"Complaints over dropped calls and choppy Web connections on Apple's iPhone 3G have sparked a wave of debate...Nomura said problem involves a communications chip made by Infineon...As much as the chip may be the chief problem, glitches may also stem from Apple's software or the AT&T network..."

The inverted metamorphic triple-junction solar cell was designed, fabricated and independently measured at NREL. The 40.8% efficiency was measured under concentrated light of 326 suns. One sun is about the amount of light that typically hits Earth on a sunny day. The new cell is a natural candidate for the space satellite market and for terrestrial concentrated photovoltaic arrays, which use lenses or mirrors to focus sunlight onto the solar cells.

..the 3G iPhone has poor reception and forces him to spend more time on the 2.5G EDGE network than he thought, but the issue may be with Infineon’s 3G chip, according to Richard Windsor, an analyst with Nomura Securities. In a research note today, he said: “We believe that these issues are typical of an immature chipset and radio protocol stack where we are almost certain Infineon is the 3G supplier.” That comment might cheer AT&T, but it's bad news for Infineon, and perhaps a warning to the chip industry about quality control...

Glass maker Schott AG plans to double its investments into its R&D and manufacturing facility based in Alzenau, Germany. The company has announced to move the headquarters of its solar business from Alzenau to the Schott group headquarters in Mainz. The move aims at freeing up space for expansion in Alzenau, said Marting Hemig, general manager of Schott AG subsidiary Schott Solar.

According to Numonyx employees, the memory spin-off from Intel and STMicroelectronics is to close its R&D center in Santa Clara, known as the California Technology Center (CTC). Continued price declines and weakening macro-economic climate is forcing Numonyx to restructure, forcing the company to close facilities and reduce its headcount. Employees at the CTC were told of the closure last Tuesday, which is believed to come into effect by April, 2009. According to the Numonyx sources,

As it did in Round One, Broadcom has prevailed in Round Two of a GPS patent dispute with SiRF Technology, as a US ITC (International Trade Commission) judge Friday ruled that SiRF products infringe six patents belonging to Global Locate, a wholly owned Broadcom subsidiary.

...Well, 32-bit microcontrollers, especially multi-core designs with sophisticated peripherals, are in many ways highly flexible ASSPs. That is really a more accurate characterization than to call them MCUs in anything but a purely architectural sense. As such, they can compete against ASSPs from fabless semiconductor vendors. But they can also compete against FPGAs, offering lower design time, higher performance, much better power consumption, and much lower price for large designs...

..The company had lowered estimates for earnings because customers were delaying some orders and it had some production disruptions in the Philippines that cut about $10 million to $15 million from its earnings. In looking forward, Amkor said there could be continued weakness in demand because of problems in global consumer markets. It called for third-quarter sales to be up between 4 percent and 6 percent from the second quarter and a net income producing between 24 cents and 28 cents per share.

Tokyo Electron Ltd. is now expected to generate a group operating profit of about 70 billion yen (US$652.05 million) for the year ending in March, down 58 per cent on the year and short of an earlier forecast for 84 billion yen. Chipmakers are scaling back capital spending, reducing orders for Tokyo Electron's equipment more steeply than expected.

IC Insights' recent research uncovered a big shakeup in the 1H08 top 20 semiconductor supplier ranking. There are eight US companies in the top 20 (including three fabless semiconductor suppliers), six Japanese, three European, two South Korean, and one Taiwanese company (IC foundry supplier TSMC) in the ranking. As shown, it required at least US$2.1 billion in 1H08 sales to make the top 20 ranking. Although the top four ranked companies remained the same, there were a number of "movers and shakers" up and down the remainder of the ranking.

Continuing on its acquisition spree, KLA-Tencor has entered into an agreement to acquire the inspection business unit of Vistec Semiconductor Systems. Meanwhile, the acquisition expands KLA-Tencor's product portfolio. Vistec's advanced mask metrology tools for registration metrology are among the leading products in this area. Other Vistec products include macro defect-inspection systems, overlay-measurement systems for MEMS applications, and software packages for defect classification and data analysis.