New from Frontier Silicon, the Naples FS2011 is billed as the industry’s first miniature, highly advanced and integrated stand-alone dual-band DAB/FM radio module for handheld battery powered products. The compact low-cost low-power high-performance unit is available now and is also incorporated in two new portable DAB/FM radios from leading manufacturers Bush and Ministry of Sound. The Naples FS2011 is a complete DAB module operating in both master and slave modes and incorporating Frontier Silicon’s Apollo RF front-end, Chorus DAB baseband processor and NXP Semiconductor’s TEA 5764 FM radio IC.

Naples is unique in that it combines both DAB and FM in a very small slimline module measuring just 35 x 38 x 2.7mm on a highly compact single-sided PCB.

The module is an ideal low cost route to market for manufacturers needing to quickly incorporate both DAB and FM radio functions in next generation handheld radio enabled devices such as DAB/FM portable radios and multimedia-enhanced PDAs.

The module also enables personal DAB radio and internet audio devices when used within a suitable product such as Frontier Silicon’s Atlas 2 platform.

The DAB signal processing functions and protocol stack are implemented in firmware running on the Chorus processor, which also runs the control interface to Naples.

The Naples module offers simple and flexible integration, configurable in both master and slave modes.

In a master configuration the module requires a power source, antenna, LCD and keypad to create a fully featured digital radio.

Alternatively, the module can be controlled by an existing microcontroller as a slave module via a serial port or SCB (serial control bus) compliant device allowing it to be integrated into larger audio systems like CD micro hi-fi or home cinema systems.

The module also supports various software features such as DAB dynamic DLS radio service text, 256Kbit/s decode capacity, stored presets and manual tuning when configured in system applications.

The SmartTrans multitechnology reader has been approved by the US General Services Administration (GSA) for the FIP201 programme. The SmartTrans reader is the first contactless smart card multitechnology reader that is included on the GSA Approved Products list. ‘As one of the leading RFID the companies in the world and as technology partner of our customers, we recognised the need for an dual technology reader that will add value to an existing infrastructure instead of replacing it’.

‘We are very pleased that our work has been awarded GSA Approved Products list for contactless physical and logical smart card readers’, says JP Hulsker, CEO of Integrated Engineering.

‘The approved products list from GSA is a great resource, which offers the US Government possibility to benefit from our knowledge and experience with the various technologies and our experience within the market’.

The SmartTrans provides a transition path from existing proprietary legacy 125kHz Prox technologies to an open standard ISO14443 technology.

The reader combines ISO14443 technologies, such as Mifare, DESFire and PIV, and 125kHz prox technologies in one reader.

The reader provides configurable output formats and output protocols.

The SmartTrans accepts a wide range power supply voltage from 5 to 16V DC.

Z-Point Products has made its ZigBee USB Dongles available in a special wireless signal-strength evaluation kit. The kit offers users who are interested or curious about ZigBee a low-cost means to evaluate its suitability for their needs. ‘One of the most common questions that we hear from customers regarding ZigBee is ‘will it work for my application?”, reports Brian Empey, CEO of Techsol and CTO of Z-Point Products.

‘Our clients have interesting challenges to solve’.

‘They want to know if a ZigBee switch in the house will be able to turn off the lights in the stable (that their client’s daughter left on) 400 feet away from the house’.

‘We can’t answer that from our office’.

‘But now we offer a tool that lets them test it out themselves’.

The ZigBee Wireless Evaluation Kit comes as a set of three wireless devices plus software for Windows or Linux computers.

One ZigBee USB dongle plugs into a PC in one location.

Another plugs into a laptop that can be carried around.

And the third is simply a co-ordinator that is installed nearby.

As the user walks around with the laptop, the screen shows the strength of the signal that it is receiving plus the strength that the other user receives.

In addition, there is an ‘instant messaging box’ that lets them communicate with each other.

This feature was added at the request of building automation customers who want to test the suitability of ZigBee for operation between floors of buildings.

Now users can test the viability of ZigBee wireless as a communications mechanism through different media, over different distances, or any other test that is relevant to their particular challenges.

This kit, based on the same ZigBee Dongle that was demonstrated at Light Fair 2006 in May and hailed by the ZigBee Alliance as the world’s first Zigbee product, is available for only $345.

Wireless networking specialist Radionor Communications has established an alliance with Arrow in which the company supplies and provides engineering support for key technologies deployed in Radionor’s latest broadband radio products. Since it was founded in Norway in 2000, Radionor has grown to supply international markets with a variety of broadband technologies developed around wireless Internet Protocol (IP) technology. Applications for the company’s products range from high-accuracy tracking of mobile telecommunications equipment to SIM cards with embedded WLAN transceivers and WiMAX smart antenna solutions.

