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M12 connector simplifies sensor and actuator applications

binder USA has announced a new two-piece M12 circular connector that offers versatility with several special features, including a square flange housing for easy assembly and a multi-position, lockable A-coding that supports variable cable installation. The new connectors simplify making secure sensor and actuator connections in applications such as factory automation and robotics.
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Thin film resistor for consumer and industrial electronics

Stackpole Electronics' CSRT2512-UP was developed to provide accurate, high-power current sensing for consumer and industrial electronic devices that exceed the capabilities of most 2512 case sizes available in the industry. The AEC-Q200-compliant CSRT2512-UP has unique thin film material properties and processing to provide higher continuous power ratings and higher pulse power ratings than other thin film chip resistors. Benefits include: high performance, high continuous and pulse power handling, and the known high reliability of thin film technology.
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Under-$100 Lidar named CES 2022 Innovation Awards Honoree

Cepton Technologies has been named a CES 2022 Innovation Awards Honoree in the Vehicle Intelligence & Transportation category for its Nova product, a miniature, wide-field-of-view lidar sensor for near-range applications. Nova is designed to help minimize perception blind spots to enhance advanced driver assistant systems and autonomous driving capabilities in modern vehicles. It enables high-res 3D imaging to accurately detect small children, on-road objects, protrusions, and road edges. The giant CES 2022 consumer electronics and technology trade runs Jan. 5-8, 2022, in Las Vegas.
Learn more.
See all of the CES 2022 Innovation Awards Honorees.

Resolve EMI and EMC challenges with Ansys

EMA3D Cable solves complex EMI and EMC challenges related to high-intensity radiated fields, lightning strikes, radiated emissions and conducted susceptibility, and other issues. It is being used to build complete models of cars and planes, including every cable. Ansys HFSS is the world's foremost antenna design and modeling tool. Its comprehensive set of solvers allows engineers to address diverse electromagnetic problems ranging in detail and scale from passive integrated circuit components to extremely large-scale EM analyses, such as automotive radar scenes for advanced driver-assistance systems.
Read this informative Ansys blog.

Upgraded mechanical pressure switch portfolio

NOSHOK's new mechanical pressure switch program has been engineered to address a wider range of applications and provide a significantly expanded selection of process and electrical connection options. Each of the four new NOSHOK switch series offers vacuum, low-pressure, and high-pressure options; is CE compliant to suppress RFI, EMI, and ESD; and is RoHS compliant. In addition, NOSHOK has improved its production efficiency and expanded its inventory to better accommodate orders and provide faster delivery.
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Highest-rated current inductors for automotive Power over Coax systems

TDK's ADL3225VM inductors are for use in automotive Power over Coax (PoC) systems. Measuring 3.2 x 2.5 x 2.5 mm, they provide a compact solution for designers looking to reduce vehicle weight as manufacturers add more sensors and cameras to accommodate expanding automotive and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) applications. The proprietary structural design and wire winding manufacturing process ensure high impedance over a broad bandpass of 1 MHz up to 1 GHz. The inductors are compliant with AEC-Q200 and achieve the highest-rated current in the industry for the 3225 size.
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Advanced circulators overcome mmWave design challenges

As communica-tions providers race to deliver on the potential of 5G, research and design projects are already looking toward 6G and beyond. However, a major hurdle awaits the impending move up the millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum: a lack of acceptable mmWave components that can offer a wide bandwidth. Micro Harmonics has an answer.
Read the full article.

