News
Siemens Dematic Electronic Assembly Systems Inc. (Norcross, GA) has announced the appointment of Gregg Schoenrade as the new Senior Sales Engineer for the South Central U.S. He will be based out of Fort Forth, TX, and will be responsible for Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma.
Schoenrade comes from Technical Solutions, a sales rep organization that he owned and operated for the past two years.
Jeffrey Timms, vice president of sales and marketing at Siemens Dematic, said, "We are excited to have Gregg join our team. As a seasoned sales professional, with more than 14 years experience in the surface-mount technology industry, we know customers will be pleased with his professionalism and enthusiasm."
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved
Cookson Electronics Assembly Materials (Jersey City, NJ) is joining fellow Cookson Electronics companies Polyclad and Enthone in adopting the six sigma system to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of its business processes. The goal will be to enhance customer satisfaction, improve profitability and to train employees to understand and effectively employ the six sigma philosophy throughout the organization.
"Six Sigma is not another ‘TQM' program," said David Zerfoss, president of Cookson EAM. "It involves a sustainable, measurable culture shift for the companies that embrace it, and our company is doing just that. In fact, we have over 35 assembly materials employees either in or about to begin black belt training globally. Our black belt candidates have been carefully selected and, upon graduation, they will have developed the skills required to lead six sigma projects for us."
Motorola first made six sigma popular in the 1980s. Allied Signal employed it in the 1990s, and General Electric has made it arguably the most popular management philosophy in history. Polyclad and Enthone both launched their six sigma programs three years ago.
Cookson EAM develops, manufactures and sells materials used in electronic assembly processes, including: solder paste, stencils, squeegee blades, stencil and printed circuit board cleaners, bar solder, cored wire solder, wave soldering fluxes and surface-mount device adhesives.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Speedline Technologies Inc. (Franklin, MA) and Aegis Industrial Software Corp. (Philadelphia, PA) announce the availability of Aegis' iMonitor remote monitoring software for use with Speedline's Camalot dispensing, MPM printing and Electrovert reflow oven equipment for the electronics manufacturing industry.
The software provides completely browser-based remote monitoring by station, machine, line, factory or the entire enterprise over a Web or network connection. The reporting and performance analysis tool offers more than 100 customizable displays reporting status, performance, quality and efficiency data for use by technicians and line operators, process development engineers and business managers.
The remote monitoring software is available for use with the Camalot XyflexPro dispensing system, MPM AP-Excel, UltraPrint 2000 and AccuFlex stencil printers and Electrovert Bravo 8 reflow soldering system. The software will be compatible with other Speedline equipment models in the near future. For data acquisition, Aegis xLink transmitters have been incorporated into the native software of the Speedline machines. This solution meets the new industry standard IPC 254x 'CAMX' XML specifications for easy data interchange with other XML-based software throughout the enterprise.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Venture Development Corp. (VDC, Natic, MA), a technology market research firm, and Circuits Assembly (Atlanta, GA), a UP Media Group publication, are launching a multi-client market research study analyzing global market opportunities for 3-D chip scale packaging solutions.
This research program, based on extensive telephone interviews with suppliers, integrators and other 3-D packaging market participants, will include: detailed market definitions and segmentations; 3-D packaging technology descriptions; engineering approaches (such as thermal or power management); market estimates and forecasts across product categories and application segments; analysis of current and future applications; original equipment manufacturer (OEM)/integrator requirements and preferences; competitive position of 3-D packaging component and solution suppliers; and key success strategies.
3-D chip scale packaging refers to the vertical (z-axis) stacking of multiple die within a package, or multiple packages, using specialized substrates and interconnects. Driven in large part by wireless application markets, 3-D chip scale packaging solutions will play a vital role in meeting performance and size requirements for future generations of mobile electronics. As portable products become smaller, lighter and more feature-rich, the vertical stacking techniques employed in 3-D chip scale packaging solutions will provide tremendous value by building on and exceeding package miniaturization efforts to date, allowing increased functionality and reliability on the system level.
