Wearables for Therapy Adherence

european www.electronics-eetimes.com April 2015 business press

Wearables for therapy adherence

Special focus: Optoelectronics Iconic Insights: Jaguar Land Rover’s Wolfgang Ziebart

150107_FRSH_EET_EU_Snipe.indd 1 12/30/14 3:29 PM 150401_COVB_EET_EU.indd 1 3/30/15 11:34 AM April 2015

opinion DESIGN & PRODUCTS 4 Big data sets drones to fly SPECIAL FOCUSES: 50 Power grids - How many EVs can be charged - OPTOELECTRONICS simultaneoulsy? 22 Headlight control through eye-tracking Controlling your headlamp with a move of your eyes: NEws & TECHNOLOGY What sounds like Sci-Fi can soon be reality. Carmaker Opel is developing a technology 6 Sensor data predict failure of large machines that controls direction and brightness of the vehicle’s headlights 6 Printed NFC for context-aware by tracking the driver’s eyes. gameplay 22 Nanolaser enables on-chip photonics 7 Philips offloads LED lighting components unit for USD2.8bn 23 Tandem photovoltaics for record efficiencies? Researchers from Massachusetts 7 Cadence and ARM strategic partners on IP Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford University are exploring 8 3D Qualcomm SoCs by 2016 ways to create solar cells using The future of three-dimensional (3D) low-cost manufacturing methods. very large scale integration (VLSI) for system-on-chips (SoCs) will not stack 24 A new candidate for ultra-thin optoelectronics: die connected by through-silicon-vias DNA-peptide (TSVs), but will build them on a single layered die. 24 Ag nanodiscs to boost MoS2’s LED performance

10 Iconic Insights: The car’s the star… - WEARABLE & IMPLANTABLE ELECTRONICS Group Engineering Director at Jaguar Land Rover, Wolfgang Ziebart 28 Electronic patch increases therapy adherence discusses the impact of the fast- This poor adherence to medication moving world of electronics on the was reported by WHO back in 2003 more sedate environment of to result in increased morbidity and automotive manufacture. death, calling for innovative medication reminders. 12 Delphi selected to build Audi’s autopilot computer 30 Hybrid supercapacitor trumps thin-film 12 IDT to speed CERN’ data analytics lithium battery

14 How will deep learning change SoCs? 31 The right connections to pain Deep Learning is already changing management the way computers see, hear and identify objects in the real world. Has - M2M COMMUNICATIONS anybody come up with SoC architecture optimized for neural networks? 34 NXP to focus on all CMOS radar If so, what does it look like? 37 Thin and flexible Bluetooth LE beacons operate 17 Electronics printed in France battery-free The French association of printed electronics gives us an outlook of 37 Bi-directional RF doubles cellular capacity the market. REader offer 18 IBM invests 3 billion USD to bring IoT to the enterprise 46 This month, DecaWave is offering EETimes Europe’s readers the chance to win 18 Intel targets smartglasses with purchase two TREK1000 kits worth of two Swiss startups €947 each, to evaluate its Ultra-Wideband (UWB) indoor 20 Analog EDA finally automated location and communication DW1000 chip in different 21 Cyber-physical systems as the basis for IoT: real-time location system topologies. Europe has it all 49 DISTRIbution corner

3 Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 www.electronics-eetimes.com Big data sets drones to fly

By Julien happich Touch. Discover. Solve.

or the last seven years, visiting professor at the University dynamic mathematical models that would hit it right. of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies Dr. “We have tested APE on private reserves in southern Africa Tom Snitch has been working on probabilistic spatio- for the last two years under Lindbergh Foundation’s Air Shep- Ftemporal models using as many variables as the types of data herd initiative, and whenever we operate our drones in a game he could possibly get his hands on, to define the best flying park, poaching simply stops”, said Snitch. routes for surveillance drones to do their job with the most ef- The drones are equipped with a GPS and two zooming ficiency. camera systems (for visible and infrared His work combining the use of big data light) mounted on gyro-stabilized gimbals. (historical data as well as various sources of At night, the heat signatures of game or satellite imaging) started during the in Iraq poachers is fairly easy to spot even from a and Afghanistan wars when he would try long distance. During day time, the drones to predict the risks of road-side improvised can be flown parallel to park fences to explosive devices (IEDs) and then send out identify breaches (in a matter of minutes surveillance drones to check the hot spots rather than several hours by car on difficult that his algorithms would yield. “Very often, roads), drone operators will also collect by flying a drone over the hot spots indicat- geographical data as they spot animals. In ed by the predictive algorithm, we would be the future, Snitch would want to automate able to spot a person placing an IED some animal presence data collection using im- hours before a US military convoy would The APE system architecture. age processing. “The challenge is finding take a specific route, then even rewind the adequate computer power on a laptop in video to trace the person back to a bomb factory where the IED the bush”, he noted. came from”, Snitch told EETimes Europe. Based on these results, SANParks (South African National This intelligence work was not too much publicized at Parks) announced that these UAV solutions will are now an the time, but being sensible to Africa’s elephants and rhinos integral part of their strategy to combat rhino poaching in the anti-poaching causes, Snitch figured out that his probabilistic Kruger National Park. spatio-temporal models could certainly be tweaked to prevent The Lindbergh Foundation has also launched the Air Shep- poachers from reaching their targets. herd crowdsourcing campaign, aiming to raise USD500,000 Last year, Snitch and his colleagues published a paper de- to fully implement the program for one year at Kruger National scribing a data-driven, behavioural model based Anti-Poaching Park with expansion planned over the next year to seven addi- Oscilloscopes redefined. Engine, dubbed APE. The algorithm tional African countries (throughout We’ve improved on the proven. The new Keysight 3000T oscilloscope Keysight 3000T X-Series combines animal movement be- Africa, an estimated 100,000 el- is the next-generation of the InfiniiVision X-Series. With its zone Bandwidth 100 MHz-1 GHz haviours models and also models ephants were killed between 2010- touch triggering, you can trigger on any signal in just two steps. poachers’ behaviour based on his- 2013 alone). The money collected So you can isolate a signal in seconds—much faster than with any Uncompromised 1M wfms/s Update Rate torical data (from game park rangers’ will help buy drones and train more 8.5-inch Capacitive Touch Screen observations) to churn out coordi- rangers. competing scope. The 3000T is also a 6-in-1 instrument. Along with nated sets of flight paths for drones For this good cause, Snitch plans your oscilloscope, you can get an MSO, WaveGen function generator, Zone Touch Triggering in the air and ranger patrols on the to offer a free licence of APE to protocol analyzer, DVM and counter. Get in touch with the future of scopes. Sample Rate 5 GSa/s ground to best protect animals and African universities willing to further Take the Trigger Challenge today. intercept the poachers before they develop this anti-poaching strategy, strike. helping students collect appropriate “We collected several years’ worth data and tune the algorithm to the of data in South Africa and worked specifics of their countryside. on it to identify mathematical pat- Snitch says his probabilistic terns”, explained Snitch. “Because spatio-temporal models could route some reserves are so wide, you drone flights for many other pur- could fly a drone for a month and poses, such as fighting illegal wood not see a thing. The whole issue is to logging (one source of data could be figure out how to reduce the space freely accessible hyperspectral satel- to be covered” he added. lite imaging from the NASA), figuring So by crunching the data from sa- out the spread of food crop diseases fari sight-seeing, from past poaching and their origins (based on foliage Take the Trigger Challenge at: incidents, snares or animal carcas- hyperspectral signatures, animal www.keysight.com/find/scopetriggerchallenge ses, by taking out from the map the moves and wind patterns), or even areas where the animals are the least to find lost peoples in national parks likely to be (for topographical rea- (apparently, dozens of trekkers get sons or because there are no water lost in American national parks every © Keysight Technologies, Inc. 2015 year, so there would be enough data holes left during particular months), Mapping out the best drone routes. the researchers were able to design to make sense of it).

4 Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 www.electronics-eetimes.com

Keysight_3000T_Comparative_PE_EETE.indd 1 08/01/2015 18:21 Touch. Discover. Solve.

Oscilloscopes redefined. We’ve improved on the proven. The new Keysight 3000T oscilloscope Keysight 3000T X-Series is the next-generation of the InfiniiVision X-Series. With its zone Bandwidth 100 MHz-1 GHz touch triggering, you can trigger on any signal in just two steps. So you can isolate a signal in seconds—much faster than with any Uncompromised 1M wfms/s Update Rate competing scope. The 3000T is also a 6-in-1 instrument. Along with 8.5-inch Capacitive Touch Screen your oscilloscope, you can get an MSO, WaveGen function generator, Zone Touch Triggering protocol analyzer, DVM and counter. Get in touch with the future of scopes. Sample Rate 5 GSa/s Take the Trigger Challenge today.

Take the Trigger Challenge at: www.keysight.com/find/scopetriggerchallenge

Keysight_3000T_Comparative_PE_EETE.indd 1 08/01/2015 18:21 Connected sensors

Sensor data predict failure of large machines

By Christoph Hammerschmidt

ong before they actually fail, large machines exhibit signs frequencies, with typical damage and failure modes, such as of wear and tear. A team of researchers from the Saarland reduced cooling performance or a drop in accumulator pres- University (Saarbrücken, Germany) is now devising new sure”, explains Schütze. To do this, the researchers have been Lways to precisely identify the parts that need to be replaced analysing large quantities of measurement data in order to iden- soon - by means of sensor fusion techniques. tify those patterns in the data that can be assigned to particular The research team led by Andreas Schütze monitors con- changes in the machine’s state. tinuously the status of the machinery. From the mass of data acquired the When bearings or other mechanic and researchers filter out a manageable quantity electric components are starting to wear of relevant sensor data that is characteristic out, the characteristics of their operational of certain machine damage scenarios. The parameters starts to change - frequen- aim is to reliably detect disturbances in the cies, spectral composition of the vibrations machine’s operating cycle during the inci- as well as temperatures start to deviate pient damage phase and to devise mathe- from their values in normal operation. The ma-tical models for different fault levels. system currently under development by the This information about the relationship researchers from Saarbrücken interrelates between sensor signal patterns and incipi- the measurements from various sensors and ent malfunction or damage is used by the thus can detect even minuscule variations. “Our sensor system engineers to “teach” the system to enable it to identify these allows us to observe the current condition of a plant“, explains states automatically. Through continuously monitoring the Schütze. “We are working on getting the system to issue very machine’s condition, the system can also recommend when to early warnings at the first sign that the plant may fail or mal- carry out particular remedial measures, such as replacing a part. function. By combining multiple sensors we are able to register According to Schütze, this makes it easier to plan maintenance even the minor deviations – changes that would simply not be operations on large or difficult-to-access plant machinery. detectable with a single sensor, clarifies Andreas Schütze. It also helps to avoid unnecessary maintenance. “As the sys- The team’s approach involves attaching vibration sensors tem is also capable of analysing whether production machinery at numerous positions on the machine to provide a continu- was operating properly during a manufacturing process, it can ous stream of measurement data. The engineers also incorpo- also be used for quality control purposes. There are a large rate data from the process sensors that are now installed as number of potential applications of this system, particular in the standard on most of today’s machines. “We are studying how smart manufacturing processes envisaged under Industry 4.0”, we can correlate sensor signal patterns, such as vibrational the researcher says. Printed NFC for context-aware gameplay

By Julien Happich

uropean companies Cartamundi, Van Genechten Packag- The project will ing, PragmatIC, SMARTRAC, TNO and imec have joined also explore the forces to launch PING (Printed Intelligent NFC Game integration of addi- Ecards and packaging), a consortium to bring flexible electron- tional features such ics from the lab to mainstream markets through the creation of as sensors, displays smart and interactive printed objects. and sound, not only adding internet connectivity to card and Inspired and supported by the Horizon 2020 program of the board games, but context-aware gameplay. European Commission, the overall goal of the PING consortium Imec and TNO will focus on the development of a flexible is the creation of a platform that enables and facilitates the thin-film technology and chip design. PragmatIC will work with production of smart printed objects based on new technologies. imec and TNO to align developed designs with its own mass In effect, flexible thin-film electronics and NFC-capable printed manufacturing processes, transferring future generation NFC materials such as cards, stickers and packaging could branch chips into commercial production. SMARTRAC will contribute out the IoT functionalization of objects and enable new user its expertise in antenna design and printing technologies with a interactions. special focus on the connection interface between the printed The collaboration intends to establish, within 3 years, a antenna and TFT electronics. Cartamundi and Van Genechten standardized low cost and high volume manufacturing flow for Packaging will perform the last step of the supply chain: em- embedding wireless identification and power transfer technol- bedding the electronics in printed products. ogy into printed objects and printable substrates such as paper, Cartamundi, TNO and imec already started working together cardboard or plastic. The process will enable the identification to establish the knowledge platform for integrated circuit (IC) and interaction of printed objects through standard NFC and design in thin-film technologies, targeting NFC chip as a mini- RFID reading devices such as smartphones. mum viable product demonstrator.

6 Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 www.electronics-eetimes.com Philips offloads LED lighting components unit for USD2.8bn

By Paul Buckley hilips has agreed to sell an 80.1 in China. Go Scale has offices in Hong percent stake in the company’s Kong, Beijing and Silicon Valley in the lighting components division USA and is an investment fund for by forP $2.8 billion to Go Scale Capital, a GSR Ventures and Oak Investment technology fund that will seek to build Partners. Other members are venture the company’s automotive LED busi- capital funds Asia Pacific Resource De- ness. The deal, which herald a bigger velopment, Nanchang Industrial Group strategic move for Philips that will see and GSR Capital. the company spin off its main lighting “There were other bidders, also division, via a stock market flotation, good bidders, perhaps with fewer con- with the Dutch group opting to focus nections in the industry of semiconduc- more on medical technology and se- tors and the ability to help in building lected consumer electronics in future. out scale,” Philips CEO Frans van Houten told reporters. The deal is expected to be completed in the third quarter of Last week it was beleived that rival bidding groups led by pri- 2015 subject to regulatory approval. The newly formed compa- vate equity firms CVC-KKR and Bain Capital had been close to ny will be called Lumileds and will continue to act as a supplier capturing Lumileds but Go Scale entered the bidding in recent to Philips. weeks. Philips said it wanted to sell the subsidiary, which will be Philips, which is the world’s largest lighting manufacturer, called Lumileds, because many of its customers compete with estimates that the value the sale of the lighting components Philips. subsidiary represent $3.3 billion including debt. The lighting Approximately 20 percent of component sales are to Philips’ components division comprises an automotive lighting unit and own main lighting business. Philips said the company would the Lumileds LED manufacturing business. The unit made a remain a customer which was another reason to sell to an in- 2014 profit of 141 million euros on sales of 1.42 billion euros. vestor that wants to keep the business strong and growing. Go Go Scale Capital, is funded by GSR Ventures and Oak Capital said it could offer Lumileds complementary technologies Investment Partners, has made other investments in LEDs and and manufacturing capacity that would allow it to pursue further electric car battery technology says it plans to invest in and growth and scale. expand the business of using LEDs in cars. Go Scale’s past in- Philips has described the components subsidiary as a stable vestments include Boston Power, a U.S.-based manufacturer of cash-generator. Philips will retain a 34 percent stake in the U.S.- electric vehicle batteries, and Xin Da Yang, a Eco-EV company based LED arm. Cadence and ARM strategic partners on IP

By Julien Happich

triking a broad Intellectual Property (IP) interoperability between Cadence and ARMs’ IP blocks. agreement, IC design tool provider Cadence and number “We gain about 11% of our revenues from IP and this is one one IP provider ARM are reinforcing their relationship of our fastest growing revenue streams”, told us Craig Cochran, withS a multiyear agreement that gives them reciprocal access to Cadence’s VP of Marketing, “so it made sense to team up with relevant IP portfolios from the Cadence IP Group and ARM. the worldwide number one IP vendor ARM to ensure interop- Additionally, the agreement grants both companies rights to erability for our customers and to reduce their risks during IP manufacture test chips containing Cadence IP and ARM IP and integration into SoCs using our tools.” to provide development platforms to customers. The Agreement is not exclusive in that sense that ARM could With a full vision of each other’s IP, the agreement gives both well want to strike a similar deal with competing EDA vendors, parties the ability to test the IP interoperability in silicon, en- and conversely, Cadence is open to other such deals with other abling Cadence and ARM to optimize performance and interop- IP providers, so it remains to be seen if more such large-scale erability within systems on chip (SoCs) while accelerating time agreements will be struck or if this new move could entice chip to market for their customers. designers to consolidate their tool-flow around Cadence’s offer- The IP interoperability agreement covers existing and future ing. For Cadence’s customers, this IP cross-licensing deal could ARM Cortex processors, ARM Mali GPUs, ARM CoreLink well mean new tool functionalities in the future, such as pre-in- system IP, ARM Artisan physical IP, and ARM POP IP; Cadence tegrated IP libraries with drag-and-drop proven IP combinations Design IP including cores for PCI Express, MIPI, USB, HDMI, pre-optimized for the most recurrent use-cases. DisplayPort, Ethernet, analog, DDR/LPDDR PHY and multiple ARM being able to tape-out SoC-level test chips with other memory and storage protocols. Cadence IP on-board could also turn into future design recom- The idea is to make sure that different IP blocks can talk na- mendations for particular multi-core implementations leveraging tively to each other, without adding extra layers or wrappers but both partners’ IP. instead providing as clean and direct an interface as possible www.electronics-eetimes.com Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 7 3D chip design

3D Qualcomm SoCs by 2016 locate, communicate, accelerate

By R. Colin Johnson

he future of three-dimensional (3D) very large scale integration (VLSI) for system-on-chips (SoCs) will not stack die connected by through-silicon-vias (TSVs), but will buildT them on a single layered die, according to Karim Arabi, vice president of engineering at Qualcomm speaking at the International Symposium on Physical Design (ISPD-2015). “Our 3D VLSI technology, which we call 3DV, enables die size to be shrunk in half, while simultaneously increasing yields,” Arabi told us. Qualcomm’s motivation, according to Arabi, is market share in the 18 billion smartphones that he predicts will be produced by 2018 — “more than all the computers and other electronic devices combined,” he told us. He also noted that even though the cloud is offloading some computationally intensive applications — such as speech recognition — there will still be an increasing need for local processing power for most smartphone functions. In the long term, Qualcomm is building neural processing units (NPUs) modeled on the human brain, “because they are Fig. 2: In the fabrication process of front-to-front (FF) 3DVs highly flexible and highly efficient for the next generation of requires wafer-level bonding and hence the vias can only mobile devices, cloud computing, Big Data processing, deep be a small as the accuracy of the bonding method. (Source: learning and machine learning,” Arabi told us. But for the near Qualcomm) term, Qualcomm is extending the capabilities of its already popular SoCs with its new type of 3DV interconnection and Unfortunately, the bottom layer was likely produced using process technology. temperatures as high as 1,200 degrees Celsius. The next layer, Qualcomm is creating two basic types of 3DV interconnec- however, will have to limit temperatures in order to keep from tion methods with the hope of deploying them by 2016. These liquidating layer one’s copper interconnects, which have a melt- new types of 3D interconnection comes in two flavors face-to- ing point of 1,085 degrees Celsius. To solve, Qualcomm could back (F2B) and face-to-face (F2F). use tungsten as interconnects on layers one, which are slightly TOBY-L2 series F2B is easier because it doesn’t need precision bonding but slower, but have a melting point of 5,930 degrees Celsius. instead just puts a thin layer of silicon on top of the finished first A second solution would be to limit the temperatures on the High-speed LTE layer and starts building the second layer using traditional vias. top level, to say 625 degrees Celsius, which would lessen the performance of the second layer transistors by 27.8 percent for PMOS and 16.2 percent for NMOS. Thus the ideal 3D chip multimode modules is unachievable today using F2B, overall sacrificing about 37 percent in performance and 41 percent in power. F2F, on the other hand, allows both chips to use copper TOBY-L2 series interconnects and optimally performing transistors, but has the 24.8 x 35.6 x 2.6 mm disadvantage, according to Arabi, that the F2F method requires larger vias the size of which are limited by the accuracy with which the two facing wafers can be bonded. Industry’s smallest LTE/HSPA+/GPRS modules Qualcomm, however, believes that by using a mix of the two techniques it will be able to produce fully optimized 3DV SoCs with an unlimited number of layers. In fact, with appropriate • LTE category 4: 150 Mb/s download, 50 Mb/s upload partitioning and floor planning, Arabi believes 3DV chips can be produced that are faster, smaller, consume less power and • Layout-compatible with u-blox 2G, 3G & CDMA modules operate at lower temperatures than putting the same functions on a single 2-D chip. The final advantage of 3DV chips, according to Arabi, is • Variants for America, Europe and Asia; supports VoLTE that you only need to use the most expensive and latest node ® Fig. 1: In the fabrication process of front-to-back (F2B) 3DVs technology on the bottom layer. For instance, the bottom layer • Seamless interface to u-blox GNSS & CellLocate indoor positioning (a) the bottom tier is created the same way as 2D-ICs. (b,c,d) housing the CPU, GPU and other high-speed devices can be To add another layer, first a thin layer of silicon is deposited fabricated at 10-to-14 nanometer, whereas the higher layers • LGA and Mini PCIe packages on top of the bottom tier. (e) This front-end-of-line (FEOL) housing less critical functions can be fabricated at a less expensive relaxed node of, say, 28-nanometers. He also predicted process of the top tier permits the addition of normal vertical that the best yielding SoCs will only use two layers, whereas vias and top-tier contacts. (f) Finally back-end-of-line (BEOL) three layers will likely only be used for customers who also want processing creates the top-tier. (Source:Qualcomm). to integrate radio frequency (RF) functions on the top layer. www.u-blox.com

8 Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 www.electronics-eetimes.com locate, communicate, accelerate

TOBY-L2 series High-speed LTE multimode modules

TOBY-L2 series 24.8 x 35.6 x 2.6 mm

Industry’s smallest LTE/HSPA+/GPRS modules

• LTE category 4: 150 Mb/s download, 50 Mb/s upload • Layout-compatible with u-blox 2G, 3G & CDMA modules • Variants for America, Europe and Asia; supports VoLTE • Seamless interface to u-blox GNSS & CellLocate® indoor positioning • LGA and Mini PCIe packages

www.u-blox.com Iconic Insights: in conversation with Hanns Windele The car’s the star…

Group Engineering Director at Jaguar Land Rover, Wolfgang Ziebart discusses the impact of the fast-moving world of electronics on the more sedate environment of automotive manufacture… Hanns Windele: What were your first impressions of the UK industry compared with working in Germany? Wolfgang Ziebart: The automotive industry is very much globalised. But you also have to adapt to local customs. That’s how it is here at Jaguar Land Rover. It is a very international company and we have a lot of very good people from all over Europe. The company has grown significantly and it’s not always possible to recruit people locally. Fortunately, there are areas in Europe where the automotive industry is struggling, which means that we can get extremely good people from those markets.

HW: What do you think is the BMW legacy at JLR today? WZ:--- Land Rover, even under BMW, was a very profitable business. At the time however, Rover Cars was the big area for losses, and this basically eclipsed all the good parts of the business that we had. The media tended to focus mainly on the Rover Cars side of the business and the issues that came with that. The outside perception was that of a loss-making business.

HW: Do you have any key lessons from that period in the evolution of the company? WZ: When I arrived at JLR I wasn’t coming to a completely alien environment. There were two tasks. First was to foster a different Wolfgang Ziebart: “Today in Europe 8% would switch structure, which involved converting from a function-driven system car brand if there were a better infotainment offering…” to a more project-related environment. It was once about moving a car horizontally through the company where all the functions world of entertainment the challenge for the automotive industry is had to co-operate. Now we have co-located everyone who works not actually in the technology itself, because that is driven by the on a project, regardless of whether they work on body, chassis, smartphone industry. It is more that there are two totally different engineering or manufacturing. This has made a huge impact in the business models that have come together. The smartphone and way we work and it is also more fun. automotive industries have collided. The car industry is stable The second impact is technology. Having been in the and long-term minded with a start-to-finish product cycle for an semiconductor industry for quite some time and seen the pace it electronic system of maybe three years. And we all know what operates at, I see the automotive space as a great environment can happen in three years, because we all know Moore’s Law. to push technology. We have made significant advances to put Within 36 months this will have come into effect twice, meaning JLR on the same level as our premium German competitors, if not that you have four times the number of transistors in a system than ahead. what you started out. Even if you start with the next-generation technology, by the time you’ve got the product to market you are HW: The choice criteria when it comes to selecting a car are already late. With the smartphone, functionality is moving into new different from what they were in the past. It was once engines and apps, and this is a world that changes by the day. aesthetics, but today a key factor is of course the electronics. Is JLR part of this trend? HW: Do you think then that the smartphone is the key to success WZ: I recently read a study suggesting as many as 40% of us here? would switch car brand for better technology. Nobody would WZ: What the car industry did was try to resemble the functionality consider switching brand because there was better functionality of the smartphone in their infotainment systems. These became in the trip computer. But today in Europe 8% would switch if more and more complicated, even including creating mini app there were a better infotainment offering. In China this figure rises stores related to individual car companies. But any approach to 40%. So this is very important, particularly in the big luxury that sets up a specific environment will fail. I’m not talking about markets. Today, you cannot sell a car on its interior wood and mirroring the smart phone to the car – that’s actually an approach leather. It must have the latest technology, otherwise you are I would advocate – but trying to set up an infrastructure of simply not going to be considered. HANNS WINDELE is Vice President, Europe and India at HW: How has JLR taken up this functionality challenge? Mentor Graphics. www.mentor.com WZ: The cars that JLR produce today are state-of-the-art. But, state-of-the-art is not a stable status. In the infotainment area FOR FURTHER DETAILS about Jaguar Land Rover, visit especially it is continually moving and it is moving fast. But in the www.jaguarlandrover.com

10 Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 www.electronics-eetimes.com Iconic Insights: in conversation with Hanns Windele

your own, both on hardware and software sides to mimic the smartphone functionality. This approach will fail. There are 1 billion smartphones being sold per year and so, of course, it is absolutely impossible to compete.

