Electronics Weekly articles from November 2004

Electronics Weekly archives from November 2004

3D electrodes fit into human eye.
November 3, 2004... Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee is developing 3D electrode arrays that will fit the contours of a human eyeball as part of a Department of Energy (DoE) project to develop a 1,000-electrode artificial retina. The device should enable...

Blue LED shines on mobile phones.
November 3, 2004... Japanese firm Showa Denko has developed a 12mW GaN-based blue LED for mobile phones, outdoor displays, and general illumination. The device uses a flip-chip design for improved heat dissipation and reliability. Showa expects to find an outlet...

Flying the flag for Europe.
November 3, 2004... With Europe's biggest electronics showcase Electronica taking place next week (9-12th November) Electronics Weekly asked leading executives in the electronics industry: "What are the main factors, which will ensure that Europe retains its...

Santa's 3G mobile phones will not have passed conformance tests.
November 3, 2004... The conformance tests for 3G mobile phones will not be agreed in time for the Christmas sales period, meaning any phones sold will not be fully certified to the standards. Certification of 3G terminals cannot start until enough test cases have...

Quadros OS tailored for Analog DSPs.
November 3, 2004... Quadros Systems has developed a version of its RTXC Dual Mode operating system for Analog Devices' BlackFin family of DSPs. RTXC Dual Mode is designed to run DSP and control code simultaneously, and has been designed for 'convergent'...

Medal puts Payne alongside Marconi.
November 3, 2004... Professor David Payne, director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre at the University of Southampton, has been awarded the Kelvin Medal, putting him alongside Guglielmo Marconi and jet engine inventor Sir Frank Whittle. Payne's credits...

Electronics drives manufacturing.
November 3, 2004... Positive employment figures in the manufacturing sector are being driven by demand from the electronics sector, according to Manpower. The electronics sector is leading the way with a positive balance of 61 per cent of employers looking to...

Academics to plan national programme for research.
November 3, 2004... Plans for a national strategy for microelectronics research will be presented this month when leading academics meet in London. A group of academics from five universities and the Alba Centre will put forward proposals for a national research...

RFID tags help crime reduction.
November 3, 2004... Projects undertaken as part of the Government's [pounds sterling]5.5m Chipping of Goods Initiative have demonstrated good results in crime reduction and business efficiency as a result of fitting RFID tags. "The Initiative has accelerated...

'Micron will not be penalised' says CEO after US continues its price probe in DRAM market.
November 3, 2004... Micron Technology says it is not expecting a fine following Infineon Technologies' fine in September for price-fixing in the DRAM market. "Micron will not be penalised," Steve Appleton, CEO of Micron told EW, "we've been giving evidence to the...

Cancer screening method keeps radiation doses low.
November 3, 2004... A medical scanning system that could screen for cancer without exposing patients to high doses of radiation is under development at the University of Cambridge. "We've been trying to combine two types of imaging in a single scanner," said Dr...

Flextronics snaps up camera module business of Agilent Technologies.
November 3, 2004... Contract manufacturer Flextronics has recognised the growing significance of the camera phone as a mass market consumer product and has acquired the camera module business of Agilent Technologies. In July this year the Agilent business shipped...

ARM plans its first commercial asynchronous processor debut.
November 3, 2004... ARM's first commercially available asynchronous processor will be available from the first quarter of next year. The processor is being developed by ARM and Philips, with the aim of reducing power in smartcards, consumer electronics and...

Surrey Satellite plans 'missions beyond Earth'.
November 3, 2004... Planetary exploration is the next frontier for private enterprise in space, according to the managing director of Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL). The company is seeing success in providing affordable remote Earth sensing capability, but Dr...

IR recruits workers for Swansea automotive site.
November 3, 2004... International Rectifier (IR) is expanding its automotive electronics facility in Swansea and is on target for growth at its Newport fab. The firm is planning to increase staff levels at its Swansea site to 250 from the current level of around...

Companies slow to use Govt R&D tax breaks.
November 3, 2004... The Government's tax policy will help tackle poor R&D spending in the UK, according to a UK tax expert. Figures in the recent DTI R&D scoreboard for 2004 showed the country is behind "international levels" in terms of the "proportion and...

Airspan links with PicoChip on software-defined WiMAX.
November 3, 2004... Airspan Networks has signed an agreement with Bath-based signal processing firm PicoChip to develop a software-defined radio implementation of the 802.16 WiMAX standard. Although the 802.16d standard has now been ratified, Jeremy Rowe,...

