Electronics for You Plus | September 2015 | Vol

Editor : ramesh Chopra Editorial : Editorial Secretary CorrESpondEnCE phone: 011-26810601; E-mail: [email protected] (technical queries: [email protected]) SubSCriptionS & : phone: 011-26810601 or 02 or 03 miSSing iSSuES E-mail: [email protected] baCk iSSuES, : kits‘n’Spares, new delhi bookS, Cds, phone: 011-26371661, 26371662 pCbs etc. E-mail: [email protected] contents ExCluSivE : ibH books & magazines distributors ltd electronics for you Plus | sePtember 2015 | Vol. 04 no. 05 | issn-2454-4426 nEwSStand unit no.10, bezzola Complex , diStributor opp. Suman nagar, Sion trombay road, Chembur, mumbai 400 071 phone: 022-40497401/02 TEch Focus BuYERs’ GuIDE advErtiSEmEntS nEw dElHi : ph: 011-26810601 or 02 or 03 When Doctors Start How to Select the Right (HEad offiCE) E-mail: [email protected] 26 Prescribing Electronics, 64 Soldering/Desoldering mumbai : ph: 022-24950047, 24928520 What Would the Dosage Be Station E-mail: [email protected] bEngaluru : ph: 080-25260394, 25260023 E-mail: [email protected] CHEnnai : ph: 044-42994363 Futuristic E-mail: [email protected] 18 Transient Electronics That Disappear HydErabad : ph: 040-67172633 Do-IT-Yourself E-mail: [email protected] Wireless 22 kolkata : ph: 033-22294788 iBeacon! 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What is it E-mail: [email protected] punE : ph: 08800295610, 09870682995 Tech Focus E-mail: [email protected] 34 Connected Healthcare, BAN and gujarat: : ph: 079-61344948 Weaponised Pacemakers E-mail: [email protected] CHina : power pioneer group inc. ph: (86 755) 83729797, (86) 13923802595 healthcare E-mail: [email protected] • Bed-Vacancy Alarm System ...... 102 Bio-Sense-Us with Biosensors japan : tandem inc., ph: 81-3-3541-4166 40 • 12V Battery Absorb and Float Charger ...... 106 E-mail: [email protected] Indian Brain Behind New Painless • Programmable On and Off Controller SingaporE : publicitas Singapore pte ltd 42 Cancer Detection Device for 3-Phase Motor ...... 110 ph: +65-6836 2272 • Generating a Fixed-Frequency Sinusoidal E-mail: [email protected] Test & Measurement Signal from Digital Output ...... 114 taiwan : j.k. media, ph: 886-2-87726780 ext. 10 E-mail: [email protected] How Smartphones, Cloud and • Thermocouple Tutorial 45 Data Analytics are Driving RF Test with Arduino Interfacing ...... 118 unitEd StatES : E & tech media ph: +1 860 536 6677 Signal Generators: Slow-Paced • Fire Alarm Using a Thermistor ...... 122 E-mail: [email protected] Technology • Faraday’s Guitar ...... 124 50 subscriPtion rAtes • LDR Based DC Motor Speed Control ...... 126 Period Newstand Price You Pay Digital Overseas Embedded • Lift Indications ...... 128 Year (`) (`) (`) Digital Print 54 two 2400 1800 750 uS$ 15 — What’s New in EDA Tools • Analogue Clock Using MATLAB ...... 132 one 1200 960 280 uS$ 5 uS$ 120 60 Innovation please send payments only in favour of efy enterprises Pvt ltd Taking Indian Innovations to a Global efY Plus DVD p rinted, published and owned by ramesh Chopra. printed at international print-o-pack ltd, C-4 to C-11, Hosiery Complex, phase-ii Extension, noida-201305, Scale: Challenges and Solutions Create Superlative Images with OpenCV ...... I gautam budh nagar, uttar pradesh, on the first day of each month and published Make Your PCB Design Ideas Fly High with EAGLE ...... IV from d-87/1, okhla industrial area, phase-1, new delhi 110020. Copyright 2015. all rights reserved throughout the world. reproduction of any material from Defence Simulation of Communication Systems using IT++ ...... VII this magazine in any manner without the written permission of the publisher is 70 prohibited. although every effort is made to ensure accuracy, no responsibility American Carrier Strike Groups: whatsoever is taken for any loss due to publishing errors. articles that cannot be An Electronic Perspective (Part 1 of 5) used are returned to the authors if accompanied by a self-addressed and sufficiently EFY Plus DVD stamped envelope. but no responsibility is taken for any loss or delay in returning the 82 material. Efy will not be responsible for any wrong claims made by an advertiser. Interview This Month’s DVD Contents disputes, if any, will be settled in a new delhi court only. Electronics Design Automation: Manufacture 75 “The response is so fast it almost 88 mirrors the real thing!” — Walden C. Counterfeit Components and Their Impact Regulars Rhines, chairman and CEO, Mentor Graphics Make in India 06 Feedback Automotive Energy Storage: 92 08 Q&A 78 “Ultracapacitors can augment Market Survey: An Outlook for the Indian 10 Useful Websites battery performance” — Jens Keiser, Strategic Electronics Sector in Defence 12 Tech News senior product marketing manager, 84 Make in India: Industry News Maxwell Technologies estyle 98 New Products Chipset Integration: Buyers’ Guide: What to Look for 134 First Look 80 “Engineers today are looking for 136 in a UHD TV 139 Business Pages Ads MCU-integrated modules” — Dhiraj 156 Electronics Mart Ads Sogani, GM and senior VP, Systems DIY: Nine Cool Features On Google 160 Product Categories Index + Business Unit at Redpine Signals Inc. 138 You Did Not Know About Attractions During 2015 • Robotics & Automation • Solar Electronics • Latest Tools to Manage next issue (Smart Machines) ESD for Your Lab 161 Advertisers’ Index

4 SePtember 2015 | electronicS For You PluS www.eFYmag.com

FEEDBACK

Article on Robotic Submarine ‘Spot An Error’ Award Winners Please publish some articles on un- In Design section, in ‘Basic User Interface Design for Electronics Engineers’ article of July derwater submarine seabed surface issue, in Fig. 5, the resistance (minimum) and key width (maximum) are wrong. It should be using robots. I hope EFY is aware of force (minimum) and force (maximum) because Newton (N) is the unit of force. the loss of our Indian coast guard, Ramakanta Mohanta  Dornier CG-791, near Tamil Nadu In ‘Arduino Based Gesture-Controlled Robot’ DIY article published in July issue, a 16×2 LCD is mentioned in Parts List by mistake. sea coast. Ishan Shah Prakash Raamaseshan  1. In ‘Electronic Door Lock Using Arduino’ article, columns C1, C2, C3 and C4 are Ministry of Home Affairs mentioned as capacitors and rows R1, R2, R3 and R4 as resistors. Government of India. 2. In ‘Low-Frequency Electronic Muscle Stimulator’ circuit in July issue, ratings for EFY: Thanks for the feedback! We transformers X1 and X2 are wrong. Current ratings should be less than 100mA for X2. will try to carry something on the Vijay Kakul mentioned subject if a suitable article is received from our contributors. Errata different functions and values on Ar- duino board. For example, pins 16, 17, Solar Based Article In the Buyers’ Guide on ‘Pocket-Friendly 18 and 19 of ATmega328 are digital It would be helpful if you could start Oscilloscopes under ` 50,000’ in July pins 10, 11, 12 and 13, respectively, on issue, the price of Tektronix TBS1022 is a series on solar panels and batteries Arduino board. wrongly listed as ` 39,555. The price of required in solar cars or cycles. There the product is ` 21,865. are rumours on the Internet about Ultrasonic Radar solar power generation using static (IoT) and some other subjects as Please provide more details on the charges on Earth. Please help clear well. For details please log on to ultrasonic sensor used in ‘Ultrasonic such myths. www.efytechcenter.com Radar Model Using Microcontroller John Tarun, ATmega128’ DIY article published in Through email Wireless Gesture-Controlled February issue. EFY: Thanks for writing to us and Robot You have mentioned that the UDM sharing your thoughts. Regarding the I am using GY-61 ADXL335 ac- sensor module has four pins but this myths related to solar power genera- celerometer sensor in ‘Wireless module has only three pins for con- tion using static charge of Earth, allow Gesture-Controlled Robot’ DIY article nection to the external circuit. Is there us to review the same. We do keep published in January issue. Will the a readymade sensor available in the publishing articles related to the latest code given in the article work with market? in solar technologies in Electronics For this sensor? Manu Shankar You. We will try and publish more. Shripal Jain Through email Through email The author Ashutosh M. Bhatt replies: IoT Course  I am using Arduino UNO in the A normal ultrasonic sensor has four I just completed my B.Tech and mentioned project. How can I make pins, namely, Vcc, Gnd, Trig and Echo. would like to learn and make IoT the robot work? In the given sensor, it is required to devices. Let me know if you have Raj R. scan for received echo signal first; the any training centre or workshop that Through email distance is then calculated through the provides training on the same. The author Aquib Javed Khan replies: program. Saurabh Jha Mr Jain should not forget to connect There are three different types of ul- Through email AREF pin with 3.3 volt. He should trasonic sensors based on their output: EFY: We have training centres in check the code and the respective normal, PWM and direct serial data. In various parts of India for short-term connections. He may download the this project, I have used the third one. courses on subjects such as Basics of source code from source.efymag.com It has three pins, namely, Vcc, Gnd and Electronics, PCB design, PIC micro- It is simple to work with Arduino Serial data out, for interfacing. It is a controllers, VLSI design, Raspberry UNO board. One needs to just upload smart 3-pin ultrasonic sensor. Pi, Arduino and Robotics. the code on Arduino, connect the EFY: A readymade 3-pin sensor is Soon, we will be starting a train- circuit as shown in the article. Note available; check at www.sunrom. ing course on Internet of Things that pins 16, 17, 18 and 19 may have com/c/distance-ultrasonic

6 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com

Q&A

from the term Mikron FARE Collec- change colour, it can be matched Things You tion System, which is the trademark with the key that comes with the kit. of NXP Semiconductors. These em- For selecting a pH sensor, you may ploy an RFID between the card and check out Sensorex; it is also avail- Wanted to Know! reader and so do not require inser- able online. tion of the card. Instead, the card I would like to know what is passed along the exterior of the What is bubble power? How Q1. MIFARE technology is, and reader and read. Q2. is bubble power derived from what is the difference between MI- A contactless smartchip based sonofusion technology? FARE card and RFID card technolo- device includes an embedded secure Satyajit Samal, gies? Also, how can I test pH values microcontroller or equivalent intel- Bhubaneswar, Odisha of water? Which pH sensor is easily ligence, internal memory and a small Bubble power is a method of available in the market for measuring antenna, and communicates with A2. generating energy. It works pH values of water? a reader through a contactless RF under the principle of sonofusion, Pamarthi Kanakaraja, interface. The contactless interface which is technically known as acous- assistant professor, Usha Ram provides users with the convenience Standing waves Low pressure College of Engineering and of allowing the contactless device to Technology, Andhra Pradesh be read at short distances with fast Bubble Radio frequency identification transfer of data. A MIFARE card has expands A1. (RFID) refers to small elec- a much larger memory than an RFID tronic devices that consist of a small card and is widely used in hotels as Bubble explodes chip and an antenna. An RFID device payment cards and for identification serves the same purpose as a barcode purposes. Emission of light or magnetic strip on the back of a MIFARE family available for credit card or ATM card. It identifies smartcard solutions are MIFARE Clas- High pressure the object on the basis of a unique sic, MIFARE Plus, MIFARE DESire Bubble power identifier for that object. It is used and MIFARE Ultralight. These offer for identification of objects or people more than 40 different applications, tic inertial confinement fusion. It is and inventory management. An RFID some of which are limited-use tick- derived from a related phenomenon, card is usually used at homes and ets in public transport (single and sonoluminescence, where a source of offices. multiple trip tickets, tourist weekend sound, which is attached to a liquid- MIFARE technology is for smart- passes), event ticketing (stadiums, filled flask, sends pressure waves cards. There are two criterion to exhibitions, amusement parks), loyal- through the fluid, exciting the mo- define smartcards; one is the method ty and closed-loop payment schemes, tion of tiny gas bubbles. The bubbles of writing and reading card data and access management, employee cards, periodically grow and collapse due to second is the type of chip implanted school cards, citizen cards and for car extreme temperatures inside the bub- within the card and its capabili- parking. ble, producing visible flashes of light ties. There are three types of cards: In brief, MIFARE technology, a that last less than 50 picoseconds. contact cards, contactless cards and trademark of NXP Semiconductors, is Chemical reactions occur during multi-component cards. used for contactless smartcards and cavitations of a single, isolated bub- Contact cards are the most com- is RF-enabled. Whereas, RFID is also ble and yield photons, radicals and mon type of smartcards. These have RF-enabled but is used for identifica- ions. That means, gas bubbles in a contact area of approx. one square tion purposes. liquid can convert sound energy into centimetre, comprising several gold- The pH value of water can be light. For several years the sonofusion plated contact pads. These pads pro- measured using the following meth- research teams from various organi- vide electrical connectivity when the ods: sations have joined forces to create card is inserted into a reader. Using pH meter. The probe of acoustic fusion (AFTEC) to promote Contactless cards are proximity the meter is dipped in water and the the development of sonofusion. cards (these do not touch). These value is read from the display, which Sonofusion may one day become a communicate with and are powered gives a direct reading of pH value. revolutionary new source of energy. by the reader through RF induction. Use of pH strips. pH strips con- RFID cards, radio frequency integrat- tain a series of indicator bars that Answers compiled by EFY joint director (training), Col. N.C. Pande (Retd). Letters and questions for publica- ed circuit (RFIC) cards and MIFARE change colour after exposure to a so- tion may be addressed to Editor, Electronics For You, cards are all contactless cards. lution. Strength of the acids and bas- D-87/1, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase 1, New Delhi 110020 (e-mail: [email protected]) and should include The MIFARE name is derived es on each bar differs. After the bars name and address of the sender

8 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com

useful websites Tutorials for Electronics Learning can be fun if you have the right resources for it. This month we have for you some websites that could get you interested in electronics

niraj sahay

electronics-tutorials.ws This all-new website on basic electronics tutorials is one place to begin learning about electronics. The purpose of this site is to give students and beginners good basic electronics tutorials and information to help develop their knowledge and understanding of the subject. It has tutorials varying from learning colour coding for resistors to understanding digital electronics. Each tutorial has an option to post replies and comments to discuss; however, a forum is missing.

www.electronics-tutorials.ws

williamson-labs.com This website features a vast collection of tutorials on electronics, from basic to university level; more than 400 URLs, in over 90 related subject areas. It presents all the theory in the form of animations and 3D pictures, helping you to understand and imagine electronics better. For details, contact [email protected]

www.williamson-labs.com

learn.sparkfun.com SparkFun is an online retail store that sells bits and pieces to make your electronics projects possible. In addition to products, it also offers classes and online tutorials to help educate individuals on the wonderful world of embedded electronics. The tutorial section has more than 330 tutorials on different topics.

www.learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials

learn.adafruit.com Learn how to use Arduino to blink an LED, control a motor, play sounds, hook up an LCD display and much more at Adafruit. Adafruit was founded in 2005 by MIT engineer, Limor “Ladyada” Fried. Her goal was to create the best online space for learning electronics and making the best designed products for makers of all ages and skill levels. The company has grown to over 50 employees in the heart of New York City, New York, USA, with a 1400+sqm (15,000+ square feet) factory. The website gets updated daily and is capable of giving a complete learning experience to all.

www.learn.adafruit.com

hobbyprojects.com Hobby Projects is a collection of links to thousands of electronic circuits, schematics, online tutorials and much more, where you can find quick solutions for solving your electronics design problems. New circuits, tutorials or links to useful circuits are added regularly as a resource for school and college students, beginners, hobbyists, engineers, inventors and consultants. The site has tutorials ranging from beginner to advance levels.

www.hobbyprojects.com/aboutus.html 10 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com

Tech News Technology aT your Service

Ball-shaped camera to put 360° photography on the map Ever since hardware entrepreneur Jonas Pfeil first started working on Panono camera, a ball-shaped device that captures photo spheres, back in 2011, the field of 360° imagery has exploded.

iSkin by Max Planck Institute

Developed by scientists at Max Planck Institute for Informatics and Saarland University, the experimental system has been produced in different shapes and sizes to suit various locations on the body, such as the finger, forearm or behind the ear-lobe. It is capable of detecting touch input pressure even while being stretched or bent. With the current prototypes, wearers can answer incoming calls, play music and adjust volume. The base material is poly-dimethyl-siloxane (PDMS), an easy-to-process silicone based organic polymer. Conductive carbon black powder is added to the liquid The Panono has a diameter of 11cm and weighs approximately 480gm silicone before it is spread flat by a thin-film applicator. After creating the tattoo-like designs on a computer, a The Panono captures photos when thrown upwards, laser cutter traces out the design, which makes up the taking the shot at the moment it reaches its highest sensor. It is then sandwiched between two clear sheets point. The 360° images it captures are technically of silicone. The stickers are attached to the body using a 108MP, stitched together from the array of 3MP lenses medical-grade adhesive that can be easily peeled off after that dot the exterior of the ball. use, without hurting the skin. The camera is about the size of a grapefruit and feels just as heavy. The plastic exterior is sprinkled with Insect-sized robot can jump on water small, slightly indented lenses, and it has a rubberised esearchers from Harvard University have built an green trim, which provides a better grip. On one of the Rinsect-sized robot that mimics the way water strid- ball’s poles there is an LED and a trigger button; on ers jump on water. By observing water striders using the other is a cap that covers the micro-USB port and high-speed cameras, scientists noticed that insects do not connector for a removable handle. The handle is for simply push down on the water but gradually accelerate situations when you do not want to throw the camera; their legs so as to not break surface tension. Striders also simply attach it and click the button on the grip. sweep their legs inwards before each jump, to maxim- ise the amount of time they touch the surface, which Electronic skin sensors increases the force of their pushes. to control mobile gadgets The researchers used these principles to develop an skin-worn sensor that turns the human body into ultra-lightweight robot with a 2cm-long body inspired Aa touch-sensitive surface for controlling mobile by origami. Its 5cm-long wire legs are curved at the tips devices has been developed by scientists in Germany. like a real water strider’s and coated with a material that Named iSkin, the sensor is made from bio-compatible repels water. silicone rubber with pressure-sensitive sensors that are A flea-inspired jumping system, called a torque stuck to the skin of the users, allowing them to use their reversal catapult, launches the robot from the surface of own body to control mobile devices. the water up to 14.2cm in the air.

12 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com

Tech News

A lamp that runs on a glass of water, salt Philippines based company has developed a lamp Athat can run for eight hours at a stretch on a glass of water and two tablespoons of salt. The Sustainable Alternative Lightning (SALt) lamp does not have any hazardous material or component and it has a USB port for charging a smartphone. According to SALt website, “There are more than 7000 islands in Philippines and most of these do not have access to electricity. We want to eliminate the sustaining cost in areas that rely on kerosene/battery-powered lamps and candles as their main source of lighting.” The lamp uses the science behind the galvanic cell, the basis for battery-making, changing the electrolytes to a non-toxic, saline solution, hence making the entire process safe and harmless. When electrodes are placed in the electrolyte, the energy generated kicks an LED light into gear. Moreover, the salinity of ocean water can operate the lamp. Stronger, tougher paper could lead to flexible electronics ellulose fibres can be used to make tougher and Cstronger paper that may pave the way for flexible electronics such as paper smartphones, printable solar cells and green vehicles. Researchers at University of Maryland, USA, have discovered that paper made of cellulose fibres is tougher and stronger the smaller the fibres get. They explored the mechanical properties of cellulose, the most abundant renewable bio-resource on Earth, and made papers with several sizes of cellulose fibres, ranging in size from 30mm to 10nm. The paper made of 10-nanometre-thick fibres was 40 times tougher and 130 times stronger than regular notebook paper, which is made of cellulose fibres a thousand times larger. Bendy liquid metal coils for making stretchable loudspeakers oils of liquid metal could be used to make stretch- Cable loudspeakers and microphones, potentially leading to new kinds of hearing aids, heart monitors, and wearable and implantable devices. Acoustic devices often rely on rigid metal coils that can both emit and detect sound. Scientists in Korea have created a stretchable acoustic device by replacing this rigid coil with a deformable, liquid metal coil. This new coil is made of Galinstan, a highly conductive liquid metal alloy of gallium, indium and tin. They used a syringe to inject Galinstan into a spiral channel in a thin film of flexible silicone rubber. They then attached copper wires to the end of the coil and a neodymium magnet (made from an alloy of neodymium, iron and boron) to the centre of the coil.

14 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com Tech News

Bendy liquid metal coils could help create stretchable loudspeakers

They operated the device by electrically charging the liquid metal coil, turning it into an electromagnet that could push back and forth off the neodymium magnet to either detect or emit sound. They were able to record sounds, such as the human voice and a beeping alarm clock, and play these back while the device was attached to the wrist or was being stretched by hand. Researchers found the device can be stretched up to 50 percent its length, 2000 times without any noticeable loss of acoustic performance. It could also play back sounds across the frequency range of human hearing. Wood based computer chips could help with electronic waste crisis ood based computer chips are a reality, and Wthese could make the recycling of electronics a much simpler task. Developed at University of Wisconsin, USA, by a group led by engineering professor Zhenqiang (Jack) Ma, the wood-derived computer chip is made by processing wood into nanocellulose paper, which is then used as a substi- tute for silicon. Unlike the rigid silicon wafer that serves as a plate for transistors in most computer chips, Ma’s chip uses a translucent, bendable plate made of highly processed wood. According to a piece in the MIT Technology Review, using nanocellulose in lieu of conventional silicon requires just a tiny fraction of the semiconducting material otherwise needed in the process, and does not sacrifice performance. In two demonstrations, Ma and his colleagues showed they could use nanocellulose as the support layer for radio frequency circuits that perform comparably to those commonly used in smartphones and tablets. They also showed that these chips could be broken down by a common fungus. www.eFYmag.com electronicS For You | September 2015 15 Tech News

MIT unveils 3D printing of glass objects The field of 3D printing is still largely the domain of major companies in need of easier prototyping methods and hobbyists. But a new breakthrough could vastly expand the technology’s applications, that is, 3D printed glass.

UC Berkeley engineers created a smartcap using 3D-printed plastic with embedded electronics to wirelessly monitor the freshness of milk (Photo and schematic by Sung-Yueh Wu)

allowed a bit of milk to get trapped in the cap’s capacitor 3D printing of glass gap, and the entire carton was then left unopened at room temperature for 36 hours. MIT has unveiled a method it calls G3DP that allows The circuit could detect the changes in electrical the creation of complex 3D glass structures to be printed signals that accompany increased levels of bacteria. in a similar fashion to plastic constructs. The researchers periodically monitored the changes MIT’s process accomplishes this by using two with a wireless radio-frequency probe at the start of the chambers, one that acts as a kiln cartridge and another experiment and every 12 hours thereafter, up to 36 hours. that works to melt the structures together. The molten glass is distributed through an alumina-zircon-silica nozzle Facebook’s solar-powered drone that pours the material out like soft-serve ice cream. to beam Internet from the sky The G3DP process was developed by a team including acebook has completed the production of its first full- MIT Media Lab’s Mediated Matter group, MIT Glass Fscale solar-powered Internet drone that will deliver Lab, Wyss Institute and MIT’s Mechanical Engineering wireless Internet with lasers from the sky in parts of the Department. developing world where there is a lack of connectivity. One of the project’s researchers, Neri Oxman, says that this could also lead to advances in creating fibre- optic cables that transmit data more efficiently. 3D-printed smartcap to sense spoilt food C Berkeley (USA) engineers, in collaboration with Ucolleagues at Taiwan’s National Chiao Tung University, are expanding the already impressive Facebook’s solar-powered drone to beam Internet from the sky portfolio of 3D printing technology to include electrical components. They have put the new Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder, Facebook, has technology to test by printing a wireless smartcap for a announced the completion of Aquila, Facebook’s first milk carton that can detect signs of spoilage using em- unmanned plane that beams down Internet connectivity bedded sensors. from the sky, as part of his project with Internet.org. Polymers and other such materials are poor Aquila’s wings are made of carbon fibre. It has the conductors of electricity, and thus bad candidates for wingspan of a Boeing 737, but weighs less than a car and electronic devices. To get around this, the researchers can stay in the air for months at a time. started off by building a system using polymers and Facebook will have lasers on the ground that can wax. They then removed the wax, leaving hollow tubes locate the dome-shaped optical head, located on the into which liquid metal—in their experiments they used bottom of the plane, in the air, basically shooting a laser silver—was injected and then cured. at a dime-sized target that is more than 16km (10-miles) Researchers integrated the electronic components into away. The plane will first hone in on the general location a plastic milk carton cap to monitor signs of spoilage. of the laser on the ground, proceeding to target it further The smartcap was fitted with a capacitor and an inductor and lock onto the location so that it can start beaming to form a resonant circuit. A quick flip of the carton down the Internet.

Check efytimes.com for more news, daily

16 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com

FUTURISTIC

Transient Electronics That Disappear

n this era of electronics-driven lifestyle developing transient materials, which are with well-established advantages of special degradable polymer composite ma- Idurable, long-lasting electronics, and terials designed to quickly and completely when the use of electronic devices has in- melt away when a trigger is activated. vaded into the human body itself, thinking The technology could be useful for any Dr S.S. Verma is a about transient electronics (that dissolve application in which sensitive data is used. professor at Department after some time without leaving a trace) Some of these are military electronics equip- of Physics, Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and its applications is inevitable. ment, credit cards and passports, and any and Technology, Sangrur, Millions of patients have benefited application in which the electronic device is Punjab from the innovative development of elec- to be used for a defined period of time such tronic medical devices/gadgets such as as in bioelectronics, implantable electronics pacemakers or medicine-dispensing agents and environmental monitoring applications. implanted in the body for either diagnostic or therapeutic benefits. While these have Development status revolutionised modern medicine, many a Previous research in the area has explored time these outlive their purpose in the hu- the use of transient materials to create dis- man body and require surgical removal to solvable devices such as transistors, resistors avoid complication. However, rather than and diodes. Researchers have also developed removing these devices through surgery, and tested transient resistors and capacitors. what if these could simply disappear? The goal of research is to investigate This is the concept behind transient how the rate of transiency could actually be electronics, the newly-developed electronic controlled. They are experimenting with a devices that are designed to dissolve inside blend of programmable biodegradable and the body once these have served their transient insulating polymer films. They purpose. Transient electronics offer robust have found that by adding gelatin to the A transient electronic device performance, which is comparable to cur- mix, dissolution can be slowed, while ad- (Image courtesy: rational- rent devices, but these completely resorb dition of sucrose speeds up the rate of trader.blogspot.in) into their environment transiency. at a prescribed time, Using these special polymers, researchers ranging from minutes were able to build and test an antenna that to years, depending on was capable of sending data and then com- the application. pletely dissolving itself when a trigger was The goal of the activated. One constant in this experimen- electronics industry tation with different composite structures has been to build is that the material maintains appropriate durable devices that physical properties to function as a substrate last long with sta- for electronics. ble performance, but The researchers are pioneers in the many new opportuni- engineering of ultra-thin flexible electronic ties open up once we components. Only a few tens of nanometres start thinking about thick, these tiny circuits, from transistors electronics that could to interconnects, readily dissolve in a small disappear in a con- amount of water or body fluid, and are trolled and program- harmlessly resorbed or assimilated. mable way. It is the Controlled degradation and transiency new way of looking of materials is of significant importance in at electronics. Scien- the design and fabrication of degradable tists and engineers are and transient biomedical and electronic de-

18 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com

FUTURISTIC vices and platforms. Here, synthesis ogy. They have produced a blue LED of programmable biodegradable and mounted on a polymer base with transient insulating polymer films electrical leads embedded on it. When is reported, which have sufficient it comes into contact with just a drop physical and chemical properties to of water, the base and leads begin to be used as substrates for the con- dissolve and the light goes out. struction of transient electronics. A lost credit card could vanish The composite structure can be used from existence (but would most likely as a means to control the dissolution still leave debt behind), a secret diary and transiency rate of the polymer could be programmed to self-destruct composite film. should it be removed from its hiding The electronics are enclosed in spot and sensors stored with food a material that dissolves completely could indicate when it has reached after a certain period of time when temperatures that would cause the exposed to water or body fluids, food to spoil. somewhat like dissolvable sutures. The real-world application for By altering the number of layers of transient electronics with, perhaps, the wrapping, scientists can define the most potential is in the field of how long the device will take to dis- This electronic implant can dissolve inside military strategy, as similar research the body (Image courtesy: rational-trader. solve in the body or in the environ- blogspot.in) efforts from DARPA would indicate. If ment, including its overall lifetime. a soldier carrying sensitive informa- The devices perform just as well disappear, without requiring any tion is captured, injured or worse, the as conventional electronics and func- extra surgery to remove these from electronics could be triggered to melt tion normally until the encapsulating the body. And no one would have to away before any classified information layer disappears. Once that happens, retrieve dozens of transient water- was gleaned by enemy forces. it only takes a few minutes for the quality sensors from a river undergo- A military device could collect and electronic connections to dissolve ing water-quality monitoring. These send data contained in it and then away, and the device stops working. would dissolve without a trace and dissolve away, leaving no trace of an Scientists have also reported pro- without causing harm to the environ- intelligence mission. gress in making the devices with con- ment. An environmental sensor could ventional manufacturing processes Scientists have designed transient collect climate information and then instead of meticulously building one- electronics as temperature sensors, wash away in the rain. by-one by hand in a laboratory. It is a solar cells and miniature digital Electronic waste can also be con- step towards producing these devices cameras, for instance. Previous bi- trolled by designing integrated circuits with the kind of manufacturing pro- oresorbable devices were made of out of materials that are biodegrad- cesses that are already in wide use different materials that only partially- able. for traditional electronics like silicon dissolved, leaving behind residues, Dubbed transient electronics, the based microprocessors and memory and did not perform as well as cur- new class of silk-silicon devices prom- technology. rent devices. ise a generation of medical implants Another advancement involved Practical uses of a new genre of that would never need surgical remov- the materials for making and power- tiny, biocompatible electronic devices al, as well as environmental monitors ing the devices without an external that could be implanted into the body and consumer electronics that could electricity source. For example, to relieve pain or battle infection for become compost rather than trash. latest transient electronic devices a specific period of time and then In the future, researchers envision incorporate zinc-oxide, which is dissolve harmlessly now seems pos- more complex devices that could be piezoelectric. This means that thin, sible. A medical device, once its job adjustable in real-time or are respon- flexible devices made with zinc-oxide is done, could harmlessly melt away sive to changes in their environment could produce electricity when bent inside a person’s body. such as chemistry, light or pressure. or twisted, perhaps by movement Researchers are now conducting Physicians and environmentalists alike of muscles in the body, pulsation of further studies, centred on devel- could soon be using a new class of blood vessels or beating of the heart. oping degradable polymer based electronic devices that are small, ro- materials that would make suitable bust and provide a high performance, Applications platforms for other electronic com- yet are also biocompatible and capable Medical implants that are only ponents, including work on transient of dissolving completely in water or in needed for a few weeks could just light emitting diode (LED) technol- bodily fluids. 

20 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com

WIRELESS iBeacon! Beacon! What is it

Beacon, introduced by Apple in 2013, is the smartphone is from each of these and a technology that uses Bluetooth Low takes required actions. iEnergy (BLE) to broadcast and receive The actions could be showing alerts, offer- small amounts of information within short ing something and the like, for which it may distances. It allows smartphones and other need to contact the server using an application devices to perform some actions when these programming interface (API). Visitors who Gautam Lakum works as a project coordinator - mobile are within proximity to it. In short, someone have installed the app would receive a wel- apps, Multidots Solutions can use iBeacon to tell nearby smartphones come message at the entrance of the exhibi- Pvt Ltd of its presence. It may not sound like much tion; if they are at drinks section, they would but you can make it quite interesting and receive a voice message containing details useful with proper software and ideas. about the next section, and so on. If beacons are deployed at a store, cus- How it works tomers would receive information regarding A beacon is a broadcaster that always lets special offers. Similarly, if beacons are de- you know of its presence and how to identify ployed in a museum, visitors would receive it. For it to be useful, it requires a receiver directions to its different sections. (smartphone app) that can detect it and do whatever it needs to do based on how close What is BLE it is from it. The beacon sends data all the BLE, which stands for Bluetooth Low Energy, time. When it is in advertisement mode, it is also known as Bluetooth Smart. It was in- sends data with three parameters, namely, a troduced by Bluetooth Special Interest Group universally unique identifier (UUID), a major with an aim to build more energy-efficient and a minor value. applications in healthcare, fitness, home, Let us take the example of an exhibition beacons and security fields. that needs to set up beacon sen- Most smartphones available these days are sors and an app that can help and BLE-enabled. BLE is a mode that can be used guide the visitors. The exhibition to pair devices like beacons, smartwatches or organisers could define a UUID that wristbands. If a smartphone is BLE-enabled, is unique to the beacons inside the it does not mean that it would use BLE every exhibition area and their app. They time it is paired. For example, if a Bluetooth can assign major and minor values headphone is paired, it would not use BLE to according to the sections inside the stream music, but if a smartwatch or wrist- exhibition area, like major value 0, band is paired, it would use BLE. minor value 1 near the entrance, mi- The main difference between classic Fig. 1: kontakt.io beacon nor value 2 near the drinks section. Bluetooth and BLE is the energy required to The app receives the advertise- transmit data between two devices. Because ment frame (data) broadcast by each BLE is focused, it can transfer small amounts beacon inside the exhibition area of data with slow speed as compared to Blue- and, based on that, tells how close tooth. BLE cannot transfer data like audio/ video as it is not supposed to work with applications that require high amounts of data transfer with high speed. How stable are beacons As beacons work on wireless technology, these can be unstable or imprecise when broadcasting data. Their stability depends on Fig. 2: Estimote beacon mounted on wall Fig. 3: Working of a beacon many factors like distance between beacon

22 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com

WIRELESS

Where to buy Beacons can vary in size based on their application. For example, if you want to place a beason inside a wristband, it should be tiny in size. But if you want to configure it in stores, it should be small and also match the store’s theme. You can even get the beacons customised. There are many vendors that sell beacons. Some of the well- known beacons are: Roximity iBeacon. It does not require Internet and the battery lasts up to two years. There is no need to plug it in and you can place it anywhere. It provides location based triggers. You could buy it from buyibeacons.com ONYX beacon. Its battery can last up to four years. You can place it anywhere regardless of power availability. You can also plug it in a USB port or power plug. It is available at www.onyxbeacon. com GemTot. This beacon needs to be plugged into a USB port, so you do not have to worry about its battery life. You can buy it from passkit.com/buy-ibeacon kontakt.io. Its battery lasts up to four years and you can manage it remotely. You can find it at kontakt.io Estimote. This beacon is known for its style and looks. You can place it anywhere. It is also available in the form of stickers. You can buy it from estimote.com

and the receiver, battery status, obstacles and interference in signals, among others. It also depends on how fast the app is ranging the beacons. For example, Apple limits the scanning to one per second. So even when the beacons are configured to broadcast data at faster rates, the app will not be able to scan these at a rate higher than one second. Developed apps using beacons All smartphones and tablets that have Bluetooth 4.0+ (PLE-enabled) support beacons. There are various apps that can be developed using beacons. For retail stores. Retail store owners can use beacons to advertise store offers. Customers who have installed the store’s app on their device would receive details regarding various offers. For tracking people. Beacons could be used to track persons/resources/workers. People can wear beacons on their wrists and when they move out of the area being tracked, the app could be configured to sound an alarm. These could also be used to track children and pets, and even Alzheimer patients. For providing directions/details. Let us say, you are visiting a zoo and you have installed an app for the same. Once you enter, the app would give you directions to the different areas or sections within the zoo. If you are at the white tiger’s cage, the app would display information about the animal. Similarly, while visiting a museum, the app would give details about a painting that you are studying. Automation. Imagine returning home after a long day and the door opening automatically. This type of automation is also possible using beacons. This can be implemented in houses, garages, industries and many other places. 

24 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com

Tech Focus

When Doctors Start Prescribing Electronics, What Would the Dosage Be

he way the term medical electron- and development (R&D) in this space, ics is perceived by us has constantly which promise a lot of excitement and good Tevolved over time. At one time, it health in the days to come. meant digital instruments to read one’s blood pressure or glucose levels, or large, Internet- Wearables and Big Data: A magical duo Janani Gopalakrishnan connected meters that could be used by Vikram is a technically- doctors to test and treat patients in remote Although it might seem as if the market is qualified freelance writer, editor and hands-on mom locations (with the help of trained techni- flooded with just fitness enhancers, some based in Chennai cal staff) or implantable devices like cardiac start-ups are already making some clinical- pacemakers. However, today the term has ly-significant wearable devices, which have taken on whole new definitions, which are the potential to eventually bridge the gap unimaginable and, even, unquantifiable. between physicians and patients, making From wearable devices that work with real-time medicine a reality. your mobile phone to monitor and con- Muse is a good example. It uses vey your health condition to a physician, advanced sensor technology to fit the and devices that make sure you have your functioning of a clinical-grade electroen- medicines and electronics built into your cephalogram (EEG) into a beautiful and house’s walls to monitor your heart rate, comfortable headband, which works hand- to implantable devices that help your body in-hand with an app to aid care givers an work better, modern medical electronics is understanding and helping them out in con- at the cusp of a new era of medical diagno- ditions like attention deficit hyperactivity sis and treatment. This is fuelled by trends disorder (ADHD), anxiety and depression. like flexible, organic electronics, 3D printing Another is Resound, an iPhone-con- and the Internet of Things (IoT). nected hearing aid that can be customised Here we look at some futuristic research according to location and situation.

