Industrial

September 2018
The Power and Evolution of GaN - Part 1

Figure 3: LiDAR car

Gallium nitride(GaN)-on-silicon low voltage power devices have enabled many new applications since commercial availability began in 2010. New markets, such as light detection and ranging (LiDAR), envelope tracking, and wireless power, emerged due to the superior switching speed of GaN. These new applications ha
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Date:
09/29/2018

Medical-Grade Wall-Mount Adapter Meets DoE Level VI Regulation
Thanks to high reliability and versatility, the GEM12~40I and GSM06~36E/U wall-mount type adapters from MEAN WELL have received positive feedback from the market. In order to fulfill higher power requirements for wall-mount type adapters, MEAN WELL now releases three exclusive 60W medical-grade wall-mount series ~ G
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Date:
09/28/2018
AC/DC Smart Charger With Low Profile and High Power Density
The DBR/DBU-3200 is a 3.2KW single output rack-type/enclosed type AC/DC smart charger in 1U low profile and with high power density up to 37W/inch3. This series operates at 90-264Vac & 120-370Vdc input voltage and offers models with the DC output mostly demanded by the industry. Each model is cooled by a thermo
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Date:
09/27/2018
Wide Trim Modules Deliver up to 300W
FORT COLLINS, Colo.—Excelsys Technologies Ltd., an Advanced Energy company, announces the upcoming release of four new modules which further expands the CoolMod offering. The CmM, CmN, CmP & CmQ are the latest modules, offering wide trim solutions in the CoolX series of convection cooled modular configurable po
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Date:
09/27/2018
Sensor Programming Tool for Hall-Effect Sensors
TDK Corporation expands its tool chain for the easy programming of various Micronas Hall-effect sensors with the Magnetic Sensor Programmer MSP V1.0. It replaces the APB 1.5 and complements the existing programmer line, which comprises the USB-Programming Kit V1.01 and the HAL APB V5.1. These pr
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Date:
09/27/2018
SiC MOSFETs Reduce Switching and Conduction Losses
TUCSON, Arizona, U.S.A. – The SA110 is Apex Microtechnology’s first high-current, high-voltage half H-bridge to combine silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFETs with a gate drive in a single module device. This hybrid switching amplifier also features digital gate driver control, a very high 400 kHz MAX switching frequenc
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Date:
09/27/2018
A Metal That Withstands Ultra-High Temperature and Pressure

3D SEM Microstructure of 1st Generation MoSiBTiC alloy.

Japanese scientists have identified a metal able to stand up to constant forces in ultra high temperature, offering promising applications including in aircraft jet engines and gas turbines for electric power generation. The first-of-its-kind study, published in Nature's open access journal Scientific Reports in Jul
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Date:
09/27/2018
Composite Significantly Reduces Electromagnetic Pollution

A schematic diagram of phase cancellation and microwave attenuation process. The fluffy structure of PANI/Fe ferrite composite can highly increase the transmission path of microwave, and the multiple reflections can enhance the microwave attenuation efficiency of the absorber. Thus, the microwave attenuation capability of PANI/Zn ferrite composites mainly comes from the enhanced effect of fluffy structure, multiple reflections, interfacial polarization, magnetic loss and dielectric loss. Moreover, if the relationship between the coating thickness and the frequency of incident microwaves matched well with the quarter-wave thickness criteria, the incident microwaves would vertically enter the absorber inside, as shown in this figure.

In a paper published in NANO, a group of researchers from Anhui University of Science and Technology have synthesized PANI/Zn ferrite composites which have shown excellent microwave absorption performance. How to reduce electromagnetic pollution? How do these materials attenuate electromagnetic waves? A gro
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Date:
09/27/2018
Photonic Chips Harness Sound Waves to Speed up Local Networks

Dr Amol Choudhary (left) and Professor Ben Eggleton, Director of Sydney Nano, in one of the photonic laboratories at the Sydney Nanoscience Hub.

