August 30, 2006
- News Focus: The Fire Next Time?
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News From The Editors:
- Development Software Offered As Free Download
- Piezoelectric Dome Delivers Better Speaker Sound
- Lightweight Toggle Switches Target Handhelds
- TechView Scope: MP3 Player Offers 8-Gbyte Memory
- Upcoming Industry Events:
- Digital Power Forum '06
- PCB Design Conference East
- Embedded Systems Conference Boston
- Book Review:
- Ultra Wideband Systems: Technologies and Applications
- Development Software Offered As Free Download
Last week’s media feeding frenzy over Dell’s recall of 4.1 million laptop battery packs, followed by this week’s recall of 1.8 million Apple battery packs has some worrisome aspects. I wish I knew more than I do at this point. Here’s the short version: if you abuse a lithium battery, it can experience a “discharge with flame” and you can’t put it out. It generates its own oxygen to keep the fire going. Also, as we discovered this week, errors in manufacturing can give them the potential to self-ignite...
Piezoelectric Dome Delivers Better Speaker Sound
Murata Electronics has designed what it claims is the world’s first super tweeter drivers that are able to improve the total sound of a speaker and not just reproduce high frequencies, as with conventional super tweeters. Murata’s proprietary design does away with the ordinary magnetic-based drive system and instead uses an active piezoelectric dome with an integrated drive system...
Lightweight Toggle Switches Target Handhelds
Two new series of illuminated toggle switches from NKK Switches are extremely lightweight, making them an ideal choice for front panel interfaces or handheld devices. The toggle actuators of both the G series ultra-miniature and the B series subminiature illuminated switches are manufactured from a clear polyamide, allowing the LED color to fully illuminate...
Edited by Robert Aiello and Anuj Batra
Books on ultra wideband UWB have been pretty scarce. This technology only just emerged from secrecy and obscurity in the late 1990s, and reference works are rare. This once highly classified technology has come out of the closet so to speak, but it has only been recently that some practical books have become available. I say practical meaning books the working engineer can use to design and build real systems without having to get a doctorate in EE. This is just such a book...
Grab some photos showing the "guts and glory" of you (and your team) at work. We need them for our "Day in the Life of an Electronic Designer" photo essay, which will appear in Electronic Design's Oct. 20 special issue. There's a $500 Grand Prize for best photo series and $250 prize for best photo, and we pay $50 if we use any of your photos in the issue. Please include the names and titles of all photo subjects, as well as company name and the type of work-in-process illustrated by the photo. Digital photos should be in .tif or .jpg formats and must have resolution of at least 300 dpi. Deadline for submission is Sept. 15. E-mail digital photos to Managing Editor Richard Gawel at: [email protected].
Editor: Mark David
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