MTS Sensors Develops Level Plus Sensor with Foundation Fieldbus Output  MTS Systems Corp., Sensors Division has developed a Foundation Fieldbus output for its Level Plus line of liquid level sensors. The Model MG digital sensor will have the optional Foundation Fieldbus output that is currently in beta testing and expected to be approved around the beginning of the year. Foundation Fieldbus technology is a digital protocol for process automation, which provides end users with the freedom to choose interoperable control products from their suppliers of choice and the ability to integrate control systems, subsystems and devices across a plant enterprise. The protocol will make MTS’ magnetostrictive sensors compatible with an even wider variety of control systems, expanding the company’s offerings to even more customers with pharmaceutical and hazardous environment applications.
“So many of our customers have realized the performance improvements as well as business benefits that result from implementing Foundation Fieldbus technology that they had been asking us to make our liquid-level sensors compatible with the protocol,” said Lee Aiken, product marketing manager, MTS Sensors. “Now customers can combine the superior control capabilities of the protocol with our sensors’ superior accuracy and reliability for an extremely efficient process.”
Once beta testing is complete, MTS will be able to offer the world’s first liquid level sensor based on magnetostrictive technology that offers a Foundation Fieldbus output with the ability to take level measurements up to 60 feet.
MTS Sensors’ high-performance liquid-level M-Series gauges utilize Temponsonics magnetostrictive technology and offers a wide range of diagnostic, programming and accessory options that make the liquid-level sensors well suited for tank gauging and process applications.
Allegro MicroSystems, Inc. Introduces a New Automotive Grade Quasi-Resonant Discontinuous Flyback Converter Control IC
 Allegro has released a new automotive grade quasi-resonant, discontinuous flyback converter control IC, which supports a wide range of power requirements via the sizing of the external MOSFET and magnetics. It is designed to work over the automotive battery voltage range of 7 V to 40 V and over the temperature range of -40°C to 125°C ambient. This converter control IC is targeted primarily for use in vacuum florescent display (VFD) power supplies, which require multiple voltage rails. The IC could also be used in numerous other automotive applications that require several regulated voltage rails.
The A4401 includes an integrated transconductance amplifier, which can be used to monitor and regulate the voltage on either one or several outputs where good cross-regulation is required. This device includes many other valuable features such as soft-start, low quiescent SLEEP mode, high voltage enable (EN) pin and a novel adaptive quasi-resonant switching scheme, which minimizes radiated emissions.
Internal diagnostics provide comprehensive protection against overloads, input under-voltage and over-temperature conditions. In a typical application, the A4401 greatly simplifies the flyback converter, which is required to drive the anode, grid, and filament of a vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) system.
The A4401 is supplied in an industry standard 8L SOIC package. It is priced at $1.04 in quantities of 1,000 and has a 12-week lead-time to market.
Spheric Technologies Installs High-Temperature Microwave Furnace 
Spheric Technologies, Inc., marketer of patented Spheric/Syno-Therm high-temperature microwave powdered metal and ceramic processing systems, now provides fast turn-around of customer process development projects using a newly installed high-temperature microwave furnace at its Phoenix process development center.
The newly installed computer-controlled and fully automated MW-L0616V furnace delivers up to 6 kW of power, generating process temperatures over 1,700°C (3,000°F). The unit can be used with a variety of atmospheres. It features a vacuum evacuation capability for backfill with inert and/or process gases. The MW-L0616V offers processing volume and flexibility to handle a wide variety of materials.
“Until now companies interested in having us process sample or prototype parts have waited several weeks for their raw materials (“green parts”) to be shipped to our custom furnace manufacturer in China, processed and returned,” said Spheric Technologies chairman Joseph Hines. “With our newly installed equipment, we can provide immediate processing and a convenient site for on-going process development. This will speed customer decision-making and help our company expand more rapidly.”
Spheric/Syno-Therm high-temperature microwave furnaces reduce energy use up to 80 percent, and cut processing time by up to 90 percent.
