Electronic Design articles from January 2003

Electronic Design archives from January 2003

Moving past a year of uncertainty to an era poised for opportunity. (Publisher's Foreword).(Industry Overview)
January 6, 2003... By any measure, 2002 was perhaps the toughest year in the history of the electronics market. The industry downturn fiercely challenged newcomers and established firms alike, as the financial community lost faith in high-tech. Even leading...

Fresh starts herald a promising year for both of us. (Editorial).
January 6, 2003... Electronic Design ushers in this new year by unfurling a new look, as we embark on our second half-century of covering the electronics industry. We are as excited as ever by what the future holds. Just as 2003 represents fresh business...

What's all this K2-W stuff, anyhow? (Pease Porridge).(Column)
January 6, 2003... The K2-W was not the first modern general-purpose operational amplifier. Loebe Julie's 1942 amplifier came earlier and had some real advantages. But the Julie amplifier didn't offer much gain, even after adding positive feedback. It didn't have...

Analog/Mixed-Signal: Diverse trends shake up product portfolios. (2003 Top Ten Technology Forecast).
January 6, 2003... LAST YEAR WAS SUPPOSED TO RING IN THE "RECOVERY" after the worst year in semiconductor history, yet everyone is still holding their breath for the economy to revive. Most analysts have reported that semiconductor sales grew a meager 1% in 2002,...

Components, interconnects, and packaging plant seeds for breakthroughs. (2003 Top Ten Technology Forecast).
January 6, 2003... SLOW BUT STEADY IS THE HALLMARK OF PROGRESS in the three foundation technologies of components, interconnects, and packaging. At first glance, to the untrained eye, advances in these areas seem mundane and obvious. But the facts are that size...

Power: greater complexity shapes power designs. (2003 Top Ten Technology Forecast).(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)
January 6, 2003... GROWING DEMANDS FOR CURRENT IN ADVANCED SYSTEM DESIGNS continues to drive power-supply development. Much of the progress in this direction can be traced to gains made in power-conversion technology, thanks in large part to improvements in power...

Communications: The new mantra for communications: network everything. (2003 Top Ten Technology Forecast).
January 6, 2003... EVERYTHING IS A NETWORK. Think about it. We deal with networks of many types on a daily basis. Our electronic networks are the telephone system, cable TV, and of course, the Internet. This is not to mention the many WANs, MANs, LANs, and...

Partition IEEE 1149.1 SCAN chains for manageability!: Application Brief 121. (Advertisement).
January 6, 2003... The proliferation of IEEE 1149.1 supported devices is helping Design for Test (DfT) engineers solve complex test access problems during board test. As ICs become more complex and boards become denser, this dedicated 5-wire serial test bus...

EDA: Tooling up for a nanometer world. (2003 Top Ten Technology Forecast).
January 6, 2003... DRAMATICALLY SHIFTING SANDS IN THE DESIGN WORLD await engineers, particularly those involved with ASICs or customer-owned tooling (COT) ICs. Nanometer design is becoming reality, but its ultimate success hinges on the development of a very...

Embedded: Innovation scale tips to hardware in embedded technology. (2003 Top Ten Forecast).
January 6, 2003... EMBEDDED DEVELOPERS ARE A CONSERVATIVE LOT, and with good reason. An embedded system that has to last five years is a short run. Systems must go Out the door well tested, which typically means using hardware and software with a track record....

Test: IC complexity, new applications drive advances in test equipment. (2003 Top Ten Forecast).(and related article)(Industry Overview)
January 6, 2003... Roger Allan ADVANCES IN TEST AND MEASUREMENT EQUIPMENT and IC devices keep marching on in lock-step with each other--one can't do without the other. Look into a just-developed piece of test gear, and you're bound to find devices made on...

A new look and exciting new forums ring in 2003. (Editorial).(Editorial)
January 20, 2003... As you've already noticed, Electronic Design is sporting a different graphic look. We've also spruced up several perennial editorial favorites and created a number of stimulating new editorial forums. Last year we conducted focus groups and...

Bob's mailbox. (Pease Porridge).(Letter to the Editor)(Column)
January 20, 2003... Dear Bob: I found Eric Kinast's observations (ELECTRONIC DESIGN, Oct. 28, 2002, p. 84) about photosensitivity most interesting. I wasn't aware that small metal-can packages can have light leaks. Years ago, I resolved to always use metal-can...

The need for hybrid optimization. (Pov: Point of View).
January 20, 2003... Surely, designers of ASICs and application-specific standard parts (ASSPs) using cell-based methods need sophisticated tools to get the job done. Yet ASIC/ASSP designers still rely on the old EDA workhorses--logic synthesis, simulation, and...

