Advantest Corporation, a semiconductor test equipment supplier, is set to acquire US firm W2BI, a provider of system level test automation software focusing on wireless communications. [ + ]

ABB, a global power and automation technology group, is set to acquire Power-One, a provider of renewable energy and of energy-efficient power conversion and power management solutions. [ + ]

Throughout decades of research on solar cells, one formula has been considered an absolute limit to the efficiency of such devices in converting sunlight into electricity. [ + ]

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) researchers have been developing a timing and inertial measurement unit (TIMU) that contains everything needed to aid navigation when GPS is temporarily unavailable. [ + ]

Two teams of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) performers have achieved world record power output levels using silicon-based technologies for millimetre-wave power amplifiers. [ + ]

The second annual IEEE Photonics Society Optical Interconnects Conference will be held at The Eldorado Hotel & Spa in Santa Fe, New Mexico from 5-8 May 2013, with approximately 120 industry, academia and government attendees. [ + ]

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. [ + ]