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Taiyo Fund takes significant stake in ULVAC Inc.


Posted by Debasish Choudhury on 11 September 2009 at 09:58

The Taiyo Fund announced today that it has accumulated a position in excess of 5% in ULVAC Inc. to become its second largest shareholder. The Taiyo Fund is known for its cooperative investment style working with senior management to enhance shareholder value.

Brian K. Heywood, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner of Taiyo Pacific Partners, said, "We are impressed by management's foresight to leverage its core expertise in LCD and SPE applications to the emergent solar cell, LED, touch panel, and hybrid car related markets. As a global leader in production equipment for multiple alternative energy technologies, ULVAC is very well placed to benefit from the increasing capital and brainpower flowing into these new areas. The most exciting years for the company are ahead and we are confident management will continue to create value for shareholders."

Wilbur L. Ross Jr., Chairman of the Taiyo Fund investment committee said, "ULVAC has distinguished itself as a top supplier worldwide of critical upstream equipment to various high-tech industries. In addition to top-line growth, we positively view management's commitment to enhancing profitability via production and design reforms and an emphasis on providing user-friendly turnkey systems for clients."

Mr. Hidenori Suwa, President of ULVAC commented, "We recognize that Taiyo Fund is a friendly long term investor and we are honored to be selected among many excellent companies for their portfolio. Going forward, we are committed to not only actively developing our solar cell and environmental technologies, but also expanding beyond 'equipment and vacuum technology' as a critical driver of our future business growth."

The Taiyo Fund was organized in July 2003 with an initial equity investment of $200 million by CalPERS, the State of California Public Employees Retirement System. The Fund currently has over $1.2 billion under management. The Fund is co-managed by Taiyo Pacific Partners LP and by WL Ross & Co. LLC. Taiyo Pacific Partners, located in Monterey, California, was founded in 2003 by bilingual professionals dedicated to friendly shareholder activism in Japan.

Last update: 11 September 2009 at 09:58

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alter Thread: Thread: ULVAC - japanischer turn-key Anbieter von a-SI Linien

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Nov 10, 2009 (M2 EQUITYBITES via COMTEX) -- ZZFNV | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- China Solar Power (Holdings) Ltd (CSP), a Chinese manufacturer of thin film amorphous silicon photovoltaic modules, declared on Tuesday the completion of the acquisition of ThinSilicon Inc. A Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. A The acquisition of ThinSilicon provides China Solar Power with world class thin film PV Module efficiency. CSP's plant, whose initial configuration will produce a-Si solar panels utilising production equipment supplied by ULVAC Inc (Tokyo:6728) of Japan, will have an annual capacity of approximately 32MW once it reaches full production in 2010. A ThinSilicon is a developer of thin film manufacturing process technology based in Mountain View, CA. The company's advanced technology enables modules to convert a greater proportion of the sun's energy into electricity, allowing thin-film silicon solar modules to approach the efficiency of wafer-based modules at a much lower manufacturing cost.

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ULVAC Launches Charging System Combining Photovoltaic Power Generation Facility with Rapid Charger for Electric Vehicles (EVs)
Submitted by editor on January 13, 2010 - 13:30

We are pleased to announce that we have been successful in developing and launching our new product, comprising a system combining a photovoltaic power generation facility with a rapid charger for EVs, and have received our first order from Chigasaki City.

What we at ULVAC have developed and launched is a photovoltaic power generation facility, and an EV rapid charger (including a normal charger), and their combination of photovoltaic power generation and rapid charger system for EVs.
The photovoltaic power generation facility complies with the requirements for multi-purpose power generation systems, coordinating photovoltaic power generation with commercial power facilities, and consists of solar panels, power conditioner, power supply, power generation control monitor, and so on.

The EV rapid charger on the other hand is used at EV rapid charging stations, which are expected to rapidly increase in number. It boasts a charging time of approximately 25 minutes for 80% of EV capacity, which is remarkably faster than the 8 to 14 hours necessary with ordinary chargers.

