Flexible circuits can be found in many devices where space and weight considerations are dominant in the design of electronics: in cars, in cameras and video equipment, in mini-computers for athletes or in inkjet printers. And the market continues to grow: according to the business consultancy Frost & Sullivan, sales in this area will grow to more than $16 billion by the year 2014.

At K 2010, the trade fair for plastics in Dusseldorf, Germany, scientists from the IST in Braunschweig will unveil a new reel-to-reel technology for the production of flexible circuits and biosensors; the new technology is known as “P3T”, which is shorthand for “Plasma Printing and Packaging Technology”. The benefits: P3T involves considerably fewer process steps than existing processes, and it conserves raw materials. Unlike previous methods, the researchers do not start with a polymer film metalized over its entire surface from which excess metal is then removed to create the circuits. Instead, to produce flexible circuit boards, they apply circuits made of copper to the film that serves as substrate. In the case of biosensors, palladium is used. They use plasma at atmospheric pressure and galvanization instead of vacuum-pressure and laser-based methods to achieve inexpensive and resource-efficient production.

Dr. Michael Thomas, director of the research group at IST, explains: “During production of circuits for an RFID antenna, you often have to etch away between 50 and 80 percent of the copper used. This results in considerable amounts of copper scrap that either has to be disposed or reprocessed using relatively elaborate methods.” The IST approach is different: there, scientists use the additive process to apply the structures they want directly to the substrate sheeting.

The first two process steps are plasma printing at atmospheric pressure and metallization using well-known galvanization methods. Plasma printing uses the kind of deeply engraved roller familiar from the area of conventional rotogravure printing. During the printing process, microplasms are electrically generated in the engraved recesses of the roller; these microplasms chemically alter the surface of the plastic substrate where the circuits are to be applied later in the process.

The process gas from which the plasma is created is usually a mixture of nitrogenous gases. As IST researcher Thomas emphasizes: “The chemical changes we need begin to form on the surface of the film; these changes ensure that the plastic can be wetted with water in these precise areas and will be metallizable using suitable plating baths. This means considerable savings of energy and material,” Thomas adds. And this is a decisive competitive factor: the prices for raw materials – for copper and palladium, for example – have risen by around 150 percent in the past three years.

In the joint P3T project sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) P3T, researchers are currently working very hard to improve the individual processes involved in the manufacture of flexible circuit boards and biosensors. They are closely scrutinizing all of the P3T production steps – from plasma printing to assembly and coordinating all of the processes with one another in a production line.

Please visit our home page at: www.pcb-solutions.com We are a supplier of Domestic and off-shore Rigid, Rigid-Flex and Flex Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs), Domestic Military PCBs, Domestic Tier I PCBA, Domestic Sheet Metal, Domestic Injection Molding and other Custom Fabricated Services.

Global computer processor maker Intel reported that third quarter earnings is better than expected, which making the market of hardware industries become more positive. Macquarie Securities believes that Hon Hai, Ke Cheng, Foxconn, Southern Electric and other manufacturers whose future performance will be better. They are given to “outperform” rating and the target price is 136 RMB, 90 RMB, 115 RMB and 130 RMB respectively.

However, the structure of the market for shipping Intel’s “leading indicators” – chip set, in the third quarter, the revenue continued going down which make us worried. The third quarter of its Atom processor and chipset revenue was 3.96 billion U.S. dollars, reduced by 4% compared with the previous quarter. If the chipset shipments continued decreasing, it will be a variable in the fourth quarter.

With a high perspective of Intel linked to domestic and related industries, printed circuit board remains optimistic situation in the fourth quarter; Silicon products showed differences in this trend. The revenue in fourth quarter is expected to have single-digit growth, silicon products fell from 4% to 6%. The research supervisor of Taiwan Macquarie named Zhang Boqi said that, considering the performance of Intel’s third quarter earnings, we can say that demand continues to increase, so it bring positive advantages to Hon Hai.

Technology industry analysts Chien think that the processor board which produced in South Power, there is still a highest level of association with Intel. Although Intel’s stock time was still above its five-year average level, short-term processor still facing the problem of board cut.

