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ST. PETERSBURG, FL -- Jabil Circuit will acquire the manufacturing arm of Varian Inc. for $195 million, the company said today.

Jabil, a Tier 1 EMS company, will buy Varian Electronics Manufacturing, in a deal expected to close in early March. The Varian EMS unit has annual sales of about $200 million.

At $195 million, Jabil will pay six to seven times Varian's EBITA. Jabil will also inherit about $35 million to $40 million in inventory.

About 85% of Varian's manufacturing business is contract work for medical, communications, industrial and aerospace. Varian will remain a customer, said Tim Main, president and CEO of Jabil, on a conference call Monday.

Medical makes up 40% of Varian's sales, aerospace 15%, instruments 35% and communications 10%. Read more ...
AUSTIN, TX - Test tool provider National Instruments has acquired Toronto-based EDA company Electronics Workbench. Financial details were not disclosed.

The deal is expected to close in the March quarter.

The companies have worked together for years, and National Instruments said the acquisition would strengthen the integration between functional test and design tools and advance graphical system design technology.

National Instruments said it would retain all of Electronics Workbench's approximately 50 worldwide employees, and the EDA firm may hire additional personnel after budgeting talks concluded.

"Our customers are not satisfied with the integration of design, simulation and test tools in the industry today," said Ray Almgren, National Instruments' vice president of product marketing and academic relations. "A graphical system design platform that integrates these disparate tools will increase productivity and make testing throughout the design process more seamless. Our acquisition of Electronics Workbench is a major step forward in making this vision a reality and satisfying the needs of the design engineering community in industry and academia."

The companies have collaborated for several years to integrate their tools. The Electronics Workbench acquisition adds graphical design and simulation software to National Instruments' platform of graphical development tools.

Almgren said National wasn't acquiring Electronics Workbench in order to become a pure-play EDA company like Mentor Graphics or Cadence. "I think that goes back to the frame of reference the industry has: You're either an EDA company or a test company. We're going to become a system design tool company. We're going to innovate on a vector that these guys simply aren't interested in working on," Almgren said. "Our customers tend to be in functional test. The integration between design and test is not very good. In the short term, we can make a lot of improvements."

Bill Wignall, president of Electronics Workbench, explained, "The reality is that Cadence and Mentor are all about IC design. The place where design and test are already integrated is in the IC world. There's no wish from this acquisition to take on those guys. We want to do for system design what's already been done for IC design."

National Instruments will retain all Electronics Workbench employees and continue to operate the company as a separate entity in Toronto. Development teams will work to further integrate the products and knowledge of the two companies.

As a wholly owned subsidiary of National Instruments, Electronics Workbench plans to continue to develop and offer its complete line of design automation software and directly support educational initiatives with uninterrupted support to participating schools.

The acquisition is not expected to have a material impact on National Instruments' earnings for the first quarter of 2005. Read more ...
ROGERS, CT - Rogers Corp. has filed suit in U.S. district court claiming a larger competitor is infringing on a pair of patents through the manufacture of one of its high frequency laminates.

In the suit, Rogers alleges Isola Laminate Systems is infringing by making, using, selling and importing a material known as IS640, a low-loss circuit board laminate.

Isola responded that it will vigorously defend itself against the claims.


Read more ...
OYSTER BAY, NY - Telematics remains a North American dominated technology, a new research report says.

"Telematics efforts outside North America have faltered for several reasons," says Frank Viquez, director of automotive research at ABI Research. "In Europe, for example, a main factor is that consumers have much less of a propensity to pay for the advanced safety capabilities common to North American telematics services, such as automatic crash notification. Additionally, the main features that most European motorists demand -- navigation and traffic -- are commonly available as standalone services."

Telematics weds computers and telecommunications systems on a car. Read more ...
NEWTON, MA -- Outsourcing of electronics manufacturing will rise 113% over the next five years, to $294 billion in 2008, according to a new report.

ODMs (original design manufacturers) will outpace electronics manufacturing services providers (EMS), Reed Business said.

Overall, outsourced products will reach 23% of all electronics built by 2008, up eight points from 2003, Reed said. Read more ...
ROCKLIN, CA -- International DisplayWorks has been approved for listing on the Nasdaq National Market System. The company is scheduled to begin trading on Feb. 8 under the ticker symbol IDWK.

IDW designs and builds LCDs, modules and assemblies for OEMs.

IDW operates 410,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing plants in China and employs more than 2,200 people. Read more ...
SHIRLEY, MA -- V.J. Electronix Inc. has recently moved its x-ray production department to Shirley, MA, to join with its rework group for a more efficient operation.

The x-ray group offers manual and automated inspection systems; the rework group manufactures semiautomated and automated rework systems for microBGA, CSP and flip-chip component technologies, including lead-free processing.

The facility is located at 1000 Mount Laurel Circle, Shirley, MA 01464; (978) 425-9446.

Read more ...
PHOENIX -- FlipChip International and Kester will collaborate on SE-CURE 7501 low-void wafer bumping paste. Kester, a supplier of solder and related materials and services, has worked with FCI to introduce the solder paste formula designed for wafer bumping. Under the agreement, Kester will manufacture and sell the paste globally.

The paste reportedly features a stable performance down to 70 µm bump heights (corresponding to 135 µm bump pitches) for a consistent printing process. The stable printing provides consistency of bump height across the wafer as well as from wafer to wafer.

STAMFORD, CT- Feinfocus has opened a new office in Shanghai to sell its x-ray systems.

Located in the Zhangjiang Semiconductor Industry Park in Pudong, Feinfocus Asia/Pacific will provide sales and technical support to the growing Asian customer base.

It will operate as part of the newly-expanded COMET China office.

Friedhelm Maur, regional sales manager, and Zoran Zecevic, service engineer, have relocated to Shanghai from the global headquarters in Garbsen, Germany.

Read more ...
SEMI (semi.org) is organizing an export control seminar to take place in conjunction with SEMICON China on March 16 in Shanghai.

Speakers from government and industry will discuss export control requirements related to China and explore what exporters and Chinese customers need to do to meet these requirements and ensure export compliance.

For more information, contact Maggie Hershey: mhershey@semi.org.

SAN JOSE -- How will the far-reaching European Union's WEEE and RoHS Directive affect the semiconductor equipment industry? A new white paper by the International Compliance and Regulatory Committee tackles that question.

The paper is available from SEMI. Go to www.semi.org/ehs and click on "European Union's WEEE and RoHS Directives."

Read more ...

DANBURY, CT -- BPA Consulting Ltd. and Quantum Performance Group LLC will present executive briefings on next generation interconnect technology for high speed and miniaturized systems. The briefings will take place in Newport Beach and San Jose, and Boxborough, MA, the week of April 18. 

Topics will include: 
  • Next-generation systems: The demand and driving forces for innovative interconnects.
  • Worldwide high-speed interconnect technology, market trends, manufacturing challenges and opportunities. 
  • Flexible and rigid-flexible circuits manufacturing, materials and trends.
  • The future structure and strategic implications for participants in the interconnect supply industries. 
  • Asia - opportunity, threat or both?
Meetings are limited to 25 delegates to ensure a workshop-style environment. Presenters include: Mike Campbell, Dan Feinberg, Dr. Jim Hickman, Mark Hutton, Nicholas Pearne, Francesca Stern and Gene Weiner.  

For further information contact Campbell at m.campbell@bpaconsulting.com or nextgenbriefing@quantumpg.com.

Read more ...

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