SEPTEMBER 2003 3.25 The History Of The Cathode

EDITORPhil Reedp.reed@highburybiz.comWho knows your whereabouts?CONSULTANTIan HickmanCONTRIBUTING EDITORMartin EcclesEDITORIAL ADMINISTRATIONJackie Lowe020 8722 6054EDITORIAL E-MAILSj.lowe@highburybiz.comGROUP SALESReuben Gurunlian020 8722 mEDITORIAL FAX020 8722 6098CLASSIFIED FAX020 8722 6096PUBLISHING DIRECTORTony GrevilleISSN 0959-8332SUBSCRIPTION QUERIESTel (0) 1353 654431Fax (0) 1353 654400DisclaimerWe work hard to ensure that theinformation presented in Electronics Worldis accurate. However, Electronics World'spublisher -Highbury BusinessCommunications -will not takeresponsibility for any injury or loss ofearnings that may result from applyinginformation presented in the magazine Itis your responsibility to familiarise yourselfwith the laws relating to dealing with yourcustomers and suppliers, and with safetypractices relating to working withelectrical/electronic circuitry -particularlyas regards electric shock, fire hazards andexplosions.Electronics World is.publIshed monthlypayments and general,ondence to Jackie Lowe,Highbury Business Communications,Anne Boleyn House,9-13 Ewell Road, Cheam,Surrey, SM3 8BZNewstradeDistributed by COMAG,In Edinburgh, you can buy time on aparking meter with your mobile phone.You call the number displayed on themeter (with caller I.D. enabled), and avoice response system asks for the meter'sI.D. number. This enables the parkingsystem server to identify your location andactivate the meter. The latter now lets youchoose how long you want to pay for andprints out aticket for you to place on viewin your car. It also instructs the server tocharge that amount to your credit card, orto aspecial account.Obviously, in the process, the systemknows just where you are. But this is notthe only, or even the earliest system forlocating you. Someone calling the U.K.emergency number 999 from afixed linemay be unable, or not in afit state, to givehis or her exact location. But the origin ofthe call can be traced via the exchange(s)involved, and the person thus located. Inthe United States, E911 (the 'Enhanced911 mandate', passed 1996, revised 1999)requires all cell-phone operators to installfacilities, able to locate amobile callerdialling the 911 emergency number, towithin 50 to 100 'meters', by 2005 (is theU.S. going metric at long last?).In Europe, wireless network operatorsare already required by E112 to be able tolocate acaller making acall to theemergency number 112. However, there iscurrently no accuracy specification, andmost wireless network operators willsimply return the location of the cell viawhich the call was set up -leaving a"fix"which could cover hundreds or eventhousands of metres. The GSM system isnow spreading in the U.S., and mobilenetwork operators there use uplink timedifference of arrival. This depends uponthe mobile being received via at least threebase-stations, and the system maypresumably have to instruct the mobiletemporarily to transmit at higher power, toreach enough base-stations. The dominantU.S. mobile technology, like GSM, alsouses TDMA, and uplink time difference ofarrival technology is appropriate there also.CDMA (code division multiple access) is adifferent problem as uplink time differenceof arrival is not appropriate, and manyCDMA mobiles have aGPS function builtSubscriptions: Wyvern SubscriptionServices, link House, 8Bartholomew's Walk,Ely Cambridge, CB7 42D.Telephone 01353 654431. Please notifychange of address.Subscription rotes. 38.95 0/S 64.50USS I00 62 Euro 102.55West Drayton, Middlesex,UB7 70E Tel 01895 444055.To. srocs Rood,September 2003 ELECTRONICS WORLDin. This returns good position informationif the user is outdoors, but less accurate ifindoors or in aheavily built up area. Thesesystems are designed to identify acaller'slocation in an emergency, but in principlecould be used by the police continuously totrack any suspect, or by national securityservices for the same purpose, building uparecord of an individual's movements upto the present time.There are also other ways in which one'slocation, either current or at some time inthe past, could be determined. RFID (radiofrequency identification) tags are set tobecome ubiquitous. The Gillette Companyof Boston, USA, proposes to buy up to fivehundred million or so tags, to mark itsrazors and packs