University of Canterbury researchers have designed a new miniature electronic triathlon tracking device to be worn by athletes and broadcast live to smartphone apps. [ + ]

Harting has said it is extremely pleased with the course of this year’s Hannover Messe trade fair and with the results achieved. [ + ]

As demand for computing and communication capacity surges, the global communication infrastructure struggles to keep pace, since the light signals transmitted through fibre-optic lines must still be processed electronically, creating a bottleneck in telecommunications networks. [ + ]

Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA in Stuttgart have developed a new device that will improve patients’ hearing and can be implanted during outpatient surgery. [ + ]

Scientists have answered a question that worries millions of owners and potential owners of electric and hybrid vehicles using lithium-ion batteries: how long before the battery pack dies, leaving a sticker-shock bill for a fresh pack or a car ready for the junk heap? [ + ]

Researchers at the UPNA/NUP-Public University of Navarre have produced a prototype of a self-cooling thermoelectric device that achieves ‘free’ cooling of over 30ºC in devices that give off heat. [ + ]

As the capacity of handheld devices increases to accommodate a greater number of functions, these devices have more memory, larger display screens and the ability to play higher definition video files. [ + ]

ABB, the global power and automation technology group, has won an order worth around $150 million to supply converter transformers, DC (direct current) filter capacitors and key components for converter valves for the world’s highest capacity power link in China. [ + ]

Chemists at The Ohio State University have developed the technology for making a one-atom-thick sheet of germanium and found that it conducts electrons more than 10 times faster than silicon and five times faster than conventional germanium. [ + ]

MathWorks has announced that the Semiconductor Technology Academic Research Center (STARC) in Japan has selected and certified Matlab, Simulink and Embedded Coder as the preferred tools for model-based design in its new STARCAD-AMS design flow. [ + ]

Premier Farnell and Cypress Semiconductor Corp have announced that customers can now pre-order the PSoC 4 Pioneer Development Kit from element14. [ + ]

NIZO food research, an independent research centre in Europe, and the electronic oral drug delivery company Medimetrics have joined forces by developing a technology to sample from the small intestine in a non-invasive way - using the latest microelectronics. [ + ]

Thomson Industries has appointed Treotham Automation Australia and New Zealand as the exclusive distributor for their complete range of precision linear actuators. [ + ]

Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS in Dresden have developed a new design that increases the charge cycles of lithium-sulfur batteries by a factor of seven. [ + ]

Among the challenges of producing tightly packed computer chips is the need to prevent warpage of the underlying silicon wafer as electronics components are stacked on it. Now a new modelling technique can help. [ + ]