WASHINGTON -- The U.S. and European Union today announced they are ready to endorse a joint "action strategy" for the enforcement of intellectual property rights in Third World countries.

Representatives of the two regions are meeting this week in Vienna to nail down a variety of issues with implications to both sides of the Atlantic. The value of counterfeit goods seized at EU borders has grown more than 1000% since 1998, according to one published report.

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St. Charles, IL – Electra Polymers Ltd. has bought Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials’ inks business. The company will gain the Ronascreen inks and soldermask lines, as well as Durashield V42 thick copper technology filler products.
 
The acquisition, to be completed by the end of July, expands Electra’s portfolio of high-reliability coatings and gives it access to the heavy copper filler business.
 
Electra’s sales and marketing director, Shaun Tibbals, said in a release, “To remain competitive you have to put R&D effort behind your products. The Ronascreen product line has been developed over the years by leading, innovative companies such as Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials, LeaRonal, Morton, Shipley, Hoechst and now, through this acquisition, we are acquiring extensive levels of technological know-how.”
 
The acquisition involves the transfer to Electra of IP, product formulations and the existing global customer base.
Tibbals added, “While this does not give us new geographical markets, and although we already have a range of world-class soldermasks and inks for the PCB industry, it does give us access into new sectors."

Thief River Falls, MN – Components distributor Digi-Key Corp. has added a series of 10 Product Training Modules (PTM) to its Website (digikey.com). The modules offer design engineers 24/7 access to product seminars that vary in length from 15 to 30 minutes.
 
Audio and non-audio versions of the modules require Macromedia Flash 6. They are also available as MP3 downloads.
 
The Web-based learning tools were developed and produced with the cooperation of several of Digi-Key’s supplier partners, including Altera Corp., Analog Devices, Fairchild Semiconductor, Freescale Semiconductor, Micrel Inc., Philips, Silicon Laboratories and STMicroelectronics.

Clinton, NY – Two Indium Corp. engineers have received the Surface Mount Technology Association’s designation as Certified Process Engineers. Mario Scalzo and Chris Anglin join nine other SMTA-certified engineers at the company.
 
Scalzo has been with Indium for six years and is a technical support engineer for the Southwest and Rocky Mountain regions. Anglin joined the company in 2004 and serves the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.
 
The other certified employees include: Ronald C. Lasky, PhD, PE, Tim Jensen, Dave Sbiroli, Karl Pfluke, Karthik Vijayamadhavan and Eric Bastow in the U.S.; Ivan Castellanos in Mexico; Adrian Low in Singapore; and Sehar Samiappan in Malaysia.
 
SMTA certification recognizes and certifies the entire SMT assembly process at an engineering level. Participants must have several years of SMT experience in addition to completing educational requirements in a technical discipline. The course includes a series of workshops and concludes with two days of competitive testing. 

SAN JOSE – North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.65 billion in orders in May on a three-month average basis and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.12 according to the latest data from SEMI.

A book-to-bill of 1.12 means that $112 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

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CUPERTINO, CA -- Apple Computer has launched an audit of the plant that builds its iPods in response to published reports of the factory's poor working conditions.

The plant is located in Longhua, China and is owned by Foxconn, the world's largest EMS company.

Circuits Assembly reported on the problems last week.

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COPENHAGEN -- Lego, the maker of the ubiquitous building blocks and other toys, will outsource most of its production to Flextronics over the next three years, with the EMS provider taking over some Lego plants. Other production will be moved to Flextronics’ plants in Eastern Europe and Mexico. No financial terms were immediately disclosed.

The move breaks new ground for Flextronics. "It's not electronics, it's plastic molding," said Alexander Blanton, an analyst at Ingalls & Synder told TheStreet.com. "This is the first major piece of business that I have seen of that nature."

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FRANKFURT -- Consolidation continued in the telecom space as Nokia and Siemens announced the combining of heir mobile-network operations to create a 50:50 joint venture with annual revenue of about $20 billion.

The new entity will be called Nokia Siemens Networks and is expected to be finalized by year-end, pending regulatory approval.

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CeTaQ Americas has expanded machine performance verification services to include verifying placement of very tiny passive chip components to 01005 size. Such components, loaded from tape and reel, are difficult to place accurately and repeatably, and require that placement equipment operate within tight performance tolerances and accuracy to minimize defects.
 
General manager Mike Sivigny said, “These chips are so tiny that pad dimensions and geometries are measured in microns. If a placement machine is not operating fully within a manufacturer’s stated accuracies, there will be a higher rate of defects and reduced yields. These components are already responsible for higher defect levels than larger scale components, and are the focus of considerable process optimization efforts within the industry. Additionally, their tiny size makes manual rework difficult, compounding the negative impact of defects caused by inaccurate placement.”
 
The most common problems found on chip placement equipment, Sivigny adds, are systematic offsets, per head, per nozzle, per angle or simply a general offset. Offsets negatively affect chip shooter accuracy, resulting in PCB defects, lower yields, and costly manual rework. With growing demand for 01005 chip usage, placement accuracy is increasingly important.