Please visit our home page at: www.pcb-solutions.com We are a supplier of Domestic and off-shore Rigid, Rigid-Flex, Aluminum and Flex Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs), Domestic Military PCBs, Domestic Tier I PCBA, Domestic Sheet Metal, Domestic Injection Molding and other Custom Fabricated Services.

PCB Industry Growth Rates and Book-to-Bill Ratios Announced
Rigid PCB shipments were up 24.3 percent while bookings increased 22.1 percent in August 2010 from August 2009. Year to date, rigid PCB shipments were up 20.4 percent and bookings have grown 33.2 percent. Compared to the previous month, rigid PCB shipments increased 5.4 percent and rigid bookings increased 1.5 percent. The book-to-bill ratio for the North American rigid PCB industry in August 2010 remained positive, but fell off slightly to 1.08.

View all the charts in PDF

Flexible circuit shipments in August 2010 were up 35.7 percent, and bookings were up 61.8 percent compared to August 2009. Year to date, flexible circuit shipments increased 9.2 percent and bookings were up 22.6 percent. Compared to the previous month, flexible circuit shipments decreased 7.6 percent, but flex bookings increased 12.9 percent. The North American flexible circuit book-to-bill ratio in August 2010 remained positive, but fell to 1.01.

View all the charts in PDF

For rigid PCBs and flexible circuits combined, industry shipments in August 2010 increased 25.2 percent from August 2009, as orders booked increased 25.0 percent from August 2009. Year to date, combined industry shipments were up 19.5 percent and bookings were up 32.3 percent. Compared to the previous month, combined industry shipments for August 2010 increased 4.1 percent and bookings increased 2.5 percent. The combined (rigid and flex) industry book-to-bill ratio in August 2010 slipped to 1.07.

“Year-on-year sales growth continued in the double digits in August,” said IPC President & CEO Denny McGuirk. “The book-to-bill ratio is positive for the 16th consecutive month, which indicates solid sales growth for the rest of 2010,” he added. “Book-to-bill ratios have been trending downward since reaching a peak last May, especially in the flexible circuit segment, mainly due to strong sales growth.”

View all the charts in PDF

The book-to-bill ratios are calculated by dividing the value of orders booked over the past three months by the value of sales billed during the same period from companies in IPC’s survey sample. A ratio of more than 1.00 suggests that current demand is ahead of supply, which is a positive indicator for sales growth over the next two to three months.

View all the charts in PDF

Book-to-bill ratios and growth rates for rigid PCBs and flexible circuits combined are heavily affected by the rigid PCB segment. Rigid PCBs represent an estimated 89 percent of the current PCB industry in North America, according to IPC’s World PCB Production and Laminate Market Report.

The Role of Domestic Production
IPC’s monthly survey of the North American PCB industry tracks bookings and shipments from U.S. and Canadian facilities, which provide indicators of regional demand. These numbers do not measure U.S. and Canadian PCB production. To track regional production trends, IPC asks survey participants for the percent of their reported shipments that were produced domestically (i.e., in the USA or Canada). In August 2010, 83 percent of total PCB shipments reported were domestically produced. Domestic production accounted for 83 percent of rigid PCB and 81 percent of flexible circuit shipments in August by IPC’s survey participants. These numbers are significantly affected by the mix of companies in IPC’s survey sample, which changed slightly in January, but are kept constant through the remainder of the year.

Bare Circuits Versus Assembly
Flexible circuit sales typically include value-added services such as assembly, in addition to the bare flex circuits. In August, the flexible circuit manufacturers in IPC’s survey sample indicated that bare circuits accounted for about 52 percent of their shipment value reported for the month. Assembly and other services make up a large and growing segment of flexible circuit producers’ businesses. This figure is also sensitive to changes in the survey sample, which may occur at the beginning of each calendar year.

Interpreting the Data
Year-on-year and year-to-date growth rates provide the most meaningful view of industry growth. Month-to-month comparisons should be made with caution as they may reflect cyclical effects. Because bookings tend to be more volatile than shipments, changes in the book-to-bill ratios from month to month may not be significant unless a trend of more than three consecutive months is apparent. It is also important to consider changes in bookings and shipments to understand what is driving changes in the book-to-bill ratio.

The information in IPC’s monthly PCB industry statistics is based on data provided by a representative sample of both rigid and flexible PCB manufacturers in the USA and Canada. IPC publishes the PCB Book-to-Bill Ratio and the PCB Statistical Program Report each month. Statistics for the previous month are not available until the last week of the following month.

