Design News articles from March 2005

Design News archives from March 2005

Father knows best.(MY VIEW)
March 7, 2005... TODAY I AM GOING TO PICK ON SEARS. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] They deserve it. It all started with my choice of color in a new appliance. Two years ago, we had to buy a new washing machine and dryer. My husband--who is a plain-vanilla...

Unexpected websites: there's even a site for autonomy.(WEB LOG)(Editorial)
March 7, 2005... THE INTERNET CAN TAKE YOU ANYwhere. If I didn't know that before, I certainly know it now. Recently, I visited a contemporary art museum. Lots of interesting stuff on display, some of it actually good, at least to the eyes and sensibilities of...

Drop the calculator.(Readers Sound Off)(Letter to the Editor)
March 7, 2005... "Revamp Math Ed" (12.13.04 Rant; http://rbi.ims.ca/4388-540) is not only right on target but particularly tragic because it recommends precisely the way math was taught in the '50s! Despite the additional dollar investment per student and the...

Don't hold back the stars.(Readers Sound Off)(Letter to the Editor)
March 7, 2005... I completely disagree with the "Revamp Math Ed" strategy. Children in general have the ability to handle abstract concepts earlier in life depending on the degree to which they have been stimulated to do so. If you try to generalize teaching to...

Numbers don't lie.(Readers Sound Off)(Letter to the Editor)
March 7, 2005... Contrary to the comments, U.S. fourth graders did better than eighth graders compared to their counterparts in the rest of the world. Also, eighth graders in Italy, Norway, and England did worse than those in the U.S. This is according to the...

Math professors=helpful teachers?(Readers Sound Off)(Letter to the Editor)
March 7, 2005... The only problem with the approach mentioned in "Revamp Math Ed" is that it counts on the ability of college math professors to teach calculus. My experience is that most college math professors would rather sit alone in a little room and...

Teach them to "fish".(Readers Sound Off)(Letter to the Editor)
March 7, 2005... Having three children in the public school system, "Revamp Math Ed" hits on a subject that I have to deal with on a regular basis. The current direction of math education in particular is spiraling to disaster. Remember, the future teachers are...

Lower costs, smaller sizes; The goal in precision motion: supply more than components.(Insight from Insiders)
March 7, 2005... Q & A with Doug Frater, Business Development Manager, Parker Hannifin Electromechanical Automation [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] What are the trends in high precision motion systems? In precision motion control, there is a drive for lower...

Spreadsheets: often don't add up; They're not for modeling or documenting designs.(Really Opinionated People)
March 7, 2005... THE SPREADSHEET HAS EVOLVED QUITE nicely in its 25 years from an accounting tool to a ubiquitous application for anyone working with data, including business managers, statisticians... and engineers. But are spreadsheets really the right tool...

High-temperature plastics--can they really take the heat? Information on data sheets is great for predicting how test bars will react at room temperature to specific conditions. But in the real world? Read on.(DESIGNING WITH PLASTICS: A Practical Guide for Engineers)(Advertisement)
March 7, 2005... One of the least understood and most erroneously specified areas in the design field is high-temperature plastics. The phrase is widely used but difficult to define. What plastics can genuinely be called "high temperature"? What are high...

Digital products still require an extensive amount of analog circuitry to interface to an analog world. Analog integrated circuits (ICs) drive LEDs (and other displays), convert dc voltage levels for the system loads, amplify signals, filter noise, control motors, and convert power from ac to dc. Here are five products with enabling analog circuitry.(NEW AND NOTABLE PRODUCT DESIGN)
March 7, 2005... 1 RECHARGEABLE LED FLASHLIGHT Angus Noble Indium Torch. Innovative designer Angus Noble used Lithium-ion battery technology with the latest high intensity LEDs to produce a small, powerful, and rechargeable light source. To eliminate any...

Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) or complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs), and their analog counterpart, field programmable analog arrays (FPAAs), are replacing application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), application-specific standard products (ASSPs), microcontrollers or digital signal processors (DSPs) in many applications. Here are five products that show why.(NEW AND NOTABLE PRODUCT DESIGN)
March 7, 2005... 1 3D IMAGES FROM DVD Sensio 3D Processor (http://rbi.ims.ca/4388-549). There is no need to put on the red-and-blue card-board glasses to view high-quality 3D-encoded DVDs with a DVD player plugged into this device. Using LCD-based wireless...

