What's New

The electronics industry is terribly confused by the term Class 0. Particularly when it comes to electrostatic discharge (ESD) device sensitivity and how the term applies to factory controls designed to mitigate ESD. The confusion manifests itself through the many companies and engineers seeking direction on how to “become qualified to handle Class 0 devices.” They are seeking this information because their equally confused customers have imposed requirements on them to meet this mythical level of performance. Not only is Class 0 as a factory level of performance a contrived ideal, it is not a realistic or useful goal. Our purpose here is to explain reality and what is necessary for understanding device ESD sensitivity and establishing control.

Each year the IEEE Electromagnetic Compatibility Society sponsors a Best Student Paper competition as part of the IEEE International Symposium on EMC.  The contest is administered by the Educational and Student Activities Committee (ESAC) of the Society.  For the 2010 Symposium 33 student papers were submitted, the largest number in recent memory.  An ESAC panel reviewed and ranked the submissions based on technical contribution, accuracy, and clarity.  It always proves to be a challenge to select a single winner from the many fine papers covering many diverse aspects of EMC that are received.  The paper selected for 2010 use modal decomposition to derive a transmission line model for printed circuit board vias that can be implemented in circuit simulators.  The new model has a significantly faster computation time than that of a full-wave simulator while giving results that are in good agreement.  The practical benefit is an improved facility for of the design and optimization of high speed digital circuit boards for both signal integrity and EMC compliance.

Crystek's CVCO55CC-1490-1550 VCO (Voltage Controlled Oscillator) operates from 1490 MHz to 1550 MHz with a control voltage range of 1.0V~10V. This VCO features a typical phase noise of -115 dBc/Hz @ 10KHz offset and has excellent linearity. Output power is typically +5 dBm.

Hipotronics, Inc. has received a 2010 Exporter of the Year award from ThinkGlobal Inc., publisher of Commercial News USA, the official export promotion magazine of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Advanced Test Equipment Rentals, a leading provider of electronic test and measurement equipment rentals, has agreed with Emerson Process Management Rosemount division, to be a proud distributor of the 475 Field Communicator.

Keith Hook joins Adams Magnetic Products Co. as an outside sales representative assisting manufacturers and purchasers of ferrite cores and accessories in the electronics industry.

Agilent Technologies Inc. has introduced the N/W6141A Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) measurement application for its X-Series signal analyzers.  The new measurement application allows R&D engineers to evaluate the electromagnetic interference (EMI) performance of their designs.

Michigan Scientific has introduced its Model FO-HBST/HBSR Fiber-Optic Systems 1 MHz Analog Link.  The FO-HBST and FO-HBSR form a versatile Fiber-Optic Analog Signal TX/RX pair.   Input signals at pre-selected full-scale input levels and at bandwidths from DC to 1 MHz may be transmitted fiber-optically in either direction by transposing the module.

Teseq Inc. recently released an automated 3-phase coupling/decoupling network (CDN) for EFT and surge testing.  The new CDN 3063 provides safe, reliable operation in a wide range of test setups, including higher current level and 3-phase EUT (equipment under test) testing.