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In an invited presentation on GaN distributed feedback (DFB) lasers and amplifiers for next-generation high-power devices at the International Congress on Nitride Semiconductors (ICNS-15) in Malmö, Sweden (11–17 July), BluGlass Ltd of Silverwater, Australia has unveiled performance enhancements to its gallium nitride (GaN) lasers, demonstrating what it claims is leading-edge precision...

As the latest entry in my “electronics devices that died in the latest summer-2024 lightning storm” series, I present to you v3.22 (the company’s currently up to v8) of TP-Link’s TL-SG1005D five-port GbE switch, the diminutive alternative to the two eight-port switches I tore down last month. Here’s a box shot to start, taken from a cool hacking project on it that I came across (and will shortly further discuss) during my online research:

WikiDevi says that the TL-GS1005D v3.22 dates from 2009 (here’s the list of all TP-Link TL-SG series variants there), which sounds about right; my email archive indicates that I bought it from Newegg on December 14, 2010, on sale for $16.99 (along with two $19.99 Xbox Live 1600 point cards, then minus a $10 promo code, a discount which you can allocate among the three items as you wish). Nearly 15 years later, I feel comfortable in saying I got my money’s worth out of it!

Here’s what mine looks like, from various perspectives and as-usual accompanied by a 0.75″ (19.1 mm) diameter U.S. penny for size comparison purposes (the switch has approximate dimensions, per my tape measure, of 6.5”x4.25”x1.125”):

I didn’t need to bother taping over which specific port had gone bad this time, because the switch was completely dead!

along with a close-up of the underside label:

Speaking of the “Power Supply” notated on the label, here it is:

In contrast, before continuing, here’s what the latest-gen TP-Link TL-SG1005D v8 looks like:

Usually, from my experience, redesigns like this are prompted by IC-supplier phaseouts that compel PCB redesigns. Clearly, in this case, TP-Link has tinkered with the case cosmetics, too!

Before diving in, I confirmed that a dead wall wart wasn’t the root cause of the device’s demise (it’s happened before). Nope, still seems to be functional:

Granted, while its measured output voltage is as expected, its output current may be degraded (that’s also happened before). But I’m sticking with my theory that the switch itself is expired.

Time to get inside. Unlike other devices like this that I’ve dissected in the past, the screws aren’t under the four rubber “feet” shown in the earlier underside photo. Instead, you’ll find them within the holes that are in proximity to the upper two “feet”:

We have liftoff (snapping a couple of plastic retaining clips in the process, but this device is destined only for the landfill, so no huge loss):

Mission (so far, at least) accomplished:

And at this point, the PCB simply lifts away from the top-half remainder of the plastic shell:

No light guides in this design; the LEDs shine directly on the enclosure’s front panel:

Here’s a PCB backside closeup of the cluster of passives, presumably location-associated with a processor on the other side of the circuit board:

And turning the PCB around:

I’m guessing I’m right, and it’s hiding underneath that honkin’ big passive heatsink.

Let’s start with close-ups of the two labels stuck to this side of the PCB:

And here’s what I assume (due to plug proximity, if nothing else) is the power subsystem:

So, what caused this switch to irrevocably glitch? The brown blobs on the corners of both choke coils were the first thing that caught my eye:

but upon further reflection, I think they’re just adhesive, intended to hold the coils in place.

Next up for demise-source candidacy was the scorch mark atop the 25 MHz crystal oscillator:

Again, though, I bet this happened during initial assembly, not in reaction to the lightning EMP.

Nothing else obvious caught my eye. Last, but not least, then, was to pry off that heatsink:

It was glued stubbornly in place, but the combination of a hair dryer, a slotted screwdriver and some elbow grease (accompanied by colorful commentary) ultimately popped it off:

revealing the IC underneath, with plenty of marking-obscuring glue still stuck to the top of it:

You’re going to have to take my word (not to mention my belated realization that the info was also on WikiDevi, which concurred with my magnifying glass-augmented squinting) that it’s a Realtek RTL8366SB (here’s a datasheet). Note the long scorch mark on the right edge, toward the bottom. While it might result from extended exposure to my hair dryer’s heat, I’m instead betting that it’s smoking-gun (or is that smoking-glue?) evidence of the switch’s point of failure.

