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CEA-Leti presented new research at SPIE Photonics West highlighting major progress in the integration of quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) with silicon photonic platforms for mid-infrared (MIR) applications.

The paper titled, “Advanced Architectures for Hybrid III-V/Silicon Quantum Cascade Lasers: Toward Integrated Mid-Infrared Photonic Platforms,” compares three complementary hybrid laser architectures that collectively advance the practicality, flexibility, and scalability of MIR photonics.

Toward ‘Smaller, More Robust, and More Manufacturable MIR Systems’

Mid-infrared light plays a critical role in technologies such as gas sensing, chemical spectroscopy, biomedical diagnostics, and security, because many molecules exhibit strong absorption signatures in this spectral region. Despite the technology’s importance, MIR photonic systems remain large, costly, and difficult to manufacture at scale. Integrating MIR light sources directly onto silicon photonic platforms offers a path toward smaller, more robust, and more manufacturable systems—bringing mid-infrared photonics closer to the level of integration in the near-infrared.

Three Architectures, Three Integration Strategies 

In its Photonics West presentation, CEA-Leti demonstrated and compared three distinct hybrid III-V/silicon QCL architectures, each addressing a different integration challenge:

Hybrid Distributed Feedback QCL on Silicon-on-Nothing-on-Insulator with Adiabatic Coupling

• This approach enables robust single-mode emission around 4.3 µm with efficient optical power transfer from the III-V active region into silicon waveguides. High-index-contrast silicon photonics provides precise feedback and light routing, making this architecture well-suited for scalable photonic integrated circuits targeting spectroscopy and chemical sensing.

Hybrid QCL with an External Silicon Distributed Bragg Reflector Cavity

• In this configuration, optical gain and optical feedback are decoupled: the III-V material provides amplification, while wavelength selection and feedback are implemented in silicon using distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) cavities. This separation offers enhanced design flexibility and opens a clear path toward tunable and multifunctional MIR sources for advanced spectroscopic and sensing systems.

Ultra-Compact QCL Micro-Sources Based on Photonic Crystals & Micro-Rings

• Miniature light sources in these devices achieve footprints below 100 µm² by leveraging strong optical confinement and resonant effects. The resulting extreme miniaturization enables dense on-chip integration and supports new system architectures where size, power consumption, and integration density are critical.

From Passive Platform to Active Host

Collectively, the results show that silicon photonics can play an active role in mid-infrared laser systems. By combining adiabatic optical coupling, silicon-based feedback and cavity engineering, and ultra-compact laser concepts, CEA-Leti establishes several viable integration pathways rather than a single, one-size-fits-all solution. The work highlights how different architectures trade off stability, flexibility, and footprint, providing designers with a practical toolkit for MIR photonic systems.

“By combining quantum cascade lasers with silicon photonics, we are bringing mid-infrared sources closer to the level of integration and scalability that silicon platforms have already achieved in the near-infrared,” said Alexis Hobl, presenter and lead author of the paper.

Looking Ahead

Future work will focus on further improving optical coupling efficiency, fabrication robustness, and thermal and electrical management, as well as integrating additional on-chip photonic functions such as filters, multiplexers, and interferometric circuits. Demonstrating wafer-scale reproducibility and packaging-ready designs will be key milestones on the path toward fully integrated mid-infrared photonic systems.

Acknowledgements: L’Institut des Nanotechnologies de Lyon (INL), III-V Lab, and Fraunhofer Applied Solid State Physics IAF contributed to this project.

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The Indian Open Source for Mobile Communication Networks (IOS-MCN) Consortium has developed a new open source, publicly releasing its software platform to allow organisations to build and run their own Private 5G networks. Designed for factories, campuses, research institutions and startups, the platform would allow users to deploy Private 5G networks that promise faster, more reliable and secure connectivity than Wi-Fi or public mobile networks at a lower cost.

