Electronics Weekly articles from January 2006

Electronics Weekly archives from January 2006

Award-winning inquisitive robot observes object from distance and learns how to make approach.
January 11, 2006... A mobile robot that demonstrates intelligence as it meets a new object has won the Electrolux-sponsored 2005 Fourth British Computer Society's Annual Prize for Progress towards Machine Intelligence. Ifomind (pictured right), based on a...

Blue laser DVD firms plan market showdown this year.
January 11, 2006... By Suzanne Deffree sdeffree@reedbusiness.com The industry no longer sees red when it comes to competing DVD technology. It is seeing blue, and the main consumer electronics suppliers have entered the market with DVDs sporting blue lasers....

Bright young things deliver genuine business benefits.
January 11, 2006... Knowledge Transfer Partnerships enable companies to harness the talents of high-quality, recent graduates to achieve long-term strategic change and gain a competitive edge, says Emily Doyle By mixing business experience with the wealth of...

Clarifying the position of using silver cadmium oxide contacts in mining applications.
January 11, 2006... Question Dear Dr RoHS We are a small company manufacturing PO3000 type electromechanical relays which are still used in the manufacture and maintenance of mining equipment, railway signalling, power station controls and lift controls. We use...

Codec plays power chords.
January 11, 2006... Texas Instruments has introduced stereo codec for portable audio with power consumption as low as 14mW. "The TLV320AIC3x family of codecs consumes as little as a third the power of comparable devices," said the firm. Word-widths of 16, 20,...

News.
January 11, 2006... The first high resolution images of the Earth transmitted by TopSat, the micro-satellite designed and built by a Qinetiq-led consortium of British firms, have been received. It provides 2.8 metre resolution images at a lower cost than larger...

DT Electronics to represent SynQor in UK and Ireland.
January 11, 2006... DC-DC converter supplier SynQor has appointed DT Electronics as its exclusive representative for the UK and Ireland. The attraction of the deal to the distributor is that it will be rewarded for design-in business it wins in Europe even...

DTI announces review of WEEE implementation.
January 11, 2006... The DTI has confirmed it is to review proposals for implementing the WEEE (electronic waste) Directive in the UK. "The Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks has instigated an immediate review of proposals for implementing the WEEE directive in the...

Digital broadcasting encoding move could hit Freeview boxes.
January 11, 2006... The move from MPEG2 to MPEG4 digital broadcasting encoding standard could create a need to turn off the MPEG2 digital TV signal, making current Freeview digital terrestrial TV (DTT) receivers obsolete. "We are just at the cusp now of...

Dublin rocks to DAB with RTa Radio digital trials.
January 11, 2006... Ireland is to get DAB digital radio with the launch of a three month trial of the technology in Dublin by RTa Radio. "They've got no digital in Ireland," said Paul Harfoot, head of services at Rohde & Schwarz (R&S), which has loaned an...

Fibre Technologies aims to double turnover.
January 11, 2006... Comms system supplier Fibre Technologies (FTL) has set a target of doubling its turnover in the next three years following a management buyout. Sales director Ian Hunt has acquired 24.9 per cent of the Crowthorne-based firm in an MBO which...

Gas pipe Wi-Fi opens prospect of setting up wireless comms network.
January 11, 2006... By Steve Bush steve.bush@rbi.co.uk Wi-Fi can be used to communicate in gas pipes, claim researchers at the University of Missouri-Rolla. "We found that we could communicate over a little less than a mile [1.6km] with a 24in. [0.6m] pipe,"...

IPTV grapples with MPEG4 and HD.
January 11, 2006... By Melanie Reynolds melanie.reynolds@rbi.co.uk The advent of high definition and MPEG4 technology is causing problems in the deployment of IPTV (Internet protocol TV) for larger operators, according to Cambridge-based IPTV software...

Japan's waste policy puts UK to shame.
January 11, 2006... The UK has much to learn from Japan to effectively implement the EU WEEE (waste) Directive. Two Delays and the current uncertainty over an introduction date in this country for the directive appears poor management at the very least when a...

Keeping up with functionality.
January 11, 2006... Oren Teich director of product management, MontaVista Software As consumer devices become more prevalent and integrated into people's lives, they are also becoming increasingly complex - and wireless. As devices converge, the...

MCU attains highest security rating for electronic passport deployment.
January 11, 2006... Infineon Technologies has positioned itself in the market for electronic passport smartcard ICs by achieving the highest possible security rating for its 66PE family of microcontrollers (MCUs). The smartcard devices will need EAL 5+...

