Honeywell Electronic Materials Interconnect Metals, a strategic business unit of Honeywell here that formerly was owned by Johnson Matthey Electronics, is planning to release two new products this summer that are expected to boost employment at the companys Spokane Valley plant and improve the companys position in the global semiconductor industry.


We believe that both of these products are just going to blow the market away, says Mike Miller, the new Spokane-based general manager of several Honeywell manufacturing facilities both in the U.S. and abroad. Miller, who replaced Don Miller in November after he chose to leave the company, had worked at the plant here earlier, but most recently was based in Fombell, Pa., where he oversaw a separate Johnson Matthey division, which operated plants in Fombell; Golden, Colo.; and Salt Lake City. He now oversees those same plants, as well as the Spokane and Cheney plants here and plants in Victoria, British Columbia; Japan; Korea; Taiwan; and Widnes, England.


Miller declines to discuss the new products that will be made here in much detail until after theyre released this summer.


However, he describes one of them as a highly conductive, polymeric-composite, thermal-interface material. In laymans terms, the company will be producing a polymer-based material with improved ability to take heat generated by a semiconductor chip away from that chip and dissipate the heat into the air. Thats important because as computer chips become more complexallowing computers to operate at faster speedsthe amount of heat they produce increases. If that heat isnt dissipated in some way, it could cause the computer chip to fail and possibly burn up.


Within the next year or so, Miller predicts that personal computers will operate at speeds of a gigahertzor 1 billion cycles a secondwhich could conceivable generate more than 75 watts of heat. Personal computers sold today currently have an about 500-megahertz processor that handles 500 million cycles a second and throws off about 40 watts.


The polymer-based material likely will be produced at the Cheney plant, Miller says.


The other product, which will be produced at both the Valley and Cheney plants, is a new type of solder material that will be used for under-bump metallurgy and wafer bumping. Under-bump metallurgy and wafer bumping are techniques used to connect a computer chip to a printed circuit board, Miller says.


As production of the solder material ramps up this summer, Honeywell expects to hire handsful of people at the Valley plant, located at 15128 E. Euclid, Miller says.


Assuming demand for the product takes off as the company expects, the plant, which currently employs about 650 people, likely will hire another 25 to 30 people by the end of the year, giving it an estimated total of between 680 and 690 workers, he says.


He adds that the plants current employment is at about the same level as a year ago.


Miller says that no employment increases are planned at the Cheney plant, which currently employs about 125 people, down from a high of 870 workers in 1998. Johnson Matthey opened the Cheney plant, which is located in the former Key Tronic Corp. plant, in November 1997 to produce heat plates. Heat plates, which still are produced at the Cheney plant, are secured to a semiconductor chip to collect the generated heat.


Honeywell has invested about $100,000 in new equipment to enable the plants here to produce the new solder material. Miller says that at this point, the size of its two facilities here fit the companys needs.


He adds that its too soon to tell whether an expansion will be needed in the future.


Johnson Matthey Electronics, which previously was a U.S. division of London-based Johnson Matthey Plc, was bought for $655 million last summer by AlliedSignal Inc., of Morris Township, N.J. AlliedSignal then was merged into Minneapolis-based Honeywell International Inc. last December.


The resulting company now is known as Honeywell and is based in Morris Township, N.J.


Following the Honeywell-AlliedSignal merger, the resulting company now can supply all of the materials a maker of semiconductors would need. For instance, Honeywell International had been known for producing whats called dielectric materials, which are used as insulators in the building of semiconductors.


Johnson Matthey, on the other hand, was a supplier of sputtering targets and other materials that also are important pieces in semiconductor production.


Miller says the company believes it now is well positioned to take a leading role as a supplier to the semiconductor market.


The electronics business has been growing everywhere, Miller says. Its back in the fun times again.