Linear motors expand their venue: a linear motor has dual forcers that can move in either direction without input from optical encoders.(TECHNOLOGY YOU CAN USE)
March 7, 2005... Bologna slicers and church organs might not have much in common, but both are employing a novel linear motor that provides quiet operation and extremely precise repeatability. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The ServoTube from Copley Controls...

Look MA--no hands! Bernoulli Effect lifts objects without contact.(TECHNOLOGY YOU CAN USE)
March 7, 2005... In the spirit of "if it ain't broke don't fix it," a replacement for the venerable vacuum pick-and-place system may seem inappropriate. However, there are many situations where vacuum systems do not work well, or do not work at all. For...

What's your sine?(THE DATA DETECTIVE)(Advertisement)
March 7, 2005... Instruments such as frequency meters, voltmeters, and ammeters provide some information about a signal, but when the signal varies with time, measurements get more complicated. Analysis of a continuously varying signal, such as a sine wave,...

Fuel cells get ready for prime time: devices for portable applications look the most promising.(POWER MANAGEMENT)
March 7, 2005... High energy prices are providing a fresh impetus for development of fuel cells to power everything from cars to laptops to the family home. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Trial versions of fuel cells for notebook computers are going into the...

CARTS USA 2005.(ELECTRONICS)
March 7, 2005... Held March 21-24, CARTS will celebrate its 25th anniversary of the annual symposium at the Wyndham Palm Springs in Palm Springs, CA. CARTS provides component engineers and designers with current data and information on capacitors, resistors,...

Robot Safety Conference.(ELECTRONICS)
March 7, 2005... Presented by the Robotic Industries Association and the Canadian Standards Association, the 2005 North American Robot Safety Conference will be held March 21-23 at the Holiday Inn Select at the Toronto International Airport. The training event...

Interactive tutorial CD.(ELECTRONICS)
March 7, 2005... Keithley Instruments has released an interactive tutorial CD on reliability testing for semiconductor test engineers. Titled "Understanding Measurements: Essential Reliability Testing Techniques," the CD offers three Web seminars that discuss a...

No littering: materials ban and recyling laws continue to pose challenges.(SUPPLY MANAGEMENT)
March 7, 2005... The technology needed to meet a number of environmental regulations that ban materials such as lead and require recycling seem to be largely in place, but engineers might not be aware of that fact. Information on materials remains difficult to...

Audio channels go digital: Class D amps run cooler and save space.(CHIPS)
March 7, 2005... The push for better sound quality in smaller packages is sparking a race to develop amplifier chips based on Class D technology, completing the conversion to a digital chain. Vendors are rolling out amps that match the performance of many...

Economic Outlook Conference.(FLUID POWER)
March 7, 2005... The National Fluid Power Association (NFPA) will hold an Economic Outlook Conference at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee on August 16-17, 2005. A lineup of speakers at the conference will look at trends in domestic and international markets for...

Pneumatic valve.(FLUID POWER)
March 7, 2005... An engineering team at Humphrey Products has engineered a one-piece pneumatic diaphragm valve for use in a medical anesthesia machine. The brass-body valve includes an integral pilot actuator and reportedly operates with zero leakage at 50...

Tubing resists kinking, abrasion.(FLUID POWER)(Beswick Engineering Company Inc)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Beswick Engineering has released literature on its miniature fluid power components. The literature describes the company's polyurethane tubing, which ranges in size from 1/16 to 1/4-inch inner diameter, as well as its coiled polyurethane...

University group pushes for fluid power research: NFPA joins schools in push for new center.(NEW INITATIVES)(National Fluid Power Association)
March 7, 2005... CHICAGO -- An influential group of institutions is proposing creation of an ambitious new research center that could transform the fluid power industry by developing a new generation of compact, efficient components. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]...

Lead-free heats up.(MATERIALS + JOINING)(RTP Co.)(engineering plastic compounds )(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... With European directives for lead elimination in electronics coming into effect next year, RTP Co. has formulated a wide range of engineering plastic compounds that withstand the higher temperatures of lead-free soldering. Components exposed to...

Plastics at Disney.(MATERIALS + JOINING)(Walt Disney World )(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... A recently opened exhibit at Walt Disney World aims to give guests a hands-on understanding of plastics. Sponsored by The Society of the Plastics Industry and anchored by society members DuPont and GE Advanced Materials, Fantastic Plastics...

Design competition.(MATERIALS + JOINING)
March 7, 2005... Hurry to register for the Structural Plastics New Product Design Competition. Part of SPI Structural Plastics Division's annual conference, the competition promotes new developments, applications, and technologies used in the structural...

