Toshiba may invest 200 billion yen (US$2.2 billion) to expand production of NAND flash memory by about 40% in April 2010, the Nikkan Kogyo newspaper reported without citing anyone.

Korea Exchange Bank said on December 20 that the creditors of Hynix Semiconductor will send out invitations to Korean companies Monday (Dec. 21) to seek bids for their combined 28% stake in the chip maker.

Mixed-signal foundry LFoundry (Landshut, Germany) plans to acquire Atmel's fab in Rousset, France, the site of recent worker unrest. CEO Michael Lehnert said the proposed acquisition will make LFoundry the largest analog foundry in Europe.

Thin-film integrated passive devices (IPDs) have the potential to extend wafer-level packaging and through-silicon via (TSV) technology to many IC package solutions and the discrete passive component industry. This market could expand from US$600 million this year to reach beyond US$1 billion by 2013.

Micron Technology has announced that it will voluntarily transfer its stock exchange listing from The New York Stock Exchange to the NASDAQ Global Select Market effective Dec. 30, 2009.

Shares of LDK Solar plunged further on December 18 as the Chinese solar panel maker priced at a deep discount an equity offering that it said is part of the capital raise it needs to continue operating.

Singapore regulators have approved a takeover offer by Abu Dhabi's Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC), which made a bid for Chartered in September.

Melloy, which produces 550 tonnes of castings mainly for the automotive industry, took steps to reduce its carbon emissions and save money by investing in greener technology. It says its customers are receiving the same quality product produced with a massive 45% less carbon.

First Solar has forecast 2010 profits of US$6.05-6.85 per share on revenues of US$2.7-2.9 billion. The Company said it plans to invest US$365 million of capital to add two production plants, consisting of four manufacturing lines each, to meet a demand pool.

First Solar has manufactured and shipped more than 1-gigawatt (GW) of its photovoltaic (PV) solar modules in 2009, becoming the first PV company to attain this production volume in a single year, according to the company.

Standard lithography uses a set of masks to create a pattern of structures in a photoresist that's exposed to ultraviolet light. The Taiwan team's process eliminates both the masks and the photoresist, relying instead on a metallorganic gas, an organic molecule studded with atoms of platinum.

In a second management revamp this year aimed at speeding up decision making, South Korea's Samsung Electronics named a new CEO and promoted Jay Y. Lee, son of former group chairman Lee Kun-hee, to the new post of chief operating officer.

Non-volatile memory supplier Numonyx could add a refresh cycle to its chalcogenide phase-change memory to allow it to work at elevated temperatures.

The Korean government and private sector will jointly inject 58.4 billion won (US$50.5 million) over the next three years into building up the local semiconductor manufacturing equipment sector, according to government officials.

Panasonic, which runs a hybrid and electric car battery joint venture with Toyota, has secured a controlling stake in rechargeable battery maker Sanyo.

The sector's recovery depends on what happens at the global climate change summit taking place in Copenhagen and incentives for the renewable resource in China, according to Mark Pinto, CTO and general manager of Applied's Energy and Environmental Solutions group.

Elpida Memory may post its first annual operating profit in three years as growth in demand outpaces industry production, according to company CEO Yukio Sakamoto.

Hynix Semiconductor plans to invest about 2.3 trillion won (about US$2 billion) in its semiconductor business – 1.5 trillion won in DRAM and 800 billion won in NAND flash memory and logic – in 2010, a 130% jump from one trillion won this year.

Xilinx and Altera, which together control more than 85% of the programmable logic market, are poised to grow twice as fast as the broader semiconductor industry going forward, according to a Wall Street analyst.

Europe's top antitrust regulator agreed to end its investigation of memory chip maker Rambus on December 9, after the firm agreed to change the way it licenses its industry-standard technology.

Hynix is slated to boost its production capacity of NAND flash memory at its 12-inch, Cheongju fab (M11) to 90,000 wafers per month in 2010 from the current level of 45,000 units, according to industry sources.

Samsung doesn't get it. The foundry sector is a service business. It has nothing to do with churning out cheap and simple commodities like memories.