EmergingTech from Japan

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Nikon started shipping an upgraded version of the NSR-S620 in February, raising NA to 1.35 from the 1.30 of the first version of the S620. How many of the double-patterning ArF immersion scanners have been shipped so far and to which countries is undisclosed.

Nichia Corp. plans to expand LED production fourfold to 50 billion units per year when a new fab under construction at its headquarters in Anan, Tokushima Prefecture, comes on stream in spring 2012.

Elpida Memory, Inc. has purchased Spansion Inc.'s R&D facilities in Milan, Italy, together with related intellectual property on flash memory, to reinforce its product portfolio.

Lumiotec Inc., a company based in Yonezawa, Yamagata Prefecture, started offering samples of an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panel for lighting design in the middle of February, prior to the ramp-up of production at its pilot line scheduled for July.

"With the semiconductor industry definitely headed for a V-shaped recovery and equipment investment running at roughly double last year's level, the looming problem is an acute shortage of equipment. And that problem may snowball into a panic sometime around September," said Akira Minamikawa, vice president of iSuppli Japan K.K., one of the most seasoned analysts of the Japanese semiconductor industry.

Renesas Technology Corp. has announced the RX62T, the third product in the RX microcontroller series, which the company has been promoting as next-generation microcontrollers to replace 16-bit and cheaper 32-bit controllers. Renesas offers the R8C series of 8-bit microcontrollers and 32-bit RISC SuperH series for high-performance applications.

Wataru Aso, governor of Fukuoka Prefecture, announced that two semiconductor-related R&D institutes would begin operation next spring in Fukuoka, in his opening remarks at the Silicon Sea Belt Summit in Fukuoka 2010, held Feb. 23-24.

Toshiba Corp. has secured a site for its second SCiB lithium-ion battery plant, which is scheduled to start manufacturing in spring 2011, with a startup capacity of 500,000 cells per month aimed at electronic vehicle applications.

Highlights of Mitsubishi Electric Corp.'s annual R&D results briefing at its headquarters on Tuesday included solar panels with record-high conversion efficiency and a hybrid energy storage system consisting of a lithium-ion capacitor and a lithium-ion battery. Commercialization plans for these developments, however, have not been revealed.

Toshiba Corp.'s accumulated sales for the first three quarters of the fiscal year to March decreased in all segments compared with the same period of the previous term, but profitability greatly improved from an operating loss of 176 billion yen* to an operating profit of 12.9 billion yen, thanks mainly to the reduction of procurement costs and fixed costs.