Finance

Austria-based analogue semiconductor manufacturer, ams has announced that a US District Judge has awarded its US subsidiary, ams-TAOS  damages of $77m from Intersil, including $10m in exemplary damages. The decision comes after jurors in the federal Eastern District of Texas found in favour of ams-TAOS on all claims against Intersil for misappropriation of ams-TAOS’ trade secrets and breach of a ...

Apple has been ordered to pay damages of $234m to the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s patent licensing research unit.

ST’s digital products division (DPG) has attracted interest from a potential acquirer, reports the French business magazine Challenges. However the potential acquirer may be no more welcome to ST employees than he is to the French finance ministry. The possible buyer is Yazid Sabeq, a former Commissioner for Diversity under the government of Nicolas Sarkozy who bought the French foundry ...

ARM has joined SRC’s Global Research Collaboration (GRC) programme. Research in the GRC programme focuses on current semiconductor industry priorities, including the continued scaling of semiconductor technologies and finding diverse applications for them. The programme has also expanded into new areas, including cybersecurity, technologies at the convergence of semiconductors and biology, novel approaches to energy-efficient computing, and the Internet of ...

ARM is positioning its top-end graphics IP – the Mali T-880 – as a virtual reality (VR) engine. “Smartphones are as big as we want them to be but more computational power is needed in the graphics and display to get more realism,” Mark Dickinson, ARM’s graphics general told electronics Weekly. “We want quality of pixels not quantity of pixels.” Although VR ...

Despite alarm about the state of semiconductor inventories, particularly from the foundries, Bill Jewell’s Semiconductor Intelligence says that: “Semiconductor inventories appear to be under control throughout the semiconductor device supply chain.” At the semiconductor manufacturers inventory ratios have been stable for eighteen months, says Jewell Exceptions are Intel and Qualcomm where lower revenues caused Intel’s inventory ratio to go from ...

The French business weekly magazine Challenges reports that the future of ST’s digital division is now in the hands of President Francois Hollande. The French Economics Minister and the Defence Minister have reviewed the possible divestment or closure of Crolles, the Finance Ministry has had its say, the CFE-CGC union has been to see Hollande’s advisers and now the decision ...

Memsstar, the Livingston manufacturer of MEMS manufacturing equipment has secured a significant funding deal with Santander supported by a guarantee from UK Export Finance. Memsstar makes etch and deposition systems for MEMS manufacturing. It also represents SMEs in a range of European funding programmes. Memsstar exports around 90% of its products and is looking to capitalise on this momentum in ...

Plessey is to carry out a major expansion of the company’s LED manufacturing facility in Plymouth, after securing a £30 million loan from Deutsche Bank. The £60 million expansion will provide the base for new solid state lighting technologies and products, increasing the Company’s production capabilities by a factor of 30, more than tripling its workforce to about 535 employees ...

Q3, traditionally the industry’s strongest quarter, will not be a good quarter for the Big Three Taiwanese foundries, reports Digitimes Research. The combined revenues of TSMC, UMC and VIS (Vanguard International Semiconductor) will be 0.8% down q-o-q and 3.7% down y-o-y. Q3 revenues are expected to be $8.03 billion compared to Q2’s $8.09 billion and the $8.33 billion of Q3 ...