Dear Sir/Madam

Despite all progress in digital electronics there still is a need for analogue electronics – especially in wireless communications and RF technology. This newsletter will help you to understand analogue techniques a little better. Enjoy!

Wolfgang Patelay
Technical Editor, EPN

At Glance, in this issue

1. Products News 2. Articles 3. Design Tips 4. Market Research 5. Book of the Month

1| Product News

Ultra-Small SAW Duplexer (Kyocera)
The SD25 is an ultra-small, lightweight SAW duplexer device that features a built-in matching circuit to improve attenuation and isolation characteristics.
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Secure Battery-Backup Controller (Maxim)
The DS3641 is a secure battery-backup controller designed for data protection in POS (pointof-sale) terminals and other applications containing sensitive data. Integrating an RTC (real-time clock), an automatic battery switch and a 4-wire interface in a CSBGA for added security, this controller provides active tamper detection and rapid erasure of key memory.
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Dual 14-bit A/D Converters (C&D Technologies)
The ADSD-1420S and ADSD-1420EX dual-sampling A/D converters are 14bit resolution modules that can deliver 20MSamples/s without any missing code over their full temperature range. The ADSD-1420S is designed for commercial applications and has an operating temperature range of 0 to +70ºC, while the ADSD-1420EX has an operating temperature range of -55 to +125ºC, suitable for more demanding industrial or military designs.
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Single-Chip ZigBee Platform (Freescale)
Based on the ZigBee specification, the MC1322x PiP (Platform in Package) solution is engineered to support a battery life of up to 20 years, doubling the expectations for current ZigBee solutions. It contains a 32-bit microcontroller capable of running at up to 26MHz, a fully compliant IEEE 802.15.4 transceiver, dual 12-bit ADCs, balun and RF-matching components, all integrated into a small-footprint land-grid array package that virtually eliminates the need for external RF components.
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2| Articles

Low Power Embedded Radios Take Out The Challenges Of Telemetry
While the 2.4 and 5GHz bands are used worldwide by Bluetooth devices and high bit rate Wireless LANs, the effective transmission ranges are somehow limited to little more than 20 to 30m and power consumption remains an issue for monitoring applications that don't require high data rates. This article presents 434MHz low power and fully embedded radio modules as an effective alternative for telemetry applications.
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Ultra Low Power Wireless Networking
Electronic data collection by devices such as sensors, meters and monitoring systems, are increasingly pervasive, as commercial organizations seek greater efficiency and try to offer more services to customers. This trend is driving rapid growth in the use of low power telemetry, as well as two-way data communication with systems in the field.
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3| Design tips

Find hex-code values for microcontroller’s ADC voltages
This Design Idea by Harry Gibbens Jr. is for low-end, eight-pin, flash-memory, 8-bit microcontrollers, such as the MC68HC908QT4A from Freescale, but it would also apply to any 8-bit microcontroller that uses the ADC feature.
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Voltage-to-pulse-width converter spares microprocessor’s resources
Although not an ADC in the classic “stream-of-ones-and zeros” sense, the voltage-to-pulsewidth converter in the Design Idea by James Christensen produces a logic-level output pulse whose variable width represents an analog of the input voltage.
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4|Market Research

Growing MPEG IC Market Finds New Applications
With video capture and playback now appearing in previously untapped markets, the MPEG video IC market has plenty of room for growth, reports In-Stat. MPEG IC unit shipments will grow from 649 million in 2006 to 1.6 billion in 2011, the high-tech market research firm says. MPEG video ICs are used in the compression and decompression of video streams in many consumer devices from small mobile handsets to large digital TV sets.
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5| Book of the Month

Analog Circuit Techniques, by Trevor Wilmshurst
This book uses an analytical approach, backed up with numerous experimental exercises and worked examples. It is designed to deliver the core content of a three year degree course in a single volume, which makes it an ideal core adoption text, and an essential reference text for a wide range of students.
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