Leoni, a German cable and wiring systems manufacturer, will acquire Studer at a price translating to about 105 million euros.

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With sales of about 84 million euros in the 2005 financial year and approximately 350 employees, Studer, founded in 1939 is one of the five largest Swiss cable manufacturers.

Fuel cell component company Bac2 has secured £500,000 investment funding, enabling it to further develop ElectroPhen, an electrically conductive plastic. This investment money is in addition to DTI grant funding of £240,000 awarded to a six member consortium, lead by Bac2, to optimise its ElectroPhen material for use in fuel cell components. The British company is now in the process of exploiting the material commercially with patents pending in Europe, America and Japan.

DesignAdvance Systems, a developer of design automation software for users of EDA and MCAD tools, announced its entrance into the European PCB design market with the appointment of Cadlog as its distribution partner. Cadlog, based in Rome, Italy, supplies design tools and services for PCB and electronics industries in Italy and Southern Europe.
Cadlog will provide PCB designers in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland with DesignAdvance products and technical support.

Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) and Litrex are paving the way for the production of a new generation of high resolution polymer organic light emitting displays (P-Oled) through the development of an inkjet printing solution capable of producing P-Oled displays at up to 200 pixels per inch (ppi). Cambridge Display Technology is a pioneer in the development of light emitting polymers (P-Oled). Litrex develops precision inkjet systems for color displays and electronics. Litrex is based in Pleasanton, CA and was acquired by ULVAC in 2005, after a period of joint ownership between CDT and ULVAC.

Philips Electronics confirmed closure of the deal, as announced on 9 January 2006, to transfer Philips' optical pick-up (OPU) business unit to Arima Devices, an affiliated company of Arima Computer, a Taiwanese group. As a result, Philips holds a 12% share in Arima Devices. The Dutch company also announced that it has completed the merger of Philips Mobile Display Systems with Toppoly Optoelectronics of Taiwan to form a mobile display company. The company is named TPO and it's principal shareholders are Compal Electronics (25.1%) and Philips (17.5%).

Varioptic, the French liquid lens company, has closed the second tranche of its most recent funding round, bringing the total of this round to 17,4 millions euros. Varioptic pioneers in designing and manufacturing electrically controlled optical liquid lenses for optical designers. Founded in 2002, Varioptic is located in Lyon (France) and headed by Etienne Paillard, CEO.

DisplaySearch has updated its 2006 OLED technology report, saying that the worldwide Oled market reached $491 M in 2005, up 8% Y/Y, and unit shipments of 55.8 M, up 72%. For 2010, the display market research firm lowers OLED revenue forecast to $4.6B. Mobile phones applications will represent $3,189.1 M a that time.

VaST Systems Technology announces the opening of its new European headquarters in Grenoble, France. The company is considering locating part of its research and development team there in the future. VaST's virtual prototyping solutions enable the design of embedded systems and system-on-chip (SoC). With VaST solutions, users can analyze and optimize their architecture, and develop software concurrently with hardware.

US Zyvex and French Arkema announced their intention to strengthen their strategic partnership by jointly developing commercial nanomaterials applications. Through a new licensing arrangement, Arkema will use Zyvex’s patented Kentera dispersion technology, in conjunction with its own Multi Wall Carbon Nanotubes (MWNTs). Arkema will also be the exclusive distributor in Europe of Zyvex’s NanoSolve supply range.

Arkema produces and distributes multiwalled nanotubes (MWNTs). Its production capabilities, opened at the beginning of 2006, currently enable Arkema to manufacture 10 tons per year of high-purity MWNTs at its Lacq site (France). With this new facility, Arkema is planning a commercial development to fulfill the expectations of converters in the thermoplastics, epoxy resins, elastomers and coating sectors. Progress is also expected in the field of energy in which the use of carbon nanotubes should help manufacture energy-efficient batteries, super-capacitors and fuel cells. Present in over 40 countries with 18,400 employees, Arkema achieves sales of 5.7 billion euros (2005).

LCD-TVs in three years will displace CRTs as the leading type of television manufactured worldwide, according to iSuppli. The research market company has boosted its 2006 forecast of shipments of LCD panels used in televisions to 46.7 million units, up from its previous prediction of 41.9 million units. LCD-TV panel shipments now are forecasted to rise by 74 percent compared to 2005.

LCD-TV panel shipments in the first quarter increased by 7 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2005, reaching 10.6 million units. LCDs accounted for 17 percent of television shipments in the first quarter, up from 15 percent in the fourth quarter, according to iSuppli. With its rate of adoption accelerating, LCD will become the leading display technology for television by 2009, accounting for 48 percent of factory shipments. The CRT’s share of the market will decline to 42 percent that year, marking the first time ever that CRT is not the leading technology for television display. By 2010, LCD will account for the majority of television shipments for the first time, with 56 percent of unit shipments, iSuppli predicts.

LG.Philips LCD held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new back-end module production plant in Wroclaw, Poland. The new plant is a result of an investment agreement LG.Philips LCD signed with the Polish government and Wroclaw's municipal government in September of last year.

LG.Philips LCD is the first global LCD panel maker to establish a production base in Europe. The Korean firm plans to start mass production at the plant in March of 2007 with an initial capacity of 3 million modules per year. The new plant will reach its design capacity of 11 million units per year by 2011.

According to DisplaySearch, Europe has emerged as the world's largest market for LCD TVs, with a 41% market share in 2005 (based on units), ahead of Japan and North America. DisplaySearch expects the European LCD TV market to record a compound annual growth rate of 29.6% per year from 2005, generating three-fold growth by 2009.

