News
Celestica Inc. (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), an electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider, has announced that Eugene V. Polistuk, chairman and chief executive officer, has decided to retire, effective immediately.
Polistuk has led the company since its establishment in 1994, when Celestica was established as a standalone subsidiary of IBM. Onex Corp. acquired Celestica in 1996 and the company subsequently went public in 1998.
The Board of Directors understands and accepts Polistuk's decision to retire and appreciates the contribution he has made to Celestica's success.
"I believe the 'tech storm' is over and Celestica is very well positioned to share in the outsourcing trend that is gaining considerable momentum as end markets show positive signs of recovery," said Eugene Polistuk. "At this juncture, I feel it is time for me to pass the leadership of Celestica on to new and very capable hands so that I may re-focus my priorities on family and personal interests."
Robert L. Crandall, who has been a director of the company since 1998, has been appointed to the position of chairman of the board. The board has established a search committee to select a replacement for Polistuk. Candidates from both within and outside the company will be considered.
In the interim, Stephen W. Delaney has been appointed chief executive officer. Delaney has been with Celestica since 2001, most recently as president of Americas operations. Prior to joining Celestica, Delaney 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.
J. Marvin MaGee will remain in his current position as president and chief operating officer, Anthony P. Puppi will continue as executive vice president and chief financial officer and R. Thomas Tropea will remain vice chair, worldwide marketing and business development.
The company also announced financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 2003. For the fourth quarter, revenue was $1,915 million, up 17% sequentially from the third quarter of this year. Net loss for the quarter was $165 million or ($0.80) per share, which includes a $106 million charge associated with the company's non-cash impairment of long-lived assets and previously announced restructuring activities. This compares to a net loss of $435 million or ($1.90) per share for the same period last year.
Adjusted net earnings was a loss of $4 million or ($0.04) per share, compared to earnings of $39 million or $0.15 per share for the same period last year. The results compare with the company's guidance for the fourth quarter, which was announced on Oct. 23, 2003, for revenue of $1.70 - $1.85 billion and adjusted net loss per share of ($0.01) to ($0.09).
For the fiscal year, revenue was $6,735 million compared to $8,272 million last year. Net loss was $266 million or ($1.22) per share up from a net loss of $445 million or ($1.98) per share in 2002. Adjusted net loss for 2003 was $7 million or ($0.11) per share compared to adjusted net earnings of $222 million or $0.87 per share last year.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Karl Pfluke has been promoted to the position of market development specialist at the Indium Corp. of America (Utica, NY).
Pfluke, a degreed Manufacturing Engineering Technologist, is certified as both a Powder Metallurgy Technologist with MPIF and a Process Engineer with the Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA, Minneapolis, MN). He is an active member of the IPC Solder Alloy Standards Development Group and has presented numerous technical papers.
Pfluke has worked at Indium for three years as a technical support engineer and has experience with the full range of interconnect materials and processes. He will remain based at the company¹s corporate headquarters in New York.
Indium Corp. is supplier of electronics assembly materials, including solder pastes, solder preforms, fluxes, lead-free solder alloys, underfill materials and die-attach materials. Factories are located in North America, Europe and Asia.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
AVX Corp. (Myrtle Beach, SC), a manufacturer of electronic passive components, has landed on Mars. The company announced their contribution to the Mars exploration rover, Spirit, and its twin rover, Opportunity, that successfully drove onto Martian soil last weekend. AVX supplied their CYR20 glass-dielectric capacitors in the mission critical rover lift actuator (RLA) and lander petal actuator (LPA) circuits. AVX has a long-standing relationship with NASA's space programs and has supplied passive components for many missions over the past 20 years.
The fused monolithic construction of the capacitors provide selectrical performance, environmental immunity, stability and retraceability, making them ideal for mission critical applications. The devices are designed to withstand extremely high and low temperatures and exposure to radiation.
The capacitors used in the rover played a vital role in the RLA and LPA electronics. The circuits enable the lander to open and adjust its petals and enable the lift mechanism to raise the rover so its wheels can be deployed to drive onto Martian terrain.
