Seagate alleged that Western Digital and a former Seagate employee misappropriated confidential information and trade secrets.

Samsung Electronics America, Inc., a market leader and award-winning innovator in consumer electronics and home appliances, today announced the availability of Samsung's first LED lighting solutions for the U.S. consumer market. Available through Lowe's, Samsung's initial product lineup for US households includes A19, PAR20/30/38 and MR16 bulbs--all designed to easily replace traditional incandescent, halogen and CFL bulbs throughout the home.

Chinese solar panel makers plan to shift some of their production to South Korea, Taiwan and the United States in hopes of defusing a trade case pending against them in Washington, according to industry executives.

Germany's Economy Ministry released a paper on Thursday with a proposal to reduce the growth of new photovoltaic installations to 1,000 megawatts (MW) a year, a move that would dethrone the country as the world's largest market for solar panels.

Germany's Environment Ministry on Friday dismissed a proposal from the Economy Ministry to reduce the growth of new photovoltaic installations to 1,000 megawatt (MW) a year, saying a 15-percent cut for 2012 was enough for now.

Japan's exports fell for the first time in three months, indicating that the yen's appreciation and financial turmoil in Europe are slowing the nation's recovery from the March disaster.

Toyota Motor said it had restored vehicle output in Japan to "near-normal levels" on Monday, after severe flooding in Thailand disrupted supply chains.

"This is going to take a lot longer than people are assuming, until the end of 2012 at least..."

Nokia is to move its head office to London as part of the turnaround of the struggling Finnish firm.

Researchers have designed a new computer chip that mimics synaptic plasticity-how a brain's neurons adapt in response to new information.

Under fire from angry Republicans, US Energy Secretary Steven Chu denied Thursday that now bankrupt solar panel firm Solyndra leveraged political ties to President Barack Obama for a government loan.

China Sunergy Co. (CSUN) swung to a third-quarter loss despite a jump in sales as the Chinese solar-products maker saw its margins plunge into negative territory amid falling solar panel prices.

China-based module provider JinkoSolar has today revealed plans to install a 5MW solar plant in the UK with AEE Renewables.

ARM expects the semiconductor industry to grow by "a few percent" in 2012, but its licensing growth will be slower after an exceptionally strong year in 2011, its senior executive said on Thursday.

Since entering into a global distribution agreement in February 2011, Arrow and SiTime have been actively promoting MEMS oscillators and clock generators in the Asian market to drive the replacement of quartz crystal products with silicon MEMS.

Nokia is planning to launch a Windows-running tablet during the summer of 2012, the head of Nokia France said in an interview with a French newspaper.

Apple's move to standardize on Qualcomm baseband chips will be helpful in bringing LTE to the iPhone and iPad in 2012 thanks to Qualcomm's next-generation mobile device modem chips. The company announced recently that updated chips with integrated LTE and 3G support will offer greater power efficiency for mobile devices, a sticking point that has so far kept Apple from offering compatibility with high-speed LTE networks.

Applied Materials has forecast first-quarter sales and profit that fell short of analysts' predictions, a sign that semiconductor makers are scaling back expansion plans.