I’ll conclude the teardown analysis with a few PCB side views:

leaving me only a few related bits of editorial cleanup to tackle before I wrap up. First off, what’s with the “sibling-comparing” bit in this writeup’s title? While doing preparatory research, I came across a Reddit discussion thread that compared the TL-SG1005D to a notably less expensive TP-Link five-port GbE switch alternative, the TL-LS1005G. More generally, TP-Link’s five-port switch series for “home networking” currently encompasses five products, all supporting Gigabit Ethernet speeds. What’s the difference between them?

Two variations are obvious; four of the five ports in the TL-SG105MPE also support power-over-Ethernet (PoE), and both it and the TL-SG605 have metal cases, versus the plastic enclosures of the other three devices (reminiscent of last month’s metal-vs-plastic product differentiation).

But what about those other three? TP-Link’s website comparison facility fortunately came through…sorta. The low-end “LS” variant is, surprisingly, the only one that publicly documents its performance specs:

• Switching Capacity: 10 Gbps
• Packet Forwarding Rate: 7.4 Mpps
• MAC Address Table: 2K
• Packet Buffer Memory: 1.5 Mb
• Jumbo Frame: 16KB

This data is missing for the others, although I trust that they also support jumbo frame sizes of some sort, for example (the v3.22 TL-SG1005D jumbo frame size is apparently 4KB, by the way). That said, the LS1005G has nearly twice the power consumption of the TL-SF1005D; 3.7 V vs 1.9 W. And what about the latest v8 version of the TL-SG1005D? Its power draw—2.4 W—is in-between the other two. But it’s the only one of the three that supports (in a documented fashion, at least) 802.1p and DSCP QoS.

The ”support” is a bit deceptive, though. Like its siblings, it’s an unmanaged switch, versus a higher-end “smart” switch, so you can’t actually configure any of its port-and-protocol prioritization settings. But it will honor and pass along any QoS packet parameters that are already in place. And now, returning to my other bit of cleanup, per the aforementioned hacking project, it can actually transform into a “smart” switch in its own right:

On a hunch, I decided to crack open the switch and look at the internals. Hmm, seemed there was a RTL8366SB GBit switch IC in there. I managed to download the datasheet of the RTL8366, and whaddayaknow, it actually contains all the logic a managed switch has too! Vlan, port mirroring, you name it, and chances are the little critter can do it. It didn’t have a user-interface though; you have to send the config to it over I2C, as cryptic hexadecimal register settings…but that’s nothing an AVR can’t fix.

How friggin’ cool is that?

There’s one more bit of cleanup left, actually. If you’ve already read either last month’s teardown or my initial post in this particular series, you might have noticed that I mentioned the demise of two five-port GbE switches. Where’s the other one? Well, when I re-plugged it (a TRENDnet TEG-S50g v4.0R, whose $17.99 acquisition dated back to August 2014) in the other day prior to taking it apart, it fired right up. I reconnected it to the LAN and it’s working fine.

I guess not all glitches are irrevocable, eh? That’s all I’ve got for today. Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

—Brian Dipert is the Editor-in-Chief of the Edge AI and Vision Alliance, and a Senior Analyst at BDTI and Editor-in-Chief of InsideDSP, the company’s online newsletter.

 Related Content

• Lightning strikes…thrice???!!!
• A teardown tale of two not-so-different switches
• Devices fall victim to lightning strike, again
• Lightning strike becomes EMP weapon

The post Dissecting (and sibling-comparing) a scorched five-port Gigabit Ethernet switch appeared first on EDN.

First soldering project as a beginner (messed up the light placement as I got too excited soldering). Thank you for letting poke around and learn from you all. I hope to start building stuff from scratch after a few more project kits. submitted by /u/TooPaleToFunction23 [link] [comments]

A typical photodetector integrates a photodiode with a transimpedance amplifier (TIA). The photodiode converts light into an electrical current, which the transimpedance amplifier then converts into a voltage. So, while a photodiode alone produces a current output, a photodetector delivers a voltage output using sensing devices like LEDs.