It used to be known as the information superhighway - the fibre-optic infrastructure on which our gigabytes and petabytes of data whizz around the world at (nearly) the speed of light. And like any highway system, increased traffic has created slowdowns, especially at the junctions where data jumps on or off
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Date:
09/26/2018
Low-side gate driver ICs prevent false triggering of MOSFETs
Infineon’s 1EDN7550/1EDN8550 EiceDRIVER™, 1-channel low-side gate driver ICs with truly differential inputs, prevent false triggering of MOSFETs as control signal inputs are largely independent from ground potential. Infineon Technology
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Date:
09/25/2018
Boost Controller Cascades Outputs to Regulate Beyond 200V
NORWOOD, MA - Analog Devices announces the Power by Linear LTC7840, a 2-phase nonsynchronous boost controller that drives two stages of external N-channel power MOSFETs. It is configurable as single or dual output boost regulator or for higher voltages, the output of the first channel can feed the input of second
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Date:
09/25/2018
Mouser Electronics and What's Next Sign Global Agreement
Mouser Electronics, Inc. announces a distribution agreement with What’s Next. Through the agreement, Mouser now stocks eight unique, Arduino-compatible What’s Next microcontroller boards — including the Yellow, Red, Green, and Orange boards — ideal for a wide range of applications, such as electronics instruction, 3D printing, Internet of Things (IoT) projects, and robot
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Date:
09/25/2018
Digital Signal Controller Accelerates DSP Performance
CHANDLER, Ariz.— System designers looking for digital signal processing power with the design simplicity of a microcontroller (MCU) can now utilize a new family of 16-bit Digital Signal Controllers (DSCs) from Microchip Technology Inc.. Designed to deliver faster deterministic performance in time-critical co
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Date:
09/25/2018
Test Tools with Two True-Differential Time-Domain Reflectometers
Chestnut Ridge, N.Y.– Teledyne LeCroy announced the launch of Teledyne Test Tools (T3), a branded portfolio that adds a comprehensive range of test equipment to the Teledyne LeCroy product offering. T3 products complement and leverage Teledyne LeCroy’s decades-long leadership in oscilloscope technology and are
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Date:
09/25/2018
Emerson Extends SolaHD High-Performance SDN-C Power Supplies Line
ROSEMONT, IL -- Emerson introduced its new SolaHD SDN 16-12-100C power supply to bring the benefits of the high performance SolaHD SDN-C Series power supply family to global applications requiring up to 16 Amp continuous 12 Vdc power. It is an excellent choice for system integrators looking for a full-featured p
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Date:
09/25/2018
Encapsulated 15 & 30 Watt Power Supplies with JST Connectors
TRACO POWER has announced the release of their TPP 15-J and TPP 30-J series of 15 and 30 watt fully encapsulated, chassis mount power supplies with JST connectors for simplified plug & play cable assemblies as compared with traditional screw terminals. The footprint has been reduced to 2.82 x 1.14 x 0.82” (1
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Date:
09/25/2018
TVS Diode Array for Automated Factory Sensor Circuit Protection
TEMPE, Ariz. – ProTek Devices has introduced a TVS diode array designed for circuit protection of proximity sensors in automated factory sensory applications. The new device features a double diode array for switch protection and reverse blocking protection. The PDFN3-32 is designed to protect 24-volt proximity
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Date:
09/24/2018
Breakthrough in Blending Metals

Five metal elements are blended here in a small cluster on a one-nanometer scale.

Researchers in Japan have found a way to create innovative materials by blending metals with precision control. Their approach, based on a concept called atom hybridization, opens up an unexplored area of chemistry that could lead to the development of advanced functional materials. Background Multimetallic clusters -- typically composed of
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Date:
09/24/2018
A Turbo Boost for Materials Science

With support from the National Science Foundation's TRIPODS+X program, Lehigh University's Josh Agar is partnering with the University of California at Berkeley to increase the speed of materials discovery and development, with implications in fields including electronics, healthcare and energy systems.

