Motor Drives, Robotics & Controls

July 2019

Centimeter-Long Snail Robot is Powered with Light

Faculty of Physics University of Warsaw

Researchers at the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw, Poland used liquid crystal elastomer technology to demonstrate a bio-inspired microrobot capable of mimicking the adhesive locomotion of snails and slugs in natural scale. The 10-millimeter long soft robot harvests energy from a laser beam and ca

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Date:

07/31/2019

CO2 Extraction Pump System Provides Continuous Duty Cycle

Erie, PA – High Pressure Equipment Company (HiP), a subsidiary of Graco Inc., has developed the e710 supercritical CO2 extraction pump system to address market demand for an environmentally friendly extraction process used for a wide range of natural oils, foods and cannabis. The e710 pump system is specifical

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Date:

07/25/2019

Margaret Hamilton posing next to stacks of software she and her team at the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory developed for the Apollo computer.

The Apollo Guidance Computer – History's Unsung Hero

Jason Lomberg, North American Editor, PSD

We’ve all heard that the computer on Apollo 11 had less memory than modern calculators. And that’s true, but the disparities are even more astounding, and on the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing, I wanted to take a gander at the piece of hardware that made Apollo 11 possible, the Apollo Guidance

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Date:

07/24/2019

Screw Terminal Capacitors w/ Better Ripple Current Handling

MALVERN, Pa. — Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. today launched a new series of miniaturized screw terminal aluminum capacitors that deliver 10 % higher capacitance and 10 % better ripple current handling for a given can size than previous-generation devices, allowing designers to pack more energy storage into le

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Date:

07/24/2019

15 Mbps Photocouplers for Harsh Industrial Applications

TOKYO, Japan – Renesas Electronics Corporation announced three new 15 Mbps photocouplers designed to withstand the harsh operating environments of industrial and factory automation equipment. The trend toward higher voltage, compact systems is driving stricter International safety standards and eco-friendly so

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Date:

07/24/2019

Trends and Challenges for Electric and Hybrid Vehicles

Jason Lomberg, North American Editor, PSD

It’s gonna be a scorcher, folks. Not the summer, though record-breaking heat is roasting the nation. I’m talking about the July/August issue, which covers one of the industry’s hottest topics, "Electric + Hybrid Vehicles." Rest assured, you’ll enjoy this heat wave. The automotive space is a broad um

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Date:

07/23/2019

Click image to enlarge

Figure 1: Basic structure of an embedded drive

Optimal Motor Control with Intelligent One-Chip Solution

Andy Phillips, North America Sales Manager TDK-Micronas

It is hard to imagine a world without today’s modern networking and communications. Electronics either enables or powers just about everything in today’s digital world, including automobiles. The automotive electronics market will grow to reach over USD 350 billion by 2024 for passenger cars. Today, most ne

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Date:

07/22/2019

AOS Introduces New Source Down Packaging Technology

SUNNYVALE, Calif. – Alpha and Omega Semiconductor Limited (AOS) introduced the “Source Down” in a DFN 5x6 package in combination with a 40V Shield-Gate Technology (AlphaSGT). AOS’innovative flip-chip know-how achieves the Source Down capability and this packaging technology offers a very low package

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Date:

07/17/2019

EVAL-AD738xFMCZ

ADCs Feature Throughput Rates up to 4 MSPS

The AD7380/AD7381 are a 16-bit and 14-bit pin-compatible family of dual simultaneous sampling, high speed, low power, successive approximation register (SAR) analog-to-digital converters (ADC) that operate from a 3.0 V to 3.6 V power supply and feature throughput rates up to 4 MSPS. The analog input type is dif

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Date:

07/12/2019

Anup Bhalla, Vice President Engineering, UnitedSiC

Are you SiC of Silicon? – Part 4

By: Anup Bhalla, Vice President Engineering, UnitedSiC

How to Build Better EV Traction Inverters with SiC In this article, we examine the benefits of applying SiC technology to EV traction inverters. We show how the efficiency of the inverter is boosted under all loading conditions, from light to full load. Using higher operating voltages with efficient 1200V SiC

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Date:

07/08/2019