Application Solutions
Build HMI Into Home Appliances with Capacitive Sensing and a Lot More
April 13, 2010 1:00 pm | by Meng He, Cypress Semiconductor | Articles | CommentsThe arrival of the iPhone on June 29, 2007 did not just win Apple an overwhelming presence in the personal gadget world, but also changed consumers’ perception of human machine interface forever. The user-driven human touch sensing design is not just intimate with its customers; it is loved.
New Generations of 32-bit and 8-bit MCUs Ideal for Efficient Household Appliances and White Goods
April 13, 2010 12:39 pm | by Sandhya Mallikarjun, Fujitsu Microelectronics America, Inc | Articles | CommentsThe newest generation of household appliances and white goods includes more electronics than ever, enabled by innovation and integration in 32-bit microcontrollers (MCUs) along with advances in the always-reliable low-end 8-bit controllers.
Designing Home Appliances that Meet IEC 60730-1 Safety Requirements
April 7, 2010 8:33 am | by Nelson Quintana, Segment Marketing Manager, White Goods & Appliances, Renesas Electronics America Inc. | Articles | CommentsThanks to microcomputer-based control electronics, consumer white goods and home appliances are easier and more convenient to use, work better and are more energy efficient. But what if something in the circuitry goes wrong?
Embedded electronics make White Goods more reliable and efficient
April 7, 2010 7:38 am | by Dugald Campbell, Large Appliance Systems Solutions Engineer, Freescale Semiconductor | Articles | CommentsThe U.S. Department of Energy (D.O.E) is pushing to encourage conservation by getting consumers to replace old, wasteful appliances with new, more efficient Energy Star certified machines. A program that kicked in last year will offer consumers cash to help buy new home appliances.
New high-reliability contact system facilitates automated assembly
March 17, 2010 9:43 am | by Dave Humphreys, Product Manager, Harwin Inc | Articles | CommentsThere are many applications whose operating environments demand the use of an interconnect system with a high-reliability contact. If equipment is to be used where high shock and vibration or extremes of temperature are experienced, connectors based on a standard contact will not be reliable or rugged enough to guarantee signal integrity.
Next Generation PoP for Processor and Memory Stacking
March 10, 2010 6:47 am | by Helen Katske, Manager, Engineering Services, Micro-Electronics group, Tessera, Phil Damberg, Vice President, Next Generation Packaging, Micro-Electronics group, Tessera, & KM Bang, Senior Engineer, Package Development, Micro-Electronics group, Tessera | Articles | CommentsThe continued increase in mobile handset functionality is being enabled by more powerful baseband and applications processor chips, which are more frequently coupled with memory devices using package-on-package (PoP) stacking.
Design Smart - Design Safe - Design Fast
March 4, 2010 7:27 am | by Hans Wiedemann, Manager - Product Marketing, Vincotech | Articles | CommentsWith GPS rapidly becoming an increasingly vital part of our business and private lives, the market for these devices has seen a strong and steady business growth. Apart from traditional GPS applications, such as navigation and car breakdown emergency systems, GPS functionality has expanded well into the industrial and business markets.
Efficient Material Handling in Automotive Manufacturing Applications
March 4, 2010 7:05 am | by Todd Belt, Systems Sales Manager, Pepperl+Fuchs | Articles | CommentsPick and place robotics has been a common sight in the automotive industry for some time. It is capable of auto racking, bin picking, positioning parts for assembly, and other repetitive tasks that help automate production sequences and reduce costs.
Partial Networking: In-Vehicle Networks Can Reduce Costs and CO2 Emissions
March 4, 2010 6:40 am | by Holger Huber, System Marketing Manager In-Vehicle-Networking, NXP Semiconductors | Articles | CommentsIn the past, electronic control units (ECUs) in automotive applications were connected by individual signal wires. However, today, close to 100% of the ECUs are connected by bus systems such as LIN, CAN and FlexRay. This yields significant advantages, including improved data availability, straightforward wiring and standardized interfaces.
Telematic Antenna Testing
March 2, 2010 8:35 am | Articles | CommentsToday’s automobiles have a wide variety of RF systems with antennas on them for Sirius and XM radio, collision avoidance radars, the Global Positioning System (GPS) and other systems. Conventional test facilities can only perform terrestrial directed pattern measurements of the antenna on the automobile.
Specialty Distributors offer Advantages over Big Box and On-line Outlets
February 24, 2010 4:20 am | by John Hamilton, Director, Product Marketing, RFMW | Articles | CommentsWhat value does a component distributor offer other than obtaining goods from a single source? Can they offer value beyond that convenience? Large distributors offer everything from resistors to Fully Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs).
Addressing the Needs of Today’s LED Lighting Manufacturers; Where Art Meets Engineering
February 24, 2010 4:10 am | Articles | CommentsTo be a global leader in the electronics industry, a component distributor must support OEMs with technical information and engineering resources, while providing global logistics and inventory services that streamline the manufacturing process.
Choosing the Best Board-Mounted DC-DC Power Converter for Your High-Performance System
February 19, 2010 4:52 am | by Joel Zaens, Emerson Network Power Embedded Power | Articles | CommentsAs the demand for high-performance, cost-effective systems continues to increase, power system design has become more challenging and complex than ever before. In addition to being responsible for the critical selection of the most cost-effective board mounted power solutions from discrete to modular dc-dc solutions and other board-level components...
