Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - Features

UP Media Group Inc. (Atlanta, GA) today announced the winners of the 2004 Service Excellence Awards (SEAs) for Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) Providers and Electronics Assembly Equipment, Materials and Software Suppliers. Circuits Assembly magazine recognized the companies that received the highest customer service ratings, as judged by their own customers, during a ceremony at APEX 2004 in Anaheim, CA.

Participating EMS companies' customers rated each company on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (superior) in five service categories: dependability/timely delivery; manufacturing quality; responsiveness to requests and changes; technology; and value for the price. Overall winners in the EMS category were Plexus Corp. (Neenah, WI) in the large-company category (revenues over $500 million); Sparton Electronics (Jackson, MI) in the medium-company category (revenues between $100 and $500 million); and Masstech EMS (Woburn, MA) in the small-company category (revenues less than $100 million).

Circuits Assembly also gave awards to the small and medium EMS companies with the highest scores in each of the five individual service categories. The overall EMS winners were excluded from winning individual categories. In the small-company category, Key Electronics (New Albany, IN) won for dependability/timely delivery and tied with Able Electronics (Hayward, CA) for responsiveness. Able Electronics also tied for the manufacturing quality award with Nu Visions Manufacturing LLC (Springfield, MA). Nu Visions Manufacturing won the value award and tied with Elcoteq—Dallas NPI (Dallas, TX) in the technology category. In the medium-company category, Creation Technologies (Burnaby, Canada) had the highest scores for dependability/timely delivery, manufacturing quality, responsiveness and technology, while Reptron Manufacturing Services (Tampa, FL) won in the value category.

For the equipment, materials and software suppliers awards, companies were rated on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (superior) in five service categories: dependability; ease of use; responsiveness; technology; and value for price. Aegis Industrial Software Corp. (Horsham, PA) received top honors in the manufacturing software category, and Agile Software Corp. (San Jose, CA) won the supply chain management software category.

Electronics assembly equipment award winners were: Asymtek (Carlsbad, CA) for dispensing; Assembléon (Eindhoven, The Netherlands) for pick-and-place; Petroferm Inc. (Fernandina Beach, FL) for cleaning; DEK (Flemington, NJ) for screen printing; and FEINFOCUS USA (Stamford, CT) for test and inspection. EFD Inc. (Lincoln, RI) won the electronics assembly materials suppliers award in the solder paste category.

A donation of $5,000 was made on the participants' behalf to the Surface Mount Technology Association's (SMTA, Minneapolis, MN) Charles Hutchins Educational Grant. Part of each participant's entry fee was included in the donation.

This is the twelfth year for the awards program sponsored by Circuits Assembly.

UP Media Group (UPMG) is a privately held company that specializes in magazine publishing and trade show and conference production. UPMG currently publishes two high-tech magazines: Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture (www.pcdandm.com) and Circuits Assembly. In addition, UPMG produces three annual conferences and trade shows for the design and manufacture industry—PCB Design Conference West (www.pcbwest.com) and HDI Expo (www.hdiexpo.com) in San Jose, CA, and PCB Design Conference East (www.pcbeast.com) in the Boston area. UPMG also hosts the PCB Design Conference Road Series (www.pcbshows.com) of courses in cities throughout the U.S.

www.upmediagroup.com

The Lightning high-speed placement head from Universal Instruments Corp. (Binghamton, NY) has been selected for the Innovative Technology Showcase at IPC APEX, to be featured next week in Anaheim, CA. Choosing from technologies from all APEX exhibitors, IPC commended the new placement head's solution to the challenges of modern surface-mount assembly.

These challenges include accurately placing new package styles at full speed, including next generation chip-scale packages (CSPs) and sub-0201 passives. The placement head addresses the speed challenge through patented variable reluctance motor (VRM) technology. Developed for true rotary application, VRM enables the head to index its spindles within 55 ms. The head has 30 spindles, yielding high placement rates in a pick-and-place configuration.

The placement head also features dual on-the-head cameras, enabling accurate placement at full speed from sub-0201 components to CSPs, wafer-scale packages (WSPs), microBGAs and others up to 30 mm square.

The optional embedded process verification using the CyberOptics EPV™6 system, operating concurrently with placement, provides two images at every pick-and-place event for immediate process analysis and refinement.

The head is compatible with the company's AdVantis and dual-head Genesis modular placement platforms. It enables 30,000 cph placement rates in the AdVantis application. Genesis can perform at 54,000 cph high-speed placement when fitted with twin Lightning heads.

www.uic.com

The Christopher Group (Santa Ana, CA) will be exhibiting the NSpec Fv 20 large format automatic optical inspection (AOI) system for printed circuit board (PCB) assembly applications at IPC APEX in Anaheim, CA, on Feb. 24-26.

The NSpec Fv series systems are used in 2-D solder paste, pre reflow and post reflow applications and can inspect panels up to 20 in. x 26 in.. Optional features include off line programming, off line verification/repair stations and line monitoring and control software. Bench top and in line systems are fully compatible, and all systems include an 18-month warranty.

Other systems to be exhibited include the SmartOptics S8M 3-D solder paste inspection system, HC 610 PCB hole inspection system, SynPower PCB measurement/inspection system and Koki solder pastes and wave soldering fluxes.

www.christopherweb.com

Transition Automation (North Billerica, MA) recently introduced the newest product in the Board-Lok tooling family: the Flex-Kit™ Board Support System. This product supports bare surface-mount boards when they are passed through the printing machine.

