IoT & Smart Cities

May 2016
Powerbox's latest high-power-density low-profile DC/DC converters empower IoT in automotive applications

PRBX Automotive Line: ENA100 – ENA200

Powerbox, one of Europe’s largest power supply companies and a leading force in optimizing power solutions for demanding applications, announces the launch of a new series of power supplies for automotive applications and on-board Internet of Things (IoT). Based on a highly integrated components platform and lo
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Date:
05/31/2016
Maxim claims first stand-alone fuel gauge with SHA-256 authentication

ModelGauge m5

Implementing pack-side battery gauges in portable devices is now easier and more secure with the ModelGauge m5 portfolio of MAX17201/MAX17205 and MAX17211/MAX17215 from Maxim Integrated Products. Fuel gauging can be difficult because battery voltage varies with temperature and load, while coulomb-counting requires soph
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Date:
05/31/2016
Panasonic sponsors TUM's TUfast Racing Team for Formula SAE/Formula Student

Panasonic Automotive & Industrial Systems is sponsoring the TUfast Racing Team from Technical University Munich (TU Munich) for the Formula SAE / Formula Student racing competition

Panasonic Automotive & Industrial Systems is sponsoring the TUfast Racing Team from Technical University Munich (TU Munich) for the Formula SAE / Formula Student racing competition. The team uses Panasonic’s Pyrolytic Highly Oriented Graphite Sheet (PGS), the thinnest thermal solution in the world, as wel
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Date:
05/24/2016
Lattice claims first programmable ASSP (pASSP) interface bridge

Lattice CrossLink programmable bridging device

Lattice Semiconductor, a leading provider of customizable smart connectivity solutions, announced the industry’s first Lattice CrossLink programmable bridging device that supports leading protocols for mobile image sensors and displays. Systems with embedded cameras and displays often do not have the right ty
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Date:
05/23/2016
Google ATAP and Infineon advance their partnership in Soli radar tech

One day products may be controlled exclusively through gestures

For the first time, two prototypes of products controlled exclusively through gestures were demonstrated at “Google I/O”, a smartwatch and a wireless speaker. Both devices can recognize gestures that replace switches or buttons with this revolutionary concept. Infineon Technologies and Google ATAP enabled the
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Date:
05/23/2016
PSDcast - Lou Garofalo of NAI on military power supplies

Lou Garofalo of NAI

In this PSDcast Lou Garofalo, Product Manager of Power and Instrumentation for North Atlantic Industries (NAI), talks to Alix Paultre of Power Systems Design about the demands involved in developing military power supplies. He discusses the need for more processing power and monitoring capabilities in power su
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Date:
05/17/2016
Ampleon's latest GaN RF transistors empower solutions for mobile broadband

CLF2H27LS-140 single-ended transistor

Ampleon announced its second generation of 50 Volts 0.5 um GaN on SiC RF power transistors, dedicated for mobile broadband applications. Providing a 5 % improvement in power efficiency compared to LDMOS-based devices, and enabling high-power multiband applications, this GaN family also offers a size reduction in
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Date:
05/17/2016
The Power Electronics Industry Collaborative (PEIC – pronounced peak) announced that Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has joined its growing list of members working together to accelerate innovation and advocate for investment in new power electronics technologies. “We are excited to be joining PEIC as o
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Date:
05/17/2016
At the Quantum Europe conference, taking place in Amsterdam, Belgian’s nanoelectronincs research center imec announced that it is ramping-up its R&D activities focused on quantum computing. Imec will implement qubits and supporting nanoelectronic functionality for quantum computing, leveraging its advanced si
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Date:
05/17/2016
PSDcast - Robert DeRobertis of Vicor describes their enhanced online design tool

Robert DeRobertis of Vicor

In this PSDcast, Robert DeRobertis of Vicor talks to Alix Paultre of Power Systems Design about the latestest updates to their online design tool at PCIM 2016. Enabling engineers to select components and simulate them online, the new additions to Vicor's PowerBench online design center include an interactive too
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Date:
05/13/2016
Now more than ever, the blooming of the Internet of Things (IoT) has been putting emphasis on the longevity of battery life. Every IoT node demands a battery to operate. A household of two people can have anywhere from 20 to 60 batteries in use at any time, and consumers can’t be burdened with the need to ch
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Date:
05/07/2016
Isolated power supply systems are prevalent in server systems, industrial applications, and telecommunication and networking equipment. In this bandwidth-hungry age of the Internet of Things (IoT), a growing number of these systems need to be efficiently powered, driving up the need for power-efficient, cost-effective so
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Date:
05/07/2016
In the age of the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) economy, smartphones are replacing hotel keys, and facilities managers (FM) are beginning to notice the reward in using big data to monitor customer behavior in hotels, shops and restaurants, as well as monitoring employee engagement and wellbeing in offices. By
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Date:
05/07/2016
Part 1 of this article provided an overview of TT Electronics’ AEC Q200 qualified and certified transformers, which are optimized for use with a gate drive optocoupler to improve and simplify the design of isolated power supplies. This introduction looked at the theory of operation and how this impacts on ke
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Date:
05/07/2016
Overvoltages and the associated high surge currents can damage, or even destroy electrical and electronic devices. Reliable overvoltage protection is therefore essential. On the basis of a new ceramic material, TDK has now developed a high-surge series of multilayer varistors that combine compact dimensions wi
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Date:
05/07/2016
Astute Electronics, a leading supplier of electronic components and value added services, is taking miniaturisation to a new level with the C&K PTS830 series of SMT top-actuated switches with a high actuation force of up to 450gf. They provide reliable switching for wearable electronics, portable wireless de
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Date:
05/06/2016
Infineon to launch iMotion modular application design kit at PCIM