of blades. These tags arealready incorporated in product being soldthere, in U.K. and Germany, and theresulting improved inventory managementis expected to save billions annually. Thetags, read by scanners, will provide recordsgiving details of the time of the sale andoutlet, but will remain in the product andbe accessible in principle thereafter.Similar tags could appear hidden in thehem of clothes, the binding of books, cartyres and almost any merchandise you canthink of. The tags cost tens of penniestoday and this will drop to just afew penceeach before long. Almost any purchaseditem will be able to identify thewhereabouts of the purchaser either in thepast or in some cases, currently, creating or breaking -an alibi. Even the humblecredit card will leave atrace wheneverused, creating arecord of what and whenyou bought what where. Japan is wellahead of the game and before long thereyou will be able to opt for personalisedtargeted advertising. Knowing where youare, the system could ring your mobile toalert you that the shop you are approachingsells your favourite brand of chewing gum.Some of these means of telling whereyou are, are obviously beneficial, evenpotentially life-saving. But others can beexpected to raise anxious representationsfrom civil liberty groups. For more detailson this story, see the July 2003 issue ofSpectrum, (the journal of the IEEE.)USA moiling agents: Mercury AirireightInternational Ltd Inc, 10(b) Englehord Ave,Avenel NJ 07001. Periodicals Postage Paidat Rahway NJ Postmaster. Send addresschanges to abovePrinted by Polestar (Colchester) Ltd,tilmsoning by Impress Repro by DesignAl Parkway, Southgate Way, Orton Southgate,Peterborough, PE2 6YNIan HickmanHIGHBURYBusiness CommunicationsASUISIDIARY 0111161151M MOLISE (Ctemusr(slasS PIC3

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Mosfets for no-adjust audio amplifiersThe need to adjust output device idlecurrent in audio amplifiers followingconstruction has been completelyremoved by Japanese componentmaker Sanken.It has introduced 150V nand pchannel power mosfets with lasertrimmed internal compensatingresistors and diodes which mean alldevices are matched within 1% fortemperature and 20% for biascurrent.Initially designed for aPioneerhi-fi, the devices are calledLEXAM (legend of excellent audiomosfet).Temperature compensation isachieved by including astring ofdiodes in the gate circuit of the ndevice. The diodes are doped to givethem acharacteristic which matchesthe combined temperature curve ofboth nand p-fets together.Adding diodes in only one of thepair works because both transistorsdissipate equal power in aclass-ABamplifier. Designers have to becareful to heatsink both devicesequally.Sanken claims the internalcompensation scheme is better thanusing aseparate external sensingtransistor mounted between the twodevices, as is normal audio amplifierpractice, because thermal lag is almosteliminated.Gate voltage adjustment is achievedby mounting alaser-trinunablepotentiometer alongside thesemiconductor die in both nand pfets.The pot is connected to the gate andcan is trimmed to match gatethreshold voltage which, given afixedidle voltage on the device gate duringoperation, sets quiescent current in theamplifier to 100mA ( 20mA)."Other characteristics such asforward transconductance areoptimised to achieve the best possibleaudio performance," said Sanken.In the UK, Sanken audio productsare available from Magnatec, part ofthe Semelab Group.Council raises the barThe UK's Engineering Council is toraise the Chartered Engineer andIncorporated Engineer entryrequirements for professional engineersand also for engineering technicians.The latest rules will ensure thatengineers and technicians mustdemonstrate competence beforeregistration. Firms will also beencouraged to speed up the processand develop training anddevelopment schemes."We have high hopes that this newstandard will help to ensure the UKcontinues to be recognised as one ofthe leading engineering nations of the21st century," said council chairmanSir Colin Terry.The three qualifications will remainthe same: Chartered Engineer,Incorporated Engineer and EngineeringTechnician. The four-year MEngcourses will still fast-track graduatestowards CEng status.The Engineering Council containsthe national register for 250,000professional engineers.3D