The new PROeco 2nd generation power supplies are designed to maximise the availability of automation applications. These power supplies offer significant space savings, with a width reduction of up to 40% on the 20 A and 40 A models compared to the first generation. This allows you to fit more items in the same space. This compact design is ideal for space-constrained applications, such as control cabinets in the field or any other general-purpose application.
Key features include:
• High performance and efficiency: These power supplies are suitable for a wide range of systems, ensuring reliable operation.
• Tri-colour LED: This feature facilitates easy diagnosis of systems that are approaching maximum load, with a clear yellow indicator to signal when attention is needed.
• Worldwide approvals: Suitable for all regions with a wide range of voltage inputs and global certification. Additionally, the series is fully compatible with Weidmuller’s DC UPS, electronic fusing and diode module accessories. This compatibility ensures seamless integration and enhanced functionality in various automation setups. Weidmuller Pty Ltd www.weidmuller.com.au
UNDERSTANDING THERMAL MANAGEMENT IN ELECTRONICS
As electronic devices become increasingly powerful and compact, managing heat effectively is more important than ever.
Electronics thermal management refers to the process of controlling the temperature of electronic components to maintain optimal performance, reliability and safety.
In this article, Active Components provides an overview of thermal management solutions and introduces four commonly used products in this field: cooling fans, heat sinks, thermal pads and thermal paste.
The importance of a thermal management system
Effective thermal management is crucial for maintaining the smooth and reliable opera-
tion of electronic devices. Every electronic component generates heat when in use and if this heat isn’t properly managed, it can impact performance, reduce lifespan and lead to reliability issues.
Reduced performance due to thermal throttling
When excessive heat accumulates, electronic devices often engage in thermal throttling, a protective measure that automatically lowers the device’s performance to prevent overheating. While this protects the components from immediate damage, it significantly reduces overall operational efficiency and responsiveness.
Component degradation and shortened lifespan
Continuous exposure to elevated temperatures accelerates the aging process of electronic components. Over time, persistent heat can degrade materials and internal structures, leading to reduced performance and a shortened lifespan. Efficient heat management helps preserve the longevity and reliability of electronic devices.
System instability and unexpected shutdowns Inadequate thermal management can cause instability within electronic systems, leading to unpredictable behaviour such as sudden shutdowns or operational failures. These unexpected interruptions can negatively impact user experience and productivity, making robust thermal management practices essential for maintaining stable and continuous device operations.
Importance across industries
Effective thermal management isn’t limited to high-performance computing systems. It’s equally vital for everyday consumer electronics such as smartphones, tablets and laptops, which users expect to remain consistently reliable and efficient.
Industrial equipment, which often operates under rigorous conditions and extended periods, also requires robust thermal solutions to sustain optimal performance and prevent operational downtime. Similarly, LED systems, known for their sensitivity to temperature variations, depend on precise heat dissipation to maintain efficiency and longevity. Finally, power electronics, which are central to energy conversion and management systems, generate substantial heat during operation, making effective thermal management indispensable for their safe and reliable operation.
Key products in thermal management solutions
Cooling fans
Cooling fans are an active cooling solution designed to move air across components and heat sinks, helping to remove heat and maintain system performance. They are commonly used in desktop computers, power supplies, telecom equipment and industrial enclosures — anywhere reliable airflow and temperature control are essential. Types of cooling fans:
• AC Fans — Ideal for moving large volumes of air over short distances.
• Centrifugal (Blower) Fans — Deliver higher static pressure, making them ideal for confined or enclosed spaces.
• DC Fans — Energy-efficient and widely used in electronic systems.
When selecting a fan, consider airflow needs, noise level, voltage rating and size to ensure optimal performance.
Heat sinks
Heat Sinks are passive thermal management components that absorb and dissipate heat from electronic devices. They maintain safe operating temperatures and ensure the performance, reliability and lifespan of components such as processors, power modules and LEDs.
A heat sink functions by transferring heat from the surface of a component to the surrounding air. This process begins with conduction, where heat is transferred from the device to the heat sink material, typically aluminium or copper, due to its excellent thermal conductivity. The heat is then released into the air through convection. In natural convection, air flows over the heat sink naturally, while in forced convection, fans or blowers are used to enhance airflow and improve heat dissipation.
Customised shape
The effectiveness of a heat sink is largely determined by its design, especially the surface area, fin arrangement and overall shape. A well-designed heat sink allows more heat to escape efficiently, helping to reduce the temperature of the component it protects. Therefore, heat sink geometry should be carefully considered during the design phase of any heat-sensitive application.
In some cases, the metal product enclosure itself may be designed to serve multiple functions, including acting as a heat sink. This approach is particularly effective in compact or sealed systems where space is limited.
Thermal pads
Thermal pads are a type of thermal interface material (TIM) used to enhance heat transfer between heat-generating components and cooling solutions, such as heat sinks or metal enclosures. While components and heat sinks may appear flat, microscopic surface imperfections often create air gaps when they come into contact. These gaps significantly reduce thermal conductivity, as air is a poor conductor of heat.
Thermal pads address this issue by filling the gaps, ensuring more efficient thermal contact between surfaces. Made from soft, thermally conductive materials, they conform easily to uneven surfaces, allowing heat to move more directly from the component to the cooling medium.
In addition to improving thermal conductivity, thermal pads offer several practical advantages. They are easy to handle and apply, especially compared to thermal pastes, which can be messy or require precise application. Thermal pads also provide consistent
thickness and pressure distribution, ensuring uniform thermal performance across the entire surface. Moreover, they are electrically insulating, which protects surrounding circuitry from potential short circuits.
Thermal pads are widely used in graphics cards (GPUs), voltage regulator modules (VRMs), memory modules and other components that have relatively flat surfaces and require reliable thermal contact. They are particularly well-suited for applications that benefit from ease of assembly or where future rework or replacement may be necessary, such as in prototyping or field servicing.
Thermal paste (thermal grease)
Thermal paste, also known as thermal compound or thermal grease, is a viscous substance used to enhance heat transfer between a processor (or any heat-generating component) and its heat sink. Its primary role is to eliminate microscopic air gaps that naturally occur due to surface imperfections on both the component and the heat sink.
Even when surfaces appear smooth, they contain tiny pits and ridges that trap air when the two surfaces are pressed together. Because air is a poor conductor of heat, these gaps can significantly reduce the efficiency of thermal transfer. Thermal paste fills these voids, creating a more efficient path for heat to transfer from the component to the heat sink.
Thermal paste is composed of thermally conductive particles, such as metal or ceramic, suspended in a polymer-based carrier. These particles increase the paste’s ability to transfer heat while the carrier keeps the paste pliable and easy to apply. When a thin, even layer is applied between the processor and heat sink, it spreads under pressure to form a continuous thermal interface that allows heat to flow efficiently.
Compared to thermal pads, thermal paste offers higher thermal conductivity, making it a preferred choice in high-performance systems, such as CPUs, GPUs and other processors, where precise and effective heat management is required.
While thermal paste requires a bit more care during application than thermal pads, it delivers superior thermal performance when applied correctly.
Combining passive and active cooling solutions
Thermal management includes a wide range of components beyond just fans, heat sinks or thermal materials. In real-world applications, optimal thermal performance frequently requires a combination of both passive and active cooling strategies:
Passive cooling solutions:
These include heat sinks, thermal interface materials, phase-change materials, and thermally conductive enclosures. Passive methods are generally silent and cost-effective, and require minimal maintenance, making them ideal for systems that generate moderate heat.
Active cooling solutions:
Active cooling technologies include fans, blowers, heat exchangers, liquid cooling systems and thermoelectric coolers. These active methods significantly improve heat dissipation, particularly in high-thermal-load scenarios, but introduce additional considerations, such as noise, energy consumption and maintenance requirements.
By carefully selecting and integrating these thermal management approaches, engineers can ensure that electronic systems consistently operate within safe temperature ranges, thereby effectively balancing performance, cost efficiency and reliability requirements.
Selecting the right thermal management solution
The appropriate thermal management strategy must consider several key factors during the design process:
Thermal load of the system
Determining the thermal load involves calculating the total heat generated by the system’s components. Different components, including processors, graphics units, power supplies
and other electronic circuits, produce varying amounts of heat. Accurate assessment of this heat generation is crucial for implementing an efficient cooling solution.
Space constraints within the enclosure
The available physical space significantly influences the choice of cooling methods. Compact systems necessitate efficient cooling solutions such as heat pipes, vapour chambers or micro-channel heat exchangers. In contrast, larger systems may accommodate conventional heat sinks and fan-based cooling arrangements.
Airflow availability and direction
Effective airflow management is crucial for efficiently dissipating heat. Evaluating available airflow — including direction, volume and velocity — helps determine the most suitable component arrangement and cooling solutions. Optimising airflow pathways enhances cooling performance without substantially increasing complexity or cost.
Performance and cost trade-offs
Balancing performance and cost is a critical consideration. Advanced cooling methods, such as liquid cooling and sophisticated heat exchangers, provide excellent cooling capabilities but typically come with higher costs. Passive cooling methods, such as heat sinks or thermal interface materials, are more budget-friendly but might be insufficient for systems with high thermal loads.
Source: Active Components www.activecomponents.com
Thermal pads.
Thermal paste.
Cooling fans.
Active Components
Heat sinks.
COMPUTATIONAL MODEL ENHANCES BATTERY SAFETY
Fast-charging lithium-ion batteries are ubiquitous, powering everything from cell phones and laptops to electric vehicles. They’re also notorious for overheating or catching fire.
Now, a University of Wisconsin-Madison mechanical engineer has gained new understanding of a phenomenon that causes lithium-ion batteries to fail.
Developed by Weiyu Li, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at UW-Madison, the model explains lithium plating, in which fast charging triggers metallic lithium to build up on the surface of a battery’s anode, causing the battery to degrade faster or catch fire.
This knowledge could lead to fast-charging lithium-ion batteries that are safer and longer-lasting.
The mechanisms that trigger lithium plating, until now, have not been well understood. With her model, Li studied lithium plating on a graphite anode in a lithium-ion battery. The model revealed how the complex interplay between ion transport and electrochemical reactions drives lithium plating.
“Using this model, I was able to establish relationships between key factors, such as operating conditions and material properties, and the onset of lithium plating,” Li said. “From these results, I created a diagram that provides physics-based guidance on strategies to mitigate plating. The diagram makes these findings very accessible,
and researchers can harness the results without needing to perform any additional simulations.”
Researchers can use Li’s results to design not only the best battery materials, but, importantly, charging protocols that extend battery life.
“This physics-based guidance is valuable because it enables us to determine the optimal way to adjust the current densities during charging, based on the state of charge and the material properties, to avoid lithium plating,” Li said.
Li’s model provides a way to investigate the onset of lithium plating over a much broader range of conditions, enabling a more comprehensive picture of the phenomenon.
Li plans to further develop her model to incorporate mechanical factors, such as stress generation, to explore their impact on lithium plating.
