A pick of the main stories crossing the ElectronicsWeekly.com News Index this week, from Sumitomo investing in a UK fuel cell start-up, and an explosives detector using silicon MEMS devices, to NXP extending its debt swap and Ericsson demonstrating super broadband...
Friday 20 March
National Semiconductor buys solar power tracker firm
National Semiconductor is building it solar power business and the latest move is the acquisition of Act Solar, which specialises in large scale commercial and utility solar installations.
NEC introduces Spin It! motor control development kit
Mar 20, 2009 - Spin it! is a single-board low-voltage motor control development platform designed specifically for the firm's 16bit 78K0R/Ix3 microcontrollers.
Gennum buys PCIe chip firm Tundra
Gennum has acquired PC interface chipset specialist Tundra Semiconductor for $69.5m.
Thursday 19 March
Sumitomo invests in UK fuel cell start-up Acal Energy
"The investment is in addition to the previously announced £3.3m fundraising round completed at the beginning of December, led by Carbon Trust Investments and Solvay," said Acal.
Premier Farnell looks to web sales as downturn hits profits
Premier Farnell felt the full impact of the economic downturn in the last quarter of the year.
Wednesday 18 March
Nokia cuts costs and 1,700 jobs
Nokia will cut 1,700 jobs in upcoming months in an effort to control costs.
Explosives detector uses silicon MEMS device
Researchers have discovered a way to detect explosives by boiling and vapourising them off a silicon MEMS micromachine.
Ericsson demonstrates super broadband at 500Mbit/s
Ericsson has raised the possibility of radically faster broadband connections by demonstrating that a data rate of 500Mbit/s is possible over copper twisted-pair cable.
Tuesday 17 March
OLED research and manufacturing centre opens in UK
PETEC, the Printable Electronics Technology Centre, officially opens its doors today.
NXP debt swap is extended
NXP, which is trying to repeat the success of the Freescale new-debt-for-old swap, has put back the deadline for accepting the offer from March 16th to March 23rd after getting tenders for under ten per cent of the outstanding debt.
Monday 16 March
NXP bondholders hire lawyers
One of America's oldest law firms, the 217 year-old Wall Street-based Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft, has been hired by NXP's senior bondholders to see if the debt swap by which NXP's lower priority bondholders in NXP were given new bonds with higher priority was illegal under Dutch law.
Elpida buys control of Taiwan DRAM firm Rexchip
Elpida Memory has acquired a portion of the shares its strategic partner Powerchip Semiconductor (PSC) owns in Rexchip Electronics, a Taiwan-based manufacturing joint venture created by PSC and Elpida.
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