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BANNOCKBURN, IL – Rigid PCB shipments from North American fabricators fell 7.1% and bookings dropped 1.8% year-over-year in July, IPC reported Wednesday.

For all boards, shipments for the month decreased 6.7% year-over-year, and orders decreased 0.5%. Year to date, combined industry shipments are down 9.9% and bookings are down 13.3%, according to IPC’s report.

Year to date, rigid PCB shipments are down 10.4% and bookings are down 14.6%. Rigid PCB shipments fell 17.7% and bookings decreased 17% sequentially, said IPC.

In July, flexible circuit shipments were down 0.8% and bookings were up 24.6% year-over-year.

Year to date, flexible circuit shipments are down 2.1% and bookings are up 9.1%. Flex shipments decreased 13.7% and flex bookings were down 12.8% sequentially, said IPC.

The rigid book-to-bill ratio was 1.02, and the flex book-to-bill ratio was 1.04.

The combined (rigid and flex) book-to-bill ratio was 1.02, IPC said. Compared to June, combined shipments are down 17.5% and bookings are down 16.7%.

SINGAPORE -- Flextronics has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Avail Medical Products, a move that will "significantly broaden" the EMS firm's medical offerings. Avail is expected to generate approximately $250 million in sales in calendar 2007. Additional terms of the deal were not disclosed.

BANNOCKBURN, IL — The IPC Solder Products Value Council has begun a research program on Take Action Limits, also known as dump pot specifications.

The SPVC hopes to provide consistent recommendations for action levels on wave soldering alloys contaminate. The group will evaluate the effect of impurity limits on Pb-free solder performance by conducting wetting time and wetting force tests. A third-party test facility will study samples to determine if a correlation exists between bridging and copper concentration.

The SPVC plans to publish its findings and list TAL, along with guidelines for solder pot management, in the first quarter 2008.

According to AIM Inc. vice president of technology and SPVC chairman Karl F. Seelig, “Take Action Limits, also known as ‘dump pot specifications,’ are very important to any electronics manufacturing company using flow soldering techniques either in selective soldering or wave soldering. Our objective is to develop better-defined limits to guide electronics manufacturers on a more efficient use of solder and as a result, improved yields.”

Paul Lotosky, director of customer technical support at Cookson Electronics, is heading up the research effort.

MUMBAI – L&T Capital Co. Ltd. has paid a reported 1 billion rupees for a stake in Indian EMS provider Rangsons Electronics Pvt. Ltd.

According to published reports, L&T Capital took a 40% stake in Rangsons, one of India's largest native EMS companies.

L&T Capital is owned by engineering and construction company Larsen & Toubro Ltd. Rangsons is part of the NR Group and is based in Mysore, India.

In a statement, L&T president R.N. Mukhija said, "Looking at the market situation and its growth opportunities, we believe this investment will bear fruit for both partners. Rangsons is well positioned to create significant value for its stakeholders. We see a great opportunity for Rangsons to be a global end-to-end solutions provider in EMS."

(US$1: 0.02441 rupees)

TUSCON, AZ — A University of Arizona professor has been awarded a $1.25 million, two-year grant to develop a sustainable process for electronics manufacturing.

Science Foundation Arizona issued associate professor of chemical engineering Anthony Muscat a $625,000 grant to to find ways to cut water and other materials from electronics manufacturing.

Matching funds will bring the total to more than $1.2 million in cash and other resources, according to reports.

Muscat's idea centers on the use of biological molecules to additively develop common lithography patterns traditionally conducted by subtractive processing.

He will work with Intel, Sematech, SEZ America, Semiconductor Research Corp. and ASM on the approach.

BADEN, SWITZERLAND – EMS firm Enics will purchase certain assets of ZTS Elektronika, the companies said Tuesday.

PALO ALTO, CA – The aerospace and defense industry, although exempt from RoHS, now faces the challenge of electronic device obsolescence, according to Frost & Sullivan. Some assemblers are accustomed to procuring devices that contain lead that meet military specifications. However, some of the new commercial off-the-shelf products will not meet this requirement, thus forcing participants in the military market to go back to the drawing board, the firm states.

The RoHS directive has forced companies to change their methods of designing and manufacturing products. Lead-free legislation resulted in the development of new production strategies and the modification of existing machinery so that products perform to the expected level with the support of the revised production materials and processes, continues the research firm.

“Even though the suppliers of these components insist on manufacturing leaded parts for military purposes, they will have to get fine-tuned to the rapidly changing technology and to the rise in prices of these parts, as they cater to a significantly small market,” notes Frost research analyst Ashwin T. Ananthakrishnan.

The trend of lead-free conversion is expected to become steady in the long term, the company notes. With the rising demand from various end-user industries, the increasing preference of Mexico as a manufacturing hub, adoption of lead-free substances and adherence to environmental regulations, the electronic manufacturing scenario looks promising in the North American region, the firm says.

SAN JOSE — Tessera Technologies promoted Michael Bereziuk to chief operating officer, responsible for the company's packaging, interconnect, and consumer optics businesses, including R&D, marketing and sales. He had been Tessera's executive vice president, product division since joining the company in February 2006.

Bereziuk spent the majority of his career at National Semiconductor, where he held numerous senior operations, sales and marketing roles. In his most recent position at National, he was senior vice president and general manager of the worldwide sales and marketing organization.

LOUISVILLE — Sypris Solutions Inc. controller and principal accounting officer Jeffrey T. Reibel resigned as of last Friday, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

He has been replaced by Glen French, a former senior vice president of finance and treasurer for SHPS Inc. and director, financial planning and accounting for LG&E Energy Corp.