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News

SAN JOSE -- Worldwide sales of semiconductors totaled $19.6 billion in June, up over 9% from a year ago, the Semiconductor Industry Association reported today.

Second quarter sales were $58.9 billion,

WASHINGTON – New orders for manufactured goods in June, up four of the last five months, rose 1.2% to $406 billion, the highest level in the 14 years U.S. Census Bureau has tracked the data.

Shipments, down two of the last three months,

CAMBRIDGE, UK -- The number of companies offering Real Time Locating Systems has tripled in the past year. While in the past RTLS equipment has consisted of either very short range systems or complex, multiple antenna, multiple beam long-range RFID, new portability and affordability is sharply increasing its use. RTLS is now forecast to become a $2.71 billion business in 2016, according to a report from analysts IDTechEx.

RTLS are electronic systems that are intended to locate small electronic devices on people or things at any time. They are used in everything from hospitals to personal security to supply chains tracking.

SAN JOSE – SEMI (semi.org) has formed a working group of member company volunteers to provide expertise and guidance on intellectual property issues. Most of the activities are centered on education and government relations.

The group recently commissioned a best practices paper on IP protection. The paper,

NISKAYUNA, NY -- Binghamton University’s Integrated Electronics Engineering center (IEEC) and General Electric’s Global Research Center (GRC) have established an annual research symposium on National Trends in Small Scale Systems and Microelectronics Packaging. This year’s symposium will take place at the GE GRC facility in Niskayuna, NY, on Oct. 23-24.

It will offer information about promising new technologies and developments that are now impacting the electronics industry. Participants will receive overviews and research reports on a range of emerging technologies including: Nano Materials for Electronics, Flexible Electronics, NEMS/MEMS Developments, Optoelectronics, Sensors, Thermal Management, Sensor Packaging Integration, EcoElectronics - Lead Free Developments, BioElectronics, and Green Materials.

Approximately 150 participants, including development engineers and technical managers from major electronics companies and researchers from universities and government laboratories, will attend. Keynote presentations will provide an overview of recent developments in several areas vital to small scale systems and microelectronics packaging.

For the full program, visit: wtsn.binghamton.edu/coned/EP06Main.htm

SINGAPORE — Marvell, a fables semiconductor company, broke ground this week on its new regional headquarters in Singapore. The 100,000 sq. m. facility will house regional headquarters and include integrated design (IC) assembly and test operations, IC design, sales and technical support functions. The RHQ is expected to be completed in mid-2008.

Marvell currently employs 200 people in Singapore and plans to increase the number of employees to more than 500 within the next five years focusing on IC design and test and assembly engineering staff.

The company has operations throughout Asia including Malaysia, China, Japan, Taiwan and India.

Today, Singapore hosts 20 chip assembly and test plants, 14 wafer fabs and 40 IC design companies.

Tokyo and Santa Clara, CA — NEC Corp., NEC Electronics and NEC Electronics America today unveiled a new system-in-package (SiP) technology capable of stacking logic and gigabit-class memory in a single package to enable high-speed, high-definition image processing in mobile devices.

The technology, SMAFTI (SMArt connection with Feed-Through Interposer), features a 3-D chip connection whose approx. 60-micron gap and 50-micron-pitch microbump between the logic and memory devices can support transmissions up to 100 gigabits Gbps.

“The strong demand for digital video tv, digital video gaming and other digital video capabilities in portable consumer devices is driving the need for high-speed image processing that realizes crystal-clear resolutions,” said Takaaki Kuwata, general manager, Advanced Device Development Division, NEC Electronics. “SOC technologies present a disadvantage in terms of development cost and memory capacity, while conventional SiP products have larger package sizes due to thicker interposers, and have limitations in signal transfer speed, wire-bonding interconnections, and side-by-side chip placement. The new technology resolves these issues and enables engineers to effectively design and manufacture high-performance systems for mobile electronic devices.”

The technology leverages three key enabling technologies: a 50-micron-pitch microbump interconnection technology, a 15-micron-thick feed-through interposer (FTI) based on superconnect technology and a multichip assembly process.

The microbump interconnection realizes low power dissipation, a small form factor and high-speed interchip communication at more than 100 Gbps. Reduces the size of conventional pitch bumps and accommodates four times the number of bumps in the same area. Produces reliable high-speed data transfers.

Superconnect technology is used in chip fabrication and has a copper signal trace 15 microns wide and a polyimide layer 7 microns thick. Can convert a chip’s wiring pitch to 50 microns and fan out the pitch connection of an outer ball grid array to 500 microns. Routing of signals from a logic chip with a 50-micron pitch and memory connection points to universal substrate terminals can be simplified.

