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phoenix|x-ray Systems + Services Inc. (Camarillo, CA) has introduced beryllium-free targets in all x-ray systems with open tubes. The new targets build on the company's commitment to produce an environmentally safe line of open tube x-ray systems. The new targets eliminate the potential harmful residual effect that can react from x-ray exposure to a beryllium target, resulting in possible operator exposure due to stress of long-term target exposure and or breakage.

The beryllium-free targets provide an advantage to boards and components that have a concern for over exposure and irradiation—such as hi-reel products—because new material used in the targets act as a filter to absorb a portion of the x-ray and minimize potential damages to samples. Combined with the company's low-dose|mode process that only exposes samples for the time that is obligatory to achieve a proper image, test samples will not receive any additional radiation than necessary to complete the inspection. This process and use of a beryllium-free target makes it easy to ensure the trace exposure to various radiations are lessened to ensure long-life operation.

As in space, the applications are on the extremes and require concern for operations in a variety of severe conditions and environments. Since the exposures are cumulative, production, test and inspection of the components and boards must take into consideration all aspects of this exposure during the manufacturing process.

phoenix|x-ray Systems + Services Inc. is the North American sales, service and applications engineering subsidiary of the Germany-based microfocus x-ray system manufacturer, phoenix|x-ray Systems + Services GmbH. This group of companies offers sealed tube and open tube microfocus/nanofocus x-ray systems dedicated to printed circuit board (PCB) assembly, back-end and multilayer inspection applications.

www.phoenix-xray.com

Elcoteq Network Corp. (Irving,TX), a provider of electronics manufacturing services (EMS) for the communications technology industry, announced that Joe Foster has been chosen as director operations for Elcoteq Americas.

Formerly vice president, general manager of EMS provider Solectron, Foster will oversee present and future operations in the Americas which include Elcoteq's manufacturing operations in Monterrey, Mexico, and its new product introduction (NPI) centers in Dallas, TX, and San Jose, CA.

Foster has over 25 years of domestic and international engineering, manufacturing and operations experience. Prior to Solectron, he was Director of Engineering Services at Alcatel/DSC, general manager at Tandy Computers and director of manufacturing at Wang Labs/Intecom during which he launched several computer and telecommunications products in the U.S. and overseas.

"Elcoteq Americas' business in Monterrey has grown dramatically during the past two years requiring addition of new surface-mount lines and doubling headcount," said Doug Brenner, president of Elcoteq Americas. "We are confident that Joe has the right mix of operational and business experience to meet the multiple challenges we have undertaken to drive profitability with explosive growth in meeting our goal of balancing business from the Americas with that of Europe and APAC."

www.elcoteq.com

Fabrinet (Bangkok Thailand), an engineering and electromechanical manufacturing services company, announced the planned expansion of its operations in Thailand with the investment of $25 million (1 billion baht) in additional manufacturing facilities, equipment and training.

A portion of the funds was used in the acquisition of Fabrinet's new 115,000 sq. ft. factory outside of Bangkok, Thailand, completed in early April. Additional funds will be used to facilitate the new factory, which will be available to customers in June 2004. In addition, construction will begin later this year to expand the new factory space into a 340,000 sq. ft. campus, increasing the company's aggregate footprint to approximately 575,000 sq. ft.

The new factories will include complete automated assembly lines for the manufacture of optoelectronic components—from fiber align through assembly—and will include a full range of test capabilities. The factories will support a range of services, including design for manufacture, prototyping, product transfer and qualification, process development and optimization, test development, assembly and fulfillment.

As part of its investment in Thailand, the company plans to hire and train over 2,500 engineers, operators and technicians to support customer manufacturing requirements. The company will provide new employees with technical training, lean manufacturing and six sigma disciplines as required for the manufacture of precision optical and optoelectronic devices for the telecommunications, data communications, automotive, data storage, industrial and imaging markets.

Fabrinet currently operates a 232,000 sq. ft. facility with over 3,200 employees in Bangkok, Thailand.

www.fabrinet.com

Alan Rae, Cookson Electronics' (Foxborough, MA) vice president of technology, has been named director of research by the National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (NEMI), an industry-led consortium focused on strengthening the global electronics manufacturing supply chain. Rae will head NEMI's newly organized research committee, which was created to stimulate research that will address gaps identified by NEMI's biannual roadmap.

