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16 March 2008

News & Analysis | Technical Features | Opinion | Interview
News & Analysis
LEDs shine in solid-state lighting
The use of LEDs for solid-state lighting, rather than as indicators, is poised to make inroads in applications in the automotive, architectural and general illumination markets, according to market analysis firm Yole Developpement.

Broadcom trains sight on mobile
Broadcom Corp. is accelerating its move to 65nm process technology as it sharpens its focus on the cellphone market and beyond.

FTTH cozies up to consumers
Early findings suggest consumers tend to adopt and enjoy fiber-to-the-home video services at rates higher than competing services based on satellite, cable and fiber to the neighborhood node.

Analog vendors need to come up with diverse tactics
Analog vendors need different tactics to serve power-supply and RF niches in the mobile segment, where users are fickle and performance is a relative requirement.

MEMS face quartz-crystal giants
MEMS represent the final frontier in microminiaturization—downsizing this necessary mechanical reference signal from the millimeter scale of quartz-crystals to the nanoscale of ICs.


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FPAAs energize analog future
In the same way that FPGAs have spawned advances in DSP, researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology believe their large-scale field-programmable analog array has the potential to seed growth in analog.

Pair Rogowski coils, rejustors to measure current
Rogowski coils perform passive current measurement and are used in test and measurement devices and power-monitoring activities. Calibration is required to account for manufacturing variations in the coil and to provide uniform device-to-device sensitivity.

Analog soars in Asia
Freescale's Norman Chan There is no doubt that Asia will achieve greater heights with greater products for the connected world.

Succeed at 65nm design
A true DFM-aware environment accounts for process variability and lithographic effects in the context of timing, power, noise and yield at every stage of the flow. This begins with the characterization of the cell library, continues through implementation, analysis and optimization, and ends with sign-off verification.

Bring DFM/DFY into the routing engine
In reality, DFM/DFY tools need to use a mixture of rules- and model-based techniques as appropriate. The solution is to bring DFM/DFY upstream into the design process; to create a design that is correct by construction; and to hand-off a design that is as manufacturing- and yield-friendly as possible.

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Technical Features
Address the power design challenges of DTV
As the growth in LCD TV picks up pace, the pressure to build more cost effective and energy efficient power supplies also increases. (PDF file)

Implement OFDMA, MIMO for WiMAX, LTE
Sam Jenkins of picoChip discusses in this article how to implement the core DSP algorithm of OFDMA, then the novel variant used by LTE for the uplink, and finally a brief discussion of MIMO for both WiMAX and LTE. It describes these in the context of a software-defined flexible architecture.  (PDF file)

Technologies boost virtual instrumentation
At present, virtual instrumentation has been used in all fields of measurement and automation. More engineers create high-performance and expandable test systems with the help of virtual instrumentation—signaling a new era of instrumentation is coming. (PDF file)

Calibrate accelerometers for industrial apps
With the introduction of higher integration and more accurate accelerometer products, system designers still need to understand how parts are calibrated; this allows them to decide whether to purchase this capability or develop their own calibration routines. This article outlines the calibration process used for a dual-axis accelerometer and highlights its most common error sources. (PDF file)

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Opinion
India's growing economy invites innovation
Electronic companies are already seizing the opportunity to develop products better targeted at India, where middle-class lifestyle aspirations yet small budgets await engineering innovation.

UI must go beyond skin deep
Dan Dodge of QNX Software Systems notes that designers must work closely with users to gauge which mode of interaction (or which combination of modes) works best and then fine-tune the interface accordingly.


Interview
Hitachi eyes healthy future for hard drives
Overcoming stiff price wars and competitive upheavals from emerging storage technologies, the hard disk drive sector continues to rebound with renewed optimism. This bodes well for HDD makers such as Hitachi GST.

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Talkback

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Demystifying Vietnam
What does Vietnam offer that a rising number of top-tier semiconductor companies are setting up and expanding operations there?

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