Industry News
January 2014
The U.S. Department of Energy announced $3 million to spur geothermal energy development using play fairway analysis. This technique identifies prospective geothermal resources in areas with no obvious surface expression by mapping the most favorable intersections of heat, permeability, and fluid. While commonly us
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Date:
01/31/2014
The Power Sources Manufacturers Association (PSMA) Energy Harvesting Committee is sponsoring an Industry Session at APEC 2014 titled: “Breakthrough Technologies Driving Successful Energy Harvesting-Powered Products.” The session will take place on Tuesday, March 18, 2014, from 8:30 a.m. to noon at the Fort Wo
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Date:
01/31/2014
Greg Scheu, President & CEO of ABB
ABB is a global pioneer in wide-bandgap semiconductors research, dating back to our widely praised breakthroughs in Silicon Carbide research in the 1990s. ABB has been following closely the development of wideband gap semiconductors because we have a wide array of products that employ power electronics as an es
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Date:
01/30/2014
Soligent, a leader in systems and technologies for making solar dealers more competitive, unveiled Solar Engine, a modular suite of integrated services that allow independent solar dealers to drive out costs, reduce paperwork and grow their businesses.
With Solar Engine, dealers leverage Soligent’s global ne
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Date:
01/30/2014
Atmel, a global leader in microcontroller and touch technology solutions, will be powering the Internet of Things at embedded world 2014 in Nuremberg, Germany. From February 25th – 27th Atmel will show its broadest portfolio of 8- and 32-bit MCU architectures that puts it at the heart of the Maker community an
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Date:
01/30/2014
Altium, a leader in smart system design & automation, embedded software development, and Nimbic, a leading provider of electromagnetic simulation solutions for signal integrity, power integrity and EMI analysis, announced a development partnership. This will make Nimbic the newest developer partner to join Al
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Date:
01/29/2014
Zhifeng Ren, University of Houston
University of Houston researchers have developed a new stretchable and transparent electrical conductor, bringing the potential for a fully foldable cell phone or a flat-screen television that can be folded and carried under your arm closer to reality. Zhifeng Ren, a physicist at the University of Houston and pr
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Date:
01/29/2014
The dashboard from the Porsche-designed Egger-Lohner C.2 electric vehicle
The history of the Stuttgart-based sportscar manufacturer Porsche begins in 1948 with the “Type 356”, the first sportscar to bear the Porsche name, but the history behind the Porsche brand goes back much further in time. Ferdinand Porsche, a pioneer in the field of automotive construction, began working on
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Date:
01/29/2014
The global remote terminal units (RTU) market is expected to undergo a slow growth rate in the next seven years, climbing from $0.82 billion in 2013 to $1.43 billion by 2020, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 8.2%, forecasts research and consulting firm GlobalData.
According to the company’s latest re
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Date:
01/29/2014
Wide-bandgap (WBG) semiconductor-based power electronics
North Carolina State University has been selected by the Obama Administration to lead a public-private manufacturing innovation institute for next generation power electronics. Supported by a $70 million Energy Department investment over five years as well as a matching $70 million in non-federal cost-share, the
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Date:
01/28/2014
Asia‘s largest trade show for lasers, optics and photonics, LASER World of PHOTONICS CHINA 2014 will take place at the Shanghai New International Expo Center from March 18 -20, 2014. The show is expected to occupy an area of 34,500 sqm, with about 600 exhibitors from China and other countries across the world. Fr
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Date:
01/28/2014
Andrea Mirenda of EPC
Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) is proud to announce that Andrea Mirenda has joined the EPC leadership team as vice president, Americas sales. Ms. Mirenda has over 25 years of marketing and sales operation experience within the semiconductor industry. Her primary responsibilities at EPC are creating an
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Date:
01/28/2014
TRINAMIC integrated circuits
Digi-Key, an industry leader in electronic component selection, availability and delivery, announced a global distribution agreement with TRINAMIC, a world-class supplier of motor control solutions. Based in Hamburg, Germany, TRINAMIC provides integrated circuits and modules for motor and motion control to customers al
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Date:
01/28/2014
Patrick Toops, Powerex
Patrick Toops, Aviation Electrical Systems/Module Expert, recently joined the team as the new Technical Sales Lead. A graduate of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering, Patrick previously worked as the Electronics Lead, Flight Control Systems for Parker Han
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Date:
01/28/2014
Electric aircraft serve the need for reduced noise, air and ground pollution
IDTechEx research shows the electric aircraft industry is now growing rapidly with the military and industrial/commercial sectors increasing share to 67% and 27% of the 2024 value market. Product and component launches mostly involve pure electric manned aircraft but also an increasing number of hybrid aircraft for