In addition to supplying a broad range of electronic components, Arrow is helping Radionor to speed new product development programmes by providing locally focused field application engineering (FAE) support.

This support covers a variety of areas, including the identification, selection and design-in of key semiconductor technologies.

Discussing the relationship with Arrow, Atle Saegrov, Radionor’s founder, comments: ‘As a small company penetrating international markets our strategy has always been to form strategic alliances with partners that can give us competitive advantage’.

‘By providing high levels of engineering support, the alliance with Arrow goes far beyond component supply and has become an integral aspect of our ongoing product development process’.

Christian Brusdal, Arrow Norway’s Sales Manager, adds: ‘Arrow has always recognised the importance of combining a broad linecard with comprehensive engineering support focused on meeting requirements at a local level’.

‘The relationship with Radionor is an excellent example of how this approach can help small to medium sized businesses to develop leading edge products in the tight timescales needed to ensure competitive advantage’.

RF Monolithics has announced the DM2200 module for wireless sensor networking. The DM2200 combines low power consumption components and RFM’s high-performance third-generation Virtual Wire radio to provide longer range than was previously possible with a battery powered mesh networking node. The DM2200 is a powerful and versatile embedded module that provides superior performance across a broad range of industrial automation applications.

The DM2200 communicates 600m in open air while only consuming 4.5mA in receive mode and 68uA in standby mode.

‘RF Monolithics has found that no one wireless connectivity architecture provides adequate performance in all applications, even within a single industrial facility, and that different technologies must be employed to provide satisfactory solutions’, said Wayne Stargardt, Director of Marketing for RFM’s Wireless Systems Group.

‘The DM2200 is an important addition to our portfolio of standard wireless mesh networking products, and it allows us to offer an off-the-shelf solution for industrial applications that must communicate over long range on battery power’.

The DM2200 uses RF Monolithics’ VersaMesh mesh networking protocol to provide its powerful communications functions.

In addition to aggressive power management that complements the low power hardware, VersaMesh uses a rules-based routing architecture.

VersaMesh’s rules-based routing can be easily modified to optimise performance for low latency, long battery life, high reliability or other requirements of any specific application.

VersaMesh also enables every node in the network to function as a router while also connecting to sensors.

Further, VersaMesh allows any node to communicate to any other node without having to route through a single network master or co-ordinator.

The DM2200 is designed as a solution to a broad range of industrial wireless connectivity applications.

In addition to long transmission range and low power consumption, the DM2200 can be configured to support thousands of nodes in a single network.

The DM2200 is versatile in connecting with machines through its serial port and ten configurable I/O ports.

The DM2200 provides an application environment that supports user applications running on its embedded microcontroller, which can often enable users to avoid an additional microcontroller in their product designs.

The initial version of the DM2200 wireless module operates in the 900MHz unlicensed frequency band, and has already been certified for operation in the USA under FCC 15.247 regulations.

It will be followed by future versions that operate on frequencies for use in other countries.

Samples of the DM2200 are available immediately and production quantities will be available in September 2006.

i-sft has teamed up with manufacturers’ representatives Tritek Solutions and The Tronex Group to better serve its North American customer base. Tritek Solutions, with its divisions Tritek Northwest and Aztec Enterprises, and offices throughout the western USA has a long history of selling quality products through profound product knowledge and a true understanding of customers’ applications. The Tronex Group serves the southern USA.

Focusing on display products and man machine interface components Tronex builds on a wealth of experience in application based solutions.

‘With their solution focused sales approach both companies perfectly match our project type business’, said Dr Joerg Blechschmidt, Strategical Sales Director, i-sft.

‘A technical understanding that goes well beyond the product itself provides additional value to our cutting-edge displays’.

The new partners will supplement NuAccess Technologies now focusing on southern California.

Digital Displays has entered into agreement with One Stop Displays (OSD) to offer the OSD line of OLED display modules to the UK market.

OSD OLED display modules provide industry compatible modules in the following configurations: monochrome blue/yellow with grayscale up to 3.12in with 256 x 64 pixel resolution; blue single colour displays from 0.66 to 1.11in diagonal; three/four area colour with resolutions from 96 x 39 to 132 x 64 pixel and full (64/256K) colour up to 1.5in with a resolution of 128 x 128 pixel.

All the modules feature low power consumption, wide viewing angle, high contrast and with their bright emissive displays are suitable for use in applications including, handheld instruments, medical equipment, measuring devices and consumer products.

