Application Solutions
LED Thermal Design Challenges: Tips and Techniques
August 19, 2010 5:56 am | by Brian Witzen, Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas | Articles | CommentsThe latest in LED lighting offers high luminous flux, efficiency, CRI, and reliability, suitable for most lighting applications, including architectural, accent, HID, and down lighting. LEDs save energy, reduce waste, are free of mercury and lead, and convert energy to light more efficiently than common light sources used today.
Camera Phone Modules Look to a New Design
August 19, 2010 5:44 am | by Jacky Perdrigeat, Nemotek Technologies, www.nemotektechnologies.com | Articles | CommentsThe first commercial mobile phone in North America with a built-in camera to capture photographs or video was developed in 2002. As mobile phone usage increases and cameras gain ubiquity in mobile phones, demand for such functionality continues to increase, with significantly strong growth in emerging countries.
Soft Displays Bring Customization, Easy Configuration to Industrial Apps
August 19, 2010 5:37 am | Articles | CommentsFor several years now, many of the gadgets we use around the house, on the move and in the workplace have contained some form of visual display to impart status information to the user and even allow the user to interact with them via a touch screen.
Touch Panel Selection Criteria Should Include Structure and Materials
August 18, 2010 1:03 pm | by Ning Li, Fujitsu Components America, Inc. | Articles | CommentsThe touch screen interface is increasingly becoming a standard requirement in today’s electronic products. But how does one choose the right touch screen for the application? What are the basic considerations when sourcing a touch screen?
Rail-to-Rail Output Gate Drive Optocouplers
August 18, 2010 12:53 pm | by Tee Chun Keong, Technical Marketing Engineer, Avago Technologies | Articles | CommentsGate drive optocouplers are widely used for driving IGBT and Power MOSFET because of the high output current driving capability. Traditionally, gate drive optocoupler use bipolar transistors for the output stage to deliver high output current.
No More Silos Allowed for Thermal and EMI Engineers as Frequencies Rise
August 18, 2010 8:27 am | by Jeff McCutcheon, Senior technical specialist, 3M Electronics | Articles | CommentsAre you a “Themimech” engineer? Rising frequencies of many applications are now forcing engineers to be aware of and plan for issues related to rising frequencies in electronic devices and systems and to participate in mutually supportive designs.
Designing a Robust Failure Indicator
August 11, 2010 10:52 am | by Chris Keeser, Applications Engineer Sr., Cypress Semiconductor Corp. | Articles | CommentsThe other day I was driving to the local dump to drop off a load of trash carefully stacked into the back of the family minivan. Suddenly I noticed that the “trunk open” light came on. I quickly pulled over just as the rear hatch popped all the way open and the van began to empty my garbage bags all over the road.
The Ubiquity of Displays on Household Appliances
August 9, 2010 5:14 am | by Simon Wyre, Lascar Electronics | Articles | CommentsFor several years now, many of the gadgets we use around the house, on the move and in the workplace have contained some form of visual display to impart status information to the user and even allow the user to interact with them via a touch screen.
An Overview of Micro Thermoelectric Technology
July 22, 2010 11:52 am | by Burkhard Habbe, Micropelt | Articles | CommentsThermoelectricity has been known since the 1830s. Two functional principles are included under this term: The popular Peltier-Effect describes how electric current flowing through thermoelectric material transports heat, creating a cooling effect.
The Advantages of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technology
July 22, 2010 9:40 am | by Joshua Nelke, Siemens Industry, Inc. | Articles | CommentsHydrogen fuel cells can be used in a wide range of environments such as use in homes, ships, cranes and vehicles. Still, current funding is directed mostly to the transportation sector to be reduce pollution. In this article, we will focus on one of the most exciting uses for fuel cells: a Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV).
Three Tips to Optimize WLAN Test Systems
June 29, 2010 11:14 am | by David A. Hall, National Instruments, RF & Wireless Test Product Manager | Articles | CommentsWith increasing pressure to lower test costs, many RF test engineers face the challenge of reducing measurement time. As you might expect, wireless LAN (WLAN) device testing is no exception. Whether you are creating an automated test system for design validation or final production test, it has become increasingly important to optimize a test system for measurement speed.
Wireless Network Assurance: Must Have Tools for Mission Critical Wireless LANs
June 23, 2010 12:53 pm | by Dr. Amit Sinha, Motorola Enterprise WLAN | Articles | CommentsWireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) have proliferated within the enterprise. While the cost of deploying a WLAN solution has dropped over the last several years, the operational expense of maintaining and managing a WLAN continues to rise.
