日本新力投資製造高質素画像感應器

Recently the Yomiuri News on-line reported the following:

ソニー、ルネサス工場買収へ…画像センサー生産

　ソニーが、半導体大手ルネサスエレクトロニクスの鶴岡工場（山形県鶴岡市）を買収する方針を固めたことが２８日、わかった。

　買収額は約７０億円となる見込みで、ソニーが得意とするカメラ用の画像センサーの生産拠点に転用する。

　ソニーは鶴岡工場の従業員約７００人のうち、７～８割の雇用を続ける方向だ。新たに約２７０億円を投じて、工場の生産設備の増強を検討する。

　鶴岡工場はルネサスの主力工場の一つ。ゲーム機向け半導体の取引が不振で、閉鎖する方針を決めていた。

　ソニーが製造する高画質の画像センサーは、スマートフォンやタブレット端末、デジタルカメラなどに組み込まれ、世界シェア（占有率）は約３割に上る。今後、新興国を中心にスマホやタブレット端末の普及が見込まれ、増産体制を整える。

（2014年1月28日21時11分  読売新聞）

(試譯文)

     It turned out on the 28th that Sony had made a policy to purchase the Tsuruoka factory (Tsuruoka-city, Yamagata) which was a major semiconductor company of Renesas Electronics.

     The amount of buying was likely to be about 7 billion yen, and the factory would be diverted into a production base for the imaging sensor for cameras which Sony was good at.

     Sony aimed at continuing the employment of 70-80 percent of the about 700 employees at the Tsuruoka factory and considered adding about 27 billion yen of new investment to reinforce the production facility of the factory.

     The Tsuruoka factory was one of the main factories of Renesas. Business for the semiconductor for game machines was dull, and thus decided on a plan to close it.

     The high-definition imaging sensor which Sony manufactured was built into the smart phones, tablet computers; digital cameras etc. and the world share (market share) went up to about 30 percent. From now on, the smart phones and tablet computers were expected to gain popularity centering on newly emerging countries and a system to increase production was prepared.

(21:11 on January 28, 2014    Yomiuri Shimbun)

Obviously Sony is moving away from game machines production to smart phones and tablet computers.