Rae and the committee are responsible for organizing and publishing NEMI research priorities, presenting those priorities to research institutes and funding organizations, identifying funding opportunities, monitoring industry progress toward roadmap goals and monitoring progress in nanotechnology research.

Jim McElroy, executive director and chief executive officer of NEMI, said, "NEMI has always worked with academic research centers and government funding agencies to identify industry research needs, but we are formalizing and increasing our focus on these efforts. The appointment of Alan as director of research and the formation of the research committee are the first steps toward this goal."

"As an industry, electronics manufacturers want to avoid being blindsided by new technologies that may emerge," said Rae. "We need to effectively identify and prioritize research and development programs and then work with the appropriate government agencies, universities and other consortia to ensure the work is properly funded and executed."

Other members of NEMI's Research Committee are Bill Ballard, 3M; D.H.R. Sarma, Delphi Electronics & Safety; Rao Tummala, Georgia Institute of Technology; Frank Robertson, Intel; Carol Handwerker, NIST; and Srinivas Rao, Solectron.

www.cooksongroup.co.uk

www.nemi.org

Celestica Inc. (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), an electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider, announced that Stephen W.Delaney has been appointed Celestica's new chief executive officer (CEO), effective immediately, by the company's Board of Directors.

Delaney has been acting as CEO since Jan. 28, 2004, when Eugene V. Polistuk retired as chairman and CEO. Robert L. Crandall will remain in the role of chairman of the Board of Directors.

Celestica's board conducted a thorough review of internal and external candidates as part of the search for a new CEO.

"Since joining Celestica three years ago, Steve has distinguished himself as a very strong leader, with a relentless focus on execution and a demonstrated ability to drive operating performance and build strong relationships with customers," said Crandall. "The board looks forward to working closely with Steve as Celestica moves ahead."

"I am honoured to be selected as Celestica's CEO," said Delaney. "I am firmly committed to collaborating with our valued customers, employees, partners, and the Board to effectively position Celestica for future success.."

Since joining Celestica in 2001, Delaney has held positions including president of Americas Operations. Prior to 2001, he held executive and senior management roles in operations at Visteon Automotive Systems, AlliedSignal's Electronic Systems business, Ford's Electronics division and IBM's Telecommunications division.

The company also recently announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2004. Revenue was $2,017 million, up 27% from last quarter. Net loss on a GAAP basis for the first quarter was $8.4 million or $(0.06) per share, which includes a pre-tax $11 million charge associated primarily with the company's previously announced restructuring activities. This compares to net earnings of $3.2 million or $0.02 per share for the same period last year.

Adjusted net earnings (loss) was $8.2 million, compared to $12.8 million for the same period last year.

Delaney said, "Earnings are beginning to reflect some operating leverage, which we expect to gain momentum and drive steady margin improvement throughout 2004. To accelerate improvement in profitability, we
plan to further restructure our operations to better align capacity with customers' requirements. In this regard, we expect further pre-tax charges
in the range of $175 - $200 million. This will represent a 10-15% reduction
of the company's workforce (approximately 5,000 people) over the next 12
months."

On March 12, 2004, the company acquired Manufacturers' Services Ltd. (MSL, Concord, MA), a full-service global electronics manufacturing and supply chain services company for a purchase price of $321 million.

www.celestica.com

Nacom Corp. (Griffin, GA), an automotive electronic comonents provider, has been named "Large Manufacturer of the Year" for the state of Georgia. Company representatives accepted the award last week from Gov. Sonny Perdue at a gala celebration serving as the capstone of Manufacturing Appreciation Week. Perdue cited Nacom for the part it has played in both the local and state economies.

Satoshi Negishi, the chairman of the board of Nacom's parent corporation, the Yazaki Group (Tokyo, Japan); John Olson, the vice president and general manager of Nacom; and Mary Goggins, Nacom's 2003 Associate of the Year recipient, were on hand to accept the award.

Olson praised NACOM's employees and cited the grassroots level assistance the firm has received from the Griffin community, the volunteer effort employees have demonstrated within their community and the close working relationship with Griffin Technical College.

