Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - News

News

BANNOCKBURN, IL, Jan. 3 -- The November 90-day moving average shipments of all types of circuit boards 2004 rose 4.1% year-on-year, according to the latest poll of U.S. PCB fabricators. Bookings slumped 27%, however, due to seasonality and intense competition from Asian manufacturers.

The domestic book-to-bill ratio was 0.96, down from 1.05 in October. November marked the first time the indicator dropped below 1.0 since April 2003, said IPC, which tracks the data.

The ratio is based on data collected by IPC from rigid and flex producers and is calculated by dividing three months worth of orders by sales. A ratio over 1.0 is considered an indicator of rising demand.

Separately, the ratios were 0.88 for rigid PCBs and 1.28 for flexible circuits.

Despite the November dropoff, rigid boards, which are estimated to make up about 82% of all domestic PCBs, are showing some improvement. Year-on-year rigid shipments are up 17.8% and bookings are up 8%, while flexible shipments have grown 72.5% and bookings are up 88.7%.

Combined, shipments and bookings are up 28.5% and 24.8%, respectively, this year. Sequentially, shipments dropped 5.2% and bookings fell 23.3%.

Flex sales include some value-added services in addition to the bare flex circuits.

In a statement, IPC cautioned that month-to-month comparisons should be made with caution as they may reflect cyclical effects.

PLAINVIEW, NY, Dec. 27 -- Aeroflex Inc. said today it received $13.6 million in radio test set orders from the Army, Army National Guard and the Air Force.

Beginning in May, the company will start shipping the sets over a 14-month period.

The order brings the company's military communications orders to $22 million for fiscal 2005. The company booked about $414.1 million in sales in 2004.

Areoflex makes testing and microelectronic products for the aerospace, defense and communications markets.

MINNEAPOLIS, Dec. 23 -- SMTA International 2004 today announced the recipients of its top awards.

Chrys Shea of Cookson Electronics won for Best of Conference, Alan Donaldson, Intel Corp., won Best of Proceedings, and Lars Boettcher, Fraunhofer IZM Berlin, won Best International Paper.

The awards are chosed by attendees and recipients win $1,000.

Shea was awarded Best of Conference Paper for "Optimizing Stencil Design for Lead-free SMT Processing." The paper identifies optimized stencil aperture geometries and explores the lower spread of lead-free alloys on some alternate surface finishes.

Donaldson's paper, "Hot Air Lead-free Rework of BGA Packages and Sockets," presents rework profiles and a process developed based on actual package reliability tests.

Boettcher's paper, "Development of 3D-Redistribution and Balling Technologies for Fabrication of Vertical Power Devices," which reveeals the development of a 3-D wafer-level redistribution process based on fully additive metal deposition.

The SMTA is seeking papers for its 2005 conference in September. Abstracts will be accepted through Feb. 7 at www.smta.org/smtai/call_for_papers.cfm.

METHUEN, MA, Dec. 28 -- Infineon Technologies and Parlex Corp. have struck a deal to jointly manufacture and sell substrates for secure mobile electronic identification products. The companies will set up a JV to supply substrates for Infineon's Flip Chip on Substrate program, and to outside customers.

The joint venture will be headquartered in Hong Kong with manufacturing facilities in China. Operations are expected to begin in April.

Under the terms of the agreement, Parlex will have a 51% equity share with Infineon holding the remaining share. Infineon will also pay Parlex $3 million.

Parlex's Shanghai flex circuit plant will also provide certain services which will be paid for by the JV, the companies said.

SAN JOSE, Dec. 29 -- Sanmina-SCI today reported revised results for its fiscal fourth quarter and year ended Oct. 2, citing accounmting problems at one of its plants.

The electronics manufacturer lowered its fourth-quarter earnings to $5.4 million from $11.5 million. In fiscal 2003, Sanmina-SCI posted a quarterly loss of $85.7 million.

The company also revised its 2004 loss to $11.4 million, about double its earlier reported loss of $5.3 million. Sanmina-SCI reported a loss of $137.2 million in the previous year.

The adjustments were recorded in Sanmina-SCI's fourth quarter and included stock-based compensation charges of $2.4 million, an increase in interest expense of $2 million from certain acquisitions and restructuring charges of $1.1 million.

Sanmina-SCI said adjusted earnings, which exclude unusual items, were not affected by the accounting charge. In October, the company posted adjusted earnings of $41.8 million, and $128.9 million for fiscal 2004

AUSTIN, TX, Dec. 30 -- A dramatic escalation is ahead in device-to-device communication as traffic on the Internet is no longer people talking to people, but people talking to devices and devices talking to devices.

So says self-styled futurist and technologist David Smith, a vice president at Technology Futures Inc., and who has worked with Boeing, Hughes, Intel, Compaq and the CIA.

