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News

Elcoteq Network Corp. (Espoo, Finland), a provider of electronics manufacturing services (EMS) for the communications technology industry, will expand its operations to Bangalore, India during 2004. The company claims to be the first EMS company offering manufacturing services to infrastructure and handset original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in India.

Elcoteq will establish operations in Bangalore, initially operating in rented manufacturing space. The plant is expected to be operational within six to nine months. When fully operational, the plant is estimated to employ approximately 1,000 people.

"We are very proud to be the first global EMS company in the communications technology sector offering electronics manufacturing services in the country," said Hannu Keinänen, President of Elcoteq Asia-Pacific. "India is one of the fastest growing markets for mobile telecommunications, and we see great opportunities for manufacturing services in the area."

India, with a population of over one billion people, is one of the fastest growing areas for both handset OEMs and EMS providers. The key drivers underlying Elcoteq's decision to enter India are the large domestic market for mobile communications and its growth prospects coupled with other important factors such as the availability of a highly educated labor force, an attractive customer base and favorable cost levels.

www.elcoteq.com

On May 25-26, Henkel Corp., Engent, KIC, Speedline Technologies and Siemens Dematic presented a two-day Hands-On Lead-Free Technology Workshop at Engent's facilities in Norcross, GA. The program provided participants with information concerning lead-free materials and an understanding of upcoming process requirements and changes.

Unlike other lead-free seminars, about half of the agenda included hands-on training on the production floor. Attendees had a chance to visit and tinker with lead-free assembly at stations set up for screen printing and placement; reflow profiling; wave soldering; rework; and analytical tools for process validation.

Brian Toleno of Henkel, Dr. Daniel Baldwin of Engent, MaryBeth Allen of KIC and Keith Howell of Speedline also gave detailed presentations covering the challenges that lead-free technology brings to reflow and wave solder profiling and oven setup; alloy and equipment selection; compatibility studies for underfills, chipbonders and conformal coatings; and materials and process validation.

Each attendee was able to bring home a lead-free board they built, learning firsthand the impact of lead free on setup, assembly and visual inspection.

The course appealed to electronics professionals on all levels. James Seagle, process engineer at Z-World, and his colleague, Guy Martindale, senior process engineer, came to the event with very different agendas. Seagle, who has spent 11 years in electronics assembly and has attended many lead-free seminars, wanted the chance to apply his understanding of lead-free manufacturing.

"The hands-on approach of this workshop was very beneficial to me," said Seagle. "While the technical data presented in other seminars has been good, this workshop let me test my knowledge and take it to another level on the production floor."

Martindale, on the other hand, came to Z-World from the board fabrication industry and, coincidentally, his first day on the job was spent in the lead-free workshop. "This is a crash-course for me," he said. "But, there is no better way to learn something than by experiencing it. I think the production aspect of this workshop was invaluable."

Details will be announced soon regarding the location of the next workshop in the fall. Those who are interested in attending can contact Doug Dixon: (626) 968-6511; doug.dixon@loctite.com.

At the IPC Technology Market Research Council's (TMRC) May meeting in Baltimore, the speakers concurred on their midyear business outlooks for electronics manufacturing: Orders are steadily up, but modest for some sectors, with intense price pressures still reigning supreme.

Speaker Walt Custer of Custer Consulting Group gave his typical fast-paced look at the macro and micro conditions currently affecting the electronics industry. According to Custer, world electronic equipment production is headed up. It's estimated at $1.199 trillion for 2004, a hefty $100 billion jump from 2003's $1.090 trillion.

Another macro indicator for Custer is world gross domestic production (GDP), with every country/region except China, surprisingly, and Japan, not surprisingly, projected to experience growth in its GDP from 2003 to 2004. Overall, the world's GDP is estimated at 4.0 in 2004 from 2.4 in 2003, with the U.S. weighing in at 4.6 (2004) vs. 3.1 (2003). China will hit 8.3 in 2004 from 9.2 in 2003, with Japan at 2.5 in 2004 from 2003's 2.7.

January/February figures released at conference time reflected that industrial production worldwide is also up, with Germany (+1.8), the U.S. (+2.7) and China (+23.2) all experiencing positive percentage changes from one year ago. Even though the world is in a growth mode, however, Europe is doing less well overall, according to Custer. Case in point: Britain was at -1.3, with overall Europe at only +0.6.

