Electronics Weekly articles from September 2005

Electronics Weekly archives from September 2005

3nm molecule logic gates.
September 7, 2005... Researchers at Queen's University Belfast have built logic gates from molecules with a diameter of 3nm. When the molecules are stimulated with certain chemicals - in this case sodium and hydrogen ions - and subjected with light in colours...

Spectrum not big enough.
September 7, 2005... An additional 2.5GHz of spectrum will be needed below 15GHz for commercial services by 2025 according to a study commissioned by the Independent Audit of Spectrum Holdings. According to the report: "Spectrum shortages are likely to be a...

Scottish universities win photonics research funds.
September 7, 2005... A group of Scottish university's have been given [pounds sterling]1.4m by the Government to fund research in advanced semiconductor device technology such as MEMS and photonics. Called the Scottish Consortium in Integrated Micro-Photonic...

Sarantel founder calls for responsible approach to quality of GPS products.
September 7, 2005... The founder of GPS antenna manufacturer Sarantel has attacked the electronics industry for not taking responsibility for ensuring that GPS products are of sufficiently high quality to be useful. Dr Oliver Leisten, the company's CTO, also said...

Voice recognition in C x86 format.
September 7, 2005... Voice recognition specialist, NCT has made its ClearSpeech technology available in fixed point C x86 library format for Windows, Linux and QNX operating systems. The enhancement technology is designed to support speech recognition in noisy...

1.4GHz oscillator saves on cost.
September 7, 2005... Silicon Laboratories claims to offer the first quad frequency oscillators and voltage-controlled oscillators for applications up to 1.4GHz. The Si550 and Si530 families adopt the firm's patented DSPLL approach to clock multiplication and jitter...

CSR advances fast Bluetooth plans.
September 7, 2005... CSR is stepping up its development of a very high speed version of the Bluetooth short range wireless technology with plans for a hardware design centre in France. The facility at Sophia Antipolis in the south of France will draw on a local...

Integration is crucial, says Mobitex industry.
September 7, 2005... The Mobitex industry is looking at the possibilities for using GPRS mobile technology to complement the narrowband wireless data technology's strengths and provide wider coverage. "We need to be realistic about where other technologies fit in,"...

Philips rolls out flexible display work.
September 7, 2005... This is the Readius, a concept for a a rollable display developed by Polymer Vision, a spin out from the Philips Technology Incubator in Eindhoven. The device uses a monochrome electrophoretic display effect from US firm E-Ink to give QVGA...

Semiconductor sales feel the squeeze from falling prices.
September 7, 2005... The US Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) and the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) reported a 0.3 per cent increase in global chip sales in July, compared to the previous month. "Although unit sales of personal computers and...

Heading here.
September 7, 2005... Invensys recently reported first quarter results with an operating profit of [pounds sterling]32m on revenues of [pounds sterling]577m. There is a feeling the firm is on a better tack under recently appointed CEO Ulf Henriksson. TT Electronics'...

Fabless consumer audio firm raises $10m for Chinese chips.
September 7, 2005... Global Silicon, the Cambridge consumer audio fabless semiconductor firm, has raised $10m, and is looking to take on more IC designers and software engineers to help it bring out two more chips next year. "We expect to do $1m in sales this year...

Mobile TV deal seeks security.
September 7, 2005... Frontier Silicon has teamed with digital TV content security system specialist NDS to develop secure content and digital rights management for mobile digital TV and DAB digital radio. According to Anthony Sethill, CEO of Frontier Silicon, in...

AMD investment.
September 7, 2005... AMD is making a multimillion dollar investment in its Dresden semiconductor fab with the planned installation of yield management software. The chipmaker's 300mm Fab 36 will use its own patented suite of advanced fab technologies, known...

Adoption of ESL design methods casts doubts over RTL analysis tools.
September 7, 2005... Widespread adoption of an electronic system level (ESL) design methodology will eventually mean that RTL analysis tools become redundant, as the quality of code generated by synthesizers using high level languages becomes "correct by...

Actel targets radiation-hard flash FPGAs at space design.
September 7, 2005... Actel is developing radiation hardened flash-based FPGAs for use in space, and is targeting 2008 for commercial availability. Currently anti-fuse devices are the only FPGAs sufficiently radiation-hard for space applications. "Flash is...

Intel brands AMD lawsuit as 'factually incorrect'.
September 7, 2005... Intel is hotly contesting a lawsuit initiated by AMD regarding Intel's business practices, and maintaining that its business practices are both fair and lawful. Intel said: "AMD's complaint presents a case study in legal dissonance. Although...