CORN PROTEIN BOOSTS LITHIUM-SULFUR BATTERY PERFORMANCE
contain a lot more energy, so using them in cars or aeroplanes would require much smaller and lighter batteries than current batteries. Furthermore, the lithium-sulfur battery uses sulfur for its cathode, which is abundantly available, cheap and non-toxic, making it more environmentally friendly than current batteries. The cathode of a lithium-ion battery is made of metal oxides and includes toxic heavy metals like cobalt or nickel.
In their proof-of-concept work, the researchers used corn protein as a cover for a separator in the middle of the battery to prevent both problems.
Researchers at Washington State University have demonstrated a way to use corn protein to improve the performance of lithiumsulfur batteries, a finding that holds promise for expanding the use of the high-energy, lighter-weight batteries in electric vehicles, renewable energy storage and other applications.
The WSU team’s research, published in the Journal of Power Sources, showed that a protective barrier made of corn protein, in combination with a commonly used plastic, significantly improved the performance of a button-sized lithium-sulfur battery. The researchers found that the battery could hold its charge over 500 cycles, a significant improvement over batteries without the protective corn barrier, known as a separator.
“This work demonstrated a simple and efficient approach to preparing a functional separator for enhancing the battery’s performance,” said Katie Zhong, professor in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and a corresponding author on the paper.
Lithium-sulfur batteries are considered a possible alternative to lithium-ion batteries for many applications. They theoretically
“Corn protein would make for a good battery material because it’s abundant, natural and sustainable,” said Jin Liu, professor in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering.
The building blocks of the protein are amino acids, which reacted with the battery materials to improve the movement of lithium ions and inhibit the shuttle effect. Because protein is naturally folded on top of itself, the researchers added a small amount of flexible plastic to flatten it and improve its performance.
“The first thing we need to think about is how to open the protein, so we can use those interactions and manipulate the protein,” Liu said.
The researchers conducted both numerical studies and experiments to prove the battery’s success. They are conducting further studies on how the process worked, which amino acid interactions might be responsible, and how the protein structure might be optimised.
“A protein is a very complicated structure,” Zhong said. “We need to do further simulation studies to identify which amino acids in the protein structure can work best for solving the critical shuttle effect and dendrite problems.”
SCIENTISTS UNVEIL FLEXIBLE OLED PANEL WITH BUILT-IN SPEAKER
Researchers from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) have developed a smartphone-type OLED panel that can transform its shape while functioning as a speaker, without sacrificing its ultra-thin and flexible properties. This study, led by Professor Su Seok Choi from the Department of Electrical Engineering, was published in the journal npj Flexible Electronics
The OLED panel developed by POSTECH is based on a specialised ultra-thin piezoelectric polymer actuator. When integrated into a flexible OLED panel, this actuator enables electrically driven shape transformation into a variety of complex forms — not only concave curves, but also convex, S-shaped, inverse S-shaped and wave-like configurations that respond dynamically, almost like a display in motion.
This deformation is achieved through electrical signals, without any mechanical hinges, gears or external motors. The OLED display maintains its signature thinness, softness and lightweight profile, achieving mechanical freedom without any physical burden.
The same actuator can also generate vibrations in response to highfrequency electrical signals, allowing the OLED panel to function as a speaker. This means the display surface itself emits sound, thereby removing the need for traditional speaker hardware.
“This is the first technology to combine freeform shape morphing and built-in sound output in a single ultra-thin OLED panel, without external components. We preserved everything OLEDs are known for — thinness and flexibility — and expanded their functionality in a whole new direction of complex and dynamic shape morphing with additional sound emission,” Choi said.
The researchers also implemented this technology on a smartphone-scale OLED panel. The panel demonstrated reliable, reversible shape transformation between a variety of geometries and clear sound generation — all while remaining compact, flexible and thin. This solution contrasts with current displays, as it merges mechanical adaptability and acoustic output, which are fully embedded in the OLED structure itself.
The OLED panel lays the groundwork for a new generation of intelligent, shape-adaptive and audio-responsive displays across multiple industries. Potential applications range from morphing mobile displays, immersive automotive dashboards and audio-visual wearables, to soft robots with interactive, expressive surfaces.
CRACKING THE CODE ON SOLID-STATE BATTERIES
From electric vehicles to wireless earbuds, traditional lithiumion batteries power our daily lives as they charge fast and store plenty of energy. However, they rely on a solution known as liquid electrolyte, which can catch on fire if damaged or overheated.
University of Missouri researchers may have a solution. Assistant Professor Matthias Young and team are figuring out how to use solid electrolytes instead of liquids or gels to make solid-state batteries, which are safer and more energy efficient.
“When the solid electrolyte touches the cathode, it reacts and forms an interphase layer that’s about 100 nanometres thick — 1000 times smaller than the width of a single human hair,” said Young, who has joint appointments in Mizzou’s College of Engineering and College of Arts and Science. “This layer blocks the lithium ions and electrons from moving easily, increasing resistance and hurting battery performance.”
Understanding this issue with solid-state batteries — and how to overcome it — has vexed scientists for more than a decade.
Young’s team tackled the problem by better understanding the root cause.
Using four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy (4D STEM), the researchers examined the atomic structure of the battery without taking it apart — a revolutionary breakthrough for the field. This novel process allowed them to gain a fundamental understanding of the chemical reactions happening inside batteries, ultimately determining that the interphase layer was the culprit.
A potential solution
Young’s lab specialises in thin-films formed by a vapour-phase deposition process known as oxidative molecular layer deposition (oMLD). Now, he plans to test whether his lab’s thin-film materials can form protective coatings to prevent the solid electrolyte and cathode materials from reacting with each other.
“The coatings need to be thin enough to prevent reactions but not so thick that they block lithium-ion flow,” he said. “We aim to maintain the high-performance characteristics of the solid electrolyte and cathode materials. Our goal is to use these materials together without sacrificing their performance for the sake of compatibility.”
This carefully engineered approach at the nanoscale level will help ensure these materials work together seamlessly — making solid-state batteries one step closer to reality.
MACHINE LEARNING ENHANCES PEROVSKITE SOLAR CELL PRODUCTION
In the lab, perovskite solar cells show high efficiency in converting solar energy into electricity. In combination with silicon solar cells, they could play a role in the next generation of photovoltaic systems. Now researchers at KIT have demonstrated that machine learning is a crucial tool for improving the data analysis required for commercial fabrication of perovskite solar cells. Their research findings have been published in Energy and Environmental Science
Photovoltaics are a key technology in efforts to decarbonise the energy supply. Solar cells based on perovskite semiconductor layers already boast very high efficiency levels. They can be produced economically in thin and flexible designs. “Perovskite photovoltaics is at the threshold of commercialisation but still faces challenges in longterm stability and scaling to large surface areas,” said Professor Ulrich Wilhelm Paetzold, a physicist who conducts research at the Institute of Microstructure Technology and the Light Technology Institute (LTI) at KIT.
“Our research shows that machine learning is crucial to improving the monitoring of perovskite thin-film formation that’s needed for industrial production.” With deep learning (a machine learning method that uses neural networks), the KIT researchers were able to make quick and precise predictions of solar cell material characteristics and efficiency levels at scales exceeding those in the lab.
A Step towards industrial viability
“With measurement data recorded during production, we can use machine learning to identify process errors before the solar cells are finished. We don’t need any other examination methods,” said Felix Laufer, an LTI researcher and lead author of the paper. “This method’s speed and effectiveness are a major improvement for data analysis, making it possible to solve problems that would otherwise be very difficult to deal with.”
By analysing a novel dataset documenting the formation of perovskite thin films, the researchers leveraged deep learning to identify correlations between process data and target variables such as power conversion efficiency.
“Perovskite photovoltaics has the potential to revolutionise the photovoltaics market,” said Paetzold, who heads the LTI’s Next Generation Photovoltaics department. “We show how process fluctuations can be quantitatively analysed with characterisation methods enhanced by machine learning techniques to ensure high material quality and film layer homogeneity across large areas and batch sizes. This is a crucial step toward industrial viability.”
Artificial intelligence assists with monitoring and optimising the production of perovskite solar cells.
Markus Breig, KIT; Felix Laufer, KIT.
WEARABLE BIOSENSORS
ENABLE REAL-TIME HEALTH MONITORING
Kimm Fesenmaier, Caltech
The future of medicine may very well lie in the personalisation of health care — knowing exactly what an individual needs and then delivering just the right mix of nutrients, metabolites and medications, if necessary, to stabilise and improve their condition. To make this possible, physicians first need a way to continuously measure and monitor certain biomarkers of health.
To that end, a team of Caltech engineers has developed a technique for inkjet printing arrays of special nanoparticles that enables the mass production of long-lasting wearable sweat sensors. These sensors could be used to monitor a variety of biomarkers, such as vitamins, hormones, metabolites and medications, in real time, providing patients and their physicians with the ability to continually follow changes in the levels of those molecules.
Wearable biosensors that incorporate the new nanoparticles have been successfully used to monitor metabolites in patients suffering from long COVID and the levels of chemotherapy drugs in cancer patients at City of Hope in Duarte, California.
“These are just two examples of what is possible,” said Wei Gao, a professor of medical engineering in the Andrew and Peggy Cherng Department of Medical Engineering at Caltech. “There are many chronic conditions and their biomarkers that these sensors now give us the possibility to monitor continuously and noninvasively,” said Gao, who is the corresponding author on a paper in the journal Nature Materials describing the new technique.
Gao and his team describe the nanoparticles as core-shell cubic nanoparticles. The cubes are formed in a solution that includes the molecule that the researchers want to track — for example, vitamin C. As the monomers spontaneously assemble to form a polymer, the target molecule — vitamin C — is trapped inside the cubic nanoparticles. Next, a solvent is used to specifically remove the vitamin C molecules, leaving behind a molecularly imprinted polymer shell dotted with holes that have shapes exactly matching that of the vitamin C molecules — akin to artificial antibodies that selectively recognise
the shapes of only particular molecules.
Importantly, in the new study, the researchers combine those specially formed polymers with a nanoparticle core made of nickel hexacyanoferrate (NiHCF). This material can be oxidised or reduced under an applied electrical voltage when in contact with human sweat or other bodily fluids. Returning to the vitamin C example, fluid will come into contact with the NiHCF core as long as the vitamin C–shaped holes are unoccupied, and this will generate an electrical signal.
When vitamin C molecules come into contact with the polymer, however, they slip into those holes, thus preventing sweat or other bodily fluids from making contact with the core. This weakens the electrical signal. The strength of the electrical signal, then, reveals just how much vitamin C is present.
“This core is critical. The nickel hexacyanoferrate core is highly stable, even in biological fluids, making these sensors ideal for long-term measurement,” said Gao.