Muse headband (Image courtesy: www.choosemuse.com)

26 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com

Tech Focus

Its many forms... In his article titled ‘Electronics for the Human Body,’ Dr John A. Rogers of University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, explains how recent advancements have managed to bridge the gap between the soft, curvilinear and continuously-evolving human body and devices that are rigid, planar and physically static. He goes on to categorise modern medical electronics into three approaches: Soft electronics. This involves configuring hard, inorganic functional materials into thin, open-mesh micro-architectures and embedding these in soft, elastomeric films, so that the resulting electronics can be bent, twisted or pulled without affecting their functionality or performance. When implemented with bio-compatible interface materials, the electronics can be integrated with organ systems such as the brain, heart and skin. Injectable electronics. One step ahead, this involves delivering electronics further into the depth of the body, and not just on the surface. Flexible filaments serve as support for micro-scale device components that can be transported to targeted regions in a minimally- invasive fashion using thin, releasable injection needles. Bio-resorbable electronics. Releasing injection needles in the previous case involves bio-resorption of a thin adhesive layer upon contact with cerebro-spinal fluid. Recently, it has been found that this concept of bio-resorption can be extended to entire functional systems, where all active and passive materials dissolve completely in a controlled fashion at programmable rates when immersed in bio-fluids. This opens the possibility of advanced devices for drug release, which provide high performance and stable operation for a specified time period and then completely dissolve, rather than stay on in the body. —Adapted from: rogers.matse.illinois.edu/files/2015/jamabioe.pdf

A series of small devices being kidney diseases and even cancer. developed by CellScope, a spin-off Screen printing all electronics on from UC Berkeley, is also expected the card makes it very cost-effective, to bring advanced diagnostics home too. It currently costs €5 each, but as to common folks. Oto Home and Oto volume picks up, it can be manufac- Clinic, for example, are small devices tured at €0.50 per piece. that fit onto the camera of a smart- According to Elsevier’s press re- phone, enabling users to capture lease on the event, “This means these images of the ear’s membranes, to have the potential to provide patients detect ear infections. The idea behind and doctors in developing countries mobile phone microscopy, a concept with accessible, affordable medical pioneered by Fletcher Lab of UC tests. For example, the printed card Berkeley, is to develop small devices could be made part of the packag- that add optics, illumination and ing of antibiotics, helping determine hardware automation to the cameras which antibiotic would be best to of regular mobile phones and tablets, treat a patient’s infection. Such print- to create mobile microscopes and able devices could also be worn like diagnostic solutions. plasters or contact lenses, transmitting information to mobile phones.” More on the anvil Another recent development in The future holds many more such this space is a type of e-skin devel- devices, as was seen at Elsevier’s oped by Suzhou Institute of Nano- 4th International Conference on Bio- Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Sensing Technology. One of the inter- Academy of Sciences, China. Born of esting technologies demonstrated at nanotechnology and flexible electron- the event was a home diagnosis card ics, e-skin has the ability to detect developed in Sweden by Linköping changes in pressure, which can, in University and Acreo. The device, the turn, be used to monitor blood pres- size of a credit card, takes a drop of sure, heart rate and wrist pulse on blood or saliva as input from the user real-time basis. The team has worked and gives diagnostic information on to make the sensor element very his or her phone. This information sensitive, while making the material can help monitor diabetes, heart and very flexible. This they have done

28 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com

Tech Focus

controlled electronic implants made of silk and magnesium that could deliver heat treatment on a patient’s body tissues to treat bacterial infections and then safely dissolve. The device consisted of a serpentine resistor and a power-receiving coil made of magnesium deposited onto a silk-protein layer. The silk pocket protected the electronics and controlled the device’s dissolution time. In a test on tissue infected with Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), devices were triggered through a wireless transmitter to administer two 10-minute heat treatments. The devices safely dissolved within two weeks. In a subsequent in-vitro lab experiment, another device was made to administer antibiotic ampicillin to e-Dura implant can help paralysed people to walk again kill E. coli and S. aureus. According to Hu Tao, first author using carbon nanotubes and sheets a person’s colon, sensor-augmented of the study, “The new wireless of graphene only a few atoms thick. surgical tools like the Intuitive Sur- therapy devices are robust enough to gical Firefly system that injects a survive mechanical handling during Helping hand from Big Data dye for fluorescent imaging to help surgery but designed to harmlessly There are many more devices in the identify tumours during surgery, dissolve within minutes or weeks, wearable cadre; however, the magic augmented reality solutions that al- depending on how the silk protein ingredient that will make these really low surgeons to look beneath the was processed.” useful is smart data analysis. patient’s skin, robots that assist in Helping paralysed people walk Dr Michael Docktor, a gastroenter- therapeutic exercises and so on. again. Historically, one of the big- ologist at Boston Children’s Hospital, It is interesting to note that gest problems concerning implants also clinical director of innovation famous robotic contests like John has been the mechanical mismatch and director of clinical mobile solu- Hopkins Robo Challenge have some between soft tissue and stiff implants. tions, wrote in January in an article quests that encourage children to For some, this can cause minor issues about CES 2015, “As these wearables solve problems similar to those expe- like inflammation, while for others, become more of a clinical tool than rienced in the medical field. A chal- it might mean outright rejection by merely a personal wellness device, lenge to build a robot that can spot the body. data analytics and the ability to serve a grape in Jello, for example, can be A team of multi-disciplinary ex- up meaningful, reliable and action- compared with finding a tumour in perts in Switzerland has developed able data to one’s care team will be soft tissue. a soft, flexible implant called e-Dura, critical.” which mimics the shape and elasticity Implants aplenty of dura mater, the protective mem- Robots to the rescue When somebody says implant, you brane of the brain and spinal cord. Carol Reiley, an experienced com- might be immediately reminded of Armed with electrodes, intercon- puter scientist and roboticist, spoke devices like the pacemaker, which nects and chemotrodes that can handle about future applications of robots have been around for decades now. millions of cycles of mechanical stress, in medical technology, at Bay Area Now, take a look at these implants chemical injections and electrical Maker Faire 2015. The picture she and you will realise the current gen- stimulation pulses, the device enables painted was fantastic—of miniature eration is incomparable to medical those with a paralysed spinal cord to robots that enter the body through electronics a decade back. walk again. It is also capable of deliv- natural openings like the mouth and Dissolvable devices for drug de- ering electrical impulses and chemicals perform surgeries inside. Some of livery. Last year, researchers at Tufts and even monitoring electrical signals these are devices like Pillcam that University’s School of Engineering from the brain in real-time. e-Dura, allow minimally-invasive imaging of developed resorbable, wirelessly- which has been tested successfully on

30 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com

Tech Focus lab rats, is now moving A bright future dotted towards clinical trials. with challenges Because it has the same It is evident that medical mechanical properties electronics is part and par- of dura mater, it avoids cel of our future. The rate at problems like inflamma- which folks in the industry tion and rejection, and and academia are innovat- can also remain in the ing in this space, we might body for a long time. actually see implants being Magic cure for rheu- sold in medical shops and matoid arthritis. British doctors printing devices on drug-maker GlaxoSmith- their desks. Kline recently demon- However, some practical strated an implant capa- issues need to be sorted out ble of relieving patients before that. One, of course, of rheumatoid arthritis, is the well-known issue of a chronic condition that battery life, a serious con- afflicts innumerable peo- cern that limits the life of ple across the world. The implants. tiny device—the size of a Several options are be- small coin—is embedded ing explored to overcome into the neck of the pa- OWL’s SLA based 3D printers can print microfluidic devices and tissue scaffolds this. While some are ex- tient, from where it influ- perimenting with wireless ences the nervous system by sending that use fused deposition modelling charging, others are working on electrical impulses into a major nerve (FDM) technique. off-beat options, such as a battery- that relays brain signals to the body’s In an SLA, lasers harden layers of less cardiac pacemaker developed major organs. liquid plastic or resin into 3D shapes. at University of Bern, Switzerland. Firing such impulses for around This can create much more detailed The pacemaker charges itself much three minutes a day has shown to devices with a smoother finish as on the lines of an automatic watch. reduce the amount of chemicals pro- compared to FDM. OWL’s makers Another issue is security. In 2012, duced by the spleen, which is respon- claim that their printers are even American TV show Homeland feasible for abnormal inflammation in better than other SLA printers in the tured an episode in which terrorists the joints of people with rheumatoid market, as these can print objects hacked into the pacemaker of the US arthritis. that are 200 times more accurate vice president and assassinated him. The company is working to de- than objects created with other SLA As readers stood aghast at the possi- velop a smaller version of the device, printers. bility, Forbes explored it and asserted and hopes that in the future, this The company is also exploring that it is a real danger. ability to bring about a balance in the useful medical technology that can Around the same time, famous body can also help cure conditions be printed with these machines. For hacker Barnaby Jack and others like like diabetes and asthma. example, one can print microfluidic him demonstrated the possibility of devices to deliver drugs to cancer hacking into medical devices like in- Medicine’s tryst with 3D patients. These devices are highly sulin pumps and pacemakers. While printing is rather exciting detailed, with tiny channels that some companies revamped their de- Imagine the day when doctors can circulate prescription drugs into a vices after that, the danger still lurks print customised implants and medi- patient’s body. as technical publications around the cal devices for their patients, right It is also possible to print bio- world continue to discuss this as a on their desk! Well, that day is not resorbable tissue scaffolds with serious issue. Security features have too far off, considering some of the resins (pending FDA approval), for to be made mandatory in medical recent advancements in 3D printing. cartilage-replacement surgeries. The devices, if patients are to have com- Old World Labs (OWL), for ex- tissue scaffolds, injected with stem plete confidence in these. ample, has demonstrated two print- cells, can be implanted in the knee. In the years to come, these issues ers, MC-1 and MC-2, which use a Once the stem cells grow and replace will hopefully be ironed out, so that process called stereolithography the missing cartilage, the printed tis- the wonderful research by today’s (SLA) to print objects, unlike most sue scaffolds would dissolve safely labs can, so to say, win a place in other current-generation 3D printers inside the body. people’s hearts! 

32 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com

Tech Focus

Connected Healthcare, BAN and Weaponised Pacemakers

3,895,000,000. That is how many allows sound in just one direction, thus rupees are expected to be spent by eliminating acoustic disturbances caused by 6healthcare providers in India on de- sound waves going in both directions. vices, telecom services, data centres and Another recent addition for those into information technology (IT) in 2015 alone, designing ultrasound systems is the avail- Dilin Anand is a senior according to Gartner. ability of production processes and tools assistant editor at EFY. Medical electronics is a lot more excit- for full-scale capacitive micromachined ul- He is B.Tech from University of Calicut, and ing now, with electronic components that trasonic transducers (cMUTs). These allow is currently pursuing MBA resorb after use as well as stents that sense ultrasound imaging to enjoy higher lateral from Christ University, Bengaluru blood flow and temperature that these then and axial resolution, higher speed and even transmit for analysis and storage. While you real-time 3D imaging for diagnostic applica- can read about more such amazing innovations for areas such as ophthalmology and tions in the article on page 26, this article dermatology. gives you a glance at the electronics behind On the other side of the planet, Uni- the scenes—components, devices, standards versity of Michigan’s Wireless Integrated and other elements that power these innova- MicroSensing and Systems (WIMS2) Centre tions to life. has made progress in its work on magne- toelastic sensors. By applying the devices Imaging and diagnostic applications into the circulatory system and bile ducts In the east, China’s Nanjing University is it is able to detect biliary sludge on a stent working on an acoustic diode technology that in the bile duct or tissue accumulation on could improve the performance of ultrasound arterial stents in cardiology. systems. Similar to the usual diodes that al- EBR Systems has developed an im- low current only in one direction, this diode plantable externally-powered grain-sized

34 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com

Tech Focus

Electroadhesives device is Vaica’s SimpleMed+ medication compliance device that uses Aptly named, Grabit Inc. is a company that has built an electrically-controllable adhesion Telit Wireless Soltuions’ GC864- technology that can be used in biomedical lab automation, medical devices and surgical QUAD V2 for mobile connectivity equipment. What is it? Electroadhesion uses electrostatic forces between substrate materials and electroadhesive surface to induce adhesion between materials through a set that allows quad-band connectivity of conductive electrodes deposited on the surface of a polymer. Who knew that someone using a mobile network. could set up a whole company simply on the basis of ‘Opposite charges attract.’ In March 2015, Redbend and Telit also announced their partner- pacemaker called Wireless Cardiac applicator to continuously monitor ship that allows designers to avoid Stimulation System (WiCS). It allows skin temperature, while allowing the IT integration at their end if they for bi-ventricular pacing where a treatment to continue unhindered. use the hosted service to manage traditional pacemaker paces the right their machine-to-machine (M2M) ventricle and EBR WiCS electrode Moore’s Law keeps driving devices. paces the left ventricle. integration Also interesting is an electronic Transforming the data collected For more integrated components, patch designed by Sensium that can above into graphical form can be Honeywell’s HumidIcon digital check a patient’s vital signs every done using embedded graphics solu- humidity and temperature sensors two minutes and wirelessly send it tions like AMD Embedded Radeon integrate multiple functions in a sin- to authorised medical devices. The HD 7850 GPU. Based on Graphic gle compact package. These can be patch itself is a low-power 915MHz Next Core (GCN) architecture that ac- used in respiratory therapy, medical wireless unit that can measure heart celerates medical imaging, it provides incubators and medical micro-envi- rate, respiratory rate and auxiliary three times improved performance ronment applications. temperature. with detailed medical image visuali- Engineers at Georgia Tech Re- Maxim Integrated launched sation and other advanced graphics- search Institute have designed a sen- a reference design for sensing driven capabilities. sor that can detect chemical vapour galvanic skin response (GSR) in using its package of three sensors mobile medical and fitness ap- Detecting substances and a radio frequency identification plications with improved accu- CAP-100 capacitive liquid level sensor (RFID) chip. Current design of the racy. Offered in a wristband form from Gems Sensors & Controls allows chip requires power from an incom- factor, MAXREFDES73# includes level sensing through a wide variety of ing signal beam to enable sending body surface temperature readings, materials. These compact sensors can data out, but researchers hope future Bluetooth communications and a detect substances like waste, reagent, models would be able to use ambient rechargeable battery that lasts up to buffer or diluents, which would be energy. one week on a single charge. useful for vessels containing bio-haz- Engineers usually have to face dif- ardous liquids in a sealed container. ficulties when building systems out Google Glass could be helpful These can also be calibrated for use of separate pump motors, gearboxes Electronic health records blended as proximity sensors. and drives due to design complica- with wearable electronics show Some manufacturers are also tions and uncertainty that comes promise to enable doctors to im- looking at making their components with separate components. With the prove the time they spend with their more rugged, such as FlexiForce aim to reduce the cost for engineers patients. Texas based Pristine’s app Sustained Stability Series 301 from at original equipment manufactur- EyeSight lets doctors transmit live Tekscan. Made from pressure-sen- ers, Watson-Marlow Pumps Group video of wounded patients from sitive ink, these can withstand and has brought out a brushless DC gear Google Glass to computers and measure force and pressure in a motor with a fully-integrated speed phones. wider range of environments. It is controller that can be used in medi- There is also Augmedix, a sys- claimed that reducing drive voltage cal devices. tem that would roughly translate or feedback resistance can extend the information from Glass’s audio-vis- range further. Building systems enabling ual stream directly into a patient’s Other novel uses include the use better healthcare medical record. And Healium is of temperature sensors to ensure The Internet of Things (IoT) is driv- developing an app that would let the best application of treatments ing the creation of Web-connected doctors share patient information in dermatology. One example is medical devices that keep track of through Glass. where SynerionVelaShape III uses your health and medication, prompt- There is also some buzz about Exergen’s non-invasive infrared (IR) ing your doctor about potential a helmet-borne system developed temperature sensor placed inside the threats or medical events. One such by Vijay Varadan and his research

36 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com Tech Focus team at University of Arkansas. It instantly with complete security. lets you detect brain injury using a Maxim’s newly-designed gamma network of flexible sensors. Collected resistant non-volatile memory based data is then sent through ZigBee and on 1-wire technology allows calibra- Bluetooth to a receiver. tion of consumable medical sensors, In 2014, Novartis also announced tools and accessories to their host that its eye-care division, Alcon, medical instrument in the field. would soon license its smartlens technology for all ocular medi- Meeting standards cal uses. This technology involves Got an amazing idea for a wearable the use of non-invasive sensors, device that you believe will change microchips and other miniaturised the world? Figured out all the hard- electronics that are embedded into ware and software design, too? If the contact lens. A LinkedIn search you want to see your device enter the on Alcon showed the profile of an market and start selling, you have to electronics and software lead engi- ensure that it meets medical stand- neer at Alcon, which had Institute of ards. Do not despair though, because Electrical and Electronics Engineers Shreekant Pawar, co-founder and (IEEE) 802.15.6 standard listed. What CMO at Diabeto, has just the advice is that? you need. “When we were developing LAN, WAN and, now, BAN Diabeto, in the early stages, we After local area network (LAN) and were completely unaware of medi- wide area network (WAN), you now cal standards; we did not even know have body area network (BAN). Also what standards were. Only when we known as body sensor network, this developed the first prototype, one is effectively a wireless network of investor asked us if our design was wearable computing devices and according to the standards. Just like implantables. us, many medical devices start-ups IEEE 802.15 Task Group 6 (BAN) are completely unaware about the is developing a communication prevailing medical standards,” says standard optimised for low-power de- Pawar. vices and operation on, in or around He explains that, broadly there the human body (but not limited to are two types of standards, namely, humans) to serve a variety of appli- vertical and horizontal. Typically, a cations including medical, consumer vertical standard is specific to a prod- electronics, personal entertainment uct or a device, while a horizontal and others. standard applies to a wide range of devices. International Organization New memory for wearables for Standardization (ISO) 13485 and Targeting such wearable devices for ISO 14971 are examples of the most applications like hearing aids, pulse important horizontal standards that meters and activity trackers, Fujitsu are widely used. has introduced their new 1Mbit serial ISO 13485 is optional, but is con- ferro-electric random access memo- sidered the de facto standard for com- ries (FRAMs). The new FRAM mem- panies that sell in Europe. One good ory delivers 77 per cent reduction thing about ISO 13485:2003 is that, in surface mount area, apart from it is made specifically for medical contributing to longer battery life devices and is accepted worldwide, by minimising power consumption except the USA. The US FDA follows during write operations. The FRAM a different system. Having said that, developed by Cypress is immune to there is 90 per cent overlap between corruption by magnetic fields and ISO 13485 and the US FDA system. radiation, thus allowing for its use in ISO 14971 covers risk manage- medical wearables for capturing data ment. Your device needs to pass www.eFYmag.com electronicS For You | September 2015 37 Tech Focus

This could be especially painful now that the devices are on your body. Barnaby Jack was someone who had already demonstrated how it was possible to hack a diabetic’s insulin pump to deliver a fatal dose as well as how to hack a pacemaker from 15 metres away and get it to deliver an 830-volt jolt to the user. Unfortunately, he was found dead under suspicious circumstances a week before his scheduled demon- stration at a major black hat convention with cyber security experts at Caesar’s Palace. So, how can this problem be solved? The knee-jerk response would be what former US vice president Dick Cheney’s doctors did. They disabled his pacemaker’s wireless connectivity to thwart possible assassination attempts. More thought-out approaches include mobile medical Touchscreen phone and smartwatch with health sensor mobile app device benchmark initiative that was implemented by Centre for Internet all possible scenarios or operation Jones, product marketing director Security, whose resulting bench- modes in which there is a failure of Artesyn Embedded Technologies. marks are recommended as guid- situation. IEC 60601-1 is a safety standard ance for device makers to harden a Pawar explains that, “As a medi- for medical electrical equipment, device’s security. cal device designer, one needs to whose third edition includes general Indeed, there are embedded be absolutely clear with two docu- requirements for safety as well as cryptographic co-processors that ments/standards, IEC 60601-1 and essential performance. come with processors like Cortex- IEC 60601-1-2. If your device adheres The software and firmware that M4 based STM32F479 to power ap- to these documents, you would be goes in your medical device pro- plications requiring high security. what they usually call 601 compli- gramming is also regulated. These A cryptographic co-processor is a ant. The 601 standard is primarily for are broadly classified by two test- hardware module specialised for electrical safety and electromagnetic ing approaches that are driven by encryption and related processing compatibility (EMC). If your medical simple code and complex code. For to prevent unauthorised retrieval of device is using an external power simple code, refer IEC 60601-1 An- data. However, can chips like these supply, or even a step-down trans- nex H, and for more complex code solve the problem single-handed? former, it needs to be 601-compliant driven firmware, check IEC 62304 Probably not. Jack had also added as well. For EMC, testing needs to be document. that many hospitals are using out- rigorous to ensure that your device “Making your medical device is of-date software as they are afraid not only functions but also keeps a complicated and time-consuming of running foul of regulations such functioning even with electromag- process, and care should be taken to as those formulated by the FDA. As netic interference.” befriend these standards right from a result, it is known that malware is “There are two main safety ap- the prototype-design phase. Once rampant on hospital networks. provals for power supplies. Informa- the device is designed keeping stand- It looks like healthcare technol- tion Technology Equipment (ITE) ards in mind right from day one, the ogy advances have gotten us to the IEC 60950-1 and Medical Electrical process becomes simpler, linear and stage where you do not need to Equipment (MEE) IEC 60601-1. cascading,” adds Pawar. worry that much about contracting There is also ISO 13485 certification, a biological infection, but you do which states requirements for a com- Securing your body need to worry a lot about infecting prehensive system of manufactur- Of course, with wireless access yourself (and your devices) with ing of medical devices,” says Chris comes the possibility of hacking. malware. 

38 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com

HEALTHCARE

Bio-Sense-Us with Biosensors

biosensor is an analytical device 4. The complete biosensor should be that converts a biological re- cheap, small, portable and capable of be- Asponse into an electrical signal. ing used by semi-skilled people. The term biosensor is often used for Besides, there should be a market for sensor devices used to determine the the biosensor. There is little purpose de- Akul Sabharwal is concentration of substances and other veloping one if other factors encourage the an electronics and parameters of biological interest even use of traditional methods and discourage communication engineer. He is currently working where these do not utilise a biological decentralisation of laboratory testing. with Simmtronics system directly. Semiconductors Ltd With an estimated 60 per cent annual How does it work growth rate, the major demand for bio- The key part of a biosensor is the trans- sensors is coming from health-care indus- ducer (shown as the green box in Fig. 1), try, but with some pressure from other which makes use of a physical change ac- areas such as food-quality appraisal and companying the reaction, which may be: environmental monitoring. The current 1. The heat output (or absorbed) by types are potentiometric and amperomet- the reaction (calorimetric biosensors) ric biosensors and colourimetric paper 2. Changes in distribution of charges enzyme strips. However, all main trans- causing an electrical potential to be pro- ducer types are likely to be thoroughly duced (potentiometric biosensors) examined, for use in biosensors, over the 3. Movement of electrons produced in next few years. a redox reaction (amperometric biosen- A successful biosensor must possess sors) at least some of the following features: 4. Light output during the reaction or 1. The biocatalyst must be highly spe- a light absorbance difference between re- cific for the purpose of analyses, be stable actants and products (optical biosensors) under normal storage conditions and 5. Effects due to the mass of reactants show good stability over a large number or products (piezoelectric biosensors) of assays. There are three so-called generations 2. The reaction should be as inde- of biosensors. First-generation biosensors pendent of such physical parameters as are those in which the normal product stirring, pH and temperature as is man- of the reaction diffuses to the trans- Fig. 1: Schematic diagram showing the main components ageable. ducer and causes an electrical response. of a biosensor. The biocatalyst 3. The response should be accurate, Second-generation biosensors involve (a) converts the substrate to product. This reaction is precise, reproducible and linear over the specific mediators between the reaction determined by the transducer useful analytical range, without dilution and the transducer in order to generate (b), which converts it to an electrical signal. The output from or concentration. It should also be free improved response. And third-generation the transducer is amplified (c), from electrical noise. biosensors are those in which the reac- processed (d) and displayed (e) tion itself causes the response and no a b c d e product or mediator diffusion is directly S involved. An electrical signal from the trans- 2.156 ducer is often low and superimposed upon a relatively high and noisy (that is, P containing a high-frequency signal component of an apparently random nature, Reference due to electrical interference or generated within the electronic components of

40 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com HEALTHCARE

molecules that cannot be estimated by other conventional devices Applications 1. Monitoring glucose levels in diabetic patients 2. Food analysis 3. Environmental applications

Fig. 2: Glucometer that uses enzyme glucose 4. Protein engineering and drug- oxidase to break blood glucose down discovery applications 5. Waste water treatment Fig. 3: Pregnancy test that detects hCG protein the transducer) baseline. The signal in urine processing normally involves sub- Future prospects tracting a reference baseline signal, processor stage where data is pro- Trends in biosensor technology derived from a similar transducer cessed, converted to concentration over the past 30 years have taken from the sample signal, amplifying units and output to a display device this equipment from a simple and the resultant signal difference and or data store. cheap component to the integration electronically filtering (smoothing) of several sensor systems into one out the unwanted signal noise. Advantages unit including multiple components, The relatively-slow nature of Some advantages are: making these systems smaller and the biosensor response consider- 1. Rapid, continuous measurement tailored for mass production. The ably eases the problem of electrical 2. High specificity vision for the biosensor industry noise filtration. The analogue signal 3. Very less usage of reagents re- is to create micro-scale technology produced at this stage may be output quired for calibration that will be suitable for performing directly but is usually converted to a 4. Fast response time sample preparation, analysis and digital signal and passed to a micro- 5. Ability to measure non-polar diagnosis all with one chip. 

www.eFYmag.com electronicS For You | September 2015 41 healthcare

Indian Brain Behind New Painless Cancer Detection Device

ccording to World Cancer Research Twente’s Biomedical Photonic Imaging Fund International, breast cancer group to find out more about this new Ais the most common type of can- technology, which they call PAMmography. cer in women, and the second most common cancer overall. Doctors recommend Concept to device Janani Gopalakrishnan that women frequently take tests to detect In 2001, Dr Manohar, who did his PhD from Vikram is a technically- the onset of cancer early, when it can still Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, qualified freelance writer, editor and hands-on mom be treated. Yet, current procedures for learnt of a vacancy at University of Twente, based in Chennai cancer detection put many women off, where some pioneering work was being especially in rural areas. conducted in photoacoustics, involving light A new method, proposed by a team interactions with biological tissues. In the from University of Twente, The Nether- new project, applicability of the method to lands, in Nature Scientific Reports (refer breast imaging was to be investigated. www.nature.com/articles/srep11778#ref48) Dr Manohar’s involvement gave the could offer a way out. The paper presents project a fillip, and four years later they a photoacoustic method for imaging soft had a working prototype called Twente Dr Srirang Manohar tissues, which has, in turn, been applied photoacoustic mammoscope (PAM). The is the man who gave PAM a fillip to develop a non-invasive, economical and device has consistently evolved since effective method to detect breast cancer. then, leading to the recent technical We caught up with Dr Srirang Mano- paper, which reports a successful study har, associate professor at University of on 29 patients using an upgraded ver-

Imaging with light The key technology behind PAMmography is photoacoustic imaging. Methodology: 1. Light pulses are applied to the tissue as a probing energy beam, with the aim to visualise sites where optical absorption takes place in the tissue. 2. Absorbed light is converted into heat, which causes a rise in temperature, resulting in thermal expansion. 3. When short pulses of light are used, thermal expansion causes mechanical waves to be generated from areas where light was absorbed. 4. The mechanical wave has frequency components in the ultrasound regime and can be detected at the boundary of the tissue using ultrasound detectors. 5. From this point on, common ultrasound imaging takes over. The use of light for imaging soft tissues provides many advantages: The concept behind PAM 1. Interaction between light and haemoglobin gives a high absorption contrast, which results in a good-quality image. 2. Red and near-infrared wavelengths used by this method constitute non-ionising radiation, which means the tissue is unaffected by tests. 3. It also enables spectroscopy to identify more physiological information about the tissue. 4. Use of light ensures that this technique is non-invasive. Patients just have to lie, breast down, on the mammoscope, for the tests to be conducted.

42 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com healthcare sion of the device. (Read in detail trasound imaging. about the device upgrades and tri- Since it uses light, als at efytimes.com/e1/fullnews. it does not ionise asp?edid=171496&title=Cancer-Is- tissue and harm Painful-But-Its-Detection-Can-Now-Be- it. Further, there is Painless) much to be gained While PAM by itself is designed by using various col- specifically for breast cancer detec- ours of light—in a tion, the team has also developed spectroscopic man- other variants and implementations ner (which we have that can be used for detecting skin not yet implement- cancers and inflammation of finger Twente photoacoustic mammoscope ed)—because this joints in rheumatoid arthritis. can give you more tional Instruments, an NI PXIe-7966R fundamental molecular knowledge of On to PAM 2.0 FlexRIO field-programmable gate the tissue, which may help in making So far, the team has only applied the array (FPGA) module with which more accurate diagnoses.” device to study breasts already known four digitiser modules (NI 5752) are to have cancer. Now, the team is in coupled. Each digitiser contains 32 si- The path to commercialisation the process of developing a second multaneous 50MS/s, 12-bit channels. “We have a spin-off company called version of the device called PAM 2.0 The digitisers themselves have PA Imaging BV in which three of with which they hope to do imaging an analogue front-end each based my colleagues and I have financial with more than one wavelength and on low-noise AFE 5801 chips (Texas involvement. This company is the full-breast coverage. This will be used Instruments Inc., Dallas, Texas, USA). vehicle responsible for engineering in the near future on imaging breasts They are also developing their own the new PAM 2.0 device into a ver- without prior knowledge of cancer. DAQ system with the help of PA sion that can be commercialised,” “While we have had a laser group Imaging BV, a company that they are says Dr Manohar. in our university develop a laser for financially involved with. He explains that while they pub- us, we use a commercially-available “We are also working closely with lish all their scientific work, they laser with two wavelengths for PAM a company called Oldelft BV (Delft, protect intellectual property in the 2.0. Regarding the ultrasound detec- The Netherlands) for the new ultra- form of patents. tors, we have developed a specialised sound detectors in PAM 2.0,” adds system for PAM 2.0 together with an Dr Manohar. Interest levels in India ultrasound detector manufacturer. We Asked about the response in India have a detector system comprising 512 Is PAM better to this technology, Dr Manohar says elements made of piezoelectric mate- than conventional imaging that he is working with two groups in rial CTS 3203-HD (CTS Communica- “I believe that given time and with IISc on image reconstruction. Howev- tions Components Inc., Albuquerque, further technical development, PAM- er, from the hardware point of view, New Mexico). This is being tested at mography has the potential to ad- there is still no concrete collaboration the moment,” says Dr Manohar. dress the drawbacks of conventional with any group or party. As far as the electronics go, there imaging methods,” says Dr Manohar. “There is mutual interest with a are two stages at which they require He explains that x-ray mammography group in Coimbatore that has devel- specialised systems. On the analogue sometimes misses cancers, and often oped a DAQ for ultrasound imaging. side, for processing signals from the sees cancer when there is none. It We will have to follow this up in the ultrasound detector, they have de- does poorly especially in breasts with future,” he says, adding that he is veloped preamplifiers to be mounted more glandular tissue (in younger open to collaborate with others on at close proximity to the detector breasts). It also uses ionising radia- areas like ultrasound detection, fast elements. They have used 8-chan- tion and requires severe breast com- and low-noise DAQs and stable, com- nel low-noise preamplifiers based pression. Ultrasound imaging has pact, analogue front-ends. on ADA4896-2 (Analog Devices, poor contrast for breast cancer and Readers might be interested in Norwood, MA, USA) as the analogue misses smaller lesions. MRI is very knowing that he is also willing to ad- front-end. expensive and therefore not very ac- vise on development for indigenous The second stage where they cessible. It also uses contrast agents. requirements, and he could also help require electronics is for data ac- He adds, “I think PAMmogra- by testing the most promising of quisition (DAQ). For this, they are phy can be cheaper than MRI, and these systems at The Netherlands or currently using a system built by Na- perhaps at the same level as ul- in India. 

www.eFYmag.com electronicS For You | September 2015 43

TesT & MeasureMenT

How Smartphones, Cloud and Data Analytics are Driving RF Test

o succeed in dealing with the most to 510MHz of analysis bandwidth avail- demanding radio frequency (RF) able.” Tdesign challenges, engineers need The wide bandwidth range up to instruments with the latest technology and 26.5GHz permits accurate measurement of capabilities. Here, we take a look at some parameters like wideband chirp linearity Abhishek A. Mutha interesting test equipment for RF applica- in advanced radar systems. Engineers can is a senior technical tions that have been recently introduced use the intuitive, multi-touch 35.8cm (14.1- correspondent at EFY in the market. We also highlight how these inch) display to pinch or zoom signals for tools are enabling engineers solve problems better analysis. Based on proprietary tech- in designs and maintain existing RF systems nologies, it allows for a deeper analysis of and infrastructure. transient, wideband and elusive signals. Gupta says, “There has always been Wider real-time bandwidth demand for higher analysis and real-time driving better designs in defence bandwidth, mainly from aerospace and de- Spectrum analysers have been used for the fence engineers who want to analyse their development of electronic warfare and radar wide-band radar and electronic warfare and systems for a long time now. With tradition- satellite signals.” al measurements becoming inadequate for He adds, “The introduction of UXG se- today’s modern systems, a signal analyser ries signal analyser with real-time spectrum with real-time spectrum analysis and vector capability will bridge this gap.” signal analysis could be an alternative for spectrum analysers. Anticipating and fixing problems Vishal Gupta, senior before these fail your radio system application consultant From police personnel and fire departments (RF/MW, Surveil- to usage in private sector activities such as lance), Keysight construction, security and maintenance, Technologies, says, land mobile radio (LMR) systems have “When you look been extensively adopted for communi- at platforms to cation between geographically-dispersed perform wide- teams and mobile personnel over pre- band and radar- defined frequencies. signal analysis, Today, LMR is also used by small- and earlier the widest medium-sized organisations to consolidate real-time band- their business operations. The market is width available slowly witnessing a growing approval for Fig. 1: N9040B UXA X-Series signal analyser was 160MHz. digital LMR systems and it is also anticipat- (Image courtesy: www.literature.cdn.keysight.com) Now, there is up ed that its adoption will surpass analogue LMR in the years to come. An LMR system can be as simple as a base station and two handheld units or as complex as hundreds of mobile units and various other devices. At any level, it is important to maintain and monitor the health of Fig. 2: Model 3141 channel power monitor an LMR system and its components. www.efymag.com electronics for you | september 2015 45 TesT & MeasureMenT

Make your mobile phone an RF meter In sync with the IoT phenomenon, it is now possible to turn your Android phone into a power meter that would communicate with RF sensors to fetch power measurement data. Best suited for field engineers, Bird RF Meter app allows power measurements to be made on-the-go. With an intuitive and easy- Fig. 3: Model 4044 power sensor can be used in to-use user interface, it enables engineers conjunction with 3141 Channel Power Monitor to to set up sensors with appropriate settings measure the output power of either analogue- or digitally-modulated radios at power levels up to and configuration options such as zeroing 100W calibration, selection of element types, offsets and others. The app automatically detects sensors and displays data of each sensor with serial numbers, making identification easier for engineers. In the current version, it shows readings for parameters like burst power, VSWR, crest factor, peak power, forward Fig. 4: Model 4045 directional power sensor can and reflected power (true average power) be used for forward and reflected composite and complementary cumulative distribution power measurements at power levels up to 500W function (CCDF). It is compatible with most USB field sensors from Bird Technologies. A screenshot of the app while performing measurement (Image courtesy: www.birdrf.com)

rameters such as composite, forward rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, and reflected power and out-of-spec reliably enables users to measure conditions displayed and updated on VSWR/return loss and the position a dedicated Web page generated by of VSWR/return loss faults in their the model 3141 channel power moni- RF framework, thereby allowing es- tor in real-time. timation of distance to fault (DTF) in

Fig. 5: iVA-0627A cable and antenna analyser Data can be accessed on comput- the RF path. from Kaelus (Image courtesy: www.kaelus.com) ers, tablets or mobile phones, which Bluetooth and universal serial engineers can interpret to set alarms bus (USB) capability in the iVA series A new power measurement de- or configure the system to alert via cable and network analyser provides vice launched recently serves the email in case of failure conditions flexibility in measurement and opens purpose of monitoring the compo- such as low/high power or poor- new avenues of multi-port and sweep nents in analogue or digital LMR sys- antenna voltage standing wave ratio testing. It also allows engineers to tems functioning between 144MHz (VSWR). Data logging capabilities make and view measurements by and 960MHz. further allow an engineer to view connecting this rugged device to Radio units, antenna, transmis- degraded performance and avoid the Bluetooth interface of a mobile sion line and power combiner are emergency conditions. phone, tablet, laptop or personal the usual elements that constitute computer. There is an app particu- an LMR. The channel power moni- Making RF measurements larly available for Android devices tor from Bird Technologies monitors easier, quicker, more efficient to view measurements on mobile all elements of a radio system with A notable current trend in network devices. the help of RF power sensors placed testing is the utilisation of simple, The uncomplicatedness of this throughout the system. Apart from easy-to-use test equipment such device significantly decreases test monitoring individual radios of a that fundamental test behaviour and time on site as the site certification system, it also measures the system’s interpretation is not limited to profes- sweep testing process is made sim- total performance. sional RF engineers. There is also a pler. It is possible to directly connect Engineers can monitor 16 chan- growing use of analytics and cloud to this analyser to the device under test. nels, which can be expanded to boost efficiency in using such tools. This handy device can be used for accommodate new radio systems. In line with this trend, this new interference checking in its spectrum They are alerted to measurement pa- analyser from Kaelus, equipped with monitor mode.