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Date:
01/27/2014
Wireless inductive charging devices
Mouser Electronics recently launched its new Wireless Charging Technology site, offering a detailed overview of this rapidly evolving technology to help designers identify the ideal wireless charging semiconductor and passive components – as well as development tools – to put a charge into their next design pr
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Date:
01/27/2014
Two detailed reports from the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) find that solar financing and other non-hardware costs -- often referred to as "soft costs" -- now comprise up to 64% of the total price of residential solar energy systems, reflecting how soft costs are becoming an
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Date:
01/27/2014
Bell 525 Relentless Helicopter
Astronics, a leading provider of advanced technologies
for the global aerospace and defense industries, announced that
its wholly-owned subsidiary, Astronics Advanced Electronic Systems,
will be supplying Bell Helicopter with the Secondary Electronic
Power Distribution System (EPDS) for the Bell 525 Re
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Date:
01/27/2014
The China Information Technology Expo - CITE 2014, the largest IT and consumer electronics show in Asia, will come to Shenzhen, China from April 10-12, 2014. Among other things the event will provide sales & information opportunities for U.S. and international businesses wishing to enter the Asian ma
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Date:
01/27/2014
Bel Fuse announced the opening of the company's newest R&D center, located at its TRP Connector division in Changping, China.
Bel acquired TRP, formerly the Transpower magnetics business of TE Connectivity, on April 1, 2013. "The TRP acquisition solidified Bel's position as a world leader in integrat
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Date:
01/24/2014
Images showing sugar blowing process
Graphene sheets are immensely strong, lightweight and excellent at conducting electricity. Theoretically, macroscopical three-dimensional graphene assemblies should retain the properties of nanoscale graphene flakes. However, recent attempts to make 3D graphene have resulted in weak conductivity due to poor co
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Date:
01/24/2014
The energy harvesting market
The Internet of Things adds connectivity to things. It is a broad term referring to applications as diverse as internet connected vehicles to consumer electronics such as smart phones. However, the edge of the Internet of Things network will consist of simpler sensors and wireless devices that provide, among ot
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Date:
01/24/2014
The student rocket-car challenge
In the same week that the head of CBI accused schools of producing ‘exam robots’, children from local schools were invited to Freescale’s East Kilbride technology centre to get hands on experience of building their own rocket cars. This is part of Freescale’s ongoing support of Science Technology Engineering an
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Date:
01/23/2014
Transparent conductive sheets (on glass or other substrates) are used in a variety of applications including touch screens, displays, lighting, photovoltaics, etc. This is already a large and well-established business. Indeed, the non-display sector alone (includes touch) is set to generate $1.4 billion in 2014 at
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Date:
01/23/2014
WIth all the development in aerospace propulsion sytems, it is interesting to take a look back sometimes at where the industry came from, and to remind ourselves that novel solutions are not a current thing. Many would say that steam power in an aircraft is counter-intuitive due to heat and power/weight issues. How
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Date:
01/23/2014
CamSemi wins NMI low power design award
CamSemi’s recently launched C2172 next generation Primary Side Sensing controller (PSS) has been named as overall winner in the ‘Low Power Green Design of the Year’ category at the 2013 NMI Electronics Systems Awards.
The new C2172 controller is helping manufacturers to develop the industry’s lowest co
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Date:
01/22/2014
STM32 microcontroller in AnkiDrive
STMicroelectronics, a semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, announced that its STM32 microcontroller was selected by Anki, a robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) startup, for use in their first product – Anki Drive™, in which consumers can download an ap
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Date:
01/22/2014
Freescale wins a 2013 NMI Electronic Systems Award
Freescale won the Automotive Electronics category at the 2013 NMI Electronic Systems Awards ceremony.
The judges cited the company’s Qoriva MPC577xK microcontroller and MRD2001 radar transceiver chipset as being important breakthroughs in the move to safer vehicles with advanced driver assistance systems.
The category, which
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Date:
01/22/2014
The Power Sources Manufacturers Association (PSMA) Nanotechnology Committee is sponsoring an Industry Session at APEC 2014 titled, “Latest Advances in Nanotechnology.” This year marks PSMA’s fourth Industry Session on Nanotechnology at APEC, which positions itself as the “Premier Event in Power Electronics.” Th
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Date:
01/21/2014
Due to expected infrastructure development prior to the FIFA World Cup, Brazil’s smart meter market revenue will increase more than tenfold, from $36m in 2013 to $432m by 2020, at an impressive Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 43%, forecasts research and consulting firm GlobalData.
