Electronics Weekly articles from March 2007

Electronics Weekly archives from March 2007

News.
March 7, 2007... Macnab is keen to be copied. "I hope all our competitors hear about it and do the same thing," he told EW. "If you make it so simple then consumers will say to shops 'I want something with the widget inside which makes the connection'."...

News.
March 7, 2007... Keith Errey, co-founder of Abingdon-based Toumaz Technology is close to shipping his first low-power short-range wireless transceiver chip. See News page 7

News.
March 7, 2007... By Steve Bush steve.bush@rbi.co.uk Researchers at the University of Manchester have made a breakthrough in single electron transistor design which they claim will make ultra low power semiconductors a real possibility. In an area...

News.
March 7, 2007... The consumer's thirst for higher data rates is driving demand for fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) technology which is starting to reduce in price as the technology benefits from its adoption by enterprises. "FTTH is starting to spread. There's a...

News.
March 7, 2007... By Melanie Reynolds melanie.reynolds@rbi.co.uk Ultra-wideband (UWB) technology has been given the go-ahead for use in Europe after the European Commission set out conditions for its use which are to be integrated into members' national...

News.
March 7, 2007... Contract manufacturer Proqual is getting new equipment following the recent acquisition of the firm. The 50-strong company in Tetbury will see a [pounds sterling]200,000 investment in new equipment over the coming months. Plans for growth...

News.
March 7, 2007... MicroEmissive Displays' shares dropped by 15 per cent to reach 48p after the firm reported full year results and increased losses.

News.
March 7, 2007... By David Manners reporting from Monterey Software re-use is leading to some horrendously clunky software being put into products, said executives at the Globalpress Summit conference in Monterey last week. "My cell phone contains...

News.
March 7, 2007... Qinetiq is acquiring ITS Corporation in the US for $90m and has sold its air filtration systems subsidiary to Donaldson for $39m. The firm said the move was part of a strategy to grow US-based operations. ITS provides IT systems, business...

News.
March 7, 2007... Qinetiq's chief executive officer, Graham Love, said that the ITS acquisition will allow Qinetiq to bid for a wider range of contracts in the US defence and security markets. "The announcements demonstrate our determination to deliver...

News.
March 7, 2007... Glasgow-based Clyde Space has been chosen to supply the complete power system for the SOHLA-2 spacecraft. SOHLA-2 is the first demonstration of PETSAT (panel extension satellite) which uses standardised subsystem panels which are hinged...

News.
March 7, 2007... By David Manners reporting from Monterey A 'battle royal' is brewing between cellular technology and WiMAX to decide which will deliver multimedia content to mobile consumers, according to Chris Rowen, CEO of specialist microprocessor...

News.
March 7, 2007... Two design consultancies are adding to their development teams as plans to expand into manufacturing services bears fruit. Cambridge-based Plextek has created ten new engineering, product design and project management positions. While...

News.
March 7, 2007... First we had the PC, which progressed from leading-edge but underappreciated early products such as the Commodore Pet and Tandy TRS-80 to a $100bn plus industry. Next came the mobile phone, from military-like brick phones in the early 80s to...

News.
March 7, 2007... Mar 12-13: UK Technology Innovation and Growth Forum conference, London. http://etf.cnetnetworks.co.uk/ig07/index.htm Mar 13-16: Materials handling show, NEC Birmingham. www.imxhonline.co.uk Mar 27-29: RF & Hyper Europe 2007,...

News.
March 7, 2007... For engineers who might wonder what happened to that great product they designed years ago, there is now a process by which it can be resurrected and given a new lease of life. IPextreme goes through the legacy IP of companies, figures out...

News.
March 7, 2007... Ashley Evans is CEO of the Electronics Knowledge Transfer Network Who is the eKTN for? The EKTN is for all companies that are involved across the electronics value chain, from design, product development through to manufacturing and...

News.
March 7, 2007... By Nick Flaherty ARM is shipping its hardware design tools to software developers in a bid to open up the market for games on phones and set-top boxes. "We see that we are in a shift in the market where mobile phones are becoming...

News.
March 7, 2007... Dialog Semiconductor is recruiting engineers for a semiconductor R&D centre in Edinburgh. With a particular interest in power management and audio ICs for handheld devices, the mixed-signal design firm said it will require more than 50...

News.
March 7, 2007... By Nick Flaherty nick.flaherty@rbi.co.uk A London-based start-up claims that the electronics industry could be legally obliged to use its electromagnetic radiation (EM) safety technology. Exradia has developed a technology that it...

News.
March 7, 2007... According to the firm's v-p of engineering, Gary Duncan: "When we decided to set up a substantial design centre for our mixed signal design activity, we had many choices and carried out an extensive search around the world. We finally selected...