The new core-shell nanoparticles are highly versatile and are used in printing sensor arrays that measure levels of multiple amino acids, metabolites, hormones, or drugs in
sweat or bodily fluids simply by using multiple nanoparticle “inks” in a single array. For example, in the work described in the paper, the researchers printed out nanoparticles that bind to vitamin C along with other nanoparticles that bind to the amino acid tryptophan and creatinine, a biomarker commonly measured to see how well the kidneys are working. All of the nanoparticles were combined into one sensor that was then mass produced. These three molecules are of interest in studies of patients with long COVID.
Similarly, the researchers printed out nanoparticles-based wearable sensors that were specific to three different antitumor drugs on individual sensors that were then tested on cancer patients at City of Hope.
“Demonstrating the potential of this technology, we were able to remotely monitor the amount of cancer drugs in the body at any given time,” said Gao. “This is pointing the way to the goal of dose personalisation not only for cancer but for many other conditions as well.”
In the paper, the team also showed that the nanoparticles can be used to print sensors that can be implanted just below the skin to precisely monitor drug levels in the body.
Caltech.
Caltech.
The fully integrated wireless wearable patch for long COVID monitoring.
A wearable sweat sensor based on the core–shell nanoparticle technology.
This is a brief overview of EMC compliance with some practical tips on not getting caught out.
What is EMC and why should I care?
Imagine having an apparently working electronics product only to put it through compliance testing and have it fail. How frustrating! You got right up to the finish line and then suddenly you are swept backwards. There are ways to reduce that risk and this article looks at how electronics design teams can use good design process, and some basic measurements you can do yourself with modestly priced equipment to spot problems at the prototype stage.
The first thing to appreciate is that meeting the safety and EMC standards for the country you sell an electronics product in is a legal obligation. In Australia we have the Electrical Equipment Safety Scheme (EESS) which allows you to register yourself and your product, and also show your evidence of compliance. This allows you to put the Regulatory Compliance Mark (RCM) and your EESS vendor ID on the product.
If that sounds like a bunch of lawyers were involved, then that is partly true. The framework is legal but the compliance thresholds are technical. They are there to reduce the likelihood anyone gets injured or anything goes wrong because products are not designed well enough. We know we need this because in the past these types of problems happened, and it didn’t end well.
The other thing a compliance test house does is keep your test results on file and confirm to anyone asking that your test report is real. This is part of what you are buying when you pay for a compliance test report. So that’s the background.
From here we focus on EMC or ElectroMagnetic Compatibility, which covers:
• Radiated emissions — we are acting like an unintentional radio
• Conducted emissions — high frequency noise on cables including mains
• Susceptibility — we are adversely affected by ESD or either of the above from other devices
How do we navigate this?
The first step is to determine what standards apply. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) sets the standards and offers a list of applicable
AVOIDING EMC ISSUES
SIMPLE TESTS YOU CAN DO YOURSELF
Ray Keefe, Managing Director, Successful Endeavours
EMC standards on its website so you can determine the appropriate standard. It pays to be thorough here. Some examples are: ISM Equipment is covered by AS CISPR 11 and Multimedia is covered by AS/NZS CISPR 32.
How to avoid problems?
EMC Rule #1: You don’t need to solve a problem you didn’t create in the first place!
Let’s look at what is involved:
• Know what EMC standard applies — see above
• Read the data sheets for EMC guidance
• Impedance matching components in the right location
• Reduce dV/dt and dI/dt transients
• Reduce current loop area
• Filter at the edge
• Ferrites to Absorb HF energy
• PCB layer strategy
• Shielding if you need it
That is quite a list, but it is a useful reminder of all the areas that contribute to either having or not having a problem.
For the datasheet item, it is not unusual to find a note buried deep inside a power module data sheet saying, “To comply with EMC you will need to add …”. Seriously? But alas true. This leads to cheap products designed badly that appear to work but are not compliant. They could add those filter components to the module but that would make the module more expensive and potentially larger. To be fair, the nature of the required filter is sometimes dependent on the application. But I wish they were more up-front about it.
Matching components for impedancecontrolled networks need to be correctly positioned to work correctly. The PCB layout must take that into account. You can’t just dump components where it makes your life easier doing the layout. Physics and RF behaviour are geometrically dependent when it comes to PCB layouts.
Reducing voltage and current rise-and-fall times (dV/dt and dI/dt) reduces the higher
frequency signals they generate. This can be done by adding RC filters or setting bus controllers to soft drive.
Reducing current loop area reduces the radiating area. This is usually done by running the current return tracks back along the same path as the current feed. Or making them shorter. You are trying to make a smaller aerial for radiated emissions.
Filtering at the edge of a PCB will reduce the noise coming into the PCB, which improves its susceptibility results, and can prevent noise getting onto cables where it can radiate freely.
Use of energy-absorbing elements like ferrite beads can absorb RF energy. You can also use both filters and ferrites internally to constrain noise to specific regions of the PCB. The more you let it spread the harder it is to stop.
PCBs have layers. Choosing which ones are ground and how the layer stack works can also reduce EMC and susceptibility issues. If you have two ground layers in a
four-layer PCB you can run noisy signals in between them so they act like shields. Make sure you allow for that when routing impedance-controlled tracks as the calculations give different results depending on whether tracks are on an outer layer or inner layer.
Shielding could be your final step. Most RF modules have small shields on the PCB because they want to limit unintentional radiation. It also helps with susceptibility. Some products need a fully shielded enclosure. You might also need shielded cables.
So being proactive and following guidelines like these can help you not have problems. But how do you know for sure?
Measure EMC in-house
A compliance test will typically cost between $7000 and $20,000 depending on the product category and the number of countries you want to sell your product in. That is a sizable expense, so you want to make sure you pass!
There are two ways to do this:
1. Pay by the hour for use of a compliance test house and they will do tests and show you informal test results. Typical rates for this are $400 per hour. You must fit into their schedule.
2. Have some equipment and do initial tests in-house to spot obvious problems and fix them before going to a compliance test house. This has the advantage that you can check for improvements without having to go back to the test house each time. We have chosen the second option. We do this all the time and it quickly pays for itself. The sort of equipment we selected is:
• Low noise test area
• Spectrum analysers
• Antennas
• Near field probes
• LISN
• TEM cell
A quiet place to test is the best place to start. Not strictly a piece of equipment but definitely part of the test set-up. You then use >
the equipment with less concern about what signals are from the device under test, DUT, and what is just there from the rest of the world.
This is easiest to show with a real case study. Below is a test house-provided mains conducted emissions test report to CISPR 11.
The black triangles are the problem areas. But what is causing this?
Next, we tested in-house using a spectrum analyser fed by a line impedance stabilisation network (LISN) to separate the RF portion from the regular mains portion so we could look at just the RF portion.
Peak 5 of the spectrum analyser correlates to Peak 1 from the test house. Now we have our first big bonus from in-house testing. The four peaks below are not on the test house report because they are not looking below 150 KHz for conducted emissions. Based on their separation and ~25 KHz minimum spacing we are confident that this is coming from the RCM compliant mains power supply module we are using as the primary power supply. A power supply can pass a compliance test with a simple load, like a resistor, but fail if the load is more complex, or in this case, we have a bridge rectifier upstream.
Now we zoom in and use some near-field probes to find where these specific frequencies originate. Right is a picture of the sort of probes available and you can also get preamplifiers for locating faint signals. The one with the pointier end is for electric field tracing and the other three are for magnetic field tracing. Both probes pointed to the same problem area.
We determined the bridge rectifier was too slow and allowed switching noise through when
changing current direction. Add a suitable X class capacitor on the power feed side and retest and the problem was solved, including all the higher frequency peaks that were generated. We would not have spotted that root cause as easily from just the test house scan. Radiated emissions are more complicated. You will need antennas or a transient electromagnetic (TEM) cell which is like a small, screened room. Lots of other things contribute to locally detected radiated emissions because, unlike a cable, every radio in range, including cell towers, is contributing to the scene. The TEM cell is a good solution for small products and encloses the product and collects all the emis-
sions, separating them from outside emissions sources. The spectrum analyser connects to the TEM cell so you can see what is happening. If the product is larger and can’t fit into the TEM cell, then we typically use smaller log periodic antennas because they are compact and cover a wide frequency range. We usually look at relative results to demonstrate an improvement has been made. Above is a typical set of log periodic antennas. Even if you need to do a pre-compliance scan at a test house, having the in-house gear and knowing the level of improvement you need allows you to do that faster and with higher confidence. You iterate without incurring the higher costs of the test house.
Conclusion
EMC compliance is a legal obligation for products sold in the Australian market as well as overseas markets. While compliance test houses can provide you with comprehensive test reports and are necessary for formal proof of compliance, a mixture of good design practice and basic in-house precompliance test capability can save you a lot of headaches when you are ready to go and get that formal compliance test certificate.
There are many options for in-house precompliance test equipment; below is a list of what was used in the examples above. These are not the only options:
• Rigol DSA-815 Spectrum Analyser
• TEKBOX TBPS01-40dB near field probes with 40 dB RF amplifier
• TEKBOX TBTC2 TEM cell
• Kent Electronics Log Periodic Antennas
• Mains AC LISN — we built our own for low-current testing
POLE-MOUNTABLE ENCLOSURES
Metcase’s premium Technomet-Control HMI enclosures can now be specified with a mounting bracket (accessory) for poles and masts Ø 50 mm or larger.
Applications include HMI, panel PCs, industrial control, factory processing, security systems, test and measurement, point-of-sale terminals, IIoT and detection equipment.
The pole mounting bracket fits the standard VESA mounting holes on the rear panel of all sizes of the enclosures. It is manufactured from mild steel CR4, is powder coated traffic white (RAL 9016), weighs 0.5 kg and is supplied with four M4 x 6 mm fixing screws. Four slots allow plastic or metal straps to be used to secure the bracket to the pole or mast.
The pole-mountable enclosures are suitable for mounting displays by Siemens (KTP400 to TP1200), Turck Banner (TX705 to TX810), Beijer (X2), Beckhoff, B&R and other manufacturers.
These smart aluminium enclosures also feature a modern, cohesive design. Diecast front and rear bezels fit flush with the main case body for a smooth appearance. Inside, there are M3 PCB pillars on the rear panel. M3 holes and guide rails in the assembly extrusions accommodate internal plates. All panels have M4 pillars for earth connections.
The enclosures can be specified in four sizes from 230 x 180 x 95 mm to 420 x 300 x 95 mm.
In addition to the pole mounting bracket, accessories include front panels, internal mounting plate kits and wall mounting kits.
Metcase can also supply fully customised enclosures. Services include custom sizes (heights, widths and depths), custom front panels, CNC machining, fixings and inserts, painting and finishing, and photo-quality digital printing of legends, logos and graphics.
ROLEC OKW Australia New Zealand P/L www.metcase.com.au
Format: 180 x 135 mm
COMPONENTS
FAULHABER has expanded its drive technology range with a line-up of Ø 16 mm components – precision motors, gearheads and encoders – designed for seamless integration and enhanced performance.
