Samsung to Roll Out Liquid Lens-equipped Camera Module in 2004
Philips to Commercialize Liquid Lens in Two Years
Casio and Amkor Tie up in Wafer Level Packaging
Kyocera Develops Bluetooth Module for CDMA Cellular Phones
Sharp to Boost Small to Medium-Size LCD Module Production in China
Microsoft Picks TSMC for Xbox Chip Production
Seagate to Produce Small Size HDD
TMD Prototypes LCD Panel Using 0.2mm Glass Substrate

Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Ltd. is going to ship a camera module incorporating a "Liquid Lens" for cellular phone application before the end of 2004, unveiled at the recent CeBIT. The South Korean company is co-developing the device with four major cellular phone manufacturers. The module will be adopted for a one mega-pixel camera, NE Online reported on March 21, 2004.

The liquid lens uses liquid instead of plastic or glass. When voltage is applied, the liquid deforms to change the focus. The lens currently in development will support auto focus. It is possible to have a zoom feature in the future. According to Samsung’s spokesperson, "Use of liquid lens can make camera module thin and power consumption can be very low as lens does not have to be moved physically." Samsung has developed the device after licensing the basic technology called electrowetting from Varioptic of France.

According to the roadmap, Samsung plans to introduce a 2 million-pixel camera module in 2004 and 3 million-pixel camera module in 2005 based on the technology.

A press release of Varioptic is located at: http://www.varioptic.com/V2/documents/Semco_040318.pdf [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands is developing liquid lens and plans to commercialize it within two years. It will be targeted to camera-equipped cellular phones. The company showcased a prototype at the recent CeBIT. Philips plans to adopt a two million- pixel camera with an optical zoom function the next time it showcases the device. Manufacturing cost of the liquid lens is expected to be less than that of an existing auto focus lens.

The exhibited camera module prototype has a pixel pitch of 5.5 micron and contains a VGA class CMOS sensor. The F value is 2.2. The lens diameter and height are both 5.5 mm. The focus range is 2 cm to infinity. The focus switching time is equal to or less than 10m second. Its optical property does not deteriorate with repeated focus switching, Philips confirmed.

Philips’ liquid lens consists of a conductive fluid and insulating silicone oil which are encapsulated in a cylindrical case. By placing a hydrophobic coating inside the case but not on the bottom surface, the fluid will gather towards the center of the case and form a dome shape. As a result, a convex-curved interface of conducting fluid and silicone oil will be formed. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

Casio, Casio Micronics and Amkor Technology agreed to collaborate in wafer level packaging operations, according to a recent press release. The collaboration brings together Amkor’s package manufacturing capability and sales channel and Casio’s wafer level packaging expertise using copper redistribution and manufacturing process compatible with 300mm wafer process.

With this agreement, Casio will support Amkor with wafer level packaging technology. Casio Micronics and Amkor will collaborate to expand their wafer level packaging operations. Casio Micronics will be in charge of the wafer level packaging process and Amkor will be in charge after testing and dicing. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

Kyocera of Japan has developed a Bluetooth RF Module for CDMA cellular phones, Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun reported on March 22, 2004. The RB06 Bluetooth module can add Bluetooth functionality to CDMA cellular phones. The unit measures 5 mm x 4 mm x 1.4 mm, with an assembly area about 30 percent smaller than Kyocera’s existing Bluetooth module. Its sample price is 500 yen ($4.54 @ yen 110/$US 1). Kyocera will start mass production April 2004 at its Kokubu Plant in Kagoshima Prefecture producing 500,000 units a month.

Kyocera achieved the small dimension by focusing on modularity by optimized combination with Qualcomm’s Bluetooth base band core. While maintaining the performance, the company successfully reduced the number of components, leading to a drastic size reduction. Reception and power consumption were also improved substantially. See Kyocera’s English language press release at: http://global.kyocera.com/news/2004/0304.html [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

Sharp is going to expand its output of small to medium-size LCD modules in Wuxi city in China. The company will begin construction in March with completion in September 2004. Its monthly output will be tripled to 7 million modules a month.

Sharp is going to add another manufacturing building to Wuxi Sharp Electronic Components Co., Ltd. (WSEC). The Japanese LCD manufacturer will set up a Technology Center building on the same lot and will handle the entire manufacturing process of design, development, and production.

The total floor area of the second building will be 25,000m2. The investment amount is 5.3 billion yen ($48.18 million @ yen 110/$US 1), which includes construction of the Technology Center.

WSEC, established in 1994, is a manufacturing subsidiary of Sharp and is in charge of manufacturing and sales of LCD display devices, related peripheral components and high frequency tuners. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

Microsoft and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) inked an agreement for the Taiwanese chip manufacturer to manufacture semiconductors for the next generation Xbox, Microsoft’s video game console. The announcement was made by TSMC on April 6, 2004.

According to U.S. media reporting, Microsoft already has two partners for the next generation Xbox. IBM of the U.S. is going to design the main processor for the new console and ATI Technologies of Canada will design the graphic processor. The existing version uses Nvidia’s graphic chip and Intel’s Pentium III.

The agreements with ATI and IBM are limited to the design of processors and do not include manufacturing the devices. Whether the agreement with TSMC includes manufacturing of those chips or not is unknown at this time. Until now, Microsoft had an agreement with ATI who then outsourced production to TSMC.

Microsoft reduced the sales price of the Xbox by $30 to $150 in the North American market on March 30, 2004. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

William Watkins, CEO of Seagate Technology of the U.S., met with a reporter of Nihon Keizai Shimbun in Singapore and said the company will design and mass produce a hard disk drive (HDD) smaller than 2.5-inches.

Toshiba announced a 0.85-inch HDD for cellular phones in January 2004. Seagate, which has a strong presence in 3.5-inch HDDs for desktop computers, is going to foray into the small-size HDD market. Details will be announced by the end of June 2004.

Mr. Watkins commented that the company plans to strengthen investment in Asia.

Seagate plans to invest SGD (Singapore dollars) 500 million ($297.97 million @ 1.678 SGD/$US 1) in Singapore over the next five years. The company plans to boost design and development of products catering to Asian markets and will concentrate on high value products such as small-size HDDs. Seagate began production of a 2.5-inch HDD for notebook computers in Singapore in mid-2003. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology revealed a LCD panel based on a 0.2mm thick glass substrate for the first time at EDEX2004, which was held April 7-9, 2004 in Tokyo. Liquid crystal sandwiched with two sheets of glass substrate and polarizers on the front and back is about 1mm thick. It seems very possible to achieve a thickness of less than 2mm for an LCD panel module including a backlight unit.

The prototyped module is a 1.8-inch low temperature poly silicon TFT LCD panel. TMD is already mass-producing LCD panels using 0.3mm thick glass substrates.

There is strong need for thinner LCD panels. Use of 0.2mm thick glass substrate was achieved by improving the manufacturing process of the panels based on 0.3mm thick glass substrates, according to a TMD booth person. As for strength, a 1.8-inch size module using 0.2mm thick substrate can withstand daily use without any problems.

The exhibited prototype does not have a backlight. There are commercially available backlight units which are 0.6mm thick and use a polarizer, and 0.1mm thick units which use white OEL (organic electroluminescent). [M. Robertson, Portelligent]