Electronics Automation

The NACNW series of aluminium electrolytic capacitors meets the growing demand for higher temperature operation and longer life.

The NACNW series of aluminium electrolytic capacitors from NIC Components Europe meets the growing demand for higher temperature operation and longer life. The low-profile surface-mount V-chip, bipolar devices are well suited to use in telecommunications and audio equipment where voltage polarity may reverse. Typical applications include modems, speaker systems, and telephone and teleconferencing equipment.

Devices from the series are available with capacitance values ranging from 0.1 to 47uF, and with voltage ratings of between 6.3 and 50V DC.

Operating temperature range is -55 to +105C.

The NACNW series achieves a load life of 1kh at an operating temperature of 105C.

Many pieces of equipment are looking to incorporate a high degree of functionality in a small overall design; the compact 4 x 5.5 and 6.3 x 5.5mm case sizes of the NACNW series support this trend occupying a minimal amount of PCB real estate.

The new range of capacitors is fully compatible with cost effective reflow soldering processes and can be supplied with an optional lead-free finish.

Abacus Group has acquired the remaining 80,360 shares in ECC Distribution, representing 40.18% of the share capital, at a price of GBP 0.70 million in cash.

Abacus Group has acquired the remaining 80,360 shares in ECC Distribution, representing 40.18% of the share capital, at a price of GBP 0.70 million in cash. Abacus now owns the entire share capital of ECC. This acquisition terminates Abacus' remaining call options and the other shareholders' remaining put options relating to these shares.

Abacus previously acquired 9% of ECC's share capital in August 2003 and 50.82% in October 2003.

The total share capital has been acquired in cash at an aggregate cost of GBP 1.75 million.

ECC is the UK holding company of ECC Elettronica, an Italian electronic component distributor, which is headquartered in Milan and covers Italy through a network of seven additional regional offices.

The company has three divisions: ITC which sells IT peripherals; Components which acts as a representative for a number of "blue chip" manufacturers; and Distribution.

ECC markets a broad range of passive, active, electromechanical and display products.

As at 30th September 2003, ECC's consolidated results showed net assets of GBP 2.29 million and a profit for the year before tax of GBP 0.21 million.

Martin Kent, Chief Executive of Abacus Group commented: "Since the acquisition of the 60% shareholding, we have enhanced ECC's franchise line card and believe that taking up the full 100% will improve the opportunity to continue with this development of their product offering".

Premier Farnell has been awarded an extension to its current agreement by the National Universities Working Party on Electronic Components' (NUWPEC).

Premier Farnell has been awarded an extension to its current agreement by the National Universities Working Party on Electronic Components' (NUWPEC). This confirms Premier Farnell as the preferred supplier for the UK higher education sector and research councils, through its onecall solution. The 12-month extension to the current three-year deal will see the agreement run until August 2008 with an anticipated sales value of GBP 5.5 million for this additional year, and will culminate in Premier Farnell having been the preferred supplier to the UK higher education sector for nine successful years.

As part of Premier Farnell's dedication to supporting the design engineers of tomorrow, the service will continue to be delivered through a unique solution - onecall.

Developed by Premier Farnell for the higher education sector, onecall provides a single point of ordering for over 350,000 products.

The streamlined service significantly cuts administration time and costs and reduces paperwork.

onecall was originally set up by Premier Farnell's Group companies to support the higher education sector and research councils in response to a European tender by NUWPEC in 1999.

It brings together the best features of each to provide a multichannel one-stop-shop service, where orders can be made via the web, through dedicated call centres or in person.

Howard Peat, Education Sector Business Development Manager, Premier Farnell, comments: 'As well as being committed to supporting design engineers throughout their careers, from university until retirement, we have extensive knowledge of the higher education sector in the UK and our field personnel have very close ties with the universities'.

'As a result of this deep understanding and dialogue with customers, our teams work tirelessly to deliver precisely what they require'.