Contact:
Sharon Starr, IPC Director of Market Research
E:  SharonStarr@ipc.org

When doing business in China, unlike in the U.S., you may never know what you are getting. This statement comes from over 10 years of experience dealing with the Asian suppliers. The key to dealing with Asian suppliers is to have complete control over your supply chain;  if you don’t, you have now idea what you are getting.

Understanding this principle stems from the knowledge that the Asian businessmen will say YES to almost every request.  It is not in their gene pool to say no. “Yes- we can do it” is said more in the Asian culture than “what’s on TV” in American.  The challenge for American Printed Circuit Board buyers is where and from who is your product coming from. The Asians are excellent logistics and networking specialists. They either have a family member or a friend in the business of something and YOUR product may go to anyone of them.

Case In Point: Years ago, when entering the Chinese manufacturing market, we had a trusted relationship (or what we thought was a trusted relationship) who was a PCB supplier actually give us documentation for supplier A.  They stated they were the factory and were owners and part of the relationship. It soon came to our knowledge they had fudged the UL logo from another factory along with all the paperwork. It turned out that they claimed the PCBs were built in one factory but in fact were built in another factory with the original factory’s UL logo on the PCB and paperwork were doctored. Needless to say we terminated that relationship. It was a brutal awakening to the methodology of how the Chinese go business. There are thousands of middlemen in China shipping out your product to any type of supplier that can meet the price and delivery. You will not know until it is too late if you are really dealing direct!

It is key that if you are sourcing anything from Asia that you have control over you supply chain. PCB Solutions visits China up to, and sometimes more than 4 times per year. We review IPC1710 documents. We conduct quality audits on the factories. We meet the president of the suppliers and insist on following our product through the process flow- forced Honesty and Integrity if you will. We negotiate payment terms (typically unheard of in working with Asian suppliers).  We meet the staff and set our expectations…

So the next time you get the itch to get rid of that U.S. based middle man and play roulette with suppliers emailing you daily, think about what happens when a significant quality issue arises or if you have paid 50-100% of the cost of the product upfront and you have no leverage for a return. Did you consider the cost of wire transfer fees into your costs? How about exchange rates, shipping costs, supply chain control, customs, duties, communication, English skills of the supplier, engineering support, quality of the factory, etc…on and on.

Let our 9 + years of experience work for you. We can, source, stock, label, inventory and even provide secondary inspection on your product if necessary. We lend ourselves to being experts in sourcing Asian based products…don’t get caught trying to learn to be one and spending your quality time fixing problems. Trust the middleman!

Please visit our home page at: www.pcb-solutions.com We are a supplier of Domestic and off-shore Rigid, Rigid-Flex and Flex Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs), Domestic Military PCBs, Domestic Tier I PCBA, Domestic Sheet Metal, Domestic Injection Molding and other Custom Fabricated Services.

http://www.pcb-solutions.com/pcb.html

http://www.pcb-solutions.com/flex.html

As far as Asian based suppliers, they are still fully loaded and working at capacity. Our last blog so Copper Clad Laminate slowing down in Asia generally but all our suppliers still maintain strong demand and factory levels for Printed Circuit Boards and Flexible PCBs.

Look for more data next month as we move out of the typically slower month of August.

Please visit our home page at: www.pcb-solutions.com We are a supplier of Domestic and off-shore Rigid, Rigid-Flex and Flex Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs), Domestic Military PCBs, Domestic Tier I PCBA, Domestic Sheet Metal, Domestic Injection Molding and other Custom Fabricated Services.

http://www.pcb-solutions.com/pcb.html

http://www.pcb-solutions.com/flex.html

As the global economy recovers, the international financial market goes stable, Orders shift crisis also comes to PCB industry for many PCB makers in China. On one hand, the middle-small PCB makers rely on OEM are unable to afford the pressure of cost rise by financial crisis.; on the other hand, serious shortage of workers bring many enterprise embarrassment of shut down. At the same time, with growth of workers wage cost, increase the pressure of the enterprise’s operation. It becomes the question for PCB manufacturers to think how to solve the new crisis.

