June 2008
ICT Annual Symposium
Steve Payne as Chairman of the ICT welcomed the audience to the Scottish venue of Tweed Horizons Centre in the Borders. Dr. Peter Hughes OBE, Chief Executive of Scottish Engineering gave an inspiring and musical key note speech to get the 34th ICT conference off to a splendid start. In his welcoming address, Steve Payne was confident that the UK will continue to play an important role in the innovation, design and fabrication of printed circuit boards; from flexible circuits to the most complex multilayer structures and emerging technologies, such as printed electronics.

May 2008
Cirflex Golf Outing
Work hard – play hard. This month saw the Cirflex annual golf outing take a long weekend to Spain. The Calpe area proved a marvellous venue, with 4 local courses being played. Mixed weather did not dampen some excellent golf. Sad to say the company ball retriever extensively used in the front 9 of the first course, suffered irreparable damage and had to be left behind as a memento to fellow golfers passing the 14th hole at the splendid Oliva Nova Golf Club.

April 2008
Polymer Thick Film Circuits.
Cirflex has undertaken a review of UK and European polymer thick film circuit producers. Often known under the Membrane Switch banner, the manufacture of circuitry through the screen printing of conductive (Ag) inks onto polyester substrates has applications in many areas such as touch screens, touch panels, as well as membrane switches.

March 2008
Conductive Inkjet Technologies
Cirflex have been appointed by CIT (Conductive Inkjet Technologies) of Cambridge, UK to undertake an initial market review for their contract manufacturing service. CIT’s technology is based upon inkjet printing of a catalytic ink onto which copper can be electroless plated. This enables from low to high volume & high product mix circuitry at very low cost. Pease contact Cirflex or CIT (http://www.conductiveinkjet.com/index.html) for further information.

February 2008
ICT Chairman
Steve Payne, Managing Director of Cirflex was elected as Chairman of the ICT for another 2 years. Steve commented that the last year had been most significant for the development of the Institute, which has now reached 200 members with numerous activities across the UK. For information on membership please go to http://www.instct.org/

January 2008
IeMRC Industrial Steering Group
Steve Payne of Cirflex was honoured to join the IeMRC’s Industrial Steering Group for industrial representation on all aspects of PCB technology. The mission of the Innovative electronics Manufacturing Research Centre (IeMRC) is to establish a centre of expertise through which UK industry can access and influence research in electronics manufacturing.

December 2007
SiP, System-in-Package
SiP is not just the latest buzzword in electronic interconnection and packaging but an enabling technology, which may be thought of as 3-dimensional MCM. A recent TWI workshop on SiP attended by Steve Payne of Cirflex was well attended with some excellent papers describing real applications from aerospace to medical electronics. Please contact Cirflex or further information.

November 2007
Productronica, Munich
The Managing Director and Company Secretary of Cirflex attended the recent Productronica event in Munich. The exhibition, the largest of its kind in Europe, displays a multitude of production equipments and materials used in electronic interconnection and assembly. Cirflex undertakes various project tasks at Productronica and other similar events on behalf of clients either unable to attend themselves, or for whom being accompanied by experienced industry representatives is of particular benefit.

October 2007
New Office for Cirflex
The increased level of business in Asia has necessitated additional office space being acquired at the Waterhouse Business Centre in the centre of Chelmsford. Steve Payne, Managing Director of Cirflex explained that the additional 400 sq. ft. was essential for the increased project activity in China. Contact details for Cirflex remain the same.

September 2007
Cirflex at the ICT Annual Symposium.
The Institute of Circuit Technology’s annual symposium is the flagship event for the ICT, bringing together top industrialists and academics under the theme of printed circuit technology. Cirflex has supported this event in recent years through a tabletop stand.

August 2007
Copenhagen to China
A busy month for Cirflex sees its consultants activities span the global electronics industry providing technical and marketing advice and support for their clients in Europe and Asia. Cirflex is well situated and experienced to offer local and immediate advice when and where needed in all aspects of electronic interconnection and packaging.

July 2007
Consultants to Chinese FPC Plant
Cirflex have been awarded a contract by Zastron (part of Nam Tai group), to support the initial phases of process and equipment selection for a new FPC plant in China. In particular Cirflex will advise on the use of vacuum sputter deposition of copper onto polyimide films as part of a semi-additive process for high volume FPC down to 25-micron pattern resolution

June 2007
European Printed Circuit Conference
The EIPC summer conference and exhibition was held on June 14-15 in Edinburgh. Steve Payne, Lead Consultant of Cirflex attended as Chairman of the ICT and was joined by Bill Wilkie, Technical Director of the ICT at the ICT Stand. The event was very successful, with attendees from across Europe all with a common interest in printed circuit technology.

April 2007
Laser system for Flex Circuit Production
Cirflex has entered into an agreement with PRECO, Inc. of Lenexa, Kansas, USA to provide consulting services to support the sales and marketing of their FlexPro Laser system and other products to the UK and European PCB and Flex Circuit industry. PRECO have unique experience of building production equipment for roll-to-roll and panel production of flexible circuits. For more information go to http://www.precoinc.com/systems/non-metals.html or contact Cirflex direct.

March 2007
New Chairman of ICT
Steve Payne, Managing Director of Cirflex Technology Ltd. has recently been elected as Chairman of the Institute of Circuit Technology. This is Steve’s second tenure as Chairman and he sees the role as even more demanding in this fast changing segment of the Electronics Industry The ICT established in 1974, provides a forum for networking and technical dissemination to individuals who are professionally or academically involved or interested in printed circuit technology.

February 2007
Embedded Passive Components
The MTEC 2007 - Sensors & Measurement Technology Exhibition at the NEC on Valentines Day provided the venue for Cirflex’s presentation on embedded passive components. The event organised by IMAPS proved popular. A detailed revue of buried resistor, capacitor and inductor technologies were given to an audience from wide-ranging industry sectors. Please contact Cirflex for a copy of the presentation.