Exotic transistors make a play for CMOS at IEDM trade show.
September 7, 2005... Transistors using exotic materials aimed at next-generation CMOS are to feature strongly in December's IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), to be held in Washington in December. Amongst the papers Japanese firm Semiconductor...

NAND supply feels squeeze as Apple plans for 4Gbyte flash-based iPod.
September 7, 2005... NAND flash supplies are going to be under massive pressure for the rest of the year, with the second largest supplier, Toshiba, saying it can supply only 70 per cent of demand for the rest of the year. Apple is reported to have secured up to 40...

Generics Group sees turnover jump.
September 7, 2005... The Generics Group has reported strong interim results with turnover up 28 per cent to [pounds sterling]10.7m and a profit of [pounds sterling]300,000 against a loss of [pounds sterling]100,000 a year previously. The firm said prospects for its...

Ignorance of RoHS will strip SMEs of markets.
September 7, 2005... Huge numbers of small businesses are still ignorant of the RoHS and WEEE Directives, claims the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). "We approached the Federation of Small Businesses," Alan Brewin, who heads RoHS and WEEE projects at NPL told...

No evidence for mobile cancer, say researchers.
September 7, 2005... Using a mobile phone for ten years does not increase the risk of developing acoustic neuroma, according to a study by scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research in the UK. The study of acoustic neuroma, a benign nervous system tumour which...

BSI publishes standards for biometrics.
September 7, 2005... BSI have published four international standards on biometric technology intended to protect UK business and consumers. The BS ISO/IEC 19794 series of standards cover the science of using biological properties to identify individuals, for...

European Parliament to read battery paper.
September 7, 2005... The draft EU Battery Directive will be presented to the European Parliament for its second reading this week. It has four months to deliver its verdict on the document. The existing battery directive (91/157/EEC published in 1991) was aimed at...

Surface analysis firm ?becomes UK's largest.
September 7, 2005... Stoke-on-Trent surface analysis firm CSMA has acquired MATS (UK), a Warrington-based firm in the same sector. "Before the acquisition, 20 per cent of CSMA's work was with semiconductor and electronics firms. With the addition of MATS, this is...

Heading here.
September 7, 2005... Electronic product specialist AND Technology Research celebrated 25 years in business with an open day for industry and the public. The Theydon Bois-based firm was visited by former MP Steven Norris (pictured) who cut the ribbon to reveal AND's...

Heading here.
September 7, 2005... Sep 12-16: Modern radar theory and practice short course with the University of Surrey in Guildford. www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/ce Sep 12-16: The European Solid-State Circuit Conference and the European Solid-State Device Research Conference,...

Telecoms newcomers do not threaten long-established operators, claims BT.
September 7, 2005... The entry into the telecoms industry of non-traditional operators such as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo does not spell the end for traditional suppliers or for fixed line telephony, according to BT. "Google are talking about creating another...

Surrey puts digital telecoms networks through their paces.
September 7, 2005... The University of Surrey will be holding an intensive five-day Digital Telecom Networks course on 10-14 October with the aim of providing a thorough understanding of the key issues. Telephone network evolution, design for QoS and packet...

Engineers get status bonus.
September 7, 2005... European system for the accreditation of engineering education is drawing closer to becoming a reality. The system would mean qualifications gained in any European country would be recognised in any other, allowing engineers to move more...

Free technical seminar for safety testing of microcontroller designs.
September 7, 2005... A chance to learn about unit testing of microcontroller applications is being offered by Hitex Development Tools and DaimlerChrysler Research & Technology. And as an added bonus, the one day technical seminar is free. Unit testing is becoming a...

Cabinets give vital protection.
September 7, 2005... recent years the demands on the product features of cabinets have changed constantly. Apart from the introduction of new standards and the EMC levels, the climate demands have increased. For the operating safety of equipment and machines,...

Get more from AC-DC power supply design.
September 7, 2005... mprovements in AC-DC power supply design are evolutionary, rather than revolutionary. It is easy to settle for tried and tested approaches because no one new design technique is likely to yield great benefits. The design challenge is to...

Batteries charged for disposal.
September 7, 2005... ercury, cadmium, lead - three words to which poisoning' can be added to form a recognisable medical condition, and they are also three metals whose electro-chemical properties make them desirable for use in certain types of battery. Lead in...

