Consumer

January 2017
Two leaders in the design and manufacturing of connectors for electronic products announced a Dual Source Alliance (DSA) agreement to each produce a new generation of high-speed input/output (I/O) and backplane connectors, and cable assemblies for data communications applications. Molex and TE Connectivity
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Date:
01/31/2017
Dialog Semiconductor, a provider of highly integrated power management, AC/DC power conversion, solid state lighting and Bluetooth® low energy technology, in partnership with Energous, the developer of WattUp, a wire-free charging technology that provides over-the-air power at a distance, today announced the ava
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Date:
01/30/2017
Robert Bosch and, correspondingly, Bosch Sensortec as a wholly owned subsidiary, has joined the MIPI Alliance as a Contributor Member. The MIPI Alliance is a non-profit organization with more than 275 active member companies, developing interface specifications which drive consistency in processor and peripheral in
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Date:
01/30/2017
Step-by-step

The ROHM Arduino-based EVK allows rapid evaluation and prototyping of stepper motor systems

Combining ultra-precise control with long operating life, stepper motors have become a critical building block in motion-based applications ranging from white goods to factory automation and robotics to printers and point-of-sale equipment. For the designer, the challenge is to ensure the best combination of pe
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Date:
01/30/2017
Piezoelectric elements have traditionally been used primarily in applications in the audio industry, operating in the human audio range (nominally 100 Hz to 18 kHz). However, subsequent improvements in device characteristics have extended their usefulness into markets which demand much-higher performance. For ex
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Date:
01/30/2017
This year’s CES, the 50th, was a geek orgy of gadgets and their related services and infrastructures, each vying for attention in the hopes that it will be the “Next Big Thing”. The reality is that there probably won’t be any one new big shiny thing going forward, the big thing is that there are a lot of
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Date:
01/28/2017
Keeping up with consumer

Kevin Parmenter, Power Systems Design Contributor

The consumer electronics market is growing, yet it’s always in a state of flux. In this huge and competitive market you must have the latest features and functions and the best, easy-to-use interface, or your products will be yesterday’s news and they won’t sell.  The typical pace of the consumer ma
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Date:
01/28/2017
DC-DC converter modules have been around a long time and can be found in most power conversion stages of virtually every application today. As their use evolved to changing application requirements so did the design approach used to construct them. One of these trends meant that in order to preserve conversio
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Date:
01/28/2017
The ability to make consistent measurements of RF or microwave power levels is vital to developing effective radio systems and networks. This article explores how different approaches affect the resultant measurements. The test case compares various approaches to making average power measurements of contin
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Date:
01/28/2017
Lots of things are currently changing: Digital transformation is in full swing, changing our daily lives and demanding new business models. Many countries are facing economic and social challenges. Let’s look at how this effects distribution and what companies like Rutronik are doing to continue to move forward in
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Date:
01/28/2017
Resolution is the most obvious battleground on which rival television and display manufacturers fight. Consumers have been willing to pay a premium for high-definition HD) displays, and, more recently, for 4k displays. Eventually, ultra-high definition 8k displays are expected to supersede the current generation of
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Date:
01/28/2017
Mouser Electronics, a leader empowering innovation, announced a global distribution agreement with SparkFun Electronics, a leader in DIY electronics and open-source technology, as part of both companies’ commitment to support the growth of the maker movement around the world. The agreement provides increased ac
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Date:
01/26/2017
XP Power's 18-36 W desktop supplies meet latest level VI and CoC Tier 2 standards

VET series power supplies

XP Power announced four new series of external/desktop power supplies that meet the latest level VI and CoC Tier 2 green standards. The single output power supplies are perfect for customers requiring a low power, external, 18, 24, 30 or 36W power source for their new designs that need to meet current legislation aim
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Date:
01/24/2017
RS Components launches wireless IoT development kits

Creator IoT development kit

RS Components (RS) announced availability of the Creator Ci40 and Ci20 IoT development kits http://uk.rs-online.com/web/c/semiconductors/semiconductor-development-kits/processor-microcontroller-development-kits/?searchTerm=creator from Imagination Technologies. The Creator kits include the hardware, software and cloud
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Date:
01/20/2017
Intersil charger extends backup battery life of eCall systems

ISL78693 battery charger

Intersil, a leading provider of innovative power management and precision analog solutions, announced the ISL78693, a 3.6V single-cell battery charger that extends the life of Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries used in automotive emergency call (eCall) systems. The ISL78693 battery charger offers up to
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Date:
01/20/2017
EPC kit uses GaN-driven laser diodes for LiDAR

EPC9126 100 V high current pulsed laser diode driver evaluation board

Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) announced the availability of the EPC9126, a 100 V high current pulsed laser diode driver evaluation board. In a LiDAR system, used for detecting objects in autonomous vehicle applications, speed and accuracy of detection is critical. As demonstrated by this board, the rapid tr
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Date:
01/19/2017
Infineon's 700 V CoolMOS P7 family serves quasi-resonant flyback topologies

