STMicroelectronics is closing one of its semiconductor R&D groups in Longmont, Colo., and laying off 44 people, according to a report by a Colorado newspaper.

The same market forces that doomed Solyndra, the solar cell manufacturer that received $528 million in government loans and then went bankrupt, could imperil other manufacturing ventures that have received loan guarantees from the Energy Department, energy experts warned this week.

A solar cell the size of a stamp. That's all Intel researchers needed to power a computer processor that could hold a tantalizing vision for the low-power chips of the future.

GE has entered the Brazilian solar market with its new agreement signed with MPX, a division of EBX Group.

Epson has launched a pair of new projectors that are aimed at the users of Apple iOS gear like the iPod touch, iPhone, and iPad. The new projectors are both in the MegaPlex line and there are two models.

Lighting manufacturer Lighting Science Group today unveiled a new LED light for ceilings.

NTT DoCoMo will partner with several Japanese hardware makers and Korean manufacturer Samsung Electronics to develop core chips for use in future smartphones, Japan's biggest business newspaper reported Monday.

Phoenix Solar, through its Italian subsidiary Phoenix Solar Srl, has secured several contracts for the supply of solar modules for power plants in Italy.

The Italian network agency, GSE, reports that photovoltaic installations in Italy have reached over 10 gigawatts (GW). Already this year, says the agency, 6.5 GW have been installed.

These aren't your father's vending machines. For instance, the Diji-Touch has a 46-inch Samsung touch LCD screen that lets consumers see the product, its ingredients, and nutrition facts.

The majority of the reduction is from the company's wireless products, which have experienced an unexpected decline in demand and pricing.

University research consortium Semiconductor Research has awarded seven research contracts to four universities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

TSMC reportedly is raising prices on 28nm wafers.

Toyota Motor may start exporting subcompact cars from Thailand for sale in other markets, a senior executive said.

According to sources, newly installed photovoltaic capacity in Germany hit 1.25 gigawatts (GW) between June and July of this year. As such, there are fears solar incentives will be slashed by 15 percent in January 2012.

Two weeks after Conergy was busy putting out fires surrounding the rumors that it was planning to close its manufacturing plant in Frankfurt, the company has advised that it will be halting production of its wafer and cell manufacturing lines at the German facility.

Texas Instruments has narrowed and lowered its expected ranges for revenue and earnings per share (EPS) for the third quarter of 2011. The reductions are due to broadly lower demand across a wide range of products, markets and customers.

A former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. manager who pleaded guilty to being part of an insider-trading scheme involving Primary Global Research deserves a prison term of as long as three years and 10 months, the US said.

At 18 times the cost of hard drives, solid-state disk drive purchases need to be strategic, however.

Japan's Sumco, the world's No.2 supplier of silicon wafers used to make chips, slashed its annual operating profit forecast by 37% on weak PC demand and slower-than-expected growth in smartphones and tablet PCs, and it said the fragile economy could make chip demand retreat further.

3M and IBM have announced that the two companies plan to jointly develop the first adhesives that can be used to package semiconductors into densely stacked silicon "towers."

Integrated Device Technology (IDT) and Qualcomm have announced the signing of a definitive agreement to transfer the design team of IDT's Hollywood Quality Video (HQV) and Frame Rate Conversion (FRC) Video Processing product lines and certain related assets to Qualcomm.

Xilinx has announced that longtime customer Sigma has designed Spartan-6 FPGAs into its flagship digital single lens reflex (DSLR) camera, the SIGMA SD1. Shipping since June, the new 46-megapixel camera delivers robustness in a splash-proof and dust-proof body, providing high-definition and high resolution images.

Verigy, an Advantest Group company, has announced that the company has reached a major milestone with the installation of its 2,500th V93000 system-on-chip (SoC) test platform. The milestone shipment is part of a multi-system order from Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE).

Trina Solar Ltd. (TSL) developed a solar unit with "record" output, and Roth & Rau AG (R8R) and Day4 Energy Inc. (DFE) created a module with increased power efficiency as cell makers compete to produce greater energy at lower cost.

Solar power from Australian rooftops has become so cheap and efficient that photovoltaic cells now produce electricity for the same price that's charged by the electricity grid.