Consumer

March 2020
USB Type-C Linear Mux/DeMux ReDriver with USB-C Detector
Diodes Incorporated announced the PI3EQX10612/PI3EQX10312 2-port 10Gbps linear ReDriver devices with integrated USB-C detection for equipment implementing a USB Type-C interface. Offering 1:2/2:1 mux/demux functionality, the ReDrivers can be used to extend the reach of USB signals running across rigid or flexible PCBs
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Date:
03/31/2020
Shielded Power Inductors Feature Low Resistance
Bourns, Inc., announced 11 new low resistance, high saturation current model series to its shielded power inductor line. Featuring a very low profile (less than 2 mm), the Bourns Model SRP0xxx series has a metal alloy powder core and flat wire construction that provides a range of benefits including low copper lo
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Date:
03/31/2020
D-Wave Provides Free Quantum Cloud for COVID-19 Response
D-Wave Systems Inc., the leader in quantum computing systems, software, and services, today announced the immediate availability of free access to its quantum systems via the Leap quantum cloud service for anyone working on responses to the COVID-19 crisis. Joining the effort are partners and customers including CI
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Date:
03/31/2020
GaN and 48 V – Where are We and Where are We Going?

Figure 1: Si MOSFET-based architecture for providing AC power to the CPU or GPU

Three years ago, the cost of making medium voltage eGaN FETs fell below the cost of equivalently rated power MOSFETs.  At that time EPC decided to use the performance and cost advantages of eGaN FETs to aggressively pursue applications with input, or output, voltage around 48 V. Specifically, automotive an
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Date:
03/31/2020
CES 2020: The Power Behind the Robot

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Figure 1. A baby-faced service robot on the CES 2020 show floor. (Picture courtesy of Reno Rossetti)

At this year’s CES 2020 in Las Vegas, service robots where a big hit on the show floor. It’s easy to understand why: they look and are, indeed, exotic. Among the automated machines I saw at CES: Samsung’s Ballie, a personal assistant the size of a tennis ball that rolls on the floor, following its owner an
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Date:
03/30/2020
Stretchable Supercapacitor Could Revolutionise Wearables
I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of wearables. Whether it was action figures with eagle eye vision or Q’s selection of gadgets in my favourite James Bond movies, the incorporation of technology in everyday items has always really appealed to me, and it still does. I was even on the verge of buying a
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Date:
03/30/2020
The APEC That Could've Been
The worst collateral damage of COVID-19 is the decimation of global commerce, and trade shows have been hit especially hard – tough to practice “social distancing” with a few thousand people (or more) clustered together. And one of the most unfortunate victims of this new, quarantined reality was the 2020 Ap
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Date:
03/30/2020
TVS Arrays Guard Against Smartphone Electrical Transients
ProTek Devices has introduced a series of ultra-low capacitance TVS arrays for circuit protection in smartphones, other handheld wireless systems, USB interfaces and Ethernet 10/100/1000 Base T applications. The new series of TVS arrays consists of four new devices. The GBLCxxHP/CHP series comprises of two devic
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Date:
03/30/2020
Bourns Launches Mobile App for iPhone and Android
Bourns, Inc., announced the launch of its mobile app for iPhone and Android platforms. Bourns developed the mobile app to give customers easy, anytime access to the company’s extensive library of useful technical documents and product selection materials. The broad range of features available on the new a
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Date:
03/25/2020
SiTime Boosts Performance and Reliability for Garmin Devices
SiTime Corporation announced that Garmin International, Inc., has chosen SiTime’s MEMS timing solutions for several of Garmin’s automotive, aviation, marine, fitness, and outdoor products. “Garmin makes products that are engineered on the inside for life on the outside,” said Patrick Desbois, Garmin ex
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Date:
03/24/2020
Design Kits for a Tech that Reduces Power Consumption
Tower Semiconductor announced the release of design kits for a novel 0.18um high-performance power management technology which offers over 35% power efficiency improvement and/or equivalent amount of die-area directly contributing to the die’s price competitiveness. This new offering enables scalable IC operation of
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Date:
03/23/2020
OptiMOS™ IPOL voltage regulators with COT engine
      This product family is designed for today’s server, base station and telecom (operating at 85˚C ambient temperature) and storage applications requiring both high efficiency and high density. The IR3887M is the smallest 30 A device on the market. Fusing Infineon’s latest FET gene
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Date:
03/19/2020
Fish Scales Could Make Wearable Electronics More Sustainable

