Design Talk
A Practical Lithium Ion Battery Charger for use with Solar Panels
April 4, 2011 12:12 pm | by John Carpenter & Karthik Kadirvel, Texas Instruments | Articles | CommentsIncreasingly, the number of battery operated devices use rechargeable lithium ion batteries as the power source. Common charging solutions for these batteries include wall adapter based chargers and universal serial bus (USB) based chargers.
Battery Testing at Garages Simplified
April 4, 2011 11:13 am | by Isidor Buchmann, CEO & founder of Cadex Electronics, www.BatteryUniversity.com | Articles | CommentsEver since Cadillac invented the starter motor in 1912, vehicles used lead acid batteries to crank the engine. Not much has changed in 100 years except that the starter battery must now also feed power-hungry accessories. Starting is easy...
Think Outside the Chip…MEMS-Based Systems Solutions
March 21, 2011 5:25 am | by Roger Grace, President, Roger Grace Associates, rgrace@rgrace.com | Articles | CommentsMEMS is an acronym for Microelectromechanical Systems however most “MEMS” implementations to date have not been systems at all but rather devices. This article addresses the creation of solutions that are enabled by MEMS...
Flexible Integrated RF Devices For Digital Wireless Markets
March 21, 2011 4:53 am | by C.N. Wilson, CML Microcircuits | Articles | CommentsToday we see a huge number of wireless systems in use, with two categories, in terms of numbers of RF devices, tending to dominate; both are high volume consumer markets. The first category is cellular technology...
Gulliver’s Miniature Power Supply Designs
March 14, 2011 5:41 am | by Thomas Hoffman, Texas Instruments | Articles | CommentsDevelopers are faced with a systems landscape that is in constant change. As complexity increases, so do power management requirements. New features like camera flash light drivers, built-in projectors, communications and application-specific processors...
Managed Switch Technology Primed for Military Applications
March 8, 2011 4:27 am | by Mike Southworth, Director of Marketing, Parvus Corporation | Articles | CommentsThe success of net-centric warfare is dependent on fast, secure communications technology – specifically Ethernet. To meet the military's demands for Ethernet-enabled vehicles, there is an increased focus on developing a variety of Ethernet switches and routers...
Online CAD Solutions Improve Engineering Productivity, Reduce Errors
February 15, 2011 4:37 am | by Peter Mooney, Product Director, Thomas Industrial Network | Articles | CommentsAs engineers and their supplier partners are challenged to work faster and to reduce mistakes, it’s no wonder that the market for CAD software is booming, topping $5 billion*. Manufacturers of electronic components, and the engineers who work with them...
Acceleration mechanisms in graphics frameworks for User Interface design
February 14, 2011 5:24 am | by Jithu Niruthambath and Prabindh Sundareson, Texas Instruments | Articles | CommentsUser Interfaces (UIs) have transformed from plainly encapsulating the functionality of a device to capturing the intent of user operations and optimizing the overall control flow. Depending on the end application, the appearance of UIs can range from...
Integrated Product Management: New approach to software tools and processes for the systems engineer
February 8, 2011 7:43 am | by Steve Shoaf, IBM Rational | Articles | CommentsThe demand for smarter products is driving manufacturers and service providers to look for new, innovative ways to differentiate their products and enable them to be easily configurable for highly individualized usages. However, because most manufacturers now rely on a global network of design partners and suppliers to create highly sophisticated products...
New Graphical Tools Significantly Simplify Servo Drive Setup and Optimization
February 7, 2011 4:48 am | by Josh Inman, Product Manager, Kollmorgen, www.kollmorgen.com | Articles | CommentsOriginal equipment manufacturers (OEMs) face continual demands to bring new products to market with higher levels of performance in time to meet shrinking market windows. In many cases, motion is the key to differentiating the machine...
GPUs Go Mainstream
January 20, 2011 9:10 am | by Jos Martin, Principal Architect for parallel computing tools at MathWorks | Articles | CommentsAt the NVIDIA GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in September this year several ISVs announced extensive support for GPU based functionality. A reasonable question that arises from these announcements is ‘why now’? GPUs have already found favour in a number of computational disciplines...
Shrinking Design Cycles
January 18, 2011 10:21 am | by Shrikrishna Mehetre, Open-Silicon | Articles | CommentsSemiconductor industry sales started with $1B in 1962 and have now reached over $225B. The initial ASIC products were mainly processors, but today the ASIC design industry has evolved to cater to every market segment, from things such as networking and imaging, to tiny biomedical devices.
