ST. LOUIS – Bell Helicopter awarded EMS provider LaBarge $3.8 million to continue to produce electronic assemblies for the H-1 Upgrade Program for helicopters used by the US Marine Corps.

ALEXANDRIA, VA – The US Patent and Trademark office has granted Wemtec a patent for a “circuit and method for suppression of electromagnetic coupling and switching noise in multilayer printed circuit boards.”

William E. McKinzie III and Shawn D. Rogers of Maryland developed the apparatus that suppresses noise and electromagnetic coupling in the printed circuit board of an electronic device. It “includes an upper conductive plate and an array of conductive coplanar patches positioned a distance t.sub.2 from the upper conductive plate. The distance t.sub.2 is chosen to optimize capacitance between the conductive coplanar patches and the upper conductive plate for suppression of noise or electromagnetic coupling. 

The apparatus further includes a lower conductive plate a distance t.sub.1 from the array of conductive coplanar patches and conductive rods extending from respective patches to the lower conductive plate.”

VELLINGE, SWEDEN -- Top 40 EMS firm PartnerTech reported a fourth-quarter net profit of SEK 8.8 million ($1.37 million), up from a loss of SEK 4.7 million last year.

SMYRNA, GA – UP Media Group today announced several electronics industry experts will moderate must-see chats during the fourth annual VIRTUAL PCB, the industry’s only virtual conference and trade show for the printed circuit board design, fabrication and assembly markets. The two-day worldwide event takes place March 8-9, 2011.

On March 8 at 12:00 PM EST, Werner Engelmaier, known industry-wide as “Mr. Reliability,” will moderate “PCB Solderability and Reliability.” Engelmaier, founder of Engelmaier Associates, has authored nearly 200 technical publications, and has coauthored most of the electronics industry’s reliability and performance specifications. He received the Distinguished Technical Staff Award from Bell Telephone Laboratories, and is an IMAPS Fellow.

On March 9, process expert Bob Willis will moderate a chat on “PCB Process Defects.”

Other topics over the two days include SPI and AOI, assembly cleaning, PCB placement and design reuse CAD-CAM techniques, tin whiskers, cleaning and ECAD data sharing, among others.

New this year, VIRTUAL PCB will host several chats during Asia and Europe business hours.

Each chat lasts 30 minutes and is open to all VIRTUAL PCB registrants.

Features of the upcoming virtual event will include custom exhibit booths, live attendee-attendee and attendee-exhibitor communication, live and on-demand equipment demonstrations, real-time technical presentations, open “chats” moderated by industry experts, and much more.

A fully interactive, Web-based event, VIRTUAL PCB (virtual-pcb.com) incorporates all the critical features of a live event, while allowing PCB design, fabrication and assembly equipment and materials buyers and sellers to interact online. VIRTUAL PCB is supported by a proven software platform (provided by INXPO), and will be accessible on-demand for one month beyond the free two-day live event.

For more information about VIRTUAL PCB, visit www.virtual-pcb.com or contact Alyson Skarbek, show manager, at 404-665-7749 or askarbek@upmediagroup.com.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - The SMTA is soliciting applications from full-time graduate-level students pursuing a degree and working on thesis research in electronic assembly, electronics packaging, or a related field, for the Charles Hutchins Educational Grant. 

Cosponsored by the SMTA and CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY magazine, the Hutchins Grant was established in memory of past SMTA president Dr. Charles Hutchins. The $5000 grant has been presented annually since 1998.

All required materials are due Apr. 18. The grant will be presented at the SMTA Annual Meeting held in conjunction with SMTA International in Fort Worth, TX, Oct. 16-20.

For more information and to complete an application, visit http://www.smta.org/hutchins/student_app.cfm.

BOSTON – Bain Capital is considering selling electronics connector maker FCI and has enlisted outside bankers to advise on possible deals, according to published reports.

MINNEAPOLIS – CyberOptics Corp. today reported fourth-quarter 2010 net income was $971,000, compared to a net loss of $1.6 million in the prior year period.

The printed circuit board inspection equipment maker’s consolidated sales of $14 million, up 56% year-over-year. Operating income was $1.04 million, compared to an operating loss of $1.6 million in the same quarter of 2009.

For full-year 2010, CyberOptics reported consolidated sales of $57 million, up 110% year-over-year.

Earnings in 2010 were $3.1 million, compared to a net loss of $6.8 million in 2009.

“Fourth quarter sales were at the upper end of our previously issued guidance for this period, while our earnings exceeded our forecast for this period. The sales performance of our three product lines – electronic assembly sensors, inspection systems and semiconductor products – largely tracked our fourth quarter projections and were consistent with normal seasonal factors,” said Kathleen P. Iverson, CEO and chair.

The firm ended the fourth quarter with an order backlog of $7.2 million, compared to $12.8 million at the end of the third quarter. The majority of this backlog is scheduled to ship in the first and second quarters this year.

For the first quarter of 2011, the company is forecasting sales of $12.5 million to $13.5 million. For full-year 2011, the company expects sales of $60 million to $65 million.

HELSINKI -- Contract assembler PKC Group Oyj said EMS net sales rose 40.4% in 2010 to 73.7 million euros.

SMYRNA, GA – The technical conference has been set for Virtual PCB, the industry's only live, fully interactive, Web-based conference and trade show for PCB engineers, designers, fabricators, assemblers and managers worldwide.

CHENNAI -- Sanmina-SCI workers here entered their second day of strikes over wages and health benefits, according to published reports.

CHENNAI – Delta Electronics has invested $60 million in overseas subsidiaries partly to build a manufacturing plant in India and to penetrate the Australian market.

Delta said about $13 million would be spent to build the new factory for Delta India Electronics, producing solar inverters in Chennai, and to support its working capital.

The plant will take eight months to build and operations are scheduled to begin before the final quarter of this year.

Also, a budget of $22 million has been approved for an R & D equipment investment at Delta Energy Systems, a subsidiary in Germany.

Delta reported a net profit of 4.15 billion baht last year, up 47% from 2009. Net sales rose 24% to 35.73 billion. In the final quarter, net profit dropped 27% year-over-year to 520 million baht, as revenue increased 25% to 9.5 billion.

NORTH YORK, ONTARIO – EMS firm ZTEST Electronics is offering shares in the company in an effort to raise funds.

The placement will be for up to 1.8 million units at $0.075 per unit, or $135,000 total. Each unit is comprised of one common share and one-half a share purchase warrant, with each full share purchase warrant entitling the holder to acquire a common share of the corporation at $0.10 for five years following closing.

ZTEST will pay a 4% cash finder’s fee on the gross proceeds raised in the offering.

J.T. Risty Ltd., an insider of the corporation, intends to subscribe for up to one million units of the offering for proceeds of up to $75,000. Risty currently owns 745,790 common shares, 14.2% of the firm. As a result of this proposed transaction, Risty will hold up to 27.88% of outstanding capital of nearly 6.3 million common shares.

Insiders other than Risty may subscribe for up to 800,000 units for up to $60,000.