PCB Case Studies

NexLogic Technologies Supports Cornell University – Winner of the 2009 Office of Naval Research Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition.

NexLogic Technologies announced its Cornell University Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (CUAUV) customer has won the 2009 Office of Naval Research Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) competition held in San Diego, CA.

The CUAUV team won the coveted $10,000 first prize competing against 30 teams from the U. S. and foreign countries. It has built six generations of AUVs since 1999.

Kirill Kalinichev, business lead for the CUAUV team, said, “NexLogic’s turnaround time on our multi-layer PCBs has been absolutely tremendous. In practically every case, we’ve gotten the boards back faster from NexLogic compared to the manufacturers who did our simpler two-layer boards.”

He added, “We’re also impressed with the quality board finish. Instead of the tin finish we’d been using, NexLogic encouraged gold surface finish, which we found earlier to work well when we performed hand soldering. Plus, gold is among the best conductors available and ideal for our signal sensitive boards.”

NexLogic has sponsored the PCB work with the CUAUV project during the past four years. The San Jose, CA-based EMS Provider facilitates board fabrication and serves as a technical consultant for the CUAUV project. The project includes four PCBs: DSP, thruster power, hydrophone analog, and serial interface boards.

The joint CUAUV and NexLogic advanced electronics work is making major technical contributions to naval and military research and industrial/commercial applications. Naval research is underway with the objective of using an AUV with a pre-programmed mission to perform specific underwater actions. This same principle can be used in such commercial applications as underwater telecommunications or oil drilling, for example.