Japan

09/01/1997

Japan

Orders in Japan are up. Orders for semiconductor equipment in Japan showed year-over-year improvement in April, hitting 115 billion yen (about $1.0 billion) - 7.4% better than a year earlier. Shipments remained 18.6% lower than 1996 levels, however, at 72.2 billion yen (about $628 million), according to a Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan report published in the Dempa Shimbun. The resulting book-to-bill ratio of 1.59 augurs good months ahead. Wafer processing equipment accounted for 70% of the total. Orders were at 88 billion yen in January.

Nikon has shifted all manufacturing of its i-line stepper family to a "daughter company," Tochigi Nihon, which had for many years been doing subassembly work for the stepper giant. The move allows Nikon`s own Kumagaya manufacturing facility to be devoted to deep UV and R&D activities. A contingent of manufacturing personnel were shifted from Kumagaya to Tochigi to oversee the transition. Nikon executives expect to sell about 200 deep UV steppers and scanners this fiscal year (ending March, 1998), more than one-third of total output; this is seen growing to between 300 and 400 next fiscal year.

Under a 50/50 ownership deal, Sony, Tokyo, has agreed in principle to manufacture low-temperature polycrystalline silicon TFT-LCDs with the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works affiliate of Toyota Motor Group, Aichi. The two companies are expected to build a new plant in Toyoda`s Kariya City, Aichi, site next year and invest some 500 million yen in the project. Sony has begun work on training engineers from Toyota at its Atsugi Technology Center near Tokyo, where Sony`s semiconductor and display businesses are headquartered.

Canon will supply a deep UV Canon FPA-300EX3L 300-mm wafer stepper to I300I later this year. The machine is similar to one being installed at the Japanese Selete consortium, and is being financed by an I300I member company, reportedly Intel. Nikon will install a 300-mm KrF laser-based scanning tool at Selete by the end of this year, with Canon following suit by the end of 1998. A Canon factory team will be assigned to maintain the I300I stepper, which is based on the 200-mm FPA-3000 series platform, and a dedicated service engineer and applications engineer will also be provided.

Based on demand, Kokusai Electric Co., Tokyo, is considering building a production line for 300-mm CVD equipment in the United States. Kokusai already plans to build a new 300-mm CVD equipment production line in Toyama Prefecture. Operations there are expected to start next spring, with orders beginning to ship in FY98, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. The company said it will produce two variations of the CVD equipment. A vertical deposition machine, which will be capable of batch processing 75-100 wafers, is expected to account for 80% of production. The remaining 20% will be dedicated to a wafer-fed model.

Hitachi Cable Ltd., Tokyo, has become the tenth licensee for Tessera`s proprietary ?BGA IC packaging technology. The license grants Hitachi Cable the right to assemble ICs in the Tessera package, employing technology invented by Tessera, San Jose, CA, a developer of the chip-scale package format. Hitachi Cable plans to offer its customers volume packaging in the ?BGA format at its Densen Works factory in Hitachi City, Japan. The company will also produce Tessera`s compliant mounting tape, used in the ?BGA assembly process. Hitachi Cable will provide the tape to other Tessera licensees, and will employ it in the manufacture of the Tessera-licensed package.

In addition, Tessera`s new Singapore Technology Center is scheduled to open in 3Q97. It will provide support to Hitachi and other Asian licensees.

Mitsubishi Materials Corp. is planning to produce about 1000, 300-mm wafers/month at its factory in Chiba Prefecture, where it has invested some 2 billion yen (about $17.5 million) for 300-mm wafer-making equipment. Production will begin in October. According to reports in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, this is the first time the company will produce the wafers entirely in-house. Until now, the company has produced 300-mm silicon wafer ingots in a Yamagata Prefecture facility and has subcontracted with an affiliate to process the ingots into wafers.

SensArray Japan Corp., Yokohama, Japan, is a new, wholly owned subsidiary of metrology equipment manufacturer SensArray Corp. of Santa Clara, CA. The subsidiary provides sales, customer service, technical support, product demonstrations, and process-specific solutions for the company`s growing customer base in Japan.