Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - News

News

SAN JOSE, Dec. 27 -- Manufacturing will surge in China in the next three years, provided the nation isn't overcome by social and political issues, says a new report. Semiconductors, product assembly and design services will all share in the gains, says iSuppli (www.isuppli.com).

China's share of the global semiconductor market will grow 50% by 2008, rising to 22% from its current 14%, the firm says. Sales of manufactured products will also grow 50%, to $301 billion in 2008, various news reports quoted Byron Wu, China chief manager and senior analyst.

EMS revenues will more than double, going from $18 billion last year to $45 billion in 2008, good for a 28% global share, the report said. ODM revenues, another burgeoning segment, will grow to $108 billion, from $40 billion last year. By 2008 China will have 75% of the global ODM market, iSuppli said.

FRAMINGHAM, MA, Dec. 27 -- Digitization of media, expansion of broadband options, proliferation of new converged devices, and collision and consolidation of market leaders will define the top consumer trends in 2005, says a new report.

Accrding to market researchers IDC, 2005 will be a huge year for handheld game consoles and other portable gaming devices. The firm lists Sony's new PSP handheld gaming device and Nintendo's DS as standouts.

The firm also forecasts continued broadband adoption and VoIP.

HDD-based, portable MP3 players will see strong growth. Portable media players, however, will disappoint.

Digital camera shipments will exceed 80 million units, pushing conventional film cameras out. Winners will be Canon and Olympus, at the expense of most consumer electronics vendors -- Samsung, Panasonic and Casio -- and IT vendors -- HP, Gateway, Epson, Creative Labs and Logitech. (Sony, as a digital camera leader, is the consumer electronics exception, IDC says.)

IP video is a hot topic, but rollouts will be minimal in 2005. IP video efforts and offerings are expected to remain largely on the fringes in many regions, says IDC.

BOSTON, Dec. 28 -- DEK has shipped company record 75,000 stencils this year, the company said today.

"Over the last 4 years, DEK has made significant investments in our logistics infrastructure, manufacturing capabilities and product R&D," says Michael Brianda, European general manager for DEK process support products. "It is very gratifying to see the fruits of our efforts - the 75,000th stencil shipment of 2004."

DEK manufactures a range of stencils and screens for electronics assembly.

CHINO, CA, Dec. 22 -- Desco Industries will acquire the assets of Static Prevention Inc., a supplier of ESD products. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Under the terms of the agreement, Desco will acquire patents, designs, inventory, tools and equipment and company brand names. Anaheim, CA- based SPI does business under the name SPI Westek.

In a press statement Wayne Hunter, president of Desco, commented that the acquisition of SPI would enhance Desco's range of ESD solutions.

Tom Seratti, president of SPI Westek, will join Desco.

ROSSLYN, VA, Dec. 22 -- The National Electrical Manufacturers Assn. will sponsor a trade mission to India in February as its members seek to crack the world's second largest population and fastest growing economy.

The mission is aimed at business executives seeking to develop familiarity with the Indian electroindustry supply base and market, acquire firsthand knowledge of emerging business practices and establish contact with key business and government officials.

NEMA is arranging meetings with the U.S. Commerce Department officials, the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry and other local officials. The trade group will also attend various engineering conferences and manufacturing sites.

Commitments are due Jan. 10; www.nema.org/media/pr/upload/india-commitment.pdf.

VISTA, CA, Dec. 21 - Fabrinet, a electromechanical manufacturing services company, will add an array of optoelectronic and packaging assembly equipment to beef up its volume assembly of optoelectronic components.

Fabrinet will add equipment for laser diode attachment and thermosonic ball and stitch wire bonding from Palomar Technologies, the companies said today.

The equipment will be installed in Fabrinet's manufacturing facilities in Bangkok.

"Fabrinet is one of a very few EMS companies capable of the precision manufacture in high volume of complex components such as those in the optics, optomechanical, and optoelectronic industries," said Bruce W. Hueners, Palomar vice president of marketing and business development, in a statement.

BANGALORE, Dec. 20 - Cookson Electronics Assembly Materials has opened a research center in India, making its the first electronics assembly materials company to do so, the company said today.

The opening of the center on the campus of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore brings to four the number of R&D labs Cookson operates worldwide located. The others are in the U.S., the U.K. and Japan.

"Cookson Electronics remain[s] steadfastly committed to serving our customers in the fast growing Asia/Pacific region where we have experienced double-digit growth over the past five years with no slowdown in sight," said David Zerfoss, president of Cookson Electronics Assembly Materials, in a statement.

The new center, a collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science, employs eight doctorates among its staff.

SAN JOSE, Dec. 22 -- Third quarter EDA revenues fell 2% from last year to $953 million, according to the latest statistics from the Electronic Design Automation Consortium.

License and maintenance revenue, the largest revenue category, declined 3%. North America les the way down, with all major categories off vs. last year.

"Despite a weak third quarter, the EDA market has shown a 3% growth rate on a year-to-date basis," said Wally Rhines, EDAC chairman.

The largest tool category, computer-aided engineering, was flat with sales of $453 million. IC physical design and verification revenue was down 9% to $272 million.

Revenue for PCB and MCM layout tools totaled $81 million in Q3, down 1%. Services revenue was $66 million, up 5%.

Semiconductor intellectual property revenue rose 8%, to $81 million.

North American revenues fell 9% to $472 million. Europe's revenues rose 4% to $192 million, as did Japan's ($183 million). Double-digit growth continued in the rest of the world, which showed total revenues of $107 million, up 11%.