TFT LCD prototype sets size record: designed for HDTVs, this 52-in. wide panel with 1920 by 1080 pixels also features a wide, 176[degrees] viewing angle. (Components & Test).(world's largest thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display )( L.G. Philips 52W)(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... With a 52-in. wide screen designed for HDTV, the 52W unit recently demonstrated by L.G. Philips Co. Ltd. is the world's largest thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display (TFT LCD). Its 1920- by 1080-pixel resolution or 2.07 million pixels is...

Prepare for a virtual interface standard. (Standards Report).(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... Look for a "virtual" analog-sensor Interface standard sometime this year. It will define the IEEE P1451.4 Working Group's Transducer Electronic Data Sheet(TEDS) to facilitate sensor interfacing via the Web. National instruments (www.ni.com) is...

OEMs routinely buy switches by the million. (Market News).(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... * OEMs routinely buy switches by the million. Yet many buyers are switching vendors, too. According to Venture Development Corp., Natick, Mass., 40% of OEMs surveyed changed switch vendors during the previous year. The most common reasons for...

Flash-memory parts trim height to 0.2 mm: targeting wireless Bluetooth apps, these LGA and BGA components come in memory densities up to 32 Mbits. (Packaging News).(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... SILIC ON STORAGE TECHNOLOGY has come up with what may be the thinnest and--in most densities--the smallest footprint form-factor memory parts for demanding next-generation Bluetooth applications, which typically restrict device heights to 2 mm....

Timing checks go full chip: a new era of fast, accurate full-chip timing analysis is presaged by a tool that takes automatic post-layout analysis down to transistor level. (TechView: EDA).(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... Nanometer design will require new thinking in timing closure. Historically, design teams relied on static timing analysis, which depends on the abstracted behavior of individual gates to perform timing calculations. But at nanometer geometries,...

IBM, Synopsys partner on foundry flow. (Breaking News).(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... IBM and SYNOPSYS are developing a design reference flow for IBM's 0.13-[micro]m process technology that will give foundry service customers a smooth path from chip design to production. The RTL-to-GDSII flow is based on a suite of Synopsys'...

Magma design automation. (Hot Product).(Mesa Ridge Technologies Blast Fusion APX Advanced Physical Design System)(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... Doubling the capacity of Magma's previous release, the company's Blast Fusion APX Advanced Physical Design System provides a complete netlist-to-GDSII design flow for extremely complex SoC designs. Incorporating placement, routing, timing...

Single chip controls both hard-disk and DVD drives: a highly integrated solution for personal video recorders, this chip handles all audio and video tasks. (TechView: Digital).(LSI LOgic DMN-8650)(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... Designing a personal video recording system just became simpler with LSI Logic's DMN-8650. This highly integrated chip controls both a hard-disk drive and a recordable DVD drive, but it also handles audio, video, and picture playback functions....

International Solid-State Circuits Conference. (Conference News).(Brief Article)(Calendar)
January 20, 2003... * Mark your calendars for next month's International Solid-State Circuits Conference, scheduled for Feb. 9-13 at the San Francisco Marriott. Many sessions detailing techniques for circuit operation at low voltages will address the conference's...

Immersion lithography taps into water for better resolution. (Technology Advance).(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... To make smaller transistors so chips can pack more gates and deliver higher performance, lithography must use shorter light wavelengths to form the smaller features. To that end, developments to extend the use of 193-nm lithography have turned...

In-circuit offset adjustment debuts with new op amp: dual op amp lets users program offset-voltage trimming in applications where mechanical trimmer pots aren't viable. (TechView: Analog & Power).(Advanced Linear Devices ALD2724E and ALD2724)(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... A new high-slew-rate dual precision CMOS operational amplifier can change the input offset while in circuit. Developed by Advanced Linear Devices Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., the ALD2724E and ALD2724 offer an alternative to junction FET (JFET)...

High-precision reference cinches error-budget belt. (TechView: Analog & Power).(Maxim Integrated Products MAX6133 )(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... TO ADDRESS THE GROWING NEED for ever tighter error budgets in mixed-signal systems, Maxim Integrated Products of Sunnyvale, Calif., has introduced a family of low-temperature-drift voltage references. The MAX6133 series tightens the error...

"Amp in a mike" replaces FET. (TechView: Analog & Power).(National Semiconductor LMV1012 and LMV1014 )(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... The single FET in an electret microphone's housing may soon become an endangered species. National Semiconductor Corp. of Santa Clara, Calif., has two amplifiers that replace the junction FET (JFET) in current electret mikes. A high-gain...

