Unlike traditional radio frequency communication, optical communication uses narrow and highly focused beams of light that enable up to 100 times higher data transmission rates and make links harder to detect, jam, or intercept. Laser communication can also reduce dependence on congested radio frequency spectrum, where operators face regulatory scrutiny, licensing delays, and interference bottlenecks.

Penguin Solutions is an interesting company when it comes to compute and storage. At one end of the spectrum is their SMARTsemi brand with DRAM, SD cards and flash storage devices that are used in a range of embedded applications and CREE LED. At the other is Stratus Technologies with its fault tolerant data center solution. Penguin Solutions CTO, Philip Pokorny, talks about the various technologies and the history of the company.

In this episode of Inside Electronics, sponsored by Texas Instruments, Alix Paultre, Editor at Large for Electronic Design, interviews Brian Burk, of Texas Instruments (TI), about the rapid growth of energy storage and the critical role of battery monitoring technologies.

Alix and Brian discuss how the rise of renewable energy, electric vehicles (EVs), and grid-scale storage, has created a growing need for batteries that can safely store and deliver energy when needed. They also talk about how battery management systems (BMS) have evolved from basic voltage and temperature monitoring to sophisticated solutions that improve performance, extend battery life, and enhance safety.

A major focus of the episode is TI’s new 26-cell battery monitor and its use of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), a technology that provides deeper insight into battery health, temperature, and operating conditions. Many compare EIS to a medical EKG, enabling system designers to “see inside” a battery and prevent issues, such as overheating and thermal runaway.

The discussion concludes with a description of TI’s integrated battery-management approach and predicting broader adoption of EIS across EV and energy-storage applications in the coming years.

Compute Express Link (CXL) is becoming more important in data centers has the need for more storage grows to address artificial intelligence (AI) needs. Anil Gobaleh, Chair of the Marketing Working Group (MWG) with the CXL Consortium, talks about what is up with CXL and where it is headed. One of the interesting aspects in our discussion is how DDR4 is being used with CXL, which is targeting the high end where DDR5 dominates.

In this special episode of Electronic Design’s Inside Electronics podcast, sponsored by DigiKey and Amphenol, Guest Host David Maliniak of Microwaves & RF, speaks with James Merryman of Amphenol SV Microwave and Benjamin Pratt of Amphenol CDI about cryogenic interconnects for quantum-computing systems.

James Merryman explains that non-magnetic connectors are most critical near qubits at the refrigerator’s mixing chamber, where millikelvin temperatures and even trace ferromagnetic materials can disrupt coherence and increase error rates. Higher in the system, conventional RF materials may be acceptable.

Benjamin Pratt describes CDI’s CoreCryo, a solderless, high-density coaxial PCB interface designed with non-ferrous materials and mechanical features that withstand thermal cycling. It can extend through the refrigerator with hermetic feedthroughs, attenuation, and customized components. SV Microwave supplies complementary discrete PCB, cable, panel-mount, and feedthrough connectors, plus dense MDRF systems.

The companies offer standard eight- and 16-channel configurations, tested products, engineering models, customization, and support for scaling quantum systems.

Designed to break the economic and operational payload-to-weight barriers in vertical lift aviation, the high-stakes competition challenged teams to design lightweight aircraft capable of lifting up to four times their unladen weight. Smith and Marin share how they took the program from executive approval to execution in just eleven months, setting up a demanding 1,100-foot course at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force to push small-scale heavy-lift innovation to its absolute limits.

We break down the highs and the lows of the competition and some behind-the-scenes facts that you won’t get anywhere else.

In this special episode of Electronic Design’s Inside Electronics podcast, sponsored by DigiKey and Qorvo, Guest Host David Maliniak of Microwaves & RF, speaks with Qorvo General Manager Debbie Gibson and Principal Product Manager Suma Kapilavai about RF design for drones.

Debbie Gibson emphasizes that size, weight, power, cost, and development speed—SWaP-C—must be balanced together rather than treated as separate priorities. Suma Kapilavai explains that software-defined radios favor wideband RF front ends, which simplify operation across broad frequency ranges and allow platforms to evolve without complete redesigns. Narrowband approaches remain useful when licensed-spectrum rules, nearby-band interference, or filtering needs demand tight frequency control.

David, Debbie, and Suma discuss SDR challenges, including achieving broadband performance, linearity, efficiency, and signal integrity among multiple onboard radios. They note that off-the-shelf modular components reduce schedule and technical risk by adapting proven technologies from Wi-Fi, infrastructure, mobile, and defense applications.

Looking ahead, greater range, data capacity, drone swarms, AI integration, mesh networking, EMI control, and satellite communications will intensify RF tradeoffs.

Simulations abound in designing everything from aircraft to chiplet-based system-on-chips (SoC). It is too expensive to live by trial-and-error but simulations can require lots of time and hardware to let the software return the final evaluation. In this episode of Inside Electronics, co-host Bill Wong talks with Vinci’s CEO, Hardik Kabaria, about how his company's solutions can speed up physical simulations by a factor of 1000 using AI techniques.