Read the full post at EDN’s sister publication, Planet Analog.

Related Content

• Photodiode Design Note
• LEDs Are Photodiodes Too
• The world’s first spin photo detector
• Photodetector Startup Raises €3M to Meet Wearable Demand
• The Evolution of Photonic Integrated Circuits and Silicon Photonics

The post The design anatomy of a photodetector appeared first on EDN.

Just a simple jammer submitted by /u/Nearby_Incident_6214 [link] [comments]

Співпраця кафедри фізичної хімії ХТФ з польськими колегами Інформація КП пн, 07/14/2025 - 13:02

Although III-V semiconductor lasers can be monolithically integrated with photonic chips by directly growing a crystalline layer of laser material (such as indium arsenide) on silicon substrate, photonic chips with such integrated laser source are challenging to manufacture due to mismatch between structures or properties of III-V semiconductor material and silicon...

ANRITSU CORPORATION announced the successful verification and support of 3GPP RAN5 Rel-17 NR NTN test cases on its 5G NR Mobile Device Test Platform ME7834NR.

Non-terrestrial Networks (NTNs) are wireless communication systems that operate above the Earth’s surface, utilizing platforms in the air and in Earth’s orbit. These platforms include satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), and Geostationary Orbit (GEO).

3GPP Release 17 introduces “NR NTN” – the inclusion of Non-Terrestrial Networks into the 5G New Radio (NR) standards. This advancement enables 5G devices to connect to satellites using the same protocols as terrestrial base stations, paving the way for global 5G coverage beyond traditional infrastructure.

“Anritsu support for NR NTN test cases will enable ubiquitous connectivity for uninterrupted mobile data, voice and messaging—anywhere on Earth empowering individual users, businesses and industries that need to be connected with always-on access,” said Yokoo Daizaburo, General Manager of Mobile Solutions Division at Anritsu Corporation.

The conformance tests are defined by 3GPP in TS 38.523-1 and aligned with the core requirements in TS 38.331. These tests have been submitted by Anritsu to 3GPP’s Radio Access Network Working Group 5 (RAN WG5).

The post Anritsu Validates 3GPP Rel-17 NR NTN Test Case appeared first on ELE Times.

TIL the diode arrow points opposite electron flow because it follows conventional current notation introduced by Ben Franklin. If you’ve ever wondered why symbols look the way they do, there’s a great illustrated guide that walks through the physics behind each shape. I can DM the link to anyone who wants it—don’t want to break the self-promo rule. submitted by /u/JacketDue7596 [link] [comments]

Power electronics lie at the center of the revolution taking place in the mobility sector. With the world mobility trend moving towards electrification, power electronics have found their place as a foundation technology with efficient energy conversion and management in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs). To enhance efficiency, reliability and sustainability, power electronics are integral to hybrid transportation systems and electric vehicles.

Advancements in Automotive Power Electronics

The automotive industry faces a transformation with the advent of high-profile power electronics, improving EVs for efficiency, safety and energy management. Perhaps WBG semiconductor adoption is unique, especially that of silicon carbide and gallium nitride. These materials present switched speeds triple that of silicon, with low losses and fairly high thermal endurances that allow physically much smaller and rugged designs. SiC finds use mainly in high-voltage traction inverters and onboard chargers to the extent that 800V+ architectures are employed for ultra-fast charging and enormous range, while GaN cashes in with DC-DC converters and onboard chargers for an efficiency higher that 96%.

IPMs can be considered another game-changing technology as they package and integrate high-voltage switches, gate drivers and protection circuits into a compact, thermally optimized package waterproofing the simplifying set of design parameters for the EV powertrain.

Bidirectional power conversion is what is required for vehicle to grid (V2G) and vehicle to home (V2H) working using DAB and CLLC resonant converters. These achieve efficient transfer of energy while safeguarding the EV platform in a forward-looking perspective. Solid-State Transformers introduce megawatt charging for electric vehicles, interfacing compatibility and with dynamic power facilitation.

