Market News

WELLESLEY, MA – The global market for printed electronics is expected to be worth $3.1 billion in 2008, and will increase to $8.8 billion by 2013, a CAGR of 23.2%, says BCC Research.
 
The market includes optoelectronics, radio frequency, energy, sensors and other applications. Optoelectronics applications dominate the market with a share of more than 85% in 2007 and 2008, but will decline to 69% in 2013. Optoelectronics generated $2.5 billion last year, an estimated $2.7 billion this year, and a projected $6.1 billion in 2013, for a CAGR of 18.1%, according to the research firm.
 
Sensors were the second largest segment in 2007, with $375 million in revenue, and should continue in second place through 2008, generating $423.5 million. Sensors are expected to lose market share during the next five years, declining from 13% of the market to 9.5%. Expected revenue in 2013 is $842.5 million, for a CAGR of 14.7%.
 
RF applications are expected to grow from $10 million last year to $18.4 million this year and $413 million in 2013, a CAGR of 86.3%.
 
The energy segment is the fastest growing segment and is expected to achieve a market share of 16.2% by 2013. Energy applications generated $9 million in 2007 and are expected to reach $18.1 million this year. This is expected to increase to $1.4 billion in 2013, for a CAGR of 139.5%, says BCC.
 
Other applications are expected to grow at a CAGR of 118.7%, from an estimated $1 million in 2008 to $50 million in 2013.
 
Currently, major end-uses of printed electronics include consumer products, advertising and medicine and health care/life sciences. End-user segments expected to gain significant market share during the next five years include building products and transport and logistics.
WASHINGTON -- According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), engineering skills are in higher demand than ever before.
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ALBANY, NYIBM Corp. will invest $1.5 billion in Albany and will build a semiconductor plant somewhere in upstate New York.
 
The investment is expected to increase research jobs to 325 at the University at Albany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. The state government is providing $25 million for new semiconductor equipment at that site.
 
In addition, the company will construct a 120,000 sq. ft. semiconductor packaging center at a location to be determined. Albany NanoTech will own and manage the facility, which reportedly will create more than 675 jobs.
 
In total, the state will spend $140 million, with IBM investing more than $10 for every $1 that New York spends, say published reports.
SAN FRANCISCOSEMI anticipates global semiconductor equipment sales of $34 billion in 2008, down 20% year-over-year.
 
Survey respondents see the equipment market growing 13% in 2009 to $38.6 billion, and reaching just more than $41 billion by 2010.
 
China will hold steady in terms of equipment spending this year, but all other markets will be down from their 2007 levels, says SEMI. Taiwan, the largest equipment market last year, will drop 37% to $6.7 billion in 2008, but is forecasted to bounce back next year with 53% growth. North America will decline 13% to $5.7 billion, according to the forecast.
 
Wafer processing equipment will fall 20.5% to $25 billion, says the firm. The market for test equipment is expected to decline 20% to just over $4 billion this year, while the assembly and packaging equipment segment will fall 14% to $2.4 billion.

Since the semiconductor business has become a consumer-driven industry, it needs to handle short-run, rapid-change products to accommodate the short lifecycles of the consumer market; smaller fabs are better suited for this, according to SEMI.
 
R&D dollars for device shrinks, new processes and new materials are highly constrained and must be invested where they will offer a positive return, the firm adds.
 
The change to a larger wafer size in itself does not lead to significantly reduced costs. Intel found this was the case in the changeover from 150 mm to 200 mm, and the same will be true in going to 450 mm. Overall cost reductions for 300 mm wafers were brought about by higher usage of factory automation, the use of mini-environments or FOUPs, and savings brought on by stopping work on 200 mm node advancement, says SEMI.
 
Separately, in the keynote at Semicon West today, Jim Clifford, senior vice president and general manager of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies, said one of the hottest end-product markets is mobile communications, SEMI points out.
 
The global handset market has reached about 1.2 billion units and is expected to grow to 1.6 billion by 2012. Entry level phones – those selling round $20 – will grow at the fastest rate, accounting for about half the handset total by 2012, according to Clifford.
 
The entry-level phone market is being driven by demand in China and India, and the market will continue to grow as those consumers move up the ladder to more feature rich phones, he said. He said currently there are about 800 million people in rural China who are not serviced by mobile phones – and each month 5 to 7 million phone subscribers are added in China.
 
In India’s market, the price of handsets has come down from $99 to around $22, giving millions of people access to information via the Internet, said Clifford. 
RICHARDSON, TX -- Titan Global Holdings reported third quarter results. Revenues were approximately $128 million, up over $31 million for the comparable period the previous year.

The increase in revenue comes in part from the restructuring of various Titan divisions.
DUBLIN, IRELAND -- Research and Markets, a market research firm, announced the release of the "China PCB Industry Report, 2008."

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