Lisa Hamburg Bastin, editor-in-chief of Circuits Assembly, said, "Although 3-D chip scale packaging exceeds many performance demands and looks promising, there are still challenges that lie ahead such as cost and integration issues. We are excited to team with VDC to find answers to these issues and create a roadmap for the industry."
Rick Barnard, practice director of VDC's Electronic Components and Advanced Materials group, said, "As the technology landscape becomes more mobile-oriented and time-to-market challenges increase, system designers are faced with finding the optimal combination of form and function. This study will address important issues surrounding the 3-D chip scale packaging opportunity by providing a granular, relevant market analysis with technical and developmental considerations."
Circuits Assembly's assistance will enhance the contents and scope of the report, based on its knowledge of 3-D chip scale packaging trends, business opportunities in the global market place and innovations and technological developments in the industry; and bolster VDC's primary research program by queuing its proprietary database with VDC's research tools.
Interim findings from the analysis will be shipped in July 2004; the completed report will be delivered in August 2004. The pre-publication price of the report is $4,450.
To view the full proposal, visit: http://www.vdc-corp.com/components/reports/04/br04-10.pdf.
For more information about "3D Chip Scale Packaging Solutions: A Global Market Assessment," contact Marc Regberg, senior vice president: (508) 653-9000 x111; msr@vdc-corp.com.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Tyco Electronics (Willow Grove, PA), a business segment of Tyco International Ltd, announced today that the company is offering Q-Series and APS-1H customers the ability to upgrade their machines to the Windows XP operating system.
According to Tyco, Windows XP's ease of use and dependability are benefits to customers, as well as factors such as:
- advanced security: Windows XP Professional builds on the security model in Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000, making system security easier to manage. Additionally, users can protect data transmitted across a network. IPSec is a key part of providing security for vital private networks (VPN), which allow organizations to transmit data securely over the Internet.
- increased application compatibility: Numerous operations that cannot run in Windows 2000 will run on Windows XP Professional, right out of the box. If an application is not natively supported by Windows XP Professional, a user or system administrator can specify if the application needs to run in either a Windows NT 4.0 or a Windows 95/98/ME compatibility mode.
- Windows File Protection: This feature protects core system files from being overwritten by application installations. If a file is overwritten, Windows File Protection will restore the correct version.
- availability: This upgrade will be available on June 1, 2004. The availability date depends on the user's current system configuration, and a CPU, hard drive or memory upgrade may be required.
http://automation.tycoelectronics.com
The Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA, Minneapolis, MN) recently announced the Best of Conference paper for the Ninth Annual Pan Pacific Microelectronics Symposium, held in February in Kahuku, Oahu, HI. As rated by the attendees, the award was presented to Charlie Barnhart of Technology Forecasters Inc. (Alameda, CA).
In his paper, "Contract Manufacturing Strategies: Addressing the Changing Global Landscape," Barnhart discusses "today's market preference for China, the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) industry's fascination with off-the-shelf product solutions and the impact of these trends on the electronics manufacturing services (EMS) and original design manufacturer (ODM) industries, as well as their probable reactions and their likely successes."
While the clear message is electronic manufacturing is expanding in China and shrinking in the Americas, Europe and even other Asian locations, China is not a panacea for manufacturing all types of electronic products. Issues concerning logistics, management of program, employee skill level, labor conditions, infrastructure, business culture and government practices are adding unexpected costs.
The paper also looks at projected growth rates over the next five years, especially considering that net global capacity may actually decrease during the period.
The 2005 Pan Pacific Microelectronics Symposium will be held on Kauai, Hawaii, Jan. 25-27, 2005.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Tecnomatix Technologies Ltd. (Herzlia, Israel), a provider of manufacturing process management (MPM), has introduced eM-Execution, the latest solution in the company's eMPower for electronics offerings. The Web-based software solution was created specifically to meet the production management and analytical needs of electronics circuit board manufacturers and their supply chain partners.
