Articles
Nickel-Zinc: Recharging Battery Performance and OEM Design Opportunities
July 23, 2009 10:02 am | by Joseph Carcone, Vice President, Business Development, PowerGenix | CommentsTechnology is driven by many factors, and the reinvention of existing technology products to new higher levels of performance requires innovations in materials and science. Critical components in the design of portable electronics, batteries, in the eyes of many, have not kept pace with innovations in their electronic counterparts. Is it time for the reinvention of one of electrochemistry’s oldest technologies to fulfill the needs of a new power market
Internet-Based Data Acquisition with Web-Enabled Sensors
July 23, 2009 8:23 am | by Ramiro Garcia, Automation Products Group | CommentsRecent years have seen what can only be described as a wave of hyper-development in web technology. Concurrently, the ubiquitous Internet is quickly becoming the backbone of our communications infrastructure. Enter the web-enabled sensor. The marriage of common sensing technologies with the power of the Internet offers dramatic benefits for companies looking to remotely monitor levels or other parameters.
Two Current Sense Amps Solve Single Amp Limitations
July 23, 2009 7:51 am | by Greg Zimmer, Linear Technology Corporation | CommentsEach new generation of automotive and industrial designs have been faced with an increasing demand for precision control and diagnostic capabilities, as well as for reliability and safety features. Achieving these new features often requires precision current sensing, and as result, the demand for precision high-side current sense amplifiers has steadily increased in recent years. The applications for high-side current sense amplifiers
Data Acquisition Bridges the Analog and Digital Worlds
July 23, 2009 7:19 am | by Doug Trujillo, BSEE Colorado State University | CommentsIn our solid state society today, daily advances in technology have set the standard in many applications to that of excellence when compared to only a few years ago. This new standard of living has benefited today’s consumer in many ways that were only dreamt of years ago. Whether it is driver assistance controls that provide increased safety and convenience for your drive to work
Maximizing Eight-Channel Data-Acquisition System Performance Using a Single ADC Driver
July 23, 2009 6:59 am | by Jakub Szymczak [jakub.szymczak@analog.com], Analog Devices, Inc. | CommentsThe principal factors that affect data acquisition systems are: speed, accuracy, power dissipation, package size, and component cost, with varying factors becoming critical depending upon the application. This article shows how a single op amp can be used to drive the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) in an 8-channel data-acquisition system, reducing the cost and size of the overall system.
Where do we go from here?
July 23, 2009 6:46 am | by Alix Paultre, Editor-in-Chief | CommentsAmerica finds itself at a juncture of many roads, with no clear map on which way to turn. The role of government, health care, energy, race, and disruptive technology have presented us with a myriad of choice on which road to take to the future. The important thing to remember is that we are all in the same boat together.
Low-Cost, High-Resolution Time-Measurement Application
July 16, 2009 10:11 am | by Jim Bartling, Microchip Technology | CommentsTime Domain Reflectometry (TDR) is a measurement of the impedance of a transmission line using the reflected energy of a pulse sent down that transmission line. As a pulse is sent down a transmission line, it travels at the speed of light for the media it is in (typically, 60% to 80% of the speed of light in free space). As the pulse arrives at an impedance, mismatch energy is reflected back to the pulse source and arrives at a time
Leveraging COTS Technology to Advance Stand-Alone Rugged Boxes
July 16, 2009 7:49 am | by Mike Southworth, Parvus | CommentsTechnology developments that reduce complexity and enhance usability are always a welcome addition to rugged applications, since fewer parts means improved reliability. This truth is especially evidenced by the increasing availability of stand-alone rugged boxes. The development of stand-alone rugged boxes has provided a singular computing solution for rugged applications where reliable high performance computing is a must. Previously, rugged computing devices were dispersed among several different computing units
The information bubble
July 15, 2009 9:34 am | by Alix Paultre, Editor-in-Chief | CommentsThe wonderful communications technology infrastructure we have created has given everyone the power to communicate with anyone else on the planet at a moments notice with images, text, voice, and video. All of the focus is on the software tools such as Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube that are at the forefront of the societal sea change, but it is the newly-risen global information network that is the real hero.
When to Use a Clock vs. an Oscillator
July 15, 2009 7:36 am | by James Wilson, Marketing Manager | CommentsHardware design in high performance applications such as networking, wireless/RF transmission, broadcast video and test and measurement is becoming increasingly complex as hardware designers grapple with the need to support a growing number of standards, protocols, and specifications within a single hardware design. A few examples illustrate this trend.
Brainstorm: Sensors and Testing
July 15, 2009 6:33 am | CommentsIn the development cycle, where does test play the most important role?
Brainstorm: Military Electronics Part 2
July 15, 2009 6:18 am | CommentsWhat is the most pressing issue concerning the deployment of autonomous military robots?
Brainstorm: Lighting
July 15, 2009 5:14 am | CommentsWhat do you think is the chief factor preventing the mainstream adoption of solid-state lighting?
When Good Memories Go Bad – Data Recovery of Flash Media
July 2, 2009 7:55 am | by Sean Barry, Kroll Ontrack, www.krollontrack.com | CommentsComputer hard disk drive storage has an impressive history of technological advances, from the RAMAC storage systems in the 1950s to perpendicular recording introduced a few years ago. The advancement of these technologies has increased the density of today’s hard disk drives to the terabyte range. Along the way frustrations with new storage technology have been proprietary equipment formats, initial high investments, and failed expectations of reliability.
Sensors Expo Report, 2009
July 1, 2009 2:12 pm | CommentsEnergy harvesting technology took center stage at this year’s Sensors Expo in Rosemont, IL. Whether the solution obtained its power from the sun, heat, vibration, wind, RF or magnetics, there was a device at the show to take advantage of many of these or other ambient conditions. Infinite Power Solutions’ THINERGY thin micro-energy cells (MECs), in capacities of .0 mAh and 0.4 mAh initially, are positioned as the world’s most powerful batteries for their size and outperform all other micro-batteries.
