The Devil Is In The Details—Bulkhead Wiring Penetration Considerations

 By Ed Douglas, Douglas Electrical Components Inc. (DECo)

It’s often the little things in life that seem to cause the biggest problems, and it’s no different in design engineering. An area where personal experience has shown this to be the case is in the seemingly innocuous area of pressure or vacuum bulkhead wiring penetrations. When missteps occur, designers can end up with delays, expenses, and embarrassment that a little pre-planning could have eliminated.

WLAN Chips Lower Cost And Complexity Of Home Gateway Products

 By Louis E. Frenzel, Communications Editor

The XWAY WAVE 1000 family of single-chip wireless local-area network (WLAN) ICs from Infineon provides a high-performance and cost-effective solution for wireless network access points that comply with the 802.11n draft standard for data rates up to 150 Mbits/s as well as the 802.11 b/g standard.

Zune Portable Media Player Exploits HD Radio Receiver, Power-Management IC

Microsoft’s new Zune HD portable media player delivers high-sound-quality HD radio using very little power by employing SiPort's terrestrial broadcast receiver chip and Wolfson Microelectronics' highly integrated power-management IC.

ZigBee RF4CE Specification Now Downloadable

First announced in March 2009, the ZigBee RF4CE specification for advanced remote controls is now available for download. The spec replaces infrared with RF communication in remote controls. Thus, consumer-electronic (CE) remote controls for HDTV, set-top boxes, etc., will have greater range and longer battery life, as well as be able to operate out of line-of-sight.

A New Kind Of Space Walk—The COLBERT Treadmill

NASA opted for the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT) for use in the International Space Station. Quantum Controls Inc., working with Woodway USA (the treadmill supplier), Wyle Laboratories, and NASA, successfully met all expectations of motor control for the treadmill and the required certifications for space travel.

Designing With Chopper-Stabilized Operational Amplifiers

 By Don Tuite, Analog & Power Editor

Chopper-stabilized operational amplifiers have been improving in performance and cost advantages, though designers are not always familiar with their benefits. In many designs, these devices can overcome the limitations of offset voltage and 1/f noise found in conventional op amps and be used in applications such as industrial control, medical, and automotive. In this Basics of Design sponsored by Intersil, Electronic Design editor Don Tuite covers the history of choppers and then delves into the details, explaining why these devices make a great addition to a designer's toolbox.