Most read Gadget Master posts in March – Raspberry Pi, Korg Nutube, laser trip wire

The answers include software defined radio for the Raspberry Pi, a Korg Nutube Amplifier for your guitar, a Samsung Galaxy S9 teardown, an Arduino-based plant monitor and a voice recognition kit from Google, also involving a Pi...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/gadget-master/general/read-gadget-master-posts-march-raspberry-pi-korg-nutube-laser-trip-wire-2018-03/

Android Studio 3.1 improves support for database coding

What's new to Android Studio 3.1? Changes include improved support for database coding and a C++ performance profiler for troubleshooting performance bottlenecks in application code.

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/eyes-on-android/programming/android-studio-3-1-improves-support-database-coding-2018-03/

Fable: The Wrecker

In 1996 a long-serving managing director handed over to a new guy who went on a spending spree. He spent the company’s £3 billion of cash reserves. He spent another £8 billion raised from disposals of businesses. He spent another £3 billion which he had borrowed. Between September 2000 and July 2001 the company’s shares ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/fable/fable-the-wrecker-2018-03/

70 year old distributor is owned by its employees

Peerless Electronics of New Jersey is unusual for a component distributor because it is an employee-owned company. The distributor, which was founded in 1945, sells switches, relays and circuit breaker products offers military packaging, custom circuit breaker panels and custom cable assemblies. It is also certified to AS9100 inclusive of value added services. Peerless Electronics’ ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/distribution-world/70-year-old-distributor-owned-employees-2018-03/

Amplicon sells Ethernet-based remote I/O device from ICP DAS

Amplicon has introduced the ICP DAS iP-8000-MTCP series of Modbus TCP I/O expansion units. They will be used in custom data acquisition systems that require the measurement and control of a large number of process signals over an Ethernet network. The iP-8841-MTCP and iP-8441-MTCP have been specifically designed to withstand harsh and noisy environments; its ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/distribution-world/amplicon-sells-ethernet-based-remote-i-o-device-icp-das-2018-03/

Cornish firm targets electronics business in the Middle East

Teddington, the Cornish engineering and manufacturing firm, has appointed Oman-based Defence Electronic System Integration (DESI) to represent its interests in the Gulf States. This is part of an international sales drive which will give Teddington a presence in the Middle East, with a particular focus on Oman, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/cornish-firm-targets-electronics-business-middle-east-2018-03/

6pin photo-relay offers 5A and 20mΩ at 30V

Toshiba’s DIP4 and DIP6 high-current photo-relays can now switch up to 5A – claimed to be industry’s highest rating in a DIP6 package. Other versions can handle 200V. With the internal mosfets fabricated in the firm’s U-MOS VIII process, there are five new devices – TLP3543A, TLP3545A, TLP3546A, TLP3556A and TLP3558A. Together they offer options with Voff ranging ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/products/power-supplies/6pin-photo-relay-offers-5a-20m%cf%89-30v-2018-03/

O-S-D sales climb 11%, says IC Insights

Sales of  optoelectronics, sensors/actuators, and discrete semiconductors (known collectively as O-S-D) increased 11% in 2017—more than 1.5 times the average annual growth rate in the past 20 years—to reach an eighth consecutive record-high level of $75.3 billion, according to IC Insights new O-S-D market report. O-S-D sales growth is expected to ease back in 2018 ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/o-s-d-sales-climb-11says-ic-insights-2018-03/

Samsung commits to AI R&D in France

Young Sohn, former CEO of Inphi, now Chief Strategy Officer at Samsung, pitches a proposal to the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, at the Elysee Palace. Sohn is reported to have undertaken to make France Samsung’s third main location for AI R&D after Korea and California. Sohn is said to have undertaken to base 100 ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/samsung-commits-ai-rd-france-2018-03/

Untidy Desk Competition

Mike Bryant has proposed the idea of an untidy desk competition and Fred Dart has seconded the initiative. Here, at Metropolis, our webmaster is preparing to stock a Gallery of Glory for photos of competitors’ desks. To give entrants some appreciation of the standards required in this demanding field – a badge of honour for ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/genius/untidy-desk-competition-2018-03/

BSI offers UK IoT security stamp of approval

The British Standards Institution has launched a compliance scheme and governance framework for IoT devices and applications, allowing them to be assessed against the UK Government’s proposed IoT code of practice – a code of practice that was announced earlier this month by the Minister for digital and the creative industries. Its IoT compliance scheme, ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/bsi-offers-uk-iot-security-stamp-approval-2018-03/

Connector combines power, data and protection

Harting has designed a connector that combines high current capacity with signal transmission and tough environmental protection. The power contacts range of up to 630Vac and a maximum current of 28A. Called Han M23 Power and intended for industrial applications, its meets IP67 and IP69K in the closed position, while tool-free assembly makes it suitable ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/products/connectors/connector-combines-power-data-protection-2018-03/

EC Electronics opens new factory in Romania

EC Electronics, the Basingstoke manufacturing services company, has opened a second factory in Romania. The facility will be dedicated to cable assembly and overmoulding, providing opportunity to expand their capabilities to build even the most complex projects. This new site will also provide substantial space for future expansion. EC Electronics offers services such as PCB ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/ec-electronics-opens-new-factory-romania-2018-03/

RF amplifier delivers 25W across 500MHz to 2.7GHz

Empower RF Systems is offering a 500-2,700MHz 25W solid-state amplifier. “The 1205/BBM3K5OEL is suitable for broadband mobile jamming, communications and general test,” said distributor Richardson RFPD, which is stocking the amplifier. “This module uses GaN devices that provide excellent power density, high efficiency, wide dynamic range and low distortion. Performance reliability and efficiency are achieved by employing broadband RF ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/products/rf-microwave-optoelectronics/rf-amplifier-delivers-25w-across-500mhz-2-7ghz-2018-03/

Always-on automotive PSU chip draws 3.5µA quiescent

Maxim has announced 40V load dump-tolerant dc-dc buck chips that “in peak current mode draw the industry’s lowest Iq, just 3.5µA in the low-power operating mode”, claimed the firm, “which is key to meeting OEM Iq consumption requirements of 100µA per module.”That said, this product page says “3.5µA quiescent current when in stand-by mode” Called ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/products/power-supplies/always-automotive-psu-chip-draws-3-5%c2%b5a-quiescent-2018-03/

The Dangerous Dazzle Of The Use Case

When the use case drives a technology project rather than the pace of technological development, you get trouble. The driverless car thing got sold to governments because it would: Let cars drive closer together so reducing the need to build so many roads; It would reduce accidents so reducing medical and clean-up costs; It would ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/delusions/524268-2018-03/

Need to print a new speen?

