Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - Features

MILPITAS, CA -- Solectron Corp. furthered ties with one of its top five customers, winning a multiyear contract from Sun Microsystems for its legacy StorageTek product line.

Under the deal, Sun will transfer to Solectron the operations at its StorageTek manufacturing facility in Puerto Rico.

ROSEVILLE, CA -- International DisplayWorks, whose acquisition by Flextronics is scheduled to close in the fourth quarter, reported third-quarter revenues climbed 37% to a record $32.3 million, while net income rose 129.2% to $2.3 million.

For the period ended July 31, operating income was $2.0 million, up 53.8% over 2005.

HERNDON, VA — iNEMI will hold several meetings at the SMTA International conference this month.

The SnPb-Compatible BGA Availability workshop, a half-day session on Sept. 28 and sponsored by the iNEMI High-Reliability RoHS Task Force, will focus on what can be done to encourage components suppliers to continue to offer SnPb-compatible BGAs. For more information, go to http://www.inemi.org/cms/calendar/SMTAI_2006_SnPb_BGA.html.
The SMT Component Packaging Label Standard project meets Sept. 26 to discuss a new project for industry guidelines for SMT product package labeling of automatically placed electronic component packages.
The Halogen-Free project will hold a planning meeting Sept. 26. The group is working to identify technology readiness, supply capability and standards development opportunities for “halogen-free” alternatives to conventional PWB materials.
Chuck Richardson, staff manager of roadmapping, will discuss iNEMI’s roadmap development process and provide examples of how the roadmap is used to identify gaps and define projects to address those gaps, on Sept. 26.
On Sept. 27, iNEMI will launch an effort to investigate of Pb-free defects per million opportunities.
Finally, on Sept. 28, the Life After EU RoHS forum will look at emerging environmental regulations with the goal of identifying collaborative efforts to close policy and technology gaps.

iNEMI is an industry consortium. Visit iNEMI for additional details. All meetings will be held in the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont (Chicago), IL.

ARLINGTON, VA -- The Government Electronics and Information Technology Association is publishing three industry consensus documents to help aerospace, defense and other electronics segments comply with the EU RoHS and WEEE Directives.

Although aerospace and defense products are expected to be either out of scope or exempt from the directives, the aerospace and defense industries will be swept along as the larger global electronics industry transitions to lead-free products, according to GEIA.

SAN JOSE – Flextronics will license Tessera's wafer-level assembly technology under a just-signed deal, the companies said yesterday. No financial terms were announced.

Under the terms of the agreement, Flextronics will use Tessera’s Shellcase CF technology in its entire camera module line.

Shellcase CF is a wafer-level technology that uses the manufacturing infrastructure of conventional chip-on-board assembly processes, while resolving the challenges associated with increasing resolution and decreasing pixel size in image sensors. The technology is used to assemble optical components integrated into electronics products such as miniaturized cameras in camera phones, digital still cameras and video camcorders.

TEMPE, AZ — Economic activity in the manufacturing sector grew in August for the 39th consecutive month, while the overall economy grew for the 58th consecutive month, according to the latest survey of manufacturers by the Institute for Supply Management.

"Manufacturing growth continued at a very strong pace in August. Though the rate of growth was slightly under that of July, the sector continues to enjoy strength in new orders and production," said ISM spokesman Norbert J. Ore.