News.
January 11, 2006... CEM appoints strategic alliance manager Contract manufacturer Jaltek Systems, which has teamed with Swedish firm NOTE, has put in place a strategic alliance manager, Kevin Heath. Steve Pittom, Jaltek Systems sales director, said: "Kevin's key...

News.
January 11, 2006... Mighty Mouse of Sandia Labs with its handler Bob Anderson. A very powerful cobalt 60 gamma-ray source, which would kill a human in 30 seconds, jammed in a machine at White Sands Missile Range in the US. After failed attempts using...

NASA claims record laser transmission.
January 11, 2006... NASA scientists have claimed a record for laser transmission and detection over the longest distance. In preparation for an Earth flyby last year, the agency's Messenger craft, which is on its way to map Mercury, used the laser altimeter...

Philips targets display controllers at LCD TV market.
January 11, 2006... Philips has unveiled a flurry of chips aimed at LCD TVs. PNX5050 is a motion controller aimed at removing movement artefacts from high-definition televisions (HDTVs). "One problem with new matrix-type displays is you can see juddering...

Promising year for chips.
January 11, 2006... This year looks good for the chip industry with all the vital signs pointing to robust demand and little chance of excess capacity. "Excess inventory levels are close to zero, capacity utilisation is high and still rising, new fab capacity...

Qinetiq system updates data in a flying weapon.
January 11, 2006... Research organisation Qinetiq has demonstrated a system for updating target information in a flying weapon. In a trial by the RAF's Fast Jet and Weapons Operational Evaluation Unit, two separate Enhanced Paveway 2 (EPW2) self-steering...

Quick route to wireless functionality.
January 11, 2006... Sheffield wireless IC developer Jennic has released a range of IEEE802.15.4/ZigBee modules designed to enable rapid development of low-cost wireless sensor products. The JN5121MO range of modules give developers access to all the digital...

News.
January 11, 2006... SD card association to finalise sdhc spec The SD Card Association has announced it is to finalise specifications for high-capacity SD Memory Cards (SDHC) early this year. The specification will expand SD card capacity beyond 2GByte which the...

Researcher develops heated sensor to sniff out gases in outside environment.
January 11, 2006... By Harry Yeates harry.yeates@rbi.co.uk Emissions of foul smelling gases from landfill sites and water treatment works could be brought under closer control thanks to a device developed at the University of Manchester. Professor Krishna...

Resonant tunnelling breakthrough.
January 11, 2006... The first resonant tunnelling diodes to be built in amorphous carbon have been demonstrated by researchers at the University of Surrey. The result should lead to low-cost devices that can switch at gigahertz frequencies and be made over large...

SSTL launches biggest satellite as part of Galileo navigation system.
January 11, 2006... The first part of Europe's Galileo satellite navigation system was launched between Christmas and New Year, on a spacecraft made by Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL). "For us it is a big spacecraft, over 600kg," Surrey's Dr Craig...

Silicon device could enable GPs to screen patients for cancers.
January 11, 2006... Doctors could soon be able to screen for various cancers using a silicon device that detects the presence of proteins and similar species in bodily fluids. Existing screening techniques involve complex, unpleasant procedures such as barium...

Start-up ships first polymer-on-silicon microdisplays.
January 11, 2006... By Harry Yeates harry.yeates@rbi.co.uk Edinburgh start-up MicroEmissive Displays (MED) has shipped the first batch of its polymer-on-silicon microdisplays, for use in night vision products for the leisure market. The company's CEO Bill...

Strong design talent gives Europe the edge.
January 11, 2006... John Phelps European v-p, National Semiconductor Europe has always been known for excellent scientific and engineering capabilities. While much manufacturing has left Europe, many customers are opening design centres here,...

Sub-0.005% THD claimed for 250W digital audio amp.
January 11, 2006... Zetex is claiming sub-0.005 per cent THD, a dynamic range of 115dB and damping factor better than 2,000 for its 250W 'Class Z' digital audio amplifier, demonstrated at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. The firm revealed...

News.
January 11, 2006... LEP firm sets record for red device lifetime Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) has hit two milestones in light-emitting polymer development. With Sumitomo, a phosphorescent red device has been produced with a half a million hours lifetime from...

Sussex firm to build 28kV supply for 4GLS.
January 11, 2006... West Sussex-based HiTek Power has been commissioned to make a 28kV prototype power supply for 4GLS, the huge photon source being built at Cheshire's Daresbury Laboratory. The specification is for an 800V input, 0-30kV 1.2A output, supply...