Photo courtesy of NASA/JPL-CALTECH.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
DEK (Flemington, NJ), a high accuracy mass imaging solutions provider, has announced representative changes in the Pacific Northwest and Southern California regions. DEK's offerings have expanded over the last two years and this growth has resulted in the need for a change in representation in a few select regions.
In the Pacific Northwest, DEK will now be represented by Systems Specialists Inc., an industry leader and representative for many major brands. The 27-year old organization prides itself on superior customer service and technical support and, in their new relationship, will represent DEK in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
DEK has also announced a representative change in Southern California. Competitive Edge Manufacturing Equipment (CEME) will now represent DEK's complete product line in this territory. CEME will represent DEK in the Southern California counties of San Louis Obispo, Kern, San Bernadino, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, Imperial and in Baja, Mexico.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Speedline Technologies Inc. (Franklin, MA) has manufactured and shipped its 100th CAMALOT XyflexPro dispensing system. The dispenser was purchased by Mektec Manufacturing Corp. of Thailand.
Mektec produces flexible printed circuit boards (PCBs) for computers, cameras, printers and mobile phones. The company will use the dispenser for flip chip underfill on flexible PCBs. With this purchase, Mektec operates 15 of the new dispensers, becoming the second largest XyflexPro installation in the world.
CAMALOT equipment provides new approaches to surface-mount and component protection. The benchtop, stand-alone and in-line systems dispense solder paste, conductive adhesives, encapsulants and flip chip underfill. The dispensing system has a calibration-free linear gantry drive system, small footprint and many easy-to-add options. The equipment handles surface-mount technology and semiconductor production applications.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Siemens Dematic Electronics Assembly Systems (EAS, Norcross, GA) announced its intention to provide comprehensive surface-mount technology process training for the Americas in partnership with the Center for Electronics Manufacturing & Assembly (CEMA) at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT, Rochester, NY).
The training will take place at RIT's CEMA facility, which has a fully equipped surface- mount technology laboratory with screen printing, dispensing, pick-and-place, reflow, rework stations, optoelectronics workstations, wire bonding, test and inspection equipment.
The five-day hands-on course hopes to provide participants with a thorough understanding of surface-mount technology and advanced packaging principles needed for supporting and troubleshooting the surface-mount process. The course will offer extensive discussions on process parameters and process characteristics, as well as identifying and correcting defects.
Professor S. Manian Ramkumar, director of the CEMA at RIT said, "We are very pleased to offer these advanced technology courses in partnership with Siemens Dematic. We understand that these skills are imperative in today's manufacturing environment in order to improve the performance and quality of the manufacturing process."
To find out more about this course, visit www.siplace.com.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider Flextronics (Singapore) has announced results for its third fiscal quarter ended Dec.31, 2003. Net sales reached a record of $4.15 billion, an increase of 18.5% over the previous quarter, and up 7.8% from Q3 2002.
Pro forma net income was $93.9 million, or $0.17 per diluted share, a sequential increase of 97.6% and a year-on-year increase of 41.9%. Including after-tax amortization expense of $8.6 million, previously announced restructuring costs of $49.5 million and litigation settlement costs of $14.4 million, net income in the third quarter was $21.4 million. Last year, the company recorded a third quarter net loss of $6.5 million.
The quarterly results reflect a number of financial milestones, including record inventory turns of 13 times, a cash conversion cycle of 14 days and selling, general and administrative expense of 2.9% of sales. In addition, pro forma cash flow from operations was $356 million, which excludes approximately $68 million of payments for restructuring and other charges.
"As we begin to realize the earnings leverage imbedded in our business, our financial results will continue to improve," said Michael E. Marks, chief executive officer of Flextronics. "The improved operating results are what we expected to begin to see as we emerge from the technology downturn. While we are pleased that our margins, overall profitability, return on invested tangible capital, and many other financial metrics have improved this quarter, we continue to be completely focused on driving additional improvements in our operating performance."
