EDN articles from March 2008

EDN archives from March 2008

Consumer ICs: designing for reliability.
March 6, 2008... by Michael Santarini, Senior Editor Consumers want the latest electronics but only if they'll last longer than the time it takes to take them out of their packages. IC vendors must tackle reliability issues so that their devices will find...

Mobile television: free-and location-free.
March 6, 2008... by Brian Dipert, Senior Technical Editor If you think cellular's the only way you'll catch on-the-go television in the future, think again. Over-the-air broadcasters and satellite-based-service providers hope to catch the mobile-TV wave...

Audio equalizer features transimpedance Q-enhancement topology.
March 6, 2008... Herminio Martínez, Encarna García, and Eva Vidal, Technical University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain Edited by Charles H Small and Fran Granville In general, audio equalizers need second-order bandpass filters. Such...

AMI-to-NRZI-direct-conversion circuit tolerates unequalized pulse tails.(AMI (alternate-mark inversion))(NRZI (non-return-to-zero-inverted))
March 6, 2008... Glen Chenier, TeeterTotterTreeStuff, Allen, TX Edited by Charles H Small and Fran Granville AMI (alternate-mark inversion) is a three-level-positive, zero, negative-copper-cable transmission code with the useful property of having no...

Virtual RF generator measures load impedance and power.(Brief article)
March 6, 2008... Michael Nasab, Circuit Mentor, Boulder Creek, CA Calculating the load impedance and power consumption at high frequencies in RF circuits is a tedious task. This Design Idea describes a VI (virtual instrument) that provides an easy way to...

Fractal engineering versus synergy.
March 6, 2008... by Rick Nelson, Editor-in-Chief Engineering is a segmented profession. It divides into high-level disciplines-mechanical, electrical, civil, chemical, structural, automotive, aerospace, and so on. When you look closely at these high-level...

Z<EMPHASIS TYPE="SUBSCRIPT">MIN</EMPHASIS>, a very special value.(special value I call ZMIN (minimum impedance).)
March 6, 2008... by Howard Johnson, PhD The driver in Figure 1 precisely meets its specified high- and low-output-voltage levels with a termination resistance of 25I[c]. If you increase the resistor's value, the circuit becomes progressively easier to...

Flyback transformer enables high power-factor and converter efficiency.
March 6, 2008... by Cecil Deisch, Tellabs Operations Inc Ever-tightening regulations require a power factor of at least 0.9 and high efficiency for offline power supplies. This new switching-converter topology uses a flyback transformer and accomplishes...

Designing with QDRII+ and QDRII in one system.
March 6, 2008... by Jayasree Nayar, Cypress Semiconductor Although the latest QDRII+-SRAM devices offer speeds as much as 50% higher than QDRII products, a properly designed board can support either architecture. Memory devices are evolving to match...

Know your IP provider.(intellectual-property)(Editorial)
March 6, 2008... by Pallab Chatterjee, Contributing Technical Editor With the shortened time to market for consumer and industrial products and the rapid introduction of new process technologies through the foundry market, there is a rash of new IP...

Logic-analyzer-based instruments debug, validate MIPI physical layer.
March 6, 2008... by Dan Strassberg Agilent Technologies believes that verifying, debugging, and establishing D-PHY (500-Mbps-physical-layer)-based products' specification conformance and interoperability requires specialized tools and that the logic...

Magma offers DRC-incremental Talus.
March 6, 2008... by Michael Santarini Magma Design Automation has introduced the Talus QDRC (Quartz design-rule-checking) tool to help designers with the placement and routing of ICs. Designers traditionally run DRC after detailed routing to ensure that...

Open Verification Methodology is ready for download from Cadence, Mentor.
March 6, 2008... by Ann Steffora Mutschler Semiconductor-design-software companies Cadence Design Systems Inc and Mentor Graphics Corp recently announced that their jointly developed OVM (Open Verification Methodology) source code, documentation, and use...

Network-media player drives multiple displays.
March 6, 2008... by Warren Webb Video displays showing advertising-laden content are popping up in strategic locations, such as gas stations, supermarkets, fast-food dining areas, and airport waiting areas. One company in this market, Apollo Display...

Fiber-based energy harvester potentially turns garments into generators.
March 6, 2008... by Matthew Miller Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a textile-based generator that could enable garments to convert the wearer's movement into electricity to power personal electronic devices. The...

Cool-curing polymer simplifies IC fabrication.
March 6, 2008... by Matthew Miller Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Polyset have developed an inexpensive, quick-drying polymer that promises to cut costs for current IC-packaging processes by simplifying the construction of redistribution layers....

Holographic display has a refresh rate of minutes.
March 6, 2008... by Matthew Miller Scientists at the University of Arizona have developed what they claim is the first updatable, 3-D holographic display. Viewable without special eyewear, the 4x4-in. prototype features a photorefractive polymer between...

Demand grows for distributor-demand creation.
March 6, 2008... Edited by Suzanne Deffree Demand creation-the use of price reductions or other incentives to create or increase immediate sales response for a product or service among consumers or resellers-is a growing aspect of the distribution...

Application processors face falling unit prices.(ABI Research )(Financial report)(Brief article)
March 6, 2008... Edited by Suzanne Deffree Although application processors are increasingly important enablers of multimedia capabilities in high-end smartphones and feature phones, this market will face challenges over the next several years, according to...

Ontario begins WEEE directive compliance.
March 6, 2008... Edited by Suzanne Deffree Ontario, Canada, is implementing its own version of the WEEE (waste-electrical-and-electronic equipment) directive for the recycling, reuse, and refurbishment of certain electronics. The Ontario Electronic...

Power, power everywhere but nary a watt to blink.(Editorial)
March 6, 2008... by Walter Lindenbach Oil fields-often miles in diameter-dot the farmland around Calgary, Alberta. Some fields contain more than 200 pumps. Although some people consider them picturesque, these pumps can produce an environmental disaster....