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30 Jul 2004
Including news from Corning, Universal Display Corporation, Sharp and more.
General company news:
• Corning has received a payment of $510 million from Chi Mei Optoelectronics of Taiwan for supplying it with generation 5.5 LCD glass. The long-term purchase agreement between the two firms will see Corning supply "significant quantities" of LCD glass to Chi Mei starting in 2005. Chi Mei will use the glass in is new facility in Tainan, Taiwan.
• Sharp is installing a second production line for large-format LCDs at its Kamayama plant in Japan. The company expects the line to be operational in August 2004. The second line will process 12000 sheets per month, bringing the facility's total input capacity to 27000 sheets per month.
• S-LCD of South Korea, a joint venture between Samsung Electronics and Sony, has officially opened what is said to be the world's largest generation 7 (1800x2100 mm) amorphous TFT-LCD panel production facility. With just under 500 000 m2 of space, S-LCD hopes to begin mass production in the first half of 2005 once testing is complete.
• RWE Schott Solar of Germany, which claims to be Europe's largest photovoltaic maker, is investing EURO 40 million to add capacity to its sites Germany and the Czech Republic. It will add 40 MW cell capacity at its headquarters in Alzenau in Germany as well as 40 MW module capacity in the Czech Republic.
• Micronic Laser Systems of Sweden has received an order from an Asian photomask manufacturer for a laser pattern generator and a mask metrology system. Both instruments will be used to produce advanced photomasks for TFT-LCDs and color filters.
• Bookham Technology, JDS Uniphase, NorthLight Optronics, T-Networks and TriQuint Optoelectronics have announced a multi-source agreement (MSA) for standardizing 1550 nm 2.5 Gb/s cooled transmitter optical subassemblies (TOSAs). The cooled TOSA MSA is one-fifth of the size and consumes between one-quarter to one-third of the power compared with traditional butterfly packages used in DWDM applications.
• Gooch & Housego, the UK maker of acousto-optic devices such as Q-switches and tunable filters, has acquired Landwehr of Germany, a maker of RF drive electronics. "The acquisition will consolidate our position as a world leader in acousto-optics and give us a base in mainland Europe," said the firm's CEO Gareth Jones.
Funding:
• Universal Display Corporation (UDC), US, has been awarded a $100 000 SBIR phase I contract by the US Department of Energy. The project will see UDC use its transparent and phosphorescent OLED technologies to increase the power efficiency of white OLED lighting.
Distribution agreement:
• Exalos of Switzerland, a maker of superluminescent light-emitting diodes, has entered into a distribution agreement AMS Technologies of Germany. AMS will distribute Exalos' products in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK.
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