Pelikon, the Cardiff-based manufacturer of printed segmented electroluminescent (pSEL) displays, is continuing to evolve its revolutionary pSEL segmented flexible display technology with the introduction of new 50% slimmer and more flexible pSEL Backlites and Animated Backlites. With a significantly reduced thickness of 100-130um, the new displays are ideal for applications where space is critical. The slim and flexible pSEL Animated Backlites also bring a new dimension to existing keypad designs for mobile phones or remote controls, through multi-segment and even multi-colour animations driven by Pelikon proprietary driver electronics products.

Available from Q1 2007, the new slim and flexible pSEL Backlite and Animated Backlite will be available alongside the existing pSEL Intuitive Touch Display product.

The animated feature offers 16 levels of greyscale and multiple colours and segments, which when combined, can deliver complex animation using the Pelikon Mobile Display Controller to drive and optimise the display.

This innovative feature will allow manufacturers to produce eye-catching products not seen on the market before and even use different EL colours to highlight distinct areas of a product to simplify operation for the user.

At the same time, the new slim and flexible pSEL Backlites will continue to offer a power efficient, durable and reliable solution, courtesy of Pelikon’s high quality manufacture and proprietary driver electronics.

With full engineering support offered to all customers the new pSEL Backlites and Animated Backlites are easy to handle in application construction, providing an-easy-to-implement solution that enhances consumer appeal.

‘Our pSEL displays and drivers are already a great option to bring an exciting and intuitive twist to a number of products including consumer electronic devices’, said Andrew Green, Product Manager, Pelikon.

‘The new thin and flexible pSEL Backlites are perfect for products where space is at a premium, whilst our pSEL Animated Backlites will overhaul future generations of mobile phones and remote controls’.

Zytronic, the leading designer and manufacturer of Projected Capacitive Technology (PCT)-based sensing solutions that optimise the performance of electronic display applications, has strengthened its presence in Eastern Europe by signing a distribution agreement with the Electronic Components Division of Elatec. The agreement will provide Zytronic and its customers with local support in the Czech Republic, Romania, Russia, the Ukraine, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Poland and brings the current number of Zytronic distributors and representatives to 28, covering 30 countries across Europe, Asia Pacific, the USA and Canada. The Electronic Components Division of Elatec specialises in displays and focuses specifically on the kiosk, gaming and industrial markets - all areas in which the demand for touchscreen-based applications is growing very rapidly.

‘The core markets on which we are focused - kiosk, gaming, and industrial - all require touchscreens which are able to withstand everyday wear and tear, and that can continue to operate in the harshest of environments’, says Libor Pavel, Department Director, Electronic Components/Marketing at Elatec.

‘Zytronic’s internationally award-winning projected capacitive technology-based touch sensors offer a combined resistance to grease, dirt, and harsh chemicals and can be operated with gloved and ungloved hands, making it an ideal solution to be able to offer to our customers, locally’.

Zytronic’s PCT comprises an array of embedded micro gauge capacitors within a glass or plastic layered laminated screen.

The sensitivity of the PCT system can be adjusted to sense touch through a distance of up to 20mm.

The sensing array is positioned behind an inert front-facing medium, making it more advanced than other traditional touch technologies and preventing any susceptibility to the system from accidental or deliberate damage.

This makes PCT ideal for applications that are in the public domain such as information kiosks, gaming machines, or industrial applications which are generally found to be in hazardous environments.

‘As the demand for touchscreen-based applications continues to grow, the appointment of a proven distributor of Elatec’s calibre is an important strategic move that will help ensure our continued growth and expansion of our customer base at an international level’, says Mark Cambridge, Managing Director, Zytronic.

‘Elatec offers a focused sales team with a wealth of experience and a dedicated team of knowledgeable application engineers’.

‘We are confident that Elatec will excel in providing local support for our range of PCT-based products’.

Elatec will also offer Zytronic’s full range of noninteractive products including ballistic visors, and RFI and EMI shielded optical filter and window technologies, which combine the highest levels of shielding with excellent optical performance.

These filter solutions can be tailored for a wide range of environments and applications, such as information displays, secure areas, information displays, navigational and medical equipment and military displays.

i-sft has teamed up with manufacturers’ representatives Tritek Solutions and The Tronex Group to better serve its North American customer base. Tritek Solutions, with its divisions Tritek Northwest and Aztec Enterprises, and offices throughout the western USA has a long history of selling quality products through profound product knowledge and a true understanding of customers’ applications. The Tronex Group serves the southern USA.

Focusing on display products and man machine interface components Tronex builds on a wealth of experience in application based solutions.

‘With their solution focused sales approach both companies perfectly match our project type business’, said Dr Joerg Blechschmidt, Strategical Sales Director, i-sft.

‘A technical understanding that goes well beyond the product itself provides additional value to our cutting-edge displays’.

The new partners will supplement NuAccess Technologies now focusing on southern California.