Messe Düsseldorf is organising the special show PEPSO - Printed Electronics Products and Solutions - at six relevant trade fairs at the Düsseldorf exhibition centre. [ + ]

Supercapacitors (ultracapacitors) are now centre stage for designers of electronics and particularly power circuits. This is because they are improving faster than the batteries and electrolytic capacitors they increasingly replace. Supercapacitors Europe 2013, forming part of IDTechEx’s premier technology events, is being held in Berlin, Germany, 17 to 18 April. [ + ]

A new program aims to develop electronics that simply disappear when they are no longer needed on a battlefield. This will limit the access of enemy forces to the technologies and equipment harvesting. [ + ]

Laird Technologies, designer and supplier of customised performance-critical components and systems for advanced electronics and wireless products, has acquired US-based developer of thin-film thermoelectric technologies Nextreme Thermal Solutions. [ + ]

The Super Junction MOSFET is jumping from consumer power supplies to the renewable energy and industry segments and a recent Yole Développement report is forecasting 10.3% growth per year for the sector. [ + ]

Dr Lan Lam, the primary inventor of the UltraBattery, and his team took the world’s 150-year-old battery technology and revolutionised it in the laboratories of CSIRO. On 21 February Dr Lan retired, leaving a legacy of impact. [ + ]

A new technology in the magnetic cooling of chips based on the straining of materials is claimed will lessen the impact on the environment compared to current technologies. [ + ]

Dr Manuel J Blanco has joined CSIRO as director of the Australian Solar Thermal Research Initiative, an $87 million, eight-year international collaboration transforming the energy industry in Australia by bringing down the cost of solar thermal. [ + ]

Electrodes operated into the brain are today used in research and to treat diseases such as Parkinson’s. However, their use has been limited by their size. At Lund University in Sweden, researchers have, for the first time, succeeded in implanting an ultrathin nanowire-based electrode and capturing signals from the nerve cells in the brain of a laboratory animal. [ + ]

A new way of growing graphene without the defects that weaken it and prevent electrons from flowing freely within it could open the way to large-scale manufacturing of graphene-based devices with applications in fields such as electronics, energy and healthcare. [ + ]

Kählig Antriebstechnik GmbH has appointed maxon motor Australia as its distributor for Australia and New Zealand. [ + ]

Eric Lidow was co-founder of International Rectifier in 1947 and served as chairman of the company’s board of directors until his retirement in May 2008. Sadly, he passed away on 18 January 2013. [ + ]

Baxter Innovation Hub has launched its commercialisation service, Baxter Commercialisation, comprising an experienced team of industry specialists dedicated to assisting Australian inventors and entrepreneurs in expanding their business and selling their ideas to the world. [ + ]

Fluke is voluntarily recalling its 373, 374, 375 and 376 digital clamp meters that were manufactured between 1 September 2010 and 1 October 2012. [ + ]

The world’s fastest 3D printer of micro- and nanostructures has been developed. With this printer, smallest three-dimensional objects, often smaller than the diameter of a human hair, can be manufactured with minimum time consumption and maximum resolution. The printer is based on a novel laser lithography method. [ + ]