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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.

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.

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.

Sharp Corp. announced on Wednesday that its triple-junction compound solar cell has achieved 37.9% conversion efficiency, which is the highest ever reported, the company said.

Toshiba Corp. will propel its white LED business forward, including LED chip fabrication, by acquiring GaN-on-silicon technology from Bridgelux Inc., a venture company based in Livermore, California, that specializes in lighting solutions.

The book-to-bill ratio of Japan-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment was 0.96 in March, slipping below 1 after three months above 1, but booking kept growing for the fifth consecutive month, according to the book-to-bill ratio report issued by the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ).

After Dish Network threw its hat in the ring by making an offer to Sprint on Monday, Softbank issued a statement stressing that procedures for its proposed acquisition of Sprint are progressing, having reached the stage of receiving the necessary approvals.

Japan Display Inc., a company founded by combining Hitachi, Sony and Toshiba's display operations, has demonstrated a prototype 5.2-inch OLED display with full HD (1280x1080 pixels) resolution or 423 pixels per inch (ppi) resolution. The display consists of a white OLED panel and an RGBW color filter.

Olympus Corp. and Sony Corp., which had agreed on September 28, 2012, to establish a medical business venture, provisionally named Sony Olympus Medical Solutions, will establish the new company on April 16, having secured all the necessary regulatory approvals. The original plan called for the establishment of the company in December last year, but the protracted approval process in a certain country, reportedly China, caused the partners to miss their second target date of April 1.

Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TEL) announced that Tetsuro Higashi (63), chairman of the board, is concurrently serving as president and CEO as of April 4. Hiroshi Takenaka (52), president and CEO, resigned for health reasons but remains a member of the board of directors.

Tokyo Cathode Laboratory Co., Ltd. (TCL), which focused on the probe card business following one round of restructuring, applied to the court for bankruptcy rehabilitation last month, indebted to the tune of some 3.2 billion yen. The company intends to embark on another round of restructuring and is seeking sponsors from Japan and overseas. TCL was the sixth Japanese listed company to go bankrupt in the fiscal year ended March.

Sharp Corp. announced the expiry of the term during which Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. was to have made payment to Sharp for a third-party allotment of shares of the Japanese company, in accordance with an agreement concluded on March 27 last year.

Toppan Printing Co., Ltd. and Cambridge UK-based Plastic Logic Ltd. have jointly developed a 42-inch flexible, reflective plastic display panel for signage and demonstrated it at Retail Tech Japan 2013 in Tokyo, which is being held this week.

The book-to-bill ratio of Japan-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment was 1.17 in February, a barely detectable 0.01 down from January, according to the book-to-bill ratio report issued by the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ).

Fuji-Keizai Co., Ltd., a Tokyo-based research firm, has forecast that the world rechargeable battery market will be worth 6.4 trillion yen (US$67.4 million*) in 2017, having grown 33% since 2012, and that this growth will be mainly driven by soaring demand for lithium ion batteries whose market is expected to expand 53% to 1.7 trillion yen in the same period.

Panasonic Corp. is preparing to end production of plasma display panels and is considering radically downsizing its TV business, media reported. Panasonic is scheduled to announce its FY2013 business plan next week and the reports likely reflect leaks concerning the plan. Panasonic stated on its website that nothing has been decided.

Sharp Corp. and the Hon Hai group have been negotiating with a view to the Taiwanese group taking a 9.9% equity stake in Sharp, and the deadline is March 26. Amid speculation that the two companies are unlikely to reach an agreement, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. acknowledged publicly that it doesn't expect to conclude an agreement by the deadline, Nikkei reported.

A lackluster global economy prompted WSTS, in its latest forecast issued last November, to predict worldwide shipments of semiconductors in 2012 would be 3.2% lower than in 2011. As might be expected, worldwide sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment last year shared the pain, declining 15% to $36.9 billion, according to the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ) whose conclusions are based on statistics gathered jointly with the Semiconductor Equipment and Material International (SEMI).

Apple Inc. announced on Wednesday that it has started selling Japanese books through iBookstore in Japan, in an initiative involving several large Japanese publishers. Despite the size of the Japanese market, Japan is only the 51st country in which Apple has rolled out the iBookstore service. Since it was only about 3 months ago that Amazon opened a Japanese Kindle store and began offering the Kindle Fire here, the two eBook giants, Apple and Amazon, will collide in the Japanese market.

