Electronics Weekly articles from August 2004

Electronics Weekly archives from August 2004

Enter the awards to be a winner.
August 4, 2004... Don't forget to enter your company, or its latest products for this year's European Electronics Industry Awards. The gala awards dinner is in Munich on November 9. www.electronicsweekly.com/awards

Digital design delight.
August 4, 2004... Richard Ball finds Oxford University the place to go if you want training in digital design course that has been running for ten years could fall into the trap of becoming staid and boring, even when the subject matter is high speed...

Ordered polymers emit single photons.
August 4, 2004... Molecules of the semiconducting polymer MEH-PPV - commonly used in light-emitting diodes - have been shown to act as efficient single photon emitters when forced to adopt an ordered conformation. Researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory...

Quantum dots see the light.
August 4, 2004... The University of Chicago has used an old mathematical technique to speed the measurement of quantum dots. Stimulated quantum dots emit light in a series of seemingly random flashes, the statistics of which reveal properties of the dots. "A...

Logic analyser common footprint claims could end in collaboration of probe design.
August 4, 2004... Tektronix and Agilent Technologies have both claimed that the common footprint of the latest 34-channel contactless logic analyser probes was their idea. Dave Ireland, European marketing manager for design and manufacturing at Tektronix, said...

Young, gifted... ; (and they're engineers).
August 4, 2004... The first Annual Celebration of Engineering merged the Youth, Electronics, Design, Applications award with the Young Engineers for Britain award. Melanie Reynolds went to judge whether the expanded event is good for electronics alking into...

Microscale grasping device holds biological cells without damage.
August 4, 2004... Researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed a microscale grasping device that can trap and hold biological samples such as cells at low temperatures. Such devices are useful, since, unlike planar tweezers, they confine a particle...

'Significant' step for zero resistance power wire.
August 4, 2004... American Superconductor (AMSC) claims to have achieved "significant manufacturing development benchmarks" for second generation (2G) high temperature superconductor (HTS) wire. Presenting data to the US Department of Energy, the firm said it...

US picks IBM supercomputer.
August 4, 2004... IBM has been chosen to provide a 20TFlops supercomputer to the US Defense Department. The machine, to be based in Mississippi, will triple the US military's available computing power, and be used for various tasks including meteorology for the...

US firm Cree enters high-power LED market in strategy move.
August 4, 2004... US compound semiconductor firm Cree has stepped into the high-power LED market, having previously only sold bare die to device makers. "This is the first high-powered packaged LED product that Cree has released as part of the lighting product...

Lead-free 500mA DC-DC converter.
August 4, 2004... Texas Instruments is offering its smallest step-down 500mA DC-DC converter IC with integrated Fets in a lead-free, 2x1mm chip-scale package. The synchronous, switch-mode device achieves up to 93 per cent power conversion efficiency while...

Accelerated Tech supports ColdFire.
August 4, 2004... Accelerated Technology has added support for Freescale Semiconductor's ColdFire V4e core-based MCF547x and 548x processors to its Nucleus real-time operating system (RTOS) and development environment. The processors include a memory management...

Analysts warn over impact of chip inventory size on prices.
August 4, 2004... Two analyst firms have warned over swelling chip inventories and the potential impact on prices in the second half of the year. However, TSMC, the world's largest foundry, said last week that the situation is not uniform through the industry...

EDA Solutions picks student for sales.
August 4, 2004... Fraser Morgan, a final year electrical and electronic engineering student at the University of Southampton, has joined EDA Solutions as a technical sales executive. Morgan completed an eight-week STEP (Shell Technology Enterprise Programme)...

Wake up! shouts ASTiD car device.
August 4, 2004... A device developed in the UK to prevent traffic accidents due to tiredness has been launched in Australia. The Advisory System for Tired Drivers (ASTiD) combines an analysis of variables such as the duration and type of driving, with biological...

Chip forecast? ...it's in the lap of the frogs.
August 4, 2004... The number of frogs per cubic metre of water could solve a conundrum that has baffled mankind for half a century: accurately forecasting the semiconductor industry. Merrill Lynch analyst Joseph Osha has taken a biological model for forecasting...

Demand 'growing' for Posix-compliant RTOSs.
August 4, 2004... Green Hills Software says there is a growing demand for Posix-compliant RTOSs. The claim matches the release of the latest versions of its operating systems that will tap into the market. Version five of Integrity and Velosity will support IEEE...

Electronics results shine in first half.
August 4, 2004... UK firms reporting results last week covered a range of sectors, from materials to chips to set-top boxes. Materials group Cookson said its electronics division saw tripled operating profits, with market conditions favourable and demand for PCB...

