News
AUSTIN, TX – Samsung Electronics last week opened a 1.6 million sq. ft. 300-mm NAND flash memory wafer plant in Austin. The $3.5 billion facility will begin operations in the second half and ramp to produce 60,000 wafers monthly by 2008.
The building is one of the largest semiconductor facilities in the U.S.
The plant will begin production with the 16Gb NAND flash chips using 50-nm level process technology.
With the plant, Samsung topped its previous record for the largest foreign investment in Texas, some $1.4 billion in 1996.
The factory is adjacent to the existing 200-mm wafer fabrication plant. The existing plant was completed in 1997 and will continue to be used to manufacture DRAM.
The building is one of the largest semiconductor facilities in the U.S.
The plant will begin production with the 16Gb NAND flash chips using 50-nm level process technology.
With the plant, Samsung topped its previous record for the largest foreign investment in Texas, some $1.4 billion in 1996.
The factory is adjacent to the existing 200-mm wafer fabrication plant. The existing plant was completed in 1997 and will continue to be used to manufacture DRAM.
SAN FRANCISCO – A free Design Chain Associates Webinar on REACH, Introduction and Update for North American manufacturers, will take place July 13, at 2 pm EDT.
The European Union's Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals, or REACH regulation takes a different approach to regulation of chemical substances and mixtures in the EU. Manufacturers in electronics, textiles, automotive, aerospace, and other industries will need to assess which aspects of REACH directly impact them, as well as understand the risks that currently exist within their supply chains.
Robert Donkers, environment counselor and a member of the Delegation of the European Commission to the US, will present an overview focusing on the basics of the law, with a focus on pre-registration, issues for non-EU-based companies, the "only representative" and SIEF concepts, and more.
Michael Kirschner, president and managing partner of Design Chain Associates, will cover specific issues for manufacturers, including the concepts of "intentionally released," disclosure of substances in articles, and scenarios of supply chain risk.
To register, visit https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/662377247.
The European Union's Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals, or REACH regulation takes a different approach to regulation of chemical substances and mixtures in the EU. Manufacturers in electronics, textiles, automotive, aerospace, and other industries will need to assess which aspects of REACH directly impact them, as well as understand the risks that currently exist within their supply chains.
Robert Donkers, environment counselor and a member of the Delegation of the European Commission to the US, will present an overview focusing on the basics of the law, with a focus on pre-registration, issues for non-EU-based companies, the "only representative" and SIEF concepts, and more.
Michael Kirschner, president and managing partner of Design Chain Associates, will cover specific issues for manufacturers, including the concepts of "intentionally released," disclosure of substances in articles, and scenarios of supply chain risk.
To register, visit https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/662377247.
GLENVIEW, IL -- Illinois Tool Works, parent company of KEster Solder, Speedline and several other electronics manufacturers and suppliers, today reported revenues rose 15% for the quarter ended May 31. Operating revenues grew 10% including acquisitions, but just 1% from base revenues.
ELKHART, IN -- CTS Corp. today promoted CFO Vinod M. Khilnani to president and chief executive, succeeding current chairman and CEO Donald K. Schwanz.
The move is effective July 2. Schwanz had previously announced his intent to retire during 2007.
The move is effective July 2. Schwanz had previously announced his intent to retire during 2007.
MANASSAS, VA – DiversiTech will be the new sales representative for Zestron America in southern California and Nevada.
DiversiTech will promote Zestron’s product and service line for PCB defluxing, stencil and maintenance cleaning applications.
DiversiTech attended a two-day technical training at Zestron’s Manassas, VA, facility.
DiversiTech will promote Zestron’s product and service line for PCB defluxing, stencil and maintenance cleaning applications.
DiversiTech attended a two-day technical training at Zestron’s Manassas, VA, facility.
EL SEGUNDO, CA – Global LCD TV shipments declined to 14 million units in the first quarter, down 8% sequentially.
Amid weak seasonal conditions for LCD TVs, Philips Electronics posted the worst performance among the world’s top five brands, with a 26% slide in sales, dropping it one spot to third in the market, according to iSuppli Corp.
Amid weak seasonal conditions for LCD TVs, Philips Electronics posted the worst performance among the world’s top five brands, with a 26% slide in sales, dropping it one spot to third in the market, according to iSuppli Corp.
ARLINGTON, VA – “Congress can do right by the environment, consumers and the electronics industry by adopting a national recycling plan," said EIA interim president and CEO Matt Flanigan.
Governors Rick Perry (R-TX) and M. Jodi Rell (R-CT) are expected to sign electronics recycling laws for their respective states. Manufacturers will then face eight unique sets of requirements – twice as many as there were a year ago. A number of other states and New York City are considering laws of their own, the EIA reported.