46 september 2015 | electronics for you www.efymag.com

TesT & MeasureMenT

RF test equipment buyers in India versions, eliminating the need for a separate network analyser, which is From private manufacturers who make amplifiers for cable TVs to large organisations like not to be seen in the low-cost com- ISRO, DRDO, Intel, TI or STMicro, customers working on a variety of latest or cutting-edge peting instruments. technologies are buyers of RF test equipment. For example, ISRO and DRDO, who design Limited to 20 channels, this tool satellite transponders and electronic warfare systems, respectively, require sophisticated can acquire and analyse cross-talk, and accurate instruments. Small- and mid-level manufacturers prefer cost-effective, multi- time-domain transmissometry (TDT) featured test equipment. Pricing trends. Pricing trends vary depending on the market segment. For example, and time-domain reflectometry customers working on aerospace and defence-related applications or emerging wireless (TDR) data in systems. Using the standards are ready to pay premium price for novel equipment. However, customers software, an engineer can also ob- using general-purpose RF equipment are sensitive about their bottom-line performance. tain voltage, impedance and other For such applications, prices of tools are decreasing. There is a higher requirement for normalised readings in time-domain cost-effective test solutions. and frequency-domain. See Fig. 7 —Vishal Gupta, senior application consultant (RF/MW, Surveillance), to see a comparison in the perfor- Keysight Technologies mance of a VNA and an SPA. Spoting and fixing signal Engineers do not make interference issues use of the entire spectrum The increasing use of Centralised of a VNA for common signal Radio Access Network (C-RAN) ar- verification applications in- chitecture, macro cells, distributed cluding cable testing, which antenna systems and small cells is are usually expensive. In propelling installation of fibre based such cases, relevant test can remote radio units to attain high be performed on HyperLabs’ bandwidth and reduced inactivity. signal path analysers (SPAs). Common Public Radio Interface This instrument measures the (CPRI) and Open Base Station Ar- vital parameters influencing chitecture Initiative (OBSAI) proto- the course of a signal through cols are extensively used in such

Fig. 6: HL2202 high-speed signal path analyser, which costs PCB trace, high-speed inter- environments. It has become even US$ 7495 (Image courtesy: www.hyperlabsinc.com) connect or cables. more important for technicians and S parameters, namely, engineers to identify and resolve The simple and intuitive UI al- return loss (S11) and insertion loss signal interference issues swiftly not lows engineers to generate and (S21) measurement capabilities, are only from conventional mobile sites, complete the test report on-site, also incorporated in the recently-launched but even modern sites that employ allowing them to Geotag each test point and place a snapshot of Google Maps directly into the report. Analysing signals in RF designs in a budget-friendly manner Engineers typically measure the performance of RF and microwave devices by considering S parameters, or, in other words, network scatter- ing parameters. A vector network analyser (VNA) is usually employed to ensure that the RF design of the circuit is developed to present the best performance. It would be safe to assume that VNAs are crucial for RF design engineers, but there is a new, budget-friendly device in the market Fig. 7: Comparison of S11 (return loss) measurements taken by XTDR and HL2204 (green trace) that looks to replace VNAs for most versus those taken on a much more expensive VNA instrument (pink trace) common applications. (Image courtesy: www.everythingrf.com)

48 september 2015 | electronics for you www.efymag.com TesT & MeasureMenT fibre links between the baseband sta- Incoming: T&M solutions for 5G wireless tion and remote radio units. communication systems By adding RF over OBSAI (RFoO- BSAI) analysis components to its With an aim to launch 5G commercial services in 2020, NTT DOCOMO recently joined CellAdvisor products, JDSU allows hands with Keysight Technologies for development of next-generation 5G wireless communication systems. 5G’s performance will be addressed with enabling multiple technicians to point out and rectify technologies including new air-interfaces, massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), interference. Two core technologies, ultra-broad bandwidths and mmWave frequencies. Keysight also recently introduced the RFoOBSAI and RfoCPRI, record and 5G channel sounding reference solution designed for promoting advanced research of analyse RF metrics. To ensure end mmWave 5G channel models. users experience top-notch mobile Among the mobile broadband requirements of 5G are new technologies generating service, engineers locate interference over-the-air data rates as high as 10Gbps, as cited in a press release from Keysight. To by capturing and analysing RF ele- meet these requirements, new air-interfaces are being developed to function in frequency bands from 10GHz to 100GHz. The 5G channel sounding reference solution allows ments from mobiles (uplink) as well researchers to distinguish the channel behaviour in these frequency bands and empower as radios (downlink). CellAdvisor them to develop necessary channel models for designing and validating air-interface base station analysers perform fibre, alternatives. mobile phone signal analysis, CPRI, cable, interference and OBSAI tests analytics, we might see the sort of Whatever floats your boat, the on a single instrument. disruption here that we saw the IoT sure seems to be catching up in Internet of Things (IoT) do to the almost every segment including test Vendors creating consumer world. and measurement (T&M). Many T&M engineer-friendly tools While some consider the IoT to vendors are making the current gen- We have been seeing greater use be like a tech revolution, others like eration of tools for testing engineer- of smartphones in testing for some to think of it as old wine in a new friendly RF designs by integrating time, but the roles these play have bottle; some even say the wine blend mobility, connectivity and features been increasing steadily. Once this has gotten better and cost-effective depending on the current set of mar- blends in with cloud services and over the years. ket requirements. 

www.efymag.com electronics for you | september 2015 49 TesT & MeasureMenT

Signal Generators: Slow-Paced Technology

here are certain instruments that you that first before moving forward. are bound to find in an electronics Signal generators can be broadly clas- Tlab. A signal generator is one such sified into two categories: function gen- essential test and measurement (T&M) erators and arbitrary waveform generators device; others being a multimeter, power (AWGs). Anagha P. is a technical supply, an oscilloscope and so on. Let us Function generators. These are used to correspondent at EFY go into the details of what is new in this generate simple, periodic waveforms like commonly-used instrument. sign, square, triangle and sawtooth. We have observed that the classification AWGs. These can create complex sig- of signal, function and waveform genera- nals specified by users; these could be pe- tors is often misunderstood. Let us clarify riodic or non-periodic and of any possible

Bird’s-eye view on pricing factors

Demand for signal generators and their cost are mutually-related, says Manish Kwatra, chief executive officer, Metro Electronic Products. Traditionally, these instruments were limited to high-profile research and development (R&D) laboratories. But now we find at least simple function generators in school and college labs, electronics repair centres and so on. Cost reduces over time. According to Madhukar Tripathi, senior manager - marketing and channel sales, Anritsu India Pvt Ltd, customers in India care less for features and functionality and prefer having devices that cost less. When the price of the device is less, more people start buying new instruments and upgrading existing ones. Kwatra claims that, on balancing out the time value of money, the cost of specific signal generator models from OWEN has reduced by 30 per cent to 40 per cent over a period of two years. National Instruments VirtualBench Explaining this process. The price of a standalone signal generator depends on its technical specifications. But due to the continuous evolution of technology and advancements in the T&M arena, value addition for an instrument would be less two years from now. Hence, the cost of that particular model also reduces significantly, explains Avichal Kulshrestha, technical marketing engineer, National Instruments (NI). Benefit of modular instrumentation. According to Frost & Sullivan’s report ‘PXI Market to Change the Face of the Test and Measurement Industry,’ dated August 19, 2014, open modular platforms such as PCI extensions for instrumentation (PXI) offer high speed of measurement, lower power consumption and flexibility, and reduce redundant components in a test system, thereby bringing down time- Anritsu MG3710A to-market and the overall cost of tests. All-in-one instruments cost less. A notable reduction in cost is happening with the integration of multiple instruments into a single all-in-one device, adds Kulshrestha. Examples are NI VirtualBench and Tektronix MDO3000, which have price tags less than the sum total of the cost of equivalent standalone models. Offering high-priced models. India is a very price-sensitive market. Customers are sceptical about buying costly signal generators even if these offer new and improved functionalities required by the user. How do manufacturers and distributors face this issue? Tripathi points out that, giving attractive premium rates for newly-launched products would help to an extent. Keysight UXG Agile signal generators

50 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com TesT & MeasureMenT

Table I These are basically latest Instruments in the last One Year RF signal generators with advanced Instrument Model Manufacturer Features modulation formats All-in-one VirtualBench National • Contains a mixed-signal oscilloscope with protocol analysis, digital multimeter, for complex wave- Instruments function generator, programmable DC power supply and digital I/O forms. • Connects display via existing Wi-Fi network or directly to a network hosted by Pulse genera- VirtualBench • Small form factor of 254×190.5×73.5mm tors. These produce output in the form All-in-one MDO3000 Tektronix • Contains a mixed-domain oscilloscope, spectrum analyser, logic analyser, protocol analyser, digital voltmeter and an arbitrary function generator of pulses of logic 1s • Completely customisable; enables customers to select the functionality and and logic 0s with performance, and is fully upgradable different analogue All-in-one WaveSurfer Teledyne • Contains an AWG, a protocol analyser and digital voltmeter characteristics such 3000 LeCroy • CAN and LIN trigger and decode capabilities help analyse and debug automo- as rise time, fall tive systems using CAN and/or LIN serial data communication standards • Enables import of .csv files to recreate analogue waveforms time and delays. When these Arbitrary AG4151 OWON • Maximum 150MHz frequency output create mere pulses waveform • Up to 400MSa/s sample rate and 32-bits frequency resolution generator • Vertical resolution: 14-bits, up to 1M arbitrary waveform length without control- • Sine, square, ramp, pulse, noise, sinc, exponential rise and decay, 32-channel lable parameters, digital waveform, DC and user-defined arbitrary waveform these are known Arbitrary AG1022F OWON • Maximum 25MHz frequency output as logic generators. waveform • 125MSa/s sample rate, and 32-bits frequency resolution These are used to generator • Vertical resolution: 14-bits, 8K arbitrary waveform length generate pulses that • Sine, square, pulse, ramp, noise, exponential rise, exponential fall, sin(x)/x, step wave and others, total 26 built-in waveforms and other user-defined arbitrary stimulate logic cir- waveforms cuits. Arbitrary AFG1022 Tektronix • Dual-channel, 25MHz and up to 10 Vp-p output amplitude waveform • Four run modes, 50 built-in frequently-used waveforms and built-in 200MHz Technology generator frequency counter trends • Targets education field and entry-level testing In April 2015, an Vector signal MS2830A Anritsu • Supports multi-function vector signal analyses in both time and frequency analyser domains article published with • Power consumption of 110VA minimum on Electronics B2B vector signal • Also supports an analogue signal generator, audio analyser and modulation (electronicsb2b. generator analysis com), titled ‘Higher (optional) efficiency rates and Vector signal VSG25A Signal Hound • Weighs 130gm and fits into a pocket generator • Frequency range of 100MHz to 2.5GHz, output amplitude from -40dBm to customisation op- +10dBm and 100MHz of modulation bandwidth tions driving signal • Supports modulation for BPSK, QPSK, DQPSK, OQPSK, π/4 DQPSK, 8PSK, generator market,’ 16PSK, 16QAM, 64QAM and 256QAM protocols mentions the trends Vector signal TSG4100A Tektronix • VSG at an affordable RF signal generator price in the signal gen- generator • Easily upgraded in the field for more advanced vector- and digital-modulation capabilities erator industry as: • Targets product design, testing and manufacturing Customisation. The instrument Vector signal NI PXIe-564X National • Vector signal analyser (VSA) and generator in a single module transceiver Instruments • 65MHz to 6GHz frequency range, up to 200MHz instantaneous bandwidth can be customised • 24 channels of high-speed digital I/O up to 250Mbit/s based on application requirements. shape. The bandwidth of AWGs is and above, and are used for measur- Compactness. Developers are try- usually limited compared to function ing distortion and checking frequency ing to shrink the size of the device generators due to the complex tech- response in audio equipment. without compromising on the effec- niques used to generate these signals. Radio frequency (RF) signal tiveness of measurements. Sophisticated signal generators generators. These are used to gener- USB interfaces. These make the are also divided into the following ate RF signals and are generally used instrument compatible with various categories based on their application: in design and test applications in the devices to be tested and enable seam- Audio frequency (AF) signal RF range, particularly telecommuni- less transfer of data. generators. These are optimised for cations. Support for communication tech- use in AF range of 20Hz to 20kHz Vector signal generators (VSGs). nologies. The gadget has to support www.eFYmag.com electronicS For You | September 2015 51 TesT & MeasureMenT

all major communication standards Major contributors to this report so that it is convenient for users. What more has come up since then? Newer standards and modular upgrade options. The signal generator market has not witnessed revolutionary changes in the past

few years. Hence, the release of new Adesh Kumar Avichal Madhukar Manish Kwatra, Naresh models or upgraded versions of par- Jain, Kulshrestha, Tripathi, chief executive officer, Narasimhan, application engineer, technical marketing senior manager Metro Electronic country marketing ticular instruments depend mainly Keysight Technologies engineer, National - marketing and Products manager, Tektronix on the changes brought about in India Pvt Ltd Instruments channel sales, Anritsu India Pvt Ltd testing standards. India Pvt Ltd Other changes seen in new models are widened specification lar waves at a frequency that range and enhancement of existing ranges from a few hertz to a Table II features. With the introduction of few gigahertz. The user inter- Various Manufacturers modular platforms, the upgradation face (UI) for these academia- and Distributors of an instrument has become much focused instruments is simple Manufacturer Partner/Distributor easier for both manufacturers and to understand and operate. Anritsu Anritsu India Pvt Ltd users. Defence R&D. The pur- Meera Agencies Pvt Ltd FPGA onboard. There are ap- chase of high-frequency signal Optimized Solutions Ltd plications where data is required generators that can create cus- Peridot Technologies to be processed at a very high rate tom signals generally comes Scientech Technologies Pvt Ltd without any lag or loss of infor- from defence and aerospace Sinetec Automation mation. Field programmable gate development laboratories such Keysight Keysight Technologies India Pvt Ltd array (FPGA) is a hardware based as Defence Research & Devel- OWON- Metro Electronic Products MetroQ processor that processes incoming opment Organisation (DRDO). National Captronic Systems Pvt Ltd data on a point-to-point basis, un- They also use pulse-signal gen- Instruments Digilogic Systems Pvt Ltd like software based processing that erators for radar application. National Instruments India requires buffering. This means, the Semiconductor. Many NexGEN Consultancy Pvt Ltd user gets immediate response and semiconductor firms such as Optimized Solutions Pvt Ltd high processing frequency as there Freescale, Intel, Qualcomm Tektronix Aarjay International Pvt Ltd is no buffer time and overhead time and Texas Instruments perform Convergent Technologies Cyronics Instruments Pvt Ltd involved. Such FPGA processors are their chip design validation in Optimized Solutions Pvt Ltd used in many modular platforms India. Whether to check logic Peridot Technologies available these days. high and logic low of a chip, or Primetech Instruments Pvt Ltd to analyse the equivalent ana- RS Components & Controls (India) Ltd Increased demand for SPI Engineers Pvt Ltd logue output for a digital input, Techno Scientific Co. specialised signal generators a signal generator is important. Tektronix (India) Pvt Ltd On speaking to the spokespersons Purchase of signal genera- Vishal Vyapar Vikash for this story, it was felt that the tors is notable in telecom (due Vitronics (India) niche market for signal generators to the continuously-evolving is going somewhat steady. communication standards), light opt for a broader range of parameters Education. Every electronics lab emitting diode (LED) lights and driv- or integrated instruments, basic in an educational institution has ers manufacturing, and electronic models of signal generators are still at least one simple, low-frequency device repair shops, among others. in demand. function generator for perform- With the launch of ‘Make in ing basic electronics experiments. Influenced by indigenous India’ campaign and push by central With a large number of engineering manufacturing and state governments for indigenous colleges being set up every year, Signal generators are instruments manufacturing, manufacturers and academia is one area where signal that have not evolved much over the distributors are hoping that five years generators are being sold in good years, except for the introduction of down the line, the signal generator numbers. These usually generate modular platforms. Though custom- market would see significant growth the basic sine, square and triangu- ers working on advanced applications in revenue. 

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EmbEddEd

What’s New in EDA Tools

lectronic devices manufactured to- tures to boost ease of use and adaptability day are far more complex than were of the software. Efive years ago in terms of processing New features in some of the tools for power, power consumption, memory, area system-level design and verification have and performance. To keep up with the mar- been highlighted below. These allow en- Abhishek A. Mutha ket demand for higher bandwidth, more gineers to execute design optimisations is a senior technical correspondent at EFY memory and lower power consumption in swiftly and effectively. electronic products, electronics design au- SystemVue. System architects, designers tomation (EDA) companies are rolling out and verifiers mostly use electronic system- valuable features in their range of software level design (ESL) tools to innovate the tools for designing electronic chips and physical layer (PHY) of next-generation systems in a faster, better and cost-effective communication systems. It is important to manner. have the right tool to design and validate EDA tools are also moving to a secure the PHY layer of communication systems cloud environment, which could lower that simplifies this challenging task. capital and operation expenditure. More on Usually ESL tools iterate the baseband that and other interesting developments in and radio frequency (RF) designs sepa- EDA tools in the following sections. rately in a system. Keysight’s SystemVue validates the entire system at an early stage Tools for system-level design and then co-verifies it at each step in the With the proliferation of the Internet of process. Common test benches are reused Things (IoT), an open, connected and throughout the model based design flow, scalable software tool can be used by de- which reduces design time and verification velopers to accelerate system-level design effort. and verification. Many EDA companies The latest release, SystemVue 2015.01, Fig. 1: Interface of SystemVue 2015.01 showcasing its latest provide comprehensive tools that provide includes a module from MathWorks, MAT- improvements and additions high throughput and quick debugging and LAB Script, which replaces mathlang equa- (Image courtesy: www.keysight.com) compilation. They are also adding new fea- tion parser in earlier versions. Equipped with locally-licensed copies of MATLAB, this module executes MATLAB models from within SystemVue. With updates to almost all libraries and add-ons, a new 5G library has also been incorporated. Instrument support and simulation have been expanded for wide bandwidth systems, especially for radar, 5G and satellite. Another key feature included is a field programmable gate array (FPGA) programming interface for the M9703A real-time digitiser. IDesignSpec. Modern systems on chips (SoCs) are quite complex and include a lot of

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Fig. 2: Simulink features new graphical controls and displays for tuning the simulations (Image courtesy: www.in.mathworks.com) functionality. Specifically speaking, automates this process of generating Rinku Singh, design engineer, Agn- code from a single specification. The isys says, “Register and memory-map specification itself may be split over definitions are becoming tedious, a number of individual documents consuming significant implementa- or files. tion and verification time.” Agnisys’ “Agnisys recently launched Au- IDesignSpec helps designers to cap- tomatic Register Verification (ARV) ture register specification and gener- module, where two separate tools ate the desired code. (IDesignSpec and IVerifySpec) are Engineers manually read the spec- available in an integrated form,” notes ification and code RTL or C header Singh. He adds, “IDesignSpec gener- files, which is highly undesirable as ates Universal Verification Methodol- it is tedious, mundane and costly in ogy (UVM) environment and custom terms of both time and resources. sequences, whereas IVerifySpec gen- In the latest version, IDesignSpec erates the verification plan, imports Latest in system-design software: A bird’s-eye view SystemVue. SystemVue 2015.01 integrates MATLAB Script, FPGA interface to Keysight M9703A, 3D plots and a new 5G library IDesignSpec. Automates the process of generating code from a single specification. IDesignSpec and IVerifySpec are available in an integrated form in ARV module Advanced Design System (ADS). New W2309 double data rate (DDR) bus simulator, silicon RFIC interoperability with Virtuoso enhancements, two to 16 times faster FEM simulation performance, GoldenGate-in-ADS and new RFIC cockpit

Now, chip-design tools on cloud help design quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively IBM is now offering its EDA suite of chip-design tools stored on its own SoftLayer cloud infrastructure, providing on-demand access to designers. IBM’s high-performance services for EDA are made available through SiCAD, a silicon based platform provider. Targeted at development of mobile phones and wearable devices, this move could boost designing in small and mid-level companies. Supporting a pay-as-you-go model instead of contract with EDA vendors, IBM claims it will reduce the cost of developing a new integrated circuit (IC) by 50 per cent. Three tools, namely, Logic Verification tool, Spice simulator and Library Characterisation tool offered in the first phase cover nearly 70 per cent of a typical new IC design flow today. In future, IBM plans to add more tools to cover at least 90 per cent of the flow.

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Latest in verification software: A bird’s-eye view developments in verification tools look to increase the overall quality of MATLAB. Big Data enhancements (allowing Big Data analysis on desktop), new hardware the final product. support and integrated documentation for custom toolboxes MATLAB and Simulink. Engi- Simulink. Dashboard block library, Bus Smart Editing Cue, algebraic loop highlighting, Simulink project sharing, fast restart and simulation stepper for accelerated models, neers today are using FPGAs for pro- consistent data support for testing components and Simulink package for Apple iOS totyping and algorithm acceleration. devices are some improvements These can be realised with the help LabVIEW. Implemention of a local human machine interface (HMI) with embedded of system-level design and verifica- UI support, Ethernet over USB connection for simplified target configuration, debugging tion tools like MATLAB and Simulink, and maintenance, real-time trace viewer, USB 3.0 support and 12-core CPU support on by quickly prototyping their algo- Phar Lap ETS targets rithms on FPGAs. Innovus. First massively-parallel implementation solution in the industry that supports advanced 16nm/14nm/10nm FinFET and established process nodes In the latest release of MATLAB, many new features have been included. It comprises a new graphics Latest in PCB designing tools: A bird’s-eye view system and capability to analyse Big OrCAD. Static phase differential pair constraints, minimum/maximum and relative Data on a personal computer, after propagation, heads-up displays and delay tuning. Productivity improvements include which it can be scaled to Hadoop. scribble route, group/contour routing and via arrays Engineers can also pack custom PADS. Available in the cloud or on the computer, PADS Standard Plus can be used MATLAB toolboxes into a single, infor basic PCB layout needs and PADS Professional, which utilises Xpedition technology; stallable file, and manage and control can be used for schematic design, layout, constraint management, analysis, FPGA-PCB code within the MATLAB desktop. co-design, project data management and manufacturing prep in the most demanding and Simulink’s recent update enables complex designs CADSTAR. Contains across-the-board performance enhancements and design- engineers to test simulations with efficiency features. CADSTAR’s Design Editor now allows items to be modified within a intuitive graphical displays and con- group. P.R.Editor Move tool in Activ-45 has been enhanced to use the pusher and spring- trols. With Bus Smart Editing Cue, it back engine is now possible to combine signals CR-8000. Engineering Desktop design portal enhancements, single product handling, into a bus signal and select specific hierarchical design and block reuse are some of the additions in the latest version signals or the entire bus can be accessed. the existing plan, simulation vendor product to manufacturing and is suit- Project sharing and collaboration specific plans and annotated simula- able for board, module and system has been made easier with a share tion results on to the plan.” designers. option. Users can share projects There are some features that were Silicon radio frequency integrated via GitHub, MATLAB toolbox and earlier optional for users to use, but circuit (RFIC) interoperability with email, which is currently limited in the latest version these work as de- Virtuoso enhancements provides to Windows operating system (OS) fault. Singh informs, “Tool Command designers with a schematic interoper- only. Simulink also extends support Language Application Programmer’s able process design kit (PDK) as well to Apple iOS devices. This allows Interface (TCL API) was optional as pcell support. developers to create an app, which in an earlier version, but it is now Improvements in finite element runs Simulink algorithms and models included by default. It helps users (FEM) simulation enable up to 16 on iOS platforms. create their own outputs from the times faster performance. There are LabVIEW. Engineers use system specification.” He adds, “The latest also several layouts and layout veri- design tools to simplify complexity version completely supports several fication improvements implemented and for efficient hardware integra- industry-standard buses like Advanced in this version such as polymorphic tion. Selecting the right design tool is eXtensible Interface (AXI), Advanced interconnect modelling, layout in- the key to reduce development com- High-performance Bus (AHB), AH- terconnect design and faster layout plexity and costs. Another popular B3Lite, Open Core Protocol (OCP), viewing, to name a few. tool, LabVIEW, recently got an up- Avalon and Wishbone. This ensures grade that enables engineers to build that users can create SoCs with ease.” Tools for system-level better embedded monitoring and ADS. The newest release of Ad- verification control systems, and make insightful vanced Design System (ADS) 2015.01 Developers and integrators require data-driven decisions. includes various improvements over verification tools to ensure that LabVIEW 2014 has a variety of the earlier version. This tool from product specifications have been ac- enhancements made. For instance, Keysight Technologies typically cov- curately tested and implemented. Us- in block diagrams, it automatically ers the complete design flow of a ing the latest in methodologies, new creates a shift register when a user

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Fig. 3: It is now possible to map and link a 3D STEP model to the components in OrCAD PCB Editor (Image courtesy: www.orcad.com) places For loop or While loop around search, install and update DataPl- the existing code. ugins. For a particular case structure, it There have been other enhance- is now possible to replace an input ments to LabVIEW environment, tunnel with the case selector. Earlier, application builder, Web services and DataPlugins were to be downloaded front panel as well. manually and installed, whereas in Innovus. Increasingly, develop- the latest version, one can directly ers are turning to hardware/software New tools for enabling IC design: A bird’s-eye view Socrates. ARM Socrates DE standardises, configures and integrates IP with ARM IP to create an SoC Calibre xACT. Parasitic extraction platform that addresses a wide spectrum of analogue and digital extraction needs, including 14nm FinFET, while minimising guesswork and set up efforts for IC designers

Some interesting open source EDA tools Despite the fact that the big three reign supreme in EDA, given below are some interesting and useful open source EDA tools: gEDA. This suite consists of various EDA tools that are mainly used for schematic capture, simulation, circuit design, prototyping and production. It was introduced when there was a lack of free EDA tools in the market. It is mostly used for creating professional- quality designs of low- and mid-level complexity. KiCAD. This tool is used for designing schematics and converting these into PCB layouts with up to 32 copper layers. It includes three main tools; Gerbview is for viewing Gerber files, Eeschema is a schematic editor and Pcbnew is a PCB editor with a 3D viewer. KiCAD runs on Linux, Windows and Apple OS X. Electric. Electric software can handle many forms of circuit design, including textual languages (such as VHDL and Verilog), schematic capture (digital and analogue) and custom IC layout. Some other tools. XCircuit is used for publishing quality circuit schematics, Fritzing can be used for creating layout and manufacturing professionals PCBs and Quite Universal Circuit Simulator (Qucs) provides the ability to create a GUI and perform simulations on the circuit. FreePCB is a Windows platform based tool for creating layouts and exporting designs in Gerber format. Unlike KiCAD, it allows up to 16 layers only. Magic is considered as an easy-to-use tool for circuit layout and is widely used by start-ups, small companies and some universities.

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OrCAD product line to accelerate the mainstream PCB design process and provide a significant boost to productivity and efficiency. Abrol says, “The new OrCAD products include OrCAD Engineer- ing Data Management (EDM), a comprehensive collaboration and management environment for OrCAD Capture; OrCAD Library Builder, a rapid automated part builder; and OrCAD Documentation Editor, an intelligent, automated PCB documentation environment.” PADS. Acquisition of PADS has strengthened Mentor Graphics’ tools Fig. 4: KiCAD, a continuously-developed open source platform, can be used to create schematic diagrams and PCBs up to 32 copper layers (Image courtesy: www.kicad-pcb.org) for board-level design. Recently in April, Mentor Graphics released three co-design and co-verification, con- performance with maximum produc- new tiers of the PADS offerings— currently designing and verifying tivity without compromising the out- PADS Standard, PADS Standard Plus hardware and software components come of either of these requirements. and PADS Professional. of the system design, to deliver on Innovus Implementation System Standard and Standard Plus ver- more demanding time-to-market re- provides a typical 10 to 20 per cent sions have the same graphical user quirements, observes Vishal Abrol, production-proven advantage in the interface (GUI) as the earlier ver- senior group director, Field Engineer- PPA of the design, along with an up sions to make it easier for the user ing, Cadence Design Systems (India) to 10 times TAT and capacity gain.” to switch and adapt. These suites Pvt Ltd. He says, “Concurrent design He adds, “The platform is the have been enhanced with additional and verification allows for software industry’s first massively-parallel im- capabilities to incorporate design development to begin before silicon plementation solution. It is built on a archiving, common constraint man- is available, often before it is frozen, next-generation platform with several agement, integrated design and ad- which can shave months off the soft- integrations that result in an easy-to- ditional analysis capabilities. ware development schedule.” use core implementation and sign-off But PADS Professional version Launched in March 2015, Innovus flow that facilitates better engineering has a completely different GUI as it is Implementation System is for system productivity.” built on Xpedition design technology companies that are working on com- from Mentor Graphics. It is targeted plex, advanced node designs and Tools for board-level design at professionals who require more face conflicting challenges around For every electronic product, a power and capabilities for highly- meeting requirements for power, per- printed circuit board (PCB) is like its complex designs. formance and area (PPA) as well as central nervous system, mechanically Later in the year, a 2D/3D co- turn-around time (TAT). supporting it and electrically connect- design solution will be introduced Abrol says, “It becomes very ing electronic components mounted along with other new features. difficult to achieve the best power on the board. And, designers look to CADSTAR. The latest version of create a PCB that is competent in the this single-board design tool from first run. Therefore it is of paramount Zuken enhances design efficiency importance to design quality PCBs to meet the requirements of today’s DIY Circuits? with the help of standard design high-speed designs, as well as rout- tools in an efficient and cost-effective ing functionality and group handling manner. with its new features. Items con- Tools in the market that look to tained within a group can be selected tackle most of the complex design and modified without first ungroup- challenges and latest developments ing these, which was not possible in some of these tools for board-level earlier. This simple improvement designing are featured below: will provide users with more time to OrCAD. In July 2014, Cadence focus on their designs and improve introduced three new additions to its design quality as ungrouping items

58 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com EmbEddEd poses a risk of regrouping these into also enabling designers to visualise a different configuration, informed each stage of the design. Jeroen Leinders, CADSTAR world- CoreSight Creator, CoreLink Crea- wide sales manager, in a release. tor and AMBA Designer are the other Now, it is also possible to enter tools that are part of this software exact length and coordinate values suite. while creating shapes in CADSTAR Calibre xACT. With the aim to design editor, resulting in time saving reduce set up efforts and trial and and ease of use. error methods for IC designers, this Place and Route (PR) editor sup- new addition to Mentor Graphics’ ports impedance balanced routing, Calibre software suite takes care of which accelerates implementation of a wide range of analogue and digital high-speed interfaces. extraction requirements, including CR-8000. CR-8000 2015 aims at 14nm fin-shaped field effect transis- empowering team collaboration for tor (FinFET). single-board and multi-board designs. IC designers working at advanced In this version, combination of IC nodes face quite a lot of challenges packaging and 3D multi-board design with these smaller nodes like extract- enables design teams to make prod- ing inductive, capacitive and resistive ucts faster with a lower occurrence of values of a design. This new parasitic design errors. extraction platform also works with CR-8000 System Planner has en- Synopsys’ and Cadence’s verifica- hanced module based and hierarchi- tion and physical design software. cal system design capabilities, mak- The newest IC processes can achieve ing it straightforward for engineers better accuracy with Caliber xACT’s from all over the world to contribute ability to use a single-rule deck for a to system design. variety of extraction applications, and Today, reuse is an important part faster performance and TAT without of the design process. Design Gate- having to manually alter their tool’s way allows constraints design and configuration. reuse by multiple team members. To support global standards, this With growing demand, open software tool now creates output to source could dominate EDA, too IPC-2581B standard. Open source is everywhere—in majority of programming languages, Chip design integrated development environment Apart from updates to existing tools, (IDE), OSes and everyday tools. But there are some new software on the open source tools have not yet pen- block, too. etrated the EDA domain (especially Socrates. ARM recently launched for synthesis and simulation) in the a software suite that aims to re- same manner as these have in other duce the SoC integration time from arenas. The reason could probably months to days, thereby simplifying be the size of the EDA industry and and accelerating system integration. users of EDA tools. Socrates design environment (DE), Another reason could be the lack one of the tools in the package, can of software developers designing EDA be used by designers to standardise tools. Also, there are three major any semiconductor intellectual prop- companies, Mentor Graphics, Syn- erty (IP) into IEEE1685-2009 stand- opsys and Cadence, which provide ard, making it integration-ready. competitive software. If there exists a Apart from enabling IP standardi- strong, growing need for open source sation, Socrates also allows automat- EDA software by design engineers, ed, intelligent and fast IP integration. then that demand should drive devel- To ensure that the system is feasible, opers to improve the quality of these this tools runs design rule checks, open source tools in the future.  www.eFYmag.com electronicS For You | September 2015 59 InnovatIon Taking Indian Innovations to a Global Scale: Challenges and Solutions

ver the last few years, numerous with a more universal appeal or should interesting researches and develop- be targeted at markets that are at par with Oments have come from India. If you India. look at the market today, you will find a lot of young entrepreneurs creating a wave of Expectations of developers Anagha P. is a technical start-ups in India and coming up with inno- In today’s world, innovation is not just correspondent at EFY. This vative products and solutions. It is also good about bringing up a breakthrough idea and article was written with inputs from Ian Hennell and to see tech giants such as Intel, Mahindra, a product. It is about creation of new eco- Shinto Joseph, during an National Instruments (NI), Tektronix and nomic value for this product and achieving interaction at Embedded Safety and Security Summit Texas Instruments (TI) promoting and pro- its wide adoption and commercial success. (ESSS) 2015, Bengaluru viding incubation for developing these ideas More often than not, Indian innovators into final products, starting at college level. are fascinated with increasing the func- However, we also see that some start- tionalities and including exclusive features ups fail to even take off. Only a few of them to the product they are developing. What have reached the market and have made they do not assess is whether the product profit and a lasting impression. Indian de- would sell and in what kind of applica- signs hardly get recognised and accepted tion areas a customer would get value like the ones coming from the world’s top addition, and if it satisfies regulation and economies. Discussed below are some of the safety standards. major reasons why this is happening, and After spending a lot of time and money how it can be solved. developing the product, they start thinking about things like who will buy the prod- Made in India, made for India uct, how to sell it, how to get it certified The Indian economy is different from other and more. So they end up selling in Indian economies on the technology forefront. A markets only and are unable to recover the large number of innovative ideas that come cost without venturing out to international up here concentrate on assisting at grassroot markets. levels, such as farming. It is difficult, or Quoting veteran scientist Dr Raghunath even pointless, to introduce such indigenous Anant Mashelkar, “In the field of innova- technologies to countries that do not match tion, India’s image is bad across the world our living conditions and economies. because of our tendency to have jugaad. Electronics design equipment So, either the products should be made This means getting less from less people. We bypass everything and somehow fix things. The idea of affordable excellence is what India needs to support.” Expectations of consumers As previously mentioned, we find that some innovators try to add as many features as possible into a single product. But increased functionalities do not always excite end users. More integration generally affects the ease-of-use because system complexity increases with increased features. Maintaining a simple user interface (UI) is a major factor that engineers should be

60 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com

InnovatIon careful about, but sometimes they fail in keeping it simple and easy to Engineers in India are now open to changes and new ideas understand from the consumer point and are striving to think globally. If they are provided with of view. The product would not be successful if it is not implemented in the right education and skills, we can make India and a way the customers find useful and Made-in-India brand stronger and take it international.” simple. — Ian Hennell, the US operations director, LDRA, the USA Another major area where innovators fail is pricing. Countries like course, many countries have their anything from India for their systems, India have a price-sensitive market, own specific set of standards derived when these players look at India, and unless the product has an af- from international standards. This is they do not find vendors who meet fordable price point, and its design because products developed in a for- their criteria. blends in with the ecosystem of the eign place would not always fit into In order to successfully establish country, selling the product could be every economy or lifestyle. a manufacturing unit, vendor base difficult. Some product development com- has to develop and an ecosystem panies are going for international cer- has to be built around it over the Safety and security concerns tifications and their variations with years, and this ecosystem should It is important to understand stand- consultants coming in from countries have the capability to become the ard safety, security and regulatory like Germany, Italy or the USA. But right vendor for that industry. If we requirements, and make sure that the this is very expensive. It is important work on increasing the capabilities end product satisfies this criterion. to build that expertise with as much of indigenous companies and creat- Engineers in India often fail to think local resources as possible because in ing a good supply-chain model in through and probably do not know or India, price matters. India, products would not only sell do not even consider that. Automation of software verifica- in international markets but also Mashelkar said, “Somehow, in tion, standards compliance, certifica- become a part of major systems and India, cost is the only consideration tion and regulatory support are now programmes. and not safety.” If the product is not available through software tool suites While coming up with schemes, designed for safety and security, it provided by LDRA, making the pro- the government is focussing a lot cannot be certified, and unless it has cess easier and cheaper. on skill building. Electronics asso- relevant certifications, it cannot be ciations and other technology players sold in international markets. Developing a favourable have been actively supporting this When developers reach this stage, ecosystem initiative. Our professional education the only solution is to perform re- Several big brands only own the system has also been encouraging verse engineering and find out what brand name. Most components and students with college-level technol- went wrong in the design, to find out sub-systems that go inside the final ogy business incubation wings. where they breached the specifica- product are from different vendors. Funding and other help are provided tion and safety standards and correct When setting up base in India and to assist students so they can develop those. This requires time and money, working in a supply-chain system, we their idea into a product and take it further delaying the time-to-market need to have vendors who can make to the market. But we still have a and increasing the cost of the prod- these available locally. long way to go in moving from an uct. Hence, it is imperative to take In today’s scenario, India lacks examination-oriented system to an care of the level of safety, security this ecosystem. The only option application-oriented one. and reliability during the design stage for such firms is to import the sub- Indian product developers have itself. systems. This is not profitable for the come a long way from avoiding risks, brands as they only have assembly playing safe and preferring comfort Getting certified units here. Due to this, they prefer zones to being adventurous, pas- Every field in electronics has a set to not set base in India. So while we sionate and not afraid of failure. We of international standards. But of say that big players are not buying already have the talent, capital, ideas and skill-sets. What Indian innovators and product developer compa- It is high time that people realise that it is not only about nies require is a systematic process designing a fancy product; equally or more important is of innovation. Having well-structured processes should improve the rate of to make it acceptable to a market from various angles.” conversion of an idea into a success- — Shinto Joseph, operations and sales director, LDRA India ful product in the market. 

62 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com

BUYERS’ GUIDE

How to Select the Right Soldering/Desoldering Station

ngineers know the value of solid and tions. Abhishek Rao, technical marketing reliable soldering and desoldering manager, element14 India, says, “These Estations. From carrying out simple have a built-in power supply unit, which, soldering tasks to repairing and reworking in most cases, ensures the galvanic sepa- surface-mount technology (SMT) boards, ration between the power circuit and the Abhishek A. Mutha integrated circuits (ICs) and multi-layer heating element.” He adds, “Voltage on is a senior technical boards, these stations are handy tools to the heating element can be adjusted us- correspondent at EFY have for every design engineer, technician, ing the power supply unit and the heating hobbyist or electronic enthusiast. In this temperature can be changed accordingly.” article, we take a look at some of the lat- Lead-free soldering stations are another est features in soldering and desoldering category that is used to wire lead-free print- stations, while highlighting the important ed circuit boards (PCBs). These usually parameters to consider before buying these make use of lead-free solders and are not for your applications. necessarily expensive. With many developed nations making regulations favouring Different kinds of stations available lead-free soldering, these stations could Usage of soldering and desoldering stations come in handy for future applications. Rao range from very minute straight-forward jobs says, “Lead-free soldering stations are spe- to heavy-duty applications. Based on the re- cially designed for working with lead-free quirement and application, different stations solders, which offer good reliability and are available, varying in power consumption, good solderability.” temperature range, microcontroller (MCU) Although, lead-free stations have their based control and other features. own share of cons such as requirement of Contact soldering stations are the most extra heat to melt lead-free solder, which, common and popular kind of soldering stain turn, affects the tip of the soldering iron. Most of the reputed manufacturers educate their buyers on ideal usage Parameters to consider before buying a soldering station of lead-free soldering stations, which Wattage and temperature control. The primary factor to consider while helps them maintain and extend the getting a soldering station is well-controlled soldering tip temperature. life of soldering tips. One should look for the temperature range one can set. Looking at the Soldering stations are also pack- wattage of the soldering iron or pencil is also important. A soldering aged with different kinds of heaters. station with over 40W power would cover most applications. “Ceramic heaters, induction coil heat- Heat up time. For regular soldering, one wants the tip to reach the required temperature faster. To a certain extent, this is also related to the ers and combination of heater, sen- heat-recovery capability of the station. A station with slow thermal recovery may cause sor and soldering tip integrated into issues like cold solder joints. one tool are some other variations in ESD-safe design. Devices we deal with currently are more compact and usually more soldering stations,” says V. Ramav- delicate than the ones that were used earlier. ESD damage accounts for a big portion of allabhan, management and technical device failures during soldering. Sometimes even minor damages could lead to fail-leakage consultant, JVR Consultants. specifications. It is crucial to make sure that the unit has an ESD-safe design for long-term Hot-air rework and desoldering reliability. stations are generally used for re- Cost of soldering tips. It is advisable to be aware of soldering stations with expensive moving components from PCBs and soldering tips as these are required to be changed often due to their daily wear and tear. —Abhishek Rao, technical marketing manager, element14 India re-soldering new ones. While rework stations are ideal for simple jobs, des-

64 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com

BUYERS’ GUIDE

Some well-known brands in India   Ersa  Pace Manufacturer: Tenma Model: 21-10115 UK soldering station  Hakko  Pluto Highlights: ESD safe, 150°C to 450°C  JBC tools  Soldron range, computerised temperature calibration,  Metcal  Weller heating element malfunction alert Price: ` 6202 (as listed on element14.com)  OK International

Pricing Pricing in the recent past has been going down making these more competitive. Manufacturer: Hakko  Generally, pricing may vary from US$ 50 Model: 150W, FX-838 soldering station to US$ 2000, depending upon features Highlights: 200°C-500°C range, 20 different tip shapes, auto-sleep and usability. Soldering station prices function, auto-power shut-off, heavy-duty range from ` 4500 to ` 25,000. Soldering station for industrial applications and desoldering stations typically cost Price: ` 75,950 (as listed on element14.com) anywhere from ` 14,500 to ` 135,000.