The 1627 GXR brushed motor offers high torque, wide voltage options (4.5–24 V) and robust customisation, including vacuum and high-temp variants. Its hexagonal winding and magnets are designed to enhance durability and thermal stability.
Complementing it, the 1627 SXR joins the SXR family with precious-metal commutation and an optimised power-to-volume ratio – suitable for demanding applications in medical tech, automation and robotics. Pair these motors with the 16GPT planetary gearhead, which delivers high speed and torque in compact spaces. Its rugged design facilitates load handling under tough conditions.
Rounding out the system is the IEX3 magnetic encoder, featuring 0.3° accuracy, wide voltage compatibility and a -40 to +100°C range. Compact and maintenance-friendly, it’s suitable for precision motion control.
Together, these diameter-matched components form a highperformance drive system – compact, configurable and ready to meet the needs of today’s advanced engineering challenges.
ERNTEC Pty Ltd www.erntec.net
INTERFACE CARD
AI BOX PC
Advantech has launched the EPC-R7300 Orin Nano Super, an ultra-compact embedded AI Box PC powered by the NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano 8GB module. Delivering up to 67 TOPS of AI performance with just 25 W power consumption, this Ubuntuready system is designed for small large language models (LLMs), vision language models (VLMs) and vision transformers (ViTs) in edge AI applications.
Paired with JetPack 6.2, the AI box PC supports AI models with fewer than 10 billion parameters, enabling natural language processing, robotics, voice interfaces, retail analytics and industrial vision. It provides a high-performance, privacy-focused platform for real-time intelligence across industries.
Designed for developers, the PC features RS-485, CANbus, multiple Ethernet ports and support for USB/IP cameras. It includes 2 x USB 3.2, HDMI 2.0 (4K output) and 3 x M.2 slots for Wi-Fi 6, 4G/5G and NVMe SSD storage. Seamless integration with NVIDIA’s ecosystem enables hassle-free deployment. With a rugged design, the AI box PC supports -2060°C temperatures, 936 V power input, and 3.0 Grms vibration tolerance, making it suitable for harsh industrial environments.
Up to 5 rear I/O configurations, including serial ports, isolated DIOs, USB 2.0 and a 4-port GbE hub, allow extensive customisation. With built-in BSP drivers, the EPC-R7300 facilitates seamless functionality for next-gen edge AI applications. Advantech Australia Pty Ltd www.advantech.net.au
Metromatics now offers Alta Data’s new multi-protocol XMC interface card, the XMC-MAS. This advanced card integrates MIL-STD-1553, ARINC and RS-232/422/485 interfaces into a single, compact solution, providing versatility for a range of avionics applications.
The interface card is designed for SBCs or carrier boards compatible with VPX, VME and cPCI/PXI systems. It is available in commercial-grade, extended temperature and rugged/ conduction-cooled versions, making it suitable for use in cargo aircraft, helicopters and ground vehicles where size, weight and power consumption are critical.
The card features Multi-Protocol Support, with 1-2 MIL-STD-1553A/B channels, up to 4 ARINC channels and 4 asynchronous serial channels (RS232/422/485). It also offers advanced 1553 and ARINC signal generation and A/D signal capture, simplifying system diagnostics and integration. Designed to meet the highest IPC-Level 3 manufacturing standards and certified to ISO 9001:2015, the card is also suitable for harsh environments.
The card includes the AltaCore engine and AltaAPI SDK for seamless software integration across multiple operating systems. AltaView analyser software is also included for comprehensive data monitoring.
The XMC-MAS is suitable for a range of applications, including avionics system integration; it simplifies system design by offering multiple communication protocols on a single platform. It is also useful for supporting critical communication and control systems in military and industrial vehicles.
Metromatics is the authorised partner for Alta Data Technologies in Australia and New Zealand, providing local sales, service and support to facilitate the integration and operation of Alta products. Metromatics Pty Ltd www.metromatics.com.au
OPEN STANDARD MODULE
ADLINK Technology has launched the OSM-MTK510, an open standard module (OSM) R1.1 Size-L with a 662 BGA module powered by the MediaTek Genio 510 series processor. The product is designed for efficiency, with a comprehensive AI workload for real-time decision-making and complex data processing.
The module is anchored by a 6-core CPU with 2x Arm Cortex-A78 for demanding tasks and 4x Arm Cortex-A55 for ultralow power consumption, consuming less than 5 W, alongside the MediaTek DLA+VPU AI engine, delivering up to 3.2 TOPS to accelerate AI computations that enable realtime intelligent decision-making.
With its integrated neural processing unit (NPU), the module drives fast AI model inference and streamlines machine learning tasks. It also features up to 8 GB LPDDR4 RAM and 128 GB eMMC to support efficient processing and storage for large datasets and computational AI tasks.
The module’s graphics offer 4K support and a variety of video output options, including HDMI/DP, eDP and DSI. It also includes 1x GbE, USB 3.0, USB 2.0, I2S audio codec interface and 17x GPIOs, to enable portability into various applications.
Its rugged design optionally supports operating temperatures from -40 to 85°C, suitable for extreme and highvibration environments. The OSM form factor is a compact computer-on-module designed for solderable BGA mini modules, supporting both ARM and x86 designs. At 45 x 45 mm, the OSM Size-L modules offer high performance in a compact form factor.
ADLINK Technology Inc www.adlinktech.com
SENSOR ENCLOSURE
OKW Gehäusesysteme has launched the MINI-DATA-BOX, a small and versatile enclosure designed for universal application in sensor technology. Engineered for quick and easy installation, the enclosure is suitable for housing sensors in any environment, due to its IP65 protection rating. The enclosure is available in both flanged and non-flanged versions. The flanged models feature knockouts that allow for secure mounting with cable ties on poles or screws on flat surfaces, providing flexibility in installation.
The enclosure is built from high-quality ASA+PC (UL 94V-0) material with an all-around tongue and groove joint, making it tough and durable. The ‘diamond cut’ lid enhances its aesthetic appeal, enabling it to fit into a range of environments.
This series offers four sizes (40 x 40 mm to 70 x 50 mm) and two heights (15 mm and 20 mm) in traffic white and anthracite grey as standard options. Additionally, the flange range is available in two colours, combining traffic white and traffic grey A, resulting in a total of 40 product variants.
In the era of Industry 4.0, the MINI-DATA-BOX meets the demand for quick and easy-to-install sensor units, making it suitable for IIoT Networks. Its adaptable design also allows for swift installation on poles, rails and walls.
ROLEC OKW Australia New Zealand P/L www.okw.com.au
PANEL PC
Advantech has launched its Armbased HMI TPC-100W series, powered by NXP’s i.MX 8M Mini quad-core processor. The panel PC comes with Arm SystemReady IR certification and features Secure Boot, a critical safeguard against unauthorised firmware and malicious code. Using public key infrastructure (PKI), this security layer protects system integrity and safeguards sensitive operations from cyberthreats.
With SystemReady IR certification, the panel PC adheres to industry standards, including support for UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). UEFI enables consistent boot processes, reducing integration complexity and improving system compatibility — key for industrial applications where uptime is vital.
The certification also enables support for a wide range of operating systems, including Linux Yocto, Ubuntu and Debian. This compatibility allows easy integration into existing ecosystems. Standardised boot processes facilitate automatic security updates, helping developers focus on application development rather than system configuration.
With the TPC-100W series, Advantech enables industrial clients to accelerate deployment, enhance cybersecurity and reduce timeto-market.
Advantech Australia Pty Ltd www.advantech.net.au
TRANSPARENT ANTENNA
Quectel Wireless Solutions has launched the YFCX001WWAH 5G transparent antenna, an innovative solution designed to improve connectivity while maintaining device design. The transparent antenna combines efficiency, transparency and adaptability, offering manufacturers greater flexibility in device design while providing 5G connectivity.
The transparent antenna leverages advanced material science and micro-manufacturing techniques to deliver high signal efficiency in a near invisible form. Utilising nanoscale fabrication, it enables precise signal transmission while maintaining over 85% transparency, allowing integration into glass, plastic and composite materials. Its ultra-thin design, measuring 0.123 mm thick, makes it suitable for space-constrained applications, eliminating the need for bulky external antennas.
The antenna features a lightweight and ergonomic design, making it suitable for wearables, automotive and industrial applications across multiple industries, including VR and AR wearables, automotive, smart agriculture and smart cities. The antenna is also built with multi-layer flexible composite materials, allowing installation on curved surfaces, transparent displays and architectural glass, enhancing connectivity across smart agriculture, smart cities and industrial IoT environments.
Quectel www.quectel.com
DIGITAL ISOLATORS
Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation has launched a line-up of 4-channel high-speed standard digital isolators for automotive applications. The DCM34xx01 Series features 10 devices that support stable operation with high commonmode transient immunity (CMTI) of 100 kV/µs (typ.) and a high data transmission rate of 50 Mbps (max). The series of digital isolators conforms to the AEC-Q100 standard on the safety and reliability of automotive electronic components. The isolators feature Toshiba’s proprietary magnetic coupling type isolated transmission method to achieve a high CMTI of 100 kV/µs (typ.). This delivers high-level resistance to electric noise between input and output in isolated signal transmission, enables stable control signal transmission and contributes to stable equipment operation. In addition, a low-pulse-width distortion of 0.8 ns (typ.) and a data-transmission rate of 50 Mbps are also achieved. The new products are suitable for multi-channel high-speed communication applications such as I/O interfaces with SPI communications. Toshiba (Australia) Pty Ltd www.toshiba.com.au
PHOTONIC COMPUTING WITH SOUND WAVES
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light
Neural networks are one typical structure on which artificial intelligence can be based. The term ‘neural’ describes their learning ability, which to some extent mimics the functioning of neurons in our brains.
To be able to work, several key ingredients are required: one of them is an activation function which introduces nonlinearity into the structure. A photonic activation function has important advantages for the implementation of optical neural networks based on light propagation.
Researchers in the Stiller Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) and Leibniz University Hannover (LUH) in collaboration with Dirk Englund at MIT have now experimentally shown an all-optically controlled activation function based on travelling sound waves. It is suitable for a wide range of optical neural network approaches and allows operation in the socalled synthetic frequency dimension.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is widely used and designed to augment human skills such as data analysis, text generation and image recognition. Its performance has surpassed that of humans in many areas, for example in terms of speed. Tasks which would take many hours of work when performed manually can be completed in seconds.
Among other options, AI can be based on artificial neural networks inspired by the brain. Similar to neurons in the human brain, the nodes of the neural networks are linked in a very complex structure. Currently, they are most commonly implemented using digital connections. Recent experience in training artificial intelligence such as large language models has made it clear that their energy consumption is vast and will increase exponentially in the upcoming years. Therefore, scientists are researching a solution intensively and considering different physical systems which could support or partially replace electronic systems for certain tasks. These networks could be based on optical materials, on structures of molecules, on DNA strands, or even the development of mushroom structures.
