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.

Calling for unity and an end to a "political circus" US President Barack Obama told Republicans to immediately pass a US$447 billion jobs plan to jolt the stalled economy and cheer a disillusioned nation.

The US's biggest industrial companies face an average bill of at least US$100m each over the next five years as they struggle to fill the skills gaps left by the looming retirement of "baby boomer" factory workers.

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.

Austerity measures in rich countries to reduce budget deficits risk triggering economic downturn, Unctad report says. But poorer economies offer GDP growth.

"They've got to sell the company, break it up, do something..."

Facing a frustrated public and a skeptical Congress, President Barack Obama will pitch at least $300 billion in jobs proposals aimed at getting Americans back to work quickly and forcing Republicans to take a share of the responsibility for solving the country's economic woes.

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.

Americans are growing more pessimistic about the economy in the wake of a recession that left a more lasting impression on many families than any other event in the past decade.

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.

German exports fell by 1.8% in July, much more than expected, official figures have shown.

Sony is using CEDIA Expo 2011 here this week to unveil several new high-end ES-series products that are said to achieve new performance excellence levels for the custom and A/V specialty markets.

At this year's IFA International conference in Berlin, ROB RAIKES of the European Digital Market research company - Meko, asks the question,'Where all the OLEDs have gone?'

Profit margins on LCD Televisions have been falling steadily over the last few years, and the 3D TV craze has largely failed to boost them up again. So what's a manufacturer to do? Sharp thinks "Go Bigger".

Digital security provider NagraID Arrow Secure Card (NASC) plans to introduce credit and debit cards equipped with a LCD display to show a one-time password (OTP) for secure online transactions.

As smartphones get larger and buttons disappear, one technology constantly finds itself in the limelight: display technology.

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.

Research In Motion should explore transformational changes, including the breakup or sale of the company...