Waiting for ZigBee: new wireless standard fills a gaping hole in wireless technology. (TechView: Communications).
January 20, 2003... With all of the wireless standards on the books, you would think we pretty much had the wireless front covered. But we don't. We really need a cheaper, simpler, lower-power, longer-range standard that doesn't necessarily need to be fast, and...

Long-haul optical faces a long road to recovery. (Market News).(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... Long-haul optical revenue accounted for 51% of the total optical market In 2001, says a recent study by Probe Research, Cedar Knolls, N.J. Yet this niche saw its numbers fall by over 50% in 2002. Minor Improvements are expected by 2004, but...

Low-cost wireless components simplify data acquisition: achieve cost-effective communications for up to eight remote [mu]C-based systems. (TechView: Communications).(Xecom RF XE 900 )(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... THE XECOM RF XE 900 SMART TRANSCEIVER coupled with the XE 924 base-access point cost-effectively links up to eight microcontroller-based embedded systems to a central data-collection point using a modem connection to the telephone line. The...

Power solution takes on next-generation CPUs. (Leapfrog: Industry First).(International Rectifier )
January 20, 2003... A multiphase synchronous buck-converter architecture repartitions functions in silicon to create a scalable design suitable for many phases. * Conceptually, the multiphase approach to building synchronous buck converters is scalable. The...

Contract manufacturing swoops in on product design ... and EE jobs. (Cover Story: Engineering Feature).(Industry Overview)
January 20, 2003... Like a hawk, contract manufacturing is spreading its wings over the world of design and manufacturing, enveloping a product's entire cycle from concept to sales. IT WAS ONCE CALLED OFFSHORE ASSEMBLY BECAUSE THAT'S ALL IT INVOLVED--the...

Monolithic synchronous step-down regulators pack 600mA current rating in a ThinSOT package--design note 300. (Design Notes: Advertisement).(Linear Technology LTC3406/LTC3406B)
January 20, 2003... Introduction The new LTC (R) 3406, LTC3406-1.5, LTC3406-1.8, LTC3406B, LTC3406B-1.5 and LTC34O6B-1.8 are the industry's first monolithic synchronous step-down regulators capable of supplying 600mA of output current in a 1mm profile ThinSOT...

Use Rotary potentiometer to drive solid-state volume control. (Design Briefs: Innovative Designs from Readers).
January 20, 2003... This design idea details how a standard volume control can be replaced by its solid-state equivalent. Digital potentiometers are often advertised as replacements for rotary volume controls. To simulate these controls, many circuits employ...

Simple CATV upstream fiber-optic receiver uses dc-pilot AGC. (Design Briefs: Innovative Designs From Readers).
January 20, 2003... Upstream fiber links in a community antenna television (CATV) system are usually among the most difficult elements of the network to align properly. Set-top boxes and cable modems employ "long-loop" automatic gain control (AGC) (in other words,...

Low cost PGA in SOT-23 superior performance in less space than discretes. (Signal Conditioning: Advertisement).(Linear Technology LTC6910-1)(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... Ease your instrumentation designs with the LTC[R] 6910-1 digitally controlled Programmable Gain Amplifier (PGA). Inverting gains of 0,1,2, 5,10,20,50 and 100V/V are digitally selectable using a 3-bit control input. Offered in the 8-pin SOT-23...

3V, micropower, SOT-23 comparator has 44V input range. (Signal Conditioning: Advertisement).(Linear Technology LT716)(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... The LT[R]1716 is a micropower, rail-to-rail, Over-The-Top[R] comparator in a SOT-23 package. With a wide supply range of 2.7V to 44V, this is the first comparator in the industry featuring an input common mode range that extends to 44V without...

3.3V tiny video amplifiers occupy only 15[mm.sup.2] while eliminating gain setting resistors. (Signal Conditioning: Advertisement).(Linear Technology LT6550 and LT6551)(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... The LT6550 and LT6551 are triple and quad, fixed gain of 2 amplifiers. Eliminating the need for external gain setting resistors, the LT6550 and LT6551 are the first to offer guaranteed performance on a single 3.3V supply. Available in the space...

Low noise fully differential ADC driver has 10MHz lowpass filter onboard. (Signal Contitioning: Advertisement).(Linear Technology LT6600-10 )(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... The LT6600-10 is a new class of high speed fully differential input and output device that integrates an antialiasing filter and a differential driver on a single chip. The LT6600-10 exhibits excellent noise performance, boasting an in-band...

High performance analog in the smallest footprints. (Signal Conditioning: Advertisement).(Linear Technology Corp.)
January 20, 2003... The electronics industry places a constant demand for smaller, thinner, lighter semiconductor packages. Systems as diverse as portable handheld instruments, PC mother boards and multi-channel telecom line cards can ail benefit from higher...

