[Cover Feature] Turning Hot Ideas Into Cool Designs
Thanks to growing component counts, falling board space, and increasing current requirements, effective thermal management has become one of the key challenges facing designers of distributed power architectures in applications ranging from telecommunications base stations to industrial control systems. In particular, a key goal for the designer is to ensure high-efficiency power conversion while achieving a balanced temperature across the PCB. The advent of intermediate bus...
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Carl Blake
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[Direct Feature] Bright Idea For The Latest Images
Geneva: STMicroelectronics introduced a power-supply IC, the STCF02, that's designed to drive high-current white LEDs. Specifically, it's targeted at white LEDs used for flash illumination in the latest generation of mobile imaging equipment such as cameras for mobile phones, digital still cameras, and PDAs. In addition to supporting the higher flash-illumination powers required by the latest high-resolution image sensors, the device extends battery life thanks to the low standby...
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Paul Whytock
[Direct Feature] Blackfin To Power New Home System
Analog Devices' Blackfin Processor is now implemented in a concept design for a Networked Audio/Video Centre by Yamaha Corp. The Centre represents a new product category that provides a central device for playing back, storing, and distributing digital music, video and photos to any room in your home. The design is capable of demonstrating multi-channel, multi-zone output from a variety of sources, including a set-top box, PVR, DVD, mobile audio players, internal hard disk, mobile storage...
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Paul Whytock
[Direct Feature] Stepping Into The Future
A built-in translator makes devices incorporating EasyStepper very easy to use. The user has simply to input one pulse on the device's "step" input and the motor will take one microstep. There are no phase sequence tables, high-frequency control lines ,or complex interfaces to program. This simple, two-input interface is ideal for applications involving multiple motors. Most microstepping motor drivers require control lines for digital-to-analogue converters (DACs) to set the...
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Bob Christie
[News Feature] Lean Mean Machine
According to industry analysts, the six different technologies competing in the $10 billion electronic ballast market all complement each other. That means all should grab a reasonable share of the market revenue. Add to that the belief that unit sales are expected to grow at an average annual rate of 12.1% from 2005 to 2010, and the ballast firms should do well. But Darnell's recent report on this sector suggests that some ballast market segments could be threatened by the advance of new...
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Paul Whytock
[News Feature] Beaming In On Road Safety
Fairchild Semiconductor's Global Power Resource Design Centre in Germany recently completed design work for a ballast that uses SEPIC (single-ended primary inductance converter) topology. The design, ideal for low voltage dc-dc applications such as automobile headlights, will enable automobile manufacturers to meet proposed European daytime headlight safety regulations. The ballast designs offer a range of options, including optimising factors like EMI and efficiency, and are...
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Paul Whytock
[Editorial] Pushing Power Forward
In this power-focused edition of Electronic Design Europe, we take the opportunity to look at some of the latest technologies impacting the international power electronics sector. Firstly, as a result of growing component counts, reduced board space, and increasing current requirements, good thermal management is now a major challenge facing designers of distributed power architectures. Our cover story analyses how the advent of intermediate bus architectures has fueled...
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Paul Whytock
[Upfront] ST Breakthrough In Passive Integration Technology
Geneva: STMicroelectronics has developed a technology that it believes significantly increases junction capacitance density in thin-film passive integration. The new technology extends the capabilities of ST's Integrated Passive and Active Devices (IPAD) technology by allowing capacitors with densities of more than 30nF/mm2 to be integrated. The technology is based on a class of materials called PZT Perovskites. Essentially, these are compounds that contain lead,...
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Paul Whytock
[Upfront] London News
London: International Rectifier (IR) recently won the Environmental Award at the Elektra 05 European Electronics Industry Awards staged at London's Grosvernor Hotel. Pictured left to right are: BBC newscaster Natasha Kaplinsky who hosted the awards ceremony; June Stokes, IR's senior manager European marketing communications; and Nigel Blakeway, CEO of Omron who presented the Environmental Award. Commenting on the win, IR's CEO Alex Lidow said: "We're honoured to accept this award and...
