We recently lost an industry pioneer and a master innovator who created wealth for the masses.  Steve Jobs had the knack for taking technology, with all its 1’s and 0’s, innate hardware, and limited beauty, and turned it into something brilliant.  His legacy should be our wake up call to get back to making technology more innovative and applicable than ever, perhaps even giving us the ability to rite this economic ship we are riding and get our markets in full recovery.

There have been multiple stories about how investors are walking away from technology development, but Apple keeps demonstrating that by focusing on products attractive to the market rather than the bottom line, the latter will take care of itself.  For example, the general consensus about the iPhone 4s was that it was a tepid product release at best and many predicted this is the first indication that Apple was on the way down.  A few days later, Apple announced the iPhone4s had broken all records for pre-orders of a new product.  Apparently the market did not read the reviews of the pundits, otherwise they might have known they were buying a “boring” product.

In fact, Apple’s advancement in speech recognition for Siri shows how they are accelerating technology through human interaction and acceptance.  Herein lies the opportunity: to push technology and innovation as far as possible, creating value for the user first, and wealth as a byproduct for those who help fund that R&D and its associated investments.

Today’s reality is seen everywhere, with the protests on Wall Street, our ugly 401K’s, college education costs rising, or our own company’s executives mired down with frowns and anxiety on their face.  Survival mode kicks in when our only focus is how to remain employed.   When that happens we have to remember the reason why we got into the field of engineering and technology development, which is to make the world a better place, first.  To this end, and for the sake of our economic survival, let’s get out there and honor Steve Jobs and all of our industries’ pioneers, and do inspiring work with impact.  That’s our long term goal.  But what about in the short term?  Is there anything we can do?

How about we memorialize this great innovator by asking the White House to amend the current “jobs bill” proposal? Under the current proposal, AP’s Erica Werner said Obama’s jobs plan “would reduce payroll taxes on workers and employers, extend benefits to long-term unemployed people, spend money on public works projects and help states and local governments keep teachers, police officers and firefighters on the job”.

The bill is the RIGHT THING TO DO, but let’s request two additional aspects to be included:

1. Help long-term unemployed find a way to get retrained with deferred/forgiven education costs.

2. Assign $50B for technology funding and innovation support in federal grants at $25-$100k each to assist our country in solving today’s technology problems such as energy, communications, and manufacturing competitively.

Perhaps the politicians can come together and agree on this one thing, enhance the current bill to give us even more opportunity to help us help ourselves, and honor one of the masters of industry, who created wealth for the masses and inspired us all to think big and dare to be great.

Hey Washington D.C, what a great JOBS bill. This one is a lay-up, just do it!

To write to Congress;

Reach them at http://www.contactingthecongress.org/

To write to President Obama;

Reach him directly at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

Bernard Gizzi, President and co-owner of Eclipse Design & Sales Technologies has had a career that spanned 25 years in the electronics & embedded computing industry. .

Having graduated from the University of Illinois in Champaign Urbana, and with executive classes at Harvard and the University of Chicago he is committed to excellence in all that Eclipse does and will help guide the vision & shape the future of the firm’s Professional Services.

At Eclipse, we are fortunate to have design partners like Rittal Corporation who is a leader in thermal solutions of both heat and cold temp cycles. See the article below for just another example of their commitment to leadership in thermal embedded computing solutions…

Rittal Corporation Introduces New Generation of TopTherm Filter Fan Units:

(Urbana, Ohio) May 16, 2011 – Rittal Corporation today introduced a new generation of TopTherm filter fan units designed to allow for the complete installation, maintenance and configuration without tools. This complete TopTherm line of fan and filter units is designed to meet 21st century demands with the latest in technology and efficiency.

Due to its proprietary quick-fit technology, TopTherm filter fans easily snap into prepared mounting cutouts. For an easy transition, the new filter fans are compatible with mounting cutouts of existing Rittal filter fans. Reversing the fan motors to change the airflow direction is just as easy. Power connections can be positioned as required for easy wiring and spring clamp terminals make power installation a no-tool process. The louvered grill latches for easy access so filter mat replacement is quick and efficient, again eliminating the need for tools.

Sized and designed for today’s installations

The new lineup of filter fans is available in capacities from 12 to 424 cubic feet per minute (CFM) and a full range of voltages. The new diagonal fan motor design provides greater pressure stability, which results in a higher and more constant airflow, even if a filter mat is contaminated. Airflow spreads diagonally from the fan promoting a more even air distribution throughout an enclosure. The new design enhances installation at minimum depths also and helps to extend the life of the filter materials.