5000-[V.sub.RMS] isolated error amplifier fits functionality into tiny package. (Power).(Fairchild Semiconductor FOD2741 )(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... * The FOD2741 optically isolated error amplifier combines an optocoupler, a precision reference, and an error amplifier in an eight-pin, dual-inline package. The amplifier is the functional equivalent of a KA431 shunt voltage regulator and a...

Low-voltage MOSFET family tackles telecom, computing apps. (Power).(STMicroelectronics)(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... * Based on STripFET III technology, a new line of low-voltage MOSFETs is designed for use on motherboards and in telecom applications. The STripFET III process yields high cell density and channel perimeter. Parts built using this technology...

Inductorless DC-DC converter achieves 500-mA continuous output. (Power).(Linear Technology LTC3251 )(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... * Eschewing inductors, the LTC3251 spread-spectrum dc-dc converter can deliver up to 500 mA of continuous output current. It operates within a [V.sub.IN] range of 2.7 to 5.5 V, suiting it for single-cell lithium-ion or multicell...

Next-generation CPU specs attained by switching power solution. (Power).(Analog Devices ADP3168 and ADP3418 )(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... * Together, the ADP3168 and ADP3418 form an efficient multiphase synchronous buck switching regulator that fits Intel's VRD/VRM 10 power specifications. The devices can convert a 12-V main supply into the highly accurate core supply voltage...

60-A output rectifiers provide fast recovery times. (Power).(International Rectifier UFB60FA20)(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... * A pair of 60-A general-purpose soft recovery diodes features up to 11% faster recovery time than competing 200-V devices, and approximately 17% faster recovery time than comparable 400-V devices. The UFB60FA20 (200 V) and UFB60FA40 (400 V)...

TCXOs reduce phase noise in CDMA, GSM products. (Oscillators).(Murata Electronics VC-TCXO HFX)(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... * Designed to boost performance of GSM and CDMA products (e.g., mobile phones and handheld devices), the VC-TCXO HFX series temperature-compensated crystal oscillators (TCXOs) maintain the standard 3.3- by 2.5- by 1.2-mm footprint. The devices...

SMD clock oscillator offers desert-to-arctic temperature rating. (Oscillators).(MF Electronics R2950)(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... * The Model R2950 SMD clock oscillator provides the advanced frequency and jitter performance required by Sonet and optonetworking applications. The part's -40[degrees]C to 85[degrees]C temperature range enables advanced data-com systems to...

Low-jitter VCXOs slash bit-rate errors. (Oscillators).(Fox Electronics RFV300 )(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... * A new line of high-performance radio-frequency crystal oscillators (RFXOs) features low jitter and phase noise, enabling full use of the allotted bandwidth. They feature phase jitter of less than 0.5 ps. The RFV300 series voltage-controlled...

Timing-control module supports 14 input signals. (Oscillators).(Connor-Winfield STS100)(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... * The Model STS100 module offers up a Synchronous Equipment Timing Source function in a Sonet/synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) network element. The unit accommodates 14 individual input clock signals (low-voltage differential signaling,...

Mini surface-mount clock oscillators bring flexibility to portable designs. (Oscillators).(AVX K30)(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... Thanks to their low-profile ceramic package, the K30 series surface-mount clock oscillators give design engineers more flexibility in implementing timing-control circuits in space-constrained applications. The devices' low profile and low power...

MIPS-based processing module doubles PCI performance. (Embedded).(Motorola PrPMC1100)(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... The EnCore M3 provides a complete standards-based CPU subsystem on a small-form-factor module. MIPS-based, the M3 incorporates a 400-MHz MIPS32 Alchemy Au1500 chip from AMD, which features an integrated 32-bit, 66-MHz PCI bus interface. The...

PrPMC module targets new control plane processor. (Embedded).(Motorola PrPMC1100)(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... The PrPMC1100 is the first processor PCI mezzanine card (PrPMC) designed for the recently announced Intel IXC1100 control plane processor up to 533 MHz. The module provides a complete host CPU and memory subsystem in a compact,...

Linux camera accelerates embedded-vision design. (Embedded).(American Eltec miniHiPerCam)(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... Based on ELINOS, an embedded version of the Linux operating system, the miniHiPerCam is a full-feature embedded Linux camera. The miniHiPerCam comes with a color or a high-sensitivity/high-contrast black-and-white CMOS image sensor. Both...

True 16-Bit PC/104 module turns into DAQ subsystem. (Embedded).(Micro-Sys MPC560)(Brief Article)
January 20, 2003... * Replete with 32 channels of 16-bit analog-to-digital input and four channels of 14-bit-digital-to-analog output, the MPC560 PC/104 module functions as a data-acquisition (DAQ) subsystem for embedded systems. The analog input subsystem...