Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - News

News

Tecnomatix Technologies Ltd. (Herzlia, Israel), a provider of manufacturing process management (MPM), has announced that Korea-based electronics manufacturing services provider Samsung Computers has implemented eMPower solutions from Tecnomatix Unicam, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tecnomatix Technologies Ltd., in its first Chinese computer manufacturing facility. The implementation helps Samsung fulfill manufacturing traceability standards required by the plant's key customer, a major computer notebook/laptop provider.

Samsung is using the traceability management and material management modules of Tecnomatix's printed circuit board (PCB) production management system for business decision-making. The traceability management module helps Samsung Computers document a product's manufacturing history. By automating this data collection process, Samsung will reduce data collection costs and achieve simple, accurate reporting of component and PCB board traceability records.

The material management module tracks material from inventory through kitting, setup and verification with real-time inventory visibility to quantity and location. The solution manages and optimizes the feeder change over process for improved throughput.

Samsung Computers has already seen return on investment with faster change over times and an improved verification processes. Shortly after the implementation at Samsung, the material management module detected a loading error related to a non-conforming part. By alerting users of the non-conformance at an early stage in the manufacturing process, Samsung avoided having to either rework the entire lot, or have a far more costly product recall later on.

"We are pleased with the early results we've experienced with the Tecnomatix solutions we've implemented," said Lee Buyng Bum, manager of Production Support Division of Samsung Electronics Suzhou Computer Co. Ltd. "Tecnomatix has delivered a very effective set of solutions and services addressing our materials handling, verification and product traceability needs. We will continue to look to Tecnomatix for new technology in these and other areas."

www.tecnomatix.com

Asymtek (Carlsbad, CA), a supplier of automated fluid dispensing systems, teamed with Cookson Electronics' Semiconductor Products Division (Alpharetta, GA) on a new project to jet underfill. Cookson Electronics Semiconductor Products visited Asymtek's application labs to test their fluid materials on Asymtek's X-1000 series, configured with the new DJ-9000 DispenseJet.

"Many of our customers use Asymtek's technology," said Mandar Painaik, technical services engineer at Cookson Materials Group. "We wanted to learn about Asymtek's equipment so we can recommend the best materials for our customers."

The collaboration enables the investigation of new and innovative jetting methods and material optimization.

The two companies work together as a part of Asymtek's Win3 program, in which key fluid formulators, technology institutes and equipment suppliers join together for the benefit of customers, each other and the industry as a whole.

One common customer uses Asymtek's platforms with the DispenseJet and DP-3000 pumps for dispensing underfills. A die placement machine, reflow oven and batch oven are in line with the dispensing equipment. According to the companies, the customer reported better dispense volume control with Asymtek's jetting technology and Cookson's Staychip 3082 underfill material.

www.asymtek.com

www.cooksonsemi.com

Data I/O Corp. (Redmond, WA) announced a net income for the first quarter of 2004 of $296,000 or $0.04 per share, compared to a net income of $317,000, or $0.04 per share, for the first quarter of 2003. Revenues for the quarter were $6.8 million, up 11% from the same period last year.

Gross margins increased by $276,000 in Q1 compared with the same period of 2003, primarily due to the higher sales level and an increase in the aftermarket sales mix. Operating expenses were higher in Q1 this year due to the company's investments in Asia and in a new venture in in-system programming (ISP) under development, as well as the unfavorable currency translation impact of European-based operating costs. The company's lean manufacturing processes continued to show results helping to reduce inventories by $555,000 during the quarter.

Fred Hume, the company's president and chief executive officer, said, "As the geographical center of the electronics manufacturing industry has shifted to Asia, we have redeployed resources to that region and are adding staff locally. This will allow us to service and support our customers there in their time zone. We have also invested in strengthening our sales organization globally in recognition of the improving climate for capital equipment."

During the quarter, the company added Joe Murdica as vice president of sales for the Americas and Asia. The company also formed a new subsidiary in Brazil specifically to support Siemens ICM handset production in Manaus.

www.data-io.com

Advanced Circuits (Aurora, CO), a quick-turn printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturer with real-time customer service, announced that it received a Gold Award from the Metro Wastewater Restoration District (MWRD) of Colorado for the second year in a row. Of

1,100 eligible Colorado companies, only 14 received the recognition.

To win the prestigious award, manufacturers must be 100% compliant with MWRD, Colorado Department of Health and Environmental Protection Agency guidelines.

Advanced Circuits' pollution prevention and waste minimization efforts include reclaiming metal scrap and waste copper etch solutions and using countercurrent rinses and automated sensors to control rinse water use.

