LOS ANGELES–So often, we get ahead of ourselves a consuming public, especially when it comes to technology innovation. Take power generation and smart-grid management. We know that electronics that drive enormous efficiency gains on the grid. After all, our smart phones can guide us to someplace we’ve never been, so why not immediately optimize all our home appliances to help

IRVINE, Calif.–Back-up cameras seem almost quaint today, even though the technology is just moving into the mainstream automotive market. That’s because there’s a sense that technology is catching fire really quickly in automotive design and not just at the high end. Earlier this year, as we steered the Volt through the sunny southern California climes, we pulled into Broadcom and

RALEIGH, N.C.–Mike Sinclair stretches a faint smile and puts it plainly: "one of the issues you have with this new smart grid stuff is that it's not all quite ironed out." That's a good-news bad-news story: The bad news is challenges abound as we build a smarter grid; the good news is where there are challenges there are opportunities to

TAMPA, Fla.–Every introduction of new technology into the smart grid opens it up to further attack. That was Mike Duren’s frank assessment when we stopped here at Sypris Solutions to chat with him and Mike Walsh, the company’s president. More design resources Sypris is an EMS and engineering-services company, but it has built a solid reputation in the electronics threat-mitigation business.

HACKETTSTOWN, N.J.–Electric vehicles (EVs) are takers not givers, when it comes to the grid, which, incidentally, isn't really set up yet to take power from EVs. That reality is beginning to change as more EVs hit the market and innovators re-examine the grid to understand what needs to be done to use EVs as power suppliers in the future. DesignNews Senior

BOSTON–The comparisons to the build out of the computing network are usually apt: electronics (especially wireless devices) in the home and on the grid will enable a brave new world of much more efficient power transmission and management on a vast scale. That's pretty much where the comparison to the computing network stops. More design resources When you're talking about

Jeff Weintraub is a risk taker. Well, the Avnet field application engineer (FAE) may not see himself that way, but the up-front investment of his time and knowledge in engineer-to-engineer customer support could all go out the window with a design change or project cancellation. “We’re working with the customer on the front end from concept stage to choosing components

BEALLSVILLE, MD.–A man's home, they say, is his castle. It also can give you insight into his mind. We drove out to Lee Bristol's home here (almost not making it because of an unexpected road block) expecting a routine interview about solar power. He is, after all, a co-founder of Standard Solar, a seven-year-old company that engineers, designs and builds

By John Donovan, Low-Power Design, for Drive for Innovation When you run low on gas you look for a handy gas station. What happens when you’re driving an electric vehicle (EV) and you run short of electrons? Unless you’re doing an out-and-back run from your home charging station, you could have a problem. Right now the market for EVs is