Contention is with the battery technical part: Next-gen Battery Management Systems incorporate AI, auto-diagnostics and edge computing for real-time health monitoring, predictive maintenance and adaptive balancing, Furthermore, 48 V power electronics provide an edge to mild hybrids and ADAS by relieving loads from 12 V architecture while powering electric turbochargers and active chassis systems. This kind of innovation is placing energy ecosystems at the smart and connected core of EVs for greater performance, reliability and efficiency in the future of mobility.

The Future of mobility is being rewritten by the rise of electric vehicles (EVs) and power electronics are at its core. At the core of the metamorphosis, another transformation is upon the world: Infineon Technologies AG, a leading power semiconductor company. Infineon inculcates a new benchmark of performance, reliability, energy efficiency with its 800V traction systems, up to bidirectional charging and battery management. Speaking with two senior executives ELE Times sought exclusive insights into the changing function of power electronics in e-mobility:

Together they offered thorough observations on recent developments in wide-bandgap semiconductors, smart gate drivers, battery management systems and EV charging technologies influencing the future of sustainable transportation.

ELE Times: What are the latest developments in SiC (Silicon Carbide) and GaN (Gallium Nitride) power devices for EV applications?

Martin Spiteri & Dr Kok Wai Ma: GaN-based on-board chargers and DC-DC converters in electric vehicles will contribute to a higher charging efficiency, power density, and material sustainability, with a shift towards 20 kW+ systems. Infineon is now introducing a trench-based superjunction (TSJ) SiC technology concept. The combination of trench and charge-compensating superjunction technology enables higher efficiency and more compact designs – an important step for applications requiring the highest levels of performance and reliability. The first products based on the new technology will be 1200V in Infineon ID-PAK package for automotive traction inverters. This scalable package platform supports power levels of up to 800 kW. Key benefits of the technology include increased power density, achieved through an up to 40 percent improvement in RDS(on)*A. The 1200 V SiC trench-superjunction concept in ID-PAK package enables up to 25 percent higher current capability in main inverters without compromising short-circuit capability. Together with high-end SiC solutions, GaN will also enable more efficient traction inverters for both 400 V and 800 V EV systems, contributing to an increased driving range.  The use of GaN-based power semiconductor in EV traction is a topic of intense research and development.

ELE Times: What technologies in gate drivers and power management ICs are advancing high-voltage systems?

Martin Spiteri & Dr Kok Wai Ma: Infineon gate driver ICs covering the usage of MOSFET, IGBT, and SiC in automotive 12 V to 1200 V applications with built-in protection and diagnosis. We have gate drivers which are with ISO 26262-compliant for safety critical applications in addition to isolated gate driver ICs for HV EV applicationsproviding galvanic isolation for automotive applications above 5 kW such as the traction inverter, DC-DC converter and onboard charger and support IGBT and SiC technologies up to 1200 V. Recently introduced gate drivers to replace relays and standard fuses and provide additional protection and diagnostic functions. They increase the reliability of the power net thanks to fast fault isolation in less than 100 µs, additional diagnostics, and improved protection functions like integrated wire protection.

• Infineon’s OPTIREG PMIC products are power management integrated circuits consisting of integrated, multi-rail supply solutions for demanding automotive systems in segments such as body, power distribution, chassis, ADAS, infotainment, powertrain electric drivetrain featuring ISO 26262-compliance, Boost capability, Pre/post-regulator architecture and Multiple voltage rail supplies.

ELE Times: What new technologies in bidirectional power converters are boosting EV charging and regenerative braking capabilities?

Martin Spiteri & Dr Kok Wai Ma: Regenerative braking capabilities for EV traction using bidirectional power converter is a mature technology, and in many cases can be provided without significant cost premium. On the other hand, bidirectional power conversion for on-board EV charging is an application trend driven by the increasing vehicle-to-everything (V2X) functionality requirement. To achieve such requirement, the popular choice of AC-DC PFC stage will change from Vienna rectifier to Active Front End (AFE), and DC-DC converter topologies will change from LLC to CLLC or dual active bridge (DAB).

ELE Times: How are new battery management systems (BMS) maximizing power handling and lifespan for high-voltage applications?

