Another Year Comes To An End!

For all of the crazy ups and downs of 2012, overall it has been a good year for T&C. We stood up to the challenges and supported our customers. We launched several new products. One of them is the “R” tuner. It has a larger case than our “mini” half rack, offering many advantages among them power levels up to 2400W. We updated our website to a much more user-friendly format. We acquired new distributors and we attended three shows this year: the C.A.M.P. Show in Albany in May, SEMICON West in San Francisco in July and the MRS Show in Boston in November.

As successful as 2012 was, we look forward to 2013 with great enthusiasm. 2013 marks the 20th anniversary of T&C Power Conversion. It is going to be a banner year for us! Keep an eye on us as we celebrate this milestone with interesting offers and events.

Thank you for your continued support of our company. We look forward to working with you in the future.

AIT-600-xxR

Our new AIT-600-xxR – the next generation of Auto Matching tuners! Larger case for fewer losses in your sensitive applications! Available with the fully functional Front Panel (shown) and blank Front Panel in 600W, 1000W and 1200W. Visit us at http://www.tcpowerconversion.com and see our full line of RF Amplifiers, Generators and Tuners.

Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy has come and gone in upstate New York. In her wake she left a great deal of destruction in this area. Streets were flooded. Trees were uprooted and many thousands of homes and businesses are still without power. The hope is that everyone will be back on line by the end of the week. The area on the shore of Lake Ontario saw homes lashed by high wind, water and sand. There are homes on the shore that have sand inside; blown in through any tiny little crack by the 70 mph winds. 

Gratefully, T&C itself was spared any harm.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the millions of people who were hurt by this storm. May your pain be lessened and your lives return to normal very soon.

The staff of T&C Power Conversion, Inc.

Global Partners in Semiconductors

It’s no new development that electronics is a global business, with strong centers for various industries in cities and countries all over the world. Taiwan has long been a semiconductor superpower, but pockets of tech firms in places like Bangalore and the U.S. – right here in upstate New York – are all partnering to foster both cooperation and healthy competition, for the benefit of the semiconductor industry itself, and the enormous breadth of products where they’re used.

Partnerships like these represent both business opportunities as well as ones for innovation. On the business side, think of the potential of partnering with someone like, for instance, Taiwan Semiconductor. They’ve developed their engineering, manufacturing, and distribution to the point where they were recently asked to become the sole semiconductor provider for both Qualcomm and Apple! Paying heed to the innovation side of the business, however, they turned down the opportunity. Why? They recognized the risk in dedicating large parts of their facilities to doing one thing – one thing which, in a few years, will be different and in some ways obsolete (think of the first iPhone vs. what’s on the market now). Rather than tying up both engineering and manufacturing resources, they recognized the need to stay creative and nimble.

We’re fully on board with the benefits that these partnerships offer, and have been working with Ashern Technologies in Taiwan. We’ve also been exploring options for partnerships in Bangalore, one of the most up-and-coming tech areas in the world right now. The training and education in these regions (and around us, at places like Albany’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, is top-notch and is turning out a constant supply of energetic and brilliant minds ready to continue changing the world through creativity and through nanotech.

T&C Power Unveils New Website

Summer can sometimes be a time to take a break, relax, and just slow down for a bit. Not so here at T&C Power Conversion. We were at work redesigning our website from top to bottom, incorporating design and functionality improvements to make our home page an intuitive and welcoming destination for any of your plasma generator and RF tuner needs. We’ve also taken the overhaul as an opportunity to update our product offerings, adding full details on many of our latest developments that are available for the first time.

The visual overhaul is likely the first thing you’ll notice. We have a new and improved color scheme designed to be pleasing to the eye. In the past you were limited to “left-hand navigation.” Now we offer a visual, clickable product family option. Rather than searching down the list for Plasma Generators, you’ll see them right there in front of you – click, and you’re off.

Once you make it to a product page, like the Broadband RF Power Generator you’ll see that it’s much easier to access literature like brochures and even manuals for our products. We do have to admit that it could sometimes be difficult to locate these features before, but no longer. Everything you need is right in front of you.

Even better is our favorite aspect of the product pages: linked products. We’ve now made it as intuitive as possible to click between various products that are used together. Take, as an example, our RF power sources and our RF transformers. Each has a link to the other on their product pages. That is just the tip of the iceberg, as you’ll notice when visiting our various product pages. We’ve taken care of the site architecture, coding, and linking, so that all you have to do is click a few times to develop your complete plasma or RF system, as easily as possible. Our blog will continue to provide your fill of product and industry news. We welcome you to the new site, and thank you for reading.

 

Four Industries Benefiting from NanoTech and Thin Film Deposition

Nanotech and thin film deposition are among the most versatile, cutting-edge technologies around. Medical is one of the most well-known industries in which they’ve had an impact, but their reach and utility stretch even further. Read on to learn more about medical and more of the newest uses for nanotech.

1. Photovoltaic Cells (Solar Cells)
Thin film technology has been a big influencer on photovoltaic and solar cell research as well as productivity.  These technologies have been able to produce new and less expensive thin film solar cells.  These new thinner cells have comparable efficiencies as other more heavily used silicon based solar cells.

2. Specialized Batteries
Nanotech and thin film deposition is also enhancing the ability to create and manufacture unique batteries for specialized situations.  Some efforts working on utilizing new battery technology include a multidisciplinary team that is working on a nano-sized battery that one day could be implanted in the eye to power an artificial retina.

