There's Intel declaring for process leadership, the German auto industry looking for chips, increasing production for the Newport Wafer Fab, and Arduino building on the RP2040... 

For many years the programmable companies argued that it was inevitable that they would take over the ASIC and ASSP market. In 2004, John Daane, then CEO of Altera, impressed that rationale on me: “It costs $30m at 90nm for a new chip,” argued Daane, “to get payback you need revenues of $150m. That means, if you’re getting ten per ...

Three US national laboratories have joined to create a half-meter-long prototype ‘undulator’ magnet using Niobium-3-tin. Undulators are used in free-electron lasers – lasers that create electromagnetic beams for research. Niobium-tin alloy is seen as an alternative to the incumbent niobium-titanium alloy. Niobium-titanium superconductors are good for lower magnetic fields, but stop superconducting at around 10 teslas, according to Berkeley national laboratory scientist ...

The top-10 fastest growing IC segments forecast for this year are shown in Figure 1. Each of the top-10 growing IC product categories is expected to see a double-digit increase in sales, but only the top-five segments are forecast to grow faster than the total IC market, which IC Insights projects will rise 12% this year. Figure 1 DRAM and ...

Melexis, the Belgian auto IC specialist,  has introduced an extra high-field current sensor which extends the ease and accuracy of its unique IMC-Hall technology into high-current measurement for emerging automotive applications. Capable of measuring current to beyond 2000 A, the MLX91216 XHF is suited to redundant monitoring of battery-management systems (BMS), over-current detection in smart fuses, and measuring phase currents ...

Schurter’s power entry module, the DD11 – consisting of an IEC appliance plug (C14) with fuse holder and mains switch – is newly available in a version with flange and also with extended mounting options. Mounting is done with screws to the enclosure wall, says the company. The latest version has a wide metal flange, designed for optimum contact with ...

TT Electronics has launched its PAA and PAAM series of AC-DC encapsulated power modules claiming they have industry leading power density and are suitable for space constrained industrial and medical electronic equipment applications. Available in power ratings ranging from 5 to 150 watts, the PAA encapsulated modules are PCB mountable in a compact footprint starting at 1.1” x 1.5” (8.05W/in³). 4kVac ...

In the dystopian battle between Big Business and Big Brother the question is: Where will it erupt first? I always thought it would be France because government ministers there have a delusional sense of self-importance. When one of them told Amazon what it could and could not sell at the start of the pandemic Amazon said ‘OK we won’t supply ...

Renesas is claiming “total stray field immunity” for a automotive-grade magnet-free inductive rotation position sensor that works up to what the company describes as “600,000rpm (electrical)”. “We are excited with the response to the inductive position sensing technology we introduced last June for industrial motors, and we look forward to bringing its advantages to automotive customers with the new IPS2550,” said ...

A great physicist whose project brought WWII to an end gave his PhD examiner a scare. When the Professor at Göttingen University who conducted the oral part of the PhD examination, emerged from the session he remarked: “I got out of there just in time. He was beginning to ask me questions.” Moral: Intellect can be awesome