Automotive & Transportation

April 2014
Isolation has been considered a necessary burden by designers.  It is necessary because it makes electronics safe for anyone to use.  It is a burden because it limits communication speed and consumes a lot of power and board space.  Old-technology optocouplers and even many, newer digital isolators co
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Date:
04/30/2014
Freescale Cup final starts today

The Freescale Cup

After a day of training and qualification yesterday, the final of the Freescale Cup will take place today at Fraunhofer ISS Erlangen, Germany. The Freescale Cup, sponsored by Freescale Semiconductor, is an international competition where student teams build, program and race an intelligent model car around a
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Date:
04/30/2014
ARM announced an enhanced suite of higher performance and more energy-efficient products specifically designed for the rapidly growing mid-range mobile and consumer electronics markets. The suite, comprised of processor, graphics processor and physical IP, is an update to ARM’s mid-range IP offering targeting de
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Date:
04/30/2014
Investing in product areas where a company has distinct competitive technological advantages only makes sense in markets where there are also large, sustainable opportunities. Power management has evolved from simple regulation and power control to increasingly sophisticated power management devices providing mo
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Date:
04/30/2014
One of the biggest challenges for automotive lighting systems designers is how to optimize all the benefits of the latest generation of HB LEDs. HB LEDs require an accurate and efficient DC current source with a means for dimming and must include protection features. Additionally, these LED driver ICs must be de
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Date:
04/29/2014
Miniaturization and a low profile are demanded of the semiconductors and electronic components used in portable devices such as smartphones and tablets. Accompanying the lower voltages and larger currents used in semiconductors in devices, DC/DC converters, which have a higher conversion efficiency than linear reg
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Date:
04/29/2014
AVX releases high-voltage automotive MLCC series

X7R High Voltage Automotive MLCCs

AVX, a leading manufacturer of passive components and interconnect solutions, has added a new series of high voltage multilayer ceramic chip capacitors to it automotive product lineup.  Qualified to AEC-Q200 and available in chip sizes spanning 1206 to 2220, the X7R High Voltage Automotive MLCCs are rated fo
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Date:
04/24/2014
Vishay Intertechnology composite-coupled inductors use IHLP technology

Vishay Intertechnology composite-coupled inductors

Vishay Intertechnology introduced the first devices in a series of composite-coupled inductors, built on the company's IHLP® technology, for use in SEPIC DC/DC converters and other applications. Offered in the compact 4040 case size, the Vishay Dale IHCL devices feature two inductors in the same package with magn
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Date:
04/24/2014
Novel Printoo platform empowers printed electronics development

Printoo is a platform created to make today’s printed electronics technologies and components easy to prototype with

Printoo is an Arduino™-compatible platform that brings previously unavailable printed, low power, and flexible electronics technologies directly to anyone interested in developing interactive objects and projects. The goal is to make printed electronics more accessible to a wider group of product designers an
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Date:
04/22/2014
Coilcraft CPS introduces extreme temperature inductor

Coilcraft CPS' AT549RBT cored-spring inductor

The AT549RBT cored-spring inductor from Coilcraft CPS (Critical Products & Services) features a temperature rating of -55°C to +300°C, making it ideal for extreme-temperature applications such as down-hole drilling and on-engine automotive. AT549RBTThe AT549RBT has an inductance value of 1.0 µH, a ma
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Date:
04/22/2014
Automotive sector strengthens adoption of supercapacitors

Extreme motorsport environments have a direct influence on future road car technology

Overall, 2014 is expected to be a great year for the supercapacitor industry. Based on 2013 industry results, IDTechEx confirms its outlook for a 30% CAGR External Link in the next 10 years. The supercapacitor market will reach a value of $6 billion in 2024. In the larger application segments such as transportation, th
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Date:
04/21/2014
ChargePoint, the largest EV (electric vehicle) charging network in the USA with over 16,500 charging locations, is proud to partner with Nissan on their successful “No Charge to Charge” promotion and the creation of an EZ-ChargeSM card - a first-of-its-kind access platform that offers Nissan LEAF owners ac
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Date:
04/17/2014
The 2015 Ford F-150 to be the first pickup with complete LED forward lighting