Sharp Corp. has decided to accept an investment of 10.4 billion yen (US$115 million*) from Samsung Electronics in a deal that will lead to a business alliance, centering on increased supply of LCD panels to the Korean company. Through the investment, which is to be made by March 28, Samsung will become Sharp's fifth largest shareholder, with a 3.4% equity stake, surpassing the 2.56% stake of Qualcomm, the seventh largest shareholder, which last December decided to invest up to 9.9 billion yen. All other significant shareholders are Japanese financial institutions.

With creditors having voted in favor of the reorganization plan, submitted by the trustees of Elpida Memory, Inc. last August, by the February 26 deadline, the Tokyo District Court approved the plan on February 28. Implementation of the plan, which calls for Elpida's restructuring as a subsidiary of Micron Technology, should start within the next four or five weeks.

Renesas Electronics Corp. appointed Tetsuya Tsurumaru as its new president last Friday and he took office immediately following the approval of the resolution by the board of directors.

The book-to-bill ratio of Japan-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment was 1.18 in January, 0.05 lower than for December, but still over 1, according to the book-to-bill ratio report issued by the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ).

Pioneer Corp. has established an OLED production subsidiary specializes in OLED panel production using a wet-coating process, which was jointly developed with Mitsubishi Chemical Corp.

Confirming the substance of much speculation, Fujitsu Ltd. and Panasonic Corp. finally announced they are discussing detailed conditions for a new system-on-chip scheme also involving TSMC, at a press conference where Fujitsu announced its third-quarter business results.

Merger of the system-on-chip LSI operations of three companies—Fujitsu Ltd., Panasonic Corp. and Renesas Electronics Corp.—has long been rumored, but now media are reporting that negotiations between Fujitsu and Panasonic are about to result in the establishment of a new fabless company through the merger of their SoC operations, leaving Renesas out in the cold. The two companies are also said to be in negotiations with the Development Bank of Japan with a view to securing the investment of several tens of billions of yen in the new fabless company.

Renesas Electronics Corp. and J-Devices Corp., an OSAT (Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test) service provider based in Usuki, Oita Prefecture, have reached an agreement whereby J-Devices will acquire three Renesas back-end facilities by June for an undisclosed sum. When Renesas announced a drastic restructuring plan last July, the company stated its intention of selling these plants within the next 12 months. J-Devices will also take over the plants' workforces, amounting to about 880 employees.

Funai Electric Co., Ltd. has agreed with Philips Electronics to acquire the Dutch company's remaining consumer electronics businesses, which include audio, video and certain other products, for about 18 billion yen (US$200 million*). Funai will enrich its product portfolio and aims to expand sales of these Philips-brand consumer items in emerging markets as well as in North America. The transaction is scheduled to be completed by March 2014.

The book-to-bill ratio of Japan-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment jumped to 1.23 in December, surpassing 1 for the first time in 11 months, according to the book-to-bill ratio report issued by the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ).

Responding to the cost-cutting demands of Innovative Network Corp. of Japan (INCJ), which will acquire Renesas Electronics Corp. by the end of September, the chipmaker will terminate 3,000 or so employees, nearly 10% of its current 35,000-strong workforce. This follows the company's elimination of about 7,500 jobs last October.

Sharp Corp., which is struggling with financial problems, is negotiating an alliance with Lenovo Group for the LCD TV business in China, starting with the sale of a TV assembly plant in Nanjing to the Chinese multinational, media reported. Sharp stated that the reports are not based on any announcement it has made and that nothing has been decided.

Sales by Japanese semiconductor equipment manufacturers for fiscal 2012 ending March will drop sharply and the low level will continue through fiscal 2013, while sales in Japan for fiscal 2012 are expected to plummet to little more than half the figure for fiscal 2011 and will recover 27.8% in fiscal 2013, according to the latest forecast by the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ).

Making use of the venue of the Consumer Electronics Show being held in Las Vegas, Panasonic Corp. announced the development of a 56-inch 4K (3,840 x 2,160 pixels) OLED panel following Sony. All RGB pixels of the OLED panel were fabricated by a printing method.

While Samsung and LG battle to take the lead in commercializing OLED TVs, Sony Corp. broke its silence by announcing development of the world's first 56-inch 4K (3840 x 2160) OLED (organic light-emitting diode) TV, and is demonstrating it at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, which runs from today till January 11.

Sony Corp., which was the first company to commercialize lithium-ion batteries back in 1991, is negotiating the sale of its battery business to Innovation Network Corp. of Japan (INCJ), a 90% government-owned fund, media reported.

Nikon Corp. and A*STAR Institute of Microelectronics (IME), a semiconductor research institute in Singapore, have agreed to collaborate on R&D of advanced lithography technology, with a particular focus on ArF dry and immersion lithography. Aiming to extend the applicability of ArF lithography to several technology nodes, the joint research will concentrate on such technologies as multiple patterning and direct self-assembly.

