Engineers at the University of Maryland claim to have invented a bio-compatible battery which produces the same kind of ion-based electrical energy that flows in humans and other living things.In traditional batteries, the electrical energy, or current, flows as moving electrons. This current of electrons out of the battery is generated within...

Infineon Technologies is entering the packaged silicon microphone market to address the need for high performance, low noise MEMS microphones.The analogue and digital microphones are based on the company’s dual backplate MEMS technology whereby a membrane is embedded within two backplates, which is said to generate a truly differential si...

Semiconductor distributor BCD Microelectronics has announced its merger with Munich based Atlantik Elektronik. The new company will be named BCD-Atlantik and is to remain an independent company but will combine resources from both companies.“Our merger with Atlantik Elektronik strengthens our position in the UK and Ireland and our joint p...

A fast and inexpensive process for manufacturing supercapacitor electrode materials that meet stringent industrial demands has been developed by a team of engineers at the University of Washington. Applications include electric cars, wireless telecommunications and high powered lasers."In industrial applications, time is money," said...

A topological insulator that can function at room temperature had been developed by physicists from the University of Wuerzburg.According to the researchers, all known topological insulators have to be cooled to very low temperatures – usually -270°C – to study the quantum properties of the edge channels."As the tempera...

Layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanosheets have exceptionally high hydroxyl ion (OH-) conductivity, say a NIMS research group.According to the researchers, the OH- conductivity is 10 to 100 times higher than that of conventional OH- conductors, and is the highest even among inorganic anion conductors.LDH nanosheets may be applicable as solid...

Melexis has unveiled a new LIN-to-LIN gateway that looks to overcomes the limitation of just 16 devices on a typical LIN bus. Each of the devices, the MLX81120, connects as a LIN slave on the main LIN bus and is controlled directly from the vehicle's Body Control Module (BCM).According to the company the new device will enable up to 16 LIN...

An optical mapping 3D display that makes VR viewing more comfortable has been created by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Eye strain, motion sickness, and fatigue are frequent physical complaints that limit the time that can be spent in a VR environment.According to the team, most current 3D VR/AR displays prese...

A cell phone that requires no batteries has been invented by University of Washington researchers. The phone is said to harvest the few microwatts of power it requires from either ambient radio signals or light."We've built what we believe is the first functioning cell phone that consumes almost zero power," said associate profess...

Looking to offer a higher level of integration, Anritsu has released a signal quality analyser (SQA) which supports next generation telecoms, data centre and storage network transmission standards such as 100GbE-KR4/CR4, 200GbE and 400GbE as well as the latest and future high speed serial interface standards, including PCIe Gen 4, Thunderbolt Gen 3...