Ann Steffora Mutschler

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Capital spending: can it get worse?

After last week’s Wall Street plunge , it was a relief to receive word that all was not lost at least at Lehman Brothers as C.J. Muse, semiconductor equipment/display technologies analyst there continued to send out his reports. With word of a number of fab closures, sales and cutbacks as well as floundering equipment sales , Muse said in a report Friday that in terms of... More

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ST selling 8-inch Phoenix fab to Chartered?

Last year at about this time STMicroelectronics disclosed that it would close three of its manufacturing operations over the next two to three years, which followed the decision to spin-off its flash memory business in December 2006. The plants set to close were a 6-inch (150-mm) wafer fab in Carrollton, Texas, an 8-inch (200-mm) fab in Phoenix, Arizona and its back-end packaging and test... More

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Canadian province investing in solar-grade silicon maker

Ontario, Canada is jumping on the green bandwagon. The province is seeking to create new jobs in green industries by investing nearly $8 million in solar-grade silicon maker 6N Silicon in order to create sustainable solar energy industry jobs for skilled workers. The investment comes as part of 6N’s $50 million expansion that includes a new manufacturing plant in Vaughan, Ontario,... More

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Industry says ‘no’ on 450-mm wafer size, but no pushback on Intel

I’m starting to wonder what the real story is behind all the talk on the 450-mm wafer size. I’m here at Semicon West in San Francisco this week, where ‘450’ is the buzz everywhere you turn, with most equipment vendors saying they won’t go down that path. SEMI recently released a report on the economics of a 450-mm wafer transition and concluded that for... More

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Non-US solar market may hold more promise due to US economy

Given the poor state of the economy in the US, and with the situation likely to get worse for the semiconductor industry, companies supplying to customers located outside the US may have a better likelihood of business growth. Clearly, Germany leads the world in its acceptance and implementation of solar energy with although other big solar-supporting countries such as Spain and Italy, are... More