Microresonators - Transmitting 40 communication channels with one laser
Interconnections in powerful computers and linking "blades" in data centers will increasingly rely on optical communication links. Currently, this still requires an individual laser with individual control circuitry for each channel. Now researchers at Purdue University have developed a new technology that allows a single laser to transmit data over a number of individually controlled channels, at different frequencies, simultaneously.
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Automated and Portable Test Solutions for RF Devices
With recent developments in technologies like MIMO, femtocell and LTE, the RF device testing is reaching new dimensions. Read on to find out what’s new in this field
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Engineering students create real-time 3-D radar system
Spencer Kent stands nervously in front of Team D.R.A.D.I.S.' booth at Rice University's annual Engineering Design Showcase. Judging begins in about 10 minutes, and his teammate Galen Schmidt is frantically typing computer code into a laptop beside the team's custom-made radar system.
Read more: Engineering students create real-time 3-D radar system
Transistor as a Switch
When used as an AC signal amplifier, the transistors Base biasing voltage is applied in such a way that it always operates within its “active” region, that is the linear part of the output characteristics curves are used. However, both the NPN & PNP type bipolar transistors can be made to operate as “ON/OFF” type solid state switches by biasing the transistors base differently to that of a signal amplifier.
Protect Electronics with Silicones
Silicone compounds are used in thousands of electronic systems to seal, bond, coat, and encapsulate components, enabling them to perform reliably under challenging conditions. Formulators continue to improve silicones to make them easier to use and to offer a wider variety of properties.
Bypass Diodes in Solar Panels
Bypass Diodes which in electronics we know as free-wheeling diodes, are wired in parallel with individual solar cells or panels, to provide a current path around them in the event that a cell or panel becomes faulty or open-circuited. This allows a series (called a string) of connected cells or panels to continue supplying power at a reduced voltage rather than no power at all.
LED Driver Circuits
Now that we know what is an LED, we need some way of controlling it by switching it “ON” and “OFF”. The output stages of both TTL and CMOS logic gates can both source and sink useful amounts of current therefore can be used to drive an LED. Normal integrated circuits (ICs) have an output drive current of up to 50mA in the sink mode configuration, but have an internally limited output current of about 30mA in the source mode configuration.
