Toshiba will spend 800 billion yen (US$8.9 billion) to build a new microchip plant, reviving plans that it had put on hold amid sluggish sales, according to the Nikkei business daily. It may start construction of the new factory for NAND flash memory chips as early as this summer, aiming to begin operations in spring 2011.

The prototype solar cells demonstrated a power-conversion efficiency of 9.6%, a 40% gain in efficiency from solar cells built by others using the same or similar widely available materials, said David Mitzi, who leads the research team at IBM Research.

Last summer, TSMC made a surprising decision to use a gate-last deposition method for the high-k/metal gate stack of its 28nm transistors. TSMC'S decision to use a replacement metal gate technique was guided by history, said SY Chiang, in charge of R&D at the foundry.

Micron generated revenues of US$4.8 billion in 2009. According to industry estimates, Numonyx generated about US$1.8B in revenues. The combined revenue will make Micron one of the largest memory suppliers in the world.

While analysts are bullish on Micron Technology's acquisition of Numonyx in a US$1.3 billion stock deal, a lack of details on the takeover and a market in decline had investors shying away Wednesday.

"We didn't use any of Samsung Electronics' copper-based processing technology in our memory lines. Hynix is confident we will be cleared of such allegations in court," CEO Kim Jong-kap told The Korea Times.

That's good news for Samsung, but bad news for its memory rivals that use ASML's tools, such as Elpida, Hynix, IM Flash, Micron, Nanya and others. NAND rival Toshiba is said to use scanners from Nikon.

SMIC would announce a new investment by China's Datang Telecom Technology and Industry Holdings Co., which would continue to invest money in the company through 2010, the source said, declining to be more specific.

Hynix Semiconductor has claimed it has developed a NAND flash memory chip using 26nm process technology, designed to hold 64 gigabits of data.

"We continued to see strong MOCVD demand as LED manufacturers ramp production for laptop and TV backlighting as well as general illumination," said Veeco CEO John Peeler.

"Although netbooks are small today - maybe 10% of the PC market at most - we believe over the next several years that could completely change around and that could be 90% of the PC market...," according to company CEO Warren East.

The world's top two DRAM chipmakers have reiterated their bullish stance toward the market for 2010. But Hynix expressed a slight concern regarding oversupply at a time when rivals are ramping up their production.

Sharp's solar business is on track to turn its first annual profit as the company looks to expand production and forge partnerships with corporations worldwide to expand the use of solar power generation.

"I am hearing rumors that Micron maybe buying Numonyx. This deal would only make sense to give Micron a one stop memory source for wireless and all other applications, especially to satisfy Nokia..."

"I think in the next four years or five years, it's probably going to be the case that NAND will no longer be the storage medium," said a flash memory analyst with Forward Insights. "Everybody's looking at alternatives."

Prosecutors have arrested two executives from Applied Materials in Seoul, South Korea on charges of allegedly stealing Samsung process technology details and passing them on to Hynix.

Intel wants to avoid the cyclical, market share game in the NAND flash chip sector against the likes of Samsung, Hynix and Toshiba. But Intel dropped hints it wants to unseat Samsung as the No. 1 player in SSDs.

European Union regulators are to charge ten memory chipmakers, including Samsung Electronics, Infineon and Hynix Semiconductor, with fixing prices in breach of EU antitrust rules.

Toshiba has announced that Toshiba LSI Package Solutions will transfer its memory backend function from Fukuoka to Yokkaichi, Mie prefecture, in order to be closer to Toshiba's main memory production facility, Yokkaichi Operations. The move will take place by November.

A homeowner could earn up to 900 pounds (US$1,433) each year for a typical 2.5 kilowatt solar PV system and save an additional 140 pounds on their annual electricity bill, according to an announcement by the UK's Department of Energy and Climate Change.

Samyang Optics has said it will sell electric cars produced by US-based ZAP in South Korea from April. It also expects to eventually assemble electric cars using ZAP's technology.

India has seen how the Gulf state of Abu Dhabi has, with a budget of US$10 billion, set about manouvering its way into a key place in the semiconductor industry with the creation of Globalfoundries.

Intel will build PV installations targeted at eight US locations in four states, generating around 2.5 MW, and has increased its renewable energy credit purchases by 10%, powering more than 51% of its estimated US electricity use.

Japanese trading house Marubeni has said it has received an order for 16 Nikon LCD-making machines from China's Beijing BOE Display Technology. The equipment will be installed in the China-based company's 8.5-generation thin film transistor LCD panel production line.

The company, which receives licensing fees from patents of its memory chip designs, lost US$23.3 million compared with a loss of US$15.5 million in fourth-quarter 2008.

Samsung Electronics has overtaken Hewlett-Packard as the world's biggest technology company by sales, a sign of how strongly some South Korean companies have bounced back from the economic downturn.

Creditors rescued Hynix after it almost collapsed in 2001 under the weight of its debts. Spurred on by the company's strong turnround and a brighter outlook for the semiconductor sector, creditors have been anxious to sell to recoup their original investment worth US$4.6 billion.

"Am I setting very aggressive targets? Yes," said Ibrahim Ajami, CEO of Advanced Technology Investment Co., Globalfoundries' controlling shareholder. "We need to be a US$5 billion company in the next two to three years."