Transient Response Options for Power Designers
February 10, 2010 7:20 am | by Robert Marchetti, Sr. Manager, BBU Product Marketing, Vicor Corporation | Articles | CommentsFor DC-DC converters, fast transient response has become ever more critical because of the increasingly higher speeds of contemporary devices.
The role of wideband transceiver technology in enabling LTE
February 9, 2010 6:37 am | by Ebrahim Bushehri, CEO, Lime Microsystems | Articles | CommentsLong term evolution (LTE) is firmly on course to be the dominant wireless communications standard in the next decade. There is overwhelming operator commitment to adopting the LTE standard and capitalising on the unquestionable benefits it will bring to their subscribers, even more so than was demonstrated for its 3G predecessors.
Select the Best Isolated Brick DC-DC Converter For Your Application
February 5, 2010 10:11 am | by Paul Knauber, Field Applications Engineer, Murata Power Solutions | Articles | CommentsSelecting the best isolated brick DC/DC converter for an application can pose a challenging task for the design engineer. There are a number of circumstances that can motivate a particular choice. These could be transient response, efficiency, environmental conditions, or mechanical packaging.
Address evolution in ever-changing medical devices market
January 27, 2010 5:21 am | by Rajesh Verma, Srikanth (Srik) Gurrapu, & Fei Gao, Texas Instruments, www.ti.com | Articles | CommentsIn today’s rapidly growing healthcare marketplace, portability and functionality are the name of the game when it comes to medical devices. Healthcare is steadily moving away from hospitals to the point of incident and into the patient’s home. Around the globe, physicians and patients are turning to low-cost telemedicine solutions that give patients the ability to safely and effectively monitor their own health.
High Temperature Quartz Oscillators Meet Oil and Gas Exploration Challenges
January 19, 2010 9:26 am | by Farzin Jahed, Application and Product Engineer, Statek | Articles | CommentsApplication of high temperature quartz oscillators in oil, gas, and geo-thermal exploration has been the subject of increasing discussion in recent years. The need for these devices, and high temperature electronics in general, has arisen from application requirements that have pushed the upper temperature range limit higher.
Femtocells and Backhaul Issues
January 15, 2010 3:33 am | by Rupert Baines | Blogs | CommentsOne of the questions that often gets asked around femtocells is “What about the backhaul issues?” Indeed, some people have suggested that DSL will need to be upgraded to some carrier-grade Ethernet or xPON service to solve this issue.
Blindness groups, ASU settle suit over Kindle
January 12, 2010 11:11 am | News | CommentsTwo organizations representing the blind have settled a discrimination lawsuit against Arizona State University over its use of Amazon's Kindle e-reader device. Arizona State is among several universities testing the $489 Kindle DX, a large-screen model aimed at textbook and newspaper readers.
Seek Production Expertise During Li-ion Cells Selection
December 18, 2009 9:13 am | by Chris Turner, Director Battery Technology, Nexergy, Inc. & Dr. George Thomas, Vice President, Shiningstar Technology Corp. | Articles | CommentsFrom a modest start in 1990, lithium-ion cell production has mushroomed into a multibillion-units-per-year industry with manufacturing facilities spread all over the world. Because of the potential for dangerous thermal-related incidents during the manufacture and use of Li-ion cells, extreme care must be taken during the manufacturing processes to produce high-quality cells that are as safe as possible.
Improvements in Battery Charger ICs Keep Pace with Rapid Increases in Mobile Handset Capabilities
December 18, 2009 7:24 am | by Giampaolo Marino and Tamara Schmitz, Intersil Corporation | Articles | CommentsIn the era of global wireless connectivity, almost nothing is more important than keeping a smart phone or mobile Internet device charged. Expanding features on the constantly improving portable and handheld device create a major challenge for designers of battery charger ICs.
Shielding Materials Help Prevent Last-Minute Test Failures
December 9, 2009 12:17 pm | by David Garagnani, Application Engineer, W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc., www.gore.com | Articles | CommentsElectronics packaging solutions are developed on many levels, from the board architecture all the way up to the mechanical enclosure. The individual elements that compose these solutions need to work together so that the device can pass compliance tests.
Ultracapacitors Make Battery Modules Greener
December 9, 2009 5:18 am | by Michael Tentnowski, vice president of marketing and business development of Ioxus, www.ioxus.com | Articles | CommentsIn order to see how ultracapacitors make battery modules greener, one needs to have a basic description of the devices. Batteries rely on a chemical reaction to dissipate stored energy. There is no chemical reaction in ultracapacitors, as they store energy in an electrostatic field.
System Optimization for Netbooks, Ultra-mobile PCs, and Mobile Internet Devices
December 9, 2009 5:07 am | by Jinrong Qian, Battery Charge Management Manager, Distinguished Member Technical Staff, Texas Instruments, www.ti.com | Articles | CommentsSmall-size and low-cost netbooks, ultra-mobile PCs (UMPC) and mobile internet devices (MIDs) are becoming more popular and gaining wide user acceptance. The Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) battery charging system used in these portable devices is much more sophisticated than that used in cellular phones.
