Electronics Weekly articles from March 2004

Electronics Weekly archives from March 2004

Silicon nanotubes behave like metal.
March 17, 2004... Using a supercomputer to model nanotubes, a chemist from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln found that silicon nanotubes behave more like a metal. "To find that these tubes are very likely to be metals instead of semiconductors is very...

VTM expects strong passives growth.
March 17, 2004... Passive component supplier VTM (UK) has seen the market pick up and expects a strong growth in sales this year following the acquisition of two UK-based components businesses late last year. "We are predicting strong growth in the coming year,...

Under the hammer...
March 17, 2004... Forget your 7-day eBayers, the biggest place for Internet auctions is the market for electronics components where millions of dollars can change hands in less than half an hour. Alex Mayhew-Smith finds out who the winners are nternet...

US researchers use novel technique to find charge-transport mobility.
March 17, 2004... Researchers in the US have found that the mobility of charge-carriers in a crystal of an organic semiconductor varies strongly with the crystal's orientation. The unexpected discovery could lead to higher-performance devices. To examine the...

Return echo finds undersea mines.
March 17, 2004... A North Carolina State University physicist has found an unusual way to detect explosive mines buried in the seabed. The method records the return echo of a sonar transmitter's ping, then time-reverses and re-transmits it. "The following echo...

Electric motor changes poles for high-speed and torque.
March 17, 2004... Engineers at Oxford University have developed an electric motor that can act as a two-pole motor for high-speed operation, or use more poles, up to 12, for high torque work. The motor has 12 stator windings, as shown in the diagram. "You...

A changing spectrum.
March 17, 2004... When Ofcom decided to improve the efficiency with which the radio spectrum is used it invited responses to its plans and received over 80 public replies. So what does the industry think of Ofcom's plans? Harry Yeates found out ne of the...

Miniature cube computers can access Internet and support T-Engine devices.
March 17, 2004... T-Cube is the provisional name for these 52x52x45mm computers from Tokyo-based Personal Media Company. Designed to run the T-Engine operating system, it includes connectors for LAN, USB, RS-232, microphone, speaker and video (800x600 and...

Solar powered signs on M27.
March 17, 2004... A series of solar panels over 50m long are being installed by the Highways Agency alongside the M27 motorway to power gantries, lights and signs. The [pounds sterling]190,000 project will assess driver reaction, how the panels cope with the...

Organic module work could lead to cheap non-metallic magnets.
March 17, 2004... Researchers in the US have found that an organic molecule with three unpaired electron spins (a tri-radical) disobeys some of the fundamental rules of the electronic structure of materials. The discovery offers an insight into how magnetism...

ID tag can be read from 15m away.
March 17, 2004... An active radiofrequency ID tag capable of being read at a distance of 15m has been developed by a group of firms. EM Microelectronic and iPico developed a frequency independent RFID IC that works from below 1GHz to 2.45GHz. Devices are...

Driverless cars in US off-road race.
March 17, 2004... Driverless vehicles were racing 200 miles off-road from LA to Las Vegas last week as part of the Grand Challenge run by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), using GPS for navigation. In order to enable speeds of up to 100mph,...

Firms search for way to shrink geometries beyond 18nm step.
March 17, 2004... The recent announcement by NEC that it is pursuing metal growth techniques in its search for ways to shrink structures follows work by Axon Technologies. Axon is using silver atom-laden chalcogenide electrolyte in its programmable metallisation...

400Gbyte drive for audio/video.
March 17, 2004... A 400Gbyte hard disk drive has been unveiled by Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. The 3.5inch drive uses either parallel or serial ATA standards and is designed for audio/video products, such as digital video recorders. High definition TV...

Cambridge firms join forces in IP remote-access project.
March 17, 2004... Two Cambridge firms have joined forces to offer an IP-based remote access system for network management. The Adderlink IP device enables control of a KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) switch over the Internet, so network administrators can look...

Solid state hard disk option has 90Gbyte of storage.
March 17, 2004... Flash memory developer M-Systems has produced a solid state replacement for 2.5in. hard disks with up to 90Gbyte of storage. The drive is aimed at ruggedised systems, such as equipment operating at high altitude and at extremes of shock,...

Packet broadcast and reception tested via wireless UWB network.
March 17, 2004... Cambridge ultra wideband (UWB) developer Artimi has demonstrated the broadcast and reception of packet transmission via a wireless UWB network. The firm claims it is the first example of a UWB multimedia and data transmission in a real-world...