The book-to-bill ratio of Japan-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment increased to 0.89 in November from 0.70 for the previous month, with booking also edging up in November, according to the book-to-bill ratio report issued by the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ).

The Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) has forecast that global production of electronic equipment in 2013 will reach 158.1 trillion yen (US$1.98 trillion*), a 4% increase over 2012, led by brisk demand for smartphones and tablets. According to JEITA, Japanese manufacturers' total production in 2013, including production overseas, will amount to 32.9 trillion yen, up 2% from the previous year—the first growth in three years.

Panasonic Corp. has started operation of a PV fab in Malaysia that has integrated production facilities for manufacturing HIT solar panel modules from wafers, cells to modules. The new fab's production capacity of 300 MW per year raises Panasonic's total production capacity by 50% to 900MW.

Renesas Electronics Corp., as long rumored, will receive a capital injection of 150 billion yen (US$1.88 billion*) through the allocation of new shares to third parties, mainly to the Innovation Network Corp. of Japan but also to Toyota Motor, Nissan Motor, Honda affiliate Keihin Corp. Denso, Canon, Nikon, Panasonic and Yasukawa Electric. Renesas and INCJ will announce the details this evening.

Sharp Corp. and Qualcomm Inc. have reached agreement under which the two companies will jointly develop a MEMS display that features low power and clear color picture by fusing Sharp's IGZO technology with the MEMS technology of Pixtronix, a subsidiary of Qualcomm. Qualcomm will invest up to US$120 million in Sharp, which the Japanese company will immediately for the development of the new display at its Yonago plant in Tottori Prefecture.

Sony Corp., which in 1991 became the first company in the world to commercialize lithium-ion batteries, is considering selling its battery business, the Nikkei business daily reported on Wednesday and other media followed.

"Tough conditions for the world's PV industry seem certain to continue through 2013, fueling speculation that Chinese PV manufacturers, having already captured about half the global market, are facing a crisis. But with the Chinese government backing the country's PV contenders to the hilt, China is clearly determined to fight the battle for world domination until final victory is achieved," Noriyoshi Kuromasa, Shanghai bureau chief of The Semiconductor Industry News, told a Japanese audience.

JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp. (NOE), Japan's leading downstream oil company, will withdraw from the production of crystalline silicon wafers for solar panels by the end of this year, a decision prompted by the global glut of production capacity. The company said there was no end in sight to the great imbalance of supply and demand.

The IEEE Asian Solid-State Circuits Conference (A-SSCC 2012) will be held in Kobe from November 12 to 14, featuring papers submitted under the theme of "Integrated Circuits toward Smarter Society."

Tokyo Electron Ltd. announced that its subsidiary Tokyo Electron Europe Ltd. has reached an agreement to acquire Magnetic Solutions Ltd. (MSL), based in Dublin, Ireland, for 17.6 million euros by the end of this year.

The Tokyo District Court has selected Elpida's proposed restructuring plan, and rejected another plan proposed by the company's bondholders, Elpida Memory, Inc., which has been under the protection of the Corporate Rehabilitation Law, announced Wednesday.

Seiko Epson Corp. and Merck KGaA will collaborate to develop and promote a printing method for the production of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays, which are currently manufactured using vapor depostion technology. Under the agreement, the Japanese company will supply the German chemical major with ink technology optimized for Epson's Micro Piezo inkjet printing. Merck will dissolve its OLED materials into ink for manufacturing large-screen OLED displays by the inkjet printing method.

The book-to-bill ratio of Japan-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment was 0.65 in September, continuing its downward trend since peaking in June, according to the book-to-bill ratio report issued by the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ). Now that the European economy has slowed to a snail's pace and even China is losing momentum, the pressure on equipment manufacturers is mounting as chipmakers curb investment.

The Innovation Network Corp. of Japan, a 90%-government-owned fund, together with a dozen companies will invest a total of 200 billion yen (US$2.5 billion yen) in Renesas Electronics Corp., the financially troubled chipmaker that is heading for a 150-billion-yen loss this fiscal year, to check US private equity firm KKR & Co. L.P., which apparently has been eyeing Renesas as an acquisition target, the Nikkei business daily reported on Saturday and other media followed. Renesas has not confirmed the report, but if the scheme materializes, the restructuring of Japan's semiconductor industry will enter a new phase.

Softbank Corp., a major mobile carrier in Japan, is negotiating to acquire Sprint Nextel, the third-largest U.S. carrier, for over 1 trillion yen (US$12.5 million*) in a dramatic move to expand its business overseas, media reported.

Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TEL) announced last week that it would be participating in imec's Human++ bioresearch program—following its announcement last month of joint research with a Kobe-based biomedical institute—as it looks to the life sciences for business opportunities.

Advantest Corp. established a wholly owned subsidiary, Cloud Testing Service, Inc., on October 1 in Tokyo, which is already offering semiconductor test solutions to address the needs of customers in the design and R&D sectors that utilize IT, and particularly those embracing cloud computing technology. Having opened for business in Japan, the company plans to roll out its service in international markets.

NTT Docomo, Inc. and KT Corp., respectively the leading telecom operators in Japan and South Korea, have agreed to develop a cross-border e-money service between Japan and Korea as the first fruit of joint development of near field communication (NFC)-based services.

Proving media speculation to be well founded, Renesas has raised 49.5 billion yen (US$619 million*) from its three major shareholders—Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric and NEC—and 47.5 billion yen from its four main banks. The loans totaling 97 billion yen will be executed on October 1 and are earmarked mainly for restructuring.

Sharp Corp. has presented a restructuring plan to its main banks that includes the elimination of over 10,000 jobs and the disposal of overseas TV assembly plants and Recurrent Energy, a solar panel subsidiary, media reported.

The book-to-bill ratio of Japan-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment was 0.74 in August, edging down 0.15 points from the previous month, having dropped for two successive months since peaking in June, according to the book-to-bill ratio report issued by the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ).

The iPhone 5 announced on Wednesday features Long Term Evolution (LTE) communications as expected. Softbank Corp. and KDDI Corp. are offering the iPhone in Japan, but have yet to start LTE services. Prompted by Apple's product announcement, they plan to launch LTE services coinciding with the roll out of the iPhone 5 in Japan on Sept. 21. Once they do so, all major mobile phone carriers in Japan will have started offering the high-speed communications services.

Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) and the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ) jointly announced that semiconductor equipment sales worldwide in the second quarter of 2012 amounted to $10.34 billion, a 4% decrease from the previous quarter, and 14% lower than for the same period of last year. Booking was $9.7 billion, also on a downword trend, having decreased 4% from the previous quarter and been 10% lower than the same preiod of last year.

Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TEL) will construct an R&D center, including a 1900m² cleanroom, at Tohoku University at a cost of 2.2 billion yen (US$27.5 million*) and donate it to the University to accelerate Spin Transfer Torque Magnetic RAM (SST-MRAM) memory development. The facility is scheduled to be completed next spring.

Toshiba Corp. and Alstom Grid, a French provider of electricity grid management solutions, have signed a memorandum of understanding under which they will pursue a partnership in the smart grid business.

Showa Denko K.K. (SDK) has expanded its 4-inch silicon carbide (SiC) epitaxial wafer production capacity 2.5 times, to 1,500 wafers a month, to meet increasing wafer demand for SiC Schottky diodes and emerging MOSFET devices.

Contrary to expectations, Sharp Corp. and the Hon Hai group have yet to finalize a deal on the Taiwanese group's capital participation and Terry Gou, CEO of Hon Hai Precision Industry, the key company of Hon Hai group, suddenly left Japan yesterday.

KKR & Co. L.P., a private equity firm, has proposal a deal that would give it control of Renesas Electronics Corp., the struggling chipmaker in the midst of restructuring, the Nikkei business daily reported this morning and other media followed.

Sharp Corp. and Terry Gou, CEO of Hon Hai Precision Industry, the key company of Hon Hai group, will get together to review the conditions of the Hon Hai group's capital participation agreed last March, which called for the Taiwanese company to acquire Sharp's newly issued shares at 550 yen (US$6.85*) per share to become the owner of 9.9% of Sharp.

Elpida Memory, Inc., which filed for protection under the bankruptcy law last February, submitted a restructuring plan on August 21, the due date, to the Tokyo District Court. The plan calls for Micron Technology to acquire Elpida as a wholly owned subsidiary next spring, but the agreement of most creditors is a precondition for the plan to be approved by the court. Some creditors have already expressed their opposition to the plan, claiming Micron will pay far less than Elpida is worth, and filed an alternative restructuring plan with the court, which may delay the start of Elpida's restructuring.

The book-to-bill ratio of Japan-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment was 0.89 in July, edged down 0.06 points from the previous month, turning to a decrease after four month acsending according to the book-to-bill ratio report issued by the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ).

Financially distressed Sharp Corp. is reportedly considering broadening the scope of its restructuring plan announced on August 2 to include the disposal of non-core businesses through the sale of operations such as office equipment, air conditioners and devices, and may even seek a partner to jointly operate its Kameyama fab, the base for IGZO LCD panel production, reported business daily Nikkei.

