January 28, 2020
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By: Reno Rossetti Principal Writer, Maxim Integrated |
I signed up to visit the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2020) earlier this month with great expectations. Based on the agenda, the Las Vegas Convention Center exhibit floor would showcase tons of technology while the numerous panel sessions would cover the most disparate subjects, from robots to artificial intelligence (AI) to virtual currencies. It would be a great opportunity to brush up on new technology trends and test my opinions about some of its most lofty promises. In the end, I got more than I bargained for.
January 23, 2020
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By: Reno Rossetti Principal Writer, Maxim Integrated |
Industry 4.0 has given us smart factories, which are highly digitalized and connected for adaptive manufacturing as well as increased throughput. The increased intelligence in these manufacturing facilities is not only enhancing productivity, but it's also making it possible to identify and fix any breakdowns on the factory floor in real time with little human intervention. For the past several decades, automation has been the key driving force in increasing factory efficiency. With advances in communication, big data, artificial intelligence (AI), and the internet of things (IoT), we are moving ever closer to making factories truly smart.
January 21, 2020
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By: Sagar Khare Executive Business Manager, Mobile Solutions Business Unit, Maxim Integrated |
With the increasing popularity of portable devices, lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries have become ubiquitous. These batteries, however, have stringent safety requirements which typically require battery packs with integrated protectors.
January 16, 2020
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By: Christine Young Blogger, Maxim Integrated |
Shanghai-based Calterah Semiconductor is a leading provider of 77/79GHz CMOS millimeter wave (mmWave) radar sensor ICs for automotive and industrial applications. You might find the company’s technology in applications such as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), security screening and imaging, and smart homes.
January 15, 2020
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By: Ian Chen Executive Director, Industrial & Healthcare Business Unit, Maxim Integrated |
Getting reliable sensor data is complex. For example, an optical heart-rate sensor is actually sensing the changes in an electric current. Heartbeats cause the volume of arterial blood to change synchronously with each pulse. The change in volume changes the amount of light absorbed and reflected as it travels through live tissue. When that light exits the tissue and enters a photodetector, it changes the output current. By creating a sensing system that carefully sets up a proper series of “dominos,” a current sensor becomes a heart-rate sensor.
January 14, 2020
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By: Christine Young Blogger, Maxim Integrated |
When you’re exploring the depths of the ocean, it’s essential to know how much oxygen is left in your scuba tank, how deep underwater you are, ocean conditions, and other parameters. A wrist-worn diving computer can serve as your guide. One of the market’s most prominent developers of innovative dive technologies is Mares, based in Rapallo, Italy. Collaborating with ROJ, an Italian electronics designer, developer, and manufacturer, Mares has created the Genius wrist dive computer.
January 9, 2020
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By: Travis Taylor Applications Engineer, Advanced Sensor Products, Maxim Integrated |
Wearable and handheld electronic design comes with an inherent tradeoff between battery life, feature richness, and size. To fit the most features in a small device, you want the smallest, most efficient power management scheme. For simple battery-powered devices, all you often need is a diode ORing. A diode ORing powers the device from the battery when unplugged and switches to the charging cable when plugged in. This simple scheme uses two diodes to select the option with the higher voltage. However, diodes have an inherent tradeoff between forward voltage, leakage, size and cost, where you generally get to pick two.
January 8, 2020
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By: Szukang Hsien Executive Business Manager, Automotive Business Unit, Maxim Integrated |
The Tesla Model 3 is changing our impression of the vehicle dashboard. Gone are the multiple gauges, buttons, and knobs that we’re accustomed to. Instead, when you step into the driver’s seat, the car’s 15-inch touchscreen takes center stage, providing access to all driver controls. When it comes to automotive displays, vehicle manufacturers are starting to incorporate more screens—and bigger, sharper ones—inside their cabins. Displays for functions such as advanced instrument clusters, heads-up displays, infotainment, center displays, rear-seat entertainment, and smart mirrors are delivering vivid images of the surrounding environment, automotive controls, and infotainment options.
January 7, 2020
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By: Christine Young Blogger, Maxim Integrated |
What you don't know might hurt you. Such is the case with high blood pressure, or hypertension. "In terms of hypertension, the statistics are pretty frightening. Around a third of all people in the U.S. suffer from hypertension. Unfortunately about half of those don't know they have it," noted Andrew Baker during a November talk at IDTechEx Show! in Santa Clara.
December 19, 2019
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By: Jim Harrison Guest Blogger, Lincoln Technology Communications |
The trouble with liking technology stuff is it keeps changing. Every year, there's something new you've gotta have. This winter, as we approach the end of the decade, there are, once again, lots of interesting tech items to consider for holiday gift-giving or just to buy for yourself. Here are just five of the best gifts for the engineer in your life.