Bio-printing is printing cells and other body materials using 3D printers to create approximations to various body tissues and organs or to create scaffolds in which to grow such tissues, for medical research, for example. Commercial printers designed for the job are expensive – costing over $10,000 – according to Carnegie Mellon University, where a ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/research-news/need-print-new-speen-2018-03/

NXP links with Alibaba’s AliOS for smart cars

NXP and AliOS, the IoT OS developed by Alibaba, have entered into a partnership to drive the development of smart cars in China. The partnership aims to install the AliOS system and NXP’s automotive infotainment products in millions of vehicles in China by 2020. “Alibaba and NXP share the new vision that in-vehicle experiences and ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/nxp-links-alibabas-alios-smart-cars-2018-03/

NXP car radar processor gets hardware acceleration

NXP has introduced a radar processor for cars. Called S32R274, the microcontroller combines signal-processing acceleration with a multi-core architecture, and is aimed at  beam-forming and fast chirp-modulation radar systems. S32R274 offers a multifaceted solution for general software tasks and car bus interfacing,” said Mouser, which is stocking the part. “Combined with RF front-end technologies in RF ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/products/micros/nxp-car-radar-processor-gets-hardware-acceleration-2018-03/

Rohm certified for ASIL-D automated vehicle electronics

Rohm has been certified to create ISO 26262 functional safety standard automotive products, including those for driver assistance systems. Certified by TÜV Rheinland, Rohm can now develop automotive-grade devices that achieve the highest (ASIL-D) safety level. ‘In ISO 26262 Functional Safety Standard for Automobiles, demand is growing in recent years for a higher level of safety ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/rohm-certified-asil-d-automated-vehicle-electronics-2018-03/

MRMC joins up with Chyron Hego

Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC),  the synchronised robotic camera specialist, has joined up with optical sports tracking specialist Chyron Hego. Chyron Hego works on broadcast graphics creation and real-time data visualisation. Its optical sports tracking system, TRACAB, identifies and follows players on the field and provides instant live game-play metrics. MRMC’s Polycam System enables real-time ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/mrmc-joins-chyron-hego-2018-03/

Mill-Max Whitepaper: How to select spring-loaded connectors for interconnect applications

Check out a new whitepaper on the site relating to spring-loaded connectors for the latest interconnect applications.

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/electro-ramblings/site-update/mill-max-whitepaper-select-correct-spring-loaded-connector-todays-interconnect-applications-2018-03/

Top Ten Signs Of An Office Geek

Thanks to the Indie for this one – the top ten signs that show someone is an office geek: You love new stationery You own highlighter pens in three different colours You have a to-do list You have a tidy desk You love spreadsheets You have your own mug You can tell when someone else ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/ten-worst/top-ten-signs-office-geek-2018-03/

Knowles renames capacitor division as Knowles Precision Devices

Four years after the formation of Knowles Capacitors, made up of Dielectric Laboratories (DLI), Novacap, Syfer Technology and Voltronics, the division has been renamed as Knowles Precision Devices. The capacitor and passive device manufacturer also supplies RF and EMI filters, resonators, non-magnetic components, power dividers, oscillators and advanced dielectric materials. The company believes the name change will more accurately reflect ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/knowles-renames-capacitor-division-knowles-precision-devices-2018-03/

3x3mm led emits 200 lm from 6V 240mA

Lumileds is aiming at general lighting with what it claims is its highest flux two-die mid-power led – plenty of caveats from the company there. The device is the 3 x 3mm Luxeon 3030 2D with a square light-emitting surface – there is already one with a round emissive area. “Flux performance is significantly improved ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/led-luminaries/3x3mm-led-emits-200-lm-6v-240ma-2018-03/

Comment: Securing IoT devices before (and after) they ship

When it comes to IoT devices, you need to consider a security architecture risk analysis

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/comment-securing-iot-devices-ship-2018-03/

Survey: Choosing displays within your current design process

We want to hear your thoughts on choosing displays within your current design process.

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/products/displays-2/survey-choosing-displays-within-current-design-process-2018-03/

350W ac-dc PSUs for industry and healthcare

XP Power today announced the launch of series of rugged 350W AC-DC chassis-mount PSUs, intended for industrial, technology and healthcare applications. SMP350 supplies have a built-in cooling fan, screw terminal connections, low (class-B) EMI emissions, and come in a 92 x 178 x 43mm enclosure – equating to 13W/in3. The series has a 85 to 264Vac ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/products/power-supplies/350w-ac-dc-psus-industry-healthcare-2018-03/

China Controls Fate Of Toshiba and Qualcomm

Interesting that China now holds the fate of two great tech companies in the palm of its hand. Both Toshiba and Qualcomm have M&A deals waiting on approval by China. Will China make its decision based on strict considerations of the deals’ effect on industry competition? Or will China make a political decision? Ha Ha. ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/dilemmas/china-controls-fate-toshiba-qualcomm-2018-03/

Finalists selected for PA Consulting’s Pi programming competition

Finalists for PA Consulting Group’s annual Raspberry Pi programming competition have been selected. The nine teams of school children will be presenting their inventions to nine expert judges on Tuesday, 17 April at the IET in London. PA’s annual competition aims to inspire the innovators of the future and challenges school children and college students ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/finalists-selected-pa-consultings-pi-programming-competition-2018-03/

Comment: Accelerating datacentre ICs could boost UK economy

Xilinx may be experiencing a seven-year ‘itch’ that could reinvigorate the global mojo. The programmable logic market, and its leader Xilinx, have had no growth these past seven years. However, two months after taking over, the new CEO of Xilinx has a plan to get growth going again. Not growth for the programmable logic market, ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/comment-accelerating-datacentre-ics-could-boost-uk-neconomy-2018-03/

