03/18/2013 

Spansion Inc., a developer flash memory solutions for embedded markets, and XMC, China’s fastest-growing 300mm semiconductor foundry, today announced an expanded partnership, to develop and manufacture Spansion 32nm NOR Flash memory. The agreement expands XMC’s current 300mm manufacturing of Spansion’s proprietary 65nm and 45nm flash memory technology.

03/15/2013 

It’s no secret: the past five years for the IC industry have been full of challenges. From 2007-2013, the IC market grew at an average annual rate of only 2.1%. One of the speakers slated to speak at The ConFab 2013 in Las Vegas has good reason to believe the IC industry is set to emerge from this difficult cycle.

03/15/2013 

Cisco Systems is preparing for a major shift in the industry, as the Internet of Things starts to become a reality. At an annual press event in San Jose, California this week, Cisco officials claimed that the much-anticipated IoT industry could be a $14 trillion opportunity, and they are ready to embrace the change.

03/14/2013 

The U.S. Photovoltaic Manufacturing Consortium (PVMC), an industry-led collaboration headquartered in New York at the SUNY College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE), has partnered with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to improve manufacturing processes for thin film CIGS photovoltaic (PV)  cells and modules, including products, metrology and reliability that will support the U.S. solar industry in the development, manufacturing, and commercialization of next-generation solar PV systems.

03/13/2013 

After reaching a worrisome high in the third quarter of 2012, global semiconductor inventories held by chip suppliers fell at a surprisingly fast rate in the fourth quarter, led by dramatic reductions for market leader Intel Corp.

03/13/2013 

System Plus Consulting analyzed a BAW MEMS Filter manufactured by Avago Technologies, assessing its manufacturing process, costing results and breakdown. With more than 1 billion units produced per year and a market share of 65%, System Plus Consulting found that Avago Technologies clearly dominates the BAW filter market. Avago BAW filters are all-silicon MEMS devices manufactured with Avago's FBAR and Microcap technologies.

03/12/2013 

PC capabilities and market are undergoing a historical deceleration, in another sign of shifting technology markets.

03/11/2013 

According to the latest analysis by Semicast Research, Renesas Electronics was again the leading vendor of semiconductors to the OE automotive sector in 2012, ahead of Infineon Technologies. STMicroelectronics retained its position as third largest supplier, with Freescale fourth and NXP fifth. Semicast calculates that revenues for OE automotive semiconductors grew by 12% to USD $25.5 billion in 2012, while the total semiconductor industry is judged to have declined by almost three percent to USD $292 billion.

03/11/2013 

Lattice Semiconductor Corporation today announced the iCE40 LP384 FPGA, the smallest member of its iCE40 family of ultra-low density FPGAs. Enabling designers to rapidly add new features and differentiate cost-sensitive, space-constrained, low-power products, the new small footprint FPGA is ideal for applications such as portable medical monitors, smartphones, digital cameras, eReaders, and compact embedded systems.

03/08/2013 

Broadcom has been ranked number one vendor in three recent competitive assessments released by ABI Research on wireless connectivity IC markets. One was for overall wireless connectivity ICs, another on Bluetooth ICs, and a final on Wi-Fi ICs.

03/08/2013 

ABI Research finds that Mediatek has delivered the world’s smallest multimode transceiver. Coming just a week after Qualcomm announced its intentions to produce RF front ends for high tier LTE smartphones, Mediatek releases the world’s smallest RF transceiver which is also the world’s first 40nm transceiver.

03/07/2013 

More than 100 representatives from government and the photonics industry convened in Washington, D.C., on February 28 to identify focus areas for a national photonics initiative (NPI), engaging academia, industry, and government in a collaboration to address barriers to continued U.S. leadership in photonics.

03/07/2013 

Over 2,000 industry professionals attended last week’s SPIE Advanced Lithography, where important progress reports were revealed on extreme ultraviolet (EUV), lithography, directed self-assembly (DSA), metrology, and related topics. The event ran February 24-28 in San Jose, California.

03/07/2013 

Semiconductor technology leaders ST and CMP help universities, research labs and companies prototype next generation of Systems-on-Chip.

03/06/2013 

Industry consolidation to just three big DRAM suppliers and a reduction in capital expenditures among these manufacturers helped propel DRAM average selling prices (ASPs) up 13% year over year in January, which contributed to a 19.9% jump in the total memory market and a 6.2% increase for the total IC market in January 2013. 

03/06/2013 

Following a healthy expansion in 2012, the growth of the global automotive semiconductor market will decelerate slightly this year because of a slowdown in the aftermarket and portable navigation device (PND) segments.

03/06/2013 

Diodes Incorporated today announced that it has completed its acquisition of BCD Semiconductor Manufacturing Limited in an all cash deal, valued at approximately $151 million.

03/05/2013 

Korean foundry Dongbu HiTek and French IP provider Cortus are to develop a design platform combining Dongbu HiTek’s embedded flash technology and Cortus processor and peripheral IP.

03/05/2013 

Peregrine Semiconductor Corporation, a fabless provider of high-performance radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs), yesterday announced plans to collaborate with Murata Manufacturing Company on a multisource arrangement for RF switches and other components based on Peregrine’s proprietary UltraCMOS technology

03/04/2013 

Samsung Vice-President Kwon Oh-hyun released a statement today, apologizing for the fatal hydrofluoric acid spill that left one worker dead and four others injured.