The Internet of Everything is coming. The Internet is expanding into enterprise assets and consumer items such as cars and televisions. Very many electronics devices needs to be designed for this in mind. The Internet of Things (IoT) will evolve into the Web of Things, increasing the coordination between things in the real world and their counterparts on the Web. Gartner suggests that the “the smart machine era will be the most disruptive in the history of IT.” Intelligent systems and assistive devices will advance smart healthcare.
Software-defined anything (SDx) is coming more into use. It means that many proprietary systems are being replaced with commonly available standard computer hardware and software running in them.
PC market: ABANDON HOPE all ye who enter here. Vendor consolidation ‘inevitable’. Even Intel had to finally admit this that the Wintel grip which has served it and Microsoft so well over the past decades is waning, with Android and iOS coming to the fore through smartphones and tabs. The market conversion to tablets means that consumers and businesses are sweating existing PC assets longer. Tablets to Make Up Half of 2014 PC Market.
The Rise, Fall, and Rise of Electronics Kits article mentions that many older engineers first became interested in electronics through hobbies in their youth—assembling kits, participating in amateur radio, or engaging in other experiments. The 1970s and 1980s were great times for electronics hobbyists. But whenever it seems that there’s nothing left for the hobbyist, a new motif arises. The Raspberry Pi has become a best seller, as has a similar experimental board, the Arduino microcontroller. A great number of sensors, actuators, cameras, and the like have quickly become available for both. Innovative applications abound in such domains as home automation and robotics. So it seems that now there is much greater capacity for creativity in hobby electronics then there ever was.
E-Waste: Lack of Info Plagues Efforts to Reduce E-Waste article tells that creation of trade codes is necessary to track used electronics products according to a recent study concerning the waste from growing quantities of used electronics devices—including TVs, mobile phones and computers. High levels of electronic waste are being sent to Africa and Asia under false pretenses.” StEP estimates worldwide e-waste to increase by 33 percent from 50 million tons in 2012 to 65 million tons by 2017. China and the U.S. lead the world as top producers of e-waste. America produces about 65 pounds of e-waste per person every year. There will be aims to reduce the waste, for example project like standardizing mobile phone chargers and laptop power supplies.
1,091 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung admits its Chinese factories STILL ‘unsafe’, violate laws
Another yearly audit, another catalogue of labour abuses
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/30/samsung_china_labour_audit/
Samsung has admitted that its Chinese suppliers are still guilty of legal and safety violations, despite its repeated promises to clean up its factories.
In its annual sustainability report, the firm said that this year’s audits had found a number of instances of poor working conditions for people at 100 of its suppliers.
The company didn’t find any child labourers at its factories, but it did find that minors were working with chemical handling processes at 48 of its suppliers.
“The suppliers pledged to make improvements and submit improvement plans to prevent the recurrence of such problems,” the report said.
Tech firms like Sammy and Apple go in for the kind of liberal aspirational branding and reputation that doesn’t sit particularly well with the exploitation of workers in China, and most of the named and shamed companies have started doing yearly audits to indicate that they’re at least trying to improve their workers’ lot.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cambridge Team Breaks Superconductor World Record
http://science.slashdot.org/story/14/06/30/1215233/cambridge-team-breaks-superconductor-world-record
University of Cambridge scientists have broken a decade-old superconducting record by packing a 17.6 Tesla magnetic field into a golf ball-sized hunk of crystal — equivalent to about three tons of force.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Open Design. It is The Way.
http://hackaday.com/2014/06/30/why-open-design/
Open Design is Important
When you talk about hardware there is almost always some software that goes into making a finished product work. Making the information about how a product works and how it is manufactured available to everyone is called Open Design; it encompasses both Open Hardware and Open Source Software. Open Design matters!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Magnetic RAM Remains Niche Memory – for Now
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1322940&
Magnetic RAM (MRAM) may have the potential to replace DRAM and SRAM in many applications, but even the sole vendor shipping the nonvolatile memory (NVM) expects the transition to take time.
A Coughlin Associates report released this spring suggested MRAM was poised for a 50% compound annual growth rate, with MRAM and STT-MRAM revenue increasing from about $190 million in 2013 to $2.1 billion in 2019.
Tom Coughlin, the firm’s founder, said one of the appealing aspects of MRAM is its compatibility with CMOS processes. Also, because the processes are mature, it makes integration less daunting than the transition to 3D NAND. He said the evolution of MRAM is likely to follow that of flash — gaining traction in niche applications before it gets widespread adoption as costs go down and density improves. STT-MRAM in particular offers some advantages in terms of read/write and endurance, he said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Magnetically Responsive Liquid Crystals Enable Novel Display Apps
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1322932&
Scientists at the University of California, Riverside, have constructed liquid crystals with optical properties that can be instantly and reversibly controlled by an external magnetic field, paving the way for novel display applications.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Techniques for Protecting Smart Sweeping Robots
http://www.eeweb.com/company-blog/te_circuit_protection/techniques-for-protecting-smart-sweeping-robots/
This application note describes the importance and solution for protecting smart sweeping robots. The significance of TE’s resettable circuit protection with polymer positive temperature coefficient (PPTC) devices on the said application, the principle of operation of smart sweeping robots, steps in specifying PolySwitch devices, the requirements for preventing a stalled motor, and protecting power-charging ports and rechargeable batteries are included in this document.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung Release First SSD With 3D NAND:
Samsung 850 Pro 512GB Full Review – NAND Goes 3D!