Employment rose 4%, to 20,500 professionals, the third straight quarter of new highs in employment.

STAMFORD, CT, Dec. 16 — Worldwide semiconductor capital equipment spending is on pace to grow 61% in 2004, but next year's spending is projected to drop 15, according to Gartner Inc.

"The emergence of excess inventories, macroeconomic uncertainty and slowing end-user demand casts a shadow over the outlook for 2005," said Klaus Rinnen, vice president for Gartner's semiconductor manufacturing and design research group. "Device production has slowed in recent months, and with it semiconductor manufacturers have readjusted their capacity ramp-up and equipment purchase plans."

All major segments of the capital equipment market are forecast to decline in 2005 except for the automated test equipment market, which is expected to grow 3%, followed by a 30% drop in 2006. Gartner analysts said the industry is in a downcycle, but this period will be shorter than the prior one in 2001.

"Given more modest-capacity investments during the cycle, the supply-demand imbalance will be far less severe than in the prior two cycles," Rinnen said. "Consequently, the approaching downcycle will be mild, allowing for a return to positive annual investment growth possibly as early as 2006."

Worldwide semiconductor wafer fab utilization rates peaked in the second quarter at 94.9% before dropping to 91.3% at the end of the third quarter, as semiconductor manufacturers trimmed production levels in response to excess inventories.

"By the middle of 2004, capacity caught up with demand, and excess capacity started to emerge," Rinnen said. "However, any excess capacity during this down period will be considerably less than in prior downward cycles, and utilization rates will decline only to about 85% before starting a gradual increase through 2006."

The packaging and assembly equipment market will fall 22% in 2005, to about $3.5 billion. Growth will be limited to packaging lithography and flip-chip bonder tooling. Packaging utilization rates will likely bottom out in the second half of 2005, giving way to a pickup in orders by the end of the year or very early in 2006.

Gartner analysts said the automated test equipment market will experience a slight increase due to the continued growth of test outsourcing, and the remaining strength of semiconductor assembly and test services providers.

FRANKLIN, MA, Dec. 21 - Leading experts will explore SMT process challenges in a new series of free technical webcasts kicking off in January.

The events are sponsored by Speedline Technologies and are open to qualified individuals who register through the company's Web site.

"Speedline has designed these seminars to explore and deliver the in-depth information and how-to insight to help process engineers manage and control the major issues and challenges they will face daily throughout 2005," said Pierre de Villemejane, Speedline's president.

Each of the one-hour seminars will explore one of these challenges in a major manufacturing process - including lead-free wave and reflow, fine-pitch printing and underfill dispensing.

Hosted by experts who have been developing and implementing manufacturing techniques for more than 20 years, the sessions will include discussions of manufacturing floor challenges, new technologies, how-to implementation information and question-and-answer periods. Seminars begin at 11 a.m. Eastern.

Jan. 19: Statistical Process Control & Design of Experiments
Feb. 17: Lead-Free Overview
Mar. 17: Lead-Free Wave Soldering
Apr. 14: Lead-Free Reflow Soldering
May 17: Lead-Free Reflow Soldering Power and Nitrogen Consumption
Jun. 16: Underfill Dispensing
July 21: Fine Pitch Printing
Aug. 18: Lead-Free Overview
Sept. 15: Lead-Free Wave Soldering
Oct. 20: Lead-Free Reflow Soldering
Nov. 17: Tin Whiskers
Dec. 15: Fine Pitch Printing.

To register visit www.speedlinetech.com/seminars or call 508-541-4749.

MINNEAPOLIS, Dec. 21 -- The second International Wafer-Level Packaging Congress will take place Nov. 3-4, in San Jose, conference organizers announced today. The event will explore cutting-edge semiconductor packaging, including chip scale, 3D, system-in-package, system-on-chip, system-on-package and wafer level.

Co-chair Dr. Ken Gilleo of ET-Trends LLC said in a press release that feedback from attendees "will allow us to expand on topics that are the most important and useful to attendees. The goal is to enable attendees to gain a great deal of practical information about wafer-level packaging that they can immediately apply to their work."

Exhibit space will be available, said conference sponsor SMTA, adding that IWLPC 2004 sold out.

JUAREX, Mexico, Dec. 20 -- Electronics manufacturing services firm Elcoteq Network Corp. will buy consumer electronics giant Thomson's Juarez operations and take over its manufacturing in a deal worth over $1 billion.

Under the deal, expected to close Dec. 31, Elcoteq will acquire Thomson's manufacturing operation here, the companies annnounced today. Elcoteq is paying $33 million for the plant, which makes set-top boxes.

Elcoteq also signed a deal to build set-top box products for Thomson in Juarez. Thomson reportedly owns a 30% share of the global set-top box market.

Elcoteq expects the deal to boost the company's sales by approximately $300 million during 2005 and by $800 million to $1 billion during 2005 to 2007.

The acquisition of the Juarez plant will double Elcoteq's manufacturing capacity in Mexico. The Juarez personnel will be retained. Currently, the plant employs 2,000 workers.

In a statement Finland-based Elcoteq said the acquisition is part of a larger plan to balance its global footprint. The company earlier announced announced an expansion into Brazil.

"The Americas is the fastest growing geographical region within Elcoteq, and the addition of Thomson as a significant new customer both accelerates this growth and diversifies and expands the product and service portfolio within Elcoteq Americas," said Doug Brenner, president of Elcoteq's U.S. subsidiary.