News
Eoplex Technologies (San Francisco, CA), a manufacturer of miniature electronic components and subassemblies, announced that it has closed a $4.3 million Series B funding round led by Labrador Ventures with investments from Draper Fischer Jurvetson and Draper-Richards. Part of the funding will be used to build the first automated prototype facility utilizing the company's HVPF print-forming process.
The company's proprietary process can build hybrid devices from metals and ceramics in the same structure with true 3-D designs at production rates high enough and costs low enough for applications like cell phones and consumer products.
President and chief executive officer, Arthur L. Chait, said, "EoPlex has partnered with Pro-Mation to build and integrate the new prototype line. We chose Pro-mation based on their willingness to put in the time to fully understand our new technology, their excellent engineering skills and their competitive cost. The new automated prototype facility will allow EoPlex to expand our offerings and qualify in a number of markets."
PRO-MATION is a global provider of printed circuit board (PCB) handling solutions, selective laser soldering cells and automated work cell solutions.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Christopher Associates Inc. (Santa Ana, CA) has announced the introduction of the SynPower line width measurement tool. The tool uses a personal computer connected to a precision optics package for measurement of pads, line widths (base and top), arcs and circles. The software includes the ability to log and chart results, format them in Excel and export for statistical process control (SPC) purposes. Accuracy is NBS traceable.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Two long-term industry experts have founded a merger and acquisition business focused on the buying and selling of printed circuit board (PCB) fabricators.
Paul Emello, with over twenty years of PCB industry experience, including a role as president and chief executive officer of Capitol Circuits, and Dan Beaulieu, co-founder of D.B. Management Group—a sales and marketing consulting firm, have joined forces in a new company, Capitol Technologies L.L.C. The Boston, MA-based company will specialize in helping smaller (under $20 million dollars) PCB shops who want to sell or buy board shops.
"We feel that there is real need out there for a company who is willing to work with the smaller board shops, the shops that the big guys, the big investment companies are not really interested in," said Emello.
Beaulieu added, "With our years of expertise and our strong industry connections we can offer our client s a very focused and strategic merger plan. Chances are, if you have a board shop to sell we know the right company to buy it."
For more information contact Paul Emello: (617) 254-2588; paul@cappcb.com.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
KIC (San Diego, CA), a provider of thermal process development and control software, will be a co-presenter at the Indium Lead-Free QuickStart Seminar on June 16 in Nuremburg, Germany. The company will present the topic, "How to Implement Lead-Free Assembly at Your Factory," with Indium Corp. and Motorola.
The lead-free implementation seminar is designed for manufacturing management to "QuickStart" the lead-free learning curve. It covers printed wiring board finishes, components, alloys and surface-mount technology processes. It also reviews an actual implementation of a lead-free process, performed by Motorola, that has been used to assemble more than five million cellular phones to date. The workshop will finish with a section on establishing individual lead-free implementation plans.
The agenda will include an introduction, overview and presentations by Dr. Ning-Cheng Lee of Indium Corp., Mr. Peru of ACB, Dr. Manfred Suppa of Peters, Angus Westwater of Rohm, Mary Beth Allen of KIC, Eddie Hernandez of Hewlett Packard, Gerjan Diepstraten of Vitronics-Soltec, Ross Berntson of Indium Corp., Hans-Juergen Albrecht of Siemens, Mark Krmpotich of Scientific Atlanta and Vahid Goudarzi of Motorola.
Seminar topics include: the state of lead-free legislation, marketing and worldwide implementation; the current alloy systems in use, and why and how they were chosen; which PWB finishes are preferred in lead-free assembly; concerns with components and the status of lead-free components in the industry; best practices for setting up stencil printing, placement, inspection, reflow and wave; the effect of lead-free manufacturing on the reflow process, achieving and maintaining the tight process window; how to perform designed experiments (DOE) to optimize the lead-free process; and how to establish a statistical process control program.
Register online at www.kicthermal.com; or via e-mail: PbFreeSeminar@indium.com
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider Flextronics (Singapore) and Hughes Network Systems Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of The DIRECTV Group Inc., have signed an agreement for Flextronics to acquire Hughes Network Systems' entire ownership stake of 55% in Hughes Software Systems (HSS, New Delhi, India), a provider of software products and services to telecom infrastructure companies.
HSS' shares trade in India on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange . The company reported revenue of approximately $80 million and net income of approximately $17 million in its fiscal year ended March 31, 2004. Revenues grew approximately 63% in fiscal 2004 and are expected to grow 25% in fiscal 2005.
HSS provides convergent software solutions for fixed and mobile networks for both voice and data. Its products and services span a variety of domains, such as optical networks, wireless networks, satellite networks, switching systems, convergent networks and broadband networks. HSS' product portfolio includes protocol stacks and value-added frameworks and are comprised of licensable technologies focused on voice over packets (VoP), SS7, broadband and wireless (GPRS/UMTS) products that provide customers with open architecture solutions.
By partnering with HSS, Flextronics is the first EMS provider to offer embedded and application software development for telecom infrastructure products and customers. Flextronics can now provide a complete outsourcing solution to telecom original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
Subject to regulatory approval, the transaction is expected to close no later than October 2004 with an approximate total purchase price of $226 million.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
The SMART Group (High Wycombe, UK), a European technical trade association, has announced the program for their sixth biennial European Conference to be held Nov. 16-18, 2004. The event, located at the Old Ship Hotel in Brighton, UK, includes a table-top exhibition, 9 half-day workshops, a gala-dinner, an ask the experts lead-free questions session and additional one-hour seminars.
Mark Hutton of BPA Consulting and Phil Zarrow of ITM Consulting will present keynote speeches covering the future worldwide demand for electronic systems and components and the true cost of going lead-free. A special presentation after the gala dinner will cover the Challenges of Manufacturing Electronics for Space.
Technical workshop topics include: Troubleshooting your lead-free reflow process; Components in a lead-free world; Lead-free reliability; Lead-free: a million and one practical issues; What does lead-free mean for electronics reliability?; X-ray and optical inspection for lead-free assemblies; and Troubleshooting your lead-free wave soldering process.
For more information, email: info@smartgroup.org.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
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