TAIPEI -- Wistron, the Taiwan-based electronics manufacturing services firm known for building Xbox consoles and notebook PCs, is considering building a plant in Eastern Europe, the company's chairman said in an interview.

Possible sites include the Czech Republic, Poland, and Romania, chairman Simon Lin said.

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HONG KONG -- Nam Tai Electronics Inc., an electronics manufacturing services provider, reported fourth quarter net sales of $247 million, far surpassing the upper end of company guidance and up 62% over same period in 2004. 

For the year, the company reported revenues of $797 million, up increase 49% over 2004 and exceeded our guidance of 30% to 35%. Operating income for 2005 was US$52.6 million, an increase of 21%.

It was the company's fifth consecutive record sales quarter and seventh straight year of sales growth. Operating income rose for the fourth straight year.

ATLANTA -- Circuits Assembly today launched its new Web log featuring up-to-the-minute reports and commentary on the electronics manufacturing industry.

The Web log (or "blog") is managed by Circuits Assembly editor in chief Mike Buetow, and will feature regular commentary from several leading technologists.

The blog is located at http://circuitsassembly.com/blog/.

NORWALK, CT – Revenue from major applications and products based on organic electro-optical materials will spike from $2.6 billion last year to $10.5 billion by 2001, an average annual growth rate of 26.4%. According to a soon-to-be-released report from BCC Research, primary applications include displays, telecommunications and photonics, plus laser and nonlinear optics.

Sales of organic-based displays were $615 million last year, the firm says, about 24% of the total market. By 2011, the market will top $3 billion (29% share), BCC estimates, an AAGR of 30.8%.

Organic-based telecommunications and photonics materials were by far the largest market in 2005, accounting for about 75%, or $2 billion. By 2011, that segment will reach almost $7.5 billion, growing 24.9% annually.

KUALA LUMPUR -- Overlooked by the media, but not by investors, Malaysia continues to be a quiet hot spot for foreign investment in electronics manufacturing.

Outside investors poured $4.9 billion into manufacturing facilites in Malaysia last year, the highest mark since 2001, according to the nation's trade ministry. Electrical and electronics products accounts for half the Southeast Asia nation's annual exports.

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MINNEAPOLIS -- CyberOptics reported fourth-quarter sales of $12.1 million, up 17% sequentially and 7.9% year-over-year. For the period ended Dec. 31, net income was $5.2 million, including non-cash income of $3.7 million, up from $626,000 or in the third quarter and $794,000 last year.

Revenue and earnings exceeded company guidance.

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Clinton, NY – Assembly materials supplier Indium Corp. offers an Electronics Assembly Reliability Program to meet the performance challenges facing electronics assemblers. The program combines products, service and technologies to optimize finished goods reliability.
 
Products featured in the reliability program include:
Indium5.1 Pb-Free, No-Clean Solder Paste -Addresses via-in-pad voiding, CSP printing for SMT Reliability.
Wave Solder Products (WF7742, PIP+ Preforms) -Addresses incomplete barrel fill with Pb-Free alloys for PTH Reliability.
No-Flow Underfills (NF220, NF260) -Addresses joint cracking due to brittle Pb-Free alloys and reduced-size joints for CSP Reliability.
Thermal Interface Materials (solder TIM) -Addresses thermal performance issues caused by increased power and reduced component size for Thermal Reliability. 
 
The program also offers customers new process and application concepts as well as the industry’s largest SMTA-certified engineering staff, an online interactive technology knowledgebase and online Pb-free readiness assessment software.
 
For more info, visit indium.com/reliability .

Edina, MN --The SMTA is seeking papers for its third annual International Wafer-Level Packaging Conference and Exhibition. The event will take place on Nov. 2-3 in San Jose, CA, and will track IC packaging and test technologies with emphasis on 3-D stacked packaging.

Submit 200-word abstracts by e-mail to Melissa Serres (melissa@smta.org) by April 1. 

Dr. Ken Gilleo, ET-Trends LLC, Circuits Assembly columnist and SMTA VP of Technical Programs, and Terry Thompson of Chip Scale Review will co-chair the technical program.
 

 

Pittsburgh, PA – DesignAdvance Systems, Inc., an electronic design automation (EDA) and computer aided design (CAD) software developer, has completed a $3 million second round of funding.
 
Randy Eager, CEO, noted that the additional funds will be used to “add the necessary sales, support and marketing staff to hit our sales targets for 2006 and beyond.”
 
The company has also graduated from The Technology Collaborative Jumpstart program. The economic development organization supports the growth of
Pennsylvania’s digital technologies, robotics and cyber-security industries.
 
“The resources and infrastructure of The Technology Collaborative gave us many advantages we needed to start and run our business,” continued Eager. “They provided us with initial contacts to potential customers; rent free office space next to Carnegie Mellon University, our technology licensor; and a sounding board for new ideas.”
 

Breda, Holland -- One issue facing manufacturers transitioning to Pb-free soldering is the threat of cross-contamination between Pb-bearing and Pb-free materials. To help, materials supplier Cobar BV has instituted a simple, recognizable color coding standard for its solder paste products to distinguish Pb-bearing from Pb-free.
 
Pb-free solder pastes will now be packaged in green containers, while Pb-bearing pastes will continue to ship in white containers. There is no difference in the quality of the packaging material.
 
Cobar is the latest to join the ranks of solder vendors using color-coded packaging to aid in distinguishing lead and lead-free materials. Indium and Kester, among others, also package solder in similar fashion.

ANAHEIM, CA — Another Apex has come and gone, and what have we learned?

That the industry is busier today than it was a year ago.

That most -- but not all -- companies expect another solid year in 2006.

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