Corning begins work on Taiwan LCD facility
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Encouraged by the demand for LCDs, glass maker Corning on Thursday said it has broken ground for a second manufacturing facility in Taiwan.
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New standard is designed to expand the range of colors on LCD and rear-projection screens, improving the viewing experience.
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A flower exposition hall and a genetic modification laboratory are the first steps in Taiwan's plan to dominate the world's $2 billion orchid industry.
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LONDON - According to a correspondent in Taiwan Morris Chang, chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. had some interesting things to say about the outlook following on from the company&#39;s third quarter results.
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Corning Inc, the world&#39;s largest maker of glass substrates used in liquid-crystal displays (LCDs), said yesterday that it would go ahead with its capacity expansion as planned, adding that decisions
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Corporate reshuffling at two Taiwanese electronics companies met with investor praise in Taipei.
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(InfoWorld) - The world's largest contract chip maker plans to invest up to NT$5.55 billion (US$168.3 million) in a smaller partner to strengthen their alliance and continue to farm out orders for certain chips to the company. The deal will see Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. increase its stake in Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp. by up to 11 percent in coming weeks. TSMC currently holds a 26.8 percent share of the company, but has no intention of merging with Vanguard, it said in a statement. TSMC will continue to depend on Vanguard to handle certain chip-related work done in older 8-inch chip plants. TSMC has focused its new factory investment on 12-inch factories, which use larger, 12-inch silicon wafers during production. The company still invests in upgrades for its 8-inch plants, but has tried to avoid buying new production lines for the technology, which is slowly going out of use. Vanguard has put its 8-inch plants to use making specialty chips, including contact image sensors (CIS) and driver chips used in LCD (liquid crystal display) products such as monitors and LCD TVs. In March, Vanguard agreed to buy two 8-inch chip factories from Winbond Electronics Corp. with total production of 40,000 wafers per month. Hundreds of chips can be made on a single 8-inch wafer. By expanding its production, Vanguard can continue to take some orders from TSMC clients as well as increase its overall business. The two companies enjoy a close working relationship. TSMC may also be buying the stake because a Taiwan government investment fund, the Executive Yuan's Development Fund, wants to sell, according to Warren Lau, a chip analyst at Macquarie Research Equities in Hong Kong. The Development Fund still holds a 26.5 percent stake in Vanguard, and Lau believes that TSMC plans to buy a large portion of the government stake to raise its holding in Vanguard to as much as 50 percent. And it's a good investment: VIS may be the most profitable contract chip maker in the business, Lau said.
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The chairman of the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer, which assembles gadgets from AppleÂ iPods to Nintendo's Wii game console, pledged NT$15 billion (US$454.4 million) to Taiwan's most prestigious university to build a new cancer ward and fund research against the disease.
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Samsung Electronics Co. announced Monday that it was beginning full-scale investment to build a second production line for seventh-generation liquid crystal displays (LCDs) at its complex in Tangjeong, South Chungcheong Province from early next year.
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Foxconn (Taiwan), computer manufacturer, confirmed the plan to set up its second plant in the Czech Republic in Kutna Hora in May 2007. The plant will manufacture LCD monitors and computer components. The plant, which should be commissioned in Jun 2008, will have nearly 5,000 employees.
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(InfoWorld) - Industry associations from India and Taiwan have signed an agreement to work more closely in the future on semiconductor technology, including building better business ties and finding further areas for collaboration. The India Semiconductor Association and Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association pledged in a memorandum of understanding signed Monday, to host more meetings, organize more events, seek out business opportunities, help companies from each place find partners, create an information database and more as time goes on. The agreement ties together one of the world's largest semiconductor producing economies, Taiwan, to one of the fastest growing markets in the world, India. India is also keen to build up its semiconductor prowess, officials said. Taiwan is home to the world's two largest contract chip makers, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), as well as the biggest chip packaging and testing company, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. The island also boasts the second biggest chip design industry by revenue, behind only the U.S., and recent investment in computer memory chips has also transformed Taiwan into a DRAM powerhouse. The island makes nearly a fifth of the world's DRAM, and companies are fast moving into NAND flash memory. Some Taiwanese companies have already taken advantage of opportunities in India. MediaTek Inc., Taiwan's largest chip design firm and the biggest maker of chips for optical drives such as DVD players, has already set up a software development center in Noida, India. The center is key to one of MediaTek's top selling products, mobile phone chips. Not only does the Indian office create the user interface for MediaTek mobile phone products, but it is also a point from which the company can tap India's fast-growing mobile phone industry. MediaTek is already one of the top mobile phone chip makers in the China market. India boasts the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world, making it an important place for chip makers to set up shop. The nation added 8.06 million new subscribers in July, raising its total to 192.98 million, according to the according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). By comparison, the number of mobile phone subscribers in China rose to 508.56 million at the end of July, an addition of 6.9 million new users in the month, according to China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII). A number of chip companies from around the world have established research centers in India. Qualcomm Inc., the largest chip design house by revenue and a major U.S. mobile chip company, has also opened a software and chip development lab in India. The company uses it as a base for research and development as well as a place from which to promote its CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) technology, according to its Web site.