Zirconia pump liners last longer, lowers total costs: a seemingly expensive ceramic actually cuts the cost of running drilling rig mud pumps--and may do the same for other kinds of industrial pumps, too.(CERAMICS)(Carpenter Advanced Ceramics)
March 7, 2005... The decision to use materials with low upfront costs rather than ones with low lifecycle costs has come back to haunt many a design engineer. Some in the oil and gas drilling industry have recently started to resist this pennywise-pound foolish...

Handy plastics reference: a comprehensive--and free--guide puts a wealth of plastics design knowledge at your fingertips.(DESIGN GUIDE)(Bayer MaterialScience L.L.C)
March 7, 2005... Want to know more about designing with plastics? Bayer MaterialScience engineers can help. They recently distilled their collective knowledge about plastic part and mold design into a free guide available both on the Web and on paper. At...

New brochure.(POWER TRANSMISSION + MOTION CONTROL)
March 7, 2005... Siemens Energy & Automation has introduced a new capabilities brochure that provides an overview of its SINUMERIK CNC, SIMODRIVE, and motors solutions for the machine tool marketplace. Products are featured in the brochure, along with solutions...

Short courses series.(POWER TRANSMISSION + MOTION CONTROL)
March 7, 2005... ASME (The American Society of Mechanical Engineers) is sponsoring a series of short courses, March 21-25, in Las Vegas. Focusing on a variety of mechanical engineering fields, courses include pressure vessels, piping and boilers, design, and...

SMMA 2005 Spring Conference.(POWER TRANSMISSION + MOTION CONTROL)
March 7, 2005... Members and prospective members of SMMA (The Motor & Motion Association) will discuss "Facing Tomorrow's Challenges Today" at the SMMA 2005 Spring Management Conference. It will be held May 4-6 at the Omni Tucson National Golf Resort & Spa in...

CAD-to-motion tool seals curtain bags: gluing machine auto-generates seam sealing paths from CAD drawings.(PC-BASED CONTROL)(Computer aided design)(Automotive Safety Components International )
March 7, 2005... A new tool that generates motion control paths directly from CAD drawings is helping airbag manufacturer Automotive Safety Components International (www.safetycomponents.com) ramp up production for the fast-growing curtain-bag market. ...

Non-cogging motor improves grinding: commentary from Greg Graham, CTO, ThinGap Corp.(MICRO POSITION)
March 7, 2005... Mating a non-cogging motor with an ultra-precision air-bearing spindle enabled a micro-grinder spindle/indexing system for outside diameter (OD) grinding and profiling of parts with diameters as small as 25 microns. The non-cogging motor...

2D software.(SOFTWARE + HARDWARE)
March 7, 2005... UGS, announced ABAQUS, Inc., has selected 2D Dimensional Constraint Manager (2D DCM) component software from their D-Cubed subsidiary for use in ABAQUS/CAE. Using geometric dimensions and constraints, D-Cubed's 2D DCM component "sketcher"...

Sun getting faster.(SOFTWARE + HARDWARE)(Sun Microsystems )(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Sun Microsystems claims its SPARC-based Sun Blade workstations are getting faster with up to a 40-percent increase in performance. The company says the workstations are more advanced than the previous generation of Sun Blades, providing double...

International recognition.(SOFTWARE + HARDWARE)(ImpactXoft gets award)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... ImpactXoft, a provider of collaborative 3D product design software, received the Innovator of the Year Award from the German magazine CAD CAM. The management says the software enables new ways to collaborate.

Fluid dynamics analysis protects astronauts: simulations measure C[O.sub.2] levels in the ISS.(CFD)(International Space Station)(computational fluid dynamics)
March 7, 2005... Computer simulation is helping to protect astronauts in the International Space Station (ISS), from carbon dioxide buildup when the crew quarters ventilation system is out of service. Astronauts in the space station sleep in small compartments...

New FEA product simulates progressive failure: meshing, Model Trees, and visualization also bolstered.(FEA)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... ABAQUS Inc. has released Version 6.5 of its product suite by the same name. Among the enhancements: New capabilities in fracture and failure analysis so engineers can model damage and failure of materials, fasteners, and other connections, and...

DWG wars continue: new plug-in offered to work with any file.(SOFTWARE + HARDWARE)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... SolidWorks continues its campaign to lure AutoCAD[R] users. The company announced a new product that it says enables engineers to work with multiple versions of DWG files regardless of the AutoCAD version that produced it without suffering...

