element14 will be hosting a webinar on Friday 11 April 2014 on the world's first inductance-to-digital converter, presented by Andreas Kraemer from Texas Instruments. [ + ]

Dow has been granted US and EU device patents for the use of encapsulant films in photovoltaic (PV) modules. The patents cover electronic devices having polyolefin (PO) encapsulant films with certain commercially important physical, mechanical and compositional properties. [ + ]

Despite the plethora of programming languages in modern electronics today, C and C++, first developed in the 70s and 80s, are still viewed as the most important starting points for electronics engineers. [ + ]

A team at MIT has figured out a way to measure the electrochemical reactions inside the porous electrodes of batteries and fuel cells. [ + ]

LED chip makers and packaging houses from Taiwan are posting much stronger revenue growth in the first quarter of 2014 compared to the same period last year. [ + ]

Around 30,000 more Australian businesses could get financial support from Australian private equity and venture capital funds, according to the submission lodged today to the Financial System Inquiry by the Australian Private Equity & Venture Capital Association Limited (AVCAL). [ + ]

An improving economy and new applications are expected to fuel growth of the opto, sensors/actuators and discretes (OSD) markets, according to IC Insights. [ + ]

Altera and Intel have extended their manufacturing partnership to include development of multi-die devices that leverage Intel's package and assembly capabilities and Altera's programmable logic technology. [ + ]

M2M Connectivity has been appointed the authorised distributor of Libelium wireless sensor network products in Australia and New Zealand. [ + ]

Surges or sudden bursts of voltage and current can be disastrous to electronic and electrical equipment and to the cables feeding them. Surge protectors limit the voltage getting through to equipment and often the feed lines, either by blocking it or diverting to earth voltages above a predetermined level. [ + ]

Small plasma transistors could enable development of smartphones that take and collect medical X-rays on a battlefield and devices to measure air quality in real time. [ + ]

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a stretchable antenna that can be incorporated into wearable technologies, such as health monitoring devices. [ + ]

Semiconductor companies and A*Star Institute of Microelectronics (IME) have joined forces to develop integrated thermal management solutions for semiconductor chips with extreme high heat dissipation and local hot spots applications. [ + ]

Professor Alex Baitch, national president, Engineers Australia, will be speaking on the topic of engineering and manufacturing at the upcoming ACI Connect conference, to be held in Melbourne on 9 and 10 April. [ + ]

Moxa's MPC-2240 marine panel computers have received the Red Dot Product Design Award for 2014 in the computers and information technology category.  [ + ]