Daily News Briefs

Palomar Technologies, a manufacturer of high-precision assembly systems, announced it has joined with Sonix Inc. to help component manufacturers improve yield and reduce assembly costs. Customers of Palomar's process development and prototyping services can now use the Sonix UHR-2001 scanning acoustic microscope to measure the voiding in eutectic and epoxy die attach and improve their manufacturing processes. Sonix, a wholly owned subsidiary of Danaher Corp., is a manufacturer of scanning acoustic microscopes and nondestructive testing equipment. The Sonix UHR-2001 is an advanced scanning acoustic microscope that nondestructively identifies internal discontinuities in semiconductor packages. . . . Agere Systems, STMicroelectronics and TSMC have joined the The VSI Alliance (VSIA) board of directors. William Billowitch, manager of IP design reuse and development at Agere Systems; Peter Hirt, program manager at STMicroelectronics; and Andrew Moore, PhD, deputy director of TSMC; will represent the companies on the VSIA board. The ten-member board also includes Alcatel, Cadence Design Systems, Infineon Technologies, Mentor Graphics, Motorola SPS, Sonics and IBM. Recent VSIA members include Agere, UMC, GDA Technologies and Dolphin Technology. The alliance works to develop technical standards for the system-on-chip industry. . . . Eastman Kodak Co. and Siemens Medical Solutions have announced an agreement in which Siemens' sales force will sell medical imaging systems from Kodak's Health Imaging Group. The three-year global agreement is an expansion of previous regional agreements between the two companies and is effective immediately. Siemens Medical Solutions will begin selling Kodak computed radiography and digital laser printing systems directly to Siemens' customers.