Product cuts FEA set-up time: MSC.Fatigue 2005 r1 breaks large models into groups during translation.(SOFTWARE + HARDWARE)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... MSC.Software Corp. says its new MSC.Fatigue 2005 r1 helps engineers evaluate durability and damage tolerance of components and systems and make changes early in the design cycle before prototypes are ever created. Among the enhancements in...

Linear actuators ... airflow design software ... contracting material ... the Search Engineer finds solutions to all your questions, problems, and dilemmas. Occasionally, he could be wrong. But he doubts it.(Ask THE SEARCH ENGINEER)
March 7, 2005... Dear Search Engineer: I am looking for a linear actuator with an adjustable stroke of up to 10 inches. It has to be smooth operating from -60 to +200F and repeatable to 0.032 inch. We use it to cycle test parts in an environmental chamber. We...

Intermec IP3 Portable RFID (UHF) reader: check this out.(REFERENCE THIS!)(Advertisement)
March 7, 2005... With Wal-Mart driving suppliers to implement RFID tracking, devices like Intermec's RFID reader should soon be getting a good workout. The IP3 combined with Intermec's 700 Series mobile computer provides a handheld mobile computing device with...

Space cadet: Jim Tighe was the driving force behind the aerodynamics of SpaceshipOne, the airplane that won the coveted Ansari X Prize. For his achievements, Design News readers have voted him Engineer of the Year.(Scaled Composites Inc.)(Cover Story)
March 7, 2005... 'Where's Jim Tighe?" [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SpaceShipOne (SS1) Crew Chief Steve Losey instinctively blurted out the question from the cockpit, and it was quickly repeated by the team of engineers in the Scaled Composites hangar until...

Nothing sits idle: Schuler's hard-working transfer press is boosting productivity for automakers on both sides of the Atlantic.(GLOBAL INNOVATION)
March 7, 2005... WHEN IT COMES TO INVESTING HUGE SUMS IN AUTOMATION, MANUFACTURERS worldwide share a common wish list. They want equipment that delivers high throughput, produces quality parts, and takes up as little space as possible. [ILLUSTRATION...

Micro pumps take the heat: at the University of Washington, students refined a Tesla invention and produced a tiny pump with no moving parts.(COLLEGE STUDENT DESIGN AWARD)
March 7, 2005... WHEN YOU THINK OF SPACE EXPLORATION, IMAGES OF SOPHISTICATED SPACECRAFT probably come to mind. But future NASA missions will rely on down-to-earth technology--miniature pumps that help remove heat from electronic components. While working as...

The best products of 2004.
March 7, 2005... When it comes to technical products, working design engineers really do know best. So for this year's Design News Best Products of the Year contest, we decided to put all the contenders up for a direct vote and ask our readers to be the only...

Scope duo leads the real-time pack: user can decode high-speed 8b/10b serial signals.(LATEST IN THE MARKETPLACE)
March 7, 2005... Two real-time oscilloscopes from Tektronix offer engineers the high bandwidths to test and characterize new serial data links that continue to supplant parallel-shared data buses in computer, communication, and consumer electronics. These...

Triple video driver: designers can bypass filters.(EXPO)
March 7, 2005... The FMS6407 is designed as the industry's only triple video driver that combines flexibility with sixth-order filtering, high-definition (HD), progressive scan (PS), and standard-definition (SD) filters in one chip. Its triple sixth-order...

Navigation sensor: increases number of navigation surfaces.(EXPO)
March 7, 2005... Called the world's first navigation sensor for the computer mouse, Agilent's SDNB-6021 is based on laser technology. It is designed to dramatically increase the number of surfaces that can be navigated by the mouse, providing 20 times the...

Power amplifier: first to be integrated into monolithic die.(EXPO)
March 7, 2005... Silicon Laboratories' Si4300 is designed as the industry's first CMOS power amplifier for GSM/GPRS cellular handsets and the first to be integrated into a monolithic die. To overcome the gate oxide breakdown, the principal roadblock for...

Front-end module: eliminates need for bulky and costly isolator.(EXPO)
March 7, 2005... The Agilent AFEM-7731 front-end module is designed for use in dual-band and U.S. PCS mobile phones and wireless data cards. It is reportedly the industry's first combined CDMA duplexer/power amplifier front-end module (FEM), and is a fully...

Duplexer: allows miniature RF modules to be embedded.(EXPO)
March 7, 2005... The Agilent ACMD-7401 is reportedly the industry's smallest film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) duplexer for handsets, data cards, and other wireless products operating in the U.S. PCS frequency band. According to the company, it is the first...

