News
Word from Taiwan is that flip-chip substrate capacity might be maxed during the first half, due to heavy demand for for graphics chips and chipsets. Rumors of price hikes of up to 10% abound.
Bough Lin, chairman of Siliconware Precision Industries Ltd., reportedly told DigiTimes that demand for flip-chip substrates will be over 10 million units per month, 70 to 80% of which could be consumed by ATI Technologies and Nvidia combined. The two firms combined demand was five to six million units per month this year, DigiTimes said. And VIA Technologies and Silicon Integrated Systems will need 300,000 to 400,000 units per month, Lin reportedly said.
Phoenix Precision Technology, Taiwan's largest flip-chip substrate supplier, will double its capacity to five million units per month by the end of February, Lin told DigiTimes.
Griffin, GA - The new CAMX standards for factory-level data exchange were the focus of a two-day workshop sponsored by IPC (ipc.org), the trade group that helped author the specs. While several leading firms are touting the promise of CAMX, the jury remains out on whether the drivers are in place for widespread adoption.
The seminar took place Oct. 20-21 at NACOM, a tier-one automotive supplier. Most attendees were already involved in the CAMX (Computer Aided Manufacturing using XML) API project headed by Georgia Tech's Manufacturing Research Center. These participants - Agilent, Asymtek, BTU, DEK, Orbotech, Panasonic, Pillarhouse and Universal - shared specific experiences with CAMX implementation. NACOM also detailed its switch to CAMX-compliant manufacturing during a facility tour.
Lacking, however, was the type of attendees the seminar was developed for - that is, OEMs and other companies that have yet to jump on the CAMX bandwagon. The open-architecture standards have been slow to catch fire, possibly due to integration costs, security fears, the general market dive that shrunk IT budgets, the lack of hard numbers on ROI and the availability of competitors that provide proprietary software.
According to Thomas Baggio, an engineering manager at Panasonic, and David Hicks, CEO of Nematron Corp., a high-end control systems provider, the real drive is lacking because an end-user push has yet to materialize. This group of early adopters is betting that the market and demand will tick up. At worst, the adopters already have platform-independent process control machinery in place to offer the kinds of integration, flexibility, traceability and data control advantages that manufacturers need more than ever.
BANNOCKBURN, IL, Nov. 3 - A group of leading vendors of solder today released white paper findings that "no significant difference" exists between a trio of heavily researched lead-free alloys. The lead-free pastes were found to result in less bridging but more voiding than a tin-lead eutectic control, the authors wrote.
In a 16-page report, the IPC Solder Products Value Council announced results of a down-select process of six tin-silver-copper solder pastes and subsequent PCB assembly comparing three of the alloys and a tin-lead solder paste.
The SVPC is made up of 17 solder vendors who aim to achieve worldwide consensus on a standard lead-free alloy. The paper details the second of a three-phase, $1 million program testing tin-silver-copper alloys.
Five solder manufacturers submitted paste samples for the anonymous testing, which was conducted by an independent party. The pastes studied: • 96.5/3.0/0.5 Tin/Silver/Copper. • 95.5/3.8/0.7 Tin/Silver/Copper. • 95.5/4.0/0.5 Tin/Silver/Copper.
Engent AAT,of Norcross, GA, tested one alloy per vendor using tin-lead eutectic paste as a control. Testing was performed on FR-4 boards using surface finishes of immersion silver, OSP, electroless nickel/immersion gold (ENIG) and bare copper and components with tin and tin-silver-copper finishes. Tests performed included: reproducibility of printed paste volume, solder paste wetting and spread, interconnect voiding.
Next, two major EMS companies, Flextronics and Solectron, built a total of 200 assemblies each, using the three SAC alloys and a tin-lead control. The companies then studied the three pastes for testability, rework and repair, handling and storage, printing, reflow and cleaning. There was "no significant difference" between the lead-free solders, they found. However, in general the tin-lead paste outperformed the lead-free alloys.
