Printed Circuit Design & Fab - March 2009 - (Page 10) AROUND the worLd in BRIEF Glass Fabric Prices Climb Slightly; CCL Stabilizes. Glass fabric prices have climbed by 10% in China, the price per meter rose $0.08 to $0.68. Meanwhile, prices in Taiwan have finally stabilized following a steady decline since August. Copper foil prices increased 5% in January; market watchers are predicting much of the same for February. Copper clad laminate (CCL) remained stable for January and is expected to remain unchanged in February. Würth Judged Worthy of Topit Quality Award. The IRR Germany has awarded the Topit Quality Award to Würth Elektronik. Presented annually, this year’s award recognized “Qool-Quality is Cool, Würth’s quality man” agement system. The system has put a stronger emphasis on the employees’ individual responsibilities within the company and has made improvements in production and service while reducing customer issues. “Quality doesn’t start with one machine, but rather in the mind of each individual, said Jörg ” Murawsi, a managing director at Würth. Ruwel Files for Insolvency. Ruwel GmbH, once one of Europe’s largest fabricators, has filed insolvency.The company has been hit by the downturn in auto production, which has dropped its capacity utilization -- a reported 1.5 million PWBs per year -- to under 50%. About 58% of Ruwel’s revenue comes from the auto segment. Ruwel has had flat sales over the 2005-07 timeframe, with annual revenues of $205 million to $210 million, according to Dr. Hayao Nakahara’s NT 100 list. Since 2006, Ruwel has been owned by a trio of investment banks. Rogers Corp. Cuts 90 Jobs. In an effort to reduce annual expenses by $27 million, Rogers Corp. will eliminate approximately 90 jobs. The measure will affect nearly 10% of its global workforce. The cuts will come from attrition, unfilled positions and both voluntary and involuntary severance. Rogers has also reduced production hours at some facilities and frozen salaries. The company expects the actions will generate a one-time charge of $2.5 million in the first quarter. Its fourthquarter report and first-quarter guidance was released on February 18. L-3 Communications Delivers Strong Q4 Profits. L Communications Holdings Inc. -3 reported fourth-quarter revenues climbed 5.4% to $4.01 billion, compared to $3.81 billion in 2007 Year-over-year, revenue grew 7% . to $14.9 billion. A much-welcomed boost in sales and orders resulted in a 29% increase in profits for the quarter ended December 31. The company reported a $20 million after-tax gain, up almost 26% from $756 million. Net income was $267 million, or $2.21 per share, compared to $207 million, or $1.63 per share, in 2007 Orders for the year were $16.5 billion, . and sales for 2009 are expected to see a 5% increase to $15.6 billion PCB East 2009 Registration Opens BOSTON – Registration for PCB East 2009 is now open. The conference will take place April 27 – May 1, with an exhibition on April 29, at the Westin Waltham in Boston. The show, held annually since 1996, is sponsored by UP Media Group, the parent company of Circuits Assembly and Printed Circuit Design & Fab. Visit http://www.pcbeast.com for information; register online with priority code #E09EA02 before the early-bird deadline of March 26, and save up to $100 on most registration packages. HAVERHILL, MA – Engineering firm DKN Research and NY Industries, a circuit board manufacturer, launched a prototype and engineering service for printable electronics. The firms established a prototype service for trials with new printable electronics products, using printing equipment and other circuit manufacturing facilities, including roll-to-roll systems with broad ranges of thickfilm circuit technologies. Japan-based NY Industries is currently capable with a thick-film printing process for broad ranges DKN Research and NY Industry Launch printable electronics prototyping Service of substrate materials for both rigid and flexible circuits; fine line traces down to 30 µm line and space; highconductivity, thin thick-film traces down to 3 µm; single-side circuits, double-side circuits and multilayer up to eight layers; printed via holes with mechanically drilled holes and printed holes; solderable thick-film circuits; embedded resistors from 100 ohms to 10 megaohms; embedded capacitances up to 10,000 picofarads; embedded inductances with various constructions; and embedded EL devices with inorganic materials. Winners of DesignVision Awards Announced SANTA CLARA, CA –The DesignVision Awards were recently presented at Design- Con 2009. Awards were handed out in eight categories. PCB Design Tools and Technologies: PCB Matrix for the Symbol Wizard. System Modeling and Simulation Tools: Signal Integrity Software for Quantum Channel Designer. Interconnect Technologies and Components: Molex Inc. for the Impact Backplane Connector System. IC Design Tools: Mentor Graphics for the Olympus-SoC Parallel Timing Analysis and Optimization. Design Verification Tools: Sequence Design for PowerArtist. Semiconductor Components and ICs: Xilinx for the Xilinx Virtex-5 TXT FPGA Platform. Semiconductor IP: Cadence Design Systems for the ChipEstimate.co IP Ecosystem. Test and Measurement Equipment: SyntheSys Research Inc. for DPP 12500A-4T. Gartner: Western Europe’s PC market Grew 12% YoY in Q4 STAMFORD, CT – Western Europe’s personal computer sales were 20.1 million units in the fourth quarter of 2008, up 12% year-over-year, according to Gartner Inc. “If it wasn’t for mini-notebooks, the overall Western European market would be showing a decline. This does not bode well for 2009, as we expect the general economic conditions to worsen,” said Ranjit Atwal, principal analyst at the research firm. Hewlett-Packard and Acer, leaders in the area, boasted shares of 23.2% and 20.3%, respectively, with Dell holding 10.1% of the market, says Gartner. ASUS and Toshiba held a 7.4% and a 6.4% market share, respectively. PC shipments grew 17.2% in the region last year compared to 2007, reaching 66 million units. MARCH 2009 10 PRINTED CIRCUIT DESIGN & FAB http://www.pcbeast.com
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