The system helps electronics manufacturers act on critical production data to better serve their customers and meet regulatory demands by masking the complexity of gathering and managing critical manufacturing information. It creates customizable information and status reports targeted to multiple audiences, from the shop floor to the executive suite.
Electronics manufacturers can configure the solution to meet their specific needs and business objectives. Some of the key functionalities available include: traceability; electronic records and signatures; material management; process verification; repair; production analytics; and quality management.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Pentaplex, Inc. (Elgin, IL, www.pentaplexinc.com), a small, privately owned printed circuit board (PCB) fabricator, recently reported that it has finished pilot testing a lead-free hot air leveling (HAL) process that meets its customers' requirements with a minimum of disruption to its manufacturing processes. The company claims to be the first PCB facility to use this process in the U.S.
This lead-free HAL process is a result of the collaboration between Pentaplex and Florida Cirtech, (Greeley, CO, www.floridacirtech.com), a manufacturer and supplier of proprietary chemistries to both the electronics assembly and PCB fabrication industries. Because of the technical background of Chuck Lawrence—the founder and chief process engineer of Pentaplex, the experience of the company's employees, and the unique features of one of its two hot air levelers, Glenn Sikorcin, a Florida Cirtech representative, felt that Pentaplex would be ideal for a pilot operation of Cirtech's SN100CL process.
This product is a form of eutectic tin-copper that was developed and patented by Nihon Superior as a wave solder replacement. It involves the addition of trace nickel to the alloy, which seems to have eliminated many of the problems associated with the tin-copper alloy. SN100CL is a version of this alloy that was created for hot air leveling applications.
The major challenge in hot air leveling with lead-free solders is the heat lost at the board surface-solder interface. The temperature of the molten solder has to be maintained there during application for results to be acceptable, which means a rapid molten metal turnover and strong heat transfer capability. Pentaplex's older Quicksilver model HAL machine had both of these design features.
To convert the hot air leveler for lead-free solder, the 63-37 eutectic solder was drained from the bath, the stainless steel tank surfaces were scoured clean and reoxidized, the air supply was upgraded and the temperature controller's sensitivity was improved. Then the HAL machines' operating parameters were fine-tuned, with bath temperature and dwell time the biggest concerns. Once those had been optimized, the testing of various panel types for compliance to standards began.
The results were excellent. Several types of PCBs were tested: high-density; fine-line; multilayers up to 24 layers; vias; large panels; small panels; thick and thin panels; and copper thicknesses up to 10 oz. copper. According to the companies, all of these types passed through the lead-free hot air solder process with results comparable to normal solder. Both tin-copper and tin-lead-coated component leads were tested in soldering studies, with joint strength and metallurgical structures proving satisfactory. Similar tests run with panels exposed to simulated one-year storage conditions had similar results with good wetting and joint strength.
When the tests were completed, the companies determined that using SN100CL in the Quicksilver hot air leveler produced a solderable surface that was smooth, bright and relatively flat and easily cleared from through holes while leaving a sufficient thickness of solder for component solderability. The lead-free coating seems to maintain these characteristics for up to one year under the same conditions as tin-lead solder.
The critical factor in successfully adapting the SN100CL system was having a hot air leveler that can replace lost heat fast enough to keep the solder temperature steady. All other preparatory and fluxing operations were the same as for the prior tin-lead HAL operations, keeping the cost of installation fairly low.
Chad Industries Inc. (Orange, CA), a supplier of factory automation solutions for the semiconductor, electronics and life sciences industries, announced its return to the market as an independent solutions supplier. Chad had been acquired by Adept Technology Inc. in 2001 and continued operations as Adept Orange County. The employees at Orange County executed a buyout from Adept in March of 2004 and now operate under the original name, Chad Industries, as an independent company.
"We are delighted to continue providing industry solutions for semiconductor wafer handling cells (EFEMs), electronic odd-form and mechanical assembly solutions, and liquid handling solutions to Adept's customers in a seamless transition from Adept Orange County to Chad," said Scott Klimczak, president of Chad Industries.