200kHz current sensor aims at motor control

Allegro MicroSystems has announced a family of current sensor ICs for AC or DC current sensing with 200kHz bandwidth and 2.5µs response time – “the fastest response time of an IC ever offered in the custom CB package,” said the firm. “The response time enables over-current fault detection in safety-critical applications,” claimed the firm. Accuracy is ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/products/sensors-products/200khz-current-sensor-aims-motor-control-2018-03/

Germany works towards compact optical components

German companies have pulled together to develop compact and low-profile optical components for applications such as head-up projection displays, camera flashes and display backlighting. “The consortium will investigate flexible design and manufacturing processes for space-critical applications for data visualisation or illumination,” said Osram Opto. “The planned reduction in the thickness of the optical elements and combination ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/research-news/germany-works-towards-compact-optical-components-2018-03/

Renesas MCU Has 28nm Flash

Renesas is sampling an automotive MCU using 28nm flash memory. The RH850/E2x Series MCU incorporates up to six 400 megahertz (MHz) CPU cores, which deliver 9600 MIPS with a a built-in flash memory of up to 16MB. The RH850/E2x includes enhanced sensor interfaces necessary for precise automotive control functions. Demand for built-in large capacity flash memory ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/renesas-mcu-28nm-flash-2018-03/

UK made: IP68 waterproof connector and cable assembly

Cliff Electronics has announced a waterproof cable assembly with a non-reversible 2 pole plug with a current rating of 5A. Manufactured by Cliff in Surrey using an in-house three shot injection moulding process, Cliffcon 68 is an IP68 screw down ferrule connector supplied with 5m of cable terminated with tinned bare ends for connection to ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/products/connectors/uk-made-ip68-waterproof-connector-cable-assembly-2018-03/

Arizona Governor’s Letter To Uber CEO

Following the death of a lady hit by a self-driving Uber car, the Governore of Arizona has written to the CEO of Uber stopping Uber testing autonomous cars on Arizona’s public roads. Here is the letter:  

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/uncategorised/arizona-governors-letter-uber-ceo-2018-03/

Nanusens raising crowdfunding money

Nanusens, the Barcelona VC-backed sensor start-up, is raising money via the crowdfunding site crowdtube.com. “We have venture capital firms already investing in this round that have been supporting us for a number of years as they believe in our novel technology,” says CEO Josep Montanya i Silvestre (pictured)  “I think we are one of the ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/nanusens-raising-crowdfunding-money-2018-03/

US Electronics Industry To Top $10bn

Assuming no substantial rise in the volume of imports US from Japan, America’s major competitor for US markets, the US electronics industry should break through the 10 billion dollar (£2,800 million) level of total business in 1961. This was stated by Mr. L. Berkley David, president of the US Electronic Industries Association at a recent ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/memory-lane/us-electronics-industry-top-10bn-2018-03/

InAs chips could reach 200GHz

Russian scientists have measured magnetoresistance oscillations and the quantum Hall effect in InAs heterostructures, and are predicting potential 200GHz operation from the material. The material tested was n-In0.85Ga0.18As/In0.82Al0.82As, specifically grown for its high indium content to increase carrier speed. “Generally speaking, structures with quantum wells and high InAs content have already demonstrated excellent results in microwave ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/research-news/inas-chips-reach-200ghz-2018-03/

EnSilica taps Logixx for route to volume automotive silicon

EnSilica, the Wokingham SoC designer, has tapped Logixx for a route to volume production of automotive silicon. “EnSilica has been growing rapidly over the past two years because we have extended our services from just design services to include managing the whole process of production manufacturing, packaging and testing,” says Ensilica’s David  Doyle,   “this soup to nuts service ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/ensilica-taps-logixx-route-volume-automotive-silicon-2018-03/

Ofcom’s Paupers’ Outing

After legal actions and delays the 5G spectrum auction has kicked off. Unlike the £22 billion bonanza of 18 years ago, this is expected to be a paupers’ outing – if it raises a lousy billion it will be doing OK. The diminished take reflects a more grown-up approach to spectrum allocation. “Our job is ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/dilemmas/ofcoms-paupers-outing-2018-03/

Only Connect: Fly me to the Moon, with Radiall connectors

It's always been a dream of mine to travel into space, although sadly I don't believe it will ever become a reality.

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/electro-ramblings/industry-comment/connect-fly-moon-radiall-connectors-2018-03/

Cured: Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ won’t boot

Just in case you are pulling your hair out trying to get your brand new Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ up and running…. … you need to download the very latest NOOBS and start from scratch. Even quite recent NOOBS, even if it will boot on a pre-plus Raspberry Pi 3, might not boot on ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/engineer-in-wonderland/cured-raspberry-pi-3-model-b-wont-boot-2018-03/

EU contemplates breaking up Google

EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager says she’s contemplating breaking up Google. “I think it important to keep that question open and on the agenda,” Vestager tells the Daily Telegraph, “we are not there yet but it is important to keep an awakened eye.” She makes the point that Google could become so big that it ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/eu-contemplates-breaking-google-2018-03/

Ed Gets Caught Up in The Data Leak Scandal

I can tell you it’s a darn nasty feeling when the PM fixes you with those hawkish eyes across the Cabinet table and demands: “What are you doing about it?” Especially when there’s damn all you can do it about it, Ed confides to his diary. It was, of course, this Big-Tech data leak thing. ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/ed-the-serial-ceo/ed-gets-caught-facebook-scandal-2018-03/

Taiwanese LED maker to open Cornish production line

Taiwanese LED and lighting maker Ledtech is to open a production line in Redruth Cornwall to support medium quantity manufacture in the UK and Europe. High-volume production remains in Taiwan and its recently-opened giant facility in China. “The addition of a direct facility adds a range of value-added manufacturing services, design-in support, volume availability and ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/taiwanese-led-makes-opens-cornish-production-line-2018-03/

The Evangelist

On June 2nd 1970 a Bell Labs chemist arrived at his desk to find a note reading; ‘CW definite at 24°C’. Although the semiconductor laser had been invented in 1962, this was the first time that a continuous wave at room temperature had been achieved, so making the invention potentially useful. Bell Labs had other ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/yarns/the-evangelist-2018-03/