News.
March 7, 2007... Cardiff-based electroluminescent display firm Pelikon is cutting the weight and cost of its displays to white goods manufacturers by using polycarbonate, which gives a glass-like finish. See News page 7

News.
March 7, 2007... By Steve Bush steve.bush@rbi.co.uk Imperial College in London has invented techniques for mass-producing solution-processed organic semiconductors on flexible substrates, and has won [pounds sterling]250,000 to develop manufacturing...

News.
March 7, 2007... EDA tool vendor Synopsys is launching three tools to improve the automation of verifying chip designs, including a language for automating the design schedule. The verification methodology manual (VMM) for the SystemVerilog language has...

News.
March 7, 2007... The DTI has published its 80-page WEEE Guidance Notes. What constitutes business waste, as opposed to household waste, has been clarified. "Firms who sell to both business and consumers have a vested interest in bumping up the business...

News.
March 7, 2007... Laser specialist Powerlase has teamed up with the University of Central Florida to combine two lasers to generate a plasma extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) light source. Powerlase said this is the first time several lasers have been...

Features.
March 7, 2007... Electronics Yorkshire has introduced a series of online learning courses to give local regional users access to industry-focused training courses which they can study at their own pace. Courses currently available include lead-free...

Features.
March 7, 2007... Web and mobile technology bloggers will be able to come face-to-face at the first conference to be held by the Technology Programme, part of Oxford University's Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Centre. The 'ForumOxford: Future...

Features.
March 7, 2007... Mar 15: EMC Technical Documentation - York www.elec.york.ac.uk/cpd Mar 15-16: Advanced VHDL - Cambridge www.doulos.com Mar 19-23: Small Terminal Satellite Systems: VSAT Systems - York www.elec.york.ac.uk/cpd Mar 20:...

Features.
March 7, 2007... By Melanie Reynolds melanie.reynolds@rbi.co.uk An up-to-date understanding of industrial practices in memory testing is the aim of a course being held this month by iSLI (Institute for System Level Integration) at its site in...

Features.
March 7, 2007... In early January, Selex Sensors and Airborne Systems were awarded a [pounds sterling]2m R&D grant to develop directional infra-red counter measure (DIRCM) systems. Originally developed by Selex with Northrop Grumman, the project allows the...

Features.
March 7, 2007... 07mar07NPL Visual displays are used in TVs, laptops and mobile phones, but even the latest LCDs can be affected by immediate surroundings and are difficult to read in bright sunlight. This is merely annoying if you cannot recognise the...

Technology.
March 7, 2007... By Steve Bush steve.bush@rbi.co.uk ARM has released a software development kit (SDK) for its mobile graphics processors, acquired when it bought Norwegian firm Falanx Microsystems in the middle of last year. The processors are the...

Technology.
March 7, 2007... NXP launches switch mode power supply controllers NXP has launched the first chip in its GreenChip III range of efficient switch mode power supply controllers. "Designed specifically for notebook adapters and LCD TVs, the TEA1750 reduces...

Technology.
March 7, 2007... Plastic substrates for Pelikon touch displays Cardiff-based electroluminescent display firm Pelikon is offering plastic substrates for its consumer touch displays. "This will allow white good manufacturers to offer a display on their...

Technology.
March 7, 2007... 6kw photovoltaic and wind inverters series California PSU company Power-One has introduced a series of 6kW photovoltaic and wind inverters. Dubbed Aurora PVI-6000, "these grid-tie products utilise two independent high-speed maximum...

Technology.
March 7, 2007... 24-bit, 96khz digital audio interface receiver Texas Instruments has introduced a 24-bit, 96kHz digital audio interface receiver and claimed, at 50psRMS, it provides the industry's best jitter performance at "four times better than the...

Technology.
March 7, 2007... By Steve Bush steve.bush@rbi.co.uk Abingdon-based Toumaz Technology is close to shipping its low-power short-range wireless transceiver chip. "We are putting it on to the development boards and will be delivering it in March,"...

Technology.
March 7, 2007... Bristol-based chip firm Phyworks and US connector maker Molex have shown 10.3Gbit/s data transmission over 1m of copper traces across a backplane. "This makes it the first technology partnership to carry out a demonstration relevant to...

Technology.
March 7, 2007... 07mar07osram5.pdf - and 4 07mar07ostar3 07mar07ostar.jpg will need cropping German Osram Opto Semiconductors has revealed the first LED to achieve more than 1000 lumen - brighter than a 50W halogen lamp, claimed the firm. "We...

News.
March 14, 2007... By Richard Wilson richard.wilson@rbi.co.uk Digital radio chip firm, CSR has countered a suggestion that gallium arsenide (GaAs) semiconductor technology will dominate the radio front-end in mobile phones for the next five years at...

News.
March 14, 2007... A newly qualified astronautics engineer has launched an electronic petition to the Government to protect the status of the title 'engineer'. Jon Jennings has eight years experience as a robotics engineer but claims the lack of protection...