'It is this kind of knowledge and dedication which has kept onecall in place as NUWPEC's number one supplier'.

David Johnson, Chairman for NUWPEC, adds: 'Representing the university sector through its six regional purchasing consortia, NUWPEC's decision to extend Premier Farnell's onecall preferred supplier status again was unanimous'.

'Much has been achieved with onecall already and we look forward to working with Premier Farnell during the coming months as we both bring further benefits and value added services to the agreement'.

A new capacitor technology, OxiCap from AVX, offers a host of environmental advantages while delivering higher performance than other types of capacitor.

A new capacitor technology, OxiCap from AVX, offers a host of environmental advantages while delivering higher performance than other types of capacitor. More, these new devices use niobium oxide which, unlike tantalum is cheap and readily available - yet they can be manufactured on existing standard tantalum processing lines. One of the key advantages of the new NbO technology is its nonburn characteristics, which mean that failed devices are guaranteed not to burn up to the rated voltage.

With new initiatives designed to eliminate smoke, this is a major step forward.

AVX's OxiCap devices are also halogen free; another important environmental benefit is that they are compatible with lead-free directives.

None of these environmental benefits come at the expense of performance.

OxiCap capacitors exhibit reliability figures of 0.2%/kh, 2 to 5x better than comparable tantalum products, whilst remaining comparable on temperature stability, frequency response and electrical parameters.

Finally, OxiCaps need never be subject to supply constraints.

NbO material is readily available in large quantities and can be processed with minor modifications to the tantalum capacitor production line.

Even if NbO replaced all Tantalum production it would represent less than 10% of mined product as opposed to 70 to 80% of mined tantalum being gobbled up by the capacitor industry.

Typical applications include automotive, mobile phones, PDAs or any application that needs to seamlessly move to a lead free process or benefit from a higher performance alternative to aluminium and other SMT capacitor technologies.

Other features of these new AVX capacitors include: total traceability; reduced voltage derating; temperature rating up to 125C; rated voltage of under 10V and EIA case sizes that are the same as tantalum devices.

US resistor manufacturer Ohmite has opened up a blog on its website to enable engineers and designers to talk to each other and discuss design ideas or problems.

US resistor manufacturer Ohmite has opened up a blog on its website to enable engineers and designers to talk to each other and discuss design ideas or problems. Ohmite's Product Manager, Piero Fagiolo said: 'This forum will give our existing customers an opportunity to present their application questions and their wish list for new products'. 'Potential new customers will benefit by asking our (and other users) advice to solve a problem they are encountering in their circuit'.

AVX's 1210 B case sise TCJ series of polymer tantalum capacitors launched last year are now available with even lower ESR, reduced from 70 to 45mohm.

AVX's 1210 B case size TCJ series of polymer tantalum capacitors launched last year are now available with even lower ESR, reduced from 70 to 45mohm. For the design engineer this means lower output noise and improved ripple current in their circuits. It also means, faster pulse energy in key areas of the circuit, which has become much more important with the increased usage of battery power for handheld equipment.

Devices offer 100uF capacitance at 6.3V and are part of the only family of polymer devices on the market capable of withstanding the lead-free requirement for reflow at 3x260C.

The company guarantees operation up to 125C, with parts offering a defined ESR specification after reflow soldering.

They also exhibit a safer nonignition failure mode as well as improved capacitance retention compared with conventional MnO2 electrode capacitors.

The new capacitor will be ideal for designers of small 4.5-5.5V battery-operated handheld equipment such as mobile phones, PDAs, MP3 players and digital cameras.

NRSZC miniature aluminium electrolytic capacitors provide impressive low impedance, high stability performance across a wide temperature range.

NRSZC miniature aluminium electrolytic capacitors provide impressive low impedance, high stability performance across a wide temperature range. The new series of polarised, radial leaded devices are suitable for use in a wide range of applications including switching power supplies and convertors. NRSZC capacitors provide an ideal, improved performance update for applications that use NIC's established NRSZ series.

