Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - Features

Montreal, Aug. 3 -- Coreco Inc. posted its highest quarterly revenues in three years as second-quarter sales rose 27% to $6.2 million.

Net income almost doubled vs. a year ago, to $552,849. Sales were up 17% sequentially.

Gross margins increased to 61.1% of sales from 58.7% last year and 60.7% last quarter.

Coreco, which makes frame grabbers and other products and software for machine vision equipment, said all major geographic markets saw higher sales, with Asia up 46%, the U.S. up 28% and Europe up 13%. Asia accounted for 30% of total sales, North America for 45% and Europe for 25%.

"Our second quarter continued the surge in results that we reported in the first quarter," said Keith Reuben, CEO, in a press statement. "We are pleased by the renewed strength in all our geographic markets as well as among our core OEM customers in the semiconductor and electronics industries.

"The machine vision market is currently in an expansion phase, particularly in Asia," he said.

During the quarter Coreco opened a sales support office in Japan, its first outside North America.

Indianapolis, IN, Aug. 3 -- Specialty Coating Systems' (scscookson.com) new 1,700 sq. ft. cleanroom in Indianapolis is now operational. The design features ISO Class 7 and Class 6 areas, and an ISO Class 5 area for component fixturing and examination.

The addition allows the SCS Indianapolis coating center to manage products -- including receiving, cleaning, coating, inspecting and repackaging products for shipment -- within an environmentally controlled area. Laminar air flow, gowning and masking, and HEPA filtering control the bioburden, minimizing the sterilization dosage required prior to a medical device's use.

The controlled environment incorporates the company's new deposition system, which was specifically designed for fully automated coating in a cleanroom environment. The deposition system allows for device loading and unloading in the Class 6 room, while the coating system resides in the Class 7 service chase. The coating chamber is optimized for production level quantities of critical items such as medical device components and implantables, semiconductors and other devices.

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 2 -- Analysts are raising concerns over inventory levels at electronics manufacturers, which have risen three straight quarters. A leading tech analyst today forecast production rates at producers of communications gear would slip in coming quarters as firms looked to shed excess product.

In the second quarter communications saw the greatest inventory build, while IT hardware inventory levels are stable, wrote Deutsche Bank in a research note. The increases are helping EMS firms, said a DB analyst.

In an Aug. 2 note, DB analyst Chris Whitmore wrote, "We believe this build at communications OEMs is benefiting reported revenue for both component manufacturers and EMS vendors. In fact, EMS production of communications gear has increased by more than 15% since the seasonally strong Nov./Dec. quarter (normally flat to down 10%).

"While OEMs' inventory levels are not excessive, we do expect production rates in the communications equipment supply chain to decelerate as some of this build is worked down in ensuing quarters," Whitemore said.

Whitemore believes Cisco's inventory levels will come under scrutiny when the networking OEM reports earnings next week.

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.