Dominique Numakura's Newsletter from Japan

Margaret Ann Sims (1921-2005)

The co-founder and president of DKN Research passed away Thursday August 25, 2005. We celebrated her 84th birthday 2 months ago in Haverhill, Massachusetts. I met Maggie in Litchfield, Minnesota when I was working for Innovex, Inc. in 1996 and she moved to Massachusetts in 2000 to found the research firm with me.  Maggie was not a technical expert of printed circuit board or microelectronics but she has been conducting an excellent job as the president, director of administration and finance manager of the company from the beginning.   Additionally, Maggie made great contributions in documentation of the company. All of the English documents, especially articles and newsletters were checked and edited by Maggie before formal publication to cover my poor English.  With this work she keep up with the latest market trends of microelectronics in the U.S. and Asia. She was proud of the leading position DKN Research enjoys in technologies and engineering capabilities of microelectronics. She had to spend most of the days in hospitals in the last several weeks, but she was still conducting her jobs in her bed. 

We had a common dream to make DKN Research the global engineering leader in the electronics industry. We are very close to the goal. Now, she is supporting us from the heaven.

Maggie and I had another big project studying and recording historical studies between Japan and the U.S. We found a lot of historical materials such as old diaries and letters from the nineteenth century, all hand written. She read them and she typed up the materials. They were ready to be published and I need to do this for her as soon as possible.

I could not give her many things after she moved to Massachusetts, but she told it was the most exciting years in her life with DKN Research.  Please pray for Margaret Sims and keep her name in your memory. We will have a memorial service in late September.

Dominique Numakura
 

Headlines of the week

CIPA (Industrial organization of cameras)
The June shipment of the digital cameras was 5.01 million units, 6.9% increase from the same month of 2004. CIPA expect 64.8 million units, 8.4% increase for the whole year.

Kobe Steel (Major steel manufacturer in Japan)
Unveiled the new UV ray sensor device with diamond thin film technology. The new sensor has 100 time longer life compared to the traditional devices.

Toppan Printing (Major printing company in Japan)
Will invest 50 billion yens to build the world's first color filter manufacturing line for the 8th generation substrates (2160 x 2400 mm) in Mie Prefecture.

JEITA (Japan)
Released the domestic production data of electronics materials for the first half of 2005.  The total revenue declined 11% from the same period of 2004.

Fuji Film (Major photo film supplier in Japan)
Will roll out a new data storage tape "Super DLT Tape 2 Data Cartridge" for the middle size computers. The new tape has double size capacity compared to the 1st generation products.

NTT DOCOMO (Cellular phone service company in Japan)
Will purchase the 3D hand set from Korean cellular phone manufacturers to reduce the costs.

Kuraray (Major material company in Japan)
Will increase the manufacturing capacity of the polarization films of LCD devices to cover the increasing demands.

Matsushita Electric Industry (Major electronics company in Japan)
Will roll out a new low cost 65" PDP TV. The selling price of the TV will decline 40% to about 9000 dollars compared to the current models.