Electronic Components

Telescope to track space junk using youth radio station The inaugural research project spearheaded by Curtin University in Western Australia, will use the newly operational Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), one of three precursor telescopes for the $2billion Square Kilometre Array project, to detect radio waves reflecting off thousands of objects orbiting Earth. The study has already tracked radio waves from FM transmitters located near Perth and Geraldton bouncing off the International Space Station as it passed over WA, approximately 500 kilometres above Earth's surface. Team leader Professor Steven Tingay, Director of the MWA at Curtin University and Chief Investigator in the Australian Research Council Centre for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO) said the MWA will be able to detect the space junk by listening in to the radio signals generated by stations including popular youth network Triple J. "We have shown that we are able to detect approximately 10 pieces of space junk si...

Bone grafting improvements with help of sea coral Nov. 29, 2013 — Sea coral could soon be used more extensively in bone grafting procedures thanks to new research that has refined the material's properties and made it more compatible with natural bone. Share This: By partially converting calcium carbonate―found in the exoskeleton of sea coral―into coralline hydroxyapatite (CHA), the refined material, called coralline hydroxyapatite/calcium carbonate (CHACC), has been shown to 'considerably improve' the outcome of bone grafts in 16 patients. The results of the small clinical study, which have been published in IOP Publishing's journal Biomedical Materials , showed that bone healing was observed in each of the patients after four months and that the CHACC had fully biodegraded after two years. CHA derived from sea coral has been used for many years as a successful bone graft material; however, its use has been limited to specific b...

The more the better: Polyandry in salamanders For a long time, it was assumed that females in the animal world are monogamous, that is, they mate with only one male. Males, in contrast, can increase their reproductive success by mating with several females. Nowadays, however, polyandry is assumed to be the rule in the animal world and monogamy to be more of an exception. Currently, researchers from completely different disciplines are interested in why females mate with several males and what benefits this brings for them or their offspring. There is a particular interest in studies that permit insights and conclusions on these processes under completely natural conditions. As a rule, however, such studies are hard to implement without disturbing the individuals or studying their mating behaviour completely or partially in the laboratory. Researchers at Bielefeld University's Chair of Animal Behaviour in the group of Dr. Barbara Caspers, Dr. Sebastian Steinfartz, research group lea...

Architects of nanoworld behind the screens Nov. 29, 2013 — New types of building blocks for electronics will be the future, that is clear for researcher Nauta. "It is already possible to give a molecule the functionality of a transistor. But compare that to the huge complexity of current chips, with eight or nine 'highways' above each other, connecting all elements. How to reach this using these new molecules? There's still a huge gap there. Silicon research and industry has shown an immense effort, that's still going on for some time." Nauta stresses that current chips like microprocessors already contain billions of transistor with sizes in the nanometer domain. Microelectronics had become nanoelectronics already. "They are so small, around 22 nanometer, that you can count the individual atoms." Share This: Not self-evident at all In his lecture 'The invisible circuit', Nauta asks his audience to ima...

Research Glasgow to measure gravitational waves 2013/11/29 Scottish technology will be at the heart of an space mission to detect the ripples in space-time caused by some of the most violent events in the universe. The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced that one of its next two ‘large’ (L-class) missions will be to establish a gravitational wave observatory in space. Known as the evolved Laser Interferometry Space Antenna (eLISA), the mission is planned to launch in 2034 and will build upon technologies already developed by scientists at the University of Glasgow’s Institute for Gravitational Research (IGR) for the ESA’s LISA Pathfinder probe (pictured), due for launch in 2015. The pathfinder will demonstrate technology including the Glasgow-built optical measurement system. “It’s testament to the excellence of the work going on in Scotland today that a considerable part of the technology that will allow us to answer the most fundamental of questions will be developed b...

Power 30V mosfet slides under 1milliohm 2013/11/29 Rated at 260A, Advanced Power Electronics’ AP1A003GMT-HF-3 power mosfet has a maximum on-resistance of only 0.99mΩ. “Provided in a PMPAK5x6 package with integrated thermal pad and with a standard SO-8 footprint compatible with other enhanced 5x6mm power packages, the mosfet features simple gate drive requirements and a breakdown voltage rating of 30V,” said the firm. It is RoHS-compliant and BFR/halogen-free. Samples are available now. Welcome to SUV System Ltd! SUV System Ltd is ISO 90012008 Certified electronics distributor with 10 years of experiences. We have built up long term business relationship with about many companies which are stockers and authorized agents. we have a steady and reliable supply to meet customer's demands to the greatest extent .Confidently, we are able to lower your cost and support your business with our yea...

