In recent times, copper has been rapidly gaining a foothold as a substitute material for gold in wire bonding. Some of the advantages include superior electrical and thermal conductivity, less intermetallic compound growth and greater mechanical stability.

"We spend many months developing and then fine-tuning the controller and firmware technology for our SSDs, working very closely with most of the major PC OEMs..."

For the quarter ended Aug. 28, Smart Modular reported a loss of US$289,000 compared with a loss of US$3.53 million a year ago. Gross margin rose to 21.4% from 15.5% on the price gains.

Murata Electronics North America has asked the US International Trade Commission to investigate whether two subsidiaries of Samsung Electronics have been importing electronic components into the country that infringe four of its patents covering ceramic capacitors.

Micron's recent performance was "a really strong signal" that things have been improving in the chip market, which had suffered from an industry-wide glut that drove prices into the ground, according to an analyst.

The US solar energy industry hopes to persuade Customs officials to reverse a decision to impose a 2.5% tariff on solar panel imports after more than two decades of duty-free trade in the product, an industry official said on Thursday. In the worst case scenario, US importers of solar panels could face some US$70 million in tariffs and penalties for product already imported this year.

"Of course every transition to a new process has its problems," stated one source who requested anonymity. "We just weren't expecting it to be this slow."

Samsung, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments already use ARM designed chip cores. Intel used to have an ARM license too, but flogged it to Marvell.

Samsung and Hynix sources said strong demand for advanced DRAM or DDR3 chips, has resulted in a price upturn for both DRAM and NAND flash memory chips used in high-end handheld gadgets such as smart phones.

SST (Silicon Storage Technology) has revised its estimates to reflect an improvement in its expected results for the third quarter, ending Sept. 30, 2009.

Like many other chip makers, TI discovered that the cost of Moore's Law–industry shorthand for the race to shrink transistors on digital chips–is too costly for the payoff it brings. It began placing greater emphasis on manufacturing analog chips.

Micron Technology has reported a narrower loss after an industry glut eased and product prices rebounded. DRAM sales increased 28% from the previous three months, helped by an 8% gain in ASP and a 19% rise in shipments.

Toshiba plans to relocate as many as 700 engineers by October to help cut semiconductor-research spending.

With the global economy recovering and chip demand picking up in the seasonally strong second half of the year, many analysts now forecast that Japan's chip suppliers started making money as early as the current fiscal second quarter ending Sept. 30.

MagnaChip Semiconductor is poised to exit from Chapter 11 with the successful conclusion of its financial restructuring which was executed under the supervision of the US Bankruptcy Court.

Uni-chem has signed a MOU to buy Hynix's memory chip plant and the accompanying land in Eugene, Oregon, for US$50 million. It plans to use the plant to make solar cells as part of the company's new business.

Micron Technology will begin to pursue manufacturing of LED devices with the help of a US$5 million federal economic stimulus grant announced Sept. 24.

"Our roadmap for 32nm SOI has not slipped," according to a spokesman for the company. "Yes, the timeframe for introduction has been altered slightly compared to the roadmap we showed you in July, but that is not because of any issues with the technology."

An international solar-related company is in talks with Hynix Semiconductor to buy the South Korea-based company's shuttered computer-chip plant in west Eugene, according to local government and economic development officials.

Neelie Kroes, the European Commissioner in charge of antitrust issues, would undoubtedly be most satisfied to see the Microsoft dossier closed before she goes.

Virtex-5 sales are expected to increase significantly in the September quarter, surpassing 20% of total sales, according to Xilinx. The company is scheduled to report its second quarter financial results on October 14, 2009.

The Numonyx eMMC architecture is comprised of an embedded storage solution with multi-media card interface, flash memory device and host controller – all in a small BGA package. With interface speeds of up to 52MB per second, Numonyx eMMC also allows for an interface voltage of either 1.8V or 3.3V.

Virage Logic and SMIC have jointly announced a RFID optimized version of Virage Logic's AEON multi-time programmable non-volatile memory (NVM) solution. The RFID-optimized NVM solution, ideal for use in passive tags, is being developed on SMIC's 180nm low leakage process.

Seagate Technology now expects revenues for the September quarter to be at or slightly above the high end of its original guidance.

The world's leading semiconductor manufacturers plan to discuss ways to prevent overproduction and enforce fair competition at an industry-wide annual meeting on Jeju Island, according to the South Korean government.