Technology half a century, it may have to move over and make room for DC.
Music technology: Music technology has changed to new heights with the application of electronics based instruments like, sequencers and synthesizers, Musical Instrument Digital Interface( MIDI) controllers, Electronic Music & Recording Gear, and lots of inexpensive electronic music apps.
Electronics devices: There is a multitude of electronic detecting, counting, sorting, and inspecting devices. The inertia of electrons is negligible, and photoelectric relays are now made to operate reliably 1,000 times a minute. Some electronic counting systems will respond to half a million counts a minute. From counting it is only a step to sorting.
Electronic devices can be used not only to replace the human senses and muscles, but to veto human actions.
Innovative materials: Innovative and more stretchable materials with dramatic advancements help in making electronic ink to give interface designers new creative freedom, without any compromise in meeting functional switching needs. And because these new electronic inks work with existing decorative processes, there’ s no need for costly re-tooling and products with greater eye appeal, simplicity, and performance-all at the same time can be created.
High performance electronic materials: With a deep understanding of materials science and technology, a wide range of process expertise in high performance electronic materials can be useful for hybrid, rigid and flexible circuits; specialized ceramic, polymer thick film compositions and low temperature co-fired ceramic materials; materials for the fabrication and packaging of semiconductors; and materials for advanced displays.
Sensors: Electronics based sensors have increased the control over many un-wanted outcomes not in industrial processes but also in quality of items for day-to-day uses. A sensor is a device that detects and responds to some type of input from the physical environment. The specific input could be light, heat, motion, moisture, pressure, or any one of a great number of other environmental phenomena. The output is generally a signal that is converted to human-readable display at the sensor location or transmitted electronically over a network for reading or further processing. Electronic sensors are used in everyday objects such as touch-sensitive elevator buttons and lamps which dim or brighten by touching the base, besides innumerable applications of which most people are never aware. With advances in micro-machinery and easy-to-use micro controller platforms, the uses of sensors have expanded beyond the most traditional fields of temperature, pressure or flow measurement and analog sensors such as potentiometers and force-sensing resistors are widely used. Applications include manufacturing and machinery, airplanes and aerospace, cars, medicine, and robotics.
Surveillance: Electronics based surveillance and security has made tremendous strides for the benefit of mankind.
Valleytronics: Valleytronics would be a movement away from exploiting the electrical charge of electrons as a means for storing
Transportation sector: Transportation sector has already seen various types of advances in terms of electric vehicles, un- manned planes( drones), use of global positioning system( GPS), high speed vehicles, electronics based safety measures in vehicles etc. information, and instead using the wave quantum number of an electron in a crystalline material to encode data. The aim of valleytronics is to find a faster way of encoding information than moving electrical charges around at high switching rates, which is the basis of electronics.
Space electronics: Space electronics has been a major driving force for the development of electronics and is subject to very harsh environmental conditions. First of all, the electronics must survive the vibrations imposed when the rocket is launched. Secondly, it has to be able to withstand very high temperature variations. Due to the vacuum in space, there is no thermal convection or conduction taking place, with the only heat transfer mechanism remaining being radiation. Even with all these environmental limitations space electronics has proved to be miraculous technology in the space vehicles, satellites and space stations.
e-sports: Electronic sports or e-sports, is a form of sports where the primary aspects of the sport are facilitated by electronic systems; the input of players and teams as well as the output of the eSports system are mediated by human-computer interfaces.
Electronics technologies: Electronics based technologies are able to help us understand more about how the human body copes with various training methodologies towards sports. In fact, in order to improve the quality of training prescriptions we need to base them on data and be able to provide an evidence-based approach to athletic training. We have now access to sophisticated tools capable of measuring a lot of aspects of human performance. This will allow the system to simultaneously capture positioning and movement data in conjunction with vital parameters such as pulse and respiratory rate. This information is subsequently used to create an optimized training concept.
Automotive industries: The automotive and transportation industries present a set of challenges for electronics including being able to withstand high levels of motion and heat, and long lifetime requirements along with the industries drive to zero defect electronic assemblies as a product of their requirement for high reliability. With radical changes in electronics based technology, a number of sophisticated devices are making their way into our vehicles. These include advanced in-dash infotainment systems, multi-function displays for instrument clusters, electronics-based vehicle control and guidance systems and telematics for a number of never-before capabilities related to safety, vehicle diagnostics, maintenance and insurance.
Printed Electronics: As always designers and engineers are looking for more complex and high tech products. The industry can now print complex objects in a variety of materials. Although 3D-selfies are grabbing the media headlines at the moment, designers and engineers are already building far more complex, high-tech products. The secret is to combine electronics( such as sensors / switches) as the object is being printed. Costs are much lower when the product is made in a single process, without the need for individual circuit-board assembly.
Acknowledgement: The use of information retrieved through various references / sources of internet in this article is highly acknowledged.
ELE Times | 45 | December, 2016