nov 07 update

Yang An Electronics Ltd, a PCB maker from Taiwan, announced that its facility in Wuxi, China is scheduled to begin operations in the first quarter of 2007, and will later focus on manufacturing PCBs used in GPS devices.

According to Yang An President James Yang, the Wuxi plant will complete its equipment installation also in the same quarter. First-stage operations are set to have a capacity of 37,161.22 sq.m., all of which will be used for PCBs for displays.

The plant's second-stage expansion is also scheduled next year, which aims to double the company's capacity. By then, the facility will begin manufacturing PCBs for GPS devices.

Yang An currently has a plant in Taoyuan, Taiwan, which mainly processes 12-inch to 50inch PCBs.

Arlon Opening Suzhou Manufacturing Facility

Arlon opened a new Arlon manufacturing facility in Suzhou New District in the Peoples' Republic of China (PRC).

This operation and the new company entitled "Arlon Material Technologies Co., Ltd." complements Arlon's longstanding operations in Delaware and California in the United States. The new China company will manufacture specialty laminate and prepreg materials for the printed wiring board industry. Products made at Arlon Material Technologies in Suzhou will include both Arlon thermosetting and thermoplastic (PTFE) circuit board materials and will serve a broad base of markets including PWB's for high performance, high temperature, microwave and RF applications.

Arlon has had operations within the PRC since June of 2004 when the Finishing Center (Arlon Materials for Electronics Suzhou, Ltd.) was opened.

Vietnam's High-Speed IT Rise

Intel Corp. confirmed that it will more than triple its investment in a new facility in Vietnam to $1 billion, creating the largest single factory in its global assembly and test network. Intel decided to increase the size of the planned assembly and test facility in the Saigon Hi-Tech Park from 150,000 to 500,000 square feet based on the findings of an internal evaluation. Intel said the capacity boost means construction of the new facility would not begin until next March. The plant is expected to begin production by 2009, and the chip maker said the Vietnam operation could eventually employ as many as 4,000 people

Intel announced plans to boost its investment in Vietnam to US$1 billion, a mere nine months after the company unveiled plans to spend $300 million on a factory to assemble and test microchips in Ho Chi Minh City. Canon is meanwhile spending $1 billion on a new printer factory in Hanoi, while Alcatel, Fujitsu and Siemens are all increasingly sticking "Made in Vietnam" on their products.

Hon Hai to Establish Hi-Tech Park In Hebei

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., Taiwan's biggest manufacturing conglomerate by revenue, will establish a hi-tech park on a 6,000-acre site in mainland Chinese province of Hebei for US$1.2 billion to tap the bustling economic zone surrounding the mainland China's Bohai Gulf. The company already signed an agreement with Beijing authorities over the investment.

Hon Hai will begin constructing the park next year in several stages to accommodate its cell-phone and parts manufacturing operations. The park is located between mainland Chinese capital city Beijing and port city Tianjin.

So far, Hon Hai has set up a total number of eight hi-tech parks throughout the mainland. The number will increase to 12 in 2007, including the one in Hebei. This year alone, the company's investment in hi-tech parks in the mainland amounts to US$4 billion.

Hon Hai's mobile-phone affiliate, Foxconn, projected to rake in revenue totaling NT$300 billion (US$9 billion at US$1:NT$33) throughout this year. The affiliate is moving toward manufacturing of the high-performance smart phones from assembly of middle-range and low-end phones. The result is estimated to soar sharply next year as soon as the planned Hebei park begins operation.

Modular Building Company Awarded Cleanroom Project in Anchorage, Alaska

Allied Modular Building Systems,Inc. announced today that it has been awarded the contract for construction of a Class 10000 Cleanroom for America's Global Strike Task Force's C-17 Globemaster III and the F-22A Raptor military programs based at the Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, AK.

The C-17 Globemaster III is the newest, most flexible cargo aircraft to enter the airlift force and is capable of rapid strategic delivery of troops and all types of cargo to main operating bases or directly to forward bases in the deployment area. The F-22A Raptor is the Air Force's newest fighter aircraft and with its combination of stealth, supercruise maneuverability, and integrated avionics represents an exponential leap in warfighting capabilities.

The cleanroom will be design-built according to Elmendorf's particular project specifications and applications. The primarily use of the cleanroom will be critical composite repairs of structural cracks on the C-17 transport fleet but will also include unspecified future operational uses for the F-22A Raptor essential to man and material supplies for the war effort in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Samsung India Electronics Plans Electronics Manufacturing in India

Samsung India Electronics Pvt. Ltd., the digital technology leader, announced that it has completed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Tamil Nadu, India to set up a second manufacturing complex in Sriperumbudur, Chennai , India to cater to the fast growing requirements for the company’s consumer electronics products in India . The project could mean an investment of up to US$ 100 Million over a five year time frame starting from 2007.

Under the Memorandum of Understanding, Samsung expects to commence the construction work on the 80 acres of land in Sriperumbudur in January 2007, and commence commercial operation in August 2007.

In the first phase, Samsung plans to first set up manufacturing facilities for colour televisions, colour monitors, refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, printers and other technology products. The facilities for color televisions and color monitors, to be set up in the first year itself, are expected to have a production capacity of 1.5 million units per annum and 1.0 million units per annum respectively. In the second phase of the project, the company plans to enhance the production capacities for the products mentioned above, that are being set up in Phase I.

Samsung expects to provide employment to 2500 people after full implementation of the project.

Samsung’s existing manufacturing complex at Noida, spreading over 30 acres, has production facilities for color televisions, color monitors, refrigerators and washing machines. The company also has R&D operations at its Noida complex – both for hardware (product customization) and software development, Samsung India Software Center (SISC) at Noida.

