News
NORWOOD, MA - Electrical and electronic product manufacturers seeking third-party certification in Canada and the U.S. now have a single point-of-service: U.S.-based testing laboratory FM Approvals. The Standards Council of Canada (SCC) has accredited the company as a testing and certification organization.
The lab meets the SCC's administrative and technical criteria for (1) hazardous-location electrical equipment covering all protection methods recognized in Canada; (2) electrical and electronic products; and (3) fire-alarm-and-signaling equipment.
FM Approvals is already a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory in the U.S. The company approves and certifies products and services that meet its property loss prevention standards.
MILPITAS, CA -- Solectron Corp., has acquired a U.K.-based broker of electronics components for an undisclosed amount.
Solectron will merge the firm, ServiceSource Europe Ltd., with its electronics after-market services. SSE also provides component repair and service.
Carlsbad, CA – Alec J. Babiarz, senior vice president and founder of Asymtek, is one of four committee members elected to the IPC SMEMA (Surface-Mount Equipment Manufacturers Assoc.) Council Steering Committee. Other members elected for three-year terms include: Robert Muller, general manager commercial products at Teradyne ATD; Marc Peo, president of Heller Industries; and Jay Stepleton, general manager and VP for Agilent Technologies’ Manufacturing Test Business.
The Committee sets the agenda for the SMEMA Council, and creates new initiatives to improve supply chain efficiencies in the electronics manufacturing industry. One of its priorities is the organization of the Council’s Apex show.
Babiarz is co-developer in 31 patents worldwide for fluid dispensing equipment and has written numerous papers on fluid dispensing and jetting. He currently manages international sales and marketing at Asymtek, and serves as president of Nordson-Asymtek K.K., a division of the corporation in Japan.
NEW YORK -- The electronics industry appears to be gearing up for heavy air freight shipments this month, a major freight forwarder said today.
The activity comes, Trans World Logistics said, during a time when most of the Asia-Pacific region has returned to off-peak market conditions.
IPC, iNEMI and RosettaNet on June 10 jointly issued IPC-1751 and IPC-1752, describing company information, electronic data formats and standardized forms for information sharing.
The draft standards will be available for industry review and comment for 60 days and are available at www.ipc.org/IPC-175X.
SARATOGA, CA – Advanced Forecasting Inc., a research firm that claims to have correctly forecast 90% of the turning points in IC sales since 1987, said it would not modify its November forecast for IC revenues despite the strong first quarter performance.
The remarks ran counter to the SIA's recent decision to up its 2005 forecast. Last week, the trade group raised its forecast to a 6% gain.
IC revenues worldwide fell 1.5% sequentially in April and are projected to oscillate throughout the rest of 2005, resulting in an annual growth rate near zero, the firm said in a statement. IC unit sales rose 0.85% sequentially in April and are expected to continue the increase into the third quarter, AFI said.
“Sales of IC units were robust in March, surpassing its March 2004 level of 8.5 billion units, following a seasonal minimum point in February,” said Dr. Moshe Handelsman, president. “Therefore, extrapolation of this event that leads to modifications in forecasts is unwarranted. April’s increase dampened the celebration since sales ended at 8.7 billion, 1.5% below April 2004.”
AFI's forecast that IC units would peak in mid-2004, decline in Q1 2005, and increase in Q2, said Rosa Luis, director of marketing and sales. "Actual shipments in both units and dollars are behaving exactly in line with what our models predicted.”
SARATOGA, CA – Recent statements by top foundries TSMC and UMC predicting utilization rates would increase in the second half are consistent with a leading research firm's forecast of a better second half.
TSMC said its capacity utilization would rise to 90% from 80% while UMC forecasts a 20 point hike, to 80%, respectively. The jumps are due to increases in orders.
LAGUNA, PHILIPPINES -- A pair of Asia-based EMS firms with numerous facilities in the Philippines and China plan to merge in a deal worth SGD201 million (US$120.5 million).
Under the proposed terms, Integrated Microelectronics Inc. will acquire all 376.2 million outstanding shares of Speedy-Tech Electronics Ltd.
The deal is expected to close in the December quarter.
Madison Grant Fund of Toronto and First Associates Investments Inc. will act as as selling agents to raise capital for the proposed financing, through the sale of certain Madison Grant fund units.
Adeptron intends to use the proceeds of the financing to redeem or
refinance outstanding notes payable and for working capital purposes to pursue
ongoing strategic growth opportunities.
CHICAGO -- Newark InOne, a small-quantity distributor of electronic components and test equipment in North America, offers a downloadable RoHS Legislation and Technical Manual on its RoHS Express Website:newarkinone.com/rohs. RoHS Express was launched in May to provide design engineer and component buyers with a continuously updated, in-depth source of information and news relating to the upcoming EU directive.
The 22-page manual contains an introduction to RoHS, a step by step guide to compliance, detailed information about the substances affected, a chapter on soldering and a closing environmental section.
The site also offers visitors the opportunity to receive free monthly RoHS email updates.
The manual, first published by Newark InOne's sister distributor, Farnell InOne, in the UK, can also be accessed at rohs.info.
Newark InOne, newarkinone.com
PITTSBURGH - Panasonic and Ansoft Corp. have released a new device library for Nexxim and Ansoft Designer based on Panasonic's high-density miniaturized SMT components. Engineers can now design large-scale PCBs with accurate electrical models for high-performance parts such as cellular handsets, car navigation systems and WLANs.
The library currently consists of three principal passive SMT components:
-- 159 multilayer ceramic chip capacitors (MLCC)
-- 186 chip resistors
-- 45 chip inductors.
Panasonic hopes to expand the library in the future to include LCR composites, noise suppression components, baluns, SAW devices and power supplies.
The library is available from Panasonic's Website (http://industrial.panasonic.com/i/library.html). Customers can search for components by name, performance data or other specification. Panasonic will maintain model support and upgrades, while Ansoft will address all customer support for Nexxim and Ansoft Designer.
REDMOND, WA --Data I/O Corp., a provider of manual and automated programming systems, announced the first manual and automated device programming support for Samsung’s OneNAND technology. Support is provided through Data I/O’s FlashCore system programming family, including the desktop programmer, offline automated handlers/programming systems and inline programming system.
“Data I/O’s programming systems make it easy for designers to merge multiple files from different types of memory in highly efficient multi-chip package designs that include OneNAND, which is perhaps the leading example of combined NAND and NOR design efficiency ,” said Ivan Greenberg, director of strategic marketing at Samsung.
The first OneNAND-based MCP solution supported will be Item # KBJ1XKB00A, containing a 256Mb NOR, two 256Mb OneNAND and one 128Mb UtRAM die.
Press Releases
- ZESTRON Hosts Webinar on “Electronic Assembly Failures, Solutions and Lessons Learned for Long Term Reliability”
- Surface-Mount Innovations Delivering More for Less
- Freemelt to Outsource Production to Scanfil
- TAGARNO and Comtree to Host Live Webinar on Digital Microscopes in Canadian Electronics Manufacturing; Jake Kurth Comments