EU fines capacitor cartel

The EU has fined seven companies a collective €254 million for running a capacitor cartel. The seven are: Nippon Chemi-Con Corp, Hitachi Chemical, Nichicon, Rubycon, Elna, Tokin and Matsuo Electric. An eighth member of the cartel, Sanyo Electric, was not fined because it acted as whistleblower reporting the cartel’s wrongdoings to the EU. The EU ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/eu-fines-capacitor-cartel-2018-03/

Fabless Take 27% Of IC Market

Fabless companies accounted for 27% of the world’s IC sales in 2017—an increase from 18% in 2007, reports IC Insights.   Figure 1 shows the 2017 fabless company share of IC sales by company headquarters location. At 53%, U.S. companies accounted for the greatest share of fabless IC sales last year, although this share was ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/markets/fabless-take-27-ic-market-2018-03/

5G spectrum auction opens

The 5G spectrum auction has opened with a total of 150MHz of spectrum divided into 34 lots on the block. Two tranches of spectrum in the 2.3GHz and 3.4Ghz frequency bands are being offered. It is not expected to be a money-spinner, in fact some analysts suggest it may raise less than a billion compared ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/523876-2018-03/

Guide to Raspbian and other Raspberry Pi OSs

Just this useful guide to Raspbian and other Raspberry Pi software. Downloadable from Eltechs, this guide contains information which will beinteresting for both new-starters and advanced Raspberry Pi (or other ARM and IoT) users and developers. Raspbian is the main and basic software for Raspberry Pi devices, officially supported by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. It ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/distribution-world/guide-raspbian-raspberry-pi-oss-2018-03/

Fable: Success

In 1874 a 14 year-old was apprenticed to a clock and watch merchant. In 1881, when he was 21, he opened a watch and clock shop In 1892 he set up his own watch and clock manufacturing company. He called the company ‘Success’. Last year the company had sales of $2.8 billion. His great-grandson is ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/fable/fable-success-2018-03/

Container-scale battery for grid support

Murata has developed a container-scale energy storage system for instantaneous voltage drop countermeasures, and will market it with Japan Facility Solutions. “A momentary drop in power system voltage such as due to lightning strikes to power transmission lines may have a large impact, such as the stoppage of production lines in factories,” said Murata. “Furthermore, ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/products/power-supplies/container-scale-battery-grid-support-2018-03/

Bendable OLED has performance of glass panel, says BASF

A new type of bendable OLED panel has been developed in Germany by lighting panel manufacturer, OLEDWorks and BASF’s Coatings division. The bendable panels, named Brite 3, will be introduced at the 2018 Light + Building exhibition in Frankfurt, Germany. The bendable design is possible due to the flexible barrier solutions from BASF. The encapsulation ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/bendable-oled-performance-glass-panel-says-basf-2018-03/

Imperial College demonstrates 24/7 room temperature maser

Diamond is the key to a room-temperature maser that can operate continuously, according to Imperial College London, which has made one. “This breakthrough paves the way for the widespread adoption of masers and opens the door for a wide array of applications that we are keen to explore,” said Imperial lead researcher Dr Jonathan Breeze. ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/research-news/imperial-college-demonstrates-24-7-room-temperature-maser-2018-03/

Students get chance to design IoT products

Farnell element14 has teamed up with Rohde & Schwarz to launch its “University IoT Challenge”, a competition for university students in electronics. The competition challenges students to come up with creative ideas using £5,000 worth of technology components to create an IoT-based product that could be used by individuals needing assistance in their everyday lives. ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/students-get-chance-design-iot-products-2018-03/

500W 12 to 24V converter for tough environments

Gresham Power Electronics has introduced a 500W dc-dc converter for military and non-tactical vehicle mounted communications and security systems. Called GPD500 is now available from the Salisbury-based power supply maker, which accepts inputs between 10 to 20Vdc and delivers regulated 24Vdc output, designed to meet the requirements of MIL-STD 1275D. “Sophisticated electronics developed for military ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/products/power-supplies/500w-12-24v-converter-tough-environments-2018-03/

Hydrogen-powered street sweepers for Aberdeen

Hydrogen- powered roadsweeping has come to Aberdeen with this cleaner-sweeper truck (pictured) which has been adapted to run on both diesel and hydrogen. Emission savings of around 30% are projected from the Use of hydrogen. The sweepers are refuelled at the Aberdeen City Hydrogen Energy Storage (ACHES) hydrogen station, which makes hydrogen from renewable electricity, on ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/hydrogen-powered-street-sweepers-aberdeen-2018-03/

Wearable quantum brain scanner developed by University of Nottingham

Brain scanning is not possible through a hat, according to the University of Nottingham. The technique used is magnetoencephalography (MEG), which senses the tiny magnetic fields created by electrical signals in the brain. Once, this would have required bulky super-cooled equipment because it needed ‘squids’ – superconducting quantum interference devices – as sensors. In these ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/research-news/wearable-quantum-brain-scanner-developed-university-nottingham-2018-03/

eCall mandatory for new EU cars from March 31st

eCall – a built-in automated emergency call for assistance in a road accident – will be mandatory for all new car and light commercial vehicle models in the EU from 31 March 2018. It will therefore be integrated in future in an estimated 20 million new vehicles annually. The aim of the eCall system is ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/ecall-mandatory-new-eu-cars-march-31st-2018-03/

Grise or Greasy?