The five questions we want answered.
January 11, 2006... In the wake of last year's survey by the CBI and Qinetiq looking at innovation within UK companies, EW quizzed Stephen Lake director of Qinetiq's new business accelerator. QYour survey found most UK companies think developing new ideas and...

UK tool opens up clockless designs.
January 11, 2006... The UK start-up EDA firm Silistix has revealed details of tools that it claims make the advantages of clockless interconnects accessible to all designers. The company's CHAINworks software and libraries simplify the interconnection of...

News.
January 11, 2006... Philips demonstrated an interactive board game based on a 30-inch touch sensitive LCD at the CES show in Las Vegas last week. The system includes multi-object position detection via a series of infrared LEDs and photodiodes mounted around the...

20nm power source to be highlight of ISSCC.
January 18, 2006... Researchers at Cornell University have made a 20nW power source using micromachining and a radio-isotope with a half-life of 100 years. Power extraction efficiency is claimed to be 30 per cent. "This is ten times more efficient than...

Analog Devices plans to sell network chip and ADSL line.
January 18, 2006... Analog Devices plans to sell its FUSIV network processor and ADSL Asic product lines to Ikanos Communications for around $30m in cash. The company said it has signed a definitive agreement with Ikanos in a deal expected to close in Q1 2006....

Analyst stoical at BT fixed access business' inception.
January 18, 2006... The start of operations at Openreach, BT's separate division for fixed access network operation, has been greeted with a note of caution by analyst firm Ovum. "There was a feeling that this is a new start for the UK. Time will tell if this...

Bright future for UK LED firm with acquisition of Lumidrives.
January 18, 2006... UK LED company Dialight has acquired Lumidrives for [pounds sterling]2.45m in cash and [pounds sterling]550,000 in shares. Lumidrives has revenues of over [pounds sterling]3m and assets worth over [pounds sterling]1m. Dialight claimed the...

Car blindspot systems drive automotive.
January 18, 2006... The market for automotive blindspot monitoring systems will grow to nearly four million units by 2012, according to the latest report from Strategy Analytics. Radar-based systems will take the lion's share of this market, accounting for...

Chip prices up eight per cent.
January 18, 2006... A strong November for the semiconductor industry saw the month-on-month average selling price (ASP) rise nearly eight per cent and revenues rise ten per cent, said World Semiconductor Trade Statistics. "Under normal circumstances, these...

Digital TV switch will not hit Freeview, says Government.
January 18, 2006... The Government has dismissed concerns that the move from the MPEG2 to MPEG4 digital broadcasting encoding standard in digital TV would make current Freeview digital terrestrial TV receivers obsolete. "To anybody who wants to buy a high...

Digital TV switch will not hit Freeview, says Government.
January 18, 2006... By Melanie Reynolds melanie.reynolds@rbi.co.uk The Government has dismissed concerns that the move from the MPEG2 to MPEG4 digital broadcasting encoding standard in digital TV would make current Freeview digital terrestrial TV receivers...

Digital storage scopes hit 600MHz bandwidth with a shallow footprint.
January 18, 2006... LeCroy has launched a range of digital storage scopes that offer up to 600MHz bandwidth and a 26.4cm (10.1in.) display in a shallow footprint chassis. The WaveRunner Xi series, as it is called, sits between the firm's higher-performance...

News.
January 18, 2006... elastic actuators give surface feeling to robot Designed with mobility in mind, each of the Azimut2's four wheels are independently driven and steered - allowing it to move sideways without changing heading. From RoboMotio, a firm located in...

Domed LED lead-frame improves light distribution for increased viewing angle.
January 18, 2006... By Steve Bush steve.bush@rbi.co.uk Australian technology firm Lednium has developed a domed lead-frame package to improve light distribution in LED lighting. "It is a natural progression when creating a source of illumination from what is...

Overseas manufacturers' loophole encourages stockpiling and some EU member states attempt to redefine the Directive.
January 18, 2006... Question Dear Dr RoHS The term 'put on the market' would seem to have given some manufacturers a get-out clause in terms of RoHS compliancy as I understood it. We buy end product from a manufacturer, who themselves get the items...

Dropping NAND flash price sees surge in applications.
January 18, 2006... By David Manners david.manners@rbi.co.uk With the cost of NAND flash declining at 40 per cent a year, new applications are opening up, particularly in computing. Later this year, hard discs with a flash cache will be sold to coincide with...

EC in court over RoHS exemption.
January 18, 2006... The European Parliament is taking the European Commission (EC) to court over an exception granted to the RoHS Directive. The argument concerns brominated fire-retardant Deca-BDE, which was banned by the Directive two years ago. "The...

