Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - Features

Boston, MA –The NITON X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) analyzers from Thermo Electron Corp. (thermo.com) were awarded a Gold IDEA (Industrial Design Excellence Award) for Medical & Scientific Products. The award-winning portable analyzer line was designed by Altitude Inc., a Massachusetts-based strategic product development firm.

The analyzers are used for a variety of nondestructive testing applications, including RoHS and WEEE compliance, metal alloy sorting, positive material inspection, mineral exploration and mining, precious metals analysis, environmental risk assessment and lead paint testing. According to the company, the small size, light weight, ruggedness, ease of use and good ergonomics are critical for the demanding field applications of XRF, where instruments must work in a range of environmental conditions and take upwards of one thousand readings per day.

Altitude's designers worked with Thermo engineers and scientists to develop XRF analyzers that maximize productivity. The XLi, XLp and XLt series XRF analyzers determine approximate sample chemistries and identify many types of samples in as little as one second. All are water resistant, dust proof and built to meet the demands of rigorous testing conditions.

NEWARK, NY -- IEC Electronics Corp. today reported net income of $78,000 on revenue of $4 million for its fiscal third quarter.

The EMS provider reversed a net loss of $1.15 million for the same quarter a year ago. Revenue fell sharply for the period ended July 1, from $6.2 million last year.

W. Barry Gilbert, chairman and CEO, said, "Rebuilding our sales base and developing a steady stream of top line growth is our top priority. Our new prospect portfolio continues to stay strong and our manufacturing representatives continue to present us with excellent opportunities. Operationally we continue to gain strength. We have ample working capital, an unused credit facility to support our new customer activities

Long-term debt is less than $800,000, down from over $20 million three years ago.

For the quarter, IEC took $65,000 in restructuring costs due to severance of 14 employees, a move expected to save the company $380,000 annually.

IEC's five largest customers accounted for 72% of sales for the nine months ended July 1, down from 81% of sales in the comparable period in 2004.

NEENAH, WI -- Plexus Corp. announced record revenues of $313.7 million for its third fiscal quarter ended July 2, up 14.2% over last year. The EMS provider's pro-forma net income was $7 million; its net loss of $21.5 million included previously announced restructuring costs of $27.6 million.

WILLOW GROVE, PA -- Kulicke & Soffa Industries and Microbonds Inc. (a private Canadian corporation) will align the technological roadmaps of Microbonds' new insulated gold wire bonding products and processes -- called X-Wire Technology -- with the Maxum series wire bonders from K&S.

X-Wire technology addresses interconnect challenges arising from the increasingly complex single and stacked die packaging designs of ICs.

Christian Rheault, K&S VP of ball bonders, said, "The potential to shrink package size, increase performance, reduce costs and enhance reliability using Microbonds' X-Wire Technology within the established wire bonding assembly environment is a very intriguing development that we are delighted to support for the benefit of our customers and the industry."

According to a press release, preliminary testing at K&S' R&D facilities using the insulated bond wire with the wire bonders have produced successful results with some yield improvements.

Craig Geier, president and CEO of Microbonds, said, "As traditional packaging technologies have inherent limitations, our customers are seeking new solutions to address their interconnect challenges. The integration of our X-Wire Technology with the leading advanced K&S platform of wire bonding technologies will provide customers new flexibility in the development of high performance-to-cost packaged ICs."

Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada -- C-MAC MicroTechnology’s North American hybrid circuit manufacturing facility, C-MAC Microcircuits, ULC, has achieved ISO 13485 Certification for medical devices.

ISO 13485 is a medical device quality systems standard that supplements ISO 9001. Some of the additional requirements relate to design controls, process controls (including environmental controls), special processes, traceability, record retention and regulatory actions, which are more critical for the medical device industry.

"C-MAC activity in the medical market clearly required the ISO 13485 certification. The certification of a quality management system specifically for medical devices proves advantageous, and in many cases essential, for C-MAC to continue to grow our business in the global market," said John Tran, North America sales manager, C-MAC MicroSystems Solutions Division.

C-MAC Microcircuits produces a wide range of functional modules for use in the telecommunication, industrial, medical, military and automotive systems. The technology encompasses multiplayer thick-film interconnect substrates, surface-mount hybrid circuits along with direct-attach flip-chip and chip & wire assemblies.