Industry News
Developing single-chip RF circuits
Researchers are using microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technology to develop a single-chip RF circuit that integrates discrete functions to reduce weight and cost, according to a Frost & Sullivan report.
[ + ]Making solar electricity cost effective
A solar cell, made of titania nanotubes and natural dye, may be the answer to making solar electricity production cost effective, according to a Penn State University researcher in the US.
[ + ]Room-temperature laser is closer
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have demonstrated the room-temperature operation of a heterojunction bipolar transistor laser, moving it a major step closer to commercialisation.
[ + ]USB microcontroller secures HDD access
Fingerprint recognition technology has been used by Cypress Semiconductor and AuthenTec to introduce a reference design for adding biometric security to external hard disk drives (HDDs).
[ + ]Collaboration on virtual instrumentation
Electronics industry giants, National Instruments and Texas Instruments are collaborating with Spectrum Digital in the development of the TI C55X Power Optimisation DSP Starter Kit (DSK), a DSP design tool to offer designers incorporated test and measurement functionality.
[ + ]Compliance courses
Euro-engineer Keith Armstrong will be returning to Australia and New Zealand in March-April 2006 to present a series of EMC courses to industry and the public, sponsored by EMC Technologies. He will be presenting an up-to-date series of EMC and compliance courses.
[ + ]RoHS training
Non RoHS and WEEE compliant Australian companies that sell into the European Union or have customers who sell into the EU face product bans, fines, penalties and retroactive fees. These financial consequences could prove devastating to small and medium sized enterprises.
[ + ]Looking forward to 2006 and beyond
As we look towards 2006, now would seem a good time to look at what may come up for the industry during the next year and beyond. I have asked some leading players in the electronics field to crystal ball gaze and predict what they see as the problems and the future. This is a selection of some of their views.
[ + ]Fluke acquires LEM
Fluke has acquired LEM Instruments, a division of LEM Group, a European manufacturer of test and measurement equipment including analysers and systems for power quality applications, earth/ground testers, insulation testers, low-resistance ohmmeters, clamp meters and clamp-on power meters. LEM also supplies current probes to the automotive market.
[ + ]Faster Wi Fi gets go ahead
At the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) taskgroup meeting in Hawaii recently, there was an agreement over the next high speed Wi-Fi standard, 802.11n.
[ + ]UPS distributor
Power Parameters has been appointed Australian distributor for the full range of Socomec-Sicon UPS systems.
[ + ]Japanese companies add support for SystemVerilog
The Verification Methodology Manual (VMM) for SystemVerilog has been endorsed by the Semiconductor Technology Academic Research Centre (STARC) and major electronics companies in Japan as a reference to develop advanced verification environments based on the IEEE standard SystemVerilog language.
[ + ]Storage firm combines with SNIA
Hitachi Data Systems has introduced its global customer and partner education initiative at the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) 2006 Winter Symposium.
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