TOKYO – Japan-based semiconductor equipment makers reported a book-to-bill ratio of 0.75 in September, dropping for the third consecutive month, says the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan.

Japan-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment received $1.04 billion in orders during the month, down 4.5% sequentially. Orders fell 37.9% compared to September 2010.

Billings for September were $1.4 billion, down 3.2% sequentially and down 5% year-over-year, says the association.

MUNICH – A workshop on Advanced Packaging Trends for Medical Electronics will be held here Nov. 14, one day prior to Productronica. The workshop will be hosted by Fraunhofer EMFT and TechSearch International.

The workshop will provide a forum on all aspects of medical electronics packaging and assembly, including technology, infrastructure and economics.

For more information, visit www.techsearchinc.com.

TORONTO -- Celestica reported third-quarter profits rose 35% year-over-year, but the world's fourth largest contract assembler said visibility in the current quarter is waning.

PATHUM THANI, THAILAND -- Fabrinet announced today that production at its two manufacturing facilities here are currently suspended due to the logistics and infrastructure disruption resulting from severe flooding.

STAMFORD, CT – A leading research firm this week laid down the Top 10 technologies to watch, use, buy, order and manufacture for 2012.

SINGAPORE – Electronics manufacturing services provider Flextronics today reported second-quarter adjusted net income of $158 million, down 12% year-over-year.

Net sales increased 8% to $8 billion compared to the same period last year.

“From a revenue growth perspective, our business performed well in the quarter despite the sluggish macroeconomic backdrop. Outside of our Industrial and Emerging Industries business group, our three remaining groups grew both sequentially and year-over-year, driven by new outsourcing programs,” said Mike McNamara, CEO of Flextronics. “We have accelerated our exit of the ODM PC business, which will be completed in the December quarter.”

“We generated $176 million of free cash flow for the quarter, as we continue to tightly manage our working capital. This strong cash generation aided the repurchase of more than 19 million ordinary shares with a cost of slightly more than $100 million,” said Paul Read, CFO of Flextronics. “This week we also closed a new $2 billion credit facility."

For the third quarter, revenue is expected to be in the range of $7.3 billion to $7.7 billion.

SMYRNA, GA – UP Media Group Inc. seeks abstracts for PCB West 2012, to be held September 25-27, 2012, in Santa Clara, CA. The event includes a three-day technical conference and one-day exhibition to be held at the Santa Clara (CA) Convention Center.

DANDERYD, SWEDEN – Note reported third-quarter sales of SEK 272.5 million, up 0.22% year-over-year.

Operating profit for the quarter was SEK 13.5 million, compared to a loss of SEK 4.1 million in the same period last year. 2010’s third-quarter profit included structural and other non-recurring costs of approximately SEK 3 million.

For the first nine months of 2011, sales increased 8% to SEK 911.2 million.

Operating profit for the nine-month period was SEK 49.3 million, compared to a loss of 60.4 million in the year-ago period. Profit for the first three quarters of 2010 included structural and other non-recurring costs of approximately SEK 47 million.

In June, the company’s board of directors agreed to sell Note Tauragé UAB, Lithuania.

Note produces printed circuit boards, sub-assemblies and box-build products.

SEK 1 = US$0.1497

PATHUMTANI, THAILAND -- EMS provider SVI Public Co. today said it would temporarily cease operations at its plants in the Bangkok area although the rampant flooding has not damaged its factories.

FORT WORTH, TX – The SMTA today honored winners of its annual SMTA Awards at the SMTA International conference and trade show.

TAIPEI – Third-quarter global tablet PC shipments hit 18.7 million units, up 27.5% sequentially, compared to sequential growth of 60.9% in the second quarter, says Digitimes Research.

As a result of a weak global economy, Apple's iPad shipments did not meet third-quarter expectations with 13 million units, up 36.8% sequentially.

Most non-iPad tablet PCs endured high inventory issues during the period, according to Digitimes Research. Also, many launches of new tablet PC products have been postponed. Shipments of non-iPad tablet PCs only grew 10.1% sequentially.

For tablet PC CPUs, Nvidia was the No. 2 supplier in terms of shipments, while Texas Instruments fell to No. 4. Inventec is now the No. 2 ODM, with Quanta Computer falling to No. 5.

EL SEGUNDO – Shipments of dynamic random access memory for use in smartphones are set for triple-digit growth this year, outpacing the expansion of the entire DRAM market by a factor of three, according to IHS iSuppli.

DRAM shipments in smartphone handsets, as measured in 1 Gb-equivalent units, are expected to rise to 1.7 billion in 2011, up 157.2% from 2010. By 2015, shipments will increase to 13.9 billion units, up 700% from 2011.

Smartphones’ share of total DRAM consumption will grow to 7.6% this year, up from 4.4% in 2010, says IHS iSuppli. This will expand to 10.6% next year and then climb to 13.4% in 2013, 14.9% in 2014 and 16% in 2015.

In at least four recently released smartphones, dissections by IHS iSuppli revealed the devices had larger quantities of DRAM.

The Xperia PLAY from Sony Ericsson, for instance, had 512MB of DRAM, while the Galaxy Indulge from Samsung featured 576MB. The iPhone 4 from Apple had DRAM amounting to 544MB, while the Thunderbolt from HTC had the highest level at 768MB.

In comparison, a device released last year, such as the SGH T939 – an Android-operated, touch-screen smartphone from Samsung – had DRAM content of only 128MB, says the research firm.

Projections call for the average smartphone DRAM density to reach 715MB next year, up 55% from 461MB in 2011, with no near-term limitations on growth.