Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - News

News

PALO ALTO, CA -- Agilent Technologies will acquire Acqiris SA, a Switzerland based manufacturer of high-speed digitizers and analyzers for commercial, industrial and government electronics. The transaction is subject to standard closing conditions. Financial details were not disclosed.

ARLINGTON, VA -- Consumer electronics gifts will account for a quarter of all holiday gifts, with revenues rising 21% to $21 billion this holiday season, the Consumer Electronics Association said.

"The holiday outlook for our industry is a merry one," said director of industry analysis Sean Wargo. "Consumers' confidence in the economy is on the rise and the CE industry will benefit. CE gifts dominate a quarter of the overall holiday gift giving market. And consumers tend to shop with a 'one for you-one for me' mindset during the holiday season. As a result, gifts for others only account for about half of the volume of sales in the fourth quarter."

According to the survey, consumers will spend $195 on average for consumer electronics gifts.

"The upgrade cycle is driving a lot of this growth. Lured in by the declining prices on many new digital products, consumers are spending more for consumer electronics on average than they have in the past. An example of this is the MP3 player versus the portable CD player. The initial price for an MP3 player is higher than the initial price five or 10 years ago for a portable CD player," said Wargo.

For the second year in a row, the most popular item among adults to give or get is MP3 players. The rest of the top 10 list includes all types DVD players/recorders, digital cameras, laptops and PCs, televisions, video game systems, cellphones, camcorders and HDTV.

Topping the gift list, or what consumers actually plan to buy, this holiday season are digital cameras, cellphones, MP3 players, video game consoles, portable CD players, carrying cases, cordless phones, additional memory for digital cameras, laptops and clock radios.

Teen aged 12 to 17 selected MP3 players, video game consoles and computers.

EL SEGUNDO, CA — Market research firms iSuppli Corp. and Data Garage have merged, bringing together two firms that focus on electronics analysis.

Data Garage is based in Japan, iSuppli in the U.S.

HO CHI MINH CITY – Intel announced Friday it will more than triple its initial investment in Vietnam to $1 billion, expanding the size of a chip assembly and testing plant in HITECH Park.

OXFORDSHIRE, UK – The National Physical Laboratory will hold a meeting on copper dissolution in lead-free alloys on Dec. 7 in Oxfordshire.

According to NPL, the meeting will launch a program that intends to study various lead-free alloys under different temperatures and soldering technologies. The group plans to develop a measuring method for testing alloys.

The agenda will be set by the group’s specific production needs, designs, equipment, alloys and PCB finishes. Participants will gain access to experimental results before the end of the project.

NPL wants to develop a monitoring technique to quantify the rate of copper loss as a result of immersion in a molten metal under static and dynamic conditions; investigate copper dissolution with a range of solder alloys, PCB styles and temperatures; and produce a best practice guide to include a test method for minimizing PCB copper dissolution.

Solder manufacturers, wave soldering manufacturers and end-users are expected to make up the program team.

REDMOND, WA – Data I/O and Intel will offer an integrated solution to facilitate adoption and manufacturing with Intel’s flash memory devices and Data I/O’s automated programmers.

The companies will collaborate on concurrent engineering practices for cellular, consumer electronics, communications, computing and industrial applications, and will offer joint seminars and other educational forums. Data I/O will provide priority support for Intel customers, and work on technology development and licensing.

The companies will also explore collaborating on the Open NAND Flash Interface (ONFI) initiative to establish a standard interface for NAND flash memory devices.

SAN JOSE -- Randy Furr, the CFO of Adobe Systems, resigned today, the company said in a press announcement. No reason was given for the departure, although Adobe said it was unrelated to Furr's performance or the company's financial statements.

Adobe is among the companies restating earnings due to improper dating of stock options. Adobe will restate earnings from 1997 to 2006.

Furr was president and COO of Sanmina-SCI from 1996 until he resigned October 2005.

HERNDON, VA – iNEMI’s SnPb BGA Availability Task Group has scheduled a workshop for OEMs and the BGA supply base to meet Jan. 24 in the San Jose, CA area.

The workshop will address the needs of OEMs taking the lead (Pb) exemption from the RoHS Directive. iNEMI reportedly will develop ways to work with the BGA component supply base to support SnPb-compatible BGAs, assist with questions of long-term reliability, and develop other solutions.

The group plans to create a list of critical BGA component families; estimate total available market (TAM) for these devices in SnPb assembly versions, and develop a general business case based on TAM.

Registration information is available at
http://www.inemi.org/cms/projects/ese/SnPb_BGAs.html.

MUNICH - Siemens announced that its fourth-quarter profits rose eightfold, in part because of higher earnings in its automation units.

YAVNE, ISRAEL – Valor Computerized Systems reported third-quarter revenues of $9.2 million, flat with a year ago. The net profit rose 640% to $754,000 year-over-year. For the quarter, earnings before income taxes was $714,000, up from $68,000.

A call for papers has been issued for “The Trends and Future Requirements in Automotive Electronics,” an international symposium organized by Munich Trade Fairs International. In conjunction with electronica and ProductronicaChina, this event will be held Mar. 22 and 23 at the Shanghai New International Trade Fair Center.

Symposium topics are to include power train; sensors; fuel cell and hybrid; vehicle networks; electric power steering; infotainment, and simulation and test.

Abstracts should contain title of paper, author’s contact information, and between 250 to 400 words of text describing presentation.

Deadline for submitting topic proposals is Dec. 15. Send abstracts to epc1@mmi-shanghai.com.

NEW YORK – Illinois Tool Works Inc. continued its one-company consolidation spree, acquiring electronics manufacturing equipment supplier Speedline Technologies. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed and the deal is expected to be completed this quarter.

Speedline has been owned by KPS Special Situations Funds, a private equity group which bought the company from Cookson for roughly $10 million in 2003. Its brands include MPM, Electrovert, Accel and Camelot.