Electronics Weekly articles from May 2003

Electronics Weekly archives from May 2003

Trainee opinions wanted.
May 7, 2003... Melanie Reynolds The opinions of engineering apprentices about all aspects of the apprenticeship programme are being sought by SEMTA to help raise the standards of engineering apprenticeships. In order to collect the information SEMTA,...

Multimedia handset and network design are highlights of Oxford summer school.
May 7, 2003... Melanie Reynolds The focus of this year's RTT Oxford Design Week to be held at St Anne's College, Oxford, will be multi-media handset and network design. The four-day programme, from June 30 to July 3, consists of three tracks: a...

Learning Skills Council awards Orange for its MA programme.
May 7, 2003... Mobile network operator Orange has become the first telecoms company to be awarded a Certificate of Commitment by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) for its Modern Apprenticeship (MA) in Telecommunications programme. The MA was...

Distance learning with PCB design skills centre.
May 7, 2003... A distance learning option is being offered by Electronic Design Realisation (EDR), the PCB design skills centre, for companies which want to 'fast-track' specific people into a design role. The online offering, Flexible Fast-track, forms...

A flash of magic NAND.
May 7, 2003... Flash memory technology is moving away from its traditional roots as a random access memory used for code storage towards a serial access technology more suited to data storage. DAVID MANNERS looks at the rise of NAND It's flash to be...

National takes condenser microphone digital.
May 7, 2003... Richard Ball National Semiconductor has developed a digital version of the industry standard electret condenser microphone, replacing the traditional single FET amplifier with a complex IC. The design includes an analogue pre-amplifier...

Bookham to shut Canada wafer fab in Caswell shift.
May 7, 2003... Alex Mayhew-Smith Bookham Technology has said it plans to close its indium phosphide wafer fab in Ottawa, Canada by the end of the year and transfer business to its site at Caswell. Around 200 staff will be made redundant at the site,...

Agere makes $125m Q2 loss but aims for profit this year.
May 7, 2003... Agere Systems has reported a loss of $125m during the second quarter of its financial year, a reduction of $21m from the previous quarter, and an improvement of $94m from the same period a year ago. The loss included $68m in net...

Microsoft signs firm to develop OS biometrics.
May 7, 2003... Microsoft has entered into an agreement with Florida-based AuthenTec to develop biometric authentication support for Windows. "This agreement represents the native integration of biometrics directly into the operating system, versus simply...

Superconductivity cuts loss in small co-planar 2.4GHz filter.
May 7, 2003... Steve Bush Researchers at the University of Birmingham have fabricated a superconducting co-planar waveguide filter, claiming it to be one of the smallest made. "Mainly, with co-planar designs at this frequency, conduction loss is...

TSMC sees profits soar 71 per cent.
May 7, 2003... Taiwanese foundry TSMC had a $125m profit in the first quarter, a 71 per cent increase on the profits of Q4 2002. Revenues were $1.12bn, 4 per cent lower than Q4's owing to a 7 per cent decline in prices, said the firm. The higher...

Oxford-based PFE gets record output intensity from FED.
May 7, 2003... Oxfordshire's Printable Field Emitters (PFE) is claiming a record output intensity from a second-generation field-emission displays. "Best previous reported data for a second generation FED was Samsung's at a show in Hiroshima last...

The wisdom of a standard 3G speech codec.
May 7, 2003... Standards group 3GPP2 has adopted an industry standard wideband speech codec, but will it simplify 3G interoperability, asks RICHARD WILSON The technical standards group working on the next generation of mobile phone systems seems to have...

Roke Manor drives 77GHz radars to car makers for EU crash warning network.
May 7, 2003... Harry Yeates Hampshire sensor and communications firm Roke Manor Research is delivering prototype 77GHz frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar modules to major automotive manufacturers as the European RadarNet programme enters...

3G firms to share infrastructure.
May 7, 2003... T-Mobile and mmO2 will be able to share their 3G mobile network infrastructure in the UK following approval by the European Commission for the agreement. The EC's approval means the firms can share sites, involving basic network...

Tri-band GSM/GPRS card looking for customers.
May 7, 2003... Roke Manor Research has developed a tri-band GSM/ GPRS card in a Compact Flash package and is looking for customers to take the design to a product. The firm claims it is the world's smallest such device. Project manager Chris Edwards...

