Application Solutions
Do ultracapacitors make wind energy a sustainable option?
November 5, 2012 12:27 pm | by Kasey Panetta, Associate Editor | Articles | CommentsThe idea of using wind to create energy isn’t exactly new. The first examples can be traced back to 200 B.C. in Persia – a creation of Heron of Alexandria. That particular device simply harnessed the wind to power a machine, so a case could be made that the first real windmills were built a little bit later, in the 7th century in Sistan, modern day Iran.
Moving money by cellphone: US-backed effort that bypasses banks starts slowly in Haiti
June 11, 2012 1:35 pm | by Trenton Daniel | News | CommentsIn further attempts to rebuild Haiti, the U.S. government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are giving aid to make money transfers available via cell phone in Haiti. Haitian reception, however, has been lukewarm towards the costly enterprise.
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 | Articles | 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.
The end of sensored BLDC control?
April 16, 2012 9:28 am | by Thomas Freitag, Melexis, www.melexis.com | Articles | CommentsVehicle manufacturers are increasingly appreciating the benefits of Brushless DC (BLDC) motor control as a response to the challenges of making their fleet meet legal fuel economy regulations. Brushless DC motor control typically increases efficiency 20 to 30 percent compared to equivalent speed controlled DC solutions.
Selecting the best three-phase BLDC motor design technique
April 4, 2012 7:55 am | by Brian Chu, Product-Line Marketing Manager, Microchip Technology | Articles | CommentsThree-phase Brushless DC (BLDC) motors offer several advantages over other popular motor drive architectures. These advantages—such as a lack of voltage drop across brushes, low acoustic noise and low mechanical vibrations—enable better system efficiency...
Lighting applications for large-size projected capacitive touch panels
March 30, 2012 9:55 am | by John Blackburn, Senior Electrical Engineer, Ocular LCD | Articles | CommentsThe demand for projected capacitive (PCAP) touch panels is growing at a rapid rate. The increased durability and enhanced look and feel a PCAP touch panel provides can benefit a wide variety of products. The all glass construction allows for increased optical clarity...
Next-gen components help reduce energy use in new motor system designs
March 30, 2012 9:08 am | by Lydia Meijer, Bourns, www.bourns.com | Articles | CommentsToday, electric motors are more closely scrutinized as a result of broad spectrum application use, which is strictly regulated. Electric motors consume more than half of all electric energy produced.
What are customers asking about industrial wireless networks?
March 12, 2012 5:25 am | by Joseph Citrano, Honeywell Sensing & Control | Articles | CommentsIn the last year, informed wireless buyers have become more educated in the kinds of questions to ask. They have become more comfortable implementing wireless solutions when they get the right answers.
Modular, functionally versatile, and economical TPMS systems
March 9, 2012 5:58 am | by Ivan Zagan, Product Line Manager, Melexis | Articles | CommentsToday, feature-rich automobile electronic systems manage safety and control functions. Airbags, antilock brakes, tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMSes), navigation and infotainment features are governed by burgeoning numbers of microcontrollers (MCUs).
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth coexistence
March 2, 2012 5:56 am | by Sue White, Documentation and Certification Manager and Ron Seide, President, Summit Data Communications | Articles | CommentsBecause Bluetooth and Wi-Fi transmit in different ways using different protocols, interference can occur when Wi-Fi operates in the 2.4GHz band.This article discusses effective methods forachieving successful coexistence (through temporal, spatial, and frequency isolation)...
VPX: The state of the ecosystem
March 1, 2012 10:22 am | by Gregory Powers, Market Development Manager, Aerospace, Defense & Marine, TE Connectivity | Articles | CommentsHigh-speed processing requires generous bandwidth from the board level to the I/O. VPX, with a backplane connector system supporting 6.25 Gb/s in a switched fabric architecture, is the latest generation of embedded computer systems.
Looking ahead for the electronic components industry
February 15, 2012 10:52 am | by Robin Gray, Electronic Component Industry Association | Articles | CommentsRather than looking back at 2011, I will take a look at what is ahead in 2012 for the electronic components industry in general and Electronic Component Industry Association (ECIA) members specifically. There are several exciting association projects that are currently under development...
Reducing Size While Improving Functionality and Safety in Next-Generation Medical Device Design
February 14, 2012 8:49 am | by Stephen J. Swift, Sr. Vice President / General Manager, Medical Products Microsemi Corporation, Communications and Medical Products Group (CMPG), and Minal Sawant, Product Marketing Manager, Medical Products Microsemi Corporation, SoC Group | Articles | CommentsSystem designers face multiple challenges in the medical device market, including reducing size, increasing functionality and extending battery life for implantable devices while ensuring safety through optimal security, reliability and efficacy.