December 18, 2019
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By: Tamer Kira Executive Director, Automotive Business Unit, Maxim Integrated |
More vehicle manufacturers are moving toward electrification, and sales of electric vehicles (EVs) are continuing to rise. While only 12% of the U.S. population, California provides nearly 50% of all EV sales in the country. Globally, China remains the leader in development and sales of EVs. By 2040, 57% of all passenger vehicle sales will be electric, according to BloombergNEF's analysis.
December 17, 2019
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By: Michael Jackson Principal Writer, Maxim Integrated |
Hi Michael,
I've heard that gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) could replace MOSFET and IGBT power switches in the near future. The fact that they are smaller and faster sounds great, but as always, I suspect there's no such thing as a free lunch. Are there any pitfalls that I need to be aware of before I start looking at using GaN and SiC in my designs?
December 12, 2019
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By: Oliver Jakobi Member of the Technical Staff, Field Applications, Maxim Integrated |
How much time do you spend designing power supplies? In this video, I will teach you how to design a power supply in five minutes or less using the online EE-Sim® Design and Simulation tool. The MAX17506 Evaluation Kit is used to compare efficiency simulation results from EE-Sim with the actual hardware. The results are nearly identical, which means designing hardware just got a whole lot easier. Don't believe me? Then have a seat, and enjoy the video!
December 10, 2019
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By: Anil Telikepalli Managing Director, Core Products Group, Maxim Integrated |
Computing has seesawed between centralized and distributed models, from mainframes to enterprise servers and then to cloud computing. Each of these cycles has not completely replaced the previous architecture, but, rather, added to it to cater to differing needs past the hype cycle. With edge sensors and AI inferencing, we are now moving past the hype cycle for data centers towards increasing intelligence at the edge and processing the resulting data right there. With billions of edge devices, the demand for low latency has increased. It is incredibly inefficient to collect data from billions of edge devices to a central data center for computation when there is no inter-relationship among the data. Not to mention large, inefficient data pipes and high latency. This has opened the door for low-power, low-latency, distributed edge-computing devices.
December 5, 2019
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By: Jim Harrison Guest Blogger, Lincoln Technology Communications |
Everyone is hoping that making buildings 'smart' will make them more environmentally sound, more livable, and more comfortable. About 40% of total U.S. energy consumption was attributed to buildings last year. Lower cost sensors and easier to implement networking are making a difference–especially in skyscrapers.
December 3, 2019
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By: Christine Young Blogger, Maxim Integrated |
So you've got an idea for a new type of wearable, something that will accurately measure parameters such as blood pressure, heart rate, and blood-oxygen levels (SpO2). The market for these devices is hot, so you and your team want to time the launch of your device to the most opportune market window.
November 26, 2019
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By: Christine Young Blogger, Maxim Integrated |
GSEE-TECH, based in Tianjin, China, develops, produces, and sells industrial automation products. Its extensive portfolio of industrial Ethernet communications products include switches, gateway modules, I/O modules, and industrial wireless blocks.
November 25, 2019
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By: Christine Young Blogger, Maxim Integrated |
From smart meters to machines to vehicles, supercapacitors are popping up in a variety of applications. Will they replace batteries? Perhaps not in every application at the moment, but supercapacitors do provide an advantage over batteries in certain designs.
November 21, 2019
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By: Joe McClean Principal Member of the Technical Staff, Maxim Integrated |
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and Anders Reisch Managing Director, Maxim Integrated |
Circuit design is time-consuming, often reliant on a trial-and-error process. And those iterations can result in delayed product introduction. So, with ever-present time-to-market pressures weighing on your shoulders, any tools or techniques that shorten your design process are welcome.
November 19, 2019
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By: Christine Young Blogger, Maxim Integrated |
Every micro-movement deep beneath the earth's surface is important to note for applications such as resource extraction and substance sequestration. High-quality seismic data acquisition calls for recording technology that is precise and efficient—two characteristics that mark the solutions developed by Geophysical Technology, Inc. (GTI).
November 14, 2019
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By: Christine Young Blogger, Maxim Integrated |
More portable devices are being designed with sound, yet not all engineers developing these systems have audio expertise. This is where a company like PUI Audio can step in. A family-owned business in Dayton, Ohio, PUI Audio is North America's largest, broadest audio components provider. Starting from its early days, the company has built its business on a foundation based on listening to its customers. In addition to its vast product portfolio, the company also provides upfront design support, turnkey engineering capabilities, on-site production assistance, and functional and environmental testing.