Optical proximity sensor: increases mobile phone conversation safety.(EXPO)
March 7, 2005... Agilent HSDL-9100-021 optical proximity sensor is designed to enable an automatic change from loudspeaker to earpiece mode when the mobile phone is placed near the ear, thus eliminating the need for user intervention. It can also detect the...

Logarithmic amplifier: provides temperature-compensated output voltage.(EXPO)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Analog Devices' AD8318 is designed as a highly integrated wide dynamic range SiGe Logarithmic Amplifier that provides a temperature-compensated output voltage for frequencies from 1 MHz up to 8 GHz. It is specified at the cellular 900 MHz,...

ADC converter: reduces power supply requirements.(EXPO)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Texas Instruments' ADS5500 is a 14-bit, 125-MSPS ADC converter that is designed with 70 dB SNR and 82 dB SFDR at 100 MHz input frequency. It has a performance of 125 MSPS; its low power dissipation (750 mW) reduces power supply requirements and...

Power switches: reduce EMI emissions.(EXPO)
March 7, 2005... Fairchild's green FPS devices, FSCQ0765RT, FSCQ1265RT, and FSCQ1565RT, are designed as highly integrated off-line power switches that incorporate a fully avalanche-rated SenseFet and current mode PWM IC in a single package. The products reduce...

Optocoupler: eliminates damage to inner package materials during high temps.(EXPO)
March 7, 2005... Fairchild's FODB100 is introduced as the industry's first BGA-packaged surface mount optocoupler (microcoupler) to offer a small package size (3.5 X 3.5 mm), low profile (1.2 mm maximum mounted height) and 125C maximum operating temperature. It...

SAR ADC: provides highest sampling rate available.(EXPO)
March 7, 2005... Described as the fastest, most accurate 18-bit SAR in the industry, the fully differential AD7641 SAR ADC provides 18 bits of resolution at 2 MSPS. It also reportedly has the highest sampling rate available, providing low power at 100 mW from a...

Power management system: enables remote control.(EXPO)
March 7, 2005... SecureLinx SLP, from Lantronix, is designed as a power management system that gives system administrators 24/7 control over the power to their business critical data center equipment from anywhere in the world. Through a secure Web interface,...

UPS: features hot swappable battery.(EXPO)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... MGE's EX RT, ranging from 5 to 11 kVA, is an uninterruptible power supply that offers high performance online operation with dual-feed ac input sources to provide a double layer of power availability to protected equipment. It is designed for...

MCU: low power consumption.(EXPO)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Designed as the industry's lowest power MCUs, the MSP430F2xx ultra-low power 16-bit Texas Instruments' RISC microcontrollers provide twice the processing performance and half the standby power consumption compared to earlier devices. The...

Multi-platform FPGA family: optimized feor ultra-high-performance signal processing.(EXPO)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Xilinx Virtex-4 multi-platform FPGA family is reportedly changing IC economics with three platforms comprising 17 devices optimized for multiple application domains: LX for Logic Integration; SX for high-performance DSP; and FX for Serial...

MCU: increases testability of end systems.(EXPO)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Silicon Laboratories' C8051F064 is introduced as the industry's first MCU with high-speed on-chip 16-bit A/D converters at a price point that is competitive with similar performing standalone ADCs that don't include MCU functionality. It...

Transceiver: extends life of FR-4 router backplanes.(EXPO)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... National Semiconductor's quad 5 Gbps SCAN50C400 transceiver is designed to extend the life of existing, high-end FR-4 router backplanes by quadrupling the data throughput capacity up to 40 Gbps, according to the company. It enables...

Thermocouple lasts: longer in demanding applications.(EXPO)
March 7, 2005... WATCOUPLE is a nonstandard thermocouple (plug-and-play smart sensor) designed to last longer in demanding applications and provide more accurate temperature measurements. It is based on IEEE 1451.4 plug-and-play smart sensor technology, so it...

Microcontroller: smallest practical soft processor.(EXPO)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Xilinx's PicoBlaze Microcontroller is an 8-bit macro that can be 100 percent embedded into the Spartan-3, Virtex-II Pro, and Virtex-4 FPGA devices. It has 16 registers, 64 bytes of scratch pad memory, an automatic call/return stack (31 deep),...

