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Soitec buys nano Altatech
Silicon on insulator Soitec has acquired nano production systems producer Altatech Semiconductor S.A based at Montbonnot Saint Martin near Grenoble. The final purchase price of €15m was financed partly in cash and partly using Soitec stock, purchased by BNP Paribas Exane on the market under the share buy-back program approved by the shareholders.
£11.5m for aerospace & marine energy
Aerospace and marine energy are attracting more than £11.5m investment from UK government organisations, led by the Technology Strategy Board (TSB). The slant for aerospace is solving high risk challenges, while the angle in marine energy is the nitty, gritty of array technologies.
Sixth Sense – Advanced Sensor Technology
Sensing for security; sensitive measurements in extreme environments; from data to information; and biomedical sensing are among the topics covered at Heriot-Watt University's 2nd annual Industry Day welcoming the views of those working in this sector, and those who wish to discuss the important issues currently facing the industry.
Whisky biofuel as water loses to wind
THE UK government's review of feed in tariff (FIT) energy payments is estimated to have stalled £100m of hydropower investment in Scotland, while a newcomer Celtic Renewable is to use whisky by-products for the production of biofuels.
Dundee is Tissue Bank founder
The University of Dundee/NHS Tayside is one of four collaborating centre sites where breast cancer tissue samples can be donated, along with blood samples and information about the donor’s breast cancer in a revolutionary new central bank.
Sensors for concrete monitoring
Innovative sensors have been developed that will dramatically improve the ability to spot early warning signs of corrosion in concrete. More resilient and much longer lasting than traditional corrosion sensors they will make monitoring the safety of structures such as bridges and vital coastal defences much more effective as carbon steel bars used to reinforce submerged concrete in tidal zone areas are at particular risk of corrosion caused by wet conditions.
Weir acquires valves & pumps, seismic sensors next?
The engineering group Weir has made its second acquisition in the US shale oil and gas sector with the acquisition of Dallas-based US valve maker Novatech for $176m (£113m). Perhaps it should also consider the seismic sensor market too.
Graphene: magnetic, irridescent, & super hydrophobic
Graphene's multi-magnetic face now adds two other unusual properties with iridescence and super hydrophobicity that could have applications in liquid transportation and analysis, and due to graphene’s remarkable electrical properties, even in electricity.
Semiconductor market optimism
Future Horizons which last year settled for seeing 2011 as essentially a flat year with 1% growth compared with 2010 for the global chip market is now expecting an 8% growth in the semiconductor industry this year. And If the economy bounces back, it could be as much as 20%. In the III-Vs arena, IQE, Cardiff expect a full year revenues for 2011 to exceed £75m, up from £73m the previous year. EBITDA is also expected to increase to not less than £13.7 million. Net debt is expected at less than £4m.
Superconductors: Essen & Prague
The RWE Group and its partners are to replace a 1-km-long high-voltage cable connecting two transformer stations in the Ruhr city of Essen with a state-of-the-art superconductor solution. It marks the longest superconductor cable installation in the world.
Helius: the edible monitoring pillchip
US California based Proteus Biomedical, is to launching a “digital health product” Helius an edible chip in pill sensor in the UK around September in collaboration with the pharmacy chain Lloydspharmacy.
Superconducting: end to transformers?
For the first time a superconducting current limiter based on yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO) strip conductors has been installed at a power plant in South Africa. The new technology, co-developed by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and made by the French Nexans SuperConductors has been taken into use at the Boxberg power plant of Vattenfall.
3D print manufacture heads for home
Cubify launched at CES amid the tablets, smarttphones, TV's and ultrabooks. It is likely to be the most dramatic device at the show and the start of a new cottage printed product manufacturing industry that will be globally ubiquitous. With much less publicity, in the UK Exeter's chocolate printing pilot has turned in the CALM centre and offers free help to interested SMEs
Urgent manufacture rethink: Raspberry Pi
The "Raspberry Pi 0001, the ARM GNU/Linux box for $25. Take a byte!" has been auctioned for £3,500 on eBay. But progress in local manufacture of this bright-light UK educational device, throws up a glaring spanner for UK manufacture. Importing a complete device has no tax. Import components to manufacture the devices locally will be taxed.
ODS steel for fusion reactors
Scientists at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), Oxford University (UK) and the University of Michigan (USA) have teamed to develop new materials for thermonuclear fusion reactors, focusing on characterisation of oxide dispersion-strengthened, reduced-activation steel for reactor structure.
Aberration-Corrected STEM launch
A new facility allowing UK scientists to see the properties of materials more clearly, at the atomic level, has been officially launched at the STFC Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire, to an audience of leading scientists, industrialists and politicians.
Antimicrobial reassessment needed
The understanding and control antimicrobial resistance urgently needs policymakers to reassess priorities urge University of Glasgow scientists.
G-FET speed
Researchers at Sweden's Chalmers University of Technology have developed a subharmonic Graphene Field Effect Transistor (G-FET) mixer at microwave frequencies, providing new opportunities for future electronics, enabling compact circuit technology, and the potential to reach high frequencies with silicon technology integration.
One to watch: Process Technology Institute
January 2012 seen the launch of the new TU Delft Process Technology Institute. All Delft University of Technology (research in the field of process technology) will be integrated in this institute.
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