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WASHINGTON– The U.S. tech sector added nearly 190,000 jobs over the past 18 months, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Between January 2004 and June 2005, employment in the tech sector reached 5.72 million, up 3.4% during that time.

SHEFFIELD, UK - Jennic, a fabless semiconductor company, has purchased an Agilent RF IC tester. The equipment will be installed at its Sheffield headquarters.

Jennic is expected to use the 93000 SoC series tester for product validation and multi-site test development for its JN5121 IEEE802.15.4 wireless microcontroller.

The acquisition of the tester is considered to be a first for a UK fabless semiconductor company.

In a statement, Paul Wells, VP of manufacturing at Jennic, said, "In order to meet volume delivery requirements for our single chip low power wireless microcontroller, we need to ensure we have the right manufacturing infrastructure. By making major investments in a state-of-the-art tester and establishing strong relationships with world class suppliers, we are able to source large volumes of high quality products for our customers."

NEW YORK -- Semiconductor customers will continue to increase consumption of multichip devices and PLDs over the next 12 months, suggests a recent survey of purchasing managers.

Investment bank SG Cowen said today that its poll of 250 procurement specialists provides "multi-year empirical data ... and serves as an important, independent validation."

The firm said 65% of participants expect year-over-year gains in purchases of chipset solutions and reference designs in the next 12 months. This is an increase from each of SG Cowen's three prior surveys, conducted in last February, October 2004 and July 2003.

Thirty-two percent of participants expect to increase purchases of PLDs within the next 12 months. This is unchanged from February but up 10 points from the July 2003 survey.

BERG, SWITZERLAND -- Alphasem Co. Ltd. has relocated its die-attach operations in China from Shenzhen to a larger premises in Suzhou.

The company, also makes die sort systems for semiconductor production, generates about 75% of its sales in Asia. The company founded the subsidiary three years ago, in Shenzhen.

The Suzhou plant will employ 30 workers, a number which the company said will increase significantly in the future.

STRATHAM, NH – Vitronics Soltec has named Erik Tobiason president, replacing Jeroen Schmits, who was named head of Universal Instruments last month.

Vitronics and Universal are subsidiaries of Dover Technologies. Tobiason was president of Graphics Microsystems Inc., also a Dover Corp. subsidiary.

NEW YORK -- Banc of America Securities says EMS demand should pick up in the second half as customers exhaust their budgets ahead of the next fiscal year.

"We still expect a second-half seasonal pick-up in demand due to corporate 'budget flush' and consumer holiday spending," said Banc of America. "On a year-over-year basis, we see mid-to-high single-digit growth in IT spending."

The analyst rated Flextronics and Benchmark as its best buys, while noting problems at Solectron and Sanmina-SCI.