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Canaries In The Chip Mine

 

Over the years a number of companies in the IC Components,semiconductor and semiconductor equipment community have been labeled as “Canaries in the Coal Mine.”   Back in the mid-90′s my partner(s) at INFRASTRUCTURE tagged wire bond equipment supplier Kulicke & Soffa as one of the most important canaries.  We had several reasons for doing this:
 

1) K&S tools are shipped to assembly houses with relatively short lead times. 2)  Swings in demand for wire bonding tools typically preceded up and down turns in the semiconductor cycle by a few quarters.

 

Pretty straightforward stuff….

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