December 7, 2013. Vendors have recently introduced communications test products, oscillators, sensors, ESD protection products, and power supplies as well as software products.
Altium has released version 1.2 of the Altium Vault, which can be hosted on an organization's own network infrastructure. Key business benefits of advanced design data management with the Altium Vault Server include traceability, disciplined revisioning, shortened design cycles through design reuse, and risk reduction through smart supply chain intelligence during design. The new release adds the ability to migrate data from one vault to another, and it offers enhanced support for connecting to corporate enterprise systems, such as ERP and PLM.
Also based on Altium Vault technology, Altium’s new Team Configuration Center (TC2) helps organizations centralize and standardize their design environment. The Altium Team Configuration Center can be installed standalone or integrated with the Altium Vault Server.
Associated Power Technologies, a global provider of AC power sources, released new instrument control software that is designed to work with the company's 400XAC, 300XAC, 7000, and 6000 Series AC power sources. The easy-to-use and free soft-panel GUI allows users to fully control their APT power sources remotely from a PC. This new software will improve a workstation’s productivity with automatic data reporting that allows users to either send test results to a test file or choose to print out a report. All APT AC power sources include a standard USB/RS-232 interface along with optional Ethernet or GPIB interfaces.
SL Power Electronics announced its MB60S single-output, convection-cooled, wide temperature range power supply that provides 60 W of power in a 2” x 3” x 1.0” package. Joining SL Power’s line of high-density open frame AC/DC medical-grade power supplies, the MB60S models are certified for use in both patient vicinity and patient contact applications (that is, blood pressure monitors or ultrasound equipment).The new models feature a universal input of 90 to 264 VAC, and DC outputs range from 12 V to 48 V. Moreover, these high power density power supplies are suitable for surgical, imaging, home health-care systems as well as medical devices and laboratory equipment.
Communications Test
EXFO Inc. announced that it is extending its FTB/IQS-88100NGE Power Blazer and FTB/IQS-85100G Packet Blazer offerings to cover 100G testing capabilities, including 100G Ethernet (as per IEEE 802.3ba) and OTN (as per ITU-T G.709) on second-generation CFP2 high-speed optics.
CFP2 capabilities are available on existing 88100NGE Power Blazer and 85100G Packet Blazer modules through EXFO's new patent pending CFP-to-CFP2 adapter, requiring no additional high-speed modules and thus maximizing customers' return on investment (ROI). This CFP-to-CFP2 adapter comes with great flexibility, supporting the industry's two implementations of 100G transceivers: 4 × 25G and 10 × 10G.
GL Communications Inc. announced enhanced Oscilloscope Display and Power Spectral Display features for T1/E1 audio applications. CEO Vijay Kulkarni said, “Oscilloscope and Power Spectral visuals of analog signals within timeslots [represent] a great way to gain an intuitive understanding of the signals being carried by the timeslots. These features have been standard with GL's T1/E1 platforms for 8-kHz, 8-bit, µ-law and A-law encoded signals. We have enhanced the features to include higher sampling rates and wider codeword lengths.”
The Oscilloscope Display feature can be used to visually assess activities on the channel such as noise, tone, and speech. With the help of Spectral Display capability, the data received on a specified timeslot can be viewed in the spectral domain (spectral amplitude vs. frequency). A Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is applied to successive sample sets of the incoming data and displayed graphically.
Internet of Things
connectBlue has released the Multiradio Module OWL355—a ready-to-embed module for industrial, medical, and Internet of Things (IoT) applications. The OWL355 module offers multiradio capability across Classic Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy, and WLAN with full dual-band support for the 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz radio bands.
“The Multiradio Module OWL355 follows our new smaller footprint standard particularly aimed at smaller sensor products prevalent in Internet of Things scenarios,” said Rolf Nilsson, CEO of connectBlue. “We have focused on delivering a product that makes sure our customers can be up and running quickly with their IoT applications.”
Oscillators
Crystek's CVCO25CL-0902-0928 VCO (voltage controlled oscillator) operates from 902 MHz to 928 MHz with a control voltage range of 0.5V~3.5V. This VCO features a typical phase noise of -108 dBc/Hz at a 10-kHz offset. Output power is typically +3 dBm. Engineered and manufactured in the USA, the model CVCO25CL-0902-0928 is packaged in the industry-standard 0.5-in. x 0.5-in. SMD package. Input voltage is 3V, with a max. current consumption of 15 mA. Pulling and Pushing are minimized to 0.5 MHz and 0.5 MHz/V, respectively. Second harmonic suppression is -10 dBc typical.
Precision Devices has announced the extended temperature version of the LV7 Series clock-oscillator products. The LV7 Series now supports temperatures of -55°C to +125°C (stability of ±50 parts per million) for harsh environments and space applications while offering stabilities as tight as ±25ppm from -40 to +85°C. The LVDS output offers integrated jitter of 0.3 ps typical across the carrier offset range of 12 kHz to 20 MHz.
“The extended temperature addition to the LV7 series oscillators expands our existing product offering even further for harsh environments. It fits the latest low voltage operating logic used in communication systems,” said Tom Sokol, senior vice president of Sales. “This compliments our full offering of frequency control products including crystals, oscillators (VCXO, TCXO and OCXO), monolithic crystal filters, discrete crystal filters, and LC filters.”
ESD Protection
Vishay Intertechnology Inc. has announced a new series of surface-mount ESD protection diodes in the low-profile SMF package. For portable electronics, SMFxxA series devices provide high surge capability of 200 W at 10/1000 μs. The SMFxxA series consists of 32 devices with working voltages from 5 V to 58 V. The devices offer a peak pulse current from 2.1 A to 21.7 A, clamping capability from 9.2 V to 95 V, low incremental surge resistance, and operating temperatures from -55 °C to +150 °C.
The protection diodes provide ESD capability of ±30 kV (air and contact discharge) in accordance with IEC 61000-4-2, support high-temperature soldering to 260°C/10 s at their terminals, and meet the MSL Level 1 standard per J-STD-020. The devices are RoHS-compliant, halogen-free, and Vishay Automotive Grade.