Electronic Product Design News

In the latest drive to build superior batteries for electronics, scientists at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign have developed a new type of 3D lithium-ion battery that simultaneously boosts both power and energy. They have done this by redesigning the electrodes, cathode, and anode to be fast-charging, porous interdigitated 3D microstructures. Led by William P. King, the Bliss professor of mechanical science and engineering, the researchers have published the results in the April issue of Nature Communications.

The WSU Series of plug-in power supplies from Triad feature from 6.75 to 36 W, input runs from 90 to 264 vAC, and output 4.5 to 24 vDC. Suitable for a wide array of applications, UL listed, and meet or exceed EISA2007. 96 models are ready to ship. Get started here.

Altera's 28 nm Cyclone® V FPGAs are optimized for the industry's lowest system cost and power. Get up to 40% lower total power compared to previous generations, efficient logic integration capabilities, integrated transceiver variants, and SoC FPGA variants with an ARM®-based hard processor system. Learn more at Mouser.com.

Dyna-Graphics' keypads feature silicone rubber for long lasting key performance, unmatched safety, and superb elastic characteristics. Rubber keypads can tolerate extreme temperatures, be water resistant, and withstand a wide variety of chemicals and solvents making them suitable for almost any industry.

DCC's new HotSpot PLUS welder offers several attachments to facilitate simple spot, stud, pin, and thermocouple welding functions. HotSpot PLUS handles attachment of heavy wires, light gauge studs, and weldable pins to metal surfaces, wire harness strapping, insulation blanket installation, and strain gauge attachments. Contact us to explore your requirements.

Japan's Semiconductor Technology Academic Research Center (STARC) has selected and certified MathWorks' MATLAB, Simulink, and Embedded Coder as the preferred tools for model-based design in its new STARCAD-AMS design flow. Now, a model-based design using MATLAB and Simulink can be incorporated as a pre-qualified system level platform by participant member companies in the standard semiconductor design and verification flows of their mixed-signal design projects.

Electronic components distributor Digi-Key Corporation and Aspen Labs have jointly produced the industry's first online CAD tools to support printed circuit board (PCB) design and development. Called Scheme-it, the complimentary online tools allow engineers to create electronic schematics quickly and share them directly from within their Web browser.

Silicon IP licensor CEVA, Inc. has introduced a new low-energy software framework for Android-based systems that efficiently reduces the power consumption required for complex multimedia processing using a heterogeneous CPU and DSP system architecture. Known as Android Multimedia Framework (AMF), it seamlessly offloads the related multimedia processing tasks from the CPU to the CEVA DSPs at the Android OS level.

Cypress Semiconductor Corp.'s newest programmable system-on-chip PSoC 4 combines best-in-class analog and digital fabric, along with leading-edge CapSense capacitive touch technology interfaces and ARM's power-efficient Cortex-M0 core. As a result, this scalable and reconfigurable architecture enables design engineers to migrate from 8-bit and 16-bit MCU applications to 32-bit solutions.

...with a full staff of engineers and support staff. IMET provides circuit design, prototyping, and short or long-run PCB assembly across all industries including medical, scientific, automotive, and consumer products. With their new 15,000 sq ft facility in Philadelphia, PA, IMET is fully-equipped to help you achieve your success.

… but a big step for efficient mass production of LEDs. High-performance LUMISIL® silicones from WACKER now allow LED manufacturers to create optical lenses by placing a drop of silicone directly onto the chip — and eliminating complex injection-molding steps in the process.

How much of your warranty work is caused by careless shipping? With the ShockWatch 2 impact indicator, you'll know. When a product is jolted beyond its tolerances, the ShockWatch 2 indicator turns bright red. This small, single-use indicator is tamperproof and serialized to ensure indicators weren't switched during shipping.

The 50-3150FR electronic grade potting compound by Epoxies, Etc. meets high standards. This flame-retardant epoxy (UL 94 V-0 certified) offers top notch thermal conductivity and low shrinkage.

This product also boasts being bromine, halogen, and antimony-free, and is RoHS and REACH compliant.

To address a broad range of point-of-load (POL) power requirements, Vicor has unveiled a new line of user-configurable PRM modules. Using the company's PowerBench online design tool suite, designers can quickly configure and simulate user-defined modules for voltage, current, and protection parameters. The modules incorporate Vicor's proprietary high-frequency ZVS buck-boost technology to deliver increased power density at very high frequencies with new degrees of flexibility.

Micrel has introduced two triple-output synchronous buck regulators that are designed to provide very high efficiency at light loads with ultra-fast transient response. An additional benefit of this proprietary architecture is very low output ripple voltage throughout the entire load range with the use of small output capacitors.

To address the needs of handheld and portable electronic devices, C&K Components has added an ultra-miniature one-position DIP switch series to its portfolio of surface-mount DIP switches. Featuring a bifurcated contact for increased electrical reliability and consistent performance, the RoHS-compliant half-pitch TDA series DIP switches are process-sealed for surface-mount soldering and washable-processing.

E-Switch has released a new long-life sealed tactile switch. It offers a very long operating life and is rated to IP67 standards. This tact switch comes with SMT (gullwing) and through-hole termination options, as well as multiple actuator lengths. The applications for this switch include consumer electronics, medical devices, audio/visual equipment, computer peripherals, instrumentation, and telecommunications.

FAST-TURN PCBA prototyping includes design and BOM reviews along with flying probe testing! Visit http://www.npi-plus.com.

NPI-Plus is setting the bar high on how PCBA prototypes are built. Standard PCBA proto programs include: Valor™ software for DFx review; SiliconExpert™ software for complete BOM analysis; SPEA Flying Probe™ for fixtureless testing and comprehensive build report.

PCC is an ISO 9001:2008 certified SDB company. PCC specializes in quick turn-around, in PCB, PCB assembly, PCB design, prototype and production. We bring over 21 years of experience to the printed circuit board manufacturing and assembly. We are committed to the highest standard of quality.

The IPC-D-356 standard, available now from IHS, describes a data format for transmitting bare board electrical test information. The material contained is intended to convey requirements, guidelines, and examples necessary to provide the data structures and concepts for bare board electrical test information in digital form, including data suitable for computer-aided repair.

For more information on IHS standards, visit us here.

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