News
Aqueous Technologies Corp. (Rancho Cucamonga, CA) has announced the appointment of Howard Budovsky of Matthew Associates Inc. (Waban, MA) as a manufacturer's representative serving the New England Area.
With more than 15 years of experience serving all aspects of the electronics environment, Matthew Assoc. has developed long-term relationships with a large and diverse base of customers. As a manufacturer's representative, they bring to high-technology companies an array of electronics assembly products.
Aqueous has chosen Matthew Assoc. for their expertise in both the manufacturing and cleaning equipment arenas, as well as their industry knowledge, attention to detail and follow-up that Aqueous customers have come to expect.
Additionally, Matthew Assoc. offers consulting services that specialize in developing process optimization and qualification, testability, factory flow implementation, manufacturing and test equipment selection, and process qualification. These services can be offered in conjunction with equipment selection or as an independent element.
For more information on Matthew Assoc., contact Howard Budovsky, Matthew Associates, 92 Crofton Rd., Waban, MA, 02468-2115; (617) 965-6126; email: hbudovsky@matthewassociates.com.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Indium Corp. (Binghamton, NY) now offers flux-coated solder preforms to support the optimization of electronic assembly processes.
According to the company, flux-coated solder preforms offer several advantages over plain solder preforms, including: improved process time—using the pre-applied, fused flux, the preforms eliminate the need to add flux as an additional process step—and improved accuracy since the process fuses precise amounts of flux onto each solder preform. The system also reduces variability by eliminating process steps and by improving the consistency and accuracy of the flux quantity.
Flux coatings are available in no-clean formulations and the solder preforms are produced in a large range of sizes and shapes, to precisely suit each requirement.
Indium Corp. is a supplier of electronics assembly materials, including solder pastes, solder preforms, fluxes, lead-free solder alloys, underfill materials and die-attach materials. The company is also a supplier of commercial grade and high-purity indium.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Asymtek (Carlsbad, CA), a Nordson company, was named a recipient of Intel Corp.'s 2003 Supplier Continuous Quality Improvement (SCQI) award, Intel's highest honor for its suppliers, for outstanding commitment to quality and performance by suppliers that provide products and services deemed essential to Intel's success. The company was given the award for its efforts in supplying Intel with automated fluid dispensing equipment.
Henkel Technologies (Industry, CA) was also named a recipient of Intel Corp.'s Preferred Quality Supplier (PQS) award for its efforts in supplying Intel with die attach adhesive and underfill.
The SCQI and PQS award winners were honored at a celebration in Burlingame, CA, on March 23. Intel also recognized award winners with an advertisement in the U.S., Europe and Asian editions of the Wall Street Journal.
"Congratulations to Asymtek, who has moved up from being a 2002 Preferred Quality Supplier winner to this year earning Intel's highest supplier award the SCQI award," said Randy Bollig, Intel director ATCED. "Being flexible and responsive to our dynamic needs while executing flawlessly earned Asymtek the SCQI award. Working with Asymtek this past year has been a pleasure as they met or exceeded all of their commitments."
Robert L. Ciardella, president of Asymtek, said, "Given the adverse business climate of the past 12 months, the additional effort which was required to move from the PQS to SCQI award level is a true measure of Asymtek's continued commitment to Intel and our entire customer base."
"Henkel Technologies appreciates the opportunity in working with Intel," said Pat Trippel, president of Henkel Technologies' Electronics Group. "Working with Intel has improved our manufacturing and development capabilities allowing Henkel Technologies to be a better supplier to the industry. We look forward to continuing to work with Intel and strive to attain SCQI."
Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is a manufacturer of computer, networking and communications products.
Asymtek supplies automated fluid dispensing systems to customers worldwide, specializing in semiconductor, surface-mount and electronics packaging applications.
Henkel Technologies Electronic Materials Group provides adhesives, sealants and solders for electronics packaging and assembly applications, and specializes in printed circuit boards for products such as cell phones and computers.
http://supplier.intel.com/quality/
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Advanced Circuits (Aurora, CO), a quick-turn printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturer with real-time customer service, again experienced record growth in a down economy and an industry that has been declining for several years.
