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01 Jul 2004
Including news from Bookham Technology, Lumileds, NEC, Pioneer and more.
General company news:
• Bookham Technology has adapted its 980 nm gallium-arsenide laser diode technology for telecoms to emit wavelengths suited to the high-power industrial laser market. "Wavelengths from 780 to 1060 nm are now available," said Chuck Milligan, Bookham's VP of Industrial and Defense solutions. "Both bare and mounted bars are available, the latter on either a standard microchannel cooler or passively-cooled copper mount."
• NEC and Pioneer of Japan have finalised the stock transfer agreement of NEC's plasma display subsidiary to Pioneer. On 30 September 2004, NEC will transfer all the shares it holds in NEC Plasma Display Corporation to Pioneer. The deal will also see NEC give up all its intellectual property relating to plasma displays. The NEC subsidiary employs 1100 people and recorded annual sales of 50 billion yen for the fiscal year ended 31 March 2004.
• Glasgow-based The Crystal Consortium (TCC) has won a £75000 (UDS 136 000) SPUR grant from the UK's Department of Trade and Industry to develop piezoelectric crystals. "The crystal is more efficient than ceramics in medical transducers allowing ultrasound scanners to produce higher resolution images," explained Stephen-Mark Williams of TCC. He expects the crystal to be ready by 2006.
• Matsushita Electric Industrial of Japan, best known for its Panasonic brand products, has unveiled the DMR-E700BD, a Blu-ray disc/DVD recorder. The company claims that the model is the world's first DVD recorder that supports single-side, dual-layer Blu-ray discs with a maximum capacity of 50 Gb. The DMR-E700BD recorder will be launched in Japan on 31 July 2004.
• Seiko Epson of Japan has developed a 850 nm 2.7 mW VCSEL for use in optical communication networks. The company says the device, model number S92A1A00, achieves transfer speeds as high as 5 Gb/s at a threshold current of 1.2 mA. Samples of the VCSEL will be available in September and Epson says it will begin accepting volume production orders in December 2004.
Distribution agreements:
• Lumileds of the US has agreed a distribution partnership with Marubeni of Japan. Marubeni will use its existing sales network to supply Lumileds' LED chips to Japanese electronics companies making 5 mm, 4-pin, surface mount and chip-on-board LED packages. The deal covers AlInGaP and InGaN chips emitting blue, traffic green, green, red, red-orange and amber.
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