European ODM Spends $2.5 Million on French Plant

TES Electronic Solutions., an electronics design and manufacturing services company, has completed a 2 million euro (about $2.5 million) investment in its manufacturing plant in Langon, France. TES (Langon, France), which was created in 1994 by the purchase of a number of Thales design centres in France, Germany and the U.K. together with two specialist manufacturing sites in Brittany, has invested in an upgrade at Langon to enable production of both RoHS and non-RoHS (restriction of hazardous substances) products and an enlargement of cleanroom facilities.

"The next stage will be to add a conformal coating capability to Langon, which will support the medical, industrial and aerospace business at the facility. Two years after being almost totally dependent on Thales TES expanded its client base so that more than half the workload comes from new business, the company said. The expenditure on the Langon plant complements its recently announced acquisition of a factory in Penang, Malaysia.

TES employs 900 people, of whom 500 are design engineers. It has design centers and project offices located in Silicon Valley, Edinburgh, Paris, Rennes, Grenoble, Nice, Stuttgart, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Berlin, Nuremburg, Munich, Bangalore and Tokyo.

Flextronics Inaugurates Facility in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico

Flextronics has expanded its presence in Mexico through the first phase completion of its planned 1.9 million square foot facility in Ciudad Juarez.

Flextronics' Ciudad Juarez operations increase the company's existing operations in Mexico, which include an industrial park in Guadalajara and a manufacturing facility in Aguascalientes. Flextronics' Juarez facility will offer services that include Configure-to-Order (CTO)/Build-to-Order (BTO), product completion and pack-out, metal stamping, plastic injection and logistics, such as repair and distribution. The Ciudad Juarez facility complements the company's existing services offered through its Guadalajara industrial park.

Flextronics plans to employ approximately 4,000 more employees within five years and will offer its employees unique programs to promote a best-in-class working environment at its Ciudad Juarez campus. It is the company's objective to become the employer of choice in this region.

Prism Electronics Improves Testing with New Equipment

Prism Electronics, a UK-based contract electronics manufacturer, selected the XJTAG boundary scan development system to speed up the process of debugging and testing highly complex printed circuit boards featuring high pin count ball grid array devices such as field programmable gate arrays.
The XJTAG system has been implemented at Prism's 6,500 square ft manufacturing facility in St Ives, England, where it has led to significantly improved production test coverage up to 98% for certain boards and it is also being used extensively for new product introductions and prototype verification.

TSU receives $1 Million Federal Grant for Nanotech Program

Tennessee State University has been awarded a $1 million grant by the U.S. Department of Defense to establish a nanoscience and biotechnology laboratory and research program.
Marcus W. Shute, TSU vice president for research and sponsored programs, will be the principal investigator for the grant, which was awarded by the Department of Defense’s Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

The funds will be used to build out a nanoscience and biotechnology laboratory in the TSU Research and Sponsored Programs facility currently under construction. The building is scheduled to open in early 2007, with the nanoscience and biotechnology lab to be operational by fall of 2007.

The facilities will support continued research activities in areas that are at the intersection of nanotechnology and biotechnology, such as nanophotonics, nanodevices and materials, bio-nanotechnology (applications of nanotechnology to biomedical research), environmental biotechnology.

VTT's World-class Cleanroom Facilities Restored

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland offers world-class research in microelectronics. The VTT cleanroom at Micronova facilities in Espoo, Finland that suffered considerable damage in February because of a fire has now been fully restored to service condition. It is expected that research activities can be resumed within the next few weeks.

The air-conditioning system and most of the cleanroom structures that were damaged in the fire have been completely replaced. Covering a floor area of 1,100 m², the cleanroom suffered considerable damage in the fire, with the cost of renovation and refurnishing estimated at approximately EUR 13.5 million. The new and restored research equipment is currently being installed, and process start-up was begun at the same time as the installation work. The facilities are expected to be in full working order and available for research by the end of the year.

The cleanroom serves research in micro- and nanoelectronics, using equipment such as a CMOS-based production line for integrated circuits and MEMS components, as well as specialised equipment for deep etching in silicon and silicon dioxide. The facilities also house equipment required for materials research, particularly for the needs of nanoelectronics research.

Micronova is a leading centre for excellence in micro- and nanotechnology run jointly by the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and the Helsinki University of Technology. There are nearly 300 research specialists working at the Micronova facilities in Otaniemi, Espoo. This building is the largest cleanroom used for micro- and nanoelectronics in the Nordic region. Micronova partners with various universities, research institutes and commercial enterprises in international world-class research.

Yale Establishes Institute for Nanoscience and Quantum Engineering

Yale University has established the Yale Institute for Nanoscience and Quantum Engineering, which will unite and expand Yale's existing efforts in the two areas.

An initial investment of $5.5 million will bolster the Institute's infrastructure and initiate seed projects; the amount is in addition to the more than $100 million of funding already focused on these areas of investigation at Yale. The initiative is a part of Yale's commitment of over $1 billion to research infrastructure and science and engineering programs in the coming decade.

The Institute will unite and strengthen six areas of concentration at Yale, including molecular electronics, quantum information processing, chemistry of soft materials, nanoparticles, photonics, and nanoscale biomedical engineering. The creation of bridging research programs that link current programs will be given the highest priority. Toward these goals, centralized characterization facilities will be fitted with state-of-the-art equipment. Sixty faculty members across ten departments will form the initial intellectual base and will serve to provide expertise as more faculty are progressively drawn into this new area.

Already, Yale's biomedical and materials scientists are devising targeted smart nanoparticles that will seek out and destroy individual cancer cells while bypassing healthy ones. They have also developed nanoscale biodegradable scaffolds to allow rejection-free regeneration of new tissues and organs from a patient's own seed cells.

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