SAN FRANCISCO — “Technology in the marketplace has advanced over the years to change the way we live. In today’s world, mass implementation of these new technologies needs to accelerate in order to keep pace with society’s demands. Yet, we’ve repeatedly seen technologies that held great promise fall short of market realization because the promise came with too many barriers – capital expenditure, global supply-chain, technological scale-up, regulations, market timing, infrastructure, and so on."

So says Dr. Gene Kim of Alpha, a division of Alent. Kim is co-chairing the first Global Summit for Advanced Manufacturing (GSAM), a forum to explore practical solutions for today’s most pressing manufacturing challenges, including the convergence of miniaturization, automation, integration, ruggedization, materials and processes, along with other special topics. 

GSAM will feature case study-based presentations, networking opportunities and one-on-one individual meeting sessions on how to leverage today’s successfully developed and manufactured products to yield viable solutions for the emerging manufacturing leaders of tomorrow.

The event takes place here July 9 and 10 and will be colocated with SemiCon West.

"The true manufacturing value-add offered by a technological advancement comes from its total cost-of-ownership benefit, but key decision makers have lacked a forum in which they could candidly and thoroughly discuss this assessment," says Kim. "GSAM was conceived to encourage these important discussions – real people discussing real manufacturing challenges in an environment that cultivates manufacturing innovation.”

SAN MATEO, CA – Based on a greater decline in demand than predicted in the first quarter and concerns that tablets and 2-in-1s will face additional market challenges the rest of the year, IDC has lowered its 2014 worldwide tablet plus 2-in-1 forecast to 245.4 million units, down from the previous forecast of 260.9 million units.

The new forecast represents a 12.1% year-over-year growth rate, which is notably lower than the 51.8% year-over-year growth of 2013.

"Two major issues are causing the tablet market to slow down. First, consumers are keeping their tablets, especially higher-cost models from major vendors, far longer than originally anticipated. And when they do buy a new one they are often passing their existing tablet off to another member of the family," said Tom Mainelli, program vice president, Devices & Displays at IDC. "Second, the rise of phablets – smartphones with 5.5" and larger screens – are causing many people to second-guess tablet purchases as the larger screens on these phones are often adequate for tasks once reserved for tablets."

In the past year alone, the phablet share of smartphone shipments has more than doubled, from 4.3% in the first quarter of 2013 to 10.5% in the first quarter of this year, representing 30.1 million units shipped. As large phones clearly impact near-term tablet growth, IDC expects the market to rebound by shifting its focus back toward larger-screened devices. Products with larger screens--like Microsoft's new 2-in-1, the 12" Surface Pro 3— are expected to play a greater role in the market going forward.

"The shift back toward larger screens will mark a welcome sea change for most vendors as the average selling price for these devices will remain roughly 50% higher than the average sub-8" device," said research analyst Jitesh Ubrani. "Microsoft is also expected to benefit from this shift as the share for Windows-based devices is expected to double between now and 2018."

Total Tablet Market Forecast, 2013 – 2018

SANTA CLARA, CA -- Test Research Inc. will host a technology seminar here next month to introduce innovations to its PCBA testing and inspection equipment. The event takes place June 26 at Hotel Biltmore in Santa Clara.

The agenda will focus on new developments in 3D SPI and 3D AOI, and conclude with demonstrations on the company's novel 3D AXI systems, inline and desktop ICTs.

To register contact Fendi Lin at Fendi_Lin@tri.com.tw; 408-567-9898. For more information visittri.com.tw.

SINGAPORE -- SMT Holdings' revenue for the three months ended March 31 was HK$144.1 million ($18.59 million), essentially flat year-over-year. The profit fell to HK$1.5 million from HK$168.4 million a year ago.

Last year's operating profit included a restructuring gain of HK$159.1 million; without it, the profit would have been HK$9.3 million.

Sequentially, revenue decreased from HK$180 million to HK$144.1 million, due mainly to typical seasonality.

For the quarter, 93% of SMT's revenue came from the industrial sector, the remainder from consumer electronics OEMs.

SMT generates most of its sales (86%) from the US and Europe, where the first quarter GDP growth was below expectations. China economy continues to slow, while Japan’s economy holds steady, the company observed. Regional conflicts have introduced more uncertainty and volatility, and as such the economic outlook remains cautious, the firm said.

The EMS company said it sees increases in demand from most of its existing customers, in particular those from Europe. Escalating operating costs in China remain challenging.

Finally, the firm received a delisting notice from the Singapore Exchange and we will be seeking shareholder approval to delist and privatize as a Bermuda company.

Ed.: 1 USD = 7.75269 HKD

READING, BERKSHIRE, UK -- Active-PCB Solutions has doubled its manufacturing site here and increased capacity with a third SMT line. The EMS company added 12,000 sq. ft. to the building, and installed security protections to support customer IP.

The new SMT line will be used for rapid prototypes and includes a DEK Horizon 03iX printed, BTU Pyramax 98A reflow oven and a Juki 2080 flexible mounter.

Active-PCB Solutions also added a secure facility to protect its OEM customer's intellectual property and confidentiality of new products, and dedicated stores.

SAN JOSE — The 90-day moving average bookings at North America-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers in April jumped 22.5% over last year and 10.8% over the revised March 2014 levels. Orders reached $1.44 billion for the period, said SEMI.

The book-to-bill ratio slipped three basis points to 1.03 but remained above the key 1.0 level. A ratio of 1.03 means that $103 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month. A ratio above 1.0 is considered a sign of an expanding market.