Europe at forefront of nanomedicine.
January 18, 2006... A two-year study by the European Science Foundation has concluded that European firms are at the forefront of the field of 'nanomedicine', but certain steps need to be taken to ensure they maintain that position. Nanomedicine, which has...

Europe comes CLEAN over leakage problems.
January 18, 2006... Europe now has its own research programme dedicated to solving the problems of increasing leakage currents at process geometries of 65nm and below. The CLEAN project (controlling leakage power in nanoCMOS SoCs) is being led by...

Export slump puts Scotland in red.
January 18, 2006... A slump in Scottish electronics exports was responsible for pushing the region's overall manufactured export figures into the red over the year to 2005 Q3. Scotland's enterprise minister Nicol Stephen said: "The decline in the electronics...

News.
January 18, 2006... Welsh National Assembly Health Minister Dr Brian Gibbons (left) visited Quantum CAD to discuss the challenges of today's medical electronics industry. Quantum is currently working with Starbridge Systems to develop a body worn drug infusion...

Firm to trial 3G W-CDMA for multiple user mobile TV.
January 18, 2006... By Melanie Reynolds melanie.reynolds@rbi.co.uk An alternative mobile TV technology which uses the 3G W-CDMA network to transmit signals to multiple users has been launched by IPWireless. The firm has announced that six network operators...

Fujitsu stakes future on in-house process model.
January 18, 2006... Fujitsu is putting a billion dollar bet on its belief that having a fab remains an important differentiator in the logic business. By building a 65nm logic fab at Mie in Japan, Fujitsu's CEO, Toshihiko Ono, is taking a very different tack...

News.
January 18, 2006... Wacom's technology has been chosen by Philips spin-off firm Irex Technologies for a portable electronic reading and writing product. The Irex product has an 8.1in display with 16 grey levels and 256 levels of pressure sensitivity.

News.
January 18, 2006... Metrology company lands fab deal in asia X-ray metrology firm Bede said it has secured an order from a "major Asian semiconductor manufacturer" for its BedeMetrix-F system (pictured) that the unnamed company intends to use on its 65nm process....

IBM, Sony and Toshiba alliance goes to 32nm node and beyond.
January 18, 2006... Semiconductor partners IBM, Sony and Toshiba have extended their technology alliance, with plans to work together to the 32nm node and beyond. This next phase of the collaboration is expected to last five years and will build of the work...

In search of ideal logic chip.
January 18, 2006... Programmable logic is becoming more fixed function, and hard-wired logic is becoming more programmable. The programmables add more and more fixed functionality, while hard-wired Asics and SoCs add more programmable gates to broaden their...

Innos blazes e-beam trail.
January 18, 2006... This is the first result of the production agreement between Southampton's silicon technology developer Innos and Philips, following the fire that destroyed Innos' fab in October. The structure, produced as part of the EPSRC Supergen project,...

Innovative electric motor powers big aircraft wheels.
January 18, 2006... German power semiconductor maker Semikron and Gibraltar's Chorus Motors have teamed up to produce WheelTug, an electric nose wheel drive for large aircraft. "It was said you couldn't drive an airliner around an airfield with an electric...

Management buy-out creates connector distributor for Tyco.
January 18, 2006... A management buy-out of the electromechanical division of Compstock Electronics has created a specialist connector distributor for Tyco Electronics. The Basildon-based company will re-adopt the name of Flightspares Electronics which has...

Merged equipment firm aims for wider customer support.
January 18, 2006... By Harry Yeates harry.yeates@rbi.co.uk The recently-appointed boss of south Wales semiconductor equipment firm Trikon Technology, which merged with US firm Aviza Technologies in December, has told EW the company will be able to offer...

Methanol cells use hydrocarbon membranes.
January 18, 2006... NEC and Sanyo have revealed they are using membranes from California's PolyFuel in their direct methanol fuel cells. The membrane material is hydrocarbon-based, unlike traditional Nafion which is a fluorocarbon. Many attempts to...

News.
January 18, 2006... Mighty Mouse of Sandia Labs with its handler Bob Anderson. A very powerful cobalt 60 gamma-ray source, which would kill a human in 30 seconds, jammed in a machine at White Sands Missile Range in the US. After failed attempts using...

More telecoms R&D than people think.
January 18, 2006... Contrary to popular belief 2001 is not inscribed on the tombstone of UK telecoms R&D since, despite being seriously ill, it survived. In fact, according to telecoms entrepreneur David Cleevely, the UK spends more than its fair share on...

