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MILPITAS, CA — Flextronics has signed a five-year deal to lease 100,103 sq. ft. at an industrial complex in Milpitas, effective next month. The company has not disclosed its intentions for the facility.

The EMS company will occupy about 60% of the 168,000-sq. ft. foot building.

ARLINGTON, VA – JEDEC and IPC are seeking speakers to participate in two conferences dedicated to addressing reliability and reliability testing for Pb-free electronics: one in Berlin, Oct. 4-5; the other in Austin, TX, Dec. 3-5.

Proposals are being solicited for 30-45 minute timeslots, full-day tutorials (six hrs.) or half-day workshops (3 hrs.) on topics such as reliability, moisture sensitivity, process issues, rework, etc. An honorarium is offered to tutorial instructors.

Abstract deadlines are June 15 for the Berlin conference and Aug. 31 for Austin.

For more information, please visit http://www.ipc.org/calendar/2007/LFReliability_10_07/Relia_Test_CFP.pdf.

CHICAGO – Boeing honored 11 companies with its premier supplier award at its annual ceremony in Bellevue, WA.

Jena-Optronik of Jena, Germany received the award in the category of avionics; the Electronics/Hydraulics/Mechanical award went to Senior Systems Technology of Palmdale, CA. Major Structures was given to Korean Airlines Aerospace Division, Busan, South Korea. Patriot Machine, St. Charles, MO received the Purchased Outside Production award; Common Aerospace Commodities went to Wildwood Electronics, Madison, AL. New Breed Logistics, High Point, NC, was recognized for Aerospace Support; WebEx of Santa Clara, CA, received honors in the Non-Production/Shared Services Group category; SI International, Reston, VA, was recognized for Technology. The Diversity/Small Woman Business Enterprise award went to Barrios Technology, Houston, TX, and Diversity/Small Minority Business Enterprise went to Carrillo Business Technologies, Westminster, CA. Finally, the Diversity/Boeing Protégé award was given to Pacific Contours of Anaheim, CA.

Winners were determined based on statistical measurements of quality, on-time delivery, post-delivery support and cost over a 12-month period through September 2006. They also were evaluated on their ability to anticipate and respond to changing customer requirements.

The 2006 Supplier of the Year winners were selected from a field of more than 27,000 Boeing suppliers in nearly 100 countries.

SIOUX FALLS, SD – Raven Industries reported record first-quarter net income of $8.5 million, up 14% year-over-year. The company attributes its revenue growth to strong performance of its Flow Controls Division.

SHENZHEN – SMTA China is requesting technical papers for SMTA China South, which will be held Aug. 27-31 in conjunction with Nepcon South China.

Abstracts, author biographies and PowerPoints must be submitted in both English and Chinese, and all presentations must be made in Chinese.

Topics of interest include 01005 assembly, 3-D SiP, PoP, Pb-free reliability, component supply integrity, legal responsibility of non-RoHS parts/products entering europe, materials and process characterization, and flex circuit assembly.

Email abstracts to Peggy Chen, peggy@smta.org. Please include name, job title, company affiliation and all pertinent contact information.

The deadline for abstracts is May 30.

EL SEGUNDO, CA – Global semiconductor revenue will rise to $281.4 billion in 2007, up 8.1% from $260.2 billion in 2006, according to iSuppli. Earlier, iSuppli predicted 10.6% growth for the year.

The growth rate of the global semiconductor industry is slowing because of weaker mobile phone growth, excess chip inventories and lower DRAM prices, says the research firm. The decline in outlook is a result of less demand and lower prices for memory chips.

Excess semiconductor inventories in the global electronics supply chain remained at $2.8 billion at the end of the first quarter.

Growth in the mobile-phone segment will slow dramatically in 2007 compared to 2006, which will impact chip sales, continues iSuppli. Revenue in the wireless communications equipment sector will rise to $202.3 billion in 2007, up 4.3% from $193.9 billion in 2006. This compares to 8.2% growth in 2006.

The biggest factor behind iSuppli's forecast revision is a reduction in expected DRAM revenue. The DRAM market hit a peak in 2006, with revenue rising by 35.2% to $33.9 billion. This strong increase will be followed by a major slowdown in growth, with revenue rising only 8.6% to reach $36.9 billion in 2007, predicts iSuppli. The company’s previous prediction was 13% growth in DRAM revenue this year.

The primary cause of the reduction is a plunge in DRAM average selling prices as available supplies increase. Memory suppliers are shifting capacity to DRAM and away from less-profitable NAND-type flash in 2007.

iSuppli also marginally reduced its outlook for global electronic equipment revenue in 2007. Global electronic equipment shipment revenue will rise to $1.49 trillion in 2007, up 6.3% from $1.4 trillion in 2006. This compares to iSuppli's previous forecast of 6.8% growth.