 “The new-age Manufacturer: Soldron soldering station Model: 878D multi-function ESD- offers a digital protected hot air and iron digital rework station display, digital Highlights: ESD safe, MCU based calibration and smart circuit design, sleep function password lock to save energy. Price: ` 5900 (as listed on company functions at a very website) competitive price. Wattage of the station, precision in temperature control, display of the system and reliability in after-sales support are some important parameters to be considered.” Manufacturer: Weller  —Sumeet Jain, director, Sumitron Model: WES51D soldering Highlights: Wireless temperature lockout, ESD safe, new heater and sensor design, auto-shut-off feature, MCU-controlled He adds, “Infrared (IR) solder- station with LED display Price: ` 16,075 (as listed on ing stations are the most progressive element14.com) solution in soldering of complex elements. IR light helps prevent mechanical damage and overheating of components due to concentration of  the radiation beam of the IR spec- Manufacturer: Pluto trum at focal point.” Model: 555 MC soldering station Highlights: Alumina ceramic heater, auto-sleep function, 50°C to Interesting features 450°C/180°C to 480°C temperature and their benefits range, used for general/PV module soldering and high mass components Soldering and desoldering stations Price: ` 4500 (as listed on snapdeal.com) are a must have for all electronics professionals. Nowadays, all stations are electrostatic discharge (ESD) safe, oldering stations are mostly used for be used for preheating components Restriction of Hazardous Substances demanding reworks on PCB boards before removing or can be used to (RoHS) compliant and digital in na- and are comparatively less expensive. reflow SMT components such as dual ture, informs Sumeet Jain, director, Rao says, “Hot-air soldering sta- inline packaging (DIP), small outline Sumitron. He says, “The new-age tions are optimum for professionals integrated circuits (SOICs), quad flat soldering station offers digital dis- and hobbyists because these can packages (QFPes) and other ICs.” play, digital calibration and password

66 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com

BUYERS’ GUIDE

Tips to extend the life of soldering and desoldering stations Handling soldering and desoldering stations in the right manner is important for extending their life. Here are some tips on how you can achieve this: 1. Validate each process of soldering and set to an optimum temperature, where a better-to-best soldering takes place. Avoid setting the highest possible temperature available in a soldering station. 2. Thermal shock to the solder tip can be detrimental. Avoid excess water in the cleaning sponge, which gives thermal shock to solder tips. This practice extends the life of the solder tip. 3. Do not tap the solder tip on the table or any hard surface. 4. Do not try to sharpen the tips by rubbing or grinding when these become blunt. —V. Ramavallabhan, management and technical consultant, JVR Consultants

lock functions at a very competitive criterion for selecting soldering and price.” He adds, “One of the recent desoldering stations. According to developments is the induction heat- Ramavallabhan, the most important ing based hybrid soldering station. factor that buyers should consider is These stations use the benefits of the cost of consumables of stations both technologies, IR heating tech- and availability of components like nology and convection, to bring out heaters, soldering tips and other ac- the best in soldering.” cessories. He says, “These should be Hot-air stations are coming with reasonably priced and easily avail- built-in turbines for easy repair ap- able, otherwise the maintenance cost plications and heating processes such will be more than the cost of the as shrinking. Brushless turbine is in- actual unit.” corporated for ideal hot air flow such He adds, “Non-availability of ac- that hot air temperature is controlled cessories when required could cost electronically. Rao says, “Benchtop you customer’s confidence and new desoldering or rework stations have opportunities.” the most accurate temperature con- Wattage of the station, precision trols, best thermal recovery and ad- in temperature control, display of the ditional features like programmable system and reliability in after-sales timing.” Soldering stations come support are some important param- with Silver Line Technology solder- eters to be considered, notes Jain. ing iron tips. These low-mass tips provide effective heat transfer via its Plethora of options silver core. From Chinese-made to established Unique closed-loop temperature brands, there are a variety of solder- control in some stations protects ing and desoldering stations available sensitive components. Most tips are in the market with a plethora of inter- available in three standard tempera- esting features. Application, budget ture ranges for maximum control. Fer- and possible future uses are three romagnetic sensor in the tip controls important factors to strongly consider temperature, therefore no adjustment before purchasing a station. is required. Rao says, “Metcal and OKi PCBs are increasingly becoming soldering systems feature SmartHeat lead-free today. Major manufactur- technology, which, unlike convention- ers are now making use of lead-free al soldering irons, administers heat solder-to-solder components on directly from the heater to the joint, boards. It could be beneficial in the ensuring total temperature control.” long run to purchase a lead-free soldering station. Most stations designed General selection criteria for soldering leaded solders cannot Variable temperature and replace- be used for lead-free solders. Choose able hardware are the two basic wisely. 

68 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com

DEFENCE

Part 1 of 5 American Carrier Strike Groups: An Electronic Perspective

Fig. 1: A typical US Navy carrier strike group

n aircraft carrier is a moving airbase This perception changed during World that can house approximately hun- War II as Luftwaffe (German Air Force) Adred combat aircraft. Being a ship, taught damaging lessons to allied nations it can also sail to its war theatre quickly. about the combat prowess of aircraft. By remaining in international waters, it From the other side of the globe, Japan can launch punitive airstrikes on enemy delivered a devastating aerial strike at Pearl B. Kamalanath is a technical writer. He is targets. A combat aircraft can drop two tons Harbour using their carrier based aircrafts. also a research scholar, of bombs in one go. So, hypothetically, 100 In one stroke, they almost entirely decimat- pursuing Ph.D in military technology aircraft from a carrier can drop 200 tons of ed the Pacific fleet of the US Navy (USN) bombs on the enemy’s head, at a time. but missed to destroy US navy’s carriers. A century ago, after the invention and USN, after losing powerful battleships, eventual militarisation of the aircraft, some- had to retort to aircraft carriers as primary body from the navy thought, “Why do we fighting weapons. It urgently assembled not operate aircraft from larger ships?” This various ships to form taskforces with carri- idea led to the construction of a cantilever ers as centrepieces and other ships to pro- on a ship, from which the aircraft took off tect the carriers. These taskforces proved and landed on. their mettle in the subsequent Battle of This resulted in the construction of Midway and numbed the supremacy of dedicated aircraft-operating ships, which Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the Pacific. were called aircraft carriers or, simply, car- From that instant, aircraft carriers took the riers. But these were not taken seriously, driving seat in naval warfare. initially, and were used only as escorts or Years after World War II, these taskforc- scouts to battleships, because during that es morphed into formidable naval forces era, combat aircraft itself was not consid- called carrier strike groups (CSGs). CSGs ered an effective weapon altogether. pack enormous strike power but, at the

70 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com

DEFENCE

War at Pacific and even of World War II. Losing these carriers in just minutes proved too crippling for Japan, which ultimately put an end to Japa- nese Empire’s naval supremacy in the Pacific in the days that followed. This ultimately led to the defeat of the Empire of Japan itself. In hindsight, the radar’s absence in Japanese carriers was the key. Ship-borne radars were yet to be introduced in these carriers. So, American aircrafts were able to bomb Japanese carriers undetected. But American carriers had been fitted with ship-borne radars, using which these could detect Japanese aircrafts beforehand and launch their aircrafts to defend in the nick of time.

Fig. 2: E-2C Hawkeye, AEW aircraft (top); F-18 combat aircraft in a typical strike load out (centre to Now, desperate Japan was look- wingtip): external fuel tanks, bombs, anti-radiation missiles and short-range air-to-air missiles (bottom) ing to neutralise American carriers. To do so, some Japanese pilots same time, come with a sky-high bill. than destroyers, are specialised in rammed their aircrafts, fully-loaded For CSGs to survive and unleash their taking care of enemy air threats. Due with bombs and fuel, into American power, various electronic systems to a larger size, these possess more carriers, in what is called Kamikaze serve as the backbone. The electronic weapon capability than destroyers. Attack. All these modes of attacks systems present in USN’s CSGs and While destroyers operate at around served as lessons for USN. When it how these play crucial roles are the 40km from the carrier to form a de- started its ambitious carrier building subject of foci in this mil-tech article. fensive perimeter against surface and and operating programme, air de- sub-surface threats, cruisers operate fence was given utmost priority. Defensive combat operations in the vicinity of the carrier to pro- Further to cement the importance The purpose of a CSG is power provide air defence. of air defence, the USSR (of which jection; in simple words, launching The two complement each other. the present Soviet Union was a combat aircrafts from the carrier Through a myriad of sensors, these part) entered into the picture as the stationed at deep seas and bombing can detect and neutralise the threats newfound adversary of the USA to the enemy. But the carrier being a arising from all directions. Nuclear fight Cold War, a war fought without highly-praised and priced target, ob- submarines sail well-ahead of the pulling a shot. The USSR sensed the jective of the enemy is to first destroy carriers looking for enemy subma- challenging supremacy of the Ameri- the carrier when the war begins. This rines and operate loosely bound to can carriers and fielded the deadly could even turn the tide of the war. the carrier. All these vessels try to adversary of the carriers, the cruise Being a gigantic sitting duck on form an impenetrable virtual bubble missiles. the sea, the enemy can easily find around the carrier. Having been developed inspired the carrier and attack either using A CSG wages offensive air strike by Kamikaze aircrafts, cruise missiles aircraft, surface ships or submarines. battles (strike warfare) on the enemy offered a convenient means to attack So, in order to protect the carrier, a and, at the same time, wages defen- a carrier. Earlier cruise missiles were CSG typically comprises four to six sive battles against enemy aircrafts, just unmanned Kamikaze aircrafts. destroyers (a kind of warship), two enemy submarines and enemy sur- From the cost perspective, a cruise cruisers (a larger warship) and a nu- face vessels. missile costs a fraction of a carrier. clear attack submarine. But it is a very viable weapon, capa- Destroyers are highly specialised Air defence warfare ble of being launched from bomber in defending the carrier from threats During World War II, in Battle of aircraft, warships and submarines. posed by enemy surface ships and Midway, a group of aircrafts from the Incidentally, many of the early Soviet submarines. These also have respect- USN came directly above IJN carriers cruise missiles had nuclear warheads, able capability against aircrafts. Soryu, Kaga and Akagi, and bombed sufficient enough to melt the entire Cruisers, which are slightly larger these. This was the turning point of steel present in the CSG.

72 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com DEFENCE

The Soviet scheme was to simul- this case, CSG radars are taneously launch these missiles from the only means to detect submarines and bombers against enemy air targets. For the carrier from very long distances. this, the carrier has two Navigation computers of these mis- air surveillance radars: a siles were programmed in such a way 2D radar and a 3D radar. that all cruise missiles reached the 2D air-search radar. carrier at the same time but from dif- A 2D radar gives the two ferent directions. This was called the dimensions of the tar- saturation cruise missile strike plan get’s position: range and of the Soviet. Even if one cruise mis- bearing of the target. 2D sile would hit the target, that would radar AN/SPS-49 oper- have been sufficient. This changed Fig. 3: AN/SPS-49 radar antenna ates in L band (851MHz– the situation in favour of the USSR. 942MHz) and can detect Air defence warfare capabilities the air. It can simultaneously and air targets at a range of 463km (250 of the CSG have been on constant automatically detect and track 2000 nautical-miles). updates and upgrades all these years. targets, spread across the air and sea. It can scan up to an altitude of Today, air defence systems of an The aircraft keeps tab on an area 46km. A two-cavity Klystron oscil- American CSG can be termed as the of over twelve million cubic kilome- lator is behind its peak power of most superior system in the world. tres (three million cubic miles). Not around 350kW. Due to the thinness Protecting the CSG from cruise mis- only that, it can precisely track cruise of the beam produced, it becomes siles and cruise-missile-launching missiles that fly low enough, as if difficult for the enemy to jam it. aircraft is called air defence warfare. skimming the water surface. Being a Its antenna rotates at 6rpm to Air defence operations are carried crucial component for the defence of detect flying objects at longer ranges. out in four phases. the carrier, this radar is highly capa- The flying object’s position is up- ble of resisting the jamming efforts of dated every ten seconds. When that Phase I: Fighter aircraft and the enemy. flying object approaches further, the AEW aircraft combo These aircraft maintain a surveil- antenna rotates at 12rpm. Now, the The first line of defence of the CSG lance patrol far away from the carrier flying object’s position gets updated is carrier-borne F-18 combat aircraft, and act as a command-and-control every five seconds, which results in which can operate far away from the (C2) station. These see what the ra- the target being tracked continuously. carrier and shoot down enemy bomb- dars of the CSG cannot see. If AEW This radar can simultaneously ers before they launch cruise mis- aircraft detect any enemy bombers track 255 targets. Since it is sitting on siles. But these cannot find bombers at a long range, these communicate the ship, it is subjected to the pitch quickly, because they do not know the same to the carrier through a and roll of the ship. To overcome their exact location. data link. Immediately, F-18 combat this, the antenna is gyro-stabilised. Onboard radars of F-18 aircraft can aircraft from the carrier are scram- And because of this, even if the ship accurately scan specific sectors and bled. These take off and race towards rolls to the side or pitches up or specific altitudes but not all sectors incoming enemy bombers to intercept down due to the waves, this antenna and altitudes. To guide these towards and stop these from launching deadly stays where it was before the roll or incoming bombers, a dedicated air- cruise missiles. When F-18 aircraft pitch. borne early warning (AEW) aircraft reach their area of responsibility, Through identify friend or foe (also carrier-borne) is used. AEW aircraft vector these towards (IFF) components organic to the These AEW aircraft, named the threat. F-18s intercept and shoot radar, the targets’ friendliness is de- E2, have huge radars. An inverted down bombers. There are four such termined. saucer-like structure on the top is AEW aircraft on a carrier. IFF shoots an ultra-short pulse- the radome for the radar antenna. coded narrow beam of radar energy Radome is a structure made of radio- Phase II: Air search radars and to the flying objects as a challenge. transparent material to protect the fighter aircraft combo The friendly aircraft through an IFF radar antenna from the environment. Air defence operations relying on this receiver receives this and responds Inside this radome is the rotating combination is a grave scenario. It with a suitable reply. The radar re- antenna of the high-power UHF Dop- occurs when the AEW aircraft itself ceives this reply and classifies the pler radar. has been shot down. This scenario flying objects as friendly aircraft. This radar can detect and track is very much possible if the incom- Now for the radar’s IFF challenge, if multiple threats on the sea and in ing enemy aircraft force is large. In there is no proper reply from an air- www.eFYmag.com electronicS For You | September 2015 73 DEFENCE craft, it is assumed to be a hostile aircraft, and its course is continuously tracked. All air-surveillance radars of the CSG have IFF. 3D air-surveillance radar. If a target of interest appears, 3D radar AN/SPS-48 takes over. A 3D radar provides the range and bearing like the 2D radar but also provides the height of the target, which is an extra dimension of the target’s position. Normally, to find the height of the target, a separate radar known as a height-finding radar (HFR) is used with the 2D radar. HFR’s antenna always nods up and down to direct the beams to find the height of the target. But 3D radar is a computer-con- Fig. 4: AN/SPS-48 radar antenna trolled planar-array radar that varies its frequency instead of nodding the and bearing, it simply rotates the indicating (MTI) capability, which antenna up and down. By changing antenna like a 2D radar. helps distinguish between moving the frequency of the transmitted RF Operating in the range of targets from stationary targets. Hills energy, this radar radiates a series of 2900MHz to 3100.5MHz (S band), a or a landmass produce radar ech- pencil beams. If the transmitted fre- 3D radar can detect targets up to a oes, which is landmass clutter. In quency is increased, the beam travels range of 407km (220 nautical-miles) the radar-signal-processing circuitry, down the face of the antenna, and and heights up to 30km. It emits echoes from stationary features are vice versa. The radar computer keeps radar energy with a peak power of attenuated. The resultant echo is of track of the frequencies as these are 2.2MW and an average power of the moving targets. transmitted and detects when the tar- 35kW. It has automatic detection and Radar AN/SPS-48 is electroni- get reflects these. Further, it converts tracking capabilities to simultane- cally-stabilised instead of gyro-sta- returned frequencies into meaningful ously detect and track multiple air bilised. To compensate for the pitch altitude data. For finding the range targets. It also has a moving target and roll of the ship, the frequency emitted is changed to compensate it. This is similar to the height-finding What is IFF and why is it necessary technique. During wartimes, under combat stress, identification of friends among enemies becomes Using this tracking data, fighter difficult. A significant portion of fatalities occur due to mistakenly identifying a friendly unit aircraft can be scrambled towards as enemy. This is called friendly fire. incoming threat to intercept it. The A notable incident occurred during the 1971 India-Pakistan war. After inflicting terrible carrier constantly updates the aircraft damage to Karachi Harbour, Indian missile boats withdrew deep into Arabian Sea. Combat aircraft of Pakistan Air Force searching for these saw a warship and engaged it. But to the horror with the target’s location until inter- of both parties, that ship was a Pakistani warship searching for escaped Indian missile boats. ception, through datalinks. Identifying friends is important but, at the same time, enemies also have to be identified. However, if the enemy aircraft During World War II, in Battle of Coral Sea, American combat aircraft intercepted some has launched its cruise missiles, the Japanese carrier based aircraft and shot down many of these. Remaining Japanese aircraft cruise missiles become the target. withdrew and headed for their carriers. These used radio direction finders (RDFs) to pin-point Engaging the cruise missile through the location of their carriers. the fighter aircraft becomes difficult. In an RDF, there is a transmitter in the carrier continuously transmits a signal. The aircraft has a radio, which detects this signal and gives the exact direction of the transmitter. So, air defence warfare progresses to Japanese aircraft were flying back in the evening towards their carriers. Unfortunately, Phase III and is carried out through unknown to them, Japanese transmitter’s frequency was very close to that of the Americans. surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) of the When the Japanese saw a carrier, they flew right beside it. The carrier flashed signal lights CSG. to the aircraft in an effort to confirm their identity. To the horror of the Japanese, it was an Phase III and phase IV of air de- American carrier and not Japanese. The men in the carrier saw that those aircraft were not fence operations will be covered in responding. This turned into a nightmare for the Americans as they realised that those were next part of this article. Japanese aircraft and not theirs. To be continued next month

74 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com IntervIew

Electronics Design Automation: The response is so fast it almost mirrors the real thing! How would you like to design a 1.5-million-transistor processor using just truth tables and K-maps? Electronic systems are so complex today that electronic Walden C. Rhines design automation (EDA) tools are an absolute necessity. In this interview, we take ChaiRman and CeO, mentOR GRaphiCs a look at the advances worth noting in the world of EDA tools. Walden C. Rhines, chairman and CEO of Mentor Graphics, speaks with Dilin Anand from EFY

Q. What would you say are the three features that inter- generation called Cell-aware test. Traditional automatic est engineers the most, when it comes to emulators? test pattern generation (ATPG) assumes gate-level models A. One is the move from traditional in-circuit emula- and stuck-at, transition faults. Cell-aware tests for defects tion towards the capability for engineers to do a virtual within the standard cell library. stimulus. This means that engineers are now able to provide any sort of stimulus for the circuit through software. Q. What is your take on eda’s perspective on the internet The second is to be able to accelerate high-level test of things (iot)? benches, whereas the third is for them to be able to do A. The IoT has created a greater interest in multi-die verification of large amounts of embedded software and packaging; in analogue and RF for relatively low-com- even application software on the emulator itself. plexity designs. It has created interest in hybrid circuits that combine sensors, actuators, micro-electro-mechanical Q. What is the most exciting recent development in the systems (MEMS) and other things with ASIC chips and emulator space for the embedded software developer? then package these accordingly. It has affected Big Data A. One of the things done in the last year has been to processing chips, networking chips and data processing improve the performance of software debug from what and has pushed the limits on the size of digital chips, so was typically verifying at about 1MHz to now verifying networking companies are making enormous chips to han- at about 100MHz. For embedded software developers run- dle all information processing. These would get bigger as ning something on an emulator means they really cannot you get millions and millions of nodes feeding data and be tell the difference between whether they are running on able to computationally analyse it. an emulator or the real part or a field-programmable gate array board. This is because the response is so fast it al- Q. how can engineers at cash-strapped start-ups get ac- most mirrors the real thing! cess to expensive tools? A. Twenty years ago, start-ups would offer equity to Q. What is driving engineers to use eda tools more of- EDA companies in return for their tools. They later realised ten in the automotive sector? that they are better off if they borrowed money and then A. In the coming year, the biggest growth will prob- paid for these tools. At the same time, these companies did ably come in where embedded software, wiring and other not have the funds to equip themselves with the best tools. automotive design products are coming into great demand So we developed programmes where we offer a relatively as automotives are becoming more and more electronic. complete set of design tools at a discounted price during These (automotive companies) have the same design the early years of a company. And as they become more problems as any other company. It is too complex and has successful, they pay standard prices. to be automated, and automation means EDA. Q. What made you switch from ti to mentor Graphics, a Q. how have pCB tools evolved over the years? small company back then? A. Today, a PCB is not what it used to be. This is be- A. In 1993, I was running the semiconductor business at cause it is not really just limited to PCB but also encom- TI. I was 47 years old, and when I found out that I might have passes system design now. to wait at least 10 years before I could make CEO, I decided to move on. But, I had a non-compete agreement with TI. Q. is there one significant change that you feel would When Mentor Graphics called me to tell me they were affect almost every engineer using eda tools? hunting for a new CEO, I decided to take them up on the A. One change that will affect everyone is the move offer as I always liked the design and creativity part of from the current generation of design for test to the next semiconductors.  www.efymag.com electronics for you | september 2015 75

IntervIew

Automotive Energy Storage: Ultracapacitors can augment battery performance A battery supplies energy to the car. But what about ultracapacitors? What can these do in terms of vehicle electrification and energy-efficiency? Abhishek Mutha Jens Keiser senior produCt of efy got in touch with Jens Keiser, senior product marketing manager at Maxwell mArKeting mAnAger, Technologies, to discuss ultracapacitors and their potential applications mAxWell teCHnologies

Q. Are ultracapacitors gaining traction among designers? quality of the driving experience. One of the most prom- A. Automotive design engineers are expressing an in- ising approaches is to integrate downsized turbocharged creasing interest in leveraging ultracapacitors. Their abil- engines as a method for increasing fuel efficiency without ity to deliver power more quickly than batteries is making compromising power output. ultracapacitors excellent for high-power functions as well According to Navigant, 75 per cent of Ford gas and as freeing up batteries to serve functions that require diesel engines and 85 per cent of Volkswagen engines long-term energy supply. were turbocharged as of 2014 model. Similar installations Ultracapacitors, in combination with batteries, pre- are underway at Audi, Volvo and others. In the next gen- sent automakers the opportunity to build lighter, sleeker eration of vehicles made in the USA and abroad, testing automotive architectures. Ultracapacitors have seen rapid ultracapacitors for this application will likely show that success in start-stop systems and are making their way these are able to handle additional current and cycle loads towards other technologies including electric turbocharg- of an electric turbocharger. ers and active suspension. Q. Any other areas where this is likely to be adopted? Q. Why have these been successful in start-stop systems? A. Active suspension is another area that will most A. An ultracapacitor enables micro-hybrid start-stop likely adopt ultracapacitor technology due to the system’s systems to reduce fuel consumption and emissions by requirement for high power but low energy demand. Ac- shutting off the car’s internal combustion engine as the tive suspension improves fuel economy, makes energy vehicle slows down. It then seamlessly restarts the engine regeneration possible and provides faster response time. when the driver engages the clutch or touches the accel- Ultracapacitors offer several benefits in active suspen- erator. Because the ultracapacitor provides burst power sion, including outstanding power density and adequate to restart the engine, it takes tremendous burden off the energy density, a wide operating temperature range, long battery, thereby relieving the battery of high current and cycle life and calendar life. The low internal resistance of repetitive cycling that often shortens battery life. ultracapacitors ensures high efficiency that results in low Lamborghini has also designed ultracapacitors for power losses and low safety requirements. start-stop systems, and according to a report by Sweden’s Auto Motor and Sport, Lamborghini start-stop systems Q. Can ultracapacitors replace batteries in automobiles? can restart the engine in just 180 milliseconds. A. Ultracapacitors work collaboratively with batteries and together the devices can make a winning solution. Q. Any other designs where ultracapacitors are used? The ultracapacitor can augment battery performance, A. Other than start-stop, ultracapacitors currently pro- taking on high-power functions so that the battery can vide cranking power for heavy diesel trucks transporting do what it does best—supply energy to the functions that goods across the USA. need it over longer periods of time. Our engine-start module replaces one lead-acid bat- In the case of Peugeot Citroën, ultracapacitors provide tery, providing cranking power for Class 7-8 and Class cranking power and voltage stabilisation. Currently, there 3-6 diesel trucks for temperatures as low as -40°C to as are over one million Peugeot Citroën cars on the road us- high as 65°C. ing Continental system based on ultracapacitors.

Q. How integrating ultracapacitors in turbocharged en- Q. What is the future for ultracapacitors? gines could benefit original equipment manufacturers? A. Ultracapacitors are building a proven track record A. Newer, stricter emissions and mileage mandates in start-stop and engine cranking, and these have tremen- are pressuring auto manufacturers to discover ways to in- dous opportunity to improve upon technologies such as crease fuel economy without sacrificing performance and e-turbo and active suspension. 

78 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com

IntervIew

Chipset Integration: Engineers today are looking for MCU-integrated modules Technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) are providing unparalleled opportunities for businesses. New modules with rising levels of integration are easily available and cost-effective. So, how does one decide between a module and a DHIraj SoganI chipset for an application? Let us find out as Abhishek Mutha of EFY speaks with gM anD SenIor vp, Dhiraj Sogani, GM and senior VP, Systems Business Unit at Redpine Signals Inc. SYSTeMS BuSIneSS unIT, reDpIne SIgnalS Inc.

Q. Most IoT devices are designed to be small in size. Q. What kind of integration would you recommend for IoT What are engineers looking at while selecting a wireless products if cost was the only key factor? module? A. Designers are moving towards highly-integrated wire- A. If everything is integrated together in a module, less modules, and chipset level integration is going down. the overall size and cost of the IoT solution will also be The capital and expertise needed for wireless chipset extremely less, making products competitive. Engineers integration is enormous. You need to have radio frequency today are looking for microcontroller (MCU) integrated expertise, necessary test tools in place and you need to go modules where they can write their own applications. through reliability testing, performance testing, regula- Integration of software is another factor looked at. tory certifications and protocol compliance to ensure that Traditionally, an MCU was being used to run all software, you are meeting all the requirements. This increases the but today engineers want a major chunk of software to chipset integration cost, driving customers to an integrated run on the module itself. Modules not only run software module, where all these issues are taken care of. of wireless protocols but also networking software like Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Q. What do you think are the parameters design engi- stack, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)/Transport Layer Secu- neers should consider before buying modules? rity (TLS) or Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS). A. The first thing that an engineer needs to look at is data throughput requirements of the application. A set-top Q. Majority of IoT devices are battery-operated. How can box or a wireless display will have completely different re- low power consumption be achieved? quirements as compared to a machine-control application. A. Peak current consumption and overall average Second factor is power consumption. The designer current of a module must be low. Modules have multiple should decide if the device is going to be wall-powered or sleep modes available, making it possible to turn proto- battery-operated. It is also important to ascertain the maxi- cols and devices on and off as desired, thereby helping in mum peak power consumption that the device can sustain. reducing power consumption. If using a Linux operating system (OS), most of the In addition to keeping power consumption low, regu- software can be run on the MCU without any problem. latory certifications [such as Federal Communications But if a small real-time operating system or no OS is used, Commission (FCC) and Industry Canada certification you will need a module that literally runs everything. (IC)] and protocol compliances [such as Wi-Fi Alliance and Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG)] are also criti- Q. You recently announced a module for vehicle-to-vehicle cal in selecting the right solution as the timeline, cost and communication. How is your solution unique? risk associated with these is quite significant. A. This module uses 802.11p and we are incorporating standard Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and ZigBee into this module to Q. How important is it for a module to provide dual-band make it a complete vehicular communication solution. It support for Wi-Fi technology? would help in creating onboard units that go inside the A. Wi-Fi operates in two spectra, namely, 2.4GHz and car or road-side units that are mounted for collision avoid- 5GHz. 2.4GHz band is very crowded today because several ance, traffic scenario communication between different other technologies such as Bluetooth are operating in this vehicles, toll collection and several other applications. spectrum. The number of devices operating in this band is Several automobile companies are looking into such increasing significantly and the number of available chan- solutions. We expect them to go into mass adoption in nels is very less. For quality and reliability of connection, 2016. We also have solutions coming up where an MCU customers have started moving to 5GHz band. will be integrated inside the modules. 

80 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com efy plus dvd This Month’s DVD Contents This month’s DVD contains some interesting electronics design automation (EDA) tools for design and simulation, programming tools and informative videos complemented with some useful resources and fun applications

ABHISHEK A. MUTHA Now, run all software on EFY+ DVD irrespective of CadSoft EAGLE (version 7.3.0) OS requirements EAGLE PCB design software is a With Oracle VirtualBox 5.0 bundled with this month’s DVD, you can now run any software tool and popular tool of choice for many de- legacy applications in a virtual environment. VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh and Solaris hosts, and supports a large number of guest operating systems including, but not limited to, sign engineers and academia across Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8), DOS/Windows 3.x, the world. It comprises features like a Linux (2.4, 2.6 and 3.x), Solaris and OpenSolaris, OS/2 and OpenBSD. schematic capture editor, PCB layout editor and an auto router, to name a few. Make sure you select Run as Some popular resources Other tools Freeware option to access EAGLE  ClamWin (version 0.98.7)  Tiny Multi Bootloader+ (v0.10.0). Serial Light Edition for free and non-com-  Expert PDF Reader bootloader for Microchip, Atmel, NXP, TI,  VirtualBox (version 5.0) 8051 microcontrollers (MCUs) mercial or evaluation usage.  WinDirStat (version 1.1.2)  Magic VLSI layout tool (version 8.0.207),  Wireshark (version 1.12.6) SVEditor (beta version), OpenCV (version KEMET SPICE (version 4.0.3) 3.0), Universal JTAG library, server and tools (UrJTAG version 0.10) and PPMScope (MCU This software is aimed at supporting create automated systems such as based PC oscilloscope) design engineers in analysing the industrial automation systems, home performance of capacitors over direct automation systems, energy account- current (DC) bias conditions, ripple, ing systems and any other systems performing research in the area of temperature and frequency. The dif- that contain controllers, sensors and communications. In order to use ferent kinds of capacitors include relays. The latest version contains all all functionality provided by IT++ polymer, aluminium polymer ceramic primary Rapid SCADA applications, a library, it is recommended that you (MLCC) and tantalum. Although set of basic drivers and the configura- have some external libraries compiled it is a stand-alone Windows based tion database with ready examples. and installed on your computer. This program, it is able to create files that is why we have also provided the can be imported into some of the Qucs (version 0.0.18) basic set of those external libraries, commercial versions of SPICE. Quite Universal Circuit Simulator namely, BLAS, LAPACK and FFTW (Qucs) is an integrated circuit simu- (version 3.3.4) with IT++. Fritzing (version 0.9.2b) lator, which allows you to set up a In the spirit of processing and Ar- circuit with a graphical user interface Programming Without Coding duino, Fritzing is an open source (GUI) and simulate the large-signal, Technology (version 1.9) software tool that makes electronics small-signal and noise behaviour of Rather than creating your application accessible as a creative material for the circuit. Post simulation, you can in a few steps, Programming Without anyone. It allows you to document view the results on a presentation Coding Technology (PWCT) is a gen- and share your prototypes with oth- page or window. The GUI is based eral-purpose visual programming tool ers, impart electronics lessons in on Qt by Digia. The software aims to designed for novice and expert pro- a classroom and layout as well as support all kinds of circuit simula- grammers. While a novice can use it manufacture professional PCBs. This tion types such as S-parameter, noise to learn programming concepts such version brings you many latest new analysis, alternating current (AC), as data structure, control structure popular parts such as Raspberry Pi harmonic balance analysis and DC, or programming paradigm, an expert 2, RaspIO Duino, STM32 Nucleo and to name a few. can use it to develop large and/or many more. complex software. With support for IT++ (version 4.3.1) languages like Harbour, Supernova, Rapid SCADA (version 4.4) IT++ is a C++ library of math- C, Python and C#.NET, you can see/ Rapid SCADA is a free, open source ematical, signal processing and edit the generated source code.  and full-featured supervisory control communication classes and func- and data acquisition (SCADA) soft- tions. Its main use is in simulation The author is a senior technical correspondent ware. Using Rapid SCADA you can of communication systems and for at EFY

82 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com efy plus dvd Create Superlative Images with OpenCV

Priya ravindran features, which, when used cor- blurring help us nullify the difference rectly, give the desired result. With between jagged edges and the rest of pen computing language, more than 2500 optimised library the image. These aid in generating or OpenCV, as the name algorithms and new algorithms that background effects, shadows and Osuggests, is an open source can be written easily, it lets you work even achieve region highlighting. software that aims at computing ef- with images in an easy and comfort- Blending involves mixing two ficiency and bettering real-time com- able manner. layers by placing one on top of the puter vision. An image processing Masking. A mask is a spatial fil- other. Depending on the opacity of software, OpenCV, helps us achieve ter. When we need to hide a certain the two layers, the resulting effect whatever we want to do with images, region of an image, we can use a can be hiding the bottom layer or right from understanding these to corresponding mask. It is like using a dissolving the two or a transparent completely ripping these apart. black-and-white filter on the image, top layer. The reverse process; if we wherein the black region blocks out want to recover fine details of an im- What can you do with OpenCV the image, while the white region age that is blur or low on resolution, Images can be of two kinds, namely, acts as a transparent sheet. An exam- we can sharpen the image. hand drawn or captured. In both ple can be seen in Fig 1. Add noise. OpenCV lets us add cases, when we are dealing with im- Contrast and brightness. To en- a realistic angle to the image by cor- ages, there are two things we might chance the image’s appeal, we can rupting it. This is like simulating the want to do: understand the images play around with brightness and con- setup, taking into account noise from completely and make these visually trast features. Changing the contrast the detector, salt-and-pepper noise appealing. changes the difference between the or data-transmission noise and also OpenCV lets you do both, by selected region and its background, image-dependent noise. providing a variety of functions and while brightness changes the appear- Boost, identify and recognise. ance. We use the We can follow eye movements in a OpenCV in real life two to please our video by tracking or measuring the  Stitching street-view images together visual perception. point of gaze or the motion of the eye  Detecting intrusions in surveillance videos in Israel Smoothing, relative to the head. Removing red  Monitoring mine equipment in China blurring, blending eyes in an image taken using flash  Helping robots navigate and pick up objects at Willow Garage and sharpening. is also a simple task. Boosting image  Detecting swimming-pool drowning accidents in Europe The anti-aliasing classification by categorising images  Running interactive art in Spain and New York approach that finds that can be used as a base in future.  Checking runways for debris in Turkey usage right from We can recognise scenery, as the  Inspecting labels on products in factories around the world image to audio tool compares the new image with  Rapid face detection in Japan processing is simi- previously-recorded ones.  2D and 3D feature toolkits egomotion estimation lar to smoothing The same goes with identifying or  Human-computer interaction and mobile robotics and blurring the tagging people. Tracking objects and  Stereopsis stereo vision (depth perception from two cameras) image. detecting motion in videos also take Smoothing and place using the same process.