Hardware design and simulation tools to use SystemC language.
May 7, 2003... CoWare has developed tools for hardware design and simulation centred around the SystemC language. Called ConvergenSC, the software is said to be faster than the reference simulator for SystemC offered by Open SystemC Initiative, the...

EDA firm speeds up development tools.
May 7, 2003... EDA company Vast Systems Technology claims to have made its embedded development tools significantly faster, leading to real-time simulation of software. The firm's Comet and Meteor tools provide a virtual prototype on which to run...

Xilinx starts shipping 10Gbit/s chips.
May 7, 2003... Xilinx is shipping 10Gbit/s physical layer chips and plans to put the high speed transceivers in its FPGAs later this year. Three PHY chips, dubbed RocketPHY, are aimed at interfacing SONET or SDH optical links and 10Gbit/s serial links...

Pressac slides into pre-tax loss of [pounds sterling]8.4m as [pounds sterling]14.5m restructuring charges take their toll.
May 7, 2003... Components maker Pressac has reported a pound sterling8.4m pre-tax loss for 2002 mostly due to restructuring charges of pound sterling14.5m. Turnover was down to pound sterling128.5m from pound sterling142.1m in 2001. Restructuring...

SARS outbreak boosts thermal imaging firm.
May 7, 2003... David Manners UK thermal imaging firm Irisys has been gaining business as a result of the SARS outbreak, shipping several of its systems to Singapore with Malaysia placing orders too. The system has already identified several potential...

Cambridge aerial firm set for big handset contract.
May 7, 2003... Steve Bush Cambridge-based aerial technology firm Antenova is heading for its largest deal so far. "We will very soon be announcing a well known tier one manufacturer. We have previously dealt in smaller quantities with tier two and...

Nokia leads mobile pack as Sony Ericsson slips up.
May 7, 2003... Sony Ericsson has dropped out of the top five list of mobile phone suppliers as 108 million phones were shipped in the first quarter of 2003. The market grew 16.6 per cent compared to the first three months of 2002. The figures from...

TTPCom singles out EDGE and LANs as future wireless design.
May 7, 2003... Richard Wilson TTP Communications has identified wireless LAN and EDGE mobile enhancement technologies as the next opportunities to grow its wireless system design business. Developing hardware and software products beyond its core...

Symbian ships OS to 10 companies.
May 7, 2003... Ten companies are developing next generation mobile handsets based on the Symbian operating system (OS), according to the UK-based mobile systems firm. According to Symbian's CEO David Levin: "There are more than 20 Symbian OS products...

Nanotech start-up may end quest for universal memory.
May 7, 2003... David Manners The semiconductor industry's search for a one-size-fits-all memory may be addressed from a process demonstrated last week by US nanotechnology start-up Nantero. The Boston-based firm demonstrated a 1Gbit memory chip made...

Analogue test at University.
May 7, 2003... Glasgow University has opened a facility dedicated to analogue electronics testing in response to industry demand for engineers experienced in analogue technology. Creation of the facility has been supported by Scottish Enterprise and...

EC plans route to better research effort in Europe.
May 7, 2003... An action plan to boost research efforts in Europe has been published by the European Commission. The plan is part of the EC's aim to increase the level of investment in research in the EU from 1.9 per cent to 3 per cent of GDP by 2010....

Generics start-up in administration.
May 7, 2003... Free-space optics developer QuantumBeam, one of the technology start-ups from the Generics Group in Cambridge, has gone into administration with the loss of around 20 jobs. The company was working on point-to-multipoint last-mile access,...

Philips RFID tags used in future supermarket.
May 7, 2003... European retailer Metro Group has adopted RFID tags from Philips for its Extra Future Store in Rheinberg, Germany. This is the first broad, real life implementation of RFID technology in a European supermarket environment, said Philips....

Infineon to decide on relocation this year; Switzerland favourite.
May 7, 2003... David Manners Infineon Technologies expects to make its decision about relocating out of Germany in September. The decision has been met with widespread comment in Germany, but CEO Dr Ulrich Schumacher, stressed it will only affect...

Essex firm reaps [pounds sterling]100k business from trade trip.
May 7, 2003... An Essex company has won pound sterling100,000 worth of business through a Government-sponsored trip to the Far East. "We got the job in Singapore following a trade mission last October," Ian King, MD of European EMC Products, told EW. "We...

Educational toy glows for QinetiQ Innovision intellectual property link.
May 7, 2003... The two-year intellectual property mining tie-up between Wokingham's Innovision R&T and research lab QinetiQ has led to the production of an educational toy called Contactor. "This is one of the technologies we hoped would come through,"...

