Tag Archives: TPCA

Comings and Goings

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Big news: IBM will “sell” its chip operations to GlobalFoundries according to a joint statement by the companies. IBM will pay “the buyer,” owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, a reported $1.5 billion over the next three years to take the chip manufacturing business “off its hands.”

The world’s dozen or so leading chip foundries that account for more than 90% of global production (including IBM) will all be foreign-owned when this deal is completed.

Who benefits the most? Who will protect the innocent (chip users)? Is leaving America “foundry-less” good for the United States?

Back to the future. Lockheed is reported to have three captive PWB shops in the US. Northrup Grumman has an in-house board operation. Whelan is establishing a new highly automated in-house PWB operation. Intel is said to be planning a new captive board facility in Arizona and said to be offering a bounty for “successful” job referrals. Is it to develop new technology that independent shops cannot afford? Is it for secrecy? Is it to shorten supply lines? Is it to gain time to market or some other competitive advantage? Is it the start of a trend?

Is it still just the price? After visiting the Design-2-Part Show  (D2P) we revisited the concept of using value propositions to offset cheaper prices. We were astounded at the number of people that effectively stated that they would the cheapest system rather than the lowest cost equipment. Yes, there is a difference, and sometimes the added cost of using the cheapest system is substantial. We also found that those that bought the newer system with greater productivity, ease of use, updated software, and smaller footprint often ordered more of the units of the newer system after a short (several months) of running production along side of the “older” competitive models who tried to protect their business by simply lowering the price and promising future improvements.

Some things just never seem to change. When one visits some of the leading board makers making advanced substrates and assemblies in Asia today, one usually sees the latest production equipment. Then I thought of the New Jersey manufacturer that I met at D2P show, and wondered what I will see when I visit a new “highly automated” board maker in the U.S. next month.

Move over Amazon. Dragon Circuits in Texas announced that it successfully completed 14 test runs of delivery by drone of packages weighing up to several pounds. It did not state the range of the drones used in the test runs. Dragon has a drone division that builds a wide variety of these systems.

We need more industry participation and on campuses collaborations like the new Raytheon-UMass Lowell Research Institute (RURI). Plans for the center were announced in August. It officially opened on the campus on Oct. 10 in the school’s Mark and Elisia Saab Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center, the school’s new $80 million research center.

Kyle Homan, a doctoral student in electrical engineering, gave a presentation on printable electronics and nanotechnology at the opening. Raytheon has already embedded employees on site and plans to commit $3 to $5 million over 10 years to support the collaborative operation. It’s a great way to move critical technology forward while simultaneously training candidates for the company.*

Have you seen the TPCA’s (Taiwan Printed Circuit Association) first class promotional video on its interconnect industry? Take nine minutes and watch the video on the following link. ??????? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8w_jIpYu54A

 

*Raytheon currently employs about 1,000 UMass Lowell alumni.

 

Looking Forward

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The Taiwan Printed Circuit Association (TPCA) announced at a press conference attended by nearly 100 members of the government, industry, research institutes, academia and the media that it will publish a white paper in September to address the future Taiwan PCB industry challenges – both in Taiwan as well as China. It will take on production constraints, labor shortages (including skilled and semi-skilled), and end-of-market changes.

TPCA is calling for its government to lead the country’s PCB industry to develop next-generation products and to promote (sponsor?) industry upgrades. Taiwan’s PCB makers have lost its momentum and are likely to generate a CAGR of only 1.2% in the 2010-2014 period. The targeted goal for 2014-2020 was said to be 6% to 7%. Sales of Taiwan owned production at home and abroad (including China) is forecast to be $18.3 billion this year.

Dateline July 23, 2014 5:40PM EST: It is with great sadness and deep regret that I must inform you of the passing this morning of Dieter Bergman, Global Industry Icon of the printed circuit industry, colleague, and friend of the past half century. He worked selflessly and tirelessly with great charm and wit his entire life in behalf of the industry, enabling the impossible to become the possible. The accolades that are sure to follow will be dwarfed by his actual accomplishments.