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Storage/Samsung-850-Pro-512GB-Full-Review-NAND-Goes-3D
Samsung has certainly been pushing the envelope in the SSD field. For the past two years straight, they have launched class leading storage products, frequently showing outside-the-box thinking. Their 840 PRO series was an impressive MLC performer to say the least, but even more impressive was the 840 EVO, which combined cost-efficient TLC flash with a super-fast SLC cache.
If you’re going “Hey, they just changed the label from 840 to 850!”, well, think again. This SSD might have the same MEX controller as its predecessor, but Samsung has done some significant overhauling of the flash memory itself.
The newer type of flash (second from left) is called Charge Trap Flash. It hadn’t really caught on in the 2D world, but it works extremely well with the particular process Samsung has chosen.
Building chips in this fashion is not exactly easy. Stacking a bunch of layers is not that big of a deal, but then etching deep holes through all layers, and then applying coatings from the inside-out
The trick up Samsung’s sleeve is that since they are stacking vertically, they don’t need to pack things in so tightly on the horizontal plane. This enabled Samsung to take a step back on the lithography side of things, meaning V-NAND is made on a 30nm process.
Tomi Engdahl says:
New research: Flash is DEAD. Yet resistance isn’t futile – it’s key
Electro-boffin may have SAVED the storage WORLD
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07/01/the_end_of_flash_is_nigh/
Flash is at a crossroads. It cannot keep shrinking dies because, beyond a certain point, NAND cells produce too many errors, are slower to respond and have a shortened working life. Yet a University of Michigan professor’s research may hold the key to the future of flash storage technology.
Flash foundry suppliers are working on vertical layer stacking to cram more cells at current geometries onto the same die footprint. This is exemplified by Samsung’s V-NAND.
But the suppliers know that vertical layer stacking will reach its limit in turn. Once they reach that point where will they go to keep increasing density and so growing sales?
Several post-NAND technologies are in development. One uses Phase Change Memory (PCM), which features an electrical current changing the nature of a Chalcogenide substance from an amorphous state to a crystalline one and back again. Each state has a different resistance level, meaning these levels can be detected and signal binary one and zero.
Another technology is called Resistive RAM (ReRAM or RRAM) and uses the same ultimate characteristic, different resistance levels, to indicate binary values.
Such technologies promise data access speeds nearer to that of DRAM than NAND, byte instead of block addressability, and a longer working life: three much desired benefits.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Silicon Highway Narrows, Twists
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1322925&
The semiconductor road map is becoming as narrow and twisting as a mountain road, according to executives at two capital equipment companies. Chip vendors face higher costs and complexities due to tighter margins, new processes, and materials at 20 nm and beyond, they say.
In logic, foundries and their fabless customers have yet to settle on a new set of design rules. In memory, NAND flash has started a shift to 3D design other chips are likely to follow in some form, and DRAM faces a major materials shift, probably in 2015.
At 20 nanometers, the overlay budget of about 6 nm will shrink to about 4.5 nm while specifications for critical dimensions will narrow from 3 nm to 2 nm, says Brian Trafas, chief marketing officer at KLA-Tencor. He also predicts a 30% increase in process control spending between the 28 nm and 20 nm nodes to handle the requirements for multiple lithographic patterns needed to define some mask layers.
Chipmakers are using multi-patterning in four to ten mask layers starting at 20 nm and the follow-on node. In addition, these nodes are adding on a number of new deposition and etch steps, Trafas tells us.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Regulators Fail to Take Conflict Out of Conflict Minerals
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1322952&
- The conflicts surrounding the use of conflict minerals continue, as barely half of the publicly quoted US companies required to file their first conflict minerals (CM) reports did so by the June 2 deadline. Those that did file only managed to offer minimal transparency as to whether any tin, tungsten, tantalum, or gold used in their products was sourced from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) or neighboring war-torn countries.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Qualcomm Dominated Cellular Baseband Market in Q1
Intel drops from third to fifth
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1322954&
Qualcomm Corp. remained the dominant player in the cellular baseband market in the first quarter of 2014, but Intel Corp. was knocked out of the top three rankings for the first time in three years
Qualcomm accounted for 66% of the $4.7 billion global cellular baseband processor market, which grew only 2.5% from a year earlier, followed by MediaTek and Spreadtrum, with shares of 15% and 5%, respectively. Intel lost its top three spot, falling to fifth place, due to a sharp decline in 2G and 3G baseband shipments during the quarter, according to the report.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NIST shows off one-way photon-passing metamaterial
A light take on a diode could be just the thing for photonic networks
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07/02/nist_shows_off_oneway_photonpassing_metamaterial/
In other words, in this hyperbolic metamaterial, with layers tens of nanometers thick (compared to visible light’s 400 nm to 700 nm range of wavelengths), the behaviour of light depends on its direction. The “block” direction passes light at one-thirtieth the intensity of the “pass” direction.