Photonic circuit uses one light beam to switch another.
November 3, 2004... Cornell University researchers have demonstrated a device on silicon that allows one low-powered light beam to turn another on and off, claiming it to be the first of its kind. It relies on two waveguides running close together. "The...

Inventory hit by a 'lack of trust' hears conference.
November 3, 2004... The endemic lack of trust within the electronics industry supply chain is contributing to the present confusion over inventory levels, it was stated at the IFS2004 conference last week. "We need a greater level of trust. There's very little...

Phyworks seeks engineers for Swindon design office.
November 3, 2004... Bristol start-up Phyworks is opening a design office in Swindon with the aim of attracting engineers from along the M4 corridor. The firm plans to recruit an additional ten designers experienced in analogue and mixed signal design. Creating a...

Human immune system inspires NASA machine fault software.
November 3, 2004... Using the human immune system as an inspiration, NASA scientists at the Ames Research Center in silicon valley are developing software to find faults in complex machines. The tool is called MILD: Multi-level Immune Learning Detection software....

Start-up signs market specialist.
November 3, 2004... Edinburgh start-up Spiral Gateway is looking to expand its chip IP and development tool business and has signed up marketing firm AlphaHorizon. Spiral Gateway spun out of Edinburgh University last year and develops low power chip IP blocks for...

Value chain is; re-shaping the chip market, claims STMicro.
November 3, 2004... The chip industry is consolidating around a few giants, which will each need 20 per cent world market share to maintain spending on developing product technology and building wafer fabs. Andrea Cuomo, v-p of advanced system technology at...

Remote cardiac ultrasound trial.
November 3, 2004... A remote cardiac and obstetric ultrasound imaging system has been trialled by France Telecom and French insurance association La Mutualite Franaise. France Telecom spent five years developing the system. It makes use of multisite...

Venture partnership eyes start-up firms.
November 3, 2004... Bath-based venture capital firm Catalyst Venture Partners, which runs a programme to take start-up companies from a business plan to their first funding round, has partnered with four other investors. Companies in the programme will have access...

Fabless chip start-up raises $1.2m and finds customers for automotive comms.
November 3, 2004... Start-up Nanotech Semiconductor has completed its first external investment round, raising $1.2m. The fabless chip firm also has two potential customers and two new directors. The cash will go into applications engineering, sales and...

PCB layout software allows many designers to work on one board.
November 3, 2004... PCB layout software that allows several designers to work simultaneously on one board has been developed by Mentor Graphics. XtremePCB, said John Isaac, director of market development at Mentor, allows "multiple layout designers to work on the...

RTOS gets overhaul.
November 3, 2004... Wind River Systems has shaken up a large chunk of its real-time operating system product line. For example, in moving to version 2.2, its Workbench tool has gained Eclipse 3.0 compatibility and specific functions aimed at different developers...

Technique studies nano interfaces.
November 3, 2004... A non-destructive technique for studying interfaces between materials in multilayered nanostructures has been developed in the US. Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory used bright, circularly polarized soft X-rays to carry out...

UK firm signs information deal with US Museum.
November 3, 2004... UK start-up Hypertag has won a deal with the Brooklyn Museum in the US to supply its visitor attraction software. The technology uses a PDA or handheld device which offers text, video, pictures and sound when pointed at an electronic tag. The...

Software company promotes Linux in bid ; to make operating system deterministic.
November 3, 2004... Linux could be the "universal" operating system, running real-time code in handheld equipment and complex networking protocols in basestations. That is according to MontaVista Software, which recently launched an initiative to make Linux...

Talent pool a guarantee of European success.
November 3, 2004... Two years ago the pre-Electronica scene was looking bright - the Big Three European semiconductor companies were headed by exceptional men, the European share of worldwide semiconductor markets had been growing for a decade, and Europe was the...

Atmel to expand Scottish facility.
November 3, 2004... Discussions between chip firm Atmel and Scotland's enterprise minister Jim Wallace has secured [pounds sterling]1.2m backing for an expansion of the US firm's semiconductor design activities in Scotland. The expansion will lead to the creation...

Graduates need job training, says survey.
November 3, 2004... Melanie Reynolds looks at the latest electronics engineers survey inety per cent of all electronics graduates believe university has not provided them with skills which are appropriate for their job according to a survey by training company...

