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YAVNE, Israel, Aug. 3 -- Valor Computerized Systems today reported record second-quarter revenues as sales spiked 18% over last year. It was the fifth straight quarter of sales growth.

For the quarter, Valor reported revenues of about $7.5 million, tying a company record, up from $6.3 million a year ago. Cash flow improved by $1 million during the quarter.

First-half revenues were up 17.3% to $14.6 million while net was $301,000, reversing a loss of $539,000.

President and CEO Ofer Shofman said in a press statement, "I am delighted with these results. [W]e expect to maintain our growth rate in the second half.

Flemington, NJ-- DEK (dek.com) has licensed its VectorGuard stencil technology to Christian Koenen GmbH. The Munich, Germany-based company will provide DEK customers with a second source for the stencils in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The companies signed the supply and licensing agreement in June at SMT 2004 in Nuremberg. Christian Koenen will manufacture the stencils from foil blanks supplied by DEK, and will supply its customers with the corresponding stencil frames.

The VectorGuard system was introduced last year to enhance user-friendliness, handling, storage and turnaround time for frame-mount stencils users. Extruded aluminium safety edges and plastic corner pieces make the stencils easy to remove for recycling and easy to mount and dismount from the new frame without special equipment.

San Jose, July 13 -- As product stewardship -- taking responsibility for a product from cradle to grave -- makes its way into mainstream manufacturing, OEMs will be faced with greater oversight for ensuring obsolete electronics avoid the landfill.

To wit: A recent announcement by a major office equipment retail chain and a leading PC OEM to recycle old computers for free. Two weeks ago, Office Depot and H-P announced programs to takeback outdated machines at no charge to consumers. Currently, less than 10% of electronics are recycled, according to the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.

Vijay Wakharkar of Intel drove the point home during a special invite-only session on packaging trends during Semicon West. In a four-hour session at the Marriott Hotel cosponsored by SEMI's International Electronics Manufacturing Technology Symposium and Henkel Technologies, several experts spoke on coming challenges in packaging.

With package costs beginning to exceed even the semiconductor die, more attention will be paid to these critical interfaces between the brains -- the chip -- and the boards. Wakharkar called attention to particular "green" trends, saying, "I think customers will ask about chemicals in packages."

Wakharkar described several other trends, including the convergence of computing and communications. The result, he says, will be packages that are more complex, with higher I/O counts, and die stacking and pinning. For example, Intel is working on stacking six to eight dice in a single package. In turn, materials suppliers will have to come up with combinations that withstand or "smooth" the heat spread from chip to package.

Furthermore, gains will continue to come in tighter densities. By next year, he says, manufacturers can expect BGA pitches to decrease to 0.3 mm for CSPs, and 0.6 mm for what he calls "cost-performance" packages.

Further evidence of green's gains: lead-free solder bumps. According to Jan Vardaman of TechSearch International, "some increase in the next year or so" should be expected for lead-free bumps. Fujitsu, she notes, uses lead-free bumps in all products for internal use.

Vardaman also noted a shift in packages for memory devices. Such applications are shifting to FBGA and wafer-level packaging from TSOPs, she says. Her forecasts call for the number of 200-mm wafers shipped in WLPs to grow from 750,000 wafers this year to 2.1 million next year and 4 million in 2006.

Other presentations covered low k devices and copper interconnects, lead-free material sets and high speed dispensing. Speakers included Mike Steidel of Amkor Technology, Kishor Desai of LSI Logic, Dev Malladi of Sun Microsystems, Steve Adamson of Asymtek and Henkel's Gordon Fisher, Jim Huneke and Michael Todd.

"The goal was to educate attendees about the power of partnering with industry leaders and illustrate how these partnerships can yield solutions to some of the biggest challenges in semiconductor packaging," says Bhavesh Muni, business manager of semiconductor packaging materials at Henkel, in a press statement. Muni said the turnout -- 120 persons -- and positive returns would lead to another symposium at Semicon West next year.

For copies of the proceedings, call 626-968-6511.

