In Memoriam - Longtime Corporate Member, Ed Gildein, CEO of Hybrid-Tek

Ed was honored as an IMAPS Fellow of the Society in 1983 and in 1990 the Keystone Chapter made him the second recipient of the Ira Custman Service Award for dedication and service “over and above” to the Chapter.

Everyone who knew Ed loved and admired him. He always was a willing and congenial partner and contributor to whatever project was underway. Ed always had a kind word for everyone and he will be sorely missed by all of us at IMAPS. Ed was a “gentleman” in every sense of the word.

Our deepest heartfelt sympathies go out to Ed’s beloved wife, Dorothy, and his children, grandchildren and his long-time business associates.

Ed Gildein was one of the best of us.

Newport Corporation has announced that its die bonding and dispense assembly equipment is now available with tri-color, red, green, and blue lighting. This latest feature has been combined with programmable lighting intensity and collimated lighting to enable robust processing of an incredibly wide range of substrates and packages. Each color’s intensity is set independently to maximize the contrast in the image. The new lighting is available on all new die bonders and epoxy dispensers offered by Newport. It is also available as an upgrade for most systems operating in the field.

"Tuning the illumination wavelength has always been the ultimate desire for vision processing challenging packages such as RF headers. Now the user can optimize the mix of colors for the package or substrate and choose a different combination for the die. We have found that this dramatically increases the capability of the vision recognition,” said Dan Crowley, Director of Sales for Newport Corporation. “The tri-color programmable intensity lighting solution provides robust image lighting for even difficult materials such as thin gold traces on white ceramic substrates.”

The Newport systems operate on Windows XP® software, which provides extensive functionality and flexibility. Newport die bonders include the MRSI-605 AP, the industry standard for automatic eutectic and epoxy die bonding and the new ultra-precision MRSI-M5™ for 5 micron accuracy placement. The MRSI-175Ag automatic epoxy dispenser features extremely accurate epoxy control for microwave and microelectronics applications.

On March 7th, 2006, BSI officially presented three Business Management Certificates to Cookson Electronics’ executives at their site in Shenzhen, China. These certificates recognize exceptional performance in meeting stringent standards for the company’s Quality Management System (QMS) ISO 9001:2000; Environmental Management System (EMS) ISO 14001:2004; and, Occupational Health & Safety Assessment Series OHSAS;18001. Presentations were made by John Broome, Vice President of Operations and Compliance, Asia-Pacific for BSI Management Systems.

“Our Cookson Electronics Shenzhen facility is the second of our Asia-Pacific sites to achieve registration to all three business management standards. The other site is Cookson Taiwan,” said Dr. Nicholas Banis, Cookson Electronics’ Director of Global Quality Assurance. “Richard Sin, our General Manager in Shenzhen and Eric Kwok, our Asia-Pacific Quality Assurance Director, were recipients for the Shenzhen presentation. Eric has been most instrumental in coordinating all of our site certifications in the Asia-Pacific Region.”

Now, all Cookson Electronics Asia-Pacific sites have achieved QMS certifications through BSI (either ISO 9001:2000 and/or ISO/TS 16949). Sites that have achieved EMS ISO 14001:2004 to date include Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and Shenzhen. The sites in India and Japan are pending EMS certification. All three regions (Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific) have achieved QMS ISO 9001:2000 regional certification schemes through BSI, attesting to integration of systems.

“C5729 has rapidly surpassed our expectations with respect to shipments versus other well established gold thick film products,” commented David Malanga, Global Technical Service Manager. “We now supply more C5729 than any other single gold thick film product that we produce at this division. That is a significant statement given the success of our RoHS-compliant C5756 product in the automotive industry.”

C5729 is both gold and aluminium wire bondable. It can be bonded with light and heavy gage wires of both metallurgies. C5729 far surpasses the Mil STD-883E requirements for 1.0 and 1.25 mil gold wire and 1.25, 8.0, and 10.0 mil aluminium wire. It performs well on both alumina and the lead-free multilayer dielectric, IP9217. C5729 is compatible with many Heraeus lead-free products to create a fully lead-free hybrid circuit.