News.
March 14, 2007... The South Pole Telescope (SPT) has collected its first test observations of Jupiter. "The telescope, camera and optics are all working as designed," said SPT's head Professor John Carlstrom. "First light with the SPT is a major milestone for...

News.
March 14, 2007... By David Manners david.manners@rbi.co.uk Californian developer of co-processors for high performance computing DRC is flirting with the idea of adapting its technology for the commercial server farm market and, some years down the...

News.
March 14, 2007... The world's largest phone maker, Nokia, is starting to take on Apple's video iPod by selling feature films on memory cards for the first time to watch on its mobile phone. It is working with Sony Pictures to release The Da Vinci Code in...

News.
March 14, 2007... Shares in Filtronic fell just under six per cent to reach 139p after the firm said it would no longer be "prudent" to return [pounds sterling]10m to shareholders. Pure Wafer's shares bounced back. The firm recently made its first...

News.
March 14, 2007... By Steve Bush steve.bush@rbi.co.uk Newcastle University and Government development agency Cenamps are setting up a clean room for micro and nanoelectronic research, as Cenamps moves to become a research organisation. "Our focus is...

News.
March 14, 2007... Three staff from Advanced Rework Technology have received awards from IPC. Barry Morris, Susan Morris and Debbie Wade were presented with awards by the IPC at a recent conference in California.

News.
March 14, 2007... Regulator Ofcom has been told current ADSL and wireless systems cannot compete on technology or cost with optical fibre systems for broadband services. A six month research study, carried out by a group led by Plextek for Ofcom, ruled out...

News.
March 14, 2007... By Melanie Reynolds melanie.reynolds@rbi.co.uk London-based RadioScape is branching out from digital radio into mobile TV with offerings based on the latest Blackfin processor family from Analog Devices (ADI). "When we looked at...

News.
March 14, 2007... Sanjiv Kaul has joined the advisory board of Pulsic Limited. He has more than 20 years in the EDA industry. He started as an engineer at Daisy Systems and also worked for Valid, Frontline and Synopsys. Alcatel-Lucent has appointed Christian...

News.
March 14, 2007... By Richard Wilson richard.wilson@rbi.co.uk Altera has a new version of its Hardcopy structured Asic product family in the pipeline as the FPGA firm restates its commitment to the lower cost Asic technology. "Structured Asics...

News.
March 14, 2007... Dear Editor The headline in your issue 28/02/07 said: "EU's chemical Directive will 'impact' electronics". I fear that this may be misleading it will be disastrous. It is yet another example of ill-considered legislation emanating from...

News.
March 14, 2007... An "amphibious salamander-like robot" has been developed which can change its speed and gait in response to simple electrical signals. Researchers from EPFL, Switzerland, and the INSERM research centre/University of Bordeaux in France, based...

News.
March 14, 2007... What will China do for wireless? The whole industry would love to know but the government of China is playing its cards close to its chest. The government has to reconcile five conflicting issues. First it has told the WTO that it will...

News.
March 14, 2007... Alex Lidow is CEO of International Rectifier Unlike other major other chip firms IR has maintained manufacturing in Europe including two facilities in the UK. Is chip manufacturing in Europe sustainable in the long term? We believe it...

News.
March 14, 2007... Nanotechnology is the focus of a collaboration between Nokia and the University of Cambridge. The mobile phone firm is investing in a number of R&D projects and a new research facility at the University. "Nanotechnology techniques we...

News.
March 14, 2007... By Steve Bush steve.bush@rbi.co.uk University of Glasgow spin-out Wireless bioDevices has pulled in [pounds sterling]400,000 from intellectual property commercialisation firm IP Group. "It will fund us for the next two years and...

News.
March 14, 2007... The Government has given [pounds sterling]1m to the University of Southampton's School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS). It is a renewal of ECS' recent platform grant which enabled it to develop algorithms and tools for digital...

News.
March 14, 2007... Atmel goes stateside to sell Tyneside fab Atmel has appointed a US-based estate agent to help sell its North Tyneside wafer fab which is described as an operational 200mm semiconductor manufacturing facility. Atmel said in December that it...

News.
March 14, 2007... PHILIPS TO SELL SHARE CAPITAL IN TSMC Philips is to sell its shareholding in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the Taiwanese foundry it has partnered with for almost a decade. Philips currently owns 16.2 per cent of TSMC...

News.
March 14, 2007... Korean mobile WiBro snubbed by consumers WiBro, Korea's homegrown version of mobile WiMAX, has managed to attract only 1,057 subscribers since it was launched eight months ago, according to reports. When WiBro was launched it was expected...

News.
March 14, 2007... Giraffe, from San Francisco-based company HeadThere, is a video conferencing robot. Composed of a video screen and camera mounted on an adjustable height robotic base, it stands in for the remote participant in a videoconference - and can be...

