Articles – EEJournal

January 24, 2022

Many semiconductor vendors including TI, NXP, STMicroelectronics, Microchip, and others play in the microcontroller market. As with nearly every semiconductor niche, microcontrollers have been getting bigger and badder for decades. In the 1970s, there were 4-bit microcontrollers for VCRs and other simple consumer electronics. There were scads of 8-bit microcontrollers, soon followed by 16-bit microcontrollers. Motorola Semiconductor (later renamed Freescale and eventually purchased by NXP) developed the 6801, 6805, 68705, 68HC08, 68HC11, 68HC12, and 68HC16 microcontroller families with literally hundreds of variants in each family. These days, 32-bit microcontrollers are very common.

Motorola Semiconductor was by no means unique among … Read More → "Who needs a Raspberry Pi Microcontroller Chip? Maybe You"

Contactless Hand Biometric for ID Security

by Max Maxfield

January 20, 2022

How do you know that the person with whom you are interacting is who he or she says they are? The reason I got to thinking about this came about through a rather strange route.

As you probably know, I’m originally from England but I currently hang my hat in Huntsville, Alabama. I moved here for the nightlife (that’s a little Alabama joke right there). One of the funny things about living in the USA is how some of the television programs that Americans would swear were homegrown … Read More → "Contactless Hand Biometric for ID Security"

I Saw Santa’s Thermal Simulation Demo at DAC

Here’s a Fast Way to Find Some Thermal Design Solutions

by Steven Leibson

January 17, 2022

Just before Christmas, at DAC 2021, as I walked the nearly empty exhibit hall, Santa Claus leaned out of his booth and asked me if I’d like to see his thermal simulation demo. Of course, it wasn’t really Santa Claus. It was David Ratchkov, the CTO of Anemoi Software. … Read More →

Meet the World’s Smallest, Most Integrated 3D Ultrasonic Sensor

by Max Maxfield

January 13, 2022

The concept of age is much on my mind at the moment. Well, yes, theoretically I will be turning 65 in a few months’ time, thank you so much for bringing this to everyone’s attention, but that’s not what I meant. On the other hand, since you’ve seen fit to open this can of worms, I must admit that I’m pondering the idea of simply re-celebrating my 64th birthday over and over again — a sort of groundhog birthday, if you will — thereby ensuring … Read More → "Meet the World’s Smallest, Most Integrated 3D Ultrasonic Sensor"

Dropping the Ball and Casting Aspersions (Part Deux)

by Max Maxfield

January 11, 2022

A few months ago, I posted a couple of columns -- Dropping the Ball and Casting Aspersions and Metrology Maketh the Man (and Woman, and Silicon Chip) – as part of which I posed the question: Who can say what discoveries and inventions would have been triggered had the wisdom of the ancients been accepted and employed? … Read More →

Happy 50th Birthday to the Signetics 555 Timer IC

A Tribute to Hans Camenzind, an Extraordinary Analog Engineer

by Steven Leibson

January 10, 2022

Signetics announced the NE555 timer/oscillator IC in 1972, 50 years ago. Over five decades, this simple 8-pin chip has consistently sold in the billions, each year. It’s a perennial hobbyist favorite. Well-known authors such as Walter Jung wrote 555 timer cookbooks, and 555 circuits have been popular for new circuit designs since the 1970s. Engineering acceptance has been mixed. Some engineers routinely put 555 chips in their circuits. Others view the 555 timer IC as a somewhat sloppy way to create an oscillator or a timer. However, the 555 IC’s success cannot be denied. They’re everywhere. There are even … Read More → "Happy 50th Birthday to the Signetics 555 Timer IC"

BotFactory: All-In-One PCB Printing and Assembly

by Max Maxfield

January 6, 2022

If you are anything like me, you dream of having the ability to create and automatically populate your printed circuit board (PCB) prototypes in the comfort of your own office. Well, in fact you can, because BotFactory’s SV2 combines a conductive ink printer, solder paste extruder, pick-and-place machine, and reflow bed into a single product that allows you to prototype your PCBs in a matter of minutes.

I’m starting to feel like an old fool (but where can we find one at this time of the day?). A … Read More → "BotFactory: All-In-One PCB Printing and Assembly"

Will Carmakers Adopt TomTom’s IndiGO Open, Integrated Digital Cockpit Software Platform?

Can TomTom Build a Windows-like Partner Ecosystem for Vehicles?

by Steven Leibson

January 5, 2022

Perhaps you recognize the name TomTom. It’s a Dutch company, founded in 1991. The company’s original name was Palmtop Software, and the company specialized in software for handheld computers, also known as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), like the Psion family and Windows CE devices. As that market dwindled, the company pivoted to location technology based on GPS. Adopting a new name and mission, TomTom introduced its first maps for PDAs in 2002 and a portable GPS navigation unit, the TomTom Go, in 2004. I bought a later GPS model, a TomTom One, just a few years later. … Read More → "Will Carmakers Adopt TomTom’s IndiGO Open, Integrated Digital Cockpit Software Platform?"

Stay Curious. Stay Humble. Stay Connected.

Adventures with WiFi printers Can Humble the Most Experienced Engineers

by Steven Leibson

January 3, 2022

This is not my original first-of-the-year story for 2022. I wrote a different story about difficulties I had installing a specific manufacturer’s networked all-in-one printer in my daughter’s new business location. I spent hours trying to make that printer work and had endless problems in getting the overly finicky software to function. In the end, we shipped the printer back and I bought another for my daughter – a much more expensive printer, a $280 Epson EcoTank ET-4800 printer, purchased locally at Target.

Epson’s EcoTank printers dispense with the tiny, … Read More → "Stay Curious. Stay Humble. Stay Connected."

Welcome to a World of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces

by Max Maxfield

December 30, 2021

Have you heard that the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), which produces globally applicable standards for Information and Communications Technology (ICT), recently launched a new Industry Specification Group on Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (ISG RIS)?

There’s no need to hang your head in shame if this is new news to you. To be honest, I didn’t even know that ICT was an abbreviation for “information and communications technology” until now (well, I’m sure I knew it once, but it’s easy to lose the thread if you don’ … Read More → "Welcome to a World of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces"