SAN JOSE – The 90-day moving average order for North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment was $1.5 billion in October, up 37% year-over-year but down 9% sequentially, according to the SEMI trade group.

The book-to-bill ratio was 0.95, meaning $95 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

The three-month average worldwide billings was $1.57 billion, off 6% from revised September figures and up 37 % over October 2005.

In a statement, SEMI president and CEO Stanley T. Myers said, "Orders for semiconductor equipment have declined from the peak levels posted in June, though they are significantly higher than levels reported one year ago. There has been a gradual decline over the past three months, as the industry absorbs new capacity.”

The SEMI book-to-bill is a ratio of three-month moving averages of worldwide bookings and billings for North American-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers.

SAN JOSE -- Sarantel, a maker of antennas for wireless devices, will outsource production to Sanmina-SCI Corp. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Sanmina-SCI will provide Sarantel with procurement, manufacturing and logistics services from its Singapore facility. Sanmina-SCI is also expected to eventually acquire certain Sarantel manufacturing assets but not its buildings or employees.

Sarantel said the deal will help it cut costs, improve competitiveness and operate in closer proximity to its Asian customers.

"Over time we expect high volume, cost-sensitive products to transfer to Asia while our British plant's focus shifts to new process development, new product introduction and niche market antenna production," said Sarantel chief executive David Wither.

Jerry Rodrigues, executive vice president Asia PCB at Sanmina-SCI, said: "Sarantel operate(s) in high growth markets and have a unique and exciting product offering. The high technical requirements of their product can be supported by our strong manufacturing capabilities. We look forward to working with Sarantel and enabling them to utilize our extensive manufacturing and supply chain solutions."

VANCOUVER -- Moventis Capital, a buyout and growth management company, has closed on its C$7 million acquisition of EMS company PTL Electronics.

PTL has revenues of C$10.2 million and EBITDA of C$1.3 million for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2006. Over the first two quarters 2007 revenues rose 25% and 36.2%, respectively, year over year.

WASHINGTON— The U.S. Patent Trademark Office has issued Endicott Interconnect Technologies patent no. 7,084,014, describing a method of making a circuitized substrate. 

It brings to 27 the the total U.S patents granted EI since it spun off from IBM four years ago.

The EMS company isn't finished. The Patent Office has also listed applications for the following:

*An electronic package that includes a circuitized substrate having at least two electrical components positioned on it (application no. 20060255460). The package includes patterns of contact sites, each for having one of the components coupled thereto. The patterns of contact sites in turn are electrically interconnected by a grouping of conductive lines which, to substantially prevent skew, are of substantially the same length. The application further describes a method of making the package. The applicant is Irv Memis

* A method of plating a circuit pattern on a substrate (application no. 20060255009). The concept uses a dual step metallurgy application process in combination with a dual step photoresist removal process. Applicants include Norman A. Card, Robert D. Edwards, John J. Konrad, Roy H. Magnuson, Timothy L.  Wells and Michael Wozniak.

* A method of making a circuit board which includes a multiple contiguous open segments along a side edge portion of the at least one electrically conductive layer, with the open segments isolated by a barrier of dielectric material which substantially fills the open segments, e.g., during a lamination process which bonds two dielectric layers of the substrate to the conductive layer (application no. 20060248717). Applicants include John Lauffer, James Larnerd and  Voya Markovich.

EI ranks 13th among the top U.S. PCB companies in revenues, according to Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture. Just three of those companies have more PCB-related patents, however.

The firm’s impressive patent portfolio covers innovative substrate designs and manufacturing processes and is strong evidence of EI’s technical expertise in this very competitive area.

EI’s top 11 patent holders account for over 700 patents, topped by Voya Markovich with 171 and Kostas Papathomas with 154.

“EI is committed to developing new processes, technologies and techniques that enable progress in the electronics industry. This technical leadership has been accomplished through the creativity and invention of our talented personnel,” said James J. McNamara, president and CEO in a press release. “This innovation is a key to EI’s success in the advanced packaging arena and clearly differentiates us from our competitors."