News.
March 14, 2007... Antenova's CEO Greg McCray claims the antenna company is recruiting hard and is looking out for futher acquisitions. Last week the firm pulled in a round of funding of $10m and opened a hardware RF design centre based in Chicago, formed...

News.
March 14, 2007... Norfolk-based contract electronics manufacturer (CEM) Barric has set up a dedicated electronics rework and repair lab. The facility will undertake the test, inspection and repair of surface mount and BGA electronic systems for technology...

News.
March 14, 2007... By Nick Flaherty editorial@electronicsweekly.com The main focus for expansion outside the US for programmable logic maker Xilinx will be India and Singapore rather than Europe, according to international v-p, Paul McCambridge. ...

News.
March 14, 2007... Picochip cemented a four-year presence in China last week with a joint venture laboratory with Beijing's University of Telecommunications and Posts and the opening of a Beijing office. "The joint venture with BUTP is focused on 4G," said...

News.
March 14, 2007... The Government should follow Japan's example and provide funding to encourage the development and use of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, according to a DTI-sponsored Global Watch Mission report. "The Japanese government...

News.
March 14, 2007... Remploy Electronics is investing [pounds sterling]500,000 in a new surface mount PCB assembly line at its Barking factory. John Baker, business development manager, Remploy Electronics, is seen examining one of the first PCBs.

Features.
March 14, 2007... To truly understand the market conditions and the inherent value of power discretes today, it is pivotal that we examine what has transpired in the last two decades. Historically, the power discrete device has been overshadowed by the more...

Features.
March 14, 2007... There is no such thing as a free lunch, right? Your mum and dad probably told you as much. So surely we cannot extract energy from thin air. Or can we? Actually, the human body, factory machines, radios of various types, and many other...

Features.
March 14, 2007... Microprocessor-based devices require a regulated power supply unit that detects the loss of input power and continues to supply power for the length of time it takes to complete a memory backup. One approach to designing for continuous...

Features.
March 14, 2007... Direct conversion (or low IF) receiver designs have been in existence for many years. They are widely used in mobile phones and cordless telephones because of their simplicity and lower cost. However, direct conversion receiver ICs have only...

Technology.
March 14, 2007... Lattice adds PCI Express x4 IP to core library Lattice Semiconductor has added PCI Express x4 intellectual property to its core library, optimised for its low-end ECP2M. "Like the previous PCI Express x1 core for ECP2M, the x4 version...

Technology.
March 14, 2007... High-definition digital terrestrial silicon tuner NXP has introduced a high-definition digital terrestrial silicon tuner. "The TDA18211HD is the industry's first pure DVB-T silicon tuner, eliminating the need for an external SAW filter...

Technology.
March 14, 2007... Worth a look Make-it-yourself: 3D rapid prototyping machine Want to make anything?...well, nearly anything? Take a look at www.fabathome.org to see a 3D rapid prototyping machine that you can make yourself. The 3D printer has a small...

Technology.
March 14, 2007... By Steve Bush steve.bush@rbi.co.uk A researcher from Tel-Aviv University has invented a method of forming cryptographic keys with arbitrarily high security, but without resorting to quantum mechanics. It involves converting an...

Technology.
March 14, 2007... Barcelona-based Fractus claims this is the smallest antenna for the ISM 2.4GHz band. The 3.7x2mm Micro Reach Xtend uses the firm's fractal technology and was developed especially for Bluetooth headsets and mobile handsets. "It...

Technology.
March 14, 2007... By Steve Bush steve.bush@rbi.co.uk Mentor Graphics has released the next generation of its PADS Windows-based PCB design software. "This release offers layout designers and engineers the ability to implement RF and microwave...

Technology.
March 14, 2007... This 5-6GHz collinear dipole array antenna was designed using MicroStripes electromagnetic simulation from Surrey-based Flomerics. Simulation injected a broadband pulse and the time domain response was captured by stepping through the transient...

News.
March 21, 2007... By Steve Bush steve.bush@rbi.co.uk The University of Southampton has embarked on a project to develop chips which will monitor climate change and pollution levels in oceans. "We will measure chemistry and biology in the ocean for...

News.
March 21, 2007... Advanced Power Components (APC) has won a deal to become the UK & Ireland representative for Adtron, the US data storage company. Adtron operates in the industrial data storage sector. Amanda Parker, sales and marketing director at APC, said:...

News.
March 21, 2007... A microelectronics R&D project set up to develop a design and manufacturing techniques for system-in-package (SiP) technology is being funded by the DTI. The expectation of the Adept-SiP project is that it will come up with a practical...

News.
March 21, 2007... By David Manners david.manners@rbi.co.uk Altera has started sampling its first 65nm products half a year earlier than expected. Instead of kicking off with the high performance Stratix family, Altera's first 65nm parts are...