Tokyo Electron Ltd., having reported 46% year-on-year sales growth for the first quarter and a more than sixfold increase in operating profit, has revised its forecast for the first half of this fiscal year, raising the figure for sales 12 billion yen (US$120 million*) to 290 billion yen and that for operating profit 6.5 billion yen to 24.5 billion yen.

Japanese chipmakers have been manufacturing some products for more than two decades. This prompted an executive of Massachusetts-based aftermarket manufacturer Rochester Electronics to comment that the Japanese semiconductor industry seems to have no policies on discontinuing production of obsolete devices. Though his comment contains more than a grain of truth, Japan's chipmakers are reviewing their business practices and have started winnowing their product portfolios.

Waseda University and Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. have developed a handy Compton camera whose high sensitivity enables it to locate gamma radiation within a few seconds.

Applied Materials, Inc. and Tokyo Electron Ltd., now carrying out the procedures to complete their merger, have announced the name and logo of the holding company that is to be based in the Netherlands following the merger. It will be called Eteris, which is derived from "eternal innovation for society," a concept that is said to express the new company's spirit.

Fujitsu Ltd. is negotiating with United Microelectronics Corp. with a view to selling its 300mm wafer fab in Mie Prefecture to the Taiwanese company, and with Phoenix, Arizona-based, On Semiconductor on the proposed sale of its Aizu fab in Fukushima Prefecture, media reported. The contemplated disposals would signal virtually a complete withdrawal by Fujitsu from semiconductor fabrication.

Displays have always been squeezed into a rectangular straitjacket. Even if a display has rounded corners or is curved, the basic form is rectangular. Now, here comes Sharp Corp. with its revolutionary Free-Form Display to set displays free. The FFD allows great freedom in the design of display shape. Sharp developed the panel by implementing gate drivers within pixel areas, not at the edges as in conventional panels. Sharp calls it in-pixel gate driver monolithic (IPGDM) technology.

Applied Materials, Inc. and Tokyo Electron Ltd., now carrying out the procedures to complete their merger, have announced the name and logo of the holding company that is to be based in the Netherlands following the merger. It will be called Eteris, which is derived from "eternal innovation for society," a concept that is said to express the new company's spirit.

Gigaphoton Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Komatsu Ltd., has developed a prototype laser-produced plasma (LPP) light source unit that achieved 92W extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light source output at 4.2% conversion efficiency—more than doubling the company's previous result of 43W.

"What happened? I've never seen such a rush of orders. As semiconductor investment has been in low gear, we can't replenish production facilities and manpower immediately. We are naturally delighted about the tremendous amount of orders, but the deadlines keep us awake at night," said a gleeful executive of a Japanese manufacturer of wafer fab equipment.