Fig. 1: Hiding an image behind a mask (Image courtesy: docs.coronalabs.com)

www.efymag.com electronics for you Plus | sePtember 2015 i efy plus dvd

Software overview be found in Feature2d. Algorithms to perform motion extraction, feature Language : C++ (also supports C) tracking and foreground extractions Interfaces : Python, Java and MATLAB/OCTAVE on the video stream are provided in Wrappers : C#, Perl, Ch and Ruby the video module. Operating system : Desktop - Windows, Linux, OS X, FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD Graphical processing. An exclu- Mobile - Android, iOS, Maemo and BlackBerry 10 sive graphical processing unit (GPU) Release sources : SourceForge, GitHub module helps squeeze out every little Built using : C Make computation power from the system Licence : 3-clause Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) licence by using the power of the video card Website : opencv.org to run OpenCV algorithms. Based on Corporate users : Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Intel, IBM, Sony, Honda and Toyota, and compute unified device architecture start-ups such as Applied Minds, VideoSurf and Zeitera (CUDA), the module provides GPU acceleration and helps developers pixel adjustments to be made to the run more accurate and sophisticated image. The histogram can also be OpenCV algorithms in real-time on equalised to improve image contrast. higher-resolution images, while con- Transformations. Convert the im- suming less power. age from the existing spatial domain Added support to OpenCL in the to corresponding frequency domain library enables the codes to take Fig. 2: Creating sketch effect by detecting edges (Image courtesy: www.bogotobogo.com) by applying Fourier transform. To advantage of the heterogeneous find imperfect instances of objects, hardware, in particular utilise the like circles and other classes of potential of discrete and integrated A blog created exclusively shapes in your image, apply Hough GPUs. for tutorials for OpenC: transform. The image can also be Graphical user interface (GUI). remapped by moving existing pixels The built-in GUI allows easy access opencv-srf.blogspot.in to a new image. to the functionalities of OpenCV. We The complex math and a little can add track bars to applications Segmentation, edge detection beyond. Statistical evaluation using and also read videos or create new and morphology. With this tool, the expectation-maximisation algorithm, ones. There are also methods to image under processing can be parti- k-nearest neighbour algorithm, ran- perform similarity measurements to tioned into multiple segments by us- dom forest and support vector ma- check if two videos or images are ing the thresholding approach. Also, chine is made easy by simply coding copies of each other. points, lines and edges in an image it into the tool and then applying the can be easily detected by simply same on the image. Pointers from the latest release applying different order derivatives Decision tree learning can be used OpenCV 3.0 gold release, as it is to the image. Fig. 2 shows what an to predict an image’s target value by popularly called, has a transparent edge-detected image looks like. mapping observations. Multi-dimen- application program interface, which Morphological operations process sional scaling, naive bayers classifiers is a GPU-acceleration layer using the image based on shapes or tem- and gradient boosting help you work OpenCL, introduced with support plates called structuring elements, with the images better. Image analy- from AMD and Intel. With access to and we can apply image pyramids to sis can even be extended to the level a sub-set of Intel’s integrated perfor- either upsize or downsize the image. of neural networks, converting neu- mance primitives, improved Python Histogram. Analyse your image ron connections to numeric weights and Java bindings, new MATLAB by obtaining the image histogram that can be worked with. bindings and accelerated functions and studying the intensity distribu- If you want to make your own using NEON intrinsics, it promises tion. The tool scans the entire image, videos with existing images, you can to be the most functional and fastest tabulates different intensities and interact with and manipulate the OpenCV ever. increases the corresponding intensity real world around using augmented- Projects from Google Summer count as it scans the image, simul- reality feature. of Code programme have been inte- taneously. Fig. 3 shows a sample The added modules. We can cre- grated into this release. Biologically- histogram. ate three dimensinal (3D) reality from inspired vision module, DAISY fea- We can use this information, two dimensional (2D) images using tures, LATCH descriptor, improved which is generally seen as a graph, Calib3d. Point detectors, descriptors BRIEF and image registration module to fix threshold limits and decide the and matching framework options can are contributions from communities.

ii sePtember 2015 | electronics for you Plus www.efymag.com efy plus dvd

Further, features like text detec- More about OpenCV tion, line descriptors, general use optimisation (hill climbing and lin- Image to matrix. All images, be it from a camera or scan or even magnetic resonance imagery, are converted to a matrix containing intensity values of pixels, with the help of ear programming), computational Mat. OpenCV processes and manipulates the information to perform necessary tasks. photography algorithms (HDR, in- Storing an image. Images can be stored in colour formats as required by the user. painting, edge-aware filters and The user decides the colour space and data type to be used, for example, grey-scale or superpixels), tracking and optical red-blue-green (RBG) formats. flow algorithms, 2D shape-matching The different methods of scanning images, decided by the style of coding are: module and 3D surface-matching 1. Efficient way using classic C style module, RGB-D module and visuali- 2. Iteration method that considers images as sections and reads these by sation tool-kit based 3D visualisation approximating each section module have been introduced. 3. On-the-fly method used when one wants to specify the row and column number of the item that is to be accessed Installation and setup 4. Core function method that creates look-up tables (LUTs) that can be referenced The installation process of OpenCV in the code. Data from LUTs is automatically taken into consideration when called involves installing libraries and upon, and it either replaces or aids calculation of the particulars of the image being processed. packages for different platforms. This is what the makers conclude, “If possible, use the already-made functions of Although it seems complicated, OpenCV. The fastest method turns out to be LUT function. However, if you need to write a tutorials on the website guide you simple image scan, use pointer method. Iterator is a safer bet, however, it is quite slower. with step-by-step details of doing the Using on-the-fly reference access method for full image scan is the most costly in debug same. The library can be download- mode. In the release mode it may beat the iterator approach, but it surely sacrifices the ed from an already existing setup or safety trait of iterators for this.” one can even create his or her own library from scratch. out to be smooth. The latest version OpenCV 3.0 Easy-to-read docu- can be downloaded from Source- mentation, a pow- Forge, for various platforms, as fol- erful and well-de- lows: signed library and Windows self-extracting archive: great algorithms ap- sourceforge.net/projects/opencvli- peal to the user. brary/files/opencv-win/3.0.0 What works in iOS framework: sourceforge.net/ OpenCV’s favour projects/opencvlibrary/files/opencv- is the user-friendly ios/3.0.0 software and multi- The source code for all plat- ple features, along forms can be downloaded from with regular up- GitHub: github.com/Itseez/opencv/ dates. Good quality, Fig. 3: Analysing a photo using a histogram (Image courtesy: picshype.com) archive/3.0.0.zip being stable in terms Various books have been au- of functionality and fast working pace not solved, you can report these or thored exclusively on OpenCV. Get- make people adapt to it easily. request new features to be added, on ting a hand on one might prove to GPU module is a value addition. the website. You can find OpenCV be just what we need to work our Some go on to say that, with just a projects at code.opencv.org/projects/ way through this software. There are little improvement on the GUI front opencv books like OpenCV for Secret Agents, and specific documentation sections, If you want to try out other tools, Computer Vision with OpenCV and the tool could even become the fu- you could go for VLFeat, WEKA or Learning OPenCV, to name a few. ture of image processing. No wonder ToolIP. Books even come in platform-specific then that OpenCv has a rating of 4.8 Try OpenCV to play with your versions. One can take a look at the on 5 from SourceForge. images and make these fit for your books on opencv.org/books.html The website provides documenta- application. All you need to do is tion and tutorials for every possible install the setup from our DVD. Make What the users have to say operation that can be performed sure you choose the right version for OpenCV seems to be top-notch when within OpenCV. An answers page your platform. Open into the OpenCV one takes into account first-hand allows you to post questions or experience!  experience. Starting from installation replies to others’ questions. Even to running the tool, the process turns after repeated attempts, if bugs are Priya Ravindran is a technical journalist at EFY www.efymag.com electronics for you Plus | sePtember 2015 iii efy plus dvd Make Your Pcb Design Ideas Fly High With EAGLE

Priya ravindran three modules, namely, schematic ed- 3. Read S-parameter based data itor, layout editor and library editor, and convert to time-domain, with ou set out to design your own with identical user interfaces (UIs). automatic correction of inaccuracies printed circuit board (PCB) but Designing your circuit has been in the input data Yare confused about which tool made easy by access to design com- 4. Work between EAGLE based to use. How do you come to a deci- ponents in Farnell database, from and SPICE based models with the sion? What are the factors you need to within EAGLE environment via addition of an integrated SPICE sim- consider? In this article, we introduce DesignLink, from within EAGLE envi- ulation engine. Also, see the circuit’s you to EAGLE and tell you what you ronment, owing to the acquisition of functioning as waveforms need to know to work with this tool. CadSoft by Premier Farnell in 2009. 5. Easily import input-output EAGLE, a prototype of CadSoft Thus, you have everything you might buffer information specification Computers, is an easily applicable need, in one place. models that describe the behaviour graphical layout editor. It is a flexible, of an integrated circuit, thanks to expandable and scriptable electronic A new angle in simulation SPICE engine design automation application with EAGLE supports the newly-developed interface of PCB- Route your design Sim that lets you as EAGLE flies do the following: Autorouting is fully integrated into 1. Perform the basic program. You can choose signal integrity between manual or automatic rout- analysis to ensure ing option, and switch between the proper signal flow, two easily. If you choose to go with even before pro- the manual routing method, simply ceeding to the lay- follow the follow-me-router tool that out stage guides you at every stage. The small- 2. Calculate est routing grid is 0.02nm in size. transmission line You can place components as you properties using please, within the layout structure Fig. 1: Simulating with SPICE (Image courtesy: chrisgammell.com/best-free-spice-program) the line calculator and use up to 16 signal layers. If you

(a) (b) Fig. 2: Make your design route by itself: (a) before autorouting, and (b) after autorouting (Image courtesy: www.youtube.com)

iV September 2015 | electronicS For You pluS www.eFYmag.com efy plus dvd spot an error after you finish your The new and exciting design, there is no need to panic. You can rework your design as many  View and work with library components much easily with an enhanced library editor times as you want, with Ripup&Retry  Access components better with a revamped control panel algorithm.  Improve performance and simplify installation with the 64-bit version You are done with circuit con-  Get a clear 3D picture of your design and make 3D PCBs with the extended intermediate data format option struction but your design is so huge  Sub-divide your design and reuse it with the hierarchical design feature that was that you have multiple ways of rout- introduced in version 7.2 ing the signals. Which path do you  Enjoy the visual experience with a modernised graphical UI choose? How do you decide which is better? Version 7 of the tool comes to the rescue with multi-thread routing. With this, you can run multiple configurations simultaneously and choose the outcome that best accom- modates your design. You can also choose to go with TopRouter option Export your PCB to three dimensions that results in boards with signifi- (Image courtesy: www.electronictechsupport.com) cantly lesser points of transition and effectively reduces cost and effort. It has never been easier Awards and accoloades to print a PCB EAGLE has been placed first in the category Development Software of the annual readers’ Print your PCB without any hassle awards by German magazine Elektronik, consecutively, in 2014 and 2015. with the integrated PCBQuote within Elektronik has awarded CadSoft’s EAGLE software Engineering Software Product of the Year nine times (in the years 2000, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2014). EAGLE. You can choose from options The award is decided by votes from the design engineering readership of the German based like quick-turn PCB prototypes, full- magazine. specification prototypes, low-cost production and custom PCB quotes, thanks to a tie-up with PCB manu- and Dangerous Prototypes also put ly-generated supplies to power your facturers. EAGLE to good use. circuit. You can even define your own The software is compatible with net classes. Windows, Linux and Mac systems Eager to get on it but Once the circuit is done, run an and is easy to use. SparkFun, the wondering where to start electrical rule check to check for popular do-it-yourself site, works Design the schematic. First, cre- design errors and schematic-layout with EAGLE files. Adafruit, Arduino ate a new project for your design. compatibility issues. Make sure you To make your work easy, you include all re- can also use pre-written programs, quired libraries, the user language programs (ULPs). and whatever You just need to add the ULP to your you create next, code and run it, of course, with the under this folder. modifications you need. You can find Next, open ULPs at www.cadsoftusa.com/down- one of the 999 loads/ulps sheets provided Create the layout. The layout is and make your a 4m×4m structure offering full sup- circuit. Add the port to surface-mount devices and parts; you can you work with it using the layout either drag-and- editor. You can play around with drop these or your circuit to make it look exactly simply copy from the way you want. Lock in place the another circuit, components in your schematic, rotate connect these to- these at arbitrary angles and add text

Fig. 3: A scheme of the schematic gether and use to name components and orient these (Image courtesy: thegioitinhoc.vn/do-hoa) the automatical- as you wish. www.eFYmag.com electronicS For You pluS | September 2015 V efy plus dvd

Tracks are flexible and the layout also supports differential pair routing. As you route your circuit, signal lines are dynami- cally quantified. Run a design rule check, and check if your design is correct. Generate data in whatever format or package variant you require by defining the programming language. Offering the support you might need Registered EAGLE customers are always free to write to the technical team at their respective locations, the email ids of which can be found on their website. A frequently asked questions (FAQ) page (www.cadsoftusa.com/ training-service/faq) and a forum (www.cadsoftusa.com/community) aids in solving user queries. A download area (www.cadsoftusa. Fig. 4: Be your layout’s architect (Image courtesy: thegioitinhoc.vn/do-hoa) com/downloads/libraries) provides links to all their latest releases. Decide if this is the right tool for you fer other software like KiCad, Circuit CadSoft also provides online by becoming familiar with the limited Wizard and Design Spark. trainings, webinars, videos and tuto- version. All you need to do is install What makes EAGLE kick for the rials to help you work with the soft- the setup from the DVD and explore. loyalists is the free version (limited ware, the details of which can also be The same is also available on the of- only by the size of the board), sup- found on their website. ficial website as EAGLE Light Edition. port and response from CadSoft to You can purchase the software their queries, the fact that there is online by logging into CadSoft web- Users and their views information aplenty available about site (www.cadsoftusa.com). Once EAGLE seems to be getting mixed EAGLE and strong support from PCB bought, upgrades, licence renewal, reviews. While it has its own set of manufacturers. additions like the library, projects loyal customers who have been using The problem areas have been and so on require minimal effort. it for years, some users seem to pre- the language in the UI; terms used seem to convey meanings other than Quotes courtesy: www.newark.com/cadsoft intended, like usage of ‘drop’ for ‘hide’ and such. There are also some “Each module you can imagine, starting with a simple power adaptor via the motor-control complaints about the software being module, up to the battery management system developed in-house, is developed by using EAGLE. In this case, EAGLE is a one-stop solution. First, it can be used to create circuit plans a little tedious to learn initially, but and layouts, ranging from simple to complex. EAGLE makes it child’s play to optimise the once you spend that initial time, you size of the board or the general arrangement of components. Since elements such as the seem to have learnt the trick. required training period and efficiency (one program for all) are our top priority and the setup Well, a software application that has allowed all students, even those without any previous knowledge, to get to grips with the is a winner of awards and one that operation in just a few hours, EAGLE software package from CadSoft has become a standard has so many regular users, includ- tool, which we cannot do without.” ing commercial PCB designers and —Sarah Schwöbel, municHMotorsport professionals, must have something “What I like most about EAGLE is the flexibility it offers. With EAGLE ULPs, there is no limit to right in it. With the tool being up- what I can create [in terms of] designing PCB boards!” graded with every new release, it —Thomas Benoit, SERELEC is left to you to try this for yourself “I design my boards using EAGLE, buy components via the integrated DesignLink and get these produced with the offered PCB fabrication service. This is just great!” and arrive at a verdict. Write to us —Electronics engineer about your take on EAGLE, after using it. 

Vi September 2015 | electronicS For You pluS www.eFYmag.com efy plus dvd Simulation of Communication Systems using IT++

Jai Sachith Paul Pulse shaping filters. In order to adapt the transmit- n this article, we would like to ted waveform more to its introduce you to a versatile C++ original purpose or to make Ilibrary called IT++. The library it suitable for the charac- is composed of a handful of useful teristics of the transmitting classes and functions in mathematics, channel, waveform of the communications and signal process- transmitting pulses needs ing. Academicians and industrialists to be altered. Raised cosine around the world, working on com- (RC) filter, a widely-used munications, make extensive use of pulse-shaping filter with an this library. The generic vector and inherent ability of minimis- matrix classes contained in the ker- ing inter-symbol interference nel resembles the approach used in (ISI), could be implemented MATLAB/Octave. using IT++. Root raised IT++ runs quite comfortably in cosine (RRC) filter is yet multiple platforms including GNU/ another pulse-shaping tech- Linux, Sun Solaris, Microsoft Win- nique widely used in mobile dows (with Cygwin, MinGW/MSYS communication. or Microsoft Visual C++) and Mac Transmission through a OS X operating systems (OSes). The channel. Once a codeword latest release of this software (version representing the source mes- 4.3.1) is incorporated in this month’s A sample code in IT++ sage is formed, it can be EFY Plus DVD. transmitted through a channel. The channel could either Simulating communication Software at a Glance be a binary symmetric channel systems Name of the tool: IT++ (BSC) or additive white Gauss- The main motivation behind the Type: C++ library for communication systems ian noise (AWGN) channel. For introduction of IT++ library is to Licence: GNU general-public licence transmission through a BSC, the provide users with the functionalities Latest release: Version 4.3.1 effect of Gaussian noise is not that help them in modelling commu- Website: itpp.sourceforge.net considered. Instead, each bit nication systems. Packages it can be interfaced with: Blas, Lapack received differs from the bit sent and FFTW (optionally with Atlas, MKL and ACML) Modulators. An analogue modu- by an error probability, p. lator transfers an analogue-baseband When we consider AWGN signal over an analogue-bandpass a wideband-baseband channel. channel, data received at each time channel. Various analogue-modu- Schemes like pulse amplitude modu- equals data sent plus Gaussian noise lation schemes like quadrature am- lation (PAM) are provided in the with mean zero and some standard plitude modulation (QAM) can be library. deviation. implemented using IT++. Vector modulators including Both these channels can be mod- The digital modulator transfers a orthogonal frequency division mul- elled using IT++ digital bit stream over an analogue- tiplexing (OFDM) and multiple Multi-path fading. When a signal bandpass channel. Binary phase input and multiple output (MIMO) is transmitted through a wireless me- shift keying (BPSK) and other digital are incorporated. The design of dium, it propagates through multiple modulation schemes are included in multi-user communication systems paths before reaching the antenna. the software. is aided by code division multiple ac- Fading occurring in this path could The pulse modulator transfers cess (CDMA) and OFDM modulation either be frequency-selective or a narrowband-analogue signal over techniques. frequency-flat. If the channel’s coher-

www.efymag.com electronics for you Plus | sePtember 2015 Vii efy plus dvd

ence bandwidth is greater than the The complimenting software file formats. Images can be signal’s bandwidth, it is frequency- read and saved in Portable aNy selective. On the other hand, if the In order to improve performance, the tool makes Map (PNM). Scalar and vector bandwidth of the signal is greater, use of external software. The tool can work even quantiser classes are provided. without these, but with its functionalities limited. then it is flat-fading. Both can be Let us have a look at some of these. What users feel simulated using the tool. Basic Linear Algebra Subprograms (BLAS). Pathloss models. When a signal Standard building blocks required for performing Most users who reviewed is transmitted, attenuation on the basic vector and matrix operations are provided by the software have been us- signal increases as it propagates this software. ing this tool for simulation through space. Attenuation thus Linear Algebra PACKage (LAPACK). LAPACK of communication systems. It produced, termed as pathloss, is a has software routines for solving systems of works comfortably with vari- simultaneous linear equations, least-squares major component in the design of solutions of linear systems of equations, eigen ous OSes. In comparison with the link budget in a communication value problems, and singular value problems. other competing software like system. Fastest Fourier Transform in the West Armadillo, users feels that Using the software, the designer (FFTW). This C sub-routine library can be used for many signal-processing tools can make use of various pathloss computation of Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) in present in IT++ are missing models like COST 207, COST 257 and single or multi dimensions. We can use FFTW for in competing software. IT++ ITU model for coverage prediction. finding DFT for inputs of arbitrary size as well as uses its own binary format, for real or complex data. Error detection and correction You can find all these software bundled in the but these offer a MATLAB codes. These are used to ensure CD accompanying this month’s EFY Plus. script to read data. “I thought reliable delivery of digital data sent IT++ had a little steeper over communication channels. Vari- learning curve than Armadillo ous error detection and correction functionality in communications, is but it was also quite good to use schemes like Hamming, extended achieved using Mersenne Twister and very easy to install, at least in Golay, cyclic redundancy check generator. Integration of single- Ubuntu, where it comes as a pack- codes, BCH, Reed-Solomon codes dimensional functions and the un- age,” says a user. and more can be implemented using conditional non-liner optimisation There are some users who are not this tool. using Quasi Newton search are also so comfortable with this tool because provided. of its dependencies. “Easy to install is Complementary functionalities Signal processing. A communica- one of my concerns since users may Ranging from mathematical functions engineer has to deal with signal not be as geeky as the code writer tionalities like random number processing at different levels. Vari- and they may easily give up evaluat- generation to features including ous filter functions and classes are ing my code just because installation fast independent component analy- defined in this library. A lot of transis not as smooth as they expected. So sis (ICA) in signal processing and formations used in time-frequency IT++ is ruled out by this criterion OFDM in communications, the li- domain conversions are available in for its many dependencies,” points brary includes a lot of functionalities this library. This includes Discrete out a user. in order to complement the commu- Fourier Transform (DFT), Fast Fou- nication system design. Let us take a rier Transform (FFT), Discrete Cosine Fostering research quick glance at some of these. Transform (DCT) and much more. in communication Math functions. The library con- The library can also be used for Earlier research on this software was sists of modules for handling basic windowing and filtering operations, carried out in Department of Informa- mathematical functions such as hy- both in time as well as frequency tion Theory at Chalmers University perbolic, logarithmic and exponen- domain. It can be used for evaluation of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden. tial function. IT++ also supports of the roots of polynomials as well as This, along with the fact that the numerical integration and trigono- for fast ICA. library is coded in C++, gave the metric functions. Various matrix Protocol simulation. Various software its name. operations such as finding the de- event based simulation classes, The software has emerged over terminant, determining the inverse queue classes, Transmission Control the years, finding significant applica- of a matrix or matrix decomposition Protocol (TCP) clients and servers, tions in all areas of communication. can be done using the library. The packet generators, selective repeat Nowadays, the tool is even used in module can also be used for solving automatic repeat request (ARQ ) and machine learning and for pattern linear equation systems. others have been implemented. recognition. Why not give it a try?  Generation of random numbers, Source coding. IT++ allows the a much-demanded mathematical user to read and save different audio The author is an electronics enthusiast from Kerala

Viii sePtember 2015 | electronics for you Plus www.efymag.com

Make in india industry News

Government extends M-SIPS In Focus by five years Appointments at Accenture in India part-time consultant to help fine-tune the he government has extended company’s human resource strategy. Tthe special incentive package for Accenture has announced that Rekha M. electronic manufacturing in India by Menon will be chairman of Accenture and Canon India promotes Anindya Basu will be country MD, both in Andrew Koh as VP five years, a move aimed at giving India. These appointments are effective Canon India has promoted Andrew a boost to Prime Minister Narendra August 21, 2015. Modi’s Make in India campaign. Koh to the post of VP for its Consumer Imaging and Information Centre. Koh The package, called M-SIPS Ravinder Zutshi joins Optiemus Infracom as MD has spent 18 years with Canon and was (modified special incentive package senior director of Image Communication scheme), has been sweetened by Ravinder Zutshi, who was deputy MD at Products Centre for camera products. including 15 new product categories Samsung India till December last year, to the list. Smartcards, liquid crystal has joined smartphone distribution firm Qualcomm appoints Sunil Lalvani Optiemus Infracom as managing director. modules, consumer appliances such as India head Qualcomm Inc. has appointed former as refrigerators, ACs, microwaves and YV Verma Joins Videocon optical fibre are some new categories. BlackBerry India head, Sunil Lalvani, as as consultant VP and president of Qualcomm India, The package subsidises capex by YV Verma, who was director for home as Avneesh Agrawal, senior VP and 20 per cent for investments in SEZs appliances business at LG India till two president of Qualcomm India and South and 25 per cent for projects outside years ago, has joined Videocon as a Asia exits the company. SEZs. It also provides for countervail- ing duties/excise for capital equipment for non-SEZ units. Consumer electronics industry refrigerators at 10 per cent, washing Further, reimbursement of central to hit US$ 20.6 billion by 2020 machines at eight per cent to nine taxes and duties is provided for high percent and air-conditioners at around technology and high capital invest- ndia’s appliance and consumer six per cent to seven per cent. ment units. The government has now Ielectronics sector is set to grow made it easier to receive benefits, at a compound annual rate of 13.4 India to emerge as No. 3 with disbursement of incentives on per cent to touch US$ 20.6 billion by in creative imaging field happening on a quarterly basis as 2020, according to the report that was ccording to Nikon India MD, Ka- against annually earlier. It has also released jointly by EY and Consumer Azuo Ninomiya, India is expected extended M-SIPS for units located in Electronics and Appliances Manufac- to emerge as the world’s third largest any part of the country. The incen- turers Association (CEAMA). in terms of revenue generation in tives will now be allowed from the The report also mentioned that the field of creative imaging over the date of submission of application. the market was worth US$ 9.7 billion next five years. About five years ago, in 2014, and the annual growth rate India was ranked 15th in the world Maharastra traders with was 9.7 per cent. Within consumer in this sector. turnover below ` 500 million electronics, set-top boxes are seen Ninomiya was speaking in the exempt from paying LBT as the fastest growing category, at steel city to launch the first COOLPIX ith effect from August 1, 2015, 28.8 per cent year-on-year, primarily zone here. He was accompanied by WMaharashtra government has because of the government’s digitisa- vice president (imaging division) of exempted traders with a turnover of tion initiative. Nikon India, Sajjan Kumar. less than ` 500 million from paying From just 18.4 million units in He also said that the company is Local Body Tax (LBT) to any of the 2012, the set-top box category is ex- looking at 30 per cent to 50 per cent 25 municipal councils. pected to reach 39.4 million in 2015, growth in its turnover in the next The government has made a while there will be about 45 million five years. budget provision of about ` 20 billion units of replacements over the next to compensate the municipal corpo- four years as India gets digitised. CeBIT ties up with CLIK to boost rations. The exemption will benefit The television category is project- ESDM sector in Karnataka 808,391 traders out of a total 809,553 ed to grow at 20 per cent year-on-year eBIT India 2015, organised by registered ones. between 2014 and 2020, followed by CHannover Milano Fairs India Pvt

84 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com Make in india

Calendar of Forthcoming Electronics Ltd, has partnered with Consortium Fairs/Exhibitions/Seminars/Events of Electronic Industries of Karnataka (CLIK), to boost the electronic system Name, Date and Venue Topics Contact address for details design and manufacturing (ESDM) Embedded Systems A conference and exhibition that caters dmg events Technology Forum to the requirement of the electronics Email: [email protected] sector in the state. September 2-4, 2015 engineering community in India Website: www.estf.in NIMHANS Convention Centre, CeBIT, to be held from October Bengaluru 29 to 31, 2015, at Bangalore Interna- IFA Berlin World’s leading trade show for consumer Messe Berlin GmbH, Messedamm 22 tional Exhibition Centre (BIEC), Ben- September 4-9, 2015 electronics and home appliances Phone: +49-30-3038-2217 Berlin, Germany Email: [email protected] galuru, will provide a global platform Website: b2b.ifa-berlin.com for MSMEs to showcase their innova- electronica India Fair for electronic components, systems, MMI India Pvt Ltd tions at the CLIK pavilion. productronica India applications and entire value chain Phone: 9967558496 September 9-11, 2015 in electronics production, besides Email: [email protected] This collaboration would further Pragati Maidan, New Delhi communication platform for the electronics Website: www.electronica-productronica- industry india.com promote growth in the ESDM sector IT ASIA 2015 An India international exhibition and Aakar Exhibition Pvt Ltd and provide newer forays for col- September 25-27, 2015 conference on electronics and ICT industry Email: [email protected] laboration between member MSMEs, Hitex, Hyderabad, Telangana Website: www.itasia.in government and service providers, as Safety & Security Asia 2015 One of the largest international safety and Conference & Exhibition Management Singapore security technology and equipment exhibition Services Pte Ltd well as encourage global investment September 29 – October 1, 2015 Phone: +65 62788666 Marina Bay Sands, Singapore Website: safetysecurityasia.com.sg in the state. Taitronics 2015 Electronic components and parts, meters TAITRONICS 2015 October 6-9, 2015 and instruments, LED lighting and (41st Taipei International Electronics Government announces TWTC Nangang Exhibition applications, power supplies, industrial Show) Hall No.1, Nangang District, process and automation, smart living and Website: www.taitronics.tw EDF of ` 100 billion Taipei, Taiwan (R.O.C.) consumer electronics, broadband products and cloud he government has said that the electronics development 19th electronicAsia Showcasing the newest electronic products, MMI Asia Pte Ltd T October 13-16, 2015 components and technologies Website: www.electronicasia.com fund (EDF) will become operational Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong from September onwards to support Gizworld Wearable Tech and Over 20 dynamic TED-style keynotes, 50 Gizworld Wearable Tech and IoT SF venture capitalists to fund electronic IoT SF conference fast-track start-up pitches, product demos Website: gizworldconf.com/san-francisco October 27, 2015 and unique networking opportunities manufacturing in general and LEDs Santa Clara Convention Centre, in particular. Santa Clara, California, the USA Ajay Kumar, additional secretary, CeBIT India A digital marketplace to understand what Hannover Milano Fairs India Pvt Ltd October 29-31, 2015 new technology can do for a business Phone: +91-22-66875527 Ministry of Communications and In- BIEC, Bengaluru Website: www.cebit-india.com formation Technology, has said that Intersolar India India’s largest exhibition and conference for Intersolar India November 18-20, 2015 the solar industry Website: www.intersolar.in the fund would be totally market Bombay Exhibition Centre (BEC), driven, depending upon the involve- Mumbai ment of venture capitalists. OSI Days 2015 Open source conference that aims to nurture EFY Enterprises Pvt Ltd November 19-20, 2015 and promote the open source ecosystem Phone: 011-26810601/2/3 Nimhans Convention & in Asia Email: [email protected] NASSCOM partners Exhibition Centre, Bengaluru Website: www.osidays.com with HARTRON LED Expo 2015 Country’s No. 1 exhibition on LED lighting Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India Pvt Ltd December 3-5, 2015 products and technologies Phone: 022-61445900 ational Association of Software Pragati Maidan, New Delhi Website: www.theledexpo.com Nand Services Companies (NASS- Energy Storage India International conference and exhibition on Customised Energy Solutions December 8-9, 2015 energy storage and microgrids in India Website: www.esiexpo.in COM) has partnered with Haryana India Habitat Centre, New Delhi State Electronic Development Corp. WIN India From hydraulics and pneumatics to electro- Hannover Milano Fairs India Pvt Ltd Ltd (HARTRON). The collaboration December 9-11, 2015 mechanical transmission, automation Phone: 9167522998 Pragati Maidan, New Delhi components to process and factory Email: [email protected] is aimed at establishing a start-up automation systems, among others Website: www.win-india.com warehouse in Gurgaon. NASSCOM India Electronics Week An Indian exhibition for the global electronics EFY Enterprises Pvt Ltd January 11-13, 2016 industry showcasing concurrently five Phone: +91-11-40596605 has signed an MoU with HARTRON Bengaluru events: Electronics For You Expo, Email: [email protected] to take this alliance further. Electronics Rocks, T&M India, LED Asia and IoT Show The partnership is another impor- WEARABLE EXPO Wearable device and technology expo WEARABLE EXPO Show Management tant step taken by NASSCOM for its January 13-15, 2016 Reed Exhibitions Japan Ltd Tokyo Big Sight, Tokyo Website: www.wearable-expo.jp/en 10,000 start-ups initiative. The first ELECRAMA 2016 Serves the business needs of utilities, ELECRAMA 2016 start-up warehouse in Haryana is February 13-17, 2016 government, EPC consultants, contractors, Email: [email protected] expected to be functional within the BIEC, Bengaluru electrical equipment manufacturers and generation companies next three months, accommodating Look up under ‘Events’ section in www.electronicsforu.com for a comprehensive list close to 85 workstations initially and

Since this information is subject to change, all those interested are advised the occupancy will be expanded in a to ascertain the details from the organisers before making any commitment. phased manner. www.eFYmag.com electronicS For You | September 2015 85 Make in india

Snippets Foxconn to invest US$ two billion push to Make in India MoU signed for EMC electronicAsia to return oxconn Technology Group is set to Uttar Pradesh Development Systems in October 2015 Finvest over US$ two billion initially Corp. Ltd and Taiwan Electrical and The 19th electronicAsia is being to establish manufacturing plants in Electronics Manufacturers Association co-organized by MMI Asia Pte Ltd and India over the next five years to pro- (TEEMA) have signed an MoU for setting Hong Kong Trade Development duce mobile devices, TVs, electronic up an electronics manufacturing cluster Council (HKTDC), concurrently with the products, batteries and key electronic (EMC) on a 210-acre plot in Greater 35th Hong Kong Electronics Fair. It will Noida, Uttar Pradesh. In the first phase, return this year with over 4100 exhibitors components, among others, which ` Taiwanese units will invest 5 billion. showcasing the newest electronic could make it the biggest foreign in- Shilpi Cable Technologies to products, components and technologies vestor in the government’s Make in foray into lighting to the world of buyers. India programme so far. The company is also planning to Shilpi Cable Technologies has plans to Asus aims to increase market share enter lighting market as part of its plans to to five per cent set up one or more data centres and raise sales to US$ 1 billion by 2020. The some fab units over the next 10 years. Smartphone maker Asus is planning to company would enter the LED lighting establish a manufacturing unit in India vertical under the brand Safe. Taiwan EMC to open in Bengaluru and has set up an internal team to study Resolute Electronics to make the prospects of domestic manufacturing. aiwan Electrical and Electronic Thomson products The Taiwanese firm, which currently has TManufacturers’ Association (TEE- a share of about two per cent in the Indian EMS company Resolute Electronics India MA) has signed a pact with Karnataka smartphone market, aims to expand it to will invest ` 3 billion on its Medchal facility, Industrial Areas Development Board five per cent by next year. to manufacture and market Thomson (KIADB) for establishing Taiwan Elec- brand LED televisions and large home China’s Leyard Optoelectric tronic Manufacturing Cluster (TEMC) appliances. LED TVs will be the first to to invest in MIC Electronics in Bengaluru, with an investment of roll out of the facility under an exclusive US$ 500 million. licensing agreement with Technicolor S.A., MIC Electronics Ltd has approved China’s the firm behind Thomson brand. Leyard Optoelectric Co. Ltd’s proposal TEEMA will also set up a training to invest ` 1.25 billion in the company and incubation centre in IT park with Aricent acquires SmartPlay through purchase of equity shares and focus on providing employment to Aricent has acquired SmartPlay Technolo- convertible preferential share warrants. more than 20,000 to 30,000 people The company said that the synergy gies, a fast-growing product engineering once the TEMC becomes operational. services firm. The acquisition establishes between Leyard and MIC is expected to Aricent as the top product engineering create a strong design and manufacturing Lenovo-Motorola starts making services firm in the semiconductor market. base of LED products in India. smartphones at Chennai plant hina’s Lenovo has started local NTL Lemnis to raise its capacity STPI developing electronics Cmanufacturing of its smartphones of LED lamps incubation centre in at Sriperumbudur near Chennai, through a contract manufacturer. TL Lemnis is more than dou- Visakhapatnam Lenovo, which also owns Motorola Nbling its production capacity of oftware Technology Parks of India Mobility, has already started rolling LED lamps as it ventures in to mod- S(STPI) is planning to develop an out two 4G variants of Moto E smart- ern retail. The company, which sup- ESDM incubation centre with the phone from the plant, and will start plies to institutional clients such as assistance of the central government making another 4G device, Lenovo K3 PepsiCo, HIL and JSW Steel, recently in the port city. The centre is aimed Note, soon. launched Pharox LEDs for the Indian at promoting entrepreneurs in the The company said that both Le- market. electronics sector for which India is novo and Motorola will have separate NTL Lemnis was the first com- mainly dependent on countries such manufacturing lines at the same facil- pany to introduce LED lamps in the as China and Taiwan. ity. The plant will house 1500 employ- Indian sub-continent in 2009. It sup- STPI is also holding discus- ees for manufacturing lines, quality plied four million units of LED bulbs sions with Visakhapatnam Urban assurance and product testing. to IKEA for the latter’s European Development Authority (VUDA) to The current capacity of the plant is customers in 2011-12. construct an IT tower to focus on six million units for the current finan- The ` 45 billion Indian LED indus- marine, power and telecom in the cial year. The plant is the only plant try is growing 48 per cent year-on-year, city adjacent to the VUDA building outside China that will manufacture led by the likes of Syska and Philips. at Siripuram. smartphones for both the brands.

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86 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com

MANUFACTURE

Counterfeit Components and Their Impact

ounterfeiting ranges from exact cop- manufacturing the ICs, and are very similar ies of whole products to replicas of to electronics manufacturing service (EMS) Celectronic components. With the vendors), foundries that manufacture ICs increasing need for components, counter- produce more than the required quan- feiters are becoming sophisticated and tity and sell these in the market. This are using advanced techniques to Luxury typically happens with unreliable S.A. Srinivasa Moorthy is goods, medicines director, D4X Technologies counterfeit. Fig. 1 shows what and electronic foundries. Fig. 2 shows the leak- products Pvt Ltd, Chennai all are getting affected by age points where devices can counterfeiting. ICs, leak out of the system and discrete With increased out- components, get into the market. sourcing of both ICs and PCBs and systems Rejected or defective. product manufacturing, Counterfeits that fall into original equipment manu- ICs this category are devices facturers and original com- that are rejected in one of the ponent manufacturers have test stages in the manufacture lesser control over the manufac- of an IC, as shown in Fig. 3. Fig. 1: The products and turing process, which is leading components affected by A typical semiconductor has to the proliferation of counterfeit counterfeiting three stages of testing: first, at wa- components/products in the fer level, second, when the device market. is packaged and third, during final testing. Any device that fails any one of the three Types of counterfeits test stages is rejected and sent for destruc- Counterfeits are classified by the way these tion. The failure could be from downright are fabricated and fall into the following dead devices to devices that fall outside test categories: specifications. Counterfeiters pick up these Recycled. Devices that are pulled out rejected items and sell these back to the of discarded printed circuit boards (PCBs), market as good parts. which are sent for recycling, are modified Cloned. With increased use of third- in such a way that these look like new ICs, party-developed IP cores (codes/circuits which are then sent out for sale. that are tested and available in a reusable Re-marked. Each semiconductor is format), cloning has become quite easy. marked in a unique way in order to iden- Typically, cores are licensed for a fee and tify its function, data it contains, place of chip designers integrate these into their manufacture, part identification number, designs. Counterfeit manufacturers use the manufacturing batch number, date code IP core in their devices without paying the and electrostatic discharge sensitivity code. licence fee to the developer and get the ICs Normally, MIL- and space-grade products manufactured. carry a higher price tag. Counterfeiters In addition, when complexity of ICs mark the regular commercial parts as MIL is low, some counterfeiters just reverse- grade or space grade, and sometimes indus- engineer the whole IC and clone it or copy trial grade, and sell these at a higher price. it. Detection of clones is a challenge as in Over-produced. With increased prolif- most cases these function like the originals. eration of fabless semiconductor vendors Forged documentation. Another type of (IC manufacturers who do not own a counterfeits tamper the documentation that foundry and use a third-party foundry for is sent along with the ICs when shipped

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Another type of detection involves electrical parameter testing. These tests either check the electrical parameters or subject the counterfeits to burn-ins to check durability of parts. At times, all these tests are carried out to identify counterfeits.