700 V CoolMOS P7

Infineon Technologies developed the new 700 V CoolMOS P7 family to serve today’s and tomorrow’s trends in quasi resonant flyback topologies. These new MOSFETs offer unmatched performance improvements compared to currently used superjunction technologies. Soft switching topologies like smart phone and tablet ch
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Date:
01/17/2017
Allegro's A3916 low-voltage bipolar stepper needs only four external components

A3916 dual DMOS full-bridge motor driver

Allegro MicroSystems Europe's A3916 low voltage bipolar stepper or dual DC motor driver IC is designed for pulse-width-modulated (PWM) control of low-voltage stepper motors or dual DC motors using just four external components, and is capable of output currents up to 1 A per channel and operating voltages from 2.7
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Date:
01/17/2017
PSDcast - Scott Soong of Pervasive Displays on the user interface

Scott Soong of Pervasive Displays

In this PSDcast, Scott Soong, Founder and CEO of Pervasive Displays talks to Alix Paultre of Power Systems Design about the user interface and energy efficiency. The company is a leader in e-paper displays, and recently announced a newly-available e-paper shield starter kit to help makers and designers in
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Date:
01/13/2017
Nanoparticle catalysts improve zinc-air batteries

A cathode containing nanoparticles made from cobalt, cobalt oxide and a carbon-based outer shell improved the performance of a zinc-air battery.

A*STAR researchers have found that nanoparticles containing three different layers of material can help to boost the performance of a zinc-air battery. Zinc-air batteries are cheap, have a high energy density, and last for a very long time. Their use of a water-based electrolyte makes them safer than other batteries, so
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Date:
01/13/2017
AptoVision, Aquantia, Christie Digital, NETGEAR, Sony and ZeeVee announced that they have formed the SDVoE Alliance to standardize the adoption of Ethernet to transport AV signals in professional AV environments, and to create an ecosystem around SDVoE technology that allows software to define AV applications.
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Date:
01/12/2017
Analysts at IDTechEx have issued a new report, Electric Boats and Ships 2017-2027, looking at this fragmented but often highly profitable and growing sector. There are already over 100 manufacturers of electric boats and ships. The report finds that the market for hybrid and pure electric boats and ships will ri
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Date:
01/11/2017
Vishay's tiny 1500W bi-directional SMT PAR transient voltage suppressors now at TT

Vishay TPC11CA to TPC36CA Surface Mount TVS

The industry’s first bi-directional 1500W surface-mount PAR transient voltage suppressors (TVS) in a low-profile eSMP® SMPC (TO-277A) package are now available in Europe at TTI, Inc., a world leading specialist distributor of electronic components. Vishay TPCxxCA Series devices have a low profile of typically ju
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Date:
01/09/2017
Wolverine-inspired transparent material is self-healing

Scientists have created an ionic conductor, meaning materials that ions can flow through, that is transparent, mechanically stretchable, and self-healing.

Scientists, including several from the University of California, Riverside, have developed a transparent, self-healing, highly stretchable conductive material that can be electrically activated to power artificial muscles and could be used to improve batteries, electronic devices, and robots. The findings,
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Date:
01/06/2017
Maxim claims first remote tuner solution to support worldwide automotive radio

MAX2175 RF to Bits tuner

Using the remote tuner solution from Maxim Integrated Products, designers can significantly simplify the head unit design of a vehicle and reduce cables. The MAX2175 RF to Bits tuner within the solution eliminates the need to rework the vehicle’s hardware to support worldwide radio standards, allowing updates by
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Date:
01/05/2017
LoRa Alliance members myDevices, an Internet of Things solutions company; Senet, the first and fastest growing North American provider of public, low-power, wide-area networks (LPWANs) for long-range Internet of Things (IoT) applications built on the LoRaWAN protocol; and STMicroelectronics, a semiconductor le
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Date:
01/05/2017
At CES, NXP will introduce a revolutionary new processor family: i.MX 8M — dedicated to the consumer IoT market. NXP’s i.MX 8M family addresses the major inflection points currently underway in streaming media: voice recognition and networked speakers in audio, the move to 4K High Dynamic Range (HDR) and th
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Date:
01/04/2017
RS Components introduces Raspberry Pi easy-to-solder prototyping board

RS Pro solder-tag board

RS Components, the trading brand of Electrocomponents, a distributor for engineers, has launched a 40-pin solder-tag board for the highly popular Raspberry Pi credit-card sized computer board. Exclusively available from RS, the new RS Pro solder-tag board is ideal for electronics engineers developing prototypes ba
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Date:
01/03/2017
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