News
Siemens VDO Automotive has completed the acquisition of Chrysler Group's Huntsville Electronics operations, advancing Siemens VDO Automotive to a top-three spot in the global automotive electronics supplier industry.
"Today is a great day for the future of Siemens VDO Automotive and the community of Huntsville," said Siemens VDO Automotive AG Group president and chief executive officer (CEO) Wolfgang Dehen during a company event unveiling the new monument sign. "Huntsville Electronics brings us additional capacity, capability and expertise to grow our core competencies in areas such as powertrain electronics, vehicle instrumentation and driver information."
This transition of ownership enables the manufacture of electronics to remain in the Huntsville, AL, community. The company plans to make the location one of its global electronics manufacturing and engineering centers of expertise.
As a subsidiary of Siemens VDO Automotive, the Huntsville plants will have access to a range of business opportunities within the rapidly growing global $125-billion automotive electronics market.
With the completion of the acquisition, Siemens VDO Automotive has complete access to Huntsville Electronics, including two facilities comprising 1.1 million sq. ft. of space and approximately 2,000 employees. Huntsville Electronics generated approximately $1 billion in annual sales last year.
Siemens VDO Automotive is a tier-one supplier of automotive electronic/electrical systems and components with applications covering gasoline and diesel powertrain technologies, safety and chassis systems, body electronics, plus interior products including infotainment systems.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
During a reception at Apex 2004, Soldertec Global awarded its Lead-Free Solder Co-operation Award to global solder materials manufacturer Indium Corp. and its customer Motorola.
The award recognizes the collaboration between the two companies. Indium's vice president of technology, Ning-Cheng Lee, and Motorola's Dr. Edwin Bradley and Dr. Vahid Goudarzi have developed a lead-free assembly process and solder paste that has been used to assemble more than 8 million cellular phones world-wide. The team shared their process details with the global electronics assembly industry.
The result of this co-operation is the Pb-Free Quickstart process, offering yields and benefits which are equal or better than similar processes using lead-bearing solders Benefits include a wide process window, component-friendly profiles and no requirement for nitrogen-reflow.
Several hundred process, quality and production engineers have been trained on the successful implementation of the process.
The Soldertec Global Lead-Free award, established in 1999, has been awarded to industrial consortiums, material suppliers and lead-free users from North America, Europe and Asia.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Foresite (Kokomo, IN) has licensed FinePoint to launch the newly developed C3. The C3 was designed by Foresite to create a method of localized extraction and cleanliness monitoring on electronic assemblies.
Focusing on a 0.1 in² area of a circuit board, the machine uses a steaming mechanism to extract a residue sample. The sample is collected in a disposable test cell and analyzed on the manufacturing floor. A 'clean' or 'dirty' reading is immediately seen, and samples that warrant further analysis can be sent to a lab for ion chromatography analysis.
Foresite president Terry Munson said, "Foresite saw a critical need for cleanliness monitoring on the manufacturing floor. FinePoint has dedicated itself to surface matter cleanliness and is well positioned to bring the C3 to market. Foresite will continue to develop surface matter solutions and provide process consulting for electronic assemblers."
Foresite Inc. (formerly CSL) is a process consulting house and analytical laboratory dedicated to solving reliability issues for electronic assemblies. With over 12 years of experience in the industry, Foresite specializes in failure analysis, process qualification and cleanliness investigation.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
In a drawing held during APEX 2004, Betatron Inc. (San Jose, CA), a contract assembler specializing in high-end prototype assembly, won the free use of Dage Precision Industries' (Fremont, CA) XD6500 digital x-ray system.
The winning entry was one of the more than 400 applications received during Dage's pre-APEX and APEX show promotion. Said winner, Mike Young, "I feel like the luckiest guy at the show! We've just received the latest and greatest x-ray inspection technology available today."
Dage Precision's managing director, Paul Walter, said, "With over 400 entries in this year's drawing and the sheer number of system demonstrations performed here at APEX, we're really pleased. Congratulations to Mike and to Betatron."