Hover-Davis Inc. announces that it recently has appointed Wilson Industries as its Sales Representative for the areas of Eastern Pennsylvania, Downstate New York, Long Island, and Delaware.

Wilson Industries celebrates 37 years in providing quality representation in the automated production solutions business. Their core competency focuses on supporting wire-processing equipment, BGA and SMT circuit board rework and repair equipment, identification solutions, component taping systems, component lead forming equipment, electronic dry cabinets, high quality inspection systems, and surface mount stencils.

"Wilson Industries is very well established and respected.” said Rick Howe, Director of Sales, Americas Region for Hover-Davis Inc.. "Their experience and their product line card is very complementary to ours, we look forward to working with them to achieve success in their territory." Roger McAteer, President of Wilson Industries, states, "Hover-Davis is a welcome addition to our line card. We have already identified opportunities for their technology in our territory."

The Indium Corporation has begun manufacturing wave solder fluxes in its European facility, located in Milton Keynes, England. This added capability augments the company’s existing production facility in North America and will improve customer service to the European consumer.

Indium Corporation produces a full line of wave solder fluxes, including leading-edge formulations designed for Pb-Free applications. The company features no-clean, residue-free fluxes that accommodate both Pb-Free and Sn/Pb processes, offering unique advantages during the industry’s Pb-Free transition.

According to Brian Craig, Indium Corporation’s European Operations Managing Director, “Adding wave soldering flux manufacturing to our European operations strengthens our customer service and support throughout the region. It also complements the process-related materials we currently offer, including solder pastes, cored wire, and rework materials.”

The new laboratory is located within the existing March-China offices located at 828 Xin Jin Qiao Road, Pudong, Shanghai 201206, China. The direct telephone number is: +86 21 5854 2345, and the direct facsimile number is: +86 21 5854 9150.

To manage the new laboratory, March has appointed Mr. Michael Zhang as Applications Field Service Engineer. Mr. Zhang will oversee all aspects of laboratory operations, including product training, customer demonstrations, applications development and other laboratory-related activities.

"March is establishing a strong local presence in China in order to improve our ability to serve the Chinese semiconductor, microelectronics and PCB manufacturing markets,” said James Getty, Director of Applications at March Plasma Systems. “Establishing an advanced applications and demonstration laboratory in China is a key aspect of that initiative. Now, customers in China have the ability to run samples and do applications development work in real-time, with locally trained engineers and scientists.“

The laboratory is equipped with a variety of March plasma processing systems for processing a wide range of advanced PCB, semiconductor, and microelectronic devices. The use of plasma is an efficient, cost-effective and environmentally-friendly method of surface activation and cleaning during the microelectronics manufacturing process, improving reliability and increasing yield in both semiconductor and PCB assembly.

SUSS MicroTec AG has installed the latest 300 mm technology in wafer probe systems at the nanoelectronics research center IMEC in Leuven, Belgium. Both PA300PS ProbeShield® semiautomatic probe systems with ReAlign™ and ContactView™ technology and PA300 probe systems for RF-noise and S-parameter measurements have been installed. An agreement has been made for further collaboration on enhancing 300 mm probe systems in the following years.

"We are very pleased to sign this agreement with IMEC, Europe’s leading independent nanoelectronics research center,” said Dr. Claus Dietrich, Managing Director of the Test Systems division at SUSS MicroTec. “This collaboration proves SUSS MicroTec is offering the latest technology for advanced wafer probing, like the unique ReAlign and ContactView solutions. Furthermore, it shows that we continue to set standards in excellent electrical performance, such as noise and leakage levels, with our cutting-edge hardware and software solutions.”

In another development, SUSS MicroTec will deliver a second vacuum probe system to IMEC. The manual system will complement the existing semiautomatic vacuum system, which is currently being used to test the reliability of MEMS devices at wafer level. These unique systems allow the user to place the device under test in ultra-high vacuum environments that simulate actual operating conditions. Therefore the device can be tested before the packaging process, which decreases feedback time for R&D and saves costs.

IMEC’s technologies and devices are on the front line of technology development, and therefore new measurement challenges arise continuously. Close collaboration with SUSS MicroTec will ensure early feedback on possible future needs for wafer-level testing, and IMEC will explore solutions and future enhancements together with SUSS.