November 13, 2019
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By: Michael Jackson Principal Writer, Maxim Integrated |
Hi, Michael:
I'm having a problem you might be able to help me out with. I'm designing an industrial sensor, but I'm struggling with the power budget to make it work with the IO-Link® connectors. The problem is that the regulators and LDOs on the IO-Link transceivers I've been looking at aren't efficient enough for the amount of current I need. Also, the sensor enclosure is too small for me to use a separate DC-DC converter. Any ideas?
November 12, 2019
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By: Ben Smith Principal Member of the Technical Staff, Applications, Maxim Integrated |
In the mid 1970s I had the best job an aspiring engineer could hope for: I worked the sales floor at a well-known national electronics retailer. And at that time, there were just three products that kept us all in business: eight-track tape players, citizen's band radios, and police scanners.
November 7, 2019
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By: Venkatesh Karra Member of the Technical Staff, Applications, Maxim Integrated |
Accurate, reliable temperature monitoring is key to keeping perishables such as food and pharmaceuticals safe. Thermochrons are cool iButton® devices. They can efficiently log temperature in harsh environments and store the readings in protected memory. The stainless steel enclosure makes the thermochron physically robust.
November 6, 2019
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By: Anil Telikepalli Managing Director, Core Products Group, Maxim Integrated |
By providing secure IPv6-based low-power wireless technology, Thread® enables tamper-proof home sensors for comfort, entertainment, security, and energy efficiency. With its origins in home and building automation, Thread enables IoT applications in diverse consumer, wearable, medical, and industrial markets. Google has also released a lightweight open-source implementation of Thread called OpenThread. While it is not exactly akin to what Android was for smartphones, OpenThread promises to be an excellent enabler for Thread adoption. Thread joins several other networking standards including Zigbee, NB-IoT, LoRa, SigFox, and Bluetooth LE.
November 5, 2019
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By: Ian Chen Executive Director, Industrial & Healthcare Business Unit, Maxim Integrated |
The future of healthcare could be even more data-driven and personalized than it is today. Instead of determining that a patient has a light fever based on a thermometer reading of 37°C, a diagnosis would be based on a comparison of an elevated resting body temperature against a similarly observed baseline from that individual. Rather than an arbitrary (or worse, financially driven) model where patients visit their doctors for sparsely scheduled checkups, people may receive care based on a cadence optimized to their own unique situations.
October 31, 2019
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By: Christine Young Blogger, Maxim Integrated |
With ghosts and goblins roaming the streets in search of treats, Halloween might be the perfect time to channel your inner maker and show off your DIY skills. From robot candy dispensers to scary electronic pranks, the creative engineers in the Hackster.io community have shared some interesting ideas that might just inspire you to design something frightful.
October 29, 2019
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By: Jim Harrison Guest Blogger, Lincoln Technology Communications |
Engineers designing the next generation of wearable health and fitness applications need high accuracy along with very low power for applications such as wrist-band wearables. The wrist is not an ideal location for clinical monitoring of body temperature, but gives a good relative and daily trend indication. Accuracy is still very important here.
October 24, 2019
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By: Christine Young Blogger, Maxim Integrated |
Want to get louder sound and more bass from your micro speakers—without blowing them out? Dynamic Speaker Management (DSM™) technology could be your answer.
October 22, 2019
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By: Erin Mannas Senior Manager, Applications, Maxim Integrated |
Have you had that bad dream about your new design yet? You know, the one where it's almost done and you bring up the power supply and then…disaster! All because you didn't vet the power supply thoroughly enough.
October 17, 2019
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By: Christine Young Blogger, Maxim Integrated |
Do you break out into air guitar solos when you hear your favorite rock or metal tune? For real serious enthusiasts, there's even a competition to crown a national air guitar champion. But if you prefer to experience a slightly more tactile experience, well, there's an app and tool for that. What if you're ready to take it a step further and actually learn how to play the guitar, but at your own pace and without having a teacher lecture you about getting enough practice? There's an app and tool for that, too.
October 15, 2019
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By: Christine Young Blogger, Maxim Integrated |
When hackers get together, it's not always for nefarious reasons. Good things can happen, especially when those hackers are part of the revered Chaos Computer Club, Europe's largest association of hackers.
October 10, 2019
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By: Ben Smith Principal Member of the Technical Staff, Applications, Maxim Integrated |
I have a confession: I'm not really an analog person.
For pretty much my entire career, I've been working with microcontrollers and hooking them up to other, mostly digital, blocks. Freed from the uncertainties that plague the analog world, I could build large, complex systems out of digital logic, content in the knowledge that as long as I didn't push things too far, I could connect pretty much any digital output to pretty much any digital input, and the system would "just work."
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