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News

BRUSSELS -- The European Union's Technical Adaptation Committee has ruled to exempt lead and cadmium in a half-dozen applications from the RoHS Directive.

Among the expemtions granted was for lead in finishes of fine-pitch components (other than connectors) with a pitch of 0.65 mm or less with NiFe copper lead frames. This could mean a new lease on life for millions of components.

BANNOCKBURN, IL – On the heels of one of the largest consumer electronics recalls in history, Trade Association IPC will hold a summit meeting next month to develop standards for the manufacture of lithium ion batteries for portable and handheld electronics. The mid-September meeting in San Jose will be hosted by the IPC OEM Critical Components Committee, which includes representatives from Dell, Lenovo and other major computer manufacturers.

“Without a doubt, standardization can and will address the issue of operation and safety called into question by the use of lithium ion batteries,” said John Grosso, chairman of the committee and director of supplier engineering and quality, sub-tier and critical components, Dell Inc. “While the Committee had identified lithium ion batteries as the next product for standardization, we are going to accelerate our activities now,”

According to Grosso, the committee will identify any current standards related to lithium ion batteries with the goal of standardizing design, performance and safety requirements for these batteries.

Anthony Hilvers, IPC VP of industry programs added that the committee has recently completed a standard for fans for electronics applications and is also working on standardizing performance parameters for power conversion devices for electronic products.

Flowery Branch, GA – EMS provider Qualcon was recently registered by international standards auditor QMI to the ISO 13485:2003 standard for medical device manufacturing.

Although the company has been manufacturing medical devices for more than six years under its customer’s registrations, Qualcon is now manufacturing complex medical devices for its customers and shipping those devices directly to its customer’s customers. The company also provides fulfillment services to its medical device customers, including new product introduction and repair/warranty depot services.

In March, Qualcon was registered to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Good Manufacturing Practice standards, which ensure that products intended for human use are safe and effective.

SIOUX FALLS, SD -- Raven Industries today reported record sales and earnings for its second quarter ended July 31. Net sales rose 11% to $50.4 million versus a year ago, while net income climbed 7% to $5.1 million.

ESSEX, UK -- Remploy Electronics, a U.K.-based electronics manufacturing services company, will double its capacity this year, an online news source reported.

"Our business is growing and we’re investing. The plan is that we will almost double the size of our business this year," general manager Rick Cook reportedly told Electronics Weekly.

Some of the firm's factories are now running 24/7, he said.

Remploy has board assembly facilities in the U.K., in Barking, Essex and Bolton, Lancashire.

Remploy gets some funding from the British government funded and is restructuring some other non-electronics operations, the report said.

UPPER SAUCON TWP., PA -- Lutron Electronics Co., a manufacturer of lighting control products and systems, will create at least 500 new jobs within five years by expanding its Pennsylvania operations.

Lutron plans to construct a 250,000-sq. ft. office building, and expand its product evaluation building by some 20,000 sq. ft.

PALO ALTO, CA – Despite lower wages and price pressures from overseas competitors, the adoption of Pb-free solder paste has led a resurgence in reflow soldering equipment market sales in North America.

Industry revenues totaled $41.3 million in 2005 and are estimated to reach $68.1 million in 2012, a 3.8% average annual growth rate, Frost & Sullivan said today.

WASHINGTON -- Total spending on electronics or computer-related equipment, such as home computers, laptops, PDAs, or calculators, is estimated to increase by more than $1.5 billion this year, rebounding to $3.82 billion after a sharp decline in 2005.

SAN JOSE – Worldwide semiconductor manufacturing equipment billings reached $9.59 billion in the second quarter, 0.2% higher than the first quarter and up 27% over a year ago, SEMI reported today. It was the highest mark for billings in more than five years.

Semiconductor equipment bookings reached $11.53 billion, up

SAN JOSE -- The performance potential of high speed, copper based, direct interconnections between IC packages by means of a flexible circuit was validated by Intel Corp. in July at the IEEE CPMT Society's ECTC conference.

A paper, Flex-Circuit Chip-to-Chip Interconnects, was authored by team of scientists and engineers from facilities in Hillsborough, OR, Santa Clara, CA and Chandler, AZ. The authors concluded that “20 Gbps signaling on channels of relevant lengths is possible,” but noted that “we are not ready to introduce flex I/O into any mainstream products.” Even so, they did conclude that “the possibility of a chip-to-chip interconnect with minimal discontinuities and propagation loss is a strong attractor and corresponding high-speed solutions will be in demand.”

“We are delighted with both the quality of the Intel team's research and their reported results” noted SiliconPipe CEO and co-founder Joseph Fjelstad, “These results (20Gbps over extended distance) add significant credibility to SiliconPipe's concepts and validate the results SiliconPipe has presented to the electronics industry over the last few years, most recently in February at DesignCon West.”

SiliconPipe OTT technology (an acronym for Off-the-Top or Over-the-Top) can enable high-speed data requirements and low power potential.

“In our demonstration vehicle, code named Sidewinder, our team showed it possible to send signals at 10 Gbps over distances up to 30 in. through two connectors and do so using less than 2% of the anticipated transmission power while maintaining a 60% timing margin,” Fjelstad said. “However, there is still more benefit to mine and extract in this area and SiliconPipe is continuing to develop and evaluate new copper based interconnection solutions to meet the cost performance needs of future electronics and the Stair Step Package it appears will be an important element of that future.”

SAN JOSE -- The Nasdaq stock exchange has issued a delisting warning to Sanmina-SCI for the EMS firm's failure to file its quarterly 10-Q form.

In response, Sanmina-SCI has requested a hearing before the Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Panel.

Loughborough, England – The U.K. contract electronics group Datalink has acquired MSS/ Manufacturing Support Services, an Arizona contract manufacturer, and its associated electronics assembly company Servicios de Fabricacion based in Nogales, Mexico.

Since the acquisition, the assembly lines have been moved to more appropriate facilities, new surface-mount equipment has been installed, ESD precautions improved and MRP systems updated to manage full turnkey operations and trace ability. RoHS assemblies are now welcomed and ISO 9000 registration is scheduled for first half 2007.

Datalink concentrates on small- to mid-volume, low- to high-mix, through-hole, surface-mount and mixed technology PCB assembly.