GT Solar reflects on US government support of solar industry

And then there’s solar power. GT Solar of Merrimack, NH, my home town had to cut down a few jobs when orders slowed their delivery dates. They haven’t had anyone cut their order yet, just slow it down.
What’s needed to grow the renewable energy market in the U.S.? The serious downturn in the economy and the high price of oil has caused many in both the private sector and government to take a renewed looks at solar according to Fred Kocher, government relations specialist at GT Solar. Three states are leading the way when it comes to the use of solar energy: California, New Jersey, and New Mexico. As more states and consumers and electric utilities embrace solar energy, it will become a more significant part of the energy mix in the US as it is in Germany and Japan,” said Kocher. “We are encouraged by the DOE Grant Program created in section 1721 of H.R. 598 of The American Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Plan being considered by Congress,” However, there are two changes necessary to ensure that solar receives the same treatment as other renewable energy sources under this program, and to ensure that solar projects can commence. One, solar projects should be eligible for the grant program if construction has commenced by December 31, 2010. And two, the ITC for solar projects should be temporarily increased to 45% during 2009 and 2010.”
Energy independence, that’s what we all need. And that’s the electronics industry round up from the top of my desk to you. --G

European Commission nods support to STMicroelectronics’ R&D

After much deliberation, the European Commission decided to allow France to grant financial support of 457 million euros to the Nano2012 R&D program in Crolles, France. Nano2012 aims at developing the next-generation process technology for many semiconductor applications. They have yet to pick a site and break ground, but they have lots of fellow collaborators like CETA-Leti, and the money is beginning to roll.

3D TSV packaging news from Alchimer

Now for some packaging news that’s even inspiring. At SEMICON West 2009, Alchimer, a Massy, France company, will launch their third product: AquiVia, a process used for wet deposition of the insulation and barrier layers inside high-aspect ratio TSVs. AquiVia eliminates dry process techniques from TSV metallization.
Using AquiVia, conformal, uniform insulation and barrier layers can be produced inside a TSV with aspect ratios at 10:1. Combined with Alchimer's eG ViaCoat product, which creates conformal copper seed layers, the same tool can be used for the deposition of insulation, barrier, and seed layers. “This latest breakthrough is predicted to eliminate all dry processing techniques from TSV metallization, cutting the cost of ownership of the via stack metallization by more than 70%,” said Steve Lerner, president and CEO. This is the same product, eG ViaCoat, that won the Best of the West award at SEMICON last year. Look out!

PCBs from equipment to materials to flex circuits

Then the Board side chimes in. Aqueous Technologies acquired Austin American Technology’s MicroJet family of conveyorized inline defluxing systems – a smart move to increase their capability
Henkel appointed Luc Godefroid as the company’s global sales director for its semiconductor group. Everyone wishes him well as a key member of their team since 2001.
The IPC announced their statistical results. Rigid PCB shipments are down 14.2 % and bookings are down 24.5 % in December 2008 from December 2007. Year to date, rigid PCB shipments are up 0.9 % and bookings are down 5.5 %. Compared to the previous month, rigid PCB shipments decreased 0.9 % and rigid bookings decreased 4.6 %. The book-to-bill ratio for the North American rigid PCB industry in December 2008 fell to 0.89.
Even flexible circuit shipments in December 2008 are down 17.1 %, but bookings are up 23.8 % compared to December 2007. The North American flexible circuit book-to-bill ratio in December 2008 jumped to 1.08.
And they must feel that it’s a good bet, because the IPC just created a new tradeshow, the IPC International Conference on Flexible Circuits on April 21 – 23 in Minneapolis. Flexible circuit technology has risen from a niche interconnection solution to a mainstream technology that is increasingly becoming the interconnection method of choice in product design. From fine lines to multilayer to high density, flexible circuits offer an array of choices with a growing number of benefits. Joe Fjelstad, the man who wrote the book on flex circuits, will present his keynote, Flexible Circuit Technology – New Applications, Challenges, and Solutions for the 21st Century.”
--G

The Big Guys: Intel, Freescale and everyone else

It has been a busy couple of weeks at my desk collecting things in the electronics industry. Let’s review what everyone is talking about.

First, let’s get the negatives out of the way, starting with the big companies. Intel announced one of its worst Q4s ever on January 15. The very next week Intel announced that with would cut 6000 jobs by closing three assembly test facilities, halting production at its 200-mm fab in Hillsboro, OR and at its wafer production operation in Santa Clara. But wait, that’s not all. This same company that produces 76% of worldwide market for microprocessors is still in court battles with Advanced Micro Devices. AMD submitted a first complaint to the Commission in October of 2000 alleging that that “certain marketing arrangements in respect of ACER, Dell, Hewlett Packard, IBM and NEC, and certain of Intel’s pricing practices infringed Article 82 EC.” The Commission preliminarily stated that Intel had implemented an anti-competitive strategy to exclude AMD from or limit its access to the market for 86 microprocessors.

More bad news for those who listened in to Freescale’s Q4 results. Sales are down 33% as compared to Q3 results in 2008 and down 39% as compared to the same period last year. Sales were $940 million said Alan Campbell, in a Scottish brogue. Rich Beyer, chairman and CEO said, “We remain focused on further reducing our break-even point while ensuring we execute on our strategic growth initiatives and leverage our market leadership positions.” Did I mention that they’re still unloading the handsets from the Motorola connections, but now they’re willing to sell it piecemeal? More to come.