Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - Features

FRAMINGHAM, MA -- Worldwide shipments of cellphones rose 19.1% year-on-year to 203.8 million units, led by Nokia and Motorola, research firm IDC said.

New products, portfolio refreshes and new form factors contributed to growth. The top 5 vendors reported all-time-high shipment levels.

TOKYO -- METI, Japan's government body for market data, said August PWB production in Japan was up 3.5% year-on-year, reaching 69,375 million yen. It was the first positive growth this year.

Sales were down just 0.2% from July. According to Dominique Numakura, an PCB analyst, the trend breaks with historical norms. August is typically the slowest month of the year for Japanese PWB makers as production declines more than 10% sequentially due to summer vacations.

Rigid board shipments grew 7.3% to 43,679 million yen from a year ago. Single sided boards declined, while double-sided and build-up boards rose -- the latter more than 20% growth yoy.

Flex circuits totaled 10,767 million yen, down 3.5% decline from July and 17.6% from last year. Single-sided flex fell 9.6% from a year ago but grew 7.9% over July. Double-sided flex fell 11.2% from July and 23% decline from 2004.

"It may be too early to confirm the recovery trend of the PWB business in Japan; however, there are several positive numbers in the METI data, and several signs of recovery in the market," Numakura wrote in his weekly newsletter. "I have been communicating with several major PWB companies in Japan, and they agree that manufacturing companies are getting more orders, and shipments will have remarkable growth from October."

SAN JOSE -- Randy Furr, president and chief operating officer of Sanmina-SCI Corp. for the past 9 years, is leaving the company for personal and family reasons.

Furr was named president and COO in March 1996. He joined the company as chief financial officer in August 1992. Furr will also resign as a director.

ORMOND BEACH, FL -- Noted soldering and reliability expert Werner Engelmaier will produce three workshops on solder joint reliability in Boston in December.

The workshops are part of the Engelmaier Series of Solder Joint Reliability, and will take place Dec. 5.

The Dec. 5 workshops include: Fundamentals in Solder Joint Reliability; Failure Mode and Root Cause Analyses (Fatigue, Brittle Fracture, ENIG); Acceleration Models, Reliability Tests and Screening Procedures. They take place at Philips Medical Systems in Andover, MA.

A fourth workshop will be presented Dec. 6, as part of the IPC/JEDEC 11th International Lead-Free Conference, also in Boston.

Registrations are required. For more information, email engelmaier@aol.com.

PALO ALTO, CA — Frost & Sullivan today named Plextronics Inc. recipient of the 2005 Technology Innovation of the Year Award in the field of printed electronics. The award recognizes the company’s significant contributions toward the development of conductive polymer technology, trademarked Plexcore, which will help enable broad market commercialization of a wide variety of organic electronics devices.

Frost & Sullivan makes the award annually to a company that has carried out new research, which has resulted in innovation(s) that have or are expected to bring significant contributions to the industry in terms of adoption, change, and competitive posture. The Award recognizes the quality and depth of a company’s research and development program as well as the vision and risk-taking that enabled it to undertake such an endeavor.

"An intimate understanding of the relationship between polymer structure, the resulting physical properties of the polymer, and finally its impact on the performance of organic electronic devices have been applied in the conception of Plexcore technology," said Frost & Sullivan research analyst Archana Jayarajah. "The company’s core technology is based on regioregular polythiophenes that have excellent physical and electrical properties and scalability - the key factors for its successful market application."

Plextronics approach to the design and synthesis of conductive polymers has helped the company’s researchers tailor fundamental material properties such as structure, molecular weight, polydispersity, energy level, and end-group functionality for specific end-user needs. The ability to control these variables has enabled the development of application-specific polymer technologies that cost effectively maximize device performance and has resulted in innovations that are patentable and virtually difficult to replicate.

Products based on the Plexcore technology include Plexcore OS, Plexcore HIL, Plexcore PV, and Plexcore TS. Plexcore OS is an organic semiconductor that can help in the fabrication of a new class of low power electronic devices. Plexcore HIL is a solvent-based ink that when printed using spin-cast or inkjet techniques forms transparent, partially conductive thin-films referred to as a ‘hole injection layers’. Plexcore PV, a class of semi-conductive polymers, can strongly absorb sunlight and generate electric charges required to function as a solar cell. Plexcore TS, a solvent-based ink, can be printed using spin-cast or inkjet techniques to form transparent, highly conductive, flexible thin-films.

On the whole, organic electronics is still a relatively new field in which only a few companies can claim to have substantial expertise. Plextronics, on the other hand, benefits from over 15 years of innovation in this area and its core technology has already helped catalyze the development of conductive polymers toward broad commercialization.

"Plextronics’ core technology has catalyzed the development of conductive polymers toward broad commercialization. Few companies in this field offer materials and formulation expertise as well as extensive device fabrication capabilities," said Jayarajah.

SARATOGA, CA – The average selling price for ICs is expected to resume growth in the first quarter of 2006, following a 15% decline from a high in January 2005 and a stagnation in August at $1.58. Advanced Forecasting Inc. predicts that the continued increase in sales of IC units will strengthen fab capacity utilization rates, driving ASPs upward, thus fueling a forecasted upswing in the semiconductor cycle in 2006.

Although the ASP decline since February strongly resembles that of the 2001 recession, AFI said, today’s situation is different and substantially more optimistic. “Overheating of IC revenues and IC units relative to their forecasted underlying demand is a non-issue, whereas in 2000 it was significant,” said Rosa Luis, director of marketing and sales.

The situation also differs from 2000 in which the forecasted growth rate of underlying demand sustained a decline while at the same time IC sales continued to soar, exacerbating the gap between the true demand and actual shipments.

“The current robustness of IC unit sales corroborates our forecast for fab utilization that showed growth into Q4 2005. As IC units continue to grow, fab utilization rates will increase until supply is constrained, forcing prices upward,” said Luis.

“Fab capacity utilization has been an accurate measure of the health of the semiconductor industry. Fab capacity stood at 1.44 million wafers per week (8” equivalent) and its utilization reached 89% in Q2 2005, up from an 86% minimum point in Q1 2005, in line with our forecast,” said Luis.

In comparison, foundries were operating at 83% utilization in September, significantly lower than the 99% level of a year ago, and partially due to the increased foundry capacity of 35% during the last year.

State-of the-art (300mm) fab capacity doubled since Q1-04 to 100K wafers per week. Its utilization hovered around 91% in Q2-05, slightly below the previous quarter’s level of 93%.