Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have developed a foldable, compact electric vehicle that can be used either as a personal car or as part of the public transit system to connect major transportation routes within a city. [ + ]

Infineon Technologies, together with its 40 research partners, has completed a research project for further miniaturisation of microelectronic systems in automobiles, industrial and communications electronics. [ + ]

The competitive future of practically every Australian industry sector is increasingly dependent on the usage and integration of the latest electronics into all aspects of production, assembly, systems development, maintenance and service. Improvements can be more easily achieved by keeping up to date with the latest technologies, products, development tools and industry knowledge base. [ + ]

The Nano3 cleanroom facility at the Qualcomm Institute in the US now houses a new electron beam writer. But what’s unique about this writer is its ability to write patterns on a large scale - with minimum feature size of less than 8 nanometres on wafers with diameters that can be as large as 8 inches. [ + ]

University of Washington engineers have created a new wireless communication system that allows devices to interact with each other without relying on batteries or wires for power. The devices exchange information by reflecting or absorbing pre-existing radio signals. The new communication technique, which the researchers call “ambient backscatter”, takes advantage of the TV and cellular transmissions that already surround us around the clock. [ + ]

Researchers have clocked the fastest-possible electrical switching in magnetite, a naturally magnetic mineral. Their results could drive innovations in the tiny transistors that control the flow of electricity across silicon chips, enabling faster, more powerful computing devices. [ + ]

Scientists have developed a new capacitor that can operate close to normal efficiency at over 200°C, significantly higher than any other capacitor on the market. It also offers a high energy density - the measure of how much energy it can store. [ + ]

Working with ultrathin membranes of the semiconductor indium arsenide, researchers have discovered a quantum unit of photon absorption that should be general to all 2D semiconductors. This discovery not only provides new insight into the optical properties of 2D semiconductors and quantum wells, it should also open doors to exotic new optoelectronic and photonic technologies. [ + ]

In the electric power industry, equipment such as RTUs (remote terminal units), DTUs (data transfer units), FTUs (feeder terminal units) and TTUs (distribution transformer supervisory terminal units) are switch monitoring devices installed in the substation close to the feed breakers. [ + ]

Over the past decade, LEDs have had an explosive growth in general lighting applications. LEDs offer great advantages over traditional lighting sources that include reliability, long life, reduced power consumption, small size, high efficacy and a high degree of design flexibility. LED manufacturers have been working diligently to increase creative design possibilities for customers, adapting products by incorporating a variety of packaging options. This article examines three major categories that play a key role in meeting customer demands for lighting. [ + ]

Australia’s most powerful computer, Raijin, can perform the same number of calculations in one hour that every one of the 7 billion humans on Earth, armed with calculators, could perform in 20 years. [ + ]

Is it just me or have you noticed that we are being taken over by American sounds and language? Slowly but surely, Americanese is invading our lives from voices over television advertisements to the prostitution of the written and spoken word. [ + ]

Neuroinformatics researchers from the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich together with colleagues from the EU and US demonstrate how complex cognitive abilities can be incorporated into electronic systems made with so-called neuromorphic chips - they show how to assemble and configure these electronic systems to function in a way similar to an actual brain. [ + ]

The University of Akron researchers have developed new materials that function on a nanoscale, which could lead to the creation of lighter laptops, slimmer televisions and crisper smartphone visual displays. [ + ]

A*STAR Institute of Microelectronics (IME) and Taiwan-based OPUS Microsystems Corporation have signed an agreement to refine and develop a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) scanning mirror for smartphone applications. This would enable phones to project photos and videos on any surface, and with no constraints on the viewing screen size on the mobile devices. [ + ]