In 2003, the company accelerated its focus on improving work flow and productivity through its metal finishing process operations. It invested in an automated electroless copper plating line and completed the installation of supplemental pretreatment equipment. The additional pretreatment equipment runs in unison with the existing pretreatment setup (though triple its size) and ensures that the increased volume of wastewater generated by increased plant production will meet permit discharge requirements.

"Manufacturing plants, especially PCB shops, have traditionally had a bad reputation as far as their impact on the environment," said Bob Liebsock, Advanced Circuits process engineer. "Advanced Circuits is ever conscious of the need to maintain a dedicated effort towards regulatory compliance and will continue in its steadfast goal to reduce, reuse and recycle wherever possible."

The MWRD is a regional organization that provides wholesale wastewater transmission and treatment service to 55 local governments in the Denver metropolitan area. These local governments provide retail wastewater services to approximately 1.5 million people. The MWRD has been recognizing environmentally conscious Colorado companies since 1991.

www.4pcb.com

Omnify Software (Wilmington, MA), a provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software for mid-market electronic, medical, mechanical and defense original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and Cimmetry Systems (Cambridge, MA), a provider of visualization and collaboration solutions for the A/E/C, engineering, manufacturing and electronics markets, announced a new OEM partnership. Omnify has licensed Cimmetry's AutoVue visualization and collaboration technology to be embedded in the Omnify PLM system.

Cimmetry's technology offers the groups involved in the product development and manufacturing process a single location to view, markup and collaborate on all documents related to the product record.

"Cimmetry's AutoVue is a unique technology for the electrical and mechanical

markets," said Chuck Cimalore, chief technology officer at Omnify. "By supporting 3-D CAD, 2-D CAD and EDA formats, AutoVue covers the complete range of formats necessary to serve today's manufacturers. AutoVue, integrated with our PLM system, delivers enhanced data management and collaboration across the entire extended enterprise."

"Omnify brings to market a full-featured, business-ready PLM solution," said Michael Vidmar, business development manager at Cimmetry. "By embedding AutoVue's MCAD and ECAD visualization capabilities, Omnify PLM bridges that traditional gap between mechanical and electrical departments."

Omnify Software delivers a complete PLM solution for OEMs to manage their part, bill of materials, engineering change and documentation information within a single location. Its PLM features a Web architecture that enables out-of-the box, bi-directional integration with an organization's engineering and enterprise systems, ensuring automatic entry and extraction of information.

www.cimmetry.com

www.omnifysoftware.com

A group of providers of lead-free soldering and assembly will put on a full day of seminar presentations at the Hilton Hotel, Nuremberg, Germany on June16, 2004. The event has been planned close to the nearby SMT Exhibition to allow manufacturing management the opportunity to attend both events.

A representative from Indium Corp. (Utica, NY) and Vahid Goudarzi of Motorola will explain how Motorola implemented lead-free solder in the production of over 10 million cellular phones. The discussion will also cover initial quality and product implementation.

Dr. Ning Cheng Lee and Dr. Ronald Lasky of Indium will also cover topics such as alloy selection and challenges and best practices of implementing lead-free assembly.

A number of other presentations include Hewlett Packard's discussion on implementation onto large boards. Gerjan Diepstraten, Vitronics- Soltec, will discuss lead-free wave soldering and Hans-Juergen Albrecht, Siemens, will cover reliability of lead-free interconnects. Ross Bernston, Indium, will cover the subject of mixed technology in lead-free assembly.

ACB, Peters and KIC will give other presentations. The event is by reservation only.

www.indium.com/quickstart

Ray Prasad Consultancy has announced that a detailed lead-free course will take place on May 17-18, 2004, in Beaverton, OR, presented by Ray Prasad and Dr. Raiyo Aspandiar of Intel.

The course, Lead Free Technology For Electronic Assemblies: Problems and Promises, is led by instructors that have years of hands-on experience in implementing surface-mount and lead free in small and large companies to help identify business and technical issues in lead-free conversion. This is not a theoretical course. Actual Intel case studies will show the pitfalls and successes of lead-free implementation.

In addition to discussing the details of in-house lead free implementation, the course will also show you the questions to should ask your contract manufacturer (CM) if you plan to outsource/off-shore your product. Technical details, including wave and reflow profile development, paste selection, inspection and rework using both conventional and diode laser of lead-free solder joints, will be presented. The course will also give the status of legislation banning lead around the world including Europe, Japan, China and the U.S., and how participants can improve their company's profile and benefit from this disruptive technology.

Engineers and Managers who are either already into lead free or thinking of getting into lead free will benefit from this course. Participants will get an insight into the details of lead-free soldering technology to successfully implement lead free in your process and products.

Prasad will also offer a course on Surface-Mount Technology and Ball Grid Array (BGA) Design and Manufacturing on May 11-14, 2004.

www.rayprasad.com/coursedescs/intensive.html

www.rayprasad.com/course_link.html

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