News
CAMBRIDGE, U.K. -- Organic electronics -- thin film transistors and displays for electronic products in which the key component is organic -- are forecast to hit $30 billion by 2015, driven by logic and memory, displays and lighting.
The author of the study, research firm IDTechEx, says organic electronics will not affect sales of silicon chips, however.
SAN FRANCISCO -- CIOs in July predicted IT budgets will grow this year, up from 6% in June.
Spending projections were up in all categories month over month, except telecom equipment.
According to research firm IDC, worldwide mobile phone shipments totaled 188.7 million units in the second quarter, increasing 7.3% sequentially and 16.3% from the same quarter one year ago.
Salvador Montoya and Israel Rodriguez, both students at Curie Metropolitan High School, received $500 each in scholarship funds from an IPC fund that supports secondary electronics programs.
The Scholarship Fund also donated $1,000 to the school for additional educational materials and equipment for Curie’s electronics program.
Criteria for the award included a 3.0 GPA in electronics, a 90% attendance record and a history of achievement in electronics at the school. The students also submitted written essays that described their plans for higher education and career goals.
In 2003, Circuits Assembly magazine and Technology Forecasters financed the $10,000 fund through a portion of entry fees from the Service Excellence Awards program. Each year, IPC donates up to $2,500 to the school.
Kim Sterling, IPC vice president of marketing and communications, said in a statement that Curie was chosen as the sole beneficiary “because of the school’s three-year industrial electronics course that gives students work-oriented, hands-on experience using the latest advancements in business and technology.”
SAN JOSE -- The Semiconductor Industry Association today applauded passage of the U.S.-Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement, known as CAFTA, by the U.S. House of Representatives.
“DR-CAFTA is an important agreement for the U.S. semiconductor industry,” said SIA president George Scalise. “Elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade is very important in helping U.S. companies gain access to these rapidly emerging markets."
Boston, MA –The NITON X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) analyzers from Thermo Electron Corp. (thermo.com) were awarded a Gold IDEA (Industrial Design Excellence Award) for Medical & Scientific Products. The award-winning portable analyzer line was designed by Altitude Inc., a Massachusetts-based strategic product development firm.
The analyzers are used for a variety of nondestructive testing applications, including RoHS and WEEE compliance, metal alloy sorting, positive material inspection, mineral exploration and mining, precious metals analysis, environmental risk assessment and lead paint testing. According to the company, the small size, light weight, ruggedness, ease of use and good ergonomics are critical for the demanding field applications of XRF, where instruments must work in a range of environmental conditions and take upwards of one thousand readings per day.
Altitude's designers worked with Thermo engineers and scientists to develop XRF analyzers that maximize productivity. The XLi, XLp and XLt series XRF analyzers determine approximate sample chemistries and identify many types of samples in as little as one second. All are water resistant, dust proof and built to meet the demands of rigorous testing conditions.
The EMS provider reversed a net loss of $1.15 million for the same quarter a year ago. Revenue fell sharply for the period ended July 1, from $6.2 million last year.
W. Barry Gilbert, chairman and CEO, said, "Rebuilding our sales base and developing a steady stream of top line growth is our top priority. Our new prospect portfolio continues to stay strong and our manufacturing representatives continue to present us with excellent opportunities. Operationally we continue to gain strength. We have ample working capital, an unused credit facility to support our new customer activities
Long-term debt is less than $800,000, down from over $20 million three years ago.
For the quarter, IEC took $65,000 in restructuring costs due to severance of 14 employees, a move expected to save the company $380,000 annually.
IEC's five largest customers accounted for 72% of sales for the nine months ended July 1, down from 81% of sales in the comparable period in 2004.
NEENAH, WI -- Plexus Corp. announced record revenues of $313.7 million for its third fiscal quarter ended July 2, up 14.2% over last year. The EMS provider's pro-forma net income was $7 million; its net loss of $21.5 million included previously announced restructuring costs of $27.6 million.
The document is said to provide a set of critical guidelines for capabilities definitions, as well as evaluation, implementation and operation use of AOI.
WILLOW GROVE, PA -- Kulicke & Soffa Industries and Microbonds Inc. (a private Canadian corporation) will align the technological roadmaps of Microbonds' new insulated gold wire bonding products and processes -- called X-Wire Technology -- with the Maxum series wire bonders from K&S.
X-Wire technology addresses interconnect challenges arising from the increasingly complex single and stacked die packaging designs of ICs.
Christian Rheault, K&S VP of ball bonders, said, "The potential to shrink package size, increase performance, reduce costs and enhance reliability using Microbonds' X-Wire Technology within the established wire bonding assembly environment is a very intriguing development that we are delighted to support for the benefit of our customers and the industry."
According to a press release, preliminary testing at K&S' R&D facilities using the insulated bond wire with the wire bonders have produced successful results with some yield improvements.
Craig Geier, president and CEO of Microbonds, said, "As traditional packaging technologies have inherent limitations, our customers are seeking new solutions to address their interconnect challenges. The integration of our X-Wire Technology with the leading advanced K&S platform of wire bonding technologies will provide customers new flexibility in the development of high performance-to-cost packaged ICs."
Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada -- C-MAC MicroTechnology’s North American hybrid circuit manufacturing facility, C-MAC Microcircuits, ULC, has achieved ISO 13485 Certification for medical devices.
ISO 13485 is a medical device quality systems standard that supplements ISO 9001. Some of the additional requirements relate to design controls, process controls (including environmental controls), special processes, traceability, record retention and regulatory actions, which are more critical for the medical device industry.
"C-MAC activity in the medical market clearly required the ISO 13485 certification. The certification of a quality management system specifically for medical devices proves advantageous, and in many cases essential, for C-MAC to continue to grow our business in the global market," said John Tran, North America sales manager, C-MAC MicroSystems Solutions Division.
C-MAC Microcircuits produces a wide range of functional modules for use in the telecommunication, industrial, medical, military and automotive systems. The technology encompasses multiplayer thick-film interconnect substrates, surface-mount hybrid circuits along with direct-attach flip-chip and chip & wire assemblies.
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