Alliances accelerate
Motorola`s Semiconductor Products Sector (Phoenix, AZ) has selected Mitsubishi Silicon America (Salem, OR) as its primary silicon supplier. After 40 years of silicon-wafer manufacturing, Motorola`s Sector Materials Organization is transferring the majority of its business to Mitsubishi by year-end 1999.
Photobit Corp. (Pasadena, CA) and Tower Semiconductor USA Inc. (San Jose, CA) have agreed to develop CMOS image-sensor technology that combines Photobit`s sensor skills and Tower`s Migdal Haemek-Israel manufacturing foundry expertise.
Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan) and Eastman Kodak Co. (Rochester, NY; www.kodak.com/) have agreed to jointly develop next-generation organic light-emitting diode displays (OLEDs) based on organic electroluminescence display (OELD) technology. Both companies will combine their OEL and thin-film transistor liquid-crystal-display technologies to produce monochrome, multicolor, and full-color passive displays and full-color active displays.
Cognex Corp. (Natick, MA; www.cognex.com) has formed Cognex Vision Ventures, a venture investment program under which the Cognex will make strategic equity investments in companies developing machine-vision products and technologies using Cognex hardware and software platforms. As a secondary goal, the program will invest in companies developing machine-vision-related products such as image sensors, vision software, or proprietary optics and illumination technologies.
