Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a well-established industry standard that has been in place for more than 20 years, defining the serial communication protocol and the connectors, cables, and chargers for battery-powered rechargeable portable devices. With each updated version of the USB, protocol data rates have continuously increased over the years. Today, we have USB4® protocol, with up to 40 Gbps data rates. Followed by the recently released USB Power Delivery (PD) charging protocol. This development meant a reduction in the time required for charging any peripheral device via USB plug, even though the battery capacities of peripheral devices have been increasing. The latest market developments pushing the technology trends to support requirements have been led by manufacturers’ offerings, followed by attempts to standardize the equipment used. One of the widely used solutions that combines the above requirements is the USB Type-C® connector, which supports up to 100 W power supply option.

NTC (Negative Temperature Coefficient) thermistors are thermally sensitive semiconductor resistors which show a decrease in resistance as temperature increases, and its rate of change is extremely large.

Its main applications include temperature sensing in electronic equipment and temperature compensation for module products.

However, if the user misuses the product, it may not function properly and, in the worst case, this may cause malfunctions.

This page introduces the causes and countermeasures for ”cracks” and ”melting of ceramics” as failure modes caused by improper use of NTC thermistors.

【How electrification and autonomous driving are expanding the role of sensor technologies within automotive designs】

The automotive production landscape is changing. The proliferation of electronic devices and sensors in modern car design has grown exponentially in recent years. It will expand further as the industry continues its transition toward e-mobility and autonomous driving. The core technologies featured in electric vehicles expand the realm into which sensors are deployed. Also, combustion engine vehicle gas sensors have shifted away from exhaust gas monitoring toward internal air quality (IAQ) measurement.

While the development of next-generation vehicles for fully automated driving is gaining momentum, vehicle architecture is beginning to undergo major changes. Among them, the automotive network that connects ECUs responsible for advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) is a very important element.
One particular focus is on automotive Ethernet for automotive networks, with 100BASE-T1 (100 Mbps) and 1000BASE-T1 (1 Gbps) for sensor systems in cameras, radar, and LiDARs. Furthermore, the 10BASE-T1S, a new standard for automotive Ethernet with a transmission speed of 10 Mbps, is gaining more attention.
Sample applications: Possible applications include actuator systems and sensors.

While smartphones, TWS, and other mobile devices are becoming smaller and more sophisticated, devices and ICs are becoming more vulnerable to electrostatic discharge (ESD), surges, and other types of immunity. These mobile devices are increasingly being hand-held, operated, and worn. Therefore, ESD countermeasures are needed more than ever, while ESD protection components are also increasingly being used to prevent ESD. TDK offers a lineup of chip varistors as components that can protect circuits from ESD. Lastly, using actual devices, this article presents examples of ESD countermeasures using chip varistors for actual failures that occur when ESD enters a device.

In recent years, wireless audio has become more commonplace and even the norm in many of our everyday products. The use of network audio, which does not use conventional media sources such as compact discs (CDs), is also expanding due to the increase in sound source data from high-resolution audio and subscription-based music distribution services. New audio usage is often centered on smartphone-based services that provide audio through the smartphone to speakers and earbuds [earphones, earpods, etc.] via Bluetooth connectivity. These two use cases for audio output have come to dominate.
The recent mass implementation of True Wireless Stereo (TWS) within earbuds, with their comfortable cable-free non-tangling fit, has yielded vastly improved sound quality over traditional Bluetooth audio technology. TWS also comes with the ability to cancel external noise (isolation) which results in quieter playback. This feature allows users to use TWS-based devices without concerns of the sound being “broadcasted” to surrounding areas.
Additionally, Bluetooth connected speakers, which also do not require cables for signal transmission, allow for unfettered placement of playback devices and speakers. These mobile speakers, with their built-in amplifiers, can operate on battery power and be completely portable.
Bluetooth enabled audio devices are easy to use, easy to connect to and have many advantages. However, since they require a wireless signal, they can be susceptible to problems that do not occur with cable-connected audio devices.
This article describes phenomena that can cause problems within Bluetooth audio designs and will provide examples of potential countermeasures.

TDK offers a full suite of sensors that are perfectly suited for drones of all types from consumer/prosumer models to industrial units.
 
In just a few years, drones have become indispensable in one application after another, including such diverse areas as agriculture, real estate and cinematography. For all this success, drones still have almost unlimited potential given their suitability for a wide variety of uses including delivery, inspection, search & rescue, monitoring, and mapping, to name just a few.
 
Fundamental to drone utility is sensor technology. Drones rely on diverse sets of sensors for two broad purposes. First for their own functionality, notably flight and navigation, and second, for their ancillary capabilities – cameras for vision, motion detectors to sense activity, heat sensors to detect temperature, and so on.

TDK has a lineup of multilayer chip varistors that protect equipment for malfunction and failure due to ESD (electrostatic discharge), and we have long contributed to solving customer ESD problems.
Recently, however, although multilayer chip varistors have been effective in the past, they have been unable to provide sufficient protection as customer devices have become smaller, lighter, and more sophisticated.
To investigate the cause of this problem, we conducted ESD tests assuming the miniaturization of customer equipment.

High energy, reliable and volumetric efficient inverters are essential to reducing emissions of vehicles based on 48 V technology. DC-link capacitors can significantly contribute to this target by reducing parasitic losses and increasing thermal efficiency. High inverter powers can be theoretically achieved with multiple capacitor connections. However, a high number of parallel-connected parts also increase the complexity of the system stability. In the field of Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors, the Hybrid Polymer technology offers higher ripple current densities by a factor of, e.g., 5x compared to standard Liquid Electrolyte technology. By applying the Hybrid Polymer technology to the large axial capacitor can sizes, with solid mechanical construction and special thermal dissipation feature, a compact DC-link solution with a reduced amount of capacitor and minimized thermal escalation risk through stable and efficient thermal design can be achieved.

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.