
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.
View MICRO Magazine archive.
07 July 2008
Solar energy has seen its stock rise in popular culture, not just in
the marketplace. The latest photovoltaic penetration showed up in this
weekend's Sunday comics section, courtesy of the sociopolitical satire
strip,
Opus, inked by Berkeley Breathed.
Read more >>
07 July 2008
While some observers of the nanoscale have lamented the impending final
chapter of scanning electron microscopy's scalability,
FEI has been busy pushing the workhorse analytical tool's capabilities.
The
roll-out of its Magellan family of "extra-high-resolution" (XHR) SEMs marks
a huge milestone for the Hillsboro, OR-based company, a product launch
of such magnitude that the firm's lawyers insisted I sign a multipage
nondisclosure agreement last week before they'd allow me to conduct any
prelaunch interviews.
Read more >>
02 July 2008
With the four-day July 4th Independence Day weekend about to kick off
here in the States, it's time for a preholiday sampling of some WWW
goodies in the semiconductor and solar PV domains.
Read more >>
01 July 2008
Many corporate newsletters offer little more than an informercial-like
experience, with so-called technical or market information that often
comes off like a frozen-smiled, pat-oneself-on-the-back excuse for real
content. But can you honestly expect something from a company's
corporate communications cabal to provide the objective quality and
unshakeable editorial integrity of something like, say, this blog or
the publication website on which it is published? A site, btw, which
would not have the financial means to exist if not for the advertising
monies that some of those same companies spend to reach the eyeballs of
the most important constituency--the visitor-reader? But I digest....
Read more >>
30 June 2008
Although there were plenty of "me-too" technologies discussed at the
recent IntertechPira Photovoltaic Summit in San Diego, one start-up
outfit's approach offers more disruptive potential than most thin-film
PV wannabes.
Wakonda Technologies, based
in Fairport, NY (but soon moving to larger digs near Boston), has been
working for about three years on an intriguing TFPV
variant--high-efficiency germanium and gallium-arsenide-based cells
made on a flexible metal-foil substrate which is potentially scaleable
to high-volume roll-to-roll manufacturing.
Read more >>
26 June 2008
Although SVTC has been dabbling in photovoltaics for awhile with a few
customers, it really got serious about the PV space when it f
ormed the SVTC Solar unit in
late April. The process development foundry hired solar vet Kurt Laetz
to run the operation, leased 87,000 square feet of cleanroom, lab, and
office space in the Edenvale Redevelopment Project Area of San Jose
(now home to several PV concerns), and said it expected to be fully
operational by the end of 2008, with a goal of working with 25-30
companies of varying sizes within three years.
Read more >>