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May 2011
Will Femtocells or Wi-Fi Save Mobile Networks from the Data Deluge?
People love their smartphones. The convenience of having access to the Internet anywhere and at any time is extremely compelling.
In an effort to stoke the fires of demand, the industry is actively improving the offerings.
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April 2011
Custom IF SAW Filters for Sirius Satellite Radio Receivers
Problem Solvers - Filters
By Jidong Dai, Ph.D., Mike Ferguson, Frank Perkins
RFM, and Bob Dockemeyer, Delphi
Sirius Satellite Radio broadcasting utilizes highly elliptical orbit (HEO) satellites, resulting in superior coverage over North America where the service is targeted.
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OpenVPX Beamforming System Case Study from Pentek
Beamforming is a signal processing technique that utilizes an array of sensors to achieve directionality, increase the strength of transmitted signals and improve the quality of received signals. Beamforming is extensively used in communications, radar, direction finding, countermeasures, weapons systems, oil and mineral exploration, and medical imaging and treatment.
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TECH EXCHANGE
Welcome to Tech Exchange on Test & Measurement!
Each month this new section will focus on a different product category and will include a brief interview with a representative from a leading OEM.
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March 2011
Powering Toll Tags
Case Study: Customized coin cell holders for automotive toll tags
Challenge
A leading manufacturer of toll tags recently approached MPD looking for a new battery holder to replace soldered-in batteries.
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Selective Data Replication between Embedded and Enterprise Systems
By Steve Graves, McObject
Among wireless systems developers, database management system (DBMS) replication is typically associated with high availability (HA). Deploying real-time DBMS software on a master node, with multiple synchronized copies of that database running on standby nodes, and automatic failover to one of these replicas in the event of the master node’s failure, provides for instant recovery and maximum system up-time.
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February 2011
Design Considerations for Wireless Devices using Energy Harvesting
Mark Grazier, Third-Party Program Manager, Low-Power RF, Texas Instruments
The key to optimizing energy scavenging devices with low-power wireless systems is to take advantage of some very important but sometimes forgotten best practices.
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Energy Harvesting and Wireless Balancing Power Generation and Consumption
By Martin R. Johnson, ILLUMRA and Eugene You, EnOcean, Inc.
Wireless, energy harvesting technologies are making waves in building automation and energy conservation controls because they overcome limitations of hardwired solutions and maintenance issues inherent to battery-dependent devices.
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January 2011
The Effects of Meandering in RFID Tag Design
By Mark Forbes, Mentor Graphics Corporation
As is well known, maximum RF coupling occurs when impedances on each side of the coupling match. A perfect match occurs when the impedances are identical and the Complex Matching Factor (CMF) is 0dB.
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October 2010
Power Film Capacitors Enable Advancements in Hybrid Vehicles
By Chris Reynolds, AVX Corporation
Within the last few years, designers have established a solid powertrain foundation for hybrid vehicles (HEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs). All major auto manufactures see the hybrid and electric vehicle market as one continuing to enjoy steady growth.
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The Emerging Smart Multi-Grid™ Wireless Architecture – A Network of Networks
By Byron Henderson, Mesh Dynamics
Smart Grid networks are currently receiving tremendous government attention and funding. The US Department of Energy says the Smart Grid "would integrate advanced functions into the nation's electric grid to enhance reliability, efficiency, and security, and would also contribute to the climate change strategic goal of reducing carbon emissions.
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Wireless Sensor Networks: A Low-Power, Wireless-Enabled Application
By Iboun Taimiya Sylla, Texas Instruments
The explosion of wireless technologies in recent years has allowed the emergence of several wireless standards in the industrial scientific and medical (ISM) band.
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June 2010
Differentiate Application Look, Feel and Function with Autonomous User Interfaces
By Robi Karp, Fluffy Spider Technologies
The earliest embedded systems – industrial automation and scientific instruments communicated with operators using physical actuators: knobs, dials, gauges, indicator lights, etc.
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GPS Based Timing and Synchronization Solutions for WiMAX
Ken Hartman, Connor-Winfield
With the recent surge in popularity of WiMax wireless broadband solutions for home and business, the best and brightest WiMax equipment providers are busy investigating and implementing the newest technologies available for their next generation products.
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High Speed Differential Interfaces and the Need for Common Mode Filtering and Protection
By Jonathan Harris, ON Semiconductor
In the operating environment seen by electronics today there are numerous sources of electromagnetic interference (EMI) and radio frequency interference (RFI).
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Making a Big Difference with Micro Clinch Fastners
By Brian Bentrim, PennEngineering
Today’s wireless electronic devices from cell phones to e-readers exemplify ideal marriages of user-friendly form and function integrated into ever-smaller packages.
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April 2010
Mobile Virtualization — The "Killer App" for Mobile Design and Development
Over the last few years, virtualization has evolved from an obscure technology to become a key enabler of enterprise server and desktop applications. More recently, virtualization has also begun to play a comparably pivotal role in embedded development and deployment.
