BANNOCKBURN, IL – North American PWB shipments in July dropped 25.3% year-over-year, and orders decreased 23.1% compared to last year.

WEST CONSHOHOCKEN, PA – Heraeus has acquired the microbond business division electronic packaging materials from Umicore AG & Co.
 
Heraeus has made an addition to its portfolio in the area of soft solder and flux material manufacture for use in the semiconductor industry.
 
Heraeus will gain 36 additional employees at its sites in Hanau, Germany and Singapore.
 
No financial terms were disclosed.

TORONTO – Maak Corp., a small EMS company based here, is auctioning off its equipment and assets.

WEST CONSHOHOCKEN, PA - Heraeus Materials Technology and Air-Vac Engineering have joined forces to develop solder paste for area array rework.

Development is currently underway at Heraeus’ Pennsylvania R&D center using Air-Vac’s ONYX-29 rework system.

The firms plan to optimize current dippable paste formulations specifically for the rework process. The new product is scheduled for beta testing later this year.

Air-Vac provides electronics rework equipment and processes.

Heraeus provides dippable solder pastes optimized for rework of BGAs and other area array devices.

LONG BEACH, CA – A shipment from China of close to 13,000 counterfeit routers and Ethernet switches was seized at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex Friday.
 
Agents confiscated 5,475 wireless routers and 7,472 Ethernet switches, according to published reports, citing U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
 
The products had logos indistinguishable from those made by Apple and Microsoft, the reports said.
 
Officials estimated the value of the shipment at more than $650,000, with a retail price topping $850,000.
 
No arrests have been made.

SMYRNA, GA – The third annual Virtual PCB, the industry’s only virtual trade show and conference for the PCB design, fabrication and assembly markets, will take place March 2 - 3.

AUSTIN – The total e-paper display market will grow to 1.8 billion units and $9.6 billion in revenues by 2018, a CAGR of 41% for revenues and 64% for units, says DisplaySearch.

E-book displays currently account for the majority of e-paper revenues. Nearly all e-book devices currently in the market use E Ink’s electrophoretic display technology, with a small number – such as Fujitsu’s FLEPia – using cholesteric LCD technology. Other electrophoretic display suppliers, SiPix and Bridgestone, will also commercialize e-book displays, according to the research firm.

The number of e-book/e-textbook models went from one model in 2003-2004 to three in 2006, to about five in 2007. In 2009, the number of models jumped to about 20. The e-paper display market for e-books and e-textbooks (5" to 10") is forecast to grow from about 1 million units in 2008 to 77 million units in 2018.

Color e-book displays recently entered the market with Fujitsu’s 8" FLEPia e-book. Because of the high price and technical challenges, DisplaySearch forecasts color e-books will not reach high volumes before 2011.

Electrophoretic was the leading technology in 2008, and DisplaySearch forecasts the technology will continue to lead the e-paper display market growth for this forecast period, and reach $5.8 billion by 2018.

Bi-stable LCD was the second largest e-paper display technology by revenues in 2008, and is forecast to reach $2.5 billion by 2018.

MEMS display technology will expand from small-size mobile phone displays to color and medium-size e-book displays over the next few years.

Electrochromic displays are targeting low-cost, high-volume smart label and card display applications. DisplaySearch forecasts electrochromic will become the leading technology in terms of unit volume for e-paper displays by 2013.

SINGAPORE – Singapore’s industrial output grew 12.4% year-over-year in July, as the key electronics sector continued to recover.
 
Singapore’s electronics manufacturing output dropped 5.6% for the month, a big improvement on the 19.2% drop in June.
 
Sequentially, industrial output grew a seasonally adjusted 23%; this contrasts with a revised 9% drop seen in June.
 
Year-to-date, industrial output fell 10.3% compared to the same seven months in 2008.

ST. LOUIS-- Northrop Grumman has awarded LaBarge Inc. $2.6 million in add-on orders for electronics subsystems for the Multi-role Electronically Scanned Array radar.

ST. PAUL, MN – Accu-Tronics Manufacturing Inc., a contract assembly based here, has gone out of business and is selling its assets.

JUAREZ, MEXICO – LG Electronics selected Flextronics to manufacture LCD TVs at its Juarez, Mexico facility, the company said today.

TAIWAN – Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) is denying rumors it would acquire Sony's LCD TV plant in Mexico.