The block has 20 alternating layers of silicon dioxide glass and silver.
As well as possible applications in photonic chips, the researchers say the metamaterial could be used in biosensing applications, detecting small amounts of light from a sample.
Tomi Engdahl says:
VTT has developed a method that enables the manufacture of thin film transistors can be handled from start to finish a roll-to-roll techniques.
As technology matures, thin film transistors market is expected to grow from the current approximately 3 million dollars to 180 million dollars over the next ten years.
VTT has developed a thin film transistors manufacturing methods of the EU-funded research project POLARIC. Developed by VTT, the manufacturing process of circumventing the roll-to-roll processes characteristic of a modest pointing accuracy of different thin film between the layers using a special self-alignment method. Also, transistor components, the size of patterns was reduced to the limit of printing methods, whereby a minimum of some tens of micrometers geometries.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1542:vtt-painaa-transistoreja-rullalta-rullalle&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Full-Color Printing With Aluminum Nanostructures As A Palette
http://cen.acs.org/articles/92/web/2014/06/Full-Color-Printing-Aluminum-Nanostructures.html
Plasmonics: Arrays of metal-topped nanopillars give a broad palette of colors for printing high-resolution, fade-resistant images
Conventional color printing involves overlaying dots of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black pigments in different ratios to get a spectrum of colors. In the new coloring scheme, each pixel is made of four nanopillars topped with metal disks. Nanoscale metal structures, like these disks, act as resonators, meaning that electrons on the metal surface oscillate at certain frequencies depending on the structure’s size. As a result, a metal nanostructure reflects only light of a frequency that matches its oscillating electrons. So by changing the size and the shape of the metal structures, researchers can produce different colors.
Yang and his colleagues first harnessed this effect, called plasmon resonance, for printing images in 2012 (Nat. Nanotechnol., DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2012.128). They used electron beam lithography to make 95-nm-tall pillars of hydrogen silsequioxane on a silicon substrate. They capped the pillars with a 20-nm-thick layer of gold or silver. The team created 15 different color pixels by varying the diameters of the pixel’s four nanopillars.
Now, by tuning the diameters and arrangement of the pillars in each pixel, Yang’s group has made a vast palette of colors. And to bring down cost, the team replaced the gold and silver disks with aluminum.
The researchers created aluminum-topped pillars with diameters ranging from 80 to 220 nm.
The aluminum pixels are stable for more than seven months, unlike the previous silver pixels, which oxidized and degraded within a week.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The EU is investing five billion on chips
Huge investments are part of the Tuesday announced ECSEL (The Electronic Components and Systems for European Leadership) program.
The project is aimed at increasing the electronics industry and especially the chip competitiveness, the bridle in overall product development costs and accelerate the adoption of new technologies, the Commission said in a statement.
ECSEL project to the very beginning of the relevant actors, such as equipment manufacturers, technology companies, chip designers, software companies and researchers, universities and colleges. The Commission considers that such innovations closer to market.
“Today, the growth will come from innovation and the right digital technology to produce the most new inventions and their applications”,
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/cio/eu+satsaa+siruihin+viisi+miljardia/a996343
Tomi Engdahl says:
IBM Pledges Nanotube Transistor by 2020 or Bust
After two decades of research, new innovations seem to be on the right track
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1322966&
For over two decades IBM has tried nearly every possible way to a make a tiny 1.4-nanometer carbon nanotube the successor to the silicon transistor channel. Today the smallest silicon transistors are already achieving atomic limits — a 4-nanometer silicon transistor channel, for instance, would consist of about 20 atoms. To go to the next silicon generation, all sorts of imperfections and uneven doping problems are facing the further downsized silicon transistors. If IBM, or others — in fact China is now leading in nanotube research — can perfect the 1.4-nanometer transistor channel, then Moore’s law can keeping marching forward a little while longer. If not, a whole new paradigm may have to be invented.
Relatively recently, the nanotube transistor guru, IBM Fellow Phaedon Avouris, found greener pastures to explore in plasmonics and photonics. The nanotube team is now led by Wilfried Haensch at the T.J. Watson research lab of Yorktown Heights, N.Y.
One new idea is not to depend on just a single nanotube, but to use multiple nanotubes for a transistor channel, hoping that at least a few work. In simulations, they have lined up six relatively parallel 1.4-nanometer-wide and 30-nanometer-long nanotubes with a generous spacing of 8-nanometers between them.
