The universities of Cambridge, Edinburgh, Oxford and Warwick, along with University College London, will lead the Alan Turing Institute, which will be based at the British Library in London. The Institute is intended to position the UK as a leader in the analysis and application of big data and algorithm research.Business Secretary Vince Cable,...

FPGA vendor Lattice Semiconductor has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Silicon Image for $600million. Darin Billerbeck, Lattice's president and chief executive officer said the move was a transformative event for both companies. "For the first time in the semiconductor industry, a single company will combine the design flexibility...

A new class of low saturation voltage IGBTs specifically optimised for switching frequencies ranging from 50Hz to 20kHz has been announced by Infineon. Applications for the devices are said to include inverters for photovoltaic and welding systems.The L5 family is based on the company's TRENCHSTOP 5 thin wafer technology, with the intrinsic...

"OM tools and mitigation practices are also becoming increasingly sophisticated and, as a result, we believe there is a real need for a professional body capable of providing best-practice guidance, training, career development and qualifications to an emerging class of professional obsolescence managers."Electronic component obsolesc...

A team of researchers from three US universities has demonstrated a way to vary the number of electrons in a give region of a piece of graphene. The team says this is a proof of principle in the creation of semiconductor devices using the so called 'wonder material'. It adds that the number of electrons can be tuned through the application...

Renesas Electronics says the RX71M group – the flagship product in the RX Family of 32bit microcontrollers – is now shipping. Developed for use in industrial equipment, the devices run at up to 240MHz and come with up to 4Mbyte of on chip flash.The RX71M group features 112 variants, pin counts ranging from 100 to 177 pins, flash cap...

Ofcom has announced plans that it says will ensure the UK plays a leading role in developing the Internet of Things. As part of its plan, Ofcom wants to create a regulatory environment which fosters investment and innovation in the IoT sector.According to Ofcom, there are already more than 40million devices connected via the IoT in the UK; a fi...

Fujitsu has started mass production of gallium nitride (GaN) power devices for switching applications at its 150mm fab in Fukushima. The move follows the announcement in 2013 that it was integrating its GaN business with that of Transphorm."The start of mass production in a CMOS compatible fab is a significant step forward toward achieving...

A Kevlar based barrier between the electrodes in a lithium-ion battery has been developed by the University of Michigan. The development is believed to prevent fires of the kind believed to have grounded Boeing's 787 Dreamliner in 2013.The barrier is said to stifle the growth of metal tendrils that can become unwanted pathways for electrica...

Engineers from Università degli Studi di Pavia have created a micro-ring that entangles individual particles of light. The design is based on a micro ring resonator, a loop etched onto a silicon wafer that can capture and emit particles of light. By tailoring the resonator's design, the researchers created a small and highly efficient so...