HW: Maybe the question is about how you differentiate yourself in the infotainment and connectivity markets? WZ: Our approach is very simple. We ensure the functionality that we think is necessary is present in the smartphone and then use the head-up HMI unit in the car. This approach has several advantages, the first being that you are always up-to-date with your hardware because your hardware is always the smartphone. Second, you can then focus on creating applications that are bespoke to automotive rather than creating a total software stack in the car. This is an approach that I think JLR is leading. In all our “The smartphone and automotive industries have cars you can now order what we call the ‘InControl’ apps platform. collided.” It’s a very easy job to modify existing applications to fit into that environment. there is even a washer that is in common. We act completely independently and we can do what is right for the products HW: how does this apply beyond the world of infotainment? that we are making. If we are talking about synergies, where we WZ: If there is a company that is good at sign-recognition systems, can contribute is simply to support Tata. There is a very friendly or fusing radar with video technology, stability control or navigation relationship, but everyone is completely aware that our markets or any other application, then of course the manufacturer wants to have nothing in common. have separate conversations with these people. They are best in these fields and we want to use the skills of each one rather than HW: Let’s talk about the powertrain. Is the effort of creating a being tied to one supplier. But integration is key. It is also important hybrid car overkill in terms of the outcome? to understand that the electronic system in a car is one entity and WZ: I don’t think there is a ‘hybrid car’. There are several stages not an assembly of subsystems. That is one of the big challenges of hybrids and you can classify them according to the ratio of that the automotive industry faces today. combustion engine power to electric motor power. On the lower end you have the micro-hybrid, which is basically a modified HW: JLR is part of Tata. Is there any connection in terms of starter-alternator. Then you have hybrid electric vehicles and the developing electronics? purpose of those is mainly brake-energy recuperation. Then you WZ: The cars are completely different. I don’t think that have the plug-in hybrids that can move through the driving-cycle in pure electric mode. Of course, this has a cost indication, but it is also the main route for larger cars such as Range Rovers to cope QUICKFIRE QUESTIONS with CO2 legislation. This approach makes some sense because the average mileage driven per day by the normal driver is 20 What are your hobbies? miles. And so if you have a driving range of say 40 miles then the I have a pilot’s license and so I fly when time allows. I’m a car is in most cases driven in pure electric mode all the time. Then passionate skier and I love to sail. It’s not just a business life. for the cases when we have to drive longer distances, you have the backup of the combustion engine. But the electric car will not What’s your latest non-business book? replace the combustion engine in totality. If somebody needs a car Actually, I read books about technology and the future. for all purposes, then the only option is an efficient combustion engine or maybe a plug-in hybrid. Having said that, there are a lot If you could hold a similar position in a non-technology of market niches where the all-electric car makes sense, such as company, what would you do? urban transportation. You reach an age where you have to ask what is fun. To me technology is fun. HW: What is your biggest insight at the moment in the world of automotive? If you were put in jail, who would you share the cell with? WZ: Connectivity is the area that is gaining momentum. The car is I would wish to share it with my wife, but I don’t want my wife no longer a standalone unit, but is connected to the infrastructure. ever to go to prison. This is a very fast moving area. We are always talking about the Internet of Things – but in the IoT the car is the biggest thing. It’s Do you own any classic cars? a moving sensor. Nothing is bigger or more important or has more I am considering buying a Jaguar XK120 coupe, predecessor potential than the car. We are in a situation where we are going to of the E-Type. enhance everything for the driver. There will be applications upon applications integrated into the internet. What music do you enjoy? Jazz. Oscar Peterson, Miles Davis. HW: Do you think that one of the biggest challenges is to be able to see into the future with accuracy… If there was one extra day in the week, what would you do WZ: If you work in the automotive industry you must live five years with it? in the future. The key is to bring together a vision of how the world I’d have a day off! might look like five years out, what the customer might want then, and combine this with the expertise of knowing what can be done.

www.electronics-eetimes.com Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 11 Delphi selected to build Audi’s autopilot computer a real BroaDsiDe! By Christoph Hammerschmidt

utomated driving is ante portas – but how will the for processing the sensor signals computers look like that steer the vehicles through makes it the central hub for all func- the evening rush hour and across the high-speed tions of piloted driving, Audi says. autobahn?A Audi now introduced the electronic brain of Hitherto the driver assistance future self-driving cars. systems have mostly be managed The zFAS German for zentrales Fahrerassistenzs- by physically separated electronic teuergert or central driver assistant controller will be control units. Audi claims to be gradually introduced in Audis model range, starting within the first carmaker to implement the next two years. The contract to manufacture the high- this function as a central domain performance computing platform has been awarded to supplier architecture, combining all related functions, sensors, electron- Delphi who also was involved in the development. We can asics hardware and software architecture in one unit that follows sume that Delphis current project of sending a self-driving vehicle a holistic concept. Safety aspects have been in the focus of the across the United States from San Francisco to New York is concept, Audi assures without elaborating. The platform has the inspired by the companys development work for the zFAS all the size of a tablet computer. Processing the data is split between more so as the vehicle used for this cross-country trip is an Audi. Mobileyes EyeQ3 microprocessor and the Tegra K1 from nVidia. Nevertheless, Delphi was not the only company involved in With these processors, the performance of the platform equals the zFAS development also partners like TTTech (the real-time the combined computing power of all ECUs of a state-of-the-art networking company who recently received a major funding from mid-sized car, Audi says. The modular approach of the platform Audi and also from Infineon), Mobileye (expertise in signal camera ensures scalability. processing) and high-performance microprocessor manufacturer Audis development roadmap provides for self-learning ve- nVidia played an important part. hicles as one of the next development steps. The data generated The zFAS is the vehicles sensor data hub. Radar, lidar, ul- by the zFAS will be fed via mobile radio connection to a backend trasound and camera data are processed to create a complete in the cloud. There, the data are processed by machine learning model of the vehicles surroundings in real-time. The findings algorithms and then sent back to the car. Thus, the zFAS continu- computed are then made available to all driver assistance sys- ously increases its performance and improves its ability to handle tems distributed around the vehicle. Its paramount significance complex situations over time. IDT to speed CERN’ data analytics

By Julien Happich

triking a three-year collaboration agreement with the grammable heterogeneous computing with low-latency intercon- European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), nect between large clusters of processors. IDT’s current RapidIO low ohmic precision anD power resisTors Integrated Device Technology (IDT) will provide its low- 20 Gbps interconnect products will be used in the first stage of latencyS RapidIO Interconnect technology to help improve data the collaboration with an upgrade path to RapidIO 10xN 40 Gbps acquisition and analysis in some of the world’s most advanced technology in the future as research at CERN progresses. fundamental physics research. “This CERN collaboration is about enabling programmable Massive volumes of data are collected by the experiments real-time mission critical data analytics,” said Sailesh Chittipeddi, Top performance on small surface areas wiTh low-ohmic precision resisTors on CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest and IDT’s vice president of Global Operations and chief technology most powerful particle accelerator. Teams from IDT and CERN officer. “Since the job spans multiple processors, the intercon- will use the IDT technology to improve the quality and timeliness nect between them has to be ultra-low latency, and our technol- By reversal of the length to width ratio, our Vlx series resistors have larger soldering and contact pads, giving them: of this data collection, as well as the initial analysis and recon- ogy—already used across 4G wireless base station deployments struction work at the experiments’ data farms and the CERN worldwide—is ideally suited to CERN’s real-time interconnect _ better heat dissipation, rthi < 20 K/w Data Centre. needs.” _ higher power rating: 2 w for size 1020, 1 w for size 0612 The LHC produces millions of collisions every second in each Because of the volume of real-time data CERN collects, cur- _ significant increase in mechanical stability detector, generating approximately one petabyte of data per rent implementations are done in custom-built ASIC hardware. second. This data is vital to CERN’s quest to answer fundamental Using algorithms implemented in hardware, the data is sampled, questions about the universe. The RapidIO technology provides and only 1 percent is selected for further analysis. a low-latency connection between clusters of computer proces- “The bottleneck for better data acquisition, selection and sors, dramatically speeding the movement of data. Widely used analytics is superior real-time interconnect,” said Alberto Di for 4G base stations, IDT’s low-latency RapidIO products can Meglio, head of CERN openlab. The collaboration is based on also enable real-time data analytics and data management for industry standard IT form factor solutions suitable for deployment high-performance computing (HPC) and data centres. As part of in HPC clusters and data centers. Engineers will use heteroge- Innovation by Tradition the mandate for the fifth phase of the CERN openlab partnership, neous servers based on specifications from RapidIO.org that are several of the LHC experiments are exploring the possibility of targeted towards the Open Compute Project High Performance isabellenhütte heusler Gmbh & co. KG moving from custom-built hardware and backplanes to fully pro- Computing initiative that IDT co-chairs. eibacher weg 3 – 5 · 35683 Dillenburg · phone +49 (0) 2771 934-0 · fax +49 (0) 2771 23030 [email protected] · www.isabellenhuette.de 12 Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 www.electronics-eetimes.com

Isa-AnzeigeVLx_Elektronik_210mm x 297mm_ENG.indd 1 11.07.2012 13:47:34 a real BroaDsiDe!

low ohmic precision anD power resisTors

Top performance on small surface areas wiTh low-ohmic precision resisTors

By reversal of the length to width ratio, our Vlx series resistors have larger soldering and contact pads, giving them:

_ better heat dissipation, rthi < 20 K/w _ higher power rating: 2 w for size 1020, 1 w for size 0612 _ significant increase in mechanical stability

Innovation by Tradition

isabellenhütte heusler Gmbh & co. KG eibacher weg 3 – 5 · 35683 Dillenburg · phone +49 (0) 2771 934-0 · fax +49 (0) 2771 23030 [email protected] · www.isabellenhuette.de

Isa-AnzeigeVLx_Elektronik_210mm x 297mm_ENG.indd 1 11.07.2012 13:47:34 Machine vision

How will deep learning change SoCs?

By Junko Yoshida

eep Learning is already changing the way computers Some claim machines are gaining the ability to recognize see, hear and identify objects in the real world. However, objects as accurately as humans. According to a paper recently the bigger -- and perhaps more pertinent -- issues for published by a team of Microsoft researchers in Beijing, their theD semiconductor industry are: Will “deep learning” ever mi- computer vision system based on deep CNNs had for the first grate into smartphones, wearable devices, or the tiny computer time eclipsed the ability of people to classify objects defined in vision SoCs used in highly automated cars? Has anybody come the ImageNet 1000 challenge. Only 5 days after Microsoft an- up with SoC architecture optimized for neural networks? If so, nounced it had beat the human benchmark of 5.1% errors with what does it look like? a 4.94% error grabbing neural network, Google announced it “There is no question that deep learning is a game-changer,” had one-upped Microsoft by 0.04%. said Jeff Bier, a founder of the Embedded Vision Alliance. In Different players in the electronics industry are tackling deep computer vision, for example, deep learning is very powerful. learning in different ways, however. “The caveat is that it’s still an empirical field. People are trying different things,” he said. Different approaches There’s ample evidence to support chip vendors’ growing en- Nvidia, for example, is going after deep learning via three thusiasm for deep learning, and more specifically, convolutional products. CEO Jen-Hsun Huang trotted out during his keynote neural networks (CNN). CNN are widely used models for image speech at GTC Titan X, Nvidia’s new GeForce gaming GPU and video recognition. which the company describes as “uniquely suited for deep Earlier this month, Qualcomm introduced its “Zeroth plat- learning. He presented Nvidia’s Digits Deep Learning GPU form,” a cognitive-capable platform that’s said to “mimic the training system, a software application designed to accelerate brain.” It will be used for future mobile the development of high-quality deep neural chips, including its forthcoming Snapdragon networks by data scientists and research- 820, according to Qualcomm. ers. He also unveiled Digits DevBox, a desk- Cognivue is another company vocal side deep learning appliance, specifically about deep learning. The company claims built for the task, powered by four TITAN that its new embedded vision SoC archi- X GPUs and loaded with DIGITS training tecture, called Opus, will take advantage system software. of deep learning advancements to increase Asked about Nvidia’s plans for its GPU in detection rates dramatically. Cognivue is embedded vision SoCs for Advanced Driver collaborating with the University of Ottawa. Assitance System (ADAS), Danny Shapiro, If presentations at Nvidia’s recent GPU senior director of automotive, said Nvidia Technology Conference (GTC) were any Fig. 1: Search results of ‘cats that look isn’t pushing GPU as a chip company. “We indication, you get the picture that Nvidia is are offering car OEMs a complete system like dogs’ (Source: Yahoo). banking on the all aspects of deep learning – both ‘cloud’ and a vehicle computer that in which GPU holds the key. can take advantage of neural networks.” China’s Baidu, a giant in search technology, has been train- A case in point is Nvidia’s DRIVE PX platform -- based on the ing deep neural network models to recognize general classes Tegra X1 processor -- unveiled at the International Consumer of objects at data centers. It plans to move such models into Electronics Show earlier this year. The company describes Drive embedded systems. PX as a vehicle computer capable of using machine learning, Zeroing in on this topic during a recent interview with EE saying that it will help cars not just sense but “interpret” the Times, Ren Wu, a distinguished scientist at world around them. Baidu Research, said, “Consider the dra- Conventional ADAS technology today can matic increase of smartphones’ processing detect some objects, do basic classification, power. Super intelligent models—extracted alert the driver, and in some cases, stop the from the deep learning at data centers vehicle. Drive PX goes to the “next level,” – can be running inside our handset.” A Nvidia likes to say. Shapiro noted that Drive handset so equipped can run models in PX now has the ability to differentiate “an place without having to send and retrieve ambulance from a delivery truck.” data from the cloud. Wu, however, added, By leveraging deep learning, a car “The biggest challenge is if we can do it at equipped with Drive PX, for example, can very low power. “get smarter and smarter, every hour and Fig. 2: Nvidia CEO at GTC. every mile it drives,” claimed Shapiro. Learn- AI to Deep learning ing that takes place on the road feeds back One thing is clear. Gone are the frustration and disillusion over into the data center and the car adds knowledge via periodic artificial intelligence (AI) that marked the late 1980’s and early software updates, Shapiro said. ‘90’s. In the new “big data” era, larger sets of massive data and Audi is the first company to announce plans to use the Drive powerful computing have combined to train neural networks to PX in developing its future automotive self-piloting capabilities. distinguish objects. Deep learning is now considered a new field Shapiro said Nvidia will be shipping Drive PX to its customers in moving toward AI. May, this year.

14 Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 www.electronics-eetimes.com Qualcomm teased about its cognitive-capable platform, SoCs optimized for neural networks? which will be a part of the new Snapdragon application proces- No consensus appears to have emerged in terms of the best sor for mobile devices, but said very little about its building architecture for CNN in embedded Vision SoCs. Cognivue and blocks. The company explained that the Zeroth platform is ca- the University of Ottawa’s Laganière believe that a massively pable of “computer vision, on-device deep learning and smart parallel architecture is the way for efficiently processing a con- cameras that can recognize scenes, objects, and read text and volutional neural network. In parallel processing, an image to handwriting.” which certain parameters are applied produces Meanwhile, Cognivue (Quebec, another image, and as another filter is applied to Canada) sees the emergence of CNN the image, it produces another image. “So you creating a level playing field for embed- may need more internal local memory to store ded-vision SoCs. intermediate results in SoCs,” said Laganière. Cognivue is a designer of its own The bad news is that in a big CNN, you could Image Cognition Processor core, tools end up with billions of parameters. “But the and software, used by companies such good news is that there are tricks that we can as Freescale. By leveraging Cognivue’s use to simplify the process and remove some programmable technology, Freescale Fig. 3: How deep learning helps a car connections that are not needed,” he explained. provides intelligent imaging and video ‘interpret’ objects on the road. (Source: The challenge, however, remains in handling solutions for automotive vision systems. a number of different nodes in CNN, and you Nvidia) Tom Wilson, vice present of product can’t predetermine which node needs to be management at Cognivue, said, “We are finding our massively connected to another node. “That’s why you need a program- parallel image processing architecture and datapath manage- mable architecture. You can’t hardwire the connections,” said ment ideally suited for deep learning.” Laganière. In contrast, competing approaches Meanwhile, Bier said that in designing a have often hand designed their embed- processor for CNN, “You could use a simple, ded vision SoCs to keep pace with the uniform architecture.” Rather than designing a different vision algorithms that have different SoC architecture or optimizing it every emerged over time, which they’ve ap- time new algorithms pop up, a CNN proces- plied to their SoC design and optimized Fig. 4: Qualcomm pitches its first sor only needs a “fairly simple algorithm that each time. They might find themselves cognitive computing platform. (Source: comes with fewer variables,” he explained. In stuck with old architecture ill-suited to other words, “One could even argue that you Qualcomm) CNN, he explained. can reduce programmability for a neural network Robert Laganière, professor at the School of Electrical Engi- processor” if we know the right settings and co-efficient to be neering and Computer Science at University of Ottawa, told EE fed. “But many companies aren’t ready to make that bet yet, Times, “Before the emergence of CNN in computer vision, algo- because things are still developing,” added Bier. rithm designers had to make many design decisions” involving Chip vendors are using everything from CPU and GPU to a number of layers and steps with vision algorithms. FPGA and DSP to enable CNN on vision SoCs. So the debate Such decisions include the type of classifier used for object over CNN architecture has only begun, in Bier’s opinion. detection and methods to build an aggregation of features (by While there is no question that deep learning is altering the using a rigid detector e.g. histogram). future of embedded-vision SoC designs, Bier More decisions include how to deal said that a leading vision chip company like Mo- with deformable parts of an object and bileye has accumulated substantial vision-based whether to use cascade method (a se- automotive safety expertise. “I know many rivals quence of small decisions to determine want to eat their lunch, but I think an incumbent an object) or a support vector machine. like Mobileye still has the first mover advantage.” “One small specific design decision Baidu’s Wu, asked about the challenges of you make at each step of the way could deep learning in smartphones and wearable de- have a huge impact in object detection Fig. 5: Cognivue’s new Image Cognition vices, pointed out three. First, “We are still look- accuracy,” said Laganière. Processing technology, called Opus, ing for a killer app,” he said. When the industry In the deep architecture, however, will leverage APEX architecture (shown developed an MP3 player, for example, people you can integrate all the steps into one, knew exactly what it was for. This made it easy above), and enable parallel processing he explained. “You need to make no to develop a necessary SoC. While on-device of sophisticated Deep Learning (CNN) decision, because deep learning will deep learning sounds cool, what is its best ap- make decisions for you.” classifiers. (Source: Cognivue). plication? No one knows yet, according to Wu. In other words, as Bier summed up: “Traditional computer Second, “Deep learning needs an ecosystem,” he said. Col- vision took a very procedural approach in detecting objects.” laboration among research institutes and companies is critical Deep learning is, however, a radical departure, he said, because and “very useful,” he said. “you don’t have to tell computers where to look.” Third, “We want to make smaller devices capable of deep Bier described the process as a two-phase approach. learning,” said Wu. “Making it high performance at lower power Learning and training done at dedicated facilities, such as data will be the key.” centers, by using super computers. Then, large data sets in the The topic of bringing deep learning to embedded systems is first phase are translated into “settings” and “co-efficient” for close to Wu’s heart. He will be a keynote speaker at the Embed- embedded systems to use, said Bier. Computer vision expert ded Vision Summit on May 12 in Santa Clara. He’ll speak about Fei-Fei Li discusses how we are teaching computers to under- “Enabling Ubiquitous Visual Intelligence Through Deep Learn- stand pictures. ing.” www.electronics-eetimes.com Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 15 printed electronics

Electronics printed in France

By Julien Happich

uring an industry meeting late March, the French as- replenishment, but they would also gather data about which sociation of printed electronics (Association Française products attract the most customers, replacing today’s camera- de l’Électronique Imprimée or AFELIM) invited a number based analytics. As for large advertising displays, these could ofD key players including French startups and research labs to be functionalized for 3D interaction, either in full or partially. present their latest devel- On the organic opments and give us an photovoltaic (OPV) outlook of the market. front, marketing ISORG co-founder and development Laurent Jamet presented manager Fran- large-area printed organic çois Barreau at optical sensors which he Armor looked at said could happily replace the flexible and ITO-based capacitive semi-transparent technologies in today’s OPV cells for touch screens. urban furniture or Not only the optical even consumer sensors are flexible and solar rechargeable conformable, but they devices. also support innovative 3D “With printed gestures and on-screen OPV, we are interactions. The printed not selling solar photodetectors operate panels”, he in the near infrared, with emphasized, we a spectrum operation enable new use fully tuneable. They can cases for solar be laid either below the energy that cannot LCD or OLED surface, or be addressed by at the periphery of a display and detect a user’s fingers as they traditional modules”. block or reflect infrared illumination from surrounding IR LEDs “Even with its comparatively low efficiency, according to a (integrated in a bezel). This adds a depth effect that could have study carried out by Europeen project SUNFLOWER, OPV has promising applications for gaming or for the manipulation of the potential to be the technology producing the least grams of virtual 3D objects. Such sensor arrays could also turn a whole CO2 per kWh, with a very short energy payback time (within a display into a scanning area, ISORG has proven pixel resolu- month), just after hydro-electric energy”, Barreau told the as- tions down to 80 microns, fine enough to perform fingerprint sembly. authentication. Jamet mentioned that Intel was evaluating this Feeligreen’s CEO Dr. Christoph Bianchi gave us an update on technology for a new all-in-one computer concept. his company’s roadmap. Having developed a transdermic drug Concept mobile scanners are also under development, with delivery platform in the form of disposable printed patches, the idea to couple them with a haptic interface opposite the Bianchi told us he now wants to have the pharmaceuticals scanning side for braille printed together with the reading. electrodes. Smart shelves and “We have just filed all in-retail interactive ad- the patents for this”, he vertising are also a very boasted, so I can mention promising market for such it to you. The startup will optical sensors, accord- soon be looking at acquiring to Jamet. In the future, ing a pharmaceutical shelves could be covered company so it will be able with optical sensor films, to formulate its own drug each cell acting as a light patterns, all in one go with sensor so when a con- the required metal layers sumer lifts a product from for the electrodes. a shelf, the appropriate advertising or product “This will allow us to be promotion shows up on much more cost-effective a nearby display. These while optimizing the ionto- interactive surfaces could phoresis process”, Bianchi not only serve to manage explained. shelf inventory for faster In the medical sec-

16 Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 www.electronics-eetimes.com The Newest Products for Your Newest Designs® tor, professor Christophe Bernard from INSERM exposed his successful use of ultra-flexible printed electrodes, only 4um thick, to study brain messaging functions at neurone level. Before using such electrodes, neuro-researchers used to rely on fixed metal probes going through the skull and then through the brain, but as the brain moves and scarification tissues form around the electrodes, the signal deteriorates in a matter of days or weeks.

By using PDOT-based flexible electrodes, not only the end- probes can move with the brain (for an unaltered signal), but the bio-compatible organic material means there is no rejection and the neurones being probed can be relied upon for longer. What’s more, on these electrodes, Bernard’s team implemented a transistor in direct contact with the brain, enabling a signal pre- amplification gain of 20dB. The long term goal of his research would be to be able to record and decode brain information in order to establish a brain-machine interface. This would allow the electrodes’ wearer to send the commands to an intelligent assistant or to an exoskeleton.

According to market research firm IDTechex, the emerging battle grounds for printed electronics will be stretchable electronic textiles and conductive 3D surfaces for large area applications. And beyond organic-based printed electronic devices, the 5èmes Rencontres de l’électronique imprimée was an opportunity for representatives from the more traditional printing and textile industries to share their ideas for a successful reconversion, adding electronic functionalities to their product portfolio.

President of the ATEP (the French association of publishing and advertising engineers), Hervé Rouher sees the integration of printed electronics into the traditional printing industry as a way to bring more value and create new jobs in a sector that faces an unprecedented crisis. “Small and medium enterprises in this sector should embrace printed electronics to add sensory functions and turn their paper substrate into large-area active components” he said. Rouher would rather talk about functionalized printing rather than printed electronics, an expression he finds too narrow when you consider how versatile printing technology can be, on paper or other substrates.

