Business briefs

14 Jan 2005

Including news from InPhase Technologies, Infineon Technologies, Sharp, Sony and more.

General company news:

•  InPhase Technologies, US, has unveiled what it says is the world's first prototype holographic storage drive. The prototype will form the basis of InPhase's Tapestry drives, which will have capacities from 200GB to 1.6TB on a single disk. The recording material is 1.5 mm thick and is sandwiched between two 130 mm diameter plastic disks. The drive uses a 407 nm laser diode to write data into the recording material.

•  Infineon Technologies of Germany has called off the $200 million deal that would have seen US-based Finisar acquire Infineon's fiber-optic business unit. According to the Munich-based company, Finisar's board had told Infineon that it was likely to withdraw its recommendation that shareholders vote in favor of the much-delayed acquisition. Finisar claims to have told Infineon that its board was merely in the process of deciding whether or not it would recommend the deal.

•  Sharp is investing ¥150 billion ($1.46 billion) to build a second plant at its Kameyama site in Japan. According to Sharp, the plant will be the first in the world to adopt 8th generation glass substrates, which are used to produce 40-inch and 50-inch LCD televisions. Eight 40-inch or six 50-inch panels can be obtained from a single 8th generation substrate. Production is scheduled to begin in October 2006.

•  Sony is set to acquire Chi Mei Optoelectronics' subsidiary International Display Technology (IDTech) for ¥18.5 billion. Sony plans to produce low-temperature polysilicon TFT-LCD panels at the new company. The deal includes the purchase of all the production equipment, facilities and personnel at IDTech's Yasu-shi plant in Japan.

•  Games developers Electronics Arts and Vivendi Universal Games (VU Games) are the latest companies to join the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA). "The delivery of high-definition games is becoming increasingly important to us," said Scott Cronce, Electronic Arts Worldwide Studio CTO. "Blu-ray Disc has the capacity, functionality and interactivity we need for the kinds of projects we have in mind."

Grants:

•  Evident Technologies, US, has received a phase1 SBIR grant to develop advanced anti-counterfeiting materials. The project combines the company's knowledge of quantum dots and micro-resonant structures, which allow specific colours to be transmitted. The goal is to create unique spectral barcode tags for high-security operations. The value of the award was not disclosed.