Microcontrollers are commonly considered by designers to be one of the easiest products to use due to their simple programming language, wide peripheral set and price/performance value. They are heavily used in products from washing machines to motor vehicles.

This article by LX Innovations outlines the process of electronics design and points out some of the various common pitfalls that can be encountered and ways they can be avoided.

Invited by the Taiwanese government to see how some of the country’s electronic components are made, I joined an international party of journalists for a series of factory-guided tours round plants making products ranging from miniature cameras to plugs and interconnects. This is the second and final report of that trip.

IMEC has shown that spectroscopic ellipsometry can be used to measure Si substrate loss after ion implantation. With decreasing device dimensions, the need for this kind of metrology has become more and more important.

The MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) business continues to be driven by innovation. Following the demand for MEMS devices for mobile phones, users want to have smaller, higher performance and less costly dies.

Adding voice to an embedded project can enhance the user experience of a product. Commands can be confirmed, statuses can be announced and temperatures can be read aloud.

In an effort to build a nanoscale DNA sequencer, IBM scientists are drilling nano-sized holes in computer-like chips and passing DNA strands through them to read the information contained within their genetic code.

ETH Zurich researchers have created an optical transistor from a single molecule, bringing them one step closer to an optical computer.

IMEC has achieved promising results in the race to scale CMOS to 22 nm and below.

A tiny grid pattern has led materials scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Institute of Solid State Physics in Russia to an unexpected finding - the surprisingly strong and long-range effects of certain electromagnetic nanostructures used in data storage.

A team of researchers, from the University of Surrey in England and two other institutions, has been awarded a grant of around $754,000 to develop ultra-small-scale silicon structures for ‘spintronic’ semiconductors.

Recently completed market analysis conducted by NanoMarkets and published in its recent study ‘Conductive Coatings Markets: 2009 and Beyond’ indicate that the fastest growing opportunity in the conductive coatings market is in the area of nanomaterials.

Engineers at Leeds are developing a way to capture the kinetic energy produced when soldiers march and use it to power their equipment.

Computer scientists have developed a way of cloning facial expresssions during live conversations to help us better understand what influences our behaviour when we communicate with others.

European researchers have developed novel concept devices using ferromagnetic semiconductors.