Special Interest
- R&D Activities
- R&D Expenses
Aiming to achieve sustainable growth and increase corporate value, the Hoya Group devotes considerable effort to formulating business strategy from a long-term perspective and developing technology, as well as acquiring and cultivating new businesses.
Hoya is involved in a wide range of businesses. In each business division, the Group promotes R&D based on the medium-term plan, aiming to maintain and enhance its technological competitiveness. The Corporate R&D Center at the global headquarters provides development support for the technological issues embraced by each division, as well as conducting basic research that will supply the seeds for future growth and acquiring and cultivating new businesses and technologies from a long-term perspective.
Hoya reorganized its Corporate R&D Center in fiscal 2011, with a view to strengthening the optical technology and technical planning departments. The objective is to provide technical support to each business division, all of which have optical technology as their bedrock, and from a longer-term perspective to aid in fostering and acquiring new businesses and technologies.
Within the Corporate R&D Center, the technical planning department is central to all joint development activities undertaken with external research organs. By dint of actively collaborating with such organizations the Company is shifting the core of R&D from the information technology field to the medical and healthcare arenas.
The Corporate R&D Center and the R&D function in each business division share information as they work to maximize the results of each R&D project.
- Optical technology department:
Hoya is pursuing research into technologies for simulating the behavior of geometric and wave optics, and studying applications in optical measuring. Based on this research the Company is developing optical measuring instruments that will aid each of its business divisions in manufacturing products with greater precision and enhanced quality. These include technologies for analyzing and visualizing the optical phenomena of defects in phase-type diffractive lenses, improving surface profilometry resolution with digital holography, and for measuring transmittance in microscopic thin films. The department is also working to develop new optical products.
- Nanoimprint Technology:
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Nano-imprint mold for HDD patterned media
Nano-imprint mold for high intensity LED (x100,000)Hoya is putting its lithographic technologies to use in the development and trial production of nanoimprint molds, which will be used in the creation of patterned media (DTM, BPM) for use in increasing the areal density of hard disk drives (HDDs), and in high-brightness LEDs.
Various HDD manufacturers are vigorously pursuing R&D to commercialize patterned media technology, and Hoya has begun shipping DTM molds enabling nanoimprint processing on all surfaces of 2.5-inch media. In BPM, Hoya has used the latest microfabrication technologies to develop a mold producing a bit pitch of 25 nanometers and surface recording density of 1 Tbit/inch*.
In molds for use in manufacturing LEDs, the Company has developed and started shipping samples of molds with 100?300 nanometer pitch size, suitable for high-brightness chip designs.
*Nanometer (nm):1 nanometer = 1 billionth of a meter
- 3C-SiC:
3C-SiCHoya is promoting the development of 3C-SiC (cubic monocrystal silicon carbide) semiconductor wafers and devices. The superior energy efficiencies expected of this material means it would be a counterweight to global warming when applied in automobiles and home appliances such as air conditioners. Hoya has reported at various international conferences and symposia that it obtained very high channel mobility of 200 cm2/Vs with a prototype 3C-SiC MOSFET (metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor) it fabricated in fiscal 2011.
- Optical Communications Parts:
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An optical telecommunications deviceAs the FTTH (Fiber to the Home) environment widens around the world, Hoya has developed a module for converting optical signals to electrical ones at optical communication access points that is compliant with GE-PON/G-PON2*, a high-speed optical communications standard. By building a functional device on top of a wafer, Hoya has succeeded in creating products that are significantly smaller than existing products. Hoya received approval from customers and launched product shipments in fiscal 2011, and plans to ramp up mass production in step with full-blown product acceptance in fiscal 2012. As optical networks continue to develop going forward, the market is expected to grow in magnitude to around \30 billion.
*GE-PON/G-PON (Gigabyte Passive Optical Network):A technology that enables high-speed transmission of 1.25-2.5 gigabyte per second over fiber optic lines and networks.
- Biocompatible Materials:
Hoya is researching biocompatible materials for ophthalmological applications. Hoya already has a visual correction lens business that handles intraocular lenses (IOLs) and contact lenses. The Company is now developing materials that are more durable and functional and that are better for the eyes. As part of this research, Hoya is investigating an artificial crystalline lens.
Material that fills the crystalline lens capsule. This material has the potential to regulate visual acuity and is expected to become a therapeutic method on a par with IOLs. The Company is also conducting research on ways to enhance the biocompatibility of intraocular lenses and other devices by applying special coatings and microscopic structures to their surface.
- i10 series endoscopes designed to alleviating burden on doctors
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Controller to the i10 series endoscopeIn recent years, endoscopes have come to perform therapeutic functions as well as clinical examinations.
The burden on doctors can become large in protracted clinical endoscopic procedures, and to alleviate this load Hoya has been developing new endoscopic controller parts that it envisions will allow lengthy use without fatigue.
In this manner the Company hopes not just to reduce the fatigue of doctors, but also to shorten the time of clinical examinations with controllers that are easier to operate, in doing so easing the burden on the patient.