CSIRO is currently involved in a project to promote the 'uptake' of advanced microjoining as an integral part of efficient design and assembly.

The UA Optical Sciences Center is using a deposition machine to make organic films such as radio frequency (RF) grocery tags that require no scanning. The machine deposits thin layers 10-100 nanometres thick of organic molecules onto a plastic substrate.

Cidetec, Cegasa and Zigor are in the first stage in a project about lithium polymer energy. They have developed a lab-scale prototype of a rechargeable graphite-polypirrol battery. The area of the battery is 1, 9 x 1, 5 cm and it can provide an energy density of 125 Wh/kg.

Agilent has announced that it is developing a new family of arrayed waveguide gratings (AWG's) for dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) long-haul and metropolitan network applications.

Philips and Sony will jointly develop a new near field radio-frequency communications technology called Near Field Communications (NFC). The technology enables short-range communication networks between consumer devices incorporating an NFC interface, and is set to improve wireless access to data and services.

QinetiQ and BOC are developing a production facility to exploit the potential of nanotechnology. This involves manipulation of atoms and molecules to achieve miniaturisation of products - such as computers. It also has the potential to provide more sensitive medical instruments to achieve faster and more accurate diagnostic techniques.

Two separate technologies are being developed by Arizona researchers, in order to make circuits from layers of organic semiconducting ink.

A wafer scale foundry-based method of hermetically sealing surface sensitive devices such as MEMS and RF has been released by Ziptronix. It operates at room temperature using industry standard tools and materials and incorporating both MEMS and IC technologies.

Sanmina-SCI have opened an electronics manufacturing plant in Homebush Bay. The facility will play a role in the local technology industry and is expected to create up to 450 jobs over the next 5 years.

A team of Cornell University researchers is planning to develop a method to connect wires to organic transistors. They are hoping this could lead to computers that are smaller, cheaper and more flexible - literally.

The conference on photonic crystals held in Canberra this month, focussed on the revolution in information and technology.

Intel Corporation has made several technology breakthroughs that the company has integrated into its 90-nanometre process. It has used this process to build silicon structures and memory chips. It will put this process into volume manufacturing next year using 300 mm wafers.

Beginning in September, Tektronix open Windows oscilloscopes will include ready-to-run applications of National Instruments Labview graphical development environment.

Davidson Measurement and IntelEng announced they are combining to provide a solution to calibration management. They will be known as Davidson eCalibration Services.

The electronic systems division of Tenix Defence will give $500,000 to the Federal Government from commercialising smart defence technologies last year.