Other forecasts, as issued by the firm today:

The timeframe of the product life-cycle continues to decrease: By the time a product hits the market, its shelf life is half what it used to be. So the science and research time will become more intensive and innovative earlier as product development time continues to compress.
Outsourcing and globalization become paradigms of success: Businesses must understand and adapt to the new source of competitive advantage by connecting to the core competencies and customer interaction on global scale. In the global business world, global interaction is imperative.
Broadband and high-speed wireless penetration reach a large enough market for new classes of applications to emerge: These new products will explicitly take advantage of what broadband and wireless networks have to offer in terms of mobility and accessibility to markets.
The Age of Bio will maintain its marked acceleration: National and global collaboration is enhancing its commercialization potential.
An information age emerging increasingly driven by needs for precision, accuracy and timeliness in all endeavors -- personal, business, governmental.
A major revolution continues in IT growth in such areas as the Internet, wireless and wired communications, mobile applications and electronic commerce.
Information technology becoming ubiquitous and expanding within the private, business and global worlds. Every device becomes a server.
Quality of life improvements in such areas as smart appliances, cars, highways and buildings, easier access to knowledge, and revolutionary new concepts in health-related fields.
An increasingly mobile and global society becoming ever more reliant on a worldwide availability of information.

The firm says that in order for these trends to come about, certain policies must be put in place, including an open, standards-based infrastructure that position U.S. organizations as early adapters to information technology developments.

MALVERN, PA, Dec. 23 -- Vishay Intertechnology Inc. will acquire SI Technologies Inc. in a deal worth $17.7 million, the companies said today. The deal is subject to SI shareholder approval.

The merger is expected to close by March. Vishay will also settle SI's outstanding bank debt of $10.5 million at closing.

For the fiscal year ended July 31, SI reported net sales of $36.2 million.

In a press release Vishay said, "This transaction will further reinforce our position in the transducer, instrumentation and systems markets and will complement and enhance our existing capabilities in these areas."

Vishay is one of the world's largest manufacturers of discrete semiconductors and passives. SI designs and manufactures industrial sensors and controls, and weighing and factory automation systems and related products.

SAN JOSE, Dec. 31 -- November worldwide sales of semiconductors grew to $19.02 billion, up 1.3% from October. Sales were up 18% over last year, the Semiconductor Industry Association reported today.

November saw "strong growth in sales of microprocessors, digital signal processors, DRAMs, and flash memory devices," said SIA President George Scalise. "Sales of personal computers typically peak in the fourth quarter. Strength in microprocessors and DRAMs indicate PC sales reflect normal seasonal patterns. The wireless handset market has been somewhat stronger than recent forecasts, as evidenced by growth in DSP and flash memory products.

Capacity utilization declined modestly, but remains above 90%, SIA said.

"Actions taken by both customers and semiconductor manufacturers to address excess inventories in some market sectors appear to have been effective. We expect that excess inventories will not be a significant concern by the end of the first quarter of 2005," Scalise said.

Sales were up in all geographic regions except the Americas, where sales declined 1.6% from October.

SCOTTSDALE, AZ, Jan. 3 - The cellular modem market had a breakout year in 2004, and prospects for the next five years are even brighter, according to In-Stat/MDR.

The market grew 167% last year, based on data from the first three quarters of 2004 and estimates of the final quarter of the year. By 2009, more than 14 million wireless modems will be shipped worldwide, up from slightly more than 2.5 million in 2004, the research firm said.

In-Stat credits high-speed wireless 3G networks, particularly UMTS networks in western Europe, and growing corporate demand for wireless data services in North America and Europe. Says analyst Ken Hyers, "As the rollout of high-speed wireless networks continues in both highly developed markets and in developing markets, the opportunities for cellular modem manufacturers to expand their sales will continue."

TEMPE, AZ, Jan. 3 - Manufacturing growth accelerated in December, driven by a significant increase in the new orders. Production ticked down - its third straight decline - but backlogs firmed, said the Institute for Supply Management.

Manufacturing grew for the 19th consecutive month, ISM said, based on its monthly poll of the supply chain.

"This completes a strong year for manufacturing based on the ISM data, as the overall index averaged above 60% for 2004," ISM chairman Norbert Ore said. "While there is continuing upward pressure on prices, the rate of increase is slowing and definitely trending in the right direction."

The PMI measure of economic activity rose to 58.6%. New orders rose 5.9 points and production fell 0.1 point.

BEIJING, Dec. 23 -- Connector production in China is soaring as local manufacturers will produce $2.1 billion worth -- 50 million -- of connectors this year, according to news reports.

Global Sources said this week that the connector market in China will rise to $3 billion next year, or about 60 million parts. There are 600 connector manufacturers in the country, the report said.

China makes up one-third of connector production worldwide.

ELK GROVE VILLAGE, IL, Dec. 22 -- SigmaTron International Inc. has received a key certification for building medical devices, the EMS firm said today.

The company's Fremont facility has been certified to 13485 quality standards for medical device quality systems. The standards are said to supplement ISO 9001 and 9002 standards.

The certification was conducted by Orion Registrar Inc., a quality and environmental systems registrar.