TAOYUAN, TAIWAN -- Unimicron, the world's largest printed circuit board manufacturer, awarded its first-ever Best Supplier Award in the chemical category to Dow Electronic Materials.

In a statement, Dow said it was recognized for enabling technology, customized support, punctual delivery, excellent quality, and high customer satisfaction.

"Dow is an invaluable long-term supplier that we rely on for innovative technologies and extraordinary technical support. We are honored to extend our appreciation to Dow for being our trustworthy partner with this award," said TJ Tzeng, Chairman of Unimicron. "We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Dow to facilitate the rapid development of new technologies and product advancements in the electronic industry."

JR Chen, Global GM for Dow Electronic Materials, called the award an honor and testament to the team's tremendous efforts for customer satisfaction. "Advanced technologies and timely support are essential to building reliable PCBs, which is a shared goal for us and our customers. With our industry expertise, global footprints and local focus, we are committed to delivering high customer satisfaction by partnering with customers to create powerful PCBs for computers, cell phones, automobiles and many other electronic devices."

AURORA, CO -- Advanced Circuits today acquired fellow PCB fabricator Universal Circuits for an undisclosed amount.

HERNDON, VA – The International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative said it would host three regional workshops to review work in progress on the 2013 iNEMI Roadmap. 

Meetings are scheduled in North America, Asia and Europe in May and June.

The open workshops will review select chapters, covering primarily technology and infrastructure areas. These sessions are intended to allow industry input into draft chapters to ensure inclusion of key issues from each region.

The first workshop is in San Diego May 29 (May 24 registration deadline: http://www.inemi.org/node/2231). The second is in Berlin June 12 (May 25 registration deadline: http://www.inemi.org/node/2232). The third is in Hong Kong June 14 (May 24 registration deadline: http://www.inemi.org/node/2234).

Roadmap participation is open to non-members and is free to anyone who registers before the deadline.

SAN JOSE – Shocking Technologies has raised an additional $10.5 million in venture capital to develop its voltage switchable dielectric material.

The lead investor is Littelfuse, which also participated in a strategic investment round last year. To date, Shocking Technologies has raised more than $60 million in investment capital.

Shocking Technologies’ XStatic material is a polymer nano-composite that functions as an insulator (dielectric) during normal circuit operation and becomes conductive when voltage increases beyond a predefined threshold.