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SAN JOSE – Doug Rasor, vice president of emerging medical applications at Texas Instruments, will keynote the MicroElectronics Packaging and Test Engineering Council’s Medical Electronics Symposium in September.

Rasor will discuss the coming convergence of technology and healthcare and share some truly inspiring examples of this trend in action.

Rasor’s presentation will take place Sept. 25 at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ, MEPTEC said. The program also includes sessions on revolutionary concepts in medical electronics, advanced materials, key enabling technologies and next-generation bio-medical systems.

For information, visit meptec.org.

SAN JOSE – The global market for semiconductors was $25.52 billion in June, up 12.2% year-over-year, and up about 20.7% sequentially, according to World Semiconductor Trade Statistics.

Showing strongest growth geographically, Asia-Pacific reached $13.19 billion, up 17.6% compared to last year. Japan's market was $4.28 billion, up 3%; Europe's market was $3.99 billion, up 7.5%, and the Americas region was $4.06 billion, up 11.3% year-over-year, say published reports.

STAMFORD, CT – Despite ongoing demand from emerging markets, electronics sales will slow as consumers worldwide cut spending in response to the sluggish economy, says Gartner Inc.

BANNOCKBURN, IL – The EC Regulatory Committee on Ecodesign and Energy Labeling has agreed to a draft concerning the standby and off modes of energy-using household and office products.

This proposal will be sent to the European Council and European Parliament for review. It should be adopted by the Commission and published by the EU at the beginning of 2009, barring any objections.

The first phase will come into effect in 2010.

The proposal is already coming under fire from electronics engineers. As one critic noted to a well-known industry email list, “The EU commission groups seem to be very inept when defining scopes and no two policy making groups seem to learn from the other's mistakes,” adding that the proposal’s scope is “extremely vague and confusing … the [EU] drops in words like household and office equipment into the scope, possibly with the intention of making it clearer but in reality just making it more obscure.”

A pdf of the proposal can be viewed at

mtprog.com/ReferenceLibrary/Draft%20EuP%20standby%20post%20vote

EL SEGUNDO, CA – Research firm iSuppli Corp. has launched a supplier relationship management training center for electronics companies.

iSuppli is offering six courses for OEM procurement teams, covering everything from supplier relationship management and strategic supplier assessment to cross-cultural negotiation in low-cost geographies.

Courses are conducted at client facilities and are available immediately.

Dan Hawtof, a 20-year industry veteran, has been named to run the center.

“Through the Advanced Learning Center, we’re helping companies learn how to gather, interpret and apply knowledge in ways that have an immediate and positive impact on their performance,” said Hawtof, vice president, Performance Research Services.

SINGAPORE -- Singapore economic growth dropped sharply, down to 2.1% for Q2 2008 following a 6.9% increase in Q1 according to the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI). Experts say the US slowdown had begun to hit Asia.

The weak second quarter economic performance was due to a contraction in the biomedical sector and sluggish growth in the electronics industry, both lynchpins of Singapore's trade-led economy, the trade ministry said. Back in June Singapore's electronics industry was up, reversing a one-month fall into recession, but overall growth has been slow for this export segment during 2008.

"The GDP growth in the second half is likely to be broadly similar to the first half," the ministry said. "Weaker demand in the major economies, coupled with the need to contain inflationary pressures, will dampen growth in the fast growing Asian economies."