Electronic Specifier announces the launch of its December issue, closing the year with a broad-ranging examination of the technologies, challenges, and trends that shape the electronics industry.
The December edition of Electronic Specifier Design provides readers with technical insight, industry analysis, and forward-looking commentary, reflecting on a year marked by rapid innovation, skills pressures, and evolving system requirements across power, wireless, test and measurement, and emerging technologies.
The issue opens with an end-of-year comment from Managing Editor, Paige Hookway, that reflects on developments that influenced engineers and decision-makers throughout the past 12 months. It examines how economic uncertainty, supply chain stabilisation, and accelerating digitalisation as shaped priorities across design, manufacturing, and deployment.
The December issue also continues its focus on diversity and inclusion with a Women in Tech feature that examines how engineering continues to fail women. The article explores structural barriers, workplace culture, and long-standing challenges within the profession, while underlining the need for sustained and measurable change rather than short-term initiatives.
A STEM Spotlight feature looks at the role of design software in tackling skills shortages. It assesses how modern engineering tools support productivity, reduce onboarding time, and help bridge experience gaps, particularly as design teams face increasing complexity alongside constrained resources.
Test and measurement content forms a substantial part of the issue. A security-focused article examines smart locks with integrated cameras for biometric authentication, analysing design considerations, system performance, and testing requirements. This is followed by an in-depth look at innovations in millimetre-wave test instrumentation, reflecting rising demand driven by high-frequency communications, sensing, and radar applications.
Power electronics remains a central theme, beginning with an article on achieving efficiencies in electric motor drive design. The feature explores design techniques, component selection, and system-level optimisation as electrification continues to expand across industrial, automotive, and energy applications. A second power article examines the evolution of microcontrollers for Edge AI, outlining how architectural developments enable local intelligence while balancing power consumption, performance, and cost constraints.
Wireless design challenges are addressed through a detailed feature on antennas, highlighting how PCB design choices can limit antenna performance. The article offers practical guidance for engineers seeking to optimise wireless connectivity without compromising form factor, reliability, or manufacturability.
The issue concludes with two features dedicated to quantum technologies. The first explores efforts to democratise superconducting quantum design, examining how emerging tools and platforms lower barriers for engineers and researchers. The second focuses on the challenge of scaling quantum computers, assessing engineering constraints, system integration issues, and the steps required to move from laboratory-scale systems to practical implementations.
Read the December issue here:
