CHICAGO – Premier Farnell, distributor of electronic components, has launched an international design competition called Live Edge: Electronic Design for the Global Environment. Newark, a Premier Farnell business, will support the competition throughout the Americas.

Electronics engineers, students and academics are invited to submit designs that utilize electronic components and have a positive impact on the environment by increasing energy efficiency or reducing carbon emissions, for example.

The closing date for registration is Oct. 31; entries must be submitted by Nov. 30.

The winning entrant will receive a cash prize of $50,000 and a support package, estimated to be worth an additional $50,000, to help produce the design. The winner will be announced in Jan. 2008.

Full details are available at www.live-edge.com/info.

Up to five entrants will be eligible for honorable mentions, each receiving a cash prize of $5,000.

Industry judges will be announced soon. Live Edge will be largely Web-based to readily accommodate entrants on an international level.

ST. PETERSBURG, FL – Jabil Circuit Inc. has announced profits of $164.5 million based on revenue of $10.3 billion through their fiscal end of August 2006.

Despite a $28 million reduction in profits from Jabil's restatement of earnings in 2005, overall profit remained lower in 2006. Jabil earned $203.9 million, based on revenue of $7.5 billion in 2005, according to SEC restated numbers.

NEW YORK – Credit Suisse analyst William Stein gave the EMS industry an “underweight” rating while initiating coverage of the sector. This rating means the industry is expected to perform worse than the broad market standard during the next year.

Called a “tough industry,” EMS companies have been impacted by congestion in expensive regions, particularly in the U.S. and Western Europe leading up to 2000, said Stein. He continued, “EMS companies … generate positive cash flow, and have enough liquidity to weather any reasonable industry downturn," even though they have some fundamental problems.

"Industry-wide utilization rates of approximately 60% in high-cost regions drive hyper competition, affording these companies no pricing power over their OEM customers," Stein explained.

When Credit Suisse started coverage of EMS providers, Flextronics International Ltd. received an "outperform" rating, while Stein rated Jabil, Sanmina-SCI, Benchmark Electronics, Inc., and Plexus Corp. "neutral." Solectron Corp. and Celestica Inc. were rated "underperform" by the analyst.

SAN JOSE, CA – In the first quarter of 2007, total worldwide silicon wafer area shipments were about 11% above the same period last year, says SEMI. Shipments remained stable in the first quarter, with a 1% increase compared to the fourth quarter of 2006.

"In a traditionally seasonal weaker quarter, demand for silicon was effectively unchanged compared to Q4 of last year. In addition, an ongoing inventory correction throughout the supply chain impacted the market. Nevertheless the growth trend for 300 mm wafers remained intact,” said chairman Dr. Volker Braetsch. ”Not coming really as a surprise, Asia maintained its strong momentum making up for weaker silicon area growth in the other regions.”

PEMBROKE, BERMUDA – Tyco International Ltd. today announced it will establish nearly $3 billion in a cash fund for payment of plaintiffs’ claims in the consolidated securities class action cases, involving former executives, including ex-CEO Dennis Kozlowksi. The settlement is subject to court approval.

SPOKANE, WA – EMS provider Key Tronic Corporation announced that it completed the sale of its Las Cruces, New Mexico facility on May 11 with Adevco Corporation.

The total sale price was approximately $4.3 million.

Key Tronic received approximately $2.8 million in cash and a $1.5 million note. The note is for excess land covered by a flood zone designation.

SHANGHAI – Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. of China has signed letters of intent to purchase close to $2 billion worth of semiconductor manufacturing equipment from U.S. vendors over three-year periods.

SMIC participated in the signing ceremony of contracts and agreements between U.S. and China companies at the U.S-China Hi-Tech Cooperation Forum held in San Francisco.

The company signed six LOIs outlining plans to purchase equipment from U.S. vendors, including Applied Materials, Axcelis, KLA-Tencor, Lam Research, Novellus and Varian Semiconductor.

MELAKA, MALAYSIA – Goh Seng Chong and a Singaporean group have made a $40 million bid for Cubic Electronics, a manufacturing segment of Creative Technology Ltd.

Goh, former VP and GM of Cubic Electronics, and his partner have acquired 80.1% interest and control of the company.

Cubic is the largest manufacturing facility for Creative Technology with 1.2 million sq. ft. and approximately 2,500 employees.

Acquisition reportedly should be completed by the end of May.

SINGAPORE − Advanced Interconnect Technologies, a provider of semiconductor assembly and test services, announced that it has received JEDEC approval for its QFN-style Etched Leadless Package.

AIT’s patented ELP is a Quad Pb-free staggered and inline multi-row package with metallized terminals along the edges of the bottom surface. The package is offered in two- or three-row configurations. ELP reportedly offers a small footprint, low cost and design flexibility for higher I/O count.

NEENAH, WI – Plexus Corp. said that F. Gordon Bitter will retire from his role as senior vice president and chief financial officer this year.

COLORADO SPRINGS – Photo Stencil has been awarded the Best Printing Stencil Award 2006 by the Universal SMT Lab, now known as the Advanced Process Laboratory of Unovis Solutions. Photo Stencil’s AMTX E-FAB electroformed stencil placed first in the lab’s study, with the company’s NicAlloy stencil placing second.

The lab’s 2006 study isolated the stencil printing tool to determine which stencil improves the process and decreases the number of defects. The test group included five electroform stencils and seven laser stencils supplied by four leading manufacturers.

A yield analysis program determined the yield loss as a result of open defects of BGA and uBGA packages directly attributed to the stencil. The results show that, compared to the best stencil, the increase in repair costs varies from an additional $658 for the second best, to several thousand more for poor performing stencils because of higher rework. The repair cost analysis assumes a 20,000-piece board run and a cost of $75 to repair a defective board.