Optics and photonics have many advantages over conventional electronic systems
Optics and photonics have the advantage of high bandwidths and information encoding in high-dimensional symbols — both reasons
for the speed-up of our communication system. Photonic systems are already quite advanced and often allow parallel processing and connection to established systems such as the optical fibre-based world-wide internet. When scaling up, photonics also holds the promise of lower energy consumption for complex problems. Now, research groups are tapping into these resources and knowledge to implement optical neural networks in many different ways. However, many key challenges must be addressed, for example the up-scaling of the photonic hardware and the reconfigurability of the neural networks.
All-optically controlled activation function based on sound waves demonstrated for the first time
Researchers in the Stiller Lab work on optoacoustics and specifically on the challenge of optical neural networks mediated by acoustic waves. For the upscaling of the optical neural networks, they have now developed an activation function which can be controlled alloptically. The information does not need to be converted back from the optical to the electronic domain. This development is an important step for photonic computing, a physical analog computing alternative which promises to be able to realise energy-efficient artificial intelligence in the long term. A simple form of a neural network consists of a weighted sum of bits of the incoming information and a nonlinear activation function. The nonlinear activation function is essential for deep learning models to learn to solve complex tasks. In optical neural networks, these parts are ideally implemented in the photonic domain as well. For the weighted sum — a matrix >
The researchers in the lab: Steven Becker, Grigorii Slinkov and Birgit Stiller.
MPL, Susanne Viezens.
ACOUSTIC WAVES
multi-frequency neural network.
operator — a plethora of photonic approaches already exist. This is not the case for the nonlinear activation function, for which few approaches have been demonstrated experimentally.
“The long-term prospect of creating more energy-efficient optical neural networks depends on whether we are able to scale up the physical computing systems, a process potentially facilitated by a photonic activation function,” said Birgit Stiller, head of the research group Quantum Optoacoustics.
A photonic nonlinear activation function is the optical equivalent of the nonlinear activation functions used in artificial neural networks, but implemented using photonic devices instead of electronics. It introduces nonlinearity into photonic computing systems, enabling all-optical neural networks and optical machine learning accelerators. Examples of activation functions are ReLU, sigmoid or tanh functions and they can transform the weighted sum of inputs into an artificial neural network.
Sound waves as a mediator for an effective photonic activation function
The scientists from the Stiller Research Group at MPL and LUH, in collaboration with Dirk Englund from MIT, have now demonstrated that sound waves can be the mediator for an effective photonic activation function. The optical information does not have to leave the optical domain and is directly processed in optical fibres or photonic waveguides. Via the effect of stimulated Brillouin scattering, the optical input information undergoes a nonlinear change depending on the level of optical intensity.
“Our photonic activation function can be tuned in a versatile way: we show the implementation of a sigmoid, ReLU and quadratic function and the concept also allows for more exotic functions on demand, if needed for certain types of tasks,” said Grigorii Slinkov, one of the two lead authors. The other lead author, Steven Becker, said “An interesting advantage comes from a strict phase-matching rule in stimulated Brillouin scattering: different optical frequencies — for parallel computing — can be addressed individually, which may enhance the computational performance of the neural network.”
Including a photonic activation function in an optical neural network preserves the bandwidth of the optical data, avoids electro-optic conversion and maintains the coherence of the signal. The versatile control of the nonlinear activation function with the help of sound waves allows the implementation of the scheme in existing optical fibre systems as well as photonic chips.
REGULATOR MODULE
element14 has announced that it now stocks the microBRICK regulator module from Vishay Intertechnology, expanding its portfolio with a small DC/DC regulator module.
micoBRICK is a synchronous buck regulator module with integrated power MOSFETs and an inductor. It can supply 20 A of continuous current at up to 2 MHz switching frequency.
The regulator produces an adjustable output voltage down to 0.6 V from 4.5–18 V input rail to accommodate a variety of computing, consumer electronics, telecom and industrial applications.
The device’s architecture supports fast transient response with minimum output capacitance, and tight ripple regulation at a light load. The device is internally compensated and doesn’t require an external ESR network for loop stability purposes.
The device also incorporates a power saving scheme that increases light-load efficiency. The regulator integrates a full protection feature set, including output over voltage protection (OVP), cycle by cycle over current protection (OCP), short circuit protection (SCP) and thermal shutdown (OTP). It also has UVLO and a user programmable soft start.
The microBRICK is available in a lead (Pb)-free power enhanced PowerPAK MLP60-A6C package measuring 10.6 x 6.5 x 3 mm.
Vishay manufactures a large portfolio of discrete semiconductors and passive electronic components, which are essential to innovative designs in the automotive, industrial, computing, consumer, telecommunications, military, aerospace and medical markets. The microBRICK can be ordered online from element14 in APAC. element14 au.element14.com
A schematic representation of how an optoacoustic activation function can be employed in an all-optical
Grigorii Slinkov
OPEN STANDARD MODULE
ADLINK Technology Inc. has launched the OSM-MTK510, an open standard module R1.1 Size-L featuring a 662 BGA module powered by the MediaTek Genio 510 series processor. The module is designed for efficiency and excels in comprehensive AI workloads for real-time decision-making and managing complex data processing.
The module is anchored by a 6-core CPU with 2x Arm CortexA78 for demanding tasks and 4x Arm Cortex-A55 for ultralowpower consumption, consuming less than 5 W. It also features the MediaTek DLA+VPU AI engine, delivering up to 3.2 TOPS to accelerate AI computations that enable real-time intelligent decision-making.
With its integrated neural processing unit (NPU), the module is designed to drive faster AI model inference and streamline machine learning tasks. The module can be paired with up to 8GB LPDDR4 RAM and 128GB eMMC to support efficient processing and reliable storage for large datasets and computational AI tasks.
The module’s rugged design optionally supports operating temperatures from -40 to 85°C, making it suitable for high-vibration environments, while its 10-year product lifecycle makes it a good choice for mission-critical embedded systems.
The OSM form factor is a compact computer-on-module designed for solderable BGA mini modules, supporting both ARM and x86 designs. At just 45 x 45 mm, the OSM Size-L modules feature a compact form factor and are designed to enhance performance.
ADLINK Technology Inc www.adlinktech.com
SOLAR PANEL CLAMP METER
FLIR, a Teledyne Technologies company, has launched its PV range of inspection solutions to expedite panel installation and maintenance at solar farms, commercial buildings and residential buildings. This series of products includes the CM78-PV CAT III 1500 V DC solar panel clamp meter with built-in IR thermometer and METERLiNK connectivity. The solar panel clamp meter enables users to verify the performance and safety of installed solar systems, monitor and maintain large-scale solar power plants and enhance the quality of solar panels during production.
The solar panel clamp meter is suitable for both commercial and industrial electrical inspections. It measures solar string DC power and performance up to 1500 kVA at CAT III 1500 V rating, and handles up to 1000 A DC or AC via the clamp jaw for DC power measurements. The device offers features such as inrush AC current readings, variable frequency drive (VFD) mode, true-RMS readings and low impedance (LoZ) mode to meet demand for advanced electrical testing and accurate measurements.
The built-in non-contact IR thermometer and laser pointer help troubleshoot panels, conduits and motors, supporting issue diagnosis and confirmation through contact measurements or by capturing intermittent faults with its data logging function. The device also supports wireless FLIR METERLiNK app connectivity for quick data collection and sharing from the field.
Teledyne e2v Asia Pacific Limited www.teledyne-e2v.com
DIE-CAST ALUMINIUM ENCLOSURES
Hammond Electronics has introduced the IP68 1550ZF range, flanged versions of all 18 sizes in 1550Z rugged thick wall heavy duty die-cast enclosure family. The full-size flange is spot-welded to the base to give a strong and smooth mounting plate for use when the units are secured to a surface.
The 18 sizes range from 50 x 45 x 30 mm to 223 x 147 x 83 mm, with the lid thickness ranging from 5 to 33 mm in depth depending on the size. The tongue and groove design and a pre-formed one-piece silicone rubber gasket gives the IP68 environmental protection so the enclosures are suitable for installation in environments where dust and water will be present.
The enclosures are UL and cUL Listed and have been independently tested to IP66, IP67 and IP68 and they are also rated to NEMA Type 4, 4X, 12 and 13. All sizes except the smallest have an impact rating of IK08, defined in IEC 62262 as the equivalent to the impact of a 1.7 kg mass dropped from 300 mm above the impacted surface.
Depending on the size, the lid is secured to the base with either two, four or six stainless steel Philips machine screws located outside the gasketed area, giving repeated access without degrading the environmental protection. They are available in a natural finish or with a tough polyester black powder finish to both the outside and inside of the enclosure. Clear areas in the painted versions are provided around the grounding points.
Hammond Electronics Pty Ltd www.hammfg.com
HANDHELD ANALYSERS
Keysight Technologies has expanded the frequency range of its FieldFox handheld signal analysers, offering up to 170 GHz support for millimetre-wave (mmWave) signal analysis. Through a collaboration with Virginia Diodes Inc., Keysight’s A- and B-Series FieldFox handheld analysers with 18 GHz or higher can be paired with VDI PSAX frequency extenders to cover the sub-THz frequency range.
The handheld analysers enable mmWave measurements in a lightweight portable solution, when paired with VDI’s PSAX frequency extender modules. Engineers can also opt for the FieldFox equipped with the downloadable Option 357 pulse generator, which can be paired with a PSGX module from VDI, to also offer a mmWave signal generation solution up to 170 GHz. This enables users to obtain accurate mmWave measurements in an easy-to-use and rugged solution.
The handheld analysers also feature expanded frequency coverage, from as low as 18 GHz, depending on models, up to 170 GHz for either signal analysis or generation. The analysers also support in-band signal analysis with either spectrum analyser mode, IQ analyser mode or real-time spectrum analyser (RTSA) mode with a sensitivity of -155 dBm/Hz typical value.
Weighing approximately less than 4 kg in total, the combination of Keysight FieldFox and VDI frequency extenders makes the mmWave field testing more feasible and convenient for both field and lab environments.
Keysight Technologies Australia Pty Ltd www.keysight.com
NEWS from the SMCBA
SMCBA RECOGNISED IN A NEW DRIVE FOR SOVEREIGN CAPABILITY
The holiday town of Caloundra on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast might not have seemed like an obvious location for a gathering of people wanting to see the development of a strong, world class electronics manufacturing capability in Australia. However, two highly motivated individuals, Elexon Electronics’ CEO Frank Faller and the Regional Development Australia Moreton Bay and Sunshine Coast Regional Development’s CEO, Jacqueline Steel proved that it was.
The PCB Connect Forum and Expo, held on February 26 in Caloundra amongst the historic aircraft at the iconic Queensland Air Museum, attracted from around Australia a large cross-section of electronics manufacturers, suppliers to the industry, and representatives from federal, state and local government. It was probably more than a coincidence that the venue is located in an area that has been identified as the site for the Sunshine Coast Aerospace Park. In welcoming attendees to the Sunshine Coast, the Mayor, Rosanna Natoli made sure that they knew about the investment opportunities available.