Fig. 2: Leakage points where devices can leak out of the system and get into the market How to avoid counterfeiting Avoiding counterfeits is a tricky and expensive process. However, compared to the cost of the bad impact of counterfeits on products, a little price paid for avoiding is better in the long run. Avoiding counterfeit parts needs proactive and real-time actions. First step is to control the supply chain so that the purchase process Fig. 3: Devices that are rejected in one of the test stages in the manufacturing of an IC is robust, and all data of purchased components is logged and kept for from factories. By forging documen- When ICs are manufactured, the future reference. This data is typically tation, devices can be up-marked die is attached to wire frames. De- captured and kept when avionics and (represented as a higher specification pending on the design parameters, medical devices are manufactured. part) and sold at a higher price. A designers use either a single wire or For other products, it is basically the good example is to mark a commer- two wires for bonding the die to the manufacturing process that addresses cial-grade part as industrial-grade. leads. Most counterfeit ICs have either this aspect. one or both these burnt due to usage. Proactive avoidance mechanism Defects found in counterfeits Another internal fault is the in the design and manufacturing of There are two types of defects: inter- damaged die inside ICs. This hap- ICs makes counterfeiting as difficult nal or invisible defects and external pens either due to the process or de- as possible. Proactive avoidance tech- or visible defects. Internal defects lamination. At this stage, we need to niques include avoiding die and IC are generally called package defects, remember that a counterfeit may not recycling (includes two methods of whereas external defects are further be functional. combating counterfeiting, namely, anti- classified into two categories: fuse based avoidance and ring oscilla- Procedural defects. These mainly Detecting counterfeits tor based avoidance), watermarking of relate to the packaging and shipping Detection of counterfeits is a time- ICs, physical unclonable functions and of components and their markings consuming and intensive process. secure split tests. Mechanical defects. These are Proper supply chain checks need to Let us now see how counterfeiting due to structural deficiencies and can be in place for detecting counterfeits is being tackled at design level. be further classified as: early on in the process; detecting Combating die and IC recycling Leads/balls/columns. Damages these just as these enter the invento- (CDIR). Bulk counterfeiting happens found in leads of different IC packages ry is the best way to avoid problems. at foundry and assembly locations, Package dimensions and type. There are several tests that could and there are two basic technologies Deviations in the IC package from be performed to detect counterfeits. that are used. First is anti-fuse/fuse standard packages as defined by JE- First is a physical test, using in- based technology, which is similar to DEC standards coming inspection or an automated the technology used in programmable External defects occur due to image-recognition system for inspect- logic devices. reuse of devices, processes used in ing the information printed on the Essentially, when an IC with anti- getting the devices ready for reuse, package. fuse protection powers up, for a brief especially while pulling out of PCBs. Second is a destructive test in moment, the programmable logic is in Internal defects are not visible which samples are physically de- read mode and the central processing and are invariably associated with stroyed to find counterfeits. unit (CPU) is able to read and verify the internals of ICs, which could The third uses sophisticated tests the authenticity of the device by com- have happened either in the foundry like X-ray spectrometry or material paring it with the data supplied by the or at the package-assembly stage. analysis for accurate detection. vendor. Since it requires programming www.eFYmag.com electronicS For You | September 2015 89 MANUFACTURE

of each device, this technique is used IO Test IO The challenge and response bits for high-value ICs like CPUs, precision are known as challenge-response analogue-to-digital converters and pairs. Response bits are known as graphics processing units. Fuse PUF signatures. Silicon PUFs have VDD GND For low-cost devices, the solution CDIR structure turned out to be a good antidote for is a little more ingenious. Typically, counterfeiting. a semiconductor fuse is introduced Original design PUF signatures are either delays in the IC, which gets blown during caused by process variations or by testing. So if a counterfeit IC has been Die using aging-resistant ring oscillators, used, which could either be a recy- Package which have a frequency difference cled IC or counterfeit die, the blown IO IO IO due to process variation. While this sounds easy, there are fuse will indicate that the device is a Fig. 4: Fuse status indicates if the device is a counterfeit. Fig. 4 shows how this is counterfeit certain challenges in implementing implemented. this technology such as: One risk to the above approach is authorised key is used, the code is 1. Getting a stable response over a that counterfeiters can easily crack enabled. This works when the IP is widely varying environment current technologies, so more complex in the form of hardware description 2. Implementing parts that are counterfeit-avoidance mechanisms language (HDL) codes. In case of a already in use should be used. hard IP, where it is in the form of 3. Taking care of implementation One method that is quite popular a proven module, other techniques costs and difficult to crack is the ring oscil- need to be used. 4. Securely storing and maintain- lator based CDIR. In this design, as A popular technique for avoiding the servers to store challenge- part of the IC, two ring oscillators ing counterfeiting is watermarking. response pairs are introduced; a ring oscillator is a Normally, watermarking impacts the Another technique that supple- circuit in which several inverters are item that is being watermarked, but ments this technique is encrypted connected in series and the output in the case of IPs this is not desirable. QR codes on the packaging of the is connected to the input so that the So most watermarking is done either IC, which allow identification when circuit oscillates. One of the oscilla- by using constraints (known way of decrypted with proper keys. tors is such that it ages faster (so the doing things) or additive to hardware Finally, a popular technique that frequency changes) than the other, so IP. This way watermarks are distinctly ensures that counterfeits do not leak that as the ICs work, the frequency of visible. from foundry and assembly locations oscillation will not be the same as it Another popular counterfeit- is known as the secure split test, also was when it was produced (which can avoidance technique uniquely iden- known as connecticut secure split be measured with the other oscillator, tifies the IC so that it can be traced test (CSST). which is part of the IC). back to the original chip manufac- In Fig. 3, we can see leakages IP copying. Another popular coun- turer. This technique is known as when ICs get rejected after testing. terfeiting is the copying or unlicensed physically unclonable function (PUF). To plug this, CSST is implemented, usage of IP cores. With an increase It is close to the biometrics collected in which a structure is added to the in pressure on time-to-market, most for human beings and is called sili- IC and the test response is uniquely semiconductor designers use off-the- con fingerprints. perturbed. This process is devised by shelf IP cores, which are tested and PUF implementation depends on the IP owner, who alone can examine proven, and can be included in the IC the fact that process variation hap- the test result through a proprietary design directly as a library. pens during fabrication of ICs and communication and decide whether As a business practice, companies each chip has a distinct identity. the device is genuine or counter- sell the core typically under licence Silicon PUF is a circuitry that extracts feited. If the IC is genuine, the IP to the user under trust. However, if random characteristics out of an IC owner sends the key to open the lock the licensee uses it without the IP and, using those, generates a unique to the foundry and only then the IC owner’s licence, it becomes difficult signature. By using a challenge- is usable. Using this technique, the for IP companies to track and prevent response protocol, which is similar problem of over production can be copying. to challenge handshake authentica- addressed by keeping track of the With increased sophistication in tion protocol and password authen- number of keys that are released. counterfeiting, protection of IP with tication protocol used in networking, This technique also prevents IP advanced techniques has become a the signature can be extracted and cloning as the IP can be opened only necessity. The most popular method compared with the response already with the right key issued by the IP is encryption, in which only when the collected during manufacturing. owner. 

90 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com make in india

Market Survey: An Outlook for the Indian Strategic Electronics Sector in Defence

he strategic electronics (SE) sector Opportunities galore in India has the potential to become Ta sunrise industry in India over the The SE sector offers unprecedented oppor- next ten years. It is estimated to grow at a tunities, more so in the defence sector. As compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) per industry estimates, electronics produc- Sudeshna Das is senior of 20 per cent to 30 per cent. The sector tion in the sector in India reached ` 120 executive editor at EFY accounts for six per cent to seven per cent billion during 2012-13 and exceeded ` 138 of the overall Indian electronics market billion during 2013-14, recording a growth with the government as the sole buyer and of more than 15 per cent. market maker for defence electronics. As per The International Institute for Contrary to the general perception, Strategic Electronics Studies, India’s de- defence electronics has undergone a fence capital expense quadrupled from US$ paradigm shift due to the participation of three billion in 2000 to US$ 12.2 billion in private players along with public sector 2010, making it the sixth largest spender on undertakings (PSUs), even though a major defence worldwide during the same period. part of the market is yet to be explored as It is expected that India’s US$ 12 billion the industry requires high-quality input defence market will continue to grow, and materials, production processes as well capital expenses are expected to reach be- as testing, and the right strategy to ensure tween US$ 18 billion and US$ 20 billion. participation of micro, small and medium India is the largest importer of defence enterprises (MSMEs) to increase Indian equipment, importing thrice as much as content in SE. China and Pakistan each. The volume of

92 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com make in india

Indian imports of major weapons Favourable government policies rose by 111 per cent between 2004 and 2008 and again between 2009  The government has launched the Make in India initiative to promote manufacturing and 2013, and its share of the vol- in the country. According to competitive assessment, 25 thrust sectors including ume of international arms imports manufacturing, relevant infrastructure and service sectors have been identified, increased from seven per cent to 14 spanning a number of administrative ministries and departments.  Defence acquisition proposals worth more than ` 650 billion have been categorised per cent. Major suppliers of arms to under Buy (Indian) and Buy and Make (Indian). India in 2009-13 were Russia (ac-  Various policy initiatives to promote and encourage entry into defence manufacturing counting for 75 per cent of imports) have been put in place such as: and the USA (seven per cent). • Cap on FDI in the defence sector increased to 49 per cent via approval route Large-scale modernisation of • To improve access to state-of-the-art technology, this cap can be increased even defence forces is on the anvil. The further with Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) approval next decade is likely to see an expo- • Requirement of single largest Indian ownership of 51 per cent of equity has been nential growth in combat systems as removed. This has been a long standing demand from the domestic industry well as non-platform based SE pro- • Portfolio investments are now permitted up to 24 per cent in automatic route grammes, with requirement for the • Liberalisation of industrial licensing policy by taking out all component parts, raw 12th Plan (2012-2017) being pegged materials, testing equipment, etc  Companies planning to manufacture dual-use items no longer require industrial licences at over one trillion rupees. These and will also not be subjected to FDI ceiling of 49 per cent. would include:  Initiatives for R&D investment through technology development fund and tax incentives 1. Tactical communication sys- have been initiated. tems  Policies for the MSME sector have been enabled. 2. Battlefield management systems 3. Network-centric warfare systems Today, Ministry of Defence (MoD) aims to create conditions 4. Future infantry soldier as conducive for domestic manufacturers, both public and systems 5. Tank electronics private, so that they can play an active role in the SE domain. 6. Air defence systems We are aiming at expediting decision making, as well as 7. Avionics, navigation equip- simplifying contractual and financial provisions to establish a ment, radar and sonar level playing field for Indian companies to compete with foreign firms.” 8. Night-vision devices — Rao Inderjit Singh, hon’ble minister of state for planning (independent charge) and 9. Host of associated and embed- minister of state, Ministry of Defence ded electronics The ‘Report of Working Group on Defence Equipment’ estimates the requirement of defence electron- Projected Defence Capital Expenditure ics to be of the size of ` 257 billion. (` billion) This amounts to about 25 per cent of the capital expenditure projections of the working group by 2016- 17. Thus, looking from the offset perspective, opportunity for Indian electronics manufacturing is huge. SE is a niche segment charac- terised by high-cost and sophisticated technologies. A solid base of research and development (R&D) is required in order to remain at the forefront. Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY) holds essential expertise complemented by a sturdy infrastructure to undertake R&D activities in this *Projections Source: Indian Thirteenth Finance Commission Report, December 2009 pivotal sector. The key thrust area www.eFYmag.com electronicS For You | September 2015 93 make in india

Recommendation for creating a conducive environment for MSMEs in SE

Usefulness of policy interventions like offset norms and TPCR. manufacturing and R&D. Availability of TPCR and multiplier norms has the potential to Other recommendations include setting up a development fund improve MSME participation in the defence procurement process, for select MSMEs, establishing a smoother procurement process for under the provision of defence procurement offset norms. Offsets them to participate in tendering and promoting greater collaboration have increased participation of large integrators in defence among MSMEs on projects. Another important recommendation is procurement and the TPCR has also helped. the need to review investment limits that define MSMEs as given in TPCR needs to give a realistic vision or roadmap. It should be the MSMED Act 2006 and its Amendment needed to be inflation- more focussed on technologies leading to business opportunities adjusted. and be able to give direction to an industry’s R&D efforts. Procurement. There are a number of recommendations to Understanding offset norms. More clarity is required regarding simplify the procurement process. These relate to identification offset norms, particularly in determining what is local and what of Indian offset partners (IOPs) by foreign companies, delay in is foreign. For example, offset norms emphasise the need to finalising contracts resulting in technology obsolescence caused source from domestic vendors instead of supporting domestic by the time lag between tendering and actual procurement, manufacturing. So multipliers should not be calculated on the basis participation of the financial advisor and other decision makers of value addition rather it should be done on the billing value of the in the procurement process, applicability of same import duties, Indian partner as import content of the Indian partner may exceed central excise and sales tax (local taxes) for all vendors, demand 80 per cent and go up to 90 per cent. for bank guarantees and requirement for detailed drawings from all Stage-wise calculation of value addition makes it very difficult vendors foreign or domestic, among others. All these issues need to calculate how much local value addition is possible. This process to be addressed. needs further study and clarity. Payment terms. The Indian private sector needs to be treated It is currently not possible to meet all component requirements at par with DPSUs, ordinance factory board (OFB) units and of the manufacturing process through domestic sourcing. Thus, to foreign vendors. The private sector should have the same terms make it more feasible for domestic companies to participate, there for payments and cost comparisons including applicable taxes should be clarity on the manufacturing value chain and licences and foreign exchange variations. Currently, preferential treatment is such as SCOMET and procedures to issue such licences should given to foreign companies. Domestic vendors must also be paid be simplified. on the same terms applicable to foreign vendors, or through banks, Ensuring participation of MSMEs. There is an urgent need to where payments are tied to performance and not delayed due to deal with the losses that MSMEs incur when pitching for defence procedural issues. Delays in payment should attract payment of contracts. Clauses such as no cost no commitment (NCNC) should interest to vendors. not be applicable to MSMEs manufacturing in India. Cost of the Common ground as DPSUs. Private companies are seeking a prototypes must be paid to MSMEs. level playing field, as is provided to DPSUs. Areas of concern include Similarly, the study recommends certain indirect financial deals where transfer of technology is negotiated, taxation patterns support to MSMEs. These include lowering the cost of capital, for DPSUs vis-à-vis private companies, treatment in open tenders offering an interest subsidy, dealing with issues relating to payment and transfer of technology from DRDO. delays, need for securities/guarantees, blockage of funds, etc. The (Source: ELCINA study on Opportunities and Challenges in Strategic study recommended establishing a mechanism or policy to cover Electronics in Aerospace & Defence Sector with Focus on MSMEs, which various financial bottlenecks in order to help MSMEs focus on was supported by EFY as research partner) is to develop state-of-the-art technol- materials, convergent technologies play an active role in the SE domain. ogy for designing, developing and (nano-bio-infro-cogno-socio), deep We are aiming at expediting deci- upgrading mission-critical systems in space and others are some of the sion making, as well as simplifying defence and civil domains. newest technologies being promoted. contractual and financial provisions R&D labs and institutes of higher to establish a level playing field for learning are restructured with state- Defence procurement: Key Indian companies to compete with of-the-art technology and infrastruc- growth driver foreign firms,” says Rao Inderjit ture. The primary goal is to cater “Today, Ministry of Defence (MoD) Singh, hon’ble minister of state for to the strategic needs of the sector aims to create conditions conducive planning (independent charge) and essentially for the indigenisation of for domestic manufacturers, both minister of state, Ministry of Defence. products as well as technologies, get- public and private, so that they can Defence procurement in India is ting rid of hindrances in terms of un- availability of advanced technology and propel growth in this segment. Many a time, Make in India in defence boils down to Electromagnetic wave applications, intelligent sensors, RFIDs, replacing entire assembly shops of ToT in DPSUs with micro-robotics, intelligent materi- joint ventures or private sector assembly shops.” als, microelectronics systems, micro — Rahul Chaudhry, CEO, TATA Power SED systems for manufacturing nano-

94 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com make in india undertaken by Ministry of Defence under two heads: capital procure- We have empanelled 146 private players as our partners in ment and revenue procurement. Cap- defence R&D and 64 of them are MSMEs. We have specific ital procurement of new equipment is governed by Defence Procurement vendor development programmes under which we conduct Procedure 2013 (DPP 2013) while training especially for quality improvement, as quality plays a revenue procurement is dealt by critical role in defence electronics.” Defence Procurement Manual 2009 — Philip Jacob, executive director D&E, Bharat Electronics Ltd (DPM 2009). Government initiatives such as Defence Offsets and Defence Pro- sector was opened to private sector components may be imported, ensur- curement Policy have opened a host in 2001 with a restrictive 26 per cent ing their availability at all times but of opportunities for industry players FDI cap. The FDI policy has, how- design and integration of the plat- to gain from greater domestic value ever, now further liberalised to an form/TPCR system are likely to be addition and indigenisation, respec- FDI cap of 49 per cent in 2014. undertaken within the country. tively. Offsets have the flexibility in A technology perspective and Provisions have been made in fostering partnerships with foreign capability roadmap (TPCR) based on DPP 2013 as well as DPM 2009 to majors and reduce the country’s a long-term integrated perspective support participation of MSMEs in heavy dependence on imports. plan (LTIPP) has been issued to the the procurement process, particularly Post-independence, the defence industry to help plan its R&D and multiplier norms that provide steady industry in India was placed under infrastructure creation. Based on the business to them. the reserved list, thus entitling only approved LTIPP, equipment, weapon DRDO has issued a list of criti- state-owned companies to partici- systems and platforms required in cal technologies to be developed or pate in defence production, which the coming years are expected to be acquired. There may be a few Indian included nine defence PSUs (DPSUs), developed/integrated/made within companies that could potentially pick 39 OFs and 50 plus DRDO labs. The the country. Sub-systems/equipment/ up a few of these. This opportunity

www.eFYmag.com electronicS For You | September 2015 95 make in india

it is also one of the most protected Hand-holding and guaranteed buying programmes along industries around the world. with allocation of development fund by the government for The Indian defence preparedness had to pass through a tough phase select MSMEs on the basis of their capacity and expertise in for several decades due to the sanc- the defence segment will be helpful for the SE industry. This tions imposed by the West. The situ- selection can be done through defence RFI procedure.” ation was further complicated by the lack of a strong industrial base in the — N. Ramachandran, managing director, MEL Systems country, inadequate testing and other facilities and the shortage of trained/ would also come to Indian compa- and offset opportunities. Major com- skilled human resource. Efforts in nies in the shape of offsets as DRDO panies in the global aviation industry the country were limited to DRDO may source these from foreign OEMs. are keenly watching the local market and DPSUs [Hindustan Aeronautics In addition, DRDO has also come in India and scouting for design Ltd (HAL) and Bharat Electronics Ltd out with guidelines for transfer of partners for aerospace and defence (BEL)] until recently. technology (ToT) to the Indian indus- (A&D) products as India is fast Observing the huge potential try and these will be made available emerging as a centre for engineering ahead, domestic as well as global to the industry at a small fee. This and design services,” explains Rao. private sector companies are mak- could be an opportunity as high as He adds, “The time is right for ing inroads into the huge SE market, one trillion rupees or more, since catapulting India into the league of thrown open due to huge modernisa- most of the technologies fall in the technologically-advanced nations tion and acquisition programmes and SE domain. and I invite you all to respond to the offset opportunities. The defence procure procedure call and move along with us on this Indian companies like Tata Power is being refined continuously to cause of Make in India.” SED, L&T, M&M Defence Systems create a level playing field between and Rolta are now competing with the private and public sector, and Current industry scenario foreign established companies with to expedite the procurement process The industry is dominated by de- global outreach. Several Tier 2 ven- as a whole. The current DPP 2013 fence PSUs and ordnance factories, dors such as Alpha Design, Astra Mi- is under review and a committee of which contribute about 90 per cent crowave and Data Patterns have also experts has already submitted (July of the total domestic manufacturing. found their way into the value chain. 2015) its final report to the defence Combined, the DPSUs and ordnance Despite these commendable minister. Currently, the emphasis is factories have played a critical role in efforts, the country still lacks the on giving a boost to the Indian de- building a domestic industrial base in capabilities required to develop the fence industry, both in the public and this sector as they typically outsource core electronic segment of compact private sector, by according a higher 20 per cent to 25 per cent of their systems. These systems such as ad- preference to Buy (Indian), Buy and production requirements to private vanced radar technologies like AESA Make (Indian) and Make (Indian) companies. radar, C4ISR system and electronic categorisation, bringing further clar- In addition to public undertak- warfare systems can tilt the scales ity in the definition of Indian content ings, there is a small but growing either ways in a conflict scenario. and simplifying Buy and Make (In- number of medium and large private SE requires strong and sustained dian) procedure. companies that have already entered R&D and investment support to en- These amendments have seen an or are seriously evaluating opportuni- able faster growth in this segment expansion of the categorisation pro- ties to enter the market. These are in and to encourage domestic players cess from only Buy cases to Buy and addition to 6000 MSMEs that work to acquire, adopt or create new tech- Make through ToT, Buy and Make closely with DPSUs and the private nologies. (Indian) and Make (Indian) catego- sector. Unless a vibrant domestic sector ries as well as refinements in offset SE, especially in defence domain, is created—one that includes MS- policy guidelines and introduction of is a sensitive area and the current MEs—procurements by the Indian a new chapter on ship-building. dependence on imports is a cause government will only help create “There are huge opportunities for for concern. These systems are a key and maintain jobs in other countries. collaboration and creation of joint contributor to delivering the neces- To be self-reliant and also be able to ventures in the defence electronics sary competitive edge in conflict situ- export, India will have to utilise the sector in India. However, the window ations and thus, are a very important opportunity to make in India, to not of opportunity linked with it must aspect of nearly all weapon systems, only defend herself but also earn benefit from big-ticket acquisitions platforms and equipment. As a result, valuable foreign exchange. 

96 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com

Make in india new products

COMPONENTS executing advanced control applica- spectrum levels plus an off function tions and mTouch capacitive touch (zero per cent spread). Insulated-gate bipolar sensing. Mouser Electronics Inc. transistor Additional features include an Website: www.mouser.com The new M-series 650V insulated- enhanced 8-bit parallel master port gate bipolar transistors from STMi- (PMP) for graphics or external Belt sway switch croelectronics offer designers a fast memory, 10-bit, 1Msps, 13-channel The switch is heavy-duty with con- and affordable way to increase the analogue-to-digital converter, support tact combination efficiency of HVAC motor drives, for SPI and I2S serial communication of 2NO+2NC and uninterruptible power supplies, solar interfaces and USB device/host/on- contact rating of power converters and all power- the-go functionality. 16A/25A, resistive conversion applications working up Microchip Technology Inc. at 440V AC, 50Hz. to 20kHz in hard-switching circuit Website: www.microchip.com Proper rubber topologies. seals have been STMicroelectronics Insulated winding wire provided to protect Website: www.st.com A triple-insulated winding wire it against ingress of with enhanced heat resistance has dust, and the housing is made of cast MOSFETs been developed aluminium with IP65 protection. Infineon Technologies has launched a enabling further Pyrotech Electronics Pvt Ltd new family of StrongIRFET MOSFETs downsizing and Website: www.peplelectronics.com for DC-powered circuits including performance battery-powered circuits, brushed upgrading of PCB connector and brushless DC motor drives. The transformers for WECO, Germany, expands its product MOSFETs can bring highest energy switching mode portfolio with the new 140-A-111-THR efficiency to end-applications such power supplies. PCB connector, designed on the base as power and gardening tools, light It has applications in the windings of of the company’s standard version electric vehicles, drones and e-bikes micro-transformers commonly used 140-A-111. Key features of the prod- that demand a high level of energy in personal computers, mobile phone uct are: efficiency. chargers, IT equipment and other • 5.00mm pitch Infineon Technologies India Pvt Ltd similar devices. • 2-pole to 12-pole design Website: www.infineon.com Sagar Switch Gears Ltd • Short solder pins Phone: +91-0265-2830255 • Black housing Microcontrollers • Lift system Microchip Technology has announced Clock generators Brilliant Electro-Systems Pvt Ltd a new series within its PIC32MX1/2 The IDT 9FGL PCI Express (PCIe) Website: www.brilliantelectronics.com 32-bit microcontroller family that clock generators from Mouser Elec- tronics are low-power devices that ESD suppressor generate low-power HCSL differen- Littelfuse has introduced the XGD tial clock outputs in either 6-output Series XTREME-GUARD electrostatic discharge (ESD) suppressor, available in 0402- and 0603-sized, flat- topped surface features a large 256kB flash con- mount pack- figuration and 16kB of RAM in ages. Based on small-footprint packages. The PIC- breakthrough 32MX1/2 MCU series boasts a wide (9FGL06) or 8-output (9FGL08) ESD technology, variety of rich features, including up forms. All 9FGL clock generators fea- it protects sensi- to 50MHz/83 DMIPS performance for ture support for two different spread tive electronics

98 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com Make in india against ESD as high as 30kV and is for measurement of low resistance. tocol analysers including serial, I2C, suitable for high voltage applications Selectable test current are 100A DC SPI, CAN and many more. Logic16 up to 32V DC. and 200A DC. Test information like can sample two channels at 100MHz, Littelfuse Inc. current injected with measured resist- four channels at 50MHz, eight chan- Website: www.littelfuse.com ance and voltage drop is displayed nels at 25MHz or all 16 channels at with real-time data on an LCD screen 12.5MHz and can record up to 10 bil- Server memory chipset with backlight. lion samples. Rambus has introduced R+ DDR4 The Motwane Mfg. Co. Pvt Ltd Uchi Embedded Solutions server memory chipset, RB26, for Website: www.motwane.com Website: www.uchiembedded.co.in RDIMMs and LRDIMMs, delivering superior performance and capacity Thermal imagers Gas detector controller for both enterprise and data centre The U5856A and U5857A can per- Honeywell has launched a new wall- server markets. The first in a family form temperature measurements up mounted controller called Touch- of R+ chips, RB26 is an enhanced, to 650°C and 1200°C, respectively. point Plus. It supports up to eight JEDEC-compliant memory mod- This allows users to detect a wide channels of ule chipset designed to accelerate temperature range for various applica- gas detection data-intensive applications, includ- tions such as petrochemical and steel for industrial ing real-time analytics, virtualisation processing, electrical and mechanical and light in- and in-memory computing, with in- applications, building maintenance dustrial sec- creased speed, reliability and power- and even electronics applications. tors, making efficiency. Keysight Technologies Inc. it easier for Rambus Inc. Website: www.keysight.com operators to monitor the safety of Website: www.rambus.com their sites and staff. Oscilloscopes Honeywell Diodes SIGLENT Technologies announces Website: www.honeywell.com Vishay Intertechnology has launched the official release of SDS1000X se- two new SurfLight high-speed infra- ries super phosphor oscilloscopes. LEDs red (IR) emitting diodes in compact 3.2mm×1.6mm×1.1mm surface- CoolLED driver mount, top-view packages. Harvard Engineering PLC has added The new Vishay SurfLight IR ZigBee wireless control to its range of emitting diodes are based on Vishay’s lighting power supplies. The 33W driv- GaAlAs surface emitter chip technol- er, called CLZ and part of the firm’s ogy. The 850nm VSMY12850 and 940nm VSMY12940 semiconductors combine high radiant intensity and optical power with fast switching The new SDS1000X series based on times. SPO technology is available in two Vishay Intertechnology Inc. bandwidths, 100MHz and 200MHz, a Website: www.vishay.com sample rate of 1GSa/s and a standard record length of 14Mpts. TEST & MEASUREMENT SIGLENT Technologies CoolLED range, offers dimming down Website: www.siglent.com to one per cent and includes a 2.4GHz Contact resistance meter radio—either built-in or remote. The new contact resistance meter Logic analyser Radio communication allows the (model PCRM-200S) is a digital mi- Logic16 is a logic analyser used to driver to tap into Harvard’s EyeNut cro-ohmmeter, record, view, and measure digital sig- monitoring and management system specially de- nals. It currently has 17 different pro- for indoor lighting. signed to meas- Harvard Engineering PLC ure extremely Website: www.harvardeng.com low resistances in micro-ohm. It Xlamp LEDs is based on Kel- Cree has unveiled the new Xlamp vin 4-wire con- XHP35 family of LEDs with 50 nection method per cent more light output than www.eFYmag.com electronicS For You | September 2015 99 Make in india

the company’s Embedded software verse polarity protection (battery and previous high- development toolset PV), short-circuit protection, MOV est-performing Altium has announced a free embed- for lightening protection, overload single-die LED. ded software development toolset protection and battery deep discharge The new devices for industry-leading semiconductor protection. A 3-stage battery charg- set a new performance manufacturer Infineon’s TriCore/ ing algorithm ensures proper battery standard for the 3.5mm footprint. AURIX product line as part of their backup and protects battery from The XHP35 LED is built on Cree’s strategic partnership. This toolset overcharging. SC5 technology platform and comes was developed as part of a major Systellar Innovations with Cree’s high-voltage power die update to TASKING compiler for Tri- Website: www.systellar.co.in architecture. It delivers up to 1833 Core/AURIX, which adds a number lumens, without the optical ineffi- of new features and enhancements MiSCELLANEOUS ciencies of a multi-die LED, to enable for advanced automotive application new designs with reduced size and development. R-Car based development kit lower system costs. Altium Ltd Renesas Electronics has introduced Cree Inc. Website: www.altium.com the smallest R-Car based devel- Website: www.cree.com opment kit Operating system till date, the LED light set Key features of Freedom, the Android ADAS Starter Larson Electronics has introduced a based operating system from SWIPE, Kit, based temporary tunnel string light set. The are: on Renesas’ WAL-SL-51-LED-12.4 string light set Customisable. Users get complete high-end R- consists of 51 industrial-grade LED freedom in customising the user in- Car H2 sys- lamps with 3.0m terface of their devices tem on chip. of 12/4 SJTW ca- Themes. Supports full-blown It promises to simplify and speed up ble between each theme engine with hundreds of the development of advanced driver unit, stretching themes to select from assistance systems (ADAS) applica- to 155.44m in Swipe Search. A localised custom tions. length. search engine Renesas Electronics Corp. Each globe Swipe Gestures. Supports both Website: www.renesas.com light is equipped with a high-output off-screen gestures as well as the LED bulb, which delivers more light home-screen gestures Camera output than a 100-watt incandes- Swipe Box. Allows users to get Transcend Information Inc. has an- cent bulb. 100GB storage space by aggregating nounced the launch of its DrivePro Larson Electronics all cloud storage accounts into one Body 10 camera with IR LEDs. The Website: www.larsonelectronics.com Swipe Technologies new product is ideal for police offic- Website: www.justswipe.com ers and security guards. SOFTWARE The new camera features a F/2.8 POWER SUPPLY aperture, a wide 160° viewing an- Cloud based trace judgment gle, a built- solution Solar charge controller in battery, a Anritsu has launched a cloud based Systellar Innovations launched CC- handy snap- trace judgment solution for tower HLS-12-8 model, a microprocessor shot button and in-building distributed antenna based 12V-8A zero-drop solar charge and infrared systems installations that reduces controller LEDs for clear costs and improves ROI. Serving as especially night vision. a data warehouse for contractors designed The product is who are installing or modifying for home also shock and water resistant, ena- equipment for network operators, lighting ap- bling the capture of crucial images. SkyBridge Tools saves time, reduces plications. In addition, as the infrared LEDs rework and makes timely payment It has been are automatically turned on in low more likely by automating the trace developed light conditions, recording at night is judgment process. with special emphasis on reliability easier than before. Anritsu India Pvt Ltd and long battery life. Transcend Information Inc. Website: www.anritsu.com Built-in protections include re- Website: in.transcend-info.com

100 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com do-it-yourself

Biswajit Das & Bed-Vacancy Alarm System NiDhi Khaturia

T.K. Hareendran At the heart of the alarm box is 28-pin DIP AVR microcontroller loading and unloading of the device. his inexpensive, compact bed- (MCU) ATmega328P-PU (IC1). It can Blocking this vent could cause the FSR vacancy alarm system raises be programmed with embedded soft- to respond eratically. Entire surface of Tan audible alarm whenever a ware using a standard programmer. the sensor should be covered using patient or a small kid sleeping on the ATmega328P-PU offers 23 input/out- thin, uniform double-sided laminating bed leaves the bed. put functional ports; a 16MHz crystal adhesive. The circuit comprises a bed sen- oscillator is used to provide timing/ Never try to solder directly to sor, an alarm box and a power sup- clock reference. naked silver traces. A suitable zero ply with an optional battery-backup The power supply converts the insertion force (ZIF) style connector facility. The bed sensor can be placed DC from an AC mains adaptor (9V- is recommended for interconnection. under the hip of the care receiver on 12V/1A) into a stable DC of 5V. The the mattress. The alarm box can be regulated voltage supplied by linear Circuit and working hooked onto a headboard/nightstand. voltage regulator LM1117-5.0 (IC2) is After wiring the circuit as per Fig. 2, The highly-sensitive sensor used used to power the circuit. place the bed sensor (FSR) under the is nothing but a force sensing resistor IC2 is a low-dropout voltage mattress and switch on using S1. (FSR). The FSR is a polymer thick- regulator with a dropout of 1.2V at Set VR1 to its mid-travel (50k) film (PTF) device whose resistance 800mA of load current. Available in and measure DC voltage at TP3 us- decreases with an increase in the packages like TO-220 and SOT-223, ing a digital multimeter. Note down force applied to its active surface. it offers current-limiting and thermal DC voltage readings when the bed is It is not a strain gauge, load cell or shutdown. The optional battery- vacant or occupied. Based on this, you pressure transducer. backup can be from a 9V (PP3/6F22) can add your own bed-occupancy and While FSR can be used for dy- battery pack. bed-vacancy threshold values in the namic measurement, only qualitative software, with the help of the follow- results are generally obtainable. Usu- FSR integration ing relationship: ally an FSR can sense applied force Usually size and shape are the limit- TH=[1023/5]×V anywhere in the range of 100gm to ing factors in an FSR (Fig. 1) integra- where TH is the threshold value and V 10kg; when no pressure is applied, its tion. Response of FSR is sensitive to is the DC voltage at TP3. resistance is larger than 100kΩ. the distribution of the applied force. For example, if the DC voltage at It is therefore necessary to provide TP3 is 4, when the bed is occupied, Parts List Semiconductors: equal force distribution, using a firm, bed-occupancy threshold will be IC1 - ATmega328 MCU with flat and smooth mount- [1023/5]×4 = 818. Arduino UNO bootloader IC2 - LM1117-5 LDO linear ing surface. Next, keep the system in power-off regulator An FSR typically has mode and upload the finished code to D1, D2 - 1N5819 Schottky barrier rectifier an air vent that runs the MCU using an Arduino UNO board. LED1, LED2 - 5mm LED from the open active The driving transistor (T1) selection T1 - BC547 npn general-purpose transistor area down the length depends on the piezo speaker used. Resistors (all 1/4-watt, ±5% carbon): of the tail and out to R1, R2 - 10-kilo-ohm Construction and testing R3-R5 - 1-kilo-ohm the atmosphere. This VR1 - 100-kilo-ohm preset vent assures pressure An actual-size, single-side PCB for the Capacitors: Fig. 1: A force equilibrium with the bed-vacancy alarm system is shown in C1 - 47µF, 25V electrolytic sensing C2 - 47µF, 16V electrolytic resistor environment, and allows Fig. 3 and its component layout in Fig. C3, C6 - 100nF ceramic disk 4. Assemble the circuit on PCB to save C4, C5 - 22pF ceramic disk Table I Miscellaneous: time and minimise assembly errors. XTAL1 - 16MHz crystal Test Points Use a proper IC base for the MCU. S1 - SPDT switch S2 - Tactile switch Test point Details The prototype was tested using a BAT - 9V Battery 1.27cm (0.5-inch) dia FSR bought FSR1 - FSR interface TP0 GND PZ1 - Piezo buzzer interface from www.rhydolabz.com. The FSR TP1 5V J1 - Connector for (9V-12V) can safely handle a maximum applied DC supply TP2 5V in working condition J2 - Connector for FTDI basic force of about 10kg only. So if you want board interface TP3 FSR output voltage to make bed-vacancy alarm system for

102 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com do-it-yourself

IC2 TP1 D1 LM1117−5 +5V S1 R3 LED2 (9−12)V 1N5819 SPDT 3 2 1K IN OUT GND C2 J1 C3 TP2 R4 LED1 C1 47u R1 IC1 1 100n 1K 47u 16V S2 10K ATMEGA328P−PU 25V RESET 7 20 Vcc AVcc 1 21 D2 BAT PC6/RESET AVREF 1N5819 9V 2 28 C6 PD0/RXD PC5/SCL 3 27 100n PD1/TXD PC4/SDA 4 26 PD2 PC3 TP0 DTR/RTS 5 25 TP3 RX PD3 PC2 GND 6 24 TX PD4 PC1 9 23 PZ1 VCC PB6/XTAL1 PC0 GND 10 19 PIEZO J2 PB7/XTAL2 PB5/SCK BUZZER 11 18 FTDI IN PD5 PB4/MISO 12 17 FSR1 R2 VR1 PD6 PB3/MOSI 10K 100K 13 16 PD7 PB2 R5 T1 14 15 1K C5 PB0 PB1 BC547 C4 8 22 XTAL1 GND AGND 22p 22p 16MHz

Fig. 2: Circuit diagram of the bed-vacancy alarm system

This function is used to read FSR output and generate an alarm, depending on the threshold value. In case a USB interface is absent in the system board, it becomes necessary to use a home-made/ ready-made Fig. 3: Actual-size PCB pattern of the bed-vacancy alarm system Fig. 4: Component layout of the PCB USB-to-serial converter for larger beds, deploy several FSR sen- are above the threshold limit. programming the MCU. Inexpensive sors, so that the bed is assumed to be and easy-to-use USB-to-serial convert- empty when none of the sensor values Software program ers (FTDI basic boards) are now wide- The software has the following func- ly-available. Usually, one USB interface Table II tions: connection and six output connections Technical Documentation of void setup(void) (DTR, RXI, TXO, 5V, CTS and GND) are FTDI basic board This function is used to initialise available in FTDI basic. Connect the FTDI basic board Serial interface socket J2 control pins as digital output. circuit as shown in Table II (not tested in EFY Lab).  DTR DTR/RTS void loop(void) RXI RX efy Note TXO TX the source code of this project is 5V 5V included in this month’s efy dVd T.K. Hareendran is an CTS N/C and is also available for free down- electronics hobbyist, GND GND load at source.efymag.com freelance technical writer and circuit designer

104 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com do-it-yourself 12V Battery Absorb and Float Charger

Fayaz Hassan regulator LM317 (IC1), op-amp com- s.c. dwivedi parator LM358 (IC2) and a few other ost battery chargers stop components. charging the battery when The 230V AC primary to 15V- Mit attains its maximum 0-15V, 1A secondary transformer Parts List charging voltage set by the circuit. used in this circuit steps down mains Semiconductors: This circuit charges the battery at a voltage, which is rectified by diodes IC1 - LM317 adjustable voltage regulator particular voltage, that is, absorp- D1 and D2 and smoothened by ca- IC2 - LM358 op-amp tion voltage, and once the maximum pacitor C1.This voltage is given to the T1 - BC547 npn transistor charging voltage is attained, the input of LM317 for regulation. LED1-LED3 - 5mm LED ZD1 - 6.8V zener diode charger changes the output voltage The basic circuit is a regulated D1-D5 - 1N4007 rectifier diode to float voltage for maintaining the power supply using LM317, with a Resistors (all 1/4-watt, ±5% carbon, unless stated battery at that voltage. Absorption control on output by changing resis- otherwise): R1 - 270-ohm and floating voltages are dependent tance at adjust pin 1. A good heat- R2 - 2.2-kilo-ohm on the type of battery. sink is required for LM317. LM358 R3, R6 - 10-kilo-ohm For this charger, voltages are set is a dual-operation amplifier that is R4, R5 - 22-kilo-ohm R7 - 0.2-ohm, 5W for a sealed lead-acid (SLA) 12V, 7Ah used here to control overcharging of R8, R9 - 4.7-kilo-ohm battery, for which absorption voltage the battery. Capacitor C4 should be VR1 - 2-kilo-ohm potmeter is 14.1V to 14.3V and floating voltage as near as possible to pin 1 of IC2. VR2 - 5-kilo-ohm potmeter is 13.6V to 13.8V. For safe working Jumper J1 is used for calibration VR3 - 20-kilo-ohm potmeter Capacitors: and to avoid overcharging of battery, (set-up). While setting the charging C1 - 2200µF, 40V electrolytic absorption voltage is selected as 14.1V voltage, remove the jumper and con- C2, C3 - 10µF, 25V electrolytic and floating voltage is selected as nect it back after calibration. C4 - 0.1µF ceramic disk Miscellaneous: 13.6V. These values are to be set as X1 - 230V AC primary to specified by the battery manufacturer. Test Points 15V-0-15V, 1A secondary Test point Details transformer Circuit and working CON1, CON2 - 2-pin connector terminal TP0 GND - 12V, 7Ah rechargeable Circuit diagram of the 12V battery battery TP1 Around 0.5V absorb and float charger is shown in J1 - 2-pin connector for jumper J1 TP2 13.6V-14.1V Fig. 1. It is built around step-down S1, S2 - On/off switch TP3 High when battery is fully charged - Heat sink for LM317 transformer X1, adjustable voltage

D4 1N4007

BUC = BATTERY UNDER CHARGING (12V, 7Ah) TP2

3 IC1 2 LM317 S1 X1 R7 D1 D3 ON/OFF R2 R4 0.2E,5W LED2 1 1N4007 POWER 1N4007 D5 22K CHARGING R1 2.2K R3 1N4007 270E 10K R9 S2 LED1 4.7K ON/OFF C3 2 8 10u POWER IN1− Vcc 1 C4 L 25V VR3 3 IN1+ IC2 OUT1 CON1 VR2 0.1u TP1 20K 230V AC 6 LM358 5K IN2− OUT2 7 50Hz N D2 5 4 + J1 IN2+ GND R8 CON2 1N4007 C2 BUC 10u R6 TP3 JUMPER 4.7K − 10K 25V C1 X1 = 230V AC PRIMARY TO VR1 T1 15V−0−15V,1A 2200u 2K 40V BC547 R5 ZD1 LED3 SECONDARY TP0 22K 6.8V FULL TRANSFORMER CHARGED

GND

Fig. 1: Circuit diagram of the 12V battery absorb and float charger

106 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com do-it-yourself

If neither of these light up, check the connections; battery could be dead. Switch on S1 for charging. Fully charged status of the battery will be indicated by glowing of LED3. Do not worry if you forget to switch off the charger. The charger is on floating voltage (13.6V) now and it can be kept in Fig. 2: Actual-size PCB of the charger this charging mode forever. Construction and testing An actual-size, single- side PCB for the 12V battery absorb and float charger circuit is shown in Fig. 2 and its component layout in Fig. 3. As- semble the circuit on the PCB, except transformer X1 and the battery under charge (BUC). Enclose the PCB Fig. 3: Component layout of the PCB in a small box. Fix the battery terminal For initial setup, remove jumper on the front of the box for connecting J1, switch off S2, switch on S1 and the BUC. Connect switches S1 and adjust potmeter VR2 to get 13.6V at S2, potmeters VR1 through VR3, etc test point TP2. Adjust potmeter VR3, on the body of the box. so that LED2 begins to glow. Adjust EFY notes. 1. Switch off S2 or potmeter VR1 to read 0.5V (differ- disconnect battery terminals to avoid ence of 14.1V and 13.6V) at test unnecessary discharge of battery point TP1. Adjust VR2 to read 14.1V when not charging, that is, when S1 at test point TP2. is switched off. With these settings, TP2 should 2. Connect the battery with cor- read 14.1V when there is low voltage rect polarity. at test point TP3, and 13.6V when 3. Casing of IC1 should not be there is high voltage at test point connected to ground, so use insula- TP3. Connect jumper J1. The charger tion.  is now ready for use. Connect the 12V battery under Fayaz Hassan is manager charging (BUC), with correct polarity, at Visakhapatnam Steel at CON2. Switch on S2; one of the Plant, Visakhapatnam, and is interested in microcontoller LEDs out of LED2 and LED3 will light projects, mechatronics and up (most likely it would be LED2). robotics

108 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com do-it-yourself Programmable On and Off Controller for 3-Phase Motor

AmAr deep Singh Dr r.V. Dhekale The system has two programmable time switches for setting the utomatic on/off controller for starting and stopping times of the a 3-phase electric motor can motor and two control circuits, which time of, say, 8am is programmed for Abe made with a programma- are interfaced with the start and timer1 ON mode, then 8.01am will ble time switch. In this case a maxi- stop switches of the 3-phase motor’s be programmed for timer1 OFF mode mum of eight time durations can be starter. Block diagram of the system in start time switch. And, if stop programmed. is shown in Fig. 1. time of, say, 9am is programmed for Suppose, same clock times are set timer2 ON mode, then 9.01am will be Power supply of 3−Phase in both the time switches. So, if start programmed for timer2 OFF mode in AC 230 volts and Electric DC 12 volts Motor stop time switch. Test Points When time reaches 8am, the start Test point Details time switch connects the primary of Control 3−Phase Two Time transformer X1 to 230V AC. Output Switches Circuit Starter TP0 GND of the power supply gets connected TP1 +12V to reset pin 4 of IC1. R4 and C3 Fig. 1: Block diagram of the programmable TP2 +12V on and off controller for a 3-phase electric motor act as self triggering components.