The most immediate markets for functionalized prints include luxury labelling and packaging, smart labelling for the food and medical sectors, and packaging in general. Philippe Guermonprez, Collective R&D manager for the French Institute of Textile and apparel (IFTH) shared a similar view, looking at functionalizing textiles with either through screen printing processes or weaving electronic components as specialized yarns. Though he mentioned that printing on textiles is a very different story, since the substrate is three-dimensional, porous, deformable and often stretchable. All this makes printing electronic components much more difficult, and as more sensors are being integrated into fitness or health-monitoring garments, connectivity remains a challenge. On several occasions, Guermonprez reminded us that wash cycles at 80ºC were the most dreaded pass or fail test for any fabric integrating electronic components, submitting all the material layers to both mechanical wear and moisture. The most promising market in this sector include entertainment (with interactive or light-emitting clothes), sports (with fitness monitoring), but also so-called geotextiles to monitor large structure deformations. www.electronics-eetimes.com Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 17

Go Widest_UK_93x77.indd 1 26/03/15 13:27 business

IBM invests 3 billion USD to bring IoT to the enterprise By Jean-Pierre Joosting Who will industrialise BM has announced that it will invest $3 billion over the next IBM IoT Cloud Open Platform for Industries: This platform four years to establish an Internet of Things (IoT) unit, and will provide new analytics services that clients, partners and that it is building a cloud-based open platform designed to IBM will use to design and deliver vertical industry IoT systems. helpI clients and ecosystem partners build IoT solutions. For example, IBM will introduce a cloud-based service that the Internet of Things? Pioneering work by IBM in Smarter Planet and Smarter Cities helps insurance companies extract insight from connected was based on practical applications of IoT in the enterprise and vehicles. This will enable new, more dynamic pricing models led to a broad set of systems, ranging from water manage- and the delivery of services that can be highly customized to ment to optimizing retail and customer loyalty to alleviating individual drivers. traffic congestion. IBM leads in enterprise IoT implementations IBM Bluemix IoT Zone: New IoT services as part of IBM’s that securely combine and analyze data from a wide variety of Bluemix platform-as-a-service will enable developers to easily sources. integrate IoT data into cloud-based development and deploy- With new industry-specific cloud data services and deve- ment of IoT apps. Developers will be able to enrich existing loper tools, IBM will build on that expertise to help clients and business applications — such as enterprise asset management, partners integrate data from an facilities management, and soft- unprecedented number of IoT ware engineering design tools and traditional sources. These — by infusing more real-time resources will be made available data and embedded analytics to on an open platform to provide further automate and optimize manufacturers with the ability mission-critical IoT processes. to design and produce a new IBM IoT Ecosystem: Expan- generation of connected devices sion of its ecosystem of IoT part- that are better optimized for the ners — from silicon and device IoT, and to help business leaders manufacturers to industry-ori- across industries create systems ented solution providers — such that better fuse enterprise and as AT&T, ARM, Semtech and IoT data to inform decision- newly announced The Weather making. Company — to ensure the secure “Our knowledge of the world and seamless integration of data grows with every connected sen- services and systems on IBM’s sor and device, but too often we are not acting on it, even when open platform. IBM’s capabilities are illustrated in a new global we know we can ensure a better result,” said Bob Picciano, strategic alliance announced today with The Weather Com- senior vice president, IBM Analytics. “IBM will enable clients pany through WSI, its global B2B division. The WSI forecasting and industry partners apply IoT data to build solutions based on system ingests and processes data from thousands of sources, an open platform. This is a major focus of investment for IBM resulting in approximately 2.2 billion unique forecast points because it’s a rich and broad-based opportunity where innova- worldwide, and averages more than 10 billion forecasts a day tion matters.” on active weather days. The IoT and cloud computing allow for IBM estimates that 90 percent of all data generated by collection of data from more than 100,000 weather sensors and devices such as smartphones, tablets, connected vehicles aircraft, millions of smartphones, buildings and even moving and appliances is never analyzed or acted on. As much as 60 vehicles. The two companies will help industries utilize their un- percent of this data begins to lose value within milliseconds of derstanding of weather on business outcomes and take action being generated. To address this challenge, IBM is announcing systemically to optimize those parts of their businesses. it will offer: The new unit will be led by Pat Toole as General Manager. Intel targets smartglasses with purchase of two Swiss startups

By Peter Clarke

ntel Corporation has bought Lemoptix SA, a provider of The company was formed in 2008 and applications of its tech- scanning micromirror technology, and Composyt Light Labs nology range from head up displays to embedded projectors for You and NI will. From smart manufacturing to the smart grid, bridging the SA, which has developed a see-through display. smartphones and 3D sensing for 3D printing. digital and physical worlds is one of the most significant engineering challenges we face IBoth companies are spin offs from from Ecole Polytechnique Lemoptix had been working with Composyt Light Labs Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and in both cases the purchase SA when the latter was acquired by Intel at the end of 2014. today. NI, together with other visionary companies, is ensuring the superior design and price has not been disclosed. Composyt was founded in 2014 to commercialize a see-through performance of the increasingly complex systems that will fuel the Internet of Things and display architecture invented at EPFL. The display integrates Lemoptix technology is suitable for use in printers, micro- with normal eyewear and a smartglasses prototype developed drive industrial adoption. Learn more at ni.com/internet-of-things projectors and displays and the transaction was completed on by Composyt and Lemoptix includes direct retina projection and Austria 43 662 457990 0 ■ Belgium 32 (0) 2 757 0020 ■ Czech Republic, Slovakia 420 224 235 774 ■ Denmark 45 45 76 26 00 Finland 358 (0) 9 725 72511 ■ France 33 (0) 8 20 20 0414 ■ Germany 49 89 7413130 ■ Hungary 36 23 448 900 ■ Ireland 353 (0) 1867 4374 March 17, 2015, according to a note on the company website. a patented holographic combiner. Israel 972 3 6393737 ■ Italy 39 02 41309277 ■ Netherlands 31 (0) 348 433 466 ■ Norway 47 (0) 66 90 76 60 ■ Poland 48 22 328 90 10 Portugal 351 210 311 210 ■ Russia 7 495 783 6851 ■ Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia 386 3 425 42 00 Spain 34 (91) 640 0085 ■ Sweden 46 (0) 8 587 895 00 ■ Switzerland 41 56 2005151 ■ UK 44 (0) 1635 517300 ©2015 National Instruments. All rights reserved. National Instruments, NI, and ni.com are trademarks of National Instruments. Other product and company names 18 Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 www.electronics-eetimes.com listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies. National Instruments is a General member of the Intel® IoT Solutions Alliance. 20049

20049 Embed_Innovator_IoT_Ad 210x297 euro.indd 1 08/04/2015 16:18 Who will industrialise the Internet of Things?

You and NI will. From smart manufacturing to the smart grid, bridging the digital and physical worlds is one of the most significant engineering challenges we face today. NI, together with other visionary companies, is ensuring the superior design and performance of the increasingly complex systems that will fuel the Internet of Things and drive industrial adoption. Learn more at ni.com/internet-of-things

Austria 43 662 457990 0 ■ Belgium 32 (0) 2 757 0020 ■ Czech Republic, Slovakia 420 224 235 774 ■ Denmark 45 45 76 26 00 Finland 358 (0) 9 725 72511 ■ France 33 (0) 8 20 20 0414 ■ Germany 49 89 7413130 ■ Hungary 36 23 448 900 ■ Ireland 353 (0) 1867 4374 Israel 972 3 6393737 ■ Italy 39 02 41309277 ■ Netherlands 31 (0) 348 433 466 ■ Norway 47 (0) 66 90 76 60 ■ Poland 48 22 328 90 10 Portugal 351 210 311 210 ■ Russia 7 495 783 6851 ■ Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia 386 3 425 42 00 Spain 34 (91) 640 0085 ■ Sweden 46 (0) 8 587 895 00 ■ Switzerland 41 56 2005151 ■ UK 44 (0) 1635 517300 ©2015 National Instruments. All rights reserved. National Instruments, NI, and ni.com are trademarks of National Instruments. Other product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies. National Instruments is a General member of the Intel® IoT Solutions Alliance. 20049

20049 Embed_Innovator_IoT_Ad 210x297 euro.indd 1 08/04/2015 16:18 design software

Analog EDA finally automated

By R. Colin Johnson

istorically analog designers To solve this problem, analog design- were almost mysterious and ers should begin with parameterized cells old-school as radio frequency (PCells) which have already proven their (RF)H designers. merit in previous designs. By coordinating After acquiring years of experience the bottom-up approach of physical layout manipulating the many parameters designers (starting with PCells) with the top- not present in digital designs, analog down efforts of circuit designers adjusting designers become fountains-of- PCell parameters, enables the two to more knowledge in how to add the”secret accurately meet in the middle and achieve sauce” to all the different sorts of an optimal design that meets the circuit’s analog circuits in use today, often Bosch transferred to Cadence its new top- specifications. reluctant to embrace automation as down optimization technique. (Source: an alternative, according to presenters Reutlingen University). Analog designers Psyche at the International Symposium on Physical Design (ISPD-2015, Professor Rob Rutenbar at the University of Illinois in Urbana Mar 29-to-April 1). Nevertheless, analog design automation described the reluctance of analog designers to adopt these tools that rival digital design automation tools are arriving on the automation methods starting with a history of analog design tools scene. One approach is to use a design flow where traditional and culminating in the techniques described by Scheible above. bottom-up techniques (standard cells) meet top-down automated In the beginning there was only the open-source Simulation optimization techniques according to professor Jurgen Scheible Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis (Spice). from the Robert Bosch Center Electronic Design Automation “Spice in-the-loop for simulation could take weeks to run, and (EDA) division, at Reutlingen University (Germany). the analytical modeling tools to increase accuracy could take Bosch has spent considerable funding the automation of months,” Rutenbar told us. “Since then digital automation tools analog design tools, the technology for which it transferred to have solved these problems, but why is analog still not ‘solved’?” Cadence Design Systems Inc. (San Jose, Calif.), according to According to Rutenbar, for analog, the things the EDA tools Scheible. have gotten right since then are adding optimization automation, “Design automation for analog circuits has not advanced any- adding critical synthesis of IP (intellectual property), adding these thing like digital circuit automation,” Scheible told us. “The extra and other tools embedded in the same design flows and adopt- work and costs of designing and producing analog layouts is a ing a divide-and-conquer methodology. What is missing, unfortu- serious bottleneck in IC design.” nately, are accurate usage models of how real engineers do real The reason is that there are many more circuit types, each layouts—in other words, automating the “secret sauce.” with many more parameters to be optimized, than in the typical Optimization, constraint managers and statistical centering digital circuit. Advances have been made for specific circuit types tools were automated early-on and well accepted by analog in recent years, according to Scheible, but much more needs to designers. However, analog engineers are still reluctant to use be done before analog can be said to have caught up with digital automated layout tools, because they have their own secret EDA. At the ISPD, Scheible introduced two techniques he has sauce for how a layout should be done. developed, which have since been transferred to “Engineers dont want automated layout tools, because there Cadence, namely “continuous design flow” is an aesthetic involved, that serves as a and “bottom-up meets top-down” design surrogate for correctness,” Rutenbar told us. flows. “A continuous layout design flow is a “Aesthetics of the layout is used for insu- blind spot in today’s traditional analog flows,” rance that the circuit will work, because they according to Scheible. have built similar circuits in the past that have The typical design flow for analog circuits proven to work well.” today is iteration, namely placement, routing For the future, according to Rutenbar, and device generation, then repeat again and engineers need to accept automated layout again until all the specifications of the circuit tools, especially for the future advanced are met. Instead Scheible recommends a node SoCs. For instance, today discrete continuous design flow where first the en- analog circuits are cheap because they are Device generation plus placement gineer makes a symbolic preliminary layout, using design rules that are up to five nodes and routing of a very complex design then makes is more and more detailed by behind the state-of-the-art in digital proces- adjusting actual physical parameters until it using generators for individual devices. ses. However, for the future SoCs with mixed crystallizes into a physical design. (Source: University of Illinois/Cadence) signal circuits on-chip, analog designers are An alternative, is to use a bottom-up technique simultaneously going to have to learn how to create well performing analog func- with a top-down technique until they meed in the middle—an tions at 14-, 10-, 7- and even 5-nanometers. They will also have even more superior design flow for modern analog design, to start making analog FinFETs. The biggest problems facing according to Scheible. However it suffers from a dilemma: the analog engineers using analog FinFETs, according to Rutenbar, efficiency of top-down optimizing algorithms—measured by are electromigration, signal and power routing that cause unac- speed—are generally inversely proportional to the accuracy of ceptable DC voltage drops and self-heating of power circuits, all the circuit. of which could be solved by using automated layout tools.

20 Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 www.electronics-eetimes.com Cyber-physical systems as the basis for IoT: Europe has it all

By Julien Happich European partners including research labs and high vative products more rapidly, EuroCPS is expected to foster job tech companies are joining their forces within the growth and create sustained demand for European manufactur- newly formed pan-European consortium EuroCPS, ing, especially as the IoT creates demand for new products. 15with a particular focus on the use of proven cyber-physical sys- One key goal of the project is to link software, system and tem (CPS) platforms to develop new IoT products. nano-electronic industries along the full CPS value chain to Funded by the European Commission and coordinated by demonstrate a new cooperation model. French research lab CEA-Leti, the three-year, 9.2 million project is designed to help innovators (SMEs and large companies) overcome barriers they face when entering new markets because they lack both knowledge of the value chain and the skills to master the entire design process from ideas to products. To that end, EuroCPS partners will provide technical expertise, coaching and access to advanced industrial CPS platforms to get innovators up to speed on the innovation ecosystem of smart products by facilitating access to the latest technologies and their implemen- tation. In the process, it will offer all the necessary expertise and competencies to provide innovators from any sector TRENCH SiC MOSFET with a smooth path to building innovative CPS-enabled systems. It also will tap existing regional ecosystems in n Low RDSON n Low Switching Loss n High-Speed Switching several countries to bring the full value chain from hardware/software plat- ROHM Semiconductor is the world´s first forms to cyber-physical systems to high manufacturer that achieved the mass value-added products and services. production of Trench SiC MOSFET. EuroCPS will create synergies Compared to the conventional planar between emerging and established or- ganizations operating in the CPS sector, MOSFET, Trench SiC technology reduces said Marie-Nolle Semeria, CEO of Leti ARDSOn value by half and provides in a statement. From that foundation, it higher current capability. will leverage the existing ecosystem to SiC MOSFET contributes to reduce the bring the full value chain from micro- size of system by more than 50% versus electronics, smart systems and CPS IGBT solutions. to high value-added products and services. This combination will centralize in Trench SiC MOSFET one project all the necessary expertise P/N Package BV V R ( V =18V ) ID and competencies to provide SMEs DSS GSS DSON GS from any sector with a one-stop-shop SCT3022KL TO247, Bare die 1200V 22V / -10V 22 mΩ 95 A opportunity to build innovative CPS- enabled systems. SCT3030KL TO247, Bare die 1200V 22V / -10V 30 mΩ 73 A As ICT becomes increasingly integrated into our everyday environment, SCT3040KL TO247, Bare die 1200V 22V / -10V 40 mΩ 55 A the design of embedded ICT from components to CPS becomes more SCT3018AL TO247, Bare die 650V 22V / -10V 18 mΩ 120 A important than ever, not only for the ICT supply industry but also for all major SCT3022AL TO247, Bare die 650V 22V / -10V 22 mΩ 92 A mainstream sectors of the economy. SCT3030AL TO247, Bare die 650V 22V / -10V 30 mΩ 70 A Embedded systems and more particularly CPS are key enablers of innovation in European industry, and SMEs are the Applications: primary drivers of job creation. ROHM MOSFET are ideal in Switch Mode Power Supplies, By integrating SMEs into the CPS Renewable Energy Inverters/Converters, EV/HV inverters and chargers. sector and helping them develop inno- www.electronics-eetimes.com Technology for you Sense it Light it Power it ! www.rohm.com/eu Optoelectronics

Headlight control through eye-tracking

By Christoph Hammerschmidt

ontrolling your headlamp with a move of your eyes: What “jumps” around all the time. Would the system reflect these sounds like Sci-Fi can soon be reality. Carmaker Opel movements, the cone of light would move hectically. “For this is developing a technology that controls direction and reason, we developed sophisticated delay algorithms that cause brightnessC of the vehicle’s headlights by the cone of light to move smoothly”, says tracking the driver’s eyes. Ingolf Schneider, manager lighting technol- Engineers at General Motors’ German ogy for Opel. There is no need to constantly subsidiary had the idea to control the light re-calibrate the eye tracker, also the body by the direction of the driver’s look already height of the driver is not relevant. two years ago. In the beginning, they used The eye-tracking technology how- a simple webcam to track distinctive fea- ever will only be introduced in the future. tures like nose and eyes to determine the Current-generation vehicles are equipped viewing direction. These data were turned with the AFL+ adaptive headlight system, into instructions for the actuators. Though which already offers up to ten lighting func- this approach yielded quite promising re- The beam of the AFL+ Xenon headlamp tions controlled by a frontal camera. For ex- sults, it turned out that the huge amounts of automatically adapts to various traffic ample, the light cone of a xenon headlamp data could not be processed fast enough, situations and weather conditions. is automatically adapted to different traffic and the webcam’s frame rate was too low to meet real-time traf- situations as well as road and weather conditions - with variable fic requirements. light distribution within urban areas and country roads. In the meantime, the engineering team successfully optimized The system has different light settings for streets, motorways the camera parameters and they adapted the eye-tracking algo- and bad weather, and adjusts the settings automatically, con- rithm for better real-time behaviour. In twilight and darkness, a trolled by the camera. Additional functions include dynamic cor- fast camera now scans the eyes of the driver more than 50 times nering light and turning light. Direction and intensity of the light per second, using infrared sensors at the margins and with photo beam are controlled according to the angle of lock and vehicle diodes in the centre of the image field. Thanks to much faster speed. In parallel to the continuing improvement of AFL+ and the data forwarding and processing the headlight actuators now development of the eye-tracking lighting generation of the future, react virtually in real-time, horizontally as well as vertically. Opel’s International Technical Design Centre in Rüsselsheim is However, one problem remains: the human eye unknowingly preparing final validation tests for the LED matrix lighting system. Nanolaser enables on-chip photonics

By R. Colin Johnson

ending communications signals around solar cells and even transistors using chips, and between chips and boards is an this new semiconductor. area of intense research worldwide. Now Creating a nano laser out from it UniversityS of Washington (Seattle) and Stanford required building an optical confine- University (Calif.) have created an on-chip laser ment cavity to intensify the light, that can be electro-modulated for easy optical fashioned from a single layer of the communications. tungsten-based material. The gain of Most materials from which on-chip lasers can be the material can be carefully tuned built are not compatible with silicon substrates, but and it uses the standard frequencies these researchers has high hopes for their atomi- for on-chip, between chip and be- cally thin (just 0.7 nanometers thick) laser can be tween board communications. Next integrated onto standard silicon chips. the group will carefully characterize “Today we are using a tungsten photonics cav- An ultra-thin semiconductor using just the material as well as experiment ity sandwiched between layers of selenium, but three atom thick material stretches possibly improving it further by using we hope to achieve the same results with silicon across a photonic cavity to emit light. silicon nitride. nitride in the future,” said EE professor Arka (Source: U of Washington). Other researchers contributing to Majumdar, who did the work with fellow professor the work include John Schaibley of Xiaodong Xum and his doctoral candidate assistant, Sanfeng the University of Washington and Liefeng Feng of the University Wu. As the thinnest semiconductor today, according to Ma- of Washington and Tianjin University in China, Sonia Buckley jumdar and Wu, it is super energy efficient and can be electro- and Jelena Vuckovic of Stanford, Jiaqiang Yan and David G. modulated with a signal of only 27 nanowatts, making it ideal Mandrus of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of for on-chip communications. The new material has also excited Tennessee, Fariba Hatami of Humboldt University in Berlin and other groups who are busy building light-emitting diodes (LEDs), Wang Yao of the University of Hong Kong.

22 Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 www.electronics-eetimes.com Tandem photovoltaics for record efficiencies?

By Paul Buckley

esearchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology commonly used in perovskite solar cells works as an electron- (MIT) and Stanford University are exploring ways to create selective contact for silicon allowing electrons to flow from the solar cells using low-cost manufacturing methods. A novel perovskite solar cell through the TiO2 layer, eventually passing prototypeR device combines perovskite with silicon solar cells to into the silicon tunnel junction, where they recombine with the form a two-terminal ‘tandem’ device. holes from the silicon solar cell. As the team reports in the journal Applied Physics Letters, Once the tandem is set up, it relies on its multiple absorber from AIP Publishing, the tandem cells have the potential to layers to absorb different portions of the solar spectrum. “The achieve higher energy conversion efficiencies than standard perovskite absorbs all of the visible photons [higher in energy], for single-junction silicon solar cells. Stacking perovskite on top of a example, while the silicon absorbs the infrared photons [lower in conventional silicon solar cell forms a tandem device that has the energy],” said Bailie. potential to improve the cell’s overall efficiency. Splitting the solar spectrum allows these specialized absorb- The research team focused on tandem solar cells because ing layers to convert their range of the spectrum into electrical there was big room for improvement in their cost and market power much more efficiently than a single absorber can convert penetration. Tandem solar cells have only garnered a worldwide the entire solar spectrum on its own. market share of 0.25 percent compared to the 90 percent market “This minimizes an undesirable process in solar cells called share captured by silicon solar “thermalization”, in which the cells. “Despite having higher ef- energy of an absorbed photon is ficiency, tandems are traditionally released as heat until it reaches made using expensive processes the energy of the absorber’s - making it difficult for them to bandgap,” Bailie explained. “Us- compete economically,” explained ing a high-bandgap absorber on Colin Bailie, a Ph.D. student at top of the low-bandgap absorber Stanford and an author on the recovers some of this energy in research paper. the high-energy photons that The team’s tandem approach would otherwise be ‘thermalized’ focuses on keeping costs low and if absorbed in the low-bandgap “integrates perovskite solar cells absorber.” monolithically -- building them Another key part of the sequentially in layers - onto a sili- tandem’s design is that it uses a con solar cell, without significant serial connection, which means optical or electrical losses, by us- that the two solar cells are con- ing commonly available semicon- Schematic diagram shows the layered structure of the nected in a manner so that the ductor materials and deposition hybrid solar cell. The top sub-cell, made of pervoskite (blue), same amount of current passes methods,” explained Jonathan absorbs most of the high-energy (blue arrow) photons from through each of the solar cells P. Mailoa, a graduate student the sun, while letting lower energy (red arrow) photons pass which means that the same amount of light is absorbed in in MIT’s Photovoltaic Research through, where they are absorbed by the lower sub-cell made Laboratory and a co-author on the each solar cell and their voltage is of silicon (gray). The other layers serve to provide electrical paper. added together. connections between the two sub-cells, and to carry the Before creating the tandems, The team’s tandem “demon- the researchers first needed to electricity generated by the cells out to wires. Image courtesy strated an open-circuit voltage design an interlayer to facilitate of the researchers (edited by Jose-Luis Olivares/MIT) of 1.65 V, which is essentially the electronic charge carrier recombination without significant energy sum of top and bottom cells, with very little voltage loss,” said losses. “Fortunately, the physical concepts already exist for other Tonio Buonassisi, an associate professor of mechanical enginee- types of multijunction solar cells, so we simply needed to find ring at MIT who led the research. An open-circuit voltage of 1.65V the best interlayer material combination for the perovskite-silicon was the highest best-case scenario the team had predicted, pair,” said Mailoa. which indicates that their tunnel junction performs very well. To form a connecting layer, known technically as the semi- But an efficiency evolution is on the horizon. The efficiency conductor ‘tunnel junction’, between the two sub-cells, the team record for single-junction perovskite cells ranges from 16 to used degenerately doped p-type and n-type silicon, which facili- 20 percent, depending on the formula used. “By contrast, the tates the recombination of positive charge carriers (holes) from perovskite in our tandem is based on a technology that achieves the silicon solar cell and negative charge carriers (electrons) from only 13 percent in our lab as a single-junction device,” said Bailie. the perovskite solar cell. “Improving the quality of our perovskite layer will lead to better Because the two silicon layers are highly doped, “the energy tandem devices.” barrier between them is thin enough so that electrons and holes Another area for improving the tandem’s efficiency is by in the semiconductor easily pass through using quantum me- “reducing parasitic optical losses in other layers of the multi-junc- chanical tunneling,” explained Mailoa. tion solar cell devices and predicting their efficiency potentials While electrons from a perovskite solar cell will not normally through simulation to determine whether or not this approach is enter this tunnel junction layer, a titanium-dioxide (TiO2) layer truly cost effective,” added Mailoa. www.electronics-eetimes.com Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 23 Optoelectronics

A new candidate for ultra-thin optoelectronics: DNA-peptide By Paul Buckley esearchers at Tel Aviv University (TAU) claim to have “Our lab has been working on peptide nanotechnology for developed a molecular backbone of super-slim, bendable over a decade, but DNA nanotechnology is a distinct and fasci- digital displays that uses a novel DNA-peptide structure to nating field as well. When I started my doctoral studies, I wanted produceR thin, transparent, and flexible screens. to try and converge the two approaches,” said Berger. “In this The research, which has been published in Nature Nanotech- study, we focused on PNA - peptide nucleic acid, a synthetic nology, was conducted by Prof. Ehud Gazit and doctoral student hybrid molecule of peptides and DNA. We designed and synthe- Or Berger of the Department of Molecular Microbiology and sized different PNA sequences, and tried to build nano-metric Biotechnology at TAU’s George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, architectures with them.” in collaboration with Dr. Yuval Ebenstein and Prof. Fernando Using methods such as electron microscopy and X-ray crys- Patolsky of the School of Chemistry at TAU’s Faculty of Exact tallography, the researchers discovered that three of the mol- Sciences, harnesses bionanotechnology to emit a full range of ecules they synthesized could self-assemble, in a few minutes, colors in one pliable pixel layer - as opposed to the several rigid into ordered structures. The structures resembled the natural layers that constitute today’s screens. double-helix form of DNA, but also exhibited peptide characteris- “Our material is light, organic, and environmentally friendly,” tics. This resulted in a unique molecular arrangement that reflects said Prof. Gazit. “It is flexible, and a single layer emits the same the duality of the new material. range of light that requires several layers today. By using only one “Once we discovered the DNA-like organization, we tested the layer, you can minimize production costs dramatically, which will ability of the structures to bind to DNA-specific fluorescent dyes,” lead to lower prices for consumers as well.” said Berger. “To our surprise, the control sample, with no added The researchers tested different combinations of peptides: dye, emitted the same fluorescence as the variable. This proved short protein fragments, embedded with DNA elements which that the organic structure is itself naturally fluorescent.” facilitate the self-assembly of a novel molecular architecture. The structures were found to emit light in every color, as Peptides and DNA are two of the most basic building blocks opposed to other fluorescent materials that shine only in one of life. Each cell of every life form is composed of such building specific color. Moreover, light emission was observed also in blocks. In the field of bionanotechnology, scientists utilize these response to electric voltage - which make it a perfect candidate building blocks to develop novel technologies with properties not for opto-electronic devices like display screens. available for inorganic materials such as plastic and metal.