Custer summed up by analyzing the end market situation for electronics manufacturing. Both the computer and semiconductor industries have resumed modest growth, with personal computers (PCs) and cell phones actually enjoying robust growth. Along with security and medical, military has been one of the main industries leading this upturn, but Custer had two cautions for the audience: 1) it's not that big of a market and 2) it's U.S. presidential administration-dependent. On the downside, automotive has had stable volumes, but severe price pressures continue; and telecom/datacom, once thought to be headed for recovery, hit a negative plunge in late 2003 from which it has not completely recovered.

Shawn Severson, senior vice president with Raymond James, Inc., presented his take on the electronics manufacturing industry from a Wall Street perspective. According to Severson's analysis of the macro landscape, conditions are improving. Management teams at electronics manufacturing services (EMS) providers are indicating that business is better, with this positive sentiment the best that Severson has "heard in a long time." Overall, he predicted that 1) high-end information technology (IT)/telecom applications would make a recovery in 2004 and 2) investors in the EMS niche will be mostly concerned with EMS companies' ability to sustain the current recovery and growth throughout 2005.

Drilling down further, Severson indicated that EMS industry restructuring plans are mostly complete, with stabilized pricing and higher capacity utilization driving margins up. The caveat, however, is that EMS companies are still trying to re-price business they priced way too low during the downturn. Severson cited Solectron, in particular, for getting "into trouble" for not figuring out the cost of doing business and pricing accordingly; instead, Solectron's price-slashing was just an attempt to keep customers.

Other speakers focused on the overall theme of the TMRC meeting, which was disruptive technologies and how to cope as electronics manufacturers. Although lead-free and nanotechnology applications were the primary focus of these presentations, disruptive technologies are not the only bugbears challenging electronics companies' current growth. Other disruptions include the continued strength of the euro and the U.S. Federal Reserve Board's almost certain propensity to soon increase interest rates to avoid inflation and a rising U.S. domestic economy. The smart companies are the ones already planning for and addressing these issues. As Custer stated at the end of his presentation, "The law of the jungle will prevail. Financially and technically strong companies will survive."

Custer's statement clearly echoed that of keynote presenter Jack Shaw, who cited the example of Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC) being swallowed up by Compaq due in large part to DEC's not catching onto the PC revolution. He stated: "Every business in this room will learn to deal with disruptive technologies or they will become parts of businesses that have learned how to deal. It's not enough to accept change. It's not even enough to embrace change. You've got to seek out change."

Adapt to disruption or be swallowed: wise words for us all in this improving, but still challenging, electronics manufacturing environment.

Mack Technologies (Westford, MA), a contract manufacturer, has partnered with Ovation Products (Bethlehem, PA) to standardize on Grid-Lok fully automatic tooling for all DEK Screen Printers at their Westford facility.

The installations have provided an automated tooling option on every printer and feature Stealth Mode for zero-time support tooling setup when changing from one product to another. In addition, compliancy issues are eliminated as the support pins reset for every circuit board.

Mack process engineer Bill Dampier said, "Since our tooling is now fully automatic, our operators and setup personnel have no concerns with support tooling issues and are able to focus on other aspects of the assembly process. In addition, virtually no training was required to operate the system since it is triggered automatically by the host machine."

Quality engineer Eric Wolf stated that their printing process quality has stabilized due to the repeatable support of the system compared to conventional methods: "Our operators are no longer concerned about the printer tooling setup even for the most densely populated double-sided PCBs."

Ovation Products, a division of Airline Hydraulics, is a manufacturer of automated tooling solutions for the electronics assembly industry.

www.grid-lok.com

www.macktech.com

Elcoteq Network Corp. (Espoo, Finland), an electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider for the communications technology industry, has added three surface-mount manufacturing production lines at Elcoteq America's facility in Monterrey, Mexico. The addition is a result of increased orders to manufacture mobile phones and similar wireless communications products. The addition brings the number of lines to 10 and increases capacity by 43%. Elcoteq will be expanding its work force by 200 employees.

