EL SEGUNDO, CA – The gloom and doom in the housing market may have a major impact on consumer purchasing of LCD TVs and computer monitors during the holiday season, according to iSuppli Corp.

Concerns are rising regarding the sub prime mess, the turmoil surrounding the financial markets and how these issues will impact business and consumer spending in the U.S., the research firm says. Rising defaults on U.S. home loans may limit consumers’ disposable spending during the holiday period this year, iSuppli adds.

“While LCD panel suppliers expect prices to increase for the remainder of 2007 due to supply tightness, iSuppli believes inventory increases will result in softness in panel demand among end-product makers and channel participants, especially in the monitor market,” said Sweta Dash, director of LCD and projection research at iSuppli. “This may affect fourth-quarter pricing of large-sized panels. The issue could become more of a problem if consumers stop spending and tighten their purse strings because of the mortgage problems in the fourth quarter.”

From April through September, LCD makers raised the prices of products at a 15 to 25% rate for notebook and monitor panels, and a 5 to 7% rate for 32-inch and smaller TV panels, reports iSuppli. However, branded vendors are being forced into price cuts to move inventory. The North American market is the biggest cause for concern right now because of the tumultuous economic atmosphere. However, the ramifications of this will be felt among the Asian manufacturers and the global supply chain, the firm states.

In addition, while long-term demand for notebook panels is still positive, notebook production may be impacted as a result of component shortages, says iSuppli. Notebook panel production also may be impacted as manufacturing capacity for these displays is diverted to fast-growing small- to medium-size applications such as digital photo frames, personal navigation devices, car TVs and ultra-mobile PCs.

Panel suppliers Innolux, CPT and AUO are planning to shift more of their fourth and 4.5-generation capacity in some of their fabs to small- and medium-sized panels, says iSuppli. Some are even planning to use some fifth-generation capacity for those size panels. Notebook panel prices increased by between 1 and 2% in September compared to August, the company notes.

iSuppi predicts actual notebook PC shipments in the second half of the year will fall short of expectations because of component shortages. Besides LCD panels, notebook PC manufacturers are reporting shortages of ICs, batteries, optical drives and PCBs. Many notebook PC suppliers said they expected these component shortages to last until October, while others are concerned that they may continue through the end of the year. If notebook PC production is indeed impacted by this component shortage throughout the remainder of 2007, it will impact panel demand, adding to the overall uneasiness being felt in the LCD industry, says iSuppli.

SAN JOSE, CA – Worldwide sales of semiconductors rose sharply in August, growing to $21.5 billion, an increase of 4.9% year-over-year, and an increase of 4.5% sequentially, the Semiconductor Industry Association reports.

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BEAVERTON, OR – PCB maker Merix Corp. posted a first quarter loss of $2.5 million, down from a profit of $3.6 million in the same period last year.

Revenue fell 3% to $100.1 million, Merix reports.

The company says it attributes this decline to lower North American revenue.

Merix expects second quarter results to be in the range of a breakeven to a net loss of $2 million.

For the quarter ending in November, the company forecasts revenue in the range of $98 million to $102 million.

HERNDON, VA – The International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative, an industry-led consortium focused on identifying and closing technology gaps, will kick off its 2009 roadmap in Munich on Nov. 14 at Productronica.

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HERNDON, VA – The International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative, an industry-led consortium focused on identifying and closing technology gaps, has published its 2007 research priorities.

iNEMI grouped 90 identified needs into five research areas: manufacturing processes, system integration (IT and technology integration), energy and the environment, materials and reliability, and design.

The top priority for manufacturing processes shifted from development of reduced cost manufacturing processes that support rapid miniaturization to development of a new methodology/strategy for R&D to be conducted in the global outsourcing environment.

While there is still a need to continue improvements to the IT infrastructure, the top research need currently identified for system integration is the development of 3D interconnect structures with associated thermal management, reports iNEMI.

According to the group, the top two research priorities for energy and environment are the development of sound scientific methods to evaluate environmental impact of materials and research into the development of new innovative energy sources.

The top research priority in materials and reliability is the development of the next generation of solder alloys with better area array shock, lower cost, lower temperature and reduced copper dissolution issues, the researchers add. And the second research priority is the development of halogen-free materials.

The top priorities for design are improved, integrated and standardized DfX tools for compatibility across supply chains, and low-cost solutions for carrying >10Gb/s signal rates between components on a PCB, iNEMI says. 

The document identifies R&D priorities for the next 10 years by combining findings from this year’s Roadmap with R&D needs identified through follow-on gap analysis meetings.

