News
The International Microelectronics and Packaging Society (IMAPS) announced that Alec J. Babiarz, senior vice president and a founder of Asymtek (Carlsbad, CA) will be the keynote speaker at the 37th International Symposium on Microelectronics to be held Nov. 14-18, 2004, in Long Beach, CA.
Babiarz also serves as vice president, new business development for Nordson Corp., Asymtek's parent company. Since 1983, Babiarz and Asymtek co-founders Robert Ciardella and Philip Maiorca have built the company from a small operation into a manufacturer of dispensing equipment worldwide. In 2004, Asymtek received Intel's highest honor for its suppliers, the Supplier Continuous Quality Improvement Award.
"We are very pleased that Alec accepted our invitation," said Maurice Lowery, IMAPS 2004 General Chair. "Alec's experience and insight with Asymtek—and as an IMAPS Corporate member—make him the ideal candidate to provide the information our attendees are looking for. His first-hand involvement from the very beginning gives him the credibility we need to help guide the principals in other companies through the successful growth process."
Asymtek supplies automated fluid dispensing systems, specializing in semiconductor, surface-mount and electronics packaging applications.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
The SIA forecast that revised semiconductor growth from 19% and 6% growth in 2004 and 2005, respectively, to 29% and 4%, should negatively impact equipment sales for 2004, according to the report, "The Global Market for Equipment and Materials for IC Manufacturing," recently published by The Information Network (New Tripoli, PA), a market research company.
"Negative sentiment from analysts and forecasts of a relatively flat 2005 from the SIA are pointing to eventual pushouts and cancellations of equipment," said Dr. Robert Castellano, president of The Information Network. "Semiconductor manufacturers are already overly cautious from the last severe downturn, and fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD factor) about growth in late 2004 beyond will affect their decisions to go ahead and purchase more tools they may not need by the time they are delivered."
According to the company, the industry is 9 months into the current equipment upswing, while semiconductor sales have been in an up cycle since January 2002—a period of 28 months. Historically semiconductor and equipment inflections occurred within 3 months of each other.
However, the company believes the industry went through a paradigm shift during the past recession, moving to more aggressive die shrinks and to 300 mm processing to increase production. To avoid massive inventory buildup, semis will not be investing frivolously in equipment, but will instead be closely monitoring real demand. If demand drops, real or perceived, the equipment market boom will be over before it really got a foothold.
"As capacity utilization is the percentage of wafer starts (and we know they've been increasing for 28 months) to capacity, and capacity is showing no growth, it results in increasing capacity utilization," said Castellano. "But why didn't capacity grow when revenues (billings) increased dramatically for the past two quarters? Is capacity utilization really increasing to stratospheric levels as IC manufacturers would lead us to believe at a time they are raising prices?"
Company forecasts from November 2003 called for the front-end equipment market to grow 21% in 2004 and 11.4% in 2005 before dropping 7.9% in 2006, based partly on SIA's forecasts of 19% and 6% growth for 2004 and 2005 and on IC fab capacity.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
Anticipating engineers' concerns with confusion on the production lines about mixing lead and lead-free materials, Kester (Des Plaines, IL) has announced a change in its lead-free packaging in the solder paste product line. The company is also introducing a new lead-free triangular-shaped bar.
Since April, Kester's lead-free solder paste has been packaged in green jars and cartridges. The traditional solder paste will continue to be packaged in white jars and transparent gray cartridges. The company believes this will make it easier for customers to distinguish between lead and lead-free alloy pastes on their production lines and will also avoid costly confusion, making the transition to lead-free easier.
To further reduce confusion in the customer's production lines, Kester has introduced the industry's first easily distinguishable lead-free triangular solder bar. The company hopes the triangular shaped lead-free bar will keep customers from making costly mistakes in their solder pots.
The change in lead-free packaging will soon be seen globally, but currently the changes will be seen from shipments out of the Des Plaines facility only.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
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