WATERLOO, ONTARIO – Terepac Corp. has begun shipping samples of its ultra-thin, flexible, silicon-based products from its plant here, says CEO Ric Asselstine.

Following four years of development, the company is entering into pilot scale production of Microscale Circuit Cluster products.

Terepac is beginning with HF/NFC and UHF embedded electronic products, and has signed agreements with two customers. It will progress into wirelessly networked sensors.

The company has signed a collaboration contract with a research institute to fabricate and commercialize a flexible medical monitoring system.

SANTA ANA, CA – PCB manufacturer TTM Technologies will close a pair of plants in California and lay off 347 workers because of continued weak demand in North America for PCBs and backplanes.

The firm will take charges of $11 million and $14 million as its pares its footprint and trims its workforce by 11%.

The closures to the company’s plants Los Angeles and Hayward, CA, will put 263 and 84 employees, respectively, out of work.

TTM will transfer PCB production from LA facility to other company sites in California, Utah and Wisconsin.

Backplane assembly services provided by the Hayward plant will be transferred to the company's other backplane assembly plants in Shanghai and Stafford Springs, CT.

The company expects to record between $11 million and $14 million in separation, asset impairment and disposal costs related to these closures, primarily in the third quarter of 2009.

Excluding asset impairment charges and closure costs, the firm expects to achieve its earnings and revenue guidance for the third quarter with revenue in a range of $134 million to $142 million.