Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - News

News

Taipei -- EMS provider Foxconn Electronics may buy two desktop PC assembly plants in Australia and India from Hewlett-Packard, an Asian news source reported.

Under the agreement, Foxconn (the registered trade name of Hon Hai Precision Industry) will take over design and manufacturing management at the two plants, and may eventually take over HP plants in Europe, according to a report originally published in the Chinese-language Commercial Times.

In an article on Forbes.com, Foxconn affirmed the Australia takeover but denied the Indian acquisition.

TORONTO -- Coretec Inc. has entered into a nonbinding letter of intent to merge with Unicircuit Inc. in an all stock swap. Coretec, a PCB maker based in Toronto, will issue 6 million common shares in exchange for all of Unicircuit's common shares. Coretec will also issue $3.1 million of a new class of preferred shares in exchange for $3.1 million of preferred shares of Unicircuit as well as assume $3.9 million of Unicircuit's net debt.

The transaction is expected to close by July 31.

"This merger creates opportunities to maximize efficiencies with respect to facility overheads and production. With an estimated capacity of $150 million, the combination of the two companies will provide North American and European electronics OEM and EMS companies with a major alternative for prototype-to-production high reliability PCBs," said Paul Langston, president and CEO of Coretec.

Unicircuit operates plants in Littleton, CO, and Roseville, MN.

"From our discussions with Coretec we have been enticed by the marketing potential of this combination, particularly in light of the fact that our respective customer bases have little overlap. As such, we believe we will be able to achieve a wider and deeper penetration into our mutual account base," said Kerry Bode, president and CEO of Unicircuit. "In addition, the prospects for accessing more meaningful new programs, particularly in the defense sector, are much greater as a combined entity. This merger brings our shareholders a step closer to realizing our strategic objective of playing a leadership role in the North American PCB industry. Coretec has an outstanding executive team that we believe will enable the merged company to more fully and expeditiously realize its potential. Unicircuit is excited about the opportunities that the combined entities bring to our customers, employees and shareholders."

MURRAY HILL, NJ - Is Lucent Technologies readying to cut manufacturing ties with Jabil Circuit?

In a column posted Monday at theStreet.com, a Wall Street newletter, Lucent was said to be preparing to reduce its EMS supply list to two, with Jabil among three EMS companies that stand to be on the outs.

Quoting "people close to Lucent," theStreet.com columnist Scott Moritz wrote that while Lucent declined to comment on any specific changes, the company was looking at its options.

TORONTO - Celestica Inc. has named Craig Muhlhauser president and executive vice president of worldwide sales and business development. Muhlhauser was previously president and chief executive of Exide Technologies. He will lead the EMS maker's global sales and business development effort and drive the growth strategy.

Muhlhauser has over 25 years of sales, marketing and general management experience with GE, United Technologies and Ford. Muhlhauser holds a masters in mechanical engineering and a bachelor's in aerospace engineering from the University of Cincinnati.

"I am very excited to have Craig Muhlhauser join the Celestica team. I had the pleasure of working with Craig at Ford and know him to be an extremely capable, customer-focused senior executive," said Steve Delaney, CEO of Celestica. "Craig's vast sales and marketing expertise, and his creativity in developing integrated offerings, will be a great asset to Celestica and, ultimately, our customers."

In addition to this change, Marvin MaGee, Celestica's former head of worldwide business development has been named executive vice president, worldwide operations. MaGee will be responsible for managing Celestica's global manufacturing network, as well as implementing site-to-site consistency in Lean, Six Sigma, organization capability and customer care.

MaGee joined Celestica's executive team in 1997. Prior to that, he spent 18 years with IBM Canada where he held multiple senior management positions in manufacturing and development. MaGee holds a bachelor's in mechanical engineering from the University of New Brunswick and an MBA from McMaster University.

HAUPPAUGE, NY -- Jaco Electronics Inc., a distributor of electronic components, today reported third-quarter revenues of $60.5 million, down from $63.1 million last year.

For the period ended March 31 the net loss was $1.1 million, down from a profit of $129 million last year.