The majority of the new equipment will be purchased from Siemens and Panasonic in keeping with Elcoteq's strategy to equip all its manufacturing plants with similar equipment so process transfer and supply chain management are facilitated and optimized. Plants are located in Europe, Asia, Mexico and the U.S.

The Monterrey plant was established in 1999 and has a production area of 18,300 m² and approximately 1,200 employees who manufacture electronic and electro-mechanical assemblies. The facility has ISO 9002, ISO 14001, QS 9000, ISO/TS 16949 and BS7799 (Information Security Management system) certificates. They practice six sigma methodology and have eleven black belts. The facility has achieved World-Class Quality Level status based on GE Quality Assessment guidelines and was awarded the 2003 Quality Award by the government of the state of Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

Joe Foster, director of operations, Elcoteq Americas, said, "This increased capacity is consistent with our long range plans of growing Elcoteq's presence in the Americas."

www.elcoteq.com

Sanmina-SCI Corp. (San Jose, CA), an electronics contract manufacturer, announced that seven of its medical device manufacturing facilities have been certified for ISO 13485 or 13488 as well as for Canadian Medical Devices Conformity Assessment System (CMDCAS) by TUV Rheinland of North America Inc. (Newtown, CT), a compliance engineering and independent testing services provider. The TUV quality sanctions augment earlier facility registrations for all seven facilities by the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA).

According to John Hendrick, executive vice president of Sanmina-SCI's Medical Systems Division, ISO 13488 certifications have been granted to facilities located in Alabama, China, Ireland, Singapore and Sweden while ISO 13485 certifications have been granted to facilities in California and Israel. The Israel facility was granted ISO 13485 certification by the Standards Institute of Israel, which plans to transition its certification to TUV Rheinland later this year.

Hendrick said, "By the end of the third quarter 2004, we expect to earn two more TUV certifications—one for an additional facility in Alabama and another for a facility in Mexico—which will expand TUV quality certifications to nine Sanmina-SCI medical facilities worldwide."

According to TUV Rheinland, the ISO 13485/13488 quality standards are specific to medical device quality systems and supplement the more generic ISO 9001 and 9002 standards that apply to many industries. The company also notes that the European Union (EU) has issued a number of directives that set forth compliance criteria for medical devices destined for the European market. These directives apply to a number of medical products, including active implantable medical and in vitro diagnostics devices. With its recent certifications, Sanmina-SCI is positioned to comply with EU directives, since a significant portion of demonstrating EU compliance depends on the prior establishment and independent assessment of quality systems.

www.sanmina-sci.com

The book-to-bill ratio for April 2004 remained positive at 1.11, just slightly down from 1.12 in March, according to IPC (Northbrook, IL). 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 greater than 1.00 suggests that current demand is ahead of supply, indicating probable near-term growth.

Shipments in April increased 41.3% from April 2003, and orders booked increased 63.6%. PCB shipments are up 34.7% year-to-date, while bookings are up 47.1%.

The April shipment index was 131.4, down 13.3% sequentially, and the booking index was also down, decreasing 15.2% to 136.3.

The index shows how current shipments and bookings relate to an index point. In this case, 1992 was chosen as 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.

According to data reported by current participants in the monthly survey, their shipments increased 30.9% in April 2004 year-on-year and their orders booked increased 49.8%, with year-to-date shipments and bookings rising 30.4% and 43%, respectively.

The information is based on data provided by PCB manufacturers that participate in IPC's monthly statistical program. These companies reportedly represent approximately 60% of the U.S. IMS industry.

www.ipc.org

Sponsored by the ESD Association (Rome, NY), the 2004 EOS/ESD Symposium will package research, technology and education into one international electrostatic discharge (ESD) event Sept.19-23 at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Conference Center in Grapevine, TX.

The program is organized in three special interest tracks: ESD Test, Failure Analysis and Systems; Factory, Materials and ESD Control; and Device, Design and Technology. Attendees will be able to customize their experience along their specific areas of interest.

This year's symposium features 51 papers to be presented in 10 parallel technical sessions: MR Heads - Processing; RFIC and Novel Protection Devices; System Level and Other ESD Issues; On-Chip Protection Strategies, Physics and Modeling; Tester - Device Effects; Analysis and Modeling of ESD Design Failures; Factory and Materials; Characterization of On-Chip Protection; Novel TLP Testers; and Magnetic Recording Heads.

