Market News

SAN JOSE, CA -- Tessera Technologies, Inc. has been awarded a confidential interim judgment that asserted the Tessera patents are valid and enforceable and that certain of Amkor’s products are made under the asserted Tessera patents.

An arbitration panel found unanimously in favor of Tessera for monetary damages based on Amkor’s material breach of its license agreement and failure to pay royalties, with the exact amount of damages to be decided at a later date. 

The arbitration panel ordered that damages for past royalties for infringing packages from March 2002 through March 2008 be apportioned using percentages set by the panel, subject to certain offsets. Damages experts for each of the parties are to calculate the amount of past royalties due as damages to Tessera based upon the parameters established in the interim order and submit a joint report by November 17, 2008.

Amkor believes the final damage award will be well below the $85 to $115 million originally claimed by Tessera in its initial arbitration filing.
 
The patents at issue in the arbitration are U.S. Patent No. 5,852,326 (the '326 Patent), U.S. Patent No. 6,433,419 (the '419 Patent), U.S. Patent No. 6,465,893 (the '893 Patent), and U.S. Patent No. 5,679,977 (the '977 Patent).
BANNOCKBURN, IL – North American PCB shipments in September fell 3.1%, while orders decreased 14.2% year-over-year, IPC said.
 
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TAIPEI, TAIWAN– In March, Compal Electronics predicted annual notebook production would reach 60 million units by 2010. The company also planned to increase its production capacity in China and Vietnam. But now Compal will take a “less aggressive approach” to investment capacity in both countries and has readjusted its shipment forecasts.
 
Instead of expanding further in China, the company will refocus toward optimizing production at its four existing plants. An increase of 30% to 40% in related production efficiency is expected.
 
Its annual shipment forecast for 2009 has been recently reduced to 35 million, down from September’s forecast of 30 million to 40 million units. In addition, the annual shipment goal has been reduced from 32 million to 27 million units. The company sites a dramatic drop in customer demand for the adjustments.
 
The reduced shipment goal still might not be reached. Notebooks shipped during the third quarter totaled 6.9 million units, and industry insiders are predicting an annual shipment of 26 million to 26.3 million units.
 
Despite the downturn, Compal has stated that its workforce will not be affected–the company is planning to add 300 technician jobs in 2009. Ray Chen, president, believes Compal needs to focus on “continuing its research and developing ability” because it is critical for future growth.
SAN JOSE -- Flextronics has reportedly laid off about 70 workers in Taiwan and additional cuts are possible, according to a local newspaper report.

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FRANKFURT, GERMANY -- According to ZVEI, semiconductor sales for September 2008 were down 4.7% sequentially (based on the US$) after a 4% increase in August and a 4.2% increase in July. Revenues slid 13% in September (based on the Euro) do to the declining strength of the currency. 
 
The book-to-bill continued to fall, down to 0.93 from 0.95 in August. Christoph Stoppok, Managing Director of ZVEI indicated that if the economy and the banking sector stabilize by mid 2009, the German semiconductor market would likewise see improvement.

According to ZVEI, the Asia-Pacific and Japan regions continued to grow through September with combined revenues up 4% for the month.
SAN JOSE – The MicroElectronics Packaging and Test Engineering Council (MEPTEC) released the program for its Nov. 13 symposium “Packaging Developments and Innovations:  From System Design to Integrated Delivery” in San Jose.
 
Glenn Daves, director of packaging technology at Freescale Semiconductors will keynote, discussing aligning packaging developments with the market.
 
Sessions include advanced packages and processes; packaging to board assembly trends; microelectronics substrate fabrication and assembly innovation, and design tools and co-design solutions.
 
To register, visit www.meptec.org.

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