Articles
Scientists see lithium-ion battery flaws
Scientists at Cambridge have developed a simple, accurate way of ‘seeing’ chemistry in action inside a lithium-ion battery.
[ + ]MIPS and choosing a microcontroller
Measuring CPU performance in real-time embedded-control applications has always been a widely debated and subjective topic. The market is composed of 8-, 16- and 32-bit microcontroller and digital signal controller products with a wide variety of device pin counts, memory sizes and types and integrated system support and peripheral functions.
[ + ]Graphene challenges future of silicon
A collaborative research project claims to have brought the world a step closer to producing a new material on which future nanotechnology could be based.
[ + ]New tests for evolving FPD technologies
Flat panel display (FPD) manufacturers are placing heavy bets on new technologies to fill the needs of demanding applications. These applications include larger and lower-cost laptop monitors, small area/low power panels for mobile phones and other portable devices, HDTV and widescreen formats for home television and high reliability daylight-readable displays for the ‘glass cockpits’ of fighter aircraft, battle tanks and warships.
[ + ]Characterising mobile WiMAX performance
This article describes how a channel emulator can be used to characterise the performance of a MIMO receiver. The testing was done in stages of increasing complexity, namely, testing under AWGN conditions, MIMO testing with known static channels and, finally, testing with channels chosen to represent ‘real world’ behaviour.
[ + ]Rapid car battery charging may pose grid problems
Siemens is hard at work on technologies for integrating electric cars into the public power grid. The development of methods to rapidly recharge cars is just one of the company's contributions to Denmark's Edison project, which is the first to plug a pool of vehicles into the grid.
[ + ]Energy-scavenging power sensors
It can be inconvenient to replace batteries in electronic devices that need to work for a long period of time, either in biomedical monitoring systems worn by a patient or in monitors for machinery or industrial installations in remote or inaccessible situations.
Generating power in molecular circuits
Material scientists at the Nano/Bio Interface Centre of the University of Pennsylvania have demonstrated the transduction of optical radiation to electrical current in a molecular circuit.
[ + ]Radio lens could be a view of the future
Prototype contact lenses that can be used as biosensors have been developed by Babak Parviz at the University of Washington, in the US. The prototype can be used to display body chemistry or as a heads up display (HUD).
[ + ]Installing flash LEDs on flex circuits
For the mobile market, some PCB assemblies have been converted to flex circuit assemblies, in part because flex circuit assemblies can be twisted or bent to application needs.
[ + ]Measurement and analysis with MSO/DPO oscilloscopes - Part 2
The prevailing DC power supply architecture in most modern systems is the SMPS because of its ability to efficiently handle changing input voltages and loads. It minimises the use of lossy components such as resistors and linear-mode transistors, and emphasises components that are (ideally) lossless.
[ + ]RAST - the old/new appliance standard
The global market for connectors used in consumer applications is expected to top $2.8 billion by 2013. A key segment of the consumer market is the household appliance, or whitegoods, industry.
[ + ]Talk between machines is getting louder
M2M or machine to machine refers to data communications between machines. To a large degree, the term has started to be used more to describe the communications between machines over a wireless link - in other words, wireless telemetry.
[ + ]Carbon-based materials may threaten silver
NanoMarkets, a US-based analyst firm, has issued a report that predicts a US$1.9 billion market opportunity for carbon-based inks, pastes and coatings for electronics applications.
[ + ]Solar power all through the night
‘Baseload’ solar power, once a distant dream, is now claimed to be a reality. While solar electricity was once limited to when the sun was shining, solar thermal energy can now operate 24 hours a day, even at night, with an ingenious and cheap storage method using molten salt.
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