Solar installations in the US jumped 85% in the first quarter of 2012 from the previous year, according to an industry report that prompted a research firm and a lobbying group to raise their capacity forecasts for the year.

Microsoft and Samsung continue to fend off rumors that they have any intention of purchasing cell phone maker Nokia.

Germany's aleo solar AG has today announced it will close its solar module factory in Santa Maria de Palautordera, Spain, by the end of the year at the latest. 92 jobs will go.

Chipmaker Cypress Semiconductor has offered to buy smaller rival Ramtron International for about US$87.6 million in cash, revamping a bid it made last year.

Germany may pass legislation to cut solar-power subsidies before July 7 should the government and regional leaders reach a compromise this week, according to an official at the Federal Environment Agency.

Globalfoundries has agreed to manufacture devices for STMicroelectronics using ST's proprietary FD-SOI technology in both the 28nm and 20nm nodes.

May was a record month for solar energy production in Germany, with 4 billion kilowatt hours of electricity generated by the country's solar panels.

Moody's Investors Service downgraded MEMC's corporate family rating to B3 from B2 and its 2019 notes to Caa1 from B3 yesterday, while raising the company's speculative grade liquidity rating to SGL-3 from SGL-4.

The solar power industry has continued to forge ahead in Northwest China's Qinghai province since it topped the list of the province's top 10 major industries in 2010.

Shares of Nokia rose more than 7% Friday on speculation Samsung Electronics might be eyeing a takeover.

LSI has announced several demonstrations of its SandForce SF-2000 flash storage processors using Toshiba 19nm and Intel 20nm NAND flash memory - the most advanced flash memory technology currently available for SSD applications.

Olympus, the Japanese camera maker recovering from an accounting scandal, has announced a five-year plan that includes cutting 2,700 jobs.

Facebook was expected to be the poster child of success when it went public two weeks ago but since its May 18 debut, shares have slid 33% from the initial public offering price of US$38.

Currently head of Samsung's components business, which oversees chips and display, Kwon Oh-hyun will succeed Choi Gee-sung, who is moving to a new role as head of group corporate strategy to focus on future growth engines.

Improving lighting efficiency is an investment in the future. Yet costs have been prohibiting many people from becoming early adaptors of energy efficient commercial lighting such as LED lighting.

Japan's public broadcasting network says new television technology will offer viewers a picture with 16 times the resolution currently available on HDTVs.

Wieberneit has spent more than twenty years in the consumer and communication semiconductor space, serving in different R&D, CTO and GM positions at Trident Microsystems, Micronas and Infineon Technologies.

Multinational semiconductor companies are no longer able to compete with China's fabless chips vendors in the consumer electronics IC business, according to Vincent Tai, CEO of RDA Microelectronics. "It's game over" for them, Tai asserted in a recent interview.

STMicroelectronics is the first company in the world that mass-manufactures MEMS microphones in plastic packages. The patented technology breakthrough saves space and increases durability in consumer and professional voice-input applications, from mobile phones and tablets to noise-level meters and noise-cancelling headphones.

Freescale Semiconductor shares are trading sharply higher after the company this morning named Greg Lowe as CEO effective immediately. He comes to the company from Texas Instruments, where he was senior VP of the analog business.

"In five to eight years they are going to disappear in the way that Yahoo has disappeared," said Eric Jackson, founder of Ironfire Capital while appearing on CNBC's Squawk on the Street.

Call it the tweet that launched a thousand cries of sexism. Electronics company Asus tweeted, then deleted, a photo showing a woman demonstrating one of its products at Computex 2012. The caption of the picture, taken from behind and showcasing the woman's backside, read, "The rear looks pretty nice. So does the new Transformer AIO."

ARM, whose chip designs power most smartphones, expects its processors to account for as much as 20% of those used in notebook computers by 2015, boosted by the release of Microsoft's Windows 8 software.

Problems at two Japanese microchip makers highlight the potential dangers in a gathering effort to reshape the country's tech industry, as struggling conglomerates try to revive their fortunes by shedding unprofitable businesses.