Every so often, the search for functional materials--materials designed with properties and characteristics that allow it to do something spectacular--delivers a fundamental change to the way we live. 5000 years ago, the discovery and use of bronze enabled no less a task than the ushering in of modern civilization. Mo
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Date:
09/24/2018
The U.S. Department of Energy announced today that Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) will receive $30 million over five years to build and operate an Advanced Quantum Testbed (AQT). Researchers will use the testbed to explore superconducting quantum processors and evaluate how these emerging qu
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Date:
09/24/2018
Graphene Bilayer Provides Efficient Transport and Control of Spins

This is Christian Leutenantsmeyer (L) and co-author Josep Ingla-Aynés.

University of Groningen physicists in collaboration with a theoretical physics group from Universität Regensburg have built an optimized bilayer graphene device which displays both long spin lifetimes and electrically controllable spin-lifetime anisotropy. It has the potential for practical applications such as
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Date:
09/21/2018
DC/DC Converters Contribute to Safe Assisted Driving
Kyoto and Santa Clara, Calif. –  ROHM announced the availability of the BD9S series (BD9S400MUF-C, BD9S300MUF-C, BD9S200MUF-C, BD9S100NUX-C, BD9S000NUX-C). This series of automotive synchronous secondary buck DC/DC converters have a high reliability and low power consumption in a compact form factor with a t
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Date:
09/20/2018
Power Supply Unit Offers a Backup Lithium-Ion Battery
GOLETA, Calif.—Transphorm Inc. and Delta Electronics disclosed that the power supply unit (PSU) manufacturer’s newest innovation comes from practical use of Transphorm’s high-voltage (HV) GaN FETs. Delta’s latest 80Plus Platinum 800 Watt PSU now offers a backup lithium-ion battery. Should a data center
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Date:
09/19/2018
(De Pere, Wis.) Babcock & Wilcox MEGTEC (B&W MEGTEC) has launched a complete lithium-ion battery electrode manufacturing line in an operating layout that improves flexibility, quality, cost-effectiveness, and speed-to-market. Matched to meet application-specific production requirements, each line
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Date:
09/19/2018
Extremely Small and Fast: Laser Ignites Hot Plasma

With the aid of the powerful X-ray free-electron laser at SLAC in California, HZDR researchers were able to investigate the plasma processes on the small scales of a few nanometers and femtoseconds on which the turbulent laser interaction with the particles to be accelerated takes place.

When light pulses from an extremely powerful laser system are fired onto material samples, the electric field of the light rips the electrons off the atomic nuclei. For fractions of a second, a plasma is created. The electrons couple with the laser light in the process, thereby almost reaching the speed of light. Wh
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Date:
09/18/2018
San Diego, CA — Express Logic has announced that its industrial-grade X-Ware IoT Platform—powered by the industry-leading ThreadX RTOS—now supports the TrustZone for ARMv8-M technology-based Microchip SAM L11 microcontrollers. IoT devices almost always require an RTOS and network connectivity. As device
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Date:
09/18/2018
Remote Control System Simplifies Industrial Rail Operations
WARREN, OHIO - Laird Controls has developed a portable remote control system that allows one rail operator to easily and efficiently move locomotives throughout the rail operation. By enabling a single worker to pilot a locomotive, as opposed to three people in a work crew, the Transport QC quick connect remote
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Date:
09/18/2018
A Novel Approach of Improving Battery Performance

Schematic representation of the preparation process and electrochemical behavior of LixSi-modified lithium foil.