Martin Spiteri & Dr Kok Wai Ma: Infineon’s cell monitoring and balancing (CMB) device, also known as the BMS IC or Analog Front End (AFE), measures cell voltages and temperatures for state of charge (SoC), ensuring safe operation within the safe operating area (SOA). It performs low-power diagnostics and housekeeping and communicates with the main controller for cell balancing and pack thermal management triggering disconnection and alerts when needed.

Over time, the small differences between cells in multicell battery stacks are magnified during each charge and discharge cycle. Weaker cells with lower capacity reaching maximum voltage sooner than others force the charging process of the entire pack to stop; in this case, the full capacity of the battery cannot be used. Using Infineon’s automotive BMS cell monitoring and balancing (CMB) device to compensate the weaker cells by equalizing the charge across the entire stack will enable extending an electric vehicle’s driving range and battery lifetime. Additionally, to achieve extremely low-power dedicated housekeeping functions, such as periodically scheduled cell measurements and state analysis required for functional safety, the Cell Monitoring and Balancing IC can operate independently of the BMS’s master controller. Safety features such as signalling over- or under-voltage, thermal stress, and emergency alarms are triggered autonomously.

ELE Times: What are the trends in high-power fast-charging architectures and how are they affecting grid integration?

Martin Spiteri & Dr Kok Wai Ma: Truck electrification is driving up EV charging voltage and capacity beyond 1000V and megawatts level. Standardization activities around the world is ongoing to enable high-voltage high-power DC fast chargers be developed and be interoperable, e.g. CCS, CHAdeMO, GB/T for High Power Charging (HPC), and SAE J3400, Ultra-ChaoJi, X-MCS and NACS for Megawatt Charging System (MCS).

To construct high-power fast DC charging park,

• DC microgrid is seen as a promising approach for interconnection of the AC grid with different renewable energy sources like solar photovoltaic and battery energy storage,
• Solid-state transformer (SST) is the key enabling technology for such architecture,

Matrix switch network will facilitate flexible power distribution amongst energy sources and charging loads.

Conclusion:

Driving Toward the Electrified Tomorrow

Power electronics will change across industries, primarily in electric vehicles and sustainable-energy systems. UWBG semiconductors such as diamond and gallium oxide will creep in as the second-generation materials that can promise better efficiency, power density and thermal performance. AI-based power electronics will predictively maintain and monitor system health in real-time to ensure it is performing at its optimum and has its life further extended. Now, the rising 800V+ architecture for EVs and the emerging trend of 48V will allow for better thermal management, efficiency and fast charging. SSTs will enable the integration of DC microgrid, allowing the power to be distributed flexibly and interfacing into renewable energy sources. Megawatt charging system (MCS) is expected to provide high-power EV charging, especially for heavy-duty vehicles and global standardization schemes are underway. Fast charging, better charging and safer battery technologies are being developed one semiconductor at a time. With the emergence of SiC, GaN advanced gate drivers and megawatt chargers, a new electrified era stands before mobility.

The post Power Electronics in the Mobility Sector: Insights on Trends, Technology, and Transformation appeared first on ELE Times.

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Energy Resilience Lab: чеський виробник мобільних когенераційних рішень RSE та КПІ об'єднали зусилля заради нової генерації інженерів енергетики kpi пт, 07/11/2025 - 17:20

🌟 Запрошуємо на підготовче відділення для іноземних громадян kpi пт, 07/11/2025 - 16:55

Skyrocketing data consumption

The last few years have seen a tremendous amount of change in the mobile data world. Both in the United States and around the globe, data consumption is growing faster than ever before.

The number of internet users continues to rise, from 5.35 billion users in 2024 to an estimated 7.9 billion users in 2029—a 47% increase in just five years, according to Forbes. This has created an explosion in global mobile data traffic set to exceed 403 exabytes per month by 2029, up from an estimated 130 exabytes monthly at the end of 2023, according to the Ericsson Mobility Report. For context, in 2014, that amount was a mere 2.5 exabytes per month (Figure 1).

