Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - News

News

ENDICOTT, NY – Endicott Interconnect Technologies has received $49 million in followup orders from the U.S. Department of Defense for electronics packaging and substrates for high-end computing.

The program includes $5 million for electronics packaging R&D, EI said.

The contract is the first of a three-phased, five-year program that uses EI as a DoD research arm for exploring high-speed electronics technologies. Phase one includes system development and preliminary PCB and substrate design, along with fabrication of test vehicles for evaluating alternative material sets.

Phases two and three will address processing equipment for advanced technology, PCBs, substrates and assembly.

EI anticipates this will stimulate the recruitment of scientists and engineers to produce and deliver future technologies.

ATLANTA – Manufacturers perplexed about which type of selective soldering process to use might find helpful the results of a recent survey by Stone Mountain Tool.

The survey responses revealed valuable information about different types of selective soldering machines; criteria to consider when choosing the right machine to fit a company’s goals, including advantages and disadvantages of each; cycle times, startup costs and more.

GYEONGGI-DO, KOREA – Korea's Ministry of the Environment seeks public comment on a pair of environmental rules tied to electronics equipment recycling.

Through June 7, the MoE will accept comments to the recently issued Enforcement Ordinance and the Enforcement Regulation of the Act on the Electrical and Electronic Equipment and Vehicles (Korean RoHS).

MANASSAS, VA – Dr. Harald Wack, executive VP and CEO of Zestron, describes his precision cleaning company as “a true multicultural experience.” At the company’s Manassas, VA, facility inauguration in May, his statement couldn’t have been more evident.

German bratwurst and beer, a reggae band and a humid southern day brought together Zestron’s customers, employees and members of the industry to tour the U.S. headquarters: a 15,000 sq. ft. technical center; a roughly 25,000 sq. ft. shipping warehouse; a raw materials storage facility; and engineering, marketing and customer service offices, all on 11 acres of open land for future expansion. The tour capped off a day begun at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in nearby Chantilly, VA, a fitting site for the new facility taking flight.

SANTA CLARA, CA – DEK International received Intel Corp.’s Preferred Quality Supplier award for outstanding performance in providing products and services.

The company was recognized for its efforts in supplying the chipmaker with printing machines.

DEK was among 44 PQS award winners honored at a celebration in Burlingame, CA.

BANNOCKBURN, IL – Abstracts are sought for next year’s IPC Printed Circuits Expo, Apex and Designers Summit, show organizer IPC said today.

The show will be held in Las Vegas, March 30 to April 3.

Abstracts of 300 words summarizing original and previously unpublished work covering case histories, research and discoveries are being sought for presentations on all electronics manufacturing topics. Submissions should describe significant results from experiments, emphasize new techniques, discuss trends of interest and contain technical and/or appropriate test results.

Proposals are also solicited for full-day and half-day professional development courses on design, PCB and electronic manufacturing processes and materials.

All abstracts and proposals are due July 13. For more information or to submit an abstract or proposal, visit www.goipcshows.org.

ST. PETERSBURG, FL – Jabil Circuit said today its second-quarter earnings dropped 80% because of increased costs and expenses.

ESPOO, FINLAND – Nokia announced it has filed patent counter assertions against Qualcomm for its infringement of six Nokia implementation patents used in Qualcomm GSM/WCDMA and CDMA2000 chipsets. In April, Qualcomm filed a lawsuit in the same Western District of Wisconsin against Nokia.

Nokia says its products do not infringe either of the two Qualcomm patents-in-suit and asserts both patents are invalid.

In previous litigation filings, Qualcomm has sought injunctions against Nokia. Therefore, Nokia is seeking damages and also an injunction against Qualcomm's infringing chipsets.

The implementation patents cited in the Nokia counterclaim relate primarily to multi-band/multi-mode technologies that allow seamless and transparent roaming for consumers, and direct conversion technologies that reduce handset and chipset size, cost and power consumption.

Nokia states Qualcomm has copied these innovations and made them available to its chipset customers.

ATLANTA – PCB East 2008 will take place May 11-16, south of Chicago, UP Media Group today announced.

The show will take place at the Holiday Inn Select & Convention Center in Tinley Park.

Traditionally held in the fall, PCB East now becomes a spring event.

Meanwhile, PCB West 2008 will move to the fall. The date and location will be announced shortly.

PCB East 2007 will take place Oct. 21-26 at the Durham Marriott at the Civic Center in Durham, NC. Visit www.pcbeast.com for more information.

ATLANTA – DownStream Technologies and UP Media Group will present a free one-hour Webinar on streamlining PCB documentation next month.

The Webinar, Streamlining PCB Documentation for Successful Manufacturing, takes place June 20 at 11 a.m. PDT.

The Webinar will demonstrate how BluePrint-PCB can change the way PCB documentation is created by using intelligent design data to automate the PCB documentation process.

Speaker Rick Almeida, cofounder of DownStream, will discuss creating and using templates to quickly populate a documentation set; creating comprehensive PCB fabrication drawings, and implementing engineering change orders.

Project engineers, engineering and CAD managers, and anyone involved with documenting PCB designs are encouraged to attend this online event. Register today at
https://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=registration.jsp&eventid=46652&sessionid=1&key=8D97BB400F5C532CF1EB1F7E73609EEC&sourcepage=register.

UP Media Group publishes Circuits Assembly.

NORWOOD, MA – LTX Corp., maker of semiconductor testing equipment, said it will move manufacturing of X-Series test systems to Malaysia from Billerica, MA.

The company expects to complete the move to Jabil Circuit's Penang facility by August 2008.

LTX has been outsourcing with Jabil since 2001.

VANCOUVER – EMS firm PTL Electronics reported revenue grew 76% to $15.8 million for its fiscal year ended March 31. Net income grew 71%, to just over $1 million, from $565,714 last year.

PTL has a backlog of approximately $5 million in purchase orders scheduled for fulfillment by the end of the current quarter, compared to revenue of $3.2 million the same quarter last year.

PTL was acquired last year by Moventis Capital Inc.