A recent study, affiliated with UNIST, has introduced a novel technology that promises to significantly boost the performance of lithium metal batteries, a promising candidate for the next generation of rechargeable batteries. The study also validates the principle of enhanced battery performance via the real-time in
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Date:
09/17/2018
Condensation enhancement: Practical Energy and Water Applications

(A) Dropwise condensation on a hydrophobic plain surface. (B) Filmwise condensation on a hydrophilic plain surface. (C) Sucking flow condensation on a hi-mesh surface consisting of the droplet-to-film coalescence and film-to-droplet sucking flow for efficient surface refreshing and droplet growth. (D) Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image of the hi-mesh surface consisting of woven mesh wires bonded onto a copper substrate. (E) SEM image showing the high-density nanostructures covering the mesh wires and substrate. (F) Time-lapse sucking flow condensation figures on the hi-mesh surface. (G) Sustaining enhanced condensation heat transfer on the hi-mesh surfaces.

Condensation heat transfer plays an essential role in the efficiency of various energy-intensive industrial technologies including power generation, energy utilization, water desalination and harvesting, air-conditioning, and thermal management of electronics. It is well known that dropwise condensation on the hy
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Date:
09/17/2018
Network Fuse Enhances Safety of Electronic Equipment
CHICAGO —Littelfuse, Inc. introduced the 40mA PICO 242 Series Hazardous Area Barrier Network Fuse, which supports designing barrier circuits for intrinsic safety products to prevent fires and explosions in dangerous atmospheres. The fuse prevents electronic equipment used in hazardous locations from overheating or
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Date:
09/17/2018
A Serial Gas Turbine Engine With a 3D-Printed Combustion Chamber

Tested combustion chambers as a component of a serial SGTE is one of the starting stages of the project on creation of a series of new gas turbine drives for energy units with capacity of 400 kW working on biofuel.

Samara University scholars tested one of the key details of aviation gas turbine engine, i.e. combustion chamber "grown" with the help of 3D-printing. It was set and tested on a production model of a small gas turbine engine TA-8 (SGTE) used as an auxiliary power unit of aircraft TU-134. "We were the
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Date:
09/14/2018
Growing Computers in Petri Dishes

In the research, images of handwritten digits will be encoded into what are called 'spike train stimuli,' similar to a two-dimensional bar code. The encoding of the spike train will then be optically applied to a group of networked in vitro neurons with optogenetic labels.

Will the computers of tomorrow be manufactured, or will they be cultivated? This question lies at the heart of new research from Lehigh University that aims to engineer a neural network--a computer system modeled on the human brain and nervous system--from actual living cells, and program it to compute a basic l
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Date:
09/14/2018
PSDcast - RFID for Automated Vehicle Identification
In this episode of the PSDcast, we're talking to Michael Hrabina from FEIG Electronics about the perks of RFID for automated vehicle identification.
Date:
09/13/2018
FEFU Young Scientists Developing Laser Equipment Materials
Ceramic heterostructures for optical and microelectronic devices will provide the supremacy in such fields like range findings, optical communications, data laser processing and recording. Work is carrying out under the grant support of the Russian foundation for basic research (RFBR). Young scientists team of F
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Date:
09/13/2018
Resistors Offer Pulse Power Handling up to 3500 Watts
RALEIGH, NC - Stackpole is now stocking the MLFA AEC compliant metal film melf resistors. The MLFA is available in a 0.4W rated 0204 size in the MLFA25 and a 1W rated 0207 size in the MLFA1. The MLFA has exceptional stability demonstrated over life, biased humidity, and short time overload testing. In addition, th
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Date:
09/11/2018
 Maintenance-free Supercap energy storage for modular DC UPS
The two new DC UPS modules Bicker UPSI-1208 (12VDC) and Bicker UPSI-2406 (24VDC) are available in combination with the maintenance-free Supercap energy storage units Bicker BP-SUC (up to 3.6 kJ). The supplied DC consumers are reliably protected against power failures, flicker or voltage fluctuations in unstable su
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Date:
09/11/2018
New models in Traco Power TPP 100 / TPP 150 series
The two new power supplies feature;   Extended operating temperature range –25°C to +85°C Certified to IEC/EN/ES 60601-1 3rd edition for 2xMOPP Certified to IEC/EN/UL 60950-1 EMC compliance to IEC/EN/ES 60601-2 4th edition Ready to meet ErP directive, no load power consumption (0.3 W ma
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Date:
09/11/2018
The device contains all the necessary components that would otherwise have take up extra space on the circuit board - and all in the same size socket as before. Integral transformers in IP20 protected RJ45 sockets have been in industrial use for some time, but the HARTING M12 Magnetics offers customers the addition
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Date:
09/11/2018
TIs’ LMG1020 low-side GaN driver now shipping from Mouser

