Avnet Abacus

Avnet Abacus will participate at this year’s electronica in Munich (November 13-16) as part of a consolidated Avnet EMEA presence. Avnet Abacus is one of four major business units that will each host a dedicated area of the stand, demonstrating the capabilities and support provided by the Avnet ecosystem.

The SPGA series from ALPS, a tactile switch that needs no battery or accumulator thanks to energy harvesting techniques is available from distributor Avnet Abacus. Based on magnetic induction technology, the modules measure just 17.5 x 23 x 17.9 and supply 170 µJ with every touch.

Nigel Ward has retired from the role of President, Avnet Abacus and will be replaced by another industry veteran Rudy Van Parijs. Ward leaves after a successful 30-year career with Avnet. Van Parijs joined EBV Elektronik, an Avnet company, in 1991, as a field application engineer.

It has been announced that Avnet Abacus, an interconnect, passive, electro-mechanical and power distributors and a regional business unit of Avnet, is the recipient of TDK Corporation’s 2017 European Senten Manten Gold award.

In a cost-effective way, Radio Frequency (RF) connectors seek to transfer data across multi-megahertz radio frequencies with minimal data loss from reflection and dispersion. Situated at the end of every cable with the job of transferring data to the next PCB or system, RF connectors operate like a gateway to the device-under-design; select the right one and the data being transferred passes without the least delay, select the wrong one and the signal will be slowed down or even held-up by reflections, leakage and attenuation.

A change in approach to antenna design and specification is well underway. Previously a somewhat overlooked element of the end design, the physical and power consumption characteristics are often so tight for the latest portable designs, that antenna design demands contemplation earlier in the design cycle. Guest piece written by Martin Keenan, Technical Director, Avnet Abacus.

Fuelled by the growing popularity of hybrid and full electric vehicles, plus an ever-buoyant consumer electronics industry, Li-ion has become the battery technology of choice for electronic devices on the move. With high storage capacities, high efficiency and longer lifecycles than many of their rechargeable counterparts, the Li-ion market is booming and the choice for electronic designers has multiplied. Guest piece written by Tim Parker, Product Marketing Manager, Batteries EMEA, Avnet Abacus.

When considering what type of pressure sensor is best suited for your industrial application, it may be an overwhelming experience looking at the sheer number of different choices available. Here’s a quick breakdown of the different pressure sensor technologies available and key pressure sensor attributes that should help you decide. Guest blog by Martin Keenan, Technical Director, Avnet Abacus.

  The regulatory requirements surrounding mission-critical and non-mission critical rolling stock power supplies are paramount to application safety, but ready made solutions are available to meet these complex standards.

Sensor fusion is an intriguing idea: if data from more than one sensor can be combined in the right way, the combined data can be more accurate, more reliable or simply provide a better understanding of the context in which the data was gathered. It is perfectly possible to combine data from two or more (or in fact, lots of) sensors to produce extremely rich, context aware data that eliminates the limitations in range or accuracy of the individual sensors.

Avnet Abacus is extending its distribution agreement with Panasonic to include RF and wireless module based products and technologies which cover all the latest communication protocols with ready-to-use modules for Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy and Wi-Fi. The focus is to help companies shorten their development cycle and gain faster time-to-market.

  Most modern power conversion topologies use switched-mode techniques for highest efficiency and smallest size and cost. Inevitably, switching noise is produced and output filters are required to minimise EMI and provide reliable operation of the power converter and load. This article looks at the effects of noise and some of the filtering techniques that can be used.

  In applications from the simplest cell-phone charger to grid-tied inverters operating at hundreds of kW, power conversion schemes are used which incorporate an intermediate stage where energy is processed at DC. A ‘DC-link’ capacitor is fitted at this point to provide a low impedance path for high frequency switching currents and to provide energy storage.

  The threat of explosion is real in many industrial applications, from petrochemical refineries and cleaning facilities to flour silos and even landfill sites. While explosion is a hazard anywhere there is a flammable substance in the atmosphere in the form of gas, vapour or dust, the presence of the flammable substance on its own is not enough to trigger an explosion.

Supercapacitors are commonly used wherever a quick energy boost is needed, as an alternative to a rechargeable battery. The most prevalent type of supercapacitors, EDLCs (Electrical Double Layer Capacitors), provide thousands or tens of thousands of times the capacitance of normal capacitors while their energy density makes them ten times smaller than batteries (more here about how EDLCs work in detail).

Today’s microprocessor-based systems require power sources that deliver high current and ultra fast transient performance, with tight regulation. This creates a need for cost effective, compact capacitors with high capacitance values. Electrolytic capacitors are the solution of choice but it’s important to go beyond specifying capacitance and voltage to consider Equivalent Series Resistance (ESR) as a figure of merit.

  These days, a typical specification for a power converter starts with a list of international standards that must be met for EMC and safety compliance. The requirements for functional performance are often many pages into the document.

  As data centres and data farms continue to expand and grow, better solutions are required for system architectures that allow faster communication and more efficient operation. The physical limits imposed by copper PCB traces are being reached - communication over copper is limited to around 10GBps, and at high speeds losses limit the distances to a few inches.

The combination of data from multiple sensor types can give electronic systems much richer and more accurate information about their environment, writes Martin Keenan, Technical Manager at Avnet Abacus.

  What is the most vulnerable component within an electronic design? Candidates would include anything with a moving part, such as a disk drive or fan, power supplies or fans which need strict control of temperature, and ICs which are sensitive to electrical noise.