Motor Drives, Robotics & Controls
April 2014
Isolation has been considered a necessary burden by designers. It is necessary because it makes electronics safe for anyone to use. It is a burden because it limits communication speed and consumes a lot of power and board space. Old-technology optocouplers and even many, newer digital isolators co
. . . Learn More
Date:
04/30/2014
The Freescale Cup
After a day of training and qualification yesterday, the final of the Freescale Cup will take place today at Fraunhofer ISS Erlangen, Germany.
The Freescale Cup, sponsored by Freescale Semiconductor, is an international competition where student teams build, program and race an intelligent model car around a
. . . Learn More
Date:
04/30/2014
Miniaturization and a low profile are demanded of the semiconductors and electronic components used in portable devices such as smartphones and tablets. Accompanying the lower voltages and larger currents used in semiconductors in devices, DC/DC converters, which have a higher conversion efficiency than linear reg
. . . Learn More
Date:
04/29/2014
Heat-Spring thermal interface material
Indium will feature its Heat-Spring® thermal interface material at PCIM 2014, May 20-22 in Nuremberg, Germany. Heat-Spring is a patented technology designed to deliver superior performance compared to thermal greases or other metal TIMs. Heat-Springs offer uniform thermal resistance at lower applied stresses in
. . . Learn More
Date:
04/23/2014
Mouser Electronics, a leading engineering resource and distributor of electronic components, will sponsor this week’s 2014 FIRST® Championship, set for April 23-26 at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis. Mouser will be the sponsor of the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Hall of Fame area at the event, along wi
. . . Learn More
Date:
04/22/2014
Progea’s Movicon has been updated with version 11.4
Progea’s Movicon™ 11 – a solution allowing businesses to develop software applications for supervising, operator interfacing, data acquisition and monitoring – has been updated with version 11.4. This new edition is fully compatible with the previous solution and boasts optimized performance as well as
. . . Learn More
Date:
04/22/2014
Printoo is a platform created to make today’s printed electronics technologies and components easy to prototype with
Printoo is an Arduino™-compatible platform that brings previously unavailable printed, low power, and flexible electronics technologies directly to anyone interested in developing interactive objects and projects. The goal is to make printed electronics more accessible to a wider group of product designers an
. . . Learn More
Date:
04/22/2014
In this episode of PSDtv Fairchild explains their latest motor-control solution demonstrations for Power Systems Design. One demo features their Smart Power SPM 2 family and includes1200 V 6 IGBTs with drivers and features that include fault reporting. The other demonstration involves the FAN9673, an interleaved c
. . . Learn More
Date:
04/11/2014
German researchers present the prototype of an electric motor that may shape the future of electromobility: Small, light and efficient. The electric motor was created and constructed by the four German partners in the European research project “MotorBrain”: Infineon Technologies, Siemens, the Institute of Li
. . . Learn More
Date:
04/08/2014
In this episode of PSDtv Infineon walks through its latest ARM® Cortex™-M4-based motion control solutions at the recent APEC 2014 exhibition for Power Systems Design. Featuring Infineon’s powerful peripheral set, configurable to specific application requirements, the XMC4000 is an excellent choice for
. . . Learn More
Date:
04/08/2014
element14 has announced the launch of the Inductive Sensing Challenge, a global design competition which will encourage participating engineers to design and develop innovative products. The initiative will use the Texas Instruments LDC1000, the first inductance-to-digital converter.
Inductive sensing is a cont
. . . Learn More
Date:
04/07/2014
In this third article about power supply failures, the magnetics are examined for their contribution to the failure rate. These are usually the least understood of all components, and poor magnetics design can lead to many different failure mechanisms in power supplies.
Power Supply Failure Survey
The LinkedIn sit
. . . Learn More
Date:
04/06/2014
In this episode of PSDtv On Semiconductor explains some of the demonstrations at their booth during APEC 2014 for Power Systems Design. The demos range from a BLDC motor controlled by a touch sensor sensitive enough to operate with gloves to a fuel-gauge IC that uses model-based prediction methodology.