200Mbit/s graphics link for mobiles comms.
March 17, 2004... Renesas Technology and Epson are proposing a 200Mbit/s serial interface specification for text and graphics displays in mobile communications devices. Based on low voltage differential signal (LVDS) modulation to reduce power consumption and...

Semiconductor bosses talk innovation as cost-reduction worries fade away.
March 17, 2004... The electronics industry is turning from cost-cutting mode to innovation mode, according to Indro Mukerjee, executive v-p for global sales and marketing at Philips Semiconductors. "For the last two to three years, it's not been about new...

Display railway project on track.
March 17, 2004... Nottingham transport signage firm Tew Engineering has teamed up with Dublin-based display start-up NTera to produce railway information displays. "What we are looking to do is a clock with 150mm characters," NTera business development manager...

Researchers see monitor market shift towards LCDs.
March 17, 2004... The market for monitors is shifting towards LCDs, according to market research firms. Meko said that European CRT monitor sales would drop from 18 million last year to nine million in 2005. LCD units have already exceeded CRT shipments, and...

QinetiQ's $30 camera has 3D rangefinder for parking cars.
March 17, 2004... Malvern-based research firm QinetiQ has developed a low-cost 3D range finder and camera. "It can capture an image and capture range information, for a cost of $30," John Bannister, optics business development manager at the company, told EW....

Liquid lens changes focus with voltage.
March 17, 2004... A liquid lens that can vary its focus with changing voltage has been developed by Philips Research. Called FluidFocus, the lens is aimed at mobile phones, home security and optical storage. Many low cost applications use fixed focus lenses, but...

Only three struggle in generally bright year for semiconductors.
March 17, 2004... In a generally bright year for the semiconductor industry, only IBM Microelectronics, Freescale Semiconductor (formerly Motorola Semiconductor) and Fujitsu failed to grow last year, according to analyst iSuppli. Freescale shrank 3.7 per cent...

ZBD Displays seeks funding to push production.
March 17, 2004... ZBD Displays, the firm spun out of QinetiQ to commercialise zenithal bistable display technology, will open another funding round later this year as the business moves into a production stage. The firm's CEO, Clive Mayne, said returning market...

Custom Asic market not in decline, claims LSI Logic.
March 17, 2004... LSI Logic has made a strong rebuttal of claims that the market for full custom Asic devices is in long term decline. Analysts say the fall in Asic design starts in the past two years marks a terminal decline in the $16bn Asic market. The claim...

UK research uses CVD to make carbon nanotubes.
March 17, 2004... Materials scientists at the University of Cambridge have produced carbon nanotubes direct from a chemical vapour deposition machine. By synthesising directly from the gas and plasma in the CVD reactor, the team was able to produce continuous...

TT Electronics buys Sensopad.
March 17, 2004... TT Electronics has acquired Cambridgeshire-based contactless sensing firm Sensopad Technologies. "The technology developed by Sensopad will enhance TT Electronics' sensor activities for the automotive market," said Neil Rodgers, a director of...

Balloon computer squeezes 200Mips into tiny package.
March 17, 2004... A tiny computer called Balloon weighs less than 0.03kg but delivers over 200Mips. It is available as open hardware from Cambridge firm Aleph One. Anyone can download the design from Aleph One's website and make a board royalty-free. Asked why...

International Rectifier.
March 17, 2004... In last week's EW (10/03/04) it was incorrectly reported that International Rectifier owns Unisem, the Malaysian firm in the process of buying Atlantic Technology of South Wales. IR acquired a power management IC firm called Unisem in 2000,...

SSTL wins deal for satellite 'bus'.
March 17, 2004... Los Alamos National Laboratory has placed an $11.8m contract with Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) for a satellite platform or 'bus'. "The platform will be used to carry the Cibola Flight Experiment payload developed by Los Alamos," said...

Zetex to list on Stock Exchange after Telemetrix group completes break up.
March 17, 2004... Zetex is to become a London Stock Exchange listed integrated device manufacturer (IDM) following completion of the break up of the Telemetrix group. Telemetrix's two Trend comms testing units are to be sold, leaving Zetex as the remaining...

Gallium is in control of plasmon waves.
March 17, 2004... Researchers at the University of Southampton have developed a model for a device in which surface plasmon-polariton waves travelling in a metal-on-dielectric waveguide can be controlled. In a paper to be submitted shortly, they also claim to...

The ABC of <03A3><0394> ADC.
March 24, 2004... Manufacturers of consumer audio products have a strong ally lying at the heart of analogue-to-digital converters - sigma-delta modulators. Steve Bush finds out how some companies are pressing home this advantage igma-delta modulators are at...

