Electronics Weekly – Hitachi Electron Microscopes, TI Battery Charge Controllers & More

Hitachi Field-Emission Scanning Electron Microscopes

(Image courtesy of Hitachi.)

Hitachi has introduced the Regulus series of field emission scanning electron microscopes (SEMs). The Regulus lineup comprises four models: the Regulus8100, as well as the Regulus8220, Regulus8230, and Regulus8240.

SEMs are used to observe material structures in a diverse range of scientific fields, including nanotechnology, semiconductors/electronics, biology and materials science. The Regulus series employs a cold-field-emission (CFE) gun optimized for high-resolution imaging at low accelerating voltages. This CFE gun makes it possible to magnify high-resolution images up to 2 million times.

With optimized electron optical systems, the Regulus series features resolutions down to 0.9 nm in the Regulus8220/8230/8240 models and 1.1 nm in the Regulus8100 model—an improvement of roughly 20 percent in resolution at 1 kV landing voltage compared with previous models.

Additional technical specifications are available on Hitachi’s website.

Microchip Sequential Linear LED Driver

(Image courtesy of Microchip Technologies.)

Microchip Technologies Inc. has released the CL88020 sequential linear LED driver. The CL88020 can drive a long string of LEDs directly from the 120 VAC line input. The product is designed to allow users to create cost-effective and compact LED lighting applications by having High Power Factor (PF) without the need for switch-mode power conversion, which is typically required for LED lighting design.

Unlike the conventional AC-DC switch mode power supply, the basic driver circuit consists of the CL88020 IC, two small ceramic capacitors and a bridge rectifier. High-voltage capacitors, transformer or inductors, electromagnetic interference (EMI) filters or Power Factor Correction (PFC) circuitry are not required. This allows for a smaller solution size and a lower overall bill of material cost compared to traditional LED products.

Information concerning pricing and availability is available on Microchip’s website.

Microsemi and Tamba Collaborate on PolarFire FPGAs

(Image courtesy of Microsemi.)

Microsemi and Tamba Networks have joined forces to incorporate Tamba's Ethernet media access controller (MAC) in Microsemi's PolarFire field programmable gate array (FPGA) to provide low power FPGA-based 10G Ethernet access.

As part of the collaboration, Microsemi used Tamba's Interlaken and 10G/40G Ethernet MAC soft cores as building blocks to evaluate and enhance PolarFire FPGAs' fabric architecture, with 10G and 40G datapaths running at 160 MHz and 320 MHz. These cores offer flexible low gate count and latency. When combined with Microsemi's fabric and transceiver, Tamba’s 10G Ethernet soft core lowers the power of a 10G datapath by 50 percent. The device is also available as a direct core from Microsemi's IP library.

For more information, visit Microsemi’s website.

RS Components Industrial Micro-Miniature Connectors

(Image courtesy of RS Components.)

RS Components has announced a range of micro-miniature industrial connectors manufactured by Norcomp, which are a cost-effective alternative to the use of military and aerospace-rated micro-D connectors. The 380/381/382/960 series of Micro-D connectors and cable assemblies have been designed for commercial markets and other applications where space is at a premium, yet which also require a shielded I/O connector system.

The Micro-D series is available in three industry-standard sizes (9, 15 and 25-way), as well as in vertical and right angle board-mount and cable-mount options. Offering a contact spacing of 1.27mm (0.050-inch), the connectors are less than a third the size of standard D-sub connector types. Other features of the series include a 1A contact rating and an operating temperature range of –55C to +85C.

For more information, visit RS Components’ website.

TI Buck-Boost Battery Charge Controllers

(Image courtesy of Texas Instruments.)

Texas Instruments (TI) has introduced a pair of single-chip buck-boost battery charge controllers for one to four-cell designs. The bq25703A and bq25700A synchronous charge controllers support charging through USB Type-C and other USB ports in end equipment ranging from notebooks and tablets to power banks, drones and smart home applications.

Supporting both I2C and SMBus interfaces, the bq25703Aand bq25700A feature a new battery algorithm enabling full power output by adding intelligence to battery charging through maximum power point tracking technology. The algorithm, referred to as input current optimization (ICO), automatically detects the full capacity of input power to optimize current, while maintaining consistent system and charging current to ensure the utilization of maximum input power.

Detailed schematics can be found on TI’s website.

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