Scalance W is a ground-breaking technology that expanded the use of WLAN in the industrial market place by offering a standard-compliant solution that meets the real-time requirements of factory automation systems and applications.
WiFi has been a tremendous success. However, industrial customers remain unconvinced about WiFi¡¯s ability to meet the real-time requirements demanded in their environment. TTB identified an innovator from Columbia University who had applied economics models, such as supply-and-demand curve aggregation, to computer networks, and demonstrated that special quality of service requirements could be addressed by standard networks. Supported by Siemens¡¯ Industrial Automation Division, the research grew into a project that developed software for WLAN technology capable of guaranteeing real-time traffic for industrial applications.
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Wireless Planning Software: SINEMA E
SINEMA E (SIMATIC Network Manager Engineering) simplifies the task of deploying and commissioning a WLAN network with an innovative planning, simulation and configuration software.
Increasingly complex installations of WLAN networks necessitate careful planning to perform well. SINEMA E provides a great advantage to detangling and conquering the complexities of wireless planning. Planning and installation of the WLAN network is made easy by using integrated and user-specific catalog entries for WLAN devices, antennas and radio wave obstacles, as well as standard graphical formats for importing floor plans. SINEMA E enables users to better plan by visualizing the different steps such as signal coverage, data transmission rate, signal-to-noise ratio and the access point overlapping. Even before the network has been installed, an integrated consistency check establishes the validity of the configuration and reduces the possibility of errors. SINEMA E¡¯s multi-function features and capabilities make WLAN network setup less daunting and more successful.
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Start-Up Companies
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ChinaInvent
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ChinaInvent Instrument of Beijing introduces a high-end near infrared (NIR) spectrometer that combines a smart method of coding dispersed light & off-the-shelf parts to create a high signal-to-noise ratio, reliable and low-cost instrument.
High precision is essential in the analysis
of chemical compounds during production.
Analytical instruments require optimal
price-performance ratio. To meet the high
signal-to-noise ratio condition, the
majority of producers rely on expensive
components and moving parts that drive up
the device's price while reducing its
reliability. ChinaInvent Instrument
developed a high-end near infrared (NIR)
spectrometer for the price of a low-end
instrument. By inventing a smart method of
coding dispersed light and replacing
specialized components with
off-the-shelf?MEMS parts, the cost of the
spectrometer is expected to be less than
half that of a high-end machine. The new
instrument boasts high optical throughput
and eliminates the use of bulky moving
parts. This inventive development highlights
many opportunities for future process
control and online product quality
monitoring systems.
Cyclos Semiconductor specializes in technologies for ultra low power chips. Cyclos offers the industry¡¯s first Resonant Clock Platform for ultra low power clocking. It also offers off-the-shelf ultra low power IP cores and design services for ultra low power chips. Fully compatible with ASIC design flows, the Cyclos Resonant Clock Platform relies on charge recycling to achieve unprecedented levels of clock power efficiency. The technology is silicon-proven on high-end ASIC designs and provides total power savings of 25% or more at full performance. In addition to ultra low power, the Cyclos technology yields clock networks with increased robustness to environmental and process variations in current and upcoming nanometer technologies. It also yields chips with reduced electromagnetic interference and ground bounce. Applicable to any application-specific or general-purpose chip design, the Cyclos technology is particularly suitable for mobile, wireless, automotive, medical, and server farm applications.
Elliptec Resonant Actuator AG is a developer and manufacturer of high-performing piezoelectric motors and actuators. The research team originally behind Elliptec worked with Siemens TTB and built its first motor based on piezoelectric ceramics in Berkeley, California. Soon thereafter Elliptec was formed to jump-start volume manufacturing and was able to produce miniature motors based on its own brand of lower cost piezoelectric technology. Anticipating the demand for multiple applications, Elliptec offers modified and completely customized drive versions with characteristics that can be specifically adapted to fit customer specifications. Elliptec¡¯s comprehensive development services range from the early stage conceptual designs to prototyping and series-ready products.
