Welcome to the first issue of EPS' Hot Products newsletter.This newsletter gives us the opportunity to provide our readers with the latest innovations in component developments across all sectors - passives, electromechanical, interconnects, and semiconductors.

This month's selection of hot product picks focuses on technology advances for high-reliability applications, ranging from medical devices to industrial equipment. The unifying factor here is their high performance specs. It's also a nice mix of product types, including an op amp, motor driver, MCU, cable, rocker switch, oscillators, data converter, and mixed-signal control processor.

Let's first take a look at why I selected Linear's LTdC2057HV op amp  as a hot product pick for this month. In addition to its high stability over temperature, time, input range and supply voltage − all needed for hi-rel apps, this part offers more than 140-dB dynamic range while operating on a 60V (±30V) supply, enabling tiny signals to be amplified in the presence of much larger signals without losing precision. Wide dynamic range is the key point for this product.

In a changing world where energy efficiency and energy savings is high on the priority list of many OEMs, Toshiba's TB6585AFTG integrated motor driver IC for three-phase DC brushless motors fits the bill. Along with low-power consumption, the device features quiet operation and low vibration − all major benefits particularly for home appliances. Another nice feature is its leadless, thermally efficient QFN48 7- x 7-mm package with an "assembly bonding technique" that improves the current handling capability by 45 percent over the previous version of the device.

C&K Components' SW series of heavy-duty rocker switches was selected primarily because of its extended operating life range, rated at beyond 6,000 cycles, making them well suited for rugged apps, including household appliances, industrial equipment, audio & visual (A/V) equipment, telecommunication, and office equipment. An added benefit is the availability in a bunch of flavors: SPST, SPDT and DPST.

As the market shifts to 32-bit MCUs, Freescale is ready to meet demand with the industry's first claimed 5-V 32-bit MCU built on the ARM Cortex-M0+ processor for industrial applications. The Kinetis E series MCUs feature electromagnetic noise immunity for systems that traditionally use 8- and 16-bit MCUs, such as white goods and industrial applications.

Why did I select Molex's Temp-Flex microwave coax cable? Three words: ultra-low-loss. These cables are said to provide "extremely stable electrical performance" with minimal impedance and insertion loss variation in dynamic apps. They achieve 85 to 88 percent velocity of propagation (VOP) for increased signal speed, making them over qualified even for military/aerospace specifications.

There are several reasons to include Fox Electronics' XpressO TCXO as one of my top picks. These include tighter stabilities, custom frequencies, and quick delivery. Available in ten working days or less, the XpressO-TC HCMOS TCXOs are available with stabilities of +/-1.5 ppm from -40 degrees C to +85 degrees C as well as down to +/-1 ppm from 0 degrees C to +70 degrees C. They also offer an advantage with custom frequencies that can be specified up to 250 MHz, well beyond the typical 50-MHz to 60-MHz frequency range of traditional TCXOs.

It's not every day that a component supplier invents a new component type, but that is exactly what Texas Instruments claims.TI says it has developed the industry's first inductance-to-digital converter (LDC), which it describes as a "new data converter category that uses coils and springs as inductive sensors to deliver higher resolution, increased reliability, and greater flexibility than existing sensing solutions at a lower system cost." One of the nice features about this device is its versatility. It can be used in a variety of applications ranging from mobile devices to medical equipment.

Analog Devices' ADSP-CM40x family was selected as one of this month's hot products not because ADI says it's a new standard for mixed-signal control processors (well, maybe a little because it did catch my eye), but rather because it integrates a high precision A/D converter - 14 bits of accuracy - and the fastest ARM Cortex-M4 processor core. Biggest benefactors will be solar inverter and embedded industrial applications.