PHOENIX, AZ – Electronic component distributor Avnet Inc. reported net income of $124.7 million for the fourth quarter, up 53% year-over-year.

The company said revenue increased 17% to $4.24 billion year-over-year.

Avnet said it expects first-quarter sales of $4 billion to $4.2 billion.

SAN JOSE, CA – EMS company Sanmina-SCI Corp. announced the production of what the company believes is the world's first PCB with embedded ESD protection, covering 100% of the components on the board.

"Despite recent concerns regarding the health of the industry, wafer shipments continue to increase,” said Dr. Volker Braetsch, chairman SEMI SMG and corporate vice president of Siltronic AG. ”Growth is primarily coming from 300 mm shipments, which in the second quarter accounted for roughly 35% of the total silicon area shipped.”

STAMFORD, CT – The top five consumers of semiconductors last year, ranked in order, were Hewlett-Packard, Dell Inc., Nokia Oyj, Motorola Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., according to Gartner Inc.

HP consumed about $14 billion worth of chips, about 5% of the total output of the semiconductor industry, according to Gartner.

Dell and Nokia both took in about $12 billion in chips; Motorola used $11 billion and Samsung used about $10 billion, reported the research firm.

The top 50 consumed about $161 billion in semiconductors, or about 61% of global production. These firms had a higher percentage in communications electronics: 32% versus 26% for the market overall, said Gartner.

PEMBROKE, BERMUDA – Tyco Electronics Ltd. reported a loss of $1.37 billion in the third quarter, mostly as a result of a class action settlement and separation costs.  

WASHINGTON, DC – Comments via the TBT process on Norway's Prohibition on Certain Hazardous Substances in Consumer Products regulation, known as “PoHS,” are due Aug. 10. 

MANASSAS, VA – Zestron America recently completed a series of experimental tests confirming Vigon SC 200 to be fully compatible with organic solderability preservative misprinted board cleaning, the company reports.

The experiments were conducted in ultrasonic and spray-in-air equipment. Variation in spray pressure ranging from 30 to 50 psi and ultrasonic frequency ranging from 10 to 20 watts per liter were considered, says Zestron.

The MPC technology-based cleaning agent was deliberately tested at 122°F to examine the worst-case scenario. Each misprinted board wash process was followed by two minutes of DI-water rinse and drying with hot circulated air for 15 minutes.

Excellent compatibility testing with OSP misprinted board cleaning was achieved at a maximum exposure time ranging from two to four minutes, depending on the solder paste formulation, the company says.

TORONTO – EMS provider SMTC Corp. reported revenue of $66.1 million for the second quarter, an increase of 8% year-over-year.

HAVERHILL, MA – Engineering firm DKN Research has developed the film base connector, the construction of which is built on a thin plastic film. It was developed for use as a high-density termination technology for flexible circuits, the company reports.

Micro bump arrays and soldering pads are built on thin heat-resistant film in this connector. The connectors are soldered on SMT boards, and flexible circuits with size hole arrays are placed on the connectors. The micro bump arrays make reliable connections to the flexible circuits, says DKN.

The connection spaces with a film base connector will be one order smaller compared to traditional connectors, the company adds. The heights of the connections can be smaller than 0.3 mm, including flexible circuits. A 6 x 10 array connector makes 60 reliable connections for finer flexible circuits than 100-µm pitches, and consumes 24 sq. millimeters for the 60 pin connections on the boards, DKN states.