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Japanese chip merger
POLICY NEWS
Japanese chip merger
Veeco says Yeh to China
MICROELECTRONICS
Veeco Instruments Inc. is establishing a China Nanotechnology Center (CNC) under the direction of Oliver Yeh, general manager for the region. Based in Beijing and staffed with local scientists and engineers, the CNC will be run jointly with the Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). “We see nanotechnology as a strong growth opportunity for Veeco, given the surge in global government spending,” explains Veeco’s chairman, president, and CEO, citing the Chinese government’s pledge of a total of $480-600 million towards the development of a national nano infrastructure and research center.
Japanese companies Hitachi Ltd. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. plan to merge their non-DRAM chip operations. If final agreements are reached, the new company, Renesas Technology Corp., will be established next April. Ownership will be split between the two companies, with Mitsubishi Electric’s VP Koichi Nagasawa expected to become chairman and CEO and Hitachi’s Saturo Ito as president and COO. By focusing on LSI operations for the mobile, network, automotive, and digital home electronics chip markets, annual sales could reach $7.3 billion, which would take Renesas into the top ranks. In another announcement, Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric outlined their plans to merge DRAM operations with Elpida Memory Inc., which is a joint venture between NEC Corp. and Hitachi.
Design support
NANOTECHNOLOGY
Merger at the surface CHARACTERIZATION UK-based company CERAM has acquired CSMA Ltd. in a bid to move into surface analysis. CSMA started as a spin-out company from UMIST in Manchester in 1992 and provides a range of surface characterization and analysis services for materials and products. CERAM chief executive Neil Sanderson describes CSMA’s services as being “highly complementary” and the acquisition as an “opportunity not to be missed”. The move represents an important development in the future plans of CSMA, according to its commercial director Paul Stevenson. “The CERAM framework offers extended analytical facilities along with product design/development capabilities and manufacturing expertise,” he adds. “Our objective was to become the ‘one-stop-shop’ for surface and materials characterization and related activities – we now have the additional expertise and structure to become this.”
MICROELECTRONICS Supplier of high performance components for the communications industry, TriQuint Semiconductor, is to collaborate with UK-based QinetiQ on GaAs integrated circuit (IC) design. As part of a move to establish a worldwide network of independent design centers, TriQuint will offer its customers access to QinetiQ's Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) design team. The move will support TriQuint's GaAs foundry services, which offer a range of services including E/D MesFET, pHEMT, VPIN, and HFET. “The agreement is significant in that it now provides European customers with a local, experienced, qualified third-party design resource for the TriQuint Semiconductor Texas processes,” says foundry services manager for TriQuint Semiconductor Texas, Lisa Howard.
26
December 2002
Sights set on telecoms RESEARCH Heriot-Watt University start-up Helia Photonics Ltd. has secured private investment to allow it to acquire the coatings division of Terahertz Photonics in a technology transfer deal. The Scottish photonics company will be focusing on Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) developments for the telecommunications industry, says CEO David Hamilton. WDM uses multiple light beams at different wavelengths to carry information along the same optical fiber. Helia offers high volume coating and characterization finishing services for the laser diodes required in WDM. “We have a pool of top quality technical expertise, largely developed at Heriot-Watt University during the 1990s,” says Hamilton, adding that the company is already in discussions with a European partner over a major contract.
Optical integration
AIXTRON shows the way
PHOTONICS
DISPLAYS
German companies LINOS Photonics GmbH and Rodenstock Präzisionsoptik GmbH & Co. KG have merged. Volker Brockmeyer, former chief financial officer of LINOS, is managing director of the new company, LINOS Photonics GmbH & Co. KG. “We are expecting that this move will help us simplify administration, intensify customer relations, and concentrate on the essentials – which are our business divisions Information Technology & Communications, Health Care & Life Sciences, and Industrial Manufacturing,” explains LINOS CEO Gerd Litfin. According to a company statement, the reorganization will enable it “to adapt more flexibly to economic fluctuations and equip LINOS for future growth.”
Semiconductor epitaxy equipment supplier AIXTRON is to lead a $3.5 million research program on light-emitting plastics for the next generation of displays. The German Ministry of Research and Education is funding the research, which brings together expertise from TU Braunschweig, TU Chemnitz, and chemical company SynTec GmbH, Wolfen. The project aims to develop AIXTRON’s organic vapor phase deposition (OVPD) technology to production level for organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays and adapt new precursors. The technology will target small and medium-sized, full-color displays for cellular phones, automotive applications, and hand-held computers. OLED displays are ideal for these applications because of their low power consumption, high brightness levels, fast response rates, wide viewing angle, high resolution, flexibility, and low cost. Michael Heuken, AIXTRON’s VP for corporate R&D explains the move, “Already about 100 companies worldwide are currently developing OLED display technologies to serve a market, which, according to market research institutes like Display Search, will more than double every year and reach $2.8 billion in 2007.”