Antimicrobial switches disinfect themselves

Are switches that disinfect themselves too good to be true? It is possible. Antimicrobial coatings inhibit the growth of microorganisms and even kill them. When applied to switches, this technology is perfectly suited for medical technology, sanitation areas, and the food service industry. All completely sealed switches from SCHURTER (piezoelectric, capacitive, or ToF) are perfectly suited for this coating upgrade, which kills microorganisms effectively by oxidation using photodynamic self-purification technology.
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Expanded enclosure A/C inventory

Seifert Systems has completed their warehouse expansion, significantly increasing the types and quantity of enclosure air conditioners available. Air conditioners with popular cooling capacities within 1,000 to 21,000 BTU/hr are in stock and ready to ship. Among these are the Progressive, filterless SlimLine, and Compact Series of enclosure air conditioners as well as thermoelectric coolers. Seifert enclosure air conditioners come with a two-year warranty. SlimLine units are only 4.5 in. deep, and many Progressive units share the same size footprint for easier planning when needed for more than one application.
See what Seifert Systems has to offer.

Reversible-flow fans: Directional flow and speed control in one unit

Orion Fans has launched a series of micro-controller-based, up to IP68-rated, reversible-flow fans. By utilizing PWM signals to control fan speed, the fans provide engineers an innovative solution to some of their most challenging cooling requirements: speed and airflow direction controlled by one fan without supplementing excess wires or circuitry. Reversible-flow fans are a specialty design that enables unique applications. You may be surprised at their versatility.
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Cool Tools: Leica RTC360 3D laser scanner -- LIDAR for big jobs

The new Leica RTC360 laser scanner available from Exact Metrology makes 3D reality capture faster than ever before. With a measuring rate of up to 2 million points per sec, colored 3D point clouds can be completed in under 2 min. Automated, targetless field registration and seamless, automated data transfer from site to office reduce time spent in the field. The CAD models are generally used for factory/shop floor layout plans, power plant equipment changeouts, proof dimensioning, and much more. In addition to the 3D model, full spherical HDR imagining is appended directly to the point cloud, giving a photo-realistic effect to the data and allowing for virtual walkthroughs of the areas, shareable markups, geo-referencing, and meta-tagging. So many uses.
Learn more.

Eaton developing suite of 48-V technologies to help vehicle manufacturers meet new global emission regulations

Most vehicles have traditionally operated with a 12-V system, but with tightening fuel economy regulations and new, advanced power-consuming components being added, increasing power needs are driving the move toward 48-V systems.
Read the full article.

igus unveils new sensor for smart plastics predictive maintenance

igus has developed a sensor for its smart plastics software that calculates the remaining service life of energy chains, cables, linear guides, and plain bearings during operation. The i.cee:local sensor optimizes the life of the system, detects faults, allows them to be fixed at an early stage, and allows for maintenance to be planned in advance. This sensor can be integrated via the internet or without IoT connectivity via the local network, depending on customer requirements. Smart plastics sensors monitor abrasion, measure the pull/push force, and provide information about an imminent overload.
Learn more.

Toshiba positively evaluates no-solder connector tech for IOT

Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corp. has developed two connector technologies that allow easy, solder-free assembly of small IoT nodes, which are regarded as essential for realization of the "Trillion-Node Engine," an open-source IoT platform that could connect billions of devices in the future.
Read the full article.

Ouster-Danfoss partner to bring lidar to off-highway vehicles

Ouster sensors will be the first lidar hardware to be offered through the Danfoss PLUS+1 Partner Program, which is engineered to expedite the development process and bring higher quality machines to market faster. This integration is intended for remote machine management, operator assistance, row following, obstacle avoidance, and task automation. The PLUS+1 Partner Program is a select group of companies with complementary products -- including microcontrollers, joysticks, hydraulic pumps, and radar sensors -- that integrate into PLUS+1 systems the same way all Danfoss hardware components do.
Learn more.

Scientists develop 'invisible wires' for transporting electricity on solar windows

New Energy Technologies, Inc., a developer of innovative technologies for generating sustainable electricity, has been partnering with the United States Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) scientists to develop New Energy's SolarWindow technology, capable of generating electricity on see-through glass.

