San Jose, California – April 28, 2008 – Fairchild Semiconductor (NYSE: FCS), has received an Excellent Supplier Award from Longcheer, an independent design house for mobile handsets. Longcheer is an industry leader in China, the largest mobile handset market in the world. Fairchild has been providing its leading edge power management and analog switch solutions for Longcheer’s mobile handset designs for more than five years.

The rapid growth of consumer demand for more multi-media features in handsets requires innovation and greater power efficiency to support advanced functionalities in applications such as high-definition cameras, stereo sound, CD-quality MP3 players and navigation. By presenting this award, Longcheer endorses Fairchild’s extensive product portfolio, and strong technical and delivery support services, all of which enable handset OEMs to innovate more quickly, efficiently and broadly.

“Our Excellent Supplier Award is given to companies who help us design competitive mobile handsets with their innovative technologies, products and support,” said Dr. Junhong Du, CEO of Longcheer. “Fairchild’s excellent technical and delivery support is instrumental to our business, and our relationship over the last five years provides the foundation to future collaborative efforts that will lead to more successes to Fairchild and Longcheer.”

Fairchild’s ongoing focus on power and energy efficiency, and the relentless implementation of its clearly-defined China business strategy, has been the key to its success in China. Increasing demand for mobile phones and portable devices generally means higher power consumption. However, these appliances are designed and manufactured so that they are as energy-efficient as possible. Fairchild provides energy efficient solutions and is a world leader in power semiconductor products for today’s electronic appliances.

“Winning the Excellent Supplier Award is recognition of Fairchild’s long-term commitment to Longcheer and the Chinese mobile handset industry,” said Benjamin Tan, Fairchild’s regional vice president, Sales, China and SEA. “We will continue to work closely with Longcheer to deliver high-quality product performance and bring positive user experiences to the mobile industry.”

Every D12 Toxic Gas Transmitter will accept up to 46 different sensors, greatly reducing the need for multiple transmitter models. The self-aligning sensor holder simply plugs in, with automatic sensor recognition and verification when contact is made.

For many toxic and combustible gases, ATI offers a unique sensor response testing system unmatched by any competitive transmitter. Even outdoors in high wind conditions, the Auto-Test system provides reliable response checks to insure system integrity. Sensor response is verified with an actual gas sample, generated on demand. Generators store run time information accessible to operators, and are automatically tested for compatibility with the installed sensor.

D12 transmitters provide useful features that simplify installation, operation, and maintenance. From clear menu-driven setup pages to large numerical display of gas values, you simply can’t find a more versatile transmitter. Gas concentrations are displayed in large, easy to read numbers. The display also provides alarm indication and complete menus for setting up operating parameters. Backlighting is available when operating in 3-wire mode.

Operating functions such as calibration, alarm setup, alarm reset, data view, and setup options are all available using a magnetic tool. It is not necessary to open the enclosure when making adjustments.

Transmitters are designed for operation in hazardous areas. The cast aluminum housing for the D12 transmitter is rated for Class 1, Division 1, Group B, C, D locations and is UL, FM, and CSA certified.

The transmitter is available with either HART™ or MODBUS™ protocol. The HART™ protocol supports the HART™ Universal and Common Practice Commands at 1200 baud using the Bell 202 FSK modem standard. The MODBUS™ protocol supports 9600 baud access to concentration and status information, and supports alarm setup and many other functions on either RS485 or RS232 (software selectable).

http://analyticaltechnology.com/cms/Default.aspx?tabid=66

Norwood, MA(4/21/2008) - Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI) is expanding its portfolio of market-leading energy metering solutions with the ADE51xx and ADE55xx single-chip metering devices, which are designed for the increasingly sophisticated communications networks used by today’s energy markets. Globally, solid-state energy meters are replacing failure-prone electromechanical systems, which are subject to meter tampering and cannot easily support new features such as remote meter-reading and time-of-use billing. These new features and the more robust metering networks they enable are demanding greater memory density to handle the energy industry’s growing data volume. Analog Devices’ new SoC (system-on-chip) energy meter devices feature 62 Kbytes of on-chip flash memory and 2 Kbytes of RAM (random access memory), which provides more usable memory than any other available energy meter to support the program and data storage needs of advanced communications protocols in North America, Europe and emerging Asian markets.