According to the co
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Date:
01/21/2014
PNNL researchers have developed a hybrid anode made of graphite and lithium that could quadruple the lifespan of lithium-sulfur batteries.
It's known that electric vehicles could travel longer distances before needing to charge and more renewable energy could be saved for a rainy day if lithium-sulfur batteries can just overcome a few technical hurdles. Now, a novel design for a critical part of the battery has been shown to significantly extend the
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Date:
01/20/2014
One way that supercapacitors are developing faster than batteries is in the choice of format, from transfer printable ones for mobile phones to load-bearing structural components and smart skin for vehicles. In the European Union Powerweave project, supercapacitors not batteries have been chosen as the energy st
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Date:
01/17/2014
Several UBC projects received NSERC funding including an effort to develop flexible solar cells and wearable electronics
University of British Columbia research in fish ecology, oil sands, energy efficient buildings, clean water and wearable electronics received a $9-million boost today through the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
The 10 UBC projects were among 77 grants awarded to 23 universities totaling
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Date:
01/17/2014
President Obama
The President announced new steps with the private sector to strengthen the manufacturing sector, boost advanced manufacturing, and attract the good paying jobs that a growing middle class requires. The President also announced the selection of a North Carolina headquartered consortium of businesses and universities, le
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Date:
01/17/2014
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced $4.8 million in awards for projects that explore new technologies to make buildings in New York State more energy efficient while helping to expand the building sector economy.
“New York is continuing to invest in new technologies and systems that improve energy efficienc
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Date:
01/16/2014
For the next three years, 26 partners from five European countries will conduct research on environmental sensors and sensor networks for energy efficient solutions. Under leadership of Infineon Technologies the research project “Environmental Sensors for Energy Efficiency” (ESEE) will help to further reduce en
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Date:
01/16/2014
The EMerge Alliance – an open industry association leading the rapid adoption of safe direct-current (DC) power distribution standards for buildings – today announced the expansion of the EMerge Alliance Registered™ product program to include the first products supporting the EMerge Alliance Data/Telecom Cen
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Date:
01/16/2014
A novel software application created by the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) could improve the efficiency of commercial buildings by allowing occupants to interact with buildings more directly. The new Building Agent (BA) application allows facility managers to quickly diagnose and
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Date:
01/16/2014
O2Micro, a global leader in the design,
development and marketing of high-performance integrated circuits and
solutions, announced a patent grant for its Power Source Detection
topology from the Japanese Patent Office.
This invention, issued 19 claims under Japanese patent number
5,388,484, compare
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Date:
01/15/2014
Qualcomm, through its venture investment arm Qualcomm Ventures, kicked off its QPrize™ 2014 international seed investment competition. The goal of the contest is to identify and fund the industry's next promising, early-stage technology companies. The QPrize competition is open to entrepreneurs across China, Eur
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Date:
01/15/2014
SuVolta low-power chip technology
SuVolta,a developer of scalable semiconductor technologies for low-power, high-performance integrated circuits (ICs), announced that it has secured $10.6 million in funding. New investor Fujitsu Semiconductor Limited participated in the round along with existing investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (K
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Date:
01/15/2014
Apollo Metro Solutions LED Street Lights
Apollo Metro Solutions and Collier County will move forward with an expanded
pilot program to measure the performance of Apollo Metro Solutions
light emitting diode (LED) Street Light Luminaire with integrated
Ultra-Low Power Wireless Controller. The decision follows the
successful completion of a preliminar
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Date:
01/15/2014
300 teams from 40 countries and representing 254 universities have already signed up on the website dedicated to the global Valeo Innovation Challenge. Engineering students around the world have just one month left to take part in the global Valeo Innovation Challenge.
Projects must be submitted by February
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Date:
01/15/2014
The Power Sources Manufacturers Association (PSMA) Transportation Power Electronics Committee is sponsoring an Industry Session at APEC 2014 titled “Key Issues in Vehicle Power Electronics.” The session will take place on Wednesday afternoon, March 19th, 2014 at the Fort Worth Convection Center, Fort Worth, Te
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Date:
01/15/2014
Sandia National Laboratories physicist Thomas Awe examines coils that reduce plasma instabilities in the quest for controlled nuclear fusion at Sandia’s Z machine
A surprising effect created by a 19th century device called a Helmholz coil offers clues about how to achieve controlled nuclear fusion at Sandia National Laboratories’ powerful Z machine.