IBM has recently fabricated circuits with as many as 10,000 carbon nanotube transistors (CNTs). Simulations of that design predict performance five times as fast as silicon.
IBM has recently fabricated circuits with as many as 10,000 carbon nanotube transistors (CNTs). Simulations of that design predict performance five times as fast as silicon.
IBM is committed to try to meet the 2020 deadline, but admits that all major hurdles much be surmounted to keep the project alive after 2020.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Silicon Highway Narrows, Twists
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1322925&
The semiconductor road map is becoming as narrow and twisting as a mountain road, according to executives at two capital equipment companies. Chip vendors face higher costs and complexities due to tighter margins, new processes, and materials at 20 nm and beyond, they say.
In logic, foundries and their fabless customers have yet to settle on a new set of design rules. In memory, NAND flash has started a shift to 3D design other chips are likely to follow in some form, and DRAM faces a major materials shift, probably in 2015.
At 20 nanometers, the overlay budget of about 6 nm will shrink to about 4.5 nm while specifications for critical dimensions will narrow from 3 nm to 2 nm, says Brian Trafas, chief marketing officer at KLA-Tencor. He also predicts a 30% increase in process control spending between the 28 nm and 20 nm nodes to handle the requirements for multiple lithographic patterns needed to define some mask layers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Transformation of a Bike Radar Device
http://makezine.com/2014/07/02/the-transformation-of-a-bike-radar-device/
It became Backtracker, a hackable rear-view radar for bikes that’s got an open API and is currently crowdfunding. But that’s the end of the story; what concerns us is the middle.
“We generally try to find interesting problems that we can solve,” says Struwig. “We help people to see what they can’t.” And that’s what’s behind you. So iKubu started building a device to recognize cars approaching from behind and alert bicyclists.
They built a rack to support it, and placed a 10 GHz radar antenna on it. It was wired to a single LED on the handlebars that blinked faster as cars got closer. And it was all hacked together from components from previous projects or off-the-shelf components. It was clunky, heavy, and big
So iKubu built another prototype, sleek and small and shiny, to pitch to manufacturers in the bike industry. Though there was some venture capital interest, it never made it to market. The lesson, says Struwig: “Nobody will ever put in the same amount of passion and effort into taking your product to market than you, yourself.”
The latest version features a 24 GHz radar antenna
The radar creates a doppler map, and recognizes not only the vehicle, but how far away it is and how quicky it’s approaching.
Importantly, iKubu is offering both the open API and development support and schematics.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Muscle-powered bio-bots walk on command
http://news.illinois.edu/news/14/0630biobots2_RashidBashir.html
A new generation of miniature biological robots is flexing its muscle.
Engineers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign demonstrated a class of walking “bio-bots” powered by muscle cells and controlled with electrical pulses, giving researchers unprecedented command over their function. The group published its work in the online early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
“Biological actuation driven by cells is a fundamental need for any kind of biological machine you want to build,”
Bashir’s group has been a pioneer in designing and building bio-bots, less than a centimeter in size, made of flexible 3-D printed hydrogels and living cells. Previously, the group demonstrated bio-bots that “walk” on their own, powered by beating heart cells from rats.
The new bio-bots are powered by a strip of skeletal muscle cells that can be triggered by an electric pulse.
“Skeletal muscles cells are very attractive because you can pace them using external signals,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
10 tricks that extend oscilloscope usefulness
http://edn.com/design/test-and-measurement/4430201/10-Tricks-that-Extend-Oscilloscope-Usefulness?wc=4&_mc=sem_otb_edt_ednci&_mc=sem_otb_edt_ednci
Use the oscilloscope’s fast edge feature and math operations to make frequency response measurements
High pass filter your input signal using the oscilloscopes low pass digital filter
Selectively average only signals with certain shapes or measured parameters
Find intermittent events by using exclusion trigger to acquire only on abnormal events
Use the trend functions and trigger hold off as a self-timed data logger
Demodulating amplitude modulated signals
Detection of frequency, phase and pulse-width modulated signals
Adding a “Max Hold” function to the oscilloscope’s Fast Fourier Transform
Calculating the power spectral density of a waveform in unit of V²/Hz
Using zoom-gated FFTs to compare spectral components
Tomi Engdahl says:
Electromechanical measurements with an oscilloscope
http://edn.com/design/test-and-measurement/4429913/Electromechanical-measurements-with-an-oscilloscope
Making measurements on electromechanical devices and systems often requires a variety of transducers or sensors to convert mechanical parameters such as force, acceleration, pressure, and rotational speed into electrical signals. Using an oscilloscope or data-acquisition systems, you can measure these parameters and calculate others.
