18th Annual
Product of the Year Awards

The editors of Electronic Products have for the eighteenth time chosen the most outstanding products of the past year. The choice was made challenging, of course, by the thousands of products introduced in 1993. The criteria used by the editors in making their selections were significant advances in technology or its application, a decided innovation in design, or a substantial gain in price-performance. Here are the 1993 award winners.

CurrenTest Test Development Software
CrossCheck Technology, Inc.
San Jose, CA

DS1633 Battery Charger
Dallas Semiconductor
Dallas, TX

Opto-8 Photomultiplier Tube
Hamamatsu Corp.
Bridgewater, NJ

MOS-Controlled Thyristor
Harris Semiconductor
Melbourne, FL

ZGA Socket
McKenzie Technology
Fremont, CA

CacheCAM Content-Addressable Memory
MUSIC Semiconductors
Colorado Springs, CO

Renewal Rechargeable Alkaline Battery
Rayovac Corp.
Madison, WI

RF2103 Linear Power Amplifier
RF Micro Devices, Inc.
Greensboro, NC

In addition to these winners, several products, or rather product categories, deserve honorable mention for being on the cutting edge of technology. For example, the popularity and proliferation of multichip modules, microprocessors, and multimedia products were apparent.

We wrote in July that “the year 1993 may well be remembered as the year multichip modules entered the mainstream of packaging technology.” One indication was that Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (San Jose, CA), CrossCheck Technology, Inc. (San Jose, CA), Harris EDA (Fishers, NY), Hughes Aircraft Co. (Newport Beach, CA), Intergraph Corp. (Huntsville, AL), Mentor Graphics Corp. (San Jose, CA), and Quad Design Technology, Inc. (Camarillo, CA) introduced design tools for multichip modules. Test equipment for multichip modules was also introduced from EJ Systems, Inc. (Lawrence, MA).

On the microprocessor front, the Alpha, ARM, Hobbit, Pentium, R4200, R4600, and PowerPC all represent real accomplishments. As for operating systems, Windows NT was introduced. If Windows NT catches on, its portable kernel could have a profound effect on the microprocessor industry because it would open the PC market to non-Intel-compatible microprocessors.

Likewise for multimedia, a host of companies–including Zydacron, Oak Technology, Texas Instruments, Microlinear, and Ariel Corp.–introduced outstanding chips and boards for this emerging technology.

1993 was also the year that major advances were made in the realm of flat-panel displays–most notably field-emitter displays (FEDs) and LCDs. The agreement between SI Diamond Technology and Microelectronics & Computer Technology Corp. to make FEDs was a major step toward realizing a truly flat CRT-comparable display. Also, Motif, Inc. (Wilsonville, OR) and Kopin Corp. (Taunton, MA) were both active developing active addressed and single-crystal silicon active-matrix LCDs, respectively. Although production of these technologies was not achieved in 1993, it is expected that 1994 will see the efforts of these companies come to fruition.