Anritsu has announced that its Melbourne based service and calibration centre has attained NATA (National Association of Testing Authorities) accreditation.

Sandisk and Toshiba have announced the creation of a mobile commerce (MC) extension standard for flash memory cards. The standard will enable the implementation of security functions in addition to the standard memory features that are already supported by such cards.

Philips is selling its x-ray analytical business to Spectris later this year. The business which will be renamed PANalytical will form part of the process technology sector.

National Semiconductor Corporation has joined the RapidIO Trade Association. The association was formed to promote the RapidIO architecture which promises increased bandwidth, lower costs, and faster time-to-market for networking and communications infrastructure.

C&K Components Plus will now be trading as Switches Plus Components. This change has resulted from the sale of the US company to ITT Industries.

EMC Technologies has gained NATA accreditation for modelling the dispersion of electromagnetic fields (EMF) from mobile phone towers.

Infineon Technologies and Micron Technology are collaborating in developing specifications for CellularRAM memory, a family of low power pseudo static RAM (PSRAM) for wireless applications.

An optically pumped nanocrystal quantum dot laser has been demonstrated by a group at MIT. The gain medium consists of nm-sized particles of CdSe coated with a layer of organic molecules and then immersed in a glassy film. The medium sits in a waveguide atop a grating. The fabrication advantage in this case derives from the fact that one uses simple solution processing rather than the technique of epitaxy usually needed for semiconductors.

Physicists at the Institute for Microstructural Sciences (Ottawa) have created a prototype of a single-spin transistor, that consists of a quantum dot connected to spin-polarised leads.

The International Electrotechnical Commission have published CISPR 16-4, an international standard that describes how to apply electromagnetic compatibility measurement uncertainty when making a compliance statement by comparing test results to a limit.

Scientist at Cardiff University in Wales are developing an alarm system that will provide warning of potentially harmful contamination in water supplies.

Using the two company's joint venture, Philips Electronics and LG Electronics plan to expand capacity of LCD panels and large-screen desktop monitors. Production will begin in the first half of 2003.

Scientist at Cornell University have created a transistor in which electrons flow through a single atom. This was achieved by implanting a "designer" molecule between two gold electrodes, or wires, to create a circuit. When voltage was applied to the transistor, electrons flowed through a single cobalt atom within the molecule.

Infineon will acquire the core business of Ericsson Microelctronics (MIC) making it a supplier of components for Ericsson in the areas of wireless infrastructure and mobile phones.

Scientists from Infineon Technologies in Munich claimed to have made a breakthrough in carbon nanotube (CNT) research. A microelectronics process was modified so that CNTs could be grown at predefined locations on 6" wafers. The properties of the CNTs, which include current densities up to 1010 A/cm2 and thermal conductivities almost twice that of diamond, can now be used in wafer-compatible processes for IC development . The features of CNTs have made them the material for future semiconductor technology with considerable increase in on-chip clock frequencies.