iMotion Modular Application Design Kit

At PCIM, Infineon Technologies will launch its iMotion Modular Application Design Kit (MADK). The compact and flexible evaluation system provides a scalable design platform for 3-phase motor drives in the range from 20W to 300W. It includes controller and power boards – sensor-less or optionally with sensors. Using the kit,
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Date:
05/05/2016
Pohang University researchers create advanced miniaturized fuel cell

Prof. Choi and his Ph.D. student Kun Joong Kim

Drones are used for various applications such as aero picturing, disaster recovery, and delivering. Despite attracting attention as a new growth area, the biggest problem of drones is its small battery capacity and limited flight time of less than an hour. A fuel cell developed by Pohang University's Prof. Gyeong Man
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Date:
05/04/2016
Researchers develop silicon-sulfur battery built on 3D graphene

Electrochemical performances of full lithiated silicon-sulfur battery built from 3D cpS-G networks cathode and 3D lithiated Si-G anode. a) Schematic illustration of a new configured lithiated silicon-sulfur battery onto 3D graphene networks. b) Selected voltage profiles of lithiated silicon-sulfur battery from 1st to 100th at 0.27 A g-1 based on the total mass of cathode and anode). c) Selected voltage profiles of lithiated silicon-sulfur battery at various current densities from 0.27 to 2.7 A g-1. d) Rate capabilities of Si-S battery and e) long cycle performances of full lithiated silicon-sulfur battery built on 3D graphene

Researchers at Beihang University in Beijing have developed a new Li-sulfur battery using honeycomb-like sulfur copolymer uniformly distributed onto 3D graphene (3D cpS-G) networks for a cathode material and a 3D lithiated Si-G network as anode. In a paper published in the RSC journal Energy & Environme
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Date:
05/04/2016
Tools move into the big leagues when they start moving. Even systems we consider basic, like the wheel and axle, lever, and inclined plane are made up of interacting parts. Every tool we have pretty much beyond the hammer and chisel comes from interacting systems composed of various configurations of the six si
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Date:
05/04/2016
Wuerth's REDline Power Boxes offer custom configuration in a standard housing

Wuerth's REDline Power Boxes offer custom configuration in a standard housing

A novel approach to enabling power distribution, signal transmission, and function management in commercial vehicles, the REDline Power Box family is the name of the new system solution from Wuerth Elektronik ICS. With this series, the leading development partner and supplier of circuit-board-based central electrical sy
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Date:
05/04/2016
Initially regarded as toys, multicopters are now serious business. From simple surveying to future delivery solutions, entire businesses are emerging around the design, supply and use of multicopters. With increased adoption comes increased regulation and the multicopter itself needs to be capable of being piloted in
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Date:
05/04/2016
The Internet-of-Things (IoT) is simply the concept of connecting any device with a sensor or controller to the Internet (and/or to each other). This includes everything from cell phones, appliances, cars machines, components of machines, wearable devices and anything else you can think of.  But the principle of
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Date:
05/04/2016
Being a Sci-Fi geek, I am a fan of the late 1950’s Hollywood “cheesy” low budget Ed Wood movies typical of this genre. One of my favorite films is “Plan 9 from Outer Space,” in which aliens come to Earth to stop humanity from building a doomsday weapon that could destroy the entire universe. However, th
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Date:
05/04/2016
FuturoLighting's latest smart LED controller targets smart homes

Catherina CTRL smart LED controller

FuturoLighting introduced a smart LED controller called the Catherina CTRL. This controller has implemented movement, ambient sensors as well as dimming, fading, day/night detection, corridor delay and intensity adjustment. It has compact dimensions of 55x55x14 mm and pass to each new or existing kitchen or roo
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Date:
05/03/2016
RS Components (RS), the trading brand of Electrocomponents and a distributor for engineers, has announced worldwide availability of the new XMC Digital Power Explorer Kit from Infineon. The kit was created for analogue power supply designers and embedded software programmers to help accelerate their learning in
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Date:
05/03/2016
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