Electronics Weekly articles from February 2006

Electronics Weekly archives from February 2006

News.
February 1, 2006... The National Audit Office (NAO) is to investigate the privatisation of the former publicly-owned research agency Qinetiq in order to check whether it created good value for money for the taxpayer. EW reported (18/01/06) that the NAO was...

News.
February 1, 2006... Dialight-Lumidrives, the UK based LED technology firm, has lit up a property complex in Duisburg's inner harbour. The Five Boats complex has been interior lit by Lumidrives' colour changing LEDs, controlled by Lumidrives' DMX colour drivers....

News.
February 1, 2006... The Government agency Envirowise has been criticised for giving potentially misleading information about the requirements for companies to meet the July 1 deadline for the RoHS Directive. Liverpool-based manufacturer Brainboxes complained...

News.
February 1, 2006... Only Sweden, Denmark and Germany in Europe are investing enough money on research and development for their manufacturing industry to remain globally competitive, according to a report from financial firm KPMG. Other countries have to...

News.
February 1, 2006... A man-portable radar developed by Plextek is being trialled for use by BAE Systems Integrated System Technologies (Insyte). Designed as a portable and low cost radar for use in security and asset tracking systems, Plextek's Blighter radar...

News.
February 1, 2006... Cambridge-based Camcon Technology has gained a European patent for its Intelligent Valve Actuation (IVA) technology which allows electrical operation of internal combustion engine valves without resorting to cams. "If all goes to plan, in...

News.
February 1, 2006... Distributor Avnet-Memec is beginning its push to be a lead player in the European technical distributor market. The firm is rolling out an aggressive campaign armed with a new line card, new management team and new business model. The...

News.
February 1, 2006... For STMicroelectronics, 2005 was a year of gaining structural efficiencies, while 2006 will be a year of growing sales and market share. The structural efficiencies were aimed at manufacturing efficiency, cost efficiency and capital...

News.
February 1, 2006... letters Dear Editor As we duly and responsibly change our stocks and processes to comply with the RoHS regulations this July, I can't help wondering what will happen to the non-compliant stocks. Since there will inevitably be...

News.
February 1, 2006... US trade body IPC is set to adopt two materials declaration standards to help US firms comply with the European Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive. The standards are designed to create a common electronic data format for...

News.
February 1, 2006... Bob Willis has received Soldertec/Tin Technology's process development award in the annual Lead-Free Solder Awards. Willis (left) was presented the award by David Bishop, managing director of Soldertec/Tin Technology. Willis co-ordinates the...

News.
February 1, 2006... Feb 8-9: Southern Electronics 2006, Thorpe Park. www.industry.co.uk Feb 12-14: ISS conference for semiconductor executives, Amsterdam. www.semi.org/isseurope Feb 13-16: 3GSM World Congress, Barcelona. www.3gsmworldcongress.com Feb...

News.
February 1, 2006... The resurgence of 802.20 wireless broadband access technology could represent serious competition for WiMAX, although the current momentum behind WiMAX will help, according to analysts. Based on flash-OFDM technology developed by Flarion...

News.
February 1, 2006... PCB firm Exception PCB is guaranteeing a 20-day turnaround on its products and a focus on its five day service. The firm also said it is expecting over [pounds sterling]1m of revenues in 2006 from flex-rigids, a sector the firm has recently...

News.
February 1, 2006... London Stock Exchange listed firm Bede announced it has completed its transition to a semiconductor capital equipment company. "The improvements which have been made over the last 40 years in line with Moore's Law look set to continue and...

News.
February 1, 2006... The UK Electronics Alliance (UKEA) has continued its development as the industry's newest collaborative body with the naming of its first chairman. Ashley Evans, the chief executive of Electronics Scotland, chaired his first meeting of the...

News.
February 1, 2006... letters Dear Editor As we duly and responsibly change our stocks and processes to comply with the RoHS regulations this July, I can't help wondering what will happen to the non-compliant stocks. Since there will inevitably be non-compliant...