Elpida Memory, Inc., having selected Micron Technology, Inc. as its sponsor, is due to submit a reorganization plan based on that decision to the Tokyo District Court by Aug. 21. Opposing the process, a group of creditors, comprising overseas funds that are Elpida's corporate bondholders, has submitted an alternative reorganization plan to the court, proposing the restructuring of the bankrupt DRAM maker without Micron, media reported. Since the group reportedly values Elpida at more than 300 billion yen (US$3.8 billion*), it views the 200 billion yen that Micron would pay as inadequate. Contending that the process of sponsor selection lacked transparency, the group intends to select a sponsor in a transparent manner, according to the reports.

Tokyo Electron Ltd. will acquire FSI International, Inc. of Chaska, Minnesota, to reinforce its position in the cleaning equipment market, where TEL is second to leader Dai-Nippon Screen. The two companies announced on Monday that they have agreed on TEL's acquisition of the US firm for about $252.5 million. TEL expects to complete the transaction by the end of this year.

Intel Corp. will invest several tens of billions of yen (several million dollars) in Nikon Corp. for the development of 450mm lithography systems, the Nikkei business daily reported today and some other media picked up the story. Intel's move comes hard on the heels of its recent decision to participate in ASML's R&D project after the Dutch company invited potential customers to participate in its 450mm and EUVL lithography technology development.

Fujitsu Ltd. is negotiating with TSMC with a view to selling its main 300mm fab, which is in Mie Prefecture, as it prepares to shift its semiconductor business to a fabless model and establish an integrated system-on-chip fabless company together with Renesas and Panasonic, Nikkei, a business daily, reported this morning, followed by other media.

Toshiba Corp. announced it has cut production of NAND flash memory chips at its Yokkaichi fabs in Mie Prefecture by about 30% to squeeze NAND memory chip inventory in the market.

The book-to-bill ratio of Japan-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment was 0.95 in June, having edged up 0.04 points from the previous month, according to the book-to-bill ratio report issued by the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ).

Sharp Corp. has received 66 billion yen (US$825 million*) from SIO International Holdings Ltd., an investment firm based in the Cayman Islands, and transferred 1,320,000 shares of its subsidiary Sakai Display Products (SDP) to the company. Under the original agreement concluded in March, Terry Gou, CEO of Hon Hai Precision Industry, was to have personally taken a stake in the 10th generation fab to become an equal partner of Sharp, but upon Gou's request, Gou's investment company has acquired the equity stake in SDP. Now that the payment for the shares has been completed, SDP has become a 50:50 joint venture.

Sales by Japanese semiconductor equipment manufacturers will edge up and continue to grow through 2014, but Japan's semiconductor equipment market will drop 19% this fiscal year, according to the latest forecast by the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ). The association announces its three-year forecast of Japanese semiconductor equipment vendors' sales and Japan's equipment market every six months.

Renesas Electronics Corp., which reported consecutive loss last fiscal year, announced its restructuring plan, which aims at focusing on microcontroller business and calls for reduction of its fabs straggling nationwide from current 18 to 10, and eventually to 8. The Tsuruoka fab with a 300mm wafer line is also included in the to-be-slashed fabs. The fab is repeatedly reported that Renesas is negotiating with TSMC on sale.

Micron Technology, Inc. and Elpida Memory, Inc. announced yesterday that they have signed a definitive sponsor agreement paving the way for Micron to acquire and support Elpida. Micron will acquire 100 percent of the equity of Elpida for 60 billion yen (US $750 million*) and pay a total of 140 billion yen for foundry services provided by Elpida through 2019.

Elpida Memory, Inc. and Micron Technology Inc. have reached agreement on Micron's acquisition of Elpida, Nikkei, a business daily reported today. Ever since Elpida granted preferential negotiating rights to the US chipmaker on May 10, the two companies have been negotiating the terms and conditions of the acquisition. Nikkei reported that Micron will acquire Japan's sole DRAM maker for 200 billion yen (US$2.5 billion*) and will shoulder some 30% of Elpida's debts of 420 billion yen. Together with new investment of about 100 billion yen in production facilities, Micron will pay a total of 300 billion yen for Elpida, according to the report.

Panasonic Corp. and Sony Corp. have signed an agreement on the joint development of next-generation OLED (organic light-emitting diode) panels and modules for TVs and large displays. They aim to establish mass-production technology based on a printing method within 2013.

The book-to-bill ratio of Japan-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment was 0.91 in May, having edged up 0.03 points from the previous month, according to the book-to-bill ratio report issued by the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ).