According to the report, "Submitted samples ... showed that, in general, the lead-free pastes were not as well-defined or as repeatable as tin-lead solder paste nor was their slump performance as good as tin-lead solder paste. This was most likely due to the use of a generic print process that was not optimized for each material.
The lead-free pastes also resulted in less bridging but more voiding than the control paste, the paper notes.
The final report is due in early 2005 and will include results and analysis of long-term and thermal-shock reliability testing.
"The SPVC is moving forward to complete this very detailed reliability testing program, in what we hope will be an alloy that industry can use with confidence," said Peter Palmer, SPVC chair and vice president of global marketing at Cookson Electronics.
SAN JOSE, Nov. 1 -- Global semiconductor sales rose to $18.4 billion in September, a sequential increase of 1%, the Semiconductor Industry Association reported today. Sales of PCs and cellphones appear to be stronger than expected and are boosting sales of microprocessors, DSP, flash memory devices and DRAMs.
Worldwide chip sales for the third quarter were $55.2 billion, up 3.2% from the second quarter and 27.4% from last year. Worldwide sales were up 33.2% for the first nine months.
"Despite evidence of an ongoing inventory correction in some segments of the industry, the September sales figures reflect continuing growth in demand for semiconductors," said SIA president George Scalise. "September is traditionally one of most consistently strong months for microchip sales as manufacturers of electronics products gear up for the holiday season.
"Slower growth or declining sales in a few market segments are signs of a continuing inventory correction by both semiconductor producers and customers. The ongoing inventory correction in these segments was the major factor in the September growth rate coming in near the low end of the historic range," Scalise said.
Chip sales in Europe and Asia were up 4.1% and 1.6%, respectively, while sales in the Americas and Japan declined 1.7% and 0.5%, respectively.
SMTA Seeks Papers for Medical Electronics Symposium
11-02-2004
Minneapolis, MN -- The SMTA has issued a call for papers for the Medical Electronics Symposium to be held April 26-27, 2005, in Minneapolis, MN. Papers can be submitted until December 3.
Topics for the conference may include:
- Assembly Technology Challenges
- Manufacturing/Equipment Requirements
- Design Challenges: Power Management and DFX
- Assembly Failure Analysis Case Studies
- Six Sigma Projects
- Lean Manufacturing Projects
- Process Validation and Requirements: Qualification, Traceability, and Control
- Advanced Packaging for Medical Electronic
- Components/Packaging and Assembly Materials
- Substrate Materials
- Emerging Technologies for Medical Electronics
- Sensors/MEMS/Nanotechnology
- Business Regulations / Barriers to Entry for Medical Assembly
- Challenges in Outsourcing Medical Assembly
- RoHS and Environmental Constraints for Medical Products
The conference will explore medical electronic devices, components, packaging, assembly and business issues for major categories, such as diagnostics, imaging, monitoring, life support, implantable products, personal monitor/delivery devices and disposable electronics. Products addressed range from complex, powerful and expensive diagnostic machines to simple, mass-produced, use-once sensors.
Submit abstracts and inquiries to SMTA director of education Kristin Nafstad: kristin@smta.org. Include the paper title, author's name and complete contact info.
www.smta.org/education/education.cfm#call
The results include a $23.1 million charge for the impairment of goodwill and a $1.8 million writeoff of
customer
lists associated with the acquisitions of ETMA and AVT, respectively.
TFAS also took a $1.6 million charge for excess inventory and
transition issues relating to completion of the move of the display
business from the company's factory in Manila to a factory in Beijing.
For
the quarter, the cost of sales was $42.5 million, up from $41 million
last year. Gross margin was a loss of 0.1, versus 1.4 last year.
Jack
Saltich, president and chief executive, said in a statement, "We have
been concentrating our efforts this year on streamlining our global
manufacturing operations and correcting issues in our Redmond factory.
Optimizing our global infrastructure has taken a significant effort. I
believe we are starting to see success from these endeavors."