O
. . . Learn More
Date:
04/06/2014
Alix Paultre, Editorial Director, PSD
Making tools that move has been a part of human development since the wheel and lathe, and the drive to make our tools and moving devices more precise, accurate, and easier to operate has been an almost continuous process since the first complex tool was created. Every one of those aspects are vital to the nature of
. . . Learn More
Date:
04/05/2014
By Wilmer Zhou, IHS Technology
The Chinese market for industrial robots was estimated at $810.4 million in 2012, and is predicted to grow with a CAGR of 9.6% to $1.3 billion in 2017. International robotics companies dominated the Chinese market with a combined market share of over 85%, and the top four (Fanuc, KUKA, ABB, and Yaskawa) accounted fo
. . . Learn More
Date:
04/05/2014
The flyback is the simplest and most commonly used isolated power-converter topology, able to step voltage up or down while providing galvanic isolation from the ac mains in off-line applications. It is the most cost-effective topology for powering many kinds of electronic equipment, having acceptable ef
. . . Learn More
Date:
04/04/2014
Continuing to expand one of the industry’s broadest portfolios of ARM-based microcontrollers (MCUs), Freescale Semiconductor introduced the lead families of their latest Kinetis V series, optimized for motor control and digital power conversion applications. To complement the Kinetis V series, Freescale also in
. . . Learn More
Date:
04/03/2014
An industrial conveyor belt usually consists of two or more pulleys, with a continuous loop of material (belt) that rotates about them. One or both of the pulleys are powered, moving the belt and the material on the belt forward. There are two main industrial classes of belt conveyors: general material handling (m
. . . Learn More
Date:
04/03/2014
MTU Onsite Energy’s state-of-the-art generators power the Tower of Rush University Medical Center’s new 14-story hospital (see Figure 1), the cornerstone of the Rush Transformation, an ongoing effort to build new facilities, renovate existing buildings and adopt new technology. The Tower houses acute and cr
. . . Learn More
Date:
04/03/2014
Modern ski resorts are the heart of the tourist trade in mountain holiday locations. Tourists spending their holidays in the mountains constitute a major part of hotel tourism economy in winter along with other activities such as dining, handicrafts, transportation, and access to the ever-increasing fast an
. . . Learn More
Date:
04/03/2014
A novel IGBT structure was developed with reverse-blocking capabilities comparable to the forward voltage rating of the IGBT. This new device, known as the RB-IGBT, was used to create a 3 level advanced neutral point clamping power converter that shows better loss characteristics than standard 3 level converters.
The results o
. . . Learn More
Date:
04/03/2014
SOLIDWORKS Mechanical Conceptual
Dassault Systèmes, a leader in 3D design software, 3D Digital Mock Up and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, launched SOLIDWORKS Mechanical Conceptual, on the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform. In the Age of Experience, the world of design has changed: it is more social, more conceptual, and collaboration is cr
. . . Learn More
Date:
04/02/2014
Typical switched-mode power converters today include circuitry for monitoring the current flowing through a switching power MOSFET or IGBT for regulating or limiting peak current levels. This is necessary to protect the switch against high peak currents that can damage components or saturate inductors. A low-ohmic re
. . . Learn More
Date:
04/01/2014
It’s all about power electronics and its applications in different areas such as e-mobility, intelligent motion, HVDC transmission, high speed train, wind power, photovoltaic or building technology at the two visitor forums at PCIM Europe 2014 in Nuremberg. About 400 exhibitors on approximately 20.000 square me
. . . Learn More
Date:
04/01/2014
In this episode of PSDtv Microsemi explains their SmartFusion®2-based motion control demonstration for Power Systems Design at embedded world 2014. Microsemi's next-generation SmartFusion2 SoC FPGAs are presented as the only devices that address fundamental requirements for advanced security, high reliability and low
. . . Learn More
Date:
04/01/2014
Archive