PCB Connect was preceded on 25 February by an invitation-only dinner at the Australia Zoo’s Warrior Restaurant that was intended to create an opportunity for representatives from various industry and government sectors to make connections and to come up with ideas on what could be done to accelerate the drive to sovereign capability in electronics manufacturing. There was certainly no shortage of ideas, providing a starting point for discussion at the forum.
It is a reflection of the unique role that the SMCBA plays in the Australian electronics manufacturing industry that the CEO, Anthony Tremellen, was invited to attend the exclusive Leader’s Roundtable session so that attendees understood the role that organisation can play in achieving greater sovereign capability, particularly in Defence and other high-reliability electronics. Also attending the PCB Expo and adding their
voice to the Roundtable were SMCBA board members, Masters & Young CEO, Rodney Young and Nihon Superior Senior Technical Advisor and University of Queensland Adjunct Senior Fellow, Keith Sweatman.
In the prospectus for electronics sovereignty in which the conclusions of the forum will be presented, the SMCBA logo is included alongside those of the Australian Government, Regional Development Australia, AIDN and the Sunshine Coast Manufacturing Excellence Forum. This demonstrates the growing national leadership engaged in this issue.
Electronics manufacturing is a complex technology and to establish some principles and a plan the focus was on what might be considered the foundation of electronic circuitry, the printed circuit board (PCB). There are PCB manufacturers in Australia who can produce to global standards but with the limited size of the local market and a competitive global market, it has been difficult to justify the investment required to ramp up to the range and scale of production that Asia-based manufacturers can provide. Nevertheless, undaunted by the challenge, several hours of intense discussion at the ‘Leader’s Round Table’ resulted in a proposal that, after review, will be taken to the relevant government authorities.
Probably the most valuable outcome of this event is that it has put the issue of sovereign capability back on the agenda. In addition to the experience of supply chain disruption during the pandemic there is now the threat of a breakdown in the rules-based global order on which Australian manufacturing has relied. Those wanting to learn more about this initiative and progress since the PCB Connect event will get an update at the SMCBA Conference in Melbourne May 7–8.
Teagan (SMCBA Secretary) and Anthony (SMCBA CEO) at PCB Connect.
BIOELECTRONIC MATERIALS FOR COMPUTING ENHANCING STABILITY IN
A chance discovery led a team of scientists from Rice University, University of Cambridge and Stanford University to streamline the production of a material widely used in medical research and computing applications.
For over two decades, scientists working with a composite material known as PEDOT:PSS used a chemical crosslinker to make the conductive polymer stable in water. While experimenting with ways to precisely pattern the material for applications in biomedical optics, Siddharth Doshi, a doctoral student at Stanford collaborating with Rice materials scientist Scott Keene, skipped adding the crosslinker and used a higher temperature while prepping the material. To his surprise, the resulting sample turned out to be stable on its own — no crosslinker needed.
“It was more of a serendipitous discovery because Siddharth was trying out processes very different to the standard recipe, but the samples still turned out fine,” Keene said. “We were like, ‘Wait! Really?’ This prompted us to look into why and how this worked.”
What Keene and his team found was that heating PEDOT:PSS beyond the usual threshold not only makes it stable without needing any crosslinker, but it also creates higher-quality devices. This method, described in a recent study published in Advanced Materials , could make bioelectronic devices easier and more reliable to manufacture, with potential applications in neural implants, biosensors and next-generation computing systems.
PEDOT:PSS is a blend of two polymers: one that conducts electronic charge and does not dissolve in water and another that conducts ionic charge and is water-soluble. Because it conducts both types of charges, PEDOT:PSS bridges the gap between living tissue and technology.
“It allows you to essentially talk the language of the brain,” said Keene, who researches advanced materials for smaller, highresolution electrodes capable of both recording and stimulating neural activity with precision.
The human nervous system relies on ions — charged particles like sodium and potassium — to transmit signals, while electronic
Implantable electrocorticography device made using the heat treatment method;
devices work with electrons. A material that can handle both is crucial for neural implants and other bioelectronic devices that need to translate biological activity into readable data and send signals without damaging sensitive tissue.
By eliminating the crosslinker, the research findings not only streamline the PEDOT:PSS fabrication process but also improve its performance. The new method produces a material with three times higher electrical conductivity and more consistent stability between batches — key advantages for medical applications.
The crosslinker worked by chemically bonding the two types of polymer strands in PEDOT:PSS together, creating an interconnected mesh. However, it still left some of the water-soluble strands exposed — a likely cause for the stability issues. Moreover, the crosslinker introduced variability and potential toxicity in the material.
In contrast, the higher heat stabilises PEDOT:PSS by causing a phase change in the material. When heated beyond a certain temperature, the water-insoluble polymer reorganises internally, pushing the watersoluble components to the surface, where they can be washed away. What remains is a thinner, purer and more stable conducting film.
“This method pretty much simplifies a lot of these problems that people have working with PEDOT:PSS,” Keene said. “It also essentially eliminates a potentially toxic chemical.”
Margaux Forner, a doctoral student at Cambridge who is a first author on the paper along with Doshi, said that heat-treated bioelectronic
Margaux Forner
Rice University logo patterned into PEDOT:PSS using a femtosecond laser
Siddharth
Doshi
devices such as transistors, spinal cord stimulators and electrocorticography arrays — implanted grids or strips of neuroelectrodes used to record brain activity — were easier to fabricate, more reliable and equally high performing to those fabricated using the crosslinker.
“The devices made from heat-treated PEDOT:PSS proved to be robust in chronic in vivo experiments, maintaining stability for over 20 days post-implantation,” Forner said. “Notably, the film maintained excellent electrical performance when stretched, highlighting its potential for resilient bioelectronic devices both inside and outside the body.”
The finding may help explain why previous efforts to use PEDOT:PSS in long-term neural implants, including those by Neuralink, ran into stability issues. By making PEDOT:PSS more reliable, this discovery could help advance neurotechnology, including implants to restore
movement after spinal cord injuries and interfaces that link the brain to external devices.
Beyond simplifying fabrication, the team found a way to pattern PEDOT:PSS into microscopic 3D structures — a breakthrough that could further improve bioelectronic devices. Using a high-precision femtosecond laser, the researchers can selectively heat sections of the material, creating custom textures that enhance how cells interact with the devices.
“We are really excited about the ability to 3D-print the polymers at the microscale,” Doshi said. “This has been a major goal for the community as writing this functional material in 3D could let you interface with the 3D world of biology. Typically, this is done by combining PEDOT:PSS with different photosensitive binders or resins; however, these additions affect the properties of the material or are challenging to scale down to micron-length scales.”
In past research, Keene explored patterning grooves onto electrodes, finding that cells preferentially adhere to grooves on the same order as their length scale. In other words, “a 20-micron cell likes to grab on to 20-micron-sized textures”, he said.
This technique could be used to design neural interfaces that encourage better integration with surrounding tissue, improving signal quality and longevity.
Keene had also previously researched PEDOT:PSS in the context of neuromorphic memory devices used to accelerate artificial intelligence algorithms. Neuromorphic memory is a type or artificial memory that mimics how the brain retains information.
“It basically emulates the synaptic plasticity of your brain,” Keene said. “We can modify the connection between two terminals by controlling how conductive this material is; this is very similar to how your brain learns by strengthening or weakening synaptic connections between individual neurons.”
By unseating a longstanding assumption, the research not only made PEDOT:PSS easier to work with but also more powerful — a shift that could accelerate the development of safer, more effective neural implants and bioelectronic systems.
RUGGED LAPTOPS
Getac Technology Corporation has launched its next-generation B360 and B360 Pro fully rugged laptops, offering two powerful and versatile solutions to overcome a range of daily challenges.
The laptops combine fully rugged build quality with a range of technology upgrades. This includes the latest Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processors and Intel AI Boost technology, which lets users leverage on-device edge AI to execute tasks quickly.
The laptops also feature a range of versatile I/O options, including up to two Thunderbolt 4 ports for fast data transfer. LifeSupport hot-swappable battery technology boosts productivity by minimising the need to recharge the devices mid-shift, while Wi-Fi 7 offers data speeds up to five times faster than Wi-Fi 6, as well as up to 60% lower latency.
The B360 Pro features dual high-capacity batteries as standard, while an optional NVIDIA Quadro RTX A500 4 GB discrete graphics controller enhances visuals without impacting processing performance. The B360 Pro also includes an optional media bay, which can accommodate a third solid-state drive (SSD) for up to 6 TB storage capacity in total, third battery, DVD drive or Blu-Ray drive as required.
The laptops are both available in a range of industry-specific configurations and can be further tailored with bespoke customisation options spanning hardware, software, accessories and service. As a result, customers can match their device specifications to intended use cases, even when only ordering in small batches.
The next-generation B360 and B360 Pro will be available from April 2025. Getac Technology Corp www.getac.com
Jeff Fitlow/Rice University.
Scott Keene
INDUSTRIAL AND IoT MICROCONTROLLERS
element14 has added NXP Semiconductors’ all-purpose MCX series of industrial and IoT microcontrollers to its portfolio.
The MCX A series includes the MCX A13x, MCX A14x and MCX A15x. These are mainstream, easy-to-use MCUs with an innovative power architecture and software compatibility necessary for embedded applications, such as industrial sensors, motor controls, battery or handheld power system controllers, IoT devices and more. Powered by the Arm Cortex-M33, these general-purpose MCUs are designed to address a range of applications with scalable device options, low power and intelligent peripherals. The power architecture is designed to support high I/O utilisation and power efficiency with a simple supply circuit in a small footprint.
The MCX C series MCUs are powered by Arm Cortex-M0+ up to 48 MHz and are designed for energy efficiency, making them suitable for a variety of applications. Featuring USB and segment LCD options, these MCUs cater to diverse needs, providing flexible and scalable memory and packages.
The MCX N series of highly integrated Arm Cortex-M33 microcontrollers are designed for high performance and low power consumption. They include intelligent peripherals and on-chip accelerators providing multitasking capabilities and performance efficiency.
CARRIER CARDS
Metromatics has launched the APX4020 Series PCIe Carrier Cards, an innovative solution for industrial and embedded systems requiring versatile and high-performance I/O integration. Designed and manufactured by Acromag, this product is supported locally in Australia and New Zealand by Metromatics.
The carrier cards enable the integration of AcroPack and mini PCIe (mPCIe) mezzanine modules into PC/104 computing systems. These carrier cards offer a compact, rugged design suitable for demanding applications in defence, aerospace and industrial environments, where size, weight and power (SWaP) optimisation is critical.
