CLINTON, NY – Indium Corp. promoted Ross Berntson to vice president of its solder products business unit, responsible for sales and technical services for printed circuit board assembly, semiconductor packaging, engineered solders and thermal interface materials. Berntson joined Indium in 1996 as a product specialist and was previously director of the solder products business unit. He is active in several industry consortia including the IPC Solder Products Value Council. Bernston has a bachelor’s in chemistry and master’s in teaching and business administration from Cornell University.

Broadband equipment sales were $11.2 billion in 2006, as users are opting for faster access to the Web. Household broadband is expected to exceed 50% in the U.S. and Japan for the first time this year, and will do so in Europe in 2008, iSuppli predicts. Global broadband subscribers will grow to 622.7 million by 2011, more than double the 270.4 million in 2006. “ADSL remained the leading broadband technology around the world in 2006, with 72% of the subscribers, while cable modems ended 2006 with 22%,” said Steve Rago, iSuppli principal analyst. “The ADSL market is headed for a major inflection point … This has happened in Japan already, as many service providers have migrated to fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) technology, which offers a 15-times increase in bandwidth compared to ADSL.”

IRVINE, CA – EMS firm ACC Electronix Inc. has purchased its second Mimot Advantage 2 placement system. ACC bought its first Advantage 2 last year.