News
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.
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.The company provides complimentary initial technical consultation and proposals for its TEC-to Package services in as little as 24 hours.
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.
WASHINGTON -- The National Association of Manufacturers expressed disappointment today with the Treasury Department's failure to cite China for currency manipulation in its semiannual report to Congress, but noted Treasury's statement that time is running out for China to act.
NAM president John Engler released a statement saying, "We have called for Treasury to cite China for currency manipulation in its report, and of course we are disappointed that did not happen."
But Engler pointed to a statement by Snow during a Treasury news conference this afternoon warning China that, "If current trends continue without substantial alteration, China's policies will likely meet the statute's technical requirements for designation" as a currency manipulator.
The results include $400,000 of restructuring charges related to severance, retention and lease exit costs.
Sequentially, net sales decreased $33.1 million, or 29%.
The decline was primarily due to the loss of Applied Materials, Suntron said.
Marks told analysts in San Francisco on Thursday that he will become chairman of the company on Jan. 31, 2006.
Flextronics, the world's largest EMS provider, also announced several charges associated with restructuring and refinancing the balance sheet.
The net loss was $2.6 million, compared with a net loss of $3.2 million sequentially and a net loss of $47,000 last year.
Gross profit was $2 million, or 4.1% of revenue, compared with $1.5 million, or 3.1% of revenue, for the previous quarter and $6.8 million (9.9% of revenue) for the first quarter 2004. Gross profit was affected by higher costs for training and resource retention as well as freight costs for transferring certain programs to the company's Mexico facility.
In a press release, John Caldwell, president and chief executive, said, "Although overall first quarter results remain below satisfactory levels, the company achieved modest revenue growth in what we believe is a typically soft quarter. Importantly, in the quarter SMTC added several new customers as well as gained a number of new program wins with current customers."MINNEAPOLIS, MN—SMTA International, co-located with the Assembly Tech Expo (ATExpo) show at the Donald Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL from Sept. 25-29, will feature many events concentrating on lead-free soldering technology and environmental compliance issues.
Courses will be held on the following lead-free topics:- Lead-free Manufacturing
- Lead-free Troubleshooting
- Lead-free Wave Soldering Process Troubleshooting
- Lead-free Inspection, Process Control and Defect Elimination
- Lead-free Rework
- Lead-free Reliability
- Lead-free Solder Joint Reliability
- Lead-free Surface Finishes and Compatibility with Lead-free Soldering
- Lead-free System Compatibility - Materials and Processes
- A - Z of Lead-free Soldering Master Class
- DFM: Surface Mount PCB Design Guidelines and Lead-free Assembly Process
Development
- Tin Whiskers: Historical Prospective, Test Method, Mechanisms, Reduction
and Elimination
- RoHS 101 and Lead-free Surface Mount Assembly
Almost 60 technical paper sessions will cover lead-free reflow and wave soldering, rework, key issues in lead-free/RoHS manufacturing, lead-free CSP reliability, HASL surface finishes, effects on PCBs, surface finishes, process control and RoHS test methods and compliance, customer and industry requirements, and due diligence approach to WEEE/RoHS compliance.
In addition, the Lead-free Soldering Symposium will consist of technical sessions organized by the Joint Council on Aging Aircraft / Joint Group on Pollution Prevention
(JCAA/JCPP) Lead-free Solder Consortia Project, as well as sessions on Process for Lead-free Implementation and Lead-free Reliability. It will provide the latest information on materials selections, lead-free processing techniques, and critical aspects of lead-free interconnection reliability, including backward/forward compatibility, moisture-level effects and failure analysis techniques.
Additional events include two lead-free panel discussions, a half-day workshop on Lead-free Reflow Soldering Using Convection Dominant Ovens, the opening ceremony on RoHS Compliance and Solder Trends and the SMTA Annual Meeting keynote on "The Impact of Temperature on Hybrid and Compliant Assemblies" by Dan Shea, CTO of Celestica.Many known Boundary Scan users, ATE vendors and chip manufacturers attended, including Siemens, Diehl Avionik, Phoenix Contact, National Semiconductor and Digitaltest. The companies discussed applications, test support and problem solving issues.
Previous Boundary Scan Days were held in Switzerland and Scandinavia, and they will also take place in Italy, the Benelux countries, France, Great Britain, the U.S. and Canada.
The first quarter loss from continuing operations rose to $1.5 million, from $1 million last year, as the company was hit with startup costs associated with new customers and new programs.
"As in most previous years, our first quarter sales declined from the
fourth quarter as our customer base typically has higher demands in the fourth
quarter," said Paul J. Plante, president and CEO in a statement.
Gross profit percentage was 11%, 110 basis points higher than last year
and 80 basis points higher sequentially.
Plante said the new programs will result in increased revenue and margin in the second quarter.
ATLANTA - Visiprise Manufacturing IL Module 1.0 is now a designated "Certified for SAP NetWeaver" application. This is an extension of the Visiprise collaboration with SAP AG previously announced in March.
The two companies will offer a turnkey business software solution that combines real-time manufacturing performance management data with Visiprise's traceability functionality, delivering information to the user through the SAP for Manufacturing dashboard.
"Offering a certified solution helps both our customers and our future prospects utilize a single platform for manufacturing performance," said Carter Johnson, VP of Strategy and Business Development at Visiprise.
Leveraging the power of SAP NetWeaver to integrate disparate technologies using preconfigured business content, users of Visiprise Manufacturing will be able to reduce the amount of time and custom integration needed to implement a global manufacturing platform. Users will be able to take advantage of plant-floor and enterprise information.
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- Scanfil and Etteplan deepen their strategic partnership into production testing