New Electronics Ezine

At this time last year, the global economic crisis was beginning to impact; major financial institutions were reeling and the electronics industry was waiting for the storm to hit. Today - and there is a degree of finger crossing here - the worst appears to be over. Industry seems to be recovering and many suppliers claim their September, October and November performance has been better than the similar period in 2008. But the 'feel good' factor has yet to return. A number of issues will determine when that is, one of which is how quickly semiconductor manufacturers can get their processes back up to full speed. Lines were mothballed this year and employees let go; recovering from that takes time. When demand increases, but production doesn't, it's time for allocation - and some companies already have lead times of 40 weeks or more, depending upon your source of information. For these and other reasons, we will all be glad to wave goodbye to 2009: challenging for many, unpleasant for a few. Let's hope 2010 is better. Seasons Greetings and a Happy New Year from all at New Electronics. Graham Pitcher, Group Editor editor@newelectronics.co.uk News Technology Video of the Week (NETV) Jobs Events Diary     News         ST announces 'industry's lowest' RDS(On) per die area STMicroelectronics has added a range of options to its MDmesh V power mosfets with a new device which it says delivers the industry's lowest on state resistance for 650V mosfets. Read More         National Semiconductor reports sales of $345million National Semiconductor has announced sales of $345million for its second fiscal quarter – up 10% from Q1 – but down 18% year on year. Read More   : $416million investment in lcd production | 14/12/2009     Sponsors News         Mix-Tek Datamate New high reliability, high performance Mix-Tek Datamate connectors from Harwin combine signal (3A), power (20A) and coax (6GHz) contacts in one package, saving space and cost. Millions of combinations are possible, providing great design flexibility. Read More       Technology         Simulation solution: Mainstream high speed pcb design has long followed in the slipstream of rf and microwave engineering. Of necessity, techniques have been simplified and made applicable to wider use: for example, IBIS models that describe Read More         Plastic Electronics - Rolling out a strategy Industry secretary Lord Mandelson outlines the key issues facing the UK's plastic electronics sector – and some solutions. Read More   : Speaking of success: Epson Europe Electronics | 07/12/2009 : Chips with everything – reloaded | 07/12/2009     Video of the Week         Curtiss-Wright Controls CHAMP-FX2 Video Tour This Video Product Tour provides an overview of the Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing CHAMP-FX2 FPGA Application Accelerator, a 6U VPX computing platform that features dual Xilinx® Virtex®-5 Platform FPGAs and a dual-core Freescale Power Architecture MPC8641D processor. Read More       Job of the Week         Systems Engineer (Avionics) - Dorset Location: South West | Salary: £30 - £40 per hour Read More       Events Diary       Product Regulations Roadshow - Leeds | (14/01/2010<%EndDate%>) Defra and BIS are offering the opportunity to attend a free Product Regulations Roadshow. Read More Product Regulations Roadshow - Bristol | (19/01/2010<%EndDate%>) Defra and BIS are offering the opportunity to attend a free Product Regulations Roadshow. Read More Product Regulations Roadshow - Birmingham | (21/01/2010<%EndDate%>) Defra and BIS are offering the opportunity to attend a free Product Regulations Roadshow. Read More   : Apply for free copy : Digital versions If you no longer wish to receive copies of the New Electronics e-zine, please click here to Unsubscribe.