VANCOUVER – Creation Technologies, a top 50 EMS provider, plans to acquire Taytronics Inc. of St. Peter, MN. The acquisition will provide Creation with a second facility in the central U.S. and is expected to be finalized July 29. Other financial details were not disclosed.
TOKYO – Meiko Electronics Co., known for PWB fabrication, is building an assembly plant in Vietnam, according to published reports.
The company is investing $32.4 million in an 18,000 sq. meter facility in Ha Tay Province, Business in Asia Today reported. Meiko will break ground in August, and operations are scheduled to begin next June.
The assembly plant is situated next to a PWB plant scheduled to come online in 2007.
Meiko has 4,500 employees and generates nearly $400 million in sales from its six facilities in Japan and China.
LYSAKER, NORWAY – Kitron ASA will acquire EDC i Munkfors' subsidiary EDC Elsis UAB in Kaunas, Lithuania, for SEK 14 million.
The deal is subject to customary closing conditions, which are expected to be completed by August.
Further agreements may be forthcoming, the companies said.
Kitron, which supplies electronics to the medical, defense and telecom industries and performs EMS work, has annual sales of 1.7 billion NOK and employs 1,300.
The EDC site employs about 40 people at its 2,000 sq. meter manufacturing facility.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN – The opening session and annual meeting/keynote address during SMTA International will be held Oct. 9 and 10, respectively, in Orlando.
The free opening session will focus on SMTA’s End Game: Lead-Out, Labels-On, Reliability-In. Marking, Symbols, and Labels for Pb-Free Identification will be led by Steve Greathouse of Greathouse Solutions, and Pb-Free Printed Circuit Board Reliability will be led by Werner Engelmaier of Engelmaier Associates.
The SMTA annual meeting will feature Andrew Alduino, Senior Optical Researcher in the Photonics Technology Lab of Intel Corp. Implementation Challenges of Future Optical Interconnects will address the challenges facing integration to photonics technology, including thermal management, multi-chip package concerns, alignment of components, and more.
The 2006 conference award winners will be recognized, including Best of Conference Presentation, Dave Hillman, Rockwell Collins; Best Proceedings Paper, Robert Darveaux, Ph.D., Amkor Technology; and Best International Paper, Heather McCormick, Celestica, Inc.
At the meeting, the SMTA will present its Association Awards and the Charles Hutchins Educational Grant for $5,000, an award that is given annually to a graduate-level student pursuing a degree and working on thesis research in electronics packaging or related field. (Circuits Assembly funds the grant using proceeds of its Service Excellence Awards.)
The cost for the SMTA annual meeting is $40 for members and $50 for nonmembers.
SHENZHEN — Nepcon EMT South China will take place Aug. 28-31 at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center.
This year's show will be held in conjunction with Automotive Electronics China and Assembly Expo China, bringing together 450 exhibitors from 22 countries, according to the show organizers.
The Nepcon event is expected to draw up to 18,000 attendees, says Reed Exhibitions.The show includes aconcurrent technical conference.
Also running that week: the SMTA China South Conference.
SAN JOSE, CA – The global semiconductor materials market is expected to grow more than 10% in 2007, and is forecasted to grow another 10% next year, SEMI reports.
Growth is being driven by record numbers of semiconductor devices being manufactured and materials consumed in fabricating and packaging those devices, says the association.
Growth is expected both in wafer fab materials and packaging. Current estimates predict that fab materials will grow about 9% to $24 billion, and packaging materials will rise more than 13% to $16.6 billion this year, according to SEMI.
On a regional basis, both Japan and Taiwan are anticipated to remain the two largest material-consuming regions, followed by the South Korean and Southeast Asian regions.
The materials market in China grew 36% last year as the result of capacity coming online from renewed fab and assembly facility investments; it is expected that wafer fab materials will represent a larger portion of materials consumed in this region in the near future, says the association.
“Semiconductor unit growth, the 300 mm ramp, and the transition to flip chip packages are driving the revenue growth in the semiconductor materials market,” said Dan Tracy, senior director of Industry Research and Statistics of SEMI. "However, higher raw material costs represent a major challenge for both material suppliers and their customers.”