Military, Aerospace & Hi-Rel

May 2015
MEMSIC rolls out new sensing solutions

Inertial Measurement Systems

MEMSIC plans to demonstrate its latest advanced technologies at the Sensors Expo and Conference, to be held June 10-11 2015 at the Long Beach Convention Center, CA, booth number 245. MEMSIC products, including semiconductors and system-level devices, are designed to solve challenging inertial and flow sensing so
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Date:
05/29/2015
Energy harvesting has been around for a very long time. I still remember my 1980s pocket calculator with a solar cell powering the computing unit as well as the LCD display. But even much before that, usable energy was harvested in the early days of the electrical revolution with putting generators on river mi
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Date:
05/29/2015
Many fields of research focus on achieving a combination of more powerful batteries and devices that consume less and less energy. However, Moore's law does not apply to batteries. The performance and component density of processors and memory chips double approximately every 18 months. Gordon E. Moore pred
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Date:
05/29/2015
Designing the future

Alix Paultre, Editorial Director, PSD

The first modern wave of rapid human development, also known as the first industrial revolution, began in the middle of the 18th century. The development of devices that could be used to magnify a human’s capabilities immediately changed the face of the planet, impacting everything from agriculture to warfare. T
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Date:
05/29/2015
Today’s power conversion and power management applications demand compact yet robust power switching circuitry that supports high-voltage, high-frequency operation with the minimum of losses from the smallest possible PCB area. By definition, the choice of MOSFET technology has a significant impact on how su
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Date:
05/29/2015
Towards a new era in power electronics

Jim Witham, CEO, GaN Systems

GaN material offers orders of magnitude improvement in switching and conduction performance and, when produced on GaN-on-Silicon substrates, can reduce power system costs.  Only diamond power semiconductors have been proposed as a superior material system to GaN, but the consensus is that we are decades aw
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Date:
05/28/2015
As power levels are increased and output voltages drop, it is common to have just a few turns in the windings of inductors and transformers. When this happens, standard round wires are usually not the best choice for building magnetic structures, and foil is often used. With a foil winding, the width of the fo
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Date:
05/28/2015
We thought it would be helpful to assemble a top five list of the most common mistakes or “don’ts” that occur during the design of efficient power systems – and how to avoid them. This information comes from our observations and yes, some of our own experiences during Electrocube’s 50-plus years in th
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Date:
05/28/2015
Did you know that every 10°C rise in ambient temperature reduces every component’s lifetime by 50%? That power supplies with drop-offs or variances can lead to premature failures and even completely fried parts in your system? Indeed, most agree that power-intensive applications need, and really must have, lo
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Date:
05/28/2015
System architects of embedded systems, networking, and datacom equipment are constantly being pushed to increase the data throughput and performance of their systems as well as add functionality and features. At the same time, pressure is being applied to decrease the system’s overall power consumption. For ex
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Date:
05/28/2015
In this episode of PSDtv GaN Systems goes over their latest wide-bandgap power solutions and packaging for Power Systems Design at PCIM 2015. In addition to their new top-cooling packages, the company also shows some of the advanced products using their devices. GaN Systems
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Date:
05/27/2015
Vicor expands Picor Cool-Power ZVS regulator portfolio with updated 48V buck regulators

Cool-Power ZVS Buck Regulator

Vicor announced the expansion of its Picor Cool-Power ZVS Point-of-Load Regulator portfolio with the introduction of high efficiency PI3542, PI3543, PI3545, and PI3546 buck regulators. The entire Cool-Power portfolio is characterized by products with benchmark efficiency and density performance that are simple to
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Date:
05/26/2015
Cree addresses TWT radar issues with advanced high-power GaN RF devices

Cree’s GaN RF transistors

Cree, a leader in gallium nitride (GaN) RF devices, has introduced two industry-leading GaN HEMT (high electron mobility transistor) devices that solve a number of long-standing issues for radar systems employing traditional traveling wave tube (TWT) amplifiers. GaN-based solid-state amplifiers operating at 50
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Date:
05/15/2015
Imahara and Mouser start interview series on space exploration with Astrobotic

Empowering Innovation Together

Mouser Electronics, an authorized distributor with the latest semiconductors and electronic components, is partnering with celebrity engineer Grant Imahara and Astrobotic, the solar system’s first lunar logistics company and Google Lunar XPRIZE Milestone winner, to reveal the first of several Innovation Spotlight in
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Date:
05/12/2015
The Energy Institute (EI)'s annual awards competition is now open and the EI is calling for entries from all sectors of the global energy industry. These awards, run by the EI for over 15 years, celebrate the best of the energy sector, highlighting the invaluable contribution that the industry makes to society. Ian Marchant F
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Date:
05/11/2015
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