The integrated digital image acquisition technology, XiDAT, on the system's platform offers improved digital data processing, enhanced resolution, extensive grayscale definition and the Image Wizard software operating system. The x-ray system achieves high resolution and magnification levels through use of Dage's proprietary x-ray tube technology, focusing lens and optimized image chain.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
JPSA Laser (Hollis, NH) has announced the availability of UV laser refurbishment services for UV Excimer lasers. Refurbishing lasers saves customers money since the cost to replace UV lasers can be quite high. Additionally, refurbished lasers perform better than the product's original factory specifications through upgrades, modifications, better quality parts and designs used in the refurbishment engineering process.
"We can refurbish the complete laser if needed," said company president Jeffrey P. Sercel. "Our refurbishment includes everything that can go wrong with the laser, so the result is that the entire laser is like new. We also refurbish and replace modules such as tubes, valve banks, vacuum systems and pulse forming networks. JPSA stocks many different types of electrodes and top quality parts. We have a cleanroom facility to assemble laser tubes and we have ceramics manufacturing capabilities to make replacement parts. "
"Turnaround time for laser systems can vary based upon the extent of the refurbishment and the number of available in-stock parts," Sercel continued. "For example, tubes for some models are in stock for JIT tube exchanges. Refurbished lasers are leak-checked for 24 hours and burned in for 24 to 48 hours, over the course of a week in final test. A laser final test report is documented. Gas lifetime, power, energy and beam quality are verified."
Depending on customer requirements, lasers can be modified to meet expanding production needs.
"We modify lasers for better pulse-to-pulse, average power and better beam quality," Sercel said. "We have modified lasers for more than double the standard performance in certain cases."
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
FlexLink (Göteborg ,Sweden), a provider of flexible conveyor systems, announced the official opening of its new manufacturing facility in Allentown, PA, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on March 23. Fredrik Jonsson, global managing director, and Dave Clark, president of Americas operations, shared the honor of cutting the ribbon.
FlexLink's Americas headquarters recently relocated from nearby Bethlehem, PA; the move into the new facility has nearly tripled the company's manufacturing and office space. The move and expansion to a larger facility are part of FlexLink's planned growth strategy and has been driven in part by the need for more manufacturing space for its conveyor and automation business.
Clark said, "Our new 58,000 sq. ft. facility will allow FlexLink to provide the industry's best conveying and automation—hardware and software solutions, respectively—to the pharmaceutical, personal care, assembly, automotive, machined parts, electronics, filling and packaging markets. With over 100 employees in the North and South America, FlexLink is poised for substantial growth in 2004."
The new office can be contacted at at 6580 Snowdrift Rd, Allentown, PA, 18016; (610) 973-8200.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
The 13th annual PCB Design Conference West 2003, held March 15-19 at the San Jose Convention Center, received positive feedback from attendees and exhibitors alike regarding the five-day conference program of over 35 technical courses and the two-day product and service exhibition. The San Jose, CA-based venue, which is located in the heart of Silicon Valley, provided 1,482 attendees with an excellent setting for instruction, networking and face-to-face marketing opportunities.
"Trade shows and conferences in just about every market have been depressed in the last few years, so it is good to see that PCB design shows are following the same upward trend that we're beginning to see in other markets," said UP Media Group (UPMG, Atlanta, GA) president Pete Waddell. "We also are pleased that so many exhibitors have continued to include PCB West in marketing budgets that remain cautious and tight. Our exhibitors were enthusiastic about the quality of the attendee traffic on the show floor—to the extent that 72% of our 2004 exhibitors have already re-signed for 2005."
"DownStream Technologies decided to exhibit at PCB Design Conference West 2004 because the exhibition provides our company the most targeted access to the PCB design and manufacture professionals that we want to reach," said Rick Almeida, president of DownStream Technologies, an exhibitor. "We are very pleased with the leads that we were able to capture during the two-day exhibition and we've already re-signed for next year's show."
