This report provides an overview of the current state of circularity in the electronics value chain in Africa, identifies key areas of concern, provides appropriate recommendations, and proposes priority actions to improve circularity of the sector. The recommendations focus on the individual life cycle stages of the electronics value chain, …
A new electronic railway signalling system to avoid accidents, specially in mountainous regions, has recently been developed by Indian scientists. Unlike the conventional systems currently employed by the Indian Railways, this new signal uses technology that allows a bi-directional flow of information between a running train and the control unit. …
the "battle" to establish a new standard for recordable digital discs has just begun. Two rival groups in electronics companies are neck and neck in the race to be the first to market the new discs. Digital versatile discs (dvd), the latest gadget from the wonderful world of consumer electronics, …
An electronic device would now help trace remote controls of televisions, audio systems and satellite receivers in case these are misplaced. Researchers in the UK have developed the device which emits a signal to enable the user to locate the missing handset. A very small key finder circuit comprising a …
you might have played several guitars , but plucking the strings of this guitar may not be easy. Harold Craighead and Dustin Carr at the Cornell University, usa , have developed the world's smallest guitar that is nearly hundredth of a millimetre long. By inventing the guitar, the researchers wanted …
the number of transistors in a single chip has been growing steadily for many years. Simultaneously, the size of transistors has been shrinking at a faster rate. Most researchers believe that after a certain point, the shrinking of transistors size would stop as there is a lower limit for the …
a tiny laboratory would help speed up the searching process for drugs. Researchers at the Orchid Biocomputer of Princeton, New Jersey, usa , have developed this laboratory on a "chip' that consists of 144 chambers. In the new laboratory, a large number of chemical compounds could be synthesised and monitored …
technologies used for digital watches and alarm clocks could be further developed to reduce the cost and power consumption of computer displays and to fabricate flat televisions. These televisions can be hung on a wall. A new type of light-emitting diode ( led ) being developed in the us could …
An electronic nose would sniff whether tea is being spoiled in the drier, tomatoes have lost flavour or mangoes are about to ripen. Researchers at the University of Greenwich and the Natural Resources Institute of Chatham, UK, have developed the device that has sensors for carbon monoxide, ethylene, hydrogen sulphide, …
THE COMPLETE PICTURE: Televisions all over the world display only 88 per cent of the image broadcast by TV stations. Now, Korean-based electronics company, Samsung is developing televisions that will display the missing 12 per cent. Called HiTron TV sets, these televisions are 2.5 centimetres wider than usual. Conventional TV …
the Achilles heel of optical fibre transmission has always been electronic switches that act as speed breakers to the flow of information. But Sergey Frolov and Valy Vardney of the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, have now developed optical switches that would enable data transmission at a high speed …
a light emitting device developed by researchers at the University of Surrey, uk , may pave the way for a cheaper and more sophisticated optoelectronic devices. Optoelectronics - the combination of electronic and optical functions - is an area which has tremendous applications in communications industry. From compact disks to …
GADOLINIUM is one of the more obscure rare-earth elements. But it has a strange property that could prove useful: when put into a magnetic field, it heats up; when demagnetised, it cools down. Researchers at the Iowa State University in the us are using this effect to create a new …
NANOSCALE materials are not only one of the most interesting areas of research but also have potentially far-reaching applications in areas like electronics. The ultimate goal of miniaturisation is to fabricate devices that are made of a single molecule of the material. Unbelievable as it may sound, recent work by …
Engineers have long dreamed of semiconductor chips that could handle both optical and electrical signals. But silicon hasn't been practical for processing pulses of tight. And the semiconductor materials -such as gallium arsenide - are expensive or very fragile. Now, hybrid optoelectronic chips have just moved closer to reality. Researchers …
The revolution in microelectronics that created cellular phones and palmtop computers now allows doctors to take their healing equipments out of the hospital and on to the road. A US-based firm Nonin has developed fully functional electro cardiogram machines, no bigger than a box of chocolates, pocket-sized blood-sample analysers and …
FIFTYNINE-year-old Paul Jernigan and a 39-year old lady have, become the first- ever 'virtual' couple. They were selected to be part of an ambitious, us $1.4-million- project called the Visible Human Project, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, us. The two offered their bodies for …
companies around the world have been vying with each other to come up with the lightest and easiest to carry mobile phone. Thanks to Japan's penchant for miniaturisation, now you can carry a phone around your wrist. The Japanese telecommunications giant, nit , has developed a wristwatch-telephone that could be …
Electron crystallography, although catching up fast, has a disadvantage: there is a strong interaction between the electrons of the probe and the sample itself. Now, T E Weirich and his colleagues have obtained the complete determination of an unknown structure for the compound Ti_11 Se_4 by electron crystallography. This is …
nanometre-sized molecular materials hold great promise for future generation devices. These materials could serve as building blocks of electronic devices of an amazingly small size or could even form the basis for self-assembling machines. But before all that, it is essential to understand the fundamental electrical and mechanical properties of …