NACOM opened its operation in Griffin in 1994 and expanded in 1997 to encompass almost 500,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing space and employ over 900 associates.

Indium Corp. (Utica, NY) offers a complete range of solder preforms for interconnect and joining applications. The company's product line includes their range of solder alloys, as well as a capability to produce numerous sizes and shapes.

Indium, a supplier of solder fabrications, offers solder preforms in a variety of shapes, including: washers, discs, rectangles and squares, "picture frames", shot, spheres, ganged arrays and specialty shapes.

Solder preforms are produced in a wide size range. Discs are made with diameters as small as 0.004 in.. Washers are made with inner diameters as small as 0.015 in. and outer diameters as small as 0.025 in. All preforms can also be produced in larger sizes.

Solder preforms can be specified in most of the nearly 300 alloys offered by the company, including lead free. In addition, many preforms offer the option of flux-coating. Solder preforms are packed with a variety of options including: jar, tray, palette and tape and reel.

www.indium.com

Speedline Technologies Inc. (Franklin, MA), announced it has entered into an exclusive agreement with the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA) for the license of patent-pending closed-loop printing technology. The intellectual property facilitates the closing of the loop between an automated optical inspection (AOI) system and a printer with the intent to optimize the volume of printed paste deposits.

"The agreement governs the terms for commercial development of this intellectual property for ultimate product sale," said Robert Boyes, product marketing manager, Speedline Technologies. "We are honored to join with Georgia Tech to develop product technologies that will generate profound benefits for printed circuit board manufacturers. The goal of this partnership is to advance process control technology for the printing
process, which will ultimately provide improved yield opportunities for customers."

The closed-loop printing technology was developed by Georgia Tech at the Center for Board Assembly Research (CBAR). Recent proof of concept testing conducted at Speedline validated Georgia Tech's findings. The technology embodies algorithms that utilize hybrid data-driven control techniques for calculating independent variable modifications. This effectively changes machine parameters in real time and improves process yields and product reliability.

"Data-driven closed loop control is essential for electronics manufacturing industry," said Alex Goldstein, director of operations and infrastructure at CBAR. "With help from the industry, CBAR will continue this work for different processes in electronics manufacturing."

Georgia Tech recognized Speedline as a valued CBAR partner at APEX 2004 in
February in Anaheim, CA.

www.speedlinetech.com

www.cbar.gatech.edu

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's recent signing of California's Workers' Compensation Reform Bill, which promises to save up to $7 billion a year for the state's employers, caused IPC's California Circuits Association (CCA) to applaud this decision.

"During the most recent Sacramento Day, IPC and many of its California-based members heavily lobbied the state's legislature on the overwhelming need to fix the state's broken workers' compensation system-one that doesn't sufficiently provide protection for injured workers and yet costs employers an alarming amount in premium costs," said Dick Crowe, IPC CCA's executive director. "The issue ranked as one of the most contentious facing California employers, and it's thrilling to see that our voices were heard in the state's capitol.

"Though just one of several industry groups pushing for this reform, IPC's CCA and its members collectively played an important role in bringing about success," Crowe cointinued. "Lobbying is a legitimate and concerted way to influence responsible legislation and it remains a key benefit of IPC membership."

Effective immediately, the reform seeks to simplify the current program for treating job-related injuries and provide financial relief to California's employers that presently face the nation's highest workers' compensation costs.

Under the new law, workers will now be required to seek care from a list of doctors approved by employers and insurance companies for treating injured workers. Also, workers' rights to seek a second opinion will be limited, as an independent medical review board will be established to resolve disputes and allow injured workers to switch physicians.

Efforts from IPC to convince California's Senators and Assemblymen of the need for workers' compensation reform began at its first Sacramento Day event in 2003, which gave all companies in the electronic interconnection industry with operations in California an opportunity to lobby Assembly Members and Senators. Over the past two years, IPC also arranged frequent plant visits for state legislators and prompted its California members to participate in various letter writing campaigns.

www.calcircuits.org

www.ipc.org

Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.

