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Design News

Details: Written by Staff; Category: Design News; Published: 18 February 2008

SANTA CLARA, CA - Agilent Technologies Inc. announced the availability of its latest Antenna Modeling Design System (AMDS) release. The company reports that its full-wave 3-D electromagnetic (EM) modeling and simulation software contains a scripting feature for the optimization and automation of complex antenna designs, allowing fine tuning for best performance within electronic devices, such as handheld wireless cell phones.

“We chose Python-based scripting because it is the most advanced scripting language,” said Jan Van Hese, Agilent R&D Manager. “With changes to the script, designs can be quickly and efficiently optimized and verified long before the phone is available for either simulation or physical testing.”

According to a company release, AMDS is a full-wave, 3-D EM design, modeling and verification tool dedicated to antenna systems design. It analyzes compliance standards such as HAC, SAR (Specific Absorption Rate), antenna diversity, and MIMO (Multiple-Input, Multiple Output). The company claims that simulating devices using AMDS can reduce design cycle time by up to 75%, as compared with other types of EM simulators currently available.

Python is a popular open-source object-oriented programming language that supports integration with other languages and tools, and comes with extensive libraries.

Details: Written by Staff; Category: Design News; Published: 18 February 2008

Details: Written by Staff; Category: Design News; Published: 13 February 2008

ATLANTA, GA. - The Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA) has announced that Jim Raby, renowned 50-year industry veteran, founder, technical director and program manager at STI Electronics will present the morning keynote, An Industry Perspective: Past, Present and Future, on April 17from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m.

Raby has spent his entire career in electronics manufacturing training scores of engineers and operators. His accomplishments include patents for wave soldering, work on the Saturn and Apollo programs, initiating the Zero Defect Program for wave soldering, and the development of the China Lake soldering schools. Raby was also instrumental in developing the IPC soldering certification curriculum and initiating the Electronics Manufacturing Productivity Facility. He is also known for the Lights Out factory concept for electronics manufacturing facilities.

“The 12th Annual Atlanta SMTA Expo is honored to feature Mr. Raby as our keynote. His service to the industry, pioneering spirit, dedication and mentoring of countless engineers is a true inspiration,” said chapter president CW Kelly.

The Atlanta SMTA Expo will be held at the Gwinnett Civic Center in Duluth, GA on Thursday, April 17, 2008, from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. The one-day event is free, and will feature suppliers to the electronics industry displaying products and services for the high-technology and surface-mount markets, and free technical presentations.

BARCELONA - Broadcom Corporation has announced a new HEDGE reference design platform for developing next-generation for mass consumer smartphones. The reference design is reportedly based on the company’s 65 nanometer single-chip dual-core HSDPA + EDGE multimedia baseband processor, and integrates several communications functions in a single platform.

According to company information, the new HEDGE reference design platform combines an HSDPA baseband modem that incorporates audio and multimedia processors with a Category 8 HSDPA 7.2 Mbps modem, joining them on a single monolithic chip. The platform provides support for the three mobile operating systems. Features include the company's Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS and FM radio technology, along with digital image processing that features support for an up to 3.2 megapixel camera. With this integration, the new reference design platform is said to require less board space with lower cost and power usage.

Bringing our various technologies together on a single reference design platform is a strong achievement, made possible by the breadth of our product portfolio and the strength of our engineering capabilities." says Michael Civiello, Senior Director of Marketing.