Sharp Slates $151 Million for New Chip Plant

TOKYO, March 28 – Sharp Corp. will spend $151.7 million to build a plant in Hiroshima to produce semiconductors including semiconductor laser diode chips. The plant will be built in Mihara, Hiroshima, about 700 km southwest of Tokyo, and aims to start production in September 2002, a spokesman said. The Mihara plant will produce compound semiconductors, such as laser diodes, at a monthly output rate of five million chips. The company is also eyeing production of blue laser in the future at the new plant, a Sharp spokesman said.