Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA in Stuttgart have developed a new device that will improve patients’ hearing and can be implanted during outpatient surgery. [ + ]

Scientists have answered a question that worries millions of owners and potential owners of electric and hybrid vehicles using lithium-ion batteries: how long before the battery pack dies, leaving a sticker-shock bill for a fresh pack or a car ready for the junk heap? [ + ]

Researchers at the UPNA/NUP-Public University of Navarre have produced a prototype of a self-cooling thermoelectric device that achieves ‘free’ cooling of over 30ºC in devices that give off heat. [ + ]

As the capacity of handheld devices increases to accommodate a greater number of functions, these devices have more memory, larger display screens and the ability to play higher definition video files. [ + ]

ABB, the global power and automation technology group, has won an order worth around $150 million to supply converter transformers, DC (direct current) filter capacitors and key components for converter valves for the world’s highest capacity power link in China. [ + ]

Chemists at The Ohio State University have developed the technology for making a one-atom-thick sheet of germanium and found that it conducts electrons more than 10 times faster than silicon and five times faster than conventional germanium. [ + ]

MathWorks has announced that the Semiconductor Technology Academic Research Center (STARC) in Japan has selected and certified Matlab, Simulink and Embedded Coder as the preferred tools for model-based design in its new STARCAD-AMS design flow. [ + ]

Premier Farnell and Cypress Semiconductor Corp have announced that customers can now pre-order the PSoC 4 Pioneer Development Kit from element14. [ + ]

NIZO food research, an independent research centre in Europe, and the electronic oral drug delivery company Medimetrics have joined forces by developing a technology to sample from the small intestine in a non-invasive way - using the latest microelectronics. [ + ]

Thomson Industries has appointed Treotham Automation Australia and New Zealand as the exclusive distributor for their complete range of precision linear actuators. [ + ]

Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS in Dresden have developed a new design that increases the charge cycles of lithium-sulfur batteries by a factor of seven. [ + ]

Plessey Semiconductors and Alphatec have signed a distribution agreement for the Greater China market. [ + ]

Among the challenges of producing tightly packed computer chips is the need to prevent warpage of the underlying silicon wafer as electronics components are stacked on it. Now a new modelling technique can help. [ + ]

ASTC (Australian Semiconductor Technology Company) has appointed Mario Cavaiuolo as VP of ASIC Turnkey Design Solutions. His new charter is delivering turnkey ASIC consulting services to electronics companies in Australia, New Zealand and worldwide for their competitive advantage. [ + ]

Customised sensors monitor and control the robotic drilling arm that is boring into the Martian surface. [ + ]