The release, named Agartala 0.4.0, is a continuation of IOS-MCN’s convention of using Indian city names to reflect its national, open-source character. This is the fourth open-source milestone that is mature enough for pilot deployments of India’s homegrown Private 5G platform. Validation tests prove end-to-end latency of under 10 milliseconds and downlink throughput of up to 600 Mbps per gNB, making it suitable for early pilots and enterprise trials.

The IOS-MCN is being developed by a consortium led by IISc Bengaluru, IIT Delhi, and C-DAC, with funding from the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India. Agartala 0.4.0 marks a decisive step towards industry-grade, deployable Private 5G networks built on an open-source platform.

Brings all key parts of a private 5G network into one integrated, easy-to-deploy software platform:

• Advanced Mobility: Xn, F1, and N2 handovers, cell reselection, and robust RRC idle mode handling
• Voice & Multimedia: VoNR and ViNR with full IMS integration
• ORAN-Compliant Disaggregated RAN with unified RAN support
• Network Slicing for enterprise and mission-critical use cases
• Service Management & Orchestration (SMO) with a unified dashboard
• RIC Framework: E2 interface implementation with near-RT and non-RT RIC support
• Precision Timing: PTP LLS C1 and C3
• Operational Excellence: PM counters across RAN and Core, extensive crash and assert fixes, and expanded test coverage

Agartala 0.4.0 positions IOS-MCN for early pilot deployments led by ecosystem partners, with installations planned to commence in the second half of 2026 across multiple sectors.

Niral Networks, which builds indigenous telecom and networking solutions, has proposed an Intelligent Village pilot. It stated, “Agartala 0.4.0 provides the foundational technology that enables Private 5G deployments for rural and semi-urban environments. We will leverage the IOS-MCN stack to deliver real-world analytics and digital inclusion solutions through initiatives like the Intelligent Village Pilot and Smart Village Connectivity Program.”

Techphosis, which develops secure technology solutions for defence and strategic applications, has proposed a Network-in-a-Box pilot for defence applications. It said: “Agartala 0.4.0 demonstrates the readiness of open-source, ORAN-compliant platforms for defence use cases. The Network-in-a-Box pilot, planned for the second half of 2026, aims to validate rapid, secure, portable and reliable Private 5G deployments for defence communications.”

Together, these proposed pilots, spanning several sectors, underscore IOS-MCN Agartala 0.4.0’s readiness to transition from platform development to industry validation and deployment starting in 2026.

The post IOS-MCN develops India’s Open Source Platform to Build Private 5G network led by IISc Bengaluru, IIT Delhi, CDAC, MeitY appeared first on ELE Times.

The idea for a low-cost UPS monitoring system at IIIT-H did not begin in a laboratory or a funding proposal. It began with a familiar frustration – raised by Prakash Nayak, a campus IT staffer who was tired of equipment failures with no clear explanation.

Power outages were happening. Servers were restarting. Despite the installation of UPS units everywhere, no one could say with certainty what the UPS systems were actually doing when the lights went out. That real-world problem became the starting point for a research project that has now resulted in a ₹2,000 IoT-based device capable of tracking UPS behaviour during outages with near-second precision.

The research was documented in a paper titled “Low-cost IoT-based Downtime Detection for UPS and Behaviour Analysis,” by authors Sannidhya Gupta, Prakash Nayak, and Prof. Sachin Chaudhari. It also received the Best Paper award at the 18th International Conference on COMmunication System and NETworkS (COMSNETS-2026) Workshop on AI of Things, recently held in Bangalore.

When monitoring costs more than the problem
“Frequent power outages in developing regions cause equipment damage, operational downtime, and data loss,” says Sannidhya Gupta, noting that while UPS systems are meant to provide protection, “affordable options for monitoring their performance remain limited.” Commercial UPS monitoring tools – typically SNMP cards that collect and organise information about managed devices over IP networks – were an option, but an impractical one. According to the paper, “Commercial solutions are expensive, manufacturer-specific, and reliant on network infrastructure”. With prices exceeding ₹20,000 per unit, the campus IT team simply could not justify deploying them at scale. Worse, these tools often failed at the moment they were most needed. “These systems are unable to record data when the UPS itself loses power,” the authors point out, making post-outage diagnosis nearly impossible.

