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Memristors Provide Boost to Development of Neuroprosthetics

U.S. Army to Test 50-kilowatt Laser Next Year

3UK 'Not Confident' Ofcom Can Stand up to BT, Vodafone

Prediction: Christmas Season E-commerce Sales to Jump 17.2%

Reducing Subthreshold Swing of GaN Transistors

1st Quantum Photonic Circuit with Electrically Driven Light Source

RF Cafe Quiz: RF & Analog Company Name Change History

This quiz challenges your knowledge of the history of familiar electronics products companies' name changes (aka etymology). Many of you have lived through the plethora of acquisitions, mergers, and name changes represented here. There might be more than one correct answer. You might need a motion sickness pill when navigating all ...

Threats to Extant Undersea Cable

I was surprised to discover that the #1 cause of damage to extant (currently used) undersea cable in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans is fishing trawlers that snag them while dragging nets and pots. An infographic in the June 2016 issue of Scientific American lists the hazards as follows ...:

40% - Fish trawling
28% - Ship anchorages
  8% - Subsea earthquakes
  8% - Shunt (electrical) faults
  4% - Amplifier or branching unit
           failures
  3% - Abrasion (wave seabed, etc.)
  9% - Other factors (e.g., sabotage)

World's Largest Radio Telescope Starts Operating in China

"In the search for alien life, China has built the world's biggest radio telescope, which it says could 'lead to discoveries beyond our wildest imagination.' The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), nestled between hills in the mountainous region of Guizhou, began working this week. Built at a cost of ¥1.2B (£140M, $182M), the telescope dwarfs the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico as the world's largest single-dish radio telescope, with twice the sensitivity and a reflector as large as 30 football fields ..."

Retired Librarian Who Was Maine’s First Woman Radio Amateur Turns 108

"Mary Cousins, ex-W1GSC, who was the first woman in Maine to obtain an Amateur Radio license, celebrated her 108th birthday on September 20. Now a resident of a care facility in the coastal fishing village of Deer Isle, Cousins was treated to a party complete with a cake decorated with images of local newspaper articles from 1908, the year she was born. The confection also bore an image of her 1933 "Amateur First" radio ..."

Triad RF Systems Intros 6.4-8.5 GHz SSPA for Any Modulation

The TA1063 class AB GaN SSPA module is designed for both military and commercial applications in the 6.4-8.5 GHz band. It is capable of supporting any signal type and modulation format, including but not limited to 3-4G telecom, WLAN, OFDM, DVB, and CW/AM/FM. The latest device technologies and design methods are employed to offer high power density, efficiency, and linearity in a small, lightweight package ...

Chip Shifts Frequencies of Photon Qubits

"Engineers in the U.S. have developed a chip that can convert visible light into infrared and back again, while preserving the quantum state of the original photons. This capability would allow quantum devices to transmit information to each other via the existing fiber-optic infrastructure. Researchers say this is a significant step in realizing a quantum network of devices and computers that can exchange ..."

Author:
Kirt Blattenberger

Inside Facebook's Luleå Server Farm 70 miles from Arctic Circle

"Mark Zuckerberg has given a rare glimpse inside one of Facebook's secretive server farms. The Facebook boss said he is going to reveal more pictures from Facebook's facilities around the world. To kick off the project, he revealed a stunning series of pictures of the firm's gigantic Luleå data center in Sweden. 'Over the next few months, I'm going to start posting some rare photos of the most advanced technology Facebook is building around the world,' Zuckerberg posted ..."

Modern Theory of Electricity (Part I)

Sal ammoniac is a new term for me; it appeared in this 1395 issue of Radio-News magazine. It is a rare mineral composed of ammonium chloride. I suppose I should have been familiar with it because of its use for cleaning soldering iron tips. This compound is another example of how two otherwise lethal elements can form a molecule that is safe for human consumption, like sodium chloride (table salt). Per Wikipedia, sal ammoniac is used the Netherlands, it is still widely used in the production of salty licorice candy known as Salmiak. Sal ammoniac was also used in solution with sulphuric acid as a battery electrolyte. Anyway, the main theme of this article positive ...

Raytheon Missile Defense Radar 101 Whiteboard Video

These fast-mo videos of whiteboard hand sketching are some of the most clever and effective presentation schemes of the last decade. A nifty one produced by Raytheon showed up in a news story titled "Raytheon Wins MDA Gallium Nitride Radar Deal," on the Breaking Defense website.

WindFreak Intros Innovative Low-Cost SynthDH PRO RF Signal Generator

Windfreak Technologies is excited to announce the launch of the new SynthHD PRO. The revolutionary SynthHD PRO has all the features of the original SynthHD, but has a milled aluminum case designed to be used in more rugged environments and to enhance electrical and thermal performance. The new SynthHD PRO Dual Channel RF Signal Generator is also designed for higher amplitude accuracy due to extra hours on the calibration bench getting a fully unique 5000 point calibration lookup table. For the SynthHD PRO datasheet, software user's manual, and software download ...

