In addition to ensuring safety when circuits are opened, accounting for safety when circuits are closed is also becoming increasingly important. Modules for electrically isolating actuators and for adjusting power are used especially in the process industry. For this purpose, the Phoenix Contact PSR-ETP coupling relay has been developed specifically for this industry and is certified in accordance with SIL 3. [ + ]

Non-volatile bistable memory circuits being developed by Satoshi Sugahara and his team at Tokyo Institute of Technology are paving the way for highly energy-efficient CMOS logic systems. [ + ]

Schott developers are using glass-ceramic as a separator material for lithium-air batteries which will hopefully extend the range of tomorrow’s electrically powered automobiles by several times. [ + ]

It has taken over 10 years and $60 billion, but Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II aircraft is edging closer towards becoming a reality. [ + ]

Advanced software and more sophisticated wireless systems are at the heart of new techniques that are needed for testing some of today’s complex electronics equipment. The increasing integration of RF, microwave and high-speed digital technologies used in many systems, particularly mobile devices, is giving huge challenges to those who test and measure. [ + ]

Henry Sutton is not a name that immediately springs to mind as possibly the greatest Australian inventor of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. [ + ]

While the demand for ever-smaller electronic devices has spurred the miniaturisation of a variety of technologies, one area has lagged behind in this downsizing revolution: energy-storage units, such as batteries and capacitors. [ + ]

Stretching out the atomic structure of the silicon in the critical components of a device can be a good way to increase a processor’s performance. [ + ]

Two-dimensional sheets of boron that can be lifted off a substrate are possible to make via several theoretical methods suggested in a new paper by Rice University scientists. The material could be a useful complement to graphene and other 2D materials for electronics, they said. [ + ]

BGW Technologies has found the solution to Australia’s growing need for reliable, high-performing wireless infrastructures. It can now provide scalable wireless mesh solutions which reduce the time and cost associated with traditional cable installation thanks to a new strategic partnership with Firetide. [ + ]

A collaboration of scientists has proposed a novel triple-junction solar cell with the potential to break the 50% conversion efficiency barrier, which is the current goal in multijunction photovoltaic development. [ + ]

The major trend for test and measurement in 2013 will be a move to wireless test and measurement. [ + ]

Using the geometric and material properties of a unique nanostructure, Boston College researchers have uncovered a novel photonic effect where surface plasmons interact with light to form ‘plasmonic halos’ of selectable output colour. [ + ]

Faults in production are difficult to eliminate in their entirety - for example, short circuits may appear in the wiring or individual consumers may experience malfunctions. Ideally, however, the machine or plant should be able to continue operation without interruption. The fuse protection on the secondary side of the 24 V power supply plays an important role in this. [ + ]

For polymer-based organic photovoltaic cells, which are far less expensive to manufacture than silicon-based solar cells, scientists have long believed that the key to high efficiencies rests in the purity of the polymer/organic cell’s two domains - acceptor and donor. Now, however, an alternate and possibly easier route forward has been shown. [ + ]