Do Not Penalize! – Motivate! Incentivize! Negotiate!  License!
Renewable energy is the way of the future. Make no mistake about it. Achieving a cost-effective path is the challenge. Slamming China and Taiwan with enormous duties on assembled solar PV panels shipped to the US is the wrong approach. We should be grateful for the support of China’s  and Taiwan’s governments to their industry that allows us to buy them cheaply. The whole industry is based on government subsidies. The net effect of this new DOC action is to increase prices to the American consumer. The  US government has thrown away hundreds of millions of dollars by investing in unproven, doomed-to-fail companies during the past few years. It should have been providing job creating tax incentives for the manufacture of such panels in America.

Let’s see if the USA will be the first to commercialize (in high volume) the very efficient multi-juncture PV solar panel technology shown at the recent SemiCon West in San Francisco.

Wake up America! It has been 5 years since we have been the world’s leading innovator!

Report: The United States not even close to being top global innovator. By Pam Tobey July 23 at 5:39 AM – Source: The Washington Post

Switzerland is a four-time champ when it comes to global innovation. The United States? Not so much lately — the country last achieved that spot in 2009. The United Kingdom jumped ahead of Sweden to claim the No. 2 spot behind Switzerland in the recently released Global Innovation Index 2014, put out jointly by the business school INSEAD, the World Intellectual Property Organization and Cornell University. The index covers many variables that contribute to innovation, including institutions, human capital and research, infrastructure, market and business sophistication, knowledge and technology and creativity. It gathers data for 81 different indicators in 143 economies to come up with rankings. In 2007, the United States was at the top of the list. In 2010, it plummeted to 11th place, partially due to the battering of the economy by the financial crisis. Among the regions in the report, Europe holds the top spot, followed by North America.

 

Associations in Agreement

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Taiwan’s Vice President Wu (tallest man, center of photo) welcomed visitors and took part in the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the TPCA Show held in conjunction with the IMPACT 2012 event in Taipei. Second from the right is IPC CEO and president John Mitchell.

The TPCA and the JPCA signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center on Oct. 25 to highlight industrial cooperation in a practical and efficient way. The TPCA organized an Alliance Seminar held in conjunction with the endorsement. This followed the Advance Technology Forum alliance event of this past July. The activity is supported by Taiwan’s Economic Department. Approval of funding was announced after the signing.

IMPACT 2012 was jointly organized by IEEE CPMT-Taipei, iMAPS-Taiwan, ITRI and the TPCA, and co-organized by IDB-Ministry of Economic Affairs, I-Shou University, NanKang IC Design Incubation Center. SMTA, and TTMA. IMPACT (International Microsystems, Packagiing, Assembly and Circuits Technology Conference) attracted 190 papers from 14 countries.

The TPCA held a special breakfast presentation in which an update on the industry in Japan (PCB domestic production down 45+% from its peak in 2007 as offshore manufacturing increased) by Dr. Hayao Nakahara of NTI and the industry status in Thailand presented by Bancha Ongkosit, chairman and managing director of KCE Electronics. The latter stated that Thailand lacks supply chain infrastructure and that he no longer buys from the US. He pointed out the growth of automotive electronics, stating that virtually every major car company as set up there, and that Thailand exports about 3.5 million vehicles per year. He also stated that the growth of organic substrate replacement for ceramic based electronic circuits for vehicles will continue to increase rapidly.

America’s Interdyne Systems, a new fabrication equipment entry debuted its revolutionary new concept for the mechanical drilling of 75 micron holes. Taiwan Kong King (TKK) celebrated its 35th Anniversary at the show.

It’s a Collaborative World After All
Rumors persist that an announcement of a new collaborative activity between the IPC and iNEMI is imminent.

Lenovo, the world’s second largest PC producer, will start production of its Think brand notebooks in the US next year at its fulfillment center in North Carolina. Lenovo acquired IBM’s PC division (original producer of the Think PC) in 2005. Last month Lenovo announced the acquisition of Brazil’s PC maker Comercio de Component Electronicos.

Taiwan’s intelligence chief warned that one in every three Taiwanese companies based on the mainland are facing closure due to rapidly falling profits, according to Agence France-Presse in Taipei. Another 30% are also reported to be struggling on the mainland. Last year the island’s authorities approved 575 mainland investments totaling $13.1 billion.