News

The monthly order index compiled by the Electronic Components, Assemblies & Materials Association (ECA, Arlington, VA) continued its steady upward climb in June for the eleventh consecutive month.

"Nothing astronomical is happening," said Bob Willis, ECA president. "Just a nice steady climb over an extended period, which everyone in the industry will take after about a year of no movement and the downward plunge in 2001."

According to the ECA, executives from leading manufacturers say that market growth is not being driven by any single product area, but by steady gains for a range of goods, including digital cameras, flat panel displays, DVDs and car cockpit electronics. Most expect the trend to continue through this year and into next.

The ECA represents manufacturers and producers of passive and active electronic components, component arrays and assemblies and materials and support services. It is a sector of the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA), comprising more than 2,100 members that reportedly represent 80% of the $430 billion U.S. electronics industry.

www.ec-central.org

UP Media Group Inc. (Atlanta, GA) and PCB Design Conference West are calling for abstracts for PCB West 2005, which will be held March 7 - 11, 2005, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Sponsored by respected industry trade magazines Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture and Circuits Assembly, PCB West annually provides attendees and vendors with a conference and exhibition for the design and manufacture of printed circuit boards (PCBs), high density interconnect (HDI) and other advanced circuits.

Papers and/or presentations are being sought for the technical conference, based on the following course durations: 30-minute paper sessions, one-hour lectures or panel sessions, two-hour workshops and half-day (3.5 hour) seminars. Papers and/or presentations also are sought for a professional development curriculum of one-day and two-day technical tutorials.

Papers and presentations are sought for, but not limited to, the following topics:

- High speed, high frequency and signal integrity

- Impedance and crosstalk control

- EMI/EMC analysis

- Thermal analysis

- Lead-free processes (especially how they affect design and manufacture)

- RF and microwave

- Packaging and components

- Area arrays

- FPGA design and implementation

- Embedded passives and active devices

- Flexible circuitry

- HDI design and technologies

- PCB design/layout techniques

- Component library creation and management

- Design for manufacture, test and assembly

- Design (including analog, digital and power supplies)

- PCB fabrication

- Soldering

- Surface finishes

- Industry forecasts

- Business and design/supply chain issues

To be considered as a speaker/presenter for PCB West 2005, email to Conference Chair Andy Shaughnessy, ashaughnessy@upmediagroup.com, by August 30, 2004. Your submission should include: a suggested course title, a suggested course length, a short description of your target audience, a detailed 100- to 300-word abstract and a speaker bio.

If selected for PCB West, final papers and/or presentations will be due in early December 2004.

www.pcbwest.com

Vitronics Soltec (Oosterhout, the Netherlands) has announced the schedule for their third annual European seminar tour, "Lead-Free Soldering: How Ready Are You . . . Really?" With the July 1, 2006 deadline for conversion to lead-free soldering rapidly approaching in Europe, this tour is designed to help electronics assemblers accelerate their conversion efforts to be ready and compliant on time.

The 2004 tour is based on Vitronics Soltec's "5 Steps to Lead-Free Soldering" program, includes the company's latest findings and addresses the lead-free process for all three automated soldering processes: reflow, wave and selective soldering.

In the morning sessions, highlights of the "5 Steps" program will be covered, including backward and forward compatibility within lead-free processing, effect of cooling rate on solder joint structure, compatibility of equipment materials with new alloys and many case studies illustrating challenges, pitfalls and success stories drawn from real life.

Other sessions include Success Factors for Lead-Free Wave Soldering, Conversion to Lead-Free Selective Soldering, High Speed Lead-Free Reflow Soldering, Lead-Free Cause and Effects, 5 Steps User Information and an interactive session whereby detailed presentations will be given on topics chosen by the attendees.

The seminar schedule is as follows:

September 2004

07 - UK, Manchester

09 - Ireland, Limerick

14 - Portugal, Porto

15 - Spain, Terrassa

16 - France, Rennes

21 - Hungary, Szekesfehervar

22 - Austria, Vienna

23 - Slovenia, Kranj

28 - Germany, Hannover

29 - Germany, Würzburg

30 - Switzerland, Zürich

October 2004

11 - Italy, Padova

12 - Italy, Bergamo

13 - Italy, Fiuggi

14 - France, Archamps

19 - Poland, Gdansk

20 - Denmark, Arhus

21 - Sweden, Stockholm

26 - Finland, Espoo

28 - Benelux, Oosterhout

29 - Benelux, Oosterhout

November 2004

02 - Turkey, Istanbul

04 - Czech Republic, Brno

For more information or to register online, visit www.vitronics-soltec.com.

The impact of lead-free solders on printed circuit board (PCB) design will be the cornerstone of the keynote address at PCB Design Conference East 2004 in Manchester, NH. In his keynote on October 5, Joe Fjelstad will cover materials, feature design and finishes likely to be impacted by the switch to lead-free boards

Fjelstad is the well-known cofounder of SiliconPipe, a Silicon Valley IP firm dedicated to extending the limits of copper-based circuit technology.

