LONDON -- The National Physical Laboratory has launched a six-month study into the use of XRF techniques.

NPL said in a press release that 10 companies have already signed on to participate in the project, which will assess XRF as a means for determining the presence and amount of various hazardous substances.

The protocol would include assessing a range of sample configurations incorporating known issues with RoHS-prohibited contaminants. Samples would be chemically analyzed prior to round-robin testing. After testing, the actual samples used will be chemically analyzed again to eliminate batch variance problems. The final report would include a comparison of XRF techniques and test sites.

The project is scheduled to launch this month July and last six months. The work will be presented to the NPL Soldering Science & Technology Club and disseminated in an NPL Report.

For more information contact Dr. Chris Hunt at chris.hunt@npl.co.uk .

SAN FRANCISCO – A group of 34 U.S. attorneys general on Friday filed suit in California District Court against seven computer memory chip manufacturers alleging the firms violated antitrust laws, and harmed consumers and governmental agencies, by conspiring to fix prices they charged for widely used DRAM chips.

The defendants include Infineon Technologies, Hynix Semiconductor, Micron Technology, Mosel Vitelic, Nanya Technology, Elpida Memory and NEC Electronics America. Also named as defendants were certain subsidiaries that sold and distributed DRAM chips in the U.S. 

Infineon, Hynix, Micron, along with Samsung, control roughly 70% of the U.S. market.

Read more ...

STRAMBINO, ITALY -- Test equipment maker Seica SpA has completed construction of a factory at its headquarters near Turin, Italy.

The 1300 sq. meter addition nearly doubles the company's previous capacity. The addition includes demo and training rooms.

Read more ...

COCONUT CREEK, FL — Inovaxe Corp., a provider of supply-chain management solutions, named Bob Douglas president, responsible for sales, marketing, accounting, technical support, material handling systems and software development.

Douglas is a former vice president of operations at Vertical Communications, where he was responsible for worldwide outsource manufacturing, supplier development, quality, warehousing and distribution. He held a similar position at Speedcom Wireless Corp., and was spent 14 years at Teradyne Connection Systems.