MARCH 12--DALSA (Waterloo, ON, Canada; www.dalsa.com) has won a major order worth $1.3 million from a leading Asian supplier of flat-panel-display (FPD) inspection equipment. Under the contract, DALSA will deliver high-performance electronic cameras in the second quarter of 2004, with the potential for future production orders.
The DALSA cameras are "the eyes" of sophisticated on-line inspection systems that search for defects on flat-panel televisions, notebook PCs, and LCD (liquid-crystal display) monitors as they are being manufactured. The company has seen the demand for its high-performance cameras grow significantly during the past year, as FPD manufacturers continue to invest heavily in new plants and capital equipment to keep up with the demand for ever larger displays, particularly HDTV televisions. According to the research-firm DisplaySearch recent Quarterly TFT LCD Supply/Demand and Capital Spending Report, 2004 is expected to be, by far, the biggest year ever in LCD equipment spending, with an estimated 43% increase over 2003.
"We are very pleased to receive yet another contract in the FPD end market," commented Savvas Chamberlain, CEO of DALSA Corporation. "This is our third set of major orders so far this year, which gives us further confidence that we can achieve our stated goal of increasing sales to the flat-panel inspection market by 85% in 2004 over the previous year."
DALSA is an international high-performance semiconductor and electronics company that designs, develops, manufactures, and markets digital imaging products and solutions, in addition to providing wafer-foundry services. DALSA's core competencies are in specialized integrated-circuit and electronics technology and highly engineered semiconductor wafer processing. Products include image sensor components; electronic digital cameras; and semiconductor wafer-foundry services for use in MEMS, high-voltage semiconductors, image sensors, and mixed-signal CMOS chips.
