LOUISVILLE — Robert B. Sanders, president of Sypris Solutions Inc.'s electronics division, has resigned effective Sept. 24.

He joined Sypris in 2005 from Honeywell, where he was general manager for the company's Defense & Space Electronics Systems division.

Vice president and CFO Scott Hatton will absorb Sanders' responsibilities until a replacement is found.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. House of Representatives has passed H.R. 1908, also known as the Patent Reform Act of 2007, the first step toward bringing the nation's patent laws in line with international statutes.

ANAHEIM, CA – Dan Baldwin, PhD, founder and president of Engent Inc. and Adjunct Professor of Georgia Tech Institute will speak on Sept. 29 about an Experimental Wetting Dynamics Study Of Eutectic and Lead-Free Solders.

This SMTA LA/OC Chapter meeting will take place at the Embassy Suites Hotel, Anaheim, at 6 p.m.

The effects of solder reflow process parameters and bonding materials will be discussed, as they relate to the physics of solder wetting and the interconnect process yield and solder joint reliability.

The experimental setup consists of a high-speed image acquisition system and a temperature chamber that were used to measure the time-dependent behavior of molten solder spheres onto bond pads under an isothermal condition. The solder materials investigated are eutectic tin-lead solder and lead-free 95.5Sn-4.0Ag-0.5Cu solder. The wetting dynamics of the solder materials were investigated on Cu, Cu/OSP, and Cu/Ni/Au bond pads, with several different flux systems, at different environmental temperatures, with various solder sphere sizes.

The experimental observations indicate that the wetting dynamics clearly depend on temperature, solder materials and substrate metallization, but do not depend significantly on the flux system or the solder sphere size.

Visit www.laocsmta.org for more information.

SAN JOSE, CA – The MicroElectronics Packaging and Test Engineering Council has finalized its program for the 2nd Annual Medical Electronics symposium: Growth Opportunities for Medical MicroElectronics. It will be held at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ on Sept. 25.

The event will begin with a keynote presentation by Celeste Null, director of biomedical engineering in the Digital Health Group at Intel Corp.: The Future of Biotechnology.

Presentations in the areas of bioscience and medical technologies with a focus on the opportunities for microelectronics packaging will include: Business and Technology Overview; Medical Microelectronic Implants; Virtually Assisted Surgical Training: Concepts, Foundations, and Sensor-based Techniques; Emergence of Bio MEMS for Sensors and Bio-Telemetry; Packaging Medical Electronics; Implantable Monitoring -  Packaging Reveal XT and Next-Generation Injectable Monitors; IMEC - Novel "Chip-in-a-wire" Embedding Technology for Realizing Flexible Electrode Arrays for Medical Applications; Advanced Simulation of Medical Electronic Devices and Applications; Enabling Technologies; High-Density Interconnect Flexible Substrates in Medical Applications; Enabling MEMS Devices for the Medical Market; The Evolution of Telemedicine 2.0; Medical Electronic Product Applications; CMOS X-ray Detector Design and Performance and Application in Digital Mammography; Palm-Size Breath Analyzer for the Detection and Monitoring of Metabolic States, and Advancements in Hospital Technology.

To register, contact Bette Cooper, bcooper@meptec.org or visit www.meptec.org.