UK developed sensor measures refractive index of liquids to 1ppm.
November 3, 2004... Southampton optical circuit start-up Stratophase has developed a sensor that can measure the refractive index of liquids to better than one part in a million (1ppm). After the team got their prototype up and running, they raided the vending...

Rat brain cell computer flies virtual jet fighter.
November 3, 2004... A University of Florida scientist has grown a living neural network that can fly a simulated plane, claims the university. The network is 25,000 rat neurons cultured inside a glass dish over an array of 60 electrodes. "We're interested in...

Low power RF technology sends right signals.
November 10, 2004... Low power RF technology is becoming the next big growth area for mixed signal semiconductor suppliers. The technology, which sets up short-range wireless links for comms and security systems, has benefited form the widespread use of unlicensed...

IQE wins $25m epitaxial deal.
November 10, 2004... Welsh epitaxial wafer firm IQE has secured a deal to manufacture epitaxial materials for an unnamed firm in North America. IQE said the deal was worth $25m in an arrangement which would last for a minimum of two years. Any continuation of the...

Xilinx plans IP core for in-vehicle networking.
November 10, 2004... Xilinx is developing an IP core for the FlexRay in-vehicle networking standard. The firm said that, for some companies, implementing an FPGA-based system in production may make economic sense. "If you use the example of FlexRay. there still...

CEOs welcome strategy for microelectronics design.
November 10, 2004... Company CEOs have welcomed a university initiative to create a national strategy for microelectronics design as a step in the right direction. But they warned that the needs of industry must not be ignored in the plans. A group of academics...

Freescale joins green crusade.
November 10, 2004... Freescale Semiconductor has joined STMicroelectronics, Infineon Technologies, and Philips in their Environmental 3 (E3) collaboration, which will be renamed E4. Members develop methods to remove lead from their manufacturing processes.

MicroEmissive delays flotation.
November 10, 2004... MicroEmissive Displays (MED) share flotation on London's AIM (Alternative Investment Market) has been delayed but is still expected to happen before Christmas. "It's slipped a little," said a spokesman. "We're hoping it'll all be wrapped up by...

Touch mobile is near field product.
November 10, 2004... Nokia has unveiled what it claims is the word's first near field communication (NFC) product in the form of a mobile phone shell. The shell will allow users to access a variety of services and exchange information with a simple touch gesture....

IBM plans to invest [pounds sterling]20m in Swansea R&D centre.
November 10, 2004... IBM will announce a [pounds sterling]20m investment in "a major European R&D centre" in Swansea within the next month. EW has learned that the venture, described as a "research collaboration", will cover hardware, software and IT services....

Scottish firm controls quantum laser via USB.
November 10, 2004... A Scottish firm is offering complete quantum cascade laser (QCL) systems controlled directly from a PC's USB port. Cascade Technologies says the package will save significant time for anyone wanting a mid-infra-red laser. "It could save them...

Flash FPGAs benefit from IP security fears.
November 10, 2004... Concern over the security of intellectual property is pushing many European firms to consider using flash-based FPGAs. That is according to EDA firm Altium, which has added support for Actel's flash devices to Nexar, its flagship FPGA design...

Deltron eyes acquisitions after Quiller success.
November 10, 2004... Deltron is continuing to look for acquisitions to grow its market share in the European electromechancial component market. The component distributor and manufacturer added more than [pounds sterling]4m to its UK sales with last week's...

Where are the men with the drive and vision to be leaders of UK electronics?
November 10, 2004... The conclusion reached by last month's discussion event on the 'Future of the UK Electronics Industry', organised by industry body Intellect, was that: "The UK must focus on retaining the design and specification of future products and...

Firms snap up licences; for network computers.
November 10, 2004... Over 60 licences have been taken for network computers under the Open Source Network Computing Initiative. A development kit for designing the terminals called Xiao Hu, meaning 'Little Tiger', has been made available, and some initial reference...

UMTS fast packet access takes off.
November 10, 2004... The high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) extension to UMTS appears to have reached maturity, with a string of announcements of interoperable network equipment and test systems over recent weeks. Cambridge firm Ubinetics' has shown its...

