Electronic Design articles from February 2007

Electronic Design archives from February 2007

Video streams in multiple formats at CES, but robots steal the show.(Consumer Electronics Show)(Editorial)
February 1, 2007... I'm back from another CES, and as always, it was an exciting but overwhelming event. You readers tell us CES is the number-one exhibition on your show-attendance wishlist, so hopefully a good number of you were there too. This year's gala had...

What's all this diffusion stuff, anyhow?(History of Semiconductor Engineering)(Book review)
February 1, 2007... Once upon a time, if you wanted to make a junction transistor, you could start with a small seed crystal of pure germanium. Using Czochralski's 1917 methods, the crystal was gradually rotated and pulled out of a lightly doped N-type material...

Irresistible tech forces meet immovable medical needs.(medical technology)
February 1, 2007... Facing skyrocketing costs, healthcare providers are turning to mobile technology to improve the efficiency and quality of care, particularly PDAs and smart phones. Yet the primary impediment in delivering this technology is the disparity...

Apple takes a bite out of the cell-phone market.(Apple iPhone)(Product/service evaluation)
February 1, 2007... It's amazing how a company known for its computers and music players can become the talk of the cell-phone world with just one announcement. Introduced on January 9 at San Francisco's Macworld show, Apple's iPhone is a real breakthrough (see...

Floating-gate technology voltage references go down to 1.25 and 2.5 V.(Intersil Holding Corp.'s ISL21009 )(Editorial)
February 1, 2007... Aprecise, temperature-compensated voltage reference circuit lies at the heart of every analog-to-digital converter. Voltage-reference technology hadn't changed fundamentally in decades until last year, when Intersil announced a single reference...

Coder/decoder prepares TVs for 2009's switch to HD.(Fujitsu Microelectronics America Inc.'s MB86H50)(high definition)
February 1, 2007... With 2009 quickly approaching, standard-definition television will be a thing of the past as high definition (HD) moves in for good. Yet the equipment that will encode and decode HD signals will need to be able to do it quickly and efficiently....

Software makes protocol analyzer act like a logic analyzer.(TechView: TEST)(BitTracer from LeCroy Corp.)(Anritsu America Inc.'s MS2720B)
February 1, 2007... Software really is the test instrument. Lecroy's BitTracer, which runs on the PETracer Gen2 Summit PCI Express Protocol Analyzer, provides a physical-layer view of PCI Express traffic that's similar to what a logic analyzer might display. But...

Tool characterizes standard cells for statistical timing analyzers.(TechView: EDA)(Altos Design Automation Inc.'s Variety)
February 1, 2007... Statistical static timing analysis (SSTA) is gaining in popularity these days, particularly as 65-nm processes move toward maturity and designers become increasingly concerned about fab yields. SSTA helps get around the statistical pessimism of...

USB stacks up with a modular industrial form factor: USB moves into the PC/104 form factor with a stacking architecture that parallels EPIC Express.(Leapfrog: Industry First)(universal serial bus, Embedded Platform for Industrial Computing)
February 1, 2007... The stackable PC/104 form factor has proved itself indispensible in numerous applications. But its Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) is moving toward oblivion as the number of chips that can directly interface with it nears zero. USB,...

The telemetric way to weight loss: forget about painful and messy saline solution injections. The EasyBand system uses RF signals to adjust gastric bands and regulate weight loss.(EasyBand from Endoart)
February 1, 2007... Severe obesity is a major health issue in the Western world, particularly in the U.S. In addition to diet and exercise, the use of laproscopic surgically implanted bariatric bands has experienced a surge in popularity over the last few years....

Weapons of noise detection: noise is a perennial problem in electronic circuits, but the design challenges it presents change year to year. Here's a look at some new plans of attack.(TechnologyReport)(Editorial)
February 1, 2007... The war on noise now takes us into the next frontier: the high-speed serial backplane. Actually, this is about both noise and jitter, which is a practical approach, if not rigorously correct. Tektronix's Pavel Zivny likes to limit noise to "all...

Don't be a separatist--think "system": a holistic approach to chip/package/pc-board co-design can go a long way toward success.(EngineeringESSENTIALS)(Editorial)
February 1, 2007... Everyone knows that chips, no matter how complex or well designed, don't exist in a vacuum. Neither are they designed and then tossed in a drawer. Rather, they exist as part of a system. The silicon must be interfaced to some kind of package,...