Single carbon nanotube will light up optoelectronics and fast telecoms.
May 7, 2003... Richard Ball A single carbon nanotube has been made to emit light by scientists at IBM. The firm suggests such devices could be used in optoelectronic and high speed telecoms systems. "Nanotube light emitters have the potential to...

Microsoft shows off automotive Windows.
May 7, 2003... Microsoft has unveiled an automotive specific version of its Windows CE operating system that supports Bluetooth, wireless LAN and speech recognition. Windows Automotive 4.2 natively supports both voice and data Bluetooth links allowing...

Celestica to shut Irish site and move production east.
May 7, 2003... Richard Ball Celestica is closing down its Irish operation in Swords, North County Dublin with the loss of 250 jobs. The Canadian contract manufacturer said production at the site would be phased out over the coming three to six...

Alcatel site in Scotland eyes optical aftermath.
May 7, 2003... The fate of Alcatel's site in Livingston, Scotland, is still hanging in the balance as the French company continues the restructuring of its optical components business. The company said an announcement on the restructuring, following...

Flint realigns to target wireless and smartcards.
May 7, 2003... Flint has restructured its component distribution activities to take advantage of sales activity in the wireless and smartcard sectors. A Secure Retail business has been created to benefit from an anticipated increase in smartcard systems...

Far East loss is UKgain as SARS worries hit industry.
May 7, 2003... Richard Wilson UK-based manufacturers are seeing first signs of a pick up in business enquiries as some customers consider a switch from China-based contract manufacturers as a result of concerns over the SARS outbreak in south east Asia....

Council in Soho uses wireless.
May 14, 2003... Westminster city council says it will this month launch a pilot scheme to provide its workers with wireless access to the council network throughout Soho. A series of 'smart boxes' will enable environment inspectors, parking attendants,...

Novel UK output driver slashes IC power consumption by 75 per cent.
May 14, 2003... Richard Ball Adiabatic, ad-i-a-bat'ik, adj. without gain or loss of heat. The concept of an adiabatic process is usually used in the thermodynamic world and refers to gases being heated and cooled by expansion and contraction. ...

Marconi to lose more staff as creditors get ownership.
May 14, 2003... Alex Mayhew-Smith Marconi will pass into the hands of creditors next week and the troubled telecoms equipment firm will see its stock re-listed on the London Stock Exchange. As the firm, brought low by a spectacular spending spree and...

US puts Accelerated RTOS in radio telescopes.
May 14, 2003... Accelerated Technology's Nucleus real-time operating system (RTOS) has been chosen by the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) for phase 1 of its Very Large Array (VLA) expansion project. The VLA is a pseudo radio telescope made...

Design tools offer power analysis in combination.
May 14, 2003... Richard Ball Magma Design Automation has unveiled two chip design tools that combine several existing point tools. Blast Rail combines power planning and the analysis of power, voltage drop, voltage drop induced delay and...

Microsoft lowers Windows CE cost.
May 14, 2003... Microsoft has lowered the cost of licensing the Windows CE operating system, opening it up for use in lower cost systems. A stripped down version of the OS will cost $3 or less, pitching it at products such as residential gateways, set-top...

Design tool distributor starts UK EDA forum.
May 14, 2003... Design tool distributor First EDA has announced a UK technical forum, to be held in the week after the Design Automation Conference. "DAC, in the US, is the premier EDA event and it never fails to give the industry its annual boost," said...

Steel foil substrate built display can be bent into curve of 15mm.
May 14, 2003... Harry Yeates Us firm e ink has released data on the flexibility of its latest display. The active matrix design, built on a steel foil substrate, is less than 0.3mm thick and can withstand being bent into a curve with a radius of 15mm...

The future of SoC from the tenth hole.
May 14, 2003... The ever widening complexity of system-on-chip requirements is blinding designers to their final objective, writes DAVID MANNERS The semiconductor industry is in the same position as a golfer standing on the 10th tee at The Belfry golf...

Infineon doubles capacity at Portuguese assembly facility.
May 14, 2003... Infineon Technologies is in the process of doubling capacity at its Portuguese assembly plant near Oporto which employs 900 people. "The equipment is being increased to double production by the end of the next fiscal year to five million...

Disk drive firm sponsors novel magnetic research.
May 14, 2003... Harry Yeates Disk drive manufacturer Seagate is taking advantage of the "unique" capabilities of UK universities to gain access to blue skies research into novel magnetic materials. The company, which has operations in Springtown and...