Could the Cambridge Analytica eminence grises be prepping the old soft shoe shuffle prior to shimmying off to pastures new? As the heat gets turned up on the mega-mind-manipulators of the Cam, this week the daughters of the company’s backers, Robert and Rebekah Mercer, have joined the board of a UK company called Emerdata where ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/shenanigans/grise-or-greasy-2018-03/

Undergraduate students demonstrate good EMC design techniques

A group of undergraduate students recently proved that good EMC design techniques, as outlined in EMC Standards’ “good EMC PCB design” textbook, prevent project delays, risks and costs. A practical laboratory exercise for undergraduate students was taken from: “Teaching EMC using an EMC demonstration unit”, a paper submitted for the 2018 APEMC/IEEE symposium in Singapore. ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/undergraduate-students-demonstrate-good-emc-design-techniques-2018-03/

Small system-on-module adds HDMI to quad ARM cores

SudoProc  is a quad-core HDMI-capable solderable system-on-module from Slovenian firm Sudo. Measuring 65 x 40 x 4.3mm, its processing centres around quad ARM Cortex-A14 CPUs (Rockchip RK3288), 4Gbyte DRAM (LPDDR3) and choice of on-board flash (eMMC4.5) between 32 and 256Gbyte. “Most Systems on Modules on the market aren’t solderable by default,” said Sudo. “This is ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/products/bus-systems-sbcs/small-system-module-adds-hdmi-quad-arm-cores-2018-03/

Schurter makes TME of Poland a global distributor

Schurter has extended its relationship with Polish distributor Transfer Multisort Elektronik (TME) to the status of a global distributor. TME has currently 10 subsidiaries in Europe and Asia. While the distributor’s focus in 2017 was on the African continent and the Middle East, new subsidiaries in the US, India and Australia will come to the ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/distribution-world/schurter-makes-tme-poland-global-distributor-2018-03/

Harwin appoints specialist in socially responsible supply chain

With the growing importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the sourcing of raw materials, connector and shielding manufacturer Harwin has appointed Ottawa-based regulatory software and services firm Assent Compliance. Assent will be involved in carrying out any required investigations across Harwin’s global network of suppliers with regard to RoHS and REACH environmental directives, as ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/harwin-appoints-specialist-socially-responsible-supply-chain-2018-03/

A call for action to the EU Commission

Despite the fact that the RE-D Guide was published on 19th May last year, the intermediary trade respectively distribution of ‘grey zone products’ continues to be left out in the cold. That is due to the continued lack of clear regulation for these products from the area of electronic components and systems, writes Jens Dorwarth, ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/distribution-world/call-action-eu-commission-2018-03/

Electric vehicle-to-grid charging project gets go-ahead

Aston University, and Birmingham-based design consultancy ByteSnap Design have been awarded a two-year collaborative project to develop a communications and control platform for UK’s electric vehicle charging infrastructure. The project called VIGIL (Vehicle-to-Grid Intelligent Control) will develop and an off-vehicle system that controls how, when and the rate at which electric vehicle batteries are charged/discharged ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/electric-vehicle-grid-charging-project-gets-go-ahead-2018-03/

Selection panel for EW BrightSparks 2018 deliberates

The EW BrightSparks 2018 'Judges Morning' is held at the RS Components Kings Cross HQ to deliberate on the excellent entries.

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/selection-panel-for-brightsparks-2018-deliberates-2018-03/

£100m for commercial expansion of Oxford Nanopore

Real-time DNA sequencer firm Oxford Nanopore Technologies has raised £100M to support its next phase of commercial expansion, including building a 34,000sqft bespoke high-volume manufacturing facility on the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus. “This new facility represents a significant increase in Oxford Nanopore’s manufacturing capabilities, replicating and growing the manufacturing processes developed over the years within ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/100m-commercial-expansion-oxford-nanopore-2018-03/

Small Robot Company brings Rachael to Hong Kong

Small Robot Company of Shropshire, the agri-tech start-up, will showcase its prototype Rachael robot at the GREAT Festival of Innovation in Hong Kong. Rachael has all the core technology needed for the company’s  forthcoming Tom, Dick and Harry arable farmbots. This includes autonomy, geolocation, obstacle avoidance, navigation and the ability to accurately position objects on a ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/small-robot-company-brings-rachael-hong-kong-2018-03/

In-house APs to take 30% of smartphone sockets in 2018

In-house-developed apps processors by Apple, Samsung, and Huawei (Hisilicon) will take almost 30% of the smartphone AP market in 2018, says Digitimes Research. Digitimes Research reckons that  total shipments of smartphone APs will grow 1.5% on year to 1.67 billion units in 2018, and to 1.77 billion in 2021. Qualcomm will remain No.1 with MediaTek ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/house-aps-take-30-smartphone-sockets-2018-2018-03/

Rohm has hi-fi power supply ICs for hi-res playback

ROHM has availability of high-fidelity power supply ICs optimized for audio devices requiring high-resolution playback. The BD372xx series are the first audio power supply ICs to combine leading-edge analog and sound reproduction technologies. In addition to integrating a newly developed fast response error amp circuit and low-noise architecture, multiple parameters that were shown to affect ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/rohm-hi-fi-power-supply-ics-hi-res-playback-2018-03/

Low-noise LDOs for Hi-Fi circuits up to 1A

Rohm has introduced ‘high-fidelity’ power supply ICs aimed at audio devices requiring high-resolution audio play-back. Above the quality of CD audio, it sees high-resolution audio sources typically playing back at “greater than 96kHz and 24bit”. Called the BD372xx series, the regulators have a newly-developed fast error amp circuit and low-noise architecture. “Multiple parameters that were ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/products/power-supplies/low-noise-ldos-hi-fi-circuits-1a-2018-03/

Unexpected spintronics reaction stores data

Data has been stored using a unexpected spin phenomenon. Now called ‘zero field switching’ (ZFS), it could be used in compact lower-power memory and computing devices, according to Johns Hopkins University and the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The team discovered that magnetisation in a cobalt-iron-boron layer (see diagram) could be flipped ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/research-news/unexpected-spintronics-reaction-stores-data-2018-03/

Survey: Your thoughts on The State of Display

Are you involved in the specification or design of electronic products featuring integrated displays? If so, please enter a short survey we are running with Plastic Logic to identify the latest display trends.

