Blue ray

 

It seems like every couple of years there are new advances made and our technology springs forward. Sometimes it can be difficult to keep up with all of the incredibly fast paced advances made. Currently, blue ray technology has been brought into the mainstream and learning what this technology is can keep consumers up to date with the latest inventions in home entertainment.

Discovering What Is Blue Ray Technology
For many, home movies were originally played on the classic vcr tape. Then, the technology moved onto DVD players, and the look of the movies was sharper and of a much better quality. Now the next evolution has started with blue ray technology.
Finding out about what it is includes learning about the differences between this kind of technology and the current mass marketed DVD systems. This new kind of technology has been developing for years, since the mid 1990's when HDTV's were becoming more common for consumers to buy. A technology was needed that could record and play back the high definition recordings. Blue Ray technology was created to fill that void.
So what is so special with this technology and how is it different from the standard DVD? BR technology can store far more information that the traditional DVD, almost 5 times more storage is available on a blue ray disc. The blue ray discs use a blue ray laser to read the information where other DVD's use a red laser.
With a blue laser the wave length is shorter allowing for more storage to be used. This did cause some problems originally, as the discs were much easier to scratch. The case that held the disc had to be made more durable and was somewhat bulky. Advances in polymer coatings have advanced allowing for a better protective coating to be placed on the disc, alleviating the need for the bigger containers.
There are many companies that have a stake in the development of the next cutting edge technology and these companies are looking into both blue ray technology and a HD DVD. Some of the big companies are fighting over which technology should be used and this has caused a split in which companies support which format. Even companies that produce movies are split over which type of technology to use, which means depending on what movie a consumer wishes to purchase; they may need two different types of players.

   Both the blue ray and the hddvd players are continuing to improve. In the end, consumers may discover that they enjoy both types of players and they both may be successful with consumers. Learning about what is this technology exactly can help a consumer get a good idea of basic information in regards to this new technology.

By:- Amit Samantaray

Green laser pointers

Green laser pointers were first commercially sold in the year 2000. They operate at the wavelength of 532 nm. Laser diodes of this wavelength are not available so the green light is obtained by the use of "DPSSFD" laser technology.
The process:-
A very high-powered Infrared laser diode working at 808 nm pumps a tiny block of Nd: YVO4 that generates light at 1,064 nm. This feeds a potassium titanyl phosphate intracavity frequency doubler crystal that produces green light of a visible 532 nm wavelength. High-powered green lasers use lithium triborate instead of KTP.
Features:-
An infrared filter, which is behind the mirror completely, removes the radiation of infrared spectrum from the output beam. In order to reduce cooling problems and prolong battery life, some green lasers operate in pulse or quasi-continuous-wave (QCW) mode. The Class III a laser product gives an output power of 5mw. This is the one of highest-powered street legal laser. Some green lasers even have an output of 10 mw, which has a range of 20,000 feet in darkness. Some even have a 3-second delay feature as these are high-powered lasers and can blind a person. Some laser point extenders are also available. They work by using lenses to minimize the beam spread of a laser. Its price starts from 55$. Majority of them have a life of around 3000 hours.
Applications:-
Green lasers can be used for a variety of roles. They can be used as pointing devices. The ability to form a continuous line in the dark is an added advantage; this has lead to its usage as rescue lights as it can be seen from miles away. It as been used for laser light shows. It is also used for sky gazing as a person can pinpoint a star by using the green laser. It can also be as laser pointers for guns, rifles. In the movie Alien vs. Predator it was used as a pointing device on some G36k carbines.
Advantages:-
The green laser has many advantages. It is fifty times brighter than a red laser because of which it can be seen from miles away, this helps in being rescued if a person is lost. It can also be used in high-tech weapons for aiming purposes. Because of its high range, Green laser pointers can be equipped in different kinds of weapons. High and low temperatures do not affect the performance of Green laser pointers so in case a person is lost in a desert, he can still use Green laser pointers to call for help, in other case, even if a person is lost some where in mountains all covered with ice, he can still use it.
Disadvantages:-
Due to its high power it can permanently damage a person's eye. As it can form a continuous line of light that might reveal a person's position so it cannot be used in stealthy operations or by SWAT.
Green laser is quite awesome but it should be used carefully.

By:- Amit Samantaray

Guns that can stop cars

EM pulse gun that can stop cars

People who have seen the film 2 fast 2 furious please recall the beginning scene where,the hero is being is chased by the cops and he is being stopped by them by using a weirdly looking gun.They fire at him and his car,which is state-of-the art, and it just dies at the next moment.

Very futuristic technology but cool right ? well that going to be true. but not exactly as you see in the film. its not going to be a “handy” gun, its going to be mounted on the top of a car.

The EM pulse gun assembly is mounted on the top of the car and is powered by car’s alternator.It sends out high power pulses (high frequency radiations) which will kill the microprocessors of cars.The big deal with the microprocessors is that,they control the engine.They control the ignition control,fuel injector,fuel pump,etc. without the engine, the car is dead,motionless.

The EM pulse gun would be great help to the law enforcements,military bases,communication centres,oil platforms etc.

The EM pulse gun right now weighs 200 pounds.this is setup on the top of the car.It takes DC power and generates pulses with 50ns duration, and then it is amplified to 640kV using a 16 stage Marx generator.This is then transformed into microwave oscillations. These oscillations are then directed to an opposing vehicle through specially designed antennas.

The radiations from these antenna will damage the car as told before (ECU-engine control unit),etc.Actually this is not a quite new system,military had developed this long before.but the equipment was so bulky and heavy to use in a car.But the guys at Aerospace system made that thing smaller and integrated to a car.