Finally, the MCX W series are wireless MCUs designed for more compact, scalable and innovative designs for the next generation of smart and secure connected devices. The series, based on the Arm Cortex-M33, offers a unified range of pin-compatible multiprotocol wireless MCUs for Matter, Thread, Bluetooth Low Energy and Zigbee. It enables interoperable and innovative smart home devices, building automation sensors and controls, and smart energy products. element14 au.element14.com
The carrier cards feature dual module slots; this support for AcroPack and mPCIe modules enables users to mix or match a variety of I/O functions, including analog, digital, serial communication, avionics and FPGA computing.
The carrier cards are also fully compatible with PCIe/104 and PCI/104-Express formats, offering plug-and-play configuration and robust interrupt support. The cards are built for harsh environments, with extended temperature range, conduction-cooling options and fused power lines for enhanced performance.
The carrier cards feature dual 50-pin connectors on the front panel to simplify field I/O signal routing, thereby eliminating loose internal wiring. The carrier cards also provide comprehensive support for Linux, Windows and VxWorks operating systems for seamless integration into existing systems.
The APX4020 Series is designed for a range of applications, including data acquisition and control, test and measurement, simulation and communication systems.
The carrier cards are designed to deliver versatility, enabling industries to maximise performance while minimising system complexity and costs. Their rugged design and advanced computing capabilities make them a suitable choice for leading industrial and embedded system integrators.
Metromatics Pty Ltd www.metromatics.com.au
A SURPRISE CONTENDER FOR COOLING COMPUTERS: LASERS
Troy Rummler, Sandia National Laboratories
Sandia is helping a tech company test a bright new idea for cooling computers. Minnesota-based startup Maxwell Labs has entered into a cooperative research and development agreement with Sandia and the University of New Mexico to demonstrate laser-based photonic cooling for computer chips.
The company is pioneering the new technology to regulate the temperature of chips, and significantly lower the power consumption and increase the efficiency of conventional air- and waterbased systems.
“About 30 to 40% of the energy data centres use is spent on cooling,” said Raktim Sarma, the lead Sandia physicist on the
Craig Fritz, Sandia National Laboratories.
Produced at Sandia, this gallium arsenide-based semiconductor is less than a micrometre thick.
project. He added that in some communities, the amount of water needed can strain local resources.
Maxwell’s experimental microchip components could bring relief to the data centre industry, where energy costs have become a growing concern.
“A successful project will not only address the immediate need for energy savings but also pave the way for processors to operate at performance levels that were previously thought impossible,” Maxwell Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer Mike Karpe said.
Data centres are where servers, typically thousands of them, process the emails, web searches and doom scrolls that connect the internet. Companies may also own private data centres for activities that need significant computing power, such as training artificial intelligence. All these activities generate heat, so data centres need extensive cooling systems to prevent servers from overheating.
Many researchers, including Sarma, have been studying photonic technologies — devices that harness light to perform useful work — for various applications, including data processing, communications and national security. Compared to electronics, photonics can be faster and more energy efficient.
But Sarma and his team believe this is the first time anyone has tried using photonics to chill computers.
Enter the laser
Although lasers are better known for heating things up, such as in laser welding, engraving and 3D printing, they can also cool under specific conditions. This occurs when a particular light frequency is matched with a very small, very pure target of a specific element. In some quantum computers, for example, lasers help hold individual atoms at super-cold temperatures.
While Sarma cautioned a laser system cannot cool an entire house or any bulk materials, he said it might work for computer chips like GPUs if the cooling light can be focused on small, localised hot spots.
“We really only have to cool down spots that are on the order of hundreds of microns”: about the size of a speck of dust.
Maxwell CEO Jacob Balma said his company aims to do just this. The idea is to use a photonic cold plate to either replace or complement water- and air-based cooling systems, which also allows for the resulting extracted heat in the form of light to be recycled and turned back into electricity.
In some current systems, cold water flows through microscopic channels in copper cold plates laid over a chip to soak up heat.
The Maxwell cold plate would be a lightbased variation, designed with materials and microscopic features roughly the size of a virus — about a thousand times smaller than the thickness of a human hair — that channel cooling laser light to localised hot spots.
Balma said his company’s models indicate a laser-based cooling system can keep chips colder than water-based systems, explaining, “This will enable novel energy-recovery paradigms not possible with traditional cooling technology.”
If the models prove accurate, the new way of cooling could allow chips to operate harder without overheating, improving their overall performance and power efficiency simultaneously.
“The unique capability of light to target and control localised heating spatially and at optical timescales for these devices unlocks thermal design constraints that are so fundamental to chip design that it is hard to speculate what chip architects will do with it — but I trust that it will fundamentally change the types of problems we can solve with computers,” Balma said.
Maxwell’s Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder, Alejandro Rodriguez, through his role as a professor at Princeton University, has previously collaborated with Sandia’s Sarma to design similar nanophotonic structures for other applications.
“It became clear to me from this collaboration that Dr Sarma and Sandia Labs are among only a handful of partners that carry the vision, appetite and technical capabilities to address the highly interdisciplinary and pioneering materials, electronics and photonic components of this project,” Rodriguez said.
Sandia to build extremely pure gallium arsenide devices
Sandia brings to the collaboration specialised expertise in working with a material called gallium arsenide. It is a semiconductor like silicon, and it makes up most of Maxwell’s cold plate design.
Because laser light will heat up impurities, erasing any cooling effect, the cold plate needs to have extremely pure, thin layers of
IF THE MODELS PROVE ACCURATE, THE NEW WAY OF COOLING COULD ALLOW CHIPS TO OPERATE HARDER WITHOUT OVERHEATING, IMPROVING THEIR OVERALL PERFORMANCE AND POWER EFFICIENCY.
crystalline gallium arsenide, also known as epitaxial layers, to work.
“Which is what we’re good at,” Sarma said.
Sandia has a long history of producing high-quality semiconductors as the nation’s source of microchips for the nuclear stockpile. It also jointly operates the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, a DOE Office of Science user facility, with Los Alamos National Laboratory. Sarma and Sandia’s Sadhvikas Addamane, both CINT scientists, will use a technique called molecular beam epitaxy to grow the wafers and build the devices.
“With MBE, we use ultrahigh-purity sources, we can control the thickness of materials with a precision of less than one atomic layer and we grow the layers under ultrahigh vacuum,” Addamane said.
Through the new research agreement, Maxwell Labs will generate the technical designs, Sandia will build the devices and UNM will analyse their thermal performance.
ROBOTICS CONTROLLER
Axiomtek has launched the ROBOX300, a compact and energy-efficient robotics controller designed for autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). Powered by the Intel Core i5-1145G7E processor with a 15 W TDP, the controller is designed to perform in challenging industrial environments with an operating temperature range of -40 to +60°C, and supports a broad voltage input of 9–60 VDC with Smart Ignition Management function. It also features USB power on/off control to enhance system stability and efficiency. The controller also comes pre-installed with Axiomtek’s ROS 2-based DigiHub for AMR software, simplifying robotic application development and integration for warehouse and factory automation.
The controller features dual 260-pin DDR4-3200 SO-DIMM slots, providing up to 64 GB of system memory capacity. With support for an optional 2.5 ″ SATA drive and one M.2 Key M 2280 socket for NVMe, this industrial computer provides ample storage for extensive data processing needs. Moreover, it features one M.2 Key E 2230 Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module and a full-size PCI Express Mini Card slot (USB + PCIe signal) for expanded connectivity options.
The device also features versatile I/O capabilities, including six serial ports (4-wire RS-232: TX/RX/RTS/CTS, RS-422, RS-485) with isolated 1.5 kVDC, two CANbus with isolated 1.5 kVDC (supporting the CAN 2.0A and CAN 2.0B protocols), one 8-bit GPIO, two HDMI 1.4b ports, four USB 3.2 Gen1 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, three 2.5GbE LAN ports (Intel I226-IT), one RS-232 for console port, and six antenna openings. The robotics controller also supports Linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.
The ROS 2 AMR controller ROBOX300 is available now. Tekdis www.tekdis.com.au
iStock.com/Peach_istock
MANUFACTURABLE CHIPSET
DEVELOPED FOR QUANTUM COMPUTING
PsiQuantum has announced Omega, a quantum photonic chipset purposebuilt for utility-scale quantum computing. Featured in a paper in Nature , the chipset contains all the advanced components required to build million-qubit-scale quantum computers and deliver on the promise of this technology. Every photonic component is demonstrated with stateof-the-art performance.
The paper shows high-fidelity qubit operations, and a simple, long-range chip-to-chip qubit interconnect — a key enabler to scale that has remained challenging for other technologies. The chips are made in a high-volume semiconductor fab, representing a new level of technical maturity and scale in a field that is often thought of as being confined to research labs.
“For more than 25 years it has been my conviction that in order for us to realise a useful quantum computer in my lifetime, we must find a way to fully leverage the unmatched capabilities of the semiconductor industry. This paper vindicates that belief,” said Professor Jeremy O’Brien, PsiQuantum Co-founder & CEO.
Designed by PsiQuantum and manufactured at GlobalFoundries in New York, the new chipset integrates these advances into high-volume, industrially proven processes — ready for large-scale systems integration. PsiQuantum’s approach is based on using single photons — particles of light — which are then manipulated using silicon photonic chip technology originally developed for telecom and data centre networking applications.
For quantum applications, the company had to improve performance well beyond the state-of-the-art, and introduced new materials into the fab, including a superconducting material used for efficient single-photon detection, and barium titanate (BTO), an advanced material for low-loss, high-speed optical switching which is developed and produced by PsiQuantum in San Jose, California. The company also had to overcome challenges with background noise and low-temperature operation of the chip to demonstrate the circuit performance detailed in the paper — PsiQuantum’s latest measurements include 99.98% single-qubit state preparation and measurement fidelity, 99.5% two-photon quantum interference visibility, and 99.72% chip-to-chip quantum interconnect fidelity.
PsiQuantum’s founding team performed the world’s first lab demonstration of a two-qubit logic gate using single photons in Brisbane, Australia over 20 years ago, invented integrated quantum photonics and ‘fusion-based’ quantum computing, and made a prototype quantum processor available via the cloud in 2013. Since then, the team has focused on the scaling, performance and manufacturing
challenges associated with building millionqubit-scale systems essential for commercially valuable applications.
PsiQuantum has also introduced an entirely new cooling solution for quantum computers — eliminating the iconic ‘chandelier’ dilution refrigerator in favour of a simpler, more powerful and more manufacturable cuboid design, closer to a data centre server rack. The Nature paper shares some details on this new approach to cooling, which is now deployed at PsiQuantum’s UK facility and was used for many of the performance results described.
Thanks to these advancements, PsiQuantum now has the technology to manufacture and cool vast numbers of quantum chips. While the company must continue to improve the performance, integration and yield of the devices, there is no ‘next step’ in terms of manufacturing maturity — GlobalFoundries is a “tier-1” fab. PsiQuantum has characterised millions of devices on thousands of wafers and currently performs around half a million measurements each month.
