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News
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
NEMI, IEEE CPMT Society Form Strategic Partnership
HERNDON, Va. — The National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (NEMI) and the IEEE Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology Society (CPMT) entered into an agreement that outlines key areas of collaboration between the two organizations.
A primary area of collaboration under this new agreement will be roadmap development, beginning with the 2004 NEMI Roadmap. The roadmaps, created every two years, map the future manufacturing needs of the electronics industry to identify key technology and infrastructure developments required to ensure leadership of the global supply chain over the next decade. It helps companies anticipate shifts in product requirements and provides an early warning of changes in technology or infrastructure.
The CPMT Society's members are technical professionals whose fields of expertise complement and overlap with NEMI. Many CPMT Society members have represented their respective employers in development of previous NEMI roadmaps. With more than 40 percent of the Society's members outside the United States, the CPMT Society is committing experienced professionals from Europe, Asia and North America to many of the NEMI Roadmap chapter committees. Involvement of this group will help NEMI in its efforts to globalize the scope of the 2004 Roadmap.
Other areas of collaboration include NEMI involvement in CPMT Society-sponsored conferences, workshops and refereed publications, as well as CPMT Society coordination with the NEMI Technical Committee on development of research and development (R&D) priorities.
The two organizations began their partnership at NEMI's 2004 Roadmap kick-off meeting at the end of March in Newark, Calif.
In other NEMI news, Alan Rae, Cookson Electronics vice president of technology, has been named the consortium's director of research. In this role, Rae will head NEMI's newly organized Research Committee, created to stimulate research that will address gaps identified by NEMI's biannual Roadmap.
Rae and the committee will organize and publish NEMI research priorities, present those priorities to research institutes and funding organizations, identify funding opportunities, and monitor industry progress toward roadmap goals as well as in nanotechnology research.
Other members of the research committee include Bill Ballard, 3M; D.H.R. Sarma, Delphi Electronics & Safety; Rao Tummala, Georgia Institute of Technology; Frank Robertson, Intel Corp.; Carol Handwerker, NIST; and Srinivas Rao, Solectron.
PCB Book-to-Bill Ratio
March Book-to-Bill Dips Slightly from Revised February Numbers
NORTHBROOK, Ill. — The IPC IMS/PCB book-to-bill ratio for March was 1.12, calculated by averaging the index numbers for orders booked over the past three months and dividing it by the average index numbers for sales billed during the same period. The ratio fell slightly from the February level of 1.13, which was revised from the previously announced 1.08. Sales billed (shipments) in March 2004 increased 41.1 percent from March 2003, and orders booked increased 47.2 percent from March 2003.
March's book-to-bill level dipped slightly from February's revised numbers, while orders booked for March 2004 increased 47.2 percent from March 2003.
FlexLink Opens U.S. Headquarters
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — FlexLink opened its 58,000 sq. ft manufacturing facility here at the end of March. Global Managing Director Fredrik Jonsson and President of Americas Operations Dave Clark presided over the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Fredrik Jonsson (left), global managing director, and Dave Clark, president of Americas operations officially dedicate the new FlexLink facility in Allentown, Pa.
The company's global headquarters are located in Sweden; however, its Americas headquarters relocated from Bethlehem. The new facility nearly triples the company's manufacturing and office space. The move and expansion was driven partly by the need for manufacturing space for its conveyor and automation businesses.
Intel Gets the Lead Out
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Intel Corp. will eliminate approximately 95 percent of the lead used in its processors and chipsets starting later this year. The company is taking these steps to remove lead from its product packaging to make it more environmentally friendly.
Intel will begin shipping the lead-free technology with select microprocessors and chipsets in Q3 2004, and embedded IA processors in Q2 2004. The company shipped its first lead-free memory chips last year. Additional products will be transitioned as manufacturers become able to handle them. The new packages use lead-free solder balls the approximate size of salt crystals, and represent the majority of lead used in Intel microprocessor packaging. Intel is working with the industry to find a reliable solution for the small amount of lead still needed inside the processor packaging to connect the actual silicon "core" to the package.