High-Current Devices Feature Industry’s Highest Rated Current up to 36 A
and Highest Saturation Current up to 50 A 
Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. has released the first size in a series of new toroidal, high-current, high-temperature inductor that offers the industry’s highest rated and saturation current, and the industry’s lowest DCR.
With a high operating temperature rating to 200°C and a toroidal design to reduce EMI, the new TJ5-HT inductor is optimized for switching power supplies, EMI/RFI filtering and output chokes in automotive, industrial and deep well drilling products.
The low-cost device offers designers horizontal and vertical mount options to optimize the PCB layout. With 11 standard inductance values to choose from, the inductor features a maximum DCR range from 0.29Ω down to 0.0024Ω when vertically mounted, and 0.3Ω to 0.003Ω when horizontally mounted.
The TJ5-HT offers a wide inductance range from 470μH down to 0.47μH, with a high rated current from 2.8 A up to 36 A, and saturation current from 1.5 A up to 50 A. The inductor provides low magnetic radiation and is RoHS compliant. Custom values and current ratings are available upon request.
Samples and production quantities of the new TJ5-HT inductor are available now. Lead time for production quantities is 10 weeks. Pricing for US delivery only is $1.85 for quantities of 1,000 pieces and $0.93 for quantities of 5,000.
TI's Next-Generation Power Management IC Maximizes Energy in Multi-Kilowatt Systems
Two-Phase, Single-Chip Interleaving Power Factor Controller Simplifies Design, Increases Energy Performance and System Reliability 
Texas Instruments, Inc. has introduced the industry's first single-chip, interleaved power factor correction (PFC) control circuit for multi-kilowatt communications, server and industrial systems. The new UCC28070 two-phase, average current-mode controller allows designers to simplify power design, increase system reliability and achieve a greater than 0.9 power factor rating, which improves energy efficiency.
"The increasing need for better energy management is apparent in every area of our lives, especially at the business operations level. The magnitude of power requirements for data centers and telecom systems continues to drive industry-wide efforts to reduce wasted energy and improve power quality," said Bob Mammano, power management staff
technologist and TI Fellow. "This announcement gives power engineers an innovative solution that raises the bar toward more efficient power supply control."
TI's UCC28070 continuous conduction-mode controller provides unprecedented performance and reduces system cost in applications where high efficiency and high power factor requirements are important. These range from high-end communications systems to embedded white goods motor drives in refrigerators and air conditioners to HID lighting ballasts.
In line-operated systems with power levels from 75 W to 1 kW and above, the UCC28070 helps reduce total harmonic distortion, allowing today's systems to better maximize usable outlet power and accommodate extreme variations and disturbances in various AC line voltage levels used around the world.
The UCC28070 helps designers meet the most stringent efficiency requirements for multi-kilowatt power systems. This PFC controller allows light-load phase management to enhance a system's performance, achieving higher efficiency over the entire load range. Phase management allows a system to turn on or off phases of the power supply, so that only the phases required to power the load are enabled.
In a 1.2-kW system, the UCC28070 can initiate an increase of up to 1.5 percent efficiency at a light 20 percent load condition, allowing designers to exceed energy guidelines set forth by industry initiatives, such as The Green Grid, Climate Savers Computing Initiative and Project Big Green. In a 240 watt supply at 20 percent load condition, for example, this increase in efficiency results in a 27-percent power savings.
The device helps increase system reliability by incorporating a unique 180° interleaving method, which reduces the amount of input and output current ripple and distributes the magnetics to improve thermal management. Average current mode interleaving allows a system to achieve between 50 and 100 percent reduction in ripple compared to today's typical non-interleaved PFC architectures.