Besides shortage of workers, PCB makers developed rely on OEM need to afford the affect of financial crisis and the price rise of material, source, energy shortage and high consumption. All this make the process cost rise in China, the price advantage is being eroded. Some international companies already shift the order to the low-cost Southeast Asian, South Asian countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Thailand. Under the situation of no significant decline in market demand, cancellation of orders in China, will inevitably be supplemented in other places.

The survey show, Japan IT enterprises have shift their PCB order to Thailand, PCB manufacturing companies in Thailand are also increasingly competitive Data shows PCB industrial value in southeast has already been 3-3.3 billion dollars, Thailand accounts 30-40% of the total. While the famous company like Gree, Supor,  Media, Glanz , Canon and so on have already built their own production plant in Vietnam.

Please visit our home page at: www.pcb-solutions.com We are a supplier of Domestic and off-shore Rigid, Rigid-Flex and Flex Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs), Domestic Military PCBs, Domestic Tier I PCBA, Domestic Sheet Metal, Domestic Injection Molding and other Custom Fabricated Services.

CCL makers posted mixed results for July 2010, with Elite Material (EMC) and Taiwan Union Technology (TUC) seeing revenues continue to move upward, while Iteq suffered a decline in revenues.

TUC saw its consolidated revenues grow 7.5% sequentially to NT$970 million (US$30.41 million) in July, while peer company EMC saw revenues edge up 2.5% sequentially to NT$1.18 billion during the same month. Iteq’s revenues were down 6% to NT$1.77 billion.

However, TUC expects its revenues to continue to grow in August due to new capacity contributed by its new plant in Zhungshan, China. TUC will have total capacity of 1.5 million CCLs by the end of 2010.

Please visit our home page at: www.pcb-solutions.com We are a supplier of Domestic and off-shore Rigid, Rigid-Flex and Flex Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs), Domestic Military PCBs, Domestic Tier I PCBA, Domestic Sheet Metal, Domestic Injection Molding and other Custom Fabricated Services.

PCB Industry Growth Rates and Book-to-Bill Ratios Announced
Rigid PCB shipments were up 23.9 percent while bookings increased 34.4 percent in July 2010 from July 2009. Year to date, rigid PCB shipments were up 19.9 percent and bookings have grown 34.9 percent. Compared to the previous month, rigid PCB shipments decreased 14.7 percent and rigid bookings decreased 16.9 percent. The book-to-bill ratio for the North American rigid PCB industry in July 2010 stood at 1.11.

View all the charts in PDF

Flexible circuit shipments in July 2010 were up 38.2 percent, and bookings were up 28.8 percent compared to July 2009. Year to date, flexible circuit shipments increased 5.8 percent and bookings were up 17.5 percent. Compared to the previous month, flexible circuit shipments went up 4.6 percent and flex bookings declined 4.9 percent. The North American flexible circuit book-to-bill ratio in July 2010 remained positive but slipped down to 1.06.

View all the charts in PDF

For rigid PCBs and flexible circuits combined, industry shipments in July 2010 increased 25.2 percent from July 2009, as orders booked increased 33.9 percent from July 2009. Year to date, combined industry shipments were up 18.7 percent and bookings were up 33.4 percent. Compared to the previous month, combined industry shipments for July 2010 decreased 13.1 percent and bookings went down 16.0 percent. The combined (rigid and flex) industry book-to-bill ratio in July 2010 was 1.11.

“We are still seeing double-digit year-on-year growth rates for both rigid PCBs and flexible circuits as of July,” said IPC President & CEO Denny McGuirk. “July is typically a slower sales month than June, but sales are strong. The most encouraging indicator is the book-to-bill ratio, which continues solidly positive for the 15th consecutive month,” he added. “That is a sign of continuing strength in sales for the remainder of the year.”

View all the charts in PDF

The book-to-bill ratios are calculated by dividing the value of orders booked over the past three months by the value of sales billed during the same period from companies in IPC’s survey sample.  A ratio of more than 1.00 suggests that current demand is ahead of supply, which is a positive indicator for sales growth over the next two to three months.

View all the charts in PDF

Book-to-bill ratios and growth rates for rigid PCBs and flexible circuits combined are heavily affected by the rigid PCB segment. Rigid PCBs represent an estimated 89 percent of the current PCB industry in North America, according to IPC’s World PCB Production and Laminate Market Report.