News.
February 1, 2006... China is reported to have chosen TD-SCDMA, its home grown 3G wireless standard, as the national technology standard for its telecoms industry. The worldwide telecom industry had expected China to adopt the technology, but it was expected...

News.
February 1, 2006... Stevenage-based contract electronics manufacturer Printed Systems, has supplied a series of safety-critical printed circuit boards for the control system at the [pounds sterling]370m Diamond Light Source synchrotron at Chilton in Oxfordshire....

News.
February 1, 2006... By David Manners david.manners@rbi.co.uk The chip industry is moving into a period of manufacturing capacity shortage which could spell danger for fabless firms, according to the Annual Semiconductor Industry Forecast Seminar for 2006,...

News.
February 1, 2006... Electronics system level (ESL) design tools provide a high or acceptable return on investment, according to 87 per cent of designers. The conclusion comes from a Europe-wide survey on engineer's perceptions of ESL, conducted by Mentor...

News.
February 1, 2006... By Harry Yeates harry.yeates@rbi.co.uk Speak to any UK academic about how they get the cash they need to carry out their work and it quickly becomes obvious that it isn't handed out for fun. The competition for funding is ferocious. For...

Features.
February 1, 2006... The last year has seen a great deal of discussion about the benefits and dangers of applying "intelligence" in power systems. As well as the talk, there has also been some significant actions, as manufacturers and power system designers have...

Features.
February 1, 2006... The astonishing increase in wireless end-applications has created special considerations for chip design project managers with these wireless applications for chips being designed at vastly-higher frequencies and speeds than in the previous...

News.
February 1, 2006... Standardisation processes are notoriously long-winded affairs, often characterised by factions seeking to embed their own IP in the developing standard, or derive some other direct benefit from the result. In the case of the now-abandoned...

Change and complexity are constant IC design challenge.
February 1, 2006... Scott Sandler president and CEO, Novas Software Change, along with death and taxes, is a constant. But in IC design there is another crucial constant - complexity. Designs have always been complex, but with each advance in process...

Features.
February 1, 2006... pic is in Aardvark; January2006 folder; Predictions2006 folder John Cornish, v-p marketing, processors division, ARM With mobile phone technology pushing the boundaries of feature-rich performance and battery life, the electronics...

Harnessing power to reach greater efficiency target.
February 1, 2006... John Cornish v-p marketing, processors division, ARM With mobile phone technology pushing the boundaries of feature-rich performance and battery life, the electronics industry is all too familiar with the importance of power...

Features.
February 1, 2006... The rules are simple when employing international sales staff. Always ask yourself this one easy question, would I employ this person to sell my product in the UK?' If the answer is no' then regardless of the number of languages spoken, the...

Features.
February 1, 2006... Feb 27-Mar 3: EMC Regulations, Standards and Management - York www.elec.york.ac.uk/cpd Feb 28: EMC Measurement Techniques - Leatherhead www.era.co.uk Feb 28: PCB Design Essentials - Stafford www.eda.co.uk/trainTechSem.html...

Features.
February 1, 2006... US researchers have wrapped strands of DNA around carbon nanotubes to make novel detectors for contaminants inside living cells. The devices work because the shape initially adopted by the DNA as it winds around the nanotube is altered by the...

Features.
February 1, 2006... question Dear Dr RoHS We use SAVBIT solder to connect 0.05mm self fluxing enamelled wire to terminals in small transformers. If we use conventional solder the surface of the copper dissolves into the solder so the wire is "necked" just where it...

Air-breathing Li-ion cell roars up capacity ladder.
February 1, 2006... The University of St Andrews is working on an air-breathing lithium-ion cell. "It is very early days," Professor Peter Bruce told EW. "The approach could offer a five times, or maybe even a 10 times, improvement in energy density." ...

News.
February 1, 2006... Hey smooth guy, fancy a cup of coffee? Honda has improved its Asimo humanoid robot again. The new version interacts more smoothly with people, for example by walking hand in hand, and it can also push trolleys, carry coffee cups, act as a...

News.
February 1, 2006... What: The Advanced Technology Institute (ATI). An interdisciplinary research centre for next-generation materials and devices for electronics and photonics. Where: Custom-designed building at the University of Surrey Established: Doors opened...