CON1 CON2 TP1 START STOP TIME SWITCH1 TIME SWITCH2

D1 C1 1N4007 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1000u N 35V L D2 CON5 1N4007 230V AC 50Hz X1 TP2

TP0 D3 C2 1N4007 1000u , 35V

D4 X1, X2 = 1N4007 GND 230V AC PRIMARY TO 12V − 0 − 12V, 500mA X2 SECONDARY TRANSFORMER CON3 CON4 R5 START SWITCH R6 R7 STOP SWITCH 1M 100K 7 100K 7 R4 DIS RESET 4 DIS RESET 4 1M 6 8 6 8 TH Vcc TH Vcc IC1 D6 IC2 D8 C3 RL1 C6 RL2 0.1u NE555 1N4007 0.1u NE555 1N4007 2 12V, 1C/O 2 12V, 1C/O TRI O/P 3 TRI O/P 3 C4 1 5 N/O C7 1 5 N/O 47u GND CV 47u GND CV 25V D7 25V D9 C5 1N4007 N/C C8 1N4007 0.01u 0.01u N/C

Fig. 2: Circuit diagram of the programmable on and off controller for a 3-phase electric motor

110 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com do-it-yourself

Parts List Circuit and working Semiconductors: Two identical power supply circuits IC1, IC2 - NE555 timer are built around transformers X1 and D1, D2, D3, D4, D6, D7, D8, D9 - 1N4007 rectifier diode X2 with associated components as Resistors (all 1/4-watt, ±5% carbon): shown in Fig. 2. The arrangement R4, R6 - 1-mega-ohm provides 12V DC to two control cir- R5, R7 - 100-kilo-ohm cuits built around two 555 timers Capacitors: C1, C2 - 1000µF, 35V electrolytic IC1 and IC2, which are configured in C3, C6 - 0.1µF ceramic disk monostable mode. C4, C7 - 47µF, 25V electrolytic C5, C8 - 0.01µF ceramic disk The two time switches used in Miscellaneous: this system are Frontier-made, model RL1, RL2 - 12V, 1C/O relay TM-619-2. These operate on 230V AC X1, X2 - 230V AC primary to 12V-0-12V/500mA Fig. 3: Front of the time switch at 50Hz. Each switch has a built-in secondary single changeover relay with contact CON1, CON2 - 5-pin connector interface for rating of 16A. It has an LCD display time switch CON3, CON4 - 2-pin connector interface for with buttons such as CLOCK, TIMER, starter switches DAY, HOUR, MIN and MANUAL, as CON5 - 2-pin connector interface for AC input shown in Fig. 3. By using these buttons, a real-time clock is set and vari- Output of the monostable at pin 3 ous time durations are programmed. becomes high for a period equal to The time switch is a program- 1.1×R5×C4, which is nearly equal mable digital device that has a digital to five seconds. real-time clock and can program for As pin 3 of IC1 is high, relay a maximum eight time durations. The RL1 gets energised for five seconds, Fig. 4: Rear of the time switch time durations can be for a particular which, in turn, shorts the start day, alternate days, Monday to Fri- switch, extending the 3-phase supply way, a maximum of eight time day, Monday to Saturday, or Monday to the motor. This is virtually similar durations can be programmed to to Sunday. to physically pressing the start switch switch the 3-phase electric motor By holding CLOCK button, real of the 3-phase motor starter for five on and off. time is set by using HOUR, MIN and seconds. There is provision for setting DAY buttons, while various time When time reaches 9am, the days of the week for the controller durations are programmed by using second time switch (stop switch) to function. For instance, it can be TIMER, HOUR, MIN and DAY but- provides 230V AC to the primary set to work from Monday to Friday, tons. of transformer X2. Again, by us- Monday to Saturday, all seven days There are three modes, namely, ing a full-wave rectifier and filter of the week, or only on a particular ON, AUTO and OFF, written just be- circuit, 12V DC is provided to the day of the week. low the display. After programming second monostable circuit having This system can find many ap- time durations, a black horizontal relay RL2. plications, including switching on line segment is kept over AUTO mode Normally-closed (N/C) terminal a water pump in a multi-storeyed from OFF mode by pressing MANUAL of the relay is connected in series commercial building to fill overhead button. The time switch provides with the stop switch of the starter tanks only for five or six days in a five external pins numbered 1 to 5 as of the 3-phase motor. So, the relay week. It can also prove useful for shown in Fig. 4. breaks the circuit to stop the motor. farmers, industrial units or railway 230V AC is applied across pins 1 This is an example of one time stations where 3-phase motors are and 2 of connectors CON1 and CON2 duration of 8am to 9am. In this used. for start and stop switches, with

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pin 1 being neutral. Live The motor is switched off by us- pins 2 are joined by wire to ing the second multivibrator circuit pins 3 and output voltage as shown in Fig. 2, in which N/C is taken from pins 1 and and common terminals of relay 5. There is a provision of RL2 are connected in series with off button cell CR2032 to hold switch of the starter. the clock and programmed Real-time clock is set by press- times. That means, even ing and holding CLOCK button and if 230V AC is turned off, adjusting the time by using HOUR, the clock and programmed MIN and DAY buttons. Off time, times are not disturbed that is, 9am, is programmed at 1 ON (during mains failure) for mode with weekly day selection by Interior starter 60 to 90 days. When mains pressing the TIMER button. Stop Start assembly switch switch power is present, the cell is Again, by pressing TIMER but- charged continuously. ton, 9.01am is set at 1 OFF mode Fig. 5: a typical starter for a 3-phase motor The control circuit has with weekly day selection in the two monosta- second time switch. When time ble multivi- 9am is reached, the second time brators for the switch provides 230V AC across the time delay of primary of step-down transformer five seconds. X2, and the second full-wave recti- The start time fier outputs 12V DC. This voltage switch1 is con- goes to the second monostable nected to the multivibrator circuit as shown in first monosta- Fig. 2. ble multivibra- Fig. 5 shows the photograph of a tor built around typical starter for a 3-phase electric IC1 as shown motor along with the interior as- in Fig. 2. sembly of the starter. On the right of The real- the photograph, two push-buttons time clock of are shown; the green push-button time switch1 is is used to start the motor and the set by pressing red push-button is used to stop it. and holding It also has a relay coil. When start CLOCK button switch is pressed momentarily, cur- Fig. 6: actual-size PCB of the 3-phase electric motor controller and adjusting rent flows through the coil, relay the time by strip is pulled towards the iron of using HOUR, the coil and 3-phase voltage gets MIN and DAY applied to the motor. buttons. If first time duration Construction and testing of 8am to 9am An actual-size, single-side PCB of has to be pro- the 3-phase electric motor is shown grammed at in Fig. 6 and its component layout weekly mode, in Fig. 7. then 8am is EFY note. Reset the time switch programmed if there is any difficulty in setting at 1 ON mode time on the time switch.  and 8.01am is programmed at Dr R.V. Dhekale is currently 1 OFF mode in working as associate the first time professor and head of department (Physics) at switch by se- Kisan Veer Mahavidhyalaya, lecting weekly Maharashtra. He is a life member of Indian association Fig. 7: Component layout of the PCB mode. of Physics Teachers

112 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com do-it-yourself

Generating a Fixed-Frequency Sinusoidal Signal from Digital Output

Biswajit Das Petre tzv Petrov with a combination of RC and LC filters. or some testing purposes we Fig. 1 shows the circuit for pro- may need a fixed-frequency ducing a sinusoidal-like signal with C5 or C6. Fsinusoidal signal of 440Hz, RC filters. Output pin 33 (RB0) of Also, for good filtration of har- 1kHz, etc. But most low-cost micro- PIC16F877A (IC1) produces a square- monics, the following equation is controllers (MCUs) do not have in- wave signal, for example, with a suggested: ternal digital-to-analogue converters frequency of 1kHz. This signal is R4=10×R3=100×R2 (DACs). Adding external DACs could filtered using three RC filters built For a frequency of 1kHz, the fol- be expensive and/or complicated, correspondingly with R2 and C4, R3 lowing popular values are suggested: and these are not always needed. and C5, and R4 and C6. The cut-off R2=1k-ohm, R3=10k-ohm and Fortunately, most MCUs can easily frequency of these filters is practi- R4=100k-ohm produce fixed-frequency square-wave cally equal to the frequency of the C4=150nF, C5=15nF and signals with frequencies required for square-wave signal produced on pin C6=1.5nF the sinusoidal signals. 33 (RB0). This is also the frequency The filtered signal at point A is of the produced sinusoidal signal. amplified by operational amplifier Circuit and working This frequency is calculated using TL071 (IC2) and is available on con- The circuit can be configured in two the relationship: nector CON2. Gain of the output ways; one that produces a sinusoidal F(-3dB)=1/(2×π×R×C)=1/ stage = 1+R7/R6=10, and is se- signal with RC filters and another (6.28×R×C)[Hz] lected according to the requirement. that produces a sinusoidal signal where R is R2, R3 or R4, and C is C4, Fig. 2 shows the circuit for pro-

TP1 CON1 +5V

TP2 TP3 +15V −15V

C2 C3 R1 S1 100u 0.1u 10K RESET 16V 11 32 VDD VDD 1 MCLR RB7 40 2 RA0 RB6 39 C10 C11 C1 3 38 RA1 RB5 330n 330n 0.1u 4 RA2 RB4 37 36 5 RA3 RB3 35 6 RB2 R2 R3 R4 R5 RA4 34 Vcc− OS N2 R8 RB1 1K 10K 100K A 10K 4 7 RA5 IN+ 5 CON2 RB0 33 100E 8 IC1 OUT RE0 RD7 30 3 6 9 PIC16F877A 29 RE1 RD6 C4 C5 C6 IC2 28 2 Vcc+ 10 RE2 RD5 1.5n IN− TL071 7 27 0.15u 15n 15 RD4 NC RC0 1 OS N1 8 RC7 26 16 RC1 RC6 25 17 RC2 RC5 24 23 18 RC3 RC4 22 19 RD0 RD3 21 R7 20 RD2 RD1 91K Vss Vss OSC1 OSC2 R6 31 12 13 14 10K

TP0 C7 GND 22u X C8 TAL1 C9 25V 22p 4MHz 22p

GND Fig. 1: Circuit diagram for producing a sinusoidal signal with RC filters

114 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com do-it-yourself

TP5 CON3 +5V

TP6 TP7 +15V −15V

C13 C14 R9 100u S2 0.1u 10K 16V RESET 11 32 VDD VDD 1 MCLR RB7 40 2 RA0 RB6 39 C21 C22 C12 3 RA1 RB5 38 C20 330n 330n 0.1u 4 RA2 RB4 37 10n 36 5 RA3 RB3 35 6 RB2 R10 R11 R12 RA4 34 Vcc− OS N2 R15 RB1 1K 100K 10K 4 7 RA5 IN+ 5 CON4 RB0 33 1K 8 IC3 OUT RE0 RD7 30 3 9 PIC16F877A 29 6 RE1 RD6 C15 C16 L1 IC4 28 2 Vcc+ 10 RE2 RD5 25mH IN− 7 27 0.15u 1u TL071 15 RD4 NC RC0 1 OS N1 8 RC7 26 16 RC1 RC6 25 17 RC2 RC5 24 23 18 RC3 RC4 22 19 RD0 RD3 RD2 21 R14 R16 20 RD1 91K 100E CON5 Vss Vss OSC1 OSC2 R13 VR1 31 12 13 14 10K 10K

C17 TP4 22u X 2 C18 TAL C19 25V 22p 4MHz 22p

GND Fig. 2: Circuit diagram for producing a sinusoidal signal with a combination of RC and LC filters

Parts List Semiconductors: IC1, IC3 - PIC16F877A 8-bit MCU IC2, IC4 - TL071 low-noise JFET-input operational amplifier Resistors (all 1/4-watt, ±5% carbon): R1, R3, R5, R6, R9, R12, R13 - 10-kilo-ohm R2, R10, R15 - 1-kilo-ohm R4, R11 - 100-kilo-ohm R7, R14 - 91-kilo-ohm R8, R16 - 100-ohm VR1 - 10-kilo-ohm potmeter Capacitors: C1, C3, C12, C14 - 0.1µF ceramic disk C2, C13 - 100µF, 16V electrolytic C4, C15 - 0.15µF ceramic disk C5 - 15nF ceramic disk C6 - 1.5nF ceramic disk C7, C17 - 22µF, 25V electrolytic C8, C9, C18, C19 - 22pF ceramic disk C16 - 1µF, 25V MLCC C20 - 10nF ceramic disk C10, C11, C21, C22 - 330nF ceramic disk Fig. 3: Actual-size PCB pattern of the circuit for a sinusoidal signal with RC filters Miscellaneous: CON1, CON3 - 4-pin connector CON2, CON4, ducing a sinusoidal signal using a The LC filter is built with L1 CON5 - 2-pin connector L1 - 25mH inductor combination of RC and LC filters for and C16. Its resonant frequency is S1, S2 - Tactile switch better quality of filtration. equal to: XTAL1, XTAL2 - 4MHz crystal The RC filter is built with R10 and Fr=1/(2×π(sqrt(L1×C16))[Hz] C15. Its cut-off frequency is equal to: Ideally, F(-3dB) = Fr, but in prac- Values of the components are giv- F(-3dB) = 1/(2×π×R10×C15) tice, an accuracy of ±5% or even en for producing a sinusoidal signal = 1/(6.28×R10×C15) [Hz] ±10% is acceptable. of 1kHz. Capacitor C20 can be added www.eFYmag.com electronicS For You | September 2015 115 do-it-yourself

Fig. 4: Component layout of the PCB shown in Fig. 3

Fig. 5: Actual-size PCB pattern of the circuit for a sinusoidal signal with RC and LC filters

put at CON5 can be adjusted with Test Points VR1. The circuits are applicable in Test point Details the entire audible range of 20Hz to TP0, TP4 0V (GND) 20kHz. TP1, TP5 +5.0V Construction and testing TP2, TP6 +15V An actual-size, single-side PCB for TP3, TP7 -15V the circuit in Fig. 1 is shown in Fig. 3 and its component layout in Fig. 4. to lower the resonant frequency, Similarly, an actual-size, single-side though it is rarely needed. PCB pattern for the circuit in Fig. 2 Output signal is amplified using is shown in Fig. 5 and its component operational amplifier IC4. The out- layout in Fig. 6. Ensure proper values

116 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com do-it-yourself

efy Note the source code of this project is included in this month’s efy dVd and is also available for free download at source.efymag.com website.

using HI-TECH compiler along with MPLABIDE to generate the hex code. The generated hex code is burnt into the MCU using a suitable programmer with configuration bit setting. The set configuration bit is shown in Fig. 7. The program is well- commented and easy to understand. Delay function is used to Fig. 6: Component layout of the PCB shown in Fig. 5 generate frequency. 

of the resistors, capacitors Petre Tzv Petrov was a researcher and assistant professor at Technical University and inductor to get proper of Sofia (Bulgaria) and an output. expert-lecturer in OFPPT (Casablance), Kingdom of Morocco. Now, he is Software working as an electronics engineer in the private The program is written in sector in Bulgaria Fig. 7: Configuration bit C language and compiled

www.eFYmag.com electronicS For You | September 2015 117 do-it-yourself Thermocouple Tutorial with Arduino Interfacing AmAr deep Singh

Ronie AdhiRAAj Ghosh proportional to the temperature dif- tion versus cold reference junction,

ference of the two ends. The basic Tcold is the absolute temperature of ere is a simple project for setup of a thermocouple is shown the reference cold junction. interfacing a thermocouple in Fig. 1. There are a dozen varieties of with Arduino board. In high- V is the function of the temper- thermocouples but some specific ma- H ouT temperature process-control applica- ature differential (Tjunc-Tcold) and the terial pairs of dissimilar metals work tions, some Ics and sensors fail to types of metal in metal 1 and metal better in certain industrial or medical operate at certain high temperature 2. However, since the thermocouple conditions. These combinations of levels. So a simple, rugged and linear measures Tjunc differentially, the metals and/or alloys were stand- thermocouple can be used to prevent absolute cold-junction temperature ardised by nIST and International that. (in °c, °F, or °K) must be known to Electrotechnical commission (IEc), A thermocouple is made by fus- determine the actual temperature and are abbreviated as E, j, T, K, n, ing the tips of two dissimilar metals. measured at the hot junction. B, S, R, etc. It works on the principle of Seebeck All modern thermocouple based j type thermocouples are widely Effect, which states that when one systems use additional absolute used because of their relatively high end of a pair of two dissimilar metals temperature sensors (PRTd, silicon Seebeck coefficient, high precision is heated, a potential difference forms sensors and others) to accurately and low cost. These thermocouples at their other end, which is directly measure the temperature of the cold allow measurements with precision

Temperature gradient junction end and mathematically up to ±0.1°c, using a relatively compensate for the difference. simple linearisation calculation al- Metal 1 Tcold Tabs = Tjunc + Tcold gorithm. Tjunc V = f(T –T ) Milli- ouT junc cold voltmeter where Tabs is the absolute tempera- K type thermocouples are very Metal 2 ture of the hot junction, Tjunc is the popular for industrial measurements Fig. 1: Setup of a thermocouple relative temperature of the hot junc- covering a wide temperature range. These thermocouples offer a mod-

Type-K Thermocouple VouT vs Temperature estly high Seebeck coefficient, low 60.000 cost and good resistance to oxida- tion. These thermocouples allow

50.000 measurements with precision up to ±0.1°c. E type thermocouples are less 40.000 widespread than other thermocouples. However, Seebeck coefficient is 30.000 highest in this group. Measurements made by an E type thermocouple (mV) T ou

V require less measurement resolution 20.000 than other types. These thermocouples allow measurements with 10.000 precision up to ±0.5°c and require a relatively complex linearisation calculation algorithm. 0 S type thermocouples are made of platinum and rhodium, a combi- –10.000 nation that allows more stable and Temperature (°c) reproducible measurements at very Fig. 2: Output of K type thermocouple high temperatures in oxidising atmos-

118 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com do-it-yourself

X1 1 3 IC1 3 ~ + 1 7805 R5 15 16 230V BR1 R1 BOARD1 4 AC 100E K TP0 50Hz DB107 2 680E RS 2 _ 4 C1 A/VEE ~ C2 5 220u, 0.1u LED1 TP1 POWER USB

INPUT R/W 25V POWER 6

TP2 EN C4 AREF C3 C5 DRIVER 7 GND 0.1u 220u, 1 100u, IOREF GND D0

RST ARDUINO CON1 FOR 25V 16V 13 8 IC2 3.3V 12 THERMOCOUPLE D1 LCD1 2 3 5V 11 INPUT 7905 9 WHITE GND 10 16x2 D2 BLUE GND 9 10 8 Vin ATMEGA328 D3

C9 11 7 8 2 V+ IC4 − 4 J VIN V 0.1u D4 LTKA01CN8 7 12 1 3 3 1 DIGITAL E IC3 VO +IN VOS R3 6 D5 100K A0 5 13 LT1025 6 4 6 8 ANALOG GND R,S VOS OUT A1 4 D6 C10 A2 3 14 5 7 5 2 R− K,T OVER COMP −IN 22u, A3 2 D7

16V VO A4 TX 1 Vss VDD A5 RX 0

C6 2 1 C7 C8 R4 3 0.1u R2 VR1 VR2 100u, 0.1u 1K 100E 27K 10K, CONT. 16V

Fig. 3: Circuit diagram for interfacing a thermocouple with Arduino

Table I Parts List Typical examples of Selected Popular Thermocouples Semiconductors: IC1 - 7805, 5V regulator Thermocouple Positive Negative Temperature Seebeck coefficient IC2 - 7905, -5V regulator type conductor conductor range (°C) at +20°C IC3 - LT1025 cold-junction compensator J Chromel Constantan 0 to 760 51μV/°C IC4 - LTKA01CN8 op-amp BR1 - DB107 bridge rectifier K Chromel Alumel -200 to +1370 40.6μV/°C BOARD1 - Arduino UNO (ATmega328) E Chromel Constantan -100 to +1000 62μV/°C LED1 - 5 mm LED S Platinum Rhodium 0 to 1750 7μV/°C LCD1 - 16×2 alphanumeric display (10 per cent Rhodium) Resistors (all 1/4-watt, ±5% carbon): R1 - 680-ohm R2 - 1-kilo-ohm pheres. These thermocouples have a lT1025 (Ic3), op-amp lTKA01cn8 R3 - 100-kilo-ohm R4 - 27-kilo-ohm low Seebeck coefficient and relatively (Ic4), Arduino uno (Board1) and a R5 - 100-ohm high cost. S type thermocouples al- few other components. VR1 - 100-ohm potmeter VR2 - 10-kilo-ohm preset low measurements with precision 230V Ac mains is stepped down Capacitors: up to ±1°c and require a relatively to 12V Ac, 300mA through step- C1, C3 - 220μF, 25V electrolytic complex linearisation calculation down transformer X1. Secondary C2, C4, C6, C8, C9 - 0.1μF ceramic disk algorithm. output of X1 goes to bridge rectifier C5, C7 - 100μF, 16V electrolytic output of K type thermocouple BR1. capacitors c1 and c3 filter the C10 - 22μF, 16V electrolytic is shown in Fig. 2. Slight non-line- ripples and the rectified output is Miscellaneous: CON1 - 2-pin connector terminal arity is reflected in the output due given to regulators 7805 (Ic1) and X1 - 230V AC primary to 12V, to properties of metal at increased 7905 (Ic2). Ic1 provides +5V and 300mA secondary temperature. Ic2 provides -5V regulated dc output transformer - K type thermocouple to operate the circuit. lEd1 is used as Circuit and working a power-on indicator. circuit diagram of the circuit for inter- Ic3 gives K type output at its pin The thermocouple is connected facing a thermocouple with Arduino 7. operating temperature range of Ic3 to connector con1. This is the input is shown in Fig. 3. It is built around is –55°c to 125°c. Vo pin 3 of Ic3 is point for Ic3 and Ic4. Input could be 230V Ac primary to 12V, 300mA sec- externally pulled down with two ca- from any thermocouple. This project ondary transformer X1, bridge rectifier pacitors so that it can deliver proper was tested with j type and K type dB107 (BR1), +5V voltage regulator outputs for temperature below 0°. Vo thermocouples. 7805 (Ic1), -5V voltage regulator 7905 signal is fed to the analogue pin (A4) net output is amplified by Ic4 for (Ic2), cold-junction compensator of Board1. 5mV/°c sensitivity. For higher sen- www.eFYmag.com electronicS For You | September 2015 119 do-it-yourself sitivity, choose feedback accordingly 70°c. Pin 3 (+In) of Ic4 is con- Table II or scaling factor, likewise. operating nected to the other terminal of con1. Test Points temperature range of Ic4 is 0°c to Pin 4 (V-) of Ic4 is provided with -5V. Pin 2 (-In) of Ic4 is connected to Test point Details potmeter VR1, which is used to TP0 0V, GND set the amplifier gain. TP1 +5V Here, we have taken an ampli- TP2 –5V fier gain of about 123. By varying VR1, you can change the amplifier gain. output pin 6 of Ic4 is con- efy Note nected to the analogue pin (A5) the source code of this project is of Board1. included in this month’s efy dVd Arduino uno (Board1) is a and is also available for free down- microcontroller (Mcu) board load at source.efymag.com based on ATmega328. It has 13 digital pins and six analogue shown in Fig. 5. Mount all compo- input pins. Here, we are getting nents on the PcB. It is recommended analogue inputs from Ic3 and Ic4. to use Ic bases for Ic3 and Ic4.

Fig. 4: Actual-size PCB layout of the circuit for These analogue inputs are con- use a uSB A-B cable to upload interfacing a thermocouple with Arduino verted into digital outputs, which the compiled sketch (software) from are displayed on the lcd (lcd1) the Pc to Mcu through Arduino IdE. that is connected to digital pin 6 unplug the uSB cable from the Pc through digital pin 9 of Board1, and connect Arduino board to con4 operating in 4-bit mode. in the PcB. The operation is as follows: Software 1. Power on Arduino uno board. circuit operation is done using You can view the lcd displays: Field the software program loaded into Temp in the first row and cjc Temp the internal memory of Arduino in second as shown in Fig. 6. Here, uno. The program implements cjc value, which is 25.88, is the all required functionalities includ- room temperature in degree centi- ing handling user inputs through grade. the thermocouple, converting 2. Vary 10-kilo-ohm preset VR2 analogue readings to digital and to adjust the contrast of the lcd if displaying output on the lcd. The the text is not clearly visible. For any program is written in Arduino pro- other problem, you may verify the Fig. 5: Component layout of the PCB gramming language sketch. Ardui- voltages at the test points given in no IdE is used Table II. to compile and 3. dip the thermocouple in hot upload the water. When the temperature across program. the thermocouple is changed, values of temperature on the lcd will also Construction change. You will observe that Field and testing Temp value on the lcd will start An actual-size, going up from 0°c. That means, ana- single-side logue values from the thermocouple PcB layout of received in the Arduino board are the circuit for converted into digital and corre- interfacing a sponding values of the temperature thermocouple are displayed on the lcd.  with Ardui- no is shown Ronie Adhiraaj Ghosh is M.Tech from Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, and B.Tech in Fig. 4 and from Asansol Engineering College, West Bengal. its compo- His hobbies include electronics projects, watch Fig. 6: Prototype on breadboard nent layout is collection, camping and hiking

120 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com do-it-yourself

Parts List Fire Alarm Using a Thermistor Semiconductors: IC1, IC2 - NE555 timer T1 - BC547 npn transistor PradeeP G. LED1 - 5mm LED Resistors (all 1/4-watt, ±5% carbon): R1 - 22-kilo-ohm his project can effectively be s.c. dwivedi R2 - 4.7-kilo-ohm R3, R6 - 1-kilo-ohm used as a temperature-sensing R4, R7 - 56-kilo-ohm fire alarm. Here, an NTC ther- R5 - 680-ohm T R8 - 10-ohm mistor is used as the temperature VR1 - 100-kilo-ohm potmeter sensor. Resistance of the NTC ther- BC547 (T1), popular NE555 timers Capacitors: mistor decreases with an increase in (IC1 and IC2), speaker and a few C1, C6 - 100µF, 25V electrolytic C2 - 2.2µF, 25V electrolytic temperature. other components. C3, C5 - 0.01µF ceramic disk In this circuit, the two NE555 C4 - 0.047µF ceramic disk Circuit and working timers are wired as astable multi- Miscellaneous: CON1 - 2-pin connector terminal Circuit diagram of the fire alarm is vibrators. IC1 is wired as a low- S1 - On/off switch shown in Fig. 1. It is built around frequency generator and IC2 as a NTC1 - 10-kilo-ohm NTC thermistor NTC thermistor (NTC1), transistor high-frequency generator. LS1 - 8-ohm, 0.5W speaker

peratures. At room tempera- R2 VR1 4.7K R3 R6 ture, voltage 1K 1K S1 100K 7 at pin 4 of IC1 ON/OFF 7 DIS RESET 4 DIS RESET 4 remains low. POWER R1 R7 6 R4 6 8 TH 8 22K TH IC1 Vcc 56K IC2 Vcc With heating C1 56K R8 100u NE555 NE555 10E of NTC1, volt- 2 3 2 3 T1 TRI O/P TRI O/P 25V R5 age at pin 4 of BC547 C6 CON1 1 5 680E 1 5 GND CV GND CV 100u IC1 becomes 9V C4 LS1 NTC1 C2 25V 8−OHM high. This ena- 2.2u 0.047u 10K C3 C5 0.5W 25V LED1 bles both the 0.01u 0.01u timer ICs to GND oscillate and Fig. 1: Circuit diagram of the fire alarm produce sound through the At room temperature, speaker. Also, LED1 starts flashing. transistor T1 conducts The circuit works on 9V regulated and keeps reset pin 4 power supply. For a louder sound, of IC1 at ground level. you may add a speaker driver circuit As a result, both timer with matched impedance. ICs are disabled. But when temperature of Construction and testing the sensor goes above An actual-size, single-side PCB for 70°C (depending on the fire alarm circuit is shown in Fig. Fig. 2: Actual-size PCB pattern of the circuit for the fire alarm the thermistor constant 2 and its component layout in Fig. [K]), transistor T1 stops 3. Enclose the PCB in a small box conducting. Both NE555 in such a way that the thermistor timers oscillate and a can sense the temperature in case beeping sound is heard of fire.  from the speaker. Potmeter VR1 is used to set the cut-off/ saturation condition of Pradeep G. is B.Sc. (Physics) and a regular contributor transistor T1, which is to international magazines. related to the resistance He is also a small-business owner making school/college Fig. 3: Component layout of the PCB shown in Fig. 2 of NTC1 at different tem- projects in south India

122 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com do-it-yourself

Faraday’s Guitar Sani Theo

Balaji Ramalingam gives musical output. The law talks and a few other components. The about electromagnetic induction and circuit is powered by 12V battery. An xperimenting with the fun- production of electromotive force on/off toggle switch (S1) is used to damentals of electrical and (EMF) across a conductor when it is switch on the circuit. Eelectronics is always interest- exposed to a varying magnetic field. The two-stage preamplifier is ing. Presented here is an electronic To experience this, place a designed with BC549 transistors to circuit that demonstrates Faraday’s stretched copper wire near a magnet. amplify the low signal produced by law of electromagnetic induction and When you pluck the wire and it vi- guitar string. Voltage produced by the brates, EMF is produced string will be in the range of ~3mV Wooden plank in the copper wire and it and the preamplifier amplifies the String produces musical notes. signal further to ~20mV. Resistors Nails You can make an am- R1, R2 and R4 form the biasing cir- ateur guitar with a cop- cuit to the transistors. Capacitors C1 per string and magnet as and C3 are bypass capacitors that Magnet shown in Fig. 1. While allow sound signals and block DC strumming the string, components. Resistor R5 and capaci- To preamplifier a small voltage is pro- tor C5 form an RC filter for the power Fig. 1: Typical amateur guitar construction duced due to Faraday’s supply of the preamplifier circuit. law. When this voltage is LM386 (IC1) is a low-voltage amplified, you can hear audio power amplifier, which is suit- a pleasant sound from able for battery-powered devices for the speaker connected hobby projects. Capacitor C8 between to the power amplifier. pin 1 and pin 8 decides the gain of The author’s prototype the amplifier, and here it is set to is shown in Fig. 2. 200. Volume control VR1 is connected Circuit and working between output of the preamplifier Circuit diagram of Fara- and input of the power amplifier. day’s guitar is shown in For testing, connect the string to the Fig. 3. It is built around preamplifier circuit and power up transistors BC549 (T1 by closing switch S1. If you strum and T2), low-power the string, you will hear guitar notes audio amplifier LM386 from the speaker. Ensure there is Fig. 2: Author’s prototype (IC1), a speaker (LS1) right tension on the strings so that the longer tone notes are achieved. You

C3 S1 can have different R1 R2 R5 R6 1u ON /OFF 4.7K 2.2K 1K 4.7K string lengths so that 25V C8 POWER 10u distinct tones could C2 6 LED1 25V C9 be heard from each 47p 1 T2 3 100u BATT.1 C1 8 string. BC549 25V 12V 0.01u C5 VR1 IC1 T1 5 100u 100K LM386 BC549 2 Construction 25V 7 R7 and testing C6 LS1 R4 4 10E CON1 470u 8−OHM An actual-size, sin- 470K R3 C4 FOR 25V 0.5W gle-side PCB for Far- 2.2K 0.1u C7 STRING 0.1u aday’s guitar circuit is shown in Fig. 4 GND and its component Fig. 3: Faraday’s guitar circuit diagram layout in Fig. 5. En-

124 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com do-it-yourself

Parts List passed between all the nails Semiconductors: without joints or breaks. IC1 - LM386 low-power audio Place a magnet on the amplifier T1, T2 - BC549 npn transistor wooden plank roughly be- LED1 - 5mm LED low the middle of the string Resistors (all 1/4-watt, ±5% carbon): and ensure the gap is small R1, R6 - 4.7-kilo-ohm R2, R3 - 2.2-kilo-ohm between the string and the R4 - 470-kilo-ohm magnet. The produced EMF R5 - 1-kilo-ohm depends on the air gap R7 - 10-ohm VR1 - 100-kilo-ohm potmeter Fig. 4: Actual-size PCB of Faraday’s guitar between the magnet and Capacitors: the string. If the magnet C1 - 0.01µF ceramic disk touches the string, it may C2 - 47pF ceramic disk C3 - 1µF, 25V electrolytic obstruct the vibration of C4, C7 - 0.1µF ceramic disk the string and the produced C5, C9 - 100µF, 25V electrolytic C6 - 470µF, 25V electrolytic EMF would be low. If the C8 - 10µF, 25V electrolytic gap is too much then, due Miscellaneous: to weak magnetic link- CON1 - 2-pin connector BATT.1 - 12V battery age, EMF will be lower. S1 - On/off switch Therefore keep the magnet LS1 - 8-ohm, 0.5W speaker Fig. 5: Component layout of the PCB as close as possible to get - 2-pin connector terminal for battery higher EMF.  nails on either side as shown in Fig. 1. Balaji Ramalingam is working close the PCB in a suitable box and Tie a copper wire (string) between the as a technical expert at Robert place it near the guitar. nails with correct tension. The copper Bosch, Bengaluru. He has filed several patents for For construction of the guitar, wire can be taken out from any trans- automotive electronics and take a wooden plank measuring ap- former with 500mA secondary rating. published papers in SAE conferences and several proximately 10cm×30cm and put four Ensure that a single string is international magazines

www.eFYmag.com electronicS For You | September 2015 125 do-it-yourself LDR Based DC Motor Speed Control

Sumantra Bhattacharya a DC motor. The objective of this project is light-dependent resistor to see how much faster the motor Biswajit Das (LDR) whose resistance is moves when a hand is brought closer Ainversely proportional to the to it. This circuit could be very use- intensity of light is often used as ful in applications where one tries to a sensor in electronic projects that control the movement of a robot us- Parts List involve the use of light. This project ing a wired/wireless channel, keep- Semiconductors: uses an LDR to control the speed of ing different arrangements of LDR U1 - Arduino Uno board and transmitting the same through LDR - A small light-dependent the channel to the receiving side, resistor CON1 - (+5V) DC supply and where the movement of the robot LDR interface can be controlled. It has been devel- CON2 - (+5V) DC motor interface oped and tested keeping this vision R1 - 10k, 1/4-watt, ±5% in mind. ADC and its value ranges from zero Circuit and working to 1024. But, the pulse-width modu- Fig. 1: Author’s prototype The circuit uses a small LDR, which lation (PWM) output from Arduino is sensitive to the intensity of light. ranges from zero to 255. Thus, values Voltages generated from coming from the ADC decrease by Table I the LDR are compared four times. These are divided into Values Coming from aDC and using an internal ADC three ranges as shown in Table I. Their Division of Arduino Uno, which Software programme Hand position with Value range of Speed of motor turns on as light inten- respect to the lDR arduino Uno aDC/4 PWM output sity goes above a certain if(val<60) analogWrite(9,0); No hand/obstruction 0LDR output, send PWM (0) First position 6060 && val<200) analogWrite(9,40); positions of the hand If 60

In this pro- if(val>200 && val<255) 32 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 ject three varia- analogWrite(9,255); tions in speeds If 200

USB ATMEGA328

DRIVER and high. Read- EFY note. LDR based speed vari- ANALOG ings from the ation is a very easy way of varying Vin A0 A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 RST 3.3V 5V GND GND INPUT POWER LDR are taken the speed of a DC motor. Change in U1 by analogue speed from one to another is very

ARDUINO UNO 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 TP1 10 11 12 13 14 pin A0 using a smooth. But the number of distinct voltage divider variations in speed is less. Only three TP0 +5V R1 circuit consist- prominent variations in 5V could be 10K CON2 LDR ing of 10k re- observed.  DC Motor GND sistance and CON1 LDR connected at CON1 as shown. GND Arduino Sumantra Bhattacharya is M.Tech (mechatronics) Fig. 2: Circuit diagram of the LDR based DC motor speed control Uno has a 10-bit from IIEST

126 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com do-it-yourself

Lift Indications Nidhi Kathuria

Somnath Bera and akhileSh Singh ment. Even though it is no longer these special long-glass incandescent under warranty, we are still afraid bulbs are not easily available in the epresented here is a project to carry out the maintenance work market. on lifts’ indications. It con- ourselves and often wait for the OEM To solve this problem, we tried Rsists of Raspberry Pi (Raspi), to do it for us. We usually end up using LEDs but these cause other MCP23008 8-bit I/O expander with paying a hefty fee, too. problems. Even when there is no serial interface, MCP23017 16-bit One such item is a boiler lift. We indication, due to the threshold limit, I/O expander with serial interface, have quite a large number of these voltages present in the indication line DS18B20 digital thermometer, an behemoths that still work but keep and the LEDs never go off—so these alphanumeric 16×4 LCD and a few breaking down, requiring mainte- keep glowing. other components. nance and eventual replacement over When my electrical maintenance Many a time, we, in the in- the years. One of the many problems guy expressed complete helpless- dustry, limit ourselves due to the with these lifts is that for indications, ness over this problem, I talked to overwhelming nature of proprietary these use +24V DC, which lights him and after some trial and error, items, combined with lack of money, small bulbs and on a number of oc- came out with an elegant solu- to renovate and modernise old equip- casions the bulbs fuse. On top of this, tion. At the heart of the solution lies Raspi computer, and VR1 10K the lift cage indications are completely replaced by a so- 3 TP0 TP1 2 1 phisticated 16×4 LCD panel, SD CARD GND +5V VO Vss VDD 14 D7 which shows temperature, 3.3V 5V 1 2 POWER GPIO2 5V 3 4 clock, floor number and even 13 GPIO3 GND D6 5 6 GPIO4 GPIO14 1 18 7 8 GND GPIO15 SCL VDD makes audio announcement

9 10 12 GPIO17 GPIO18 D5 11 12 GPIO27 GND 2 17 for floor numbers like the 13 14 GPIO22 GPIO23 SDA GP7 11 15 16 D4 3.3V GPIO24 17 18 3 16 ones we find in modern Otis GPIO10 GND 19 20 A2 GP6 GPIO9 GPIO25 LCD1 10 21 22 D3 GPIO11 GPIO8 or Kone capsule lifts. 23 24 4 15 GPIO7 16X4 GND 25 26 A1 GP5 9 D2 5 14 HDMI A0 GP4 Raspi in action 8 D1 6 13 RASPBERRY PI RESET GP3 We tried to build this project 7 D0 MODEL−B 7 12 on Arduino but due to Ar- REVISION 2 NC GP2 470u 6 EN ETHERNET 8 11 duino’s limitations on audio USB INT GP1 5 R/W

C1 voice reproduction, we shifted 9 10 VSS GP0 4 RS to Raspi. However, due to R1 4.7K K A/VEE IC3 limitations of GPIOs on Raspi, 15 16 MCP23008 we tied up one MCP23008 and MCP23017 each on I2C SWN [Floor N]

14 13 12 11 10 R2 bus, so that the MCP23008 is 1 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 GND 1K 2 NC SDA SCL NC VSS VDD GPB7 GPB6 GPB5 GPB4 GPB3 GPB2 GPB1 GPB0 used for running the 16×4 DQ 3 24V character LCD display for VDD T1 R3 IC2 BC547 1K + display purpose and the IC1 − RESET MCP23017 MCP23017 is used for receiv- GPA0 GPA1 GPA2 GPA3 GPA4 GPA5 GPA6 GPA7

DS18B20 INTB INTA CON1 SW3 ing input signals from the A0 A1 A2 several landings floors. 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 SW2 MCP23017 has 16 GPIOs, which can all be used for SW1 switching; it can provide indications for lift systems with up to 16 floors. Add one GND more MCP23017 and you can Circuit diagram for lift indications add another 16 floors.

