The European semiconductor distribution industry displayed unusual strength in the last quarter of 2014, ending the year with a healthy growth rate, according to DMASS, the Distributors' and Manufacturers' Association of Semiconductor Specialists. In its latest report, the industry group reported Q4 sales grew by 10.3% to €1.57billion,...

Avnet Embedded is introducing a 7in WVGA TFT-LCD module for industrial applications such as construction, agricultural vehicles and factory automation. The module, manufactured by Mitsubishi Electric, will be available in sample quantities at the end of February. Resisting vibration as high as 6.8G – said to be seven times greater th...

ADLINK Technology has launched its first COM Express Compact Size Type 6 module. The cExpress-BL, based on 5th generation Intel Core processors, comes with support for up to 16Gbyte of dual channel DDR3L memory and features improved graphics and processing performance.Said by ADLINK to be suitable for use in fanless edge devices, the cExpress-B...

Designers looking to work with STMicroelectronics' STM32 microcontrollers can now do so using the company's STMCube software development platform. According to the company, it has now completed roll out of the package to all members of the STM32 MCU family currently in production. Designers looking to work with STMicroelectronics&#...

Infineon Technologies has extended its OptiMOS 5 portfolio with the addition of 80V and 100V variants.Optimised for applications requiring high switching frequencies, OptiMOS 5 MOSFETs are said to offer significant reductions in on-state resistance (RDS(on)) compared to the previous generation. According to Infineon, this can be up to 45% less...

A breakthrough by researchers from UCLA, Columbia University and other institutions could lead to the more precise transfer of information in chips, as well as new types of optical materials for light emission and lasers.The researchers were able to control light by using random crystal lattice structures to counteract light diffraction. Techno...

The System Management Interface Forum (SMIF) has upgraded the System Management Bus (SMBus) specification to version 3.0. The upgrade is said to incorporate a number of revisions to ease implementation of the protocol, broaden its performance and harmonise the specification with the I2C and Power Management Bus (PMBus) specifications.Recognisin...

STMicroelectronics is to lead Lab4MEMS II, a €26million project which brings together 20 industrial, academic and research partners in nine European countries to focus on Micro Optoelectromechanical Systems (MOEMS).While the Lab4MEMS project focused on developing a pilot line for next generation MEMS devices augmented with such technologie...

In a move which sees the separation of Plastic Logic's technology and manufacturing interests, FlexEnable has been launched with a mission to focus on 'truly flexible' electronics.The move has been led by Indro Mukerjee, previously CEO of Plastic Logic. Mukerjee, who will be FlexEnable's chairman, said: "It's the launch...

Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have created the first transistors made of silicene. The research is said to hold the promise of building dramatically faster, smaller and more efficient computer chips.Silicene, made of a one atom thick layer of silicon atoms, is said to have outstanding electrical properties but has proved diff...