HALF MOON BAY, CA -- Attendees on the second day of the SEMI Strategic Materials conference learned how Japanese materials suppliers joined together to cut costs, and were given an optimistic outlook on the convergence of front-end and back-end processes in chip making.
Yoshifumi Kawamoto, director general manager, R&D department, CASMAT, outlined the formation of the R&D consortium established in 2003 by Japanese materials suppliers. Member companies include JSR, Sumitomo Chemical, Sekisui Chemical, Tokyo Ohka Kogyo, Nitto Denko, Hitachi Chemical, Toray Industries and others.
BEIJING -- China imported more than $19 billion worth of technology last year, up 37.5% over the previous year and setting a new record.
More than 43%, or $8.27 billion, of the total import value of technology came from foreign enterprises operating in China. That’s up 23.6% from 2004.