Make Your Tablets and Smart Phones Smarter – Add Serial Capability for Seriously Remote Data
February 3, 2012 11:50 am | by Andrew C. Ross (aross@bb-elec.com), Director of Wireless Applications for B&B Electronics (www.bb-elec.com) | Articles | CommentsTo paraphrase Mark Twain, rumors about the demise of serial ports are greatly exaggerated. Too many people have too much invested in serial-equipped devices for the standard to disappear any time soon.
Mobile is the New Buzzword
February 2, 2012 10:30 am | by Hayne Shumate, Mouser Electronics Vice President of Internet Business | Articles | CommentsAt Mouser Electronics, we burn a lot of brain cells discovering better ways to get design engineers the information and products they need faster and easier than before. This is particularly difficult when the engineer has not yet selected a component.
Cable companies and set-top box service providers will deliver the smart, automated home
February 2, 2012 9:44 am | by Cees Links, CEO of GreenPeak Technologies (http://www.greenpeak.com) | Articles | CommentsMany technology watchers have predicted that the arrival of automated smart home – that home owners will seek out and install the latest, coolest gizmos that will make a house truly smart. Well, it isn’tgoing to happen that way.
Energy Measurement for Appliances
January 16, 2012 11:31 am | by Prasad Dhond, Marketing Manager, Smart Grid Home Area Network, Texas Instruments | Articles | CommentsEnergy consumption awareness is a crucial step in going green as an individual consumer. Real-time energy usage data aggregated at the home-level by smart meters is useful, but drilling down to the energy consumption of each major home appliance is even better and more actionable.
Consumers benefit from smart grid implementation
December 15, 2011 6:09 am | by Bill Kutsche, business development manager, Murata Electronics North America | Articles | CommentsAs we look forward to a new year, the Smart Grid and the technologies that enable energy efficiency within the grid will become a part of our daily lexicon as consumers begin to benefit from the grid’s implementation.
Hot consumer technologies in 2012
December 12, 2011 7:53 am | by Jerry Kolbe, Director of Technology and Marketing Communications, Murata Electronics North America, www.murata-northamerica.com | Articles | CommentsThis is the time of the year when I am always asked to give my prediction on the next killer consumer product for the new year. Since I am not Zoltar or don’t own a crystal ball, this is a difficult question to answer as it depends...
Energy Harvesting Enables Ultra-Low Power Applications
December 12, 2011 4:59 am | by Brian Lum-Shue-Chan and Karthik Kadirvel, Texas Instruments | Articles | CommentsThere are a variety of systems and applications that could benefit from energy harvesting (EH). Energy harvesting refers to the technology by which ambient sources of energy such as light, thermal gradient, and vibration can be harvested and stored then applied later for doing useful work.
Body Area Networks: A way to improve remote patient monitoring
November 1, 2011 9:21 am | by Iboun Taimiya Sylla, Texas Instruments | Articles | CommentsWith today’s aging population, monitoring healthcare systems represents an important element of the healthcare issue, especially in countries where the limits of the system are being tested. Monitoring the health condition of elderly people and sharing information...
Healthcare Interconnect Solutions
October 25, 2011 10:27 am | by Steve Sheehan, Director of Medical Business Development, Hypertronics | Articles | CommentsAs the exorbitant cost of healthcare in United States continues to cartwheel out of control, the medical community is today demanding a much healthier ROI across the boards from the technology solutions that it deploys across multiple disciplines.
Micro-machining technology: a primer
October 17, 2011 1:17 pm | by John Beigel | Articles | CommentsMicro-machining technology, simply stated, is the utilization of semiconductor manufacturing equipment in such a way that it creates micro-mechanical systems that serve a specific purpose. MEDER’s objective was to develop a micro-miniature hermetically sealed reed switch...
Motion Everywhere: New Roles and Functions for CE Devices
October 12, 2011 11:25 am | by Dave Rothenberg, Movea, Inc., www.movea.com | Articles | CommentsMotion is the latest trump card available to CE manufacturers, enabling the ability to create a new generation of products to operate how people naturally interact. Enabling this trend is a unique class of motion-sensing chips, referred to as MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems).
Mitigating Strategies for Smart Phone Signaling Overload
October 12, 2011 7:49 am | by Deepak Kataria, IP Junction Inc, www.ip-junction.com | Articles | CommentsThis article discusses the impact of increased signaling traffic fueled by growing mobile broadband and machine-to-machine (M2M) connectivity on networks, systems and network processors. While data offload strategies have received considerable attention in industry, the impact of signaling overload and mitigation strategies have not been widely addressed. A good understanding of the reasons for signaling traffic increases, its impact at the network level, system level and network processor level is needed to clear misnomers prevailing in the industry.
