After decades of viewing MIL-SPECs as the gold standard for qualifying and screening parts for viability in space, NASA has recently changed course, and is adopting commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) parts as an option for a variety of space applications. Burgeoning changes in industry trends, a drive to remain competitive, and the desire to guide budget-constrained missions pushed the organization to commission a NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) study to evaluate the reliability of COTS parts. Upon completion of the study, NASA aims to create a consistent set of requirements at the agency level to minimize risk and impact of part selection/usage on the performance of NASA spaceflight technology.

For more than 3 million people in the United States, pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) are life-changing technology they rely on. While both devices are implantable medical devices designed to improve the quality of life for people with heart arrhythmia, a condition where the heart beats irregularly, each devices serve a different purpose.

To help customers with filter selection, we generally provide a lot of information on what our filters can do. But in this new Filter Basics Series, we are taking a step back to cover some background information on how filters do what they do. Regardless of the technology behind the filter, there are several key concepts that all filters share that we will dive into throughout this series. By providing this detailed fundamental filter information, we hope to help you simplify your future filtering decisions. 

In part 11, the last post in our Filter Basics series, we review the information S-parameters can tell you about a filter’s performance and show an example of how to plot a filter’s S-parameters using a free open-source tool.

Designing medical implantable devices for high reliability is crucial for a variety of reasons. First, given the life-critical functions performed by many medial implantable devices, and the invasive procedure required to implant medical equipment properly in the human body, it is imperative that all medical devices are designed to function reliably throughout their entire lifetime. Furthermore, since patient safety is paramount, any precautions to reduce the possibility of potentially life-threatening malfunctions, recalls, and replacement surgeries are necessary. And, beyond preventing patient safety issues, there may also be severe economic and legal implications for device manufacturers if an implantable device fails.

Today, one of the most cost-effective and flexible electrical interconnection techniques available is wire bonding. With this technique, thin wire and a combination of heat, pressure, and/or ultrasonic energy are used to create a connection between an integrated circuit or other semiconductor devices and device packaging.

To help customers with filter selection, we generally provide a lot of information on what our filters can do. But in this new Filter Basics Series, we are taking a step back to cover some background information on how filters do what they do. Regardless of the technology behind the filter, there are several key concepts that all filters share that we will dive into throughout this series. By providing this detailed fundamental filter information, we hope to help you simplify your future filtering decisions.

If you are looking for general microwave product information and best practices for information about devices contained Knowles DLI brand microwave products, including both our catalog commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) parts and custom-designed part numbers, then our new Microwave Products Guide is for you!

Trimmer capacitors are variable components used to calibrate RF circuits during manufacturing or servicing. These components allow for variable tuning--think oscillator frequency values or rise and fall times. Should values drift over the life of the device, trimmer capacitors can be recalibrated as needed. For sensitive applications like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), these components help to optimize performance where any instability in time or temperature could impact the image output.

At Knowles Precision Devices, we are well known for our expertise delivering high-performance mmWave filtering options. But did you know we also excel at providing a wide variety of lower frequency filtering options using a lumped element filter construction? In this blog post, we explore the basics of lumped element filter design, general lumped element filter characteristics, and how we can push lumped element filter design limits to develop a wide variety of high-performance low-frequency filtering options.

To help customers with filter selection, we generally provide a lot of information on what our filters can do. But in this new Filter Basics Series, we are taking a step back to cover some background information on how filters do what they do. Regardless of the technology behind the filter, there are several key concepts that all filters share that we will dive into throughout this series. By providing this detailed fundamental filter information, we hope to help you simplify your future filtering decisions.