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) proposed establishing an open standard for smart TV, which would not correspond to any particular operating system or device and would provide an open environment for application developers, at the Symposium on Web and TV 2012 held last week in Tokyo organized by the IPTV Forum and co-sponsored by MIC.

Renesas Electronics Corp. has asked Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric and NEC—the three companies that folded their semiconductor businesses into Renesas and remain its biggest shareholders—to help finance its restructuring, but they are reluctant to inject more money into the lossmaking chipmaker, and instead will agree to provide loan guarantees for a new bank loan amounting to 50 billion yen (US$62.5 million*), media reported.

Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) and the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ) jointly announced that semiconductor equipment sales worldwide in the first quarter of 2012 amounted to $10.61 billion, a 14% increase from the previous quarter, but 9% lower than for the same period of last year.

Sharp Corp. has announced it is enhancing collaboration with the Hon Hai group in digital consumer products starting with smartphones and in large LCD panels jointly produced at the Sakai 10th generation fab. The Hon Hai group is expediting the schedule for receiving the first shipments of panels from October, as originally planned, to July.

In the midst of all the speculation whirling around Renesas Electronics Corp., Renesas and TSMC today announced that they have signed an agreement to collaborate on 40nm embedded flash (eFlash) process technology for manufacturing microcontrollers and hinted their collaboration will be extended to 28nm and beyond. Renesas and TSMC intend to offer the fruits of the collaboration to their respective customers.

When Kenichiro Yamanishi, president of Mitsubishi Electric Corp., said on Monday that if Renesas makes a request, Mitsubishi will consider offering financial support together with Hitachi and NEC—the other two companies who folded chip businesses into Renesas and are major shareholders in the company—he triggered a flurry of speculation about Renesas Electronics Corp., which reported a net loss of 62.6 billion yen* for the fiscal year to March 2012.

The book-to-bill ratio of Japan-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment was 0.88 in April, up 0.1 points, according to the book-to-bill ratio report by the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ).

Bridgestone Corp. has decided to withdraw from the ePaper business in the face of intensifying competition from LCD panels whose prices are rapidly declining, and will terminate production by the end of October.

Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd. and Showa Denko K.K. have agreed to establish an LED JV, provisionally named TS Opto Co. Ltd., by the end of this year. The deal will increase Toyoda Gosei's production capacity about 20%.

Elpida Memory, Inc. and Micron Technology, Inc. each announced today that Micron has been selected as a potential sponsor for Elpida's restructuring and will acquire Elpida's business. With the Tokyo District Court having given its approval today, Micron and the Elpida trustees have entered into negotiations for the purpose of forwarding this scheme.

Upon Western Digital Corp.'s completion of the acquisition of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies from Hitachi, Ltd. on March 8, the HDD manufacturer became a wholly owned subsidiary of WD and will change its name to HGST Inc. by the end of this month, intending to exploit the HGST brand. The new company's Japanese subsidiary, whose registration was completed prior to that of the parent company, became HGST Japan Ltd. today. Consequently, WD will have two brands, WD and HGST.

The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and 16 companies last Friday founded Tsukuba Power-Electronics Constellations (TPEC), an R&D organization focusing on SiC-based power electronics devices.

The final bid for Elpida Memory, Inc. is expected to take place this week, a week or so later than the originally scheduled date of April 27. It seems certain that the line-up of bidders will have undergone considerable change since the first round of bidding.

Japan-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment saw their book-to-bill ratio drop sharply to 0.78 in March, according to the book-to-bill ratio report by the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ).

Sony Corp. and Taiwan-based AU Optronics Corp. are negotiating with a view to forming an alliance for joint development and production of OLED TVs, media reported. The negotiations may extend to the establishment of a joint fab, according to Yomiuri Online. Sony stated that it has made no announcement and declined to comment.

NTT Docomo, Inc. announced last week that it has given up its plan to establish a JV with Fujitsu Ltd., Fujitsu Semiconductor Ltd., NEC Corp., Panasonic Mobile Communications Co., Ltd. and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. to design chips for mobile phones and other mobile communication devices. The six companies concluded a basic agreement last December.

Toshiba Corp., whose solo bid for Elpida didn't come out on top in the first round, is negotiating with Hynix with a view to jointly bidding for DRAM manufacturer Elpida in the final round, Nikkei reported yesterday, with other media subsequently picked up the story.

Micron Technology, SK Hynix, and Toshiba submitted bids for Elpida Memory, Inc. last week, media reported.

Japanese semiconductor vendors mostly lost ground in the worldwide revenue ranking of the top-25 semiconductor suppliers in 2011 announced by IHS iSuppli.