'We'll get it right first time at 90nm' say EDA firms as design costs hit start-ups.
November 10, 2004... Designs on 90nm semiconductor processes will not suffer the difficulties of 130nm technology, according to the top EDA firms. Only one third of all 130nm designs were right first time, and even after three spins the proportion of working...

Technique improves free-space comms.
November 10, 2004... US researchers have come up with a technique for improving free-space optical (FSO) communications. FSO communications suffer from variable reliability as a result of varying channel conditions - for example water particles in cloud cause...

Invest in training or miss out, forum tells engineering firms.
November 10, 2004... UK engineering and technology companies must invest in training and retaining their engineers and technicians if they are to continue to compete in the global market was the message that emerged from an IEE-organised forum last week. "Employers...

SiGe group applauded for strained silicon work.
November 10, 2004... The UK's academic SiGe consortium has created the world's best strained silicon technology, according to Professor Anthony O'Neill of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. The consortium, which has come to the end of its seven-year project,...

Asia catching UK in mobile comms, says DTI mission.
November 10, 2004... Strategic action is urgently needed if the UK is to maintain its position as a global knowledge-based economy in mobile communications over the next decade, according to a report from the DTI Global Watch Mission. The mission, which visited...

Ignios product debut targets multi-core chips.
November 10, 2004... UK start-up Ignios has released its first product called System Weaver, which allows software teams to target ICs with multiple processors. Ignios aims to address problems caused by growing numbers of processing cores on a chip and a...

Mobiles market to grow 10%.
November 10, 2004... Nokia reckons the mobile phone market will grow 10 per cent next year. Next year will improve on 2004's expected overall 630 million phones worldwide. The fastest growth areas will, reckons Nokia, be Latin America, Europe/Middle East/Africa and...

UK in P6.25m project for robot that can interpret situations.
November 10, 2004... Researchers in artificial intelligence (AI) at the University of Birmingham are participating in a P6.25m, four-year European project to develop a cognitive robot. One of the project's aims is to help throw some light on human cognition. The...

Xerox signals intent to find way of changing formats.
November 10, 2004... Xerox is investigating document 'intents' and the change in appeal as a document is moved, such as between paper and a web page. "One intent of an advertisement is to capture attention," said Xerox explaining its strange use of intent....

Dallas claims its 16-bit Risc microcontroller saves on power.
November 10, 2004... Dallas Semiconductor is claiming to have the most current-efficient 16-bit microcontroller with its MAXQ2000 Risc device which "achieves 3.6 normalised Mips/mA", said the firm. Shutting down unused blocks contributes to power savings. "The...

Boeing flies with Green Hills RTOS.
November 10, 2004... Boeing has selected Green Hills Software's real-time operating system (RTOS) and software development tools for its X-45C unmanned combat aircraft (pictured). The aircraft's vehicle management system will use Green Hills' Integrity-178B RTOS...

Time for organic LEDs.
November 10, 2004... Before organic displays are rolled out in your front room there are some problems to overcome. Steve Bush reports magine a TV that is not just thin like a plasma screen, but thin like a birthday card. That lives in a narrow box near the...

Cashing-in on electronic labels.
November 10, 2004... Small shelf-edge electronic displays can offer shops a raft of new capabilities, says Harry Yeates ast month the supermarket chain Sainsbury's announced that, following a review of its business, it would be taking a charge of [pounds...

The viewer's choice.
November 10, 2004... According to a UK display market analyst: "LCDs are everywhere. They are the octopus of display technologies." David Manners finds a 36-year-old technology has finally made it as the world's favourite display has been a long time coming -...

AMD travels to India for cheap PC launch.
November 10, 2004... Indian telecom service provider VSNL, together with AMD, has launched the Personal Internet Communicator (PIC), a cut-price easy-to-use PC that "will help provide managed Internet access to first time technology users", said AMD. In India, the...

Waves wash over energy boundary.
November 10, 2004... Scientists at the University of Exeter have shown that energy can be transferred between two different types of molecule over much longer distances than usual thanks to electromagnetic waves called surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). An SPP is a...

MIT spin-out gets biotech patents.
November 10, 2004... Cambrios Technologies, a spin out from MIT, has been granted a licence to patents filed by US biotechnology firm Dyax. Dyax's peptide phage display technology uses viruses to grow large numbers of peptides that selectively bind to inorganic...