Marks concluded, "Last week's announcement regarding our discussions with Nortel Networks has the potential to be a major transformational event for Flextronics in many ways. As currently being discussed, it has the potential to be the largest program award in the history of the EMS industry, with revenues exceeding $2 billion per year for Flextronics."
The company has increased its expectations for the March 2004 quarter by 10% for sales and 20% for pro forma earnings per share, to a range of $3.4 to $3.6 billion and $0.09 to $0.11, respectively.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
BP Microsystems (Houston, TX) has announced that they have surpassed the 19,000 device mark in the number of programmable integrated circuit devices their equipment is able to program. Additional support for devices is added three times per week through a software download available from the company's Web site. BP Microsystems' support for devices is a culmination of its 18 years experience in the programming equipment industry.
"We are proud to work closely with the semiconductor manufacturers to not only provide initial support for devices, but also to provide continued support for revisions of those devices," said Loc Ha, Device Support Manager.
New device support is released simultaneously for both engineering and production programmers, making the transition from design to manufacturing as easy as possible.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Dage Precision Industries (Fremont, CA) has announced a special opportunity for an APEX visitor to win the free use of a XiDAT x-ray system for one year. Dage will award an XD6500 digital x-ray system to one lucky company during the 2004 APEX exhibition and conference in Anaheim, CA.
Show attendees may enter the contest by completing an entry form on Dage's Website prior to the APEX show. Attendees may also visit Dage in booth 1263 during show hours to register before the drawing, which is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 26.
The integrated digital image acquisition technology on the x-ray system's platform offers improved digital data processing, enhanced resolution, extensive grayscale definition and the Image Wizard software operating system.
The system offers magnification up to 5800x and feature recognition of less than two microns over the entire 16 x 18 in. inspection area. It achieves high resolution and magnification levels through use of proprietary x-ray tube technology, focusing lens and optimized image chain.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Indium Corp. (Utica, NY) has announced the availability of a solder research kit. Customers are able to select a collection of solders and fluxes from a list of popular and effective materials. Numerous solder alloys, including several lead-free choices are offered in either wire, ribbon or paste form. A wide range of fluxes is also offered.
Additionally, a comprehensive table of physical properties is included.
Solder research kits allow for the evaluation of several alloys and fluxes prior to specifying solder products in larger quantities.
For more information, visit www.indium.com/products/solderkits.php.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Are you a faculty member in an accredited college or university with a graduate program in engineering, materials science or other field related to microelectronics technology?
Do you have an innovative idea for research that would attract a new graduate student into the microelectronics field?
If you have answered yes to any of these questions, you may qualify for the $15,000 faculty research grant available from IMAPS' Sidney J. Stein Educational Foundation.
For more information, visit www.imaps.org/ed_found/grants.htm or call Angie Johnson, (202) 548-4001.
The deadline for proposals is April 16, 2004
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
The Charles Hutchins Educational Grant, co-sponsored by the Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA, Minneapolis, MN) and Circuits Assembly magazine (Atlanta, GA), was established in memory of past SMTA president and industry colleague Dr. Charles Hutchins.
The $5000 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. The grant is intended for the purchase of technical books and research materials, for participation in conferences related to electronics assembly and packaging, and for living expenses if necessary.
To be considered for this award students must submit the entry form, current academic transcripts, an advisor's letter of recommendation, a resume and a one-page thesis research abstract.
Entry materials are due April 15, 2004, after which the SMTA Grant Committee will review all qualified award applications. Once received, the SMTA will look at the following specific criteria: The technical importance within the electronics industry, student transcripts, the clarity with which students are able to define objectives and methodology and qualifications based on the submitted letters of recommendation.
The 2003 Hutchins Grant recipient was Andrew Perkins from Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA). The title of his project is: "Investigating the Combination of High and Low Cycle Fatigue on Solder Joints."
For more information, visit: http://www.smta.org/hutchins/student_app.cfm.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
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