The use of simulation tools, ‘digital twins’, in production is fast growing and will soon become an integral part of the Smart Factory and the Internet of Things (IoT). Digital twins are digital copies of physical assets including all their modelled characteri...

By Nnamdi Anyadike | 08-10-2018

Quantum computers could be mass produced at low cost with silicon microchips that have large-scale waveguides, optical tracks, for photons, instead of circuits for electrons controlled by transistor switches. These silicon photonic chips could solve two challe...

By Rob Coppinger | 05-10-2018

The desktop PC has supposedly been dying for years. But one look around the office shows that it is alive and well. But could the humble smartphone be the greatest weapon against desktops, and even laptops?   The Ultimate Bring Your Own Device Corpor...

By Christian Cawley | 04-10-2018

The market for collaborative robots, so-called ‘cobots’ that work alongside human operators, is expanding fast and looks set to render the future industrial workplace unrecognisable in the coming years. Universal Robots, the Danish producer of robotic arms and...

By Nnamdi Anyadike | 02-10-2018

A heat sink more than three times better than copper could be commercially available in a couple of years after engineers found a way to make the semiconductor boron-arsenide virtually defect free. Researchers are speaking to potential commercial partners for...

Semiconductors | By Rob Coppinger | 28-09-2018

Over the years, old desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, printers, docking stations, PDAs, and long abandoned mobile devices have accumulated. Entire rooms (perhaps even buildings) are dedicated to the storage of old technology. This is happening despite the prolife...

By Christian Cawley | 27-09-2018

The global connector market is growing by leaps and bounds. One recent estimate puts the total size of the industry at $80.4 billion by 2023, having grown at a CAGR of 4.9% in the five year period from 2018. The key drivers are the growth in 3C applications, t...

By Nnamdi Anyadike | 26-09-2018

The progress made in phone handsets and other forms of consumer electronics over the past two decades has led to impressive technological capabilities being realised. The processing speed available to users of iPhone X smartphones can rival that of a modern la...

By Mark Patrick | 24-09-2018

Quantum cascade lasers could allow the ever-smaller transistors to operate at low power and lower temperatures without the problems associated with conventional designs. Transistors produce the binary computer system’s ones and zeros by applying an electrical...

By Rob Coppinger | 20-09-2018

The banning by the European Commission of halogen light bulbs in the EU as of September 1 2018 – in order to encourage consumers to switch over to more energy-efficient light-emitting diode (LED) technology - has been broadly welcomed by environmentalists and,...

By Nnamdi Anyadike | 19-09-2018

Simply loading up and driving off with a delivery is thankfully a thing of the past. Even a lone ranger "white van man" knows that time sensitive deliveries need optimized navigation and a close eye on fuel costs. But this is just the default position for 21st...

By Christian Cawley | 17-09-2018

Gold and semiconductors are to be assembled into nano-structures using a genetically engineered virus that was originally found in the Escherichia coli bacteria, which is typically found in digestive tracts. The shape of the virus combined with the atoms’ prop...

By Rob Coppinger | 14-09-2018