NASA uses THz on shuttle foam.
September 7, 2005... NASA has tested terahertz imaging and successfully detected defects in space shuttle foam, according to New York's Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute which took part in the trials. Institute professor Xi-Cheng Zhang revealed this at last week's...

Sharp clicks 3Mpixel cameras with phones.
September 7, 2005... Sharp has developed two 3Mpixel auto-focus CCD camera modules for phones, one with a 2x zoom. The zoom version is 20mm x 10mm x 23.5mm (4.7cm3), the other occupies 22mm x 13.5mm x 10.1mm (3.0cm3). It is an "all-internal zoom system in which...

Soft ultra-violet imprint machine has huge price benefit for sub-50nm litho.
September 7, 2005... A three-year European research project to develop a low-cost tool for sub-50nm lithography has finished with the completion of a soft ultra-violet (UV) imprint' machine, with a price tag less than one-tenth that of e-beam equipment. The basic...

Pendulum uses nanotube spring.
September 7, 2005... This is a torsional pendulum, built by researchers in Stuttgart and Montpellier, using a single carbon nanotube as the torsional spring (circled). The device, which uses a gold and chromium block with a mass of 2x10-16kg, has a moment of...

Consortium discloses Cell processor specification.
September 7, 2005... IBM, Sony and Toshiba have revealed further details of the Cell processor. Properly called the Cell Broadband Engine Architecture (CBEA), any CBEA chip will have one or more 64-bit Power architecture-based Power Processor Elements (PPEs) and...

EDA firm eyes Europe after Finnish purchase offers foundry toehold.
September 14, 2005... Applied Wave Research, the US supplier of EDA tools for high frequency design, has acquired the Finnish firm APLAC Solutions. A significant reason for the move is the major European foundries' approved model sets for APLAC's analogue and RF...

C-MAC oscillates 150-700MHz.
September 14, 2005... C-MAC MicroTechnology has released a one-time-programmable oscillator that can output any frequency between 150-700MHz, with a stability of +/-25ppm. The CFPP-620 device provides differential low-voltage positive emitter-coupled logic (LVPECL)...

Fuelling the cost debate.
September 14, 2005... he time-honoured maxim that "all design decisions require trade-offs" lies at the heart of the choices designers need to make when deciding between an FPGA or structured Asic for their next project. For FPGA suppliers to address the typical...

Nanotechnology quality award looks to counter safety issue allegations.
September 14, 2005... The UK has started a quality award scheme for businesses in the micro and nanotechnology industries to ensure that companies adhere to basic standards. The scheme will also protect the public image of the field, which has previously attracted...

Sustainable energy source uses oil rigs.
September 14, 2005... This is a concept drawing for a wave energy device developed at the University of Manchester. The Manchester Bobber', so called because it converts work done by the sea as it rises and falls into electricity, could be mounted on decommissioned...

Mobitex signs R&D deal in China for electrical power products.
September 14, 2005... Mobitex Technology has signed an agreement with North China Electric Power University (NCEPU) to set up an R&D centre to develop products based on Mobitex technology for use in the electrical power industry. The Mobitex Wireless Communication...

Digital video gets showing on mobile TV.
September 14, 2005... Fabless semiconductor firm Frontier Silicon demonstrated its DVB-H (digital video broadcasting - handheld) technology for mobile TV for the first time at the IBC show this week. The firm said DVB-H technology "expands its mobile TV product...

Pirelli arm to drive next generation telecoms infrastructure.
September 14, 2005... The European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC) is to be the global launch pad for a division of Pirelli which will focus on researching and developing next generation telecoms infrastructures. Pirelli Broadband Solutions is supported...

R&D expense overtakes capital equipment as biggest investment for semiconductor firms.
September 14, 2005... R&D costs are set to overtake capital equipment costs as the semiconductor industry's biggest investment expense, according to Merrill Lynch. "Capex as a percentage of sales has been flat for seven to eight years whereas R&D cost as a...

Semiconductor industry basks in foundry sales figures.
September 14, 2005... Foundry sales, a key indicator of the chip industry's health, showed double digit growth in August over July and will show better growth in Q3, according to the industry's two leading foundries TSMC and UMC. "Due to continued demand recovery...

Wireless high definition video in home by 2007, say IC firms.
September 14, 2005... Wireless distribution of high definition video around the home could be a reality in 2007, according to Pulse-Link and Analog Devices. "I tell shareholders it'll probably be available at the end of 2006, at the earliest," said Bruce Watkins,...

