European regulators are set to accept a proposal by Rambus to cut royalties to settle antitrust charges, according to a person familiar with the situation.

"If there is no potential buyer this time, we will seek other measures to build a new structure of the company, on which all the stakeholders and interested parties can agree," according to the Korea Exchange Bank, the main creditor of Hynix.

The consensus is that availability of defect-free masks and, perhaps more importantly, a lack of funding for an infrastructure that can inspect those masks, is the most critical issue faced today by EUV lithography development. But working groups are making progress defining - and funding - the solution.

Samsung Electronics has set its 2010 capital expenditure at 8.5 trillion won (US$7.4 billion), up from this year's planned seven trillion won, the Maeil Business Newspaper reported in its early Thursday edition.

Samsung Electronics, the world's top maker of memory chips, has dismissed market speculation that it may bid for German chipmaker Infineon. "Such talk is untrue...we have never studied the possibility."

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is likely to make CDMA2000 baseband chips which Qualcomm designs for the worldwide-version 3G iPhones, according to industry executives.

DuPont Apollo has announced the opening of its silicon based thin-film photovoltaic module manufacturing facility. The 538,000-square-feet facility will have an annual capacity of up to 50 megawatts with a thin-film-on-glass PV module production line. Full-scale commercial production is slated for the first quarter of 2010.

Sematech wants to expand its wings. The chip-making consortium is now looking at ways to bring fabless companies into the fold and is also hoping to expand its collaborative efforts with fab tool makers.

Ericsson has withdrawn its complaint to the European Commission regarding Qualcomm's WCDMA (3G) licensing activities. The company will, however, continue its ongoing dialogue with competition authorities around the world in relation to Qualcomm's licensing practices.

Researchers have demonstrated a tiny chip based on silicon that could be used to diagnose dozens of diseases. The design is simpler and requires less blood be taken.

Loss-making foundry Tower Semiconductor, which trades as TowerJazz, has announced it plans to transfer "manufacturing know-how and certain equipment" to support an un-named Asian company ramp up production.

Angry workers at Atmel's fab in Rousset, France, have gone on an unlimited strike. The strike aims to protest against Atmel's decision to sell its site in Rousset without guaranteeing its employees.

A recovery is coming in 2010 but many things about it remain uncertain, according to a survey. One consistent finding is that the Chinese market opportunity is the key to growth.

With the forecast for packaging improving in 2010, business strategy is shifting toward more partnerships and joint ventures. And the focus on through-silicon vias (TSVs) is rapidly accelerating and may result in even more partnerships and joint ventures between foundries and packaging houses.

"Samsung is aiming to raise its global DRAM share to 45% in 2010 inspired by the bullish outlook in the memory chip sector," a Samsung executive told the paper.

Intel is now completing its first chip-fabrication plant in China; it will lag the technology used by other factories by two years, but the factory will still affect local know-how.

Applied Materials will acquire Semitool for up to US$364 million, positioning Applied in the growing markets of wafer-level packaging and copper memory interconnects.

The German government is funding a research project aiming at developing manufacturing processes for large-area OLED illuminants. In the Light InLine (LILi) project, Applied coordinates the activities of a team formed of its own experts as well as professionals from OLED materials manufacturer Merck KGaA and from the Technical University of Braunschweig (Germany).

Korea Exchange Bank (KEB), representing creditors, is planning to send out invitations for the auction to domestic companies between Nov. 25 and Dec. 15, its officials said. The action follows Hyosung Group's recent decision to scrap its bid to purchase Hynix.

"The MOEA needs to make more of an effort to restructure the DRAM industry, with TIMC being one of the possibilities, " said Taiwan's economics minister Shih Yen-shiang. "The ministry will explain to lawmakers the necessity of establishing TIMC and review other ways of pushing the project."

Kleiner Perkins and Khosla Ventures-backed solar-thermal startup Ausra is in talks with three potential buyers to sell itself, according to sources familiar with the company.

With an investment of up to US$1.2 billion, 500 full-time jobs, and more than 800 construction jobs, Hemlock Semiconductor's new facility will increase polycrystalline silicon production to meet the needs of the growing solar industry.

Suntech Power has announced that its first US manufacturing plant for the growing North American market would be located in the Greater Phoenix, Arizona area. The plant will have an initial production capacity of 30 megawatts (MW) and is expected to begin production in the third quarter of 2010.