
The Chip Shots blog channels the observations of Fabtech's and PV-Tech/Photovoltaic International's Senior Contributing Editor--USA, Tom Cheyney, a 20-year veteran of semiconductor, advanced micro/nanoelectronics, and solar manufacturing trade journalism. For 15 years, Tom was editor in chief of MICRO (the original home of Chip Shots) until it ceased publication in July 2006. Tom calls Los Angeles home.
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26 October 2009

Farhad Moghadam loves to make semiconductor analogies when he talks
about his corner of solar photovoltaics. The former Applied Materials
and Intel exec is wearing a new hat these days as he marks his third
month as president/CEO of Ascent Solar. The
company just announced its latest conversion efficiency numbers
for its copper-indium-gallium-(di)selenide thin-film PV cells (14.1%
peak) and modules (11.7% peak, 10.5%-plus median) and will be ramping
its roll-to-roll CIGS-on-polyimide process to volume scale in
its Thornton, CO, factory early next year.
Read more >>
04 August 2009

Rudolph Technologies' acquisition of Adventa Control Technologies for an undisclosed wad of cash has immediate implications for those trying to keep their semiconductor manufacturing processes, equipment, and factories under tight control. ACT's software lurks in some 80% of those fabs, with somewhere upwards of 18,000 of its systems installed. The buy certainly won't hurt Rudolph's bottom line either, as the addition of ACT should double the revenues of the company's data analysis and review biz unit. But the move by Rudolph, which launched its own photovoltaic-specific Solar Discover process control and yield management package earlier this year (and which is already an option on Spire's turnkey cell lines), may also end up benefitting the PV production crowd. To read the rest of the blog,
click here to go to pv-tech.org.
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10 September 2008

The news has been grim
for Lehman Brothers today, but one part of the giant investment bank
that's doing yeoman work is its solar energy equity research group, led
by analyst Vishal Shah. His daily email newsletter and periodic reports
are some of the most informative and cogent in the space.
Read more >>
09 September 2008
Since its inception, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., better known as
SMIC,
has pursued an aggressive plan to join the elite chip foundry
companies. During the Chinese firm's chase of the big two--TSMC and
UMC--it passed Chartered to ascend to the number-three slot a couple of
years ago, although it has been nip and tuck with the Singaporean
concern since then, alternating between third and fourth place. But the
one cornerstone of SMIC's gameplan where it has failed miserably is one
of the most basic to any business model--profitability.
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08 September 2008

National Semiconductor may have seen net income slip a bit in
its latest quarterly results,
but Brian Halla and his team have shown no erosion in their excitement
over the company's initial product foray into the photovoltaics market
space, launched in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008: SolarMagic.
Read more >>