Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - News

News

SPOKANE VALLEY, WA – ACE Production Technologies has acquired all Drop-Jet Spray Head technology and its related products from Castle Controls & Automation.

ACE will offer the flux head as an option on its selective soldering products, and will announce standalone and inline fluxing products in the coming months.

No other terms of the agreement were disclosed.

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO – A top stencil manufacturer has devised a process for eliminating wave soldering.

A recent paper authored by Photo Stencil vice president of technology Dr. Bill Coleman outlines a procedure called intrusive reflow, said to improve Pb-free material printing.

One objective of the study was to maximize the amount of solder paste printed into the through-hole. With proper squeegee speed and squeegee angle, 100% hole fill was achieved for 0.063"-thick boards and 85% hole fill for 0.093" -thick boards with a 0.006"-thick stencil. This reportedly resulted in good top and bottom fillets and continuous solder fill around the pins with a 0.006"-thick stencil for 0.063" and 0.093"-thick boards for resistors, DIPs and four-row header arrays.

X-rays of paste hole fill and cross-sections of through-hole pins after reflow are shown in the paper. To download the paper, visit www.photostencil.com/techpapers.htm.

STAMFORD, CT – Gartner Inc. cut its 2007 worldwide semiconductor forecast to $269.2 billion, a mere 2.5% increase from 2006.

Gartner previously predicted a 2007 revenue increase of 6.4%.

The research firm attributes the negative outlook to dramatic declines in DRAM average selling prices and continued price competition in the compute MPU segment.

Gartner said first quarter semiconductor sales were more than 5% lower than in the previous quarter, which was worse than expected.

The firm said it expects the industry to return to annual growth of 8.7% and 7.2% in 2008 and 2009, respectively.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The head of the National Association of Manufacturers commended Chinese and American officials for progress in the latest round of joint economic talks.

NAM president John Engler called the second meeting of the Strategic Economic Dialogue, between Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Wu Yi, a “breakthrough … in expanding passenger and cargo flights,” and “new cooperation in financing U.S. exports to China, new market access for the financial sector, increased cooperation in energy, and announcements of large purchases of U.S. products.”

Engler also applauded the nonconfrontational methods used by the Treasury Secretary. “This dialogue is all about direct and candid discussions on the opportunities and risks in our relationship,” he said. “Hank Paulson is trying cooperation and consultation rather than confrontation to get the job done, and we support his efforts. But we also need the dialogue to produce results.”

Engler noted the aim of the SED is to bring about structural change. “The Chinese leadership must recognize that the risk now lies in acting too slowly rather than acting too rapidly,” he said. “We are hopeful that the dialogue will result in faster actions by China to move away from export-led growth to domestic-led growth,” he continued.

“We all want to see a mutually beneficial relationship with China – one in which both U.S. and Chinese companies and workers can compete fairly, with assurances that global trade rules will be observed and enforced,” Engler said. “Our economies have a great deal at stake in our trade relationship, and the SED process is the best hope for achieving a win-win outcome.”

BANNOCKBURN, IL – April shipments of rigid PCBs were down 12.8% and bookings were off 11.8% year-over-year, IPC reported today.

Shipments of rigid and flex boards decreased 12% year-over-year, and orders dropped 8.5%. Year to date, shipments are down 9.1% and bookings are down 16.5%. Compared to March, April shipments were down 16.2% and bookings were off 15.3%.

The combined industry book-to-bill ratio in April increased to 1.01, 1.28 for flex boards and 1.0 for rigid.

Year to date, rigid PCB shipments are down 9.9% and bookings are down 18.9%. Sequentially, rigid PCB shipments fell 15.5% and bookings decreased 12.6%.

Flex circuit shipments were up 3% and bookings were up 68.9% compared to April last year. For the year, flex shipments are up 3.9%, bookings 30.1%. Flex shipments fell 25.1% and bookings were down 39.2% versus March.

SHANGHAI – The global semiconductor market is expected to grow 2.3% to $253.5 billion in 2007, according to the spring forecast of the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics group.

LOS ALTOS, CA – U.S. medical electronics production is predicted to grow more quickly than healthcare outlays, says Henderson Ventures in its recent forecast.

ATLANTA – UP Media Group Inc., which publishes Circuits Assembly and Printed Circuit Design and Manufacture magazines, promoted editorial director Mike Buetow to vice president of editorial and production for the electronics division.

The company also named Frances Stewart vice president of sales and marketing. Stewart will be responsible for all sales and marketing in UPMG’s electronics division, including the company’s publishing and trade show operations.

Buetow, who has been editor-in-chief of Circuits Assembly since mid 2004, has more than 16 years of experience in the electronics manufacturing industry, including 10 as an editor of such titles as PC FAB and Printed Circuit Design and Manufacture. He is based in Boston.

Stewart has 25 years of experience in the electronics manufacturing industry. She is the former group publisher of Circuits Assembly, Printed Circuit Design, PC FAB and HDI magazines, and helped launch the PCB Design conferences and exhibition events. She has been an officer at the national and local levels of the SMTA trade association. She is based in Atlanta.

EL PASO, TX – Susan Mucha, president of EMS consulting firm Powell-Mucha Consulting, and the SMTA will present on June 6 the second part in their Webinar series on Building a Competitive EMS Brand.

The Webinar, EMS Marketing Basics, takes place from 1-2:30 p.m. EST. This online presentation will cover key considerations in differentiating a brand, developing a robust EMS marketing toolbox, and linking promotion effort to the outsourcing decision cycle.

For information and registration visit:
http://www.smta.org/education/presentations/presentations.cfm#competitive.

The cost is $75 for SMTA members and $150 for nonmembers.

To obtain a copy of the first Webinar in the series, Understanding Competitive Advantage in EMS Services, contact Mucha at smucha@powell-muchaconsulting.com.

EL SEGUNDO, CA – Semiconductor shipments in China will rise to $51.7 billion in 2007, up 20% from 2006, iSuppli Corp. predicted today. Shipments to China rose 15% in 2006.

ENDICOTT, NY – Endicott Interconnect Technologies has received $49 million in followup orders from the U.S. Department of Defense for electronics packaging and substrates for high-end computing.

The program includes $5 million for electronics packaging R&D, EI said.

The contract is the first of a three-phased, five-year program that uses EI as a DoD research arm for exploring high-speed electronics technologies. Phase one includes system development and preliminary PCB and substrate design, along with fabrication of test vehicles for evaluating alternative material sets.

Phases two and three will address processing equipment for advanced technology, PCBs, substrates and assembly.

EI anticipates this will stimulate the recruitment of scientists and engineers to produce and deliver future technologies.

ATLANTA – Manufacturers perplexed about which type of selective soldering process to use might find helpful the results of a recent survey by Stone Mountain Tool.

The survey responses revealed valuable information about different types of selective soldering machines; criteria to consider when choosing the right machine to fit a company’s goals, including advantages and disadvantages of each; cycle times, startup costs and more.