UK Government has watched erosion of manufacturing base, says analyst.
May 14, 2003... David Manners The UK has suffered a devastating erosion of its electronics manufacturing base in the last two years, and the Government does not seem to care, according to Malcolm Penn, CEO of Future Horizons. "This exodus has a huge...

XP Power to grow sales as new look takes hold.
May 14, 2003... Richard Wilson Power firm XP Power expects to see sales growth from the UK market despite the downturn as it repositions as a manufacturer and supplier of its own branded power supply products. The former mainstream distributor...

Polymer displays get switched on to TV but barriers prevent a flexible roll-out.
May 14, 2003... David Manners The flexible, roll-up electronics display is still five to ten years away because of the lack of a suitable barrier technology but TV applications for polymer displays are imminent, according to David Fyfe, president and CEO...

Industry sets up umbrella scheme to take control of UK waste plans.
May 14, 2003... Steve Bush Electronic and electrical trade organisations in the UK are intending to create a non-profit making company to meet the requirements of the EU's waste directive. There had been pressure for Government to take a more active...

Trainees fail to pass key skills tests.
May 14, 2003... Melanie Reynolds The Modern Apprenticeship programme is failing to produce engineering students who can claim the full qualification because all the requisite components of the programme are not being completed, according to a Government...

Robot footballers will give boot to Beckham.
May 14, 2003... In 50 years time robot football players will be able to beat the best human football teams, according to Sony Corporation's chief technology officer Dr Tsugio Makimoto. "Some think it's a crazy idea but robot engineers are very serious...

Starter kit for 2.4GHz radio.
May 14, 2003... Wireless broadband company Alvarion has launched a "starter kit" containing the equipment needed to set up broadband wireless networks capable of speeds of up to 1.4Mbit/s. The 'ISP in a box' kit costs [pounds sterling]20,000 and includes...

Zarlink revenues up.
May 14, 2003... Revenues at Zarlink Semiconductor grew by 13 per cent from Q3 to Q4 of 2002, to $53m, around $1m higher than in the same period last year. The company reported a net loss of $24m for the fourth quarter, in line with expectations, compared...

Electronics design company ReTech forges RF ID integration business.
May 14, 2003... Swindon-based electronics design and manufacturing firm, ReTech Electronics, has created a division which will concentrate on RF identification (RFID) products. The division, named Alpha-ID, will operate as a systems integrator for RFID...

Scottish firm reveals tool to go native in processor.
May 14, 2003... Richard Ball Scottish firm Critical Blue has unveiled its long awaited product, a tool for creating a co-processor to run the native software of the main system processor. Called Cascade, the tool takes code destined for the main...

Welsh powerline comms firm goes into voluntary liquidation.
May 14, 2003... Lanergy, the powerline communications company, has gone into voluntary liquidation. It is the second UK powerline start-up to fail in recent months, following the demise of Reading firm nSine in November last year. "They ran out of cash,...

Engineer institutes weigh up merger proposition.
May 14, 2003... The Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE), Institution of Incorporated Engineers (IIE) and Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) are considering merging to create one institution with greater authority. The institutes said...

UK design conference attracts big name stars.
May 14, 2003... Market leading semiconductor firms will be taking part in a major design conference in Brighton next month. In the first event of this type, some of the industry's most important semiconductor suppliers and design firms will be presenting...

36Gbyte optical disk writes via blue laser.
May 14, 2003... Toshiba has developed a 36Gbyte rewriteable optical disk using a blue laser to store and erase information. The dual-layer, single-sided disk can be produced with only minor changes to the current DVD manufacturing process, claimed the...

Suppliers blame war for fall in production.
May 14, 2003... Worsening concerns over falling manufacturing output could be in part due to a fall in confidence during the Iraq war, according to some electronics suppliers. "It is certainly true that in the run up to and during the war, customers...

QinetiQ shows off anti-missile radar system.
May 14, 2003... QinetiQ is claiming a world first, after initial hardware tests of a phased array radar for anti-missile systems. The antenna, operating in passive (receive) mode, tracked a moving RF source in an anechoic chamber. "To our knowledge,...

Educate the media.
May 14, 2003... Mediacast 2003, the show for the broadcast and digital TV industry, kicks off next week with the emphasis this year on education. There will be a variety of industry figures speaking at the show's conferences, aiming to impart their knowledge...

