LAGUNA, PHILIPPINES - Electronics manufacturing services provider IMI has achieved registration to the ISO/TS 16949:2002 quality standard, the highest international quality standard for the automotive industry. The company said it will increase its pursuit of automotive business.

In a press release, president and CEO Arthur R. Tan said, "Our ISO/TS 16949 certification ... improves our competitiveness in the automotive electronics market segment, which is anticipated by analysts to offer tremendous outsourcing opportunities in the coming years."  

"The road has been paved for our increased presence in the automotive market and expanded business with our existing automotive electronics OEM customers."

IMI was certified in 2000 to QS 9000, the American automotive industry's quality standard.

ISO/TS 16949 is an international quality management system certification that harmonizes existing American, German, French, and Italian automotive standards into a single standard, eliminating the need for multiple certifications. It was developed by the International Automotive Task Force, which represents major automotive manufacturers in the world, in collaboration with the International Standards Organization.  

ST. LOUIS -- Viasystems Group, once the largest PCB maker in North America, will shutter its remaining circuit board plants outside Asia while adding even more capacity in China.

The company will spend $60 million toward expanding its China operations. These funds will primarily be used to further expand its Chinese PCB production capabilities and enhance its technological capabilities.

FRAMINGHAM, MA - Worldwide factory sales of servers grew 5.1% to $14.4 billion in the fourth quarter, the seventh consecutive quarter of growth, according to research firm IDC.

Unit shipments slowed 15.7% year-on-year, IDC said.

For the year, worldwide server revenue grew 6.2% to $49 billion, while worldwide unit shipments grew 19.3% to 6.3 million units.

Meanwhile, a competing research firm, Gartner Group, pegged server growth at 7.2%, at $49.5 billion in 2004.

IBM led the overall server market in 2004 with 33.3 percent revenue share, followed by HP with 26.6 percent share, said IDC. Sun, Dell and Fujitsu/Fujitsu-Siemens round out the top five.

For the quarter, sales of volume servers (servers priced less than $25,000) rose, IDC said, the only segment to do so. Midrange and high-end enterprise servers fell, reflecting lower unit shipments and pricing pressures.

The volume servers lead in both revenue and unit shipment growth, demonstrating the impact these systems are having on the worldwide server marketplace.

Unix server unit shipments grew, with IBM retaking the lead worldwide, with a 36.3%. HP is no. 2 (27.6%), followed by Sun (25.3%). Linux server revenue grew 35.6% year-on-year, while unit shipments were up 29.1%.

BINGHAMTON, NY - Universal Instruments' SMT Laboratory has committed over $10 million in research grants and stipends, as well as mentoring research projects and providing access to equipment and facilities.

The investment has accrued over 14 years, during which the SMT Lab has supported leading-edge research into second-level packaging and sponsored the activities of the Area Array Consortium. 

The AAC has historically consisted of up to 32 large member companies which support the lab's research.

SANTA CLARA, CA - Sierra Proto Express next week will roll out what it calls the "first true lead-free PCBs guaranteed not to fail in process or use."

The maker of quickturn prototype PCBs will put discuss its methods next week at the Printed Circuit Board Design Conference West, in Santa Clara.

In the seminar, the company says it will cover compliance with Europe's RoHS initiative for electronics products, and fabrication of high reliability PCBs intended for extreme environments and life-sensitive applications. The boards, Sierra Proto says, can withstand up to 2000 cycles of -45˚ to 145˚C.

The seminar will review the needs associated with lead-free printed circuits and discuss materials suitable for meeting the lead-free directives. The seminar also provides a new solution for boards for space, aeronautical, military, transportation, medical, and oil exploration applications.

The seminars will take place during PCB Design Conference West in the exhibits area each day of the show.

To register: call 800-763-7503 x500, or email frankd@protoexpress.com.

NORWALK, CT - Waste from electronics equipment that has reached the end of its useful life - already valued at 6% of the U.S. GDP alone - will open a new door for companies that recycle or remanufacture such goods, a new study says.

According to a soon-to-be-released report from Business Communications Co., the worldwide market for electronic waste will rise at an average annual growth rate of 8.8%, from $7.2 billion in 2004 to $11 billion in 2009.

Electronics equipment that is ready for disposal is generally considered toxic when disassembled or incinerated and is typically targeted for hazardous disposal or slated for recovery and reuse.

The market for post-consumer recycled materials from electronics will be strong over the next five years. The largest driver of growth will be the regulatory-driven onus on OEMs to manage hazardous waste materials from cradle-to-grave. This lifecycle begins with designing for the environment and in certain regions of the world now requires OEMS to finance all recovery costs of electronics products and their constituent materials. The need to rapidly curb toxins in the waste stream is apparent as electronic waste grows at three times the rate of other waste in the municipal solid waste stream.

E-waste has been mounting rapidly with the rise of the information society. It is the fastest growing segment of the municipal solid waste stream. E-waste equals 1% of solid waste on average in developed countries and is expected to grow to 2% by 2010. In developing countries, E-waste as a percentage of solid waste can range from 0.01% to 1%. However, led by China, developing countries will be the fastest growing segment of the E-waste market with the potential to triple output over the next five years. Electric and electronics equipment equals 6% of the U.S. gross domestic product, up from 5% 10 years ago. Yet that growth is easily eclipsed by that of China's where the gross domestic product is growing in excess of 8% a year - versus 3% for the U.S.

At the same time, the rate of obsolescence of electronic equipment is rising. globally, computer sales continue to grow at 10% plus rates annually. Sales of DVD players are doubling year over year. Yet the lifecycle of these products are shortening, shrinking to 10 years for a television set to two or three years for a computer.

Manufacturers and governments have not kept pace with electronic waste policy and practice. As a result, a high percentage of electronics are ending up in the waste stream.

BOSTON -- On May 4 Charles R. McClinton, technology manager for the Hyper-X Program at NASA's Langley Research Center will talk on breaking the hypersonic barrier.

The Nepcon East/Electro and Assembly East events take place May 4 and 5 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. 

Last November, NASA's X-43 research vehicle made aviation history with the second successful flight of a scramjet-powered airplane at hypersonic speeds, which are speeds of nearly Mach 10 -ten times the speed of sound. Compared to a rocket-powered vehicle like the Space Shuttle, scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) powered vehicles promise more airplane-like operations for increased affordability, flexibility and safety for ultra high-speed flights within the atmosphere and into Earth orbit. Because they do not have to carry their own oxidizer, as rockets must, vehicles powered by air-breathing scramjets can be smaller and lighter - or be the same size and carry more payload. Over the past four years, McClinton has been instrumental in various planning capacities for hypersonic air breathing technology development programs.

McClinton has been technology manager for the Hyper-X program since 1996. Prior to that, he formed and led the Numerical Applications Office, of the National Aero-Space Plane Office, to provide flow field details using the state-of-the-art Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods.

BRUSSELS - HP is applying for an exemption from the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive on the grounds of reliability, according to a news report last week.

The exemption HP seeks is for fine-pitch components "with electrical terminations spaced with centers 0.65mm or less apart."

Tin whiskers, which are known to cause shorts, are behind HP's request, a company spokesman told Electronics Weekly.

HP is pushing for a composition that includes 15% lead mixed with tin.

Tin whiskers was also behind Sony's application for an exemption. Sony seeks inclusion of five to 10% lead in the electroplated tin coating that goes on flexible circuits that are used as plug-in connectors between PCBs.