Ex-AMD boss Hector Ruiz might have been justified in providing confidential information about the company's reorganization to a group being investigated for insider trading but he alone can end the controversy by disclosing why he talked so candidly about his

Driven by strong demand for LEDs, semiconductor equipment vendor Aixtron AG (Aachen, Germany) has exceeded market expectations in Q3. The company raised its outlook and announced a capital increase to fund future growth.

Saying the quarter brought solid growth in demand for chips across all major applications, leading foundry TSMC reported its best revenue and profit numbers in a year.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group has shelved any plans to use the ultrawideband technology it acquired from the WiMedia Alliance when that group decided in March it would fold, and in its place is conducting due diligence on 60 GHz

Automated test equipment vendor Teradyne posted a GAAP net income from continuing operations of $6.7 million on revenue of $262 million for the third quarter, the company said.

Chip makers LSI and Silicon Laboratories reported sharp increases in third-quarter profits and sales that beat Wall Street's expectations.

Continuing a positive trend that is rippling through the broader semiconductor industry, silicon foundries UMC and SMIC posted better-than-expected third-quarter sales. Both companies also reported improved capacity utilization levels approaching 90 percent.

Analog mixed-signal semiconductor vendor Microsemi plans to close its manufacturing facility in Scottsdale, Ariz., by April 2011, eliminating an undisclosed number of jobs.

EDA vendor Cadence Design Systems reported third-quarter sales of $216 million, in line with the company's guidance for the quarter and slightly above consensus analyst estimates for the period.

Verizon Communications Inc. will require OEMs starting in July 2010 to supply thermal models for circuit boards and cabinets for any equipment they want to sell to the carrier as part of a new energy-saving strategy.

If the energy of the engineering students at this year's Solar Decathlon is any indication, the alternative energy field is poised to take off.

Researchers from Intel and its flash memory joint venture, Numonyx, have demonstrated the ability to stack multiple layers of phase-change memory (PCM) arrays within a single die, a breakthrough that could pave the way for PCM to one day displace

Graphics chip vendor Nvidia Corp. has licensed Synopsys' Yield Explorer, a yield management tool said to expedite the discovery and mitigation of yield limiters in leading-edge ICs, to reduce time-to-volume.

Proposals from chip designer Intellon Corp. and white goods giant Whirlpool were among a broad group of 100 projects selected Tuesday to share $34 billion in federal funds to accelerate deployment of smart electric grids.

Silicon Laboratories Inc. has launched a mixed-signal silicon and software initiative for developing human interfaces for touch-, proximity- and ambient light-sensitive devices.

Fujitsu Ltd.'s net income for the fiscal 2009 second quarter jumped to $804 million from $47 million, boosted by a huge increase from gains on the sale of investment securities, which helped to offset the negative impact of a 10

European chipmaker STMicroelectronics NV has licensed the Cortex-A9 MPCore multicore processor from ARM Holdings plc (Cambridge, England) for use in its next-generation set-top-box and digital TV system-on-chip (SoC) ICs.

More semiconductor companies and suppliers reported quarterly sales that beat consensus analyst expectations, including RF Micro Devices, Silicon Storage Technology, Amkor Technology, Actel, National Instruments and Integrated Device Technology.