What's new in programming languages?(EmbeddedInElectronicDesign)(Editorial)
February 1, 2007... Cremains the most popular embedded programming language, and it has been number one for years. Still, your toolkit should include a bit more, especially when dealing with trends like the new and improved Internet plus heterogeneous and...

PMC compute node packs multiple FPGAs for parallel DSP processing.(COTS News)
February 1, 2007... Micro Memory's rugged MM-71xx CoSine FPGA PMC Compute Nodes series brings Xilinx V-4 FPGAs to 64-bit, 66-MHz PCI Mezzanine Card (PMC) sites. The boards are available with 89k to 156k FPGA slices with up to 600 Xtreme DSP slices. The main FPGA...

Dual star marks 14-slot MicroTCA backplane.(COTS News)
February 1, 2007... Elma Electronic's 5U MicroTCA shelf houses a 14-slot MicroTCA backplane. It can handle 10 AdvancedMC cards, two power modules, and two MicroTCA Carrier Hub (MCH) slots. It also has three pluggable fan trays. The 5U MicroTCA shelf pricing starts...

Parallel programming and multicore environments.(EmbeddedInElectronicDesign)
February 1, 2007... Multicore chip designs, large symmetrical multiprocessing (SMP) systems, and clustering can bring many processors to bear on an application. But without proper software, they're simply large collections of processor cores and memory. And...

Heat pipes cool Mini-ITX systems.(EmbeddedInElectronicDesign)
February 1, 2007... Logic Supply's Serener GS-L02 systems are designed for secure, sealed, and silent operation in harsh environments. They're available with a range of fanless Mini-ITX motherboards with VIA or Intel x86-compatible processors kept cool with...

Processor targets secure, expandable consumer multimedia storage.(EmbeddedInElectronicDesign)
February 1, 2007... Silicon Image's SiI5733 provides scalable and secure storage for HDTVs, digital video recorders, and set-top boxes. Hard drives can be encrypted and matched to the chip so they can only work with the matching device. RAID and daisy-chain...

Development kit reads data into 32-Mbyte USB flash drive.(EmbeddedInElectronicDesign)
February 1, 2007... Based on the company's Vinculum USB host controller IC, Future Technology Devices International's DLP-VLOG development platform implements a data logging application that reads temperature, humidity, and voltage data into a 32-Mbyte USB flash...

Brighten your CMOS image sensor prospects by resolving dark current.(complementary metal oxide semiconductors)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... Implemented with matrix-addressed photodiode arrays, CMOS image sensor (CIS) solutions take full advantage of the economies of scale afforded by a highly developed semiconductor-manufacturing infrastructure. The chip industry's steady march to...

Create a PWM signal simply, inexpensively.(pulse-width-modulation)(using Texas Instruments MSP430F2013)
February 1, 2007... Sometimes you need to generate a pulse-width-modulation (PWM) signal for your circuit to simulate a certain behavior. The technique described here generates a simple programmable PWM signal for less than a dollar. The technique uses an...

Adding feedback boosts peak detector's precision.(IdeasForDesign)
February 1, 2007... The standard way to measure the peak of a signal involves the use of a diode. But if the diode is used alone, the input voltage must be significantly larger than the diode's turn-on voltage to obtain acceptable accuracy. Because turn-on...

High performance socket for 0.5mm pitch BCC packages.(PRODUCT ALERT)
February 1, 2007... High performance BCC sockets--SG-MLF-7012, SG-MLF-7014 sockets are designed for a 7X7 or 8X8 mm BCC package, with bandwidths to 10 Ghz. Sockets are designed to dissipate up to several watts. Contact resistance is 23 milliohms. Sockets connect...

Accelerated development cycle and time to revenue makes MicroTCA[TM] the right solution.(PRODUCT ALERT)
February 1, 2007... MicroTCA is a compact, flexible and economical shelf architecture made to: Order -- Available off-the-shelf hardware and software Work -- Proven validated and integrated solutions Span -- Leverages existing and advanced platforms...

Keithley's 2007 product catalog.(PRODUCT ALERT)
February 1, 2007... Keithley's 2007 Product Catalog contains over 400 pages detailing the company's sourcing and measurement products, DC switching, RF switching hardware, RF signal generation and analysis instruments, data acquisition solutions, semiconductor...

2802 advanced two-channel power analyzer from XiTRON.(PRODUCT ALERT)
February 1, 2007... Extended measurement range--from micro-amps to hundreds of amps, and millivolts to kilovolts--makes the XiTRON 2802 ideal for Energy Star and similar compliance testing worldwide, and for standby power analysis. These state-of-the-art...

