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The PPM Project, sponsored by SMART Group and the U.K. Department of Trade and Industry, seeks to measure defect levels of tin/lead and lead-free assemblies. The groups will use parts per million defective as the main metric. Companies across Europe will be included in the study, which will be based on existing product acceptability methods to ensure results can be easily compared.
In a press statement, the groups said that "a common question is, How does my process compare with other companies' in terms of yield? The information did not exist or was not easily available to small and medium volume companies until the launch of the project."
IPC and IEC standards will be used to support the PPM evaluation, the groups said.
The PPM Project is part of LeadOut, an effort to inform and prepare electronics manufacturers for lead-free products. Results will be available from the LeadOut Website soon. For more information contact technical@smartgroup.org.
The agreement is subject to approval by Tecnomatix shareholders and regulatory authorities.
Under the terms, Tecnomatix shareholders will receive $17 per share in cash, a premium of 39% over Tecnomatix's average closing price over the last 60 trading days.
Tecnomatix's board has unanimously approved the deal.
The domestic book-to-bill ratio was 0.96, down from 1.05 in October. November marked the first time the indicator dropped below 1.0 since April 2003, said IPC, which tracks the data.
The ratio is based on data collected by IPC from rigid and flex producers and is calculated by dividing three months worth of orders by sales. A ratio over 1.0 is considered an indicator of rising demand.
Separately, the ratios were 0.88 for rigid PCBs and 1.28 for flexible circuits.
Despite the November dropoff, rigid boards, which are estimated to make up about 82% of all domestic PCBs, are showing some improvement. Year-on-year rigid shipments are up 17.8% and bookings are up 8%, while flexible shipments have grown 72.5% and bookings are up 88.7%.
Combined, shipments and bookings are up 28.5% and 24.8%, respectively, this year. Sequentially, shipments dropped 5.2% and bookings fell 23.3%.
Flex sales include some value-added services in addition to the bare flex circuits.
In a statement, IPC cautioned that month-to-month comparisons should be made with caution as they may reflect cyclical effects.
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