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.

Did you know the origins of RFID technology can be traced to WWII? However, RFID as a technology only started to gain any recognition in product surveillance tags during the 1960s. Since then, RFID’s popularity has shown no signs of dimming. Used in any situation that requires contactless and non-line-of-sight identification of an individual object, RFID systems are now found at the heart of most supply chains.

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 ...

Legislation on eCall (emergency call) functionality is one of the major factors driving advanced vehicle connectivity today. An eCall subsystem will automatically call the emergency services in the event of an accident or crash. The system will be mandatory for all cars and vans sold in the EU from April 2018. Guest piece written by Alan Jermyn, Avnet Abacus.

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,...

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.

  LEDs are widely perceived as the perfect solution for lighting applications because, in theory, they last forever. What’s less frequently spoken about is the inconvenient truth: the circuit protection measures specified can make or break the design.

  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 indi...

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.

  Transportation covers a fairly broad field of endeavour, from railway systems through to hybrid electric vehicles, e-bikes, e-scooters and more besides. A focus on energy efficiency is leading to a continuous stream of technology enhancements.