All of us nurture a baby beyond our means at home to make them resilient to face the external environment while growing up. There are many yardsticks to measure a baby’s growth - by way of checking the height, weight and head circumference etc. etc. But, in case of our online media baby, nothing was available off the shelf. A number of parameters crossed my mind, is it circulation figure, quality of content, advertisements or page views, individually or collectively, be the criterion for evaluating the growth of the India edition. Read More

Strain gage testing: the delta effect of thermal cycle testing
Written By: Mark T. McMeen

Do you know what level of applied strain your printed circuit board assembly realizes in your fielded state? This article looks at one case study of failed hardware and the underlying failure mechanisms of temperature cycling. All testing was performed by the STI Electronics Analytical Lab on customer-failed hardware.
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A new angle on printing
Written By: George Babka, y Scott Zerkle,

Although blade contact angle is a critical stencil printing parameter, screen printers have so far been unable to vary it ‘on-the-fly’, in software. The recently released Assembléon/Yamaha YGP printer has changed this, and has made new application research possible to study a crucial 01005 process variable for feature printing that previous researchers have ignored.

Juki to feature FX-1R high-speed chip shooter at APEX 2009
Juki Corporation, a world-leading provider of automated assembly products and systems, announces that it will highlight the FX-1R High-speed Chip Shooter in booth 759 at the upcoming APEX 2009 exhibition and conference, scheduled to take place March 31-April 2, 2009 in Las Vegas.
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ESSEMTEC to showcase FLX2011 at APEX 2009
Essemtec, a leading manufacturer of surface mount technology production equipment, announces that it will introduce its multifunctional FLX2011 Flexible Pick-and-Place System to the North American market in booth 243 at the upcoming APEX 2009 exhibition and conference, scheduled to take place March 31-April 2, 2009, in Las Vegas.
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Europlacer to Exhibit IINEO-2 Placement System at APEX 2009
Europlacer, a designer and manufacturer of comprehensive SMT placement systems for the global electronics industry, announces that it will display its IINEO-2 SMT platform in booth 473 at the upcoming APEX 2009 Conference & Exhibition that is scheduled to take place March 31-April 2, 2009 in Las Vegas.
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VJ Electronix to Exhibit Vertex Series-A Advanced X-Ray Inspection System at APEX 2009
VJ Electronix, Inc., the leader in rework technologies and global provider of advanced X-ray inspection systems, announces that it will highlight the Vertex Series-A in booth 2265 at the upcoming 2009 APEX Electronics Manufacturing Exhibition and Conference, scheduled to take place Tuesday, March 31 through Thursday, April 2, 2009, at the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
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Seika to Debut McDry HM1001 Dehumidifying Storage Cabinet at APEX 2009
Seika Machinery, Inc., a leading provider of advanced machinery, materials and engineering services, announces that it will debut the McDry HM1001 Ultra-Low & Quick-Dehumidifying Storage Cabinet in booth 1035 at the upcoming APEX 2009 exhibition and conference, scheduled to take place March 31-April 2, 2009, in Las Vegas.
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FINETECH to demonstrate advanced rework applications at APEX 2009
FINETECH will demonstrate today’s most requested advanced rework applications in booth #2059 at the upcoming APEX 2009, scheduled to take place March 31 – April 2, 2009 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas.
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Milara to present TouchPrint Digital TD2929 automatic inline printer at APEX 2009
Milara Inc., a leading vendor of fully and semiautomatic stencil printers for SMT and wafer applications, announces after years of development and refinement, it will debut its finest inline achievement — TouchPrint Digital TD2929 — in booth 2207 at the upcoming APEX exhibition and conference, scheduled to take place March 31 - April2, 2009 in Las Vegas.
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CyberOptics to premier SE500 ™ 3-D solder paste inspection at APEX 2009
CyberOptics Corporation announces that it will introduce SE500, an advanced 100 percent 3-D solder paste inspection system, in booth 2071 at the upcoming APEX 2009 exhibition and conference, scheduled to take place March 31-April 2, 2009 in Las Vegas.
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Cobar Solder products exhibits full range of Lead-free solders and fluxes at IPC/APEX 2009
Cobar Solder Products will exhibit a complete range of advanced soldering materials ranging from bar solder to SMT solder paste to high-performance fluxes at Apex 2009, in booth#2111.

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Inovaxe to premier INOVISION - a new SaaS offering - at APEX 2009
Inovaxe Corp., a leader in delivering lean inventory control solutions to electronics manufacturers, announces that it will introduce INOVISION, a full featured material requirements planning (MRP) system, in booth 448 at the upcoming APEX 2009 exhibition and conference, scheduled to take place March 31-April 2, 2009, in Las Vegas.

.... more product news

Nokia pulls more than US$5 billion in business from contract manufacturers, iSuppli says
Nokia has stopped using outside contract manufacturers for the assembly of its phones, dealing yet another blow to the beleaguered electronics contract manufacturing business that is expected to see a loss of US$5 billion in revenues because of the pull-back by the world's largest mobile handset brand, according to iSuppli.
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BEL, BHEL sign MoU for solar JV
Navratna PSUs Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding to explore formation of a joint venture company for a solar photovoltaic business.
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KIC appoints Bergen Associates as distributor for photovoltaic thermal profiler in India
KIC, the leader of thermal process development and control products, and winner of multiple industry awards, announces that it has named Bergen Associates Pvt Ltd. as its distributor in India since 1st February 2009.
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PC sales dip 19% in Q3 2008-09
MAIT announced the findings of its quarterly industry performance review for the quarter October-December (OND) of fiscal 2008-09 on Monday.

The total PC sales between October and December 2008, with desktop computer and notebooks taken together, were 1.4 million (14 lakh) units, registering a decline of nineteen percent over the same period last fiscal.
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AT&S India builds medical centre and kindergarten for needy families near Nanjangud, India
Corporate social responsibility is a major topic at AT&S, Europe’s and India’s largest producer of printed circuit boards (PCBs). This year the AT&S Group supported an ambitious project put forward by the AT&S India subsidiary – the residents of Korehundi, a village close to AT&S’s Nanjangud plant, celebrated the completion of a new, fully equipped medical centre and a kindergarten for needy families in the area on 16 February 2009.
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Tektronix Inc. received Intel’s Preferred Quality Supplier award
Tektronix Inc. has received Intel Corporation’s Preferred Quality Supplier (PQS) award recognizing their significant contributions to Intel in 2008. Tektronix supplies Intel with validation test equipment, deemed essential to Intel’s success. Tektronix and 25 additional suppliers are recognized as 2008 PQS award winners.
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Global mobile-phone unit sales fell 4.6% in Q4 2008
Global mobile-phone sales to end users fell 4.6% in the fourth quarter to 314.7 million units compared to fourth quarter of 2007, research from Gartner reported on Tuesday.

Sales into the channel reached 297.3 million units. The difference between the two measurements was the biggest since Gartner started keeping track in 2001, showing distributors' and retailers' efforts to reduce inventory.
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E-waste menace needs urgent technological and market interventions, says ELCINA-DSIR study
ELCINA Electronics Industry Association of India, on Thursday announced the findings of their study on status and potential of e-waste management in India, conducted with support from DSIR (Department of Scientific and Industrial Research), Ministry of Science and Technology under their Technology Management Programme.

.... more breaking news