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News: Green Design & Manufacturing
A Northwestern University research team has developed a new material that absorbs a wide range of wavelengths and could lead to more efficient and less expensive solar technology. The researchers used two...
Blog: Electronics & Computers
Computers that Mimic the Brain
INSIDER reader Kenneth Polcak submitted a "Question of the Week" to his fellow design engineer pros:
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
MOSFET Switching Circuit Protects Shape Memory Alloy Actuators
A small-footprint, full surface-mount-component printed circuit board employs MOSFET (metal-oxide-semi-conductor field-effect transistor) power switches to switch high currents from any input power supply from 3 to 30 V.
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Circuit for Communication Over Power Lines
Many distributed systems share common sensors and instruments along with a common power line supplying current to the system. A communication technique and circuit has been developed that allows for the simple inclusion of an instrument, sensor, or actuator node within any system containing a common power...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Optimized FPGA Implementation of Multi-Rate FIR Filters Through Thread Decomposition
Multi-rate finite impulse response (MRFIR) filters are among the essential signal-processing components in space-borne instruments where finite impulse response filters are often used to minimize nonlinear group delay and finite-precision effects. Cascaded...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Small Microprocessor for ASIC or FPGA Implementation
A small microprocessor, suitable for use in applications in which high reliability is required, was designed to be implemented in either an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). The design is based on commercial microprocessor architecture,...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Source-Coupled, N-Channel, JFET-Based Digital Logic Gate Structure Using Resistive Level Shifters
A circuit topography is used to create usable, digital logic gates using N (negatively doped) channel junction field effect transistors (JFETs), load resistors, level shifting resistors, and supply rails whose values are based on the DC parametric...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Monitoring Digital Closed-Loop Feedback Systems
A technique of monitoring digital closed-loop feedback systems has been conceived. The basic idea is to obtain information on the performances of closed-loop feedback circuits in such systems to aid in the determination of the functionality and integrity of the circuits and of performance margins.
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
A proposed integrated circuit would translate (1) a pair of input signals having a low differential potential and a possibly high common-mode potential into (2) a pair of output signals...
Application Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Single-frequency semiconductor laserRedfern Integrated Optics (RIO)Santa Clara, CA408-970-3500www.rio-inc.com
NASA has chosen Redfern Integrated Optics to further develop a single-frequency,...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Interface Supports Multiple Broadcast Transceivers for Flight Applications
A wireless avionics interface provides a mechanism for managing multiple broadcast transceivers. This interface isolates the control logic required to support multiple transceivers so that the flight application does not have to manage wireless transceivers. All of the logic...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
FPGA Sequencer for Radar Altimeter Applications
A sequencer for a radar altimeter provides accurate attitude information for a reliable soft landing of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). This is a field-programmable-gate-array (FPGA)-only implementation. A table loaded externally into the FPGA controls timing, processing, and decision structures....
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
SAD5 Stereo Correlation Line-Striping in an FPGA
High precision SAD5 stereo computations can be performed in an FPGA (field-programmable gate array) at much higher speeds than possible in a conventional CPU (central processing unit), but this uses large amounts of FPGA resources that scale with image size. Of the two key resources in an FPGA,...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Process-Hardened, Multi-Analyte Sensor for Characterizing Rocket Plume Constituents
A multi-analyte sensor was developed that enables simultaneous detection of rocket engine combustion-product molecules in a launch-vehicle ground test stand. The sensor was developed using a pin-printing method by incorporating multiple sensor elements on a single...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Miniature Sapphire Acoustic Resonator — MSAR
A room temperature sapphire acoustics resonator incorporated into an oscillator represents a possible opportunity to improve on quartz ultrastable oscillator (USO) performance, which has been a staple for NASA missions since the inception of spaceflight. Where quartz technology is very mature and shows...
Articles: Semiconductors & ICs
All major microprocessor vendors are introducing multicore architectures to deliver the latest installment of performance improvements and cost savings as required to remain competitive in the...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Compact, Reliable EEPROM Controller
A compact, reliable controller for an electrically erasable, programmable readonly memory (EEPROM) has been developed specifically for a space-flight application. The design may be adaptable to other applications in which there are requirements for reliability in general and, in particular, for prevention of...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Quad-Chip Double-Balanced Frequency Tripler
Solid-state frequency multipliers are used to produce tunable broadband sources at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths. The maximum power produced by a single chip is limited by the electrical breakdown of the semiconductor and by the thermal management properties of the chip. The solution is to...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Radiation-Hardened Solid-State Drive
A method is provided for a radiationhardened (rad-hard) solid-state drive for space mission memory applications by combining rad-hard and commercial offthe- shelf (COTS) non-volatile memories (NVMs) into a hybrid architecture. The architecture is controlled by a rad-hard ASIC (application specific integrated...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
The design, simulation, and characterization of a novel Ka-band (32.05±0.25 GHz) rectangular waveguide two-way branch-line hybrid unequal power combiner (with port impedances...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Reconfigurable, Bi-Directional Flexfet Level Shifter for Low- Power, Rad-Hard Integration
Two prototype Reconfigurable, Bidirectional Flexfet Level Shifters (ReBiLS) have been developed, where one version is a stand-alone component designed to interface between external low voltage and high voltage, and the other version is an embedded integrated...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Compact, Miniature MMIC Receiver Modules for an MMIC Array Spectrograph
A single-pixel prototype of a W-band detector module with a digital backend was developed to serve as a building block for large focal-plane arrays of monolithic millimeter-wave integrated circuit (MMIC) detectors. The module uses low-noise amplifiers, diode-based mixers, and a...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Magnetic-Field-Tunable Superconducting Rectifier
Superconducting electronic components have been developed that provide current rectification that is tunable by design and with an externally applied magnetic field to the circuit component. The superconducting material used in the device is relatively free of pinning sites with its critical current...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Waveguide Transition for Submillimeter-Wave MMICs
An integrated waveguide-to-MMIC (monolithic microwave integrated circuit) chip operating in the 300-GHz range is designed to operate well on highpermittivity semiconductor substrates typical for an MMIC amplifier, and allows a wider MMIC substrate to be used, enabling integration with larger MMICs...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Lattice-Matched Semiconductor Layers on Single Crystalline Sapphire Substrate
SiGe is an important semiconductor alloy for high-speed field effect transistors (FETs), high-temperature thermoelectric devices, photovoltaic solar cells, and photon detectors. The growth of SiGe layer is difficult because SiGe alloys have different lattice constants...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
A bilateral subtraction filter has been implemented as a hardware module in the form of a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). In general, a bilateral subtraction filter is a key...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Three-stage monolithic millimeter-wave integrated-circuit (MMIC) amplifiers capable of providing useful amounts of gain over the frequency range from 120 to 180 GHz have been developed as prototype...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Closely following the development reported in the article, "Low-Noise MMIC Amplifiers for 120 to 180 GHz" (NPO-42783), three new monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC)...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Two-Piece Screens for Decontaminating Granular Material
Two-piece screens have been designed specifically for use in filtering a granular material to remove contaminant particles that are significantly wider or longer than are the desired granules. In the original application for which the two-piece screens were conceived, the granular material is...
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