Japan

05/01/1998

Japan

Mitsubishi Materials Silicon Corp. has entered into discussions of a possible licensing agreement related to exclusive Japanese and Asian rights for Ibis Technology Corp.`s Advantox SIMOX wafer production process. The two firms have collaborated on sales and development of the SOI technology, and Mitsubishi recently signed a letter of intent to purchase an Ibis 1000 oxygen implanter. The Japanese firm is also planning an expansion of its Asian supply lines, with MSA set to cooperate on market development in North America and Europe.

After seeing a 16 billion yen ($124 million) loss for the year, mostly due to DRAM pricing problems, Nippon Steel`s chipmaking arm Nippon Steel Semiconductor, Tateyama, Chiba, is planning on exiting the DRAM business, and becoming a foundry for logic production early this summer. In light of 4% more losses than last year`s, the company is calling on employees to voluntarily leave the firm. Layoffs are not part of traditional Japanese company culture, but officials said about 80 jobs will need to be cut. Sales for the fiscal year, which ended in April, are also expected to be down from last year, a 6% drop to 18 billion yen (about $140 million).

Hitachi is also seeing losses in its semiconductor business. The company has reportedly decided to delay construction of a new fab in Yamanashi Prefecture for two years. According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper, construction of the 110 billion yen ($854 million) facility was slated to begin next month, with production beginning in the end of 1999.

Toshiba has denied Japanese press reports that it has started equipping a 300-mm line at its newly built Microelectronics Engineering Labs in Shin Sugita, Yokohama, though a spokesperson did note that the company is "continuously studying 300-mm technologies for the future." The firm has been successful in developing embedded shrink versions of 64-Mbit DRAMs, with the die half as large as current versions, according to Japanese industry sources.