A device that watches, not interferes
Responding directly to the IT team’s request for something affordable and reliable, the team designed a non-intrusive current-monitoring device. Instead of tapping into UPS internals, it clamps onto the input and output lines, observing how current flows before, during, and after outages. “UPS input and output currents are sensed non-intrusively to detect outages, switchovers, and recovery behaviour,” the researchers explain. Additionally, the device is battery-backed, allowing it to keep recording even when both mains power and internet connectivity are lost.

From theory to campus corridors
In order to test out the system, it was deployed across four UPS installations on campus, including one unit already suspected by IT staff to be malfunctioning. Over a month, the devices collected around 3.7 million data points, automatically detecting 61 outage events. The data confirmed what the IT team had suspected but could never prove. “One UPS repeatedly showed no clear charging behaviour after outages,” reports Prakash, indicating a system that could briefly support loads but failed to properly recharge its batteries.

Smart algorithms, Simple assumptions
The backend analytics automatically labels each event into phases – normal operation, outage, stabilisation, and battery charging – without manual configuration. “All thresholds are expressed as fractions of a locally estimated baseline,” the authors note, adding that this allows the system to adapt to different installations automatically. The results were precise: no missed outages, no false alarms, and timing errors typically within three seconds.

Real-time monitoring, Ten times cheaper 
A web-based dashboard now gives IT staff something they never had before: visibility. Instead of guessing whether a UPS is healthy, administrators can now see it. Plus, they have access to historical analysis of UPS behaviour. Built using off-the-shelf components, the device costs about ₹2,000 – roughly one-tenth the price of commercial monitoring cards. “Its affordability, power independence, and portability make it a practical option for cost-constrained environments,” concludes Sannidhya.

Research grounded in reality
What sets this work apart is not just the technology, but its origin. This was research born out of a real operational pain point, brought directly by the people responsible for keeping systems running. “It is important to note that IT staff, Mr. Prakash, is part of the research paper we have published. He is also part of the patent we have recently filed on this. This highlights the value of treating campus operations teams as co-creators of research problems rather than mere end users – a mindset that leads to more relevant and impactful outcomes,” states Prof. Chaudhari. In a landscape where academic research is often criticised for being disconnected from reality, this project offers a counter example of how researchers take note when a problem statement is identified, and build something that changes how systems are understood and managed.

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Bowing to user backlash, Microsoft eventually relented and implemented a one-year Windows 10 support-extension scheme. But (limited duration) lifelines are meaningless if they’re DOA.

Back in November, within my yearly “Holiday Shopping Guide for Engineers”, the first suggestion in my list was that you buy you and yours Windows 11-compatible (or alternative O/S-based) computers to replace existing Windows 10-based ones (specifically ones that aren’t officially Windows 11-upgradable, that is). Unsanctioned hacks to alternatively upgrade such devices to Windows 11 do exist, but echoing what I first wrote last June (where I experimented for myself, but only “for science”, mind you), I don’t recommend relying on them for long-term use, even assuming the hardware-hack attempt is successful at all, that is:

The bottom line: any particular system whose specifications aren’t fully encompassed by Microsoft’s Windows 11 requirements documentation is fair game for abrupt no-boot cutoff at any point in the future. At minimum, you’ll end up with a “stuck” system, incapable of being further upgraded to newer Windows 11 releases, therefore doomed to fall off the support list at some point in the future. And if you try to hack around the block, you’ll end up with a system that may no longer reliably function, if it even boots at all.

Fortunately, all of my Windows-based computers are Windows 11-compatible (and already upgraded, in fact), save for two small form factor systems, one (Foxconn’s nT-i2847, along with its companion optical drive), a dedicated-function Windows 7 Media Center server:

(mine are white, and no, the banana’s not normally a part of the stack):

and the other, an XCY X30, largely retired but still hanging around to run software that didn’t functionally survive the Windows 10-to-11 transition:

And as far as I can recall, all of the CPUs, memory DIMMs, SSDs, motherboards, GPUs and other PC building blocks still lying around here waiting to be assembled are Windows 11-compliant, too.