Ag nanodiscs to boost MoS2’s LED performance By Paul Buckley

esearchers at Northwestern University’s McCormick the interactions between light and metal. The team discovered School of Engineering have fabricated a series of silver that the nanodiscs enhanced light emission and determined nanodiscs which when arranged on top of a sheet of the specific diameter of the most successful disc, which is 130 molybdenumR disulfide (MoS2) are able to boost the light emis- nanometers. sion performance of the monolayer thick material. “We have known that these plasmonic nanostructures have

With enhanced light emission properties, MoS2 could make a the ability to attract and trap light in a small volume,” said good candidate for light emitting diode technologies. Monolayer Serkan Butun, a postdoctoral researcher in Aydin’s lab. “Now

MoS2’s ultra-thin structure is strong, lightweight, and flexible, we’ve shown that placing silver nanodiscs over the material re- which makes the material a good sults in twelve times more light emission.” candidate for many applications, The use of the nanostructures - as op- such as high-performance, flexible posed to using a continuous film to cover electronics. Such a thin semicon- the MoS2 - allows the material to retain ducting material, however, has its flexible nature and natural mechanical little interaction with light, limiting properties. the material’s use in light emitting The team’s next step is to use the and absorbing applications. same strategy for increasing the mate- “The problem with these rial’s light absorption abilities to create a materials is that they are just one better material for solar cells and pho- monolayer thick,” said Koray todetectors. “This is a huge step, but it Aydin, assistant professor of electrical engineering and com- is not the end of the story,” Aydin said. “There might be ways puter science at the McCormick School of Engineering. “So the to enhance light emission even further. But, so far, we have amount of material that is available for light emission or light successfully shown that it’s indeed possible to increase light absorption is very limited. In order to use these materials for emission from a very thin material.” practical photonic and optoelectric applications, we needed to Supported by Northwestern’s Materials Research Science increase their interactions with light.” and Engineering Center and the Institute for Sustainability and Aydin and his team tackled this problem by combining nano- Energy at Northwestern, the research is described in the March technology, materials science, and plasmonics, the study of 2015 online issue of NanoLetters.

24 Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 www.electronics-eetimes.com Innovating for success

Automotive lighting design software Advanced Adhesives for . SMT (Surface Mount Technology) models perception by human eye . Die Attach ersion 2.0 of Synopsys’ LucidShape lighting design package enables more ac- . Flip-Chip bonding curate model creation and contains a diagnostic tool for evaluating how a light- . Switches, Relays, Connectors ing system will be perceived by the humanV eye. This is particularly important Microdispensing valve DELO-DOT PN2 for evaluating automotive components . Cost advantages such as turn signals and brake lights. Long actuator lifetime: >1 billion cycles The LucidShape Visualize Module provides photorealistic visualisations that . Precision and speed help designers troubleshoot and improve Dispensing frequency: up to 300 drops/s automotive lighting designs at any stage . Flexible setup in the development process. Its Ray Data Viewer allows designers to preview vendor Modular design light sources before building model geometry, and its Light Pipe Tool enables fast, robust creation of complete light pipe geometry. An expanded material library with Foil cartridge DELO-FLEXCAP measured BSDF data delivers unsurpassed accuracy for modelling automotive light- . Process reliability ing surfaces. Bubble-free dispensing LucidShape’s Visualize Module delivers high speed photorealistic images of an automotive lighting system’s lit appearance, which demonstrate luminance effects when light sources in a model are illuminated. Because the Visualize Module depicts all interactions between system geometry and light sources, it provides designers with a physically correct diagnostic tool for evaluating how a lighting system will be perceived by the human eye. The Visualize Module supports environment sources for the integration of 360-degree, high dynamic range (HDR) photographic environments into photorealistic visualisations and includes all physical and optical properties for an immersive, accurate rendering of a lighting scene. It combines LucidShape’s luminance camera and back- ward ray tracing with its GPUtrace solution to accelerate illumination simulations. Printable electroluminescent sheets in large-format

esearchers at the INM – Leibniz Institute for New Materials have developed a cost-effective method that enables electroluminescence to be produced on large, curved surfaces. The solution produces the light-emitting layer and all otherR components using wet-chemical, printable methods. At present organic semiconducting light-emitting materials (OLEDs) can be incorporated in thin layers and used on curved surfaces but OLEDs for large-area illumination have until now proved to be cost-intensive owing to their low efficiency and short lifetime. “For processing we only need temperatures below 200 degrees Celsius. This means that we can apply all the required partial layers even to films or other flexible substrates,” explained Peter William de Oliveira, head of the program division Optical Materials. The result is that ‘luminous surfaces’ could now be produced cost-effectively and even in large formats. The luminous unit consists of two electrically conductive layers, between which the light-emitting particles are sandwiched in a dielectric binder layer. At least one of the conductive layers is also transparent. Due to the insulating layer, the absorbed energy is efficiently converted into light and appreciable heating is avoided. On application of an AC voltage, light is emitted from the electroluminescent layer. “We embed luminous particles in the form of functionalized zinc sulphide nanoparticles as phosphors into the binder layer,” explained de Oliveira “these are doped with copper or manganese. At present this allows the generation of green and Industrial Adhesives blue-green light.” Phone +49 8193 9900-0 The electroluminescent light sheets developed at the INM can be directly connect- [email protected] · www.delo.de/en ed to the customary mains voltage of 230 volts. Rectifiers, ballast capacitors or other switching units that first adapt the voltage can be omitted. www.electronics-eetimes.com Optoelectronics

Camera decouples areas of interest Smart cities will see it all and exposure Altera Corporation and IP partner Eutecus have developed Hamamatsu Photonics’ ORCA Flash4.0 LT camera comes with the ReCo-Pro Multi-channel High Definition (HD) Video the W-VIEW Mode which enables read out of two different re- Analytics platform for integration into surveillance cameras. gions of interests (ROIs) with different exposure times. It comes Based on Eutecus’ MVE video and fusion analytics tech- equipped with the latest Gen II sCMOS nology and Altera’s Cyclone V technology having a spatial resolution SoC and Enpirion PowerSoC of 2048 x 2048 pixels (6.5um pixel size) devices, the platform will turn and a very low readout noise of 1.5 video surveillance cameras into electrons rms. The USB 3.0 interface “see-it-all, spot it and analyse” delivers 30 full frames per second. surveillance systems able to turn Operating the camera in the new any smart city into an open Alca- W-VIEW Mode allows users to set independent exposure times traz. Available from Eutecus, the and readout directions for the upper and lower half of the sen- ReCo platform has been chosen by Sensity Systems as the sor (each being 2048 x 1024 pixels) guaranteeing best image foundation for adding intelligent vision processing to its high- quality for simultaneous dual wavelength measurements. speed, Light Sensory Network (LSN) of street luminaires cur- The camera can read out two freely positioned ROIs of differ- rently being installed in several US metropolitan areas. The ent size and independent exposure times so the images can be Sensity open, multiservice NetSense platform enables indus- acquired at very high speed which reduces data volume and trial lighting owners and operators to reduce energy costs enables long time recording. The W-VIEW Mode supports the while offering advanced networked services for smart city simultaneous capture of dual wavelength measurements, for applications, such as environmental and weather monitoring, high speed ratio metric imaging or any other multi-wavelength parking management, retail analytics and surveillance. The fluorescence applications. Eutecus ReCo platform turns these luminaires into recon- Hamamatsu figurable, scalable, and remotely upgradable FPGA-based www.hamamatsu.com computers able to crunch more video data and perform more fusion analytics as video resolutions increase and more Laser sensors operate from 100mm sensors are mounted onto the luminaire poles. Currently, it supports dual and quad channel HD video processing. to 1000mm Altera Corporation Banner Engineering’s L-GAGE LE family of laser sensors now www.altera.com include the LE250 and LE550 Dual Discrete laser sensors, both featuring two, independently configurable discrete outputs, which can be setup as switch 20W smart DC driver for LED modules points or sensing windows for simple part detection and feedback on FuturoLighting’s Smart DC LED module connects the most position. For example, by utilizing recent LED technology together with a smart DC driver offering two overlapping windows, operators a ready-made solution for fixture producers, researchers, and can indicate if the target is correctly hobbyists. The module is populated on metal core PCB, imple- positioned, too close, too far away menting LEDs and high an or not present. With a wide 100 mm efficiency driver with thermal to 1000 mm operating range and foldback and dimming. The larger spot size, the LE550 is an 145x43x4.1mm unit opera- ideal detection solution for diverse tes at high efficiency above measurement applications, includ- 94% and accepts input vol- ing roll diameter, loop control, thickness measurement and tages up to 60 VDC. Con- positioning. Alternatively, the LE250 is optimized for supe- nection of the modules to a rior measurement precision and provides a sub millimeter power supply and control is inspection solution for measurements ranging from 100 mm realized by three marked solder terminals. Several modules can to 400 mm. The LE250 also features a smaller spot size, be designed in parallel and connected to a central or individual approximately one millimeter, which provides more consis- constant voltage power supply (48VDC) to form a lighting tent detection of smaller features and measurements across fixture. The thermal fold back module prevents overheating targets of varying colors, including multicolored packaging. and enhances lifetime (thermally safe even without a heat sink). The L-GAGE laser sensors operate with an intuitive two-line, Once the module temperature is higher than a set temperature eight-character display, allowing for easy readability, quick (Tset), the driver decreases the current flowing to the LEDs thus adjustments and simple menu navigation. The visible red, reducing power consumption and keeping temperature con- Class 2 laser beam and small spot size ensure quick setup stant. Luminous flux as well as module consumption can be and alignment. The sensors are ready to measure right out of controlled by a dimming signal, either through a fast PWM (0-5 the box, and with multiple mounting bracket options avail- V, from an MCU) or using an analogue 1-10V input. The smart able, the sensor can easily be installed to solve a wide range LED module comes assembled with Cree XT-E LEDs delivering of applications, saving time and money with setup. over 2300 lm but could be delivered with other LED brands. It is Banner Engineering compatible with optics from Ledil, Carclo, and other producers. www.bannerengineering.com FuturoLighting www.futurolighting.eu

26 Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 www.electronics-eetimes.com Compact optical switch for non-contact 13 Mpixel CMOS image sensor cuts power switching applications for 120 fps HD video Everlight’s reflective type opto interrupter ITR1201 integrates T4KB3 is a 13-megapixel backside illumination (BSI) CMOS an infrared emitter and a silicon phototransistor in a plastic image sensor with an optical format of 1/3.07 inch. Offering double moulding housing Everlight Electronics’ reflective type video capture at up to 120 fps with full 1080p HD, the image opto interrupter ITR1201SR10A/TR, in sensor is suited for use in high its ITR series of reflective sensors, is for end smartphones and tablets. use in printers, copiers, scanners and With demand growing for small for non-contact switching environments form factor chips, destined for such as use as a proximity sensor. It is ever slimmer mobile devices, a light reflection switch which includes the T4KB3 makes use of a GaAs IR-LED and an NPN phototran- proprietary Toshiba design sistor with a highly photosensitive receiver for short distances, techniques to deliver a device operating in the infrared range. Other key features are a fast claimed as the smallest 13 megapixel sensor. Low power response time, a very stable collector current, a cut-off visible circuitry has reduced power consumption, to 53% of that wavelength of below 700 nm and an improved MSL (moisture used by the preceding T4K82 image sensor, and the new sensitivity level) from level 4 to 3. The double moulding manu- chip achieves 200 mW, or less, at 30fps, with full 13 mega- facturing process employed, compared to the traditional glue pixel output. Image brightness is boosted four fold by using dispense manufacturing process results in a smoother surface Bright Mode technology and the T4KB3 offers full 1080p which not only enhances the look but also raises the reliability. HD video capture at 120 fps. The sensor is fitted with 8 kbit The ITR1201 has a flat profile of only 1.5 mm of One Time Programmable (OTP) memory and lens sha- Everlight ding correction data for two conditions can be stored. This www.everlight.com permits different correction data for indoor or outdoor use. The T4KB3 measures 8.5 x 8.5 mm, with auto focus, and Modular ceiling LED light consumes 6.7x6.7mm with a static focus. Toshiba Electronics Europe less than 15-W www.toshiba.semicon-storage.com GlacialLight has introduced the second generation of the company’s modular ceiling light series for indoor commercial lighting – GL-PL0303-V2 and GL-PL0312-V2. Using a new Forza, NHK show 133-Mpixel sensor generation of LED thermal and lighting technology the Forza Silicon Corp., in collaboration with researchers at Japa- 295 mm square GL-PL0303- nese broadcaster NHK have presented a CMOS image sensor V2 consumes 14.8 W while with resolution of 133-megapixels and able to capture video at producing up to 1260 lumens, 60 frames per second. The chip is intended for an 8K-resolution and the longer GL-PL0312- single-chip camera. The sensor V2 fluorescent tube replacement LED light, with dimensions was presented at the International of 295 mm x 1195 mm, reduces energy consumption to 44.5 Solid-State Circuits Conference W while producing up to 3900 lumens. At 295 mm, the LED (ISSCC) held in San Francisco in ceiling light fit within the width of standard modular ceiling tiles February. The sensor was de- without consuming too much energy. The 295 mm square GL- signed by Forza (Pasadena, Calif.) PL0303-V2 produces a bright yet non-obtrusive 1100 lumens and fabricated for NHK using a or more and the 295 mm x 1195 mm GL-PL0312-V2 produces 0.18-micron 3.3V/1.8V manufac- 3600 lumens or more, meaning less luminaires to install, and turing process with 1D stitching lower energy bills for the same amount of light. Compared to together multiple mask images on a die. To date conventional fluorescent tube lighting, the LED panel lights from Glacial- image sensors for 8K applications have used 8 MP and 33 Light claim to produce a smooth, bright light across the entire MP solutions in large optical formats. These sensor solutions LED panel, creating more pleasant and even area illumination have not been effective in managing the trade-offs between with less flicker and glare. Color temperatures can be chosen size and resolution. In order to eliminate the bulky lens/color- from 3000K (warm white), 4000K (neutral white), or 6000K prism optical system of previous generation cameras, the team (cool white) to suit the lighting ambience. A dimming option developed a single-chip 133 MP image sensor. The sensor with 1-10 V DC, PWM and Resistor dimming is compatible takes advantage of Forza Silicon’s third generation readout with a variety of lighting control systems and switches, allow- architecture to achieve frame frequency of 60 fps. The Gen 3 ing users to easily adjust the level of light. The included LED readout architecture uses a pseudo-column parallel design with driver has a two-stage design and is IP67 and CUL certified. redundant 14-bit successive approximation register ADCs to In two different sizes - a square 295 mm model as well as a achieve a throughput of 128Gbit/s at full resolution and frame longer 295 mm x 1195 mm model the lights with an ultra-slim rate. “Forza’s dedicated support and its image sensor design 10 mm thickness fit within standard suspended ceilings. The expertise enabled us to achieve the Super Hi-Vision 8K single- lights can be recessed mounted (295 mm standard, 300 mm chip camera — the largest pixel count of any video image sen- with the spacer or 315 mm with the clip-on mounts). sor,” said Hiroshi Shimamoto, senior research engineer at NHK GlacialLight Science & Technology Research Laboratories (STRL). www.glaciallight.com Forza Silicon Corp. www.forzasilicon.com www.electronics-eetimes.com Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 27 Wearable & Implantable electronics

Electronic patch increases therapy adherence You can’t break the By Wim De Geest and Bram De Muer laws of physics. oday, few patients accurately adhere to their medication prescriptions. This poor adherence to medication was reported by WHO back in 2003 to result in increased But with a little insight, you can bend them. morbidityT and death and was estimated to incur annual costs of approximately $100 billion. If you’re a DDR engineer on the leading edge of memory design, chances are you Moreover, the effect of this limited therapy adherence affects feel constantly challenged to go faster. With lower power. On a smaller footprint. all players in the healthcare sector because it has a large impact With less probing access. And with denser packaging. We can help you meet those on treatment outcomes. Several factors can contribute to a challenges. Keysight is the only test and measurement company that offers hardware lack of therapy adherence, but most often, despite the many and software solutions across all stages of DDR chip development. From design to reminder systems currently available, patients simply forget to simulation, test to debug, validation to compliance, we’ve got you covered. take their medication. Pharmaceutical therapy bundled with Therasolve’s adherence An extensive review conducted by the World Health Organi- technology. zation (WHO) concluded that improving adherence has a much HARDWARE + SOFTWARE + PEOPLE = DDR INSIGHTS larger impact on overall global health than any other improve- For the timing generator, ICsense has developed on-chip ment of a specific medical treatment. timers that eliminate all external components whilst still being Software solutions from simulation to compliance In 64% of the cases, forgetfulness is the major reason for able to achieve a timing accuracy of better than a 1000ppm. therapy non-adherence. Current tools to help improve adher- Since the timers are always on, power consumption has of ne- Benchtop and modular solutions ence for prescribed medication, and more specifically in the cessity, to be minimized and only a few tens of microWatts (µW) Full line of high-speed, high-density probes cases where non-adherence is a matter of forgetfulness, have is consumed. Triggered by the timer, the high-efficiency DC/DC clear disadvantages including their size, complexity of use, converter and high-voltage driver circuit converts energy from Custom-build probes for your specific needs impact on patient privacy and relatively limited effectiveness. a button cell power source into a series of high-voltage pulses large enough to be perceptible by the patient but non-irritating A wearable transdermal reminder to them. The need for an innovative, cost-effective and large scale de- In developing this solution, TheraSolve performed a range of ployable medication reminder system is answered elaborate user studies over by TheraSolve’s MemoPatch®. This new technol- several years to determine the ogy aims to be the simplest and most user-friend- right voltage, pulse shape and ly “Stick & Play” reminder system, which supports timing for the optimal ‘digital and motivates patients in the real world, with touch’ reminder. day to day stressors and challenges to take their Although the specifics of medication in a timely fashion. The MemoPatch the pulses used in the Memo- consists of a small, flexible and self-adhesive Patch are a closely guarded dermal patch that gives its wearer a very clear secret, pulse duration is in and discreet ‘digital touch’ – an electrical stimulus the order of 30 seconds. The when it is time to take a dose of medication or, ‘digital touch’ generated is more generally, to perform any prescribed health- distinctly noticeable – simi- Keysight W2211BP Advanced Design System Keysight Infiniium 90000 X-Series oscilloscope Keysight U4154B logic analyzer module for Keysight M8020A high-performance J-BERT electronic design automation software DDR1/2/3/4 and LPDDR1/2/3/4 compliance software DDR2/3/4 and LPDDR2/3/4 in M9502A chassis promoting activity. lar in nature to some of the W2351EP ADS DDR4 Compliance Test Bench packages and protocol decoder available DDR2/3/4 and LPDDR2/3/4 protocol decoder and emerging haptic technologies, compliance toolsets available without being distressing. Dedicated microchip technology Keysight Probes—standard and custom To the casual observer the patch looks and feels The timing, voltage, power Standard and custom DDR and LPDDR oscilloscope like a transdermal nicotine patch but includes and shape of the pulses is and logic analyzer BGA interposer solutions complex mixed-signal electronics and power fully programmable on chip management technology to deliver a very differ- and can be tailored in future ent user experience. The patch needs to operate At the heart of the MemoPatch®, ICsense’s to target patient profiles. for one entire week while delivering high-voltage, custom IC. However, in the initial produc- low energy reminder ‘pulses’ to the patient and tion phase, an optimal pulse accurately keeping track of time without expensive and bulky was identified and has been the focus of current pre-production crystal-based timing generators. This was accomplished standardization efforts. Order our complimentary 2015 DDR through the design of a custom IC. Drawing sufficient voltage and power from a single, high-re- memory resource DVD at Wim De Geest is the CEO and co-founder of TheraSolve – www. sistance button cell battery, many times during a single week’s www.keysight.com/find/HSD-insight therasolve.com - He can be reached at [email protected] use has been a challenging system level design issue to solve. Bram De Muer is CEO and co-founder of ICsense – ICsense tackled the problem using state-of-the-art DC/DC www.icsense.com - He can be reached at [email protected] converter techniques combined with clever duty cycling of the power generation system. © Keysight Technologies, Inc. 2015

28 Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 www.electronics-eetimes.com

Keysight_RV_DDR_Product_PE_EETE.indd 1 25/02/2015 10:00 You can’t break the laws of physics. But with a little insight, you can bend them. If you’re a DDR engineer on the leading edge of memory design, chances are you feel constantly challenged to go faster. With lower power. On a smaller footprint. With less probing access. And with denser packaging. We can help you meet those challenges. Keysight is the only test and measurement company that offers hardware and software solutions across all stages of DDR chip development. From design to simulation, test to debug, validation to compliance, we’ve got you covered.

HARDWARE + SOFTWARE + PEOPLE = DDR INSIGHTS

Software solutions from simulation to compliance Benchtop and modular solutions Full line of high-speed, high-density probes Custom-build probes for your specific needs

Keysight W2211BP Advanced Design System Keysight Infiniium 90000 X-Series oscilloscope Keysight U4154B logic analyzer module for Keysight M8020A high-performance J-BERT electronic design automation software DDR1/2/3/4 and LPDDR1/2/3/4 compliance software DDR2/3/4 and LPDDR2/3/4 in M9502A chassis W2351EP ADS DDR4 Compliance Test Bench packages and protocol decoder available DDR2/3/4 and LPDDR2/3/4 protocol decoder and compliance toolsets available

Keysight Probes—standard and custom Standard and custom DDR and LPDDR oscilloscope and logic analyzer BGA interposer solutions

Order our complimentary 2015 DDR memory resource DVD at www.keysight.com/find/HSD-insight

Keysight_RV_DDR_Product_PE_EETE.indd 1 25/02/2015 10:00 Wearable & Implantable electronics

The complete solution was achieved cation adherence innovator and could with the least amount of external compo- play a key role in enhancing medical nents. The resulting extreme integration outcomes in the areas of Parkinson’s results in a cost-effective solution providing disease, Alzheimer’s disease, multiple enhanced manufacturability. The finished sclerosis, HIV, hepatitis C, oncology, product has an appearance and feel not post-transplantation and many others. dissimilar to other standard dermal patches. To ensure maximum patient comfort, The technology at the heart of this the total thickness of the patch is restricted unique medical wearable has been by the battery dimension alone and is less developed with the financial support than 2mm. of the Flemish Institute of Science and Technology (IWT). MemoPatch is now Pharmaceutical applications beyond the prototyping phase and The use of the patch is made as simple is currently being validated in sev- as possible. Just apply the self-adhesive eral scientific studies. TheraSolve has patch to the skin ‘Stick and Play’. There is already secured the interest of several no user interaction required beyond the ap- international pharmaceutical compa- plication of the patch, no need to remem- nies for innovative applications of the Conceptual illustration of the MemoPatch® ber to charge the battery, no switching on patch Concurrently, volume production or a need to program the patch. Once it is medical therapy adherence technology (c) processes are being fine-tuned to allow in place, the patch is ready to do its job, istock.com/jvh5. for high-yield, large volume manufac- operation starts automatically when applied to the skin thanks turing of the device. to an innovative proximity detection system. The company is now investigating additional applications MemoPatch can be fully preprogrammed during production for its patch technology that will emerge through synergies with with the right medication intake schedule uploaded to it. With other technologies in future including those lying at the conver- this product, TheraSolve is positioning itself as a genuine medi- gence between wireless and internet of things functionalities. Hybrid supercapacitor trumps thin-film lithium battery

By Paul Buckley esearchers at UCLA’s California NanoSystems Institute The new components combine laser-scribed graphene, or have combined two nanomaterials to create a hybrid LSG - a material that can hold an electrical charge, is highly supercapacitor that combines the best qualities of bat- conductive, and charges and recharges quickly - with man- Rteries and supercapacitors by storing large amounts of energy, ganese dioxide, which is currently used in alkaline batteries recharges quickly and can withstand more than 10,000 recharge because it holds a lot of charge and is cheap and plentiful. The cycles. devices can be fabricated without the need for extreme temper- Supercapacitors are electrochemical components that can atures or the expensive ‘dry rooms’ required to produce today’s charge in seconds rather than hours and can be used for 1 mil- supercapacitors. lion recharge cycles. Unlike batteries, “Let’s say you wanted to put a small however, they do not store enough amount of electrical current into an adhe- power to run our computers and sive bandage for drug release or healing smartphones. assistance technology,” said Kaner. “The The UCLA hybrid supercapacitor microsupercapacitor is so thin you could stores large amounts of energy, re- put it inside the bandage to supply the charges quickly and can last for more current. You could also recharge it quickly than 10,000 recharge cycles. The and use it for a very long time.” CNSI scientists also created a micro- The researchers found that the super- supercapacitor that is small enough to capacitor could quickly store electrical fit in wearable or implantable devices charge generated by a solar cell during and is one-fifth the thickness of a the day, hold the charge until evening and sheet of paper. The device is capable then power an LED overnight, showing of holding more than twice as much charge as a typical thin-film promise for off-grid street lighting. lithium battery. “The LSG–manganese-dioxide capacitors can store as much The study, led by Richard Kaner, distinguished professor of electrical charge as a lead acid battery, yet can be recharged in chemistry and biochemistry and materials science and engi- seconds, and they store about six times the capacity of state- neering, and Maher El-Kady, a postdoctoral scholar, was pub- of-the-art commercially available supercapacitors,” explained lished in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Kaner. “This scalable approach for fabricating compact, reliable, “The microsupercapacitor is a new evolving configuration, energy-dense supercapacitors shows a great deal of promise in a very small rechargeable power source with a much higher real-world applications, and we’re very excited about the pos- capacity than previous lithium thin-film microbatteries,” said sibilities for greatly improving personal electronics technology in El-Kady. the near future.”

30 Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 www.electronics-eetimes.com The right connections to pain management

By Oliver Bischoff

he rapid developments in medical of the healing process – a time when exercise device technology make the sector is also of great importance. one of the most vibrant as manufac- Where conventional remedies have been turersT and health providers look to combat tried and failed, implantable neurostimulators the macro-sociological factors of an ageing are used; these provide pain relief for chronic population. The demand for increased back pain sufferers by blocking the pain mes- remote monitoring of patients is now being sages before they reach the brain. Typically met with the user-friendly delivery of medi- about the size of a stopwatch, the neurostim- cal solutions within the home, as opposed ulator generates electrical impulses that are to a doctor’s surgery or hospital. delivered to the epidural space near the spine Back pain is one of the major areas that by thin, insulated implantable wire leads. continues to be researched as it is respon- As these are implantable devices, rather sible for half of all absences from work in than having wires penetrate the skin which the EU per year, which is estimated to be The implantable neurostimulators would pose a risk of infection, batteries are €240 Bn worth of lost productivity. By its deliver electrical impulses to the used – both rechargeable and non-recharge- very nature back pain is very difficult to di- able. Non-rechargeable neurostimulators epidural space near the spine, through agnose accurately, with pain management generally last for approximately 7 years after thin insulated wire leads. and treatment being a very important part which the battery is changed via a relatively short surgical procedure. Rechargeable neurostimulators, on the Oliver Bischoff is Industry Manager for the medical market at other hand, are recharged wirelessly (or inductively) and last for Molex – www.molex.com approximately 10 years.