TIs’ LMG1020 low-side GaN driver now shipping from Mouser

The single, low-side driver enables efficient, high-performance designs in speed-critical applications such as LiDAR, time-of-flight laser drivers, facial recognition, augmented reality, and class E wireless chargers. The Texas Instruments LMG1020 low-side GAN driver, available from Mouser Electronics, drives Ga
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Date:
09/11/2018
TRACO POWER Group opens TRACO POWER France

TRACO POWER Group opens TRACO POWER France

Having worked for 30 years in the power supply industry in strategic positions of engineering and sales positions, he aims to make TRACO POWER the undisputed leader of DC/DC and AC/DC power conversion products in the region. A promising market. TRACO POWER Group decided to establish the new office in France (
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Date:
09/11/2018
 Analog Devices at European Microwave Week

ADI’s stand at EuMW2018 will provide demonstrations and exhibits on RF, microwave and millimeter wave designs at every frequency from DC to over 100 GHz.

ADI’s stand (#135) at EuMW2018 (September 25th - 27th) will host the first public demonstration of several significant products released to the market in recent weeks, advancing the state-of-the-art in areas such as 5G communications, phased-array RADAR and software-configurable radio. 5G transceivers handle le
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Date:
09/11/2018
Desktop medical & ITE 36-65-Watt power supplies

XP Power is launching its cost-effective AKM36/AKM45/AKM65 series of desktop AC-DC power supplies rated at 36W, 45W and 65W.

The supplies are aimed at the healthcare, ITE and industrial markets. All versions meet the latest U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) Level VI and EU CoC Tier 2 energy efficiency requirements while offering 2 x MOPP medical-grade isolation and very low no-load power consumption. AC input for all versions is 90 -26
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Date:
09/11/2018
 Chassis Mount Ac-Dc Power Supplies in Low Profile Metal Case

CUI’s Power Group today announced a new line of compact, chassis mount ac-dc power supplies housed in an enclosed metal case.

The VGS‑B series offers power ratings from 35 to 350 W with low 30 mm profiles and compact packages as small as 99 x 82 x 30 mm (3.89 x 3.22 x 1.18 in). Delivering no-load power consumption as low as 0.3 W and an operating temperature range of -20 to +70°C, these rugged, metal enclosed power modules are ideal fo
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Date:
09/11/2018
10kW High Power DC Programmable Laboratory Power Supply
Santa Clara, CA - Bel Power Solutions and Protection, a Bel group company, announces the TSR10, a robust, high power 10 kW, DC programmable laboratory power supply. The TSR10 is a 3U, 19” rack mounted precision power supply which delivers clean and stable DC power, with operation allowed on any load from short- to
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Date:
09/11/2018
15 & 30 Watt Power Supplies Feature Extended Temperature Ranges
TRACO POWER is proud to announce the release of their TPP 15A-D and TPP 30A-D series of medical & industrial approved 15 and 30 watt PCB-mount, open-frame power supplies measuring only 1.50 x 1.00 x 0.80” (15W) or 2.74 x 1.36 x 0.95” (30W) featuring an extended operating temperature range of -40°C to +8
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Date:
09/11/2018
Robot Can Pick Up Any Object After Inspecting It

Manuelli uses the DON system and Kuka robot to grasp a cup.

