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A U.S. Senate bill has the potential to boost the EMC business. See story below.

EMP Legislation Awaits Senate Action

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved legislation on protecting the nation’s electrical system from the effects of an electromagnetic pulse, leaving the bill to be considered by the Senate, USA Today reported.

Observers warn that the detonation of a nuclear weapon in the atmosphere or a major solar event could create a magnetic pulse that would disable all electrical operations in a particular area.

"We’re taking this seriously," Edison Electric Institute official Ed Legge said. He cited a June report from the North American Electric Reliability Corp. which found that the EMP danger to U.S. electrical systems "may be much greater than anticipated."

"The high-altitude nuclear-weapon-generated electromagnetic pulse is one of a small number of threats that has the potential to hold our society seriously at risk," according to a 2008 report from the U.S. EMP Commission.

A nuclear explosion at an altitude of 25 to 500 miles would create atmospheric ionization that would in turn produce multiple electromagnetic pulses.

Editors Note: Suppose such a bill is enacted because of threats both real and imagined by government drones without a clue about what they are doing. A whole lot of equipment would need to be hardened and, of course, the equipment would need to be tested to insure that it met the important government requirements - what a bonanza. EMC engineering companies would be in fat city for the next half a century.

Digi-Key Surpasses $1 Billion in Annual Sales

The electronic components distributor Digi-Key has surpassed $1 billion in worldwide sales in 2010. While the company anticipated reaching this milestone in 2010, the achievement came ahead of schedule.

"Reaching and surpassing $1 billion in annual worldwide sales is a major accomplishment for Digi-Key and one for which we have diligently worked," said Mark Larson, company president and COO. "Digi-Key has grown by an average of 15% each year since 1987. This is real, organic growth — not the result of acquisition, but growth based on our expanded reach to customers around the globe."

Digi-Key’s worldwide sales have increased by more than 75% year over year. The company is projected to reach nearly $1.5 billion in worldwide sales for 2010. Its growth is partially attributed to increased sales in Brazil, China, Europe, India, Japan, Mexico, Russia, and other regions around the world.

Agilent Opens Global Manufacturing Facility

Agilent Technologies Inc. of Santa Clara, California, reports the opening of its new life sciences instruments manufacturing facility in Singapore. The facility will produce the company’s liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) instruments for the global market.

"Singapore is the ideal location for this facility as it will provide us with greater access to the life sciences instrument market in Asia," said Bill Sullivan, Agilent president and CEO. "The new facility also will bring us closer to our customers, as the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries have become an important part of Singapore’s overall economy and investment strategy."

Agilent’s LC/MS instruments are widely used by pharmaceutical companies, from basic research through manufacturing and quality control. The instruments also serve customers in biotechnology, bioagriculture, food safety, chemical, petrochemical, forensics, homeland security, environmental, academic and government markets.

IEEE Mourns IEEE Director Roger Sudbury

Sudbury

Roger W. Sudbury, IEEE Division IV director, long-time volunteer, and IEEE Fellow, died on August 22 after a prolonged illness.

"Roger was a dedicated volunteer who truly loved his work with IEEE," said 2010 IEEE President Pedro Ray. "To say he will be missed as a colleague and a friend is not sufficient to truly express the sadness that I know his entire IEEE family shares today."

In 2009, Roger chaired the Employee Benefits and Compensation Committee, which recommends guidelines and benefits for employees. He was a former executive officer of the MIT Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Mass., where he had a 41-year career.

He served on numerous IEEE boards and chaired countless committees and conferences over the years.

Roger attended Georgia Tech as a National Merit Scholar, earning the B.E.E. degree with highest honors in 1960 and the S.M. and Engineer degrees from MIT in 1963 and 1964. He was a member of Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Eta Sigma, Sigma Xi, Tau Beta Pi, and Eta Kappa Nu honor societies.

Richard Reitz Receives ACIL Award

Richard Reitz, Retlif Testing Laboratories corporate laboratory manager, is the recipient of the Preston S. Millar award. Each year, ACIL’s chair presents Millar Awards to individuals who have made special contributions to the success of the association over the past year or years. Reitz is shown above receiving his third Millar Award.

In other news, Retlif recently officially opened a new 1,200 square foot engineering and sales office at the Applied Science Center for Homeland Security in Bethpage, New York. The 25 million dollar facility features a state of the art emergency management command and control center, a 300-person lecture hall and 60,000 square feet of research office space which is fully occupied with 12 like-minded research partners of Retlif. The focus of the center is Homeland Security education and the commercialization of innovative homeland security products, especially in sensor technology.

