As analysts predicted, more environmental laws are headed toward the electronics industry. At a November meeting in France, the European Parliament backed a bill entitled Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH). The law is designed to make companies prove that substances in everyday products such as cars and computers are safe. The properties of roughly 30,000 chemicals produced or imported into European Union (EU) countries would require testing and authorization to be used.
The EU passed the legislation 407 to 155 with 41 abstentions. The rules still need to be agreed upon by EU members and the bill will come back to parliament before it becomes law. REACH will force companies to substitute safe chemicals for hazardous ones when alternatives are available. The bill does not specify whether the RoHS directive renders electronic products clean enough to pass REACH. Industry analysts have argued there are more chemicals in electronic products that will come under scrutiny.
Safety networks have become more complex, and have actually become simpler and easier to deploy for plant operators. This slideshow highlights developments in plant safety with an emphasis on integrated safety networks.
As the MEMS industry spans a myriad of industries and markets, the future of MEMS in consumer electronics will enable a myriad of functionality, applications, and personalization.
The Nest is a sleek-looking digital thermostat which can actually "learn" its owners' schedule and then continue to regulate temperature to suit the user's preferences and patterns.
Thanks to embedded electronics, medical devices are getting smaller and smarter than ever. Pacemakers and implantable defibrillators are now able to call physicians. MRIs, CT scanners, and ultrasound machines are gaining mobility. And the venerable Band-Aid may soon be able to detect illnesses ranging from fevers to heart arrhythmias. On February 21, join Design News senior editor Charles Murray for a wide-ranging discussion, "Embedded Angles for Medical Products," which will explore the latest developments in medical electronics. The discussion will examine advances in medical device technology and offer an inside look at the embedded electronics behind it.
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
20 
