KLA-Tencor has shuttered its Tucson, Ariz.-based facility, which was once part of ADE, according to the Arizona Daily Star. The move impacts 100 jobs. KLA-Tencor recently acquired ADE, a supplier of silicon wafer inspection gear. Lam also recently had a layoff, which involved 5% of its workforce.

Nvidia is admitting that some of its notebook chips are failing at "higher than normal rates" in a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The chip failures will cause Nvidia to take a US$150-200 million charge this quarter to cover what it calls "warranty, repair and return and replacement" for laptops with unspecified Nvidia graphics chips and chipsets.

Created from the mobile and wireless businesses of STMicroelectronics and NXP, which together generated $3 billion USD in revenue in 2007, the new company will begin operations in a strong position to meet customer needs in 2G, 2.5G, 3G, multimedia, connectivity and all future wireless technologies. ST-NXP Wireless is expected to enter the market in number three position once full closure of the joint venture takes place, as scheduled, in the third quarter of 2008.

...With the low-power mobile market space as the high-growth market opportunity, IBM Vice President Gary Patton highlighted the differences between the high-k/metal gate process that IBM and its Fishkill process development partners will offer compared with TSMC’s announced plans to introduce a 32 nm transistor with a nitrided oxide (SION) dielectric and polysilicon gate...

"...Nanya will issue up to 600 million new ordinary shares...PSC has also approved a plan to raise up to $3 billion through a private equity placement..."

Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor, South Korea's two largest chip companies and leaders in memory IC sales, have said they plan to co-develop and standardize spin-torque-transfer magnetic-random-access-memory (STT-MRAM) chips, and become the industry leaders in the processing of chips on 450-mm wafers, according to reports.

Chip designer Rambus Inc. has asked a federal judge in San Jose to rule that Hynix Semiconductor Inc. can't sell chips in the US. Rambus has filed similar suits against Samsung Electronics Co. and Boise, Idaho-based Micron Technology alleging they conspired to fix prices for memory chips.

udging the health of an industry can be complex. For the semiconductor industry, one indicator is the amount of manufacturing equipment sold, which fell by 37% year-over-year in North America for the month of May. While some market research companies had been expecting sales to pick up in the second half of the year, there are macro-economic issues at play that suggest otherwise.

Japan, the world's biggest supplier of solar cells, has watched domestic solar power demand dry up after it pulled the plug on subsidies in March 2006, hurting solar equipment firms' ability to invest in research and expansion abroad. The METI panel on new energy sources estimated that it now costs 2.3 million yen (US$21,330) to install a 3 kilowatt solar power system for a home. In the year that ended in March 2006, a household with such a system would have received 60,000 yen from the state.

...two major USA compound semi houses, TriQuint Semiconductor and Cree have announced they're opening their doors to GaN electronic foundry customers (v.s. GaN-based LEDs). The world has embraced GaN for LED applications rather nicely. Without GaN you simply wouldn't have blue spectrum LEDs. But for those of us who have been championing GaN for electronic applications for what seems to be decades, that foundry doors are finally opening is great news, as long as there are enough customers out there to make the efforts worthwhile.

..Applied Materials already had made an offer to buy two of ASMI's "front-end" businesses when Francisco Partners last week offered to buy its remaining front- end activities. ASMI put Francisco Partners' offer in the range of US$225-300 million, while Applied Materials has put its offer at US$400-500 million. ASMI rejected the bids Friday, saying they undervalued the businesses.

Applied Materials' belief of non-infringement is based in part on differences between the SunFab tandem junction technology (as verified by scientific analyses such as Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy) and the claims of the Neuchatel patent.

The Justice Department has recommended a sentence of five years of probation and to require Samueli to pay more than US$12 million in penalties, according to the plea agreement.