Tomi Engdahl says:
MSOs probe analog and digital
http://edn.com/design/test-and-measurement/4429600/MSOs-probe-analog-and-digital
Many microcontroller-based systems have both analog and digital signals. Even those that appear to be entirely digital aren’t because of analog effects such as ringing and crosstalk. Thus, you often need both analog and digital views of your system’s signals. That’s where an MSO (mixed-signal oscilloscope can help.
MSOs incorporate the functionality of both an oscilloscope and a subset of capabilities found in logic analyzer. The most common MSO configuration has four analog channels and 16 digital channels. MSOs find their greatest applicability in troubleshooting embedded microprocessor boards.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IBM announced it would invest over the next five years of $ 3 billion a completely new type of computer development. The company plans to get rid of the silicon chip and is looking the other hand, graphene, carbon nanotubes, and other related materials direction. Using the new chip materials IBM aims to develop atomic-scale chips.
Supratik Guha says that the current computer architecture dates from the 1940s.
“Given the nature of the problems we encounter today, we believe the time to take to explore other options,”
Hewlett-Packard announced plans completely new computer architecture research for barely a month ago
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/kaikki_uutiset/ibm+kaataa+3+miljardia+taysin+uudenlaisen+tietokoneen+kehittamiseen++quotatomitason+sirujaquot/a997415
Tomi Engdahl says:
Medical Devices Require Radiation-Tolerant Memory
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1323022&
One of the biggest subsets of the Internet of Things is wearables, and within that segment are devices that monitor health and physical activity. While many of these applications are aimed at consumers who want to track fitness and other measurements of the quantified self, there are also specialized medical applications that are more focused and complex.
Flash memory, such as NOR flash and SPI flash memory, has found use in portable medical devices that include heart-rate monitors, blood analyzers, digital thermometers, and portable defibrillators. A great deal of focus is put on form factor and power consumption of memory — how do you provide enough computing power in a small device and extend battery life?
But in the case of medical devices, there’s also the issue of safety, especially with the advent of smarter devices that are worn close to or can be implanted in the human body. Many of these devices include wireless communication, so standards have been developed to ensure the safety of those wearing devices. The IEEE 802.15.6-2012 standard, for example, addresses security, reliability, power, quality of service, data rate, and interference protection so these wireless devices and sensors can be used for medical purposes.
Radiation has always been a threat to memory technologies
Adesto CEO Narbeh Derhacobian said there is no memory technology today that can survive sterilization through radiation, and this has been a barrier to putting more intelligence into medical devices.
Craven said CBRAM’s tolerance to radiation opens up the medical device world for a whole set of new possibilities
Tomi Engdahl says:
Resistive Memory Devices: Basics & Characterization
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1323023&
For many portable electronics, floating-gate NAND flash memory has long been the non-volatile memory (NVM) technology of choice.
Manufacturers of consumer products that incorporate memory devices are increasingly concerned that floating-gate flash memory won’t be able to continue providing higher storage capacities at the ever lower cost-per-bit requirements that drive the NVM market.
A typical ReRAM cell has a switching material with different resistance characteristics sandwiched by two metallic electrodes. The switching effect of ReRAM is based on the motion of ions under the influence of an electric field or heat and also the switching material’s ability to store the state of the ion distribution. This in turn causes a measurable change in the device resistance.
ReRAM is faster and requires lower voltage than traditional flash memory. It is bit-alterable, making it suitable for use in both embedded and solid-state drive (SSD) applications.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Science & Technology: Printed electronics – Inks and the technical challenges
http://www.clip-fp7.eu/news/116-science-a-technology-printed-electronics-inks-and-the-technical-challenges
The inkjet printing of conductive materials has attracted much scientific and commercial interest in recent decades, with users finding the technical benefits of inkjet printing particularly persuasive in addition to its wide range of potential applications.
Printed electronics are in fact predicted to enjoy a significant market growth (up to 48.2 billion USD by 2017),1 a growth that will be spread over potential applications such as displays, photovoltaic, RFIDs, sensors, memories and printed circuit boards.1,2 In technical terms, inkjet printing – like alternative printing techniques – competes with conventional semiconductor technology (photolithography, vacuum deposition etc.) but it offers distinct advantages, especially in the manufacture of customised products or with flexible or sensitive substrates (contactless material application).
The main constituent of inks used for printed electronics is undoubtedly the conductive material itself. In addition to conductive polymers, use is made of organometallic compounds, metal and metal-oxide nanoparticles, other metallic precursors as well as a variety of carbon materials. The carrier fluid is also of decisive importance for the printability of conductive inks, with frequent use being made of solvent systems that are based on acetates, glycols, cyclohexanon, NMP, MEK etc.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Meeting the conductive challenge
http://www.micromanufacturing.com/content/meeting-conductive-challenge
New, robust conductive inks can be used in molded parts
You probably don’t think about electrically conductive inks as you drive to work each morning. But it’s likely that you give at least a passing thought to some of your vehicle’s features that incorporate potentiometers and rheostats made with conductive inks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hair-raising technique detects drugs, explosives on human body
http://news.sciencemag.org/chemistry/2014/07/hair-raising-technique-detects-drugs-explosives-human-body
That metal ball that makes your hair stand on end at science museums may have a powerful new use. Scientists have found a way to combine these Van de Graaff generators with a common laboratory instrument to detect drugs, explosives, and other illicit materials on the human body.