Siliconix cuts latch-up in monolithic dual JFET family for amplifiers.
May 14, 2003... Steve Bush No latch-up dual Fets at a glance Package TO-78 and SOIC-8 Breakdown voltage -25V to -50V Offset/drift voltage 40mV to 5mV Gate-source cut-off voltage -0.5V to -6V Family >20 devices Available Now ...

What do we mean by lead free? writes Murata's Jim Turner.
May 21, 2003... ponents. This ban is legally binding on us all. It is important to understand what we mean by lead free and to use correct terminology in any discussions. Nobody involved in our industry will be able to be an ostrich on this one. What...

RF Engines puts fast polyphase DFT cores into commercial IPpackage.
May 21, 2003... Steve Bush Additional hardware is modest, claims RFEL Xilinx FPGA resource estimate for 15-bit 100MHz complex in, 24-bit out ****4,096 point weighted****Equivalent polyphase****Extra hardware ****FFT with bit reverser****DFT...

SiC finds key to the door.
May 21, 2003... The whisper amongst device manufacturers is that having taken over 20 years to get the first products into the market silicon carbide is something to take seriously. RICHARD BALL finds a technology coming of age Silicon carbide has...

Semiconductor firms call for cross-use platforms.
May 21, 2003... David Manners Cross company platforms with multiple applications are the answer to the electronics industry's problems, according to industry experts at a recent conference. "You don't want to develop ten different chips for ten...

Architectures shift the load.
May 21, 2003... The telecoms industry is driving a rethink in the DC-DC converter power market with one of the main issues being where to put the isolation in the power feed circuit. RICHARD WILSON looks at a selection of product releases The...

Route 42.
May 21, 2003... Car manufacturers are eager to get the advantages of replacing 12V electrical systems with 42V, but the route is littered with obstacles, and it could be up to eight years before anyone drives it. HARRY YEATES watches the sparks fly ...

Watch out for the fakers.
May 21, 2003... Counterfeit components are becoming a big problem in the supply chain, says MIKE TRENCHARD chief executive of COG Not too long ago, a respected COG member trading as an after market manufacturer had some products returned when a customer...

Safety instructions.
May 21, 2003... Lithium ion cells beat nickel-based batteries for both size and weight, but lithium cells are not inherently safe and additional circuits are required if problems are to be avoided. STEVE BUSH finds out how manufacturers have solved this...

Apply and demand.
May 21, 2003... david manners spoke to Agere Systems CEO John Dickson about consolidation, profitability and bright futures The historical growth trend of the semiconductor industry is slowing down; systems knowledge is the key differentiator for success;...

Distribution sales fall 18 per cent.
May 21, 2003... Distributors saw sales of components fall 18 per cent in the first three months of the year as the sector comes to terms with an eroded manufacturing base, the impact of the Iraq war and relatively high inventory levels. According to the...

Analogue toolset integrates design system, circuit and electrical views.
May 21, 2003... Richard Ball Applied Wave Research (AWR) has unveiled a complete toolset for analogue, RF and microwave chip design. The firm said Analog Office combines system, circuit, electrical and physical views of a design, which today are dealt...

Anti-missile phased array radar undergoes target tracking trials.
May 21, 2003... This is QinetiQ's phased array radar undergoing tracking tests, intended for installation in next-generation anti-missile systems (EW May 14). According to QinetiQ, this is the first time such a radar has actively tracked a target. All...

Roke Manor Research develops fast breast cancer screening technique.
May 21, 2003... Roke Manor Research is developing a system for high-speed breast cancer screening using ultra wideband (UWB) microwave radio techniques. Combining 3D images generated using UWB with existing X-ray mammograms and ultrasound scans should give...

Cork firm takes strain with image correlation technology.
May 21, 2003... Richard Ball Optical Metrology Innovations from Ireland has introduced thermo-mechanical strain measuring equipment for chip packaging. The Cork-based firm is using image correlation techniques to measure strain without the need to add...

Firms drop out from 3.4GHz FWA auction.
May 21, 2003... The number of bidders in the auction for 3.4GHz fixed wireless access (FWA) licences due to take place this month has fallen from 26 to 12 after a number of "shelf" companies withdrew from the auction. The companies which withdrew were all...

Abacus still sees a downturn as prices fall to historic lows.
May 21, 2003... Alex Mayhew-Smith Business may be improving slowly for semiconductor manufacturers but the distribution market remains in the grip of one of the worst downturns ever, according to Abacus. "There remains tough pricing pressure on...