News.
February 1, 2006... CMOS transceiver for combi wireless handsets US wireless chip developer Sirific has announced a single-chip CMOS transceiver for combined HSDPA/W-CDMA/EDGE handsets. The SW3200 is the first product in the firm's Nexus III family, and...

News.
February 1, 2006... Philips has revealed details of its long-awaited 90nm ARM processor. "We made it on the Philips-ST 90nm process and actually got less leakage than the 120nm version," Philips director of product innovation Ata Khan told EW. "On this part...

News.
February 8, 2006... South of England semiconductor incubator group SETsquared expects to add five more companies this year to its current stable of five funded and operational semiconductor companies. SETsquared is a collaboration between the universities of...

News.
February 8, 2006... The Government's belief that the electronics industry is represented by a fragmented array of trade bodies is the first task to be tackled by the UK Electronics Alliance (UKEA). "I see the role of the UKEA as a discussion forum which will...

News.
February 8, 2006... ARM changes shape with non-mobile design wins ARM has transformed itself into a different company from its traditional role as a supplier of microprocessors for mobile phones. "ARM shouldn't be regarded as a mobile phone processor...

Fish tracking sonar system could be key to protecting world fish stocks.
February 8, 2006... A fish-tracking sonar system that can image a million times more ocean than existing techniques, surveying tens of millions of fish in real-time, could be a key to protecting fish stocks. The Ocean Acoustic Waveguide Remote Sensing (OAWRS)...

News.
February 8, 2006... Filtronic's shares lost over 30 per cent after the firm said it had made a pre-tax loss of [pounds sterling]5.6m and chief executive John Roulston resigned. Reports suggest his style of management was an issue rather than the performance of the...

News.
February 8, 2006... DoCoMo unveils HSDPA handsets Japanese operator NTT DoCoMo has announced its prototype high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) handsets, jointly developed with Fujitsu, Motorola and NEC. The operator is aiming to start HSDPA services...

News.
February 8, 2006... Wolfson profits leap with move to higher value ICs By David Manners david.manners@rbi.co.uk Wolfson Microelectronics, the Edinburgh mixed-signal firm, has increased its selling prices and reduced its costs leading to a 150 per cent hike in...

News.
February 8, 2006... Michael Vohrer is the new president and CEO at Rohde & Schwarz following the retirement of Friedrich Schwarz, the son of one of the company's founders. North Wales start-up company DeepStream Technologies has recruited Richard Parry-Jones...

News.
February 8, 2006... Worldwide sales of semiconductors grew 6.8 per cent last year to reach $227.5bn from the $213bn of 2004, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA. However, European semiconductor sales declined by 0.4 per cent according to...

News.
February 8, 2006... National Instruments UK & Ireland recently presented the prize for the overall best MSc student in electronic instrumentation systems at the University of Manchester to Mohammed Al-Loulah (right). Mohammed began his studies at the university in...

News.
February 8, 2006... LCDs set to beat plasma displays as mother-glass size capabilities grow By David Manners david.manners@rbi.co.uk Liquid crystal has won the battle with plasma and LCD technology will take a bigger share of the large screen market than...

News.
February 8, 2006... For a year before US president George W Bush deplored America's addiction to oil in last week's State of the Union address, the solar power sector has been running hot. Cypress Semiconductor's solar power subsidiary Sun Power floated in...

News.
February 8, 2006... Din-rail power supply firm Puls UK has moved to new offices in Ampthill. Staff at the firm now have over 2,000ft2 of office and warehouse space. Puls makes more than 350,000 power supplies each year. www.puls.co.uk

Nortel eyes ultra broadband following Huawei R&D deal.
February 8, 2006... By Melanie Reynolds melanie.reynolds@rbi.co.uk Nortel is planning to take a big slice of the worldwide broadband access market through a joint venture with Chinese firm Huawei Technologies. "We've not been a player in the broadband access...

Imager goes high-res for equipment hot-spotting.
February 8, 2006... By David Manners Irisys, the Towcester-based thermal imaging specialist, has moved up the resolution scale with a product which finds a hot-spot in electrical and mechanical equipment. "It's aimed at preventative maintenance," Dr Steve...

