MUNICH, Dec. 1 -- Siemens Logistics and Assembly Systems, which has reportedly installed more placement machines than any other company, today disclosed its latest machine platform to a group of editors, including Circuits Assembly.

The Siplace X-series comes in two, three and four gantry versions and features an innovative head with 20 nozzles. Further, it reaches placement speeds of up to 20,000 components per hour, Siemens says. Designed for modularity and flexibility, it marks the equipment giant's first new platform in years.

The new machine is currently in beta testing at BMK Electronics, a contract assembler in Augsburg, and at Fujitsu Siemens. Siemens will officially roll out Siplace X in February, at Apex.

The new platform also comes with next-generation feeder modules and a new vision system.

At 2.4 by 2.5 meters, the platform footprint is the same as Siemens' previous models.

During the conference, Tilo Brandis, head of Siemens Electronic Assembly Systems, said the division grew 40% during its recently completed fiscal year 2003 -- twice the industry average. The company is on pace to ship 1286 placement machines in 2004, up more than 300 from 2003.

WEST HAVEN, CT, Dec. 3, 2004 - Enthone Inc., the specialty chemicals division of Cookson Electronics, has named Huub van Dun president, effective January 1. He will report directly to Steven Corbett, Cookson's president and CEO, and previous head of Enthone.

 

van Dun will have profit and loss responsibility for the worldwide Enthone business, and will be responsible for driving market penetration for all product groups, while focusing on research and development of new products and processes.

 

He has been with the company since 1967 and was previously VP of Enthone Europe.

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IRVINE, CA, Dec. 3, 2004 --A Santa Ana Federal Court jury unanimously awarded $3 million to Systems Division Inc., in its patent infringement lawsuit against Teknek Electronics Ltd. and Teknek LLC. The plaintiff company said the seven-member jury found that the defendants had willfully infringed Systems Division's U.S. patents '073, '358, and '393 for computer circuit-board cleaning.

 

A press release issue by SDI states that the final Court order decreed that Systems Division is awarded $771,555.25 in prejudgement interest against Teknek, in addition to $3,000,000 previously awarded to the plaintiff. In previous orders, the court ordered that the defendants and their agents are enjoined from importing, exporting, advertising, marketing and selling in the U.S. "any CM6, CM5 mk2, or any machine substantially identical to a CM6 or CM5 mk2 machine."

 

Teknek Electronics Ltd. is a limited liability partnership based in Scotland, Teknek LLC is a limited liability corporation based in Illinois. In May of 1999, according to SDI, it noted that Teknek was infringing on its patents and requested that Teknek immediately cease and desist selling those of its products that infringed SDI's patents. According to SDI, Teknek continued to manufacture and sell knock-offs of the plaintiff's patented sheet cleaning machines and paper rollers around the world.

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Austin, TX, Dec. 3 -- A new study by TechSearch International projects a compound growth rate of over 28% in the flip chip and wafer level packaging market between 2004 and 2009. With a forecasted demand of 22 million 8-in. equivalent wafers (FC and WLP) in 2007, TechSearch projects a need for capacity expansion to meet the requirements.

 

According to the study, the drivers for flip chip continue to be performance, on-chip power distribution, pad limited designs and form factor requirements. High-performance logic suppliers such as ASIC, FPGA, DSPs, chipset, graphics and microprocessor makers are expanding their use of flip chip in package (FCIP). Applications such as watch modules and automotive electronics are included as flip chip on board (FCOB) packaging solutions.  An increasing number of devices, from diodes to DRAMs, are packaged at the wafer level. 

 

WLPs are also growing in volume for a variety of low lead count (¾100 I/O) applications-including analog devices such as power amplifiers, battery management devices, controllers, memory and integrated passives. Most of these devices are relatively small in size, and thousands can be fabricated on a single wafer.  While the shift to flip chip and WLP did not materalize in high volume for DDR2 DRAM, performance requirements will necessitate a shift in interconnect methods from wire bond to bumps (flip chip or wafer-level package) for DDR3. Gold bump demand continues to be dominated by LCD driver ICs, but an increasing number of gold stud bumped devices are also shipping.

 

The expansion of flip chip technology continues to spark innovation and new developments. New bumping technologies continue to be introduced for the flip chip market. The assembly of bumped silicon fabricated with low-k dielectric materials resulted in a host of issues requiring changes to the materials and the assembly process.

 

Legislation in Europe banning lead and other materials deemed harmful to the environment by 2006 currently provides an exemption for high-lead flip chip bumps, however a number of companies are moving to adopt lead-free bump compositions.  Demand for 300 mm bumping is expected to expand with increased production of devices on 300 mm wafers. Solder bumping prices continue to decline and are no longer a factor in the adoption of flip chip. However, high substrate prices continue to be a barrier to widespread migration from wirebond to flip chip attachment.

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