CircuiTree - July 2008 - (Page 41)

[ Market Outlook ] Chart 5 cuit recovery. But, with the end market expansion slowing and PCB growth now in excess of equipment, an imminent PCB growth slowdown appears likely. I don’t mean to rain on our parade, but both the North American semiconductor and PCB cycles could peak imminently and move into a downward trajectory. Be careful! bury, U.K., PCB production facility. Fondo Mezzogiorno, Sao Paulo, Brazil, acquired 20 percent of Somacis Group S.p.A. di Manfredonia. GUH is investing CNY 43 million to boost multilayer and silverthrough-hole production capacity in Bayan Lepas and Suzhou, China. Ibiden is investing JPY 20 billion for a new build-up multilayer EVSS plant in Malaysia opening summer 2009. KCE Electronics is increasing its capacity to 2.1 million ft2 in the second half of 2008. Kyoden: • Acquired Airex’s PWB business; • Created a new subsidiary, Kyoden Fine Tech; and • Targeted China sales of JPY 3 billion annually by 2011. Labtech Microwave added a March PCB-1600 plasma system and a Hurco VMX24 machining center to its Presteigne microwave PCB facility. Meadville’s new FPC plant will become operational in 2009. Merix: • Named George Dramowicz vice president of quality; and • Replaced its previous revolving bank credit facility with a new USD 55 million facility, expiring February 2013. Milplex Circuit of Canada appointed former Sanmina-SCI exec Damon DeSilva national sales manager. Mitsui received Printed Circuit Commodity Supplier of the Year award from Rockwell Collins. Nan Ya Printed Circuit Board: • Received Outstanding Overall Performance Award from STATS ChipPAC; and • Became a secondary IC substrate supplier (behind Ibiden) for Sony’s PlayStation 3. Phoenix Precision Technology became the secondary IC substrate supplier for Nintendo’s Wii. Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane, Ind., became DoD’s executive agent for PCB technology. One Way Circuits’ subsidiaries Circast Electronics and Leicester Circuits closed due to ﬁnancial difﬁculties. Sanmina-SCI closed its Costa Mesa, Calif., HDI plant. Shinwa Frontech opened its Sagamihara, Japan, PWB plant with a capacity of 50,000 m2/month. Silver Seiko’s subsidiary Soken started volume production of ﬂex circuits in Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and China. Sony Chemical increased its multilayer rigid-ﬂex capacity to 1,100 m2/month. Spirit Circuits received Seaward’s Supplier of Excellence gold status. STEMCO increased its capacity of COF substrates by 55 percent to 59 million units/month. Sumitomo Metal Mining began full production of COF boards with a wiring pitch as narrow as 20 µm. Titan Electronics (formally Titan PCB West) named Michael Kadlec president and chief executive ofﬁcer. Titan Global Holdings sold its Titan PCB East assets to Time Sensitive Circuits, a management-led buyout team. VTT Technical Research Centre, Finland, is researching printable and plastic-based electronics where circuits are printed on ﬂexible foils. circuitree.com • July 2008 41 General Taiwan’s PCB makers plan to raise prices 5 to 15 percent in Q3 FY 08 due to higher labor costs in China, rising gold and copper prices, and tight capacity. – Industry Sources Technology Forecasters revised its ﬁve-year EMS forecast down to 11.2 percent and raised its ODM growth rate prediction to 11.9 percent. PCB Fabrication Aspocomp chief executive ofﬁcer Isto Hantila said “The ﬁnancial situation of the Thai company remains critical and the risk of a liquidity crisis is very high.” Circuit Systems India, Mega Circuit, and Accurate Engineering formed the PCB joint venture Accumeg Circuit, which manufactures microwave/RF design, ﬂex, rigid-ﬂex, metal-core, external heat-sink, microelectronics, and PCBs with MIL and SPACE speciﬁcations. Cirep (France) obtained NADCAP accreditation for PCB manufacturing and renewed its Stablcor® license and EN 9100 and ISO 9001 qualiﬁcations. CST group expanded its conventional and rigid-ﬂex PCB capacity in Venturina, Italy, for military, aerospace, automotive, and industrial applications. Dai Nippon Printing and Unimicron formed a Taiwan joint venture for HDI PCBs using B2it technology. Electronic Evolution Technologies, Reno, Nev., paid over USD 80,000 for toxic chemical (lead) reporting violations. Elner, Shirakawa, Japan, is investing JPY 4 billion to expand its build-up PCB capacity by 500 percent over the next three years. Endicott Interconnect Technologies received a USD 148.6 million contract modiﬁcation for card frame assemblies from U.S. DoD. Firan Technology received the Lean Initiative Award 2008 and Supplier of the Year award from Rockwell Collins. Exception invested GBP 400,000 for new equipment at its Tewkes- http://circuitree.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CircuiTree - July 2008

CircuiTree - July 2008 Contents My Line Industry Review Tech Talk Flexible Thinking Toward a PCB Production Floor Metric for Go/No Go Testing of Lossy High-Speed Transmission Lines Intelligent Design 20-Year Retrospective Ask the Flexperts Environmentally Speaking BPA Growth Curves Considering Design Variants to Maximize Process Efficiency Market Outlook Technical Product Spotlights Classified Ads Upcoming Events Ad Index

CircuiTree - July 2008

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