Irish universities to undertake radio research work with 50MHz allocation.
February 8, 2006... By Harry Yeates harry.yeates@rbi.co.uk Technologies and techniques for the dynamic distribution and regulation of radio spectrum are to be developed in Ireland, following the allocation of 50MHz for experimental work by ComReg, the...

News.
February 8, 2006... What: Cavendish Laboratory Where: Cambridge Year established: 1871 People: 700 in total, including 65 teaching staff, 150 postdoctoral fellows and 250 graduate students (29 Nobel Laureates have worked there) Research: High...

News.
February 8, 2006... Philips joins up to European silicon IC RF project for right-first-time Philips has joined a European project to develop models of RF behaviour in silicon ICs running at up to 60GHz. The Chameleon RF research also involves...

News.
February 8, 2006... GaAs Mosfets promise fast ADCs and power amplifiers By Harry Yeates harry.yeates@rbi.co.uk Freescale Semiconductor has developed GaAs Mosfets, solving a longstanding problem of finding a gate dielectric material suitable for mass...

Features.
February 8, 2006... GPRS, the first evolution of GSM wireless technology, was introduced in 2001, opening up a multitude of opportunities for industrial applications. With GPRS, freight can be tracked in real-time across an entire continent and substations in...

Features.
February 8, 2006... Conventional computing methods can solve most data processing and control tasks as long as you throw enough high-speed silicon at the problem. Our brains, though, can complete some remarkably complex tasks, faster than a room full of computers,...

Duo link on clockless version of ARM9 core.
February 8, 2006... ARM and Handshake Solutions, a spin-out from Philips, have announced a clockless version of the ARM9 core. The device, which has significantly lower power consumption than the clocked version, is aimed at the automotive market. "The...

Features.
February 8, 2006... US networking specialist Digi International will be launching its highest performance core module as an addition to its ConnectCore family at the Embedded World show next week. The Digi ConnectCore XP is Digi's first to use Intel's latest...

Sharp to show off mobile multimedia SoC roadmap.
February 8, 2006... Sharp Microelectronics Europe will unveil its newly-developed SoC roadmap at Embedded World 2006 in Nuremberg next week. The SoCs, part of Sharp's BlueStreak series, will be ARM-based, high-end processors, specifically targeted at the...

Features.
February 8, 2006... Lattice debuts 90nm FPGAs aimed at high and low-end Lattice Semiconductor has released two new families of 90nm FPGAs. The LatticeSC system chips' are high-end parts intended to compete with Xilinx's Virtex-4 and Altera's Stratix II...

Low-power radios to add functionality.
February 8, 2006... Mark Bowles founder and vice-president ?of business development ?and marketing, ?Staccato Communications One mega trend that will emerge this year is that low-cost low-power radios will follow embedded controllers into many of the products...

CyanIDE on display.
February 8, 2006... Cyan Technology will be demonstrating the latest version of CyanIDE, the free integrated development environment to support software development for its microcontrollers. This version will fully support all the features of the eCOG1X...

Motion stability.
February 8, 2006... Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe will be demonstrating electronic stability at Embedded World, combining its FlexRay, gyro and 32-bit MCU devices in an application for the automotive and industrial control markets. An S1BG series...

Renesas series has 'fastest embedded flash technology'.
February 8, 2006... Renesas Technology Europe claims its "flagship" SH708xF series of 32-bit Risc microcontrollers have the world's fastest embedded flash technology, offering 12.5ns access time. The devices operate at 80MHz with no wait states, yielding more...

On-chip antenna for SiGe transceiver.
February 8, 2006... The California Institute of Technology has integrated an aerial array into a 77GHz SiGe BiCMOS transceiver chip. "The primary challenge for an on-chip antenna is the high dielectric constant of silicon [=11.7] which absorbs most of the...

Features.
February 8, 2006... University micromachine takes power from radio-active source To power remote sensors, researchers at Cornell University in New York have built a micromachine to extract energy from a radio-active source. "Previous work has reported on...

