Showa Denko is the first Japanese manufacturer to start shipping samples of 200mm (8 inch) SiC epitaxial wafer for power semiconductor. Currently, SiC power semiconductors are mainly produced using 150 mm (6 inch) SiC epi-wafers. As the diameter of SiC epitaxial wafers increases, more chips can be obtained from a single wafer, which is expected […]
According to Japanese media, Sharp plans to double workforce of its Kameyama plant in Mie Prefecture, Japan for new business. The workforce count of Kameyama plant as of Dec 2016 is 2067. The plant is currently Sharp’s main factory of LCD panel. The new business for the plant may include camera parts for smartphone for […]
Nichicon has signed confirmation of intention with Murata on 5 Apr to transfer part of power supply business from Murata to Nichicon. Both companies plan to sign the confirmation of transfer within May 2017. The scope of the transfer will include AC-DC switching power supplies aimed at markets such as office equipment, industrial electronics, home […]
Sakai Display Products (SDP) posted losses of 59.2 billion JPY for the fiscal year ended Dec 2016, despite profit record of last 3 years. The company is a large screen LCD panel manufacturer with a 10th generation (G10) LCD plant originally founded by Sharp Corporation. Now the majority of the company is owned by Foxconn […]
Denso announced its decision to build a new plant by Denso Iwate to enhance competitiveness of Denso Group and toward realization of domestic manufacturing in Japan. Aside the increasing the production capacity of semiconductor wafer operated by Denso Iwate, the factory is planned to be responsible for manufacturing semiconductor sensor and meters for automobile. The […]
Hamamatsu Photonics has announced the completion of the new building No.1 in Shingai factory. The Shingai factory, located in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, is a mass production fab specialized in back end process. The new building will increase the production rate of back end process of optical semiconductor elements. Production at the new building will be […]
TDK has announced the acquisition of ICsense from Belgium by TDK’s wholly-owned subsidiary TDK-Micronas GmbH on 28 March. ICsense will become a member of TDK group and a wholly-owned subsidiary of TDK-Micronas. The ICsense management team will remain unchanged. Established in 2004, ICsense’s core business is ASIC development and the supply and custom IC design […]
SII Semicondutor, a subsidiary of Seiko Instruments, together with the research team of Professor Shigetoshi Sugawa and Associate Professor Rihito Kuroda from Tohoku University, announces the development of mass production technology of a silicon-based ultraviolet (UV) sensor that detects from UV-A (315-400nm) to UV-B (280-315nm) ranges. By taking the difference between the high sensitivity photodiode […]
Hitachi, Ltd. has announced on 21 March that it would sell 7,800,000 shares (Proportion of all voting share: 14.76%) of Hitachi Maxell to SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. on 22 March 2017. After the transfer, Hitachi will retain 14.76% of all voting shares of Hitachi Maxell, which will no longer be an equity method affiliate of […]
According to the recently released Global Wafer Capacity report by IC Insights, Taiwan has maintained the lead of wafer capacity in the world while South Korea is narrowing the gap. Taiwan gained the title back in 2015 when it surpassed South Korea as the largest capacity holder. In 2016, only China and South Korea gained […]
Toshiba has announced the schedule and new company name for its memory business to be spun off. The decision of spinning off its memory business was announced on 27 Jan 2017 with new company name and schedule undecided. The new company name has now announced to be Toshiba Memory Corporation (Toshiba Memory). The new company […]
DISCO Corporation has announced it has developed an ingot laser slicing method called “KABRA” (Key Amorphous-Black Repetitive Absorption) for SiC wafer which enables high-speed wafer production with reduced material loss. Compared with existing diamond wire saw process, the total processing time per ingot reduces from 2.5-3.5 days to 18 hours. Also, the number of wafers […]
Renesas Electronics has announced that it will withdraw from the microwave semiconductor device business and focus its compound device business on optoelectronics devices. Development of new microwave device has already been stopped, while production and supply are expected to be ended in 2018. According to Renesas, reasons of the withdrawal include peripheral components being incorporated […]
TDK has announced the accquistion of French sensor maker “Tronics Microsystems” by its fully-own subsidiary EPCOS. EPCOS will launch an all-cash public tender offer for all publicly-held shares of Tronics for a price of EUR 13.20 per share, represents a 78.4% premium to the closing share price as of July 7, 2016. The total transaction […]
Sony has announced the signing of memorandum of understanding (MoU) to transfer Sony Group’s battery business to Murata Group, a leading ceramic-based passive electronic components manufacturer in Japan. The transaction is expected to include the battery business conducted by Sony Energy Devices Corporation, Sony’s wholly-owned subsidiary in Japan; Sony’s battery-related manufacturing operations located in China […]