GEFRAN linear potentiometers and accessories are now available from AutomationDirect. Linear potentiometers are used to detect position and linear direction movement. A sliding contact moves along a linear resistive element acting as a variable resistor.
The proportional change in resistance indicates the position and provides a distance measurement signal. A signal conditioner can be used with the potentiometers to convert the signal to 0-10V or 4-20mA.
In an effort to support the global need for medical ventilators, Minnesota-based Tolomatic has dedicated a team of engineers to develop an emergency ventilator concept system using electric linear actuators.
Tolomatic’s solution is a new type of ventilator that operates using an electric linear actuator. These prototypes automate a non-invasive, positive-pressure resuscitator (also self-inflating bag, bag valve mask or AMBU bag/Artificial Manual Breathing Unit).
Our niece, a student at Purdue (who I’ve mentioned before), arrived a couple of weekends ago to (originally) spend the week with us. She and I were planning on going skiing/snowboarding a few times during her stay. But while her plane was in the air, all Colorado ski resorts were shuttered due a burgeoning COVID-19 “hot spot” in Summit and Eagle counties.
Even before taking off for Colorado, she already knew she wouldn’t be returning to the classroom after spring break was over; while students had the week off, teachers were gearing up for a transition to online instruction. She ended up turning around and flying back home after only a couple of days with us; we wanted to make sure she got back to her “nuclear family” before flights got canceled by either government decree or financial pressures.
Purdue’s online education system is built on foundation technology developed by Blackboard.com.
According to my niece, the setup is reasonably intuitive and works pretty well; her biggest challenge is that different teachers use it in different ways.
There’s a corporate boardroom drama unfolding at Imagination Technologies (Kings Langley, the U.K.) that features high finance, international intrigue, and an all-star cast. It’s an irresistible story, and like many of the greatest TV dramas, the suspense hinges on figuring out who’s the real villain. Is it…
Who you suspect to be the villain probably depends on where you stand in the geo-political spectrum.
If you think Imagination should be considered a British asset because it was founded in the U.K., and therefore should not be cozying up with China, you are aligned with Ron Black, Oliver Dowden and Houssein Yassaie.
But if you’re of the philosophy that capital has supreme rights, regardless of where company headquarters are located, then you’re siding with the financiers at Canyon Ridge, which owns Imagination Tech lock, stock, and barrel.
Smartphones, wearables, Internet of Things (IoT) devices and other mobile-connected products are growing more advanced and complicated. Designers and developers find themselves working with more and more peripherals dotted around either a printed circuit board (PCB) or other systems altogether. Systems are more densely packed with sensors and other components, and application processors and/or sensor hubs require more from their interfaces to control and transmit data to/from them.
The MIPI I3C v1.1 interface specification, announced Jan. 15, 2020, links all of these peripherals back to an application processor at higher speeds than previously possible and with greater system controllability, manageability and integrity.
Source: Transforming chip and system communications – Embedded.com
Safety, both for the patient and health-care professionals, is the first requirement with which an electromedical device must comply. The IEC 60601 family of standards sets the requirements for safety, performance, and electromagnetic compatibility of electromedical equipment.
Compliance with IEC 60601 standards can be achieved only through careful evaluation of all phases of the product development cycle, starting from the selection of the components.
Source: Addressing the Challenges of Designing for Medical Markets – EE Times Europe
Flow International Corporation, the world’s leading developer and manufacturer of ultrahigh-pressure waterjet cutting systems, has repurposed its operations to produce face shields for medical workers, first responders and workers in essential businesses to help reduce the spread of COVID-19.
The company is ramping production rapidly to where it will be producing more than 50,000 units per week by the end of this month.
Flow does not expect to make a profit from this effort.
Source: Flow International Producing Face Shields – EPS News
2020 was finally going to be the year of 5G. Not anymore. Industry analysts tracking the fortunes of the mobile industry are scrambling to revise their 5G market projections.
Some expect a delay in 5G network installations by three to six months. The [5G network] infrastructure supply chains, although not broken, have slowed down. Meanwhile, the 3GPP has already been forced to delay in ironing out some important additional [5G] specifications, since the organization had to cancel face-to-face meetings for the foreseeable future.
Other analysts are looking at a 30 percent shortfall in shipments of 5G-enabled smartphones.
TSMC this week reported 45.2% revenue growth for Q1 2020 compared to the same period last year, driven by 5G and high-performance computing (HPC) products. However, compared to Q4 2019 it declined marginally by 0.8%, and the outlook for the second quarter of 2020 is flat.
Revenue was US$10.31 billion for the three-month period ending March 31, 2020.
Source: 5G and HPC Drive 45% Q1 Revenue Growth at TSMC | EE Times
With each passing week of what the IMF has taken to calling the Great Lockdown, the semiconductor industry has been adjusting its economic forecasts downward. McKinsey is the latest to chime in; it said it expects sales demand in the global chip market will decline between 5% and 15% in 2020, with steep declines anticipated for some IC market segments that will overwhelm the gains it still expects in others. That’s the most dire projection thus far.
The range of McKinsey’s projection — 5 to 15 percent — is particularly wide, but perhaps understandably so. The Covid-19 outbreak is so unprecedented in the global economy that experts can’t draw on past crises to measure its potential impact on business.
Source: Report: Chip Demand to Drop 5% to 15% in 2020 | EE Times