Separately, LG.Philips LCD has decided to reduce its worldwide production to address inventory concerns and better balance its short term supply with demand. The company recognize weaker seasonal demand during the second quarter, which has increased its inventory to about four weeks. The average selling price per square meter of glass at the end of the second quarter of 2006 is anticipated to decline by a mid-teen percentage quarter-end on quarter-end, says LG.Philips LCD.

Strategy Analytics' latest study, "Gallium Nitride Markets: Commercial Markets Drive Power Electronics," concludes that military and high power electronic applications will be the catalysts for the development of a Gallium Nitride (GaN) device market through to 2010. Commercial wireless infrastructure applications will also drive demand in the future and the study forecasts that the total market for GaN microelectronic devices will grow at a CAGR of 151 percent through 2010.

Some 17 chip makers are expected to join the $1 billion club in terms of semiconductor capital spending in 2006, according to market researcher Gartner. In total, capital spending is expected to hit $55.5 billion in 2006, up 17 percent over 2005, according to the firm. Wafer fab equipment is expected to jump 25 percent in 2006.

Market researcher IC Insights has also increased its semiconductor capital spending forecast for 2006. Worldwide capital spending is expected to hit $51.3 billion in 2006, up 12 percent over 2005. However on a quarter-by-quarter basis, capital spending is expected to decelerate. Capital spending is projected to grow 8 percent in Q1 to $11.7 billion, 7 percent in Q2 to $12.5 billion, 6 percent in Q3 to $13.3 billion and 4 percent in Q4 to $13.8 billion.

IC Insights does not change its overall semiconductor forecast, which calls for 8 to 10 percent growth in 2006. And according to Reuters, Gartner projected the IC industry to grow 10.6 percent in 2006 over 2005. Chip sales will grow 14 percent in 2008, before falling to less than 1 percent growth in 2009. Gartner analyst Jim Tully said 35 percent of existing chip makers — about 350 companies — will be driven out of business or acquired by larger rivals.

North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.65 billion in orders in May 2006 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.12 according to SEMI. The three-month average of worldwide bookings in May 2006 was $1.65 billion. The bookings figure is three percent higher than the final April 2006 level of $1.60 billion and over 62 percent higher than the $1.02 billion in orders posted in May 2005. The three-month average of worldwide billings in May 2006 was $1.48 billion. The billings figure is about three percent above the final April 2006 level of $1.44 billion and over 22 percent above the May 2005 billings level of $1.21 billion.

Mosaid Technologies announced the settlement of its patent litigations with Infineon Technologies and that both Infineon and its memory products spin-off, Qimonda, have licensed the Mosaid patent portfolio. Mosaid has also purchased 50 patents from Infineon and Qimonda.

Spansion said it plans to spend $1.2 billion to build a new flash memory production line in Japan. First output is expected by mid-2008.The new line is expected to have the capacity to process up to 20,000 300-mm wafers a month and will be Spansion's first 300-mm line.

Wafer manufacturer Sumco announced that it has reached an agreement with Komatsu to acquire a 51% stake in its silicon wafer subsidiary, Komatsu Electronic Metals for ¥36.9 billion (about $320.4 million U.S.). The acquisition will make Sumco similar in size to top wafer supplier Shin-Etsu Handotai.

Sumco had net sales of ¥1.702 trillion ($15.035 billion U.S.) in fiscal year ended Mar. 31, 2006. Komatsu Electronic Metals (KEM) had net sales of ¥86.6 billion ($765 million) over the same period.

The Bosch Group is investing some 550 million euros in the construction of a new manufacturing facility for 200 mm semiconductors at its site in Reutlingen, near Stuttgart. Construction of the facility is to begin in the autumn of 2007. Rollout of production is planned for mid-2009. The plant will have a total capacity of up to 1,000 silicon wafers per day, equivalent to a daily production volume of up to one million microchips. Bosch has been manufacturing 150-mm semiconductors in Reutlingen for ten years now. In total, some 800 jobs will be created in the new 200-mm semiconductor manufacturing facility by 2012.

Semiconductor and micromachined chips from Reutlingen are used above all in the automobile industry. As components in electronic control units, they form the "central nervous system" of many functions in the vehicle, including electronic safety systems such as ABS, ESP, or airbags, fuel-efficient and clean engines with electronic engine management, or modern driver assistance systems.

The new 200-mm wafer fab in Reutlingen will mainly be geared to the "smart power process." In this technology, integrated circuits combine on one chip highly sensitive signal processing and high-voltage circuits for the control of high-performance actuators.

In the initial stages, these structures will be 0.35 micrometers wide. At a later stage, Bosch plans to halve structure width to 0.18 micrometers.

BridgeCo, a provider of processor and middleware platforms that connect consumer electronics to computers and the Internet over home networks, raised $23M. The financing round was led by Advent Venture Partners and Wellington Partners, who were joined by all of BridgeCo’s Series C investors: Benchmark Capital, Cipio Partners (formerly Infineon Ventures), Earlybird Venture Capital, Fidelity Ventures and Intel Capital. The company also announced the opening of their new global headquarters in Los Angeles. The company’s CEO, COO, CFO and North American sales and marketing team will be based in LA, while the bulk of BridgeCo’s engineering and development team will continue to be located in Zurich, Switzerland.

Raza Microelectronics and AMD have entered into a broad strategic relationship. RMI will acquire the MIPS-based AMD Alchemy processor product line and operations from AMD, and AMD will become an investor in RMI. Raza Microelectronics is a fabless semiconductor company with more than 150 employees. The company offers a portfolio of solutions, led by the XLR(TM) Processor family -- a power-efficient solution optimized for embedded communications and networking applications -- and solutions for the next-generation Information Infrastructure. The company is headquartered in Cupertino, Calif. with subsidiaries in Beijing and Shenzhen, China, Tokyo, Japan and Bangalore, India.