US consumers have more confidence in the US economy than they have had since the sudden collapse of Lehman Brothers in September, which caused the near-implosion of the global banking system, a survey showed on Friday.

Memory IP specialist Mosaid Technologies and NXP Semiconductors BV have extended their patent license deal. However, troubled and insolvent memory maker Qimonda has terminated the six-year patent licensing agreement between the two companies that came into effect July 1, 2006.

German chipmaker Infineon is in negotiations with the government over state guarantees worth several hundred million euros (dollars), the Welt am Sonntag paper reported Sunday.

Shares of Toshiba opened down 6.9% on Monday after weekend reports that it plans to raise about US$5 billion in capital to bolster its finances, weakened by its loss-making chip operations and tax costs.

Japanese electronics giant Toshiba has said it is to cut a further 3,900 temporary jobs by March 2010 to cope with the global economic downturn. The news came as it said it expected to report a net loss of 350bn yen (US$3.5bn) for the year to March 2009.

Chinese major multicrystalline silicon wafer producer LDK Solar Wednesday announced that it had secured a 200-million-yuan loan from China Development Bank and received approval for a one-billion-yuan credit line from Agricultural Development Bank of China.

The group also has developed a 32nm process and says customers will be able to move to the more power-efficient 28nm technology without a major redesign. Among the members of the joint development alliance is GlobalFoundries, a manufacturing company formed by AMD and Advanced Technology Investment.

Universal Display is showcasingits UniversalPHOLED phosphorescent OLED technology at Finetech Japan's first ever LED/OLED Lighting Technology Exposition.

Chief executives from 28 large corporations, including Google, Cisco, Research in Motion (RIM) and Intel, sent President Barack Obama a letter on Mar. 25, urging him to support the Patent Reform Act of 2009. The problem, they say: Litigation costs and patent infringement damages are stifling innovation.

Annual growth in China's gross domestic product (GDP) slowed in the first quarter of 2009 to 6.1%, the National Bureau of Statistics has announced.

In its third layoff in recent times, silicon wafer supplier MEMC Electronic Materials has cut about 200 more jobs, according to a regulatory filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.