Separately, TFS named Leslie Honda regulatory affairs director, a new post. Honda was vice president of quality and regulatory for ClearMedical Inc., a medical devices reprocessor.
The book-to-bill ratio for all types of boards was 1.08, meaning for every $100 of shipments, $108 in orders were booked, said IPC, which tracks the data. The trade group does not disclose the participants or their revenues. The book-to-bill ratio was 1.04 in August.
The ratios for rigid and flex boards were 1.01 and 1.38, respectively. The ratio is calculated by dividing the value of orders booked over the past three months by the value of sales billed. A ratio over 1.0 is considered an indicator of rising demand.
Overall September shipments rose 25.9% and bookings were up 18.1% year-on-year, IPC said. For the year, shipments are up 33.5%, bookings are up 35.2%. Sequentially, shipments were up 12.1%, bookings 16.6%.
"Both rigid and flex shipments are rebounding from the recession and are showing strong growth, but flex is growing at a faster rate than rigid," IPC said in a press release.
For the month rigid PCB shipments were up 12.2% but bookings fell 10.1%. Flexible circuit shipments were up 85.6% and bookings were 140.1% higher.
Year-to-date, rigid PCB shipments are up 23.3% and bookings are 16.8% higher, while flex shipments have grown 78.5% and bookings are up 106.5%.
The flexible circuit sales include some value-added services -- about 17%, says IPC.
For the three months ended Oct. 2, the company posted earnings of $11.5 million, up from a loss of $85.7 million last year. The results topped consensus forecasts, thanks to strength in PCs and wireless infrastructure.
Excluding items, income rose to $41.8 million, from $14 million last year. Gross margins were 5.3%. In a research note, Deutsche Bank said, "We believe a mix shift toward PCs, continued pricing pressure and management mishaps in enclosures combined to drive the margin shortfall."
The company generated $160 million in cash flow from operations during the quarter. Inventory turns improved to 11.5 from 10.4 sequentially.
For its 2004 fiscal year, Sanmina-SCI posted a loss of $5.3 million, up from a loss of $137.2 million in 2003. Excluding one-time charges, the company reported income of $128.9 million, up from $28.3 million last year. Yearly revenue rose to $12.2 billion, from $10.4 billion.
Sanmina guided for first-quarter earnings per share of 9 to 11 cents
on revenue of $3.3 billion to $3.5 billion. Last year Sanmina-SCI
reported revenue of $3 billion.
So says the latest NAM/Fortune Manufacturing Index, a quarterly poll of 336 members of the National Association of Manufacturers.
NAM said the bullish outlook is based on continued strong sales expectations. "Fully three quarters of survey respondents indicated that they expect their sales to increase over the coming four quarters," said NAM president John Engler, in a statement.
Although the data show a modest sequential decline, when 90% of large and 87% of small companies were positive, the improvement is dramatic when compared to the period of Q3 2000 to Q2 2003, when less than two-thirds of NAM members were optimistic.
"This report confirms our belief that the economy is gaining strength and will continue to expand throughout this year and next," Engler said. "This is equal to the average of the prior two quarters and 10% above the response given a year ago."
Large firms expect sales to rise 6.1%, the strongest response since the fourth quarter of 1997, when the poll was begun. Smaller companies expect sales to grow by 4.4% over the coming year.
Fifty-five percent of respondents expect to increase capital spending over the coming year. Large and small firms expect to increase employment in the coming year.
The net loss included a $36.8 million valuation allowance for deferred tax assets, and $3.8 million in restructuring and impairment costs. The company cited higher-than-expected startup costs for its facility in Penang, Malaysia, and the closing of its Bothell, WA, plant.
The company guided for revenue growth of 15 to 18% in fiscal 2005.
For the year Plexus reported a net loss of $31.6 million on revenues of $1.04 billion. The company reported pro-forma net income of $13.5 million, excluding one-time items.
In 2003, Plexus had sales of $807.8 million and a net loss of $68 million.
