The continued reduction of integrated circuit feature sizes and
commensurate improvements in device performance are fueling the progress
to higher functionality and new application areas. For example, over the last
15 years, the performance of microprocessors has increased 1000 times.
Analog circuit performance has also improved, albeit at a slower pace. For
example, over the same period the speed/resolution figure-of-merit of
analog-to-digital converters improved by only a factor 10.
The last decade proved to be hugely successful for the mobile communications industry,
characterised by continued and rapid growth in demand, spurred on by new technological
advances and innovative marketing techniques. Of course, when we refer to mobile commu-
nications, we tend to implicitly refer to cellular systems, such as GSM. The plight of the
mobile-satellite industry over the last decade, although eventful, has, at times, been more akin
to an out of control roller coaster ride.
The growth of mobile technologies is remarkable. At a recent Mobile World Congress Conference, Eric
Schmidt, CEO of Google predicted that within three years, smart phones will surpass Personal Com-
puter sales. The number of mobile phones used worldwide has exceeded 4.6 billion with continued
growth expected in the future. In fact, in the United States alone, the numbers of mobile phone users
comprise over 80% of the population.
Electrostatic discharge (ESD) phenomena have been known to mankind since Thales of
Miletus in approximately 600 B.C.E. noticed the attraction of strands of hay to amber.
Two thousand six hundred years have passed and the quest to obtain a better under-
standing of electrostatics and ESD phenomenon continues. Today, the manufacturing
of microelectronics has continued the interest in the field of electrostatic phenomenon
spanning factory issues, tooling, materials, and the microelectronic industry
The first edition as well as its forerunner of Kuffel and Abdullah published in
1970 and their translations into Japanese and Chinese languages have enjoyed
wide international acceptance as basic textbooks in teaching senior under-
graduate and postgraduate courses in High-Voltage Engineering. Both texts
have also been extensively used by practising engineers engaged in the design
and operation of high-voltage equipment. Over the years the authors have
received numerous comments from the text’s users with helpful suggestions
for improvements. These have been incorporated in the present edition. Major
revisions and expansion of several chapters have been made to update the
continued progress and developments in high-voltage engineering over the
past two decades.
Under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA), the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) was assigned “primary responsibility to coordinate
development of a framework that includes protocols and model standards for information
management to achieve interoperability of Smart Grid devices and systems…” [EISA Section
1305]. 35 This responsibility comes at a time when the electric power grid and electric power
industry are undergoing the most dramatic transformation in many decades. Very significant
investments are being made by industry and the federal government to modernize the power grid.
To realize the full benefits of these investments—and the continued investments forecast for the
coming decades—there is a continued need to establish effective smart grid 36 standards and
protocols for interoperability.
adio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a rapidly developing automatic wireless data-collection
technology with a long history.The first multi-bit functional passive RFID systems,with a range of
several meters, appeared in the early 1970s, and continued to evolve through the 1980s. Recently,
RFID has experienced a tremendous growth,due to developments in integrated circuits and radios,
and due to increased interest from the retail industrial and government.
With the continued growth in the world's population, there is a need to ensure availability of
enough food to feed everyone. Advances in science and technology have helped not only to
increase food production, but also to reduce food wastage. However, the latter has the
potential to be improved to a significant extent through appropriate matching of supply and
demand, and with proper handling during storage and transit. Given the amount of food
wastage that occurs after a food item leaves the “farm” on its way to the “fork,” and the
availability of means to reduce such wastage, there really is no excuse for feigned ignorance.
My association with the theory of controls in continuous time started during my studies at
the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India, in 1974 as an undergraduate student
in the Controls and Power program. The initial introduction by Professors Kesavamurthy,
Y. P. Singh, and Rajagopalan laid the foundation for a good basic understanding of the
subject matter. This pursuit and further advanced study in the field of digital controls
continued during my days as a graduate student in the Electrical and Systems Engineering
Department at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, from 1983 to 1988.
