Service robots are widely used in various situations such as logistics / transport, security, cleaning, housework, hobbies / entertainment and care / assistance. Since service robots are used in a wide variety of situations, it is necessary to fulfil many requirements such as smooth communication with humans (HMI), ensuring safety and responding to changes in the real time. In service robots, the role of a sensor is very important. In this article, we will take a vacuum cleaner robots as an example.

In electric vehicles (xEVs), thermal management plays a crucial role for battery safety and longevity, inverter and motor monitoring, and comfort also. For this purpose, TDK offers a broad variety of innovative NTC and PTC based temperature sensors solutions, optimized by their design and specification for the respective applications. However, advanced Micronas Hall sensors and motor controllers also perform important tasks, for example in the high-precision control of valves.

NFC is an abbreviation of Near Field Communication; it is a type of short-range wireless communications.
NFC is a function that can perform data communications and authentication when two NFC-compatible devices are brought close together, and adoption in smart phones has been growing rapidly in recent years.
Increased use in peripheral devices including wearable terminals, such as smart watches, has also been observed.
NFC is used in many situations including cashless payment and authentication of connections with peripheral devices, and it is expected to be used for even more diverse applications as we move towards a touchless society.
This article introduces the main components used in NFC circuits: NFC antenna, magnetic sheet, LC filter inductor, single-end circuit balun, and electric double-layer capacitor (EDLC/supercapacitor).

Automakers are incorporating more multifunctional capabilities into automobiles as they seek to make autonomous driving a reality. Electronic control units (ECUs) for advanced driver assistance systems are consuming more power, and the latest trend is toward ECU integration—installing an ECU close to the engine room or other working part.
For these reasons, the number of electronic devices and components built into cars these days is on the rise, and the reliability of the electronic components used in the electronics is having a growing impact on the reliability of the vehicle overall.

With the increasing speed and sophistication of interfaces in cars, the PoC (Power over Coax) approach is gaining in popularity, as it allows superimposing signals and power in one coaxial cable, for example for LVDS based automotive camera systems. A PoC filter consisting of one or more inductors and chip beads is used on the circuit side to separate the signal and the power supply current. This is important in terms of maintaining communication quality. The PoC filter therefore requires inductors that realize high impedance for AC components over a wide bandwidth range from low to high frequencies.

If communication waves from cellular or Wi-Fi sources interfere with and intrude into microphone lines for smartphones or other devices, some of their components will become noise components in audible bands known as "TDMA noise", and may be emitted from speakers as unpleasant sound. Countermeasures which implement combinations of TDK's noise suppression filters and ESD Notch Filters can not only demonstrate outstanding effectiveness at suppressing TDMA noise with no effect on signals, but can also provide a variety of other benefits such as improving cellular or Wi-Fi communication reception sensitivity, and providing countermeasures against ESD (electrostatic discharge).

This is an introduction to our services for technical support which utilize PI simulations to lower the impedance in power-supply lines and reduce the quantity of required decoupling capacitors, by replacing 2-terminal MLCCs with low-ESL capacitors. We hope they will be of use to you in the increasingly severe field of impedance optimized power-supply line design, and in applications for decoupling capacitor compositions and board design techniques, which are continuing to grow in importance.

In addition to explaining the characteristics of C0G MLCCs with high withstand voltage, this section focuses on the advantages of replacing the film capacitors used in EV wireless power transfer systems.