Let us hope that the EU referendum in June does not have implications for the funding of research in the UK’s universities and smaller technology companies. Each year UK institutions get a share of hundreds of millions euros from the many EU research programmes. This EU cash is an important, if not vital, source of …
Sony patents camera contact lens, but….
Sony has applied for a patent** for a contact lens with a built-in camera and display. But, unless I am reading it wrong, in which case I am really sorry, it reads like a boy saying “if I had a staircase a million million miles high I would walk to the moon. I would take …
Osram to light Eurovision Song Contest
Osram will light the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm. Around 800 moving heads equipped with “state-of-the-art light sources” from Osram’s subsidiary Clay Paky will be used, said Osram, although it did not say if they were all led-based. Clay Paky also makes arc-based lamps. Contest lighting designer Frederik Jönsson said: “For lighting designers the Eurovision …
Bluetooth SIG reports 2016 Brand Perception (consumer)
The Bluetooth SIG publishes a 2016 Brand Perception report, outlining consumer attitudes towards Bluetooth technology.
Researchers build a battery that lasts 200,000 cycles
Researchers at the University of California, Irvine have made a battery that is almost unchanged after 200,000 charge-discharge cycles over three months. It exploits the high surface area of gold nano-wires coated with manganese dioxide, into which lithium ions are added and removed. The cells are symmetrical, with identical nano-wires attached to both electrodes, separated …
Nexeon raises £30m for silicon Li-ion batteries
Silicon lithium-ion battery firm Nexeon has completed a £30 million funding round, from existing investors and a new investor, Woodford Investment Management. The Oxfordshire firm will use the new funds to acquire IP and “complementary technology”, said Nexeon, to open a development lab in Asia near key customers, and to begin designing a larger manufacturing facility. …
German Government Starts Electric Car Push
This month Germany’s electric car subsidy programme kicks off. The project gives subsidies to people buying electric cars and contributes to the installation of charging sites. Baader Bank reckons that the growth in electric and hybrid car manufacturing will add $300 million to the automotive IC TAM by 2019 with the main beneficiary being, of …
Sequans to bring LTE access to European aircraft
Sequans, the French LTE specialist, is to enable LTE in European aircraft by having its LTE chip-set inside European aeroplanes as part of the European Aviation Network (EAN) high-speed in-flight broadband access solution. The LTE access devices – called complementary ground component (CGC) terminals – will be fitted onto aircraft flying over Europe and will …
Zeta – that other dc-dc topology
Zeta, or ‘inverse sepic’, is another one of those dc-dc converters, like Cuk and Sepic, that have a capacitor in series with the power path. Both zeta and Sepic have the same transfer function: Vout=Vin x D/(1-D). BTW, this is also the boost converter equation. Cuk is the same, except the output is inverted. input …
TI’s 65V buck converter draws only 10μA
Texas Instruments is claiming industry’s lowest quiescent current for a 3-65V buck converter. Optimised for light-load efficiency in factory automation and automotive applications, it can draw as little as 10.5μA, as well as delivering 150mA. There are two versions of the buck converter: LM5165 for industrial and LM5165-Q1 for AEC-Q100 automotive. Both work with junctions up to 150ºC. “The …