This information is intended to assist corporate research labs, government funding agencies and academic research centers in focusing limited resources on those areas that will yield the greatest return.

PHOENIX – EMS provider Suntron Corp. announced today that its majority shareholder, Thayer-Blum Funding, intends to take the company private, subject to completion of financing. The deal is expected to close in December.

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ANGLETON, TX – Benchmark Electronics lowered its third-quarter guidance by $50 million to $100 million due to slower than anticipated product and program transitions, and softer demand.

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SAN JOSE – The MicroElectronics Packaging and Test Engineering Council announced its technical symposium Substrates: The Foundation of Semiconductor Packaging, to be held in San Jose Nov. 8.

The objective of this symposium is to identify technology requirements for the next generation of substrate technology, highlighting required innovations that will further enable IC component integration, and electronic system functionality.

The program is segmented into the following areas: Substrate Manufacturing and 1st Level Interconnect Technology; Design and Simulation: Silicon, Substrate, System; 2nd Level Interconnect and Reliability, and Emerging Substrate Technologies.

For more information, visit www.meptec.org.

 

SHENZHEN – Kasion Automation Ltd. on Sept. 28 celebrated its 15th year in China.

More than 150 people were present, including all employees of Kasion from offices in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Shenzhen and the company’s Hong Kong headquarters; its subsidiary colleagues; customers Artesyn (Emerson), Celestica, Chung Nam, Computime, Elcoteq, Flextronics, Hasee, Hip Fung, Honeywell, Huawei, Konka, Refined Industry, Sangfei, Vtech, Zastron, and manufacturing suppliers, including Assembleon, BTU, BPM, CASIO, PVA and VJ Electronix.

Abby Tsoi, director of Kasion, kicked off the celebration with a welcome speech and presentation of the Long Service Awards, Excellent Performance Awards and Outstanding Performance Awards for employees.

Stephen Wu, area manager of North China, received awards for 15 years of service and sales performance. Kelvin Sze earned award for sales, and Rebecca Tse received a performance award, in addition to their service gold medals.

More than 20 employees were presented with service and performance awards, while Kasion’s customers and principal manufacturing suppliers received the Excellent Partnership Awards, presented by GM SK Chiu.

Kasion has grown more than 10 times since it was established.

 

SANTA CLARA, CA – The Electronics Supply Chain Association announced Jim Miller of Cisco Systems has been added as a keynote presenter for the 11th Annual Electronics Supply Chain Association Conference, Oct. 29-31, in Santa Clara.

Miller, vice president, product operations, will present Value Creation throughout the Product Lifecycle.

In addition, Paul R. Brody, partner, IBM Global Business Services and Global Lead, Electronics Industry Strategy Practice, will present the opening keynote on Optimization through Collaboration: Going it Alone is No Longer an Option, and Beth McKone, vice president of worldwide program management and supply chain solutions for Solectron Corporation, will present Supply Chain Orchestration – Changing the Game by Changing the Rules. 

For more information, visit www.electronicssupplychain.org.

SHENZHEN – Endicott Interconnect Technologies has signed a lease to supply fully assembled boards via a 40,000 sq. ft. facility in Shenzhen. The lease currently covers space for one line, company sources say.
 
“Once volume production ramps for many boards, it can occur at EI Shenzhen, which offers both a volume production site and lower cost manufacturing,” said Stephen Howland, product manager of EI complex assembly operations.
 
EI Shenzhen can provide high-density hybrid PCB assemblies – double-sided complex boards with mixed technologies and an average component count of > 1500 – in sizes as large as 8" x 24" for SMT or non-SMT backplanes, the company reports.
 
Assembly technologies include SMT, press fit, wave solder, selective PTH solder, and hand assembly and solder. Components that can be placed on-board include high I/O area array modules (BGA/CGA down to 0.03" pitch, and PBGA), fine pitch leaded parts, and SMT discretes and chips down to 0402 size, as well as high-density, high-I/O connectors. Complete mechanicals – cage, chassis and system assemblies – can be provided, EI says.
 
Products for which the Shenzhen facility can provide production include motherboards for servers and communication applications, as well as controller boards for various medical and IT applications.

WILSONVILLE, OR – Mentor Graphics Corp. chairman and CEO Dr. Wally Rhines will keynote the International System-on-Chip Design Conference in Seoul later this month.
 
Dr. Rhines’s talk will focus on changing the design rules, the company announced.
 
The conference runs Oct. 15-16.
 
For more information, visit http://www.isocc.org/.