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(InfoWorld) - Japanese memory chip maker Elpida MemoryÂ and Taiwan's Powerchip SemiconductorÂ have announced a broad plan to invest $13.9 billion over five years to build four new DRAM factories in Taiwan. The investment, announced Thursday, will go into a new joint venture company that does not yet have an English name. The new company will open early next year in an advanced 12-inch chip factory Powerchip started building in central Taiwan earlier this year. In coming years, the joint venture company will build three more DRAM (dynamic-RAM) factories on the island, with output reaching 60,000 silicon wafers per month each, for total planned capacity of a massive 240,000 wafers. Thousands of DRAM chips can be made on each wafer. The investment means the companies are confident in the future of the DRAM industry and in their ability to compete against market leader Samsung Electronics. In fact, Elpida Chief Executive Officer Yukio SakamotoÂ pledged to surpass SamsungÂ in terms of DRAM market share within three years. The DRAM industry isÂ ripe for new factories. Most companies in the business have invested in non-DRAM production lines in recent years, mainly NAND flash memory, which is popular in digital cameras and iPods. ButÂ DRAM prices have surgedÂ recently due to strong PC sales, and the launch of Microsoft Windows Vista is expected to keep DRAM prices strong over the next several months due to strong anticipated PC demand and the greater memory content required by Vista compared to Windows XP. The two companies intend to marry Elpida's technology prowess with Powerchip's low cost manufacturing know-how, said Frank Huang, chairman of Powerchip. The companies will be even partners in the venture, each putting in their half of the value of investment, and each deriving half of the production from the new company. Elpida had beenÂ looking at four possible investment locationsÂ before deciding to partner with Powerchip in Taiwan. The company's CEO traveled to China to visit manufacturing partner Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) of Shanghai, in addition to scouting locations in Japan and Singapore. Despite better incentives offered by the Chinese government, Sakamoto said his company's relationship with Powerchip and Taiwan's superior infrastructure swayed Elpida's final decision. "Yesterday, Powerchip and Elpida had a very friendly relationship, but today we became a family," said Sakamoto. The two companies have been working together for over four years. Elpida will continue to use SMIC as a manufacturing partner in China, he said. Elpida and Powerchip will initially invest NT$40 billion to get the first DRAM factory up and running. They expect to move production line equipment into the factory by May 2007 and start mass production in August. The joint venture company will begin life with the latest production technology thanks to Elpida, etching transistors and other parts on silicon at the tiny size of 70-nanometers. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter. Powerchip will take charge of daily operations and staff the factory. By the time the fourth plant is finished, Powerchip reckons it will have hired 8,000 new workers for the joint venture. Elpida and Powerchip will also co-invest in research and development, they said. Their technology pact will ensure joint development down to the 50nm level and beyond. The companies plan to sign a final agreement on the joint venture in January.
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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- Corning said late Wednesday it will take $2.8 billion to $2.9 billion in third-quarter charges because of reductions in projected future global demand for its fiber-optic products used in telecommunications networks.
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Sharp Corp. , the world's third-largest LCD TV maker, said on Friday it would likely build a new LCD panel plant in Sakai, Osaka prefecture, and the final decision will be made by the end of July.
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Japanese engineers show their work on Super Hi-Vision, which could replace today's HDTV.
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By Kyodo News International, Tokyo  Sep. 10--TOKYO -- Toshiba Corp. plans to build a liquid crystal display  television plant in Poland to boost production of large screen LCD television  sets for the European market, company sources said Sunday.
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Engineers at Japan's NHK have demonstrated progress on Super Hi-Vision, a future replacement for today's HDTV systems.