Semiconductor makers are often among the first to see sales and earnings fall when a recession like this one comes along. But as the recession comes to an end, chip companies are usually among the first to come out of it.

Charlie Gay, the president of Applied Solar (APSO.OB), the solar arm of semiconductor-equipment-maker Applied Materials (AMAT), says solar panel makers are experiencing steady cost reductions by making solar panels steadily thinner. Manufacturers can't reduce the X and Y dimensions of the solar cell easily – that would reduce the surface area exposed to the sun, which in turn would reduce the power that a given panel could produce. But by producing thinner wafers, the amount of raw material gets reduced without reducing performance.

VLSI Research has revealed its Top-10 PV manufacturing equipment supply companies for 2008, with Applied Materials leading the pile.

The global semiconductor equipment book-to-bill-ratio rose above parity in June for first time in 11 months, according to VLSI Research.

Israeli start-up 3GSolar says it has developed the world's first commercial-size solar energy system that uses colored dyes to turn sunlight into electricity.

There has still been no word from Elpida on what appears to be a pandemic of Hyper memory chip failures, despite the fact that firms seem to be dropping the chips faster than a hot potato.

A delegation of Chinese Government officials and technology companies are in the UK this week looking for technology expertise and business partnerships.

...Cash flow is improving while Rivals are shutting factories. Perhaps most important, Micron has been cutting its production costs, betting that increased financial efficiency will help it survive any further shakeout along with the market leader Samsung Electronics.

Chipmaker Infineon Technologies has announced plans to launch a rights issue of up to 337 million shares with a subscription price of Euro 2.15 per share.

3Com has reported fourth-quarter and full-year results that indicated the networking supplier has settled down. The firm said it recorded a net income of US$20.2 million on sales of US$295.1 million.

Hynix Semiconductor has said it would cut its investment in a new production facility by 45% and extend the investment period.

"The Company continued to be impacted by the effects of the global economic slowdown and the NAND flash shortage that our customers have been facing...," said Wallace Kou, President and CEO of Silicon Motion.

Tokyo Electron, the world's second-largest chip equipment maker, said orders for machines that make semiconductors and flat-panel displays rose 82% sequentialy in the company's first quarter of fiscal 2009.

Low levels of fab spending this year could lead to significant shortages in chip capacity, according SEMI. Fab spending should rise over 60% next year, according to SEMI. However it's coming from the very low base of 2009. US$4.6bn was spent on fab construction last year, but only US$1.6bn will be spent this year.

Fresco Solar says it will build solar photovoltaic ground arrays of 1MW or more anywhere in the United States for US$2.95 per watt or US$2.95 million per megawatt system. The package includes delivery, installation, and testing of the racking, panels, and inverters as well as associated foundations and wiring. The price does not include sales and use taxes, local permits and fees, and any land development costs.

Last year, T. Boone Pickens signed a deal for 667 wind turbines for an enormous 4,000-megawatt wind farm to be built in the Texas Panhandle. Now that plan is in shambles. Bad credit markets and a lack of transmission lines for the wind turbines have led him to scrap the panhandle project, at least for now, he confirmed today. But he still has to do something with all of those turbines he's ordered. "I'm committed to 667 wind turbines and I am going to find projects for them," he said in a statement.

Nokia's strategic relationship with Intel, announced last month, may be very forward-looking and not about to worry any incumbent wireless chipset suppliers, but it is nonetheless threatening to Europe's local hero, ARM Holdings.

Dubbed single mode level cell (SMLC) technology, Fusion-io says products using the enterprise class flash offer a cost-effective MLC-based solid-state solution with the endurance and performance of SLC at a much lower cost-per-gigabyte.

OKI Data is increasing LED production to meet target sales by 2011. ODI, the OKI Data subsidiary that develops and manufactures print heads for LED printers, currently operates in Hachioji. These operations will be transferred to the facility now acquired from Renesas, and the facility is scheduled to go on-line in April 2010.

Photronics, a worldwide leader in supplying innovative imaging technology solutions for the global electronics industry, has announced that it is closing its integrated circuit photomask manufacturing facility in Shanghai, China. The closure is consistent with Photronics strategy to reduce costs and lower its operational breakeven point, it said.

The Milan trade fair has said it is commissioning the world's biggest rooftop photovoltaic power installation covering some 270,000 square meters.

The semiconductor memory industry is about to experience major technological changes as three-dimensional multi-gate structures push transistors and memory architectures forward, according to a one-day memory workshop held last month in Grenoble, France, by leading researchers from around the world.

GlobalFoundries will hold its official groundbreaking for Fab 2 at the Luther Forest Technology Campus in Malta on July 24.

Struggling German chip group Infineon Technologies is selling its wireline communications operation to an affiliate of US private equity firm Golden Gate Capital for 250 million euro (about US$350 million).

The company generated more than a million pounds of hazardous waste last year, according to a report filed with the Massachusettes Department of Environmental Protection, even though its new US$450 million factory in Devens wasn't operating at full capacity.

After not finding an investor eager to acquire the whole company, Qimonda has appointed several companies to sell 300mm production equipment from the firm's manufacturing facilities in Germany and the US.

There is considerable debate about second-half 2009. Some are bulls. Some are bears. Some are in both camps.

Concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) solar power--which marries traditional solar photovoltaic technology to large-scale concentrated solar power plants--could ramp up utility-scale solar production especially in niche markets.

Semiconductor market statistician Mike Cowan now predicts 2009 global semiconductor sales will be US$196.2 billion, up by 1.9% from the previous month's forecast estimate of US$192.5 billion.

With few tools in development for the EUV mask infrastructure, Sematech has said it will convene a meeting during SEMICON West to garner financial support from companies and government sources. The goal is to entice commercial suppliers to develop EUV mask blank inspection, mask defect review, and mask pattern inspection tools.

Over the past several years, IDMs have seen the price of silicon fabrication fall, while the cost of packaging, assembly and test has steadily been on the rise.