Figure 1 While some of the skyrocketing demand for data is associated with video conferencing, the vast majority is related to the increased usage of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT. Source: Infinite Electronics

A variety of simultaneous technological changes are also helping to drive this rapid increase in data consumption. Video-chat technology that went into wider usage during the pandemic has become a mainstay in office life, while autonomous vehicles and IoT devices continue to grow in variety and prevalence. The biggest sea change, however, has been the rapid integration of generative AI into mainstream culture since the introduction of ChatGPT4 in late 2023. Combined with state-of-the-art technology like Nvidia’s recently announced AI chips, these new innovations are placing an enormous strain on networks to keep up and maintain efficient data transfer.

Transceivers in high-speed data transfer

In response, internet service providers and data centers are hurriedly seeking solutions that enable the most efficient data transfer possible. Transceivers, which essentially provide the bridge between compute/storage systems and the network infrastructure, serve a critical but sometimes overlooked role in enabling high-speed data transfer over fiber or copper cables.

Driven by the need for increased data transfer capabilities, the window between transceiver data-rate upgrades continues to shorten. The 2023 introduction of 800G came roughly six years after its predecessor, 400G, and barely two years later, the latest iteration of optical transceivers, 1.6TB, could take place as soon as Q3 of this year. This so-called “arms race” of technology shifts and data growth creates various layers of concerns for network engineers that include validating new technology, maintaining quality, ensuring interoperability, speeding up implementation to maximize ROI and increasing network uptime. Network upgrades to boost speeds and bandwidth are crucial for staying ahead of competitors and driving new customer acquisition.

Data center power crunch

Unlike telecom sites, the massive power demands on data centers are a major consideration when evaluating upgrades. According to Goldman Sachs, the power demand from data centers is expected to grow 160% by 2030 due to the increased electricity needed to power AI usage. The massive power demands on data centers are even motivating some to build their own electrical substation facilities.

This push for data center upgrades doesn’t just include transceivers and other components, but full rack-level equipment changes as well, and the cost of making these upgrades can be significant. Hyperscalers like Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook are continuously investing in cutting-edge infrastructure to support cloud services, AI, advertising and digital platforms. Despite the high cost, these companies feel compelled to invest in cutting-edge technology to ensure strong user experiences and avoid falling behind competitors. Similarly, enterprise data centers like those run by Equifax or Bloomberg often run their own infrastructure to support specific business operations and invest heavily in technology upgrades.

But in smaller data centers not built by hyperscalers or large enterprises—such as colocation providers, regional service providers, universities, or mid-sized businesses—the cost of transceivers can account for a significant portion of total network hardware spending, sometimes in excess of 50%, according to Cisco. Because these organizations may not upgrade transceivers as frequently, often skipping a generation, each purchasing decision is made with the goal of balancing performance, longevity, and cost.

Additional factors like uptime, reliability, and time to market are also shifting network engineers’ priorities, with a heavy focus on quality products that offer operational flexibility. Some engineers are aligning with vendors that have a strong track record of quality, technical support teams that can be leveraged, and strong financials to ensure that the vendors will be capable of supporting warranties in the future and have parts in inventory to support urgent needs. Network engineers know that lowering the cost of network equipment is crucial for maintaining ROI for their businesses, but they also understand that quality and reliability are vital for business operations by eliminating failures and liabilities due to outages.

Transceiver procurement

These considerations are leading engineers toward the choice of purchasing transceivers from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) or from third-party vendors. While each option offers its own benefits, as shown in Table 1, there are meaningful differences between the two.

Table 1 The major differences between OEM transceivers and third-party transceivers in key categories. Source: Infinite Electronics

Transceivers from reputable third-party vendors are built to the same MSA (multi-source agreement) standards followed by optics from OEMs, ensuring they have the same electrical and optical capabilities. However, OEM transceivers often carry much higher costs (frequently between 2x and 5x) than equivalent third-party optics. In a data center with thousands of ports, the difference in cost can be significant, reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Transceivers from OEMs come hard-coded to run on one specific platform: Cisco, Sienna, IBM or any of hundreds of others on the market. It’s common for a fiber-optic network to include multiple installations of different OEM equipment, but additional complexity can be created through the acquisition of a company that used transceivers from an entirely different set of vendors. This often forces organizations to maintain separate inventories of backup transceivers coded to each platform in current use. In addition, using optics from one OEM can tie an organization to it indefinitely, reducing its flexibility for future upgrades.