According to Waddell, PCB West conference attendees also were excited by the number and technical depth of courses taught during the five-day conference. Several special events were well attended and received praise from those who participated. These include the PCB Technology Forum and Welcome Luncheon, the Keynote Address by Mentor Graphics CEO Walden C. Rhines on "Breaking the PCB Design Process," the Opening Night Reception, the Pot O'Gold Party and Giveaway extravaganza and the PCB West Book Store, which featured participation by book publishers Prentice Hall and Wiley.
Dates for PCB West 2005 have been announced and the conference will be held March 7-11 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
UPMG's next trade show is PCB Design Conference East 2004, which will be held Oct. 4-8 at the Radisson Hotel Manchester in Manchester, NH.
UPMG is a privately held company that specializes in magazine publishing and trade show and conference production. UPMG currently publishes two high-tech magazines: Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture and Circuits Assembly. In addition, UPMG produces two annual conferences and trade shows for the design and manufacture industry—PCB Design Conference West in the Silicon Valley area, and PCB Design Conference East in the Boston, MA, area. UPMG also hosts the PCB Design Conference Road Series of courses in cities throughout the U.S.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
UP Media Group Inc. (Atlanta, GA) recently announced the winners of the Circuits Assembly 2004 Service Excellence Awards (SEAs) for Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) Providers and Electronics Assembly Equipment, Materials and Software Suppliers.
Participating companies' customers rated each company on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (superior) in five service categories: dependability/timely delivery, manufacturing quality, responsiveness to requests and changes, technology and value for the price.
From a part of each participant's entry fee, a generous donation of $5,000 was made on the their behalf to the Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA, Minneapolis, MN) Charles Hutchins Educational Grant. In turn, the $5,000 grant is awarded annually to a graduate-level student pursuing a degree and working on thesis research in electronic assembly, electronics packaging or a related field.
Established in 1997 in memory of past SMTA president and industry colleague Charles Hutchins, the grant is intended for the purchase of technical books and research materials and for participation in conferences related to electronics assembly and packaging, and donations are recognized throughout the year.
For more information on past recipients, current donors and student submissions, and for making donations securely on-line, visit http://www.smta.org/hutchins/hutchins.cfm.
Cosponsored by Circuits Assembly magazine, the Hutchins Grant is awarded each year at the SMTA Annual Meeting during the SMTA International Conference.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
NEPCON Shanghai/Electronics Manufacturing Technology China (EMT China) will be held April 26-29 at the Shanghai Everbright Convention & Exhibition Centre. The Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA) and the Electronics & Information Industry Sub-Council (CCPIT) of China are co-organizing the high-level surface-mount technology conference.
This year's program will consist of a keynote, technical sessions on lead-free technology and 0201 assembly and two half-day training courses on lead-free systems by industry expert and past SMTA president Dr. Jennie S. Hwang, H-Technologies Group Inc.
The Keynote and technical presentations will be given by the Ministry of Information Industry, Gartner Dataquest, Flextronics International, Indium Corp., ERSA, HITACHI, Kingston Technology Co., EKRA, Daiichi Jisugyo, Fuji, OK Interenational, Siemens Dematic and Solectron.
The first training course, Interconnection Technology and Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Surface Finish and Component Coating is intended to provide broad-based information that enhances technology foundation in preparation for lead-free implementation. The presentation will be comprised of two parts: the first will cover lead-free solder interconnections and the second will address the properties and performance of lead-free PCB surface finishes and the component lead coatings.
The second course, Manufacturing Implementation, will focus on achieving yield, quality and reliability. The course will examine the key process modules, including solder paste printing and reflow, and the system compatibility between the BGA/CSP solder sphere, assembly solder paste, component coating and PCB substrate surface finish.
http://www.smta.org/education/symposia/symposia.cfm#nepcon_shanghai
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
The National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (NEMI, Herndon, VA) has issued a set of interim recommendations for lead-free component finishes to be used in high-reliability electronic applications to minimize the risk of failures caused by tin whiskers. These recommendations were developed by the consortium's Tin Whisker User Group, comprised of nine large manufacturers of high-reliability electronic assemblies that annually purchase millions of dollars of components.