Sequentially quarterly revenues rose 16.5%, and the quarterly net loss fell 29%.

Jaco chairman and chief executive Joel Girsky said, "We are continuing to evolve our 
business model to strengthen our market presence while simultaneously reducing 
all nonessential costs. Our strategy is based on an ongoing focus on our
flat panel display capability, marketing efforts targeted at business in the 
U.S. and the reduction of overhead and costs without impairing our ability to support 
our customers.

During the quarter, the company reduced SG&A costs 10.3% year-on-year and 8% sequentially.

"Jaco remains focused on capturing U.S. business, and we recently expanded our quote group team" to focus on mid-level contract manufacturers," Girsky said.

Rolling Meadows, IL- BEST Inc., in conjunction with Cookson Electronics Assembly Materials and Automated Learning Corp. (ALC), announce the launch of their "Lead Free Rework " assembly training course. This interactive multimedia learning course is designed for rework technicians, process engineers and repair depot technicians and their respective managers who are involved in the rework of lead-free electronic assemblies.

The course teaches key concepts through presentation, practice and testing of the material. Learning takes place at any time or place that is conducive for the student, with a final interactive test for certification of the concepts learned in the program. The course can be conducted over a company LAN or through the internet. Translated versions will be offered in German and Chinese.

Minneapolis, MN -- Dr. Bruce McWilliams, chairman and CEO of Tessera Technologies, will present the keynote speech at the International Wafer-Level Packaging Conference, Nov. 3-4, at the San Jose DoubleTree Hotel, CA. The keynote, "Why Wafer-Level? Its Promise and its Future", will be given at a special dinner on November 3.

He will explore the universe of semiconductors and semiconductor packaging technologies and look at the promise offered by wafer-level packaging, including "killer" applications that will propel growth and the technical hurdles that must be overcome.

Dr. McWilliams joined Tessera in 1999 as president and CEO. He became chairman in February 2002. He had previously served as president and CEO of S-Vision Inc., a silicon-chip-based display company that he co-founded. He was also a senior vice president at Flextronics International Ltd.

The event features an exhibition of suppliers to the semiconductor packaging and testing industry, and the technical program explores semiconductor packaging, including chip scale packaging, 3-D packaging, system-in-package, system-on-chip, system-on-package and wafer-level packaging.

For more info: smta.org/iwlpc/

SAN JOSE - Worldwide semiconductor manufacturing equipment billings reached $9.4 billion in the first quarter, according to the industry trade group SEMI, up 2.3% from a year ago and 6.5% sequentially. Bookings ($7.25 billion) were down 21% from a year ago and 12% from the fourth quarter.

The data, collected in concert with the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan, come from more than 150 equipment companies.

"The first quarter billings showed some positive momentum over the fourth quarter of last year, while worldwide bookings for semiconductor manufacturing equipment are down for the same period," said Stanley T. Myers, president and CEO of SEMI.

Billings in Korea were up significantly sequentially, Myers said.

HERNDON, VA - The International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (iNEMI) is sponsoring a workshop on tin whiskers as part of IEEE's Electronic Components and Technology Conference on May 31-June 3, in Lake Buena Vista, FL. iNEMI will present the results of its third set of whisker experiments, , which provide additional insight into tin whisker formation and growth.

Presentations will also cover the latest theories regarding the cause and effect of stress formation in tin film, the mechanism by which material moves through the structure, and the causes of whisker growth. In addition, a recently discovered factor in tin whisker generation will be discussed - heavy oxidation or "corrosion" of the tin in humid environments. Data on testing and the impact of oxidation on whisker growth will be covered.

Dr. Henning Leidecker, NASA, will serve as moderator for the workshop. The event is chaired by Ron Gedney, iNEMI consultant, and Maureen Williams, NIST. For a complete agenda:
http://www.inemi.org/cms/calendar/tin_whisker_workshop.html.

In addition to the iNEMI workshop, the ECTC technical program includes a session on solder and tin whiskers (Session #10, Materials & Processing Committee) on June 1.
Online registration is available at
https://www.ec-central.org/conference/ectc/55/doorregistrationform.cfm.