Although the PCB industry in the U.S. shrank 40% from 2001 through 2003, Advanced Circuits grew more than 15% each year during that time. Exceeding its goals for 2003, the company ended the year with more than $27.5 million in revenues.
"At a time when the U.S. PCB market is losing business to manufacturers overseas, we created a niche for ourselves in the prototype PCB market when we developed a system for building small quantity, quick-turn prototypes with a low premium price," said Ron Huston, president and chief executive officer of Advanced Circuits.
The company invested more than $5 million in capital into equipment and facilities in 2003, including a 62,000 sq. ft. office and manufacturing facility. Investments have already been planned for $500,000 worth of additional equipment in 2004. The company added 15 employees in 2003, bringing its total to 195, which includes three shifts in production and multiple shifts in other departments.
Advanced Circuits has gained an average of more than 200 new customers a month for the past three years. The company attributes its tremendous growth and customer retention to reliability and the customer-focused attitude of the entire staff. To time-pressed design engineers, the fact that Advanced Circuits delivers more than 99% of their boards on time or early is a significant quality in a manufacturer.
To ensure that this growth continues in years to come, a full-time professional marketing and training staff have been added to the Advanced Circuits team. Huston is also showing appreciation to the employees that made this success possible by treating the entire staff to an all-expense paid trip to Las Vegas, NV, over Memorial Day weekend.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
In a drawing held during APEX 2004, Betatron Inc. (San Jose, CA), a contract assembler specializing in high-end prototype assembly, won the free use of Dage Precision Industries' (Fremont, CA) XD6500 digital x-ray system.
The winning entry was one of the more than 400 applications received during Dage's pre-APEX and APEX show promotion. Said winner, Mike Young, "I feel like the luckiest guy at the show! We've just received the latest and greatest x-ray inspection technology available today."
Dage Precision's managing director, Paul Walter, said, "With over 400 entries in this year's drawing and the sheer number of system demonstrations performed here at APEX, we're really pleased. Congratulations to Mike and to Betatron."
The integrated digital image acquisition technology, XiDAT, on the system's platform offers improved digital data processing, enhanced resolution, extensive grayscale definition and the Image Wizard software operating system. The x-ray system achieves high resolution and magnification levels through use of Dage's proprietary x-ray tube technology, focusing lens and optimized image chain.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Kester (Des Plaines, IL), Metcal (Menlo Park, CA) and KIC (San Diego, CA) will present a series of Lead-free Technology Seminars scheduled to take place throughout 2004. The next seminar will take place April 6-7 in the San Jose, CA area.
Kester, a supplier of solder and related materials and services to the electronics assembly, micro-component and industrial soldering industries, Metcal, a lead-free soldering solutions provider, and KIC, a provider of lead-free thermal process solutions, understand the challenges associated with the implementation of lead-free assembly. This implementation is rapidly progressing in Asia and throughout the WEEE Directive in Europe, mandating the elimination of lead in many electronics goods by 2006.
The conversion from a leaded process to a lead-free process is not a simple transition. A solid understanding of the alloys, fluxes, board and component finishes, and how they impact the process will be required. Another critical aspect of converting to lead free is the shrinking process window caused by the higher solder melting temperatures butting against the temperature tolerances of the most sensitive components. Learning how to manage this shrinking thermal process window will be an important topic discussed in the seminars.
From combined experiences, the companies have developed this series of seminars to assist North American assemblers with the implementation of lead-free technology. These non-commercial seminars include surface-mount technology, ball grid array (BGA), inspection and documentation. They also offer attendees the technical ability to switch to lead-free reliably, effectively and in time to meet their customers' expectations.
The upcoming seminar will take place at the Four Points Sheraton, 1250 Lakeside Dr., Sunnyvale, CA, 94085; (408) 738-4888, and will explain how to implement lead-free reliably. Additional topics will include alloy selection, flux selection, wave process, surface-mount assembly, inspection and documentation, BGA profiling and rework, reflow optimization and issues and answers. Attendees are encouraged to bring their boards for rework solutions.
