For Steve Bush, it was a lovely idea for a human-machine interface component: a dumb mechanical rotary encoder knob that simply glues to the front glass of a touch display.

A prolific inventor started work as a teacher then as a tool-maker before working as a machinist in rubber industry workshops including Goodyear’s. When he started his own company he invented and patented the centre drive lathe. Among 400 patents granted to him in 50 years of inventing were patents for the nickel-metal hydride battery, flexible thin-film solar energy panels, ...

Microchip has introduced a touch controller family for ‘knob-on-display’ (KoD) human-machine interfaces. These interfaces add a physical ‘clicky’ knob to the front of a display without traditional rotary encoder electronics. Instead, a passive rotatable clicky knob is simply stuck to the front of the display glass (diagram right) and one or more electrodes underneath interact with the display’s existing capacitive ...

The MIPI Alliance and ETSI have adopted the ‘I3C Interface for SSP’ specification, allowing the MIPI I3C Basic specification to serve as a physical and logical link layer for the ETSI SSP (Smart Secure Platform). ETSI SSP is a platform for USIM (universal subscriber identity module) and ‘secure elements’ for emerging IoT, 5G and other security-sensitive applications. SSP specifications define an open platform for multiple applications ...

Distributor Rutronik is stocking a 100V multi-layer ceramic capacitor (MLCCs) from Samsung Electro-Mechanics. The part, called CL32Y106KCVZNWE, has a capacitance of 10μF and uses an X7S dielectric to get it into a 3.2 x 2.5 x 2.5mm package. Rutronik is promoting it for use on 48V power rails, where companies are switching up from 12V to increase power efficiency. “The ceramic ...

Raspberry Pi has added a wireless module to its Pico microcontroller board, giving it 802.11n Wi-Fi capability – all for $6. Pico W, as it will be known, is just the same size as the original Pico (~ 21 x 51mm) – which was recently qualified for operation across -40 to +85°C for industrial users – and has the same pin-out. ...

Today, Samsung announced that it has started initial production of its 3nm process node applying Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistor architecture. “Multi-Bridge-Channel FET (MBCFET), Samsung’s GAA technology defies the performance limitations of FinFET, improving power efficiency by reducing the supply voltage level, while also enhancing performance by increasing drive current capability,” says a statement from Samsung. Samsung is starting the first application ...

The top five MPU  suppliers took their market share to 86% in 2021, says IC Insights, with Intel edging closer to half the total sales in microprocessors. Total microprocessor sales are expected to maintain double-digit percentage growth in 2022, rising nearly 12% to a record-high $114.8 billion, thanks to higher ASPs. Total MPU sales grew 13% in 2021 and climbed ...

The US and its allies are squeezing the Russians by denying them technology, said the US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo (pictured) earlier this week. “Since the controls were put in place, global exports of semiconductors to Russia from all sources have declined by almost 90 percent,” said Raimondo, “leaving Russian companies without the chips they need for a wide ...

May’s menory  inventory in Korea rose by its highest amount in four years, says Statistics Korea. Memory inventory rose 53.4% in May from a year earlier, the  statistics office said yesterday. A 54.1% gain in March 2018 coincided with a slowdown in revenue growth in the memory chip industry. Chip stockpiles have been rising on a year-on-year basis since October ...