Protection and Environmental Rating

Rittal filter fans utilize the standard foam-in-place gasket so they easily maintain the UL Type 12 or IP 54 integrity of an enclosure without the additional use of screws. The new filter fan line is easily upgraded to IP 55 through the additional use of fine filter mats. And, newly designed rainproof shrouds provide an easy upgrade to a UL Type 3R/ 4(X) or IP 56 rating.

TopTherm Filter Fans for 2011 feature:

• Redesigned louvers
• New fan motors
• New outlet filter design
• New hose-proof hoods
• Tool-less snap-in mounting, tool-less electrical connections,
  tool-less reversal of airflow and tool-less access behind
  louvers for replacing filter materials
• New accessories to upgrade to higher environmental rating

All models are available as EMC shielded versions also and Rittal’s 2011 TopTherm Filter Fans will be available for installation beginning June 2011.

BLOOMINGDALE, Ill.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– PCTEL, Inc. (NASDAQ: PCTI), a leader in antenna and scanning receiver solutions and Eclipse Design Technologies, Inc. announced today that they have launched a new joint venture — PCTEL Secure LLC — that will provide engineering services and design platforms that enable secure applications. PCTEL will initially own a majority interest in PCTEL Secure and has the right to acquire the rest of the company over the next three years.

“PCTEL Secure will leverage unique capabilities within Eclipse Design and the outstanding resources that PCTEL has in RF, DSP, and system software,” said Marty Singer, PCTEL’s Chairman and CEO. “PCTEL Secure will provide services and deliver fully integrated products to our existing OEM customers, wireless distributors, and specialized Value Added Resellers,” added Singer.

PCTEL currently designs, develops, and manufactures antenna solutions for defense systems integrators, public safety, and a variety of enterprise applications. The company also designs, develops, and manufactures scanning receivers that are applicable to a variety of defense and security-related applications.

“Eclipse Design Technologies is excited about the opportunity to work with PCTEL on the creation and delivery of secure solutions,” said Tony Vitucci, Co-founder and Vice President of Eclipse Design.

Mr. Vitucci, who worked for Motorola in its infrastructure division and whose companies have designed complex semiconductors, circuit boards and software solutions for the communications industry, will serve as PCTEL Secure’s Vice President, Sales and Marketing. PCTEL Secure will be managed by Tony Kobrinetz who is PCTEL’s Vice President, Technology and Operations.

PCTEL plans to initially invest $2.5 million.

About PCTEL

PCTEL, Inc. (NASDAQ: PCTI), is a global leader in propagation and wireless network optimization solutions. The company designs and develops software-based radios for wireless network optimization and develops and distributes innovative antenna solutions. The company’s SeeGull® scanning receivers, receiver-based products and CLARIFY® interference management solutions are used to measure, monitor and optimize mobile networks. PCTEL’s SeeGull scanning receivers are deployed in industry leading wireless test and measurement equipment and viewed as an essential wireless data collection tool for cellular network optimization, drive tests, and spectrum clearing. PCTEL develops and supports scanning receivers for LTE, EVDO, CDMA, WCDMA, TD-SCDMA and WiMAX networks. SeeHawk™, PC TEL’s latest analysis tool, facilitates the visualization of data from all of PCTEL’s data collection devices. PCTEL Secure, a joint venture with Eclipse Design Technologies, designs Androidbased, secure communication products.

PCTEL’s MAXRAD®, Bluewave™ and W-Siys™ antenna solutions address public safety, military, aviation, defense and government applications; SCADA, Health Care, Energy, Smart Grid and Agricultural applications; Indoor Wireless, Wireless Backhaul, and Cellular applications. Its portfolio includes a broad range of WiMAX antennas, WiFi antennas, Land Mobile Radio antennas, and precision GPS antennas that serve innovative applications in telemetry, RFID, in-building, fleet management, and mesh networks. PCTEL provides parabolic antennas, ruggedized antennas, Yagi antennas, military antennas, precision aviation antennas and other high performance antennas for many applications. PCTEL’s products are sold worldwide through direct and indirect channels. For more information, please visit the company’s web sites www.pctel.com, www.antenna.com, www.antenna.pctel.com, or www.rfsolutions.pctel.com

About Eclipse Design Technologies

Eclipse Design Technologies was founded by expert IC design engineers with over 30 years of proven experience in delivering engineering services for complex IC and product design in wireless communications, aerospace and defense, set-top boxes, networking, automotive and electronic design automation. Eclipse expertise spans a broad range of experience enabling a full range of service offerings from system conception to physical design to board prototyping and embedded software development.