The laboratory instrument in question is a mass spectrometer. These machines ionize samples of liquids, solids, or gases, imparting an electrical charge that can be used to identify them. That’s tricky for detecting substances on humans, says Kwan-Ming Ng, a chemist at the University of Hong Kong. “The major obstacle is safely depositing a sufficient amount of energy on the human body to induce ionization of chemicals on their skin.”
Ng had the idea of coupling a Van de Graaff generator, a powerful but safe way to electrostatically charge the skin’s surface, with a mass spectrometer. Touching the Van de Graaff generator for only 2 seconds charges a person’s body to 400,000 volts, which ionizes compounds on the surface of the body. Then, the person would point the part of their body to be tested, such as a finger, toward the inlet of a mass spectrometer, and ions from their body would enter the machine. Also, chemicals in the breath would become ionized as the person exhaled and the chemicals passed through their electrostatically charged lips.
For security screening, Ng envisions that the technology will take the form of a chamber connected to a Van de Graaff generator. People would enter the chamber, and ions from all over their bodies would be channeled into a mass spectrometer. This setup would be more sensitive and less invasive than current ways to detect trace explosives or drugs on a person’s body, such as specially trained dogs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Japanese electronics firms
Eclipsed by Apple
Electronics companies in Japan are starting to turn themselves around, but they are a shadow of their former selves
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21606845-electronics-companies-japan-are-starting-turn-themselves-around-they-are-shadow
Even at home in Japan’s thriving consumer-electronics market—only Americans have more devices per person than the tech-obsessed Japanese—former champions, including Hitachi, Panasonic and Sharp as well as Sony, have lost much ground. Local firms have largely ceded the PC market, and they are losing out quickly in mobile phones. They never really made their mark in smartphones, today’s most-desired gadgets. Sony’s Trinitron TVs and Walkmans once helped build a fearsomely large Japanese trade surplus, but nowadays the country suffers a deficit, and foreign smartphones account for about a fifth of it.
One consolation is that consumer electronics is an impossible business for nearly all firms, says Eiichi Katayama of Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Tokyo, so competitive has it become. A strong brand is no longer enough to justify a sharply higher price.
digital camera reviews 2014 says:
I am actually pleased to read this webpage posts which consists of tons of helpful data, thanks for
providing these kinds of data.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Lithium Ion Supercapacitor Battery
http://hackaday.com/2014/07/17/a-lithium-ion-supercapacitor-battery/
Lithium ion supercapacitors. No, not lithium ion batteries, and yes, they’re a real thing.
Here’s a Kickstarter using these supercaps to replace the common AA, C, and D cell batteries. Even better, they can be recharged in seconds.
For each size battery, the caps used actually have a slightly higher energy density than a similarly sized dollar store battery. By adding a little bit of circuitry to drop the 3.8 Volts out of the cap down to the 1.5 V you expect from a battery, this supercap becomes a very expensive rechargeable battery, but one that can be recharged in seconds.
Tomi Engdahl says:
30 Second Charging, Rechargeable Battery
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shawnpwest/30-second-charging-rechargeable-battery
Basically, I’ve taken a lithium ion capacitor, which provides 3.8 volts of electricity and put it, along with a very small circuit that brings that 3.8 volts down to the usual 1.5 volts that you get out of your standard AA, C & D battery, in to a footprint that is the same size as a AA, C & D battery.
Tomi Engdahl says:
More Than Meets the Eye: Scientists Create Real-Life Transformers!
http://recode.net/2014/08/07/more-than-meets-the-eye-scientists-create-real-life-transformers/
It’s not quite Optimus Prime, but researchers at Harvard and MIT have created “origami robots” that can transform from flat sheets into tiny, crab-like crawling machines.
Tomi Engdahl says:
FDA Recognizes Two UL Battery Safety Standards for Medical Devices
http://www.medicaldesignbriefs.com/component/content/article/1104-mdb/news/20168
UL (Underwriters Laboratories), Northbrook, IL, announced that the FDA has recognized two UL battery safety standards as consensus standards for medical devices incorporating lithium or nickel-based batteries. The two standards are UL 2054 – Standard for Household and Commercial Batteries, and UL 1642 – Standard for Lithium Batteries (Cells).
Consensus standards are standards recognized by the FDA for use in evaluating medical devices before they are approved for market entry.
