Texas Instruments Inc has won the support of the US International Trade Commission in its battle to assert its chip packaging patent rights: the Commission has ordered Analog Devices Inc, Cypress Semiconductor Corp, Integrated Device Technology Inc, LSI Logic Corp and VLSI Technology Inc from using the technology, which means that they may have to suspend deliveries until they switch to a new packaging technology: the patent covers the insertion of liquid plastic into the cavity under the circuit; the Trade Commission is involved because the chips in question are packaged in third countries and imported or reimported into the US; the order must be approved by President Bush before taking effect – but the companies say that few of their parts now use the technology.