Microcontrollers: reduce number of components into one chip.(EXPO)
March 7, 2005... Analog Devices' ADuC702x family of precision analog microcontrollers is designed to integrate precision analog measurement and control functions with a 32-bit RISC microprocessor. A single-chip solution, it combines a multichannel, 1 MSPS,...

Digital up-converter: reduces crests by up to 6 dB.(EXPO)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... A six-channel digital up-converter, Analog Devices' AD6633 is suitable for emerging third-generation cellular transmitters, including W-CDMA, CDMA2000, and TDSCDMA standards. It is designed to exceed the filtering and turning requirements for...

Single-chip codec: has no internal rate control.(EXPO)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... The ADV202, from Analog Devices, is designed as a complete single-chip JPEG 2000 compression/decompression solution for video and still images. Its dedicated video port provides glueless connection to common digital video standards, while two...

Platform: gives access to low-level hardware resources.(EXPO)
March 7, 2005... The National Instruments CompactRIO platform combines a real-time embedded processor, the reconfigurable I/O FPGA core, and industrial hot-swappable I/O modules for customizable embedded control and acquisition. The product is powered by NI RIO...

Inspection sensor: provides 100 percent inspection testing.(EXPO)
March 7, 2005... ifm efector's inspection sensor, efector dualis, monitors a range of error-proofing applications to provide a reported 100 percent inspection testing throughout assembly automation and packaging processes. Through contour evaluation, the sensor...

Server: supports wired and 802.11b wireless Ethernet.(EXPO)
March 7, 2005... Lantronix's WiPort is designed as the first fully integrated embedded device server (networking solution) supporting both wired and 802.11b wireless Ethernet. It enables OEMs to easily add wireless connectivity to their products for the purpose...

Programmable processor: offers multi-processing imaging solutions.(EXPO)
March 7, 2005... The ADSP-BF561, from Analog Devices, is engineered as a programmable processor for digital entertainment applications. It is the latest entry in the company's portfolio of Blackfin processors, enabling SMP. Because of the Blackfin's SMP...

Processor: provides new convergence platform.(EXPO)
March 7, 2005... The Blackfin[R] Fusiv[TM] Platform is introduced as the industry's first processor to combine IP communications software, secure network processing, and voice processing in a single solution, the company reports. The product unites the media...

PPDS architecture and chipset: designed to drive very large panels.(EXPO)
March 7, 2005... National Semiconductor has developed PPDS architecture that dramatically simplifies the interconnect to improve display performance, enable smaller bezels, and deliver more than 1 billion colors to the display (true 30-bit color). Designed to...

Connector system: reduces cost, weight, and delivery time.(EXPO)
March 7, 2005... FCI's AirMax VS (Virtual Shield) connector system combines an innovative Insert Molded Leadframe Assembly with the use of air as the dielectric. This is designed to facilitate high signal density while exhibiting the industry's lowest insertion...

Cable carrier: eliminates robotic downtime.(EXPO)
March 7, 2005... From igus Inc., Triflex R[R] is engineered as a cable carrier for robotic applications that require 3D and multiaxis freedom of movement. It guides cables and hoses attached to automated robotic machinery; smooth contours and a tubular design...

Current sensor: saves board space.(EXPO)
March 7, 2005... Allegro MicroSystems' ACS704ELC-015 Current Sensor is introduced as the first SOIC8-packaged Hall-effect current sensor with the current path integrated into the package. It is designed to measure bi-directional ac or dc currents by using a...

Switching power supply: features slim design for layout flexibility.(EXPO)
March 7, 2005... The LPQ173 switching power supply, from Astec Power, is designed to be suited for 1U rack installations and other low-profile applications, such as telecommunications, networking, test and measurement equipment, and medical instruments. It...

Switches: feature built-in bicolor LED.(EXPO)
March 7, 2005... NKK Switches' KP01 series is engineered with distinctive features that make it the suitable choice for the A/V and broadcast markets. Three different cap sizes are available: 12, 15, and 17.4 mm; the company is reportedly the first to offer all...

Small motor connector: requires minimal space.(EXPO)
March 7, 2005... The M3[TM] small motor connector is designed to be 50 percent lighter, and it has a significantly lower installation cost than conventional designs. It requires minimal space, and comes completely sealed and shielded for high reliability; its...

Matrix switch module: reduces cost of ATE.(EXPO)
March 7, 2005... The National Instruments NI PXI-2532 ultra-high-density matrix switch module offers 512 crosspoints--the highest-density matrix switch available for a single 3U PXI slot, according to the company. With this level of switch density, engineers...