Jersey City, NJ - To assist electronics assemblers in the transition to lead-free processing, Cookson Electronics Assembly Materials Group and Speedline Technologies have developed a Lead-Free Implementation Checklist. The list provides details that should be confirmed for assembly equipment, materials, shop floor segregation, training of personnel, process validation, process refinement and yield enhancement.
The list was compiled based on the process engineering and R&D experience gathered by Joe Belmonte, product manager of Speedline's Advanced Technology Group, and Chrys Shea, manager of R&D Applications Engineering at Cookson.
According to Shea, "Our informal discussion on the subject very quickly evolved into a formal process of collecting and cataloging all of the information required to run lead-free processes. Our overriding goal was to help our customers plan and execute the lead-free transition by not only providing a methodical framework to follow, but also alerting them to some of the potential pitfalls they may not have previously envisioned."
The list is available at: alphametals.com/lead_free/tech_learning3.html and speedlinetech.com/lead_free/index.aspx.
PHOENIX - Avnet Inc. has agreed to acquire Memec Group Holdings LTD in a stock and cash transaction valued at $676 million, including the assumption of $194 million of Memec debt. Combined, the distributors will have annual sales of more than $8.5 billion.
Under the terms of the agreement, Memec investors will receive a total of approximately 24.011 million shares of Avnet common stock plus $64 million in cash. The transaction, which is expected to generate cost savings of $130 million annually, is scheduled to close in 60 to 90 days.MANKATO, MN - Winland Electronics Inc., an EMS firm, announced first quarter revenue of $7 million, up 35.3% from last year. Net income increased 71.4% to $374,535 for the same period.
The increase was related to new product line items integrated from OEM customers during 2004 combined with improved sales of
the company's proprietary products.
It was a record quarter for the company, and its 13th consecutive profitable
quarter.
Gross profits for the quarter were $1.7
million, up 24.3%. Gross profit decreased as a percentage of net sales
from 26.4% in Q1 2004 to 24.2% in the first quarter
of 2005, due to higher costs from new
product designs and billable
engineering projects.
Income from operations increased 68.9% to $629,203 due to a significant increase
in sales. Total operating
expenses increased 7.5% for the first quarter to $1.1 million.
During the quarter Winland's largest customer, Select
Comfort, increased its purchase commitments by $4.5
million.
The company completed the quarter with $587,007 in cash and a current ratio of 2.75 to 1.
SAN JOSE - Outsourcing of IC packaging assembly has fully resumed as unit growth reached double-digits the past three years. Contractors will continue to inherit a growing percentage of the IC packaging business as semiconductor manufacturers focus on the front end.
That's according to Electronic Trend Publications, a San Jose-based research firm. In a just released report, "The Worldwide IC Packaging Market," ETP finds that the worldwide IC market grew 28% in 2004 to $179 billion - surpassing the 2000 peak of $177 billion. IC units hit 105 billion, up 53% since 2001.
WASHINGTON - The U.S. high-tech industry lost 25,000 jobs in 2004,
dropping to 5.6 million, say a study released today by AeA. The decline represents a considerable
slowdown in technology jobs lost, compared to the 333,000 jobs lost in
2003 and the 612,000 jobs lost in 2002.
"The good news is that the technology industry looks to have turned a corner," said AeA president and CEO William T. Archey. "For the first time since 2000, both software services and engineering and tech services added jobs. Each of these tech sectors added over 30,000 net new jobs to the economy in 2004. This is especially positive news because tech jobs pay 84% more than the average private sector job."
AeA found that all but four states lost high-tech jobs in 2003, the most recent year for which state data are available. California and Texas lost the greatest number of tech jobs, shedding some 67,800 and 32,900 jobs, respectively. Despite these losses, California and Texas remained the leading cyberstates by employment, followed by New York and Florida. However, Virginia displaced Massachusetts in 2003, becoming the fifth largest state by technology employment. And, while Colorado remained the nation's leading cyberstate by concentration of high-tech workers, Virginia also moved up by this metric to second place.
The report also found that venture capital investment in the technology industry rose for the first time since 2000. High-tech venture capital investment totaled $11.8 billion in 2004, compared to $10.7 billion in 2003. Archey stated, "While the tech industry is beginning to make some headway, we need to be aware of increased challenges to our lead in science and technology as competition from the rest of the world intensifies. We need to pay particular attention to the factors that drive technology innovation, primarily a highly educated and skilled workforce and research and development."
The 90-day book-to-bill was 0.81, meaning that $81 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.
"The overall picture for North America-based manufacturers of new semiconductor equipment remains essentially unchanged," said Stanley T. Myers, president and CEO of SEMI, in a press statement.
The three-month average of worldwide bookings in March was $1.02 billion, down a tick from February and 26% below March 2004.
The three-month average of worldwide billings was $1.27 billion, down 5% from revised February levels and flat with March 2004.
The ratio measures three-month moving averages of worldwide bookings and billings for North American-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers. Billings and bookings figures are in millions of U.S. dollars.
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