[Technology Report] Robotic Cars Get Street Smart
This November, Mike Montemerlo's Volkswagen Passat wagon will drive a 60-mile trek through an urban landscape located somewhere in the western U.S. But Montemerlo won't be sitting behind the wheel, nor will anyone else. That's because Montemerlo's Passat happens to be a special robot model, custom-developed by the Stanford University Racing Team (...
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John Edwards
[Technology Report] When Small Gets Big
George Malliaras and his colleagues recently had a bright idea—literally. As director of the Cornell University NanoScale Facility, he is among several researchers working on nanolamps—light-emitting microfibers no larger than a virus. The technology promises a new generation of flexible displays that can be integrated into a variety of products and perhaps even woven into clothing. "Here we have devices made out of fiber," Malliaras said. "You talk about textile, and...
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John Edwards
[Technology Report] Leading The Charge
Forget about those old gas guzzlers. Electric and hybrid vehicles are hitting the streets. A driving factor is consumer environmental concern, but improved technology has really made the difference—especially in motors, motor control, batteries, and power management. Now, the biggest challenge lies in matching consumer expectations and use to new products that don't operate like fossil-fuel-powered vehicles (...
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William Wong
[Technology Report] Consumer Electronics Lead The Way
Where would the electronics industry be today without consumer electronics (CE) and wireless technology? Shawn G. DuBravac, staff economist for the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), has the answer. He says that the CE sector accounts for 40% of the electronics industry. "This includes components, including semiconductors, as well as finished products," he says. By some estimates, DuBravac says the CE sector accounts for more than half of all semiconductor sales...
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Ron Schneiderman
[Technology Report] Can Greens And Nukes Coexist?
I'm going to assume that any non-dystopian future will involve a great deal of large- and small-scale wind, solar, geothermal, and tidal power generation. But I'm not sure we're simply going to transition easily from smokestacks to sunshine. The nuclear option is going to play a part too. For example, pebble-bed reactors are set to power petroleum recovery from Canadian tar sands. Hard-Core Approach Many advocates of nuclear technology...
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Don Tuite
[Technology Report] Where Has All The Talent Gone?
Is there a shortage of EEs and other technical professionals in the U.S.? Bill Gates thinks so. In March, he told members of one of the U.S. Senate committees on labor and education that Microsoft hasn't been able to fill 3000 technical jobs in the United States because of a lack of skilled workers. "We simply cannot sustain an economy based on innovation unless our citizens are educated in math, science, and engineering," he told the committee. If you need confirmation of...
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Ron Schneiderman
[Technology Report] LEDs Lighten The Energy Load
Forgive the pun, but the future looks bright for solid-state lighting. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) lead the way, while organic LEDs (OLEDs) promise even greater lighting efficiency and more energy savings in the years ahead. In fact, we'll soon see more LEDs in indoor and outdoor lighting applications than traditional light bulbs, incandescents, fluorescents, and halogen lamps. LEDs offer longer life and greater efficency than those other technologies, which is why they're...
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Roger Allan
[Technology Report] Implants Bring Hope To The Toughest Medical Handicaps
Imagine implants that detect cancer and deliver the appropriate drugs. Or read the brain's electrical signals and control motor functions affected by diseases like epilepsy and multiple sclerosis. Or restore sight to the blind. Actually, you don't have to imagine. These devices, if they're not here yet, are in advanced stages of testing. And they're taking advantage of improvements in MEMS sensors and wireless communications. Hope For Heart...
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Roger Allan
[Technology Report] Navigation Systems To Go Beyond Turn-By-Turn Directions
Picture a husband and wife back in the good old days before digital technology. The wife would ask the husband to get her something at the mall. The husband would grumble but go off on his quest, possibly getting lost on the way there and probably getting lost once inside the mall, sacrificing precious time watching sports on TV. Of course, he could have asked for directions, but that probably didn't happen. Though those days are long gone, this scenario will play out even...
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Daniel Harris
[Technology Report] Keeping E-Tabs On Health, Location & Information
Every year in this industry, some market segments seem to attract more attention and move faster than others. One of the sectors that reached hot market status this year is medical electronics. By itself, medical imaging is an $18 billion global market. Parks Associates, which tracks the industry, estimates that the total digital home health market in the U.S. will grow at an average annual rate of 36% and turn into a $2.1 billion industry in 2010 (...
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Ron Schneiderman
[Technology Report] $ell Phones: The Unstoppable Market
Communication and entertainment are two undeniable facets of popular culture. Thus, the extreme integration of the cell phone into our everyday lives comes as no surprise. They've become security blankets for baby boomers, pacifiers for teenagers, trendy accessories for the affluent, and indispensable productivity tools for executives. With wireless communications, computing, and entertainment converging on the cell phone, you have to seriously consider replacing your current...
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Louis E. Frenzel
[Technology Report] Energy Harvesting Gets Big—And Small
Large-scale energy harvesting isn't new. The Swiss have run their whole country on melted snow-water running downhill for more than a century. Nearly half a million Hollanders live in a province called Flevoland, which was completely under water until 1930. Much of that work was done by the wind. A few weeks ago, I visited a saltworks near my home on San Francisco Bay. For over 100 years, sun and wind enabled commercial salt harvesting in the region. For millennia before that, the...
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Don Tuite
[Technology Report] In Today's Military, More Than Just Fatigues Are Green
Garbage is power. At least that's true for Jerry B. Warner, president of Defense Life Sciences, which is developing a trash-to-electricity generator. The fact that the company is working on a "green" energy technology isn't unusual. What's out of the ordinary is that Warner happens to be a retired U.S. Army colonel, and his prime customer is his former employer. The U.S. military is investigating green technologies—particularly environmentally friendly power-generation...
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John Edwards
[Editorial] Inconvenient Or Not, Environmental Awareness Will Drive The Industry
While the scientific community has moved toward a consensus on global warming, some Electronic Design readers remain dubious. I know this because each time I've written something on the subject, I've gotten an e-mail earful from the skeptics. Perhaps this is because as engineers, 90% certainty isn't good enough. You want absolute proofs of cause and effect. Personally, I believe Al Gore. But talking about the former vice president to his detractors is like waving a...
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Mark David
[Design FAQs] Low-Dropout (LDO) Linear Regulators
Sponsored by Analog Devices Inc. What are the typical applications for a low-dropout (LDO) linear regulator? LDO linear regulators usually are employed in systems that require a low-noise power source instead of a switching regulator that might upset the system. LDOs also find use in applications where the regulator must maintain regulation with small differences between the input supply voltage and output load...
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Sam Davis