"While some PCB designers believe the move to lead-free will have no effect on the way they design boards, others predict that lead-free will affect the designer's job at every level," said Fjelstad. "As a concerned designer, what can you do to ensure that your designs will be sufficiently robust to survive lead-free assembly and the operational environment for which the design was intended?"

Fjelstad has more than 30 years of international experience in electronic interconnection and packaging technology. Before founding SiliconPipe, Fjelstad was the first fellow of Tessera, the chip packaging firm. He is author or editor of several books and numerous articles on electronics manufacturing. Fjelstad is also a prodigious inventor, with more than 150 U.S. patents issued or pending.

"We are thrilled that Joe Fjelstad will deliver the keynote address at PCB East 2004," said UP Media Group (Atlanta, GA) president Pete Waddell. "His experience and knowledge make him the perfect person to deliver a keynote that complements this year's conference theme: ‘Education for Your Most Pressing PCB Design Challenges, Including Lead-Free, Embedded Components, High Speed and PCB Design Fundamentals.' "

A number of conference courses also focus on lead-free, currently the hottest issue in PCB design, manufacture and assembly.

The keynote address is free for all conference and exhibition-only registrants; however, space is limited. Interested parties are urged to register for the keynote online at www.pcbeast.com.

The Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA, Minneapolis, MN) has announced the program for the International Wafer Level Packaging Congress on Oct. 10-12 in San Jose, CA. The program is now available live on the SMTA Web site.

The exhibition will track leading-edge IC packaging and test technologies with special emphasis on 3-D stacked packaging. It includes a three-day technical program and two days of exhibits presented by leading suppliers to the semiconductor packaging and testing industry.

Full details on the courses, technical sessions and special events can be found at: http://www.smta.org/iwlpc/.

Valor Computerized Systems (Yavne, Israel), a provider of manufacturing productivity solutions to the electronics industry, announced that IPC (Northbrook, IL) has recognized the company with its Special Recognition Award. This award, presented on behalf of the printed circuit board (PCB) and electronics manufacturing services (EMS) industry, their suppliers and customers, is in appreciation of Valor's commitment in developing IPC-2581, Generic Requirements for Printed Board Assembly Products Manufacturing Description Data and Transfer Methodology, and its donation of the ODB++ (X) format.

"By generously donating their ODB++ format to the IPC committee working on IPC-2581 and by providing volunteer committee support from their development group in Israel, Valor made tremendous contributions to the development of this new standard and notably displayed its dedication to the industry," said David Bergman, IPC's vice president of standards and technology. "The time and travel commitment to the two-year standard was significant on Valor's behalf, and IPC would like to recognize Valor's efforts to and support of the industry."

The standard is the result of three years of a collaborative industry initiative, initially started by the National Electronic Manufacturing Initiative (NEMI) and followed by IPC's standardization effort. The standard is in XML schema and was built on Valor's ODB++ format, with added data concepts from IPC's GenCAM standard (IPC-2511B).

www.valor.com

www.ipc.org

IPC (Northbrook, IL) recently presented Mateusz Czerw, Eric Li and Edwin Moy with $500 scholarships from the IPC Electronics Assembly Scholarship Fund, an endowment the association established to support the electronics program of Curie Metropolitan High School in Chicago, IL. IPC also donated $1,000 to the school for additional educational materials and equipment for Curie's electronics program.

In addition to maintaining a 3.0 GPA in electronics, sustaining a 90% attendance record and establishing a history of achievement in electronics at the school, the students were selected by Curie's electronics instructor, technical department counselor and education-to-careers coordinator for submitting exemplary written essays that described their post-secondary educational plans and future career goals.

"IPC has always valued education and we will continue to support efforts that grant students an opportunity to further their training in the electronics field," said IPC president Denny McGuirk.

In 2003, Circuits Assembly magazine and Technology Forecasters financed the $10,000 fund through a portion of entry fees from past Service Excellence Awards programs. IPC donates $2,500 each year to the career academy that includes a magnet school for the arts, a vocational/technical program and an international baccalaureate program.

IPC selected Curie Metropolitan High School as the sole beneficiary because of the school's three-year industrial electronics course that gives students work-oriented, hands-on experience using the latest advancements in business and technology. Curie is one of the only high schools in the U.S. to use IPC-A-610C, Acceptability of Electronic Assemblies, as a standard in its industrial electronics curriculum.

www.ipc.org

Cognex Corp. (Natick, MA), a supplier of machine vision systems and vision sensors, will host a new series of free machine vision seminars in major North American cities this fall. The Understanding and Applying Machine Vision Sensors half-day events show how vision sensors can perform automated inspection tasks in the automotive, medical, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, consumer products and electronics industries.