Sun opens pegs to washing.
September 14, 2005... These clothes pegs have been designed to lock shut if rain is forecast. The pegs, designed by Brunel University product design student Oliver MacCarthy, communicate with the peg holder via electrical signals. If removed from their holder when...

Link lands deal with design firm.
September 14, 2005... Link Microtek has signed a technology agreement with design firm Cambridge RF. Link has supplied Cambridge RF with a load-pull tuner system from franchise firm Focus Microwaves. Cambridge RF will provide consultancy services for Link's customer...

Heading here.
September 14, 2005... CSR has seen its shares gain rapidly in recent weeks as the EW Index moves ahead to its highest point since June last year. Although CSR's third quarter results are not expected until the beginning of November, aggressive growth plans have...

IPTV roll-out put on hold while operators iron out differences.
September 14, 2005... Issues among operators are delaying the roll-out of IPTV services, according to IPTV software company ANT. The firm said its royalty revenues growth has suffered as operators deal with issues such as network infrastructure and codec technology....

Heading here.
September 14, 2005... Deltron's shares slid 6.5 per cent to 50p. The distributor said non-executive Paul Gourmand is to retire on October 6 and will be replaced by David Potter. Potter us also non-executive director of Solar Integrated Technologies. Another...

Skype deal heralds free mobile calls.
September 14, 2005... Free calls over a mobile network have moved closer with the signing of a deal between voice-over-IP (VoIP) provider Skype and German mobile network operator E-Plus. "E-Plus is the first mobile operator to partner with Skype, taking the first...

Radioscape debuts mobile TV ?EPM transmitting technology.
September 14, 2005... RadioScape has demonstrated its enhanced packet mode (EPM) technology, a DAB-based alternative to DVB-H, for transmitting live, multimedia services to mobile devices. The technology is already being used in BT Livetime's mobile TV trial in...

Axeon steps up automotive CPU power for extra complexity.
September 14, 2005... Axeon has increased the power of its Vindax neural net microprocessor core to cope with the increasing complexity of automotive systems. "The more complex it is, the better it is for us," Hamish Grant, CEO of Axeon, told EW. "If it's simple...

Ericsson signs research deal in Shanghai.
September 14, 2005... Ericsson has signed a research agreement with Shanghai Research Centre for Wireless Communications to collaborate on telecoms technology projects such as super 3G' and 4G. Ericsson said the agreement demonstrated its "commitment to drive the...

Chip firms upbeat over ?Q3 sales.
September 14, 2005... Intel, Texas Instruments and National Semiconductor have delivered confident expectations about Q3. "We continue to see healthy growth worldwide in the PC market," said Andy Bryant, Intel's chief financial officer. Intel said it was finding...

Heading here.
September 14, 2005... Artesyn Technologies has recruited Robert Sobinger as EMEA regional sales manager for its power conversion division. He has more than 13 years experience in the power conversion industry. He was previously director of sales at Fortec...

H.264 encoder runs on single FPGA.
September 14, 2005... Scottish video coding specialist 4i2i Communications claims to have the first high definition H.264 video encoder to run on a single Xilinx FPGA. The company has developed licensable intellectual property (IP) for a high definition H.264...

TI runs platform DSP approach for video processing designs.
September 14, 2005... Texas Instruments is to address the video processing market's need for high performance digital signal processing with an application-specific DSP platform supported with third party software and tools. The semiconductor company is clearly...

MiniPCI module for wireless PC peripherals.
September 14, 2005... Japanese consumer electronics firm Silex is developing a miniPCI module for wireless PC peripherals using Freescale's direct sequence ultra-wideband (DS-UWB) technology. The XS110 chipset provides a headline data rate of 110Mbit/s over a range...

Baseband integration edge will drive ?CMOS RF transceivers, says analyst.
September 14, 2005... Two fifths of mobile phone RF transceivers will be made using CMOS technology by 2009, according to a report by analyst iSuppli. Last year RF CMOS accounted for only 13 per cent of the market. The shift towards lower-cost CMOS will be at the...

Power device to drive seven rails.
September 14, 2005... Ricoh has a single chip power management device capable of providing seven individual supply voltages. The R5314DxxxC has a three mode step down DC-DC converter and low drop out regulator (LDO), a set of four low noise LDOs with a fast...

Component purchasing tackles RoHS.
September 14, 2005... viewpoint By Ian Griffiths The biggest challenge facing engineering firms today, in terms of supply chain, is without doubt the RoHS (Reduction of Hazardous Substances) Directive, which restricts the amount of lead and mercury used in the...

