(Sept. 19, 2016) ON Semiconductor Corporation has recently announced its purchase of Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc. for $2.4 billion cash. “The acquisition of Fairchild is a transformative step in our quest to become the premier supplier of power management and analog semiconductor solutions for a wide range of applications and end-markets,” said Keith Jackson, … [Read more...]
Product Testing and Certifcation Firm Expands Lab Presence in Florida
TÜV SÜD recently announced the acquisition of the assets of Walshire Labs, LLC.(Walshire) along with Product Safety Engineering, Inc.(PSE). In combining the existing TÜV SÜD Tampa lab with two regional partner labs, clients in central Florida and the southeastern US will have access to a 12,000 sq/ft facility for global testing and certification services. Walshire Labs, LLC … [Read more...]
Self-Driving Cars Soon to Hit Pittsburgh
(August 18, 2016) The BBC has reported the ride-sharing firm, Uber, will allow users to hail self-driving cars shortly. Uber said the launch would take place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and will be teaming up initially with Volvo in sensor-equipped XC90 SUVs. Volvo intends to have delivered 100 such cars by the end of the year. "At first, the vehicles will be supervised by a … [Read more...]
Blog Post – DC-DC Converter Noise Evaluation
By Kenneth Wyatt More of my clients are starting to use small third-party DC-DC converters to provide the multitude of voltages required for today’s processor and DDR RAM ICs. While these are convenient to drop onto a circuit board, they can be quite a source of radiated and conducted emissions – especially those that switch in the MHz range... To read the full blog post, … [Read more...]
Blog Post – EMC & It’s Role in Reliabilty
By Ken Javor Totally anecdotal, but this just happened to me. My wife uses a powered wheelchair. A very high end, high quality chair. We were on vacation driving north and had just crossed the 45th parallel in the state of Michigan. The 45th parallel anywhere is halfway between the equator and the North Pole. In Michigan it’s also halfway to nowhere, and it was there my wife’s … [Read more...]
Russian-Detected Signal Likely Terrestrial Interference
(August 31, 2016) According to The Guardian, "The team of scientists manning a huge radio telescope high in the Caucasus region have said that the signal they believed at first to have originated from distant star HD164595 was most likely the result of 'terrestrial interference'." "The Ratan-600, a telescope located in Zelenchukskaya in the Caucasus mountains, surveys as much … [Read more...]
FCC Fines Radio Operator for Malicious Interference
(August 2, 2016) Recently the FCC imposed a penalty of $25,000 against William F. Crowell for operating an amateur station in violation of Section 333 of the Communications Act and Sections 97.101(d) and 97.113(a)(4) of the Commission’s rules, by intentionally causing interference to other amateur radio operators and transmitting prohibited communications, including music. The … [Read more...]
New Stealth Technology Makes Russian Electronic Equipment Undetectable
(August 5, 2016) Russian scientists have developed a new ferrite-based fabric that promises to have the ability to make Russian military hardware much harder to detect for enemy electronic warfare systems. According to Sputnik News, "The new lightweight and highly flexible fabric, developed by the Rostec subsidiary JSC Ruselectronics, can protect the electronic equipment … [Read more...]
Radio Interference Caused by 1967 Solar Storm Nearly Started Nuclear War
(August 9, 2016) Business Insider reported that a colossal solar burst caused radio interference in 1967 that almost started a nuclear war. The "Great [Solar] Storm" of May 1967 caused widespread radio communications blackouts, and was seen as potential jamming from Soviet Russia. The Air Weather Service (AWS) — a relatively new branch of the Air Force — had warned military … [Read more...]
Spectrum Noise Study Receives Industry Support
(August 19, 2016) The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should be starting the radio spectrum noise floor study thanks to positive industry stakeholder feedback. In June, the FCC “issued a public notice inviting comments and answers to questions about the rising noise floor in the radio spectrum, and missing quantitative data to support this presumption. The agency's … [Read more...]