Smart electronic solutions – from design to finished products

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www.electronics-eetimes.com Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 31 Wearable & Implantable electronics ™

Molex already supplies a well-known device manufacturer Temp-Flex coated pure 3.8 MIL gold wire with 0.8 MIL of ETFE Temp-Flex MediSpec micro extrusion primary wires for implant- that is then corona-etched so that it can be coiled and potted able leads. However, when developing a i.e. surrounded by epoxy. The conduc- remote battery recharge system for its im- tor wall thickness, which can go down plantable neurostimulator, the manufacturer to .00762mm, meets the tight tolerance required a fine gold wire that could be coiled requirement for implantable applications. SMT EncloSurE coin cEll conTacTS and implanted to act as a receiver/aerial/ The ETFE insulation is applied by a precise antenna. The solution is based on Molex’s extrusion process that results in supe- coated pure 3.8 MIL gold wire with 0.8 MIL rior dielectric integrity compared to other of ETFE that is then corona-etched so that it technologies. This process simultaneously #110 can be coiled and potted. encapsulates the wire, providing a consis- One of the downsides to recharging a tent and uniform coating. In addition, the device wirelessly is that it cannot be im- Molex’ Temp-Flex MediSpec micro process provides a pin-hole-free insulation, planted more than 2.5 cm beneath the skin. resulting in limited risk of conductor expo- extrusion primary wires. Inductive charging can also take longer than sure and provides a more reliable insulation direct contact due to the lower efficiency. During the develop- versus dispersion or enamel coatings. ment phase of a new rechargeable neurostimulator design, the Designers and manufacturers of surgically implantable medi- #112 manufacturer undertook a detailed review process of the induc- cal devices require primary wires that meet stringent design re- tive charging system to ensure maximum efficiency is achieved quirements and reliability standards. Molex’s ability to coat and – paying particular attention to the coils in the device, which are etch the gold wire is unique within the industry and proved to be complex in nature. the right choice for manufacturer – several years later Molex is After completing its review, the company selected Molex’s still single-sourced on this project.

Power management IC ARM Cortex-M based MCU 1.2x1.0x0.3mm crystals targets wearables draws 35 µA/MHz cover 36 up to 80MHz In a 4 mm² package, ams’AS3701 Staking a claim for the lowest power Telcona’s 1210 series of ultra minia- micro-PMIC includes battery charger microcontroller based on the ARM ture surface mount crystals, measu- circuit, multiple power rails, protec- Cortex-M core series, the Atmel | ring 1.2x1.0x0.3mm are among the tion features and I²C interface smallest ever realized AT cut crys-

SMART SAM L Family uses one-third the power of alternative offerings and achieves an EEMBC ULPBench Score With an especially small footprint for of 185. With power consumption tals in the world, according to the use in wearables and other space- down to 35 µA/MHz in active mode manufacturer. They cover a frequency constrained devices, the 2x2x0.4mm and 200 nA in sleep mode, the ultra- range of 36MHz up to 80 MHz and chip provides advanced power low power SAM L family broadens the come with a frequency tolerance of • Ideal for enclosures with self contained battery compartments • Easy battery access, removal and installation • Industrial and consumer management functions for products Atmel | SMART 32-bit ARM-based +/-10ppm. They operate across a product applications • Ultra low profile• Features gold-plated phosphor bronze contacts • Spring tension contacts adjust to variations supplied by a single lithium-ion cell. MCU portfolio and extends battery temperature range of -40°C to +85°C The AS3701’s multiple power rail life, “from years to decades” for with a maximum frequency deviation in battery diameter for a dependable connection • Available on Tape & Reel • Positive and Negative contacts can be used as sources include two 200 mA LDOs, a devices such as fire alarms, health- of +/-30ppm. At reduced temperature a design set or individually on a PCB • Accommodates cell diameters 16mm and larger • Request Catalog M60.2 500 mA step-down DC-DC converter care, medical, wearable, and devices ranges like -10°C to +60°C a stability and two 40 mA (maximum) program- placed in rural, agriculture, offshore of +/-10ppm can be reached. mable current sinks. The synchronous and other remote areas. The SAM L21 Typical load capacitances are 5-7pF step-down (buck) converter, which combines ultra-low power with Flash and the series resistance is stated It’s what’s on the InsIde that counts switches at high frequencies up to and SRAM that are large enough to with 200ohm max, but can reach ® 4MHz, only requires a small inductor run both the application and wire- values of 100ohms or less at higher and a 10 µF output capacitor. The less stacks—three features that are frequencies. Despite their tiny size, micro-PMIC’s integrated li-ion battery cornerstones of most IoT applica- the crystals’ parameters can compete E l E c T ronicS corP. charger can operate in trickle-charge, tions. Sampling now, the SAM L21 with those of much bigger size. constant current or constant volt- comes with a development platform The units come on tape and reels with age modes and supplies a maximum including an Xplained PRO kit, code 3000pcs per reel. They are fully RoHs charging current of 500 mA. libraries and Atmel Studio support. compliant and reflow solderable. European Headquarters: www.keyelco.com • 33 (1) 46 36 82 49 • 33 (1) 46 36 81 57 ams Atmel Telcona AG www.ams.com www.atmel.com www.telcona.com

32 Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 www.electronics-eetimes.com

EET Euro THiNK H2OSunrise+SMTEncl_4-15.indd 1 3/24/15 10:22 AM ™

SMT EncloSurE coin cEll conTacTS

#110

#112

• Ideal for enclosures with self contained battery compartments • Easy battery access, removal and installation • Industrial and consumer product applications • Ultra low profile• Features gold-plated phosphor bronze contacts • Spring tension contacts adjust to variations in battery diameter for a dependable connection • Available on Tape & Reel • Positive and Negative contacts can be used as a design set or individually on a PCB • Accommodates cell diameters 16mm and larger • Request Catalog M60.2

It’s what’s on the InsIde that counts ®

E l E c T ronicS corP.

European Headquarters: www.keyelco.com • 33 (1) 46 36 82 49 • 33 (1) 46 36 81 57

EET Euro THiNK H2OSunrise+SMTEncl_4-15.indd 1 3/24/15 10:22 AM M2M communications

NXP to focus on all CMOS radar

By Junko Yoshida

n announcing the planned acquisition of Freescale Semicon- collaboration with Vrije Universiteit Brussel, called it “the world ductor, NXP Semiconductor CEO Rick Clemmer explained first,” explaining, “With an output power above 10dBm, the how he expects the new entity — NXP and Freescale com- transmitter front-end paves the way towards full radar-on-chip binedI — to lead the growing automotive electronics market. solutions for automotive and smart environment applications.” In briefings, Clemmer casually mentioned, without elabora- Asked if NXP’s Dolphin was spun out of IMEC’s develop- ting, that making today’s “big and clunky radars” small is one ment, Reger said no. He said it’s an internal project three years of the keys to next-generation advanced drivers’ assistance in the making. systems. It turns out that the small radars Clemmer referenced aren’t from Freescale’s, a company known for its fine 77GHz How NXP gave birth to Dolphin packaged radar front-end chipset using SiGe technology. The idea of the development of an 80GHz radar transmit- Clemmer was talking about an RF CMOS-based 80GHz ter chip came from a team of NXP engineers who developed a radar front-end transmitter chip — currently a working prototype 60GHz chip for wireless HDMI, said Reger. That chip was able — developed at NXP. to cover 15 meters. Called Dolphin, NXP’s 80GHz chip uses digital CMOS pro- Reger, responsible for automotive R&D, said, “We don’t cess technology, an accomplishment long believed impossible. necessarily get funding for everything we want to innovate. Lars Reger, vice president strategy, new business, and R&D Sometimes, my job is to steal good ideas from other division for automotive at NXP, told EE Times that the working proto- within our own company.” type is currently in the hands of The idea from the wireless “our lead customers [Tier Ones HDMI team was compelling. and OEMs] under non-disclosure But Reger knew that going from agreement.” 60GHz to 80GHz would be a Asked about the tiny radars big jump. “I told them, ‘Guys, Clemmer cited, Reger said, “This shouldn’t we do a test chip isn’t a story about small radars. first?’” It’s about up-integration. We’ve On Christmas Eve, 2013, found a path to integrate front- Reger got a phone call from the end radar transmitter with a team. “It was exactly midnight,” baseband — all in CMOS.” he said. “I was informed of the Keeping the front-end chip in a chip’s tape out. I told my family process technology like BiCMOS how excited I was, but also said would make it hard to advance they probably wouldn’t under- integration, said Reger. Just as stand…” NXP has won the global car audio By the end of March, the market by integrating FM, AM, team got the new chip, called satellite radio chips with silicon Dolphin, back from the fac- tuners — all in CMOS, “Our goal tory. Early April, 2014, they put is to do the same up-integration RF CMOS-based 80GHz radar front-end transmitter IC. together demo boards. By May, with radar chips,” he added. Dolphin, which was working During his interview with EE Times, Clemmer said NXP’s AM/ “way better than expected,” according to Reger, was shown FM car radio chips are used on “27 out of 28 car audio plat- to the management board. “Everyone on the board joined the forms of choice” used by Tier Ones and car OEMs. demo; by jumping out in front of the radar system, testing Dop- pler effect, checking out how it works. The whole demo turned From GaAs to SiGe, now to CMOS? into a toy for boys.” The first commercial radar systems of the late 1990’s were Dolphins prototype modules have been designed into Tier based on GaAs chips. But then Infineon started developing sys- Ones’ systems for several months now, for further testing. tems based on bipolar process SiGe chips. So did Freescale. Meanwhile, NXP is keeping Dolphin’s details close to the vest. Those SiGe radar chips are already designed into radar collision Reger is neither talking of the exact geometry used for the warning systems. 80GHz RF CMOS front-end chip nor the timing for launch of Reportedly, automotive radar developers have already production chips. But he’s confident of the technology, and he warmed up to SiGe radar chips and begun switching from sees big traction for it from automakers. GaAs. But here’s a big question: Will the new millimeter-wave Today’s high-end vehicles typically feature a two- or three- sensors made in plain CMOS prompt them to switch again — chip single SiGe radar system, used in adaptive cruise control. this time from SiGe to CMOS? But expectations are high among automakers for building cars That’s the big market shift NXP is betting on. And certainly with lots of high-resolution short range automotive radar for NXP isn’t alone thinking along these lines. various applications. About a year ago, IMEC announced a 79GHz radar trans- Examples include collision warning systems (front and side), mitter implemented in 28nm CMOS and designed for automo- collision mitigation systems (front and side), vulnerable road tive radar systems. At that time, IMEC, which developed it in user detection — cyclists and pedestrians for example, blind

34 Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 www.electronics-eetimes.com spot monitoring (rear), lane change assistance and rear cross- with electronic beam steering and wide field-of-view to support traffic alerts. [multi-range] applications across automotive safety, communications infrastructure, and industrial systems,” according to Radar or vision? Freescale. As to the future of ADAS, the auto industry isn’t choosing ra- In vision Freescale and NXP have solutions using different dar over vision or vice versa. Euro NCAP isn’t mandating either vision algorithms experts. Freescale works with CogniVue and radar or vision. Nor is it asking carmakers to have both. NXP is partnered with Mobileye. A carmaker can rely on a more advanced radar system In radar technologies, the merged entity is likely to profit from combined with a lighter vision system or, conversely, choose to each other’s diverging technology and market experience (Fre- go with a more advanced vision sensor with a lighter version of escale’s SiGe-based radars; NXP’s nascent efforts for CMOS radar. radar front-end transmitter chip). Vision technologies excel in tasks Work has only begun like detecting lane markings and other NXP’s Reger acknowledges that the road information, such as reading work has only begun on a single-chip traffic signs, reliably detecting pedes- all CMOS radar transceiver in future. trians, and lighting functions such as Aside from integrating the radar front- controlling the high/low beams. end chip with MCUs to make a com- On the other hand, vision tech- plete system-level solution for ADAS nologies can’t handle some jobs, like applications, antenna developments seeing through snow and fog. Dirt also need to come along to shrink the renders vision sensors blind. Unlike module. radar, vision technology can’t see very Obviously, CMOS is lower cost, far. Long-range radar (LRR) can com- better integrates digital circuitry and fortably handle between 30 and 150 benefits from technology scaling, meters, and short-range radar (SRR) compared to a SiGe bipolar process, can detect objects within 30 meters. but some say that’s not enough. The The automotive industry is looking maximum available gain at millimeter for both solutions as a package. Fre- Lars Reger, VP, strategy, new business, and R&D wave frequencies is known to be lower escale is doing exactly that. Just last for CMOS, and its low supply voltage for automotive at NXP. week, Freescale unveiled at the Mobile reportedly limits output power. World Congress its S32V microprocessor. NXP’s Reger, however, noted that the team is working on Inside the automotive vision SoC is CogniVue’s second-gen- “the best radar illumination,” to make more powerful, accurate eration APEX Image Cognition Processing technology. The SoC and high-performance millimeter wave sensors that work for additionally supports the fusion of vision data captured by the various range applications including mid and short-range. S32V device. Fused in are other data streams, including radar, The team is also working on a new scheme to connect mul- LiDAR and ultrasonic information to enhance resolution and im- tiple CMOS radar front-end chips via automotive Ethernet, so age recognition, Freescale said. that they work as one. Meanwhile, Freescale has its own radar solution. Its MR2001 NXP’s Dophin operates on 80GHz band, “plus or minus a few is a high-performance 77GHz radar transceiver chipset “scal- GHz,” making it work between 77GHz and 81GHz, according to able for multi-channel operation enabling a single radar platform Reger.

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www.electronics-eetimes.com Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 35 M2M communications

Thin and flexible Bluetooth LE beacons operate battery-free

By Julien Happich ujitsu Laboratories Ltd announced a Bluetooth LE beacon example when installed in parking lots together with sensors to weighing only 3 grams and only 2.5mm thick, that does detect available space). not require battery replacement or any other maintenance. For this flexible autonomous beacon, Fujitsu Laboratories FThe beacon is flexible enough to be wrapped has developed power-control technology that around round objects, corners, and curves and temporarily deactivates the power monitor it is solely powered by an integrated solar cell. once it has detected that enough energy has Previously, beacons that did not require been accumulated. The saved power makes battery replacement needed power-supply it possible to supply the power needed to components, such as power-management ICs activate the wireless-communications module and secondary batteries, as control circuits to using a small storage element connected to a ensure adequate power on activation. These solar cell, only one-ninth the size of those used components, which are relatively thick and oc- with previous technologies, according the Jap- cupy a large area, make the beacons them- anese lab. Reducing the power consumed just selves rigid and large, limiting locations to which they can be before starting communications also has the effect of reducing attached, explain the researchers in a press release. voltage fluctuations when power is being used, obviating the Such thin beacons could be attached to fluorescent bulbs in need for a power-management IC. Fujitsu is currently conduct- a ceiling, or to the surface of an LED light, hence doubling lights ing field testing to establish the beacon’s reliability and continu- as information points, for guidance or any other purpose (for ous operation, hoping to have a commercial product by 2016. Bi-directional RF doubles cellular capacity

By R. Colin Johnson

n electrical engineering school you were someone whisper while someone next to taught that full-duplex (sending and them was shouting at the top of their lungs, receiving) had to be done on different according to Krishnaswamy, who performed frequenciesI or at different times (technically the work with doctoral candidate Jin Zhou. half-duplex). That is, either transmitting or receiving at the same time, but on differ- “But if you could somehow cancel or ent frequencies, or at different times on the block out the screaming next to you, and same frequency. But that is a lie, according note that you would need to cancel it near- to researchers at Columbia University in perfectly, you could then hear the whisper,” CoSMIC Lab full-duplex transceiver IC New York City. Krishnaswamy said. “And we have found a Columbia researchers recently dem- that can be implemented in nanoscale way to do this for electromagnetic wireless onstrated a complementary metal oxide CMOS. Source: Jin Zhou and Harish signals using a tiny silicon chip.” semiconductor (CMOS) chip called CoSMIC Krishnaswamy/Columbia University. What Krishnaswamy calls an “echo can- (Columbia high-Speed and Mm-wave IC) for doing full-duplex celer or self-interference canceler”--CoSMIC--is installed at the on the same frequency at the same time, thus doubling wireless receiver’s input port, silencing the louder transmission signal so communication’s speed. Electrical engineering professor Harish that the quieter receiver signal can be heard. Krishnaswamy told EE Times: Full duplex at the same frequency has The key innovation is that to cancel the been thought to be impossible until today transmitter self-interference with one part because if you transmit and receive at per billion accuracy, the chip needs to make the same time at the same frequency, the a near-exact replica of the transmitter self- receiver will get drowned out by the interfer- interference. This is hard to do especially ence from the transmitter, which can be one because the transmitter self-interference or billion times more powerful than the signal echo will distort and change as it reflects off that one is trying to receive. objects in the nearby environment. But we have devised an echo- or self- In principle, all RF communications are interference cancellation scheme that can amenable to this technique, Krishnaswamy do away with the transmitter’s interference noted, adding that his team have devised a Diagram of traditional RF with one part per billion accuracy, so that circuit that can do this with a single silicon communication (left) versus two-way after cancellation, the received signal can be chip. The researchers will begin by trying easily detected. full-duplex on same frequency at the to double the speed of wireless signals--in Without Krishnaswamy’s team’s circuitry, same time (right) thus doubling speed. particular WiFi and cellular communications full-duplex would be like trying to hear Source: Columbia University. for smartphones and tablets.

36 Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 www.electronics-eetimes.com 802.11ac Wave 2 access point LoRa wireless module targets IoT delivers multi-Gigabit Wi-Fi Microchip Technology’s first module for ultra long-range and The Ruckus ZoneFlex R710 access point (AP) based on Wave low-power network standard is a stack-on-board package; the 2 features of the 802.11ac standard supports the simultaneous RN2483 module is intended to simplify access to the 10-mile transmission of multiple client streams to different devices over range and 10-year battery life of LoRa technology wireless the same frequency. This multi-user networks. The module is the first in a multiple input/multiple output (MU- planned series for the LoRa technol- MIMO) feature enables over two ogy low-data-rate wireless networking times the density of mobile devices standard, which enables Internet of versus Wave 1, and aggregate data Things (IoT) and Machine-to-Machine rates exceeding two gigabits per (M2M) wireless communication with a second. Within a sleek new design, range of more than 10 miles (subur- the Ruckus ZoneFlex R710 access point supports up to four ban), a battery life of greater than 10 years, and the ability to spatial streams and 500 concurrent clients. connect millions of wireless sensor nodes to LoRa technology Additionally, each ZoneFlex R710 access point integrates gateways. The 433/868 MHz RN2483 is a European R&TTE Ruckus-patented BeamFlex+ adaptive antenna technology, Directive Assessed Radio Module, accelerating develop- designed to enhance the operation of Wave 2 802.11ac technol- ment time while reducing development costs. It combines ogy by optimizing antenna coverage on a per client, per trans- a 17.8x26.3x3mm module form factor of with 14 GPIOs, mission basis. With four discrete, dual-band smart antenna ar- providing the flexibility to connect and control a large number rays, the ZoneFlex R710 is capable of dynamically creating over of sensors and actuators while taking up very little space. The 4,000 unique directional antenna patterns per radio, mitigating RN2483 comes with the LoRaWAN protocol stack, so it can up to 15dB of RF interference while also reducing co-channel connect with the established and rapidly expanding LoRa Al- interference. Dual-polarized smart antennas also allow the R710 liance infrastructure—including both privately managed LANs to automatically adapt to the changing physical orientation of and telecom-operated public networks. mobile client devices such as smartphones and tablets. With Microchip BeamFlex+, the ZoneFlex R710 also offers a significant in- www.microchip.com crease in performance and range, delivering up to 5dB of signal gain and aggregate data rates of over two gigabits per second (Gbps), 1,733 Mbps (at 5 GHz) and 800 Mbps (at 2.4 GHz). Ruckus Wireless www.ruckuswireless.com

Miniature signal generator outputs 25 to PCB Prototypes & Small Series 6000MHz in 1KHz steps AtlanTecRF’s ASG series of Miniature Signal Generators cover an ultra-wide frequency range of 25 to 6000MHz, tuneable in 1KHz steps, with a very good spectral purity. Phase noise at an output frequency of 1GHz is better than -106dBc/ Hz at an offset of 100KHz from the carrier. Spurious are typically lower than -70dBc and harmonics less than -25dBc. The clean output signal combined with power levels to +13dBm, controllable on 0.1dB steps, make the ASG series of Miniature Signal Generators suitable for use in most RF theatres of application including test and measurement, PCB Manufacturing from communications systems and covert interception and coun- termeasures. The versatile ASG digital interface provides 8 hours control options which include direct USB with convenient and clearly functional GUI plus input power derivation but each unit also has the capability of being driven by RS232. Additionally, for both the 6GHz version of the ASG Miniature FREE SMT stencil with Signal Generator and its 3GHz sibling there is an option of EVERY Prototype order! Ethernet control thereby allowing totally remote and unat- tended operation in the field and picking up all the logistics and cost advantages. Frequency stability is determined by an [email protected] internal TCXO with +/-1ppm maximum variation over the -20 GmbH of Beta LAYOUT trademark PCB-POOL® is a registered to +50C operating temperature range. Atlantic Microwave Ltd www.pcb-pool.com www.atlanticmicrowave.co.uk

www.electronics-eetimes.com Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 37 Single-chip bridge links audio accessories Dual-function material conducts heat, to Apple iOS environment absorbs EMI Silicon Labs has designed a digital audio bridge chip and evalu- This hybrid materials product provides EMI mitigation while ation kit designed to simplify the development of accessories moving heat away from sensitive electronics; Laird has intro- for iOS devices. The CP2614 interface IC provides a turnkey duced the dual-function, board level material that simultane- audio bridge solution for a wide range of Made for iPod/iPhone/ ously improves signal integrity and iPad (MFi) devices that use the all-digital Lightning connector. temperature stability of electronic The CP2614 bridge chip and MFI-SL-CP2614-EK evaluation kit circuits. CoolZorb 400 imparts provide a cost-effective development platform for iOS acces- thermal conductivity and EMI sory developers, enabling fast time to market through fixed- attenuation in the microwave function MFi support. The CP2614 solution requires no firmware frequency range with best perfor- development, which helps developers get up and running mance at or above 5GHz. It also quickly with their MFi accessory designs. Developers simply se- meets requirements of the UL94 V0 flammability standards. lect their customisation options with an easy-to-use GUI-based The material provides designers with much flexibility by configuration tool. Target applications include audio accessories improving signal integrity and temperature stability in a single such as guitar and microphone recording dongles, audio docks solution that can increase the speed of the design cycle, and headphones. The CP2614 IC also provides built-in support simplify manufacturing processes and create material cost for communication between iOS applications and accessory savings. CoolZorb 400 is a hybrid material that functions as hardware, enabling a broad array of IoT accessories that oper- both an absorber of Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) and ate with a companion iOS app. The chip includes an integrated a conductor of thermal energy. The product is used like tra- 5V low drop-out (LDO) regulator, which reduces bill of materials ditional thermal interface material where it is placed between (BOM) cost and footprint for self-powered accessories. It oper- the heat source, such as an IC, and heat sink or other heat ates without an external crystal or EEPROM, storing all configu- transfer device or metal chassis. The silicone-based material ration options on chip. The IC supports 24-bit unidirectional and can simultaneously protect electronics from both EMI and 16-bit bidirectional digital audio streaming, enabling developers heat. The product is available in sheet stock (12” by 12” size) to create high-quality, high-performance prosumer-class audio and as cut parts to customer specifications. Standard sheet accessories. It comes in a 5x5mm QFN32 package. thicknesses are .020”, .040”, and .100” but other thicknesses Silicon Labs can be made to order. www.silabs.com/interface Laird www.lairdtech.com Arbitrary waveform generator addresses EMI testing MLCCs target UHF band applications EMC and EMI instrumentation provider Teseq AG has introduced an eight-channel arbitrary waveform generator de- AVX Corporation claims to offer the highest Q 01005 MLCC signed for automotive EMI immunity testing. The ARB 5500 available for ultra high frequency (UHF) band applications (300 fits inside the company’s tran- MHz to 3 GHz). The first part number of the latest CU series sient generator and features ultralow ESR C0G (NP0) MLCCs, the CU10 01005 MLCC, ex- memory for over 64,000 stan- hibits typical Q values of 290 at 1 GHz dard waveform segments as for a 4 pF capacitance, which makes it well as 1 GB of Clone mem- ideal for reducing power consumption ory for user-defined shapes: and improving battery efficiency in the enough memory for several high frequency power amplifier circuits thousand hours of simulations, within multifunctional and multiband the vendor promises. Available RF communication devices, includ- for both new systems as well ing: smartphones, tablets, handheld as as an upgrade for existing NSG 5500 units, the ARB 5500 scanners, camera sensor modules, provides the necessary control for all battery simulation tests and telecommunications equipment. and advanced functions including power magnetics and con- The CU series ultralow ESR MLCCs tinuous wave (ripple) simulations. According to Teseq, the ARB feature low-resistance internal copper 5500 supports waveforms that may be difficult to describe electrodes and interior structures that and real-world events that need to be simulated. All vital have been carefully optimized to reduce resistance. The series waveforms can be created from the built-in wave shapes or by also exhibits highly accurate and evenly distributed capacitanc- loading a Clone, a memory map of user-identified or prere- es spanning 0.5 pF to 22 pF, which, combined with outstanding corded wave shapes, from an external application. In addition ESR, effectively mitigates impedance mismatching between to individual trigger outputs and programmable current limits, circuits and subsequently preserves both power and battery each of the instruments’ eight channels supports 16-bit output life. The 01005 CU10 ultralow ESR MLCCs are available in 16 V with a 10 MS/s playback for continuously variable operation. ratings and with capacitance values spanning 0.5 pF to 22 pF. The channels can be synchronized with a parameter-ramping Intended for use in temperatures spanning -55°C to +125°C, CU function when paired with Teseq’s redesigned AutoStar 7 tool. series MLCCs are lead-free compatible and RoHS compliant, Teseq AG and are supplied with plated Ni/Sn terminations. www.teseq.com AVX Corporation www.avx.com

