JANUARY 25--DALSA Corporation (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; www.dalsa.com) has signed a term sheet for the envisaged acquisition of the CCD image-sensors business of Royal Philips Electronics. This purchase is expected to include intellectual property, technology, assets, product lines, and employees associated with Philips' CCD image-sensors business.
With about 60 employees and annual sales of approximately EUR 14 million (C$20 million), Philips CCD business has been operating from its primary location in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, for several years and is recognized as a leading fabless designer and manufacturer of high-performance, high-resolution, CCD image-sensor products for professional markets.
"Many of DALSA's technical and production team have worked closely with the Philips CCD group in the past, as both a supplier and as coparticipants in the CCD research community, commented Savvas Chamberlain, CEO of DALSA. "We are excited about the prospect of joining forces with this group of people. Furthermore, the opportunity to bring Philips' CCD image-sensor semiconductor wafer production into the Bromont, Quebec, foundry that DALSA will acquire from Zarlink in February will increase capacity utilization and lower production costs at the foundry."
Philips CCD business, a noncore business line of Philips Semiconductors, develops, assembles, tests, and markets a range of CCD image sensors for professional applications such as medical x-ray, video broadcasting, high-end industrial, minilabs, and digital photography. The CCDs are specifically designed to combine the requirements for high resolution, very high dynamic range, and low noise in a single device.
