Microchip Technology has appointed RS Components its catalogue distributor in Asia-Pacific.

Austronics 2004 runs concurrently with Electrix 2004 and Automate 2004 from Tuesday 5 October until Thursday 7 October at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. Austronics 2004 is a 'trade only' event and persons working in the electrical, electronics or manufacturing industries can register free online. There is a charge for registration at the door.

Universal Display Corporation and Palo Alto research Center (PARC), a subsidiary of Xerox Corporation, has announced a collaboration to develop poly-silicon (poly-Si) thin film transistor (TFT) backplane technology on metal foil. The flexible OLED (Foled) and top-emitting OLED (Toled) technologies.

NewTek Sales has changed its name to NewTek Instruments. It will be operating out of premises located a 3 Byfield Street, North Ryde 2113 from 1st August 2004.

Perth company Hitec Energy has been offered an Australian Government R&D start grant for a mineral extraction process that produces the key ingredient for alkaline batteries in a more cost-effective way.

The end of the traditional navigating table on ships and their dependence on traditional paper charts is now in sight with the development in Britain of an electronic chart and navigation system.

Blackburn North-based Rectifier Technologies Pacific has signed an agreement with the Wuhan Putian Telecom Equipment Group that will see state-of-the-art Victorian designed rectifiers being used under licence in China.

Kingston Technology has announced a worldwide memory marketing agreement with computing systems developer, Silicon Graphics.

An improved method for correcting nano- and micro-scale friction measurements has been developed by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The new technique should help designers produce more durable micro- and nano-devices with moving parts, such as tiny motors, positioning devices or encoders.

Engineers at Oregon State University have created what is claimed to be the first transparent transistor, a see-through electronics component that could open the door to many new products.

Molex has receive approval for its CoolFin heat sink from AMD for the next generation 64 bit processor, the Athlon 64. As the result of meeting strict thermal resistance and other design requirements, Molex is one of a few vendors to receive AMD's approval on this new platform.

ADC has announced its completed acquisition of Krone Group, global supplier of copper and fibre based connectivity solutions, cabling products and services used in public access and enterprise networks.

A new type of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) is being developed by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories to help bring the goal of a micro fuel cell closer to realisation using diverse fuels like glucose, methanol, and hydrogen.

Eaton Corporation has announced an agreement with Invensys PLC to purchase its power systems business, Powerware Corporation. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the second quarter, following regulatory review and the approval of Invensys shareholders.

An optoelectronics company is set to revolutionise the laser market. Driven by the worldwide demand for inexpensive lasers, British firm Stratophase is targeting a range of markets, from missile jamming to bacterial detection, through developing new ways to create, control and change the colour of light.