New Energy reported recently that the collaboration has successfully collected and transported electricity using a virtually invisible conductive wiring system developed for SolarWindow, New Energy's branded name for the product. The ability to transport electricity on glass windows while remaining see-through is especially important to the eventual deployment of an aesthetically pleasing commercial product.

Currently under ongoing development, the conductive system's ultra-fine grid-like pattern is deposited on to SolarWindow and is rendered virtually invisible when viewing objects through New Energy's electricity-generating glass. Researchers anticipate that a fully functional system could help transport the electricity generated on glass surfaces, improving power, efficiency, and overall performance of the SolarWindow.

Scientists successfully transport electricity using virtually invisible wires, under development for SolarWindow (displayed on a glass slide).

 

 

The recent announcement follows a major breakthrough in February when New Energy and NREL scientists collaboratively developing New Energy's SolarWindow technology successfully fabricated the largest-area organic photovoltaic (OPV) module produced at NREL – more than 14 times larger than previous OPV devices fabricated at NREL.

NREL is among the world's most respected and advanced solar-photovoltaic research institutions, and over its 35-year history has been credited for ground-floor support of many of the commercial technologies employed by today's renewable energy industries. NREL and New Energy have been working through a cooperative research and development agreement to advance the SolarWindow technology for generating electricity on glass windows.

"It's very exciting that we've not only achieved an important milestone with respect to the size of our SolarWindow, but we are now able to confidently tackle two of the most important factors to eventual commercialization – the structure and transparency of the wiring system which transports the electricity generated on see-through glass, and overall performance," said John A. Conklin, president and CEO of New Energy Technologies.

The prospect of generating electricity on SolarWindow is made possible when researchers creatively layer and arrange unique, ultra-small see-through solar cells onto glass. Each of these cells is arranged in a network and interconnected by way of the 'invisible' grid-like wiring system. Until now, such systems used in early SolarWindow prototypes were relatively thick and bulky, and applied to glass in ways that obstructed light, prevented the absorbance of light energy necessary to produce electricity, and significantly reduced transparency.

The 'invisible' wiring system is especially important to the ongoing development of SolarWindow, most notably allowing for more efficient collection and transport of electrons, both important for improving circuit current and overall efficiency. The system helps mitigate electrical "road-blocks," which restrict the flow of electrons with regions of high resistance, by creating a kind of low-resistance "highway" for electron transport; without the benefit of a conductive grid system, resistive losses can significantly reduce power production. A fully functional and optimized system could improve the reliability of SolarWindow by providing a stable network of connections among each of the interconnected solar cells on the see-through glass.

Researchers developing New Energy's SolarWindow technology have achieved significant improvements to the transparency of their newly unveiled grid-like system since unveiling the company's first-generation working prototype to a standing-room crowd of mainstream media, investors, academics, and commercial glass companies over one year ago.

Scientists demonstrated numerous features of New Energy's SolarWindow, including its ability to remain see-through while generating electricity. Both natural and artificial light were used in demonstrations.

At the demonstration event, scientists powered lights on a scale-model house by exposing New Energy's see-through SolarWindow to artificial light from fluorescent lamps, mimicking lighting typically installed inside offices. In artificial light, SolarWindow technology outperforms today's commercial solar and thin-films by as much as 10-fold under low-intensity irradiance.

Researchers then repeatedly opened and closed the boardroom's window shades, successfully powering LED lights each time SolarWindow was exposed to natural light. This demonstration mimicked outdoor exposure such as sunlight on the exterior face of commercial buildings, which are New Energy's initial target market and a promising early application of its technology.

Importantly, scientists at the event demonstrated SolarWindow's ability to generate voltage and current necessary to power lighting and mechanical devices and appliances. In addition to lighting, scientists successfully powered the mechanical rotor blades of a small helicopter using only a single, small-scale SolarWindow prototype during their public demonstration.

SolarWindow is the world's first-of-its-kind technology capable of generating electricity on see-through glass windows.

Source: New Energy Technologies

Published May 2012

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