Rochester, NY - EMA Design Automation, a provider of electronic design automation (EDA) solutions, and PartMiner Inc., a provider of electronic components and information services for the electronics industry, announced a partnership to bring together Cadence Design System Inc.'s design technology and PartMiner's CAPS electronic component database.

PartMiner provides a range of services for researching, selecting, locating and procuring electronic components. As part of the partnership, these capabilities are integrated into OrCAD Capture CIS, giving users access to over 47 million components from over 1,900 manufacturers for parametric searching and part validation. This enables part validation at the initial stages of the design cycle and allows life cycle status, such as product change notifications, end of life and RoHS status issues, to be solved at the database level.

"We have a unique method of integrating OrCAD Capture CIS with PartMiner, giving the design engineer immediate access to a content rich environment," said Manny Marcano, president of EMA. "This electronic interface provides instant productivity by the addition of relevant component data into the OrCAD Component Information System (CIS) at the engineer's desktop - RoHS data at the design point. This provides information to the right person at the right time to make the best decision possible."

HORSHAM, PA - Avo Photonics, specialists in RF and optical packaging solutions, has developed a lead-free TEC-to-Package process. The process works for high-quality, high-performance applications, while meeting regulations requiring lead-free electronics components. The process has been qualified and can be used for volume production of assemblies.

The process caters to markets requiring high-end thermoelectric cooler (TEC) packages, used in a variety of telecommunications, medical and military applications (such as lasers, temperature-controlled etalons, high-speed detectors and temperature reference sources).

The TEC-to-Package process includes solder bonding the TEC within a non-oxidizing inert gas environment leading to void-free coverage. Said to result in excellent thermal conductivity across the interface and very rugged bond strengths. Includes surface acoustic microscopy (SAM) testing to verify void-free results. For TECs without wirebond posts, Avo trims, forms and simultaneously reflows the solder to bond the TEC leads to the package within the TEC packaging process.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Testifying Tuesday morning before the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, a small manufacturer and National Association of Manufacturers board member advocated successful completion of the ongoing round of World Trade Organization talks and reported that, "In many ways, smaller firms probably need the WTO system even more than large firms."

Dwight F. "Dyke" Messinger, president and CEO of Power Curbers, Inc. of Salisbury, NC, employs more than 100 people in the manufacture of curbing and paving machines.

Emphasizing that his company exports to more than 70 countries and that small and medium-size companies account for roughly 30% of U.S. exports, Messinger also noted that, "Commerce Department data show that one out of every five manufacturing jobs in the U.S. is directly related to exports."

He explained that current trade costs that result from discriminatory foreign standards, counterfeiting and intellectual property theft, customs clearance and other delays disproportionately affect smaller firms who are less able to pay.

Thanks to WTO rules, continued Messinger, "Barriers have been coming down and small firms like mine have benefited. But, we still face tariffs and trade barriers that are much too high. We could sell more to existing customers and we could find new customers if other countries didn't throw up one barrier after another. The Doha Round of WTO negotiations offers the best opportunity to bring such barriers down.

"Trade liberalization over the years has been a boon to our U.S. manufacturing base as more markets are now open to us than ever before," Messinger said. "The more foreign markets open to us, and the fairer trade is, the more we will sell and the more American workers we'll add to our payrolls."

To assure such progress, "The U.S. must continue its determined, aggressive world leadership on behalf of trade expansion and completion of a Doha Round that includes deep cuts in industrial trade barriers," insisted Messinger. "Accordingly, Congress must vote to renew our WTO membership."

He concluded his testimony with strong support for bilateral free trade agreements: "My company had previously faced duties of 6% in Chile and 5% in Australia. As a result of our FTAs with those countries, we can now export to both countries duty free while our competitors are still paying these duties. American manufacturing strongly believes that passage of CAFTA-DR is in the best interest of the United States."

Messinger's full testimony is posted at: http://www.nam.org/s_nam/bin.asp?CID=169&DID=234131&DOC=FILE.PDF.