EDITOR: This story was updated on Nov. 30 to correct certain reporting errors.

ANGLETON, TX -- Benchmark Electronics has received U.S. antitrust approval to acquire fellow EMS firm Pemstar Inc..

Following a standard review, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said it would allow the deal.

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TOKYO -- Japan's September PCB sales rose 14.4% year-over-year to 85 billion yen, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI). Sales were up 3.9% over August.

According to analyst and PCD&M columnist Dominique Numakura, the September data are "an important barometer because they predict consumer electronics spending for the upcoming Christmas holiday."

Year to date, sales are up 16.5% over 2005. Volumes are not showing significant increases, however, which suggests that Japanese manufacturers are shifting to high-end, higher margin products, Numakura said in his weekly newsletter.

Rigid boards shipments rose 13.9% over last year, while flex circuits were up 2.8%.

September revenue of IC substrates fell 5.2% from August but was up 62.3% from 2005. "It is not clear whether this is a small hiccup, or the beginning of a long slowdown," Numakura wrote. 

BANNOCKBURN, IL -- North American shipments of PCBs rose 9% in October but orders fell 6.2% year-over-year, IPC said.

The book-to-bill ratio in October was 0.99, dropping below 1.0 for the first time since November 2004. 

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ATLANTA -- Responding to a sold-out PCB East 2006 exhibit floor plus input from 2006 exhibitors and attendees, UP Media Group Inc. has announced that PCB Design Conference East will return to Durham, NC, next year.

The show will take place Oct. 21-26 at the Durham Marriott at the Civic Center, near Research Triangle Park in the heart of the second largest technology corridor in the U.S.

“We received really positive feedback on Durham, which was a new location for PCB East 2006. This helped us make the decision to return to Durham in 2007,” said Pete Waddell, president of UP Media Group.

Anyone interested in speaking or presenting at PCB East 2007 should go to www.pcbeast.com and click Speaking Opportunities. 

SARASOTA, FL – Inovaxe appointed CR Tech as manufacturing representative for the Midwest. Grafton, WI-based CR Tech will exclusively cover Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa.
 
The firm will also share Minnesota, Indiana and Michigan with other rep firms.
 

TORONTO -- Celestica Inc. today promoted president Craig Muhlhauser to chief executive, effective immediately. He succeeds Steve Delaney, who is resigning from Celestica to pursue other business interests.

Delaney had been president since January 2004. Celestica has had lingering financial woes: its GAAP net loss widened to $42.1 million for the September quarter, dragged down by $82 million in restructuring charges.

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CHICAGO – Connector manufacturers and distributors at the National Electronic Distributors Association annual conference in November suggested that overall market fundamentals remain healthy despite concerns of slowing industrial demand and bloated EMS inventory levels.

So wrote Carter Shoop, an analyst with Deutsche Bank Equity Research, in a research note. He added that other contacts at component makers and distributors seemed more cautious.  

“We believe the differing views stem from a larger inventory workdown in capacitors and semiconductors versus connectors. Connectors tend to be more application specific and have more stable lead times than capacitors and semi's, resulting in less volatility throughout a cycle,” he wrote.

For the current quarter, demand for military and aerospace electronics are slightly ahead of forecasts, while industrial and handset products are off.

Meanwhile, industry-wide inventory reduction has accelerated, with several contacts observing a “meaningful reduction” at top tier EMS vendors in October. Efforts are expected to continue through at least December.  

DB had previously estimated global EMS and ODM companies had about $3 billion worth of excess parts in inventory. “As a consequence of moderating end-demand, bloated inventories and contracting lead times, we believe EMS and distribution vendors, in aggregate, will reduce component inventories over the next two (possibly three) quarters on an absolute basis.”

ST. PETERSBURG, FL -- Jabil Circuit today launched a bid for Taiwan Green Point Enterprises Co., a  provider of electromechanical manufacturing and services for mobile products.

Jabil said it would offer about $3.31 a share for Green Point stock, putting the bid between $875 million and $900 million.

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