Chaos-Based Microchips Propose a Challenge to Moore's Law

"Developed by researchers at North Carolina State University, the integrated circuits can reportedly be manufactured with off the shelf fabrication processes and could lead to novel computer architectures that do more with less circuitry and fewer transistors. Moore's law states that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit will double every two years in order to keep up with processing demands. This goal has so far been addressed by shrinking the size of individual transistors ..."

Saelig's Aaronia Drone Detection System Discovers Unwanted UAV Incursions

Is this cool or what? Saelig isn't kidding with their "unique electronics" logo tag line. Saelig Company has introduced the Aaronia Drone Detection System (ADDS) for discovering the incursion of unwanted drones or other remote-controlled flying objects, thus protecting privacy and insuring physical security. Detecting the real-time directional measurement of the radio emissions used for controlling drones, the ADDS system warns the user when drones are in the area and can send automatic alerts ... (they need a look-down/shoot-down system to compliment it)

Carmakers, Telecomms Join Forces for 5G Development

"In a cross-industry alliance, Audi, BMW and Daimler along with telecommunications equipment providers Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia as well as semiconductor vendors Intel and Qualcomm will bundle their R&D resources to evolve, test and promote communications solutions for connected mobility. The efforts will focus on the development of 5G mobile technologies. The “5G Automotive Association” announced to develop, test and promote ..."

EDI CON USA Completes Successful Inaugural Event

EDI CON USA 2016, a conference that brings together engineers working on high-frequency analog and high-speed digital designs, had a successful inaugural event in the US on September 20-22 in Boston, MA. "We are very pleased with our first EDI CON USA, which exceeded our expectations in number of exhibitors and submitted abstracts for the conference program. We appreciate the support of the EDI CON USA exhibitors, received very positive feedback from conference attendees, and look forward to building on these strengths for next year ..."

UK Petition on European R&D Needs Votes

"A petition to the UK government asking for UK access to European collaborative R&D to be maintained after Brexit has received 38,369 signatures as of this posting. However, the petition needs to exceed 100,000 signatures by January 12, 2017 to ensure that it will be considered for debate in the House of Commons. The petition states that UK access to EU R&D programs stimulates billions of pounds of investment ..."

Next High-Performance Transistor Could Be Made From Lateral Nanowires

"Five years ago, Intel introduced today's high-­performance transistor to the world. Dubbed the FinFET, the device takes its name from its appearance: The transistor's current-carrying channel sticks up vertically in the shape of a fin, and the gate that controls it drapes over the sides. The result is a much tighter control over the flow of current, which in modern microprocessors can fairly easily sneak across the transistor when it’s supposed to be shut off. But well before the FinFET exploded onto ..."

Nanomaterial Could Yield Lossless Charge and Energy Transport

"Empirical evidence is continuing to pile up confirming that so-called topological insulators - materials that behave as conductors near their surfaces, but act as insulators throughout the bulk of their interiors - do exist. Now, researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in cooperation with the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids in Germany, have produced a new type of topological matter. It can carry an electrical current on its surface at room temperature and then get that ..."

How Dependable Are Your Meter Readings?

There is no arguing that digital multimeters are vastly superior to analog meters in many - maybe even most - ways. However, analog meters still have applications that make them indispensible in situations like monitoring slow variations in parameters and for quick visual approximations of values. One example is looking for variation of voltage or current levels under varying loads. Yes, digital instruments are available that emulate an analog display in certain modes, but that just proves the point of he usefulness of an analog movement. Another is the familiar control panel filled with meters ...

Revisiting NPR's 1983 Story On 'Cellular'

"A decade after Martin Cooper made the world's first public call from a portable phone in 1973, telephones were becoming truly mobile. 'It's still pretty rare to see someone using a telephone in a car. But it's about to become a lot more common.' That's how NPR host Jim Angle introduced a piece on November 5, 1983, titled 'Cellular Phones Are Completely Mobile' - the earliest mention of the term found in NPR's archives. From the vantage point of 2016 - where mobile ..."

Don't Drill a Headphone Jack Hole into Your iPhone 7!

"Miffed that you don't have a headphone jack on your new iPhone 7? Don’t want to use the adapter that comes in the box? Don’t want to spend $159 for Apple's new wireless earbuds? Well, good news! There's a 'secret hack' that's gone viral on YouTube. First, you get a drill with a 3.5mm bit. Then, you clamp your phone into a vice. Please promise not to drill a hole into your $649 palm warmer, as the jokester 'TechRax' advises you to do - and at least apparently does - to some hapless, screen freaking-out ..." -- Yep, they're really out there.