The technical sessions also feature the award winning paper from the 2003 RCJ EOS/ESD Symposium-Japan: ESD Protection Design Using a Mixed-Mode Simulation for Advanced Devices by H. Hayashi, S. Kuroda, K. Kato, K. Fukuda, S. Baba and Y. Fukuda of Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.

The week's events open with three full-day ESD tutorials. An additional 17 tutorials will be offered throughout the week, covering topics such as Air Ionization: Issues and Answers; Packaging Principles for the Program Manager; Device Technology and FA Overview; Electrostatic Calculations for the ESD Engineer; and Cleanroom Considerations for the Program Manager.

A two-day seminar, ESD Program Development and Assessment (ANSI/ESD S20.20), will take place on September 19-20.

Eight interactive workshops will cover Silicon Technology Scaling and ESD Reliability - Roadmap and Reality; Common Auditing Issues; ESD in Cleanrooms; Can TLP Go Beyond HBM and CDM?; Ionization Issues; Automated Equipment, ESD and Grounding Issues; ESD in Magnetic Recording, and HBM-TLP Testing Miscorrelation: Experiences, Explanations and Solutions.

Attendees also will have the opportunity to visit exhibit booths displaying ESD control products and services. The exhibits are open to anyone interested in EOS and ESD; symposium registration is not required to attend the exhibits.

Other events include a Welcome Reception, an Awards Breakfast, a Professional and Technical Women's Reception, the ESD Association Annual Meeting and Luncheon, Authors' Corners to discuss the technical papers with the authors and ESD training presentations.

The detailed program is available at: www.esda.org/symposia.html.

www.esda.org

Hover-Davis, Inc. (Rochester, NY) has hired Darrell R. Tullar as Marketing Manager. In this new role, Tullar will lead global technical and promotional marketing activities and strategies. His focus will be on market growth and increasing sales.

Tullar comes to the company with over 24 years of experience in the electronics industry. He has held positions in customer service, product management, marketing and sales, while at Motorola, Universal Instruments & PMJ Automec.

www.hoverdavis.com

The Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA, Minneapolis, MN) is co-locating its annual conference, SMTA International, with the Assembly Tech Expo on September 26-30, in Rosemont, IL.

Many events are planned for industry professionals who have an interest specifically in lead-free soldering technology. To help industry professionals prepare for the 2006 deadline, this year's event will feature eight short courses, close to 40 technical papers and a Lead-Free Soldering Symposium.

The short courses will cover: Lead-Free Solder Joint Reliability; Lead-Free Conversion Project; Real Time Process Control, Including Lead-Free; Lead-Free Rework; Lead-Free Surface Finishes; Implementing Lead-Free at Your Facility; The Real Cost of Lead-Free; and Ten Steps to an Effective RoHs Compliance Process.

The technical papers will cover printing, selective soldering, moisture-sensitive devices (MSD), rework, ball grid array (BGA), flip chip, harsh environments, surface finishes, automated optical inspection (AOI), x-ray, tin whiskers, lead-free materials, processes and reliability.

Organized by Dr. Paul T. Vianco of Sandia National Labs, the symposium will provide technical information on alternative materials systems, tin whiskers, lead-free processing techniques and the growing knowledge base of lead-free solder joint reliability, as they related to lead-free technology.

Additionally, a free session entitled "Lead-Free: Where Are We Right Now?" will explore the transition from standard leaded solders in a volume-manufacturing environment with papers from Agilent, Flextronics and Indium Corp. of America. The SMTAI Opening Ceremony will focus on RoHS Compliance.

www.smta.org/smtai/index.cfm

The National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative's (NEMI, Herndon, VA) Tin Whisker User Group has released a draft proposal of tin whisker acceptance test requirements. As part of its efforts to help suppliers and users minimize the exposure to problems associated with tin whiskers, the group has developed the document to provide testing requirements and acceptance criteria for evaluating devices with tin finishes in high-reliability applications.