A patchwork of electronics recycling laws is emerging from state capitals across the country, presenting manufacturers with a major challenge and Congress with a golden opportunity, the association continued.
"This is an issue crying out for a national solution," said Flanigan. "These laws vary dramatically from state to state, picking winners and losers among electronics manufacturers and retailers. If 50 legislatures rewrite business models state by state, consumers could see higher costs and fewer choices – all without any commensurate environmental benefit.”
Recently, EIA released a consensus framework that paves the way for federal legislation to establish a national recycling program for household TVs and IT products such as computers and monitors. The proposal represents the first consensus agreement among IT and TV manufacturers on meeting the nation's electronics recycling challenge, said EIA.
The framework calls for a bifurcated financing approach, separating TVs from computer equipment to reflect their divergent business models, market composition and consumer base.
Governors Rick Perry (R-TX) and M. Jodi Rell (R-CT) are expected to sign electronics recycling laws for their respective states. Manufacturers will then face eight unique sets of requirements – twice as many as there were a year ago. A number of other states and New York City are considering laws of their own, the EIA reported.
A patchwork of electronics recycling laws is emerging from state capitals across the country, presenting manufacturers with a major challenge and Congress with a golden opportunity, the association continued.
"This is an issue crying out for a national solution," said Flanigan. "These laws vary dramatically from state to state, picking winners and losers among electronics manufacturers and retailers. If 50 legislatures rewrite business models state by state, consumers could see higher costs and fewer choices – all without any commensurate environmental benefit.”
Recently, EIA released a consensus framework that paves the way for federal legislation to establish a national recycling program for household TVs and IT products such as computers and monitors. The proposal represents the first consensus agreement among IT and TV manufacturers on meeting the nation's electronics recycling challenge, said EIA.
The framework calls for a bifurcated financing approach, separating TVs from computer equipment to reflect their divergent business models, market composition and consumer base.
ATLANTA – There is still time to register for Streamlining PCB Documentation for Successful Manufacturing, a free one-hour Webinar.
Presented by DownStream Technologies and UP Media Group, Circuits Assembly’s parent company, the Webinar will take place June 20 at 2 pm EDT.
The online event will focus on how BluePrint-PCB can change the way you create PCB documentation by using intelligent design data to automate the PCB documentation process. The event will include a live software demonstration.
Learn more at:
Register at:
WASHINGTON, DC – The latest update to AeA’s Competitiveness Series emphasizes the need to pass the pending free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and Peru. In the report, AeA says Central and South America are leading destinations for U.S. high-tech goods.
Rob Mulligan, AeA’s senior vice president international, states, “In terms of high-tech goods, the United States held a $14 billion trade surplus with the region in 2006, nearly 25% larger than it was in 2000.”
Last year, the U.S. exported $17.1 billion of high-tech products to Central and South America; combined, this makes the region the fourth largest destination for U.S. tech exports, ahead of the individual countries of China and Japan. Between 2005 and 2006, U.S. high-tech exports to Central and South America rose by 20%, says AeA.
High-tech imports from Central and South America declined by $200 million between 2005 and 2006, from $3.3 billion to $3.1 billion, says the report.
SINGAPORE – Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing is ramping production of Tezzaron Semiconductor’s ultra high-speed memory chips.
In addition, the two companies are working on the manufacture of Tezzaron’s 3-D devices, and hope to see them become the first 3-D ICs to be manufactured in volume.
With Tezzaron’s FaStack technology, device circuitry is divided into sections built onto separate wafers using standard processing. Chartered enables 3-D stacking of these wafers by building hundreds of thousands of Tezzaron’s embedded thru-silicon interconnections, called Super-Contacts, into the circuitry on each wafer. The wafers are then aligned with a precision of 0.5µm, bonded, thinned, and diced into individual devices. A FaStack chip functions as a single device.
Chartered and Tezzaron will enhance the 3-D IC designs and build them into wafers produced by Chartered. Tezzaron plans to offer many types of 3-D IC memories in two, three and five layers using NanoTSV technology.
Chartered is also manufacturing Tezzaron’s 3T-iRAM family of 2-D 72Mb memory devices.
SAN JOSE – The SIA today lowered its 2007 forecast for global microchip sales growth from 10% to 1.8%, citing drops in average selling prices. The new forecast projects total sales of $252 billion, rising to $306 billion in 2010, a 5.4% CAGR for year-end 2006 through 2010, said the trade group's president, George Scalise.
TAIWAN – Cellphone maker Foxconn International Holdings Ltd. plans to spend $1 billion by the end of 2008 to more than double its production capacity, according to published reports.
The company produced more than $10 billion worth of products last year, and expects to produce more than $20 billion from 2008 through 2009.
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