Finance

Intel said today it plans to invest another $2bn to add 65nm process capability to its current Irish fab, as well as construct a new 300mm fab on its campus there. Under an agreement with the Irish Development Authority (IDA), Intel said it intends to add an additional 5,500m² of manufacturing cleanroom space plus the necessary manufacturing equipment to enable ...

Fairchild Semiconductor, along with three distribution companies, is the subject of a new lawsuit filed by telecoms equipment maker Alcatel Canada over alleged defects with chips it sold to the OEM, Fairchild has announced. The suit in Ontario Superior Court of Justice alleges breach of contract, negligence, and other claims and seeks $145m ($200m Canadian). “Fairchild believes it has strong ...

STMicroelectronics aims to hike gross margin by five per cent this year by processing improvements and a shift to Asian manufacturing. “Our target is 40 per cent gross margin by the end of the year,” said Alain Dutheil, corporate v-p for strategic planning. “Our Q1 margin was 35.4 per cent.” The margin improvement relies not on price increases but cost ...

Small and medium-sized companies are being targeted by skills council SEMTA in a drive to encourage the recruitment of an extra 500 engineering apprentices. The scheme, called the Sponsored Advanced Modern Apprenticeship 500+, aims to put an extra 500 people through Advanced Modern Apprenticeships with companies employing less than 250 people. SEMTA employs apprentices on one-year training contracts for initial ...

Cambridge firm signs deal with US company

The World Semiconductor Council (WSC) held its eighth annual meeting in Busan, Korea, on Thursday to address IP, environmental and trade issues. Highlights of the meeting, chaired by Chang Gyu Hwang of Samsung Electronics, included the creation of a new IP taskforce that adopted a policy paper detailing a multi-pronged approach for IP protection of layout designs of ICs. This ...

Small and medium-sized manufacturers are seeing new orders rise for the first time in over three years, according to the latest CBI quarterly survey of SMEs. But the strong pound continues to hit exporters with a hoped-for improvement in overseas orders not coming through. Total orders rose over the past quarter, with 33 per cent of firms saying new orders ...

The Institute of Electrical Engineers is on the lookout for the UK’s most outstanding primary and secondary school teachers for the 2004 IEE National Teacher Awards. The annual awards recognise the enthusiasm, dedication and good practice of teachers who encourage students to develop a keen interest in subjects appropriate to electrical, electronic and manufacturing engineering. Up to 12 awards will ...

Bookham Technology has reaffirmed its commitment to UK manufacturing, despite poor results and plans to move its nominal headquarters and primary stock market listing to the US. “We are not shutting our UK sites,” Bookham CEO Giorgio Anania told Electronics Weekly. There are plans for significant cost-cutting actions this year as the optoelectronic semiconductor device manufacturer sees the strong pound eating ...

The fabless/foundry semiconductor business model is at risk of being swamped by the greater efficiency of their fab-owning rivals, the traditional semiconductor manufacturers. “For fabless companies – if they are not fully supported – it might be very difficult,” Hideo Inayoshi, senior vice president and board director at Renesas Technology, told the Future Horizons IEF 2004 conference in Prague last ...