Christopher Ross: May 2019

Thursday, May 2, 2019

The EW BrightSparks 2019 winners revealed at IET

The BrightSparks 2019 winners receive their awards at a special lunch and ceremony at the IET's Maxwell Library in London.

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Water means a second chance for over-looked organic semiconductors

Tiny quantities of water might be ruining potentially useful organic semiconductors, according to researchers at Linköping University, who have a way to fix it. Key to the issue are ‘traps’ – places where carriers – holes or electrons – get stuck and are unable to contribute to semiconductor action. “There are traps in all organic ...

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One day heatsinks might be made of polythene

MIT engineers have fabricated polythene films that conduct heat – not as well as copper (401W/mK), aluminium (237) or aluminium nitride (140–180) but, at 62W/mK, as good as steel and better than alumina (30), and much better than normal polythene which is an insulator at ~0.4W/mK. “We think this result is a step to stimulate ...

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Boost converter drives LED backlights and dims 100:1

Diodes has introduced a boost converter that can supply constant voltage or constant current to drive backlights, with a dimming ratio of 100:1. Called AL3353, it has an input voltage of 9V to 40V – maximum output voltage is dependent on the external mosfet used as a power switch Dimming is internally analogue, controlled by ...

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Green Hills adds support for Robot Operating System framework

Green Hills Software has up-graded two of its software tools for product developers working with Robot Operating System (ROS) middleware. The changes “enable ROS developers on Linux to develop and deploy their projects to Green Hills Integrity RTOS to meet the functional safety requirements that many ROS programs require”, according to the company. “Adding support ...

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Sat nav module adds inertial navigation for self-driving cars

U-blox is planning to inertial dead-reckoning to satellite-based signals to improve navigation in locations with poor reception – like challenging urban environments. To be implemented in ZED-F9K – samples planned from July – will be a multi-band GNSS (global navigation satellite system) receiver, inertial sensors (3d accelerometer, 3d gyroscope), signal processing algorithms and correction services ...

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Cyber attacks on UK companies, and advice on repelling them

UK manufacturing and technology sectors are vying for first and second place as the most cyber-attacked industry sectors, according to the 2019 Global Threat Intelligence Report (GTIR) from US firm NTT Security – the report is compiled from trillions of logs and millions of attacks, said NTT, whose data is analysed across 18 industry sectors. “While ...

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Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Moortec delivers 7nm monitoring IP to Neoverse platform

Moortec has delivered its In-Chip Monitoring solution on TSMC 7nm FinFET process to the Arm NeoverseTM N1 System Development Platform (SDP). Moortec supported integration and utilization of its process, voltage, and temperature (PVT) sensing subsystem technology to the platform, enabling the next-generation cloud-to- edge infrastructure, powered by Arm Neoverse solutions. The Neoverse N1 SDP is ...

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$4.5bn to settle Qualcomm-Apple spat

Apple has paid $4.5-4.7 billion to settle its spat with Qualcomm, it seems from Qualcomm’s Q1 results, Qualcomm’s calendar Q1 sales were $4.98 billion down 4.6% y-o-y for a net profit of $663 million. Qualcomm expects calendar Q2 sales to be between $9.2-$10.2 billion. Qualcomm says 5G roll-out is slower than expected. Qualcomm said it ...

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Hybrid thermal and EMI absorber for 5G

Laird Performance Materials has developed a hybrid thermal & EMI absorber material that supports 5G handheld device and network infrastructure applications. CoolZorb 5G is specifically designed for the millimeter wave (mmWave) and microwave frequencies that 5G will implement. The multifunctional CoolZorb 5G serves as a heat-mitigating gap filler and EMI-reducing absorber to optimize 5G system ...

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Telonic Instruments to act as UK distributor for power specialist, Delta Elektronika

Independent DC power supply manufacturer, Delta Elektronika, has signed a UK distribution agreement with test instrument and power supply specialist, Telonic Instruments. Delta produces reliable power supplies, with fast reaction times – they are more than 10 times faster to load transients than comparable alternatives available today, claims the company. They also have minimum audible noise ...

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TI reference designs for vehicle current measurement

Working with six to 96-series cells in a battery. TI has a battery management system reference design built around its BQ79606A-Q1 precision battery monitor and balancer. It can be used in multiples on batteries from 24 to 400V, with on-board capacitive isolation allowing communication from chip to chip down the stack. Included is power ...

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Dengrove adds Recom’s latest railway DC/DC converters

Specialist distributor, Dengrove Electronic Components, has added the latest railway-qualified DC/DC converters from Recom. The RP40Q-RUW and RP60Q-RUW DC/DC converters are designed for a range of rolling-stock applications and high-voltage battery-powered systems, offering a wide input range of 14-160V DC. The single-output 40W and 60W quarter-brick converters accept all commonly used supply voltages, from 24 – 110V DC ...

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PA’s Raspberry Pi schools competition tackles transport

Travel and transport were the themes for PA Consulting’s 2019 Raspberry Pi programming competition, challenging UK school kids to innovate using the Raspberry Pi. It’s an annual competition that highlights the impressive work that younger students can do around their STEM education. For example, among the projects I saw, there were smart gloves to provide ...

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PCIM: Field-oriented brush-less dc motor controller needs no user code

Allegro will be showing a 5.5 to 50V field-oriented three-phase brush-less dc motor controller than needs no user code at PCIM. Called AMT49406, and first announced for Electronica, will be the first member of the company’s low-sound ‘QuietMotion’ family. A field-oriented control (FOC) algorithm is built-in. “The device optimises the motor start-up performance in a stationary ...

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10W relay sits on 4x4mm footprint

Pickering Electronics has introduced a 10W relay that sits on a 4 x 4mm footprint. Standing 12.5mm high, they use reed construction and are called Series 122. The 10W rating comes at 500mA, and maximum contact ratings are 500mA and 200V. There is a single energise-to-make instrumentation-grade sputtered-ruthenium contact, whose initial resistance is 180mΩ, and ...

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Q1 was fourth largest QoQ chip decline in 35 years

The 1Q19/4Q18 IC market decline of 17.6% was the fourth largest since 1984. Figure 1 From Q184 to Q119 there have been 141 quarters and only seven of them registered a market decline of ≥10%. Each year in which a double-digit quarterly IC market decline occurred, the full-year IC market dropped by at least 9%. Three ...

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700V SiC mosfets, and 700V and 1.2k Schottky diodes

Microchip has added 700V discrete SiC mosfets and both 700V and 1.2kV discrete SiC Schottky diodes, totalling 34 parts, to its portfolio of SiC power modules. “Microchip is one of the few suppliers to provide a range of both silicon and SiC discrete and module solutions,” according to the firm. “The products are suited for ...

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