Sensor Zone
Wireless switches solve the remote sensor connection conundrum
August 16, 2012 6:28 pm | by Todd Hanson, Honeywell Sensing and Control (S&C), http://sensing.honeywell.com | Articles | CommentsMany large facilities, campuses, warehouses and industrial organizations face a challenge. How do you efficiently install and manage a sensor and/or switch network distributed across a large area? How can you manage and control the troubleshooting and maintenance costs and time involved? How do you handle retrofits and changes to the network without extensive downtime and expense?
New tech center has big plans for small devices
August 1, 2012 11:40 am | by Chris Warner | Blogs | CommentsThis week I learned about an exciting new facility that promises to help microsystems vendors meet their manufacturing challenges head-on and get their devices to market faster. Lorain County Community College’s (LCCC) SMART Commercialization Center for Microsystems
Metastable material: Study shows availability of hydrogen controls chemical structure of graphene oxide
May 22, 2012 4:50 pm | by Georgia Institute of Technology | Articles | CommentsA new study shows that the availability of hydrogen plays a significant role in determining the chemical and structural makeup of graphene oxide, a material that has potential uses in nano-electronics, nano-electromechanical systems, sensing, composites, optics, catalysis and energy storage. The study also found that after the material is produced,
Choose the right DAQ board
May 1, 2012 10:33 am | Articles | 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.
Designing CO2 and alcohol-sensing applications
April 17, 2012 10:22 am | by Jason Seitz, Staff Applications Engineer, Texas Instruments | Articles | CommentsMany modern day carbon dioxide (CO2) sensing and blood alcohol detection applications utilize infrared (IR) spectroscopy technology. IR spectroscopy has increased in popularity due to its combination of exceptional accuracy, selectivity, and reliability. IR spectroscopy is based on the principle that most gas molecules absorb IR light...
EC Working on Regulations for Commercial UAV Use
March 14, 2012 6:09 am | Blogs | CommentsWorking hard to catch up to the rest of the world, the European Commission's Unmanned Aircraft Systems Panel began meetings February 9 in Brussels, Belgium, to agree on the key flight rules and technologies for commercial UAVs
IEEE GLOBECOM 2011 Completes One of its Most Success Events in Conference History
February 16, 2012 10:32 am | by Posted by: Ron M. Seidel, Editorial Intern | News | CommentsIEEE GLOBECOM 2011, the premier international conference dedicated to communications technologies worldwide, recently concluded one of the most successful events in its 54-year history as nearly 2,500 scientists, government officials and academics in Houston, Texas attended over 1,400 presentations dedicated to real-world engineering, telecommunications and IT business system innovations.
MEMS Industry Group Launches MEMS Executive Congress Europe
January 25, 2012 11:13 am | by Posted by Chris Warner | News | CommentsMEMS Industry Group (MIG) will host its first MEMS Executive Congress® Europe, March 20, 2012 in Zurich. This European edition of MIG’s highly successful executive event features an opening presentation by MIG Managing Director Karen Lightman, keynotes by Audi AG and STMicroelectronics, and panels on innovative uses of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) in both established and emerging markets
ZigBee Smart Energy 2.0 SoC Integrates ARM Cortex-M3, Memory
January 24, 2012 6:05 am | Product Releases | CommentsTexas Instruments Incorporated announced a demonstration of a radio frequency (RF) system-on-chip (SoC) that integrates an IEEE 802.15.4 (2.4 GHz) radio, an ARM Cortex-M3 processor, dedicated Smart Energy (SE) 2.0 hardware security acceleration, and enough flash and RAM to run the ZigBee IP stack and SE2.0 profile. A true single-chip solution, the CC2538 ZigBee SE2.0 SoC removes the
The Tinker's Toolbox - Valerie Rothermel-Nelson of Honeywell on Ambient Environmental Sensing
December 13, 2011 5:33 am | Podcasts | CommentsIn this podcast we talk to Valerie Rothermel-Nelson, Senior Global Product Marketing Manager, Thermal Products, of Honeywell Sensing and Control about Ambient Environmental Sensing and the challenges to the design engineer.
Image Sensor Quantum Efficiency Versus Wavelength Optimization
December 12, 2011 1:31 pm | by Gareth Powell, Pierre Fereyre, e2v semiconductors SAS, France, www.e2v.com | Articles | CommentsTechnology advances applied to improving the performance of traditional front-illuminated CMOS imagers are yielding surprising results.
Digital 3-Axis Gyroscope Touts Tininess
December 9, 2011 6:31 am | Stmicroelectronics | Product Releases | CommentsThe L3G3200D from STMicroelectronics enables advanced motion sensing in ever-shrinking form factors by reducing the package size by almost half over current-generation sensors.