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Paul Whytock
[Upfront] Power-Management Process
Zarlink Semiconductor now has a fully compatible 1.0-µm, 20V linear power-management process. The technology is suitable for greater than 20V applications and encompasses a range of onboard components designed to provide characteristically low leakage and low flicker noise. ...
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Paul Whytock
[Upfront] Global Agreement
Fremont and Minnesota: Optichron and Digi-Key have entered into an agreement for worldwide distribution of Optichron's family of analogue-to-digital converter modules. Optichron's products eliminate nonlinear distortion generated in analogue-to-digital converters to improve performance in a range of communications, medical and industrial applications. Digi-Key sells internationally and currently ships components to more than 100 countries. ...
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Paul Whytock
[Upfront] Controller Is A First
Fuerstenfeldbruck, Germany: National Semiconductor launched what it claims is the industry's first SOT-23 synchronous buck switching controller, the LM1770. This controller uses constant on-time control, which means it does not require external compensation. The device provides low-voltage point-of-load regulation from standard 5 and 3.3V rails in spaceconstrained applications, such as set-top boxes, cable modems, digital video recorders, and printers. This solution also...
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Paul Whytock
[Upfront] World’s First FlexRay System For High-Speed Car Networking Apps
Eindhoven, The Netherlands: Royal Philips Electronics delivered the world's first FlexRay system solution, which includes both the TJA1080 transceiver and SJA2510, a powerful ARM 9 microcontroller with an embedded and fully integrated FlexRay version 2.1 communication controller. With FlexRay as the networking bus, car makers can differentiate through performance and features, giving consumers the latest safety applications, says Philips. Originally intended as the...
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Paul Whytock
[Upfront] Smart Battery And Power Management On Single Chip
Texas Instruments designed a high-performance power-conversion IC with smart charging capability that has all essential power transistors on a single device. Occupying up to 70% less board space versus discrete solutions, the chip delivers high dc-dc conversion efficiency and battery management to one-cell, lithium-ion (Li-Ion) powered communication and multimedia devices with multiple voltages, such as smart phones, portable audio and media players, satellite radio, and...
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Paul Whytock
[Upfront] Rousset News
Rousset, France: Atmel released a new powermanagement product dedicated to the power supplies of handset add-on modules. The AT73C211 is designed to supply the digital, analog, interface, and if required, the RF and backup sections of add-on modules used in handheld products such as PDAs and mobile phones. It integrates a high-performance dc-dc converter with integrated switches to supply digital cores at 1.9V, delivering up to 300mA. ...
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Paul Whytock
[Upfront] Industry’s Smallest Transceiver Designed To Cut Handset Costs
Silicon Laboratories expanded its Aero GSM/GPRS transceiver family to include the Si4209. The company claims it is the industry's smallest, most integrated, easiest-to-use transceiver with the lowest bill-of-materials (BOM) for the GSM/GPRS ultra-low-cost handset (ULCH) market. According to Silicon Labs, the Si4209 leads the ULCH industry with its low noise figure (NF), which enables handset sensitivities that improve call quality and network efficiency. Leveraging the RF core and high...
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Paul Whytock
[Upfront] Instant Deep-Sleep Option
United Kingdom: QuickLogic launched PolarPro, which it claims moves QuickLogic's existing ultra-low-power consumption FPGA formula to a new level. It adds further circuitry to optimise performance when implementing interfaces from deeply embedded processors to high-bandwidth peripherals, such as hard disks and wireless chip sets. The designed-for-purpose architecture means that these interfacing functions may also now be implemented at lower cost. The new FPGAs have an...
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Paul Whytock
[Point of View] Designing Chips For JTAG Testing
Boundary-scan testing offers a solution to the challenges presented by high component density, increasing use of area array packages, and the prevalence of complex, multilayer PCBs, which make test probe access and bed-of-nails testing impossible for many new board designs. Modern JTAG test gear has powerful capabilities that add value to product development, production, and field maintenance. Graphical user interfaces along with powerful test generation and troubleshooting...
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Dominic Plunkett
