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EM8D-100L is a 16-pin DFN package, eight-line low pass filter array with integrated TVS diodes. Is designed to suppress unwanted EMI/RFI signals and provide ESD protection for high-speed data interfaces such as color LCD displays, camera imagers in mobile phones and PDAs.

With a desired cutoff frequency of 150MHz, provides good EMI/RFI attenuation. Blocks the RF noises from GSM, DCS or Bluetooth, which affect the baseband chipset and other blocks. Meets the immunity test standard IEC 61000-4-2 at all levels.

In standby mode, the integrated TVS filter has a very low leakage current (less than 100µA) - an essential feature for battery powered handheld devices. Low profile durable 16-pin DFN package is useful in many applications.

ProTek Devices, protekdevices.com

Universal Instruments Corp. has designed an advanced assembly line that can assemble over 2000 flip chips per hour on flexible circuits.

The substrate is a thin flexible circuit that is normally processed in a carrier with eight to 12 circuits. Each comprises a 3 to 5 mm sq. pre-amplifier chip, five to 10 discretes and a connector.

An optimized line consists of a screen printer to apply solder paste, a chipshooter to pick-and-place the chip capacitors and the connector, a flip-chip placement machine with integrated dip fluxing and a reflow oven. For applications with high capacitor counts, two chipshooters would be required.

Universal’s chip placement platform configurations incorporate the company’s Variable Reluctance Motor (VRM) linear motors, featuring dual drives and one-micron linear encoders. Said to provide high accuracy and high speed, and enables the machines to be used in clean room environments. VRM technology is also at the heart of the 30-spindle rotary Lightning head – a chip placement solution that is smaller than mechanical turret heads typically deployed to place small discrete components. In addition, a four-spindle Pressure Enhanced (PE) head is used to place challenging components that demand higher accuracy. The PE head is used in conjunction with the Magellan camera – a high resolution digital Upward Looking Camera (ULC).

For the equipment designers, a major technical barrier was accurately imaging the component. The development project identified a need for a lighting module that integrates both blue and red LEDs to handle the wide spectrum of materials, such as polyimide, copper, etc. The team also redesigned the dip fluxing unit to be able to gang dip several components concurrently by adopting a linear versus a rotary mechanism..

The optimal tact time for the line is 20 to 25 sec. A twin-beam GSM Genesis platform equipped with two Lightning heads handles the discretes and the connectors. A second platform machine featuring a linear motor positioning system and a four spindle head combined with the Magellan ULC places all the flip chips to an accuracy of +/-9 microns at +/-3 sigma. Both machines are certified UL, CE, SEMI S2 and SEMI S8.

Universal Instruments Corp., www.uic.com

The Z-2000 series of flame, furnace and tandem atomic absorption spectrophotometers can determine low concentrations of toxic elements such as cadmium, mercury, lead and hexavalent chromium. This is of increasing importance with the implementation of the WEEE Directive and the planned implementation of RoHS next year.

Of particular importance is the determination of these toxic metals in plastic components such as electrical cables. A new method of sample preparation for polyethylene samples has been introduced which uses high-pressure microwave digestion with nitric acid. This replaces traditional extraction methods using sulphuric acid which is not suitable for the measurement of lead. Details of the new extraction method can be found in a new technical data sheet published by Hitachi (AA Sheet No. 72). (For a copy, e-mail info@hitachi-hitec-uk.com).

The Z-2000 Series benefits from the polarized Zeeman background correction method on both flame and furnace instruments, which not only gives extremely effective background elimination but also extremely stable baselines for both methods. The dual beam optics features twin detectors, enhancing detection levels. Detection limits for the flame instrument (in micrograms/g) are Cd: 2, Pb: 50 and Cr: 50. For the furnace instrument they are: Cd: 0.01, Pb: 0.25 and Cr: 0.2, also in micrograms/g.

The series is also suited to the testing of river water for toxic elements. These elements could end up in river water as a result of inappropriate disposal methods of electronic and electrical equipment.

Hitachi High-Technologies Corp,. hitachi-hitec-uk.com