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/electro-ramblings/industry-comment/survey-thoughts-state-display-2018-03/

Exploiting Trust

It shows how trusting to the point of stupidity 50 million people can be who told Facebook enough about themselves to allow a pollster to use that data to manipulate them to help win the 2016 US election. And it shows how evil people can be who exploit that trust. A Cambridge Analytica worker says: ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/dilemmas/exploiting-trust-2018-03/

Tuneable quantum dots ride on graphene and BN

Researchers in Austria have created quantum dots using two 2-d materials: graphene and hexagonal boron nitride. “For many applications in the field of quantum technologies one requires a quantum system were electrons occupy two states; on and off, similar to a classical switch, with the difference that quantum physics also allows for arbitrary superpositions of ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/research-news/tuneable-quantum-dots-ride-graphene-bn-2018-03/

Sometimes the numbers work out well

In a freezing workshop, I did some measurements on a Gaggione LLC07N collimator in a bike light I made a long time ago, after replacing the original ancient led with a Cree XP-G. The distance between the white screen and the lens front is 1600mm. The three tiny spots in the beam (photo below) are ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/engineer-in-wonderland/sometimes-numbers-work-well-2018-03/

Congatec and Luxoft develop auto reference platform

congatec and  Luxoft Holding have introduced an automotive reference platform with SMARC 2.0 Computer-on-Modules. Launching with the conga-SA5 as the first official supported module, the Automotive Reference Platform (ARP), co-developed by Intel and Luxoft, makes digital cockpit designs of next-generation vehicles smarter. Theplatform enables clustering of previously separately managed functions such as head unit display, ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/523637-2018-03/

Seeking perfect partners in the defence sector

Manufacturing in the defence sector is rising to the challenges presented by new demanding environments

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/seeking-perfect-partners-defence-sector-2018-03/

Competition: Win an NXP NFC-enabled LPC8N04 devboard

Check out the new competition on Electronics Weekly, which offers the chance to get your hands on NXP NFC-enabled LPC8N04 development board.

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/gadget-master/competitions/competition-win-nxp-nfc-enabled-lpc8n04-devboard-2018-03/

Cypress details contribution to Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+

Cypress Semi is providing the new Wi-Fi and bluetooth chip in Raspberry Pi’s Model B+, released last week. The chip is the CYW43455, which can operate 802.11ac Wi-Fi at 2.4 and 5GHz, as well as simultaneous Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Prior to this, Raspberry Pi used the firm’s CYW43438 802.11n 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth combo. ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/products/bus-systems-sbcs/cypress-details-contribution-raspberry-pi-3-2018-03/

Bosch aims 6 axis inertial chip as VR and AR headsets

Bosch has launched a 6 axis MEMS inertial measurement unit with a 3 axis 16bit accelerometer and 3 axis, 16bit gyroscope in a single package. Called BMI085, it is intended for virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) applications as well as navigation, body motion tracking and gaming. “Its ultra-precise instantaneous detection of head movements reduces ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/products/sensors-products/bosch-aims-6-axis-inertial-chip-vr-ar-headsets-2018-03/

Xilinx’s Big, Bold, Hairy Datacentre Play

The programmable logic market, and its leader Xilinx, have had no growth these past seven years. Two months into his new job as CEO of Xilinx and Victor Peng has a plan to get growth going again. Not growth for the market, because what Peng intends to do is not strictly programmable logic, but growth ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/computers-mannerisms/bold-hairy-datacentre-play-xilinx-2018-03/

Xilinx to accelerate the datacentre

  Xilinx is going full tilt for the datacentre market with a new class of product which will tailor the server to the workload to minimise opex. “Datacentre is our overall target area – our highest priority segment today,” says Xilinx’s new CEO Victor Peng (pictured). Peng, a designer of CPUs, GPUs and ASICs in ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/xilinx-accelerate-datacentre-2018-03/

Server DRAM moves to 16Gb

The Big Three DRAM producers will be putting 16Gbit parts into mass production in H2, says DRAMeXchange. The Koreans will be moving to 16Gbit die in Q3 which will deliver 64GB modules. Although China’s demand for servers will grow 20% in Q2, total server demand will grow in dingle digits, says DRAMeXchange. Q1 server DRAM ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/server-dram-moves-16gb-2018-03/

Philips Lighting morphs into Signify

Philips Lighting is has changed its name  to Signify. ‘The choice of our new company name originates from the fact that light becomes an intelligent language, which connects and conveys meaning,’ says Philips/Signify. The company will continue to use the Philips brand. The new company name satisfies the company’s contractual requirements under the Company Name ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/uncategorised/philips-lighting-morphs-signify-2018-03/

Ed Gets Machiavellian

The PM is becoming positively Churchillian, Ed tells his diary, the way she’s standing up to Putin makes the Continentals look timid. We lead Europe in containing  the Russkies, not the Brussels bureaucrats, not the Germans and not the French. And, strange as it may seem, some of the Continentals are admiring us for it. ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/ed-the-serial-ceo/523531-2018-03/

Microchip reveals “next-generation” Arduino processor, somewhat

Buried in a Microchip press release were the following statements: ATmega4809 has been selected to be the on-board microcontroller of a next-generation Arduino board…. and later: “The adoption of the ATmega4809 in the next-generation Arduino board strengthens our partnership…” said Microchip v-p 8bit MCUs Steve Drehobl. Sadly, there are no other clues to what sort ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/engineer-in-wonderland/microchip-reveals-next-generation-arduino-processor-2018-03/

Jacobs off Qualcomm board

Paul Jacobs (pictured), son of Qualcomm co-founder Irwin Jacobs, who stepped down as execurive chairman last week, will not be re-nominated to the Qualcomm board when it meets for the company’s AGM on March 23rd. jacobs told the board that he was looking at taking Qualcomm private and had talked to various possible sources of ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/uncategorised/jacobs-off-qualcomm-board-2018-03/

Google rebrands Android Wear

One to note, albeit to be filed away under the category of ‘Marketing’: Google is rebranding its Android-based wearables platform. So it’s goodbye Android Wear…. …and hello to Wear OS by Google. The move is being made ahead of the upcoming show Baselworld show, where we can expect many a model smart watch to be announced. ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/eyes-on-android/android-wear/google-rebrands-android-wear-2018-03/

Tiny charge pump supports n-channel power rail switching

Toshiba has launched n-channel mosfet drivers for power switching the positive rail in rapid-charging and other load switching applications. Designed to drive a pair of back-to-back power mosfets (to block power flow in both directions), the devices include a charge-pump to provide gate drive above the positive rail. There are two parts, identical except for ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/products/power-supplies/tiny-charge-pump-supports-n-channel-power-rail-switching-2018-03/