My wife’s laptop, a Dell Inspiron 5570 originally acquired in late 2019, is a different matter:

Dell’s documentation initially indicated that the Inspiron 5570 was a valid Windows 11 upgrade candidate, but the company later backtracked due to partner Microsoft’s increasingly-over-time stingy CPU and TPM requirements. Our secondary strategy was to delay its demise by a year by taking advantage of one of Microsoft’s Windows 10 Extended Support Update (ESU) options. For consumers, there initially were two paths, both paid: spending $30 or redeeming 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points, although both ESU options covered up to 10 devices (presumably associated with a common Microsoft account). But in spite of my repeated launching of the Windows Update utility over a several-month span, it stubbornly refused to display the ESU enrollment section necessary to actualize my extension aspirations for the system:

My theory at the time was that although the system was registered under my wife’s personal Microsoft account, she’d also associated it with a Microsoft 365 for Business account for work email and such, and it was therefore getting caught by the more complicated corporate ESU license “net”. So, I bailed on the ESU aspiration and bought her a Dell 16 Plus as a replacement, instead:

That I’d done (and to be precise, seemingly had to do) this became an even more bitter already-swallowed pill when Microsoft subsequently added a third, free consumer ESU option, involving backup of PC settings in prep for the delayed Windows 11 migration to still come a year later:

And then the final insult to injury arrived. At the beginning of October, a few weeks prior to the Windows 10 baseline end-of-support date, I again checked Windows Update on a lark…and lo and behold, the long-missing ESU section was finally there (and I then successfully activated it on the Inspiron 5570). Nothing had changed with the system, although I had done a settings backup a few weeks earlier in a then-fruitless attempt to coax the ESU to reactively appear. That said, come to think of it, we also had just activated the new system…were I a conspiracy theorist (which I’m not, but just sayin’), I might conclude that Microsoft had just been waiting to squeeze another Windows license fee out of us (a year earlier than otherwise necessary) first.

To that last point, and in closing, a reality check. At the end of the day, “all” we did was to a) buy a new system a year earlier than I otherwise likely would have done, and b) delay the inevitable transition to that new system by a year. And given how DRAM and SSD prices are trending, delaying the purchase by a year might have resulted in an increased cash outlay, anyway. On the other hand, the CPU would have likely been a more advanced model than we ended up, too. So…

A “First World”, albeit baffling, problem, I’m blessed to be able to say in summary. How did your ESU activation attempts go? Let me (and your fellow readers) know in the comments: thanks as always in advance!

—Brian Dipert is the Principal at Sierra Media and a former technical editor at EDN Magazine, where he still regularly contributes as a freelancer.

Related Content

• Updating an unsanctioned PC to Windows 11
• A holiday shopping guide for engineers: 2025 edition
• Microsoft embraces obsolescence by design with Windows 11
• Microsoft’s Build 2024: Silicon and associated systems come to the fore

The post Windows 10: Support hasn’t yet ended after all, but Microsoft’s still a fickle-at-best friend appeared first on EDN.

Rolec’s handCASE (IP 66/IP 67) handheld enclosures for machine control, robotics, and defense electronics can now be specified with a choice of lids and battery options.

These rugged diecast aluminum enclosures are ideal for industrial and military applications in which devices must survive challenging environments but also be comfortable to hold for long periods.

Robust handCASE can be specified with or without a battery compartment (4 × AA or 2 × 9 V). Two versions are available: S with an ergonomically bevelled lid, and R with a narrow-edged lid to maximize space. Both tops are recessed to protect a membrane keypad or front plate. Inside there are threaded screw bosses for PCBs or mounting plates.

The enclosures are available in three sizes: 3.15″ × 7.09″ × 1.67″, 3.94″ × 8.66″ × 1.67″ and 3.94″ × 8.66″ × 2.46″. As standard, Version S features a black (RAL 9005) base with a silver metallic top, while Version R is fully painted in light gray (RAL 7035).