Vendor agnostic functionality

Third-party vendors often offer a wider variety of form factors, connector types, and reach options than brand-name vendors. It’s also possible to get custom-programmed optics for multi-vendor environments where compatibility is an issue. Some vendors are able to code or recode transceivers out in the field in minutes, effectively allowing organizations to cover the same range of operations with less inventory.

Whereas OEM optics tend to have long procurement cycles due to internal processes, certifications, or global supply chain issues, third-party suppliers often offer the ability to ship same day or within days, which can be crucial given the time constraints on maintenance windows and rapid expansion plans.

With data demands forecasted to continue escalating to the end of the decade, data providers will have to make a substantial investment to manage the shifts in technology and keep up with customer needs. To maintain network uptime, it will be increasingly critical to partner with vendors that can provide technical support as well as competitive products that maintain high quality and reliable performance.

Third-party transceiver benefits

For hospitals, banking, retail, and other businesses with employees working from home, connectivity will be essential for executing even the simplest daily tasks. Maintaining a business’s reputation and customer loyalty depends on limiting liability, making it critical to maintain a robust network that is built on uptime.

By providing versatility through shorter lead times and broader compatibility, third-party transceiver solutions help ensure that infrastructure upgrades can keep up with the pace of business needs. In a landscape defined by rapid change, having access to reliable, standards-compliant alternatives can offer organizations a crucial strategic advantage.

For organizations navigating the challenges of scaling their networks while managing costs, third-party transceivers offer a practical path forward, helping ensure that networks remain both resilient and future-ready.

Jason Koshy is Infinite Electronics’ global VP of sales and business development, leading its outside sales team and installations. He brings to this position more than 28 years of experience covering all facets of the business. His previous roles include applications engineer, quality and manufacturing engineer, new acquisition evaluations, regional sales manager, director of sales for North America and, most recently, VP of sales for the Americas and ROW. Jason also participated in the integration of Integra, PolyPhaser and Transtector into the Infinite Electronics brand family. He holds a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from the University of South Florida.

Related Content

• Data center power meets rising energy demands amid AI boom
• Data center solutions take center stage at APEC 2025
• Data center power in 2019
• Power Tips #140: Designing a data center power architecture with supply and processor rail-monitoring solutions
• Cloud data center server power and optical transceivers: a dynamic duo
• Designing with 10GBase-T transceivers

The post Why the transceiver “arms race” is turning network engineers toward versatility appeared first on EDN.

With features optimized for motor control, Renesas’ RA2T1 MCUs drive fans, power tools, home appliances, and other single-motor systems. The MCUs integrate a 32-bit Arm Cortex-M23 processor running at 64 MHz and a 12-bit ADC with a 3-channel sample-and-hold function that simultaneously captures the 3-phase currents of BLDC motors for precise control.

A PWM timer supports automatic dead-time insertion and asymmetric PWM generation, features tailored for inverter drive and control algorithm implementation. Safety functions include PWM forced shutdown, SRAM parity check, ADC self-diagnosis, clock accuracy measurement, and unauthorized memory access detection.

Renesas’ Flexible Software Package (FSP) for the RA2T1 microcontroller streamlines development with middleware stacks for Azure RTOS and FreeRTOS, peripheral drivers, and connectivity, networking, and security components. It also provides reference software for AI, motor control, and cloud-based applications.

The RA2T1 series of MCUs is available now, along with the FSP software.

RA2T1 product page

Renesas Electronics 

The post MCUs power single-motor systems appeared first on EDN.

Cadence taped out an LPDDR6/5X memory IP system running at 14.4 Gbps—up to 50% faster than previous-generation LPDDR DRAM. The complete PHY and controller system optimizes power, performance, and area, while supporting both LPDDR6 and LPDDR5X protocols. Cadence expects the IP to help AI infrastructure meet the memory bandwidth and capacity demands of large language models (LLMs), agentic AI, and other compute-heavy workloads.