Selling The 702

Bo Lojek in his incomparable History of Semiconductor Engineering tells a very funny story about the marketing of the historic 702 op amp. Bob Widlar had been working on the device with Dave Talbert without the official sanction of Fairchild management but they had approached Floyd Kvamme to see if customers might want it. The ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/yarns/selling-the-702-2018-03/

Tesco names former Airbus exec as CTO

Tesco has appointed Guus Dekkers as chief technology officer. Dekkers joins the supermarket giant from Airbus and he succeeds Edmond Mesrobian who is retiring. The role of CTO at Tesco has developed greatly as the supermarket firm translates rapidly evolving technological and digital capabilities into its retail operations. Dave Lewis, Tesco Group CEO, writes: “Guus ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/tesco-names-former-airbus-exec-cto-2018-03/

Osram claims flux density record for chip-scale led

Aiming at retail lighting, Osram has revealed a chip-scale LED with what it claims has the highest flux density. Called the Oslon Pure 1010, and revealed in prototype form, the 1 x 1mm device achieves a claimed 237 lm/mm² at 1A. Typical flux is 100 lm at 350mA (3,000K white) and it is said to almost ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/led-luminaries/osram-claims-flux-density-record-chip-scale-led-2018-03/

Top 10 most read on ElectronicsWeekly.com (to 16-Mar-2018)

With a new method of creating bendable silicon chips from Glasgow University, the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+, a Li-Fi demo, Fab spending, Sanjay Jha, and - of course - the Qualcomm-Broadcom tussle all figuring prominently...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/electro-ramblings/general-electronics/top-10-read-electronicsweekly-com-16-mar-2018-2018-03/

Comment: US and China lead Europe in the 5G race

If the UK and Europe don’t get their act together on 5G regulation the industrial IoT could stall.

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/comment-us-china-lead-europe-5g-race-2018-03/

Component searching: TI’s TLV70x1 family – sometimes you need a comparator

The team behind OEMSecrets, which powers our EW-Compare component price comparison system, considers TI's TLV70x1 family of four ICs.

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/electro-ramblings/industry-comment/component-searching-tis-tlv70x1-family-sometimes-need-comparator-2018-03/

Five minutes of pleasure – delightful videos

Correspondent of this parish Steve Kurt discovered a couple of videos that use the most subtle and cunning interaction between objects to propel a ball across an inclined plane. I am making this sound much more boring that it is… … think: a cross between the domino effect and the board game Mousetrap, but better ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/engineer-in-wonderland/five-minutes-pleasure-delightful-videos-2018-03/

Sign up for the Gadget Master newsletter

Ensure you receive the latest and greatest Gadget Master news, hot and fresh, straight into your inbox!

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/gadget-master/general/sign-up-for-the-newsletter-2-2018-03/

Jacobs said to be taking Qualcomm private

Richard Jacobs is moving to take Qualcomm private, says the FT. Jacobs, son of Qualcomm co-founder Irwin Jacobs, stepped down as executive chairman of Qualcomm last week but remains on the board. It is reported that Jacobs has approached Softbank for financing for the move. Five years ago Michael Dell took Dell private in a ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/jacobs-said-taking-qualcomm-private-2018-03/

Survey: The State of Display

Tell us what matters in choosing displays within your current design process

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/uncategorised/survey-state-display-2018-03/

Tearing down the Samsung Galaxy S9 flagship smartphone

We're spoilt for choice when it comes to teardowns of the imminent Galaxy S9, which is Samsung's latest flagship smartphone. Its UK release is due on 16 March.

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/gadget-master/consumer-electronics/tearing-samsung-galaxy-s9-flagship-smartphone-2018-03/

Fable: The Guys Who Wouldn’t Flock

In 1972 two partners established the first VC company to set up shop in Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley. One partner was a former Fairchild founder, the other a former HP director. One of their first investments was a firm which went by the dubious monicker of SnowJob. Another was Tandem Computers. When more ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/fable/fable-guys-woldnt-flock-2018-03/

Avnet names two European presidents

Avnet has announced a leadership change at the top of its European organisation. With the retirement of Miguel Fernandez, the distributor has divided responsibilities for the European presidential role between EBV Elektronik head Slobodan Puljarevic and Mario Orlandi who runs Avnet Silica. The change will reduce a level off management in the distributor’s European operation. ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/avnet-names-two-european-presidents-2018-03/

Government allocates new money for gigabit fibre broadband

The Chancellor’s Spring Statement has allocated the first wave of funding for improving broadband optical fibre communications across the country. Around £95m will come out of the Government’s £190m Local Full Fibre Network (LFFN) budget for 13 areas across the UK. This represents the government’s attempt to address the disappointing level of access to gigabit-capable ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/government-allocates-new-money-gigabit-fibre-broadband-2018-03/

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ runs cooler, with shielded dual-band Wi-Fi

A new Raspberry Pi is always big news for Gadget Master, so welcome the faster and more powerful Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+.

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/gadget-master/raspberry-pi-gadget-master/raspberry-pi-3-model-b-runs-cooler-shielded-dual-band-wi-fi-2018-03/

Shropshire robot company wins IET award.

Small Robot Company, a British agritech start-up, today announced it has won a prestigious Horizontal Innovation Award from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and the High Value Manufacturing Catapult (HVMC), sponsored by Innovate UK. The Company harnesses the power and precision of robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve the way that food ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/shropshire-robot-company-wins-iet-award-2018-03/

Public LiFi demo in Bristol this weekend

For the first time anywhere in the world this weekend [Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 March] people in Bristol will experience LiFi provided by pureLiFi as part of a 5G public urban environment. During Bristol’s Layered Realities Weekend 5G Showcase researchers will demonstrate how a share of £16 million investment by the UK Government’s Department ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/public-lifi-demo-bristol-weekend-2018-03/

Pricks

In a weird legal procedure, the pinprick blood test company Theranos and its CEO Elizabeth Holmes have been charged by the SEC with “massive fraud” but, says the SEC, Theranos and Holmes “have agreed to resolve the charges against them.” Holmes claimed to have a technology that could diagnose a wide range of illnesses from ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/shenanigans/pricks-2018-03/

Gadget Watch: Sony Xperia XZ2 boasts 4K HDR video recording

We must cover, on Gadget Watch, the new Sony flagship smartphone announced at the mobile World Congress last month, the Xperia XZ2. It runs Android 8.0 "Oreo".

