Mirtec, a supplier of automated inspection systems to the electronics manufacturing industry, has announced its 15-year anniversary. [ + ]

Mouser Electronics has launched a site covering TE Connectivity Material Handling Solutions. The site helps design engineers build innovative solutions whether they are developing a new MHS system or retrofitting an existing one. [ + ]

Researchers from Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and wafer company IQE have written a paper on recent developments in compound semiconductor device technologies for high-speed and low-voltage/low-power applications. [ + ]

Researchers at Cornell University have demonstrated the first ever consumer electronics item to be 3D-printed - a working loudspeaker. Graduate students Apoorva Kiran and Robert MacCurdy worked on the project with Associate Professor Hod Lipson, a 3D printing innovator. [ + ]

According to IC Insights, worldwide growth in medical electronics is expected to regain strength in the next three years after slowing since 2010 due to the weak global economy and efforts to curb healthcare costs in the US and Europe. [ + ]

Virtual reality specialist Sixense has developed the PC gaming-targeted 3D 'STEM System' - a product which uses an electromagnetic field to track up to five tracking points - with the help of Nordic Semiconductor's wireless technology. [ + ]

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) have discovered how to create significant amounts of electric power by rubbing or touching two different materials together - a phenomenon known as the triboelectric effect. [ + ]

element14 has a new section for TE Connectivity on its website, showcasing the company's component solutions for subsystem design including circuit protection devices, control boards, power systems, cable assemblies, controllers, timers and sensors that support end products or systems across many user segments. [ + ]

Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Technological Trend Analysis INT, in Euskirchen, Germany, are researching how to detect 'attacks' from electromagnetic fields. Electromagnetic pulses can interfere with or damage electronic devices but, since electromagnetic radiation is invisible, those affected by it do not know why their machines break down. [ + ]

RS Components (RS), the trading brand of Electrocomponents, has signed a distribution agreement with RepRapPro that will deliver affordable, open-source, self-replicating 3D printing technology to engineers worldwide. [ + ]

Kore Wireless has added broadband satellite network services from Inmarsat, the provider of global mobile satellite communications services, to the Kore Global Connect network portfolio. [ + ]

RS Components has signed a global authorised distributor agreement with Taiwan Semiconductor. The agreement broadens the scope of the existing collaboration between the two companies to deliver a comprehensive portfolio of discrete semiconductor devices and power management ICs to customers worldwide. [ + ]

CadSoft Computer and Adafruit Industries recently formalised a collaboration in which Adafruit will act as a global reseller of popular PCB prototyping solution Eagle. [ + ]

SEMI has announced that starting in 2014, LED Taiwan, the only LED manufacturing-focused exposition in Taiwan, will co-locate with the Taiwan International Lighting Show, Taiwan's largest solid-state lighting exhibition and conference. The exhibition will be held at TWTC Nagang Exhibition Hall in Taiwan from 20-22 March. [ + ]

Peer-to-peer communities are a key enabler of modern PCB design, but aren't being fully utilised, reveals CadSoft survey. The company marks its 25th anniversary by revealing the findings of its global survey of PCB designers. [ + ]