PCTEL SAFE HARBOR

This press release contains “forward-looking statements” as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Specifically, the statements regarding PCTEL’s expectations relating to the formation of a joint venture with Eclipse Design Technologies to provide engineering services and design platforms that will enable secure applications to existing OEM customers, wireless distributors and specialized Value Added Resellers, and the benefits resulting from the leverage of Eclipse Design’s unique capabilities and the resources PCTEL has in RF, DSP and system software, are forward looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor. These statements are based on management’s current expectations and actual results may differ materially from those projected as a result of certain risks and uncertainties, including the ability to successfully grow the secure smartphone solutions business and the ability to implement new technologies and obtain protection for the related
intellectual property. These and other risks and uncertainties are detailed in PCTEL’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings. These forward-looking statements are made only as of the date hereof, and PCTEL disclaims any obligation to update or revise the information contained in any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

PCTEL, Inc.
Jack Seller
Public Relations
(630)339-2116
jack.seller@pctel.com

Source: PCTEL

News Provided by Acquire Media

During test, today’s high-speed integrated circuits require power supplies with lower voltages and much higher current than previous generations. Already, high-end devices use 0.8 to 2.0 V and up to 300 A. Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) instruments used to measure device under test (DUT) performance during design verification and production testing must have power systems that meet the following requirements:

•  High force voltage accuracy (1 mV or less)

•  Quick response time to load current changes (less than 1 µs)

•  Low noise levels (less than 10 mV)

•  Very high current capability (up to 300 A)

The problem is that power supplies currently used in the ATE industry do not meet these requirements.

One possible way to achieve the desired performance is to use a custom designed linear regulator. A linear regulator can meet the accuracy, current response time, and noise level requirements. However, its power dissipation can cause problems with heat dissipation, component selection, and area utilization if the input DC level is too high compared to the output voltage.

For different parts being tested, the desired output voltage varies, so choosing a fixed input voltage is difficult. Since the performance of the linear regulator is a function of the difference between the input and output voltages (overhead voltage), one way to minimize these problems is to use a switching power supply as the input to the linear regulator. The switching power supply provides a constant overhead voltage for the
linear regulator from the 48 V distributed to the test head. [13]

The following figure shows the power distribution system for an ATE test system.

Figure 1. Power Configuration of a Large IC Test Instrument

The switching power supply in this application must meet the following requirements:

•  High current output – The power supply must support the linear regulator’s output.

•  Fast response – The power supply must adjust quickly to large output voltage demands and transition between low and high currents with minimal variation in the overhead voltage presented to the linear regulator.

•  Low noise – The power supply must minimize conducted noise on its output path to the linear regulator. It must also minimize all forms of radiated EMI noise that could degrade the accuracy of the linear regulator.

The major difficulty with using any switching power supply in a precision DUT power supply is high-frequency parasitic ringing at the edges of the switching waveforms. That ringing creates noise that interferes with the linear regulator. [12, 13]

This paper focuses on ways to minimize that noise in a switching power supply design that implements a 48 V input voltage, multiphase, zero-volt switching, and phase control. Note that not all potential noise sources are discussed in this paper, including common mode noise, capacitive coupled noise, magnetic noise, and radiated noise.

The major features of the proposed switching power supply design focus on the most critical design priority – reducing high-frequency parasitic ringing noise:

•  A transformer is needed because of minimum pulse width requirements and the range of adjustable output. The construction of the  transformer is flat planar windings for minimized leakage inductance. [1, 3, 8, 12]

•  A full-bridge with zero-volt switching for the primary control of the transformer is used. Soft switching minimizes energy for ringing and phase control allows a consistent gate drive. [2, 4, 7, 11]

•  Multi-phase circuits are implemented to enable maximum response time. This design uses the maximum number of practical phases. [7, 9, 10]

•  A dual Schottky diode and a center tap output for rectification is used for the output stage, which limits the number of fast switches. The output stage proximity to the end user drives this decision. Gate drives are one of the highest noise producers, and this limits the number of gate drive circuits. [5, 6, 12, 13]

•  The Schottky diode package also limits the output stage to 40 A.  The most practical package under the cold plate is a TO-247. The largest dual diode in a TO-247 is 40 A. This fixes the maximum current per phase and the number of phases.