A Helmholz coil produces a magnetic field when electrified. In recent experiments, two Helmholz coils, installed to
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Date:
01/14/2014
Conventional layered lithium and transition metal cathode material (top) and the new disordered material studied by researchers at MIT (bottom) as seen through a scanning transmission electron microscope. Inset images show diagrams of the different structures in these materials. (In the disordered material, the blue lines show the pathways that allow lithium ions to traverse the material.)
Lithium batteries, with their exceptional ability to store power per a given weight, have been a major focus of research to enable use in everything from portable electronics to electric cars. Now researchers at MIT and Brookhaven National Laboratory have found a whole new avenue for such research: the use of di
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Date:
01/14/2014
The former Emerson Embedded Computing & Power business of Emerson Network Power announced a new name and corporate identity, Artesyn Embedded Technologies. The new brand comes following a transition to new ownership during the fourth quarter of 2013. Platinum Equity, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm, ac
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Date:
01/14/2014
MIT Professional Education will offer “Tackling the Challenges of Big Data” over four weeks beginning March 4, 2014. This course is the first of its kind: cutting edge content delivered by world-renowned CSAIL researchers, in a flexible format for working professionals, on an open source educational platform de
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Date:
01/14/2014
Seventy percent of global energy production is consumed in commercial and residential buildings. Power electronics applications can reduce this substantially. The IEEE PELS Emerging Technologies Technical Committee and PSMA, with leadership from the PSMA Alternative Energy Committee, will sponsor this special on
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Date:
01/13/2014
Each side of each constituent cube of the “superlens” is set with a long, spiraling copper coil. The end of each coil is connected to its twin on the reverse side of the wall.
Inventor Nikola Tesla imagined the technology to transmit energy through thin air almost a century ago, but experimental attempts at the feat have so far resulted in cumbersome devices that only work over very small distances. But now, Duke University researchers have demonstrated the feasibility of wireless po
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Date:
01/13/2014
After more than 100,000 people signed petitions started by Climate Parents, a national membership organization of parents taking action on climate change, Radio Disney announced it will withdraw from a controversial program that promotes fossil fuel extraction to school-age children in Ohio.
Lisa Hoyos, Fo
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Date:
01/10/2014
Hitachi has begun operations on the demonstration site for the Japan-U.S. Island Grid Project on Maui Island, Hawaii, in collaboration with the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization ("NEDO"), Mizuho Bank, and Cyber Defense Institute.
The goal of this Project, which is based
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Date:
01/10/2014
The joint sponsors of the Applied Power Electronics Conference have announced the expansion of the popular travel support program to $40,000 for students planning to attend APEC 2014 in Ft. Worth, Texas, March 16-20, 2014. Now in its ninth year, the program will subsidize a portion of the travel and conference ex
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Date:
01/10/2014
China is predicted to remain the leading global consumer of wind turbine rotor blades over the coming years, with its market value expected to increase from almost $2 billion in 2012 to $3.7 billion by 2020, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 8.2%, according to a new report from research and consulting fi
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Date:
01/09/2014
Schematic of fixed and envelope tracking power profile in a RF Power amplifier
The concept of envelope tracking for radio frequency amplifiers is not new. But the ever-increasing need for better base station efficiency and output power, as well as the need for improving RF power amplifier efficiency, is driving intense research and development in envelope tracking.
Envelope Tracking
RF pow
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Date:
01/09/2014
Michael J. Aziz, the Gene and Tracy Sykes Professor of Materials and Energy Technologies at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
A team of Harvard scientists and engineers has demonstrated a novel type of battery that could fundamentally transform the way electricity is stored on the grid, making power from renewable energy sources such as wind and sun far more economical and reliable. The Harvard team received funding from the U.S. Department of
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Date:
01/09/2014
The cold weather sweeping across the U.S. has caused unprecedented price spikes, with congestions prices fluctuating by $800 on January 6 in the MISO region. Genscape’s Transmission RT service, which monitors outages, reversals, and return-to-service on transmission lines across the U.S. in real-time, gave tr
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Date:
01/08/2014
O2Micro International announced its participation in Lighting Japan
2014, January 15 -- 17. Lighting Japan 2014, a composition of three
shows -- the LED/OLED Lighting Technology Expo,
LED/OLED Light Expo, and Design Lighting
Tokyo 2014 -- will be held at the Tokyo Big Sight, Tokyo, Japan.
O2Micro will demons
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Date:
01/08/2014
Euromonitor, a UK-based research firm, has recently recognizes
Haier as a leading global major appliances brand in the world,
positioning itself as a complete lifestyle manufacturer for consumers.
