Service robots play an increasingly vital role in society, from transportation and warehouse logistics to home entertainment and security. Regardless of their application, they need to sense changes in their surroundings in real-time to ensure safety while providing a positive user experience. To illustrate how various sensor technologies from TDK’s SmartSensor family can be applied in service robots, this article focuses on a robotic vacuum cleaner (RVC).
Early versions of robotic vacuums had very little intelligence, randomly bumping their way around the home and sometimes missing areas as they did not know where they had been. Often, they would unwittingly become trapped or run out of charge mid-sweep. And, as their dust box is comparatively small to a regular vacuum cleaner, if full, they could be sweeping but not collecting anything up. Over the years, with the innovative use of sensors and motor controllers, vacuum cleaning robots have become much smarter, overcoming these issues.

TDK's transparent conductive silver [Ag] alloy film (FleClear®) is a versatile material that has numerous use cases. Many of these uses require making direct electrical contact to the film's low resistance conductive surface in order to adequately perform the targeted applications. The following Application Note provides an overview of FleClear®, a step-by-step procedure of attaching an metal electrode, a list of needed equipment, along with the recommended materials to attach copper bus bars to the conductive surface. Additionally, where important, the suppliers and the respective numbers, are also listed..

The evolution of sensing technology and communication network contribute to the realization of Autonomous driving society and its growth. In association with full-scale expansion of the "5G service" next-generation wireless communication standard, great attention is being placed on wireless technology intended for "vehicle-to-vehicle and infrastructure-to-vehicle communication" (V2X) to communicate data between automobiles and their surroundings. While the TDK Group can offer a lineup of various electronic components for V2X, this article introduces a selection of IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) and high-frequency products for Telematics Control Units (TCUs).

Whether for smartphones, vehicles, industrial controls, home appliances or gaming consoles – the future belongs to piezo-based solutions with haptic feedback. TDK offers a unique portfolio of products that are suitable for every imaginable haptic application.

Surface treatment is indispensable for the secure bonding of plastic parts. Activation with cold plasma is an equally simple yet elegant solution. Relyon Plasma, a subsidiary of TDK Electronics, offers the piezobrush® PZ2 – a handy plasma source based on the TDK CeraPlas™ piezo plasma generator.

As electronic devices become more advanced, the power supply voltage of LSIs used in them is lowered, so their power consumption can be reduced and their speed increased. However, a decrease in the power supply voltage also causes the requirements regarding voltage fluctuations to become more severe, creating a need for high-performance DC-DC converters to fulfill these characteristic requirements, and power inductors are important components that greatly affect their performance. TDK has a widely varied lineup of power inductor products, and this article describes and explains effective methods for using power inductors, and key points for selecting them, according to the required characteristics of DC-DC converters.

Class-D amplifiers, which are used in devices such as smartphones and audio equipment, have the advantages of being compact and highly efficient, but crucially require countermeasures against noise generated by their high-speed switching. TDK has an extensive lineup of products which can provide effective noise countermeasures while ensuring high sound quality and without affecting signals. This article describes the applications and effectiveness of these products in speaker lines for various devices which use Class-D amplifiers.

From simple gadgets to complex devices for the industrial IoT – they all require compact, reliable and extremely safe power supplies. CeraCharge™, the world’s first rechargeable solid-state SMD battery, is a new technology that meets all these demands.

High-power loads are a major stress factor when fuses and components are switched on, as they cause very high currents to flow. To avoid this, TDK offers ceramic EPCOS inrush current limiters, based on NTC and PTC thermistors – a strong duo when used in combination.

Here are S-parameters where products in the ALT series and common mode filters/chokes are combined in the recommended ways for use with 1000BASE-T.