EL SEGUNDO, CA - China's slowing electronics industry growth is leading to reduced demand for semiconductors, prompting iSuppli Corp. to trim its revenue forecast for chips sold in China in 2006.
iSuppli currently expects China's 2006 semiconductor revenue to rise between 11% and 15%, which translates to $41 billion and $43 billion for the year. That’s down from the firm’s projection of 18% one year ago.
CAMBRIDGE, UK – Active RFID is said to be growing, with several applications already more than $100 million, and is responsible for more than 20% of all spent on RFID. Leading the way: The U.S. military.
New IDTechEx research indicates that the value of sales of active systems will rocket from $550 million in 2006 to $6.78 billion in 2016.
FORT WASHINGTON, PA – Kulicke & Soffa will acquire Alphasem, supplier of die bonder equipment, from Dover Technologies for $30 million, subject to a working capital adjustment. The acquisition is expected to close around Nov. 3, K&S said today.
In a statement, vice president Christian Rheault, called the acquisition “a natural extension of K&S’s core equipment business into die bonding equipment. The die bonding process precedes the wire bonding step in semiconductor chip manufacturing, and normally utilizes adjacent floor space and a common engineering team. This supplier consolidation will enhance our ability to provide solutions to our customers across a greater span of the semiconductor assembly process.”
The die bonder market was $520 million in 2005, according to VLSI Research. Dover put Alphasem and several other business units on the block in July.