"As we look to fiscal 2005 our primary objective remains to increase profitability," said president and CEO Dean Foate, in a press statement. "We expect to achieve this goal with improvements in capacity utilization and operating efficiencies through a combination of moderate revenue expansion and lean manufacturing and inventory management initiatives."
"For first fiscal quarter, we are initiating revenue guidance of $280 million to $290 million," Foate said.
Gordon Bitter, Chief Financial Officer, added, "Despite higher .
The China currency issue has become a political football because of manufacturing's insistence on a substantial revaluation and the Bush Administration's stated reluctance to hold China's feet to the fire. Hoping to capitalize on the issue's high profile in the November elections, U.S. labor, textile, and steel groups on Sept. 9 filed a petition known as a Section 301 seeking a formal investigation into China's currency policy. Hours later, administration officials denied it.
On Sept. 30, one Republican and seven Democratic senators joined nearly 20 House Democrats in refiling the petition. While a spokesperson said the Administration would meet with Congressional members, there is no indication any punitive actions against China would be taken.
A coalition of trade groups known as the Fair Currency Alliance has spent the past year pushing for a steep revaluation of the Chinese yuan. The FCA wants 40%, a number arrived at that because, according to one FCA member there are data to justify it and it gave some room to negotiate.
However, disagreement in the ranks prompted the FCA to redraft the petition but the actual refiling was left to the AFL-CIO. The FCA, whose members include the National Association of Manufacturers and IPC, operates on unanimous consent, IPC spokesperson John Kania told Circuits Assembly, and there was "heated debate" among its members as to whether to proceed with the filing. The AFL-CIO, steel and textiles industries advocating filing and NAM was strongly against it, according to Kania. While not saying the IPC was against filing, Kania said the group didn't want to alienate the Bush Administration. (Kania, who doubles as IPC's liaison to the SMEMA Council, a group of assembly equipment makers, said the council supports the petition because it affects customers.)
China's currency policy has for years rankled many U.S. economists and trade groups. China has said on several occasions it plans to comply with WTO currency rules but has yet to move in that direction. Says Kania, "The view of the Administration is that the Chinese knows they have a problem. They need to slow down their economy. Inflation is rampant, but to control it they need to raise interest rates." And China needs 8% annual growth just to absorb the crush of new workers, Kania says.
Kania expects that a Kerry presidency would mean more action, at least. "He's going to have to do something for manufacturing. Labor really backed him."
HELSINKI, Oct. 27 -- EMS firm Elecoteq said third-quarter sales rose 67% to 828.7 million euros and operating income spiked too, led by demand in Europe and the Asia-Pacific.
For the September quarter operating income was 20 million euros, up from 6.6 million euros last year, aided by a one-time value-added tax refund of 2.3 million euros.
For the past year return on capital employed was 21.3%.
Year to date net sales are up 38%, to 2.1 million euros, and operating income is 50.6 million euros, up from 13.6 million euros.
In a press statement, Eloteq said production was strong in its terminal products business, especially in Europe. Terminal products includes handsets and accounts for 80% of the company's overall sales. However, profitability was weakened by production problems in its communication network equipment business, a problem Elcoteq says will be "largely rectified" during the current quarter.
During the third quarter Elcoteq added staff in Estonia, Hungary and Mexico and now has nearly 3,400 more employees in those areas than this time last year.
Elcoteq guided for Q4 net sales and operating income from business operations to be on par with the third quarter.
Flextronics already designs cellphones, PCs and other electronics for Nokia, Sony-Ericsson and H-P. It has signaled iin recent quarters its plans to increase its design work, which offers better margins than board assembly.
Press Releases
- Yamaha Robotics Introduces a New Program to Minimize Onshoring Costs in North Americ
- Scanfil Appointed Anna-Maria Tuominen-Reini as Chief Supply Chain Officer
- BEST Inc. Provides High-Reliability BGA Reballing and Component Rework Services
- ProcureAbility Releases New Benchmarking Report Confirming Widespread AI Development and Adoption in Procurement with Focus on Targeted Enterprise Results