Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - News

News

ST. PETERSBURG, FL -- Jabil Circuit's fiscal first-quarter revenue rose 34% year-over-year to $3.2 billion, topping analysts' estimates of $3.17 billion.

The EMS firm guided for February quarter to grow about 20% year-over-year, reaching $2.75 billion to $2.85 billion.

SAN JOSE -- ROHSUSA, an industry-led effort to repeal the European ban on lead in electronics, is seeking signatories for an official exemption request for lead in solders now being considered by the European Union.

According to John Burke of ROHSUSA, more than 280 signatures have been received thus far in support of the exemption. Letters must be received by Jan. 10. A link to a sample letter is here.

BANNOCKBURN, IL – After nearly 15 years and plenty of promise but few successes, the IPC today disbanded its Government Relations committee.

The committee has been a focal point for years, having acted as the trade group’s member liaison to its lobbying activities. It coordinated an annual industry lobbying day, and helped to raise the industry’s awareness – if not its influence – at the congressional level.

HERNDON, VA - The International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative’s (iNEMI’s) workshop on the availability of SnPb-compatible BGAs, originally scheduled for January 24, has been moved to March 1. Hosted by Hewlett-Packard, the workshop will occur at its Cupertino, CA campus.

The workshop is intended to facilitate discussion among high-reliability electronic product manufacturers and makers of electronic components manufactured in ball grid array (BGA) packages.

iNEMI’s SnPb BGA Availability Task Group has assembled information that will be shared with BGA device makers, including a list of critical BGA component families; estimated total available market (TAM) for these devices in SnPb assembly versions; a general business case based on TAM; and scenarios to support this critical market need until reliability issues are resolved for high-reliability, long-life electronic assemblies.

Workshop registration information and directions are available at http://www.inemi.org/cms/projects/ese/SnPb_BGAs.html.

WESTLAKE, OH – Nordson Corp. this week finalized its acquisition of Dage Holdings Ltd.

Nordson paid £117,005,613 for the testing and inspection equipment manufacturer, which had revenues of approximately $59 million during the 12-month period ending Oct. 31.

Nordson also owns Asymtek, March Plasma Systems and EFD, among others.

The deal was announced in mid November.

Dage makes bond testing and digital x-ray systems.

CLINTON, NY - Indium Corp. named BarTron as sales representative for Michigan.

BarTron is responsible for the sales and service of Indium’s electronics assembly materials such as solder paste, preforms, wire, ribbon, and foil; rework, wave, and liquid fluxes; underfill; flux cored wire; solder spheres; epoxy; and bar solder.

BarTron has extensive technical and customer service experience and a wide-ranging line card that aligns with Indium's soldering products.

NEW YORK -- ASTM International's committee F40 on Declarable Substances in Materials will meet
April 18-20 in Norfolk, VA, and Nov. 14-16 in Tampa, FL .

ASTM meetings are open to all interested individuals.

For information contact Brynn Iwanowski at ASTM International, 610-832-9640; biwanows@astm.org.

EINDHOVEN, THE NETHERLANDS - Assembléon has received Frost & Sullivan’s 2006 Customer Value Enhancement award for surface mount technology equipment. This recognizes the contribution of Assembléon’s Installed Base Solutions to continuous performance improvement of equipment that is already installed on customer production lines.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents its Customer Value Enhancement award to a company demonstrating more innovative value creation and enhancement strategies than competitors.

Installed Base Solutions is Assembléon’s approach for working with customers to continuously optimize cost and performance of their assembly lines. The company performs bottleneck analysis, remote performance and diagnostic analysis to help map efficiency issues and identify areas for improvement.

NEW YORK -- 2008 will be the year MEMS take off in cellphones as the technology's small size, flexibility, and performance advantages become big drawcards, ABI Research said today.

According to ABI, MEMS finds five major application areas in the cellphone: RF filters, adaptive tuning circuits, resonators and oscillators, audio microphones, accelerometers and motion sensors. The challenge is their cost compared to incumbent solutions, but as volumes pick up for MEMS components in these newer markets, there will be a concomitant decrease in cost, the research firm asserts.

MEMS technology for consumer markets has been discussed for at least 10 years, says principal analyst Alan Varghese. "The traditional challenges for MEMS related to the difficulty of reliably manufacturing components at high volumes, effective packaging techniques, long-term device reliability, technology cost and supply chain robustness, all of which had a damping effect on the industry. However the MEMS industry has been addressing these concerns, and innovative solutions are being offered in high volume markets such as mobile phones and consumer devices."

JASPER, IN -- Kimball Electronics Group will acquire Reptron Electronics for $0.68 per share, or roughly $3.4 million. The deal between the two contract electronics manufacturers is expected to close during the first quarter 2007, and should push Kimball into the top 20 worldwide EMS firms as ranked by revenue.

The price is a 28% premium over Reptron's three-month volume weighted average stock price.

HERNDON, VA – iNEMI’s Tin Whisker User Group has revised “Recommendations on Lead-Free Finishes for Components Used in High-Reliability Products.”

ALAMEDA, CA -- A common theme arose during discussions at Technology Forecaster's quarterly meeting last week: knee-jerk reactions on the part of OEMs and their manufacturing partners to the challenges of global electronics manufacturing are not working.

Attendees reportedly expressed considerable frustration at the tactical measures they are taking to meet environmental regulations such as China RoHS and finding profitable and socially responsible ways to manufacture the low-volume, high-mix products that represent the next wave of electronics outsourcing for the global arena. "I am so tired of the fire drills for WEEE, RoHS, and now China RoHS," one OEM complained.