transistor is fastest yetA three dimensional transistor with achannel length of just 30nm(nanometres) has been demonstratedby Intel. The chip giant is claimingrecord performance and leakagefigures for the NMOS device.Dubbed Trigate, the transistor hasthree gate contacts to the siliconchannel, which makes the deviceeasier to manufacture than planardevices.With planar transistors of the typeused in microprocessors, the siliconchannel needs to be made very thin.For adevice with 30nm gate thischannel would be perhaps just lOnmthick, creating what is known as afully depleted transistor.In Trigate, the silicon channel is thesame thickness as the gate is long."There isn't any particularconstraint now on lithography," saidKen David, co-director of thecomponents research group at Intel."It doesn't require uniquemodifications to the tooling."Intel has so far characterised a60nm device. At 1.3V it has asaturated drain current of 1.23mA/µmand an off current of 40nA/µm.The firm is planning to use the 3Dtransistors when it reaches the 45nmSeptember 2003 ELECTRONICS WORLDprocessing stage. Trigate is nowmoving from aresearch phase intofull process development.This 30nm transistor has its silicon channel running from leftto right -source to drain -with the gate passing over the top.Thus it contacts the channel on three sides.5

UPDATEBistable LCD gets true grey-scaleZBD Displays of Oxfordshire hasproduced ademonstrator to prove itsbistable LCDs can produce multishade images."This is an extremely exciting timefor ZBD. The development of thegreyscale demonstrator shows thecapabilities of our technology to offerboth greyscale and eventuallycolour," said Henri-Luc Martin, CEOof ZBD.ZBD, named after its technology:zenithal bistable displays, isdeveloping and marketing technologywhich can be used in displays that useno power at all to maintain an image only needing energy to change state.Previous bistable technologies havehad the problem that each pixel iseither or off, producing images whichare black or white with no shades ofgrey.There are ways around this: byusing several sub-pixels per pixel which adds complexity, or rapidlyturning the pixels on and off -whichnegates the power advantage.What ZBD has done is make apixelwhich can be set to one of severaldarkness settings and will hold thesetting indefinitely.Behind the ZBD technology is anin-pixel diffraction grating whataligns the liquid crystal within.By varying the grating across eachpixel, different parts of the pixel canbe made to switch at differentvoltages -effectively making subpixels without needing separateconnections to each.The firm is claiming four error-freegrey levels per pixel over awholedisplay -enough to make 64 coloursif the technique was applied to, forinstance, acolour display in aphoneor PDA."The path to greyscale and colour isessential to match the requirements ofe-books, electronic readers, shelfedge labels, PDAs, mobile phonesand smart watches," said Martin.Wide band -low powerA firm from Cambridge reckons itwill soon be making wirelesssystems that can transmit 100Mbit/sof data across 20m using just 50pWof transmit power.Artimi claims its ultra wideband(UWB) chips will be made purelyfrom CMOS processing and willconform to US and Europeanstandards.In BriefLiquid crystal lens variesfocal lengthA liquid crystal lens with electronicallyvariable focal length has been developedby researchers at CRL Opto and DurhamUniversity.Similar work has been carried out byinstitutions such as University CollegeLondon. However, the Durham lenses aremuch larger, with diameters of up tolOmm.Chris Hughes, senior principal engineerat CRL Opto, said the lenses could beused in applications such as image zoom,wavefront correction and laser beamcontrol."It could be used in variable focus opticssystems and, depending on how cleveryou are, zoom elements with nomechanical components," he said.The lens has afocussing value between0and 2dioptre, meaning it can focus aparallel beam of light between 50cm andinfinity.The design is based on nematic

Hewlett Packard 436A power meter and sensor (various) Hewlett Packard 438A power meter - dual channel Hewlett Packard 3335A - synthesiser (200Hz-81MHz) Hewlett Packard 3457A mull meter 6 1 2 digit Hewlett Packard 3784A - Digital Transmission Analyser Hewlett Packard 37900D - Signalling test