As part of the new business undertaken by the Corporate Customers Support Division, ULVAC worked jointly with its subsidiary, Reliance Electric Ltd. (Head Office: Yokohama City, Kanagawa, President: Mr. Junichi Ishizaki) for the development and launch of these systems. ULVAC and Reliance Electric are worldwide manufacturers of photovoltaic cell manufacturing equipment and electric variable drive control equipment respectively. Consequently, Reliance Electric has power conditioner (DC-AC power converter) manufacturing technology, which forms the core of photovoltaic power generation equipment, as well as electric design technology which is required for EV rapid chargers. In particular, the EV rapid charger developed and manufactured by Reliance Electric uses technologies developed for ULVAC sputtering equipment power supplies, which have global market share by an overwhelming margin. This EV rapid charger also conforms to the standards set by Tokyo Electric Power Co.

The photovoltaic power generation and rapid charging system developed and launched by ULVAC can use utility power during the night and days when there is little sunshine. When it is not used for charging EV, the power generated by photovoltaic cells can be purchased by electric companies through system linkage, making the effective utilization of the generated electric power possible.

The photovoltaic power generation and rapid charging system, for which ULVAC has received an order from Chigasaki City, consists of photovoltaic cells to be installed on the roof of the municipal parking lot (initial power generation 20 kW), power conditioners, rapid chargers (50 kW), normal chargers, power generation control monitors, and so on. The system also enables citizens to monitor the status of the electric power generated by photovoltaic cells through a display installed at Chigasaki City Hall via wireless communication. This system will be installed at the municipal parking lot located at Chigasaki 2-chome, Chigasaki City by March 2010.

Furthermore, ULVAC has installed practically the same system in its own backyard, the parking lot of ULVAC Chigasaki Head Office Plant, for the purposes of demonstration. The system consists of photovoltaic power generation facilities featuring thin film system photovoltaic cells and rapid chargers.
By using this demonstration system, ULVAC will carry on its research and development with the aim of achieving photovoltaic power generation systems and EV rapid chargers with higher efficiency.

ULVACs target sales for the first year of this product is one billion yen for combination systems comprising photovoltaic power generation and EV rapid chargers, photovoltaic power generation systems, EV rapid chargers, control monitors, etc. ULVAC has 37 affiliated companies in major overseas locations and will market aggressively not only in Japan but also overseas.

Our EV rapid charger and the system combining it with a power generation facility will be presented at the ULVAC booth (West 8-44) of the First EV and HEV Drive System Technology Fair, to be held at Tokyo Big Sight, Ariake, Tokyo from January 20 (Wed) through 22 (Fri), 2010.

About ULVAC

ULVAC(Ultimate in Vacuum), Inc. has been a leader in vacuum technology industry since its establishment in 1952. The company has always provided lines of equipment and production systems that form the core of state-of-art production processes in the areas of Flat Panel Displays, Solar cell, semiconductor, electronics. The company has not only provided equipment but also materials, analysis, evaluation and other service, which are integrated into ULVAC Solutions. www.ulvac.co.jp

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ULVAC and ULVAC Materials have Developed the World’s First Integrated Mass Production Technology for Thin-film Lithium Secondary Batteries

ULVAC and ULVAC Materials have Developed the World’s First Integrated Mass Production Technology for Thin-film Lithium Secondary Batteries
ULVAC, Inc. (head office: Chigasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, President and CEO: Hidenori Suwa) and ULVAC Materials, Inc. (head office: Tomisato City, Chiba Prefecture, President and CEO: Takaharu Ito) have successfully developed the world’s first integrated mass-production technology that enables the manufacture of thin-film lithium secondary batteries.
Background

The market for conventional lithium ion secondary batteries has been growing, mainly for use in PDAs, because the energy density of lithium ion batteries is greater than nickel-cadmium batteries or nickel hydride batteries, and the higher density prevents deterioration due to repeated charge and discharge. However, it has been reported that the liquid electrolyte of lithium ion batteries caused electrolyte leaks and fire, and the safety of lithium ion batteries has been questioned. As a solution to these problems, an all-solid-state lithium ion battery, which uses solid electrolyte instead of liquid electrolyte, has been suggested and developed.

The thin-film deposition technique is used to produce thin-film lithium secondary batteries. All-solid-state lithium batteries are safer, thinner, lighter and more flexible than liquid-type lithium batteries, and therefore, there is increasing expectation that all-solid-state lithium batteries will be applied to small electronic devices and biomedical devices, such as RF-ID tags and MEMS-IC, and will be combined with energy harvesting devices.

