According to ElectrIQ map, most of Japan's fabs are quite far away from earthquake zone:
Looking on the earthquake areas, Toshiba Iwate image sensor fab seems to be right in it. Panasonic Tonami image sensor plant seems to be quite close too (Most of other Panasonic fabs are near Osaka, far from the earthquake). I'm unable to see Canon CIS fab here (in Tokyo area, if I'm not mistaken). Also, Fujifilm CCD fab is not shown, not sure where it is located.
Sony Kyushu fab is located in Fukuoka area, south of Japan. The new Sony Nagasaki center is also on the south. Sharp CCD fab is located in Fukuyama, near Hiroshima, also quite far on the south. Toshiba Oita CIS fab is on the south, so it should be OK.
If somebody knows more about Japan image sensor plant locations and status, please add in comments.
Update: Bloomberg reports that Toshiba shut down its Iwate plant and evacuated the employees. No damage was reported at the Iwate plant, which produces logic chips and CMOS image sensors for mobile-phone cameras, Keisuke Ohmori, a company spokesman, said by telephone.
Update #2: Digitimes too reports that Toshiba closed its Iwate fab. Not much more info is given.
EETimes gives guite a detaled summary of Japan fab status and damages.
This map has suite few errors on locations (ex ON Semi in Aizu is in Fukushima quite near the earthquake and not near Nagoya) and products manufactured at each locations (TOSHIBA Oita and Iwate are not focused on Memory...).
ReplyDeleteTOSHIBA Iwate has been stopped even if damages are probably limited, however still under review. Electricity supply might be more a concern in the north.
excellent post vlad.
ReplyDeletethanks for the detail and analysis.
ek
I have a cousin who lives in Iwate. He said the power was out for about 36 hours but is back on.
ReplyDeleteRegarding 2011 IISW in Hokkaido in June:
ReplyDeleteAccording to Nobu Teranishi, Co-Chair
"Hakodate-Onuma Prince Hotel has no damage, and related places, such as Hakodate airport, railways, electricity are also OK."
Co-Chair Junichi Nakamura and Program Chair Shoji Kawahito and families are ok as well.
I have not heard anything about Tohoku University in Sendai but it is quite far from the coast like the main part of that city, so hopefully they just have some communications problem and inconvenience.
I wish they same were true for so many other people in Japan. It is an interesting social effect that we have created with our camera technology. We can see so much suffering in real-time that it is almost overwhelming to the human spirit. It is hard to have god-like powers of all-seeing without the power to help.
Will the IISW be impacted by this tragedy?
ReplyDeleteAt this time we expect no direct impact from the triple-disaster in Japan. See my earlier comment regarding IISW. This is all I know. Probably all that anyone knows.
ReplyDeleteShould anything change, we will announce it on the www.imagesensors.org page and send a note to this blogger.
Anyone has received the notification letter from the IISW committee?
ReplyDeleteyes, I've received.
ReplyDeleteReceived my denial as well :-(
ReplyDeleteWhat are alternative conferences?
For technical conference, the 2nd best is the SPIE electronic imaging. You can also find excellent imaging papers in ISSCC and IEDM, but only a few (<10) image sensor papers are normally presented.
ReplyDeleteESSIRC is also a good conference.
ReplyDeleteWell i attended esscirc quite often, but found image sensor related papers to be rare.
ReplyDeleteFounde ise 2011 (next week) London, but that looks like an expensive marketing show?
ESSCIRC is quite selective and small community, so you can really exchange ideas with other in the semiconductor field.
ReplyDeleteWhat about Fujifilm? Will they deliver in time the Finepix HS20 to Europe? It is built in China but key components come from Japan.
ReplyDeleteAll my prayer go to the Japanese people. Ils sont formidable!
Regarding 2011 IISW:
ReplyDeleteWe are delaying registration payments until we understand the magnitude of the evolving nuclear catastrophe. As a precautionary step, we have started to investiagte alternate locations elsewhere in Japan and to consider neighboring countries in Asia.
(from N. Teranishi and J. Nakamura)