This film derived from fish scales could someday be used in flexible electronic devices.

Flexible temporary electronic displays may one day make it possible to sport a glowing tattoo or check a reading, like that of a stopwatch, directly on the skin. In its current form, however, this technology generally depends on plastic. New research in ACS Nano describes a way to make these displays, which wou
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Date:
03/19/2020
Renesas RE Family Chosen as Main Controller of G-SHOCK Watch
Renesas Electronics Corporation announced that Casio Computer Co., Ltd. (“Casio”) has adopted a Renesas ultra-low power consumption RE Family controller as the main controller of the new Casio G-SHOCK watch GBD-H1000 with heart rate monitor and GPS functionality, unveiled on February 26, 2020. The GBD-H1000
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Date:
03/18/2020
Current Sense Chip Resistor w/ High Power in a Small Package
There is an on-going trend to smaller, portable and more functional devices in the consumer electronics world. This is particularly true in the current sense resistor market where power control architectures are being downsized even as the functionality is being enhanced. Stackpole's CSS0508 is a 1W current sense chip
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Date:
03/18/2020
First Miniature Tact Switch Rated to 10 Million Cycles
C&K has launched a new tact switch with a rating of 10 million cycles. The KSC Tireless Endurance (KSC TE) is a revolutionary addition to C&K’s tactile product portfolio that helps ease the design cycle by offering a long-standing lifetime for its size and force range. The superior tact switch is ideal fo
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Date:
03/16/2020
Shielded Inductors Meet High-Current Density Requirements
Bourns, Inc., announced the addition of nine new series to its SRP series power inductor line. These new Model SRP inductor families are designed to meet high current and low radiation requirements in a small form factor. Bourns' latest inductors feature a coil that is wound with either round or flat wire completely pre
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Date:
03/16/2020
30W High Power Density DC/DC Converter Series URB_YMD-30WR3
This new series URB_YMD-30WR3 comes in 1x1 inch standard package and its power density increased by 50.4% compared to 2x1 inch package products with the same output power. Besides, this URB_YMD-30WR3 series features 18-75V ultra wide input voltage range and operating temperature range of -40℃ to +85℃. Protectio
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Date:
03/13/2020
PCIM Europe 2020 Postponed till July
COVID-19 has claimed another victim – on Friday, PCIM Europe 2020 was officially postponed. The good news is that PCIM will be delayed (until July 28-30) instead of cancelled. And the decision was almost entirely out of the show organizers’ hands. German Health Minister Jens Spahn recently called for
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Date:
03/13/2020
RS Components adds STMicroelectronics’ surge suppression range
Designed to handle 8/20µs and 10/1000µs voltage transients and protect circuits and equipment from power surges, the ST portfolio of Electrical Over-Stress (EOS) TVS Flat devices includes industrial and automotive grade devices. Delivering a lower cost per watt ratio, the portfolio of TVS Flat package variants ar
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Date:
03/12/2020
XP Power launches 20W & 40W PCB mount AC-DC power supplies
Complementing the previously released 3W, 5W and 10W models, the VCE20 and VCE40 series provide 20 and 40 Watts of power respectively and offer an encapsulated version as well as a lower cost open frame version, both of which are suited to PCB mounting. The compact (VCE20 – 63.5mm x 30.5mm x 21.8mm / VCE40 - 85.0mm
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Date:
03/12/2020
Flex adds telecom version to BMR480 DC-DC converters
The converter, called the BMR480 0113/034, provides an extended input voltage range below 40Vin, as required for telecom power conversion applications. It is optimized for a wider input voltage range of 36Vin to 60Vin, compared to the standard converters in the BMR480 series. The new version also has an output volt
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Date:
03/12/2020
600 V CoolMOS PFD7 series provides ultra-high power-density
The devices are suitable for ultrahigh power-density designs such as chargers and adapters as well as for low-power drives and specific lighting applications. Robustness and reliability gains together with increased efficiency, minimized switching losses and improved thermal behavior make this product fami
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Date:
03/12/2020
IEC 63171-6 published: Standard industrial interface for SPE set
On January 23, 2020 the international standard for Single Pair Ethernet interfaces in industrial applications was published with IEC 63171-6. The editor is the IEC committee SC 48B copper connectors. The mating face standard IEC 63171-6 T1 Industrial Style was the first standard submitted by HARTING to SC 48B for
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Date:
03/12/2020
RS Components adds Isabellenhütte precision power resistors
Produced using two different proprietary manufacturing technologies known as ISA-Plan and ISA-Weld, Isabellenhütte’s current-sense resistors meet stringent criteria with regard to thermoelectric voltage, long-term stability and inductance that allow electronics designers to optimise power use on PCBs more e