A capacitance range of 47uF to 18mF and rated voltage values of 6.3 to 35V DC means that an NRSZC capacitor can be found to suit most requirements.

Life expectancy of up to 7kh, an operating temperature range of -55 to +105C, and high stability at low temperatures makes NRSZC capacitors a good choice for the growing number of applications that require operation in a harsh environment and long duty cycles.

Farnell InOne has won a contract with an expected annual sales value of GBP 800,000 to provide electrical and electronic equipment for the UK Atomic Energy Authority at six sites nationally.

Farnell InOne has won a contract with an expected annual sales value of GBP 800,000 to provide electrical and electronic equipment for the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) at six sites nationally. Products will be available to order through a bespoke website, customised by Farnell InOne to meet the specific requirements of the UKAEA. As a government body, the UKAEA operates under strict European Union procurement legislation.

Farnell InOne will provide the UKAEA with a tailored online catalogue of approximately 100,000 products.

This will enable the UKAEA to carefully select the products available, and ensure that employees cannot purchase products covered by its framework agreements with other suppliers through the customised website.

"We liked Farnell InOne because of its flexible e-procurement capabilities", explains Fiona Digby-Grant, Head of Corporate Commercial at UKAEA.

"The fully customised website solution incorporates our request for pricing on the site to be inclusive of both product and delivery costs, so that the amount displayed is exactly the amount paid.

This enables us to better control spending, as well as allowing our staff to devote more time to their core job responsibilities and less to the ordering process".

Representatives from Farnell InOne have travelled to the six UKAEA sites, running workshops on the new online solution and explaining the full benefits.

UKAEA employees have been especially impressed by Farnell InOne's industry-leading product search and quote tool, ProductFind, which helps design engineers source hard-to-find products, in a matter of seconds.

Stephen Makepeace, Regional Director for Western Europe at Farnell InOne, comments: "We have delivered a solution that is precisely aligned to the UKAEA's requirement for tailored e-procurement and are looking forward to continuing our close working relationship with its procurement team, to ensure that we continue to meet all their present and future needs".

Epcos is working with Continental Temic on the development of components for power electronics in hybrid vehicles.

Epcos is working with Continental Temic on the development of components for power electronics in hybrid vehicles. In the Electronic Powertrain Controller (EPC) Project, Continental Temic is using capacitors based on Epcos' innovative stacked winding technology to produce extremely compact and efficient convertors for automotive power trains. The extremely light and space-saving design of Epcos power capacitors enables the realisation of ultracompact designs in automotive electronics.

Rated at 2000uF, the power capacitors have a dielectric strength of 450V DC.

Thanks to their space-saving stacked winding technology, they measure only 292 x 146 x 56mm.

At an operating frequency of 8kHz, a current up to 150A RMS can be applied to the capacitor.

In turn, the very low-inductance capacitors optimise convertor design because only low voltage peaks, for example, can occur.

Further advantages of the capacitors include their oil-free design and self-healing capability.

A wide operating temperature range extends from -40 to +105C.

When using resistors in frequency convertors and servo controllers, small size and facility for direct heatsink mounting offer great advantages.

When using resistors in frequency convertors and servo controllers, small size and facility for direct heatsink mounting offer great advantages. The Isabellenhutte braking resistors not only fulfil these requirements but also have high nominal power and pulse power. Isabellenhutte produces its braking resistors using ISA-Plan foil technology.

They are etched out of relatively thick, rolled, homogenic Manganin foil, electrically insulated and mounted on a 2mm thick solid copper substrate using heat conducting adhesive.

The large mass of the resistor's structure allows for a very high short-term energy load capacity (up to 100J).

The excellent heat conductivity of the ceramic-filled adhesive reduces internal heat resistance to 0.1K/W and its size in combination with the large copper mass of the mounting allows for an extremely high pulse load of up to 3kW/s.

Within the overall working temperature range of -40 to +170C Manganin also provides a largely temperature independent resistance value.