General Mini camera uses ST image processing to help visually-impaired 2013/11/29 OrCam camera module A new miniature camera which clips on to glasses to improve the mobility and ability of visually-impaired people, has been developed by OrCam Technologies. The camera is built around a 5.1 mega-pixel camera module and low-power digital image processor from STMicroelectronics. The ST VX6953 camera module and STV0987 image processor will analyse and interpret the scene before the device aurally describes it to the user. “The OrCam camera reads a scene or text in different lighting conditions and on a variety of surfaces, including newspapers and signs. Moreover, while the camera comes with a pre-stored library of objects, the wearer can continue to teach OrCam new objects as they use it,” said the company. “Camera module’s EDOF (Extended Depth Of Field) capability enabled us to work with a fixed-focus camera, and thus saved us space, power and the time it takes auto-focus module...

Business Cheaper Q4 wafers as utilisation falls 2013/11/29 Wafers are getting cheaper, reports Digitimes . A fall in capacity utilisation rates has caused foundries to cut prices to get business. Taiwan’s three biggest foundries, TSMC, UMC and Vanguard will see collective revenues drop 9.4% in Q4 compared to Q3, mainly as a result of lower ASPs. Combined revenues are expected to come in at $6.12 billion down from $6.76 billion in Q3. Q3 saw a 4.4% sequential increase on Q2 which is low for the traditionally strongest quarter of the year. A negative for the Taiwanese foundries is that Samsung and GloFo have ben getting better 28nm yields which has meant that demand for TSMC’s 28nm process has slowed. The foundry industry has also been hurt by the decline in PC sales and lower than expected sales of smartphones. Welcome to SUV System Ltd! SUV System Ltd is ISO 90012008 Certified electronics distri...

Business Imec reduces processing cost of solar cells while increasing efficiency. 2013/11/29 Imec has used a laser doping process to reduce the cost of producing i-PERC solar cells while increasing their efficiency to 20.2%. “Cost-of-ownership and process simplicity are key factor for the industry to adopt new technologies,” says Imec’s Jozef Szlufcik, “our achievement, implying a substantial simplification of the i-PERC manufacturing process, is an important step towards reducing the cost-of-ownership of i-PERC technology and as such, a milestone in bringing this high-efficiency technology for silicon solar cells to the market.” Imec used large area (156x156mm2) i-PERC silicon cells on p-type Cz-Si. The a laser doping processing sequence eliminates the need of a furnace firing step to realise the local aluminium Back Surface Field (BSF). Replacement of the high-temperature ste, avoids passivation degradation of the rear (Al2O3) layer created by atomic layer deposition (ALD). ...

Business ARM extends engineer accreditation programme to Shenzhen 2013/11/29 ARM and the National IC Design Shenzhen Industrial Center (SZICC) have agreed to bring the ARM Accredited Engineer (AAE) Program to Shenzhen, Southern China. The partnership will deliver official courses in ARM technology to the city’s aspiring and established electronics engineers. The AAE Program is the only global accreditation program available to engineers wishing to gain credible evidence of their expertise in the ARM architecture. Over 600 local participants are expected to qualify over the next two years. By partnering with SZICC and local institutions ARM is supporting the cultivation of Shenzhen’s engineering talent. The AAE Program provides a consistent and comprehensive learning framework and helps HR departments to benchmark job applicants. A pipeline of consistently qualified engineering talent benefits both Shenzhen’s electronics industry and the ARM ecosystem, which has 150 Chinese par...

Memories 'geotagged' with spatial information Their work shows how spatial information is incorporated into memories and why remembering an experience can quickly bring to mind other events that happened in the same place. "These findings provide the first direct neural evidence for the idea that the human memory system tags memories with information about where and when they were formed and that the act of recall involves the reinstatement of these tags," said Michael Kahana, professor of psychology in Penn's School of Arts and Sciences. The study was led by Kahana and professor Andreas Schulze-Bonhage of Freiberg. Jonathan F. Miller, Alec Solway, Max Merkow and Sean M. Polyn, all members of Kahana's lab, and Markus Neufang, Armin Brandt, Michael Trippel, Irina Mader and Stefan Hefft, all members of Schulze-Bonhage's lab, contributed to the study. They also collaborated with Drexel University's Joshua Jacobs. Their study was published in the journal S...