Nuts & Volts - July 2004

News Bytes

Let Your Fingers Do the Talking

Biometrics — the science of using biological properties to identify individuals — will soon end up on your desk, most likely right on your computer keyboard. Retinal and fingerprint scanners are the last line of defense for network (and Internet) identity verification. Unlike passwords, you can never forget your genetically-encoded characteristics.

Atmel has announced extensions to its FingerChip^™line of fingerprint sweep sensors, allowing greater integration into portable electronic devices — like cell phones and PDAs. A sweep sensor is a rectangular thermal imaging array — 8 x 232 pixels in the case of the FingerChip — that creates a large 2D image as you slide your finger across it. Built-in hardware tracks the fingerprint motion and also decodes other actions — like taps and navigation gestures — turning it into a reverse desktop mouse of sorts.

Not only will future portable devices sport a "seamless" control interface, but they'll likely make sure you're really the one using it and buying those Barry Manilow LPs from eBay. For more information on Atmel's developments in biometric sensing, visit www.atmel.com/products/Biometrics/

JULY 2004

350 Farads — Inconceivable!

Actually, it’s just staggering, but that's the capacity of Maxwell Technology's new BCAP0350 Boostcap^™product. In a clever twist, the engineers at Maxwell have designed the 0350 to the same physical specifications as a common D cell battery, opening the door to many new applications, while simultaneously cutting the manufacturing cost (the price to hobbyists is expected to be around $20.00 each). The BCAP0350 will tolerate over a half million cycles and — with an ESR of only 3.2 milliohms — it is rated at 20 amps for charge/discharge current.

The BCAP0350 works in tandem with batteries for applications that require both a constant low power discharge for continual function and a pulse power for peak loads. In these applications, the device relieves batteries of peak power functions, resulting in an extension of battery life and a reduction of overall battery size and cost. For more information on Maxwell's ultracapacitor technology, visit