OYSTER BAY, NY - Most of the public attention given to RFID has focused on the retail supply chain, especially Wal-Mart's mandate to its top 100 suppliers. But the U.S. Department of Defense is also mandating its use this year - to all of its 43,000-plus suppliers. Add to that the needs of the aerospace industry, particularly the two giant aircraft makers, Boeing and Airbus, and the shape of a massive vertical RFID market emerges.

Boeing and Airbus - which use many of the same components - are working with the US Federal Aviation Administration to formalize UHF RFID certification for systems to track aircraft parts, says Erik Michielsen, ABI Research director of RFID and ubiquitous networks. The hoped-for improvement in ROI is of vital importance to an industry that has been hard-hit by recent economic conditions. Safer planes and fewer procurement overlaps are added incentives.

"The airline industry is obviously profit-based," Michielsen says. "They want efficient manufacturing, supply chain and asset tracking systems to create economical business models. With the DoD, RFID is not about business models: it's about improving military operations efficiency in acquiring materiel from suppliers and making sure it gets to units in the field. These are massive, aggressive and very complex initiatives that will be major factors driving RFID's adoption."

The first beneficiaries are the RFID suppliers who have been granted "Blanket Purchase Agreement" awards, certifying that their systems meet the DoD's requirements, ABI says. The first five companies in this favored position are UHF EPC Class 1 transponder suppliers Alien Technologies, Avery Dennison, CDO Technologies, Lowry Computer Products and Intermec. Other BPA awards are expected soon.

Teddington, UK, April 11 -- With the forthcoming ban on the use of lead, there is a need to develop a test method to measure the internal stresses in the coatings of electronic components, based on the XRD technique. These internal stresses are a potential cause of whisker growth in lead-free finishes.

According to a recently released report, XRD measurement correlates to measured compressive residual stress on coatings with whisker growth. Three coatings with high compressive residual stress also exhibited whiskering. However, the coatings evaluated were all at least twice as thick as penetration depth of the XRD measurement system, and the measured compressive residual stress values did not start to increase until after the formation of tin whiskers. However, the XRD method did provide some correlation between residual stress in the coatings and the extent of whisker growth.

The findings were released as a part of the National Physical Laboratory's Phase 2 Studio Project to understand tin whiskers.

 

For more information contact Dr. Chris Hunt: Lchris.hunt@npl.co.uk.

 

 

Willow Grove, PA - Albert Soffa, co-founder of Kulicke & Soffa Industries and pioneer of the first wire bonder, died on Sunday.  He was 84.
 
An engineering maverick who helped shape today's modern IC packaging industry, Soffa formed a partnership with Frederick W. Kulicke, Jr. in 1951, which eventually became Kulicke & Soffa Industries.
 
"Al Soffa was one of the true pioneers in the development of modern semiconductor equipment," noted K& S chairman and CEO Scott Kulicke. "Through his innovation with my father, they introduced the first manual and automatic wire bonders, which opened the doors to the manufacture of more advanced IC technology."
 

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According to estimates by leading players and ITIS research, local Taiwanese PCB makers will suffer a slight margin drop from last year's 13.6% amid tight supply of materials, such as polyimide and glass yarn, and weak demand. 

Constrained by weak demand and less working days in February, industry players hinted flexible PCB demand bottomed out in Feb and orders started picking up from March. Industry players expect April orders to grow 20-40% from March orders, DigiTimes said.