To register for the Lead-free Solutions seminar, visit www.metcal.com.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Auburn University (Auburn, AL) is one of only three institutions to share in an $12 million grant from the Vodafone-US Foundation as part of an effort to advance education in wireless engineering technology.
In recognition of its quality programs in wireless engineering, the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering received $3 million of the foundation's first multi-million dollar competitive grant program. In support of scholarships, fellowships and facilities, the grant is intended to enhance the pool of highly qualified students at the University's wireless engineering program.
The foundation's program¾which funds the Auburn scholarships over a five-year period¾provides both tuition and full support for undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships in wireless engineering. The grant also supports curriculum and research development in wireless engineering and provides for a pool of funds for interscholastic seminars, webcasts and symposiums.
The other universities selected by the foundation are the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
"The competition for this award was very tough," said Engineering Dean Larry Benefield. "It included 14 of the nation's top 25 engineering schools. To be one of the three programs selected is testament to the strength of our wireless efforts."
Fifteen Auburn students have been named recipients of the grants. Vodafone scholars are involved in areas that address society's most critical needs through wireless technologies, including energy, transportation, health care, environment, disaster response, homeland security and education. Research is also being aimed at ways to help third world countries implement wireless solutions to their communication infrastructure needs.
The Auburn Engineering Vodafone-US Foundation 2003-2004 scholars include Mohamed Abdulmagid, Brian Holland, Michael Newlin and Victor Rundquist, seniors in electrical and computer engineering; Rachael Achorn, David Boyd and Ryan Northington, sophomores in computer science and software engineering; Jeremy Arnold, Kendra Cole and Brian Ginn, sophomores in electrical and computer engineering; and John Jansen, a junior in electrical and computer engineering.
The college's Vodafone fellows include Yawen Dai Barowski, a doctoral candidate in computer science and software engineering; Jun Pan and Xin Wang, doctoral candidates in electrical and computer engineering; and Ying Yang, a master's degree candidate in computer science and software engineering.
For more information on the grant program, visit www.eng.auburn.edu/center/wireless/vodafone/index.htm.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
SICK (Minneapolis, MN), a provider of factory automation solutions, has announced that its laser measurement system sensors (LMS) were used by several teams during the DARPA Grand Challenge. The sensor is one of the key components of the navigation system, helping to sense the terrain and obstacles in front of the unmanned vehicles.
Sponsored by the Department of Defense, the competition is designed to test state of the art autonomous vehicle technology. The race, which took place March 13, covered a rugged course between Barstow, CA, and Primm, NV. The team that completed the course the fastest within a specified time won $1 million.
"The LMS units play a key role in our terrain sensing capablities," said Chris Pederson, team leader for the A.I. Motorvators team. "The relialbility and quality are impressive and demonstrate the company's committment to producing components that have the performance and durability needed for autonomous ground vehicles."
"The SICK sensors are considered key to our ability to generate a simplified 3-D image of the immediate terrain in front of the vehicle," said Ivar Schoenmeyr, leader of the CyberRyder team.
SICK non-contact LMS sensors offer distance measurement and collision control throughout a scanning field up to 180 degrees. The sensors can also be used for monitoring open spaces for building security, object classification, determining the volume of objects and collision prevention for vehicles and cranes.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Orbotech Inc. (Billerica, MA), the North American subsidiary of Orbotech Ltd. (Yavne, Israel), has announced the successful installation of two Trion-2340HD automated optical inspection (AOI) systems and integrated ADVISOR process control software tools at Nu Visions Manufacturing LLC (Springfield, MA), a provider of electronics manufacturing services.
Barry Cohen, president and chief executive officer of Orbotech Inc., said, "Nu Visions has a progressive strategy of continual investment in upgrading and expanding its existing capabilities to better serve its customers needs for technology complexity and manufacturing flexibility. We are proud to be chosen by Nu Visions as their AOI supplier and are sure that our field-proven post-reflow inspection solution will provide them with outstanding results to meet their process improvement and total customer satisfaction goals."