•  Ferrite beads are used extensively on all switches to control ringing. [5, 6, 12]

To verify these design concepts, we designed two switching power supplies for use in an ATE environment.

•  The first generation power supply has two outputs at 2.5 to 8.5 V @ 720 W per output with peak power at 4.5 V and 160 A.

•  The second generation power supply has two outputs at 2.5 to 6.0 V @ 380 W per output with peak power at 4.5 V and 85 A.

The following sections summarize the major issues for reducing noise in these switching power supply designs.

Transformer Construction

We investigated two forms of transformer construction:

•  Flat planar construction of interleaved coils

•  Copper straps over a single primary winding method

The following figure shows the effect of the transformer construction noise. These waveforms indicate that the flat planar construction is the least noisy choice. [1, 3, 8, 12]

Figure 2. Output Voltage of Transformer Using Two Construction Methods

Using Amorphous Beads on Output Diodes and Ferrite Beads on FETs

We also examined how using amorphous beads on the output diode leads and ferrite beads on the FET leads affects parasitic ringing. To observe these effects, we took measurements at the output diode and the power supply’s output voltage. [6, 12, 13]

Figure 3 shows how using beads can effectively eliminate parasitic ringing at the output diode.

Figure 3. Parasitic Ringing at Output Diode

Figure 4 shows how using beads reduces parasitic ringing at the switching power supply’s output voltage. Note that the AC waveforms shown in these figures do not reflect all the noise elements, but they help illustrate the differential noise of the output and its frequency content. 

Figure 4. AC Waveform of Parasitic Ringing on Power Supply Output Voltage

Conclusion

The reduction of noise at the linear regulator output demonstrates that the switching power supply design met the performance requirements described in this paper.

The linear regulator output exceeded the 1 mV accuracy requirement, maintained noise levels of less than 1 mV, and achieved all of the dynamic response requirements. The only drawback of this design is that the output diodes now require cooling. However, by using all known methods to reduce switching power supply noise, ATE test system designers can now implement linear regulators that meet requirements that have not been achievable in previous power supply designs.

To complete the design, requires advanced electrical and mechanical engineering. The electrical component of the design involves a string of LED lights running through clear tubing that are wired to D-cell batteries and connected to a photoelectric diode. The photoelectric diode allows the device to only be used when there is not enough light for the boats to see the obstructions. The biggest electrical problem that occurred during the design was improving the battery life without using too many batteries. To solve this, we used 4 D-cell batteries, wiring 2 in series with the other 2.

The mechanical piece of the project entails finding a suitable and cost effective way to waterproof the electrical components as well as developing a way for the system to attach to the obstruction. The waterproofing was done using a modified plastic, waterproof case that allows the tubing to run into it and still keep the electrical components dry. The whole system is then attached to the obstruction using a Velcro strap that is attached to one end of the tube and runs through a handle on the waterproof case. The biggest mechanical problem that occurred during the design was modifying the waterproof case while keeping the inside dry. This was solved by using a seat washer that allows the tubing to run through while creating a seal on the inside and outside of the hole as well as a tight seal on the tube.

If you have any comments on this design or the many others that Eclipse is currently under contract for-please reply.

Eclipse has partnered recently with Dimation, Inc of Burnsville MN. USA. a strong player in teh Military and high reliability manufactruing  and quick turn support space.

Key services include 24 hour turn around of PCB & full turnkey manufacturing, repair services, and Die Level Services such as;
Gold/Aluminum Wedge Bonding
Gold Ball Bonding
ultra fine pitch  solutions for < 35um
Chip Scale Packaging
Stacked Die
MCM Packaging
Die Inspection  
Wafer Sawing
Waffle Packaging
Custom Packaging
TSOP~QFN~MLF~SOIC
And many others…

To view their capabilities, please go to http://www.dimation.com/capabilities.html

Class II and III
ANSI/J-STD-001 Certified

Chicago, IL USA;  In preparation for our first EDS show as Eclipse Sales & Design Technologies, we have published a marketing brochure that depicts our services for both companies.  It is a brief explanation of what each team does and how we leverage off the skills and talents of each other. 

While we are well on our way to repeating the success from years of experience and high performance, this is also very new for us as we have created a rare model of both design service, and a representative~professional services provider to renowned compnaies (i.e. LUMEX, JenningsTech, InterTek, Dimation, Dedicated Computing, Precision-inc, etc… ).  We are looking forward to the show and will likely comment during the week.

Till then,

Bernard…

” We are now well versed in designing for 4G and beyond”, says David. recently read an article that may help clarify this, see below”…