Germany will account for a reduced 40 percent of world demand in 2011, but that will be offset by growth in the U.S., Italy, France, the Czech Republic and others countries. The global demand for the solar market should grow 20 percent next year to 17.7 gigawatts.

Companies from China are increasingly setting up shop in the U.S. to avoid trade barriers and to learn better ways to prosper in their fiercely competitive home market

A few days old, but still worth reading. Maybe the real application for solar power isn't giant farms in Germany but solar power kits to villages in India and sub-Saharan Africa.

Toshiba announced it has acquired Fujitsu's shareholding in Toshiba Storage Device and turned the JV its wholly-owned subsidiary. Toshiba and Fujitsu merged their HDD businesses in October 2009.

Analog Devices (ADI) has announced the US ITC ruled decisively in favor of the company in its lawsuit against Knowles Electronics.

This agreement covers the use of Rambus patented innovations in a broad range of logic IC products offered by Renesas Electronics.

Sony has announced plans to invest approximately 100 billion yen (US$1.2 billion) over the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012, to double its production capacity for CCD and CMOS image sensors. The investment plan includes the transfer of a plant from Toshiba.

Intel was expected to be a capital spending and production partner in the Singapore fab. However, Intel "is not participating" in terms of capital spending in the Singapore fab, said Micron CEO Steve Appleton. Still, over time, analysts said that Micron will go it alone in NAND and without its partner, Intel.

Hynix has completed development of a 30nm-class DRAM chip, with volume production slated for the first quarter of 2011, according to company CEO Kwon Oh-chul.

As part of the strategy for transforming the system LSI business and securing an asset light business model, Toshiba has signed a MoU with Sony, expressing the intent to dissolve Nagasaki Semiconductor Manufacturing (NSM) and to transfer 300mm wafer fabrication lines there from Toshiba to Sony.

Elpida Memory intends to launch capital tie-up talks with Taiwan firms that are currently the world's sixth- and seventh-biggest DRAM chipmakers. Elpida president Yukio Sakamoto plans to visit Taiwan early next month (January 2011) to start the talks and hopes to reach a deal by the end of the company's fiscal year, according to sources.

Dow Chemical plans to push its game-changing "solar shingle" technology, which installs on roofs like ordinary shingles but can generate electricity from sunlight, into commercial markets in 2011, which will bring the largest U.S. chemical manufacturer into an entirely new and lucrative market.

BYD's first plug-in car, the F3DM, has arrived in California where it will be used in a pilot project by the Los Angeles Housing Authority. The F3DM has 40-60 miles of electric range and 300 miles of gasoline range, and in a unique feature, drivers can specify whether the gas engine assists the electric motor.

The six-member commission has said it will not review an October finding by ITC judge Charles Bullock that Samsung didn't violate Spansion patent rights, according to a posting on the Washington-based agency's website.

Toshiba will outsource fabrication of system chips to South Korea's Samsung Electronics, freeing up resources for its memory chip operations, the Nikkei business daily has reported.

Sony plans to buy back a Nagasaki semiconductor plant from Toshiba for about 50 billion yen (US$597.2 million) to double output capacity for image sensors used in smartphones and other devices, the Nikkei business daily reported recently.

The amount of noise coming out of Germany about proposed additional solar feed-in tariff cuts is an annual rite of passage -- and period of unrest -- for solar investors. Yet there's been a major change of tone this year in the battle of the future level of installations in the solar sector's leading market.

China is defending its subsidies for wind and solar power against a U.S. complaint to the World Trade Organization that such support is unfair, but says it will work to resolve the dispute.

Micron Technology said it expects prices for NAND to drop another 10% in the current quarter but pointed to signs of improvement as demand for the chips used in smartphones, tablets and solid-state hard drives grows.

The upgrade reflects improving 2011 prospects for NAND flash memory demand, driven by tablets, smartphones and solid-state drives. The improving demand picture offsets concerns about higher supply due to new NAND fabs from Samsung, Toshiba and Micron expanding production in 2011.

Auriga analyst Daniel Berenbaum has reiterated a Buy rating on Micron Technology and an US$11 price target, writing that the company's in much better shape to weather plunging DRAM prices.

Shares of Tessera Technologies, which owns and makes money licensing numerous patents for combing computer chips together, are up 7% at US$22.09 after an appeals court ruled in favor of the company in its suit against Qualcomm, Spansion and STMicroelectronics.

The decreased sales guidance is primarily related to weaker than anticipated sales to a few large communications customers, specifically in the wireless segment, according to the company.

Germany's solar energy industry is open to accelerating part of a reduction in subsidies should installations grow too quickly, a lobby group said.

A look at the big events and trends in a pivotal year for the solar power industry.

"Chip prices remained strong until the first half of this year, but they dropped sharply, especially during the fourth quarter," CEO OC Kwon said in a recent interview. "Due to the sharper-than-expected fall, a considerable decline in both our sales and profit is inevitable in the fourth quarter."

Globalfoundries and the Institute of Microelectronics (IME), a research institute of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research, are joining hands to develop MEMS capacitive sensor platform technology for power-efficient and highly sensitive motion sensing applications that are relevant to consumer electronics, automotive and aerospace industries.

Copper advanced for a third day from London to Shanghai on optimism the economic recovery in the US remains on track, boosting the demand outlook for the metal amid supply disruptions at the world's third-largest copper mine.

ISO/TS 16949, in conjunction with ISO 9001, defines the quality management system requirements for the design and development, production and, when relevant, installation and service of automotive-related products.

Imagination will pay US$27 million cash for Caustic Graphics. The deal comes less than a month after the chip designer agreed a deal to buy US-based HelloSoft for up to US$47m to assist its push into video and voice-over Internet protocol products and expand its WiFi offering.