Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - Features

NORWALK, CT --The global market for green materials is estimated at $6.1 billion in 2005 and is expected to reach $8.7 billion by 2010, an average annual growth rate of 7.4%, according to a soon-to-be-released report from Business Communications Co.

Green materials include Pb-free solders and solder coatings, and replacements for PBB and PBDE, hexavalent chromium, cadmium and mercury. PBB and PBDE replacements accounted for $3.5 billion in 2003, $4.3 billion in 2004, and $4.7 billion in 2005.

HIALEAH, FL -- Simclar Inc., a electronics contract manufacturer, reported September quarter revenue of $16.6 million, up 25.4% from last year. Net income fell to $242,000 versus $486,000 a year ago.

Excluding the May 1, 2005 acquisition of Simclar (North America), revenue for the quarter would have been $14.9 million, up 11.9%, and net income would have been $353,000.

SIOUX FALLS, SD -- Raven Industries reported sales rose 11% to a record $54.1 million over the year-ago period and net income rose 32% to a record $6.9 million for its third quarter ended OCt. 31.

The company took a $820,000 after-tax writeoff of an acquisition in the prior year; excluding that, the net income grew 14%.

For the quarter, electronic systems sales were down 2% percent to $13.7 million. The division posted operating income of $1.9 million, up 18% from a year ago. Customers requested early delivery of product in the second quarter, which reduced third quarter shipments.

For the first nine months of the year, sales totaled $42.3 million, up 21% from the last year while operating income more than doubled, to $6.9 million.

NEW YORK -- End-market inventories of semiconductors remained low and stable in the September quarter, but distributors' inventories increased 8%, or $127 million, and 3 days from June.

SG Cowen said that inventories at buyers of semiconductors appear low and stable. Inventories at 49 major semiconductor customers fell in both dollar terms and days on a seqential basis, the firm said.

Portsmouth, RI – International Manufacturing Services (IMS) has appointed W. Howard Associates to represent its products in Colorado, Utah, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.

W. Howard Assoc., founded in 1983, is a manufacturers representative focused on RF/microwave, interconnect devices and sensor products.

IMS manufactures quality thick film chip resistors, both standard and custom, for applications ranging from automotive sensors to high frequency microwave and medical equipment.

Binghamton, NY -- DEK has published its latest findings on screen printing with Pb-free pastes, focusing on the implications for stencil design rules. The results underline the importance of using an enclosed head and nickel stencils to maximize quality and yield.

The report reveals how aperture dimensions must increase to ensure adequate wetting forces and prevent tombstoning as paste-to-pad and component-to-pad offsets occur. Such offsets are unavoidable, implying that manufacturers must re-optimize stencils for Pb-free printing to ensure yield rates comparable to Pb-rich processes. According to the report, this issue is more prevalent with smaller components (0402s and below).

By testing 67 new aperture characteristics, including varying dimensions, aspect ratio, shape and stencil thickness, DEK identified the necessary changes in aperture characteristics. According to the team leader and author of the report, Clive Ashmore, the main concern is to ensure a higher volume of paste to compensate for the lower wetting forces exerted by Pb-free pastes. When placing small chip devices such as passive components, these wetting forces help retain the component during reflow. Slight misalignment between the component, solder deposit and paste leads to imbalance in wetting forces, which increases the risk of tombstoning.

Ashmore, Global Applied Process Engineering Group Manager at DEK Printing Machines, said, “A perfectly centred screen printing process will perform well whether Pb-rich or Pb-free paste is used. But such processes can only be sustained under laboratory conditions, which obviously cannot be provided in a production context. Assemblers must, therefore, take steps to ensure their stencils are optimised for Pb-free printing. Our findings show that continuing to use legacy stencils that meet the Pb-rich design rules will result in significantly higher numbers of defects.”

Understanding Stencil Requirements for a Lead-Free Mass Imaging Process is available at dek.com.