The 2015 model of the Ford F-150 will be the world's first pickup on the market with a complete LED forward lighting solution

One of America's legendary pickup trucks, and the biggest seller in the USA, is now blazing the pioneer trail in lighting with help from Osram. The 2015 model of the Ford F-150 will be the world's first pickup on the market with a complete LED forward lighting solution from Osram. "We are proud to be supplying the
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Date:
04/16/2014
Valeo today named the 20 teams shortlisted by its experts to compete in the second round of the Group's global innovation challenge. The participating teams represent thirteen countries around the world: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Mexico, Poland, the United Sta
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Date:
04/16/2014
Allegro MicroSystems releases zero-speed differential peak-detecting Hall-effect sensor IC optimised for speed, timing and duty-cycle sensing

A1468 Hall-effect sensor IC

The A1468 from Allegro MicroSystems Europe is a true zero-speed differential peak-detecting Hall-effect sensor IC that is optimised for use in automotive speed, timing and duty-cycle sensing. The device is ideally suited to digital ring-magnet sensing or, when coupled with a magnet, ferromagnetic target sensing in
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Date:
04/11/2014
A battery tester the size of a credit card produced live at a trade show? The LOPEC Demo Line makes it possible. From May 27th to 28th, eleven companies and two research institutes will demonstrate all the steps that it takes to produce a fully functional printed battery tester. The LOPEC Demo Line will give
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Date:
04/10/2014
High demand for machines in manufacturing sectors ranging from auto making to packaging will push the industrial machinery market to new heights during the next five years, highlighted by a doubling of growth this year, according to a recent report from IHS Technology. As economic conditions continue to improv
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Date:
04/07/2014
element14 has announced the launch of the Inductive Sensing Challenge, a global design competition which will encourage participating engineers to design and develop innovative products. The initiative will use the Texas Instruments LDC1000, the first inductance-to-digital converter. Inductive sensing is a cont
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Date:
04/07/2014
In this third article about power supply failures, the magnetics are examined for their contribution to the failure rate. These are usually the least understood of all components, and poor magnetics design can lead to many different failure mechanisms in power supplies. Power Supply Failure Survey The LinkedIn sit
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Date:
04/06/2014
The portable power application space is both broad and diverse. Products range from wireless sensor nodes (WSNs) that consume average power measured in microwatts to cart-based medical or data acquisition systems with multi-hundred Watt-hour battery packs. However, despite this variety, a few trends emerge – de
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Date:
04/05/2014
You can’t progress by restricting forward motion

Alix Paultre, Editorial Director, PSD

One of the things I love about serving this industry is that we are in the process of making things better for everybody by making the world a more efficient and empowered place. Migrating from technologies as wasteful in materials as they were in power benefits everyone. Materials get lighter and more multipurpose, ha
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Date:
04/05/2014
A novel IGBT structure was developed with reverse-blocking capabilities comparable to the forward voltage rating of the IGBT. This new device, known as the RB-IGBT, was used to create a 3 level advanced neutral point clamping power converter that shows better loss characteristics than standard 3 level converters. The results o
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Date:
04/03/2014
Vishay Intertechnology launches 45V and 50V TMBS rectifiers in a low-profile DO-221BC (SMPA) package

TMBS Trench MOS Barrier Schottky rectifiers

Vishay Intertechnology expanded its offering of TMBS® Trench MOS Barrier Schottky rectifiers with seven new 45 V and 50 V devices. For automotive and commercial applications, the high current density rectifiers offer current ratings from 3 A to 8 A and low forward voltage drop in the low-profile, surface-mount DO
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Date:
04/02/2014
Typical switched-mode power converters today include circuitry for monitoring the current flowing through a switching power MOSFET or IGBT for regulating or limiting peak current levels. This is necessary to protect the switch against high peak currents that can damage components or saturate inductors. A low-ohmic re
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Date:
04/01/2014
ROHM Semiconductor will present its latest power management product designs at PCIM, a leading trade fair for power electronics, in Nuremberg, from May 20 – 22, 2014 (Hall 9, Booth 211). The novelties offer beneficial characteristics resulting from latest material research, packaging and manufacturing expertise an
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Date:
04/01/2014
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