The single-chip ADE51xx and ADE55xx metering devices integrate a proven energy measurement core, an 8051 microcontroller, a LCD (liquid crystal display) driver with contrast control, a full hardware RTC (real-time clock), two UARTs (universal asynchronous receivers-transmitters), and intelligent battery management technology. In addition to replacing six discrete ICs with a single SoC, the highly integrated metering solutions maintain accurate time, sense temperature changes, run the LCD read-out, and perform other critical system functions, all while using less than half the power of competitive solutions. In battery mode, current consumption is reduced to 1.5 microamps. This 50 percent reduction in current consumption when the LCD is activated, as compared to other energy metering SoC solutions, is achieved through a combination of battery management techniques that allow the meter to run multiple LCD screens, maintain active temperature measurement, and keep accurate timing during power outages—all while the microcontroller remains in sleep mode. The ADE51xx differs from the ADE55xx by offering two current inputs for anti-tampering detection and billing.

http://www.analog.com/en/press/0,2890,3%255F%255F204221,00.html

This product from Alphasense offers a lower cost solution against NDIR based CO2 sensors which are very expensive.

“The Alphasense patented carbon dioxide sensor is a world first in CO2 monitoring:

Requires no power
Operates at room temperature
One sensor measures from 500ppm to 95% CO2
Small size
Low cost
Simple interfacing

Using the potentiometric measuring principle with our patented silver halide solid state electrolyte, this sensor does not have the high power requirement or high price tag of NDIR technology. This sensor is ideal where low cost and low power are critical for CO2 measurement.

This sensor is the result of seven years of research and development, and this work continues. While not as accurate as NDIR, and not suitable for IAQ measurements, this sensor is ideal for safety alarms, combustion gas monitoring and high CO2 process monitoring.”

If you are looking for an affordable low power solar cell here is what Farnell Philippines can offer. A 10 W solar cell for 7,792 pesos which is manufactured in China by RALOSS. It’s enough for charging your standard lead acid battery for emergency lighting purposes.

Manufacturer: RALOSS
Manufacturer Part No: SR10-36

SOLAR PANEL, 10W
Depth, external: 28mm
Length / Height, external: 356mm
Power, output: 10W
Width, external: 352mm

If you are looking for a cheap and accurate temperature sensor, use the LM35 silicon temperature sensor. It’s good for general temperature sensing like ambient temperature monitoring, incubator temperature sensing, overheat protection and even on fire alarms. The LM35 is a voltage output temperature sensor which has a response of 10 millivolts per degree centigrade and it is accurate within 0.5 degree centigrade. It can operate at -55 C to +150 C and it accepts supply voltages from 4 volts up to 30 volts. The current cost of the LM35 in Philippines is about 100 pesos. Ease of use and simple circuitry is a good feature of the LM35 since all you need to do is power up the unit and just connect the output pin to a digital tester or a microcontroller and you have an instant digital thermometer.

Although not very popular here in the Philippines, the Rabbit microcontroller can also function in applications requiring data encryption and transmssion. The RCM4300 development kit can also be used as a webserver. Included in the kit are the following items, RCM4300 RabbitCore® module with a miniSD™ card, prototyping board, and Dynamic C® integrated development software with integrated editor, compiler and in-circuit debugger.

http://www.rabbit.com/products/rcm4300/index.shtml

“The RCM4300 RabbitCore Module offers the features and performance to support complex embedded designs such as data encryption, secure data transmission, and web server applications.

The RCM4300 core module provides the capability to use up to 1GB mass storage with the industry-standard miniSD™ memory cards which you can swap with another miniSD card without powering down the module. This gigabyte hot-swapping capability offers a new level of functionality to support data logging and automatic meter reading applications.

In addition to mass storage, the RCM4300 core module offers the designer more than 1MB of SRAM for shared code and data to support algorithmic-intensive applications such as graphics and encryption. This greater code space allows you to transmit data in non-critical secure embedded applications. Now you can log as much as 1GB of data and transmit it using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) to protect the integrity and confidentiality of the information. You will also be able to design a graphic user interface to make it easier for an operator to monitor the system.”