Energy storage systems are crucial to the anticipated shift to renewable energy. To capture and store energy efficiently and cost-effectively ensures that energy will be available when it is most needed. EnStorage¡¯s system has over ten years of work behind it and focuses on fuel cells, or electrochemical conversion devices, that use a regenerating process. EnStorage produces such regenerative fuel cells at lower costs intending to bring ¡°financially viable energy storage systems¡± to the market. By engineering a smart fuel cell design, EnStorage creates a solid stepping stone to the forthcoming age of renewable energy resources.
Banyan Energy, Inc. is a startup that has developed breakthrough flat optics for use in solar panels. Focus on scaling up panel production and reducing levelized cost of solar energy.
Banyan Energy has developed a breakthrough optics technology that solves the problems of cost and scale for the solar industry. Solar modules with Banyan optics utilize a fraction of solar cells while generating the same energy as standard modules. The reduction in solar cell material means lower module costs and rapid, low-risk and low-capital scaling of production.
Solar energy is among the cleanest, long lasting sources of renewable energy. Despite its enormous advantages, steep upfront costs for implementation require subsidies to make it affordable.
Solar energy is among the cleanest, long lasting sources of renewable energy. Despite its enormous advantages, steep upfront costs for implementation require subsidies to make it affordable. Netcrystal, based in the Silicon Valley, is pioneering a new technology that will lower the cost of PV panels. Its unique process generates high efficiency Si-based solar cells for lower costs than the leading thin-film technology. More specifically its process saves a large portion of the silicon typically used. By doing so, it drastically cuts down the most dominant cost of today¡¯s technology. Netcrystal¡¯s breakthrough design will redefine the future of solar technology.
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PINC Solutions
Increasing supply chain visibility has become a top priority issue for companies participating in today¡¯s globalized economy. As all goods must go through several yards between transportation and distribution, any inefficiency in the yard is amplified as the effects propagate through the associated supply chain links.
PINC¡¯s yard management solution leverages real-time-location-system (RTLS) to provide the users with accurate and timely information through a web-based platform, enabling them to better manage their resources and operations. PINC pioneered the development of cost-effective RTLS using passive RFID, MEMS and other sensor technologies, eliminating the requirement for heavy capital investment in the infrastructure. With Fortune-500 customers in the manufacturing, retail and transportation sectors, PINC¡¯s award-winning products have been deployed across North America. Designed with a scalable architecture for businesses of any size, the systems are expandable with modular components as customers¡¯ needs grow. Available as turnkey solutions with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), these systems have proven their value through immediate efficiency improvements in customers¡¯ daily operations, typically generating positive ROIs in less than a year.
Progressive Cooling, a TTB start-up, has been established to develop and market commercial applications for an innovative Micro-Loop Heat Pipe. Progressive Cooling proposes using a looped ¡°wick¡± that uses capillary force to pump heat away from hot spots on processors and high brightness LEDs. Unlike the current thermal hardware, made of copper or nickel oxide, the device from Progressive Cooling is made of silicon, allowing it to cover ¨C or perhaps eventually become ¨C a packaging platform. PCS has patented a unique chemical etching technique that can produce millions of uniform, densely-packed pores per square centimeter. The result is that heat is channeled away so effectively that fans can potentially be downsized in server applications or LED lighting could be made more energy efficient.
Sensys Networks brings an unprecedented level of performance and simplicity to the growing need for traffic monitoring on freeways and arterials and traffic signal controls at intersections.
Sensys Networks brings an unprecedented level of performance and simplicity to the growing need for traffic monitoring on freeways and arterials and traffic signal controls at intersections. A world-class provider in wireless vehicle detection and integrated traffic data systems, Sensys Networks has now patented their pavement-mounted vehicle sensing system that is available in over twenty different countries. Its wireless sensor networking combines sophisticated software with highly integrated radio and sensor chips to enable sensing applications on a scale - and at a cost- unthinkable until now. It is now possible to deploy vehicle detection at a much higher density and at a fraction of the initial installation and maintenance costs of currently prevalent technologies such as inductive loops, video cameras, and radar. Sensys is leading the way for more Intelligent Transportation Systems and setting a new and high standard for the industry.
