that commercially available tin-copper packaging form tin whiskers, which are known to cause electrical shorts and other system failures.

Three tests proposed by the Jedec Solid State Technology Association with guidance from the National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative effectively screen for susceptibility to tin whiskers. Of the three tests, two display no discernable difference between matte-tin on copper and nickel undercoated matte-tin on copper. According to Agere, a layer of nickel between the copper and tin provides "dramatic improvements" using real-world environment.

Agere evaluated semiconductor packages from multiple sources using various tin plating processes. Agere observed tin whiskers would grow on semiconductor packages after the packages had gone through a lead-free assembly process onto boards that used tin plating (instead of tin-lead).

Adding a layer of nickel between the layers of tin and copper mitigated tin whisker growth, Agere found.

"We are unveiling these findings in hopes that the electronics industry will adopt our approach to avoid the problems Agere observed in currently accepted copper and tin packages," said Dr. Melissa Grupen-Shemansky, director of packaging and interconnect technology. "We evaluated multiple options being used by other semiconductor companies in a scientifically valid study over a prolonged timeframe and found that Agere's tin-nickel-copper combination resolved the tin whisker problem seen after high-temperature, high-humidity storage."

Early results from an independent study conducted by NEMI corroborate the Agere findings on whiskers found on commercially available tin over copper packages, Agere said.

NEMI will publish its own findings next year.

FRANKLIN, MA, Sept. 20 -- Speedline Technologies has been awarded U.S. patent no. 6,738,505 for a texture-based method of analyzing potential bridge defects on circuit boards during post-print inspection.

The patent describes the use of so-called texture-based image acquisition algorithms and a digital camera to assess of the quality of paste deposits. The patent itself describes the method of using texture in the detection of paste in a region of interest between printed deposits.

Speedline markets the process as part of the MPM BridgeVision brand.

In a statement, Dr. Gerald Pham-Van-Diep, director of advanced development, said, "Prior to our innovation, manufacturers had to either rely on contrast-based methods, where the difference between the pasted deposit and soldermask was insufficient for repeatable or rapid measurement, or were compelled to purchase expensive 100% 3D AOI systems."