Piezo haptics now can provide a realistic sensation of a click or the resistance of a pushbutton. Sonja Taylor Brown • TDK In the movie Ready Player One, teenager Wade Watts regularly enters a virtual reality simulator and virtual gaming environment. For citizens in this future dystopian civilization, the currency of the simulator is more […]
Harnessing Power-over-Ethernet efficiently
A few simple techniques can boost the efficiency of modern PoE designs. Charlie Ice • Silicon Labs The latest Power over Ethernet (PoE) technology delivers enough power to meet the needs of today’s WiFi6 routers, IoT gateways, and 5G small cells. PoE now delivers up to 71 W of power over standard Ethernet cables. At […]
Liquid cooling for precise temperature control
Electronics that generate a lot of heat in a small volume often benefit from swapping a cooling fan for a system based on a liquid coolant. Greg Ducharme • Laird Thermal Systems The specific heat of water is higher than the specific heat of air—about 4,200 J/kg°C vs. 1,005 J/kg°C. This is another way of […]
Autonomous wireless charging keeps robots running
Buck-boost regulators efficiently power wireless charging stations for mobile robots. Logistics, delivery and inspection industries increasingly rely on mobile robotic fleets. These fleets have become large enough that their users are trying to find ways of recharging them that don’t rely on human operators. One means of automating the robotic charging process is through use […]
Navigating new safety standards for power supplies
More stringent requirements are scheduled to soon emerge from standards bodies that will affect a wide range of manufactured equipment. Sebastian Fischer, Andreas Flũhlern • Traco Electronic AG Standards committees are working on a new, common standard for safety requirements governing audio/video, information and communication technology–the IEC/EN/UL 62368-1. The first version of IEC 62368-1 was […]
Coming: New safety ratings for power adapters
Prepare yourself for the updated standards about to take hold in power equipment that includes external adapters. Ron Stull • CUI Inc. A power adapter is a barrier between lethal ac mains voltage and the dc power line for end equipment. Different environments, however, demand different adapter construction to meet safety levels. For example, domestic, […]
Why electrolytic capacitors blow up
Electrolytic capacitors have a reputation for failing spectacularly when mistreated. Leland Teschler • Executive Editor Pop open a common LED bulb and you’ll often find an electrolytic capacitor occupying a place in the input from the ac line. Though illumination-grade LEDs generally have lifetimes exceeding 10,000 hours, the electrolytic caps in their base may not […]
Why your local landfill won’t contain lithium batteries
Leland Teschler • Executive editor Consumers with an inclination toward sustainability have been bummed out over recent revelations that most of the plastics they have carefully separated, washed, and placed in recycling bins typically end up in the local dump. So it may come as good news that dead lithium batteries are increasingly likely to […]
Advanced 500-MHz scopes provide 1mV/div min input range, digital trigger system
The Teledyne Test Tools T3DSO2000A Oscilloscopes are available in two-channel and four-channel versions with analog bandwidths from 100bMHz to 500 MHz. Each model offers a maximum sample rate of 2 GSa/sec and a maximum memory depth of 200 Mpts in half-channel mode. The T3DSO2000A series employs a new generation of high-speed display technology that provides […]
VNA test cables sport flex life exceeding 100,000 cycles
A new series of highly flexible VNA test cables are designed to address a range of demanding test and lab applications. Fairview Microwave’s new high-frequency VNA test cables display excellent electrical properties such as exceptional phase stability of ±6° at 50 GHz and ±8° at 70 GHz, as well as VSWR of 1.3:1 at 50 […]