Just in case Night of the Living Dead becomes a reality, zombie enthusiasts across the globe are gearing up to plan for the potential zombie apocalypse. The folks at Architects Southwest have devised a fun contest for designers and architects to create a Zombie Safe House. One horrific entry is a self-sustaining vertical farm that uses a zombie-powered energy system,
The need for improved energy efficiency is driving demand for better high power semiconductor devices. However, as their performance has improved, characterizing these devices has become increasingly complex. This article uses a typical design and development workflow to highlight important measurement challenges associated with each stage. Figure 1. Typical power semiconductor design and development lab-to-fab workflow. The Design Stage Today,
Engineers at Stanford University can already power this prototype medical implant chip without wires by using ultrasound. Now they want to make it much smaller. Medical researchers would like to plant tiny electronic devices deep inside our bodies to monitor biological processes and deliver pinpoint therapies to treat illness or relieve pain. But so far engineers have been unable to
At electronica 2014 in Munich, Texas Instruments (TI) will showcase how analog and embedded processing semiconductors enable innovative technologies to meet today’s industrial and automotive challenges. Visitors will have the opportunity to participate in hands-on demonstrations that reveal how the right products and solutions for complex systems can make development easy and shorten development times. Main highlights of the TI
Stem, Inc. has teamed with Kyocera Solar Inc. to offer an integrated solar photovoltaic (PV) and energy storage solution for commercial power users. The new solution automatically reduces demand on the electric utility grid, providing guarantees for significant energy savings now and against possible future tariffs — benefits reinforced by using high-performance Kyocera solar modules. Kyocera is the first solar
International Rectifier Corp. (IR) today announced the expansion of its portfolio of insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) with the introduction of a family of rugged, reliable 650V devices optimized for fast switching applications including solar inverters, welding equipment, industrial motors, induction heating and uninterruptible power supplies (UPS). Ranging from 15A to 90A, the IRGP47xx family of IGBTs utilizes trench thin-wafer technology
Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. today introduced a new series of screw-terminal power aluminum capacitors designed for traction and heavy-duty applications. Devices in the Vishay BCcomponents 110 PHT-ST series offer a long useful life of 10,000 hours at +85 degrees C and high ripple current to 19.76 A at +85 degrees C in large 76 mm by 146 mm and 76 mm
STMicroelectronics NV has added two shunt voltage references to its rapidly-expanding portfolio of rad-hard products for aerospace applications. The RHF1009A is an adjustable (2.5 – 5.5V) voltage reference, while the RHF100 is a 1.2V fixed voltage reference. Specifically designed to sustain the radiation levels found in space and pin-compatible with similar industry-standard devices, these voltage references are QML-V qualified by
Littelfuse, Inc. has introduced the SP1012 Series TVS Diode Array (SPA Diodes), a miniature, five-channel 6.5pF, 15kV bidirectional TVS array for general-purpose electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection. The SP1012 Series packs five ESD diodes in a 0402-size (0.94mm x 0.61mm) flipchip package that would normally contain only one, so it offers a 5x improvement over previous implementations. By providing the highest
SMA America, Inc. has further expanded its line of Sunny Boy TL-US inverters with Secure Power Supply, this time with 7,000- and 7,700-Watt models. The higher power ratings of the new Sunny Boy 7000TL-US and 7700TL-US make them suited for large residential PV projects. Like all of the Sunny Boy TL-US inverters with Secure Power Supply, these new models are