Designed as an introduction for factory automation professionals responsible for production efficiency and product quality, each seminar combines a machine vision basics tutorial with live demonstrations of the new industrial grade In-Sight 5000 Series vision sensors and ID readers. The tutorial covers how vision sensors work in manufacturing applications to accurately gauge, guide, identify and inspect products to reduce scrap costs and inventory problems and achieve a high level of product quality.

In addition to walking away with an understanding of the fundamentals of implementing a successful vision solution, participants will receive free In-Sight Explorer trial software on a CD, which provides hands-on experience developing vision applications from start to finish. The CD also includes application examples, preliminary design considerations, a multi-media tutorial on building vision applications, lighting and optics videos and a utility package that helps determine the field of view and resolution requirements of vision applications.

The seminars will run from August through December in major cities across the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico. Register online at www.cognex.com/seminar or call (800) 677-2646.

Eleven Cookson Electronics employees representing offices around the globe have been awarded the Presidents Award for their work in 2003. The awards were officially presented at a ceremony at the Castle Hill Inn and Resort, Newport, RI, in May, with 65 employees and guests in attendance.

Doreen Agnew, Robert Wallace, Gary Klimala, Robert Cahill, Wim van Ravenswaay, Rich Caron, Rick Correia, Stephen Whitehead, John Tremblay, Mark Foster and Axel Fuhrmann were presented awards for specific achievements that have gone above and beyond their day-to-day responsibilities with direct impact on the business.

"This is a very prestigious honor that recognizes the highest level of performance within our organization," said Allan MacDonald, vice president of human resources. "These employees should be very proud of their accomplishments."

The ceremony included an opening video and introductions of each recipient, along with a description of his or her accomplishment by the individuals who nominated them for the recognition award.

Cookson Electronics is a supplier of assembly materials, semiconductor packaging and specialty chemicals and coatings used in the electronics assembly and surface finishing industries.

www.cooksonelectronics.com

Cookson Electronics Assembly Materials (Jersey City, NJ) will implement a tin surcharge covering the dramatic increase in the cost of tin on all invoices for ALPHA solder paste when the London Metal Exchange price exceeds $9,500/metric ton. The surcharge calculation is based on official LME pricing (www.lme.co.uk) which confirmed that tin prices more than doubled in the last six months over the previous two-year average.

In May, the price of tin broached the $10,000/per metric ton psychological level. Adding to the upward price pressure on tin, some analysts and research groups suggest that the production of tin for 2004 will be approximately 6% less than the demand. Prices for other metals over the same period have also risen sharply with copper up 91%, lead up 128%, nickel up 146% and silver up 95%. The surcharge does not address the cost increases for these metals.

"This year-long run up in the cost of tin has hit us particularly hard," said David Zerfoss, president of Cookson EAM. "An example of its impact is that 63% of 90% of the solder paste we ship worldwide is tin...Given this severe cost increase situation and the importance of tin in the assembly process, we are forced to ask our customers to share the burden with us. As soon as tin prices drop below $9,500/metric ton, I will rescind the surcharge."

www.alphametals.com

FEINFOCUS (Stamford, CT), a supplier of x-ray inspection systems and tube technology, announces two new additions to the application engineering staff: Dr. Guido Rademaker and Thomas Pukall. With the addition of Dr. Rademaker and Pukall, the company has substantially increased its applications staff.

Under the leadership of newly appointed director of technology development, Dr. Udo E. Frank, the application staff is responsible for identifying future market demands in the global electronics industry and tailoring an x-ray solution to fit each requirement.

The company also announced that Dr. Frank will be the keynote speaker for FEINFOCUS' global technical seminar series on x-ray inspection technology. The company is sponsoring this program in an effort to educate customers on the most recent advances in x-ray inspection technology.

www.feinfocus.com

The new Universal Instruments (Binghamton, NY) AdVantis AFC-42 placement machine is designed to reduce the cost of entry for manufacturers needing high mix capability, increased speed and greater accuracy. The machine leverages Universal's platform concept to deliver a low priced but scalable solution ideal for low-margin assembly applications. The machine also has a smaller footprint to occupy less shop floor space.

Like its predecessor, the new machine features a single-beam positioning system. However, it employs dual-drive lead screws as well as 1um linear encoders for accuracy close to that of the GSMxs linear motor based platform.

"All of the capability and functionality of high-end assembly has been transferred to the AFC-42, including high magnification cameras, flip chip algorithms, low force capability, heated spindles, fluxing, several feeder types and dispensing," said Richard Boulanger, vice president of the advanced semiconductor assembly division.

The company believes the placer will be attractive to high-mix and high-volume manufacturers whose markets demand the utmost cost-per-placement efficiency in order to sustain narrow margins.

www.uic.com