EmergingTech from Japan

The book-to-bill ratio of Japan-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment was 1.11 in April, recovering from last month's 0.96 that was mainly attributable to a seasonal factor, and booking increased for the sixth consecutive month, according to the book-to-bill ratio report issued by the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ).

Renesas Electronics Corp. will join imec's ultra-low-power (ULP) wireless technology project, whose objective is the development of short-range wireless communications that reduce power consumption to from 1/3 to 1/10 compared with current radio communications. The main application target is sensor networks for automotive and industrial purposes.

Sharp Corp., announcing its worst-ever business results, reported a 545 billion yen (US$5.5 billion*) loss, about 100 billion yen worse than the forecast issued in February and equivalent to nearly a quarter of sales. Simultaneously, Sharp announced the forthcoming appointment of a new president, Kozo Takahashi, aged 58, and a three-year business plan whose implementation will be at the heart of his mission.

Mitsubishi Electric Corp. will start offering a set of samples—LCD panel, touch panel, and a graphics board—from July. With the in-house-developed GUI Designer, Mitsubishi claims users can develop a touch panel display with a multi-touch graphical user interface function for roughly half the cost and in half the time compared with conventional technology. Mitsubishi intends to start mass producing the LCD module in the first quarter of next year and to promote it mainly to small and mid-scale manufacturers that want to enrich their products with high-level graphical user interfaces but have limited development resources.

Renesas Electronics Corp., which reported a net loss of 167.6 billion yen (US$1.7 billion), equivalent to 21% of sales, for fiscal 2012, has announced a new management team led by Hisao Sakuta, appointed to the newly created position of CEO, and Tetsuya Tsurumaru who continues as president, a position he was appointed to last February, while also serving in the new post of COO. At the announcement of the business results, Tsurumaru declined to comment on the company's future business plans, only saying they will be announced after the allocation of new shares worth 150 billion yen to Innovation Network Corp. of Japan (INCJ) and eight major client companies.

"The Abe administration will be desperately pursuing policies to unleash economic growth in the run-up to the Upper House election this summer. The government is already active—for example, beating the drum for Japanese innovation, promoting the advance of Japan's medical equipment industry into the global marketplace, and encouraging Japanese women to participate fully in the world of work. If the upward trend continues, the Nikkei index may well reach the 18,000-yen level and the yen could drop as low as 120 to the dollar!"

Fujitsu Ltd. announced on Tuesday that it will spin off its analog/microcontroller business and then sell it to Spansion, as part of the ongoing restructuring of its semiconductor operations in accordance with policies announced in February. Other initiatives Fujitsu is contemplating include folding the system-on-chip LSI business into a new fabless company to be formed with Panasonic and selling the Mie 300mm fab to a foundry in Japan, with TSMC, the likely buyer, and Fujitsu already discussing a possible deal.

Coinciding with the announcement of its business results on Tuesday, Softbank has refuted Dish Network's assertion that its acquisition proposal to Sprint is more generous than Softbank's. Masayoshi Son, CEO of Softbank, said that that the Japanese company's proposal is more favorable to shareholders and there is no need to review it.

Advantest Corp., which has more than half the worldwide tester market, has announced that it is to acquire w2bi.com, Inc., a US provider of system-level test automation software primarily for wireless communications—a deal that will see the Japanese company advance into the mobile device system-level test equipment market. Meanwhile, Advantest expects its core semiconductor tester business will grow this fiscal year thanks to memory chip vendors' renewed appetite for capital investment.

Though some advanced displays offer 4K resolution, no TV broadcasting supports the high resolution. NHK and Japan's major players in consumer electronics and communications have agreed to join forces to develop technologies for 4K TV broadcasting and will form an organization next month to propel implementation of 4K TV broadcasting, media reported.