MUNICH -- Productronica was off and running today, with 03015 packages the clear winner among the technical discussion trends. Attendance was generally strong all day on the assembly side, while the fabrication hall (singular) was light bordering on sparse.

For those readers who have not been to Productronica, it is massive. It occupies six large convention halls, most of which are tightly packed with booths. Unlike Asian or other Western shows, most exhibitors are grouped according to their products. Thus, for instance, if one were looking for digital microscopes, they could choose from the likes of Leica, Tagarno, Optilia and so on, side-by-side along the same wall. One hall is dedicated to test and AOI: Agilent, Aeroflex, atg, Goepel, JTAG, Landrex, Omron, Seica, Sonoscan, and Teradyne are among scores of vendors duking it out for visitors. There's no hiding from the competition here. Also, if the 2013 show looks similar to years' past, one reason may be because several exhibitors opted for the same booth locations as in 2011.

That said, the fab presence seems to shrink every year. There were clear crowd-pleasers, however. Beta Layout drew attendees to its embedded RFID technology, for instance.

Orbotech and Schmoll had significant presences. Orbotech showed the new PerFix 200 automated rework machine (below), which is three times faster than the 100 model. As for Schmoll, one would think it was Hitachi's much bigger brother.

It was a bit eye-opening to hear how Isola has cut its Duren workforce by 700 workers over the past decade yet its laminate output remains the same.

UCamco demonstrated the latest version of its Integr8or software, which includes Checkpoint 1.1, a DFM review tool that checks copper, drill, and solder mask files among others and indicates critical errors. The firm also rolled out UCAM-X 1.1, a 64-bit CAM tool that ultimately will replace UCAM, featuring a new GUI and user-defined windows. The company's Karel Tavernier also explained the company is working on an updated version of Gerber with attributes.

First EIE had several machines, including the EDI-500 direct imaging system.

Finally, we talked to a couple EMS companies, which are also exhibiting in the fabrication hall. Unfortunately, there was nothing notable to report.

More tomorrow from Munich.

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