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Next Generation PoP for Processor and Memory Stacking
The continued increase in mobile handset functionality is being enabled by more powerful baseband and applications processor chips, which are more frequently coupled with memory devices using package-on-package (PoP) stacking.
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Three Ways to Create Eco-Friendly, Financially-Beneficial Packaging
It has been said that at retail, your package is your brand. And, increasingly, consumers are opting for products and packaging that are green. Can you integrate these seemingly opposing ideas to create packaging that's compelling to buyers and environmentally friendly? And, can you do it without breaking the bank?
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February 2010
Creating Quality Mobile Video Telephony Applications
3G video-telephony is commonly used today in interactive video value-added services. Such services can take advantage of the 3G circuit-switched bearer because of three main reasons
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December 2009
High Temperature MLVs and Low Capacitance MLVs Improve Auto Designs and Reliability
Multilayer varistors (MLVs) have long been an ideal solution for low power circuitry and sensor applications due to their inherent low current leakage characteristic, which can be as low as a few nanoamps. MLV off state capacitance is also a compelling advantage to designers since it provides a broad range of EMI filtering.
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Opening Up The Art of Low Noise
Today's world is challenging engineers to do more with less; to create new products that will help users improve aspects such as productivity or quality of life while consuming fewer resources such as fuel, finance or time. Pursuing these goals is driving a number of changes in design approaches.
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August 2009
Smart Design Strategies for the Wired and Wireless Network
When building or upgrading a cabling infrastructure, it pays to include wireless networks in your upfront plans and budget accordingly to enable seamless integration and interoperability
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April 2009
A Key Component for Intelligent Transportation Systems
With General Motor’s OnStar services and Ford’s Sync system already positioned in their market and
Europe’s C2C (car-to-car) and C2I (car-to-infrastructure) communication consortium striving to set a standard,
wireless in and out of car communication is going to be on the rise.
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October 2008
Optimizing Wireless Systems with Electromagnetic Simulation
Electromagnetic simulation has dramatically improved the design of a wide range of wireless systems by making it possible for engineers to simulate their operation and predict their performance without the need for building and testing of prototypes.
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May 2008
Femtocells: Spectrum Efficiency Improved
One of the most limited resources in telecom is wireless spectrum; therefore, it is not surprising that carriers are paying premium licensing fees for spectrum acquisition. For example, the recent 700 MHz spectrum auction in the U.S. had an aggregate bid value of $19.6 billion.
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March 2008
Innovation in Package-Level EMI/RF Shielding
Original equipment manufacturers (OEM) are continually looking for ways to achieve a quicker time to market when launching new products. To accomplish this, common platforms are used to keep costs down and speed up development time. The designer will standardize a majority of the individual components so they can move from one product design to another. This helps to minimize cost and improve on economies of scale. However, electrical interference cannot always be predicted between designs. This complicates the standardization of components and platforms, delaying the time to market.
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February 2008
Wireless Design for Regulatory Compliance
Pitfalls exist for engineers who are designing transmitters into their products. If they lack expertise in the radio technologies or if they are not familiar with regulatory constraints, their companies can easily run afoul of the law — or at least face big delays in launching new products.
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January 2008
Key Parameters for Selecting RF Inductors
RF inductor selection involves seven key parameters: mounting (surface mount or through-hole), inductance value, current rating, DC resistance (DCR), self-resonant frequency (SRF), Q factor, and temperature rating.
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December 2007
Key Parameters for Choosing Mixers
Mixer Products are the backbone of frequency conversion in communication and radar applications.
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November 2007
How to Select the Appropriate EMI Filter for a Portable Application
The complexity of cell phones and other portable electronic equipment is continually increasing. As a result, handheld products have become far more susceptible to noise and data corruption. A quick and easy way to prevent such issues is through the implementation of EMI filters.
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Sealing Electrical Connectors: When is it Worth Moving Up to Ceramic?
When engineers design a seal for feedthroughs and other electrical connectors, four general classes of material are evaluated. At the low end, a simple epoxy or glue may suffice. Alternatively, a mechanical seal with an elastomer o-ring can provide a somewhat more robust solution. For more demanding applications, glass seals are effective in preventing leakage during severe changes in temperature, pressure and humidity.
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June 2007
Beyond Platformization: Using Mobile Software Management to Achieve Feature Customization of Mobile Phones
Achieving embedded feature customization of mobile phones through mobile software management is becoming a reality, due in part to the efforts of the Open Mobile Alliance Device Management (OMA-DM) Working Group.
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Model-base Design of Wireless Systems
Because wireless projects typically share many common design elements, the strategy of reusing intellectual property (IP) can play a significant role in boosting productivity and quality.
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January 2007
Increasing Features and Reliability in Wireless Mobile Devices
Remember when the mobile phone was called a bag phone? This was a major accomplishment at the time. Then manufacturers began the miniaturization of the phone and they became smaller than a cigarette pack. The size reduction drove the market for new phone sales.
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The Role of Time-Domain in the Digital RF World
Many emerging applications call for a highly-capable RF analysis tool that captures the dimension of time along with the traditional frequency and amplitude axes.
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