3. Medical Devices
Companies are producing electrically active coatings made with nanotech and thin film technologies to enhance cardiac leads.  Cardiac leads are an integral and important component of pacemakers and defibrillators.  Other medical devices that will use these technologies in the future include drug delivery systems, and in addition, thin film can create coatings for stents and joint replacements.

4. Construction and Building Materials
Thin film deposition and nanotech are helping the building materials industry with new ways to insulate buildings.  With a demand to increase energy efficiency as well as overall comfort in many old and new buildings, companies are is creating innovative products to reduce thermal conductivity without compromising the physical integrity of a building – heavy insulation can increase a wall’s thickness which could cause the structure to weaken over time.  One solution is to use thermally insulating coatings on building materials like conventional glass, tiles and aluminum plates.

World’s Thinnest Display Screen, thanks to UltraSonics and Soap Bubbles!

One of the most fascinating uses of Ultrasonics in recent times is the work of Yoichi Ochiai of the University of Tokyo.  Mr. Ochiai is taking the micro membrane of the surface of a soap bubble and utlilzing ultrasonics to pass light through it.  This in turn displays color on the actual structure of the bubble.  What happens is that ultrasound manipulates the thickness of the soap bubble via changes in the interference pattern.  The result is the world’s thinnest display screen. 

According to Mr. Ochiai’s website, “The combination of the ultrasonic waves and ultra-thin membranes makes more realistic, distinctive, and vivid imageries on screen. This system contributes to open up a new path for display engineering with sharp imageries, transparency, BRDF and flexibility.”  A video overview of the process and the results is below.

For over 20 years, T&C Power Conversion has been dedicated to the innovation of RF Products in critical solutions within many areas including Ultrasonics.  We’re proud to be part of this fascinating technology and send our kudos to Mr. Ochiai on his fascinating work.  Perhaps in the future, we can all watch our favorite movies while relaxing in a steamy bubble bath!

New Scientist magazine Video: http://bcove.me/v0lt9azw

Video of Yoichi Ochiai on TED Talks:

Globalization and the Semiconductor Market

The semiconductor industry creates the essential components for all the electronic devices now common to our everyday lives, and over the last several years has become much more globalized. On the other side of the world, Bangalore has become to India what Silicon Valley is to the United States – an industry hub where many major players have offices as well as large R&D centers. A second city on the sub-continent, Noida, has also gained a foothold in electronic design automation and is experiencing a tremendous boom. One of the driving forces behind this growth is India’s advancing automotive sector.  Vehicles are getting smarter and now require an increasing number of semiconductors to operate the sophisticated electronics.

One key to sustaining this level of growth is finding the right talent. This is an industry that requires highly skilled workers, many with advanced engineering degrees. To grow the talent pool, many semiconductor firms are donating software and equipment to Indian universities to ensure that the students have the most modern technology available for their studies. Armed with the proper education, students will be capable of meeting the demands of this challenging industry.

At T&C Power Conversion, we follow growth where it leads, and will be partnering with a firm in Bangalore to ensure that our plasma generators and tuners continue to stay ahead of the curve in the Indian market.

New York is Leading the Nanotechnology Revolution

Nanotechnology, the science of manipulating matter on a molecular level, is an exciting technology that is already breeding remarkable innovation across all industries — in fact, in the semiconductor industry, the critical length scale of integrated circuits is already at the nanoscale level. But there is much to be explored and learned, and New York is positioning itself to become the hub of the industry.

“New York Loves Nanotech” is an initiative promoting “Tech Valley,” located in the eastern upstate New York area, as the premier setting for innovative, high tech companies. According their website, more than $20 billion has already been invested in the area, and that number is still growing. The region is home to several state of the art public and private R&D facilities, including the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at the University at Albany, where a unique industry-university-government partnership provides access to state-of-the-art 300 mm wafer processing capabilities and is looking to bridge the gap between university research and manufacturing implementations.

Earlier this month, a group of companies representing the NY Loves Nanotech initiative visited Semicon West, along with T&C Power Conversion, to promote Tech Valley as a good place to expand or relocate a semiconductor business.  The region, also home to us at T&C Power Conversion, boasts a highly educated workforce and shovel-ready sites with competitive incentives to lure companies to the location. From our perspective, we would be happy to welcome some new neighbors!

T&C Power at Semicon West 2012

With our trip to SEMICON® West 2012 this week, T&C Power Conversion journeys from an East Coast center of semiconductor innovation to the premier West Coast event for the semiconductor industry. Featuring events and attractions from lectures and seminars to a massive manufacturer’s exhibition (where T&C  can be found in booth #108), SEMICON® West is an opportunity to expand your business, knowledge base, and customer base – as well as a chance to partner with some of the leading component manufacturers in the industry.

We’ll be available to talk about our full line of plasma generators and amplifiers at the show, and right there on-site, we’ll have our new Complete RF Power Delivery System. With a controller built in to the generator, this two-unit build (when others can be three units, or more) offers a full generator/controller and tuner system in a compact assembly – ideal to fit perfectly into smaller and smaller applications. With power ranges from 100W to 1200W, our versatility in meeting your RF generator needs continues to expand. Be sure to visit T&C Power Conversion at booth #108 if you’re at SEMICON® West this week, and say hello!