About every 18 months, the number of transistors in computer chips doubles - the direct result of ever-shrinking sizes. By decreasing the size of these components and consequently, fitting more of them onto a single chip, computer speed and power improves. Thanks to a new manufacturing technique - developed by an international team of researchers which includes Paul Nealey, a University of Wisconsin-Madison chemical engineer - manufacturing the minute may soon be cheaper and more exact.

Fairchild Semiconductor has announced that the company is converting all its products to lead-free finish packages. The conversion is expected to be completed by June 2004.

Ampec Technologies and Crusader Electronics have merged and commenced trading as a combined entity July 1, 2003 at a new premises in Silverwater. Both companies have been supplying the electronics industry in Australia and New Zealand for the past 25 years.

International Rectifier and Sanyo Semiconductor have announced that they are forming a joint venture to design, develop and market electronic motor drive power modules for energy-efficient appliances and light industrial applications.

In a different approach to creating white light, several researchers at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Sandia National Laboratories have developed what is claimed to be the first solid-state white light-emitting device using quantum dots. In the future, the use of quantum dots as light-emitting phosphors may represent a major application of nanotechnology.

South Australian-based valve and pipe fittings specialist Philmac has appointed David Stretton as National Distribution and Logistics Manager and to the company's executive board. Mr Stretton will be responsible for national distribution inventory, purchasing and supply chain management of all finished goods.

The first International Conference on Computational Methods in Fluid Power Technology, will be held in Melbourne, from November 26-28.

In the first piece of research into how genetically modified (GM) herbicide-tolerant crops could be used to benefit the environment, scientists have shown that creative use of GM crops could bring back increasing numbers of endangered wildlife and birds such as skylarks and finches in the UK.

AEEMA, Australian Technology Park Precinct Management and ATP Innovations are to 'kick start' an industry cluster linked to the Australian Technology Park (ATP).

Light transports data at high speed over fibre-optic networks. Light measures and creates images of large and small objects in scanners and microscopes. Light writes information onto all sorts of recording media and surfaces. The best-quality light is produced by lasers. Although there are many materials capable of generating beams of laser light, few of them operate at the shorter wavelengths.

A CD-ROM of proceedings from the Technology Futures 2003 conference is available for purchase.

A new class of microscopic crystal structures developed at the University of Toronto is bringing high bandwidth optical microchips one step closer to efficient, large-scale fabrication. The structures, known as photonic band gap (PBG) materials, could usher in an era of speedy computer and telecommunications networks that use light instead of electrons.

Intel has announced details of its 'tri-gate' transistor design, stating that the tri-gate transistor is moving from research to the development phase.

The three-in-one event of Austronics, Automate & Electrix 2003 opens from 2-4 September at the Sydney Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour. It is set to attract in excess of 8000 visitors from the electronic, manufacturing , process and electrical industries. It will highlight the latest innovations in Australian and international technology.

Magnets form the basis of computer technology, so the speed at which magnets can act and react has become extremely important. The Nanomagnetics and Spin Dynamics (NSD) group in the School of Physics recently hosted Dr Tom Silva, from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Colorado, to work with them on a development of a high speed magnetometer which measures magnetisation at very short time scales.