Cool Wall Warts
Kirt's Cogitations™ #84

RF Cafe University"Factoids," "Kirt's Cogitations," and "Tech Topics Smorgasbord" are all manifestations of my ranting on various subjects relevant (usually) to the overall RF Cafe theme. All may be accessed on these pages:

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Cool Wall Warts

Lots of new technology is being applied to old applications these days. One such example is a more tolerable replacement for the cursed "wall wart" (AC/DC power adapter) that is on the way. Penn State researchers have invented a piezoelectric technology that does away with the traditional iron and copper transformer, and promises to reduce the overall size to a quarter of the existing volume. As a bonus, these piezo devices produce no appreciable heat and do not generate the EMI fields of electromagnetic transformers. This new form factor will even allow the entire AC/DC conversion to reside inside your notebook computer, printer, scanner, camcorder and more. Taiheiyo, of Japan, will begin production in 2005.