A unique VFD from Noritake.(PRODUCT ALERT)
February 1, 2007... Noritake introduces a new and unique Vacuum Fluorescent Display with multicolored LEDs used as backlights. Advantages: The LEDs provide a bright colored or multicolored background. The designated color is controlled by software...

Correction.(Correction notice)
February 15, 2007... Due to a production error, we included an incorrect headline in the Jan. 18, 2007 Ideas for Design. "One Transistor Gives Clean HDTV And NTSC Video Sync Separation" (p. 52) should have been titled "Simplified AC Line Sensor Uses Few Parts,...

Implantable RFID may be easy, but that doesn't mean it's ethical.(Editorial)
February 15, 2007... While researching this issue's Technology Report on RFID, I recalled the first article I'd written about "chipping" humans with RFID tags back in 1996. Implantable RFID chips for pets were making news back then, and it seemed inevitable to...

Bob's Mailbox.(PeasePorridge)(Letter to the editor)
February 15, 2007... Hello Mr. Pease: I've read somewhere that it can be a problem for the op amp to lose one of the supplies or use the wrong startup sequence. (You are correct. A startup sequence can cause great trouble on the positive and negative rails. /rap)...

Get ready for a NAND flash flood in consumer electronics.(PointOfView)
February 15, 2007... NAND flash has soared as the prices for its components plummet. As a result of tremendous investment, fierce competition, and technological advances, NAND flash components have driven capacities into the gigabyte range as prices currently range...

Volt charges up the crowd in Detroit.(TechVIEW)
February 15, 2007... Imagine filling up your gas tank once--and then ignoring it for the next 640 miles. Or if you drive less than 40 miles a day, imagine never filling it up again. That's the promise of the Chevy Volt, GM's latest concept car, unveiled at last...

No ultracaps in electric cars yet, but maybe there should be.(TechView: Analog & Power)
February 15, 2007... One highlight of the January auto shows was General Motors' Chevy Volt, a hybrid concept vehicle targeting a 40-mile all-electric range using lithium-ion batteries and a small generator driven by a gasoline engine. It was interesting to note...

ASIC-like methodology saves up to $9,925,000 in NRE costs.(TechView: Digital)
February 15, 2007... Not all companies have $10 million in their back pockets for the non-recurring expenses (NRE) today's ASIC design starts require. Fortunately, that kind of cash isn't necessary anymore, thanks to Lattice Semiconductor's latest line of FPGAs. In...

Common Power Format comes to fruition in tool suite.(TechView: EDA)
February 15, 2007... As in any industry, standards in design automation can be of tremendous benefit to designers--and that's especially so in the realm of design data. The efforts to create a common format for power-related data, initially spearheaded by Cadence...

Advanced 802.11n chip sets push Wi-Fi into the video home.(TechView: Wireless)
February 15, 2007... Millions of homes already have wireless networks that generally do a superior job delivering broadband connections to PCs and laptops. But those networks may need to be replaced or at least upgraded when consumers begin to adopt new Internet...

Razor-thin package sharpens image-sensing applications: high-yield, high-reliability wafer-level packaging delivers key benefits to OEMs and camera electronics integrators.(Tessera Technologies Inc.)
February 15, 2007... Get out the microscope, because packaging for image sensors and other optical devices has reached a new level of "thin." Thanks to its Shellcase razor-thin (RT), wafer-level, chip-scale packaging (WLCSP) process, Tessera Technologies has...

To be almost human or not to be, that is the question: researchers are developing robots that will assist the elderly and disabled, but the vote is split on how human-like they should become.(EngineeringFeature)
February 15, 2007... Soon, robots will be able to help the elderly and disabled answer the door, prepare a meal, take their medicine, and even get from a bed to a wheelchair (Fig. 1). As the number of retirees in the U.S., Japan, and other parts of the world...

Identity theft: RFID muscles into consumer market; A buzz is growing around RFID as it moves away from proprietary apps and toward a more connected future in cell phones, laptops, and other devices.(TechnologyReport)(Editorial)
February 15, 2007... All that hype surrounding radio-frequency identification (RFID), particularly those predictions for gargantuan growth in the retail supply chain, seems to have simmered down. Though it's bounced around for more than 20 years and has the support...

