News in brief: K&S, Unaxis and Accent
In a move to increase company profitability, Kulicke & Soffa Industries, (K&S) will relocate the manufacturing operations of its manual wire bonders from Haifa to its Yokneam, Israel facility. The move will combine its manual wire bonder operations with its bonding tools (MicroSwiss brand) business unit, already located in Yokneam. No definite date has been planned yet for the relocation.
To better focus on this core packaging assembly technology, the company is also considering the potential sale or closure of its blade and dicing equipment business unit, also located in Haifa Israel.
Kenneth Barry appointed president of Unaxis Semiconductors
Unaxis Semiconductors has appointed Kenneth Barry as its president. Barry brings with him more than 15 years of global semiconductor experience. Before joining Unaxis he was president of Veeco Instrument’s Process Equipment Group, where he was instrumental in driving the company’s strong growth and profitability. Prior to Veeco Instruments, he spent 10 years with MRC/Sony, the last four years as President and CEO.
Accent names Steve Hummel to CTO, Compound Semiconductors
Accent Optical Technologies has named Steve Hummel, as the new CTO for its Compound Semiconductors business. Hummel will lead Accent s innovation in process control equipment for GaAs, InP and GaN materials.
Hummel brings over 20 years of experience in the field of optoelectronic materials and devices. Prior to joining Accent, he held such positions as director of engineering at Nova Crystals, principal scientist at Agilent/Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, member of technical Staff at Bellcore, and senior staff technologist at AT&T Bell Labs.