New year sees surge in EDA tool enhancements.
January 18, 2006... EDA firms have started the year with enhancements to their tools. Arithmatica, which develops intellectual property (IP) for implementing maths functions in silicon, has released CellMath Optimizer, aimed at datapath silicon IP. The...

Programmable technology on the march.
January 18, 2006... Nick Martin, founder and CEO, Altium One of the biggest areas of change in the electronics industry over the next few years will be the wholesale embracing of programmable logic technologies within mainstream design. At the moment there are...

News.
January 18, 2006... CEM appoints strategic alliance manager Contract manufacturer Jaltek Systems, which has teamed with Swedish firm NOTE, has put in place a strategic alliance manager, Kevin Heath. Steve Pittom, Jaltek Systems sales director, said: "Kevin's key...

Qinetiq IPO could force MoD rethink.
January 18, 2006... Qinetiq's IPO next month could trigger a review of the MoD's research procurement practices by the National Audit Office (NAO) with a view to ensuring value for money for the taxpayer. Defence research agency Qinetiq is expected to raise...

Scientists generate pairs of photons using simple semiconductor device.
January 18, 2006... By Harry Yeates harry.yeates@rbi.co.uk A simple means of generating pairs of photons that can be used for quantum computation, quantum cryptographic key distribution, and ultra-fine lithography has been developed by researchers at...

Scientists land [pounds sterling]4.4m to research nanostructures.
January 18, 2006... Researchers at the University of Cambridge have been awarded [pounds sterling]4.4m to investigate quantum effects in nanostructures. Newly-knighted Professor Sir Michael Pepper, head of semiconductor physics at the Cavendish Laboratory in...

Structured Asics: Are they right for you?
January 18, 2006... The economic and technical realities of 90nm silicon implementation mean structured Asics could help you meet objectives and competitive challenges. Angela Sutton weighs up the important factors Structured Asics have emerged and are now...

The basic building blocks of multiple processor SoCs.
January 18, 2006... By adopting a processor-centric design methodology, SoC designers can get nearer to solving the ever-increasing dilemma of hardware/software integration, says Ashish Dixit The arrival of affordable multiprocessing in embedded systems...

The five questions we want answered.
January 18, 2006... EW puts the questions to HARRY TEE , chairman of the Electronics Leadership Council (ELC). Q You identified the supply chain as one of four key themes for action. What's wrong with it, and how do you hope to improve matters? A In a global...

US research team puts weight behind no-transistor logic drive.
January 18, 2006... The intensely tricky problems associated with developing ever smaller transistors could be consigned to the past with the advent of a generation of logic devices that use the electron's quantum mechanical property of 'spin' instead of its...

$21m firm will drive Xilinx at system level, says CEO.
January 25, 2006... By David Manners david.manners@rbi.co.uk Paying a rumoured $21m to acquire 24 engineers may sound expensive but, according to Vin Ratford, president and CEO of AccelChip, the prospects for system-level design on FPGAs are so well advanced...

news.
January 25, 2006... A migration towards immersion lithography machines suitable for 45nm processing is helping Dutch equipment firm ASML to deal more effectively with the cyclical semiconductor industry, according to its CEO. ASML is taking a higher...

news.
January 25, 2006... With cache memory size an increasingly limiting factor to microprocessor development, AMD's licensing of a Swiss technology called Z-RAM, which can offer five times the density of SRAM in the same silicon area, could give it an edge on rival...

news.
January 25, 2006... By Alex Mayhew-Smith alex.mayhew-smith@rbi.co.uk David Jones, CEO of UK PCB firm Invotec, said there is concern about how the supply base will react to last week's move into administration by fellow PCB company Circatex. "Their [the...

Agilent spots market gap for no-frills 3D electromagnetic simulation tool.
January 25, 2006... By Melanie Reynolds reporting from California Agilent Technologies is to expand its EDA range with the launch of cut price 3D electromagnetic (EM) simulation in response to RF and microwave designer demands. "We've been watching this space...

Audio amp codec chip switches from Class A-B to D for power conservation.
January 25, 2006... By Steve Bush steve.bush@rbi.co.uk Wolfson has announced a codec chip with an audio amplifier which can be switched from Class A-B to Class D on the fly. "The market requirement is for music phones which have a new usage model," Wolfson...

Boundary scan test rolls along on ball grid arrays.
January 25, 2006... Dominic Plunkett explains why the increasing use of BGAs is fuelling a surge of interest in boundary scan testing among board designers and test engineers Modern JTAG test systems are an effective answer to today's test challenges,...