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Battery is Cheap, Clean, Rechargeable, and Organic
http://www.techbriefs.com/component/content/article/20134
Scientists at USC have developed a water-based organic battery that is long-lasting, and built from cheap, eco-friendly components. The new battery — which uses no metals or toxic materials — is intended for use in power plants, where it can make the energy grid more resilient and efficient by creating a large-scale means to store energy for use as needed.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Choose Polymer Capacitors?
https://event.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1037098
Polymer Capacitors offer a multitude of advantages over many other capacitor technologies.
As the trends for electronic components continue to move toward smaller package sizes, higher reliability and lower parasitic properties, polymer capacitors continue to gain momentum with no other capacitor technologies being able to deliver an equal level of performance.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Achieving Total Data Awareness: How Traceability Improves Manufacturing
https://event.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1034513
Traceability has variable and narrow definitions depending on the industry, product, and application. As a result, narrow solutions are often adopted yet only deliver the required data scope for a subset of a specific product. The issue with this approach is twofold: First, it only delivers a short-term solution, as traceability requirements expand continuously. Second, it neglects a significant opportunity to achieve real process intelligence and control.
A holistic approach to traceability means that the digital infrastructure of the factory is gathering all product and process data available, regardless of whether or not it is required for traceability reporting.
Tomi Engdahl says:
End-to-end development of personalized medical devices
https://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/campaigns/single_topic.cfm?Component=222538&ComponentTemplate=186312
The medical devices industry is experiencing an evolutionary transformation in which diagnostic and therapeutic treatments are increasingly personalized, with patient-specific customization aligned to individual patient conditions, improving therapeutic benefits and in most cases, lowering overall costs.
To support this transformation, medical device companies must evolve their business models to support an engineer-to-order approach in addition to a traditional build-to-stock business. This situation creates the need for business and technical systems that flexibly adapts to both engineer-to-order and build-to-stock delivery of personalized medical products.
Tomi Engdahl says:
AMOLED mobile displays to cost less than LCDs within two years
07/23/2014
http://www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/2014/07/amoled-mobile-displays-to-cost-less-than-lcds-within-two-years.html
According to the OLED Technology Report from NPD DisplaySearch (Santa Clara, CA), manufacturing costs for active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) mobile phone displays are expected to fall below costs for liquid-crystal display (LCD) mobile phone displays within two years due to rapid improvement in AMOLED panel production yields.
Manufacturing costs for AMOLED panels are currently 10-20% higher than for TFT LCD displays; however, Early on, AMOLED panels were expected to cost less than LCD panels, because they do not require backlighting.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Putting FPGAs to Work in Software Radio Systems
http://electronicdesign.com/test-amp-measurement/putting-fpgas-work-software-radio-systems
Recently updated, this handbook reviews the latest FPGA technology and how it can be put to use in software radio systems. FPGAs offer significant advantages for implementing software radio functions such as digital downconverters and upconverters.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tiny chip mimics brain, delivers supercomputer speed
http://phys.org/news/2014-08-tiny-chip-mimics-brain-supercomputer.html
Researchers Thursday unveiled a powerful new postage-stamp size chip delivering supercomputer performance using a process that mimics the human brain.
The so-called “neurosynaptic” chip is a breakthrough that opens a wide new range of computing possibilities from self-driving cars to artificial intelligence systems that can installed on a smartphone, the scientists say.
IBM’s new neurosynaptic processor intergrates 1 million neurons and 256 million (414) synapses on a single chip.
The chip was fabricated using Samsung’s 28-nanometer process technology.
The project funded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) published its research in a cover article on the August 8 edition of the journal Science.
Tomi Engdahl says:
To Stay Alive, Renesas Negotiates End-of-Life Deals
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1323425&
Renesas Electronics, beating its own estimates, reported Wednesday, Aug. 6, that its semiconductor sales in the April-June quarter grew to 201.2 billion yen (US$1.97 billion), up 4.9 percent from the previous quarter. Operating income was 27.0 billion yen, an increase of 10 billion yen over the last quarter.
Driven by increases in automotive sales and general-purpose products, the company’s first-quarter chip sales grew both quarter-by-quarter and year-on-year.
This uptick, however, is hardly a proof of Renesas’s full recovery, according to CEO Hisao Sakuta. Sakuta described Renesas as “a patient still in the hospital.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microchip Taps Semtech’s Long-Range RF
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1323456&
PIC microcontroller vendor Microchip Technology Inc. continued to shore up its RF expertise for the Internet of Things (IoT) market with plans to develop products based on long-range technology from Semtech Corp.
According to IMS Research, the need for long-range RF connectivity is expected to be huge. By 2020, the number of web-connected devices is expected to reach 22 billion; more than 50% of those applications are predicted to need long-range connectivity and multi-year battery operation.
Using the LoRa technology, Semtech’s SX127x family achieves a range of more than 15 Km (9 miles) in a suburban environment and 2 Km to 5 Km (3 miles) in a dense urban environment while operating under US, EU, Chinese and Japanese regulatory limits. Most deployed systems for metering, security or industrial automation are limited in range to 1 km to 2 km (less than 1.25 miles) in a suburban environment.