Eight Tips for Alternate-Energy Users
November 23, 2011 9:57 am | by Jon Titus, Senior Technical Editor | Articles | CommentsWhen you evaluate alternate-energy sources look at your entire system to find ways to reduce power use.
Energy Harvesting Subsystems Target the Plumbing and HVAC Applications
November 16, 2011 9:35 am | Product Releases | CommentsNextreme Thermal Solutions has developed two new energy harvesting subsystems for the plumbing and HVAC industries. The subsystems are the latest additions to the company's Thermobility energy harvesting platform that uses
MEMS Accelerometer Presented as Smallest of its Type
November 10, 2011 6:44 am | Product Releases | CommentsMEMSIC, a leading provider of MEMS devices and sensor- based systems, has announced the availability of its MXC6226XC MEMS two-axis digital accelerometer, presented as the world’s smallest, fully-integrated MEMS accelerometer.
Optical Tamper Detection Technology Leaves Criminals in the Dark
November 7, 2011 12:52 pm | by Ahsan Javed, Silicon Laboratories, www.silabs.com | Articles | CommentsInfrared (IR) proximity-based tamper detection circuits offer another layer of protection for electronic systems, in addition to various existing security methods available today. Proximity sensing enables
Bosch Sensortec MEMS Accelerometer Overview
November 4, 2011 5:58 am | Videos | CommentsThis module, provided by Digi-Key and Bosch Sensortec, will provide a description and feature list for each of the MEMS based accelerometers offered by the company.
MEMS Accelerometers Advance Smart Sensing
November 2, 2011 8:36 am | Stmicroelectronics | Product Releases | CommentsSTMicroelectronics introduced the industry’s first three-axis high-resolution accelerometer with two embedded finite-state machines.
Choosing the Right Sensor Signal Conditioning IC
October 26, 2011 1:48 pm | by David Grice, ZMDI, www.zmdi.com; posted by Chris Warner | Blogs | CommentsDesigning and implementing sensor interface designs for nonlinear, temperature-dependent transducers presents some difficult challenges. The advent of dedicated and powerful Sensor Signal Conditioning (SSC) ICs has made the job easier, but choosing the right IC for a particular sensor and application is critical for
Inclinometer Line Features Rugged and Super-rugged Versions
October 25, 2011 2:02 pm | Product Releases | CommentsPOSITAL’s ACCELENS (ACS) inclinometers are now available in two major product lines. The first of these is designed primarily for industrial environments and features a tough fiber-reinforced PBT plastic housings and fully-encapsulated electronic components. These devices can
Force Measurement 101
October 24, 2011 2:10 pm | by Nick Tolley, FUTEK Advanced Sensor Technology, www.futek.com | Articles | CommentsAlthough force measurement has become commonplace in most manufacturing environments, many of us may still appreciate being refreshed on its rudiments from time to time. Many who have attempted to educate themselves on this topic will tell you that the reading material can be a bit unpalatable. Because of this, we are pleased to offer an overview to force measurement
Enabling Microscopy: Piezoelectric Actuation Offers a Wide Variety of New Capabilities
October 15, 2011 9:26 am | by Scott Jordan, Physik Instrumente, L.P., www.physikinstrumente.com | Articles | CommentsThe intersection of nanopositioning and microscopy is expanding and deepening rapidly. The evolutions of disciplines as diverse as single-molecule biophysics, super-resolution microscopy and automated microassay scanning share several common themes which combine to increase the prevalence of piezo-based positioning systems added-to or integrated into microscopic setups. Recently developed mechanisms of significant relevance to microscopic applications present substantial new opportunities for advancement.
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).
Accelerometers, Fantasy and Reality
October 5, 2011 2:16 pm | by Harvey Weinberg, Analog Devices, www.analog.com | Articles | CommentsAs applications engineers supporting ADI’s compact, low-cost, gravity-sensitive iMEMs accelerometers, we get to hear lots of creative ideas about how to employ accelerometers in useful ways; but sometimes the suggestions violate physical laws! We’ve rated some of these ideas on an informal scale, from “real” to “dream land”:
Controllers Drive Gesture Recognition on Resistive Touch Screens
October 4, 2011 4:58 am | by Javier Calpe, Italo Medina, Alberto Carbajo, and Maria Jose Martinez of Analog Devices, Inc., www.analog.com | Articles | CommentsAlthough resistive technologies have conventionally been used to detect the position of a single touch on the screen, this article examines a new dual-touch concept that uses a resistive touch-screen controller to detect the most common two-finger gestures (zoom, pinch and rotation) using inexpensive resistive touch screens.