Features.
February 8, 2006... NAND flash is emerging as the sort of chip product that creates new end applications. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, the fast pace of scaling DRAM, SRAM and microprocessors led to the introduction of products such as the digital watch, the pocket...

Features.
February 8, 2006... Gary Meyers CEO, Synplicity The observation of Intel's Gordon Moore that the number of transistors on a chip doubles every 18 to 24 months captures the driving force behind the semiconductor industry over the past 30 years. ...

Features.
February 8, 2006... Chris Rowen president and CEO, Tensilica Energy efficiency is foremost on our customers' minds as we enter 2006. More products are going mobile and have smaller power and packaging budgets. They are trying to cut overall energy...

News.
February 8, 2006... Radio access convergence to shake up mobile telecoms Dr Jeffery Torrance v-p fixed mobile convergence solutions, CSR The telecoms industry is about to witness one of its biggest ever shake-ups with the imminent convergence of...

Single chip 240W Class-D amp has 0.1% distortion.
February 8, 2006... Texas Instruments and the Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, have designed a single-chip 240W Class-D amplifier with open loop distortion under 0.1 per cent. "To the best of our knowledge, this power level is unprecedented for...

1A linear regulator has 288ps settling time.
February 8, 2006... Intel has revealed a 1A linear regulator with a settling time of 288ps at ISSCC this week. Part of the biasing scheme for a 2.4V to 1.2V DC-DC converter, the linear regulator runs from 2.4V and produces a Vcc/2 signal using linear-biased...

News.
February 8, 2006... DNA chip uses electronic sensing to replace glass chromophore labelling By Steve Bush steve.bush@rbi.co.uk Infineon, Siemens and the University of Bologna have teamed up to produce an all-electronic DNA analysis chip. The aim is to replace...

Laminate problem for PB-free solder.
February 15, 2006... PCB sourcing firm ALR Services has warned that getting the right board for lead-free solder is not a simple task. The firm's co-founder Jim Rosseter said the higher temperatures required by lead-free compatible boards mean there is a...

ARM collaborating on clockless CPU.
February 15, 2006... ARM is working with Philips business division Handshake Solutions to offer its first processor using clockless IC design technology. The companies claim that the ARM996HS processor is the industry's first licensable clockless processor. ...

Broadband RF chip start-up plans first prototype run in two months.
February 15, 2006... By David Manners david.manners@rbi.co.uk Lime Microsystems, the fabless chip start-up incubated by the SETsquared group of universities, expects its first prototype chips in two months, to be sampling customers by the end of 2006 and first...

News.
February 15, 2006... Summit Microelectronics, the programmable analogue power management specialist, is transforming this year from being primarily a telecoms industry supplier to being a supplier to the consumer ?industry, and is looking to set up a European...

News.
February 15, 2006... Zetex' shares gained last week after the firm said it had appointed Nick Hawkins as chief financial officer. The firm's senior management is seeing some changes with the recent appointment of Hans Rohrer as CEO. Rohrer joined the board of the...

Test house aiming to slash mobile approval timetables.
February 15, 2006... RFI Global Services is aiming to reduce the time it takes for type approval testing of mobile devices from 8-12 weeks down to one week with the introduction of a chipset vendor programme. "A few years ago the chipset or platform vendor...

Products.
February 15, 2006... Norwich-based ceramic multilayer capacitor manufacturer Syfer Technology has gained Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series 18001 certification. Gordon Fisher, Syfer Technology's health and safety officer, is pictured with the...

Firms collaborate on 'mid-tier' 3G reference design.
February 15, 2006... Freescale, Nokia and Symbian have teamed up to produce a 3G phone reference design. "This is expected to provide handset manufacturers and operators the means to address the mid-tier 3G market segment," said Freescale. The phone will...

Products.
February 15, 2006... Mar 2: Power seminar with Fairchild Semiconductor, Manchester. www.fairchildsemi.info/powerseminar2006 Mar 6-10: DATE 06 in Messe Munich, Germany. www.date-conference.com Mar 7-8: MicroTech 2006, design, manufacture and test for system...