Intel qualified its first lead-free plastic ball grid array (PBGA) package in 2001 for use with its Flash memory, and shipped its first lead-free product in 2002. The tin-lead solder previously used for connecting this package to the motherboard was replaced with a tin-silver-copper alloy. This work allowed Intel and its customers to gain insight as to what was required both technologically and logistically to transition to lead-free technology.
Universal Standardizes Pricing and Logistics
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — As of April 1, 2004, Universal Instruments has standardized its aftermarket product pricing and logistics options globally, regardless of the sales channel selected by purchasers in any region.
Because of an increasing sales and distribution network supporting the company's direct sales efforts in all territories, the company is standardizing to eliminate regional pricing confusion and logistics restrictions. Customers can use local distributors and representatives, or they can deal directly with the company through the in-house sales force or via the Internet.
Lea Honored by NPL
TEDDINGTON, United Kingdom — Colin Lea, a scientist at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), was honored for 33 years of achievement with NPL as well as for his 60th birthday.
Colin Lea and friends.
Lea joined NPL in 1971, and was known as a pioneer of atomic-resolution electron microscopy. He and his team developed the science and analytical instruments for characterizing surfaces. One application of these surface techniques involved understanding soldering of electronic components.
In the late 1980s Lea became involved in printed circuit board (PCB) cleaning as well as helping the industry adapt to the ban on CFCs under the Montreal Protocol. In 1997, Lea was promoted to the head of the NPL Materials Centre. Currently, he is on the Steering Committee of the SMART Group, a European trade association.
New DEK Online Wizard
ZURICH, Switzerland — DEK has added new customer resources to its Internet support facilities, located at www.dek.com.
Using the feature, customers can securely access detailed information about their machines currently registered with the company. Available data includes the current configuration of each machine on site, contract status and service history.
Owners of Galaxy machines and later variants also can access a new feature called "Find a Part," which allows customers to walk through a computer-generated 3-D image of each installed machine. Clicking on individual functional modules provides product and part number information, as well as links to a shopping basket facility for online ordering. This enables machine performance upgrades (MPU) and re-placement parts, for example, to be selected as users click through the 3-D images. Before leaving the site, customers can click into the online checkout to complete the order. This feature is expected to save time for customers seeking an appropriate replacement part for a given machine by verifying compatibility and locating the relevant part number.
EMSNews
Solectron Divests Product-oriented Divisions
Compiled by Jenny Popp
Following a recent trend in the EMS industry of divestiture of non-core assets, Milpitas, Calif.-based Solectron Corp., an EMS and integrated supply chain provider, is focusing on its key assets in an effort to regain lost market share.
Beginning at the end of 2003, Solectron began selling divisions central to the new-product design and introduction services, materials management, high-tech product manufacturing, and product warranty and end-of-life support of its core business functions. The divestitures result from a business review in which Solectron management focused the company on strategies and services that can generate the most value.
Research Vice President Jim Walker of Gartner/Dataquest suspects that Solectron is selling its product-oriented divisions in order to concentrate on its core business as an EMS provider. "Solectron did not do well during the downturn," he explains. "The company is divesting its product business to pay off debt and to focus on rebuilding EMS market share."
Some of the divestitures include:
- In December 2003, the company signed a definitive agreement to sell its Ottawa, Canada-based Dy 4 Systems business to Curtiss-Wright Corp. The transaction was completed at the end of January 2004. Dy 4 supplies commercial off the shelf (COTS) embedded computing solutions for the aerospace and defense markets. Dy 4 joined Curtiss-Wright's Vista Controls division, which provides mission-critical embedded computing solutions for the aerospace and defense industries.
- In mid-February, Solectron signed a definitive agreement to sell SMART Modular Technologies Inc. and its other affiliated SMART Modular Technologies companies to Texas Pacific Group, Francisco Partners and Shah Management. The transaction was completed in mid-April. Texas Pacific Group, Francisco Partners and Shah Management will acquire SMART Modular. However, in this case, Solectron will retain SMART Modular's Aguadilla and Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, sites that perform electronics assembly services.
- In mid-April, the EMS provider also completed a transaction to sell its Stream International call center business to H.I.G. Capital, the parent company of ECE Holdings Inc.
- Most recently, Solectron signed a definitive agreement to sell its Kavlico sensor products business to Schneider Electric, an international equipment manufacturer.