38 Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 www.electronics-eetimes.com Shunt-based current sensor supports solar Carbon nanobud films as thin as 23µm inverter applications for haze-free touch interfaces Measurement technology specialist Isabellenhütte has deve- Canatu’s latest offering includes a super-thin 23μm CNB loped a current sensor in the low-amperage range which is ideal conductive film to support thinner, sleeker touch devices. In for use in frequency converters for industrial applications and emerging flexible devices the thin film substrate results in solar inverters. The ILF current less stresses and better mechani- sensor covers a measurement cal durability when implement- range of up to 60 amperes and ing resistive or capacitive touch displays the flowing current via sensors. The new transparent the corresponding voltage value film is over 50 % thinner than on the analog output. Thanks before, enabling 1-layer touch at to its compact IC housing, the 23μm and 2-layer touch at less ILF current sensor is ideal for SMD mounting. The ILF’s cur- than 100μm thickness, claims the rent measurement is based on Isabellenhütte’s proven shunt company. This film complements technology. Conventional current sensors in the same measure- a portfolio which now covers substrate thicknesses of 23μm, ment range are based on the magnetic principle. Using shunt 50μm, 100μm and 130μm. The new CNB Film enables truly technology method, a current is detected by the magnetic foldable touch devices, tested to withstand more than 150 field of a live conductor. Compared to products that use the 000 bends at bending radii of less than 2mm. Because CNB magnetic principle, shunt-based current measurement claims thin film material has inherently zero reflections and zero to be more accurate. ILF’s relative error amounts to deviation haze, it offers excellent readability indoors and outdoors. from the measurement value of less than one per cent over the Canatu Oy entire measurement range. The ILF also ensures high continu- www.canatu.com ous output, outstanding long-term stability and high continuous load and pulse capacity. The ILF is designed for two different current ranges: ± 60 amperes und ± 30 amperes. The device is Dual synchronous step-down DC/DC controller compatible with supply voltages of 3.3 V or 5 V. The pins of the ILF sensor consist of two load current contacts as well as four with PMBus signal and supply communication contacts. LTC3887 is a dual output synchronous step-down DC/DC con- Isabellenhütte troller with I²C-based PMBus interface for digital power system www.isabellenhuette.de management. The LTC3887 differs from the previously released LTC3880 with an enhanced Entry-level function generator integrates feature set that includes a faster 70ms power-up time, with wireless lab management higher output voltage capa- With its latest product roll-out, the AFG1022 Arbitrary / bility and a fast ADC mode Function Generator, instrumentation provider Tektronix ad- that provides an 8ms up- dresses the entry-level market segment with deployments date rate for one parameter. in education and basic testing. For applications including Nevertheless, the instrument high current ASIC, FPGA boasts with advanced features like and processor supplies in seamless integration with Tektronix’ telecom, datacom, computing and storage markets, LTC3887 TekSmartLab wireless lab instru- enables digital programming and read back for real-time control ment management system. As elec- and monitoring of critical point-of-load converter functions. tronic systems continue to increase Linear Technology in speed and complexity, colleges and universities globally www.linear.com are looking to outfit labs with modern test instrumentation to better prepare students for the real world. With the the AFG1022, Tektronix offers educational institutions a complete set of affordable instruments including oscilloscopes, signal generators, digital multi-meters and power supplies, all tied together with TekSmartLab. Compared to scope-based signal generators or stand alone AFGs in its price class, the AFG1022 offers better performance and greater flexibility. Key performance specifications include dual-channel, 25MHz bandwidth with 1mVpp to 10Vpp output, 14-bit vertical resolution and 1µHz frequency resolution. It provides a 125 MS/s sample rate along with 64 MB of built-in non-volatile memory and USB memory expansion for user-defined waveforms. On the functionality side, the instrument offers 50 built-in standard function and arbitrary waveforms. Tektronix www.tek.com

www.electronics-eetimes.com Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 39 Zipper fins improve heat-sink performance Solid-state switches build multiplexers, Lightweight zipper-fin heat sinks from Advanced Thermal Solu- with fault detection/protection tions offer fin profiles with high aspect ratios, enabling taller, Analog Devices has posted details of a solid-state switch thinner, and more tightly packed fins for greater cooling perfor- that should prove useful for a wide variety of signal-routing mance. Fins are machined from thin sheet metal and formed applications, including relay replacement, in areas such as into custom shapes. These sheets are analogue I/O, process control, data acquisition, instrumen- designed to interlock with very little tation, avionics, ATE, and communications systems. The space between layers. The fin assembly ADG5436F contains two independently controlled single- is wave-soldered to a metal base forming pole/double-throw (SPDT) switches. All switches can be dis- a rigid, lightweight heat sink. ATS zipper- abled by bringing the enable input low. The switches exhibit fin heat sinks enable the combined use of break-before-make switching action, making them suitable copper and aluminium materials: a cop- for multiplexer applications. They conduct equally well in per base allows for optimal heat spreading, while aluminium fins both directions when on, and have an input signal range that minimise weight. Integral ducts can be added to contain and extends to the supplies. They can safe handle tens of mA in enhance cooling airflow. This improves thermal performance, the switched channel, up to 113 mA depending on drive and particularly with active sinks that receive airflow from fans and temperature conditions, and switch in around 0.5 µsec. The blowers. For many of these configurations, the top surface of digital inputs are compatible with 3-V logic inputs over the the heat sink can also be used as a heat spreader for hot com- full operating supply range. Input signal levels up to +55 V or ponents. Building on the benefits of higher performance and –55 V relative to ground are blocked in both the powered and lighter weight, the zipper-fin heat sinks are able to cool LEDs, unpowered condition. When no power supplies are present, as well as a multitude of hot components in telecommunica- the switch remains in the off condition, and the switch inputs tion, data communication, military, and embedded electronic are high impedance. Under normal operating conditions, if applications. A video is here. the analogue input signal on any Sxx pin exceeds VDD or Advanced Thermal Solutions VSS by a threshold voltage, VT, the switch turns off. Ope- www.qats.com rating on a single 8-V to 44-V supply or dual ±5-V to ±22-V supplies, the ADG5436F draws 1.2 mA in fault mode and 0.9 Verification tool automatically mA in normal mode. Available in a 16-lead TSSOP package, it is specified from –40°C to +125°C and priced at $3.86 in generates test cases 1000s. The DANA software framework helps developers of infotain- Analog Devices ment and driver assistance systems to get faster to reliable www.analog.com results in that it automatically generates test cases for the interfaces used in the respective project. The platform also facilitates Faster charging, higher efficiency regression tests. The DANA framework is based on Luna, the latest from wireless charging Rx version of the open development IDT’s P9027 claims shorter charging times and improved ther- platform Eclipse and is designed in mal performance; the wireless power receiver IC is packaged particular with automotive infotain- an ultra-compact form factor. The P9027 magnetic induction ment developments in mind. By developing DANA, the receiver offers 80% peak system level Fraunhofer Institute for Embedded Systems and Communi- efficiency and improved overall thermal cations Systems (Fraunhofer ESK), picks up the results of performance. The high-efficiency archi- a study on software development it conducted a couple of tecture enables higher power transfer years ago. In this study, the majority of the interviewees rated rates, translating into shorter charge the tests as the most complex and most time-consuming times for portable devices. P9027 is part of software development which also requires very high an 8W receiver with compact solution tool support. In the automotive and avionics industries, size —approximately 37 square millimetres— and requiring developers typically utilize bespoken test tools. The DANA six fewer capacitors than competitive products. The device’s platform enables users to adapt the test tool according to proprietary alignment guide optimises inductive coupling with their own needs without having to completely develop their the transmitter to maximise coil-to-coil power efficiency. The tools from scratch. According to Fraunhofer project manager 3V to 7V adjustable output voltage range is capable of driving Gereon Weiß, the platform is particularly apt to multivendor a variety of downstream power management ICs, while propri- systems with many heterogeneous components. The verifi- etary foreign object detection (FOD) ensures safe operation in cation process of software services in the automotive context the presence of metal objects. In wireless power transmitter and embraces multiple aspects including communications receiver solutions for wireless charger applications, IDT says it infrastructure, applications logics and user data. All these addresses all major standards and technologies with a portfolio aspects need to be treated differently during the verification of standards-certified products, in both magnetic induction and process. DANA is based on the FRANCA interface descrip- magnetic resonance technologies, and actively participates in tion language (IDL) which has been developed by the Genivi the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC), Power Matters Alli- consortium. ance (PMA), and Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) as a board DANA member. www.esk.fraunhofer.de IDT www.IDT.com

40 Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 www.electronics-eetimes.com New 8051 IP core is 29X faster than original Smart power switch replaces discretes in IP Core provider Digital Core Design (DCD) has introduced its powertrain and automotive body electronics fastest 8051 MCU IP core to date, the DQ8051, boasting a Texas Instruments’ smart, high-side power switch has pro- Dhrystone 2.1 performance rating of 0.27292 DMIPS/MHz, or a grammable current limit, provides the highest level of current 29.01 times speed-up over the original 80C51 chip operating at sense, and accurate diagnostics, without calibration. As the same frequency. Not only automotive systems become more that, but the DQ8051’s dynam- complex, the various loads within ic power consumption can be the system can each require differ- as low as 1.2µW/MHz. “If our ent profiles during operation. Using DT8051 is the World’s smallest the TPS1H100-Q1, designers can 8051, then the DQ8051 is the drive various loads with flexibility in World’s fastest 8051 for sure”, powertrain, body-electronics safety claims Kandora, Vice President at Digital Core Design. “The and driver-information systems where reliability is paramount. nearest competition stopped at 26x, with the power consump- The TPS1H100-Q1 has a 5-mA current-sense accurac, 20% tion almost two times higher than DCD’s”. According to DCD, higher than alternative devices according to TI, it provides the DQ8051 Dhrystone score rates at 29.01x the original at the adjustable current-limit capability to allow flexible control; same frequency, with only 7.5k gates while the nearest solution and its high-voltage avalanche structure eliminates Zener consumes almost 12k gates and achieves not more than a 26x transient voltage suppressors and free-wheel diodes. The speed improvement. The DQ8051 is available with USB, Ether- chip is AEC Q100-012 Grade A compliant. An automotive net, I2C, SPI, UART, CAN, LIN, HDLC, Smart Card interfaces. It BCM reference design addresses common design challenges also comes equipped with DoCDTM hardware debugger with such as load driving, condition diagnostics and fault detec- unique Instruction Smart Trace technology (IST). IST doesn’t tion. Designers can use this TI Designs reference design to capture addresses of all executed instructions, but only these quickly design door locks; window lifts; seat heaters; heating, related to the start of tracing, conditional jumps and interrupts. ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC); lamps; and light- This method not only saves time but also allows improving the emitting diodes (LEDs). Support comes in the form of the size of the IST buffer and extending the trace history. Captured TPS1H100EVM evaluation module (EVM) that allows users instructions are read back by DoCD-debug software, analyzed to evaluate the TPS1H100-Q1 for resistive, capacitive and and then presented to the user as ASM code and related C inductive load layout. lines. Texas Instruments Digital Core Design www.ti.com http://dcd.pl/ipcore/197/dq8051/

PMC module hosts high-density Software brings PAM-4 analysis capability to user-programmable FPGA Keysight oscilloscopes TEWS Technologies (Halstenbek, Germany) has the A new software option for Keysight Technologies’ S-Series, TPMC634, a standard single-width 33 MHz 32-bit PMC mod- V-Series and Z-Series real-time oscilloscopes enables users to ule providing a user programmable FPGA with front-I/O and chararacterise PAM-4 (pulse amplitude modulation with four P14 rear-I/O. The TPMC634 amplitude levels) signals. Mobile is designed for industrial, computing applications are de- COTS, and transportation manding more of the underlying applications, where spe- computer Internet infrastructure. To cialised I/O or long-term enable higher Internet and server- availability is required. The farm performance, higher-speed TPMC634 provides a number of advantages including a connectivity among server systems customizable interface for unique customer applications is required. Conventional communication techniques often relied and a FPGA-based design for long-term product lifecycle upon NRZ (non-return-to-zero) encoding. Industry experts however management. The TPMC634 I/O interface is pin and func- contend NRZ will not work in a 56-Gbit/s environment. One way tion compatible to the now obsolete TPMC630 (appropriate to overcome this challenge is to change the modulation technique order options are available). The user programmable FPGA is from NRZ to pulse amplitude modulation. This allows engineers a Xilinx Spartan-6, accessible via an on-board local bus. The to dramatically increase the amount of data they can send across TPMC634 user programmable FPGA is typically auto-config- high-speed digital communication links. Several industry standards ured from an on-board SPI Flash device. The SPI Flash is in- bodies are actively promoting PAM-4 technology to enable the system programmable via the PCI bus or via a JTAG header. next-generation speed class and push higher data rates for a given The user programmable FPGA may also be programmed channel compared to traditional NRZ signaling. While PAM-4 tech- directly (volatile) via the PCI bus or via the JTAG header. The nology leverages some traditional NRZ measurement algorithms TPMC634-10R provides 64 ESD-protected TTL lines using for PAM-4 signals, to fully analyze system performance, unique TTL compatible buffers. The TPMC634-11R provides 32 PAM-4 measurements and parameters are required. N8827A/B differential I/O lines using ESD-protected EIA-422 / EIA-485 PAM-4 analysis software offers measurements such as: eye width, compatible line transceivers. eye height and eye skew; level amplitude, level noise and level TEWS Technologies skew; as well as amplitude level linearity. www.tews.com Keysight Technologies www.keysight.com www.electronics-eetimes.com Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 41 3D stacked structure flash packs 16 GB Try out CVD graphene on substrates Toshiba has announced the development of the world’s first up to 100x200mm 48-layer three dimensional stacked cell structure flash memory Helping the semiconductor industry unlock graphene’s called BiCS, a 2-bit-per-cell 128-Gigabit (16 GigaBytes) device. potential, graphene supplier 2-DTech has made further Sample shipments of products using the new process technolo- advances in the fabrication of graphene products using gy start immediately. The BiCS is based on chemical vapour deposition (CVD) a 48-layer stacking process, which Toshiba techniques. The company is now says enhances the reliability of write/erase able to deliver polycrystalline gra- endurance and boosts write speed, and phene films of the highest quality, is suited for use in diverse applications, claimed to outperform what the primarily solid state drives (SSD). The competition can deliver in terms structure stacks flash memory cells iin a of low defect density and high vertical direction, from a silicon plane, which allows significant mobility. Customers can expect an average mobility value density improvement over conventional NAND flash memory, of approximately 2250 cm2/V.s. 2-DTech is able to supply where cells are arrayed in a planar direction on a silicon plane. its CVD graphene products in a range of different sizes and Since making the world’s first announcement of technology for on a variety of substrates. They can be grown on to copper 3D Flash memory as long ago as 2007, Toshiba has continued substrates with dimensions reaching 100x200mm. Alter- development towards optimising mass production. To meet natively its CVD graphene can be transferred onto various further market growth in 2016 and beyond, Toshiba confirms it other substrates measuring up to 40x40mm, including SiO2, is promoting the migration to 3D flash memory by rolling out a exfoliated hBN deposited on SiO2 and an array of customer product portfolio that emphasizes large capacity applications, requested materials. These products can be incorporated such as SSD. into photovoltaic, electronic and sensor devices in either Toshiba Electronics Europe graphene-only or multi-layer hetero-structure systems (where www.toshiba.semicon-storage.com graphene is combined with other 2-D materials, such as the insulating hBN or the semiconducting MoS2). IO-Link temperature sensor is more cost 2-DTech http://2-dtech.com efficient than discrete alternatives Maxim Integrated has introduced a reference design of an intelligent temperature sensor with IO-Link interface. Applied in Ultra-low-power 32-bit MCU platform targets industrial control applications, it enables lower cost and higher equipment uptime. The industrial and IoT applications new IO-Link resistance Texas Instruments has unveiled a 32-bit alternative to the temperature detector company’s 16-bit MSP430 family of microcontrollers. The with the type designation MSP432 ARM-based MCU family’s low power architecture has MAXREFDES42# com- been designed to provide MSP430 pletes Maxim’s portfolio and ARM M0 developers migration of IO reference designs paths to more feature packed solu- for industrial automa- tions. TI’s MSP432 microcontroller tion and control environments. The highly integrated analog (MCU) platform claims to be industry’s front end of this design enables temperature measurements lowest power 32-bit ARM Cortex- and detects overvoltages, shorts, and open circuits. In this M4F MCUs. To create the low power respect, it offers higher functionality than competing dis- architecture solution, TI opted to build crete solutions, the vendor claims. Besides very low power the MSP432 around the Cortex-M4F consumption the reference design features a high accuracy core architecture rather than ARM’s of better than ±0.5 K. The temperature measured is indicated Cortex-M0 core following the realisation that traditional industri- immediately on the built-in LED display for quick-and-dirty al control applications and future Internet of Things applications overview measurements. To maximise application flexibility require a more feature-rich solution that is low in power usage. the reference design supports all three data rates specified The 48 MHz MCUs apply TI’s ultra-low-power MCU expertise for IO-Link, a unique feature in this market environment. The to optimize performance without compromising power, while MAXREFDES42# can be used with platinum measurement consuming 95 µA/MHz in active power and 850 nA in standby resistors (Pt-RTDs) such as Pt-100, Pt-500 and Pt-1000 with power. Industry-leading integrated analog, such as a high- two-, three- and four-line connection across a wide tem- speed 14-bit 1MSPS analog-to-digital converter (ADC), further perature range. Application examples include temperature optimizes power efficiency and performance. MSP432 MCUs measurements in air, gases and liquids. The configuration enable designers to develop ultra-low-power embedded ap- software for this intelligent IO-Link temperature sensor has plications such as industrial and building automation, industrial been developed in collaboration with IQ2 Development. In sensing, industrial security panels, asset tracking and consumer the reference design, the IO-Link Device Stack of IQ2 Devel- electronics where both efficient data processing and enhanced opment is utilised, enabling data exchange with any IO-Link low-power operation are essential. The MSP432 MCUs claim to 1.1 compatible master.. deliver a best-in-class ULPBench score of 167.4 – outperform- Maxim Integrated ing all other Cortex-M3 and -M4F MCUs on the market. www.maximintegrated.com Texas Instruments www.ti.com

42 Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 www.electronics-eetimes.com A19E_EET_2_37x10_87_A19E.qxd 2/27/15 10:54 AM Page 1

NT Tiny digital STB tuner ICs E MOU RFAC le) The Si2144 and Si2124 digital tuner ICs from Silicon Labs are designed to reduce SU ru-ho (and th ers the cost, complexity and power consumption of cable, terrestrial, hybrid terrestrial/ sform satellite and IP-based STB products. The ICs help STB designers reduce board Tran ctors space and bill of materials (BOM) cost through a Indu combination of single-chip integration and the small & package size. Integrated loop-through technology also helps reduce system-level cost and power consump- Size tion. Available in a small 3x3mm QFN package, the Si2144/24 ICs claim to be the smallest STB tuners does available today. This ultra-compact package, combined with minimal BOM count, enables the smallest footprint of any STB tuner matter! solution in the market: 0.86 cm2. The Si2144/24 tuners also claim to deliver the lowest BOM cost of any STB tuner in mass production. Unlike competing STB tuners, the Si2144/24 devices require no balun at the RF input, and they integrate all tracking filter inductors, dramatically reducing system cost and complexity. Silicon Labs www.silabs.com/tv-tuner

from IC-package-board co-design tool tackles multi-die projects low- profile Mentor Graphics has unveiled its new Xpedition Package Integrator flow, claimed to .18"ht. be the industry’s broadest solution for integrated circuit (IC), package, and printed circuit board (PCB) co-design and optimization. The Package Integrator solution automates planning, assembly and optimization of • Audio Transformers today’s complex multi-die packages. It incorporates a • Pulse Transformers unique virtual die model concept for true IC-to-package co-optimization. In support of early marketing-level • DC-DC Converter studies for a proposed new device, users can now plan, Transformers assemble and optimize complex systems with minimal source data. This solution ensures that ICs, packages • MultiPlex Data Bus and PCBs are optimized with each other to reduce package substrate and PCB Transformers costs by efficient layer reduction, optimized interconnect paths, and streamlined/ automated control of the design process. The Xpedition Package Integrator product • Power & also provides the industry’s first formal flow for ball grid array (BGA) ball-map plan- EMI Inductors ning and optimization based on an “intelligent pin” concept, defined by user rules. Mentor Graphics www.mentor.com

mediately Catalog im Pico’s full m Software simulation of ST power devices, See ronics.co .picoelect by free download tool www A free software tool from STMicroelectronics includes accurate dynamic simulation for VIPower devices. TwisterSIM is a free software suite that includes a Smart Interactive Selector and a Dynamic Electro-Thermal Simulator for Automotive Low/ PICO Electronics,Inc. High-side driver/switches and H-bridges for motor control 143 Sparks Ave. Pelham, N.Y. 10803 built using ST’s VIPower technology. The tool allows E Mail: [email protected] complex evaluations with accurate dynamic simulations of load-compatibility, wiring-harness optimisation, fault con- Pico Representatives dition impact analysis, diagnostic behaviour analysis and Germany dynamic thermal performance in just a few clicks. Twist- ELBV/Electronische Bauelemente Vertrieb erSIM considerably reduces the cost and time needed to E-mail: [email protected] select and validate a product for a specific application layout by performing a ther- Phone: 0049 89 4602852 mal-electrical dynamic simulation. The tool comes with a built-in library of accurate Fax: 0049 89 46205442 VIPower-product models based on a proprietary methodology and validation that England allows a realistic reproduction of “in application” behaviour. Simulation results Ginsbury Electronics Ltd. include junction thermal profiles, load current, and diagnostic behaviour, all shown E-mail: [email protected] on dedicated scope views to be exported in multiple commonly-used formats. Phone: 0044 1634 298900 STMicroelecronics Fax: 0044 1634 290904 www.st.com/twistersim

www.electronics-eetimes.com Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 43 100V micropower voltage monitors provide ARM-based MCUs take high-end graphics to 1.4% accuracy for HV designs mid-range cars LTC2965 and LTC2966 are 3.5V to 100V, single and dual chan- Cypress Semiconductor has grown its Traveo microcontroller nel voltage monitors that draw 6 µA of quiescent current. Alter- family with a series that provides automotive manufacturers native voltage monitoring solutions typically call for a low power with a cost-effective platform to deliver 2-D and 3-D graphics comparator, a high input voltage LDO and advanced functionality to power the comparator and a high for dashboards, head-up value resistive divider to level trans- displays and HVAC systems late the monitored rail, all of which in compact vehicles. The increase board space and power S6J32BA and S6J32DA consumption, and decrease monitor- series build upon Spansion’s ing accuracy. The LTC2965/LTC2966 announcement of the Traveo avoid the major pitfalls of a discrete solution by integrating all 2-D graphics MCU S6J324C components required to directly interface with high voltage series and the 3-D graphics MCU S6J326C series for midsize rails in a 3 x 3 mm package. Each device includes resistor-pro- cars in October 2014. The Traveo family delivers state-of- grammable threshold inputs to facilitate simple undervoltage, the-art 2-D and 3-D graphics, which have been optimised overvoltage or window monitoring of positive or negative rails to bring sophisticated and automotive specific graphics func- to within ±1.4% accuracy over temperature. In addition to the tions into the car without increased power and bill of materi- high voltage inputs, the LTC2965/LTC2966 include adjustable- als requirements. As the first 3-D-capable ARM Cortex-R5 polarity UV/OV comparator outputs that can be pulled up to cluster MCU, Cypress says its graphics engine provides voltages as high as 100V. All high voltage pins are rated to greater memory savings, increased safety features and 140V, withstanding high voltage transients without damage. rich image capabilities, without the need for external video Integrated high value resistive dividers with selectable ratios RAM. These, in turn, help manufacturers take advantage of offer improved accuracy, power savings and flexibility com- lower overall system costs. The Cypress Traveo S6J32BA pared to solutions using external high value resistors. Threshold and S6J32DA product family includes the ARM Cortex-R5 programming is achieved using low value discrete resistors in processor, 1 MB of internal flash, 1 MB of internal video combination with configuration pins for scaling the comparator RAM, enhanced secure hardware extension (eSHE) and the thresholds and setting output polarity. A built-in buffered refer- HyperBus interface that enables seamless connections with ence provides convenient low voltage biasing. HyperBus memories such as HyperFlash memory and Hyper- Linear Technology RAM memory. The S6J32BA and S6J32DA series are pin www.linear.com compatible with their predecessors S6J324C and S6J326C, providing customers the flexibility and ease to upgrade CAN FD transceiver family without requiring changes to the board layout. The graphics functionality is complemented by an advanced sound system offers migration path with a 16-bit audio-DAC and a multi-channel mixer. Microchip’s new CAN FD transceivers withstand the harsh Cypress conditions under the hood and meets lower power budgets. www.cypress.com As an interface between a CAN protocol controller and the physical two-wire CAN bus, the MCP2561&2FD trans- Compact liquid flow meter ceivers can serve both the traditional CAN and the new for industrial applications CAN FD protocols, providing Sensirion (Switzerland) is expanding its range of liquid flow sen- a migration path for automo- sors for measuring low flow rates; the SLS-1500 liquid flow me- tive electronics designers. With ter delivers fast and precise measurements for flow rates of 0 to their robustness and industry- 40 ml/min. The compact liquid flow leading features, including data rates of up to 8 Mb/s, the meter comes in a robust housing and MCP2561/2FD transceivers enable customers to implement offers a versatile sensor solution for and realise the benefits of CAN FD. The transceivers have applications in demanding industrial one of the industrys lowest standby current consumption (<5 environments and laboratory set- A typical), helping to meet ECU low-power budget require- tings. Sensirion’s modular approach ments. In addition, these devices support operation in the of combining the sensor and inter- -40 to 150 degrees Celsius temperature range, enabling face cable ensures an optimum match with rapid results and usage in harsh environments. The MCP2561/2FD product simplifies integration of a flow sensor. With a typical response family is available in 8-pin PDIP, SOIC and 3x3 mm DFN time of 20 msec, the SLS-1500 is able to reliably monitor highly (leadless) packages, providing additional design flexibility dynamic dispensing processes. The flow channel inside the for space-limited applications. The family also provides two sensor is completely straight and open and has no moving options: The MCP2561FD comes in an 8-pin package and parts. Inert wetted materials provide chemical resistance and features a SPLIT pin. This SPLIT pin helps to stabilise the biocompatibility. The SLS-1500 is compatible with SCC1 inter- common mode in biased split-termination schemes. face cables, thereby offering USB, RS485 and analogue voltage Microchip output connections. www.microchip.com Sensirion www.sensirion.com