The UCC28070's optional programmable-frequency dithering mode allows a designer to spread the switching frequency over a range to minimize the generation of electromagnetic interference (EMI). The dithering feature helps reduce capacitor size and it gives designers the ability to use a smaller, less expensive EMI filter. The UCC28070 offers several unique system control and protection features to improve overall system reliability. An output over-voltage protection scheme with an open-loop detection feature safeguards the system from common circuit board failures. Each phase current is accurately balanced with independent current
sensing to prevent excess component heating in the device's dual-phase operation. In addition, the UCC28070 provides under-voltage lockout, cycle-by-cycle peak current limit, and a system over-temperature protection feature.
The UCC28070 is available in a 20-pin TSSOP package. It is sampling today, with volume production scheduled for January 2008. Suggested resale pricing in quantities of 100 units is $2.45. An evaluation board, power factor correction application notes and data sheets are available at power.ti.com.
Bodine Electric Company Expands Inverter Duty Gearmotor Selection  Bodine Electric Company has expanded the Pacesetter family of AC inverter duty, three-phase gearmotors and motors. Inverter duty gearmotors are now available with Bodine’s newest gearheads: the types 3RD, HG and CG. Typical applications for these gearmotors include conveyor systems, food-processing equipment, medical equipment and factory automation.
The new gearheads each feature unique characteristics that fill out the Pacesetter product line. The type 3RD is a double-reduction gearhead designed for applications that require very slow rotation and very high torque. It produces output from 0.5 up to 8.5 RPM, with gear ratios from 200:1 to 3,600:1, allowing a relatively small motor to product up to 148 lb-in. of torque. The type HG gearmotor features an offset drive shaft that makes it suitable for use in applications where space is limited. The unique design of this gearhead allows it to be face-mounted from either side. It produces output from 16 to 63 RPM, with gear ratios of 27:1 to 108:1, and up to 1,000 lb-in. continuous torque. Almost every component of the type GC was designed for higher-than-usual performance. It produces output from 24-85 RPM with gear ratios from 20:1 to 72:1 and up to 1,000 lb-in. of torque. Hollow shaft versions of the type 3RD and HG gearmotors are available via Bodine Electric’s special-order program.
The Bodine Electric Pacesetter, inverter duty AC motors and gearmotors are rated from
1/25 to 3/4 HP, 230 VAC, 60 Hz, 3-phase. All feature Bodine’s Quintsulation 5-stage insulation system, which meets NEMA MG 1-1993, Section IV, Part 31. This insulation protects the motor from potential spikes or corona damage caused by the inverter. Pacesetter gearmotors are UL recognized for construction, CSA certified and in compliance with the Low Voltage Directive "CE". Most Bodine 34R and 42R frame inverter duty gearmotors are now available by special order with optional 230/460 VAC, 60 Hz windings.
Bodine Electric Company also offers a range of AC inverters (Variable Frequency Drives), both as chassis type (IP-20) and enclosed (NEMA-1 and -4).
New T-ray Source Could Improve Airport Security, Cancer Detection
 |
Argonne materials scientist Ulrich Welp prepares to test a sample. |
Going through airport security can be such a hassle. Shoes, laptops, toothpastes, watches and belts all get taken off, taken out, scanned, examined, handled and repacked. But "T-rays", a completely safe form of electromagnetic radiation, may reshape not only airport screening procedures but also medical imaging practices.
Scientists at the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, along with collaborators in Turkey and Japan, have created a compact device that could lead to portable, battery-operated sources of T-rays, or terahertz radiation. By doing so, the researchers, led by Ulrich Welp of Argonne's Materials Science Division, have successfully bridged the "terahertz gap" – scientists' name for the range of frequencies between microwaves (on the lower side) and infrared (on the higher side) of the electromagnetic spectrum.
While scientists and engineers have produced microwave radiation using conventional electric circuits for more than 50 years, Welp said, terahertz radiation could not be generated that way because of the physical limitations of the semiconducting circuit components.