Renesas Electronics Corp. will transfer Renesas Northern Japan Semiconductor, its wholly owned subsidiary for automotive microcontrollers, to Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. as part of efforts to streamline its production facilities. Fuji Electric will remodel the plant for power device production. The transfer will be completed on July 1.

Sharp Corp. announced Tuesday it has entered into an agreement with Hon Hai Group led by Hon Hai Precision (trade name: Foxconn) to establish a strategic global business partnership and to issue new shares to Hon Hai Group through third-party allotment, making the Taiwanese group its leading shareholder. The agreement includes the supply of 50% of the output from the 10th generation Sakai LCD fab to Hon Hai Precision, which should enable Sharp to run the fab at full capacity.

Elpida Memory, Inc. announced last Friday that the Tokyo District Court had ordered it to start corporate reorganization proceedings and appointed Yukio Sakamoto, president and CEO, as trustee together with Nobuaki Kobayashi, attorney-at-law. That is, the court adopted a debtor-in-possession rehabilitation that allows the firm's present directors to retain control of the firm, as Elpida requested at the filing of its petition on February 27.

Since Elpida Memory, Inc. filed for protection under the bankruptcy law on Feb. 27, reports and rumors about the company's restructuring have been buzzing around. According to the latest report, the first round of bidding will take place this month and the second round in April, with a view to selecting a company that will take the lead in drawing up a restructuring plan for Elpida by July, according to the Nikkei business daily. Micron Technology intends to offer US$1.5 billion to take over the DRAM manufacturer, according to Digitimes.

Japan-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment saw their book-to-bill ratio drop below 1.0 in February, after two consecutive months above 1.0, according to the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ).

Tokyo Electron Ltd. has announced it is acquiring NEXX Systems Inc. of Billerica, MA, for US$260 million in a move that will expand the scope of the Japanese company's business to include wafer-level packaging systems. The acquisition is scheduled to be completed next month.

Sharp Corp. announced that Takashi Okuda (58), executive managing officer, who is in charge of global business, will be promoted to president on April 1 and Mikio Katayama (54), the current president, will become chairman.

Hitachi, Ltd. has announced that the sale of its HDD business to Western Digital was completed on March 8. Hitachi finally sold the business for $3.9 billion in cash and 25 million shares in Western Digital, valued at about $0.9 billion and accounting for 10% of WD's equity.

Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TEL) has reached an agreement with OC Oerlikon Corporation AG of Switzerland on the transfer of Oerlikon Solar, OC Oerlikon's wholly owned subsidiary that is a major supplier of turnkey solutions for thin-film silicon solar panel production. The acquisition is expected to be completed around the middle of this year after TEL clears the regulatory hurdles and secures the necessary approvals. It is estimated that TEL will pay around 22.5 billion yen (US$281 million*) to acquire the company.

SUMCO Corp., the second largest silicon wafer supplier in the world, will receive a total of 45 billion yen (US$5.6 billion*) in financial support from its parent companies and from a turnaround fund to help it implement a restructuring plan announced on February 2, media reported on Wednesday morning.

Toshiba Corp. and Western Digital Corp. have reached agreement to swap HDD production facilities so that Western Digital can satisfy conditions imposed by antitrust authorities prior to its absorption of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies.

Denso Corp. and Intel corp. have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for a joint R&D project focusing on the development of a next-generation in-vehicle information and communication system platform.

Panasonic Corp. has announced changes to its top management. Kazuhiro Tsuga, 55 years old, will succeed Fumio Ohtsubo, 66 years old, as president. Ohtsubo will become chairman of the board.

Elpida Memory, Inc. today applied to the Tokyo District Court for protection from creditors under the Corporate Rehabilitation Law. Its total indebtedness is 448 billion yen. Elpida will continue to operate under the current management as the debtor in possession (DIP).

Hitachi, Ltd. announced it has allied with California-based Silver Spring Networks for smart grid technology—investing US$30 million in the company—attracted by its prowess in smart meters.

A 3D tsunami simulation project will run on the K computer, which achieved a performance exceeding 10 petaflops and took the No. 1 position for the second time running in the Top500 List of the world’s most powerful supercomputers.

The International Solid State Circuit Conference (ISSCC) 2012 in San Francisco starting today includes 202 papers. Presenting 30 papers, Korea took the second position following the US's 68 papers. Japan is in third place, making it the first time Japan has not accounted for more papers at ISSCC than any other Asian country.

In the face of mounting losses, Panasonic Corp. has radically revised the forecast of its business results for this fiscal year ending in March—from a 420 billion yen loss forecast last October to 780 billion yen (US$10 billion*)—owing to the triple whammy of yen appreciation, the European financial crisis and the Thai floods. Payment for Sanyo's goodwill is an additional burden.