44 Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 www.electronics-eetimes.com A49E_EETimes_2_375x10_875_A45.qxd 2/27/15 10:56 AM Page 1

DC-DC More cores in XMOS’ MCUs address complex audio XMOS’latest family of multicore microcontrollers, the xCORE-200 packs up to CONVERTERS 16 independent 32-bit RISC processor cores for the XE216 device. With multiple processing cores executing completely independently, tasks are guaranteed to complete within a strict timing budget. Because the cores are tightly interconnected through a dedicated switch, responding to events triggered by I/O pins, timers and tasks, rather than interrupts, response times are measured in nanoseconds. That’s three orders of magnitude faster than traditional microcontrollers and the main claim of XMOS xCORE archi- NEW AVP/AVN SERIES! tecture. The XE216 can deliver up to up to 2000MIPs for general purpose and DSP processing and supporting up to 10,000 VDC Outputs 512Kbytes of embedded SRAM memory. Already shipping to selected customers, the multicore microcontroller family also supports 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet Now in Miniature Design with a programmable MAC layer and Internet webserver support, opening up Gigabit-speed Internet-of-Things applications. Offering top MCU performance with 0.5” x 1.0” x 0.5” flexible core processing power allocation (transparently configured through the companys xTIME-Composer Studio development tools), the new devices are said to deliver twice the performance and four times the on-chip SRAM memory of the • Isolated • High Reliability companys first generation xCORE multicore microcontrollers. They add a flexible • 6,000, 7,000, 8,000, 9,000, 10,000 VDC, Gigabit Ethernet port alongside a high performance and programmable XMOS USB positive and negative output models 2.0 interface, and devices will be available with up to 2Mbytes of on-chip Flash memory for system-level integration and security. Delivered in a 128-pin TQFP • 1.25 watt output power, -25˚ to +70˚C package, the XE216-512-TQ128 will cost less than USD4.75 in high volume and a operating temperature standard, complete family of devices will become available over the next few months ranging no de rating from products with 8 high-performance 32bit-RISC-processors, up to devices with • 5-12-15-24 and 28 VDC inputs standard 10, 12 and 16 cores. The companys roadmap for the second half of 2015 includes • Military Upgrades Available xCORE-200 products with 24 and 32 high-performance 32-bit-processor cores Expanded operating temperature, -55˚ to XMOS +85˚C available - Selected MIL-STD-883 www.xmos.com screeening available • Free review of any additional requirements and specifications you may have to Next-generation PMBus controller for FPGA, ASIC comply with and processor power • Fully encapsulated for use in harsh Powervation’s latest high-performance digital DC/DC controller for FPGA, ASIC, environmental conditions and point-of-load power for communications and computing applications is designed for key rails that demand precision output voltage regulation and tight For full characteristics of these and the control during transient conditions. The PV3105 digital entire PICO product line, see PICO’s controller provides low jitter and low output voltage ripple, Full line catalog at and improved transient response, suiting it for powering www.picoelectronics.com low-voltage, high current rails on leading process nodes for ASICs/FPGAs. Additional hardware and firmware features have been implemented to further improve the control of the PICO ELECTRONICS, Inc. output voltage under static and dynamic conditions. The 143 Sparks Ave., Pelham, New York 10803 device provides up to 1.25 MHz switching frequency and implements new digital Call Toll Free 800-431-1064 loop techniques to reduce output voltage setting time. To meet the power needs FAX 914-738-8225 of advanced ASICs, PV3105 provides support for latest senseFET power stages, E Mail: [email protected] precision telemetry and reporting, and includes features such as voltage tracking, margining, and sequencing. The PV3105 provides temperature compensated fault Pico Representatives protection, more flexible protection feature settings, and alerts over PMBus are ful- Germany ly configurable and selectable. Fully scalable, PV3105 can be used in single phase ELBV/Electra Bauemente Vertrieb E mail: [email protected] mode or can power multi-phase high power loads using Powervation’s DSS current Phone: 49 089 460205442 sharing bus. The PV3105 is designed to flexibly operate with all leading FET power Fax: 49 089 460205442 stages, to give the designer maximum flexibility for powering thelatest FPGAs, England Ginsbury Electronics Ltd ASICs, processors, and POL. The PV3105 comes in a 4x4mm QFN package. E-mail: [email protected] Powervation Phone: 44 163 429800 www.powervation.com Fax: 44 163 4290904

www.electronics-eetimes.com Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 45 Reader Offer Single-channel comparator extends battery life Never lose track of things in low-voltage portable devices This month, DecaWave is offering EETimes Diodes Incorporated’s new generation AZV3001 single-channel Europe’s readers the chance to win two comparator has been developed for use in battery-powered TREK1000 kits to evaluate its Ultra-Wide- equipment that needs to operate at low voltage. The single- band (UWB) indoor location and communication DW1000 channel device consumes chip in different real-time location system topologies. Worth 6μA and provides guaran- €947, each kit allows designers to prove a concept within teed operation from 1.6V up hours and have a prototype ready in days. Based on the to 5.5 V, making it well- two-way ranging scheme, the kit lets you test three differ- suited for use in systems ent topologies: Using 3 with nominal supplies of 1.8 anchors and 1 tag, the V, 3.0 V or 5.0 V, such as tracking mode covers mobile phones, tablets and applications use cases notebook computers, where around asset tracking, the device delivers superior logistics and factory performance and helps extend battery life. The comparator automation. The user features internal hysteresis in order to provide immunity to un- collects the 2D/3D posi- desirable small voltage fluctuations, and uses a complementary tion of the tag relative to output stage, comprising P- and N-channel MOSFETS, in order the anchor’s position. Based on 1 anchor and up to 3 tags, to drive outputs with a full rail-to-rail voltage swing. Miniaturized the geo-fencing mode enables users to monitor if the tags package options help reduce PCB board space: the AZV3001 is are within certain pre-defined perimeters around the anchor. offered in a 6-pin X2-DFN1410-6 package and the dual-channel Use cases include collision avoidance, security perimeter AZV3002, available later in 2015, in an 8-pin U-FLGA1616-8 around machinery, child monitoring or securing valuables. package. With a low propagation delay of 0.8 μs, a low input The navigation mode also uses 3 anchors and 1 tag. Con- bias current of 1 pA and no risk of phase inversion when the nected directly to the tag, the user is able to walk around input is overdriven, these comparators offer embedded system and visualize its current position, allowing to test human and design engineers a general-purpose solution to almost all low- robotics navigation scenarios. The DW1000 chip allows the voltage portable device requirements. location of objects to a precision of 10 cm. Diodes Incorporated www.diodes.com Check the reader offer online at

ZigBee motion detector dev kit targets home www.electronics-eetimes.com monitoring GreenPeak Technologies announced a new addition to its Multi-die emitter provides single-source beam Smart Home portfolio with the launch of a reference design for a low cost Passive Infra-Red (PIR) sensor, enabling control in directional lamps application developers to Philips Lumileds has launched multi-die emitter that provides quickly build a ZigBee en- a more affordable LED option for makers of directional lamps abled motion sensor ready that offers single-source beam control. The Philips Lumileds to be produced with Green- LUXEON 5258 multi-die emitter claims Peak’s qualified ODMs. The to enable the most cost effective reference design is based on design of PAR 16, PAR 20, MR16 and GreenPeak’s GP490 ZigBee GU10 lamps using existing drivers at communication chip and uses 24 V and 96 V. “We are providing a the patented antenna diversity high flux, high efficacy LED that im- mechanism for enhanced wireless range and full home cov- proves the quality of light and avoids erage. The motion sensor’s range detection, optimized with the unfortunate ‘showerhead effect’ advanced signal processing, provides enhanced detection that users experience with distributed, multi-die solutions. The performance for full room coverage, as required in multiple LUXEON 5258 can achieve lower system costs compared to Smart Home applications. This motion detector is capable of solutions using multiple LEDs for 35 W and 50 W MR16 today,” disregarding motion caused by pets, eliminating false alarms. explained Ahmed Eweida, Product Manager for Philips Lu- The reference design includes all required tools and exam- mileds. Lumileds initial offering of the LEDs in the 5258 plastic ples to implement a ZigBee PIR motion sensor application, package is in warm white CCTs with a minimum CRI of 80. The with an example motion sensor application, including the 24 V solutions provide 425 lumens at 110 lm/W, while the 96 V ZigBee stack and all necessary application specific compo- solutions provide 400 lumens at 105 lm/W. Both can be driven nents. Software Development tools (IDE, debugger) and a set to deliver up to 650 lumens. A 5 mm diameter optical source of user manuals and application notes are included as well. enables precise beam control in directional applications. The To assist during the HW development, GreenPeak provides a LUXEON 5258 is designed to provide the best efficacy and flux set of reference layout and schematic files. metrics with superior reliability and droop curve than all com- GreenPeak Technologies peting solutions on the market. www.greenpeak.com Philips Lumileds www.philips.com

46 Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 www.electronics-eetimes.com FPGA cores support any media Isolated gate driver operates at up to 225°C over any network CISSOID’s 2nd generation of HADES highly integrated iso- Xilinx’ latest generation of Video over IP connectivity solutions lated gate drivers is aimed at high density power converters, address the industry’s transition to all IP-based networks. These motor drives and actuators based either on fast switching connectivity solutions enable ‘any media over any network’ Silicon Carbide (SiC) transistors, traditional power MOSFETs transport capabilities to the broadcast and pro a/v markets. and IGBTs. The gate driver Xilinx defines and deploys Video over IP protocols for contribu- HADES v2 brings high reli- tion and distribution networks with the provision of the SMPTE ability and extended life time ST 2022-1,2 and SMPTE ST 2022-5.6 IP cores and reference in harsh environments, avail- designs. These cores encapsulate multiple compressed JPEG able in hermetic packages 2000 or MPEG transport streams (MPEG-TS), or uncompressed for extreme temperature SDI streams onto 1Gb and 10Gb Ethernet IP networks, and of- applications up to 225°C, as fer optional forward error correction (FEC) to recover lost pack- well as in plastic packages ets and provide robustness in media transmission. The new for systems where extended Video over IP cores and reference designs support the SMPTE life time is the priority and ST 2022-7 seamless (hitless) protection switching standard temperature doesn’t exceed and are available with Xilinx Kintex-7 FPGAs and Zynq-7000 175°C. The HADES v2 gate driver includes all the functions All Programmable SoCs, using FPGA Mezzanine Cards (FMCs) to drive the gates of power switches in an isolated, high volt- from Xilinx Alliance Members, inrevium AMERICA and Faster age half bridge. The chipset uses three integrated circuits: Technology. Additional SMPTE ST 2022-compliant IP cores HADES2P on the primary side, HADES2S on the secondary, include a brand new high-channel count Video over IP Forward and the recently introduced quad-diode ELARA. Both prima- Error Correction (FEC) engine that handles up to 512 transport ry and secondary chips come in ceramic QFP 32 pins or in streams. To address timing and synchronization techniques plastic QFP 44 pins. The primary side IC (HADES2P) embeds based on the IEEE1588 Precision Time Protocol (PTP) over a current-mode fly-back controller with an integrated 0.8Ohm local and wide area networks, Xilinx has developed IP cores - 80V switch, configurable non-overlapping and Under- and reference designs that enable the distribution of video sync Voltage Lockout (UVLO) fault management. It also includes a signals over IP networks, and generate clocks and timestamps four channels isolated signal transceiver (2 Tx and 2 Rx) for for remote video sources. PWM and fault signals transmission towards or back from Xilinx secondary side through tiny pulse transformers. The two sec- www.xilinx.com ondary side ICs (HADES2S), one for the high side and one for the low side, include a 12A driver, UVLO, Desaturation and Fast charge developers kit speeds ultrathin Over Temperature Protection (OTP) fault detection circuits, as well as a two channels isolated signal transceiver. An Evalua- supercapacitor prototyping tion Kit (EVK-HADES2) is also available, which demonstrates Paper Battery Company, developer of a supercapacitor- a half-bridge built on the HADES v2 gate driver and two CIS- based energy storage and battery enhancement technology, SOID’s NEPTUNE, a 10A/1200V SiC Mosfet. The kit includes has released a Fast Charge Developers Kit for the company’s a 60x55mm demonstration board with the half-bridge and PowerResponder product line. The kit enables product the full documentation. designers to incorporate fast charging PowerResponder cells Cissoid in their products allowing them to prototype a variety of input www.cissoid.com charging devices and protocols. With the Fast Charge De- velopers Kit, PowerResponder cells can be fully charged in less than five minutes. A ‘charge in minutes to run for hours’ 64GB solid state drive on a secure chip capability is attractive for applications such as power tools, toys, Bluetooth headphones, medical and industrial handheld With its second generation of highly secure 64 gigabyte solid devices and game controllers, where intermittent use cycles state drive (SSD), Microsemi Corporation aims to address allow for rapid recharge in between uses. embedded designers’ concern about security threats and Charging of lithium batteries (the company notes) is slow, fraudulent firmware repurposing.Packaged in a 32x28mm ball needing hours even for small batteries, and fast charging grid array package, the 64GB SSD chip is limited because of safety issues. The PowerResponder features a unique factory firmware lock- product line claims to have a much higher energy density down technology to prevent covert firm- than traditional supercapacitors, and can charge in minutes ware repurposing.The self-encrypting with none of the safety risks of lithium batteries. Power- drive (through hardware-based AES-256 Responders can be used in parallel with lithium batteries in XTS encryption) delivers multiple key external packs to enhance the charging rates and can also management methods and advanced replace the lithium batteries in some cases. The Power- security features based on the company’s proven Microsemi Responder cell could replace the lithium battery pack in the Armor III processor technology. For sensitive applications, the external power case sold for smartphones today, and provide encryption key can be erased in less than 30 milliseconds and two hours of talk time extension in two minutes of charging a second security layer can be activated to erase the entire the external power case. storage media in less than 10 seconds, virtually rendering data Paper Battery Company forensically unrecoverable. www.paperbatteryco.com Microsemi www.microsemi.com www.electronics-eetimes.com Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 47 Motor pre-driver chip meets ASIL-D Scanner surveys RF fields near ICs, Meeting the highest safety level (ASIL-D) in the nomenclature detects hot spots of functional safety standard ISO 26262, Toshiba Electronics’ To fathom out the intensity and distribution of high frequency brushed motor pre-driver IC TB80507FG is suited for even the electromagnetic fields in the immediate surroundings of most critical applications in cars such as power steering. The integrated circuits and small modules, Langer EMV GmbH TB80507FG integrates a pre-driver, has developed the ICS 105 IC dual motor current detection cir- desktop scanner. The device is cuit that converts motor current to designed to be used together voltage and output to MCU, It also with the vendors ICR near-field integrates motor direction detection micro probe to measure the circuitry that detects whether external fields above integrated circuits MOSFETs turn on or off normally and (ICS 105 GND set) and small output the direction information to MCU. Various failure detec- modules (ICS 105 UH set). The analysis of an IC’s near fields tion circuits include as VB undervoltage detection circuit, VDD provides a better understanding of what happens inside undervoltage detection circuit, over temperature detection cir- the IC at high frequencies. The measurements help analy- cuit, and short circuit detection circuitry. Additionally, functions se an IC’s emission problems and pinpoint its areas which including motor current detection circuit, power supply pin, and are responsible for the emissions. Depending on the ICR GND pin are made redundant to secure higher robustness. In near-field microprobe used, a magnetic or an electric field is order to accommodate the possibility of a voltage drop caused measured in an area of 50x50x50 mm and shown on the PC by cranking after idling reduction, the battery operation voltage with the CS scanner software. The ICR near-field microprobe range has been reduced to 5V (min.) compared to the 6V (min.) can be rotated automatically by 360 degrees with the rotary of the predecessor product. The built-in motor current detection axis to determine the direction of the magnetic field. A video circuit and motor direction detection circuit simplifies system microscope helps position the near-field microprobe above design and reduces PCB size. Customers can set the system the object to be measured. Thanks to the ICS 105 scanner’s to respond to detected failures in one of two ways, using the minimum increment of 10μm, the measurement offers a high input setting of the SEL pin. Housed in a LQFP48-P-0707-0.50C resolution. The ICR near-field microprobes measure RF fields package measuring 9.0x9.0x1.6mm, the IC supports an operat- in the frequency range between 1.5 MHz and 6 GHz and ing voltage range of +5 to 21V and has an operating tempera- achieve a measurement resolution of approximately 50μm. ture range of -40°C to 125°C. Langer EMV GmbH Toshiba Electronics www.langer-emv.com www.toshiba.semicon-storage.com

Rotary Switches Online stocks Elma’s EDA tool automates exploration and design multi wheel devices of application-specific instruction sets Essex based specialist distributor of rotary switches and Synopsys’ ASIP Designer tool speeds development of appli- accessories for industrial and audiophile applications, is cation specific instruction set processors by a claimed factor now stocking the compact and multi-function Elma Multi of five. Automatic generation of a software development kit in Wheel rotary switch, a minia- parallel with the hardware model en- ture encoder with 8+1 joystick ables rapid architectural exploration to function for one-finger control. optimise ASIPs for power, performance This advanced HMI product is and area. ASIP Designer speeds the a Hall Effect sensed encoder design of application specific in- with magnetic indexing over 12 struction set processors (ASIPs) and detents and has a centre button programmable accelerators, with a lan- with 8 joystick directions and centre push function. Sealed to guage-based approach that allows the automatic generation of IP66 for rugged applications other standard features include, synthesisable RTL and software development kits (SDKs) from LED backlit illumination (RGB) which can be programmed a single input specification, accelerating the processor design to change colour with each switch activation, 3VDC opera- and verification effort by up to five times compared to traditional tion, UART output, LED control interface, 6 positions ZIF or manual approaches. ASIPs are deployed in a wide range of solder pads connection and a full metal front-end in clear or signal processing intensive applications, including wireless base black. Options available include custom front-end shape and stations, mobile handsets, audio processing, image processing colour, alternative connectors, cabling and pinning and IP67 and cloud computing. ASIP Designer enables users to explore or IP68 sealing. The ELMA Multi Wheel rotary encoder has multiple processor architecture alternatives in minutes. Using a an operating temperature range of -20 to +70°C and working single input specification in the nML language, the tool auto- life of 1,000,000 encoder revolutions and 500,000 joystick matically generates both the synthesisable RTL of the processor actuations and can be mounted to the front or rear of control as well as an SDK that includes an optimising C/C++ compiler, panels. Rotary Switches Online is a subsidiary of Foremost instruction set simulator, linker, assembler, software debugger Electronics Ltd specialist agents and distributors of electro- and profiler. This ensures consistency of the hardware and the mechanical components and enclosures. SDK at all stages of the design process. Rotary Switches Online Synopsys rotaryswitchesonline.com www.synopsys.com

48 Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 www.electronics-eetimes.com Solid State plc acquires Ginsbury Electronics Microlease broadens offering in T&M Solid State plc announced it has completed the acquisition of procurement; becomes Keysight distributor in UK Ginsbury Electronics in a deal worth some GBP2.125 million. Test and measurement equipment management company The Ginsbury team will continue to be based in Rochester, Microlease has been selected as an Authorised Distributor in Kent, operating alongside Solid the UK by Keysight Technologies, and will stock and supply State Supplies Ltd. and Steatite all of Keysight’s product Ltd., the two principle trading lines that the company companies of Solid State plc, sells through distribution; which are located in Redditch, Microlease already has Worcestershire. Like Solid State a similar agreement with plc, Ginsbury is qualified to the Keysight in Italy (and the Americas). Microlease presents this AS9120 standard (incorporating move as a progression in its development as a “total provider ISO9001), enabling the newly combined company to continue of T&M sourcing and asset management” supplier. The com- with immediate effect as a stockist distributor to the military and pany, from its roots in instrument rental, now aims to provide aerospace industries, which are key markets for the Group. all modes of acquiring instrumentation – purchase, rental, Solid State Supplies leasing, including finance facilities – through managing T&M www.sssplc.com assets for maximum cost-effectiveness over time, to re-sale or disposal. 10.1” Panel PC backed by in-house Microlease www.microlease.com developed components Data Modul’s latest 10.1” Panel PC provides a resolution of USD 10,000 worth of components offered 1280x800 Pixel (WUXGA) and 450 cd/m2 which allows excellent readability from all viewing angles and even under bright in Digi-Key/Silicon Labs IoT contest ambient conditions. It is based Winners in an Internet-of-Things-themed design contest will re- on Data Modul’s eDM-CB-Colibri ceive $10,000 in semiconductor components to help bring their carrier board. The pin-compatible IoT ideas to product reality Silicon Labs and distributor Digi-Key Colibri ARM embedded com- are running an IoT design contest for puter on module product family developers who want to create con- supports NVIDIA Tegra 2 & 3, nected things that will help, make the Freescale Vybrid & I. MX6 proces- world a smarter, more connected and sors. Due to its scalable performance it can be optimized for energy friendly place. Co-sponsored specific applications. The display uses SITO (Single-Side- by the two companies, the Your IoT ITO) PCAP touch technology, which means that through the Connected World design contest is optical bonding of the touch sensor and cover glass, the open to inventors of all skill levels, from professional embedded touch function stands out even by using 30% thicker glass developers and seasoned makers to electronics enthusiasts. and under critical environmental conditions. The contest runs from now until through July 17, 2015, with Data Modul three winners to be announced on August 3, 2015. www.data-modul.com Digi-Key www.YourIoTContest.com

Giant spider-bot needs your inspiration Astute Electronics signs worldwide Mouser Electronics has partnered with celebrity engineer Grant Imahara to call on engineers of all levels to collaborate with him distribution for Euroquartz to provide creative ideas and solve real world problems using his Independent UK-based manufacturer and supplier of quartz Spider-Bot as part of the next Robotics Empowering Innovation crystals, oscillators, filters and frequency-related products, Challenge. This second challenge is a continuation of Mouser Euroquartz has signed a worldwide franchise distribu- and Imahara’s journey with the engi- tion agreement with distributor Astute neering community, where engineers Electronics. Euroquartz works with four can engage with Grant Imahara strategic partners - Statek, Greenway, through a variety of topics and Axtal and Mercury – which provide series of challenges. The Robotics complementary leading-edge technology Empowering Innovation and expertise to Euroquartz’s portfo- Challenge is the second in a series lio, enabling the company to deliver of different challenges on a variety a comprehensive range of frequency of engineering topics. This time, control components to a wide range of Grant is asking engineers to solve customers including major OEMs cove- a problem using his robot known as “The Spider.” The challenge ring a broad spectrum of applications such as military and is to creatively describe what to attach or add on to enhance aerospace, communications, computing, control systems, Grant’s existing Spider-Bot to solve a real-world problem and petrochemical and general electronics. why that particular problem should be solved. Astute Electronics Mouser www.astute.co.uk www.mouser.com www.electronics-eetimes.com Electronic Engineering Times Europe April 2015 49

PUBLISHER André Rousselot Power grids - How many EVs +32 27400053 [email protected] can be charged simultaneoulsy? Editor-in-Chief Julien Happich By Paul Buckley +33 169819476 [email protected] erman researchers have de- method, a form of stochastic modelling. EDITORS veloped a prototype software The aim is to produce a group of com- Christoph Hammerschmidt program that shows grid operators binations that is as heterogeneous as +49 8944450209 howG much load their low voltage network possible. The number of these combina- [email protected] can handle and predict how many electric tions is significantly smaller than the total Peter Clarke vehicles can be connected to the grid number of all possible combinations. +44 776 786 55 93 without pushing it to its limits. “It’s far quicker to analyze somewhere [email protected] “A vehicle draws up to 22 kW of power. between 1,000 and 10,000 cases, and that Paul Buckley So if you have multiple still gives you a very good ap- +44 1962866460 vehicles plugged in at the proximate value,” said Agsten. [email protected] same time, then current In a matter of seconds the Jean-Pierre Joosting grids quickly reach their lim- software program shows the +44 7800548133 its,” said Dr. Michael Agsten degree of overload risk and [email protected] from the Advanced System how many electric vehicles Technology (AST) depart- can be charged simultane- Circulation & Finance ment at the Ilmenau site ously in a local grid. Distribu- Luc Desimpel of the Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, tion grid operators can use the figures to [email protected] System Technologies and Image Exploita- protect their power grids from long-term Advertising Production & tion IOSB. damage and sudden outages. In Germany Reprints The software has been developed to al- there are around 560,000 local grids which Lydia Gijsegom low grid operators to plan in advance and are divided among approximately 800 grid [email protected] find answers to key questions. For exam- operators. Each operator is responsible for ple: how will connecting one more vehicle the reliable and stable operation of their Art Manager affect the load distribution? At what point distribution networks and local grids and Jean-Paul Speliers should we invest in our networks to ensure is required to meet demand by carrying Accounting we maintain enough capacity? Is it better out measures such as smart management Ricardo Pinto Ferreira to spend money on new copper cables or and grid expansion where necessary. invest in smart charge spots? The companies do not have enough Regional Advertising A prototype of the software program personnel to manually calculate how Representatives has already been created as part of the many electric vehicles can safely be Contact information at: ‘Managed Charging 3.0’ project spon- connected to each individual distribution http://www.electronics-eetimes.com/en/ sored by the German Federal Ministry for network. Even if they did, the cost would about/sales-contacts.html the Environment, Nature Conservation, be prohibitive. It took relatively little time to Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB). “The calculate how many household appliances IT is already running very smoothly in the such as washing machines, ovens, televi- ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING TIMES EUROPE laboratory with test data. In the next stage sions and computers could be connected is published 11 times in 2015 we’re hoping platform to analyze real simultaneously before limits were reached. by European Business Press SA distribution grids,” said Agsten. And in fact the standard upper limit of up 7 Avenue Reine Astrid, The software shows how many charg- to 44 KW/63A per household has only 1310 La Hulpe, Belgium ing processes can run simultaneously been tested in exceptional cases. But Tel: +32-2-740 00 50 without hitting the limits set by statutory nobody figured in the power required to Fax: +32-2-740 00 59 requirements or by the grid operator. Each charge electric vehicles. “Charging electric european email: [email protected]. business press electricity substation typically supplies vehicles leads to a significantly higher www.electronics-eetimes.com power to 150 or more households. If you household power draw – and the problem VAT Registration: BE 461.357.437. assume that a certain proportion of house- is exacerbated if people charge multiple Company Number: 0461357437 holds will own an electric vehicle in the fu- vehicles at home at different times of the RPM: Nivelles. ture and plug the vehicle in at some point day,” said Agsten. Key parameters such in time, then you are left with an inconcei- as voltage stability, component thermal Volume 17, Issue 4 EE Times P 304128 vably high number of charging scenarios. load and voltage imbalance fluctuate con- It is is free to qualified engineers and managers That’s because it is impossible to predict stantly based on the changing volatile load involved in engineering decisions – see: which households will charge their electric of electric vehicles according to time and http://www.electronics-eetimes.com/subscribe vehicles at any one point in time. place. Each time another electric vehicle © 2015 E.B.P. SA “It’s impossible to calculate that in the is plugged in, this increases the number All rights reserved. P 304128 time available,” suggested Agsten. The of possible combinations of simultaneous researchers therefore decided to simu- charging situations distributed geographi- late their model using the Monte Carlo cally and over time.