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Date:
03/12/2020
100 V Rated Voltage for 1005-Size Automotive Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors
The capacitor comes in a 1.0 x 0.5 x 0.5 mm package and features a rated voltage of 100 V and a capacitance of 0.01 μF.   We have sophisticated the materials and process technologies nurtured by us to improve rated voltage to 100 V compared to our conventional product UMR105 B7103KV (1.0 x 0.5 x
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Date:
03/12/2020
TAIYO YUDEN Creates 105°C Capable Lithium Ion Capacitor
The new capacitor has an increased operating temperature limit of 105°C Example applications for this newcapacitor include peak assistance and backup power supply in servers, drive recorders, and smart meters. When the product is used at 3.5 V, the upper limit of the operating temperature can reach +105°C,
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Date:
03/12/2020
OptiMOS Source-Down 25 V power MOSFET in PQFN package
The Source Down is the new industry standard packaging concept. The first wave of power MOSFETs launched in this new package is the OptiMOS TM 25 V in a PQFN 3.3x3.3 mm. The device sets a new industry benchmark in MOSFET performance, reducing on-state resistance (R DS(on)) and offering superior thermal management c
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Date:
03/12/2020
MOSFET Driver for Synchronous Rectification
The driver is designed for AC-DC rectification circuits in general consumer applications, notebooks, and USB adapters. The APR348 is capable of driving the external MOSFET in both high-side and low-side secondary-side synchronous-rectifier configurations. This flexible and efficient device supports secondar
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Date:
03/12/2020
TE Connectivity donates 3D Printer to Penn State
TE Connectivity (TE) has donated a 3D printer to the Penn State College of Engineering in State College, Pennsylvania. The high-capacity, multifunctional nScrypt 3Dn-450-HP printer, a donation valued at around $350,000, will help students and researchers explore new additive manufacturing materials and proce
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Date:
03/12/2020
DIN Rail Mount DC-DC Converters for Industrial Applications
XP Power has announced the availability of two new series of wide range input DC-DC converters. Their flexible specification allows devices with incompatible voltages to be easily integrated into industrial systems. The DTJ15 and DTJ20 series are designed for convenience of installation and operation. The
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Date:
03/11/2020
IoT Solutions for Cloud Connectivity to All MCUs and MPUs
Due to the fragmented nature of the Internet of Things (IoT) marketplace, increasing project complexity and costs, today’s developers face more challenges in design decisions than ever before. These challenges lead to extended development times, increased security threats and failed solutions. Continuing to ex
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Date:
03/11/2020
APEC 2020 Cancelled over Coronavirus Concerns
For the first time in 35 years, the show won’t go on for the Applied Power Electronics Conference. On Tuesday, show organizers and sponsors decided to cancel APEC 2020. We all know why – the COVID-19 coronavirus has already claimed South by Southwest (SXSW),
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Date:
03/10/2020
Expanded Range of ICs Incorporate 750 V GaN Transistors
Power Integrations announced an expansion of its InnoSwitch 3 families of offline CV/CC flyback switcher ICs. The new INN3x78C devices incorporate a smaller “size 8” 750 V PowiGaN transistor, enabling  compact, efficient power supplies delivering between 27 W and 55 W without heatsinks. The ICs are hou
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Date:
03/10/2020
Proximity Sensors from Vishay are Available at TTI
TTI, Inc., is now stocking the VCNL36821S/36826S proximity sensors from Vishay. Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. introduced two new fully integrated proximity sensors designed to increase efficiency and performance in industrial, medical and commercial applications. Featuring an IR emitter and a vertical cavity sur
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Date:
03/08/2020
Dual, Quad Channel USB-to-UART/MPSSE Bridge ICs
FTDI Chip’s latest series of multi-channel USB interface ICs have the capacity to deal with next-generation power requirements, as larger items of hardware start to make use of the protocol. Available in both 2-channel (FT2233HP) and 4-channel (FT4233HP) versions, the new Hi-Speed (480Mbits/s) devices have se
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Date:
03/04/2020
Global Television Market Overcomes Trade Barriers
Defying a host of headwinds, the global television market managed to attain slight growth in the fourth quarter and for the entire year of 2019, as an easing in a shortage of LCD panels helped propel the market’s expansion. Global TV set shipments in the fourth quarter of 2019 totaled 68.6 million, a 1.5 per
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Date:
03/04/2020
Data Acquisition System Offers High Flexibility, Accuracy
Micro-Measurements announced that it has introduced a new high performance data acquisition system featuring a scanner with up to 128 software-configurable input channels. The System 7100 offers high-accuracy, greater flexibility and ease-of-use for a broad range of applications including design verificati
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Date:
03/03/2020
Powering the Next Sophisticated AI System