Haier couples cloud-control technology and customization to give
consumers the ability to experience smart
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Date:
01/08/2014
Building on its years of innovation-driven research and development, at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show, AMZER unveiled its line up of connected and wearable devices. AMZERcontrol™ is a family of wireless automated control solutions which enhance as well as ease the consumer's daily experiences and tasks. Bot
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Date:
01/08/2014
Recently a letter was sent to the acting Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regarding the importance of determining appropriate separation distance between “submarine cables and marine hydrokinetic projects.”
In the letter (see below), Chairman Tim Murphy and Vice Chairman Michael Burgess o
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Date:
01/08/2014
Atmel AvantCar next-generation automotive center console concept
Atmel, a leader in microcontroller and touch technology solutions, announced it will be showcasing Atmel AvantCar™, a next-generation automotive center console concept with curved touch screens, demonstrating the future of human machine interface in upcoming automobiles. The demo will be showcased at Atmel’s Me
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Date:
01/08/2014
As you fly across Europe you may notice something if it is a clear day. It begins as you leave the UK and observe the tens of hundreds of windmills lined up in giant farms on both sides of the North Sea. It continues as you cross the Netherlands into Germany: see on almost every piece of raised landmass more an
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Date:
01/08/2014
2013 ended with a wide range of regulatory activity, from proposed 2014 energy-related tax incentives and finalized state GHG emission regulations (RGGI), to record residential solar installations and natural gas production. ESF Research examined the details and implications of the recent developments. Se
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Date:
01/07/2014
Taiwan’s Institute for Information Industry (III) has joined the HomeGrid Forum Board. III adds an Asian voice and point of view to the Board, better enabling HomeGrid Forum to understand and react to the needs of Asian Operators, vendors and consumers.
Founded in 1979 as a Non-Governmental Organization (
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Date:
01/07/2014
Newark element14, a high-service distributor of technology products and engineering solutions, has announced they have become an authorized distributor of Emerson Connectivity Solutions’ popular AIM-Cambridge and Semflex product lines. Emerson Connectivity Solutions is a global leader in connectivity for the de
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Date:
01/06/2014
The lighting control systems marketplace has been in a state of transition in recent years.
Changing energy efficiency codes, new construction project increases,
wireless technology benefits, increases in LED lighting adoption and
conservation initiatives have been the key factors driving the growth
of the
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Date:
01/06/2014
Harwin’s low profile Gecko connectors
Harwin, a leading hi-rel connector and SMT board hardware manufacturer, has announced that its Gecko family of high performance connectors will be used on CubeSat miniature satellites being designed by Surrey Space Centre as part of the international QB50 programme led by the von Karman Institute, Belgium.
The QB50 prog
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Date:
01/06/2014
SunSocket Solar Generator
Portable solar power innovator AspectSolar announced their sponsorship of Mike and Steve Marolt, the 8000m (8K) descent skiers behind the 2009 documentary Skiing Everest. After a tour of festivals, ESPN bought the film in 2011 for a series of primetime broadcasts. The brothers, their friend Jim Gile, and Ski Ch
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Date:
01/04/2014
MiOS, LTD., a global provider of advanced control and monitoring solutions for the home and small enterprise markets in 65 countries, and EnOcean, the world leader in energy harvesting wireless solutions, announced the release of a plug-in for the MiOS Marketplace, delivering control of Z-Wave products using En
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Date:
01/03/2014
At the 2014 International CES, Ericsson will demonstrate the experience of "Living Life in the Networked Society." Visitors to the Ericsson booth will see how different aspects of an everyday connected life are seamlessly stitched together, allowing each of us to share experiences with family, friends an
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Date:
01/03/2014
Eltek, a leader in high efficiency power systems for telecommunications, industrial applications and renewable energy projects, announced that ZTE Norway AS, a subsidiary of ZTE Corporation, has stated it will halt all sales and marketing of disputed products in Norway. This follows a legal dispute in which El
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Date:
01/02/2014
Consumer technology company AspectSolar was named as an honoree for the International CES Innovation Award. The start-up solar power company is brand new on the portable power scene and they're already making waves in the market. Their SunSocket™ Solar Generator, the device recognized for its innovation and eng
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Date:
01/02/2014
Observing the absorption of light into artificial yet organic nanostructures
Researchers have been able to tune 'coherence' in organic nanostructures due to the surprise discovery of wavelike electrons in organic materials, revealing the key to generating "long-lived charges" in organic solar cells - material that could revolutionise solar energy.
By using an ultrafast camera, sci
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Date:
01/02/2014
