National Semiconductor (Santa Clara, CA) has announced that it will offer lead-free packages for its complete line of integrated circuit (IC) products by the end of 2004. The company also will significantly reduce bromine and antimony-based flame-retardants in an effort to make more environmentally neutral electronic components.

Today, approximately 90% of National's portfolio of 15,000 analog and mixed-signal ICs is available in lead-free package types. Lead was formerly used in the plating finish of copper leadframe-based packages. It was also used in the solder balls of array packages such as micro surface mount device (SMD), PBGA and FBGA packages. National will replace the lead in leadframe packages with a matte tin finish and in the solder balls with a tin-silver-copper alloy. Once this aggressive program is fully implemented, National expects to replace approximately five tons of lead used per year.

"Samsung is currently using about one-half dozen different lead-free ICs from National Semiconductor in its flat panel display (FPD) products which are sold worldwide," said Soo Kyung Yoo, vice president Quality Team, Display Device Center, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. "In addition, we have aggressive plans in place to adopt National's lead-free ICs for use in a wide variety of other Samsung products."

Packaging is a critical part of the semiconductor manufacturing process. National's advanced package technologies enable its customers to build cell phones, displays, computers and many other electronic products that are small, thin, lightweight and have long-lasting battery life.

www.national.com/packaging/leadfree/

Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.

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ASAT Holdings Ltd (Hong Kong, China) and ASAT Inc., global providers of semiconductor package design, assembly and test, has announced that it has been recognized with the SigmaTel (Pleasanton, CA) 2003 Assembly and Test Supplier of the Year Award.

ASAT was recognized for providing outstanding performance, on-time delivery, superior quality and continued support of the development of all of SigmaTel's product lines. ASAT has been providing assembly, test and package design services to SigmaTel for more than three years.

"ASAT has had a positive impact on our ability to rapidly ramp our products into high volume and deploy them more efficiently," said Steve Beatty, vice president of operations at SigmaTel, Inc. "ASAT's focus on continuous improvement in all aspects of its business has allowed us to consistently deliver quality products to our customers."

www.asat.com

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Nu Visions Manufacturing LLC (Springfield, MA), a provider of electronics manufacturing in the Northeast, has increased production capacity for producing printed circuit boards (PCB). Responding to increased demand for populated PC board products, Nu Visions purchased four additional lines of Juki Automation pick-and-place machines in late 2003. Recently, Nu Visions added another high-speed placement line composed of Juki's KE-2060 and the new FX-1 machines for a total of 19 machines configured in eight lines. Nu Visions is the first manufacturer in the Americas to purchase the new FX-1 model.

Nu Visions specializes in low-volume, medium-to-high mix PCB manufacturing, partnering with customers from product design and concept through volume manufacturing. Purchasing Juki's equipment allowed Nu Visions to retrofit existing lines with updated trolley feeders that increase the speed of feeding parts.

The new KE-2060 is a hybrid machine, combining a high-speed chip shooter that places a wide range of components at 12,500 CPH with a fine-pitch placement machine that places 1,850 fine-pitch components per hour. It is quickly programmable and has a dual component recognition system with both vision and laser technology.

The FX-1 is a high-speed placement machine capable of 25,000 components per hour. The design structure of a dual head on a single x beam design contributes to the overall placement speed of this machine; one head picks components while the other head places them.

Nu Visions aims to provide small company flexibility and responsiveness with large company technical depth and manufacturing capabilities. Its growth during the last four years has been largely due to their ability to provide better service and offer strong surface-mount technology assembly capabilities. Some of these capabilities include: single and double-sided component populated assemblies, selective wave soldering, placing fine-pitch quad flat packs (QFPs) and connectors, plastic, tape, and ceramic ball grid arrays (BGAs), micro BGAs, high pin count interconnects, and high I/O BGAs.

www.nvems.com

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