19) LATEST ELECTRONICS PRODUCTS

by engr. AFAN BK



1) Atmel AT42QT1040 4-channel touch controller for mobiles

Atmel has introduced a four channel capacitive touch switch controller for battery products from its Hampshire-based design centre. The IC can be configured using one channel as a proximity sensor, enabling hidden-until-lit user interfaces where the device detects the presence of a finger some distance away from the keypad. Charge-transfer sensing, originally patented by Quantum Research - which Atmel bought last year - uses spread-spectrum modulation to improve immunity from electrical noise.


2) Fairchild Semi FAN 5361 synchronous buck regulator

Fairchild Semiconductor provides designers of cell phones, datacards and netbooks a 6MHz synchronous Buck regulator that delivers high efficiency in a compact and razor-thin footprint. Higher switching frequencies typically lead to lower efficiencies. However, the FAN5361's carefully optimized design mitigates these losses leading to 91% peak efficiency. The device has a light load efficiency at 82% at 1mA load current. By reducing wasted energy, this synchronous DC/DC step-down converter enables longer battery life and less heat dissipation in portable applications that continually strive to accommodate rich functionality. The FAN5361, a 6MHz 600mA Buck regulator, allows the use of tiny 470nH chip inductors and 0402 case size input and output capacitors. .82V.

3) Amplicon Senses 6100 series panel PCs

Amplicon Senses 6100 series of panel PCs comprise industrial panel PCs with 17" or 15" display, touchscreen and IP65 rated front bezels. Prices of the Core 2 Duo Panel PC series start from under £1,000 providing customers with a high quality yet affordable alternative to the expensive PLC vendor models available on the market today. They are suited to applications in a variety of markets, especially building automation systems as a "Supervisor" or "Head End", in kiosks and as SCADA terminals in factory automation and process control applications. The 15" and 17" LCD models are available with dual PCI expansion slots for plug-in cards that provide fieldbus connectivity or without expansion - relying solely on the onboard dual gigabit slots ports for network communication.


4) National Instruments NI 31xx industrial controller

National Instruments' NI 31xx series of industrial controllers provide connectivity to NI test and measurement platforms and a fanless design for long-term deployments. The NI 3110 industrial controller features an Intel SL9JT L2400 1.66 GHz Core Duoprocessor and the NI 3100 industrial controller features an Intel 1.06 GHz Celeron M 423 processor, both of which are configured with the Windows XP operating system. These controllers are ideal for rugged applications that require fanless cooling and a wide range of connectivity to external devices through USB, cabled MXI Express, Ethernet and PCI or PCI Express.

5) RF Solutions FireTrap rugged wireless relay-controller system

RF Solutions is offering an RF remote-activation system allowing up to four 5A-rated relays to be controlled from a range of 200 metres. The radio-receiver/relay-controller is a rugged IP68-rated unit optimised for year-round use with trap-release systems such as clay pigeon launchers, and has settings for momentary, latched and timed relay release. The FireTrap remote-control trap-release system uses narrowband RF technology ensures high reliability by rejecting interference from other radio sources such as mobile phone masts.

6) Tyco Electronics IP67 industrial Ethernet connectors

A IP67-rated ODVA-compliant connector from Tyco Electronics uses a field-installable "common core" connector. With the common core, a single modular connector design can be used across a range of connector configurations to achieve IP20 to IP65/67 sealing. The common core plugs use insulation displacement contact to allow tool-less fast, reliable field termination of either solid or stranded conductors. The connectors meet the requirements of EIA/TIA-568B and IEC 60603-7-1 for Category 5e performance. The plugs are available in 4 positions for operation up to 100 Mb/s and 8 positions for speeds to 1000 Mb/s.

7) AVX 5846 series of board-to-board connectors

The AVX 5846 series of low-profile board-to-board connectors feature a small form factor of 3.0mm stacking height with a 0.4mm pitch contact. The connectors provide increased board space for high-density power components placed between PCBs. The rugged board-to-board connectors are constructed in a pinched contact structure and feature a fully insulated bottom plate that protects the contacts, making the device highly resistant to vibration, drop shock, and short-circuits in respect to printed tracks on the PCB.

8) Toshiba TLP3782 and TLP378 high noise immunity 800V couplers

Toshiba Electronics Europe has two miniature photocouplers that are ideal for office equipment, home appliances, solid state relays and other applications demanding high impulse noise immunity. The TLP3782 and TLP378 zero-crossing devices provide minimum isolation voltages of 5000Vrms between sensitive logic and AC currents. Each device is rated for typical impulse noise durability of 1500V. The photocouplers consist of a GaAlAs LED that is optically coupled to a triac output photocoupler and can be used to control current in both forward and reverse directions. Minimum peak off-state voltage is rated at 800V.

9) Aerco AE363 ActiveTouch key pads

Aerco has been appointed a distributor for ITW Switches and now supplies ActiveMetal keypads. The raised profile, solid-metal, vandal-proof keypads use ActiveTouch technology to provide the highest possible standards in terms of ruggedness, weather-resistance, reliability and vandal-resistance. Designed for indoor and outdoor access control, kiosks, point of sale terminals, ATM machines and security alarms, ActiveMetal keypads will find applications in the industrial and commercial sectors, medical establishments and the security and prison service.

10) Tektronix waveform monitor enhancements

Tektronix has added enhancements to its waveform monitor and rasterizer product family which are intended to allow broadcasters, network operators, and content providers to detect and diagnose problems in video and audio quality and detect ancillary data problems. The instruments offer simultaneous decoding and monitoring of CEA-708 and CEA-608 Closed Captioning data, meeting the latest FCC requirements. The units now also support Active Format Description (AFD) and CGMS-A / Broadcast Flag data decoding and monitoring. For multi-channel audio, new Dolby E Guard Band monitoring provides user selectable thresholds and an intuitive bar meter display on the audio display so that operators can spot Dolby E audio problems.