"Right around 1 terahertz, you have a range of frequencies where there have never been any good solid-state sources," he added. "You can make those frequencies if you are willing to put together a whole table full of expensive equipment, but now we've been able to make a simple, compact solid-state source."
 |
 |
Top: Schematic of the terahertz-source, which was fabricated on the top of an atomically layered superconducting crystal. The applied current excites the fundamental cavity mode (solid half-wave) on the width w of the mesa, and high-frequency electromagnetic radiation is emitted from the side faces (red waves).
Bottom: Spectra of the radiation emitted from a 100 µm (green), 80 µm (blue) and 60 µm (red) wide mesa. The inset shows the proportionality of the emission frequency and the inverse width, as is expected for a cavity resonance. |
Unlike far more energetic X-rays, T-rays do not have sufficient energy to "ionize" an atom by knocking loose one of its electrons. This ionization causes the cellular damage that can lead to radiation sickness or cancer. Since T-rays are non-ionizing radiation, like radio waves or visible light, people exposed to terahertz radiation will suffer no ill effects. Furthermore, although terahertz radiation does not penetrate through metals and water, it does penetrate through many common materials, such as leather, fabric, cardboard and paper.
These qualities make terahertz devices one of the most promising new technologies for airport and national security. Unlike today's metal or X-ray detectors, which can identify only
a few obviously dangerous materials, checkpoints that look instead at T-ray absorption patterns could not only detect but also identify a much wider variety of hazardous or illegal substances.
T-rays can also penetrate the human body by almost half a centimeter and they have already begun to enable doctors to better detect and treat certain types of cancers, especially those of the skin and breast, Welp said. Dentists could also use T-rays to image their patients' teeth.
The new T-ray sources created at Argonne use high-temperature superconducting crystals grown at the University of Tsukuba in Japan. These crystals comprise stacks of so-called Josephson junctions that exhibit a unique electrical property: when an external voltage is applied, an alternating current will flow back and forth across the junctions at a frequency proportional to the strength of the voltage; this phenomenon is known as the Josephson effect.
These alternating currents then produce electromagnetic fields whose frequency is tuned by the applied voltage. Even a small voltage – around two millivolts per junction – can induce frequencies in the terahertz range, according to Welp.
Since each of these junctions is tiny – a human hair is roughly 10,000 times as thick – the researchers were able to stack approximately 1,000 of them on top of each other in order to generate a more powerful signal. However, even though each junction would oscillate with the same frequency, the researchers needed to find a way to make them all radiate in phase.
"That's been the challenge all along," Welp said. "If one junction oscillates up while another junction oscillates down, they'll cancel each other out and you won't get anything."
In order to synchronize the signal, Argonne physicist Alexei Koshelev suggested that the stacks of Josephson junctions should be shaped into resonant cavities, which visiting scientist Lufti Ozyuzer of the Izmir Institute of Technology, Turkey, and graduate student Cihan Kurter then fashioned. When the width of the cavities was precisely tuned to the frequencies set by the voltage, the natural resonances of the structure synchronized the oscillations and thus amplified the T-ray output, in a method similar to the production of light in a laser.
"Once you apply the voltage," Welp said, "some junctions will start to oscillate. If those have the proper frequency, an oscillating electric field will grow in the cavity, which will pull in more and more and more of the other junctions, until in the end we have the entire stack synchronized."
By keeping the length and thickness of the cavities constant while varying their width between 40 and 100 micrometers, the researchers were able to generate frequencies from 0.4 to 0.85 terahertz at a signal power of up to 0.5 microwatts. Welp hopes to expand the range of available frequencies and to increase the strength of the signal by making the Josephson cavities longer or by linking them in arrays.
"The more power you have, the easier it is to adopt this technology for all sorts of applications," he said. "Our data indicate that the power stored in the resonant cavities is significantly larger than the detected values, though we need to improve the extraction efficiency. If we can get the signal strength up to 1 milliwatt, it will be a great success."
The research was supported by DOE's Office of Basic Energy Sciences and by Argonne's Laboratory Directed Research and Development funds.
A scientific paper based on their research, "Emission of Coherent THz Radiation from Superconductors," appears in the November 23 issue of Science.
|
