HMEL offers a total, integrated electronics manufacturing service. The company's opera-tions encompass all areas from semi-conductors to complex sub-system assembly and include assistance with design to minimise manufac-turing costs. HMEL meets the demand from customers looking to work with one supplier rather than sourcing from several. In this way the company offers added value.
HMEL is part of Hughes (UK) Ltd that belongs to the Hughes Aircraft Company, a unit of Hughes Electronics Corporation.
| Offering a total integrated electronics manufacturing service, HMEL's operations encompass all areas from semi-conductors to complex sub-system assembly |
Hughes (UK) Ltd recently led Team AirHawk, a group of British defence companies, in a bid for the Royal Air Force CASOM (conventionally armed stand-off missile) requirement. AirHawk is an air-launched, stand-off weapon based on the heritage of the Tomahawk missile.
HMEL is already working on a £2 million con-tract to manufacture electronic systems for the Tomahawk missile that has been purchased by the Royal Navy for its Trafalgar and Swiftsure (SNN) submarines.
For four years in succession HMEL's manufac-turing facility in Fife, Scotland has beaten its forecasts and turnover has increased 15 per cent year on year. In 1995/96, HMEL achieved its highest ever sales orders. The company also operates successfully in the space, aviation, rail, surveying, medical and consumer sectors.
| HMEL's expansion programme has included a factory-wide investment of £3.5 million over the past two years |
HMEL has particular strengths in hybrid elec-tronics and has developed many innovations for military applications. To replace the traditional hybrid package, HMEL developed the glob top, a plastic resin base material that protects the semi-conductor die. The company's ability to offer through-hole plating technology also is an advantage in this area because it contributes to high packing densities and low costs. Offering reduced size, low weight and high reliability over a wide temperature range, the glob top approach is being used in several military appli-cations. Although construction is not hermetic, HMEL processes are approved to European Military standard CECC63000.
| HMEL's manufacturing facility at Glenrothes in Fife, Scotland |
Power electronics is another area where the compactness of hybrid construction has proved advantageous. Traditional packaging for power hybrids used in military applications comprises a metal package with round leads mounted in glass seals at the ringframe. At currents greater than 50amps, the package lead diameter and the large diameter of glass to metal seals makes seals liable to crack.
In response HMEL developed an alternative power-packing technology that replaces glass to metal seals with direct bonded copper (DBC) packaging. The DBC substrates are formed by eutectically bonding alternate layers of copper and ceramic. The method of construction allows fully hermetic packages to be built where the DBC substrate acts as the base of the package.
If strict hermeticity is not required, plastic encap-sulated power-packaging techniques may be considered as a non-hermetic option.
HMEL's manufacturing capability is underpinned by a culture of continuous measurable improve-ment (CMI) that ensures a flexible yet structured approach to improvements in quality, cost and customer service.
