Daily News Briefs

William Elder was appointed to the executive board of Aixtron, a provider of deposition equipment to the semiconductor industry. Elder was previously chairman, president and CEO of Genus Inc., which Aixtron acquired in March. He will be chairman of Aixtron's silicon semiconductor business interests, which include Genus (Sunnyvale, Calif.) and Aixtron Silicon Semiconductor (Aachen, Germany). . . . NEC Electronics Corp. announced it is realigning its operations in China after acquiring a license from the Chinese government to import and sell semiconductor products designed or manufactured outside China. NEC Electronics' semiconductor development and sales teams in China have been integrated with the Beijing NEC IC Design Co. and will focus exclusively on manufacturing efforts. Beijing NEC IC Design Co. will become the flagship site for NEC Electronics in China, and the company will relaunch operations as NEC Electronics China.