BINGHAMTON, NY – The UnovisSolutions Area Array Consortium gathered in June for a detailed review of this year’s research tracks.
Progress reports were presented on efforts to understand the complex microstructures of Pb-free solder joints and their impact on reliability. Issues pertaining to the reliability of printed circuit materials and designs, as well as QFN and FCBGA assembly and underfilling, were also discussed.
More than 80 attendees from 30 member companies and institutions joined in the two-day workshop.
Led by Dr. Peter Borgesen, the advanced electronic assembly research consortium, formerly run under Universal Instruments, tackles materials and microstructure-related reliability issues critical to high-quality electronics assembly.
Members can join the consortium any time and have access to the body of knowledge amassed through its efforts during the past 15 years.
SAN JOSE – EMS provider Sanmina-SCI Corp. today named former Symbol Technologies executive Walt Hussey president of its technology components group.
Hussey, who was vice president of global manufacturing and distribution for Symbol, will be responsible for PCB fabrication, backplane and cable assembly, and enclosures.
He has 25 years of manufacturing experience with OEMs and EMS firms.
Sanmina-SCI was once the world’s largest supplier of PCBs, but since 2000, sales have dropped from more than $1 billion to about $420 million, according to PCD&M consulting editor Hayao Nakahara’s annual NTI 100 ranking of PWB fabricators.
The company recently announced it would close its Phoenix PWB fabrication site and relocate much of the work to Owego, NY.
CORRECTION: We previously incorrectly reported Hussey would be replacing Steve
Bruton. Bruton remains president and general manager of PCB fabrication at Sanmina-SCI. We regret the error.
HIGH WYCOMBE, UK – A SMART Group meeting held July 2 resulted in the formation of SMART Group SA.
SMART Group will aim to promote the advancement of the South African electronics industry through education and training in surface mount and related assembly technologies.
Held at Avnet Kopp offices, representatives from component supply, electronics design, manufacturing, education, media, equipment and consumables supply industries attended.
Keith Bryant, a director of the SMART Group, headquartered in the UK, chaired the meeting.
Last year, the trade association presented a series of Pb-free seminars in South Africa.
IRVINE, CA – Henkel Corp. today announced Patrick Trippel as president for the company’s aerospace group. Trippel will maintain his current duties as president of the electronics group of Henkel.
FRAMINGHAM, MA – Results from a global supply chain survey reveal a disconnect between business objectives and supply chain strategy, says Manufacturing Insights.
According to survey findings, 71% of respondents cited increased quality and customer satisfaction as their top business objective, followed by reducing overall cost and improving productivity (66%), and increasing revenues and exploiting new markets (62%).
However, 48% of respondents cited reducing material, manufacturing, and/or logistics costs as their top supply-chain strategy. Second and third supply strategies cited, respectively, were more responsiveness and timely decision-making across the global supply chain (39%), and more responsiveness to changes in the marketplace (36%).
When asked to identify “the most important IT investment areas in terms of their impact on global supply chain performance over the next two years,” the top three answers were advanced supply network planning or manufacturing scheduling, advanced inventory management or optimization, and supply chain execution, logistics control and management.
The survey results indicate many companies have a gap between overall objectives and how they execute in the supply chain, says Manufacturing Insights.
The research firm conducted telephone surveys of 823 companies in January and February. More than 80% of respondents represented a line of business in their organization, such as supply chain operations, materials management or procurement.
COLLEGE PARK, MD – DfR Solutions has opened a West Coast branch in Oakland and named a leading expert in optoelectronics reliability as its head.
Dr. John McNulty, who has worked on the packaging, reliability, and failure analysis of telecom devices and commercial laser systems for more than nine years, will run the new center, the firm said today.
McNulty, who has designed and executed accelerated testing plans for individual components and multi-component devices, specializes in random and wear-out failure rate analysis and estimation.
McNulty has a Ph.D. in materials engineering from University of California, Santa Barbara.