Distribution channel shake up as chip firms shuffle the cards.
September 14, 2005... Semiconductor distribution channels in Europe are facing their largest shake-up in almost a decade following Avnet's acquisition of design-in specialist Memec earlier this year. In the last week three semiconductor firms have appointed new...

Born to be wild.
September 14, 2005... C onventional chips are inefficient. Governed by a clock signal that wakes up every component with each tick, regardless of whether or not it is actually needed for the task at hand, they run at the speed of the slowest component, wasting power...

Advances in SoC design.
September 14, 2005... chieving short time-to-market is a major driving force in today's semiconductor industry. For the consumer electronics industry it represents the single most effective way of maximising semiconductor sales and profit. In terms of its financial...

Listen to the DAB beat.
September 14, 2005... he UK radio industry is leading the world in the adoption and take-up of the DAB (digital audio broadcasting) standard. As DAB is evolving to become a platform for multimedia broadcast in some parts of the world, radio now faces another...

Testing follows the trends.
September 14, 2005... est and measurement plays a unique role in the enabling of next generation technology which gives the industry a unique perspective into the trends occurring in other industries. The industry has experienced a similar roller coaster ride to the...

Radar detects defence opportunity.
September 14, 2005... LightER is a portable, lightweight radar system that can detect moving objects at ranges between 20m and 8km. It uses an electronic beam-scanning antenna to survey an area without having to physically rotate. The unit was developed for the...

Heading here.
September 14, 2005... Dear Editor We were intrigued by the Electronics Weekly/Celoxica survey (EW 31/08/05) finding that 56 per cent of designers still prefer paper when it comes to design entry. Do these 56 per cent know what they're missing? The survey didn't...

Manufacturing in Eastern Europe races ahead.
September 14, 2005... Electronics manufacturing output in Eastern Europe has outstripped growth in Western Europe with significant levels of inward investment. Production in Eastern Europe increased by 8.7 per cent in 2004 and 8.4 per cent in 2005. By contrast,...

Digital radio for AM uses DSP in multi-decoders.
September 14, 2005... A digital radio for AM broadcasts based on the Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) standard has been demonstrated by Analog Devices and German radio receiver firm AFG Engineering. The DRM standard mandates three types of audio decoders: MPEG4 AAC+...

Backpack converts steps to power.
September 14, 2005... A backpack that converts mechanical energy from the motion of walking into electricity has been developed by Dr Larry Rome at Pennsylvania University in the US. The suspended load' design generates a maximum of 7.4W from approximately 50mm...

86 lumens from white power LED.
September 14, 2005... Cree claimed that, in development, it has demonstrated maximum luminous flux of 86 lumens from a 350mA white power LED. "This represents a 43 per cent increase in brightness compared with the maximum luminous flux of white XLamp 7090 power LEDs...

Dynamic LED lights up cars.
September 14, 2005... This week at the IAA 2005 in Frankfurt, Hella and Japanese car lighting firm Stanley are unveiling a prototype LED headlamp with a dynamic LED cornering light. "In this full-LED headlamp the lighting specialists are realising optical and...

Researchers grow diamond ?nano crystals in plasma.
September 14, 2005... In an attempt to combine the strongest substance known with the hardest, the Argonne National Laboratory in the US has used a plasma to grow a mixed film of nanotubes and diamond nano crystals. "The resulting material has potential for use in...

US scientists use microbes in cows and cellulose to produce 600mV fuel cell.
September 14, 2005... While a cow-based battery seems a little far-fetched, researchers at Ohio State University have used microbes from a bovine rumen in a fuel cell. Results showed that the microbes in about a half a litre of rumen fluid - fermented, liquefied...

Upgrade for OLED test equipment.
September 14, 2005... CDT has upgraded the specification of its Eclipse range of digital test equipment for use in the characterisation of emissive display devices including polymer light emitting diodes (P-OLEDs). The spec includes remote calibration and pulsed IVL...

Jennic claims first with single-chip ZigBee MCU.
September 14, 2005... Microcontroller comes in 8x8mm QFN package. Sheffield fabless chip developer Jennic has released what it claims is the world's first single-chip ZigBee microcontroller. The JN5121 device complies with both the IEEE 802.15.4 standard for MAC...

Interference lends sub-[micro]m resolution to laser sensor.
September 14, 2005... Philips has announced low-cost, compact laser sensors for measuring position and velocity that use a self-mixing effect to give sub-[micro]m resolution similar to that available from laser Doppler interferometers. The firm calls the technology...