Agilent Technologies Inc. (Palo Alto, CA) introduced a high-speed production-test solution for identifying the maximum number of product defects at the lowest cost. BIST Assist 6.4 is built on technology that enables signal integrity testing of high-speed serial links up to 6.4 Gb/s using a cost-effective loopback/built-in self-test (BIST) approach

To date, testing devices with high-speed links has forced a compromise. Traditional at-speed test approaches of automated test equipment (ATE) and bench instruments offer the highest fault coverage but at a price too high for volume manufacturing of cost-sensitive, consumer-driven devices. Loopback test offers low cost but does not provide adequate defect identification. According to Agilent, its technology has the fault coverage of traditional ATE at the low cost associated with loopback.

The device provides a solution for high-volume testing of high-speed interfaces such as PCI Express, Serial ATA, Fibre Channel and Serial RapidIO. These high-speed interfaces are becoming pervasive in current and future-generation convergence devices such as media PCs, disk drives, set top boxes and digital video recorders. The continuing trend toward miniaturization and higher functionality drives the need for faster system links on a device or on a circuit board.

The new technology provides at-speed level control and precision and adjustable jitter injection up to 430 ps, exercising high-speed link performance and expanding fault coverage. Because it is a calibrated solution within the test head, it is both a robust production and an efficient characterization solution. Each card provides four loops (16 differential pins) operating up to 6.4 Gb/s.

www.agilent.com

Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.

FEINFOCUS (Stamford, CT), a global supplier of Microfocus x-ray inspection systems and tube technology, has agreed to be acquired by COMET AG (Flamatt, Switzerland), a supplier of conventional x-ray tubes for non-destructive testing (NDT), security, analytics, food inspection/irradiation and semiconductor applications. FEINFOCUS is known for microfocus and nanofocus x-ray inspection for electronics assembly, semiconductor and medical device industries, as well as NDT and the emerging micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) markets.

This acquisition represents a partnering of microfocus and conventional x-ray technology. A provider of sealed x-ray tube manufacturing, COMET will be acquiring a provider of demountable, or open, x-ray tube technology.

Both companies seek to capitalize on continuing opportunities from industry trends toward smaller feature sizes, 3-D computed tomography (CT) applications and the departure from film-based imaging.

FEINFOCUS chief executive officer Lance A. Scott said, "With well over 50 years' experience in high voltage/high vacuum x-ray tube manufacturing, COMET's proprietary know-how will accelerate FEINFOCUS' development of next generation microfocus and nanofocus X-ray technology. FEINFOCUS' proprietary system development know-how and award-winning service support will extend COMET's ability to offer proven sub-system solutions to its valued customer base."

Organizationally, there is little duplication between the two companies. FEINFOCUS will immediately expand its presence in Asia through COMET's Shanghai office and COMET will take advantage of FEINFOCUS' North American presence in Connecticut and California.

FEINFOCUS was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Garbsen, Germany. COMET was founded in 1948. In 2003, COMET employed a staff of 245 in its headquarters and its three subsidiaries in the US, France and China.

www.feinfocus.com

www.comet.ch

FEINFOCUS (Stamford, CT) has introduced the COUGAR-VXP (Versatile X-ray Platform), a new modular x-ray inspection platform for maximum operator flexibility. The new platform addresses a broad range of inspection requirements throughout the industry, from basic failure analysis to high-end inspection for SMT production. The COUGAR-VXP was developed as a versatile X-ray inspection solution to constantly changing market and application requirements in the worldwide electronics industries.

The basic platform provides for further equipment and accessory implementation, depending on the particular needs of the customer. The initial configuration includes a standard microfocus x-ray tube up to 160 kV, true x-ray intensity (TXI) Control, a standard four-axes manipulator, an advanced realtime image processing system and a standard realtime image chain with high-resolution 4 in. image intensifier and flat-screen monitor.

Users also have the option of adding features such as a more sophisticated manipulator system, CNC capability, higher-bit image chain, direct digital detector (DDD) and a multifocus x-ray tube up to 160 kV.

The platform features a small footprint (approximately 1 x 1 m); low system weight (approximately 1.450kg); and convenient front and side door service access.

An advanced surface-mount configuration is also available, featuring a higher-bit image chain with 16-bit realtime image processing, CNC capability, digital detector, and oblique viewing capability with AIM technology.

www.feinfocus.com