Power over handsets.
March 24, 2004... The power behind mobile phone handsets has been heterojunction bipolar transistors on gallium arsenide and LDMOS devices, but there are new kids on the block in the form of InGaP, SiGe and pure CMOS. Richard Ball reports ith over half a...

US firm plans; Belfast-based superjunction Mosfet attack.
March 24, 2004... IceMOS Technology, the US firm investing almost [pounds sterling]10m in Belfast, plans to develop superjunction vertical Mosfets to rival existing devices such as CoolMOS from Infineon Technologies. The firm will combine MOS base wafers with...

'Protect your intellectual property', IT report warns electronics firms operating in China.
March 24, 2004... Western electronics firms operating in China need to take steps to protect their intellectual property from widespread, highly-organised efforts to steal it, according to a report published last week. IP violation occurs from two main sources:...

Multimode machinations.
March 24, 2004... The all-singing all-dancing mobile phone may sound pretty good but there are major problems meeting isolation requirements, different standards, while cutting power consumption. Harry Yeates looks at how it is being tackled oday it is...

Researchers dope buckyballs with potassium.
March 24, 2004... Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have doped individual buckyball (C60) molecules with potassium. Using a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM), Michael Crommie and his team manoeuvred and attached single potassium atoms to the...

Wires stretch and conduct.
March 24, 2004... Stretchable wires that don't lose conductivity when extended have been fabricated by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Biomedical professors from the University made the material by embedding thin gold wires in silicone. It...

Genuine random numbers on Web.
March 24, 2004... This is a model of a 'molecular elevator' which could develop forces of up to 200pN over a 70nm range. The horizontal platform moves up and down between two distinct recognition sites on the legs when pH is varied, opening and closing a cavity...

NEC claims world record for single photon transmission.
March 24, 2004... NEC researchers are claiming a world record for transmitting a single photon 150km, but a rival firm has questioned its relevance. NEC, Telecommunications Advancement Organization of Japan, and Japan Science and Technology Agency together...

UK develops steam driven satellite.
March 24, 2004... A low-cost satellite micro-propulsion system that uses steam to provide thrust has been demonstrated in-orbit by Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL). The UK-DMC satellite, launched in September last year, experienced 3.3mN of thrust over a 30s...

UK start-up invents 3D scanning technology for consumer market.
March 24, 2004... Birkenhead start-up Spiral Scratch claims to have 3D scanning technology suitable for consumer applications. "We think ours is the only really cheap and the only really quick way of doing it," company managing director Dr John Wilson told EW....

Professor forecasts flexible organic polymer hybrid chip.
March 24, 2004... Using solid state theory, University of Arkansas physics professor Huaxiang Fu has predicted a hybrid can be made from conventional and plastic semiconductors which will both be flexible and have high-performance. "This is a powerful example of...

Inventor rolls up RF filters with flexi PCB in bid to cut costs.
March 24, 2004... Swedish engineer Nikolai Roshchupkin has invented a novel way of making RF filters. At an early stage of development, his technique involves etching or depositing a copper pattern on one side of a flexible substrate, then rolling up the...

European focus for biological; lab-on-a-chip.
March 24, 2004... This all-silicon lab-on-a-chip device can detect the binding of up to eight biological samples with reference molecules in rapid succession. Avalanche diode emitters are linked to p-n junction detectors using 2mm long Si3N4 waveguides, and...

Four-second delay on UK push-to-talk handsets will be conversation stopper.
March 24, 2004... Users of the first push-to-talk (PTT) voice services in the UK will experience round-trip call delays of up to four seconds. This is due to the lack of quality of service (QoS) provision in GPRS networks, making two-way conversation...

Former ISLI students set up document scanner firm.
March 24, 2004... A group of former students at the Institute of System Level Integration (ISLI) has founded a company to commercialise a system-on-chip-based document scanner. The team behind I-Pro Technologies, which is based on the Alba Campus in Livingston,...

French R&D firm wins $23m and doubles staff for memory project.
March 24, 2004... French foundry and research centre Altis Semiconductor has won $23.6m in aid from the European Union for developing system-on-chip memories. Altis, a joint venture between Infineon Technologies and IBM Microelectronics, is working on...

Bright future for blue/white LEDs.
March 24, 2004... Three UK organisations are collaborating to make better white and blue LEDs, and hopefully kick off an indigenous LED lighting industry. "The basic aim of the project is to improve reliability and lifetime," Professor Colin Humphreys of the...