Philips grows III-V on silicon opening way to faster CMOS.
November 10, 2004... Researchers at Philips in the Netherlands have grown III-V semiconductors on silicon and germanium substrates, opening the door to integrating high frequency components in CMOS circuits. Until now attempts to grow layers of the III-V...

LED die on silicon substrate gives four-channel 16-pin optocoupler.
November 10, 2004... Agilent Technologies has perfected a technique of assembling LED die on top of a silicon substrate to produce its first four channel bi-directional optocoupler in a single 16-pin package. Traditionally optocouplers provide electrical...

Intersil gains design wins for BluRay.
November 17, 2004... Intersil has achieved its first design wins for the new generation of optical storage devices which will be based on the DVD successor technology BluRay. "We already have design-wins in Asia for the new technology," Susan Hardman, v-p for...

Engineering still has image problem in UK.
November 17, 2004... The image of engineering as a 'dirty' profession is not changing and encouraging people to enter the sector is still a major problem, Professor Nigel Linge from Salford University has told EW. "I don't feel the image is massively different...

Telecoms tester incorporates best of oscilloscope and error rate functions.
November 17, 2004... Test equipment company Synthesys Research has launched a telecoms tester that combines the attributes of an oscilloscope with a bit error rate tester. Aimed at testing systems up to 10Gbit/s, the BERTScope displays data such as eye diagrams...

FPGA companies foresee strong 2005 despite effects of inventory stockpile.
November 17, 2004... Programmable logic firms are confident of another good year in 2005, despite the inventory build-up slowing the latter half of 2004. "Business is going a storm in Europe," said Vaughan Price, European MD at Actel. "It's not all going to the Far...

University of Wales establishes smart clothes research centre.
November 17, 2004... The University of Wales, Newport has opened a smart clothes and wearable technology research unit. "There's a whole new area of research opening up in the development of 'smart' clothes and wearable technology, to do with health monitoring,...

Analogue design: it's a tool thing.
November 24, 2004... The automation of analogue design is not a problem that can be tackled by developing a new, analogue-specific language, according to Synopsys scientist Peter Flake. During a discussion panel on the future of languages for EDA held at the IEE in...

Chip suppliers open online product shops.
November 24, 2004... More and more semiconductor suppliers will now sell you products via their websites using standard credit card payment methods. Fairchild Semiconductor is the latest supplier to allow customers to buy products via its website using a credit...

Electric car runs on two AA batteries.
November 24, 2004... Panasonic's OxyRide car runs on two AA batteries. Weighing 18.5kg, OxyRide can drive 1.23km with a 50kg passenger, or travel 65m in 74s on fresh cells, claims Panasonic. Developed to promote the firm's AA Digital Xtreme Power (DXP) disposable...

Do not allow OLED technology to be stifled.
November 24, 2004... The possession of a patent for OLED display technology may be potentially good news for BTG, but the flat panel industry may find itself paying a high price if the development of next generation OLEDs is not to be restricted. Owners of...

EU project to develop satellite positioning for wireless systems.
November 24, 2004... Plans to develop a satellite positioning system which works with existing mobile phone networks are the focus of a P21m EU project. Alcatel will be the prime contractor for a 34-member consortium on the project dubbed Liaison. The plan is to...

O2 puts 3G take-off at late 2005.
November 24, 2004... Mobile phone operator O2 does not expect 3G to take-off as a mass market mobile service until the end of next year at the earliest. Other UK operators are rolling out 3G services, but O2 believes there are still issues with handset cost and...

DTI commits to manufacturing.
November 24, 2004... The Government has made a long term commitment to build up the UK's manufacturing and R&D activities in the latest five year programme from the DTI. It aims to increase R&D to 2.5 per cent of national income by 2014 and to help an extra 20,000...

Chip designers go for 45nm mode.
November 24, 2004... With 90nm chip process far from being mainstream a few chip designers are already tackling the 45nm semiconductor process node, with EDA tools supplier Synopsys aware of three designs targeting that technology.

Teachers awarded for technology.
November 24, 2004... Twelve UK teachers have been awarded National Teachers Awards by professional engineering organisation, the IEE for their contribution to the fields of science and technology.

Organic LED patent gives BTG rights to large screens.
November 24, 2004... Intellectual property firm BTG has gained control of a US patent which could control manufacture of large-screen polymer OLED (organic LED) displays in a few years time. US Patent 5,955,834 titled Light Emitting Devices Utilising High Work...