A senior Chinese official has said China wants to produce one-fifth of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2020, a significant increase on the current target.

Aviza Technology announced that is has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as it goes ahead with efforts to sell certain of its assets to Sumitomo Precision Products.

Once completed, Globalfoundries' Fab 2 project is expected to create more than 6,400 direct and indirect jobs in the region.

Japan's core machinery orders, a closely watched indicator of the health of the economy, fell by 5.4% in April.

Compound Semiconductor Technologies (CST) Global, the Scottish foundry company, is to upgrade its manufacturing equipment thanks to new financing.

Germany-based concentrated photovoltaics (CPV) pioneer Concentrix Solar says that its plant in southern Spain is now consistently delivering the record power efficiency first achieved a year ago.

"We are in discussions with some local and foreign companies for possible cooperation. There might be some different business styles," ProMOS Vice-President Ben Tseng told Reuters.

Spansion and Samsung Electronics are set to resume their legal dispute after a bankruptcy judge rejected a $70 million patent settlement between the two companies.