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TEMPE, AZ -- Manufacturing economic activity expanded in August for the first time in 19 months and the overall economy grew for the fourth consecutive month, according to the latest survey of US supply executives.
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.
BROMONT, QUEBEC – The governments of Quebec and Canada have announced a $178-million grant to the Université de Sherbrooke to establish a microelectronics innovation center.
The purpose of the project, supported by $83 million from the Canadian government and $95 million from the Quebec government, is to create a global center of excellence for research and innovation in 200-mm based MEMS and 3-D wafer level packaging, as well as advanced technologies associated with the assembly and packaging of silicon chips.
Founding partners include DALSA, IBM Canada and Université de Sherbrooke. The founding partners and various semiconductor equipment suppliers will provide support for ongoing operations.
Tortorici’s presentation will cover implantable medical devices: past successes, current status, future possibilities and challenges; Gerris will discuss a leading application for integrated 3-D systems.
The event, hosted by SMTA and MEPTEC, will take place Sept. 16-17 at Arizona State University in Tempe.
Other sessions will include market trends and forecast in medical electronics; emerging and enabling technologies; component manufacturing at the chip and packaging level; technologies that enable implantable devices; materials and design at the board and systems levels; systems manufacturing; reliability, safety and regulatory testing, and system level products and applications – external instrumentation.
BRUSSELS – The European Chemicals Agency has proposed 15 new candidate candidate substances of very high concern (SVHC).
The agency issued a release stating a 45-day consultation period would begin today for selection of the next set of candidate substances of very high concern.
After the 45-day period, ECHA and the member states will review comments and decide on the final list of candidate SVHCs, which will immediately be reportable under Article 33 of REACH, in addition to the previous list of 15 substances.
New additions are expected twice per year, says Design Chain Associates, an environmental consulting firm.
For more information, visit http://echa.europa.eu/consultations/authorisation/svhc/svhc_cons_en.asp.
LONGMONT, CO – EMS firm Reliant Manufacturing is shuttering its facility and selling its equipment at auction, CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY has learned.
TIJUANA, MEXICO -- Sony will sell a 90% stake in its LCD TV assembly plant here to Hon Hai (Foxconn) for a reported $121 million, Reuters reported today, citing Taiwanese analysts.
BANNOCKBURN, IL – The forecast for North American PCB production is down for 2009, but shows growth resuming in 2010.
World production this year will decline 20% to $40.6 billion worldwide, says IPC. North American production is expected to end the current year at about 15% below 2008, but will start climbing in 2010.
North American PCB manufacturers managed to push sales growth in 2008 slightly above 2007 levels, despite declines in the market for PCBs and PCB production in North America, says the association.
According to an IPC report for 2008, the world market for PCBs reached an estimated $50.79 billion last year, up 1% from 2007. PCB production in North America, estimated at $4.11 billion, was down 6.5% from the previous year.
The North American market for flexible circuits declined almost 10% in 2008 to an estimated $441 million. This decline reflects the loss of some companies and the continued movement of end product manufacturing to other regions, according to IPC.
PCB manufacturers that remain active in North America, however, did better than the market in 2008. Rigid PCB manufacturers reported flat sales growth, and flexible circuit producers reported 17% sales growth in 2008, despite declines in both markets.
HERNDON, VA – The International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative today named longtime Intel Corp. engineer Bill Bader chief executive.
Bader replaces Jim McElroy, who announced his retirement earlier this year. Bader becomes the third CEO in the trade group's history.
Bader is a 26-year veteran of Intel. He served as the company’s representative on the iNEMI technical committee from 1998 to 2005.
The company easily beat previous earnings estimates of T$11.23 billion.
On the flip side, Hon Hai’s contract manufacturing unit Foxconn International reported its second straight half-year loss, as Nokia and others dropped business with them.
For the six months ended June 30, Foxconn reported a 34% year-over-year drop in consolidated turnover of $3.16 billion. The company’s loss was $19 million, down from $142 million last year.
Foxconn was hurt by falling demand for handsets: Shipments have dropped 90 million units to a total of 520 million units so far this year.
US $1 = T $32.915
