Fab News

SANTA CLARA, CA and NAGANO, JAPAN - HDI Solutions, Inc. and Hioki E.E. Corporation announce the installation of flying probe testers at Endicott Interconnect Technologies (EI), Endicott, NY. EI is a fabricator and assembler of complex printed circuit boards, advanced flip chip and wire bonded semiconductor packaging products.
ANAHEIM, CA – DDi Corporation, PCB engineering and manufacturing services provider, reported fourth quarter sales of $45.2 million, up 4% from $43.3 million from the previous year.

Net sales for the company were also up 11.7% in Q3.

For the full fiscal year ending December 31, the company reported $181 million in sales, down from $198.1 million in the previous year.
PORTLAND, OR - Soldering chips to PCBs may become a thing of the past due to research on copper materials sponsored by Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) at the Georgia Institute of Technology, according to industry reports.

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MERIDIAN, ID - Western Electronics has announced that it has introduced a conformal coating for PCBs. The company will offer conformal coating services out of its Westminster, Colorado operation.

The company reports that the conformal coat equipment and process completed customer qualification completed in February, and is now being introduced on a general availability basis to the market. Western Electronics will use acrylic resin materials for current customer requirements, and has the additional capability to apply urethane and silicone resins.

"We believe this additional service will complement our existing value-added service offering, and broadens our capability to support existing and new customers," said Rob Subia, President and CEO.
TAIWAN - PCB manufacturers have reported that sales to Motorola will remain unaffected in the short term, despite the US company's recent announcement of the possible sale of its cellphone division, according to industry sources.

In January and February, industry sources report that they actually received orders from Motorola for trial production of several new applications.

PCB maker Compeq Manufacturing, who sees about 40% of its revenues come from Motorola, suggested that should a sale occur, that it would not take place until later in the year, and that any orders placed with Taiwan's PCB makers in 2008 would likely be unaffected.

Compeq also stated that if a buyer was an existing client of a Taiwan's PCB manufacturer, then production orders would likely not be affected, since Taiwan leads worldwide in the PCB handset manufacturing segment.

Uncertainties remain for the long run. Sources note that if a Korean or Chinese company bought the handset division, Taiwan's PCB makers could lose business because of the tendency of Asian companies to source within their own countries, the observers noted.
ST. LOUIS, MO - Laird Technologies has reportedly developed the T-lamT SS LLD as a metal core printed circuit board (MCPCB) laminate for LED applications. The claimed environmentally friendly laminate is designed to keep LED light engines burning brighter, longer and more uniformly, according to the company. The product features a copper circuit layer and aluminum base plate bonded together with the company's own dielectric.

The company states that the product is ideal for LED backlight units used in TVs and monitors, as well as light engines for streetlights, safety and other general lighting applications. The MCPCB will reportedly last longer than competitive materials, and the dielectric's microstructure will allow the assembly to withstand thousands of thermal cycles due to CTE mismatch.

“The LED BLU for LCD TVs and street light production will more than triple in 2008, and Laird Technologies has partnered with Iteq to provide high volume laminate production for these explosive markets,” said Robert Kranz, Global Product Director.

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