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051-052_EETE.indd 27 10/02/15 11:51 Full System Solution: Light Electric Vehicles One Stop Shop for Your Light Electric Vehicle Application

Infineon’s extensive product portfolio enables highest power density and system e iciency for your Light Electric Vehicle Application such as Pedelecs, eScooters and eBikes. Evaluation boards for fast prototyping and testing as well as in-depth system support enable the reduction of development time and cost.

Key enabling products of Infineon’s complete system solution: n Low Voltage Power MOSFETs – OptiMOS™ n High Voltage Power MOSFETs – CoolMOS™ n Gate Drivers – EiceDRIVER™ Compact n Microcontrollers – XMC n Magnetic Sensors

Learn more about our o ering for your system: www.infineon.com/LEV Register for Webinar United Kingdom CO15 4NL Clacton-on-Sea Stephenson Road Pickering ElectronicsLtd. we reservetheright to varyfromthedescriptionsgiveninthis booklet. Electronics maintains acommitmenttocontinuousproductdevelopment, consequently © Copyright(June2014) PickeringElectronicsLtd. All RightsReserved. Pickering Alternatively, pleasecallour Technical SalesOffi ce on [email protected] [email protected] If yourquestionsarenotansweredhere,pleasee-maileither: For technicalhelppleasegoto: Technical Help format. Pickering Electronics’ The relay technologiesandhowtodriveplacereedcoils. their operation,howtochoosethecorrectrelay, acomparisonwithother constructed, whattypesthereare,howtheywork,parametersaffect which looksindetailatreedrelays.Inityou’llfi nd outhowreedrelaysare The Speak toourtechnicalsalesdepartmentandtellusaboutyourspecialrequirements. customise ourstandardrelayswith: Pickering manufacturemanytypesofreedrelay, butifyoucan’tfi nd onesuitableforyourneedswecan Customisation       

Coil resistance,especiallylowpoweroptions Operate voltage Controlled thermalemf Very Lowcapacitance Custom packaging Special printwithcustomersownnumberorlogo Special pinconfigurationsorlengths Reed RelayMate Reed RelayMate isavailablefreefromthehomepageof from websiteandisavailableasprintedcopyorpdf Pickering Electronics E-Mail: [email protected] Fax (UK):01255475058 Tel (UK):01255428141 Fax (Int):+441255475058 Tel (Int):+441255428141 pickeringrelay.com/help-performance Pickering Electronics’ ReedRelayrangeis available A

FREE +44(0)1255428141 isapublication     

PCB containingnon-workingsamplesof Specific environmentalrequirements Specific operate&releasetimes Pin forming Switch lifeunderspecificloads including stability Specific contactresistancerequirements, on request. . LIT-037 Issue1 what advantagesdoesitgiveyou? process thatprovidesconsistentoutputqualityandrepeatability. SowhatisFormer-lessCoilWindingand by ouruseofFormer-lesscoilwinding.Ourcoilsaremanufacturedusingafullyautomated reduce stressesonthereedswitch.Inaddition,contactlifeandmorereliableresistanceareachieved All ourReedRelaysareconstructedusing providing thefollowingadvantages: Looking attheabovediagramyoucanseethatformer-less windinggreatlyincreasesthe‘window’, • •

Aas thesmallerdiameterofinnerturns muchhigher magneticdrivelevelandbettercoupling open whenthecoildrive isturnedoff. This inturnextendstheworkinglifeofreedswitch manytimes. the 30AT switchneedsmore magneticdrivethereismuchmore‘restoring force’,whichistheabilityto Ampere Turn number, forexample,an AT ratingof15AT is twiceassensitiveonewitha30AT. Because The numberof Ampere Turns (AT) isincreased-Reed switchesareusuallyratedinsensitivitybyan are moreefficient (moreturnsperOhm). Typical PickeringConstructionusingFormer-lessCoilsandour magnetic interaction permitting highpackingdensitywithout Internal mu-metalmagneticscreen Product SelectorTech.Product Guide2 to goourwebsite Scan theQRcode Delicate glass/metal Must beprotected reed switchseal. Encapsulation Shell Former-less Coil Winding Coil Former-less Diode . operating coil Former-less Leaders in Reed Relays Reed in Leaders coil tomaximise Instrumentation grade Self supporting magnetic drive Dispensing with the supporting bobbin increases thecoilwindingroombyupto50%, Dispensing withthesupportingbobbinincreases Internal mu-metal magnetic screen reed switch SoftCenter® Diode encapsulation Hard outer material Encapsulation SoftCenter® Shell Pickering Former-lessCoilConstruction protect reedswitch greatly improving magnetic efficiency.greatly improvingmagnetic encapsulation material to Soft inner technology, whichusesasoftinnermaterialto SoftCenter® pickering Reed switch Conventional BobbinConstruction technology moulding material Very hard relay reduces magneticdrive Coil supportingbobbin, Diode wastes spaceand Coil winding .com

Online Catalog or Download SoftCenter® Mu-Metal Magnetic Screening Highest Grade Reed Switches New 3V Versions Single-In-Line Reed Relays

Series 118 Series 117 Series 116 Series 115 Series 114 Series 113 Series 112 Series 111 High Coil Resistance Very High Density Very High Density Very High Density High Power High Density High Density High Density ATE/Instrumentation ATE/Instrumentation ATE/Instrumentation ATE/Instrumentation Up to 40 Watts ATE/Instrumentation ATE/Instrumentation ATE/Instrumentation 0.32 nom (8.13) 0.19 nom (4.80) 1 Form A 0.26 nom (6.60) 1 Form A 0.26 nom (6.60) 1 Form A, 0.145 0.145 0.145 0.27 max (6.86) 0.26 nom (6.60) 0.145 nom (3.70) (3.7) 0.33 max (8.38) 0.20 max (5.08 0.95 (24.1) 0.49 (3.7) 0.395 (10) (3.7) 0.39 (10) 2 Form A 0.39 nom (9.90) 1 Form B (12.5) R e l a y 1 Form B, D 0.145 nom (3.70) 0.39 max (9.9) / 2 0.26 0.40 max (10.16) 0.145 nom (3.70) 1 Form A, 1 Form C P I C K E R I N G P i c o - S I L 1.14 (29.0) 1 3 - 1 - A - 5 0.43 0.6 nom (15.24) 0.15 max (3.81) 0.245 (6.3) PICKERING1 England 0.26 nominal (6.6) (6.6)

Inches 0.61 max (15.5) Inches 0.61 max (15.5) , (11.0) -1-A-5/2D 2 Form A Inches

8 0.375 nom (9.52) Inches 0.45 max (12.45) 1 Form A, 2 Form A

11 (mm) 1.14 (29.0) (mm) PICKERING Inches Inches (mm) 0.385 max (9.78) 0.35 maximum (8.9) (mm) (mm) 0.32 (8.2) (mm) 1 Form B, Pin 1 Inches (mm) 0.1 (2.54) Pin 1 Pin 1 Pin 1 Inches 0.49 (12.5) Pin 1 pin spacing Pin 1 • Highest packing density currently • Pin compatible, 10 Watts version of the • Pin compatible with the Series 116 and (mm) 2 Form A, • Plastic package with internal mu-metal Pin 1 0.1 (2.54) pin spacing • Mu-metal or screened plastic package • 3 and 5V coils, 5V versions have a possible - requires a board area of only Series 117 requires the same area of 117 but using the same switches as the 0.49 (12.5) screen • (not illustrated) resistance of 22kΩ 0.15 x 0.27 inches only 0.15 x 0.27 inches popular Series 109 & 109P Pin 1 Plastic package with internal mu-metal • Requires a board area of only 0.15 x screen • Plastic package with internal mu-metal • Requires a board area of only 0.15 x • Requires a board area of 0.2 x 0.33 in • Plastic package with internal mu-metal • Plastic package with internal mu-metal • Plastic package with internal mu-metal 0.5 inches screen • Requires a board area of only 0.15 x 0.4 inches • Plastic package with internal mu-metal magnetic screen magnetic screen magnetic screen • 3V, 5V or 12V coils 0.4 inches • 3V, 5V, 12V or 24V coils • Dry ruthenium switches magnetic screen • 3 and 5V coils • 3V, 5V or 12V coils • 3V, 5V or 12V coils • Dry switches • 3V, 5V or 12V coils • Dry ruthenium switches • Will replace mercury wetted relays in • 3V and 5V coils • Dry ruthenium switches • Dry ruthenium switches • Dry ruthenium switches many applications • Dry ruthenium switches 1 Form A 1 Form A Co-axial 1 Form A 2 Form A 1 Form A 2 Form A 1 Form A 1 Form B 2 Form A 1 Form A 2 Form A 1 Form C 1 Form A 1 Form A 1 Form A 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 5 6

1 2 3 4 The spacing between pins 4 and 5 is The spacing between pins 4 and 5 is 1 2 3 4 greater than between other pins. greater than between other pins. Diodes are optional Diodes are optional Diodes are optional Diodes are optional Diodes are optional Diodes are optional Diodes are optional Diodes are optional Series 110 Series 109 Series 108 Series 107 Series 106 Series 105 Series 104 Series 103 High Density High Density ATE/Instrumentation ATE/Instrumentation ATE/Instrumentation Instrumentation High Voltage Low Capacitance ATE/Instrumentation ATE/Instrumentation General Purpose General Purpose General Purpose General Purpose Up to 3kV Wide Bandwidth 0.145 (3.7) 1 Form A, 1 Form C, 0.145 0.19 (4.8) nom 0.75 0.26 (6.6) 1 Form A, 0.95 (24.1) 0.75 0.19 (4.8) (3.7) 0.595 (15.1) 1 Form A 0.79 0.145 (3.7) 1 Form B, 2 Form A 0.245 (6.3) 0.20 (5.08) max S 0.39 (10) 0.75 (19.1) nom (19.1) 1 Form A, 1 Form B, 1.14 (29.0) (19.1) D Relay 0.26 (6.6) L (20.1) , 0.75 (19.1) 0.19 (4.8) 0.765 (19.4) max 2 Form A, 1.14 (29.0) NGLAND elay 1 Form A, 1 Form C PICKERING 0.32 (8.1) E I C K E R I N G 2 Form A, 1 Form B R 1 Form C 1 Form A, P L 0.32 (8.1) nom -CAP" England Micro-SI 2 Form C 0.95 (24.1) I C K E R I N G 0.60 P 0.26 (6.6) 1 Form A, PICKERING"LOW ELECTRONIC 0.35 (8.9) Micro-SI 0.32 (8.2) 103-1-A-5/2 PICKERINGClacton-on-Sea, ELECTRONICS England 0.33 (8.4) max 105-1-A-5/1D 0.31 (7.9) (15.2) Relay , I C K E R I N G 2 Form A, 1 Form B P 1 Form C PICKERINGClacton-on-Sea, ELECTRONICS England 1 Form B, Inches Mini-SIL 106-1-A-5/2D 1 Form B, PICKERINGClacton-on-Sea, ELECTRONICS England 0.35 (8.9) 0.30 (7.6) 104-1-A-5/2D 2 Form A, (mm) 2 Form A Inches (mm) Inches 1 Form B, Inches (mm) 0.49 (12.5) Inches (mm) (mm) 0.42 (10.7) Inches (mm) Pin 1 2 Form A, Inches (mm) Pin 1 Pin 1 2 Form C Pin 1 0.1 (2.54) pin spacing Pin 1 Pin 1 Pin 1 Inches (mm) • Mu-metal or screened plastic package • Mu-metal package 0.40 (10.2) Pin 1 • Plastic package with optional magnetic • Plastic package with internal mu-metal • screen (not illustrated) • Mu-metal package 3V, 5V, 12V, 24V coils Plastic package with internal mu-metal • Plastic package with internal mu-metal screen • Requires a board area of only 0.15 x • Plastic package with internal mu-metal screen screen • 1 Form A - One fifth the normal • Requires a board area of only 0.15 x 0.8 inches • Wide range with dry or mercury wetted • Requires a board area of only 0.15 x 0.6 inches screen • 3V, 5V, 12V or 24V coils • capacitance level • 3V, 5V or 12V coils switches 3V, 5V, 12V or 24V coils 0.4 inches • • 3V, 5V or 12V coils 3V, 5V or 12V coils • Wide range with dry or mercury wetted • Dry or mercury wetted HV switches • 1 Form A Coaxial • Dry switches 1 Form A 2 Form A • 3V, 5V or 12V coils • switches 3V, 5V or 12V coils • Dry ruthenium switches Dry switches • Ideal for cable test ATE • Dry ruthenium switches 1 Form A 2 Form A 1 Form A 1 Form A Co-axial 1 Form A 2 Form A 1 Form B 1 Form C 1 Form A 2 Form A 1 Form A 1 Form B 1 Form A 1 Form A 1 Form C

1 Form B 1 Form C 2 Form C 1 Form B 1 Form A 1 Form B 1 Form C 2 Form A Co-axial

Diodes are optional Diodes are optional Diodes are optional Diodes are optional Diodes are optional Diodes are optional Diodes are optional Diodes are optional Series 102 Series 101 Series 100 Pickering Electronics Ltd is committed Radio Frequency Direct Drive from Direct Drive from CMOS Surface Mount Reed Relays Up to 3GHz HC or HCT CMOS Low Thermal EMF to RoHS compliance and the Lead Free Series 200 - Surface Mount philosophy. We do however, offer non- 0.75 0.19 (4.8) 0.79 0.29 (7.4) 0.95 0.40 (10.2) (19.1) (20.1) (24.1) 1 Form A 1 Form A, 1 Form A, High Density ATE/Instrumentation compliant, mercury options in many of the relay Relay 1 Form C I C K E R I N G P 0.30 (7.6) Mini-SIL 1 Form C Clacton-on-Sea, England PICKERING ELECTRONICS PICKERING ELECTRONICS 5.85 (0.23) 101-1-A-5/1D Clacton-on-Sea, England ranges. This is allowed if they are purchased 0.37 (9.4) 100-1-A-5/2D 1 Form B 0.50 (12.7) • High Temperature plastic 3.90 (0.154) 5.85 (0.23) 6.0mm max. 1 Form B, 4.0mm max. 0.40 (10.2) 6.0mm max. 20.0 (0.79) S IC 1 Form B, package with internal mu- N as service replacements, needed to expand O D R 6 9.0 T / S C 15.25 (0.6) IC 2 Form A S N D LE 15.25 (0.6) E IC O D 6.8 2 N R 6.8 G / Max T metal magnetic screen O 2 N 2 Form A R I

T / EC

C P G EL U 2 0 0 - 1 - A - 5 Max N CKER I Max 0.49 (12.5) G ELE R PI N E (0.35) existing capacity or go into electrical or I Inches (mm) ICK 0.60 (15.2) P CKER 2 0 0 - 2 - A - 5 PI 2 0 0 - 1 - A - 5 (0.27) (0.27) Pin 1 Pin 1 • See also Series 103, Inches (mm) Pin 1 Inches (mm) Wide range of switching electronic equipment already in place prior to configurations - 109 and 111 17.25 (0.68) 17.25 (0.68) 22.0 (0.87) • Plastic package with internal mu-metal • Ideal for data aquisition or thermo-couple Dry or mercury wetted 1st July 06. • Mu-metal Single-in-Line package or screen switching 1 Form A 2 Form A 1 Form A plastic flatpack (not illustrated) • Coaxial version for high 1 Form A Co-axial 1 Form B High voltage • 3V, 5V, 12V or 24V coils • 3V, 5V, 12V or 24V coils As well as the parts shown on this leaﬂ et, Pickering speed digital switching or Dry or Mercury • 50 Ohms characteristic impedance - 5 volt coil is 1600 Ohms 5 volt coil is 3300 Ohms R.F. to 6GHz 1 Form C Up to 1.5GHz - SIL Electronics manufacture many other relay types for up to 15kV. • Wide range with dry or mercury wetted • Wide range with dry or mercury wetted or 3GHz - flatpack switches switches 1 Form C If you need any help in selecting the most suitable relay for your 3V, 5V or 12V coils • 3V, 5V or 12V coiils with 1 Form A 2 Form A optional diode application, please contact our technical sales department. 1 Form A Co-axial 1 Form A Co-axial Flatpack 1 Form A 2 Form A 1 Form A 2 Form A

1 Form A Coaxial 1 Form B 1 Form B 1 Form C 1 Form B 1 Form C We will be pleased to send you a FREE evaluation sample.

Diodes are optional Diodes are optional Diodes are optional Diodes are optional

For a free sample call technical sales on +44 (0) 1255-428141, or e-mail us at [email protected] pickeringrelay.com Single-In-Line Reed Relays

Inches 0.61 max (15.5) Inches 0.61 max (15.5) , (11.0) -1-A-5/2D 2 Form A Inches

8 0.375 nom (9.52) Inches 0.45 max (12.45) 1 Form A, 2 Form A

1 2 3 4 The spacing between pins 4 and 5 is The spacing between pins 4 and 5 is 1 2 3 4 greater than between other pins. greater than between other pins. Diodes are optional Diodes are optional Diodes are optional Diodes are optional Diodes are optional Diodes are optional Diodes are optional Diodes are optional Series 110 Series 109 Series 108 Series 107 Series 106 Series 105 Series 104 Series 103 High Density High Density ATE/Instrumentation ATE/Instrumentation ATE/Instrumentation Instrumentation High Voltage Low Capacitance ATE/Instrumentation ATE/Instrumentation General Purpose General Purpose General Purpose General Purpose Up to 3kV Wide Bandwidth 0.145 (3.7) 1 Form A, 1 Form C, 0.145 0.19 (4.8) nom 0.75 0.26 (6.6) 1 Form A, 0.95 (24.1) 0.75 0.19 (4.8) (3.7) 0.595 (15.1) 1 Form A 0.79 0.145 (3.7) 1 Form B, 2 Form A 0.245 (6.3) 0.20 (5.08) max S 0.39 (10) 0.75 (19.1) nom (19.1) 1 Form A, 1 Form B, 1.14 (29.0) (19.1) D Relay 0.26 (6.6) L (20.1) , 0.75 (19.1) 0.19 (4.8) 0.765 (19.4) max 2 Form A, 1.14 (29.0) NGLAND elay 1 Form A, 1 Form C PICKERING 0.32 (8.1) E I C K E R I N G 2 Form A, 1 Form B R 1 Form C 1 Form A, P L 0.32 (8.1) nom S -CAP" England Micro-SI 2 Form C 0.95 (24.1) I C K E R I N G 0.60 P 0.26 (6.6) 1 Form A, PICKERING"LOW ELECTRONIC 0.35 (8.9) Micro-SI 0.32 (8.2) 103-1-A-5/2 PICKERINGClacton-on-Sea, ELECTRONICS England 0.33 (8.4) max 105-1-A-5/1D 0.31 (7.9) (15.2) Relay , I C K E R I N G 2 Form A, 1 Form B P 1 Form C PICKERINGClacton-on-Sea, ELECTRONICS England 1 Form B, Inches Mini-SIL 106-1-A-5/2D 1 Form B, PICKERINGClacton-on-Sea, ELECTRONIC England 0.35 (8.9) 0.30 (7.6) 104-1-A-5/2D 2 Form A, (mm) 2 Form A Inches (mm) Inches 1 Form B, Inches (mm) 0.49 (12.5) Inches (mm) (mm) 0.42 (10.7) Inches (mm) Pin 1 2 Form A, Inches (mm) Pin 1 Pin 1 2 Form C Pin 1 0.1 (2.54) pin spacing Pin 1 Pin 1 Pin 1 Inches (mm) • Mu-metal or screened plastic package • Mu-metal package 0.40 (10.2) Pin 1 • Plastic package with optional magnetic • Plastic package with internal mu-metal • screen (not illustrated) • Mu-metal package 3V, 5V, 12V, 24V coils Plastic package with internal mu-metal • Plastic package with internal mu-metal screen • Requires a board area of only 0.15 x • Plastic package with internal mu-metal screen screen • 1 Form A - One fifth the normal • Requires a board area of only 0.15 x 0.8 inches • Wide range with dry or mercury wetted • Requires a board area of only 0.15 x 0.6 inches screen • 3V, 5V, 12V or 24V coils • capacitance level • 3V, 5V or 12V coils switches 3V, 5V, 12V or 24V coils 0.4 inches • • 3V, 5V or 12V coils 3V, 5V or 12V coils • Wide range with dry or mercury wetted • Dry or mercury wetted HV switches • 1 Form A Coaxial • Dry switches 1 Form A 2 Form A • 3V, 5V or 12V coils • switches 3V, 5V or 12V coils • Dry ruthenium switches Dry switches • Ideal for cable test ATE • Dry ruthenium switches 1 Form A 2 Form A 1 Form A 1 Form A Co-axial 1 Form A 2 Form A 1 Form B 1 Form C 1 Form A 2 Form A 1 Form A 1 Form B 1 Form A 1 Form A 1 Form C

1 Form B 1 Form C 2 Form C 1 Form B 1 Form A 1 Form B 1 Form C 2 Form A Co-axial

T / EC

1 Form A Coaxial 1 Form B 1 Form B 1 Form C 1 Form B 1 Form C We will be pleased to send you a FREE evaluation sample.

Diodes are optional Diodes are optional Diodes are optional Diodes are optional

For a free sample call technical sales on +44 (0) 1255-428141, or e-mail us at [email protected] pickeringrelay.com United Kingdom CO15 4NL Clacton-on-Sea Stephenson Road Pickering ElectronicsLtd. we reservetheright to varyfromthedescriptionsgiveninthis booklet. Electronics maintains acommitmenttocontinuousproductdevelopment, consequently © Copyright(June2014) PickeringElectronicsLtd. All RightsReserved. Pickering Alternatively, pleasecallour Technical SalesOffi ce on [email protected] [email protected] If yourquestionsarenotansweredhere,pleasee-maileither: For technicalhelppleasegoto: Technical Help format. Pickering Electronics’ The relay technologiesandhowtodriveplacereedcoils. their operation,howtochoosethecorrectrelay, acomparisonwithother constructed, whattypesthereare,howtheywork,parametersaffect which looksindetailatreedrelays.Inityou’llfi nd outhowreedrelaysare The Speak toourtechnicalsalesdepartmentandtellusaboutyourspecialrequirements. customise ourstandardrelayswith: Pickering manufacturemanytypesofreedrelay, butifyoucan’tfi nd onesuitableforyourneedswecan Customisation       

FREE +44(0)1255428141 isapublication     

open whenthecoildrive isturnedoff. This inturnextendstheworkinglifeofreedswitch manytimes. the 30AT switchneedsmore magneticdrivethereismuchmore‘restoring force’,whichistheabilityto Ampere Turn number, forexample,an AT ratingof15AT istwiceassensitiveonewitha30AT. Because The numberof Ampere Turns (AT) isincreased-Reed switchesareusuallyratedinsensitivitybyan are moreefficient (moreturnsperOhm). Aas thesmallerdiameterofinnerturns muchhigher magneticdrivelevelandbettercoupling Typical PickeringConstructionusingFormer-lessCoilsandour magnetic interaction permitting highpackingdensitywithout Internal mu-metalmagneticscreen Product SelectorTech.Product Guide2 to goourwebsite Scan theQRcode Delicate glass/metal Must beprotected reed switchseal. Encapsulation Shell Former-less Coil Winding Coil Former-less Diode . operating coil Former-less Leaders in Reed Relays Reed in Leaders coil tomaximise Instrumentation grade Self supporting magnetic drive Dispensing with the supporting bobbin increases thecoilwindingroombyupto50%, Dispensing withthesupportingbobbinincreases Internal mu-metal magnetic screen reed switch SoftCenter® Diode encapsulation Hard outer material Encapsulation SoftCenter® Shell Pickering Former-lessCoilConstruction protect reedswitch greatly improving magnetic efficiency.greatly improvingmagnetic encapsulation material to Soft inner technology, whichusesasoftinnermaterialto SoftCenter® pickering Reed switch Conventional BobbinConstruction technology moulding material Very hard relay reduces magneticdrive Coil supportingbobbin, Diode wastes spaceand Coil winding .com

Online Catalog or Download SoftCenter® Mu-Metal Magnetic Screening Highest Grade Reed Switches New 3V Versions