Agilent Technologies opens Florida calibration center. See below

Agilent Technologies Opens Calibration Center

Agilent Technologies Inc. of Santa Clara, California, reports the opening of a new calibration center in Sunrise, Florida. Now owners of Agilent electronic measurement instruments in that area can receive true local OEM calibrations, such as actual measurements performed using OEM procedures for every data-sheet specification, each time they use the center.

“We’ve invested in this new calibration center so that South and Central Florida customers can receive our Agilent OEM calibration service with the shortest turnaround time possible,” said Steve Aleshire, V.P. of Agilent’s service solutions for the Americas. The Agilent Sunrise Calibration Center, near Fort Lauderdale, has been accredited by A2LA to ISO/IEC 17025:2005, ANSI/NCSL Z540-1-1994, and ANSI/NCSL Z540.3-2006.

Schaffner Reports Sales and Earnings Increase

All three business segments of the Schaffner Group have shown further growth in the first-half of fiscal 2010/11. The Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) segment, with its standard and customized components that ensure the electromagnetic compatibility of electronic power equipment and systems, posted sales of CHF 57.2 million (HY1 2009/10: CHF 49.7 million). The segment result rose 51% to CHF 11.5 million (CHF 7.6 million) and the segment operating margin grew to 20.1 % (15.3%). Additional gains in market share led to a 51% increase in sales in North America.

Key markets of the EMC segment include energy-efficient drive systems, renewable energies, power supply systems for electronic devices, as well as machine tools and robotics. The EMC segment contributed 58% (59%) to sales in the first half-year. In the future, EMC and power quality components will be key growth drivers for the drive systems of hybrid and electric vehicles.

Demand remains high for EMC and power quality solutions for use in energy-efficient drive systems and electronic motor controls as well as rail technology. Some late-cyclical EMC markets particularly for machine tools and robotics are continuing to recover.

Seabury Joins Panashield as Director of Sales

Panashield president Peggy Girard announced the appointment of David Seabury in February as the Connecticut company’s new Director of Sales Americas. "Everybody knows him!” she says.

They know him because he has extensive background in the design, manufacture and installation of RF-shielded enclosures and anechoic chambers for EMC, wireless and microwave applications. He is also known for founding IBEX Group, Chase EMC USA and Chase Systems where he promoted a range of products synergistic with chamber installations.

IBEX and Chase were closely partnered with Panashield from 1991 to 2003. More recently, David held positions with ETS-Lindgren as senior product manager and regional sales director.

A 1970 graduate of Lehigh University, he spent four years in the Army and 18 years with RFL Industries of Boonton, New Jersey.

He and his wife Betty Ann will continue to live in St. Michaels, Maryland, where they enjoy boating (as you can tell) on the Chesapeake Bay.

To contact him at his office, phone: (410) 745-8027 or email to: seabury(at)panashield(dotcom)

TV Airwaves May Unclog Mobile Networks

In April, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chief Julius Genachowski (center in photo) told Washington D.C.’s Economic Club that the dwindling electromagnetic spectrum available to wireless carriers has led to a spectrum crunch that is causing dropped cellphone calls and poor reception nationwide.

The FCC’s solution is to get television broadcasters to voluntarily sell some of their airwave space to the highest bidder. “The single biggest thing we can do to free up contiguous, high quality spectrum for mobile broadband is incentive auctions,” Genachowski said, according to Reuters.

The plan requires broadcasters to forfeit 120MHz of spectrum, which would create 22% more space for the crush of data from cellphones and wireless devices, writes the New York Times.

IEEE Recognizes Early Marconi Experiments

IEEE has dedicated two IEEE Milestones in Electrical Engineering and Computing for Guglielmo Marconi’s first outdoor radio transmission at the sites of his transmitter and receiver in Pontecchio Marconi, Italy. These milestones also commemorate the life and work of Marconi, which greatly influenced the modern telecommunications era and helped build the foundations for everything from radar to radio astronomy to wireless communications.

After Heinrich Hertz’s (1887-88) and Augusto Righi’s 1893 experimental results on free space propagation, Marconi very clearly understood the importance of the application of radio waves for communicating at a distance. At twenty-one, he conceived and successfully carried out his first experiments in outdoor radio transmission. During the summers of 1894 and 1895, Marconi began his experiments to assess the practical limits of actual transmission distances. These very first experiments ended with a successful transmission from the Marconi family villa ( Il Griffone) to the far side of Collina dei Celestini (Celestine Hill), which was located about one mile away.

Plasmonic Chips Facilitate Photon-Electron Coupling

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory predict that achieving localized surface plasmon resonance in a semiconductor would enable electronic interconnects where signals are sped up to the speed of light, on-chip lenses for lasers and sensors, a new generation of super-efficient plasmonic LEDs, a new generation of supersensitive chemical and biological detectors, as well as metamaterials that can bend light around objects to create an invisibility cloak.

Plasmons are wavefronts that couple independent electrons together into quasi-particles that travel in waves on a surface, allowing their frequency to be matched to that of incident photons, thus coupling electronic plasmons with optical photons at resonance.

Such plasmonic semiconductors will transform electronics with its ability to facilitate coupling of photons (light) and electrons, say the researchers.

Until now plasmonic devices were based on interfaces between metals and insulators (dielectrics), but these new results claim that many common semiconductors can also be crafted to transport plasmons, according to Berkeley Lab, which reported achieving surface plasmon resonances in vacancy-doped semiconductor nano crystals in other words, quantum dots.

Harris Gets $19.9 Million Order

Harris Corp. of Rochester, New York, an international communications and information technology company, has received a $19.9 million order from the U.S. Army for Falcon II® AN/VRC-104(V)(3) radio systems to provide high-frequency communications in multiple variants of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAPs).

The AN/VRC-104 is a fully integrated communications system that includes the Falcon II AN/PRC-150(C) high-frequency tactical radio. The AN/PRC-150(C) delivers critically needed beyond line-of-sight Type-1 terrestrial communications. It provides continuous coverage from 1.6 to 60MHz at 150W.

Bacteria on the Radio: DNA Could Act as Antenna

Theoretical physicists have proposed an explanation for how bacteria might transmit electromagnetic signals: Chromosomes could act like antennae, with electrons traveling gene circuits to produce species-specific wavelengths. According to Northeastern University physicist Allan Widom, calculations based on the properties of DNA and electrons square with what’s been measured.

“For a long time, there have been signals in water. Something is happening around a kilohertz,” said Widom, lead author of a paper posted on the preprint website arXiv. You have to look for natural energy levels in the system that would give you a kilohertz frequency. With the lengths of DNA and the mass of the electron, you get the right frequency range for these signals.

Widom noted that electromagnetic radio transmissions were not in principle so different from electron transmission between bacteria connected by nanowires. Such bacteria have been described in recent years. Their nanowire-enabled transmissions may allow networked microbes to communicate.

"This could be a wireless version," said Widom. "Bacteria that set up nanowires are, on an evolutionary scale, fairly old."

Widom is especially curious about whether cells in higher life forms might also use electromagnetic signaling. (Editors Note: Communication by ESP?)

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