The system gives support over a range of board sizes from 2.5 in. to 17 in. wide. The kit is supplied with four sections that may be set side by side in various widths, which provides 15 possible combinations.

The system gives nearly full area support for varying product widths, which allows for better process parameters such as cycle speed and print accuracy.

Ergonomics and electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection are central to the product design. Support elements are lightweight, rugged and visible. Magnets and optional tooling pins secure the system into position. Each of the different sections of the system is able to nest within one another.

www.transitionautomation.com

The National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (NEMI, Herndon,VA), an industry-led consortium focused on strengthening the global electronics manufacturing supply chain, will kick off its 2004 roadmap March 24-25. NEMI member Sun Microsystems will host the meeting at their facility in Newark, CA.

"The kick-off meeting gives all of the committees and groups who are developing individual chapters of the roadmap a chance to meet together as a whole to discuss the ‘big picture' and coordinate on the issues that affect all aspects of the roadmap," said Jim Arnold, fellow of the technical staff for Motorola and NEMI's director of roadmapping. "It's a very useful and productive session that catalyzes the six-month process."

Every two years, NEMI maps the future manufacturing needs of the global electronics industry in order to identify the key technology and infrastructure developments required to assure leadership of the supply chain over the next decade. It helps companies anticipate shifts in product requirements and provides an early warning of changes in technology or infrastructure.

2004 marks the tenth anniversary of this highly successful initiative. The first roadmap was created in 1994 by the National Electronics Manufacturing Framework Committee, a group of 200 individuals from industry, government and academia who came together to study the challenges facing the nation in electronics manufacturing, and to develop technology roadmaps and policy options with which to address these challenges.

Since that time, the roadmap has served as the foundation of all NEMI activities. NEMI uses the roadmap's forecasts to identify critical technology and infrastructure gaps, prioritize R&D needs to meet these gaps, and initiate activities to address industry needs.

NEMI is currently recruiting industry experts to participate in the 2004 roadmap (NEMI membership is not required for participation).

Anyone interested in getting involved with the NEMI roadmap should contact Chuck Richardson, NEMI staff manager of roadmapping, (256) 880-0922; email: Chuck.Richardson@NEMI.org.

www.nemi.org

Indium Corp. (Utica, NY), Speedline Technologies (Franklin, MA) and KIC (San Diego, CA) recently announced a cosponsored lead-free implementation workshop. The workshop, How To Implement Pb-Free At Your Factory, is a one-day seminar focused on how to implement a lead-free electronics assembly process. The seminar will be held March 16 at the Speedline facility in Foxboro, MA. The cost is $295 per person.

The seminar is scheduled to cover these topics:

review of current legislation and practices in lead-free electronics assembly
current alloys in use and why and how they were selected
printed wiring board (PWB) finishes for lead-free assembly
component concerns in lead-free assembly
best practices in surface-mount processes for lead-free assembly: printing, placement, reflow, wave
implementing the lead-free reflow process
special considerations for large boards
establishing a lead-free implementation plan.

The seminar will also include a special case study: Implementing Lead Free to Assemble Five Million Cell Phones: The Motorola Experience. This case study will cover:

solder paste evaluation
statistical analysis of process data
process optimization
analysis and corrective actions for failure modes such as tombstoning
reliability analysis.

Other detailed information that will be presented includes:

state of lead-free legislation, marketing, and implementation worldwide
current alloy systems in use and why and how they were chosen
which PWB finishes are preferred in lead-free assembly
concerns with components and the status of lead-free components in the industry
best practices for setting up your stencil printing, placement, inspection, reflow, and wave
effect of lead-free manufacturing on the reflow process, achieving and maintaining the tight process window
how to perform design of experiment (DOE) to optimize your lead-free process
how to establish a statistical process control program.

Scheduled seminar speakers include Dr. Ronald C. Lasky, Marc Apell and Marybeth Allen.

Dr. Lasky is a senior technologist at Indium Corp. and a visiting professor at Dartmouth College. He has over 20 years experience in electronic and optoelectronic packaging at IBM, Universal Instruments, Cookson Electronics and Indium Corp. He has authored or edited five books on science, electronics and optoelectronics and numerous technical papers. He has also been an adjunct professor at several colleges and has taught over 20 different courses on topics ranging from electronics packaging, materials science, physics, mechanical engineering and science and religion. Dr. Lasky holds numerous patent disclosures and is the developer of several new concepts in surface-mount processing software relating to cost estimating, line balancing and process optimization. He is the co-creator of engineering certification exams in electronics assembly and was awarded the Surface Mount Technology Association's Founder's Award in 2003.

Apell is director of thermal and cleaning products for Speedline Technologies, where he is responsible for the ACCEL cleaning systems and ELECTROVERT cleaning, reflow and wave soldering systems. Apell was previously with Cookson Electronics since 1995 and has held the positions of material planner, master scheduler, inside sales manager and reflow product manager, interfacing between sales and operations to meet customer and operational demands. Apell holds a B.S. in operations management from DeVry University, Kansas City.

As the national sales manager for KIC, Allen has expertise in the management of the thermal process. She has 20 years of experience in the electronics assembly industry covering surface mount, thick film and packaging. Traveling throughout North America, she has the opportunity to work with various electronics manufacturing services (EMS) providers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) with commercial, medical and military products. As project manager she works with manufacturers of equipment and materials for board and package assembly for thermal processes. Allen is in charge of KIC's partner program. She is a past chapter president of SMTA and IMAPS and has authored various industry papers.

For more information, access www.indium.com/QuickStart or call (315) 381-7598.