151,000 users join Hutchison 3G mobile service in the UK.
March 24, 2004... The 3G mobile service offered by 3 has added 151,000 users in the UK so far this year, according to parent firm Hutchison Whampoa. The service has 361,000 subscribers, it claimed, with a monthly average revenue of [pounds sterling]45 per user....

Scottish university wins funding for micro-LED arrays.
March 24, 2004... The University of Strathclyde has won [pounds sterling]2.6m funding to develop the micro-LED arrays it first described last year. "It is a four-year basic technology programme to develop indium gallium nitride ultra-violet emitters in an array...

Narrowband two-way datacomms hits back as 2.5G fails to deliver, says CML.
March 24, 2004... Narrowband two-way datacomms systems are making a comeback against 2.5G, according to CML Microsystems' sales and marketing director Kevin Swann. Swann said companies are finding 2.5G does not always meet requirements for telemetry uses, such...

Distributor gains share across Europe in face of 'subdued' market conditions.
March 24, 2004... Premier Farnell has gained market share in mainland Europe while the market has remained patchy and stagnant, according to chief executive John Hirst. Although Hirst admitted the firm is starting with a smaller share of a larger market than the...

Kodak claims 3D imaging system is good for gaming or research.
March 24, 2004... Kodak is producing commercial prototypes of a 3D imaging system with resolution claimed to be good enough for gaming or scientific research. "Unlike other 3D imaging systems, which rely on a barrier screen placed over an existing monitor, the...

Autofocus for phone cams.
March 24, 2004... Samsung Electro-Mechanics has signed a deal to develop an autofocus system for mobile phone cameras that uses patented liquid lens technology from French firm Varioptic. The deal follows last week's announcement by Philips of a similar device...

High-density SRAMs speed up at Cypress.
March 24, 2004... Cypress Semiconductor has increased the performance of high density SRAMs with high speed versions of its 72Mbit devices. "The QDR-II (Quad Data Rate) and DDR-II (Double Data Rate) devices will operate at clock speeds up to 250MHz and provide...

DAB company opens Asia Pacific offices for Chinese transmission.
March 24, 2004... Digital audio broadcast (DAB) company Frontier Silicon has expanded overseas for the first time, with an office in Hong Kong and a sales and technical office in Shenzen, China. The move, said Frontier, "will assist local authorities in China...

Agere man wins international design award with WLAN PCB.
March 24, 2004... A UK-based circuit board designer, Steven Tipping from Agere's computing connectivity division, has won Mentor Graphics' annual award for Best Overall Design. The firm's worldwide design awards are open to anyone using Mentor's PCB tools....

EU yet to decide on size of Microsoft fine.
March 24, 2004... This week Microsoft will discover the size of the fine levied by the European Union following a breakdown in discussions. The EU has accused Microsoft of antitrust activities, and long term talks to settle the dispute appear to have failed. EU...

Filtronic wins 3G production deal.
March 24, 2004... Filtronic has secured an important 3G mobile technology contract with an unnamed manufacturer. According to Filtronic there are technical and commercial matters to be finalised before volume deliveries start. "Actions to complete these items...

Industry body 'seriously concerned' over Budget.
March 24, 2004... Industry representatives have urged the Government to come up with firm proposals in its summer spending review to back up Budget claims that it will invest in science, engineering and innovation. "We would urge them to bring forward concrete...

Mobility is boost for low-cost electronics.
March 24, 2004... Researchers at IBM have found a way to deposit very thin crystalline films of a semiconductor with high carrier mobility, significantly improving the performance available from low-cost electronics. Using its approach the IBM team, lead by...

Display firm seeks funding for LCD production.
March 24, 2004... Cambridge-based Screen Technology is looking for a further [pounds sterling]5m funding to take it to profitability and positive cashflow. The company, whose ITrans technology enables standard LCDs to be panelled seamlessly into large areas, has...

Specialist finishes refurbishment.
March 24, 2004... Scitec Instruments, which designs and manufactures specialised electronic instruments, has completed the refurbishment of its offices in Redruth, Cornwall. "In addition to improving working conditions for existing employees, these improvements...

Roadshow for waste problems.
March 24, 2004... Questions arising out of the WEEE & RoHS directives on electrical waste and hazardous substances will be addressed in a national roadshow organised by the DTI's Envirowise programme. The event will travel to Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester,...

