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Intro to reed switches, magnets, magnetic fields

This brief introductory video on the DigiKey site offers tips for engineers designing with reed switches. Dr. Stephen Day, Ph.D. from Coto Technology gives a solid overview on reed switches -- complete with real-world application examples -- and a detailed explanation of how they react to magnetic fields.
View the video.

Bi-color LEDs to light up your designs

Created with engineers and OEMs in mind, SpectraBright Series SMD RGB and Bi-Color LEDs from Visual Communi-cations Company (VCC) deliver efficiency, design flexibility, and control for devices in a range of industries, including mil-aero, automated guided vehicles, EV charging stations, industrial, telecom, IoT/smart home, and medical. These 50,000-hr bi-color and RGB options save money and space on the HMI, communicating two or three operating modes in a single component.
Learn more.

All about slip rings: How they work and their uses

Rotary Systems has put together a really nice basic primer on slip rings -- electrical collectors that carry a current from a stationary wire into a rotating device. Common uses are for power, proximity switches, strain gauges, video, and Ethernet signal transmission. This introduction also covers how to specify, assembly types, and interface requirements. Rotary Systems also manufactures rotary unions for fluid applications.
Read the overview.

Seifert thermoelectric coolers from AutomationDirect

Automation-Direct has added new high-quality and efficient stainless steel Seifert 340 BTU/H thermoelectric coolers with 120-V and 230-V power options. Thermoelectric coolers from Seifert use the Peltier Effect to create a temperature difference between the internal and ambient heat sinks, making internal air cooler while dissipating heat into the external environment. Fans assist the convective heat transfer from the heat sinks, which are optimized for maximum flow.
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EMI shielding honeycomb air vent panel design

Learn from the engineering experts at Parker how honeycomb air vent panels are used to help cool electronics with airflow while maintaining electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding. Topics include: design features, cell size and thickness, platings and coatings, and a stacked design called OMNI CELL construction. These vents can be incorporated into enclosures where EMI radiation and susceptibility is a concern or where heat dissipation is necessary. Lots of good info.
Read the Parker blog.

What is 3D-MID? Molded parts with integrated electronics from HARTING

3D-MID (three-dimensional mechatronic integrated devices) technology combines electronic and mechanical functionalities into a single, 3D component. It replaces the traditional printed circuit board and opens up many new opportunities. It takes injection-molded parts and uses laser-direct structuring to etch areas of conductor structures, which are filled with a copper plating process to create very precise electronic circuits. HARTING, the technology's developer, says it's "Like a PCB, but 3D." Tons of possibilities.
View the video.

Loss-free conversion of 3D/CAD data

CT CoreTech-nologie has further developed its state-of-the-art CAD converter 3D_Evolution and is now introducing native interfaces for reading Solidedge and writing Nx and Solidworks files. It supports a wide range of formats such as Catia, Nx, Creo, Solidworks, Solidedge, Inventor, Step, and Jt, facilitating smooth interoperability between different systems and collaboration for engineers and designers in development environments with different CAD systems.
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Top 5 reasons for solder joint failure

Solder joint reliability is often a pain point in the design of an electronic system. According to Tyler Ferris at ANSYS, a wide variety of factors affect joint reliability, and any one of them can drastically reduce joint lifetime. Properly identifying and mitigating potential causes during the design and manufacturing process can prevent costly and difficult-to-solve problems later in a product lifecycle.
Read this informative ANSYS blog.

Advanced overtemp detection for EV battery packs

Littelfuse has introduced TTape, a ground-breaking over-temperature detection platform designed to transform the management of Li-ion battery systems. TTape helps vehicle systems monitor and manage premature cell aging effectively while reducing the risks associated with thermal runaway incidents. This solution is ideally suited for a wide range of applications, including automotive EV/HEVs, commercial vehicles, and energy storage systems.
Learn more.

Benchtop ionizer for hands-free static elimination

EXAIR's Varistat Benchtop Ionizer is the latest solution for neutralizing static on charged surfaces in industrial settings. Using ionizing technology, the Varistat provides a hands-free solution that requires no compressed air. Easily mounted on benchtops or machines, it is manually adjustable and perfect for processes needing comprehensive coverage such as part assembly, web cleaning, printing, and more.
Learn more.

LED light bars from AutomationDirect

Automation-Direct adds CCEA TRACK-ALPHA-PRO series LED light bars to expand their offering of industrial LED fixtures. Their rugged industrial-grade anodized aluminum construction makes TRACKALPHA-PRO ideal for use with medium to large-size industrial machine tools and for use in wet environments. These 120 VAC-rated, high-power LED lights provide intense, uniform lighting, with up to a 4,600-lumen output (100 lumens per watt). They come with a standard bracket mount that allows for angle adjustments. Optional TACLIP mounts (sold separately) provide for extra sturdy, vibration-resistant installations.
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World's first metalens fisheye camera

2Pi Optics has begun commercial-ization of the first fisheye camera based on the company's proprietary metalens technology -- a breakthrough for electronics design engineers and product managers striving to miniaturize the tiny digital cameras used in advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), AR/VR, UAVs, robotics, and other industrial applications. This camera can operate at different wavelengths -- from visible, to near IR, to longer IR -- and is claimed to "outperform conventional refractive, wide-FOV optics in all areas: size, weight, performance, and cost."
Learn more.

Orbex offers two fiber optic rotary joint solutions

Orbex Group announces its 700 Series of fiber optic rotary joint (FORJ) assemblies, supporting either single or multi-mode operation ideal for high-speed digital transmission over long distances. Wavelengths available are 1,310 or 1,550 nm. Applications include marine cable reels, wind turbines, robotics, and high-def video transmission. Both options feature an outer diameter of 7 mm for installation in tight spaces. Construction includes a stainless steel housing.
Learn more.