The braking resistors are constructed with IP54-rated packages, using UL-listed materials and a low profile of only 14mm, and so are ideal for installation in frequency convertors or servo controllers.

There are four different sizes (types BRQ, BRM, BRK and BEK) for values ranging from 1 to 300ohm.

The resistors are available both with connecting wires and contact pins (Econopack) and can be mounted directly onto a heatsink.

AVX is extending its range of high voltage multilayer ceramic chips to include an industry standard voltage option of 630V.

AVX is extending its range of high voltage multilayer ceramic chips to include an industry standard voltage option of 630V. The passives specialist's new 630V range offers high capacitance values, low leakage and small size, parameters often difficult to obtain for high voltage systems. In C0G dielectric, the 630V range is available in 0805 to 3640 case size and delivers capacitance values between 10pF and 0.0047uF, with a maximum dissipation factor of 0.1%.

Devices operate between -55 and +125C.

Dielectric strength is a minimum 120% rated voltage for 5s at 50mA maximum current.

In X7R dielectric, capacitance ranges from 10pF to 0.56uF with a maximum dissipation factor of 2.5%.

As well as the RoHS compliant family, AVX offers SnPb versions of SMT configurations for 1825, 2225 and 3640 case sizes, with a 5% minimum lead termination.

This is indicated by the B in the 12th position of the AVX catalogue.

The company's high voltage MLC chips are designed for applications such as snubbers in high frequency power convertors, resonators in switch-mode PSUs and high voltage coupling/ DC blocking.

Premier Farnell has strengthened its linecard with no fewer than 16 new supplier agreements in the last 16 months.

Premier Farnell has announced 16 new supplier agreements in the last 16 months, including global agreements with Coto Technology, Cypress Semiconductor, Kemet, Sipex, STMicroelectronics and ZMD, along with regional engagements with Agilent, AVX, Cirrus Logic, Deltron, Freescale, Linear Technology, Lumileds, Sharp Microelectronics, Omron and Texas Instruments. These world-class additions to the Newark InOne linecard in the Americas and to the Farnell InOne linecard in Europe and Asia Pacific enable the distributor to give design engineers across the globe increased access to an impressive product range of depth and breadth. Marianne Culver, Senior Vice President, Global Electronics Supplier Management, Premier Farnell, comments: 'We work closely with suppliers around the globe to build relationships based on mutual understanding and trust'.

'Service excellence, a compelling product offering, and targeted multichannel product marketing remains at the very heart of our proposition to customers'.

With a significantly strengthened linecard, Premier Farnell now offers design engineers cutting edge technology with leading edge products such as ZigBee from Freescale, unique PsoC devices from Cypress, high-power ultrabright LEDs from Lumileds and technically advanced ARM9 embedded processors from Cirrus logic.

Micromark C and CD has expanded its range of snubber capacitors for IGBT protection, to address growing demand as ever higher currents are switched at ever increasing speeds.

Micromark C and CD has expanded its range of snubber capacitors for IGBT protection, to address growing demand as ever higher currents are switched at ever increasing speeds. A new series specifically designed to attenuate voltage spikes on GTO thyristors has also been introduced. Micromark C and CD is now offering Wima FKP snubber capacitors for IGBT protection in an extended range of capacitor values from 0.047 to 25uF and for voltages up to 4000V DC and 700V AC.

New optional tag configurations give additional flexibility for fitting the capacitors to IGBT modules.

The new additions share the key design features of existing Wima snubber capacitors, including a low inductance design, low loss polypropylene dielectric, high pulse load capability and high resistance to overvoltages.

The new Wima MKP series of capacitors from Micromark C and CD has been designed specifically to attenuate voltage spikes on GTO thyristors, and features exceptional DC pulse handling capability.

The capacitors are available with capacitance values from 1 to 100uF and support maximum voltages from 400C to 1400V DC, depending on value.

Target applications include convertor equipment in power generation and traction technology for train drives, hoists or crane drives.