Humans have long been masters of dexterity, a skill that can largely be credited to the help of our eyes. Robots, meanwhile, are still catching up. Certainly there's been some progress: for decades robots in controlled environments like assembly lines have been able to pick up the same object over and over again. More recently,
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Date:
09/10/2018
Safety Network Controller Supports Two Industrial Safety Networks
Hoffmann Estates, IL. – The CIP Safety networking protocol has gained popularity among industrial robot manufacturers thanks to its ability to enhance flexibility and facilitate advancements in the industrial internet of things (IIoT). This protocol is now supported by a new version of the NX-series safety co
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Date:
09/10/2018
RALEIGH, N.C. … Data center and network infrastructure is the critical backbone enabling a connected world. In today’s mixed environment of on-premises and cloud solutions, energy and power management play a significant role in quality, reliability and optimized asset utilization. Eaton stands at the forefront of
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Date:
09/10/2018
Thermography System Provides Precision Temperature Mapping
NORWOOD, Mass. - Advanced Thermal Solutions, Inc. (ATS) is pleased to announce the addition of tvLYT to its line of liquid crystal and surface thermography systems. tvLYT is a high-resolution liquid crystal thermography system that provides a cost-effective and portable solution for precision temperature measureme
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Date:
09/06/2018
Pushing 'Print' on Large-Scale Piezoelectric Materials

Atomic force microscopy imaging of 2D GaPO4 and piezoelectric measurements at varying applied voltages

--First ever large-scale 2D surface deposition of piezoelectric material --Simple, inexpensive technique opens new fields for piezo-sensors & energy harvesting Researchers have developed a revolutionary method to 'print' large-scale sheets of two dimensional piezoelectric material, opening new opportunities
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Date:
09/06/2018
Grant Aims Students Toward Next-Gen Bioelectronics

A graphic shows steps to bioelectronics.

A team of cross-discipline collaborators at Rice University has received a $3 million National Science Foundation (NSF) research traineeship grant to start a graduate-level bioelectronics program. Bioelectronics is a developing field that promises to revolutionize interactions between living and electronic systems.
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Date:
09/05/2018
As Geometries Get Smaller, Keeping Up is Harder
There were two stories on the news recently that show both the potential for smaller and smaller electronics, and at the same time how hard it is to bring those designs to fruition. Firstly, researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), led by Professor Thomas Schimmel, have developed a single atom tr
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Date:
09/04/2018
End of an Era for Silicone Transformer Fluids?
Silicone oil has been used to cool transformers since PCBs were found to be harmful to humans and the environment, but are there better alternatives now? Glancing back to the 1970s, those of us in the power sector can remember when Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs)were the cooling liquid of choice for trans
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Date:
09/04/2018
Testing Times
Welcome to the September edition of Power System Design. I hope you managed to have a nice summer break and are ready for a busy backend to the year. Since this year is an electronica year, it is destined to be a lot busier than normal. Myself, I managed to get away for a couple of weeks to Tenerife. It was re
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Date:
09/04/2018
Rolling out the Red Carpet for Test and Measurement
Football, pumpkin spice lattes, and back to school – it’s the September issue of Power Systems Design! By the time you read this, you may have heard our PSDcast on a rather unique 3D-printing application. Rapid prototyping is poised to revolutionize our industry, and with 3D-printed guns stealing headlines
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Date:
09/04/2018
Ultra-High Reliability Power Supplies in a Compact Housing
MIDDLEBOROUGH, Mass. – Sager Electronics is now stocking Phoenix Contact’s new low-wattage QUINT Power Supplies. The newest members of the QUINT Power family deliver ultra-high reliability in a compact housing design. The low-wattage devices feature maximum functionality with a diverse list of ap
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Date:
09/04/2018
SiTime and Bosch Accelerate Innovation in MEMS Timing for 5G and IoT
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – SiTime Corporation and Bosch announced a strategic technology partnership to accelerate innovation in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) timing. SiTime will work with Bosch to develop processes for next-generation MEMS resonator products. These MEMS resonators are the heartbeat of
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Date:
09/04/2018
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