Government lead-free documents available in the 'next two weeks'.
August 4, 2004... Government consultation documents on the RoHS (lead-free) and WEEE (waste) Directives will be available to stakeholders "in the next week or two", said a DTI spokesman. The documents will include draft versions of UK regulations and draft...

Manufacturer calls for standard lead-free mark.
August 4, 2004... Contract manufacturer Zirkon has called for standard markings to denote lead-free or RoHS-compliant products. While component suppliers are beginning to supply part numbering and marking scheme information, there are many different approaches...

European directive rewrites EMC legislation in more complex terms.
August 4, 2004... A new European Directive is to supersede existing EMC legislation. "I don't think it will have any major hit on manufacturing," said EMC consultant David Imeson, who is one of the directive's authors. "You should see a final draft around about...

Semiconductor forecast seminar sees poor outlook for European electronics.
August 4, 2004... The outlook for the European electronics industry has never been worse, according to the Future Horizons mid-term semiconductor industry forecast seminar in London last week. Europe is losing share in the electronics equipment market and nobody...

DEFRA plans chip chemical talks.
August 4, 2004... DEFRA, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, is to consult stakeholders on perfluorooctane sulfonates (PFOS) in late September, said DEFRA policy advisor Hasmitta Stewart. PFOS is a bio-accumulative, toxic,...

South Korean group plan to build flash fab in China.
August 4, 2004... A group of South Korean businessmen has proposed the idea of building a flash fab in China following the $1.8bn flotation of Chinese foundry SMIC and the surging NAND flash market. The group, called LMNT, is looking to raise $1.4bn to build the...

Chip suppliers pin hopes on mobile and automotive.
August 4, 2004... Concern that the semiconductor market has peaked and will stop growing this year are being played down by suppliers banking on new levels of demand from the mobile and automotive sectors. "Inevitably the market will flatten, it's just a...

Axiom pulls off equipment coup.
August 4, 2004... Contract manufacturing firm Axiom has won a place as sub-contractor to the front runner in a lucrative defence contract. Axiom has been chosen by the CAE-led Landmark Training consortium to supply electro-mechanical assemblies for use in...

DRAM revenue hits $6.7bn in Q2.
August 4, 2004... Worldwide DRAM revenue reached $6.7bn in Q2, a 20 per cent rise over Q1, according to estimates by market analyst Gartner. The top spot was again reserved for Samsung Electronics, which grew its market share to 29.7 per cent. Hynix...

Nanotech gets new chemical treatment.
August 4, 2004... A Government-commissioned report on nanotechnology published last week has recommended that nanoparticles and nanotubes be treated as new chemicals under UK and European legislation, but concluded there is no justification for banning their...

Academic seeks Government grant to fund system-on-chip research.
August 4, 2004... A leading academic is asking the Government for [pounds sterling]10m to fund research into system-on-chip design following the failure of a more financially ambitious industry-backed proposal to win DTI backing. The new proposal to fund...

A matter of life and death.
August 18, 2004... Medical science is using optical tomography for an ever-growing number of applications, from detecting skin cancer to monitoring the brain function of astronauts on extended space missions. STEVE BUSH reports atch it early, and skin cancer...

Slow start for Welsh technology incubator centre.
August 18, 2004... The Optic Technium technology incubator centre in north Wales is six months behind schedule, with just three firms on-site at St Asaph at the start of August. In March the Welsh Development Agency's optoelectronics sector manager, Ian Maxwell,...

Integrating capacitors in low-cost resin PCBs.
August 18, 2004... The trend for mobile devices to include multiple wireless functions such as GPS and wireless LAN on a single circuit board demands the integration of passive components into those boards, to save both space and cost. But integrating high...

Snappy resolution.
August 18, 2004... Image sensor suppliers are pushing the resolution of low cost devices for mobile camera phones to 2 megapixels, writes RICHARD WILSON o sooner do camera phones get 1.3 megapixel resolution then the image sensor suppliers talk of a even...

Amino lands US set-top deal.
August 18, 2004... Amino Communications has done a deal with a Utah firm providing 20,000 set-top boxes with high-speed Internet, always-on video monitoring and broadcast quality video telephony to 14 cities in Utah.

Counting frogs.
August 18, 2004... The semiconductor industry has always been plagued by uncertainty in its growth forecasts, and with a spread of more than 35 per cent, predictions for next year are no different. However, one analyst has adapted a mathematical model conceived...

Industry group applauds Ofcom for spectrum trading introduction.
August 18, 2004... Ofcom has been praised for its handling of the contentious introduction of a trading regime for radio spectrum by electronics and IT industry body Intellect. However, Intellect's senior radio programme manager, Jim Munro, warned that its...