"The divestiture of our Orange County division not only helps Adept refocus on our core components business, but the high-level solutions expertise at Chad gives us an excellent value-added channel to grow our standard product sales," said John Dulchinos, vice president of sales at Adept. "Having been the source of our platform design wins as Adept Orange County, we are happy that our customers will continue to get the same world-class solutions under the Chad name."
Chad Industries designs, manufactures and markets wafer handling solutions for the semiconductor industry, mechanical and odd-form component assembly solutions for the electronics industry, liquid handling solutions for the life sciences industry and other automated handling, assembly and test solutions.
Adept Technology designs, manufactures and markets robotic systems, motion control and machine vision technology for the telecommunications, electronics, semiconductor, automotive, lab automation and biomedical industries. Its robots, controllers and software products are used for small parts assembly, material handling and packaging.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
The monthly order index compiled by the Electronic Components, Assemblies & Materials Association (ECA, Arlington, VA) continued its upward trend in April, marking the ninth month in a row in which the 12-month moving average has risen.
ECA's index is consistent with other recent reports from industries that rely on electronic components. According to the Federal Reserve Board, U.S. electronics and computer production increased 1.1% between February and March; the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reports that March sales rose 4.4% from February to March; and market-research firm IDC predicts that sales of LCD panels will grow by 56% this year, reaching $37 billion.
Bob Willis, ECA president, cites the recent success of the CARTS and EDS trade shows, as well as strong advance registration for the upcoming ECTC event, as additional signs of industry resurgence.
"Companies tend to provide funding for continuing education, professional networking and technical exchange when they perceive that times are good and getting better," said Willis.
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 represent 80% of the $430 billion U.S. electronics industry.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Agilent Technologies Inc. (Palo Alto, CA) has shipped its 800th 93000 System-on-a-Chip (SOC) Series tester. According to the company, this milestone reinforces the market recognition of the series and its value as a single, scalable platform architecture.
"STMicroelectronics was one of our first customers when the 93000 was introduced, so we are pleased to mark this milestone with STMicro's most recent purchase," said Tom Newsom, vice president and general manager of Agilent's SOC Business Unit."
"The Agilent 93000 SOC Series offers support for a broad number of applications, including the fast-growing, price-conscious consumer electronics device market we supply," said Michel Vergniault, test strategy manager, Consumer and Microcontroller Group, STMicroelectronics. "Our continued relationship with Agilent is driven by our ongoing commitment to delivering advanced technology at a competitive price."
The series is designed to meet the demanding performance and cost challenges of SOC testing. Models are configured to span a range of applications that may require ultra-high-speed digital data rates, up to 10 Gb/s, and a range of mixed-signal and RF capabilities.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Cookson Group plc (London, UK) has announced that Raymond Sharpe, chief executive officer of the electronics division, has resigned his position, effective immediately, and will leave the company to take up a position in the private equity sector. Sharpe will join Texas Pacific Group, the equipty firm that recently agreed to buy Isola Laminate Systems.
According to The Financial Times, Sharpe is being brought in to run Isola. On May 12, Isola terminated its CEO, Michael Kowalski, and CFO, Dr. Peter Gaydoul.
Sharpe has agreed with the Board of Cookson to continue to assist the company as required for a short period.
Group chief executive Stephen Howard will assume direct responsibility for the electronics division.
Howard said, "Ray Sharpe has been a valued member of Cookson's executive team for many years and we are sorry to see him go. However, the electronics division benefits from a vastly experienced and highly motivated management team. As announced at the group's meeting on May 14, the strong recovery seen in the electronics division has continued into the second quarter and we are fully confident in our ability to continue to drive that recovery forward."
Cookson Group is a materials technology company that provides materials, processes and services to customers worldwide. The group's operations are formed into three divisions—electronics, ceramics and precious metals. The electronics division is a manufacturer and supplier of materials and services to the electronics industry, primarily serving fabricators and assemblers of printed circuit boards, assemblers of semiconductor packaging and the electrical and industrial markets.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
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