The latest edition of World Fab Forecast reveals that Fab spending, which includes construction and equipping Front-End Facilities, from R&Ds to volume fabs, is expected to increase to over $30B, about 88 percent growth year-over-year.

The battle has begun and makers of micro inverters are waging a war against makers of distributed dc-dc converters for control of the power conversion market for photovoltaic (PV) systems. The emergence of disruptive power architectures including micro inverters and dc-dc converters will be one of the most important trends in the PV market in the near-term. The stakes are high, literally hundreds of millions, or even billions, of dollars.

How clean is clean when it comes to printed circuit boards and assemblies? While John Perry, IPC technical project manager, can enumerate a litany of complex variables that come into play with an answer to that question, a new cleaning standard, IPC-5704, Cleanliness Requirements for Unpopulated Printed Boards, defines the recommended requirements for the cleanliness of unpopulated single, double-sided and multilayer printed boards.

According to a new technical market research report, MICROELECTROMECHANICAL SYSTEMS (MEMS) TECHNOLOGY: CURRENT AND FUTURE MARKETS, the value of the global market for microelectromechanical systems is an estimated $7.6 billion in 2009, but is expected to increase to $13.2 billion in 2014, for a 5-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.8%.

Worldwide PC microprocessor shipments in the fourth calendar quarter of 2009 (4Q09) rose modestly, compared to 3Q09, but still achieved all-time record levels for a single quarter, according to the latest PC processor study. Notably, when compared to 4Q08, shipments in 4Q09 rose 31.3%. For the full year 2009, total PC processor unit shipments grew 2.5%, while revenue declined 7.1% to $28.6 billion.