Japanese chip merger
Veeco says Yeh to China
MICROELECTRONICS
Veeco Instruments Inc. is establishing a China Nanotechnology Center (CNC) under the direction of Oliver Yeh, general manager for the region. Based in Beijing and staffed with local scientists and engineers, the CNC will be run jointly with the Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). “We see nanotechnology as a strong growth opportunity for Veeco, given the surge in global government spending,” explains Veeco’s chairman, president, and CEO, citing the Chinese government’s pledge of a total of $480-600 million towards the development of a national nano infrastructure and research center.
Japanese companies Hitachi Ltd. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. plan to merge their non-DRAM chip operations. If final agreements are reached, the new company, Renesas Technology Corp., will be established next April. Ownership will be split between the two companies, with Mitsubishi Electric’s VP Koichi Nagasawa expected to become chairman and CEO and Hitachi’s Saturo Ito as president and COO. By focusing on LSI operations for the mobile, network, automotive, and digital home electronics chip markets, annual sales could reach $7.3 billion, which would take Renesas into the top ranks. In another announcement, Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric outlined their plans to merge DRAM operations with Elpida Memory Inc., which is a joint venture between NEC Corp. and Hitachi.
Design support
NANOTECHNOLOGY
Merger at the surface CHARACTERIZATION UK-based company CERAM has acquired CSMA Ltd. in a bid to move into surface analysis. CSMA started as a spin-out company from UMIST in Manchester in 1992 and provides a range of surface characterization and analysis services for materials and products. CERAM chief executive Neil Sanderson describes CSMA’s services as being “highly complementary” and the acquisition as an “opportunity not to be missed”. The move represents an important development in the future plans of CSMA, according to its commercial director Paul Stevenson. “The CERAM framework offers extended analytical facilities along with product design/development capabilities and manufacturing expertise,” he adds. “Our objective was to become the ‘one-stop-shop’ for surface and materials characterization and related activities – we now have the additional expertise and structure to become this.”
MICROELECTRONICS Supplier of high performance components for the communications industry, TriQuint Semiconductor, is to collaborate with UK-based QinetiQ on GaAs integrated circuit (IC) design. As part of a move to establish a worldwide network of independent design centers, TriQuint will offer its customers access to QinetiQ's Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) design team. The move will support TriQuint's GaAs foundry services, which offer a range of services including E/D MesFET, pHEMT, VPIN, and HFET. “The agreement is significant in that it now provides European customers with a local, experienced, qualified third-party design resource for the TriQuint Semiconductor Texas processes,” says foundry services manager for TriQuint Semiconductor Texas, Lisa Howard.
26
December 2002
Sights set on telecoms RESEARCH Heriot-Watt University start-up Helia Photonics Ltd. has secured private investment to allow it to acquire the coatings division of Terahertz Photonics in a technology transfer deal. The Scottish photonics company will be focusing on Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) developments for the telecommunications industry, says CEO David Hamilton. WDM uses multiple light beams at different wavelengths to carry information along the same optical fiber. Helia offers high volume coating and characterization finishing services for the laser diodes required in WDM. “We have a pool of top quality technical expertise, largely developed at Heriot-Watt University during the 1990s,” says Hamilton, adding that the company is already in discussions with a European partner over a major contract.
Optical integration
AIXTRON shows the way
PHOTONICS
DISPLAYS
German companies LINOS Photonics GmbH and Rodenstock Präzisionsoptik GmbH & Co. KG have merged. Volker Brockmeyer, former chief financial officer of LINOS, is managing director of the new company, LINOS Photonics GmbH & Co. KG. “We are expecting that this move will help us simplify administration, intensify customer relations, and concentrate on the essentials – which are our business divisions Information Technology & Communications, Health Care & Life Sciences, and Industrial Manufacturing,” explains LINOS CEO Gerd Litfin. According to a company statement, the reorganization will enable it “to adapt more flexibly to economic fluctuations and equip LINOS for future growth.”
Semiconductor epitaxy equipment supplier AIXTRON is to lead a $3.5 million research program on light-emitting plastics for the next generation of displays. The German Ministry of Research and Education is funding the research, which brings together expertise from TU Braunschweig, TU Chemnitz, and chemical company SynTec GmbH, Wolfen. The project aims to develop AIXTRON’s organic vapor phase deposition (OVPD) technology to production level for organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays and adapt new precursors. The technology will target small and medium-sized, full-color displays for cellular phones, automotive applications, and hand-held computers. OLED displays are ideal for these applications because of their low power consumption, high brightness levels, fast response rates, wide viewing angle, high resolution, flexibility, and low cost. Michael Heuken, AIXTRON’s VP for corporate R&D explains the move, “Already about 100 companies worldwide are currently developing OLED display technologies to serve a market, which, according to market research institutes like Display Search, will more than double every year and reach $2.8 billion in 2007.”