Together with six industrial partners, the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH) has developed a picosecond laser system based on fiber lasers. This system has achieved excellent micro-machining results for brass and aluminum. Up to now, solid-state lasers have been used for metal micro-machining. These systems are usually based on free-beam set-ups, which are easily brought [...]
A new infrared thermometer with a high precision resolution is available from Optris GmbH. The Optris CSlaser LT is used for the measurement of small temperature differences, starting from 0.025K. CSlaser LT has a double laser sighting. Two emitters follow the infrared optical path to mark the accurate size and spot of the measuring field [...]
Although X-ray sterilisation has been used in medical device applications for approximately 15 years, uptake of the technology has been relatively slow, writes Philippe Dethier of IBA, a company headquartered in Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium, that manufactures electron accelerators. But the recent introduction of high-power, high-energy accelerators that achieve desirable dose uniformity ratios (DUR) may change that [...]
As of this morning, if you Google "Most transistors on an IC", you get lots of hits with the title "Altera Breaks Semiconductor Industry Record for Most Transistors on an Integrated Circuit," but is this true? Now, I fully understand the folks at Altera being extremely proud of the fact that their 28-nm Stratix V FPGAs, which taped out around the end of 2010, are incredibly clever devices that contain a mind-boggling number of transistors. In todays announcement, they claim to have set an industry milestone in semiconductor technology by delivering The most transistors ever packed onto an integrated circuit. They also say that their Stratix V FPGAs are The semiconductor industry's first devices to feature 3.9 billion transistors.
Texas Instruments announced the bq51013 receiver integrated circuit (IC) for wireless charging. The TI chip combines voltage conditioning and full wireless power control in a small 1.9-mm x 3-mm WCSP package. The bq51013 wireless power receiver supports up to 5 W of output power, provides up to 93% efficient AC/DC power conversion and is the [...]
Texas Instruments (TI) announced the 24-bit ADS1298R analog-front-end (AFE) device. The ADS1298R integrates over 40 discrete components, reduces component count by 97%, and consumes 95% less power than discrete implementations. The TI ADS1298R is available now in an 8-mm x 8-mm BGA package. The eight-channel AFE device is priced at $25.95 in 1,000-unit quantities. ADS1298R [...]