Sony Corp. announced that Kazuo Hirai, executive vice president, will be promoted to CEO and president on April 1 and Howard Stringer, currently CEO and president, will be chairman after the shareholders' meeting in June.

Elpida Memory, Inc. is negotiating with its main banks to secure further financial support and gave them a progress report on Wednesday about negotiations with Micron Technology on integration of DRAM operations, several media reported.

Sony Corp. has proposed a capital and business alliance with Olympus Optical Co., Ltd., media reported. Olympus has been in crisis since improper bookkeeping to hide losses and the restatement of several years' results came to light, triggering a dramatic decline of the company's net worth

Global Foundries is negotiating the purchase of 300mm fabs from Renesas and Toshiba, Nikkan Kogyo, a business daily, reported today. Both companies' share prices rose in trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange today, indicating investors like the idea.

Asahi Kasei Corp. acquired Crystal IS, Inc. (CIS), a US-based venture, specializing in ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (UV LEDs) on aluminum nitride substrates, on December 28, 2011.

Rohm Co. Ltd. has completed the development of GaN based power devices and will offer them as engineering samples by March and intends to offer product samples next year, Nikkan Kogyo, a buisiness daily reported.

Three major mobile phone operators in Japan—NTT Docomo, Inc, KDDI Corp. and Softbank Mobile Corp.—have established the Japan Mobile NFC Consortium to expand electronic wallet services from the Felica-based system to include near field communication (NFC) technologies.

On January 1, Panasonic Corp. launched a new organization comprising three business fields—consumer, solutions, and components and devices—completing the integration of Panasonic Electric Works and Sanyo Electric.

Five flash memory vendors—Panasonic Corp., Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., SanDisk Corp., Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp—have agreed to jointly promote a content protection scheme designed mainly for HD content. Under the scheme, HD content can be downloaded and stored securely in flash memory and in consumer devices such as tablets and smartphones.

Sony Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced they have agreed to dissolve their LCD panel manufacturing JV, S-LCD, and that Samsung will acquire Sony's entire equity stake in S-LCD for 1.08 trillion won.. The two companies aim to complete the transaction within January.

Elpida Memory, Inc. will start negotiations on a DRAM tie-up with Nanya Technology of Taiwan, the world's fifth-largest DRAM supplier, next January, Nikkei, a business paper reported

Japan-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment saw their book-to-bill ratio rise for the second consecutive month in November, to 0.97, after hitting bottom at 0.75 in September, according to the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ). Though the figure is approaching 1, investment by chipmakers lacks vigor.

Panasonic Mobile Communications will start marketing smartphones in Europe in March, and then expand the scope of the business to include Southeast Asia, China and North America, targeting overseas sales of 9 million units by March 2016. The first model for the European market will be equipped with a 4.3-inch OLED display.

On Semiconducor has decided to close an analog IC fab in Thailand that it acquired from Sanyo last January, business daily Nikkei Shimbun reported. The fab is at the flooded Rojana Industrial Park in Ayutthaya and has been out of operation since October. The company decided it would take too much time and money to restore the facility and will shift production to other fabs.

Panasonic Corp. has decided to install an OLED pilot line at the Himeji fab, its LCD fab using 8.5th generation substrates. With an eye to future production of OLED TVs, Panasonic is preparing the necessary technological foundation, Nikkan Kogyo, a business paper reported.

Hitachi, Ltd. announced last week a change in the schedule for transfer of its hard disk drive business to Western Digital Corp. The European Community gave conditioned approval to Western Digital's contemplated acquisition of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST) last November—the condition being that Western Digital divest the 3.5-inch HDD business. As Seagate had already received approval for the acquisition of Samsung's HDD business, Western Digital's acquisition will leave only three HDD players in the world: Western Digital and Seagate, which are the two giants, and Toshiba with its much smaller HDD operation. Western Digital expects to complete the deal by next March, but before the completion of the transaction, the company has to find a purchaser of the 3.5-inch business that is acceptable to the European Commission.

Both billing and booking of Japan-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment in March increased from February but as billing surpassed booking, the book-to-bill ratio ended up at 0.95, according to the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ).

Riken and Fujitsu have taken the No. 1 position with the "K computer" in the 38th TOP500 list announced on November 14 in the United States, retaining the top position achieved in the previous 37th TOP500 list announced in June.

As one element in the restructuring of its TV business, Sony Corp. is negotiating with Samsung on the dissolution of S-LCD, an LCD JV established in Korea in 2004, business daily Nikkei Shimbun reported.