HERNDON, VA – Industry-led consortium iNEMI today announced a majority of its OEM and EMS members strongly support unique part numbers for BGA components to differentiate any Pb-free ball metallurgies other than SAC 305 or SAC 405.

Concerned about changes in metallurgies, iNEMI informs that variations can impact the manufacturing process, including form, fit and function of a device. According to members, they should be documented by the issuance of a part change notice and should be associated with a change in manufacturing part number. In this way, the manufacturing assembly process can be properly controlled prior to actual assembly to ensure reliable attachment of the BGA to the next higher assembly and to help minimize ship holds as a result of unknown parts, iNEMI says.

iNEMI members in support of this proposal include Agilent, Celestica, HP, Intel, Jabil Circuit, Microsoft, Plexus, Sanmina-SCI, Solectron and Tyco Electronics, among others. 

In 2004, iNEMI called for the use of unique part numbers for RoHS-compliant components, as defined by JEDEC/IPC standards. The consortium is also calling for continued availability of SnPb BGAs for use in high-reliability products, which are currently exempt from the EU RoHS Directive. Manufacturers of these high-reliability products will continue to use SnPb processes until long-life reliability concerns regarding Pb-free are resolved, and Pb-free BGAs are not compatible with these processes, says the consortium.

TOKYO – Japan's TDK Corp. will invest about $416 million on an electronics component factory, according to a Bloomberg report.

A TDK spokesman said the factory in Yurihonjo will increase the company's manufacturing capacity of ceramic capacitors by 40%. The company will begin building the factory in June, and production will start in the second quarter next year.

SAN JOSE, CA — EMS companies showed strong year-over-year first-quarter growth on the whole, says market research firm Gartner Inc.

Nine top EMS companies showed growth of 16% in the first quarter compared to 2006, according to the research firm.

SPOKANE, WA – EMS provider Key Tronic Corporation will begin providing product assembly for Imation Corp’s tape-based data storage cartridges in July.

The agreement is expected to contribute $20 million to Key Tronic’s annual revenue.

Assembly operations will take place in its primary manufacturing facility in Juarez, Mexico.