The multichip assembly process enhances existing wafer-based manufacturing processes typically used for SOCs. Memory chips are first mounted onto silicon wafers using wiring based on superconnect technology. Then the chips and wiring layer are molded by resin and the silicon wafer is removed. The BGA attachment process follows.

EL SEGUNDO, CA — Excess stockpiles of PC microprocessors and core-logic chipsets caused surplus semiconductor inventories in the global electronics supply chain to rise more than expected in the second quarter, according to new data from iSuppli Corp.

The research firm puts the blame squarely on Intel Corp. It is unclear as to whether Intel overbuilt any certain styles in anticipation of lead-free demand that didn't materialize.

SAN JOSE -- A few years back, Flectronics invested heavily into camera modules, anticipating that their eventual use in cellphones would give the EMS provider a boost in landing 3G handset contracts.

Today none other than Eastman Kodak said it will divest its entire digital camera manufacturing requirements to Flextronics, including assembly, production, and testing. About 550 Kodak personnel are expected to be transferred to Flextronics facilities. Closing is expected in Kodak's third quarter, pending regulatory approvals. The companies did not specify the value of the deal. However, Deutsche Bank estimated that the deal would grow from

VANCOUVER -- Nam Tai's net sales rose 15.3% in the second quarter to $214 million, in line with company guidance. Operating income rose 39.4% to $20 million, and net income more than tripled to $18.5 million.

In the quarter SG&A and R&D expenses as a percentage of sales was reduced to 4.7% from 5.1% last year. The company generated $17 million of net cash from operating activities and had capital expenditures of $3.4 million.

Nam Tai said growth momentum will be sustained in the third quarter and will further accelerate in the fourth quarter of 2006. The firm reiterated its long-term target of 25% sales growth.

The company expects to begin trial production of flex circuits by the end of the third quarter and is also looking for other opportunities to support the growth of its key component subassemblies business.

A factory expansion is planned for Shenzhen, and Nam Tai plans to construct a factory complex in Wuxi, pending local government environmental approvals.

FRANKLIN, MA – Endicott Interconnect Technologies (EI) has chosen the MPM Accela printer, made by Speedline Technologies, for its SMT and semiconductor back-end assembly processes. The companies are jointly conducting beta testing on several new, advanced hardware and software options for the printer.

These advances will leverage Speedline’s patented texture-based inspection algorithms to develop exponentially higher resolution 2-D inspection capabilities. This will enable the ultra-fine feature 2-D capabilities required by emerging higher-density assemblies that employ smaller or finer pitch components.

In addition to this joint inspection development, EI plans to use the Accela printers to process substrates in flat carriers, as well as perform fine feature assembly inspection in their Endicott, NY, facility.

EL SEGUNDO, CA — Tight supplies, rising prices and increasing demand for DDR SDRAM caused global DRAM revenue to exceed expectations in the second quarter — and boosted the market share of the Taiwanese suppliers that specialize in the part, according to a preliminary estimate from iSuppli Corp.

Worldwide DRAM revenue rose to $7.5 billion in the second quarter, up 14.3% from $6.6 billion in the first quarter. iSuppli had expected revenue growth of only 4.4%. Many suppliers are phasing out production of DDR in favor of the new mainstream DRAM: DDR2. This constrained supplies of DDR, contributing to an increase in prices. In contrast, prices for DDR2 declined during the quarter as availability increased. The overall impact was a rise in global DRAM prices of 4% compared to the first quarter.

Three months ago iSuppli had predicted a 4% decline for the quarter, which would be closer to a normal decrease in DRAM pricing. Confirming iSuppli’s prediction from three months ago, overall DRAM bit production growth worldwide increased by 10% during the quarter compared to 15% during the same quarter last year. This deceleration in bit production growth provided further support for pricing. Other supply-side factors boosting DRAM pricing included tight availability of DDR2 667 and a shortage of 1Gbit density parts.

“Along with rising prices, tighter supplies and lower production, the DRAM market’s strong performance in the second quarter was fueled by better-than-expected demand,” said Nam Hyung Kim, principal analyst for iSuppli. “PC core-logic chipset suppliers in the second quarter aggressively promoted products that supported DDR, boosting demand for the memory just as DRAM suppliers were phasing out production of the part.”

Due to the rise in DDR prices, the smaller Taiwanese suppliers that are the main suppliers of the part outperformed the tier-one suppliers, according to iSuppli’s preliminary ranking. The three major Taiwanese suppliers, Nanya Technology, Powerchip Semiconductor and ProMOS Technologies, all achieved sales growth of more than 20% sequentially in the second quarter.