News
Voices: Leveling the playing field for small hardware start-ups 10/22/2009
Chumby designer Andrew Huang is among the first of a new breed of small-hardware-system entrepreneurs using China's electronics supply chain.Cadence links FPGA-pin allocation to PCB-layout tools 10/8/2009
Co-design solution speeds designing FPGAs onto PCB systems.Touch sensors allow for variations in parasitic capacitance 6/23/2009
Capacitive-touch sensors can detect a finger touch by measuring capacitive changes on the touch pad.Ramtron expands serial-FRAM line with 32-kbit device 6/19/2009
Ramtron International Corp, a supplier of nonvolatile FRAM (ferroelectric random-access memory), has announced the FM24CL32, a serial-nonvolatile RAM that offers high-speed read/write performance, low-voltage operation, and long-term data retention.MEMS-based motion sensors move lower in both size and price 6/9/2009
The 16-bit, three-axis LIS302DLH digital MEMS (microelectromechanical-system) accelerometer from STMicroelectronics is 0.75 mm high and has a 335-mm footprint. It has a power-saving shutdown mode and wakes automatically when it detects motion.In-Depth
In search of a better DRAM: evolving to floating bodies 9/17/2009
Widely investigated floating-body memories appear to be compelling replacements for conventional DRAMs. A new floating-body memory uses the intrinsic bipolar transistor to store significantly greater charge.Thermal design guidelines for solid-state lighting applications using LEDs 9/11/2009
Here are six critical steps necessary to developing a successful, cost-effective thermal design for an LED application. Two families of LED applications have been used to illustrate many of the design choices that are open to the thermal designer to satisfy these application issues.Ambient-light sensors pack in features to help applications get smarter, greener 8/6/2009
Ambient-light sensors help smartphones conserve display power and improve battery runtime. Newer versions combine improved features, such as spectral response and dynamic range, integrated proximity, and digital communications. These features are readying the sensors for use in large-screen and automotive displays and solid-state lighting.Applications and considerations of capacitive proximity sensing 6/19/2009
Capacitive proximity sensing is a clever way to interact with user interfaces without having to physically touch the interface controls. It is based on the principles of capacitive sensing, which detect the presence or absence of a conductive object.Filter-feedthrough-failure flash 5/14/2009
Tales From The Cube: A trip to Indonesia helps one engineer solve the case of a high rate of feedthrough failures.Experts
Voices: Leveling the playing field for small hardware start-ups 10/22/2009
Chumby designer Andrew Huang is among the first of a new breed of small-hardware-system entrepreneurs using China's electronics supply chain.For 10G interconnects, the RJ45 once again will dominate 5/5/2009
GUEST OPINION: 10GBASE-T will be adopted as the primary 10GE interconnect for data-center switches and servers for many of the same reasons that RJ45 and twisted-pair cabling already dominate at gigabit speeds.Know your ceramic capacitor, part two 11/27/2008
Class II and Class III ceramic capacitor advantages, liabilities, and application considerations.All about surface-mount ferrites 8/21/2008
You may be surprised to learn that the performance of a ferrite bead in any power-filtering application can vary by more than a factor of 10, depending on the magnitude of dc current passing through the part during actual operation.Voices: Harley Feldberg: the pulse of the industry 3/20/2008
Voices: EDN speaks with Avnet's Harley Feldberg about the economic situation, the growing role of Avnet in the design community, and the changing role of Asia in the industry.DesignIdeas