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Table 1: Advanced Controllers vs. Analog-Based and Digital Control Solutions

AI systems imitate the human brain’s capacity to learn and solve problems. They accomplish this with computer-based “neural” networks consisting of parallel processors that run complex learning and execute software algorithms. Today’s AI is revolutionizing computing architecture to replicate neural
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Date:
03/02/2020
GaN Type Determines Design Benefits

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Figure 1: Two-chip normally-off high voltage GaN FET

Two-chip normally-off Gallium Nitride (GaN) FETs are currently used in in-production power systems in various markets ranging from Consumer Adapters, PC Gaming to Broad Industrial. Within these applications, the GaN devices regularly demonstrate the end-to-end benefits expected from GaN, including increased ef
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Date:
03/02/2020
The Industry's Sustainability Efforts
We’ve spilled a ton of digital ink on the consumer world’s green efforts, but sustainability can be found much closer to home. Infineon Technologies just announced plans to go carbon-neutral by 2030, and that inspired me to take a look at our industry’s voluminous environmental efforts. In the past, we’ve co
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Date:
03/02/2020
Gearing Up for APEC
Across the Atlantic this month, all the talk is about APEC, the first real show of the year to focus on the power industry. This year, the event will take place in New Orleans, which should bring a touch of French Quarter sparkle to the event. However, in the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center the focus will be
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Date:
03/02/2020
Wide Band-Gap Semiconductors in the Big Easy
It’s that time of year again – no, not the one where weird relatives stink up the joint and some fat guy zips around the world with magical caribou. I’m talking about APEC. The big one. The crown jewel. The World Series of power. And with it comes arguably the hottest topic in our fair industry – wide ba
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Date:
03/02/2020
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