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/gadget-master/gadget-watch/gadget-watch-sony-xperia-xz2-boasts-4k-hdr-video-recording-2018-03/

Is It All Make Believe?

We’ve seen prototypes from Ehang, BAe, Bosch, the SureFly Velocopter and now it’s Cora. So much activity means it’s bound to happen. Right? These are all, of course, flying taxis. Or will be flying taxis if the get off the ground – in the commercial sense rather than the literal sense. We all know they ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/dilemmas/is-it-all-make-believe-2018-03/

Glasgow Uni makes bendy chips

A new method of creating bendable silicon chips could help pave the way for a new generation of high-performance flexible electronic devices, say Glasgow University researchers. The researchers have described how they scaled up the established processes for making flexible silicon chips to the size required for delivering high-performance bendable systems in the future, and ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/uncategorised/glasgow-uni-makes-bendy-chips-2018-03/

Qualcomm shipments to fall as in-house APs take over.

Smartphone AP units will grow 1.5% this year to 1.67 billion units in 2018, says Digitimes Research. The slowing growth in the smartphone market means global smartphone AP shipments will grow slowly in the next few years, reaching 1.77 billion units in 2021. Qualcomm remains No.1 with MediaTek No.2, In-house-developed chips by Apple, Samsung and ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/qualcomm-shipments-fall-house-aps-take-2018-03/

Raspberry Pi 3 gets faster, better Wi-Fi, and PoE-ready

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ is the highest performance Raspberry Pi yet, with its Brodcom BCM2837 now clocked at 1.4GHz instead of the Pi 3’s 1.2GHz. What has allowed the extra speed, according to Farnell, which has stock and is ready to ship the new board, is new flip-chip packaging for the main processor which, ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/products/bus-systems-sbcs/raspberry-pi-3-gets-faster-better-wi-fi-poe-ready-2018-03/

Picture of the Day: Smart e-threads weave in antenna technology

It stretches the meaning of smart, wearable technology when you can thread in an antenna as part of the weaving process...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/gadget-master/radio/picture-day-smart-e-threads-weave-antenna-technology-2018-03/

Survey: Your thoughts on The State of Display

Are you involved in the specification or design of electronic products featuring integrated displays? If so, please enter a short survey we are running with Plastic Logic to identify the latest display trends.

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/electro-ramblings/industry-comment/survey-thoughts-state-display-2018-03/

The Beast From The East

The decision to ban the Broadcom bid for Qualcomm is undoubtedly correct. No one has much love for Qualcomm – it has been too grasping and too greedy to be liked – but it has the best mobile technology on the planet. Would Broadcom have maintained that supremacy or let it slip away to Huawei? ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/dilemmas/the-beast-from-the-east-2018-03/

Get Mannerisms, Gadget Master, the Daily and the Weekly, in newsletter form

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/electro-ramblings/site-update/get-mannerisms-gadget-master-daily-weekly-newsletter-form-2018-03/

ADI creates internal silicon PCB for system-in-package ADCs

To increase system-in-package integration density, Analog Devices is stacking die on a passives-on-silicon substrate using technology developed at its Limerick design centre. Dubbed iPassive, “this is a new thing in system-i-package”, ADI field application engineer Thomas Tzscheetzsch told Electronics Weekly at embedded World. “The passives are in the silicon, not in poly, real silicon. They ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/products/analogue-linear-mixed-signal-ics/adi-creates-internal-silicon-pcb-system-package-adcs-2018-03/

Happiness

Is this bollox or not? Apparently we have an agency called the Office for National Statistics which says we’re getting happier. The ONS concludes this from answers to questions like ‘do you feel worthwhile?’ and ‘how anxious are you?’ In 2011 people were asked to rate themselves out of 10 for “happiness”, and the average ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/dilemmas/happiness-2018-03/

The Guild of Makers to launch in Birmingham

The Guild of Makers is a new craft guild for the UK, aiming to help engineer a multi-million pound 'Maker' industry in the UK.

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/guild-makers-launch-birmingham-2018-03/

QuickLogic joins RISC-V Foundation

QuickLogic has joined the RISC-V Foundation, the open, free instruction set architecture (ISA) consortium. QuickLogic says there is strong synergy between the company’s embedded FPGA (eFPGA) (left) initiative, its membership in the GlobalFoundries FDXcelerator Partner Program for 22FDX SoC design, with faster migration to FD-SOI from bulk nodes such as 40nm and 28nm. eFPGA customers ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/quicklogic-joins-risc-v-foundation-2018-03/

Qualcomm and China – according to Broadcom

In the war of words between  Broadcom and Qualcomm, Broadcom has released an infographic showing Qualcomm’s involvement with Chinese organisations. The infographic is in response to the CFIUS investigation as to whether a successful takeover of Qualcomm by Broadcom would lead to China getting its hands on Qualcomm’s 5G technology. Meanwhile  executive chairman Paul Jacobs, ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/qualcomm-china-according-broadcom-2018-03/

Sanjay Jha leaves GloFo

After more than four years as CEO of Globalfoundries, Sanjay Jha (pictured)  is resigning and Dr. Thomas Caulfield is taking over. Caulfield joined GF in 2014 after 17 years at IBM where he built and ramped the company’s new 14nm production facility in upstate New York. In 2015, GloFo  acquired IBM’s microelectronics business, bringing a ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/sanjay-jha-leaves-glofo-2018-03/

Ed Brushes Off His Salesman’s Skills

The Brexit hoo-ha is pretty much over bar the shouting – and the shouting last week was for the benefit of the media, Ed confides to his diary. The PM keeps her cards pretty close to her chest but I can tell now, after a couple of years in Cabinet, when she feels she’s got ...

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from Electronics Weekly https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/ed-the-serial-ceo/ed-brushes-off-salesmans-skills-2018-03/