Micro Power Electronics recently announced that Electrochem Solutions, a subsidiary of Greatbatch, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the company. Micro Power supplies custom battery systems to the portable medical markets, amongst others. This has a few benefits for designers. One is that, with an expected growth in manufacturing, designers should be less concerned about needing a second source for custom batteries.

We have assembled a series of articles in what we call an “enhanced” digital magazine. It’s a joint project between Medical Electronics Design and EE Times. Some of these articles were first presented in a live environment at DesignMED in Boston. The presentations were repackaged into a series of design articles, which is what you’ll find.

What a wild week it was at the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC). I spent Tuesday and Wednesday last week in San Jose with the world’s leading embedded developers and came back with some great ideas.

It’s CES Week. If you’re not familiar, CES is the Consumer Electronics Show, the gathering of all things electronics, which takes place annually in Las Vegas. It runs from Thursday through Sunday this week. I’ve been told that CES is the largest trade show of any kind in the US.