Nu Visions Manufacturing provides original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) with customized total manufacturing solutions, including circuit design, board design from schematics, mechanical and product design, sourcing and procurement, prototype and volume board assembly, system assembly, design and implementation of product testing, warranty and repair services. Since 1991, Nu Visions has been servicing OEMs in the defense, industrial and medical industries, presenting competitive outsourcing advantages, access to advanced manufacturing technologies, shortened product time-to-market, and effective asset utilization.
Orbotech provides yield-enhancing production support solutions for specialized applications in the supply chain of the electronics industry, principally for printed circuit boards (PCBs) and flat panel displays (FPDs). The company designs, develops, manufactures, markets and services automated optical inspection (AOI) systems for bare and assembled PCBs and for FPDs, and imaging solutions for PCB production.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
AIM has announce an international series of seminars entitled "Finally! Practical Guidelines for Achieving Successful Lead-Free Assembly." The series will kick off in the Pacific Northwest later this month and continue throughout 2004. The seminars will be led by AIM and guest speakers from multinational original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and electronics manufacturing services (EMS) providers such as Intel and RadiSys.
With the WEEE/RoHS Directives outlawing lead from electronics in the EU by July 2006 and foreign competition driving the implementation of lead-free electronics assembly around the world, manufacturers need to fully understand the steps to take to successfully transition to lead-free assembly.
To successfully achieve lead-free electronics assembly, each participant in the manufacturing process, from purchasing to engineering to maintenance to quality, must have a solid understanding of the changes required of them.
While there are many theoretical workshops on lead-free assembly, this seminar focuses on the practical considerations for achieving successful lead-free assembly at your factory. Each step of the manufacturing cycle is addressed, from purchasing parts to inspecting assembled boards. Solid advice, real world examples and helpful images of the means to overcome the many challenges of lead-free assembly are presented.
Upcoming seminar dates are: March 30 in Spokane, WA; March 31 in Seattle, WA; April 1 in Portland, OR; April 7 in St. Louis, MO.
To participate, contact David Suraski of AIM: (401) 463-5605; email: info@aimsolder.com.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Digi-Key Corp. announced that they have signed an agreement with Analog Devices Inc. (ADI, Norwood, MA) that allows Digi-Key to distribute ADI products in the Americas. The relationship will give ADI customers increased access to product, as well as provide them uninterrupted services and support systems through Digi-Key's distribution channel and real-time online service capabilities.
Digi-Key now stocks a full line of ADI's product offerings, including analog integrated circuits (ICs), digital signal processors (DSPs) and micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) products. These products are in stock and available for immediate shipment to customers in North, Central and South America.
"By combining ADI's strong brand name and product presence with Digi-Key's ability to reach our growing customer base, this relationship is mutually beneficial to both companies and respective customers," said Richard Begen, director of worldwide distribution, Analog Devices. "Digi-Key provides a choice for customers interested in purchasing ADI products through the catalog distribution channel, thus providing ADI greater reach in servicing its large customer base."
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Cognex Corp. (Natick, MA), a supplier of machine vision systems, announced that Palomar Technologies (Vista, CA), a manufacturer of automated, high-precision assembly systems for the electronics, automotive, aerospace and medical industries, has integrated Cognex's MVS-8000(R) machine vision system into its new Model 8000 thermosonic wire bonder.
Wirebonders are automated, high-speed machines used during the manufacture of semiconductor chips to attach semiconductor die to lead frames and other substrates. The Cognex vision systems will be used to guide and monitor the bonding process by automatically determining where the connections between the die and lead frame are to be made. Using Cognex machine vision, the Palomar bonder is able to place eight tightly spaced wires per second, with a repeatability of better than five microns.
"Palomar has relied on Cognex as our primary vision supplier for the past 15 years," said Bruce Hueners, vice president of marketing for Palomar Technologies. "We consider the engineering staff at Cognex to be an extension of our own and we capitalize on their name recognition and position in the industry to help promote our products. Cognex machine vision has been one of the important features that differentiates our product, and it provides our customers with a strategic competitive advantage."
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
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- Q Source Announces New Partnership with C2V to Expand Safety Solutions Offering
- Altus Helps FermionX Enhance Production with Advanced Inspection Solutions; Joe Booth and Will Patrick Comment