Articles
The sensor that could save (plant) lives
September 17, 2012 9:33 am | by Kasey Panetta, Associate Editor | CommentsTechnology can be a bit of a smoke and mirrors field. Sometimes, the technology is useless, sometimes it’s stupid and sometimes, the price point exceeds the usefulness. For example, Koubachi’s Wi-Fi plant sensor, falls into the category of useful (ish) but way too expensive to justify buying.
Roundtable: What advice would you give to a newly minted design engineer?
September 14, 2012 9:38 am | Comments"What advice would you give to a newly minted design engineer?" Industry experts and ECN readers dish out their best advice for new design engineers. A ton of great advice flooded our inbox: Find a mentor, be a mentor, learn from your own mistakes, but also from other engineers.
Design safe endoscopes and medical imaging devices with high-speed digital isolators
September 14, 2012 9:32 am | by Zhang Bin, Application Development Manager, Avago Technologies, and Harold Tisbe, Application Engineer, Avago Technologies | CommentsIn medical imaging devices, large quantities of video imaging data need to be transferred from image sensor to image processor while maintaining high levels of electrical isolation so the sensor won’t shock the patient. The high-speed digital data transmission channels between the sensor and image processor require high-levels of isolation while transferring data at up to 100Mbaud for real-time displays.
Can technology force you to relax?
September 14, 2012 9:10 am | by Kasey Panetta, Associate Editor | CommentsIn today’s world we’re all guilty of multi-tasking. We talk on the phone while we drive to work. We check email while eating breakfast. We read a book on the treadmill. There are just too many things to do and too few hours in the day. Sometimes you have to be reminded to stop
When smart cars get street smart
September 13, 2012 8:47 am | by Chris Warner, Executive Editor | CommentsIn recent years, there’s been a lot of buzz about automotive infotainment systems — features that are built into recent model cars that can offer anything from satellite navigation, DVD players, internet access and more. This has led to concern from regulators about driver inattention and its impact on safety.
Epoxy adhesive films and preforms for electronics manufacturing
September 11, 2012 12:27 pm | CommentsElectronics manufacturers are constantly looking for ways to improve product quality, speed time to market, and reduce production costs. To optimize manufacturing, engineers carefully consider the three major aspects of production: technology, processes, and materials. More and more, manufacturers are turning to innovative adhesives as a means to achieve multiple technical goals.
Getting in your head
September 11, 2012 10:54 am | by Jeff Reinke, Editorial Director | CommentsProfessor Edward S. Boyden is probably one of the few individuals on the planet who is actually best described as a brainiac. Currently serving as the principal investigator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Synthetic Neurobiology Group, Boyden’s mission is to develop tools for controlling and observing the dynamic circuits of the brain.
Meeting satellite design challenges with both off-the-shelf and customized space-grade DC-to-DC converter solutions
September 11, 2012 9:30 am | by Rob Warren, Vice President and General Manager, Microsemi Corporation | CommentsSatellite design engineers face many difficult issues. End customers such as the U.S. Air Force are demanding ever higher levels of reliability. Failure in space-related applications is not an option. The products used in satellites must work every time, in a plethora of environmental extremes...
Twitter politics: How social media impacts presidential elections
September 10, 2012 5:28 pm | by Jason Lomberg, Technical Editor | CommentsThe news that President Barack Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention was the "biggest political moment ever" on Twitter isn’t exactly surprising, but it’s worth taking a look at how social media influences political contests.
Alternate energy: Trends and dependence on electronics in power conversion
September 10, 2012 2:03 pm | by Nagarajan Sridhar, Texas Instruments | CommentsWith prosperity rising at a global level the demand for energy has been increasing significantly over the last decade. However, there are concerns of energy supply and distribution to many areas of the world with little or no infrastructure. Furthermore, using fossil fuel as the main energy supply in the long run has been strongly debated.
VoLTE: What makes voice over IP “carrier grade"?
September 7, 2012 12:57 pm | by Mike Keely, Director, Product Management, Wireless at Spirent Communications | CommentsAt first glance Voice over LTE (VoLTE), the next generation of wireless voice technology, looks suspiciously like VoIP service over a wireless connection. At a very basic level it is exactly that: digitized voice-band audio transmitted as IP packets and demodulated into voice-band audio. Then what is the difference between VoLTE and over-the-top services like Skype, Vonage or Gizmo5?
IEEE 802.11ac: The promise of increased performance
September 4, 2012 12:19 pm | by Joe Zeto, Sr. Manager Market Development, Ixia | CommentsDigital content consumption is on a steep rise – witness the mass adoption of multiple connected devices such as smartphones, tablets and laptops. This surge and the increased reliance on wireless networks –not to mention the growth of video content, which is expected to reach more than 86 percent of global consumer traffic by 2016 according to the Cisco Visual Networking Index...
A guide to enjoying the (inevitable) robot takeover
August 30, 2012 11:02 am | by Kasey Panetta, Associate Editor | CommentsLet's face it: Robots are better than people.They’re more dependable than humans (i.e. no sick days), they’re usually cheaper, and they don’t complain. The downside is pretty obvious as well, at least with the primitive robots we have today:
Brainstorm: LEDs
August 30, 2012 9:45 am | CommentsAlthough LED lighting is still in the early adoption phase, high brightness lighting class LED devices are currently used in a wide variety of different applications due to the many advantages they offer over traditional light sources such as incandescent light bulbs and fluorescent tubes. The development of ever more efficient LED devices is ongoing as device technology continues to be improved.
Pieces from classic sci-fi dystopias are falling into place
August 29, 2012 12:52 pm | CommentsOn June 5, the literary world lost a true legend with the passing of Ray Bradbury. His death – along with some recent events here in local news – got me thinking back to my teenage years where his masterpiece Fahrenheit 451 was required reading at my high school along with George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (and I’d be remiss if I didn’t italicize titles of literary works when thinking about my high school English-Lit teacher).