Study Examines Magnetic Fields and Aquatic Animals

Super-sized electromagnetic coils are helping explain how aquatic life might be affected by renewable energy devices being considered for placement along America’s coastal waters and in the nation’s rivers.

Scientists with the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) are examining whether a variety of fish and invertebrates change their behavior during and after exposure to an electromagnetic field similar to those produced by marine and hydrokinetic power devices that capture energy from ocean waves, tides, currents and rivers. Research began this summer and will continue for two years.

This research project is using two specially designed coils at PNNL’s Marine Sciences Laboratory. The coils, called Helmholtz coils, each consist of about 200 pounds of copper wiring wrapped into a window-frame-like outline that’s roughly five feet by five feet. The wiring carries electricity at the flip of a switch. Like any electricity, this creates an electromagnetic field that naturally attracts magnetic materials such as iron. The field around the electrical coil can create between 0.1 and 3milliTeslas of magnetic flux. 3milliTeslas is about three-tenths the magnetic flux of a typical small bar magnet. Previous research into how electromagnetic fields affect marine animals has been in the 3 to 5milliTesla range.

Researchers want to know if the electromagnetic field will also affect marine and estuarine animal behavior, including migration, finding food and avoiding predators. Several aquatic animals — such as sharks, skates, salmon, sea turtles and lobsters - may use the Earth’s natural magnetic fields to navigate and detect their prey.

To test the field’s potential effects, aquarium tanks filled with marine species are being placed near the two coils. Then researchers will activate the electromagnetic field — at various strengths and time periods — to see if the animals’ actions change.

As part of the project, scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are also examining how electromagnetic fields created by hydrokinetic devices, which generate power from free-flowing water in rivers and streams, might affect freshwater animals. Researchers from Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center at Oregon State University are also studying the potential electromagnetic effects on crabs.

TÜV Expands EMC Testing in Southern California

TÜV SÜD America has added electromagnetic compatibility testing in a state-of-the-art, 10-meter EMC chamber in Rancho Bernardo, California.

This facility will greatly enhance the ability to perform emissions testing to FCC and Industry Canada regulations, as well as European and international standards, in a controlled environment that open area test sites (OATS) do not provide. This facility will also expand TÜV SÜD’s ability to provide transmitter and other wireless communications testing for a wide variety of products. Customers in IT, telecom, automotive, military, aerospace, medical electronics, lab instrumentation, and other fields will benefit from the services offered on this site.

Testing in a 10-meter chamber allows radiated emissions measurements in an environment without ambient signals, providing shorter test times and greater accuracy.

Coupled with the current EMC facilities in San Diego, TÜV SÜD America is able to offer the most complete range of EMC testing services available in the Southern California area.

Jason Kovatch Joins AR Modular RF

Kovatch

AR Modular RF of Bothell, Washington, reports that Jason Kovatch has joined the company as a development engineer. His responsibilities will include creating and supporting all automated test systems as well as supporting amplifier system product development and testing.

Kovatch brings extensive engineering experience to his new position at AR Modular RF. He began his career as an associate at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, where he worked on microgravity containerless processing technology. Also, while at JPL working for the NASA Deep Space Network, he was responsible for creating cryogenic maser amplifiers and instru-mentation used for deep space probe communications and research. Jason was the cognizant design engineer for ground microwave equipment in the Deep Space Network until 1995, at which time he moved to Hewlett Packard as a custom systems engineer. He later worked in the Signal Analysis division of Agilent Technologies until joining AR Modular RF.

Robert Bosch Launches State-of-the-Art EMC Lab

Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions Ltd. (RBEI), the engineering and IT services subsidiary of Bosch in India, has launched a state-of-the-art EMC Lab in Coimbatore that will help enhance the reliability of automotive components such as Electronic Control Units (ECUs). V. K. Viswanathan, president - bosch group/india and managing director, Bosch Ltd., said at the inauguration, "With its highly-qualified engineers, Coimbatore has a great deal to offer a technology company like RBEI."

Set up to meet the EMC test needs of Bosch units worldwide and local projects. EMC test requirements for ECUs designed by Bosch, adhere to the International Automotive EMC Standards (CISPR25, ISO11452, ISO16750, ISO7637 and ISO10605). The lab is equipped with the latest technology to meet the stated needs.