3M has announced the completion of a major expansion of 3M's development laboratory and cleanroom located at its headquarters in Saint Paul, Minn. The expansion includes a 300mm CMP tool and defect metrology for product and application development.

It has the same silhouette as a standard light bulb: a white hot-air balloon with a silver, spiral basket. However, on closer inspection, the bulb itself is just a small part of the shape of the LED light. Along the sides are eight curved metal fins, cradling the bulb, designed to cool the device.

Shares of solar LDK Solar Co. jumped 4 percent Wednesday after it signed contracts to supply solar modules to two electric power companies in China.

Everybody has been copying Groupon, so why not the solar power folks? San Francisco officials are rolling out a first-in-the-nation program today where commercial building owners can participate in group purchasing for discounted solar power.

Analysts covering the solar energy technology industry have been reviewing the wares this week at the Intersolar North America industry conference in San Francisco, which started yesterday and ends tomorrow.

Dutch chip lithography manufacturer ASML reported strong sales in the second quarter, but said new orders in the third quarter would be significantly lower, lending weight to reports of slowdowns in the semiconductor industry.

"What foundries are seeing more and more, and what we're seeing overall, is a very tight linkage to consumer demand. All of us are disappointed with demand for PCs this year, and tablets probably will be 20 million units short of what people thought was possible for the year..."

Toshiba and SanDisk on July 12 celebrated the opening of Fab 5, the third 300mm wafer NAND fabrication facility at Toshiba's Yokkaichi Operations in Mie Prefecture, Japan.

Toshiba President Norio Sasaki also said the company is gaining on South Korea's Samsung Electronics in terms of flash memory global market share, though warned that the rivalry could undercut prices.

Globalfoundries will leverage Intermolecular's high productivity combinatorial (HPC) technology to accelerate the creation of process modules that will be integrated into Globalfoundries manufacturing lines worldwide.

LG is seeking to prevent the importation of Osram LED products into Korea, while the ITC has agreed to investigate Osram's complaints against both LG and Samsung. Meanwhile, Nichia has filed a lawsuit against a DIY retailer in Germany.

Yingli has experienced positive growth in the U.S. solar market, with module shipments having notably increased. It also announced the opening of a new R&D facility in San Francisco.

One of the biggest solar panel factories in Europe has been launched in Italy as a U.N. report says photovoltaic modules have become more price-competitive.

The US trade agency has agreed to review a complaint by Freescale against Funai Electric, Funai, Mediatek and Zoran.

There are two key goals for any solar energy equipment makers: converting a greater percentage of the sunlight into electricity and cutting production costs. Suntech Power, which is the world's top solar cell and panel maker, has launched two solar panels built with technologies that can do both, the company said Tuesday.

MIT researchers have shown how solar panels can be printed on paper and other cheap materials, opening a range of possibilities including homes with solar-panel window shades or wallpaper.

The Indian state of Karnataka has published its updated solar policy, which includes a target for 350MW of solar projects by 2016. The Government will allocate 40MW worth of projects for direct sale to the different distribution companies in the state, commonly known as ESCOMS, up to the amount of 200MW. A total of 50MW of bundled solar thermal power will be allotted to state-owned utilities for development. The split between photovoltaic and concentrated solar power (CSP) has not yet been defined.

Aixtron and SINANO signed an agreement to open a training center in Suzhou Industrial Park, China, while Aixtron has also introduced its largest MOCVD reactor to date.

Mitsubishi Electric & Electronics USA, Inc. and Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc. (MMNA) today debuted a solar-powered charging station for electric vehicles at the MMNA headquarters in Cypress, California.

On Friday, representatives from the individual federal states approved the energy law, which was decided on by the German federal government over a week ago.

Tata BP Solar India Ltd, a joint venture of Tata Power and BP Solar, has installed and commissioned a megawatt scale solar power plant under the Rooftop and Other Small Solar Power Generation Plant scheme administered by IREDA under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) for the first time in the country. The plant is coming up in Mayiladuthurai district, Tamil Nadu.

Elpida Memory plans to issue new shares to raise capital, a person familiar with the matter said, without specifying the amount of the equity financing.

Up to a million ARM processors are to be linked together to create a massive computer, called SpiNNaker (Spiking Neural Network architecture) that can simulate the workings of the brain.

Toshiba has announced that it will establish two new technology development centers for hard disk drives (HDD). The "HDD Advanced Technology Center" will seek to accelerate development of higher density technology and the "HDD Manufacturing Technology Center" will develop enhanced manufacturing capabilities. Both will open on July 16th.

STX Group, owner of the world's third-largest marine-engine maker, said it may team up with a Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund to bid for a stake in Hynix Semiconductor.

Phase II of Geosolar's workshop has gone into production. The potential for over 200 new jobs has been created and an extra 180 megawatts (MW) of annual production capacity added.

Investor concern among Italian and foreign photovoltaic operators is said to be running high after rumors emerged that the government would further cut incentives. Despite assurances to the contrary, GIFI says the industry is panicked.

Satcon Technology has released preliminary unaudited results for revenue and gross margin for the second quarter of 2011, which show that the company has revised its gross margin for the quarter downwards from 17-20% to within the 7-11% range. Revenue for the quarter, previously forecasted at between US$50 and US$60 million, now looks set to come in at between US$45 and US$47 million.

Drops in solar cell prices and surging interest in developing nations led to a 32% increase in investments in renewable energy globally in 2010, a United Nations report finds.

FBR Capital analyst Craig Berger asserted in a research note that OmniVision could be at risk of losing its status as the dominant provider of image sensors for the Apple iPhone.

Applied Materials has announced a trio of new systems designed to boost performance in the next generations of DRAM chips. These innovative systems overcome key challenges in fabricating the transistor and contact areas of memory chips.

Korean companies and developers are now able to directly develop or invest in overseas mines for indium and lithium, two rare metals that are used to produce display panels and batteries for electric cars, the government said yesterday.

Scheuten Solar has realized nearly 20 megawatts worth of photovoltaic projects in the first half of the year, in Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands.

Q-Cells' North American subsidiary is gearing up to start work on the last ten megawatt (MW) AC phase of Starwood Energy Group Global's 60 MW photovoltaic project in Ontario.