PsiQuantum’s focus is now on wiring these chips together across racks, into increasingly
PSIQUANTUM’S FOUNDING TEAM PERFORMED THE WORLD’S FIRST LAB DEMONSTRATION OF A TWO-QUBIT LOGIC GATE USING SINGLE PHOTONS IN BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA OVER 20 YEARS AGO. iStock.com/PonyWang
large-scale multi-chip systems — work the company is now expanding through its partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, California as well as a new manufacturing and testing facility in Silicon Valley. While chip-to-chip networking remains a hard research problem for many other approaches, photonic quantum computers have the intrinsic advantage that photonic qubits can be networked using standard telecom optical fibre without any conversion between modalities, and PsiQuantum has already demonstrated high-fidelity quantum interconnects over distances up to 250 m.
In 2024, PsiQuantum announced two landmark partnerships with the Australian federal and Queensland state governments, as well as the State of Illinois and the City of Chicago, to build its first utility-scale quantum computers in Brisbane and Chicago. Recognising quantum as a sovereign capability, these partnerships underscore the urgency and race
towards building million-qubit systems. Later this year, PsiQuantum will break ground on Quantum Compute Centres at both sites, where the first utility-scale, million-qubit systems will be deployed.
“Omega moves us beyond a science project,” said Pete Shadbolt, PsiQuantum Co-founder & Chief Scientific Officer. “Before we started PsiQuantum, my cofounders and I were in a university lab playing around with a couple of qubits but we knew then that the platform we were using was sorely deficient — we knew that we needed millions of qubits and we knew that implied getting into a mature fab, integration of unlikely components together into a single platform, and climbing a performance curve that at the time seemed borderline impossible. It has been amazing to see how the team has executed on those plans from a decade ago, and it is tremendously exciting to now have the technology in our hands that we will use to build the first commercially useful systems,” Shadbolt said.
THERMAL IMAGING SPOT TEMPERATURE CAMERA
Teledyne FLIR has released the FLIR TG268 thermal imaging spot temperature camera. This next-generation thermal imager provides professionals in the utility, manufacturing, electrical, automotive and industrial sectors with a lightweight and handheld condition monitoring tool. FLIR has also introduced on-camera condition monitoring and connectivity to its METERLiNK app for file transfer to mobile devices.
The thermal imaging spot temperature camera takes users beyond the restrictions of single-spot IR thermometers to view and evaluate hot and cold spots that may signify potentially dangerous issues. Designed for the requirements of commercial electrical, facility maintenance and HVAC applications, the thermal camera cuts diagnostic time through targeted temperature acquisition (with bullseye laser capability) while simplifying repair and maintenance reporting. Built to withstand tough operating environments, the product features an industrial design with IP54 rating, 2 m drop test, 100-bright flashlight and Type K thermocouple. Its quick boot-up time of approximately 6 s facilitates readiness for quickly checking everything from electrical connections to mechanical breakdowns. With the thermal imaging spot camera, users can measure temperatures from -25 to 400°C with a 24:1 spot size ratio and bullseye laser pointer. The device also allows users to improve the detail of native thermal images with Super Resolution (upscaling to best-in-class 320x240).
Users can also diagnose problems fast with the FLIR-patented MSX (Multi-Spectral Dynamic Imaging) image enhancement. This enables users to add detail by embossing visual scene details on full thermal images, providing added context to target potential faults and troubleshoot repairs.
The FLIR METERLiNK app (with Ignite Sync) enables users to monitor measurements remotely (at safe distances) and document inspection data for in-the-field report generation and sharing. The app also provides a live view of data readings from up to seven paired devices.
Accessories include a wrist strap lanyard, pouch and USB Type-C cable.
Teledyne e2v Asia Pacific Limited www.teledyne-e2v.com
FEELING THE FUTURE:
WEARABLE TECH SIMULATES REALISTIC TOUCH
Amanda Morris, Northwestern University
When it comes to haptic feedback, most technologies are limited to simple vibrations. But our skin is loaded with tiny sensors that detect pressure, vibration, stretching and more.
Now, Northwestern University engineers have unveiled a new technology that creates precise movements to mimic these complex sensations.
While sitting on the skin, the compact, lightweight, wireless device applies force in any direction to generate a variety of sensations, including vibrations, stretching, pressure, sliding and twisting. The device, detailed in a study published in the journal Science, also can combine sensations and operate fast or slow to simulate a more nuanced, realistic sense of touch.
Powered by a small rechargeable battery, the device uses Bluetooth to wirelessly connect to virtual reality headsets and smartphones. It is also small and efficient, so it could be placed anywhere on the body, combined with other actuators in arrays or integrated into current wearable electronics.
The researchers envision their device eventually could enhance virtual experiences, help individuals with visual impairments navigate their surroundings, reproduce the feeling of different textures on flat screens for online shopping, provide tactile feedback for remote healthcare visits and even enable people with hearing impairments to ‘feel’ music.
“Almost all haptic actuators really just poke at the skin,” said Northwestern’s John A. Rogers, who led the device design. “But skin is receptive to much more sophisticated senses of touch. We wanted to create a device that could apply forces in any direction — not just poking but pushing, twisting and sliding. We built a tiny actuator that can push the skin in any direction and in any combination of directions. With it, we can finely control the complex sensation of touch in a fully programmable way.”
A pioneer in bioelectronics, Rogers is the Louis A. Simpson and Kimberly Querrey Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Neurological Surgery, with appointments in the McCormick School of Engineering and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He also directs the Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics. Rogers co-led the work with Northwestern’s Yonggang Huang, the
John A. Rogers/Northwestern University.
Jan and Marcia Achenbach Professor in Mechanical Engineering and professor of civil and environmental engineering at McCormick. Northwestern’s Kyoung-Ho Ha, Jaeyoung Yoo and Shupeng Li are the study’s co-first authors.
The study builds on previous work from Rogers’ and Huang’s labs, in which they designed a programmable array of miniature vibrating actuators to convey a sense of touch.
The haptic hang-up
In recent years, visual and auditory technologies have experienced explosive growth, delivering unprecedented immersion through devices like high-fidelity, deeply detailed surround-sound speakers and fully immersive virtual-reality goggles. Haptics technologies, however, mostly have plateaued. Even stateof-the-art systems only offer buzzing patterns of vibrations.
This developmental gap stems largely from the extraordinary complexity of human touch. The sense of touch involves different types of mechanoreceptors (or sensors) — each with its own sensitivity and response characteristics — located at varying depths within the skin. When these mechanoreceptors are stimulated, they send signals to the brain, which are translated as touch.
Replicating that sophistication and nuance requires precise control over the type, magnitude and timing of stimuli delivered to the skin. This presents a massive challenge,
which current technologies have struggled — and failed — to overcome.
“Part of the reason haptic technology lags video and audio in its richness and realism is that the mechanics of skin deformation are complicated,” said Northwestern’s J. Edward Colgate, a haptics pioneer and study co-author. “Skin can be poked in or stretched sideways. Skin stretching can happen slowly or quickly, and it can happen in complex patterns across a full surface, such as the full palm of the hand.”
Actuator unleashed
To simulate that complexity, the Northwestern team developed the first actuator with full freedom of motion (FOM). This means the actuator is not constrained to a single type of movement or limited set of movements. Instead, it can move and apply forces in all directions along the skin. These dynamic forces engage all mechanoreceptors in the skin, both individually and in combination with one another.
“It’s a big step toward managing the complexity of the sense of touch,” said Colgate, Walter P. Murphy Professor of Mechanical Engineering at McCormick. “The FOM actuator is the first small, compact haptic device that can poke or stretch skin, operate slow or fast, and be used in arrays. As a result, it can be used to produce a remarkable range of tactile sensations.”
Measuring just a few millimetres in size, the device harnesses a tiny magnet and
set of wire coils, arranged in a nesting configuration. As electricity flows through the coils, it generates a magnetic field. When that magnetic field interacts with the magnet, it produces a force strong enough to move, push, pull or twist the magnet. By combining actuators into arrays, they can reproduce the feeling of pinching, stretching, squeezing and tapping.
“Achieving both a compact design and strong force output is crucial,” said Huang, who led the theoretical work. “Our team developed computational and analytical models to identify optimal designs, ensuring each mode generates its maximum force component while minimising unwanted forces or torques.”
Bringing the virtual world to life
On the other side of the device, the team added an accelerometer, which enables it to gauge its orientation in space. With this information, the system can provide haptic feedback based on the user’s context. If the actuator is on a hand, for example, the accelerometer can detect if the user’s hand is palm up or palm down. The accelerator also can track the actuator’s movement, providing information about its speed, acceleration and rotation.
Rogers said this motion-tracking capability is especially useful when navigating spaces or touching different textures on a flat screen. “If you run your finger along a piece a silk, it will have less friction and slide faster than when touching corduroy or burlap,” he said. “You can imagine shopping for clothes or fabrics online and wanting to feel the texture.”
Beyond replicating everyday tactile experiences, the platform also can transfer information through the skin. By changing the frequency, intensity and rhythm of haptic feedback, the team converted the sound of music into physical touch, for example. They also were able to alter tones just by changing the direction of the vibrations. Feeling these vibrations enabled users to differentiate between various instruments.
“We were able to break down all the characteristics of music and map them into haptic sensations without losing the subtle information associated with specific instruments,” Rogers said. “It’s just one example of how the sense of touch could be used to complement another sensory experience. We think our system could help further close the gap between the digital and physical worlds. By adding a true sense of touch, digital interactions can feel more natural and engaging.”
Northwestern University engineers have unveiled a new technology that creates precise movements to mimic complex tactile sensations, including pressure, vibration, stretching, sliding and twisting.
John A. Rogers/Northwestern University.
METAMATERIALS
NEW
SILICON SOLAR CELL EFFICIENCY NANOSTRUCTURAL LAYER ENHANCES
Photovoltaic solar cells convert sunlight into electricity; however, nearly half the light that reaches a flat silicon solar cell surface is lost to reflection. While traditional anti-reflective coatings help, they only work within a narrow margin of light frequency and incidence angles; now, researchers have designed a new type of anti-reflective coating using a single, ultrathin layer of polycrystalline silicon nanostructures (known as a metasurface).
Achieving minimal reflection across certain wavelengths and angles, the metasurface was reportedly developed by combining forward and inverse design techniques, enhanced by artificial intelligence (AI).
The result is a coating that reduces sunlight reflection across a range of wavelengths and angles, setting a benchmark for performance with minimal material complexity. The coating
works across the visible and near-infrared spectrum (500 to 1200 nm) and is effective even when the sunlight hits at steep angles. It reflects as little as 2% of incoming light at direct angles and approximately 4.4% at oblique angles.
The research findings, published in the journal Advanced Photonics Nexus , show that an intelligently designed nanostructural layer can boost the efficiency of mainstream solar panels. Because it is both high-performing and relatively simple, it could lead to more efficient solar panels, potentially speeding up the transition to clean energy.
Beyond solar energy, the approach also advances how scientists design metasurfaces for optics and photonics. It also opens the door to multifunctional photonic coatings that could benefit solar power, sensors and other optical devices.
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