The only drawback of the system is that it cant be used against old vehicles, old vehicles that don’t have an ECU and all those stuff. Common who is going to break the law in a 1970 “Chevrolet Nova”, so that wont be a problem.

Moving data using silicon chips

 

Using photons rather than electrons to move data in chips

Today the world is hungry for bandwidth and speed. But this is limited by the way we use to connect various points. If you think am speaking about two buildings or even two countries, you are wrong. Am speaking about interconnections in a single chip. At present the interconnects in an IC is made with copper. But what is happening is at luxurious speeds as 10 billion B/s (bits per seconds) these interconnects prove to be less efficient.

Continuous experiments have given many alternatives but at the cost of high price. The best one from the array is by using optical fibers and thus replacing photons instead of electrons. The advantage of this method is that the overall cost is less compared to other methods and the data rate you can achieve is far more than that achievable through copper connects.

What’s the big deal with these interconnects anyway huh? Imagine you can download movies with just a click rather than waiting for hours, simultaneous streaming of audio, video, teleconferencing, and you name it. Sounds cool, isn’t it? This is what is possible if we have optical fiber interconnects in the chip level.

The superiority of optical connection is best explained by the following example. Optical data can travel for long distances (say 10 km) without any attenuation. The data rate can be increased by a technique called WDM-wavelength division multiplexing.

Myself is a communication engineer, so I will elaborate on this. Distortion, interference these occurs when the wavelength/frequency of two signals in a single medium becomes equal or very close. So if you can transmit several distinct frequencies at the same time, then you can use the single medium to transmit all these at the same time. In short you are multiplying the capability of the medium’s data carrying capacity. Currently using WDM you can transmit over 40 different data signals into a thin hair strand size optical fiber, all running at the data rate of 10 GBps. wonderful isn’t it, copper connects can’t even dream about it.

So why isn’t this new technology not in your chips yet ? It isn’t simple as it sounds. Optical devices are made with materials such as lithium niobate, indium phosphide etc which are very exotic compared to silicon. So its very costly and expensive to fabricate these into a normal chips.

A normal optical fiber communication link requires the following parts. Modulator-to convert electrical data into light Transmitter-to transmit this light into the fiber Optical fiber-the medium Receiver-to receive the optical data Demodulator-to convert optical data back to electrical data

What we need to do is to manufacture all these devices onto a single chip. This is the ultimate goal. What this step exactly means is you make the modulator, source, medium, detector, demodulator etc on the same silicon substrate. Researches have now enabled silicon to have optical properties. An optical channel can be made in silicon by literally etching a channel in the substrate. For source, silicon laser has been developed by Intel’s state-of-the art facilities. As for all the other parts, researches are going on.

Although they encountered many problems, they are troubleshooting them one by one. In short, the time for a single chip that is half the size of a postage stamp which is able to handle all the operations of whole building won’t be too long in the future.

By Amit Samantaray

Being Wireless @ 60GHz

 

The new technology, being used in every field of human life has become indispensable and scientists are constantly working on improving the existing technology. The discovery of the use of blue tooth as early as 1990s lead to the development of Wi-Fi and IEEE 802.11, the latest of the series is ultra wideband systems. The most important use of having these technologies is the decreased need of cables and wires to connect electronic equipments, and the increased speed at which transmission can take place. Even with so much speed and bandwidth at hand, scientists are looking for options to utilize even more bandwidth.

Scientists are exploring all the available possibilities to acquire more bandwidth, now has turned their attention to infra red light. As of now, this new technology is used in electronic equipments requiring remote control. There have been not much research in this field till now, but situation has changed, with studies to utilize 60GHz is under way.

Along with this, study on semiconductors is also in progress. Use of silicon chips instead of the gallium-arsenide semiconductors which are used presently is being considered. This would be more cost effective and if the designs are successful, the electronic equipments would be working much faster.

In addition to the increased speed, the size of the chips and antennas also can be decreased, with the help of this new technology. The antennas and transceivers can be put together, as the size of the antennas decrease. This also would lead to the lack of need of cables to transfer the data from the antenna to the chips and from chip to chip. Also, the antistatic devices used during assembly to prevent the electrostatic discharge, can be avoided as there are no more open outputs or inputs.

With every new technology, difficulties also appear. The 60GHz wave gets obstructed by any object in its path, it also travels proportionately to the distance between the transmitter and the antenna. This would considerably decrease the power transmitted by the wave, as it reaches the antenna.

Scientists are working to solve these problems and some have come up. Some of the suggestions include using high power, use of multiple transceivers etc. The use of multiple transceivers is considered a good option, but to make it possible, the design of the transceiver would have to be changed. The transceiver which is used at present might be inadequate to meet the increased demands. And the cost of manufacturing these transceivers also has to be considered.

There are bipolar transmitters offering good speed, but at increased cost of production and there are CMOS chips with low speed and low manufacturing cost. Engineers are debating the use and disadvantages of both these. They aim at improving the CMOS chips.

Operating the technique might be difficult, but not impossible. Scientists are also considering the use of 40GHz along with 60GHz.

The use of adaptive antennas is also under evaluation. These would create a beam which would be directly received, considered a solution of the loss of power occurring at the present stage. In this new technology, a lot of emitters are to be used to reduce the loss of power. If this works out, more energy efficient antennas would be manufactured. At the same time, off chip antennas are also under consideration. This would decrease the amount of power lost after it is received at the antenna.

By Amit Samantaray