FOUNTAIN, CO — Sanmina-SCI will close its electronics assembly plant here by year end, cutting a reported 319 jobs.

A Sanmina-SCI spokesman on Friday confirmed to Circuits Assembly that the plant would be closing. He declined to comment on the number of workers that would be affected.

However, the local Colorado Springs Gazette reported the firm revealed its plans in a letter to the town mayor, sent in accordance with federal rules governing job cuts. The cuts would begin Nov. 10, the paper reported.

At its peak, the 250,000 sq. ft. plant employed 1,000 workers, the paper said.

The company has slowly been reducing its head count in North America this summer. In late August, Sanmina-SCI reportedly laid off more than 100 workers at its Rapid City, SD, plant.

Ed.: Updated Sept. 17.

ELK GROVE VILLAGE, IL – EMS company SigmaTron International reported revenues increased to $39.8 million in the first quarter of 2008, up 7% year-over-year.

BALVE, GERMANY – Balver Zinn has been awarded Nihon Superior’s Gold Award for outstanding sales for SN100C lead-free solders in Europe.

Nihon president Tetsuro Nishimura presented the award to managing directors Gregor and Josef Jost, together with alliance partner DKL Metals.

Balver Zinn has held the license for Nihon’s SN100C range of solder in Europe for five years.

HIALEAH, FL — Edward L. McGrath resigned Sept. 10 as vice president and general manager of EMS provider Simclar Inc.

McGrath will remain with the company in a reassigned role in sales.

ROME, NY – The ESDA requests abstracts for technical papers covering the effects of electrostatic discharge, electrical overstress, and static electricity for presentation at its 30th Annual EOS/ESD Symposium, Sept. 7-12, 2008 in Tucson, AZ.

To obtain copies of the call for papers, email info@esda.org or visit www.esda.org.

LOUISVILLE — Robert B. Sanders, president of Sypris Solutions Inc.'s electronics division, has resigned effective Sept. 24.

He joined Sypris in 2005 from Honeywell, where he was general manager for the company's Defense & Space Electronics Systems division.

Vice president and CFO Scott Hatton will absorb Sanders' responsibilities until a replacement is found.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. House of Representatives has passed H.R. 1908, also known as the Patent Reform Act of 2007, the first step toward bringing the nation's patent laws in line with international statutes.

ANAHEIM, CA – Dan Baldwin, PhD, founder and president of Engent Inc. and Adjunct Professor of Georgia Tech Institute will speak on Sept. 29 about an Experimental Wetting Dynamics Study Of Eutectic and Lead-Free Solders.

This SMTA LA/OC Chapter meeting will take place at the Embassy Suites Hotel, Anaheim, at 6 p.m.

The effects of solder reflow process parameters and bonding materials will be discussed, as they relate to the physics of solder wetting and the interconnect process yield and solder joint reliability.

The experimental setup consists of a high-speed image acquisition system and a temperature chamber that were used to measure the time-dependent behavior of molten solder spheres onto bond pads under an isothermal condition. The solder materials investigated are eutectic tin-lead solder and lead-free 95.5Sn-4.0Ag-0.5Cu solder. The wetting dynamics of the solder materials were investigated on Cu, Cu/OSP, and Cu/Ni/Au bond pads, with several different flux systems, at different environmental temperatures, with various solder sphere sizes.

The experimental observations indicate that the wetting dynamics clearly depend on temperature, solder materials and substrate metallization, but do not depend significantly on the flux system or the solder sphere size.

Visit www.laocsmta.org for more information.

SAN JOSE, CA – The MicroElectronics Packaging and Test Engineering Council has finalized its program for the 2nd Annual Medical Electronics symposium: Growth Opportunities for Medical MicroElectronics. It will be held at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ on Sept. 25.

The event will begin with a keynote presentation by Celeste Null, director of biomedical engineering in the Digital Health Group at Intel Corp.: The Future of Biotechnology.

Presentations in the areas of bioscience and medical technologies with a focus on the opportunities for microelectronics packaging will include: Business and Technology Overview; Medical Microelectronic Implants; Virtually Assisted Surgical Training: Concepts, Foundations, and Sensor-based Techniques; Emergence of Bio MEMS for Sensors and Bio-Telemetry; Packaging Medical Electronics; Implantable Monitoring -  Packaging Reveal XT and Next-Generation Injectable Monitors; IMEC - Novel "Chip-in-a-wire" Embedding Technology for Realizing Flexible Electrode Arrays for Medical Applications; Advanced Simulation of Medical Electronic Devices and Applications; Enabling Technologies; High-Density Interconnect Flexible Substrates in Medical Applications; Enabling MEMS Devices for the Medical Market; The Evolution of Telemedicine 2.0; Medical Electronic Product Applications; CMOS X-ray Detector Design and Performance and Application in Digital Mammography; Palm-Size Breath Analyzer for the Detection and Monitoring of Metabolic States, and Advancements in Hospital Technology.

To register, contact Bette Cooper, bcooper@meptec.org or visit www.meptec.org.