Wi-Fi: Designing for Performance
June 23, 2010 11:18 am | by Michael R. Tennefoss, Aruba Networks, Inc. | Articles | CommentsWi-Fi is a standards-based technology, and most designers assume that their finished products will work out of the box on any Wi-Fi infrastructure with which they’re used. By and large they’re right. However, there is a world of difference between simply working and working optimally.
Specialty Distributors offer Advantages over Big Box and On-line Outlets
May 21, 2010 12:54 pm | 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).
Distributors Address Counterfeiting, Difficult Economy
May 21, 2010 12:50 pm | by Steve Slawinski, IC Plus | Articles | CommentsThe electronic component distribution market has gone through many changes over the past decade. Currently, one of the biggest problems is the emergence of counterfeit components, largely stemming from China. Although the Asian marketplace has proliferated in flooding the market with more and less expensive components, domestic profit margins have decreased largely in part to counterfeit product.
The Dirty Details of White Goods Design
May 14, 2010 11:33 am | by Joe Roy, Americas Motor & Motion FAE, Fairchild Semiconductor | Articles | CommentsWhen the first white goods were invented in the 1850s, there was a passion to innovate and design new machines to assist in nearly every room of the house. Now that the typical family has 6-10 major household appliances, a new mantra has emerged in appliance design: do more faster with less energy at a painfully minimal cost.
Conduction-Cooled Rack System Design Offers Cost-Effective Versatility
May 11, 2010 5:36 am | by Barbara Schmitz, MEN Mikro Elektronik | Articles | CommentsAlthough system designers can't always control the operating conditions of embedded computing applications, they now have new cost-effective options for delivering 3U CompactPCI (cPCI) board compatibility in harsh, extreme temperature environments.
Portable device storage
May 5, 2010 9:16 am | by Dr Peter Harrop, IDTechEx | Articles | CommentsThe new report “Batteries, Supercapacitors, Alternative Storage for Portable Devices 2009-2019” is directed towards those developing, marketing and using small electronic and electrical devices, particularly those that are self-sufficient.
Distribution Trends in 2010
May 5, 2010 8:50 am | by Mark Larson, President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Digi-Key Corporation | Articles | CommentsThe electronics industry is enjoying what appears to be a generally strong recovery from the brutal business conditions with which we were confronted in 2009. It is interesting to note that although the economic meltdown traumatized almost all sectors of our industry and caused a sharp drop in sales, several basic industry trends continued unabated.
Can hypervisors Stand the Test of Real Time?
April 29, 2010 11:45 am | by Yi Zheng, QNX Software Systems | Articles | CommentsHardware virtualization, and the hypervisors that enable it, have become a hot topic in the embedded space. But while virtualization opens up new possibilities for system architects and designers, it also poses new challenges, especially when used with real-time applications.
Designing Custom, Low-Cost Instrumentation for Test and Measurement Using Off-the-Shelf FPGA Modules
April 29, 2010 11:36 am | by Jake Janovetz, Opal Kelly | Articles | CommentsDesigning for industrial applications presents many challenges, but it also allows an engineer to be creative, spread her wings, and explore new technologies to solve the task at hand. Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and, in particular, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) FPGA modules can be just the ticket to attack industrial applications that used to be a much more difficult challenge.
Smart, Intuitive User Interfaces Move to Industrial Control
April 29, 2010 11:26 am | Articles | CommentsIndustrial applications, such as home and commercial building automation, data loggers, point-of-sale terminals and cash registers, in-house displays for energy metering, alarm systems and medical equipment are starting to join the “smart” revolution currently enjoyed by portable media player and smartphone markets.
Vibration Analysis Using ADCs Keeps Industrial Equipment Working
April 29, 2010 10:31 am | by Michael Clifford, Analog Devices, www.analog.com | Articles | CommentsMonitoring the condition of large industrial machinery provides long term benefits in terms of lower production cost, reduced equipment down time, improved reliability, and increased safety. Industrial manufacturers face a constant battle in keeping production equipment operational.
Content Adaptive LCD Backlight Control
April 16, 2010 10:11 am | by Ananth Sankar, VP of Technology, Moxair | Articles | CommentsLCD displays are widely used in cell phones, personal media players, internet tablet PCs, laptops, and large-screen TV sets. These displays account for a major part of the power consumed by these devices. For example, a mobile phone screen may consume upwards of 40% of the system power, while in a large-screen TV, the display may consume 70% or more of the system power.
Advances in Touch Controller Technology
April 16, 2010 8:53 am | by Ian Crosby, Sales and Marketing Director, Zytronic | Articles | CommentsThe touchscreen is rapidly becoming the user interface technology of choice in applications ranging from retail, industrial and automotive, to medical, digital signage and gaming. Their growing popularity has been fuelled in part by the phenomenal success of the iPhone and its highly user-friendly, all touchscreen controls...
