Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - News

News

EL SEGUNDO, CA — Research firm iSuppli Corp. will host a free Webinar on India automotive electronics market next week. Jagdish Rebello, Ph. D., director and principal analyst for iSuppli, is the featured speaker.

India's automotive electronics market is set to expand 21.8 % over the next five years, predicts iSuppli, but is facing a host of potential roadblocks including weak infrastructure and government beauracracy.

The Webinar will take place on Nov. 1, at 11:30 a.m. EST. Visit: http://www.isuppli.com/events/default.asp?EventCode=WB.

ATLANTA -- Effective March 1, China will require labels on products sold to end-users that contain any substances that can be considered to fall under any of the six RoHS classes. But two problems persist: What the labels will look like, and the particulars of how companies will comply. Of particular concern are the unknowns at play preventing companies from compliance.

“The law didn’t specify what the labeling and disclosure requirements will be – just that there are labeling and disclosure requirements,” explains Michael Kirschner, president of Design Chain Associates, a consulting firm that has been closely tracking the issue.

NORTH BILLERICA, MA -- BTU International said net sales for the quarter ended Oct. 1 slipped 2% year-on-year to $18.3 million. The maker of soldering equipment reported net income jumped 48%, to $2.3 million.

NEW YORK -- Dover Corp. reported third-quarter earnings from continuing operations rose 27% to $156.3 million from a year ago, while revenues spikied 21% to $1.65 billion.

For the quarter ended Sept. 30, the company reported a gain of $274 million in proceeds from the sale of discontinued businesses. Those units include electronics OEM notables Universal Instruments, Vitronics-Soltec and Hover-Davis, among others. In the second quarter, Dover took a $106.5 million writedown against the carrying values of the discontinued businesses.

SANTA CLARA, CA -- Agilent Technologies today announced the licensing of its Medalist Bead Probe technology, a methodology for placing solder beads ("bead probes") directly onto printed circuit board signal traces.

The advancement addresses the need for more test accessibility on PCBs at in-circuit test, especially for dense or high-speed PCB designs, Agilent said.

As PCBs get increasingly smaller, the ability to provide test points for in-circuit test becomes more difficult. In addition, designs with high-speed buses also limit where test targets can be placed on board layouts. Workarounds for these test challenges can be time-consuming and costly.

Manufacturers that own Agilent ICT systems can obtain right-to-use licenses at no charge directly from Agilent. A copy of "Bead Probe Handbook: Successfully Implementing Agilent Medalist Bead Probes in Practice" is included with each license. The how-to guide details procedures for implementing bead probes and is written for designers, process engineers and test engineers.

Agilent will license the bead probe technology to other test equipment vendors. Manufacturers that use other ICT equipment may obtain right-to-use licenses from Agilent.

PLANO, TX -- More than 50 companies will exhibit at the initial Southwest Electronics Production Exposition Nov. 14 and 15, show organizers said today.

The show takes place at the Plano (TX) Centre, and features suppliers and representatives of production and test equipment, plus a modest technical conference including a dozen free presentations.

BANNOCKBURN, IL – When it comes to lead-free readiness, North American OEMs trail their counterparts in Asia and Europe. However, barely half the Asian OEMs declared themselves “fully engaged” in lead-free assembly.

That’s according to “Report on IPC Lead-Free Preparedness Study,” released by IPC this month. The study looked at the level of lead-free implementation at 196 OEMs and 94 EMS companies worldwide. IPC did not break out the number of respondents in each region.

ROME, NY - The ESD Association requests abstracts for technical papers covering the effects of electrostatic discharge (ESD), electrical overstress (EOS) and static electricity for presentation at its 29th Annual EOS/ESD Symposium.

The symposium takes place Sept. 16-21 in Anaheim, CA.

Submissions must include a 50-word abstract and a maximum four-page summary. The deadline for abstracts is Jan. 12. The final submission deadline for the finished paper (max. 10 pages) is June 8.

Contact the ESD Association at 315-339-6937; info@esda.org; www.esda.org.

ST. LOUIS – LaBarge has received a $4.3 million order from Modular Mining Systems to build electronics assemblies used in mine information management systems. LaBarge will provide printed circuit boards and box-level assemblies for central data collection and communications used in heavy equipment. LaBarge will manufacture the assemblies at its Pittsburgh facility. Production is expected to begin this month and continue through January.

MINNEAPOLIS – Rich Freiberger received the SMTA Founder’s Award last month, the organization’s highest individual honor. SMTA presented the award, given for exceptional service to the association and the industry, on Sept. 29 during its annual SMTAI conference in Rosemont, IL.

An SMTA director from 1995 through 2001, Freiberger oversaw the Academy program, EAE (Electronics Assembly Expo), Emerging Technologies, and the Philadelphia, Boston and Dallas SMTA chapters. He was instrumental in assisting the association with the reformation of the Silicon Valley chapter. The Founders Award was one of five citations issued during the conference.

Kim Hyland received the Member of Distinction Award. Hyland has been a member of SMTA since 1987. He is a Silicon Valley SMTA Technical Program coordinator, SMTA Technical Committee member, iNEMI Technical Committee member and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo University industry liaison.

The Excellence in Leadership Award was presented to Tom O’Connor. O’Connor has been a member of the SMTA since 1990 and is currently president of the Capital chapter.

Dr. Charles E. Bauer received the Excellence in International Leadership Award for his continuous commitment to the association’s international focus. Dr. Bauer served on the SMTA board from 1995 to 2001 as vice president of communications and as a planning committee member. He is founder and general chair of the SMTA Pan Pacific Microelectronics Symposium and Chairman of the International Development Committee. Dr. Bauer was also chapter president of the SMTA/IMAPS Rocky Mountain chapter.

The 2006 SMTA+ Corporate Partnership Award was presented to Flextronics. Flextronics has been a corporate member of SMTA since 1999 and has supported SMTA technical programming. Over the years, they have provided the association with numerous participants in SMTA conferences in more than 60 different capacities (speaker, chair, panelist) presenting high quality technical information at conferences around the world.

AUSTIN, TX – Flip chip and wafer-level package sales grow more than 24% compounded from 2005 to 2010, according to a new study from TechSearch International.

In the report, the research firm found that performance and form factor continue to drive flip chip. Flip chip interconnect is expanding into high performance logic to a variety of devices found in wireless products. An increasing number of suppliers of ASICs, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), DSPs, chipsets, graphics, and microprocessors are expanding their use of flip chip in package (FCIP).

EL SEGUNDO, CA - China's slowing electronics industry growth is leading to reduced demand for semiconductors, prompting iSuppli Corp. to trim its revenue forecast for chips sold in China in 2006.

iSuppli currently expects China's 2006 semiconductor revenue to rise between 11% and 15%, which translates to $41 billion and $43 billion for the year. That’s down from the firm’s projection of 18% one year ago.