The three-month average worldwide billings in April was $1.4 billion, up 28.7% year-over-year and 14.1% from March.

"Sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment from North American producers continue to demonstrate strong sequential and year-over-year growth,” a SEMI spokesperson said. SEMI. “The data through the first quarter reflects momentum in memory, foundry, and back-end spending.”

The SEMI book-to-bill is a ratio of three-month moving averages of worldwide bookings and billings for North American-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers. Billings and bookings figures are in millions of U.S. dollars.

Source: SEMI, May 2014

SIOUX FALLS, SD -- Raven Industries said sales at its Aerostar division, which includes its contract assembly services, fell 18.4% year-over-year in the April quarter.

Lower contract manufacturing revenue accounted for more than the full decline in revenue. The company reported Aerostar's revenue was $17.7 million as contract manufacturing sales dipped $5.8 million from a year ago, offset in part by $1.4 million in new revenue from Google.

Operating income for the unit was flat, versus a profit of $1.8 million a year ago.

In a move to improve margins, the company is shifting away from contract work toward proprietary product lines.

SALEM, NH -- EMS provider Data Electronic Devices yesterday officially opened its NPI center here in the building in which the company was launched in 1977.

The two-story facility at 18 Bridge St. has been completely remodeled and refinished, but retains much of the charm of the original building, which dates to 1914. A hand-operable elevator near the center of the open concept building offers both tremendous visual interest as well as functionality in a pinch, for example.

The site features several workstations for engineering projects, hand soldering and test benches, a full SMT line including two stencil printers and a Mydata MY500 printer, Mydata MY9 and MY12 placement machines, a Heller 1809EXL reflow oven and a Pillarhouse Jade S-200 selective soldering machine.

Other lines include a VJ Electronix Summit 1800 rework machine, Nordson YesTech B3 AOI, Aqueous Technologies Trident cleaner, Glenbrook xray, and aThermatron environmental chamber.

ESD flooring has been installed throughout the entire building.

The company named Lori Giglio to manage the NPI center.

DataEd had an NPI line in its production factory in Salem, but said the new site was opened as the request of customers who wanted to be able to work on projects away from the bustle of the main site, Bob Bibeau, vice president of engineering/quality, told CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY.

The company has assigned seven workers to the NPI facility, where all workers will eventually be cross-trained. It also has 115 workers at its 65,000 sq. ft. production plant in Salem and 275 at its 55,000 sq. ft. plant in China. DataEd customers range from entrepreneurs to billion-dollar companies.

WESTLAKE, OH -- Nordson today reported second-quarter results at its Advanced Technology Systems business unit fell 3% from the prior year. Solid organic growth in electronics test and inspection and fluid management equipment was offset by softness for automated dispensing equipment in certain mobile end-markets. 

For company's fiscal second quarter ended April 30. The ATS unit includes Dage, YesTech, Asymtek, and March, among others.

Orders for Asymtek have been recovering, however, the company's top executive said.

"We have begun to see an increase in orders for automated systems in recent weeks and we expect to generate solid sales growth in our third quarter within this segment,” said president and CEO Michael Hilton.

Geographically, organic sales growth in the second quarter over the prior year in the US and Europe was offset by softness in other regions. Operating margin for the Advanced Technology segment was 24% in the second quarter, up 13 percentage points from the first quarter.

Overall company sales for the quarter were $417 million, up 9% from a year ago.

HERNDON, VA – iNEMI released a rare earth metals white paper.

"Rare Earth Metals: Current Status and Future Outlook” discusses the sources of rare earth metal ores and processed materials. Potential solutions to prevent future supply constraints are suggested.

"Demand for rare earth metals has increased significantly in the past decade," said Bill Bader, CEO of iNEMI. "REMs can be found in every electronic device produced today. But the electronic industry is not the only sector requiring an increased supply of REMs. These materials can be found in every hybrid automobile and most batteries, as well as every fiber-optic amplifier, LED, fluorescent light, and even in wind turbines. As demand continues to grow, shortages are a real risk."

Bader says iNEMI developed its REM white paper to inform the electronics industry about the REM situation worldwide and to urge the industry to take steps to become better informed and ready to react appropriately to future challenges. He notes some affected industries are developing policies and alternative technologies to reduce their dependence on REMs and/or mitigate risks to their supply chains, and that the electronics industry should consider taking a similar approach.

To view the white paper, visit http://thor.inemi.org/webdownload/projects/iNEMI_REM_Whitepaper.pdf.

KANATA, CANADA – Test and measurement equipment from OneChip Photonics will be sold at auction in early June.

Items up for auction include a Royce Model MP300 autoplacer die sorter; SEC Model 830 manual pick-and-place system; Finetech Lambda flip chip bonder; Averna life test system; Royce Model DE35-ST semiautomatic die handler; bar tester systems; Tektronix Model CSA8000 Scope; wafer probers; Agilent DCA-J 86100C; HP Model 8703A Lightwave component analyzer; Ando Model AQ6317C optical spectrum analyzer;  two Agilent Model 86142B optical spectrum analyzers; two Agilent Model 86140B optical spectrum analyzers, and TestEquity 1007C temperature chambers

The online auction is being conducted by Baja Bid at www.BajaBid.com. Bidding will open at 4 AM EST on June 3 and will close at 11 AM EST on June 5.

MELBOURNE, FL – Electronics manufacturer MC Assembly is moving to a new facility here.