Minneapolis, MN, July 29 -- Brian McAdams from Lehigh University (Lehigh.edu) in Bethlehem, PA, will receive the SMTA's 2004 Charles Hutchins Educational Grant (smta.org/hutchins) for his project, "Sub-critical Initiation of Delaminations at the Underfill/Passivation Interface in Flip Chip Assemblies."

McAdams is a materials science and engineering graduate student who has recently conducted studies of cure kinetics of developmental epoxy systems. He has examined the mechanics of adhesion for the initiation and propagation of cracks at the underfill/passivation interface in flip chip packaging and looked at the role of deformation mechanisms in determining interfacial adhesion and the potential correlation to chemical interactions across the interface.

McAdams hopes to work in electronics assembly and packaging and to continue efforts on materials characterization, failure analysis, or research and development of flip chip assemblies.

The award includes $5,000 and travel expenses to SMTA International, where McAdams will be presented the award during the SMTA Annual Meeting.

Co-sponsored by SMTA and Circuits Assembly, the grant was established in memory of past SMTA president and industry colleague Charles Hutchins. Circuits Assembly donated $5,000 to the fund in February through the proceeds of the Service Excellence Awards.

NORTHBROOK, IL, July 28 -- Orders for rigid boards lagged in June, while demand for flex circuits remained strong, according to the latest three-month moving average of North American manufacturers.

For all board types, shipments rose 31.3% and bookings were up 13% vs. a year ago, said IPC, which administers the monthly poll. The figures may include some sales of products built offshore and brokered by the surveyed companies.

For the first time, data for flex circuits and rigid boards were broken out. In a statement, IPC said, "Due to divergent growth trends in the rigid PCB and flexible circuit segments of the industry, IPC will report separate monthly statistics for the two segments." The move seems to acknowledge calls by the media, including the publishers of Circuits Assembly, for better explanation of the data.

The June book-to-bill was 0.95 for rigid and 1.57 for flex. "[R]igid and flex shipments are rebounding and showing strong growth, but flex is growing at a faster rate," IPC said.

The book-to-bill ratio for all board types dropped to 1.06, down 0.05 points.

The ratio is calculated by averaging the number of orders booked over the past three months and dividing by the average sales billed during the same period. A ratio of 1.06 means that for every $100 in shipments, $106 worth of PCBs were booked. An increasing ratio is generally considered a sign of a market poised to rise.

Shipments are up 35.4% year-to-date, bookings 43.1%. Combined June shipments were up 5% sequentially, while bookings fell 19%.

June rigid shipments were up 28.4% and bookings 16.3% over last year. Year-to-date, rigid shipments are up 26.7% and bookings are up 23.6%. Among those surveyed, rigid shipments rose 6.4% sequentially and bookings rose 14.2%.

June flex shipments were up 76.9% but bookings were down 14.9% vs. last year. Year-to-date, flex shipments are up 79.1% and bookings 147%. Sequentially, flex shipments fell 1.4% and bookings dropped 69.7%.

Flex sales, which include some value-added services, make up about 17% of total PCB sales in the IPC poll.

The data come from a sample of North American rigid and flexible PCB manufacturers.

IPC did not publish June shipment or booking indices.

TEMPE, AZ, July 28 -- Three-Five Systems today reported a second-quarter net loss of $6.7 million on sales of $37.6 million.

The loss worsened from the March quarter ($6.6 million) and a year ago $(4.9 million). CFO Jeffrey Buchanan blamed product pricing and mix issues at the EMS firm's Redmond, WA, facility and the integration of Integrex, another EMS company.

Gross margin was 5.4%, excluding writeoffs and the Redmond plant results. Overall the gross margin showed a loss of 0.5%.

For the quarter, operating cash outflow was $5.4 million and net capital expenditures were $5.1 million. At quarter's end TFS had $18.7 million in cash, vs. $26.5 million sequentially.

Sequentially, sales outstanding improved by three days, to 59 days. Inventory turns slowed to 5.4 from 5.7

TFS guided for third-quarter sales of $38 million and $41 million and a net loss of 24 to 26 cents. Q4 revenue of $48 million and $60 million is expected.