China has further revised up its solar power development target for 2015 by 50 percent from its previous plan, state media reported on Thursday.

Optimizing lateral double-diffused MOS transistors with a breakdown voltage exceeding 700V, the initial entry (without epitaxial layer) in the new ultra high voltage BCDMOS portfolio specifies low on-resistance to implement robust LED driver ICs for a broad range of LED lighting applications.

Apple is reportedly going to use part of its enormous pile of cash to buy an Israeli fabless semiconductor company that specializes in flash storage solutions.

Installations of solar panels worldwide this year are likely to rise more than one-third over 2010, according to a study released Tuesday.

20nm seems to be the new cutting-edge process for memory production, but Intel and Micron might be surprised to find Hynix has just surpassed them. The Korean manufacturer has used the IEDM to announce it has managed to manufacture middle-1Xnm-generation NAND flash.

Micron Technology is seeking Taiwanese partners to supply solid-state drive (SSD) controller chips to cope with the company's expansion in NAND memory chips in 2012, an executive said yesterday.

Worldwide semiconductor revenues are forecast to reach US$309 billion in 2012, a 2.2% increase from 2011, according to Gartner. This outlook is down from Gartner's previous projection in the third quarter for 4.6% growth in 2012.

Wacker Chemie said Thursday streamlining at its Siltronic unit will result in a plant closure in Japan and expenses about of EUR70 million. Siltronic is Wacker Chemie's semiconductor division.

Sanyo Semiconductor (Thailand) will close down its factory at Rojana Industrial Park in Ayutthaya after flooding caused extensive damage to its operations.

Chipmakers Texas Instruments and Altera have both cut their forecasts for the fourth quarter.

Solar power company SunPower Corp. will cut about 125 jobs, or 2 percent of its workforce, as the company faces a global solar power market where prices and demand are stagnating.

Hynix Semiconductor has set around KRW4 trillion (US$3.5 billion) for its 2012 capital expenditure, up 18% from the KRW3.4 trillion set for this year, an online news provider Edaily reported Thursday, citing industry sources.

Applied Materials has announced its new Applied Producer Optiva CVD system that enables the manufacture of backside-illuminated (BSI) image sensors used in the most advanced smartphones, tablet PCs and high-end cameras.

ASM International (ASMI) has announced the successful demonstration of a new 14nm high-k gate dielectric process that achieved less than six angstroms equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) at a customer's 14nm R&D line, an improvement of about 40% from the current advanced nodes.

Struggling solar manufacturers will likely be driven into mergers with rivals to survive a sector squeeze, a trend that could draw major Asian conglomerates deeper into the renewable energy sector.

Targray Technology International was selected by Giga Solar Materials as the global distributor for its back surface aluminum paste.

Freescale Semiconductor has filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) accusing MediaTek, Zoran and others of patent infringement, the ITC has said by way of an online posting of pending complaints.