BRADENTON, FL – Aided in part by a local grant, contract electronics assembly firm Creonix will hire up to 100 workers to meet higher demand.

The EMS company has received a grant of $121,000 from Manatee County, Florida. It currently has 60 employees.

Creonix is coming off a big year, in which it expanded its factory by 9,000 sq. ft., bringing it to 24,000 sq. ft., and more than doubled its revenues. Creonix also bought the assets of fellow EMS firm MSI of Central Florida last October.

STAMFORD, CT – 2010 global semiconductor sales were up 31% to $299.4 billion, the largest dollar increase ever as a result of post-recession demand, says Gartner.

Memory vendors reported the strongest growth, with strong demand for mobile devices.

Intel kept its No. 1 spot for the 19th consecutive year, with its revenue from semiconductors up 26%; its market share, however, fell slightly compared to commodity memory vendors.

No. 2 Samsung saw its semiconductor sales surge 58% because of DRAM and NAND flash booms.

No. 3 Toshiba's semiconductor revenue was up 29% on strong sales of NAND flash memory used in mobile devices.

BANNOCKBURN, IL — Steve Pudles led a long list of executives and engineers feted by IPC during its annual trade show last week.

ORMOND BEACH, FL -- Werner Engelmaier, perhaps the industry's preeminent expert on solder joint reliability, died Friday. He was 72.