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SHENZHEN, CHINA – Europlacer is opening a sales and service office in Shenzhen and will assign a staff of three.

The placement equipment manufacturer said it sold about 50 units last year, including 26 of its new iineo placement machine.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Senate is expected to debate the patent reform bill as early as this week. This comes on the heels of a court decision to block new rules the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office proposed to deal with the surge of applications.

Majority leader Sen. Harry Reid is expected to bring the Patent Reform Act to the Senate between now and the end of May.

The Senate bill is in line with the House of Representatives bill that passed in the fall. Both bills aim to limit damages and excessive litigation, namely courts that are quick to set trial dates for patent suits. The legislation also requests the U.S. to move to a first-to-file policy.

Many large electronics firms are on board, claiming to be barraged with patent infringement litigation. Individual inventors and pharmaceutical companies have rallied against the measure, saying it would weaken the system that protects their innovations.

In its fiscal year 2007, the USPTO received more than 467,000 patent applications and ended the year with a backlog of 760,000 applications. In an effort to catch up, the office hired more than 2,400 new patent examiners in the past two years, say published reports.

SHANGHAI – Nepcon China opened today with strong crowds and plenty of noise, as usual. The show, many watchers agree, needs a strong showing this year to fend off a challenge from the producers of Productronica, who are mounting a challenge to Nepcon’s longstanding supremacy in the Shanghai electronics market.

SCOTTSDALE, AZ – The optoelectronics, sensors/actuators, and discrete markets account for about 15% of total semiconductor revenues, and their combined revenues are increasing at a CAGR of 13% per year between 2002 and 2012, says IC Insights.

By 2012, total O-S-D sales are expected to exceed $66 billion, up from $38 billion in 2007, according to the firm’s forecast.

The $256 billion semiconductor universe consists of ICs and (O-S-D) components, says IC Insights.

The O-S-D market plays a vital role in the overall health and advancement of the semiconductor and electronic systems industries. Some of the industry's fastest growing product categories and manufacturing technologies are CMOS image sensors, MEMS-based sensors/actuators, laser transmission devices, high-brightness LEDs, microphone chips, fingerprint sensors, and new power transistors used in portable electronics, power supplies, and automotive electronics. After lagging IC market growth in the 1980s and most of the 1990s, O-S-D revenues began increasing at a stronger rate 10 years ago, says IC Insights.