As the electronics industry moves toward lead-free assemblies, a simple manufacturing solution is to use pure tin, or alloys with high tin content, as coatings on lead-frames. However, tin is known to be susceptible to the formation of needle-like protrusions, or whiskers, and tin whiskers are a reliability concern. They can cause electrical shorts, disruption of moving parts or degraded RF/high-speed performance. Tin whiskers may grow between adjacent conductors of different potentials and cause either a transient short circuit if the whisker is burned open, or a permanent short if the whisker remains intact. At shorter lengths, whiskers may create a stub-type effect that degrades performance of high-speed/high-frequency circuits. Additionally, whiskers can potentially break loose and, as debris, cause mechanical or other electrical problems.

"System developers face two key problems," said Joe Smetana, principle engineer, advanced technology for Alcatel and chair of the NEMI Tin Whisker User Group. "First, there is no scientific consensus on whisker formation and growth fundamentals, despite five decades of research. Second, there is no standard set of tests that can accelerate whisker formation and growth and relate these tests to field conditions with any reasonable degree of certainty. These issues make it difficult for developers to safely specify tin-based lead-free finishes for components used in their products, particularly those concerned with high-reliability or design life of more than five years."

NEMI has previously published recommendations for test conditions for evaluating tin whisker growth and for mitigation practices to help prevent whisker formation. The latest publication combines practices established by the previous documents and adds information such as test lengths, failure criteria, number of parts and additional bias voltage testing. It provides guidelines for post finishing inspection and preconditioning; outlines a flowchart for acceptance requirements; provides a framework for a qualification test report; and defines requirements for process controls and periodic testing.

The Tin Whisker User Group has scheduled a meeting on June 2, in conjunction with the IEEE Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC), in Las Vegas, NV. The group will review the proposed test requirements with suppliers and solicit feedback on the practicality of implementing the various recommended mitigation and testing approaches. Supplier inputs during the meeting will be considered by the User Group for possible modifications to the test requirements.

The draft of the NEMI acceptance test requirements document is available at http://www.nemi.org/projects/ese/tin_whisker_activities.html.

www.nemi.org

Assembly Technology Expo will take place Sept. 28-30 in Rosemont, IL, and will feature a keynote address by actor John Ratzenberger, producer and host of the Travel Channel's John Ratzenberger's Made in America series that honors the creative and entrepreneurial spirit of American manufacturing. Ratzenberger will share insights that he has gained visiting American factories and working alongside the men and women who produce many of America's best-loved products, including Harley Davidson motorcycles, Chevy Corvettes, John Deere tractors, Craftsmen tools, Zippo lighters and Slinky toys.

"We can't imagine a more fitting way to mark ATExpo's 25^th year than a tribute to the greatness and inventive spirit of American manufacturers," said Kelvin Marsden-Kish, vice president of the assembly family of events, produced by Reed Exhibitions. "Mr. Ratzenberger is clearly passionate about great American products and respects the skill and dedication of the men and women who create them. He has become a highly effective advocate of American ingenuity at work and of manufacturers who invest in the effort to maintain a competitive edge here in the U.S."

For Ratzenberger, manufacturing is much more than an abstract concept. It's a way of life and a source of pride that ties communities and generations together. The son of blue collar working parents in one of the northeast's leading industrial cities, Ratzenberger grew up with the idea that Americans were hardworking inventors and problem solvers. Before turning to an acting career, he worked as a carpenter and takes pride in pointing out the houses that he helped build to his children. Despite his celebrity status, Ratzenberger still regards himself as a garage tinkerer. He holds five patents for a packaging process that he invented.

"I've always had a high regard for people who put their hands to something useful," Ratzenberger said. "A tool and die maker is an artist on par with those who display their works in expensive art galleries. A painter can always paint over a mistake. But when you work with tolerances of 1/1000th of an inch on a spinning lathe, you can't afford to be careless."

Ratzenberger is perhaps best known for his portrayal of the know-it-all, nebbishy mailman Clifford C. 'Cliff' Clavin, Jr. in the sitcom Cheers. His movie acting credits include roles in Superman and Superman II; Star Wars V-The Empire Strikes Back; Ghandi; and all five of Pixar's animated feature films, providing the voices for Hamm in Toy Story and Toy Story 2, PT Flea in A Bug's Life, the Abominable Snowman in Monsters, Inc. and a school of moonfish in Finding Nemo.