The Changing Nature of Development Cycles for Portable Devices
January 18, 2011 6:07 am | by Anders Holmberg, Product Manager, IAR Systems | Articles | CommentsNot so long ago I worked for a mobile handset company as a software developer. A team of 40 worked across several different sites and countries on a major 2 year project to design a new handset. It was not uncommon for us to work on a subset of code and never see the whole application.
Tools to Shrink Your Design Cycle Times
January 10, 2011 5:01 am | by Bonnie C. Baker, Texas Instruments | Articles | CommentsDesigners continue to face pressure from customers and competitors to produce products in a timely manner. Product planning and implementation is critical in this rapid pace environment.
How Semiconductors Are Enabling Consumer Medical Devices
December 15, 2010 10:28 am | by Paul Errico, Analog Devices, Strategic Marketing Manager, Healthcare Segment Team | Articles | CommentsSemiconductor research and development in the late 20th century was driven by the computing and communications applications such as PCs, handsets and consumer applications. Today, it is increasingly influenced by the demand for ICs that make possible the next generation of medical devices...
Medical Displays Respond to the Touch
December 3, 2010 6:51 am | by Ralph Polshak, Optrex America, Inc., www.optrex.com | Articles | CommentsMedical devices present a special and challenging set of requirements for LCD displays. They need to provide high quality images with high contrast, high resolution images and data...
Semiconductor Technologies Accelerate Development of Ultrasound Specific Integrated Circuits
November 29, 2010 10:47 am | by Xiaochen Xu and Harish Venkataraman, Medical Business Unit, Texas Instruments | Articles | CommentsUltrasound imaging is one of the most important medical imaging methods due to its safety, cost effectiveness, and real-time capability. Conventional ultrasonic imaging systems use frequencies from 2–20 MHz with a resolution of millimeter level.
Turn to Embedded Passive Layers for Smaller, Lighter and More Efficient Devices
November 11, 2010 4:27 am | by John Geissinger, Applications Engineer Senior Specialist, 3M Electronic Solutions Division | Articles | CommentsNearly every electronic device – be it for a consumer, medical or military application – can benefit from a reduction in weight or form-factor size and increased efficiency, performance and functionality. Sounds too good to be true, but in fact, many applications could realize those benefits...
Maximizing the 3D Experience: Don’t Overlook the Batteries
November 5, 2010 10:39 am | by Eric Lind, VP Business Development at Contour Energy Systems | Articles | CommentsImagine your disappointment when your 3D glasses fail just as the action peaks in a movie or during a game. With rechargeable batteries you’re stuck waiting for the glasses to recharge (having a spare pair is just too difficult to justify given the current high price).
Accurate Compassing in Harsh Environments
November 2, 2010 6:57 am | by Andrew Leuzinger, PNI Sensor Corporation, www.pnicorp.com | Articles | CommentsToday’s electronic compasses are built to withstand harsh environments – mechanical shocks, extreme temperatures and battlefield conditions. Yet the most challenging environment for electronic compasses is transitory magnetic field distortion encountered in everyday situations.
Ethernet Ports in Harsh Environments
October 29, 2010 9:36 am | by Fred Kozlof, General Manager, CONEC | Articles | CommentsThe RJ45 connector is commonplace on computer systems in offices and homes, but there is often a need to network industrial equipment as well, resulting in a growing need for an Ethernet connector that can withstand harsh environments.
Motion Measurement in Unmanned Systems
October 25, 2010 9:15 am | by Matt Liberty, Hillcrest Laboratories, www.hillcrestlabs.com | Articles | CommentsAutonomous systems that navigate their surroundings are becoming more viable as sensor technology improves and computing power increases. Google’s car is the most recent high-profile system, but even vacuum cleaners and lawn mowers now drive themselves.
New Generation of Development Tools Empower Designers
October 25, 2010 6:16 am | by Ben Papps, PLX Technology | Articles | CommentsDesigners today are faced with ever-increasing complexity in both the silicon at the heart of a system and the applications it serves. First for SoCs and now for bridging silicon, development tools are now catching up with advances in silicon and helping designers realize improved time to market.
Inertial sensors enhance autonomous systems
October 25, 2010 5:47 am | by Fritz Martin, Senior Product Design Manager, MicroStrain | Articles | CommentsThe adoption rate for unmanned systems continues to increase in the military, defense, aerospace and robotics industries, and is now also being embraced in many new markets across a variety of applications. The benefits of autonomous mobility...
Integrating Intelligent Electronic Access Systems
October 14, 2010 6:22 am | by Steve Spatig, Southco, Inc. www.southco.com | Articles | CommentsAs security requirements become more stringent, engineers are looking to integrate electronic access systems (EAS) into cabinets, racks and other enclosures.
