University of Waikato electronics lecturer and researcher Nihal Kularatna has been nominated in the 2013 KuDos Science Excellence Awards in the Hill Laboratories Science Entrepreneur category. [ + ]

Mouser Electronics has partnered with Maxim Integrated in the creation of a comprehensive control and automation solution repository featuring the latest product selection for four major areas of industrial system design: sensors, motor control, PLC and HVAC. [ + ]

Resaearchers have developed a new compound that can be integrated into silicon chips and is a dilute magnetic semiconductor - meaning that it could be used to make 'spintronic' devices, which rely on magnetic force to operate, rather than electrical currents. [ + ]

Privately held Koch Industries has acquired Molex Incorporated, a global electronic components company, for $7.2bn. [ + ]

A groundbreaking technique in manufacturing nanostructures is claimed to have the potential to make electrical and optical devices smaller and better than ever before. [ + ]

Mouser Electronics has opened a new customer service centre situated in Penang, Malaysia. This new office now makes 20 locations worldwide and seven locations in the APAC region for the global design-fulfilment distributor. [ + ]

MPower Solar Systems has won the $50,000 first prize for developing a low-cost energy generation management unit which can be fitted to most renewable energy inverters. [ + ]

Elevare Energy is among the top eight finalists for the 2013 Australian Cleantech Competition. Elevare is using its technology to make energy storage with batteries commercially viable, reducing GHGs and rising power prices. [ + ]

Hong Kong Polytechnic University researchers have developed a new LED driver that powers LED light bulbs with an innovative approach called multilevel PWM. The PWM is said to deliver remarkable improvements in terms of light quality and energy efficiency, when compared to pulse-width modulation and linear driver approaches currently used in LED products. [ + ]

Singapore-based microelectric engineers have developed a light-based sensor that can detect and measure the chemical signature of bladder cancer. [ + ]

Australia will host the International Conference on Radar 2013: Beyond Orthodoxy: New Paradigms in Radar, in Adelaide from 9-12 September. [ + ]

A team of researchers has discovered how efficient wireless power transfer can be achieved in the presence of complex electromagnetic environments, such as metal plates. [ + ]

Electronics design software company Altium is creating opportunities for third-party developers to build applications that extend the capabilities of the 3D PCB design solution, Altium Designer. [ + ]

Researchers at The Ohio State University have offered an explanation for strange magnetic behaviour at semiconductor interfaces. The discovery is expected to lead to electronic materials that provide both computation and data storage. [ + ]

Panasonic will provide technological support to the Tokai University Solar Car Team as it competes in the World Solar Challenge (WSR), held in Australia from 6 to 13 October 2013. The company will be supplying high-efficiency HIT solar cells with high electricity output and high-capacity lithium-ion batteries. [ + ]