The demand for smaller and thinner secondary batteries has been high due to the miniaturization of electronic devices, and the development is said to be lagging behind this increasing demand. Furthermore, once thin-film lithium secondary batteries are marketed, the demand is expected to increase dramatically. Some expect that the market will grow to 10 billion units a year valued at 1 trillion yen in a few years.
Technical overview

A thin-film lithium secondary battery consists largely of electrode active material layers (cathode and anode), current collector layers, a solid electrolyte layer, and a sealing layer. All the layers can be formed by using a group of ULVAC-developed systems and ULVAC Materials’ targets.

The cathode, solid electrolyte layer and cathode current collector layer are formed using the cluster-type sputtering system (SME-200J), the anode layer is formed by evaporating lithium metal with a vacuum evaporation system (ei-5), and the sealing layer is formed using the cluster-type vacuum evaporation-polymerization system (PME-200).

The sputtering system may be equipped with up to five process chambers such as DC and RF magnetron sputtering chambers, and RTA chambers used for accelerating crystallization. The vacuum evaporation system is equipped with a vapor source and a substrate holder that enable multiple substrate processing to improve the efficiency of batch processing. The evaporation-polymerization system is equipped with a sputtering chamber and evaporation-polymerization chamber that enable the formation of multiple layers of alternating organic and inorganic thin films.

As to sputtering targets, lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2) targets have been developed for the cathode, and lithium phosphate (Li3PO4) targets for the solid electrolyte. ULVAC, Inc. and ULVAC Materials, Inc. have jointly developed high-density targets with homogeneous tissue, and have successfully produced a large target with a diameter of 440 mm. The targets will be produced by ULVAC, Inc. and marketed by ULVAC Materials, Inc.

The integrated mass-production technology for thin-film lithium ion secondary batteries will be displayed at the ULVAC booth at SEMICON Japan 2008, held at MAKUHARI MESSE from December 3, 2008, where thin-film lithium secondary battery cells produced by Nuricell Inc., Korea with our integrated mass-production technology will also be displayed.

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TOKYO, Dec 1, 2010 (Asia In Focus via COMTEX) --

Japanese electronics manufacturer ULVAC INC's (TSE:6728) debt-to-equity ratio is expected to come in at around 0.9 for the year ending June 2011, falling below 1 for the first time in three years. With sales of LCD panel and semiconductor manufacturing equipment growing, the company's group net profit is projected to jump 59 per cent from the prior year to 3.4 billion yen (US$40.6 million).

* This is likely to push shareholders' equity up 2 per cent to around 100 billion yen.

* On the other hand, the chipmaking equipment manufacturer is seen paring its interest-bearing debt, which stood at around 100 billion yen at the end of last fiscal year, to the low 90 billion yen level.

For full details on (ULVAF) ULVAF. (ULVAF) has Short Term PowerRatings at TradingMarkets. Details on (ULVAF) Short Term PowerRatings is available at This Link.

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ULVAC Now Offering Complete Solutions for Solar Cell Manufacturers
Published on October 16, 2011 at 7:17 PM

ULVAC offers solutions for various kinds of solar cell manufacturing, including: a-Si thin film type, compound CIGS type, crystalline type, and flexible PV.


In addition to the various turn-key manufacturing lines for solar cell fabrication, ULVAC can offer discrete PVD and CVD thin film deposition systems, Dry Etching systems for texture fabrication, Vertical Furnaces for annealing applications, Roll-coating equipment for flexible PV substrates, and a complete range of R&D-scale equipment.

ULVAC also can offer target materials for use in solar cell fabrication, as well as, surface analyzing systems, measurement and evaluation components, and peripheral devices, such as: dry pumps and power supplies.

ULVAC maintains a full 1,100mm x 1,400mm Demo line at the Chigasaki-Japan Headquarters. With this manufacturing line, ULVAC has the capability to make full modules and evaluate characteristics. This line is also used for process support for installed customer turn-key lines, and to develop new and innovative PV technology.

About ULVAC

ULVAC is an international corporation that designs, manufacturers and markets equipment and materials for industrial applications of vacuum technology. Today, ULVAC is a leading global supplier of production systems, instrumentation, pumps and vacuum components used in the semiconductor, flat panel display, disk/magnetic media, and industrial manufacturing markets.