Networking inside the box: 10-Gbit Ethernet doesn't solve all problems. When small microcontrollers are involved, low-overhead hardware makes more sense.(EngineeringESSENTIALS)
February 15, 2007... Connecting peripheral devices seems to be a rite of passage for designers. In many instances, serial networks provide sufficient performance for the job while minimizing connections between devices. This can be particularly important when the...

1-by-16 PLED drops in to replace LCD units.(ComponentVIEW)
February 15, 2007... The OSD1601-D is a one-line by 16-character polymetric LED (PLED) display module from OSD Displays. The module's high-contrast yellow-green characters measure 4.51 by 8.6 mm, creating a display active area of 84.31 by 8.6 mm. The display's...

Based on the company's in-house expertise in backlighting and plastics.(DISPLAYS)
February 15, 2007... Based on the company's in-house expertise in backlighting and plastics design, Displaytech's standard thin-film-transistor (TFT) display modules can be modified to suit an application's specific mounting requirements. Two sizes are available:...

The ANDpSi018TP-LED is a 558-by-234 active matrix color TFT LCD module.(DISPLAYS)
February 15, 2007... The ANDpSi018TP-LED is a 558-by-234 active matrix color TFT LCD module with an analog interface. The device employs a new low-temperature polysilicon (p-Si) technology to provide a brighter, thinner, and lighter display with high resolution....

The use of a partially reflective backing (transflector) in the H4048 LCD.(DISPLAYS)
February 15, 2007... The use of a partially reflective backing (transflector) in the H4048 LCD glass display from LXD Inc. lets users view the display with ambient light or with a backlight source. Display content includes six digits, five decimal points, and two...

Driving the backlight: CCFLs or LEDs?(cold cathode fluorescent lamps, light-emitting diodes)
February 15, 2007... The typical LCD backlight can be one or more cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs) or an array of light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The quality of the backlight image depends heavily on the backlight driver. In this article, we will discuss the...

Innovative designs from readers: charge pump extends current-sense amplifier's input range down to 0 V.(IdeasForDesign)
February 15, 2007... In addition to the traditional lead-acid battery, modern electric/hybrid cars often include a large capacitor (40 F or more) as a backup power source. Located under the rear seat, this capacitor ensures an extra 10 to 15 minutes of driving time...

Delay circuitry controls supply-voltage startup sequence.(IdeasForDesign)
February 15, 2007... For some ICs, supply voltages should be applied in a particular sequence. One example is the subscriber line interface circuit (SLIC), which, depending on the application, may require several negative and/or positive voltages. The larger...

International rectifier introduces high-efficiency 150V DirectFET MOSFET for cooler, more compact DC-DC converter applications.(PRODUCT ALERT)
February 15, 2007... IR's high-efficiency 150V DirectFET MOSFET operates from 36V to 75V universal telecommunications input and 48V fixed input systems. The device achieves superior thermal performance and higher efficiency with advanced DirectFET packaging and...

ISI Lead Free Interposers for DDR2 BGAs.(PRODUCT ALERT)
February 15, 2007... ISI Lead Free Interposers allow OEMs to use standard eutectic (leaded) SMT assembly processes, even when BGAs are only available in lead-free packaging. DDR2 memory chips are one common application, although ISI supplies interposers for a...

New 400W high performance switching power supply.(PRODUCT ALERT)
February 15, 2007... Highly reliable and 1U compatible, the GNT400 is the newest single output power supply from SL Power Electronics. Marketed under the Condor brand name, the GNT400 is well suited for a range of communications, industrial and medical...

PolyZen[TM] micro-assembly helps protect DC power ports and downstream electronics.(PRODUCT ALERT)
February 15, 2007... The PolyZen[TM] micro-assembly helps protect sensitive electronics from damage caused by inductive voltage spikes, voltage transients, incorrect power supplies and reverse bias. The device incorporates a stable zener diode for precise voltage...

Puzzled by resin choices???(PRODUCT ALERT)
February 15, 2007... Let Protomold help. Register online to receive your FREE Protomold Resin Puzzle, which illustrates the basic properties of the most common thermoplastics used in rapid injection molding. www.protomold.com/fwd/puzzle/ed/Protomold is the...

Accurately measure nanoampere and picoampere currents.(Design basics of)
February 15, 2007... Measuring current is always a nuisance because you have to break the circuit to put the measuring device in series with the circuit. That problem never goes away. Still, any high-end digital multimeter can accurately measure currents down into...