The Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA, Minneapolis, MN) Medical Electronics Symposium will take place May 19-20 at the Marriott Minneapolis Airport Hotel in Bloomington, MN. It will explore devices, components, packaging and assembly technologies. The conference chairman is Jeff Kennedy, Manufacturers' Services Ltd., and technical sessions include design/reliability, manufacturing techniques and requirements, process and quality control, packaging, sensors/microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and business/regulations.

Also featured during the program will be a Plenary Session, NEMI Medical Sector Roadmap, presented by Terry Dishongh of Intel Corp. A keynote presentation will be given by J. Doug Field, vice president of product development and chief engineer for Segway Co., which is known for the world's first self-balancing, electric powered personal transporter.

A second Plenary Session on Medical Product Outsourcing and Technology Trends will be presented by Keith Robinson, Frost & Sullivan, and a concluding roundtable discussion will focus on trends and challenges associated with bringing new products to market and working with multiple partners in a complex supply chain. The panel will expose barriers to entry of service to the medical sector and the unique challenges associated with supporting the medical products manufacturing process.

www.smta.org/education/symposia/symposia.cfm

Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.

The IPC Association (Northbrook, IL) recently commended DEK's (Zurich, Switzerland) technological advances with its new via fill process. Awarded a slot in the Innovative Technology Showcase at the APEX exhibition in Anaheim, CA, DEK's 100% fill technology was described by the judges as groundbreaking.

As part of the new and emerging technologies showcase, the process delivers 100% fill of substrate vias with no voids and minimal surface residue. This Pro-Flow-based process offers solutions to problems such as insufficient fill, voiding, poor throughput and excessive handling of product.

The fully enclosed head is used in conjunction with a dedicated tooling fixture that ensures complete fill of vias in the minimum of print passes (typically two), with a paste pressure of 2.5 bar and a print speed of 25mm/s. In addition, the print material has been shown to have a life of over three months in the transfer head.

Traditional manual or squeegee-based systems are less clean and operator-friendly, and take multiple passes to push material into vias. They can also use a vacuum table to pull material through, resulting in both voids and inadequate deposition.

With results in throughput of over fives times faster than traditional squeegee-based fill processes, the system is repeatable and offers accuracy.

DEK is a global provider of advanced pre-placement manufacturing solutions and innovative deposition technologies for a wide range of electronic materials.

www.dek.com

Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.

In a move to help customers speed time to market and reduce manufacturing costs, Dow Corning Corp. (Midland, MI) has launched the External Equipment Provider Alliance with nine companies from the electronics assembly and packaging industry. Under the new alliance—the first of its kind in this market—Dow Corning will work with member companies and customers to streamline the integration of materials and equipment used in board-level assembly and back-end packaging, resulting in standard equipment or customized solutions that help customers meet production goals more quickly and efficiently.

The network of member companies includes Asymtek (A Nordson Company), Bartec Dispensing Technology, DEK, Fluid Research Corp., Lambda Technologies, Liquid Control Corp., Precision Valve & Automation (PVA), Scheugenpflug AG and Sieghard Schiller GmbH & Co. KG. As providers of meter-mix, conformal coating, fluid delivery, rapid curing, stencil printing and robotic xyz positioning, these companies have all demonstrated expertise in applying and handling Dow Corning's silicone and organic materials.

Under the alliance, Dow Corning will leverage member companies' expertise to simplify the procurement, integration, start-up and optimization of materials and processing equipment. By working together, alliance members can help customers address any number of challenges—from choosing the right combination of equipment and materials for a new process to delivering turnkey production packages. The alliance will also provide a lead contact who will work directly with the customer, coordinating the alliance's resources to develop business solutions.

Tom Cook, Global Industry Executive Director, Electronics & Advanced Technologies Industries, Dow Corning, said, "Dow Corning will partner with customers to provide as little or as much assistance as they need, helping them achieve day-to-day objectives as well as key, long-term business goals. The beauty of an alliance like this is that it gives customers access to more resources than any single supplier could deliver alone."

The company has been organizing the alliance over the past year and has selected members based on its long-term relationships with these and other companies throughout the board-level assembly and back-end packaging industry. Dow Corning plans to expand the alliance to other electronics market segments, such as wafer-level and front-end packaging.

www.dowcorning.com/electronics

Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.

Photocircuits Corp. (Glen Clove, NY) has announced the realignment of its tooling and manufacturing operations to accommodate rapid growth in its high mix and quick turn business that will increase from $50 million sales in 2002 to an expected $100 million this year. The growth in number of customers to nearly 500, with concomitant increase in part numbers and layers processed, has driven significant changes in the front-end and operational structure of Photocircuits' business.

The company has opened its second offshore tooling center, established to support the increase in tools required by growth in high mix, quick turn business. This newest Tooling group, located in the Philippines, joins the ranks of the groups operating in New York and Costa Rica. All three groups will continue to work under the direction of the Pre-Production Engineering staff in New York and Georgia.

By transferring much of its high-volume backlog to its Peachtree City, GA, operation, the company has made available in Glen Cove substantial manufacturing capacity and the focused technical resources needed to satisfy demands of the high mix, rapid-response marketplace. With the recent installation of new imaging and laser drilling equipment, Photocircuits has increased capacity for conventional and HDI multilayer products.

John Endee, president of Photocircuits Corp., has also announced the promotion of Mike Fuggini to the newly created position of director of operations. Fuggini has been with the company for more than 20 years, most recently responsible for managing the company's process engineering staff and environmental compliance activities.

Fuggini's promotion is an organizational change necessitated by the mushrooming growth in Photocircuits' high mix and quick turn business. He will focus on operational enhancements of the Glen Cove factory producing low volume, quick turn and high technology parts. Fuggini will refine the manufacturing systems to minimize work in progress, continually reduce set-up times and enhance manufacturing capabilities within each process center.

The company has also promoted Steve Graves to the position of national sales director. Graves is a 19-year veteran of Photocircuits' sales organization, most recently managing selling efforts in eastern North America, the Caribbean and Europe.

www.photocircuits.com

Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.