Mini tunnel magneto-resistance effect sensors

Littelfuse has released its highly anticipated 54100 and 54140 mini Tunnel Magneto-Resistance (TMR) effect sensors, offering unmatched sensitivity and power efficiency. The key differentiator is their remarkable sensitivity and 100x improvement in power efficiency compared to Hall Effect sensors. They are well suited for applications in position and limit sensing, RPM measurement, brushless DC motor commutation, and more in various markets including appliances, home and building automation, and the industrial sectors.
Learn more.

Panasonic solar and EV components available from Newark

Newark has added Panasonic Industry's solar inverters and EV charging system components to their power portfolio. These best-in-class products help designers meet the growing global demand for sustainable and renewable energy mobility systems. Offerings include film capacitors, power inductors, anti-surge thick film chip resistors, graphite thermal interface materials, power relays, capacitors, and wireless modules.
Learn more.

Heard of plasmonics? Researchers create a super-fast 'light switch' for future cars and computers

Self-driving cars have become better and more reliable in recent years. Before they might be allowed to drive completely autonomously on our roads in the near future, however, a few hurdles have to be cleared. Above all, the need to assess the surroundings at lightning speed and to recognize people and obstacles takes current technologies to its limits.

A team of scientists led by Juerg Leuthold at the Institute for Electromagnetic Fields at public University ETH Zurich (Switzerland), together with colleagues at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the United States and at Chalmers University in Gothenburg (Sweden), has now developed a novel electro-opto-mechanical switch that might be able to elegantly solve both problems in the future.

Plasmonics as a magic ingredient
To achieve this, the researchers used a magic ingredient known as "plasmonics." In this technology, light waves are squeezed into structures that are much smaller than the wavelength of the light -- which, according to the laws of optics, should be impossible to do. It can be made possible, however, by guiding the light along the boundary between a metal and a dielectric -- a substance, such as air or glass, that hardly conducts electric current.

The electromagnetic waves of the light partially penetrate the metal and cause the electrons inside it to oscillate, which results in a hybrid creature made of a light wave and an electronic excitation: the plasmon. More than 10 years ago, some well-known physicists already predicted that optical switches based on plasmons could lead to a revolution in data transmission and data processing, as both can be done much faster with photons than with traditional electronics.

An optical network including the electro-opto-mechanical switches: Depending on the voltage, the switches either deflect a light beam by 90 degrees (front left) or let it pass through the waveguide (front right, green). [Credit: Haffner C, et al 2019]

 

 

 

 

So far, however, real-life commercial applications have failed because of the large losses encountered when transporting photons through plasmonic devices, and because of the high switching voltages needed.

Exploiting the strengths of plasmonics
"We have now solved those problems by exploiting the good properties of plasmonics while minimizing the bad ones," says postdoc Christian Haffner, who led the project and is also first author of the recently published Science paper. The central feature of the electro-opto-mechanical switch developed by Haffner and his colleagues is a gold membrane that is only 40 nanometres thick and a few micrometres wide, and which is separated from a silicon substrate by an aluminium oxide disk.

In this configuration, the size of the gap between the gold membrane and the substrate can be controlled through mechanical forces. When a voltage is applied, the membrane bends slightly and, as a result, the gap becomes smaller.

The size of the gap, in turn, decides whether a light wave simply passes by the gold membrane or is deflected around it. This is where the plasmons come in. In fact, for a certain width of the gap only plasmons having a particular wavelength can be excited on the gold membrane. If the light has a different wavelength, it doesn't couple to the membrane but simply propagates in a straight line inside the silicon waveguide.

Small losses and switching voltage
"Because we only use the plasmons for the short trip around the switching membrane, we have substantially lower losses than those of current electro-optic switches," Haffner explains. "Also, we made the gold membrane very small and thin, so that we can switch it very fast and with a small voltage."

The scientists have already demonstrated that their new switch can be flicked on and off several million times per second with an electric voltage of little more than one volt. This makes the bulky and power-hungry amplifiers typically used for electro-optical switches superfluous. In the future, the scientists plan to improve their switch further by making the gap between gold and silicon smaller still. This will make it possible to significantly reduce both the light losses and the switching voltage.

Applications from cars to quantum technologies
Possible applications for the new switch are plentiful. For instance, LIDAR systems (Light Detection and Ranging) for self-driving cars, in which the intensity and direction of propagation of light beams needs to be varied extremely quickly, could benefit from the fast and compact switches.

Moreover, the pattern recognition necessary for steering the cars could also be accelerated with such switches. To that end, the switches could be used in optical neural networks that mimic the human brain. There, they would be employed as weighting elements with which the network "learns" to recognize certain objects -- practically at the speed of light.

Such optical implementations of circuits that normally work with electric current are also hot topics in other areas. Optical quantum circuits are also intensively studied, for instance, for the realization of quantum technologies. Until now, optical quantum circuits have been supported by classical optical switches. Those switches are typically based on a variation in the refractive index of a material when it is heated, which changes the degree to which light beams are bent by it.

However, this is a slow process and, in the long run, incompatible with the low temperatures at which other quantum elements such as the quantum bits or "qubits" of a quantum computer (corresponding to the classical bits that represent "0" and "1") typically work. A fast switch that practically doesn't heat up at all should, therefore, be a welcome addition to such applications too.

Source: ETH Zurich

Published December 2019

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