Top Stories of the Week: Dec. 22-Dec. 26, 2025
Welcome to Electronic Design's weekly publication where you can find the latest articles, videos and podcasts but this week we are changing things up a bit. We have a couple new items but we are highlighting some of the best from this year.
You might also like to check out our The 12 Days of Analog from 2024.
Top TechXchanges This Year
These are some of the most read and most interesting articles found in our editor-curated TechXchanges.
More of This Year's Articles
The Featured Articles above are just some of the content that was hot this year on Electronic Design. Check out the rest here.
Bill Wong's Picks
These are some of the more popular items I have wanted to highlight this year. First a couple on Microwaves & RF.
- All About Circular Polarization and the Axial Ratio @ Microwaves & RF - Effective use of transmit and receive antennas hinges on polarization, which can be not only horizontal or vertical, but also circular. This article defines circular polarization, how it behaves, and how to measure it.
- Using a VNA to Design Antennas for GPS Interference Detection @ Microwaves & RF - Engineers often turn to VNAs to measure the return-loss characteristics of an antenna, but they must be used carefully because there are numerous potential ways to trip up.
And then a couple on Machine Design.
- AI Gains Physical Intelligence and Transforms Robotics & Automation Design @ Machine Design - Anders Billesø Beck, VP of innovation and strategy at UR (Universal Robots), discusses five AI-powered robotic applications that use physical intelligence models to interact with their environment.
- Meet Five Women Shaping Engineering Careers @ Machine Design - From labs to leadership, meet a handful of women reshaping engineering from the ground up.
What Andy's Been Watching
- Scott Manley has a good overview of datacenters in space, where Andy & Scott both are in agreement that the notion of 4km long solar panels up there is insane, and he proffers that using Starlink Satellite platforms as a base for AI computing making sense
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCto6UkBJoI
- Speaking of Elon Musk's contraptions, "Thunderfoot" does his (quarterly?) teardown of the latest promises from the Master of Hype in this Youtube episode, this time about the recent reveal that Tesla's "Optimus" robots are indeed teleoperated. For an interesting read, note that Andy put forward why and how Starlink plays into Musk's scary army of humanoid and vehicle 'bots, in his writeup a year ago, here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgfiuRZzBwU
- Ferrari seems to have come up with some advances in traction motor design, but apparently is ignoring the hard-learned market experiences of Dodge in making goofy motor sounds in an EV. Andy, for one, had glasspacks on his car as a teen and now basks in the total propulsive silence as he listens to his EV's Bose Premium Sound system on his way up to visit his 10 year old minion and her family.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJu9x5lfXG4
- Imogen Bogal has a graduate degree in engineering from Cambridge (iirc) and spent some time at UK startup, Arrival. Now part of the Fully Charged team of video journalists, she brings us some of the advances under way in the UK as far as battery technology goes.
More Top Stories of the Week
About the Author
William G. Wong
Senior Content Director - Electronic Design and Microwaves & RF
I am Editor of Electronic Design focusing on embedded, software, and systems. As Senior Content Director, I also manage Microwaves & RF and I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, programmers, developers and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.
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Check out my blog, AltEmbedded on Electronic Design, as well as his latest articles on this site that are listed below.
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I earned a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Masters in Computer Science from Rutgers University. I still do a bit of programming using everything from C and C++ to Rust and Ada/SPARK. I do a bit of PHP programming for Drupal websites. I have posted a few Drupal modules.
I still get a hand on software and electronic hardware. Some of this can be found on our Kit Close-Up video series. You can also see me on many of our TechXchange Talk videos. I am interested in a range of projects from robotics to artificial intelligence.
Roger Engelke Jr.
Managing Editor - Electronic Design and Microwaves & RF
Roger manages the websites and print issues for Electronic Design and Microwaves &RF.