Custom colors are available on request. They include weather-resistant powder coatings (F9) with WIWeB approvals and camouflage colors for military applications. These coatings are also available in a wet painted finish. They meet all military requirements, including the defense equipment standard VG 95211.

Options and accessories include a shoulder strap, a holding clip and wall bracket, and a corrosion-proof coating in azure blue (RAL 5009).

Rolec can supply handCASE fully customized. Services include CNC machining, engraving, RFI/EMI shielding, screen and digital printing, and assembly of accessories.

For more information, view the Rolec website: https://Rolec-usa.com/en/products/handcase#top

The post Handheld enclosures target harsh environments appeared first on EDN.

element14 has formed a new global distribution partnership with Fulham, expanding access to advanced LED drivers, emergency lighting and intelligent control solutions for customers across EMEA & APAC. The agreement strengthens element14’s lighting portfolio in the region, supporting engineers and buyers across commercial, industrial and architectural lighting applications.

Fulham brings more than 30 years of expertise in LED drivers, modules, emergency lighting and intelligent control systems. Headquartered in the United States, the company operates globally, with manufacturing in India, supply channels in India and China, and a strong presence across Europe. Its portfolio includes indoor and outdoor LED drivers, emergency lighting systems, UV ballasts, and smart control technologies, all designed to meet key international standards, including CE, ENEC, DALI-2, and UL.

Through this partnership, element14 will distribute Fulham’s lighting solutions globally, improving availability and access to future-ready technologies for engineers and buyers worldwide.

The agreement includes Fulham’s core lighting portfolio, including emergency lighting systems, indoor LED drivers, and constant-voltage driver platforms, with key ranges including the HotSpot Series, WorkHorse DALI-2 constant-current drivers, and the ThoroLED Series for architectural lighting, signage, and LED strip applications.

Customer benefits include:

• Broader access to certified, future-ready lighting technologies.
• Global availability through element14’s established distribution network.
• Support for a wide range of lighting applications and form factors.
• Access to Fulham’s deep technical expertise and proven product platforms.

Jose Lok, Global Product Category Director – Onboard Components & SBC, element14, said: “element14 has a strong commitment to adding value for our customers, and this partnership expands both choice and access to innovative lighting technologies. By working with Fulham, we are enabling customers worldwide to source advanced LED drivers, emergency lighting and control solutions through a trusted global distribution partner.”

Antony Corrie, CEO, Fulham, added: “Fulham is extremely excited to embark on this new relationship with element14. The partnership brings together shared values, strong heritage and a commitment to global innovation. element14 in APAC will be selling Fulham’s LED drivers, emergency battery backup solutions, exit signs and UV-C power systems across their global customer base.”

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Despite geopolitical tensions, manufacturing in India has done exponentially well, with smartphones leading the trail. According to data shared by CareEdge Ratings, India’s production has surged by 146% since 2021. The Performance Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme played a significant role in boosting electronics manufacturing from Rs 2.13 lakh crore in the Financial Year 2021 to Rs 5.45 lakh crore in the Financial Year 2025.

Additionally, the boost in production was aided by USD 4billion in FDI, where 70% was to PLI beneficiaries. Apart from economic benefits, the accelerated production has triggered a massive socio-economic multiplier effect. The electronics sector has been a dominant contributor to the 9.5 lakh jobs generated across all PLI schemes, providing significant direct and indirect employment. Simultaneously, electronics have climbed to become one of India’s top export categories. By shifting from an importer to a “net exporter” of mobile phones, India is successfully narrowing its trade deficit and reducing its long-term dependency on imports from neighbouring manufacturing hubs.

While the 146% jump is a historic achievement, the roadmap ahead focuses on “Deep Localisation.” The government and industry leaders are now pivoting toward high-value components, including semiconductor packaging and display manufacturing. As of January 2026, this momentum positions India to reach its goal of a $300 billion electronics production ecosystem, solidifying its role as a critical alternative in the global “China Plus One” supply chain strategy.

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