The memory system features a scalable, adaptable architecture that draws on Cadence’s DDR5 (12.8 Gbps), LPDDR5X (10.7 Gbps), and GDDR7 (36 Gbps) IP lines. As the first offering in the LPDDR6 IP portfolio, it supports native integration into monolithic SoCs and enables heterogeneous chiplet integration through the Cadence chiplet framework for multi-die system designs.

Customizable for various package and system topologies, the LPDDR6/5X PHY is offered as a drop-in hardened macro. The LPDDR6/5X controller, provided as a soft RTL macro, includes a full set of industry-standard and advanced memory interface features, such as support for the Arm AMBA AXI bus.

The LPDDR6/5X memory IP system is now available customer engagements.

LPDDR product page

Cadence

The post Cadence debuts LPDDR6 IP for high-bandwidth AI appeared first on EDN.

The nPM1304 PMIC from Nordic offers precise fuel gauging for products with small rechargeable batteries and strict energy budgets. It charges single-cell Li-ion, Li-poly, and LiFePO4 batteries—intended for devices like smart rings and trackers—with charging currents as low as 4 mA and a programmable termination voltage from 3.5 V to 4.65 V.

Estimating battery state of charge, the nPM1304 applies an algorithm-based fuel gauging method that tracks voltage, current, and temperature alongside a mathematical battery model. This approach reportedly achieves accuracy comparable to dedicated fuel gauge ICs, without their added power consumption or error accumulation.

According to Nordic, dedicated fuel gauge ICs can draw up to 50 µA during active operation and 7 µA in sleep mode—significant figures for products averaging just 200 µA. In contrast, the nPM1304 consumes only 8 µA when active and zero in sleep, delivering accurate state-of-charge estimates without noticeably impacting battery life.

In addition to battery charging (4 mA to 100 mA) and fuel gauging, the nPM1304 provides two 200-mA buck regulators and two configurable 100-mA load switches or 50-mA LDOs. 

Contact Nordic Sales to join the early sampling program.

nPM1304 product page

Nordic Semiconductor 

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Infineon’s ID Key S USB integrates a security controller and USB bridge controller in one package, supporting a range of USB and USB/NFC token applications. Built on a high-assurance security architecture, the device supports authentication, cryptographic functions, access control, and crypto hardware wallets.

 

 

The ID Key S USB includes a 32-bit CPU running at 100 MHz and 24 kB of RAM, enabling fast and secure application execution. It has up to 800 kB of non-volatile memory for storing data, cryptographic keys, software, and multiple applications.

Certified to CC EAL 6+ and compliant with FIPS 140-3 hardware requirements, the device satisfies robust security needs and allows customers to pursue FIPS certification. Its compact VQFN28 package eases integration into space-constrained token devices.

The ID Key S USB secure token controller is now available for early access customers.

ID Key S USB product page 

Infineon Technologies 

The post Secure token controller targets USB and NFC appeared first on EDN.

Three Gen 3 SiC Schottky diodes from Vishay come in low-profile SlimSMA HV (DO-221AC) packages with a minimum creepage distance of 3.2 mm. The 1200-V/1- A VS-3C01EJ12-M3, 650-V/2-A VS-3C02EJ07-M3, and 1200-V/2-A VS-3C02EJ12-M3 use a merged PIN Schottky structure that supports high-speed operation. They combine low capacitive charge with temperature-stable switching behavior, helping improve efficiency in hard-switching power designs.

In high-voltage applications, the diodes’ extended creepage distance enhances electrical isolation. Their SlimSMA HV package uses a molding compound with a CTI of ≥600 for strong insulation. The package also has a low profile of just 0.95 mm—significantly thinner than the 2.3 mm height of standard SMA and SMB packages with a similar footprint.

All three diodes operate reliably up to +175°C and feature negligible reverse recovery, making them well-suited for bootstrap, anti-parallel, and PFC circuits in DC/DC and AC/DC converters used in server power supplies, energy systems, and industrial drives.

Samples and production quantities of the Gen 3 SiC diodes are available now, with lead times of 14 weeks.

Vishay Intertechnology 

The post SiC diodes boost isolation and efficiency appeared first on EDN.