Industry News

RS Components today revealed that DesignSpark, the new gateway to online design resources and support has already reached 6,000 members within three weeks from launch. DesignSpark was launched on 5th July 2010, giving engineers trusted and reliable information and resources, bringing together design information, user generated reviews and new free-of-charge tools to speed up the design process. The site can be accessed at www.designspark.com

A report jointly issued by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) and Bureau Veritas shows that AEG Power Solutions’ Protect PV.250 solar inverter offers remarkable efficiency. Energy conversion efficiency testing conducted according to European Standard EN 50530 yielded a very high efficiency grade of 98.7%.

TT electronics, the global electronics group supplying the world’s leading defence and aerospace manufacturers, has announced rapid progress by its divisions committed to the aerospace industry’s 21st Century Supply Chains (SC21) improvement programme. The divisions are cooperating internally to accelerate improvements and increase value for customers.

Avnet Embedded, an Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT) company, today announced that its franchise agreement with Sharp Microelectronics Europe for display products has been extended to cover the UK.

Actel today announced that its radiation-tolerant RTAX-DSP FPGAs have completed qualification in accordance with the military and aerospace industry standard MIL-STD-883 Class B specification. This qualification expands Actel’s support of high-speed signal processing applications for space payloads and exemplifies its ongoing innovation and commitment to serve designers of spaceflight systems.

Fast Track Switching is an innovative new Ethernet-based switching technology developed by HARTING that is ideally suited to communication and control of theatre, concert and indoor/outdoor event automation systems.

Aerco is stocking ELED, a new bipolar LED light source from Oxley designed to replace standard BA9 and E10 incandescent bulbs in push-button switches and panel instrumentation.

Mouser Electronics, Inc., known for its rapid introduction of the newest products, is opening its latest European office, in Milan, Italy. This continues Mouser’s roll out plan of sites in Europe, which began with Munich and also now includes the UK, which also services Scandinavia, France and Israel. The local Customer Service centre will open this September

Power Integrations (Nasdaq: POWI), the leader in high-voltage integrated circuits for energy-efficient power conversion, today published two new standby power supply reference designs using its recently announced TOPSwitch-JX IC product family. TOPSwitch-JX devices feature multi-mode control, minimizing power wasted in standby and delivering maximum efficiency over a wide range of operating loads.

Reaffirming its leadership in the space market, Actel today announced the first fully qualified flash based FPGAs for space flight applications. Actel’s RT ProASIC®3family successfully passed the extensive testing required for MIL-STD-883 Class B qualification.

Aerco has been appointed as the sole UK distributor by Winchester Electronics, the Connecticut-based company that is a world leader in rectangular connectors for high reliability applications. This addition to its connector portfolio means that Aerco now offers the widest range of rack and panel connectors in the UK.

ARX have authorised Avnet Abacus to take their full range of innovative thermal management solutions to the market across Europe. ARX is at the forefront of materials development in providing leading edge thermal management solutions. The management of heat generated in electronic systems remains a significant design issue. This agreement enables Avnet Abacus to promote and support an exceptional range of heat management products including heat sinks, fans and ARX’s pioneering graphite heat sheets.

Rutronik Elektronische Bauelemente GmbH is to distribute the entire product portfolio of Microchip Technology Inc. throughout the whole of Europe with immediate effect. The companies have now extended their successful 15-year partnership to Portugal and the Baltic.

DC-DC designers need MOSFET solutions that offer lower switching losses and less noise in a compact footprint. Leveraging its advanced process and packaging technologies, as well as system expertise, Fairchild Semiconductor (NYSE: FCS) has released a 150V MOSFET with low RDS(ON) (17mOhm MAX) and an optimized Figure of Merit (FOM) (17mOhm * 33nC: Max) to bring high efficiency, lower power dissipation and less heat in a 5mm x 6mm MLP footprint.

HCD, the contract electronics manufacturer, PCB design house, cable assembler and box build specialist, has responded to its clients requirements with the creation of a new volume production line in addition to its existing organisation which has been structured to respond very quickly to low volume orders typically placed by companies which are prototyping and trialling new products.

RS Components, the exclusive official global high-service level distributor for Arduino, today unveiled a comprehensive Arduino Resource Centre. The centre follows on from the recent Arduino DevCamp hosted through, DesignSpark, the new online design gateway to resources and review. RS offers the Arduino Duemilanove board, support modules, components and resources across Europe, Asia and Africa.

PRQA | Programming Research, announces that Derell, a leading embedded design company based in the Savoie Technolac, France, has selected PRQA’s static analysis tools to form part of its internal process improvement project. The first product developed using the process is an embedded calculator for battery monitoring and sharp charging estimation.

LynuxWorks, Inc., a world leader in the embedded software market, today announced that its LynxOS-SE operating system supports the ARM Cortex-A8 processor, with the first port on the Texas Instruments OMAP 3 platform. Designed for portable and mobile applications, OMAP 3 is the first family of multimedia application processors to integrate the superscalar ARM Cortex-A8 processor.

Avnet Abacus today announced that it has extended its franchise with Amphenol-Tuchel to become a system distributor for its products.

Electronic components distributor Digi-Key Corporation, recognized by design engineers as having the industry's broadest selection of electronic components available for immediate shipment, today announced it has stock on Littelfuse transient voltage suppression (TVS) SMD diode kits.