128 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com do-it-yourself

Circuit and working Important notes fruit libraries may be copied from my Normally, in an elevator system, repository here. when the carriage arrives at a land- Important note 1. The software is built on https://drive.google.com/ ing, it throws a crowbar, which, in Raspi version 1 board. For running it on file/d/0B3E3LcSKoM-6S21ZUnZ0d- turn, actuates a number of switches. version 2 board, we need to make some WZJRGs/edit?usp=sharing changes in the following files: These switches may be on the +24V However, mpg321 and GPIOs have lcd23008.py side or on the ground side. In our Adafruit_MCP230xx.py to be installed from the Internet. case, these are on the ground side, lift_light.py mpg321 may be installed using which means the +24V indication lift-light-with-espeak.py the following command: lamps have the +24V side already $> sudo apt-get install mpg321 connected and ready. And when the Where it needs to be changed, it is switch actuates, it sends the ground marked clearly like: Operation connection to the bulb to switch it # use busnum=0 for Raspi version 1 MP3 files are to be made separately on. (256MB) and busnum=1 for Raspi version 2 from recordings using anorak or Important note 2. In case you are using Similarly, when the carriage moves some other recording program. Each the latest Raspbian OS, add the following past that landing, the crowbar releases lines: MP3 will speak about different floors, the switch along with the ground con- in /boot/config.txt & reboot namely, first floor, second floor, third nections, and the bulb goes off. How- floor and so on. ever, for some older lifts, these signals $sudo nano /boot/config.txt A small speaker amplifier is come from the +24V side rather than added to the audio-out port of Raspi. the ground. These are then inverted dtparam=spi=on Power supply of the audio ampli- using a simple transistor (BC547) dtparam=i2c_arm=on fier is taken separately (normally, switching technique as shown in the dtoverlay=w1-gpio 6V/12V). To run the program at schematic (see Floor N). After invert- boot level, so that every time Raspi Save nano by ctrl+o and then exit by ing these, these can be used again, as ctrl+x. restarts after any power failure, add shown in the schematic. Make the changes accordingly and then the following line at /etc/rc.local We pick up ground connections reboot to make the effects permanent. file: (using SW1, SW2 and SW3) for our $> sudo nano /etc/rc.local Raspi based indications. All these arrives, it shorts the concerned GPIO #add this line before exit com- connections reach inside the carriage with the ground, thereby switching mand: as well as outside the landings. In- the respective MP3 file and the LCD sudo python lift_light.py & side and outside indication is a series panel showing the respective floor Save nano with ctrl+o and then of horizontal +24V bulbs placed number, besides the clock and tem- exit with ctrl+x under a bar, indicating the floor perature signals. Temperature sensor To run the program from the com- numbers. When the lift cage reaches DS18B20 is used for sensing lift-cage mand line, use: a floor, the bulb under that floor temperature. $> sudo python lift_light.py & number glows. To have different addresses on I2C Program Alternate software bus of MCP23008 and MCP23017, The program is built using easy Py- To get rid of MP3 files, we can train we have connected the address ports thon scripts.For Additional More software that our Raspi to use a synthesiser pro- in different ways to have 0x20 and we have used are all free Adafruit gram to speak up. There are many 0x21 as addresses of these two dif- librariesTest for manipulating and the Equipment GPIOs voice synthesiser Stories software available ferent MCPs. Python script runs at of MCP230xx, one Python GPIO for online, but eSpeak is the most ver- boot level and monitors the GPIOs of manipulatingVisit the www.electronicsb2b.com software and one satile and it comes free of cost. The MCP23017. The moment one landing mpg321 for playing MP3 files. Ada- other voice synthesiser software are

For More Test and and Measurement Equipment Stories Stories Visit www.electronicsb2b.com

130 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com do-it-yourself

Festival, pico and cepstral (www. To learn about the manual of efy Note cepstral.com/raspberrypi). eSpeak, use: the source code of this project is eSpeak produces good-quality $> man espeak included in this month’s efy dVd English speech. It uses a different or and is also available for free down- synthesis method from other open $> espeak --h load at source.efymag.com source text to speech (TTS) engines The last command will give you and sounds quite different. It is per- detailed options about how to use haps not as natural or smooth, but eSpeak. Before testing eSpeak, at- MP3 files. its articulation is clearer and easier tach an amplifier with Raspi audio $> sudo python lift-light-with-espeak. to listen to for long periods. socket, as the normal audio output py & $> sudo apt-get update does not have enough power to drive This Python program will work $> sudo apt-get upgrade more than an earphone. By running in a similar way, but it would not $> sudo apt-get install alsa-utils eskeap-gui, you can pick the voice need MP3 files and the voice quality Edit /etc/modules file to include of your choice for the eSpeak syn- is pretty good. To run it at boot level, the following line beside its other thesiser. add it in /etc/rc.local file.  lines: Given below are a few examples:

$> sudo nano /etc/modules $> espeak “Hello Guys, welcome to EFY” snd_bcm2835 // male voice Somnath Bera is an avid user Save nano with ctrl+o and then of open source software. $> espeak -ven+f3 “Hello, Welcome to Professionally, he is a thermal exit with ctrl+x. EFY” // female voice power expert and works as additional general manager $> sudo reboot $> espeak -ven+f3 -k9 -s150 -a200 “Hello at NTPC Ltd This command will reboot Raspi. Guys, Welcome to EFY” //high pitched , Complete the installation by add- well spaced, maximum amplitude female ing the following software: voice $> sudo apt-get install mplayer Now, run Python program lift- Akhilesh Singh is working as electrical engineer in $> sudo apt-get install espeak light-with-espeak.py and it will speak electrical maintenance $> sudo apt-get install espeak-gui up those floor numbers bypassing the department at NTPC Ltd

www.eFYmag.com electronicS For You | September 2015 131 do-it-yourself

Analogue Clock Using MATLAB Sani Theo

P. Manickaraja the program and provide the desired output. ASA might get a fancy digi- Program logic. Circle with a ra- efy Note tal-count display, retire the dius of 10 units is drawn. Hours are the source code of this project is Nanalogue clock from Apollo marked from 1 to 12, 30° apart. Sys- included in this month’s efy dVd era but the passion for the analogue tem time such as your PC’s is read by and is also available for free down- clock does not end. An analogue the command. According to the cur- load at source.efymag.com clock has moving hands, where the rent time of your PC, the hours, min- smaller one is the hours hand and utes and seconds hands are displayed. clear( ). It clears all variables. travels 30° in one hour, and the Commands used. The figure textxy ( ). This command prints longer one is the minutes hand and shows the screenshot of the program the text in the specified location, travels 360° in an hour. The seconds output. Commands used in the pro- which is mentioned as x and y co- hand rotates with a step of 6°. gram for the analogue clock display ordinates. are given below: numtostr( ). It converts a number Software program clock( ). This command extracts to string data type.  The coding is developed using MAT- date, year and current time from the LAB version 7.9.0.529 (or R2009b). real-time system. MATLAB has a good collection of pause ( ). It provides the required P. Manickaraja is masters graphics commands for plotting time delay in seconds. in engineering in control and instrumentation from and analysing complex signals. The clc( ). It clears the command College of Engineering, built-in functions reduce the size of window. Guindy, Tamil Nadu

Screenshot of the program output

Your favourite Magazine on THE COMPLETE M AGAZINE ON OPEN SOURCE Open Source is now on the Web, too. OpenSourceForU.com Follow us on Twitter@LinuxForYou

132 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com estyle: first look

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Price: ` 5499 ith iRist, you can originate tooth. It comes in three colour vari- Wa call, send messages; also, ants, namely, black, orange and pink. the call can be heard and an- swered with just your wrist. This Price: ` 11,999 3G-enabled smartwatch features a 3.9cm (1.56-inch) screen with 240 x 240 pixels with sapphire glass. The 600mAh battery is expected to keep your wrist alive for a day, without running after the charger sockets. The iRist features 1.2GHz dual- core processor and 512MB RAM. It also comes with an inbuilt GPS, a pedometer, voice assistant and 5MP camera. It is dust and water resistant, supports Wi-Fi and Blue-

134 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com estyle: first look

GizMo Logitech launches ByTes Bluetooth multi-device keyboard A wireless desk keyboard for your computer, tablet and smartphone

An app for the visually his wireless keyboard supports keyboard holds the phone or tablet impaired TWindows (Windows 7, 8 and at just the right angle for you to 10), Mac (Mac OS X or later) or read while you type. Be My Eyes, the new iPhone app, uses Chrome computers and Android The keyboard is available in cameras and generous guides to help the visually-impaired people to carry (Android 3.2 or later) or iOS mo- two colour variants, namely, black out their day-to-day activities more bile devices (iPad or iPhone with and white. It features a battery life efficiently and with fewer difficulties. iOS 5 or later). of two years and Bluetooth range The app pairs the visually impaired It switches easily between de- of up to 10m (30-feet). It measures with sighted people who help them vices; simply turn the Easy-Switch 195mm x 299mm x 20mm (7.68- with a number of tasks, such as dial to switch typing between three inch x 11.77-inch x 0.79-inch) and counting money, choosing an outfit connected Bluetooth wireless de- weighs 820 grams. or browsing the Web. vices. The integrated cradle on the Price: ` 2795 Go green with Greenopia Greenopia, the new mobile app, could do the job of a gardener. The technology not only helps to understand which plants grow in what climatic conditions, it also informs its user to understand the kind of material needed to grow these, the level at which seeds should be sown and the amount of water required for a particular plant. Microsoft launches Send app Technology giant Microsoft has launched a new app called Send to give its users a quick text-message- like experience even in emails. It removes the subject line and takes its users directly to the contacts list. The Pocket-size washing machine app does not require a subject line, signature or salutation. It displays from Haier frequent and recent contacts when you open it. The user can also see when World’s first pocket-size washing machine the other person is typing a response, if he or she is also a Send user. ODO, the world’s first washing Cmachine, features high-speed India’s first social polling app washing. It operates at the rate of 700 beats per minute and removes Whatsay enables its users to send visual polls in 25 categories to fresh stains magically in 30 seconds. their friends and followers through With precise cleaning, it cleans the various social network platforms like stain area precisely without spoiling WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and the fabric. Gmail. They can also add images or CODO weighs 300gm and mea- Price: ` 4990 videos with the related post. sures 46mm x 46mm x 176mm. It works on three AAA pencil batteries. www.eFYmag.com electronicS For You | September 2015 135 estyle: BUyeRs’ GUIDe What to Look for in a UHD TV

HD televisions, or 4K ultra-HD TVs, tures that are important for buyers in finding are gaining popularity these days. the right UHD TV for their needs. Over a period of time, these TVs are U The UHD TV resolution starting to become affordable, ranging from good-size displays to high-end models. UHD TV offers almost four times the resolu- Today, everyone wants to know about tion of mainstream 1080p flat screens. Current- Sushma Rani is a content-developer-cum- UHD TVs and own one, but they must know ly, there are two forms of UHD, namely, 4K sub-editor at EFY why these are in trend and capturing a high and 8K, and both have an aspect ratio of 16:9. demand in 2015. 4K UHD (2160p) has a resolution of As per market trends, UHD is the next 3840×2160 (8.3MP), which is roughly equiv- big thing in high-definition TV (HD TV) alent to 4K cinema. resolution. Technically, UHD is a derivation 8K UHD (4320p) produces 7680×4320 of the 4K digital cinema standard. UHD TV pixel resolution (33.2MP), which is roughly is a digital TV display format in which the the equivalent of an IMAX film or 16 times horizontal screen resolution is around 4000 the pixel resolution of full HD (1080p). pixels (4K UHD) or 8000 pixels (8K UHD). It So, before making your purchase deci- sure sounds impressive, with super-detailed sion, do your homework and then go ahead pictures that have four times (or more) as with the best UHD TV you can afford for many pixels as a 1080p HD set. yourself. It is worth mentioning that 4K UHD On October 17, 2012, Consumer Electron- TV prices are coming down. ics Association (CEA) made an announcement that the official term ultra HD would be used Design and features for any display with a 16×9 ratio, with at As UHD TVs are manufactured to provide cus- least one digital input cable carrying a mini- tomers with advanced technology with quality mum resolution of 3840×2160 square pixels. features, buyers must check and research their Now, a large number of manufacturers design and features well, before buying one. are producing fewer full-HD TVs and more Major TV manufacturers attempt to 4K TVs and the year 2015 is witnessing huge convince customers to buy a UHD 4K TV growth in the 4K segment. UHD TV sets are in order to get a better operating system, now available from most of the major TV voice-controlled remote control, search func- manufacturers and they provide these prod- tion and 3D compatibility. These parameters ucts with advanced technology. become a strong factor in attracting buyers In this article, we list out some key fea- towards the product.

Some UHD TVs AVAilAble in inDiA Vu 48D6455 122 micromax 50K2330 lG 40Ub800T Samsung HU8500 Philips 58PUT8509 Samsung SUHD UA65JS9000K

Price ` 45,000 ` 49,990 ` 62,235 ` 159,000 ` 235,000 ` 440,900 Features • LED display • LED display • LED display • LED display • Pixel Plus UHD • Flawless motion- worth • 122cm (48-inch) • 124cm (49-inch) • 100cm (40-inch) • 122cm (48-inch) • Wi-Fi Miracast: Mirrors handling capabilities looking • UHD (4K), 3840 x 2160 • UHD (4K), 3840 x 2160 • UHD (4K), 3840 x • UHD (4K), 3840 x 2160 the smartphone screen • Connect box at pixels pixels 2160 pixels pixels to the TV • Quality sound • Smart TV • Smart TV • Smart TV • 3D TV, Smart TV • Multi-room TV • Lightning quick settings • 3 x HDMI, 4 x USB • 2 x HDMI, 3 x USB • 3 x HDMI, 3 x USB • 4 x HDMI, 3 x USB • Ultra-slim lines for a and smart interface • Ethernet • Ethernet • Built-in Wi-Fi • Built-in Wi-Fi refined profile • Powerful 3840×2160 • Refresh rate: 60Hz • Refresh rate - clear mo- • Ethernet • Ultra-narrow bezel pixels tion rate: 60Hz OC ready • 400Hz PMR UHD • 60W 4.2 channel front- • 3D view bottom trigging speakers

The prices mentioned here are from various e-commerce portals and are subject to change. 136 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com estyle: BUyeRs’ GUIDe

Take a look at the size of the ing booming bass could be the right screen because price depends on it. 4K choice for you, so keep your ears UHD TVs come with 3D displays using open and select a good sound bar or active 3D technology and the picture speaker, which can go along with a enhancement technology usually in- big-screen TV. cludes Pixel Plus, Digital Natural Mo- tion, Micro Dimming and 400Hz PMR Multi-link screen Ultra for improved 4K motion. A multi-link screen brings the enter- Also, look at connectivity options tainment experience to a whole new that should include HDMI inputs, com- level by providing multiple-screen ponent input, USB ports, antenna in- viewing. Users can easily search for put, Ethernet port, audio L/R in, digital information on the Internet about a audio out, headphones out and Wi-Fi. TV show that they are watching, on Remotes play a major role in any the same screen, or watch recom- TV technology and the best part is mended video clips related to the that 4K TVs generally come with inter- live show they are watching, simul- esting and advanced technology based taneously. remotes; these also carry a smart Buyers must be aware of the fact piece of design that makes the system that all features vary depending on a lot easier to use. If useful apps are the TV model’s specifications. preloaded onto the TV, and you have access to app stores like Google Play Powerful processor Store, then you are good to go. When it comes to the performance of a TV, the processor marks its entry. The picture quality It is all about the operation of the Advanced UHD dimming technology processor, which offers enhanced brings an ideal level of contrast and performance. If your UHD TV is pow- colour to your UHD viewing. Higher ered by a powerful quad-core proces- resolution of UHD also means that the sor with a decent amount of user- picture requires more processing for a available storage, you will notice the highly-detailed image. difference straight away. With this, Technology used in the making of you can switch between content and a UHD TV brings realistic and detailed Web browsing, as well as smoother colours in picture. Picture quality var- interaction. Entertainment experience ies between good and satisfactory, will be so much more enjoyable, with depending on the content that is being less waiting and more viewing. played. There is a real sense of depth and dimension to a 3D picture. Some Content manufacturers use active 3D for beau- All this is fine, but 4K TV content is tiful 3D pictures but that too depends lacking not only in India but in most on the content. countries at present. Yet, 4K TV is becoming the de facto standard in Quality sound matters the hope that content would become From the sound perspective, most available sooner than later. Videocon 4K UHD TVs come with speakers D2H and Tata Sky are already offer- that produce a loud sound but that is ing 4K set-top boxes that enable re- definitely not enough. Performance of ception of a channel with 4K content, sound plays an important role in add- which at present mostly comprises ing quality to the overall presentation re-runs of documentaries and some of your UHD TV. sports events. TVs that have 4.2 channel-front The other source of 4K content, of bottom-firing speakers with dual course, is the Internet. But then you woofers for improved bass provide will end up using four times the data the best sound on a TV. A UHD TV compared to full-HD, inflating your with impressive loud sound produc- Internet bill. 

www.eFYmag.com electronicS For You | September 2015 137 eStyle: diy Nine Cool Features On Google You Did Not Know About

also has the option of making a font as the default font on the browser. Wedding planner For all those who did not know about it, Google provides the option known as Wedding Planner for its users. To make sure all goes well on your big day, you could make optimum use of this feature for every little thing that you need to take care of, from an- nouncing the news of your marriage to setting up a shareable photo stream for the big day. If that is not enough, it also saves you the cost of hiring a Google Sky screenshot wedding planner to make your event a successful one. www.efytimes.com need to accomplish a task within a stipulated span of time. Google Art Project earch engine giant Google can Google Art Project allows individuals go beyond its function of being Tip calculator to view artefacts from more than 600 Sjust a search engine for your Budget could be a constraint, espe- international galleries, present across queries. There are times when Google cially if you plan to go out on a binge the globe. You certainly could not tends to surprise its users and how! with your friends. To add to your have asked for more. Listed below are nine super-cool fea- woes, you also need to tip the waiter tures that you might not have known at a restaurant, apart from paying the Explore the universe existed on Google. allocated bill amount. Tip calculator The option of Google Sky by Google on Google allows you to calculate allows you to delve into the far Calorie comparison the tip you should be paying once reaches of the universe. From viewing If you have to compare your favourite you enter the full bill amount. It also images on NASA satellites and Hubble food item against another, you might tells you how much each individual Telescope, you can explore the galax- as well do that using the search en- at the table needs to pay, to fulfil the ies from the comfort of your room. gine. For instance, punching in the total billing amount, when you are You could also learn a lot more about name of one food item versus the going Dutch. astrological signs and listen to space- other will enable Google to dish out related podcasts. details of the two food items including Filtering Gmail calorie count, nutritional content and a Adding ‘+website’ to your Gmail ID Playing with Lego lot more, in a tabular form. We think it will allow you to sign up with several Revive your days of glory and child- is going to be an interesting tussle be- websites, using your Gmail ID. Here hood on buildwithchrome.com. Check tween pizza and chocolate brownies. is how: your email+website@gmail. out some cool constructions by other com. It will also allow you to create users and master the art of brick layer- Setting a timer a folder, where all emails from that ing on this tool. In addition, with its Keying in any time in the search bar particular website can land in. inbuilt map function, the website al- followed by the words ‘bar timer’ lows you to share your Lego construc- would allow you to get a countdown Cool fonts tions with people all over the world. for the time set. You can also set an Google Fonts has a huge database Lego on Google is so much fun, for alarm, for the time you have set. It of cool fonts that an individual can you will never end up stepping on is an excellent option for those who download and use for free. The user these. 

138 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com www.efymag.com electronics for you | september 2015 139 www.efymag.com electronics for you | september 2015 141 www.efymag.com electronics for you | september 2015 143 www.efymag.com electronics for you | september 2015 145 www.efymag.com electronics for you | september 2015 147 www.efymag.com electronics for you | september 2015 149 www.efymag.com electronics for you | september 2015 151 www.efymag.com electronics for you | september 2015 153 www.efymag.com electronics for you | september 2015 155

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advertisers’ product category index

Products Page No. Products Page No. Products Page No. Products Page No.

Automation & Robotics Components (Including Active & Passive) Key Operations & Electrocomponents Pvt Ltd ... 41 RK Enterprises ...... 159 Eita Technologies ...... 158 Digi-Key Electronics ...... 3 Pro Solutions ...... 158 Hari Hi Ohm Electronics ...... 144, 154 Element14 India Pvt Ltd...... 1 Rockforest ...... 156 Telecom Products Infineon Technologies Asia Pacific LWI Electronics Inc...... 23 Softgrip Power Solutions Pvt. Ltd...... 149 MediaTek India Technology Pvt. Ltd ...... 143 Pte Ltd ...... 97 Mouser Electronics (Hong Kong) Ltd ...... 7 Tektronix India Pvt Ltd...... 164 Microchip Technology Inc...... 65, 79 Premier Controls ...... 150 Trade Corp...... 159 Tenders & Announcements Nuvoton Technology Corp...... 19 Renesas Electronics India Pvt. Ltd ...... 67 Akas Medical ...... 156 Rapid Radio Solution Private Limited ...... 157 S.M Semiconductors ...... 158 PCBs, Assemblies & Sub Assemblies ROHM Semiconductor ...... 127 Stead Electronics (India) Pvt Ltd ...... 146 Circuit Systems India Ltd ...... 117 Test & Measurement Equipment (Including Sahasra Electronics Pvt Ltd ...... 151 Virginia Panel Corporation ...... 91 Cubix Control Systems Pvt. Ltd ...... 76-77 Indicators & Monitors) Scientech Technologies Pvt Ltd ...... 87 Advance Tech Services Pvt. Ltd ...... 25 ST Microelectronics Marketing Pvt. Ltd ...... 81 Display Systems Plugs, Sockets & Connectors Anritsu India Pvt Ltd ...... 31 Time Trading Corporation ...... 159 Electronic Assembly ...... 96 Auro Controls ...... 49 CM Envirosystems Pvt. Ltd ...... 125 Toshiba India Pvt Ltd ...... 61 Elcom International Pvt Ltd ...... 140 Countronics ...... 157 Educational Training Kits FCI OEN Connectors Ltd ...... 83 Crown Electronic Systems ...... 158 Batteries & Power Supplies Advance Technologies ...... 156 Cyronics Instruments Pvt. Ltd ...... 108 Coslight India Telecom Pvt. Ltd...... 147 Excel Technologies ...... 147 Reseller and Distributors Dinteck ...... 157 Digital Promoters (I) Pvt Ltd ...... 156 Logsun System ...... 146 Auro Controls ...... 49 Elsys Technology ...... 144 Elnova Ltd ...... 157 Mepits infotech Private Limited ...... 37 Digi-Key Electronics ...... 3 FLIR Systems ...... 33 Etekniks Technologies ...... 157 Element14 India Pvt Ltd...... 1 Good Will Instrument Co. Ltd ...... 162 Gurukirpa Electronics ...... 156 Industrial & Manufacturing Equipment Mouser Electronics (Hong Kong) Ltd ...... 7 Keysight Technologies India Pvt. Ltd ...... 2 Kandhari Photo Electronics P Ltd ...... 158 Inde Enterprises ...... 29, 39 Meco Meters Pvt Ltd ...... 55, 57, 59 Mornsun Guangzhou Science & Technology Indus Robotics & Automation Research Sensors & Transducers NI Systems (India) Pvt Ltd ...... 163 Co Ltd ...... 17 Pvt Ltd ...... 144 PIC GmbH ...... 27 Precision Mastech Enterprises (Hong Kong) National Controlling & Equipments ...... 159 Max Technology & Co...... 35 Ltd...... 145 Nehatronix ...... 157 Visha World ...... 142 Services Siglent Technologies Co. Ltd ...... 123 Proxim Asia Inc...... 147 InterFab Electronics ...... 131 Tangent Test Technologies ...... 47, 53 PSI Enterprises ...... 157 Materials (Including Chemicals & Consumables) Raj Electronics ...... 159 Tektronix India Pvt Ltd ...... 164 Pye Electro Systems ...... 158 Chandsons Industries ...... 158 Vital Electronics & Manufacturing Co...... 149 Vidyut Yantra Udyog ...... 146 Sakthi Accumulators Private Ltd ...... 157 DSM India Private Limited ...... 142 Savolite ...... 159 HK Wentworth (India) Pvt Ltd ...... 13 Solar Products Trade Shows and Events Shavison Electronics Pvt. Ltd...... 137 Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency ...... 71 Maxel Electronics Systems Pvt Ltd ...... 159 MMI India Pvt. Ltd ...... 63, 69 SM Electronic Technologies Pvt. Ltd...... 21 Progressive Engineers ...... 148 Mitramax Energy Private Limited ...... 113 NI Systems (India) Pvt Ltd ...... 163 Srishti Electronics ...... 156 Zenith Industrial Products ...... 158 Precimec Products ...... 148 Upsinverter.com ...... 139 Raj Electronics ...... 159 Training and Certification Institutes Optics & Optoelectronics Systellar Innovations ...... 154 CADD Centre Training Services Cabinets, Enclosures & Accessories Binay Opto Electronics Pvt Ltd ...... 14 Private Limited ...... 141 S K Metal Works ...... 157 Buljin Elemec Pvt Ltd ...... 156 Switches & Relays Shrey Plastic Moulders ...... 156 Everlight Electronics India Pvt Ltd ...... 109 Elcom International Pvt Ltd ...... 140 Wires & Cables Universal Electronic Agencies ...... 140 GSR Infocom Pvt. Ltd...... 158 Electronics Relays (India) Pvt Ltd ...... 148 Sagar Switch Gear ...... 153

EFY Magazine Attractions During 2015 Month tEchnologY Focus MArkEt survEYs BuYEr’s guiDE For ElEctronics lABs

January IoT & Big Data LED Lighting Programmable Power Supplies

February 3D Printing Coil Wound Components Handheld T&M Equipment for Field Engineers

March Wearables (Smart Humans) SMT Manufacturing Equipment Digital Multimeters

April 3G, 4G & Beyond: Latest in Telecom Industrial Inverters & UPSes for Corporate FPGA Based Development Boards

May Virtual Electronics (on Web) Telecom & Electronics 3D Printers (Under ` 100,000)

June Printed and Flexible Electronics Educational & Training Products Wi-Fi & RF Modules

July Smartcars Automotive Electronics Budget-Friendly Oscilloscopes

August Smarthomes PCB Industry in India: Suppliers & Manufacturers Development Boards (Microcontroller based)

September Medical Electronics Aerospace & Defence Electronics Soldering/Desoldering Stations

October Robotics & Automation (Smart Machines) Solar Electronics Latest Tools to Manage ESD for Your Lab

November Renewable Energy Industrial Automation Desktop PCB Manufacturing Equipment

December Smart Lighting LCD Display Components Programmable Power Source

160 September 2015 | electronicS For You www.eFYmag.com advertisers’ index advertisers’ index Client name Page No. Client name Page No. Client name Page No. Advance Tech Services Pvt. Ltd...... 25 Gurukirpa Electronics (www.gurukirpaelectronics.com) ...... 156 Pro Solutions ...... 158 Advance Technologies ...... 156 Hari Hi-Ohm Electronics ...... 144, 154 Progressive Engineers ...... 148 Akas Medical ...... 156 HK Wentworth (India) Pvt Ltd ...... 13 Proxim Asia Inc ...... 147 Anritsu India Pvt Ltd ...... 31 Hybrid Metals Pvt Ltd ...... 154 PSI Enterprises ...... 157 Arrow Electronics India Ltd ...... 11 Inde Enterprises (www.indeonline.in) ...... 29, 39 Punith Electronics ...... 150 Auro Controls (www.aurocontrols.com) ...... 49 India Electronics Week ...... 9 Pye Electro Systems ...... 158 BB Battery India Co. Pvt Ltd ...... 103 Indus Robotics & Automation Research Pvt. Ltd ...... 144 Raj Electronics ...... 159 Binay Opto Electronics Pvt Ltd (www.binayLED.com) ...... 14 Infineon Technologies Asia Pacific Pte Ltd (www.infineon.com) ...... 97 Rapid Radio Solution Private Limited ...... 157 Buljin Elemec Pvt Ltd (www.flexiblepcb.com)...... 156 Interfab Electronics I Pvt Ltd ...... 131 Renesas Electronics India Pvt. Ltd...... 67 CADD Centre Training Services Private Limited ...... 141 Iotshow..in ...... 129 RK Enterprises ...... 159 Chandsons Industries ...... 158 J.M. Electronics (www.jmelectronics.in) ...... 159 Rockforest ...... 156 Circuit Systems India Ltd ...... 117 Kandhari Photo Electronics P Ltd ...... 158 ROHM Semiconductor ...... 127 CM Envirosystems Pvt. Ltd...... 125 Key Operations & Electrocomponents Pvt Ltd...... 41 S K Metal Works (www.skmetals.com) ...... 157 Coslight India Telecom Pvt. Ltd. (www.coslightindia.in) ...... 147 Keysight Technologies India Pvt. Ltd. (www.keysight.com) ...... 2, 5 S.M Semiconductors ...... 158 Countronics (www.countronics.com) ...... 157 Kits N Spares ...... 133 Sagar Switch Gear ...... 153 Crown Electronic Systems (www.crownelectronicsystems.com) ...... 158 KMTS Engineering Pvt. Ltd...... 159 Sahasra Electronics Pvt Ltd (www.sahasraelectronics.com) ...... 151 Cubix Control Systems Pvt. Ltd ...... 76, 77 Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (www.kotra.or.kr) ...... 71 Sakthi Accumulators Private Ltd ...... 157 Cyronics Instruments Pvt. Ltd...... 108 LEDasia.in ...... 129 Savolite (www.savolite.com) ...... 159 Design in India ...... 150 Logsun System (www.logsun.com) ...... 146 Scientech Technologies Pvt Ltd (www.scientech.bz) ...... 87 Digi-Key Electronics (www.digikey.com)...... 3 LWI Electronics Inc. (www.livewireinfo.com) ...... 23 Shavison Electronics Pvt. Ltd. (www.shavison.com)...... 137 Digital Promoters (I) Pvt Ltd ...... 156 Martin’s Electronic Devices & Instruments ...... 155 Shrey Plastic Moulders (www.shreyplasticmoulders.com)...... 156 Dinteck ...... 157 Max Technology & Co. (www.maxtechnoloindia.com) ...... 35 Siglent Technologies Co. Ltd...... 123 DSM India Private Limited ...... 142 Maxel Electronics Systems Pvt Ltd ...... 159 SM Electronic Technologies Pvt. Ltd...... 21 EFY Group: LED Bazaar ...... 161 Meco Meters Pvt Ltd (www.mecoinst.com) ...... 55, 57, 59 Softgrip Power Solutions Pvt. Ltd...... 149 EFY Group: Subscription ...... 121 MediaTek India Technology Pvt. Ltd ...... 143 Srishti Electronics (www.acedigital.co.in) ...... 156 Eita Technologies ...... 158 Mepits infotech Private Limited ...... 37 ST Microelectronics Marketing Pvt. Ltd ...... 81 Elcom International Pvt Ltd (www.Deltin.com) ...... 140 Microchip Technology Inc. (www.microchip.com) ...... 65, 79 Stead Electronics (India) Pvt. Ltd...... 146 Electronic Assembly (www.lcd-module.de)...... 96 Mitramax Energy Private Limited (www.mitramax.com) ...... 113 Systellar Innovations (www.systellar.in) ...... 154 Electronics For You Expo ...... 44 MMI India Pvt. Ltd (www.forecastadvtg.com) ...... 63 T&M India ...... 24 Electronics Relays (India) Pvt Ltd ...... 148 MMI India Pvt. Ltd...... 69 Tangent Test Technologies...... 47, 53 Electronics Rocks ...... 152 Mornsun Guangzhou Science & Technology Co.Ltd ...... 17 Tech Center ...... 15 Element14 India Pvt Ltd...... 1 Mouser Electronics (Hong Kong) Ltd ...... 7 Tektronix India Pvt Ltd. (www.tektronix.com) ...... 164 Elnova Ltd (www.elnova.com) ...... 157 Nanjing Glarun Atten Technology Co Ltd...... 107 Time Trading Corporation (www.ttc.net.in) ...... 159 Elsys Technology ...... 144 National Controlling & Equipments ...... 159 Toshiba India Pvt Ltd...... 61 Etekniks Technologies ...... 157 Nehatronix (www.natashaindia.com) ...... 157 Trade Corp...... 159 Everlight Electronics India Pvt Ltd ...... 109 NI Systems (India) Pvt Ltd (www.ni.com) ...... 163 Universal Electronic Agencies (www.easternradio.co.in) ...... 140 Excel Technologies ...... 147 Nuvoton Technology Corp...... 19 Upsinverter.com (www.upsinverter.com) ...... 139 FCI OEN Connectors Ltd...... 83 OSFY ...... 152 Vidyut Yantra Udyog (www.vyu-microwave.com) ...... 146 FLIR Systems (www.flir.com) ...... 33 PIC GmbH (www.pic-gmbh.com) ...... 27 Virginia Panel Corporation ...... 91 Good Will Instrument Co. Ltd (www.goodwill.com.tw) ...... 162 Precimec Products (www.precimecproducts.com) ...... 148 Visha World ...... 142 Gsas Micro Systems ...... 101 Precision Mastech Enterprises (Hong Kong) Ltd ...... 145 Vital Electronics & Manufacturing Co...... 149 GSR Infocom Pvt. Ltd...... 158 Premier Controls ...... 150 Zenith Industrial Products (www.zip-india.com) ...... 158

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