The terahertz cascade.
August 18, 2004... Electromagnetic radiation between 300GHz and 10THz holds a great deal of promise as a screening and detection medium, but has proved difficult to produce. HARRY YEATES looks at innovations currently being developed to gain access other...

Comms firms confident of improved global market as customer spending grows.
August 18, 2004... An improving global telecoms market was behind the growing confidence expressed by two of the UK's largest telecoms systems suppliers, Marconi and Spirent. Spirent saw a four per cent hike in first half year turnover, from [pounds sterling]229m...

And the winners are...
August 18, 2004... The EW tech team spent more than a day going through entries for the PIC10F design competition. The standard was high and making a final decision meant several phone calls to part makers and other experts to check some of the more obscure...

China blamed for chip drop.
August 18, 2004... Weaker than expected demand for semiconductors from China was partly to blame for National Semiconductor forecasting a four to five per cent fall in sales revenues in the most recent business quarter, compared with the previous three months....

Consumer steals march on PCs.
August 18, 2004... The growth in consumer electronics means the market for products such as digital cameras, TVs and mobile phones will soon overtake the market for PCs, according to analysts Future Horizons.

Sensor firm sets up imaging research centre with Brunel.
August 18, 2004... Essex sensor specialist, e2v Technologies has set up a research centre for image sensing technology in partnership with Brunel University. Representing a [pounds sterling]500,000 investment by the firm, the Centre for Electronic Imaging will be...

CEMs surviving trade drain to Eastern Europe.
August 18, 2004... Contract manufacturing is alive and kicking in the UK, according to one SME. Brantham Engineering said the volume of manufacturing leaving the country is matched by contracts returning from overseas. "There are lots of products that do go...

Consumers spend more time on Web, TV, and mobile, says Ofcom.
August 18, 2004... Mobile phones, the Internet, TV and even radio are taking up more of our time, according to figures from Ofcom. The comms regulator said that in the past four years consumers have increased their time online eight-fold, and tripled the length...

Ntera cuts display cost and extends cycle life with patents acquisition.
August 18, 2004... Irish display technology firm Ntera has acquired a number of technology patents from a Swedish consortium. "These will enable us to encapsulate our devices in a more efficient way and potentially improve display life and bi-stability," David...

CDT to float in the US.
August 18, 2004... Polymer organic LED firm Cambridge Display Technology has announced it is to float on the Nasdaq stock exchange later this year. The firm said the proceeds of the IPO will be used for R&D, capital expenditure, debt repayment and possible...

Photonics firm bought to create world's top IP list.
August 18, 2004... Danish firm Crystal Fibre, which acquired photonic crystal fibre (PCF) developer BlazePhotonics, has claimed it has the world's strongest collection of PCF IP. PCF guides light using holes of different sizes along the fibre's length. Varying...

Chip firm contributes to 10Gbit/s fibre comms standard.
August 18, 2004... UK chip firm Phyworks is contributing technology to an IEEE standard to extend the reach of 10Gbit/s fibre comms by a factor of 10 and significantly reduce costs. Existing methods of sending 10Gbit/s data through up to 300m of standard fibre...

Pure-play foundry sales set to jump.
August 18, 2004... After growing twice as fast as the total semiconductor market in 2003, pure-play foundry sales are forecast to increase 52 per cent in 2004 to $17.17bn, compared to a 31 per cent increase in the overall semiconductor market this year, said IC...

Distribution boss warns of fake chips as supply tightens.
August 18, 2004... With the return of tight component supply has come the curse of counterfeit ICs, with desperate manufacturers, short of product, being exploited by fraudsters. "The increase in demand for electronic components goes hand in hand with the...

Suppliers have less than a year for RoHS compliance, says distributor.
August 18, 2004... Although two years remain before the RoHS Directive goes live, device makers have less than a year to make their components free of hazardous materials. This warning comes from distributor Switchtec, which is pushing suppliers for an earlier...

PIC circuit design competition winners announced.
August 18, 2004... Following much scrutiny, analysis and debate, judging is complete in the Electronics Weekly/Microchip PIC10F microcontroller circuit design competition, and the winning designs can be seen on pages 7 and 8. Eventually six winners were chosen,...

EOC to look into engineering.
August 18, 2004... The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) is carrying out an investigation into employment sectors such as engineering and IT, which it believes are suffering from being male dominated. A questionnaire is available at: www.eoc.org.uk/segregation...

HOME NETWORK PUTS A LOT OF DATA THROUGH A FEW COMPONENTS.
August 18, 2004... Paul Brooking, Pascall Electronics, Isle of Wight. This design got votes at EW for getting a lot done with a few components, and including a data transfer protocol which fitted the component values. It was the most thoroughly thought-out...