The group was organized to define methods and tests that would minimize the probability of tin whiskers creating functional or reliability problems in their products. Members include Alcatel, Celestica, Cisco Systems, Delphi Electronics, HP, IBM, Lucent Technologies, Sun Microsystems and Tyco Electronics. The group consensus is that pure tin electroplating presents a risk in high-reliability applications, and they have outlined cost-effective alternatives—using known mitigation practices and some level of testing—to minimize this risk.
This second interim report updates a report published by the group in June 2003 and presents recommendations for lead-free finishes for a variety of applications. These recommendations reflect the best judgment of the group members, based on their own experiences and the available data. The document outlines specific whisker mitigation guidelines supported by the group.
The document also discusses specific component types, assessing the reliability risk of tin whiskers for each and the various mitigation strategies recommended. The group is currently in the process of extending this work to create a user acceptance specification based on the test methods defined by the NEMI Tin Whisker Accelerated Test Project.
The Tin Whisker User Group's recommendations are available at: http://www.nemi.org/projects/ese/tin_whisker_usergroup.html.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Data I/O Corp. (Redmond, WA), a provider of manual and automated programming systems, announced high volume programming support for Texas Instruments' (TI, Dallas, TX) TMS320F2810 digital signal controller on its Sprint family of device programmers. With this support, TI's automotive, white goods and industrial customers have a programming solution for the flash-based F2810 controller along with the already supported TMS320F2812 controller.
Jennifer Skinner-Gray, TMS320C2000T marketing manager, Texas Instruments, said, "TI continues to work closely with Data I/O to assure that our customers using Data I/O manual and automated programming systems have volume programming support for new C2000 controllers as they become available."
The 32-bit digital signal controllers are digital signal processing (DSP)-based cores optimized for control applications that require the peripheral set and ease-of-use of a microcontroller (MCU). The result is a highly integrated system on chip (SoC)-like device that is able to handle control system processing requirements, as well as replace control system host MCUs.
"We are pleased to announce this support for the F2810," said Bruce Rodgers, Data I/O Director of Semiconductor Relations & Marketing. "The automotive market is an important customer group for our company, and we expect many users will embrace this family of TI devices for their range of applications."
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
According to IPC (Northbrook, IL), the North American interconnect manufacturing services (IMS)/ printed circuit board (PCB) industry book-to-bill ratio for February remained firm at 1.08. The ratio is calculated by averaging the index numbers for orders booked over the past three months and dividing by the average index numbers for sales billed during the same period. A ratio of more than 1.00 suggests that current demand is ahead of supply, which indicates probable near-term growth.
Shipments in February increased 27.5% year-on-year, while orders booked increased 42%. Shipments of PCBs are up 27.9% year-to-date, with bookings up 30.9%.
The February shipment index was 131.4, up 11.3% from January, and the booking index was 144.4, up 15.3%..
The index shows how current PCB shipments and bookings relate to an index point. In this case, 1992 was chosen as the index point because it was a stable growth year for U.S. PCB manufacturers. A shipment index number of 117.0, for example, indicates that shipments are 17% higher than average shipments for the same time period in 1992.
Survey participants report shipments have increased 28.6% year-to date and bookings have increased 33.6%.
The information in IPC's monthly industry statistics is based on data provided by PCB manufacturers that participate in the IMS Statistical Program. These companies represent approximately 60% of the U.S. IMS industry.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Press Releases
- Absolute EMS Enters Strategic Partnership with PTEC Solutions to Enhance End-to-End Electronics Manufacturing Capabilities
- Indium Corporation Technical Expert to Present at SiP Conference China
- Flex Announces Kevin Krumm as Chief Financial Officer
- Green Circuits Enhances Inspection Capabilities with New DAGE Quadra 5 Pro X-ray System