We are very familiar with blu-ray disc using blue lasers to encode more data on a single 120mm disc. We are also very familiar with red laser pointers that can be bought from the sidewalks and novelty stores. Just in case you already have the green laser pointer, try the blue laser pointer. It cost 899 US Dollars from  http://www.thinkgeek.com/ . This gadget cetainly cost a lot but it is definitely a great geek gadget for a pinoy.

 Specifications from Thinkgeek:

Wavelength:  473 nm
Output power of <5mW (Class IIIa Laser Product)
1.5 mm beam diameter at aperture
Momentary push button switch
Pulsed wave output
Takes 1 “CR2″ battery (included)
Dimensions: 5.9″ x .67″ dia

Here is a good tutorial about LVDTs from

http://www.macrosensors.com/

“What is an LVDT?

The letters LVDT are an acronym for Linear Variable Differential Transformer, a common type of electromechanical transducer that can convert the rectilinear motion of an object to which it is coupled mechanically into a corresponding electrical signal. LVDT linear position sensors are readily available that can measure movements as small as a few millionths of an inch up to several inches, but are also capable of measuring positions up to ±20 inches (±0.5 m).

How does an LVDT work?

This figure illustrates what happens when the LVDT’s core is in different axial positions. The LVDT’s primary winding, P, is energized by a constant amplitude AC source. The magnetic flux thus developed is coupled by the core to the adjacent secondary windings, S1 and S2 . If the core is located midway between S1 and S2 , equal flux is coupled to each secondary so the voltages, E1 and E2 , induced in windings S1 and S2 respectively, are equal. At this reference midway core position, known as the null point, the differential voltage output, (E1 - E2 ), is essentially zero.

If the core is moved closer to S1 than to S2 , more flux is coupled to S1 and less to S2 , so the induced voltage E1 is increased while E2 is decreased, resulting in the differential voltage (E1 - E2). Conversely, if the core is moved closer to S2 , more flux is coupled to S2 and less to S1 , so E2 is increased as E1 is decreased, resulting in the differential voltage (E2 - E1).

The top graph shows how the magnitude of the differential output voltage, EOUT, varies with core position. The value of EOUT at maximum core displacement from null depends upon the amplitude of the primary excitation voltage and the sensitivity factor of the particular LVDT, but is typically several volts RMS. The phase angle of this AC output voltage, EOUT, referenced to the primary excitation voltage, stays constant until the center of the core passes the null point, where the phase angle changes abruptly by 180 degrees, as shown in the middle graph.

This 180 degree phase shift can be used to determine the direction of the core from the null point by means of appropriate circuitry. This is shown in the bottom graph, where the polarity of the output signal represents the core’s positional relationship to the null point. The figure shows also that the output of an LVDT is very linear over its specified range of core motion, but that the sensor can be used over an extended range with some reduction in output linearity. The output characteristics of an LVDT vary with different positions of the core. Full range output is a large signal, typically a volt or more, and often requires no amplification. Note that an LVDT continues to operate beyond 100% of full range, but with degraded linearity.”

 NXP’s solution for a low cost backlight driver. This device
incorporates lamp control functions, protection circuits and
uses the cheaper NMOS power transistor for a lower overall
system cost.

UBA2072 key features
Constant frequency lamp current control principle
All NMOST full-bridge control
Integrated level shifters and bootstrap diodes
Resonant mode start-up for reliable lamp ignition
Wide lamp brightness level dimming range
Integrated PWM generator for analog, voltage controlled dimming
Digital PWM dimming option
Operating frequency can be synchronized to external reference frequency
Multi-controller synchronization option
Over-voltage and over-current protection
Ignition failure, hard-switching and arcing detection
Wide supply voltage range (9 to 30 V)
Available in both SOP-28 and SSOP-28 package

UBA2072 key benefits
Reduced system costs
Minimal external component count
Extensive set of protections

Key applications
CCFL/EEFL based LCD backlighting