Astute opens up Scots warehouse.
March 24, 2004... Astute Electronics has opened a warehouse in Scotland to support the growing business in re-selling the excess component stocks made available by Europe's largest equipment manufacturers. The Motherwell-based facility represents the...

Fujitsu builds [pounds sterling]1bn foundry.
March 24, 2004... Fujitsu is to build a 300mm fab plant for 90nm and 65nm wafer processing at its Mie site in Japan. Due to come online in April next year, with volume production in September 2005, the plant represents a total investment of just under [pounds...

Surrey firm calls foul in ID rip-off.
March 24, 2004... A Surrey embedded design tool firm claims to have had its identity stolen by un-authorised chip-buyers. "It is our good name we are worried about," said Jill Stephens, a director of Addleston-based Computer Solutions. According to Stephens,...

Fog thickens for Europe's Pb-free rules.
March 24, 2004... A meeting intended to clarify the impending EU Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive has raise more questions that it has answered. The Directive Technical Adaptation Committee (TAC) met last Wednesday to vote on missing sections...

802.11: Fastest isn't always the best.
March 31, 2004... Chip firms are looking for ways to boost data rates in the evolving 802.11 standard. Maury Wright reports o down to your local electronics superstore, and you can witness what could be labelled the Starburst Wars. Companies that sell 802.11...

Small firms with single boxes drive in-home multimedia market-place.
March 31, 2004... Small firms offering high-specification media boxes are driving the convergence of the home PC with TV, personal video recorder (PVR), hi-fi and DVD in the long-running fight over who will provide the living room multimedia centre. Although...

Programmed to fight.
March 31, 2004... "Altera's back with a vengeance," according to the company's president John Daane. He is referring to the fact that the company took its eye off the ball with a 'miss-execution' in the late 1990s, writes David Manners here used to be a...

NEC recognises a 3D face.
March 31, 2004... A facial recognition systems using three-dimensional data has been developed by NEC. Most existing face recognition systems use 2D data, either comparing whole images, or comparing features on the faces, such as the distance between eyes. Such...

Audio signals on THz radiation could replace high-speed data networks.
March 31, 2004... Scientists from the Technical University of Braunschweig have modulated audio signals onto pulses of Terahertz radiation. Moreover, the German team from Braunschweig's high frequency engineering institute achieved the modulation using a room...

NASA scientists identify 'silent speech' and put it in writing.
March 31, 2004... NASA scientists have identified speech from people who are thinking about speaking, but not actually speaking. In preliminary experiments the researchers gathered tongue and vocal chord nerve signals from electrodes either side of volunteers'...

Remember sine and cosine online.
March 31, 2004... Weta Digital, the firm behind the graphics in Lord of the Rings, is thinking of renting out part of the huge computer it assembled for the film, according to www.stuff.co.nz. The spare bit is at a remote location, selected after Weta ran out of...

Silicon carbide Schottky diode stands off 1.7kV at low leakage.
March 31, 2004... Researchers at SiCLAB, the silicon carbide lab of Rutgers University in New Jersey, have demonstrated 1.79kV 6.6A silicon carbide (4H-SiC) merged-PiN-Schottky (MPS) diodes. MPS diodes (above left) are claimed to combine the advantages of SiC...

Direct-write process for micro structures.
March 31, 2004... Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a robotic 'direct-write assembly' process which could be used to build structures for photonics and microfluidics, for instance for lab-on-a-chip applications. Direct-write methods for...

Tiny transformer is piezoelectric.
March 31, 2004... This transformer measures just 1.2mm2. It uses a piezoelectric material construction to step-up an operating voltage of 1.2V by a factor of ten. According to the manufacturer Epcos, the ceramic transformer works by converting an AC voltage...

Cambridge MIT venture funds pervasive computing projects.
March 31, 2004... Six research projects looking at the key challenges of so-called pervasive computing have received [pounds sterling]2.2m of funding from the Cambridge MIT Institute. The projects make up the first of four Knowledge Integration Communities (KIC)...

Intel plans WiMAX hardware in 2005.
March 31, 2004... Intel's heavy push behind the IEEE 802.16 WiMax standard for wide-area broadband access has continued with a joint announcement with the mobile division of Siemens, that it will make WiMAX hardware available in the second half of 2005. The...

Scottish start-up to market its UWB wireless technology.
March 31, 2004... A Scottish start-up expects to have a prototype ultra wideband (UWB) wireless replacement for high-speed data transfer protocols such as USB 2.0 and FireWire by the end of the year. Edinburgh-based Dukosi said full-production should follow in...