A little wax and soap can help build electrodes for cheaper lithium-ion batteries, according to a study published in Nano Letters.

Many semiconductor manufacturers now offer microcontrollers which are based on ARM technology. These microcontrollers offer an extensive peripheral mix combined with an outstanding price/performance relationship.

A nanostructured lithium-ion battery developed at Rice University may charge faster and last longer than Li-ion batteries in current use. Nanowires with a PMMA polymer coating solve a long-standing problem of forming ultrathin electrolyte layers around nanostructured electrodes.

Handheld digital multimeters (DMM) are among the most widely used instruments for equipment testing when it comes to servicing, repairing and installing applications. This article will help you get a better picture of each DMM's operations. It will also guide you in selecting the handheld DMM operations best suited to your working environment and in choosing a handheld DMM that is designed and tested to protect you against electrical hazards you might encounter.

Five years on, the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG) has now released a new revision of the COM.0 Computer-on-Module standard that responds to new functionalities that Intel, AMD and other manufacturers are investing in their upcoming processor families.

Imec is a non-profit European research organisation specialising in the study of nanoelectronics, using the expertise of its global partners in ICT, healthcare and energy. Founded in 1984, its headquarters are in Leuven in Belgium, with offices in the Netherlands, Taiwan, the US, China and Japan. Its staff of more than 1750 includes over 550 industrial residents and guest researchers. Here are some highlights from recent research projects.

Siemens is searching for insulators that will make generators more efficient.

Microcontrollers based on the ARM Cortex-M3 processor are becoming very popular in industry. The recent introduction of the Cortex-M0 processor allows even more power- and cost-effective devices as these processors are software compatible and, together with the Cortex Microcontroller Software Interface Standard (CMSIS), porting of software is simplified.

Materials handling turnkey company Industrial Conveying has developed a technology for high-rise warehouses to allow each crane to communicate with every stationary object on its racks.

The embedded developer b-plus was looking to migrate its XScale-based visualisation client, which is designed to be the mobile HMI for Zigbee measured data, to an Atom-based platform to benefit from enhanced graphics and processing performance, easier long-term scalability in performance, and openness in software development.

Scientists have reported progress in using a common virus to develop improved materials for high-performance, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that could be woven into clothing to power portable electronic devices.

Imec and the Holst Centre have developed stable patterned electrets with feature sizes at least down to 20 µm. The technology consists of creating a charged profile in an SiO₂/Si₃N₄ structure by exploiting the difference in energy between the charge traps in either layer and at their interface. Patterned electret layers can be used for a plurality of technical applications such as micromotors, sensors, actuators and energy scavengers.

Non-contact torque sensors from Sensor Technology, distributed in Australia by Omni Instruments, are playing a key role in developing commercial-scale in-stream tidal turbines produced by Irish company OpenHydro.

The wireless marketplace is like our nascent universe. A veritable ‘big bang’ of new radio frequency technologies has emerged creating opportunities for solving old problems in innovative, new ways.

More and more companies are using computers-on-modules to address the rigours of constant shock and vibration, airborne contaminants and temperature extremes in places such as warehouses. An industrial warehouse system case study involving an ETX module highlights the trends and computing challenges facing today’s material-handling operations.