The Role of Domestic Production
IPC’s monthly survey of the North American PCB industry tracks bookings and shipments from U.S. and Canadian facilities, which provide indicators of regional demand. These numbers do not measure U.S. and Canadian PCB production. To track regional production trends, IPC asks survey participants for the percent of their reported shipments that were produced domestically (i.e., in the USA or Canada). In July 2010, 83 percent of total PCB shipments reported were domestically produced. Domestic production accounted for 83 percent of rigid PCB and 81 percent of flexible circuit shipments in July by IPC’s survey participants. These numbers are significantly affected by the mix of companies in IPC’s survey sample, which changed slightly in January, but are kept constant through the remainder of the year.

Bare Circuits Versus Assembly
Flexible circuit sales typically include value-added services such as assembly, in addition to the bare flex circuits. In July, the flexible circuit manufacturers in IPC’s survey sample indicated that bare circuits accounted for about 77 percent of their shipment value reported for the month. Assembly and other services make up a large and growing segment of flexible circuit producers’ businesses. This figure is also sensitive to changes in the survey sample, which may occur at the beginning of each calendar year.

Interpreting the Data
Year-on-year and year-to-date growth rates provide the most meaningful view of industry growth. Month-to-month comparisons should be made with caution as they may reflect cyclical effects. Because bookings tend to be more volatile than shipments, changes in the book-to-bill ratios from month to month may not be significant unless a trend of more than three consecutive months is apparent. It is also important to consider changes in bookings and shipments to understand what is driving changes in the book-to-bill ratio.

The information in IPC’s monthly PCB industry statistics is based on data provided by a representative sample of both rigid and flexible PCB manufacturers in the USA and Canada. IPC publishes the PCB Book-to-Bill Ratio and the PCB Statistical Program Report each month. Statistics for the previous month are not available until the last week of the following month.

Contact:
Sharon Starr, IPC Director of Market Research
P:  +1 847-597-2817
E:  SharonStarr@ipc.org

Please visit our home page at: www.pcb-solutions.com We are a supplier of Domestic and off-shore Rigid, Rigid-Flex and Flex Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs), Domestic Military PCBs, Domestic Tier I PCBA, Domestic Sheet Metal, Domestic Injection Molding and other Custom Fabricated Services.

PCB Solutions continues to see solid sales from internal house accounts and modest growth from Reps and Web leads.  PCB Solutions remains very optimistic about its growth on the web as it has rise to  the 20th position for the key search term “printed circuit board;” which is one of the most competitive key search words in the industry. Web marketing efforts by www.infogenix.com are proving great results by branding the www.pcb-solutions.com domain on line.

Last month also highlights the beginning of PCB Solutions on twitter. You can track us at http://twitter.com/PCB_Solutions We began tweeting about our business, the industry and our market place. Follow us on twitter (see our home page as well to follow).

Look for us this month to be on Facebook. Who would have ever thought social media would be an outlet for gaining web traffic in the Printed Circuit Board industry.  We are also working to gain access with wikipedia and look forward to that announcement in the near future…

Please visit our home page at: www.pcb-solutions.com We are a supplier of Domestic and off-shore Rigid, Rigid-Flex and Flex Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs), Domestic Military PCBs, Domestic Tier I PCBA, Domestic Sheet Metal, Domestic Injection Molding and other Custom Fabricated Services.

IPC announced strong book to bill ratios for June 2010 and PCB Solutions saw equally good ratios. We are curious to see how the industry fared in July as we saw a dramatic slow down symbolic of the quietness of 2009. We at PCB Solutions are confident we never pulled out of the recession but just seem to be maintaining aggressive web marketing and sales approaches for organic growth and profitability.

As we hold our strategy at PCB Solutions, we will ride out this market in a very strong, competitive position.

Please visit our home page at: www.pcb-solutions.com We are a supplier of Domestic and off-shore Rigid, Rigid-Flex and Flex Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs), Domestic Military PCBs, Domestic Tier I PCBA, Domestic Sheet Metal, Domestic Injection Molding and other Custom Fabricated Services.

http://www.pcb-solutions.com/pcb.html

http://www.pcb-solutions.com/flex.html