Japan

02/01/1998

Japan

Japan`s Compound Semiconductor Industry association said sales of compound semiconductors reached a new record in the first half of this fiscal year, jumping 23% to 23.2 billion yen ($190 million) compared to last year`s figures. Domestic sales were up 17.9% to 14.3 billion yen, with exports up 54.8% to 8.9 billion yen. GaAs and GaP sales, both domestic and exports, were also on the rise. GaAs sales were 11.5 billion yen ($96 million), up 19%; GaP sales totaled 9.5 billion yen, up 27%.

NEC has developed an 80-Mbit flash memory chip in conjunction with SanDisk of the US, and hopes to enter it in the flash market this year. The Japanese chip giant hopes to sell 10 billion yen worth ($82.3 million) of flash in 1998, 30 billion in 1999, and 60 billion in 2000. This compares with anticipated FY97 memory production of 390 billion yen (18% above FY96), system LSI sales of 700 billion yen (up 13%), and discrete production of 170 billion yen (also up 13%).