Serving the Electronic Design Community Since 1956
Power Relays Give Designers Much to Ponder
November 19, 2007 11:52 am | by Jon Titus, Senior Technical Editor | Articles | CommentsMy first experience with a relay came about when a friend found a radiosonde -- a small balloon-borne weather instrument -- in the woods behind his house. My friend Ben wanted the parachute, so I got the electronics. As a kid of 11 or 12, the circuitry didn't mean much, but it included a simple relay I experimented with.
Lithium, Ultracaps Merge for Hybrid Power
November 19, 2007 11:13 am | Blogs | CommentsProductive Product: Maxwell Technologies is working with China's Lishen Battery to design hybrid lithium-ultracapacitor products, Maxwell officials said today. Immediately, Lishen will start making lithium cells adjacent to ultracapacitors in the same package, while preparing to merge lithium with ultracapacitors in individual hybrid cells by summer 2009.
High-Frequency Crystal Oscillators Provide Low-Jitter Performance for Communication Applications
November 19, 2007 10:35 am | Product Releases | CommentsMaxim Integrated Products introduced the DS4-XO series of crystal oscillators that support frequency operation from 75 MHz to 622.08 MHz. These miniature crystal oscillators are available in a 5 mm x 3.2 mm package and provide jitter performance of less than 1 psRMS (12 kHz to 20 MHz) over the -40°C to +85°C extended temperature range. Manufactured using fundamental AT-cut crystal technology with no overtone,
VCO for Digital Radio Equipment
November 19, 2007 4:05 am | Product Releases | CommentsCrystek's CVCO55CC-2778-2945 VCO operates from 2778 MHz to 2945 MHz with a control voltage range of 0.1V to 16V. This VCO features a typical phase noise of -110 dBc/Hz @ 10KHz offset and has excellent linearity. It is packaged in the industry standard 0.5" × 0.5" SMD package. Input voltage is 8.0 V, with a max current consumption of 40 mA. Pulling and Pushing are minimized to 5.00 MHz and 2.00 MHz/V
UCLA Puts Twist on Flexible Batteries
November 16, 2007 10:53 am | Blogs | CommentsProductive Product: UCLA researchers are able to print batteries on flexible circuits by using nanotube inks, NewScientist reports. There are similar projects, such as at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and it's not immediately clear how the UCLA project differs. However, NewScientist explains
Energy Harvesting in the Military
November 16, 2007 9:18 am | Blogs | CommentsProductive Product: I wrote about energy harvesting a few times before, and now there's a practical application: power for field soldiers. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported on M2E Power, a Boise, Idaho start-up that says it has a (no pun intended) more efficient way to perform energy harvesting -- the general idea of energy harvesting from mechanical movements traditionally does work but hasn't been worth the trouble.
Process Sealed Toggle and Pushbutton Switches
November 16, 2007 4:16 am | Product Releases | CommentsCIT Relay & Switch announces the BST and BSP Series toggle and pushbutton switch series, providing design engineers versatile, multiple function toggle and momentary pushbutton switches for use in a variety of applications. Both offer a wide variety of termination options. The BST toggle is available with numerous actuator lengths and optional gold contacts. The BSP pushbutton features a snap-in mounting option. Both series offer
Transmission Line Pulse (TLP) is an Effective Analysis Tool for ESD
November 15, 2007 7:26 am | by Robert Ashton, Ph.D., ON Semiconductor | Articles | CommentsElectrostatic discharge (ESD) occurs when objects -- including people, furniture, machines, integrated circuits or electrical cables -- become charged and discharged. Electrostatic charging brings objects to surprisingly high potentials of many thousands of volts in ordinary home or office environments. ESD produces currents which can have rise times less than a nanosecond, peak currents of dozens of Amps and durations that can last from tens to hundreds of nanoseconds. Unless ESD robustness is included during design, these current levels can damage electrical components and upset or damage electrical systems from cell phones to computers.
ATCA: It's More Than a Bus
November 15, 2007 6:45 am | by John Titus, Senior Technical Editor | Articles | CommentsCompetitive telecom businesses have realized they can no longer design proprietary hardware. In response to this changed business climate, members of the PICMG, a consortium of industrial-computer vendors, developed PICMG 3.0, or the Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture (ATCA). Marc LeClaire, a product manager in the Advanced Blades and Servers Division at Kontron, stressed that the ATCA standard covers boards, enclosures, interconnections, communications, and other architectural components. "Designers must think of the ATCA as a complete architecture, not simply as a bus."
DDS Simplifies Serial-Data Receiver Stress Tests
November 15, 2007 5:31 am | by Christopher J. Loberg, Tektronix | Articles | CommentsFor years, synchronous parallel buses have served as the media for data exchange between digital devices. Timing issues, however, plague parallel buses at high clock frequencies and data rates, and limit their capability to keep up with demands of higher-speed computers. Over the past few years, serial-bus technology has advanced the computer industry because serial buses send self-clocking bit streams that eliminate skew associated with parallel buses. As a result, serial data rates have risen above 1 Gbits/sec. and newer implementations approach 3 to 6 Gbits/sec. As multi-gigabit data rates become common, however, signal integrity -- the quality of signal needed to properly transmit data to an IC -- becomes a paramount concern for designers.
16-bit Analog Input Board Offers High Resolution, Precise Data Acquisition
November 15, 2007 3:58 am | Product Releases | CommentsMEN Micro Inc., announced the M36N M-Module, an analog input mezzanine board that provides high resolution and precise data acquisition for analog signals found throughout automation, measuring and simulation applications. Available in 16- or 18-bit versions, it can be used as an I/O extension for CompactPCI, PCI, PXI or VME embedded systems as well as on stand-alone single board
Compact 275W AC/DC Power Supply
November 14, 2007 4:00 am | Product Releases | CommentsPower Sources Unlimited announced the N2Power XL275 Series of ultra small, highly efficient (up to 90 percent) AC/DC power supplies which pack 275W of power into a 12.22W/cubic inch power density, fitting into industry standard 1U OEM applications or any application where space is critical. The series features a universal 90V AC to 264V AC input with active PFC
But What About the Sunburn on My Ear?
November 13, 2007 8:50 am | Blogs | CommentsProductive Product: Not everyone can live in a solar-powered European city or build a solar-powered cubist house, but Iqua Ltd.'s solar Bluetooth headset will soon be available to all, the Register reports. Will it work when the skies are cloudy or dark? Will it have comparable sound quality and between-charges life to standard headsets? Will it cause any sunburn on your ear?
Sealed Beam LED Marker and Floodlight
November 13, 2007 6:32 am | Product Releases | CommentsLEDtronics announced their PAR36 Series Marker Lamps and Floodlights designed as an energy-saving substitute for PAR36 sealed beam lamps. suitable industrial vehicles, golf carts, architectural accent lighting, low-heat medical spotlighting, emergency egress lighting systems, landscape lighting, and other utilizations. The lamp can be a direct drop-in replacement for 12/14V DC, 6V DC and 120V AC PAR36 incandescent lamps.
Wire-Wound Inductor Achieves 3.0A at 10µH
November 13, 2007 3:44 am | Product Releases | CommentsTaiyo Yuden announced the NR6045T series of 6 mm x 6 mm x 4.5 mm wire-wound power inductors for DC/DC converter choke coil applications in LCD / plasma TVs and other flat panel displays (FPDs). The 14 models in the offer a selection of low DC resistance (0.014O to 0.5O), high inductance (1.0 µH to 100 µH) and high current ratings (0.8 – 8.5A). The device offers