LoRA is a spread spectrum modulation scheme that uses wideband linear frequency modulated pulses.
Microchip already offers Bluetooth (Classic and Low Energy/Smart), Wi-Fi, 802.15.4 (Proprietary/MiWi and ZigBee), and Sub-GHz solutions for the other design needs that LoRa technology doesn’t address
Tomi Engdahl says:
Maxim’s Articles
Ambient-Light Sensing for Portable Displays
http://www.eeweb.com/company-blog/maxim/ambient-light-sensing-for-portable-displays/
Adding an ambient light sensor to portable devices such as tablets, smartphones, and laptops extends battery life and enables easy-to-view displays that are optimized to the environment. This discussion covers the various issues that arise when using such sensors in portable devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Revolutionary Approach for Thermal Conductance Improvement
http://www.eeweb.com/company-blog/ixys/revolutionary-approach-for-thermal-conductance-improvement/
This application note presents the new ISOPLUS247 power package featuring 2500 V internal isolation, which gives a revolutionary approach that improves thermal conductance and reliability. The document also describes the advantages of the isolated and hole-less packaging concept and a brief table and graphical comparisons of some characteristics of the IXFR55N50 to IXFX55N50.
The primary advantage of ISOPLUS247 packaging is the very low thermal resistance achievable in a rugged, high voltage, isolated mounting system.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung unveils 10nm class enterprise SAS SSD
30 percent more productive than its predecessor
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2359256/samsung-unveils-10nm-class-enterprise-sas-ssd
SAMSUNG HAS RELEASED its latest enterprise SAS solid-state disk (SSD) drive.
The Samsung SAS SSD SM1623 has an 800GB capacity, and is based on 10nm class chips.
Before we all get too excited, “10nm class” means below 20nm, rather than a specific measurement, however, this does represent a jump from its 20nm class SM1625 predecessor and offers a 30 percent productivity boost.
Random read and write rates are 120,000 and 26,000 Input/Output Operations per Second (IOPS) with sequential read and write speeds up to 950MBps and 520MBps, respectively.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Up through 28-nm, planar CMOS processes were the mainstream offering. A few foundries are now offering FinFET processes from 16-nm and 14-nm. For certain applications, FinFET processes offer many attractive features, but moving to FinFET does not make sense for all SoC designers.
Source: http://seminar2.techonline.com/registration/wcIndex.cgi?sessionID=synopsys_jul2214
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel’s 14-nm Broadwell CPU Primed For Slim Tablets
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/08/11/173242/intels-14-nm-broadwell-cpu-primed-for-slim-tablets
Intel’s next-gen Broadwell processor has entered production, and we now know a lot more about what it entails. The chip is built using 14-nm process technology, enabling it to squeeze into half the power envelope and half the physical footprint of last year’s Haswell processors.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel’s Broadwell processor revealed
The 14-nm Core M aims to upend the tablet market
http://techreport.com/review/26896/intel-broadwell-processor-revealed
Enforcing Moore’s Law: Intel’s 14-nm process
One key ingredient in Broadwell’s success is Intel’s 14-nm manufacturing process, the world’s first of its kind. Broadwell has been very publicly delayed due to some teething problems with this new process. In a briefing last week, however, Intel VP and Director of 14-nm Technology Development Sanjay Natarajan told us that the 14-nm process is now qualified and in volume production.
In fact, Natarajan shared quite a few specifics about the 14-nm process in order to underscore Intel’s success. His core message: the 14-nm process provides true scaling from the prior 22-nm node, with virtually all of the traditional benefits of Moore’s Law intact.
For instance, this 14-nm process is the second generation to employ what Intel calls tri-gate transistors (which the rest of the industry calls FinFETs). Other firms have yet to ship first-generation FinFET silicon.
Natarajan expects sufficient 14-nm silicon yields and wafer volumes to support “multiple 14-nm product ramps in the first half of 2015.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nanoceramic Startup Gears Up for Growth
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1323454&
The UK startup Cambridge Nanotherm has appointed a new chief executive. The move signals the company’s intention to commercialize its nanoceramic technology that converts aluminum into a dielectric adept at carrying heat.
Developed by a team from the University of Moscow that includes founding CEO Dr. Pavel Shashkov (who will become the chief technology officer), the material is ideal for metal printed circuit boards and flexible substrates that need to transport heat away.
“The first [aluminum converted] product is 30% better than anything else out there and 30% cheaper, and that’s just the first product,” new CEO Ralph Weir told EE Times. “It conducts heat better than metals and doesn’t conduct electricity. That’s one aspect. The second aspect is you only need a thin layer, just three microns thick.”
The first product is Nanotherm Laminated Copper (LC), a sheet of aluminum with nanoceramic and copper on the top that can be dropped into any metal PCB process. This is aimed at applications such as LED lighting, where the heat dissipation is a key design limitation.