Each week, the editor of Planet Analog finds items of interest and then features them in two sections, entitled “Also of Interest” and “Elementals”. Each cites items from publications outside the Planet Analog and EETimes portfolios. We have a deep backlog queue, so there are a lot of items to post here, both this week and in succeeding weeks.
“Also of Interest” and “Elementals” is an extension of our belief that engineers are interested in on-going tutorial on obviously relevant topics, as well as the serendipity of exploring topics which are not directly related to their jobs, but which will broaden their knowledge and sometimes spurs innovative and creative approaches. The first box highlights a few items of general interest to the engineer, while the second highlights some basic and tutorial electronic-engineering material.
Among the publications we check are IEEE Spectrum , Machine Design , Design News , Laser Focus World , EDN , Electronic Design , NASA Tech Briefs , Portable Design , and Physics Today , plus others.
Consider these items as “online-only” extras, and worth a look! (Please note: there are also links to the previous weeks' editions, at the bottom).
Also of Interest:
- Air actuators shake off contamination that can destroy traditional cylinders:
“Pneumatics Reference Guide: Soft Actuators Tackle Hard Jobs,”
Machine Design , November 20, 2008 - Low cost is imperative for any sensor, and this means keeping the sensing structure as simple and practical as possible:
“Carbon nanotubes promise a simple approach to making gas sensors,”
Small Times , September/October 2008 - Optically active color centers in diamond have been found to exhibit attractive optical properties that have paved the way to the realization of practical sources of single-photon emission:
“QUANTUM DEVICES: Diamond technology enables practicalsingle-photon sources,”
Laser Focus World , November 2008 - Single-photon detection is at the heart of quantum communications, which offers absolute protection against eavesdropping:
“Every Photon Counts, So Count Every Photon,”
Photonics Media , November 2008 - How a device that shocks a failing heart back to life became one of the greatest engineering success stories in medicine:
“Idiot-proofing the Defibrillator,”
IEEE Spectrum , November 2008
Elementals:
- Class II and Class III ceramic capacitor advantages, liabilities, and application considerations:
“Know your ceramic capacitor, part two,”
EDN , November 27, 2008 - You can't build a multiband RF front-end switch with PIN diodes, but think twice before going to GaAs:
“Maximize Range in Mobile Handsets with CMOS-on-Sapphire RF Switches,”
Portable Design , November 2008 - Motorola's latest LANPlanner builds on its established predictive design technology, and helps you ease into 802.11n adoption:
“Design for a Wi-Fi Future with LANPlanner,”
Desktop Engineering , December 2008 - Here is a technique for reproducing a digitally recorded radar signal (or other high-frequency
analog signal) with 105 dB amplitude dynamic range and 16-bit resolution:
“A Wide Dynamic Range Playback System for Radar Signals,”
High Frequency Electronics , November 2008
Previous Editions:
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