Articles
Wireless bonded LED technology offers many benefits
May 14, 2012 11:12 am | by Jonathan Domingo, Product Development Engineer, Lumex | CommentsWireless bonded LED technology, often referred to as “flip chip” or “delta chip”, offers several key performance benefits. Though the technology was first introduced to the industry about a decade ago, the widespread growth in popularity of high-power LEDs in recent years combined with the increasing adoption of LED technologies in high-performance applications...
Implement low-frequency radio in active RFID systems
May 10, 2012 4:02 pm | by Ruggero Leoncavallo, Product Manager, ams AG, www.ams.com | CommentsRFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is pervasive in asset tracking and logistics applications. Most applications use passive tags, which are low cost and have no power source, so they generate their energy from the electromagnetic radiation emitted by the reader. Thus the range of passive tags is limited.
Smaller and smaller: Connectors shrink to meet the demands of miniature electronics
May 10, 2012 10:56 am | by Lukas Muth, Combicon Compact Product Marketing, Phoenix Contact GmbH & Co. KG, Blomberg, Germany & Andrew Bogaczyk, Lead Product Marketing Specialist – Device Connectors, Phoenix Contact USA, Middletown, PA. | CommentsTo meet the needs of today’s ever-smaller electronics, the individual electromechanical elements on printed circuit boards (PCBs) have become miniaturized. While this creates higher density, the small size can present challenges when manufacturing. Plug connectors with centerlines of 2.5 mm or smaller can be especially challenging.
Get the most out of epoxy potting and encapsulation compounds
May 10, 2012 10:33 am | by Robert Michaels, VP Technical Sales, Master Bond Inc., www.masterbond.com | CommentsPotting compounds are too often an afterthought in the design of electronic devices. They shouldn’t be. These encapsulating systems play a crucial role in the assembly and long-term protection of delicate electronic components. When properly selected and applied, potting compounds form the first line of defense against a wide range of environmental, chemical, mechanical, thermal, and electrical conditions...
The Roundtable - Wireless
May 10, 2012 10:14 am | CommentsWireless connectivity and Smart Energy are the name of the game for 2012. As the fringe of the internet rapidly expands to include individual sensors and control nodes, many of these are implemented as small, battery-powered wireless nodes. Design-in activity for ubiquitous protocols like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth is still increasing.
The Roundtable - Intelligent Systems
May 10, 2012 9:38 am | CommentsToday’s MCUs have helped to redefine what a system-on-chip looks like. MCUs have adapted to service the needs of an almost infinite number of applications. To meet the needs of their customers, MCU designers have integrated more features onto the device, while at the same time pushing for lower price points...
Real-time apps using multi-threads
May 9, 2012 10:50 am | by Paul Evans, Business Development Manager, Meta CPUs, Imagination Technologies | CommentsConsumer electronics devices are increasingly high performance, real time applications where high data rates and sophisticated real time event handling are required. Delivering suitable real time performance can be achieved by using a variety of techniques – including multiple processors. A more effective solution (low power, low cost and small silicon area) is hardware multithreading...
Single-chip processor platforms deliver on power/performance balance for mobile devices
May 8, 2012 9:14 am | by Carsten Wild, Director Marketing, Mobile Application Platforms, Renesas Mobile Corporation | CommentsAs with every new technology, delivering LTE chipsets presents many technical challenges. Performance, power and price are key concerns. Higher data rates, such as LTE Cat4with up to 150Mbps download speeds, require very high performance computing, which is achieved mostly through higher clock rates...
Choose the right DAQ board
May 1, 2012 10:33 am | CommentsData acquisition (DAQ) hardware serves as the interface between a computer and signals from the outside world. There are hundreds of different types of DAQ hardware with a range of sampling rates, resolutions, signal conditioning options, and form factors. Use these five questions as a guide to help you choose the right DAQ hardware for your application.
The Teardown - Motorola Droid Bionic
April 30, 2012 4:22 pm | CommentsThe Motorola Droid Bionic is the first dual-core smartphone operating on Verizon's 4G LTE network. It’s packing some serious hardware, and is the slimmest 4G LTE phone at 0.43 inches thick.
The Teardown - Apple TV 3rd Generation
April 30, 2012 3:46 pm | CommentsLess than four inches square and an inch tall (the exact size of the 2nd generation Apple TV), the small but mighty Apple TV 3rd Generation adds the ability to play 1080p HD content.
New SMU capabilities meet power electronics manufacturers’ demands
April 27, 2012 8:46 am | by Lee Stauffer and Mark Cejer, Keithley Instruments | CommentsPower electronics manufacturers are increasingly turning to compound materials, including silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN), to create the newest high power electronics. These materials offer much higher power density, smaller size, better high temperature performance, higher frequency response, lower leakage, and lower ON resistance than traditional silicon...
Complement your scope investment with PC-based analysis software
April 26, 2012 2:37 pm | by Joel Woodward, Agilent Technologies, www.agilent.com | CommentsPC-based analysis of previously captured test data is a growing technology that offers great value to teams looking for alternatives that hold promise. While PC-based tools that operate with files captured on oscilloscopes have existed for a decade, adoption has been slow.
Solving the great design dilemma: ‘Distinctive’ v ‘Discrete’
April 26, 2012 2:17 pm | by Robert Cox, VP of Marketing, OKW Enclosures, Inc., www.okwenclosures.com | CommentsCreating standard electronics enclosures is a challenging process – they have to last 20 years so every design must be a ‘classic’. Each must stand the test of time in a rapidly evolving sector that can render lesser products obsolete in six months. Absolutely critical to success is achieving the fine balance between ‘distinctive’ and ‘discrete’ design.
OpenVPX development and COTS interoperability for rugged signal-processing applications
April 23, 2012 4:07 pm | by Robert C. Sullivan, Engineered Packaging, Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense Solutions | CommentsThe OpenVPX effort, begun in early in 2009, culminated in ratification of ANSI/VITA 65 in mid 2010. This standard was the first to provide a system-level framework for VPX interoperability. Today, VPX modules are commonly used in very demanding, high bandwidth multi-processor signal processing applications, such as those used in military and aerospace C4ISR programs.
