Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - News

News

DERBY, KS - Q Corp. has opened a new facility in Derby, KS. The company is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. Q Corp. designs and manufactures tape-and-reel and lead trimming equipment. It has customers in more than 20 countries.

SUZHOU, CHINA – Phihong Technology has opened a $30 million, one million sq. ft. production plant in Suzhou. The facility, sited five miles from Phihong’s existing plant, will house up to 50 production lines, employ more than 9,000 workers, and will reportedly manufacture up to 50 million power supplies per month. The facility will manufacture power supplies, adapters and other electronics equipment.

SAN JOSE -- Bay Area executives are gaining optimism over their prospects, according to a quarterly survey.

Optimists outnumbered pessimists by more than four to one in the Silicon Valley, according to the quarterly Bay Area Business Confidence Index. The survey of 542 top executives was conducted in October by consulting firm McKinsey.

DALLAS, OR -- Printed circuit board maker TTM Technologies will shutter its Dallas, OR, facility, and lay off about 300 workers, the company said. TTM expects to take a charge of $2.6 million for severance in the first quarter of 2007.

Production will be moved to other company sites, primarily in Logan, UT, and Redmond, WA.

PENANG, MALAYSIA – Pac Tech will open a high-volume wafer bumping facility in Penang next year. The 40,000 sq. ft. location will be completed in June and will be designed for mass production of wafer bumping using electroless NiAu, solder stencil printing, wafer sawing, solder-ball placement and more. The facility will reportedly be able to process 600,000 wafers annually to start. The company will begin producing in volume in October.

BRUSSELS -- The EU Commission has opened discussions for its latest round of requests for exemptions to the RoHS Directive.

A list of proposed exemptions is available here.

Among the requests: That all uses of lead in solders be exempted on the grounds that the replacements are more environmentally damaging than the leaded versions.

WASHINGTON — Some U.S. Environmental Protection Agency staff are looking at removing lead from a 30-year-old list of air pollutants, and could recommend the same to the Bush administration.

In an EPA staff paper released Tuesday, agency said it would evaluate the status of lead as an air pollutant and "assess whether the revocation of the standard is an appropriate option for the Administrator to consider."

TORONTO – SMTA is seeking papers for a conference on soldering and reliability to be held in Toronto this spring. To present a paper, submit a 200- to 300-word abstract. Suggested topics include SnPb with Pb-free components; reliability; harsh environment; tin whiskers; new alloys; electromigration; thermal dissipation; manufacturing process; supply chain issues; advanced packaging; new substrate materials; surface finishes; thermal interface materials, and underfill. The SMTA did not specify the precise dates of the conference. Abstracts are due Jan. 18 to Melissa Serres at melissa@smta.org. Include a title, author name and contact information. Authors will be notified of acceptance by Jan. 31. PowerPoint presentations are required and will be due March

SAN ANTONIO - Indium Corp. has received the 2006 Frost & Sullivan Global SMT Solder Paste Customer Value Enhancement award. The company demonstrated outstanding achievement and superior performance in expanding and maintaining its customer base by using innovative value creation and enhancement strategies. It was chosen based on an in-depth analysis of market competitors, as well as interviews with companies in the SMT soldering materials industry. It was the fourth time the company nabbed the honor. It previously won in 1998 and 2000 for Engineering Customer Focus, and in 2003 for Product Innovation.

THE WOODLANDS, TX - Huntsman announced it has selected Underwriters Laboratories (UL) as its RoHS compliance partner. Huntsman will apply for the UL RoHS Mark. UL created its restricted substances compliance program to help manufacturers demonstrate due diligence in complying with the EU’s RoHS Directive.

To receive the UL RoHS Mark, Huntsman will provide samples of the chemical products it markets for electrical and electronic applications. UL will test these samples for compliance. If Huntsman’s tested products meet the RoHS Directive limits, UL will authorize the company to apply for the UL RoHS Mark for the manufactured product. Organizations whose products qualify for the UL RoHS Mark must also accept onsite surveillance visits twice annually.

REDMOND, WA - Aztech Systems Limited has selected Data I/O’s FLX500 automated device programmer for manufacturing operations in Dong Guan, China.

The FLX500 is reportedly the industry’s first desktop-size automated device programmer. The robotic system is said to pick memory or microcontroller devices from trays, inserts the devices in sockets, and returns programmed devices to trays, ready to move to production. Based on FlashCORET precision programming technology, the system programs Flash and serial memory devices, NAND flash, and programmable microcontrollers.

Aztech’s electronics manufacturing services include design, material management, logistics services and customer program management.

SAN JOSE, CA – The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reported that global semiconductor sales set a new monthly record for the fourth consecutive month. Worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $21.9 billion in October, an increase of 9.2% year-over-year. Sales increased by 2.5% from the $21.4 billion reported in September 2006.