Bisinfotech Magazine June Issue 2020

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SOLDER PASTE PRINTING CHALLENGES

R.N.I. No: DELENG/2019/77352 l VOL 2 l ISSUE 06 PAGES 60 | PUBLISHED : 1 JUNE 2020 MAY 2020 80.00

JUNE 2020

80.00

R.N.I. No: DELENG/2019/77352 l VOL 2 l ISSUE 05 l TOTAL PAGES 60 l PUBLISHED ON 1ST OF EVERY MONTH |WWW.BISINFOTECH.COM

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Cover story

Pit-Stop With EV Innovators

INDUSTRY POST COVID-19

INTERVIEW:

YAN GOH SEI

Microchip Technology Inc

SAUR ENERGY INTERNATIONAL

Publishing Group

Prevent Electric Vehicle Recalls

The Challenge Of Powering Industrial IoT Applications

MAKING CONNECTED CARS RELEVANT




Editorial The current crisis has highlighted the potential risks and susceptibility of today’s electronics and semiconductor value chain, consequently challenging the companies operating in the semiconductor and electronics industry to consider transforming its global supply chain model. The semiconductor and electronics industry has already suffered considerable losses owing to COVID-19 in the first quarter of 2020. However, the industry is determined to bounce back strongly and the average industry growth will be expected in the second half of this year. According to a recent survey conducted by Electronics Components Industry Association (ECIA), there is a large shift towards ‘no impact’ & ‘minimal impact’ in all components segments and expects no disruption in the supply chain. Also, slowdown in the end-market demand is lowering pressure on the electronics components supply chain, while this industry is facing a challenge of balancing supply and demand environment. Leading players in this industry are focusing more on their production and delivery strategy In a post COVID-19 business environment, it is imminent for the semiconductor and electronics industry to address challenges with geographically concentrated manufacturing and supply chain model that the industry has been following for decades. Semiconductor companies can proactively look to shift or share existing manufacturing capacities with more flexible agile supply node network model, which allows multi-trails to reduce the risk of singlepoint failure. This model also provides regional scale, where companies can extend rigorous capabilities to near-region and qualify alternate sources of supply as well as ensure that adequate capacity is stored in-country, while other connected regional nodes are also built out. Several semiconductor and electronics companies are eying this crisis as a new opportunity to rethink and restructure their existing strategies as well as open a window for semiconductor manufacturers and suppliers to collaborate and establish more agile semiconductor supply networks that can help create a more flexible future. Several semiconductor and electronics companies are now CONSULTANT EDITOR NILOY BANERJEE niloy@bisinfotech.com

•Vol - 02 / 06

SUB EDITOR NITISHA DUBEY nitisha@bisinfotech.com

04

MARKETING MANAGER ARNAB SABHAPANDIT arnab@bisinfotech.com DESIGN HEAD DEEPAK SHARMA

WEB DEVELOPMENT MANAGER JITENDER KUMAR WEB PRODUCTION BALVINDER SINGH SUBSCRIPTIONS PRIYANKA BHANDARI priyanka@bisinfotech.com MANAGER FINANCE KULDEEP GUSAIN accounts@bisinfotech.com

shifting their focus from China to India and other developing countries. We at BIS INFOTECH look at this crisis as an opportunity. A small first step is to recognise the business who are in the forefront of bringing innovations in these challenging times. So we are bringing the 1st edition of BETA Awards in 2020.The BETA Awards (BIS EXCELLENCE & TECHNOVATION AWARDS) will recognise outstanding contributions and innovation from India’s top Technovators. This prestigious award brings together the country’s leading personalities and organisations in the Technology sector, industry personalities and business leaders who continuously up the ante, helping the community achieve new milestones and empower the industry to take the society and their businesses to the next level. Happy Reading!

ManasNandi

MANAS NANDI EDITOR manas@bisinfotech.com

Bisinfotech is printed, published, edited and owned by Manas Nandi and published from 303, 2nd floor, Neelkanth Palace, Plot No- 190, Sant Nagar,East of Kailash, New Delhi- 110065 (INDIA), Printed at Swastika Creation 19 DSIDC Shed, Scheme No. 3, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-II, New Delhi- 110020 Editor, Publisher, Printer and Owner make every effort to ensure high quality and accuracy of the content published. However he cannot accept any responsibility for any effects from errors or omissions. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Editor and publisher. The information in the content and advertisement published in the magazine are just for reference of the readers. However, readers are cautioned to make inquiries and take their decision on purchase or investment after consulting experts on the subject. BisInfotech holds no responsibility for any decision taken by readers on the basis of the information provided herein. Any unauthorised reproduction of Bisinfotech magazine content is strictly forbidden. Subject to Delhi Jurisdiction.



Contents 24 BIG PICTURE

08 PERSPECTIVE

CONTINUOUS INVESTMENT IN EMERGING AUTOMOTIVE CONNECTIVITY TECHNOLOGIES

Semiconductor Industry Post COVID-19

27 EXPERT COLUMN - INDIA’S

ELECTRONICS AND SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY A NEW SUNRISE AFTER THE COVID-19 CRISIS

32 BIG PICTURE - IIOT, INDUSTRY 4.0 IS CHANGING THE LANDSCAPE OF THE INDIAN MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY

44 WHITE PAPER - WHAT’S IN YOUR HEALTHCARE MONITOR?

12 COVER STORY - MAKING CONNECTED CARS RELEVANT IN INDIA - BIG STORY!

54 RPA PERSPECTIVE - THE FUTURE WILL SEE MORE RPA ACCEPTANCE

20 CONFORMAL COATINGS - HOW TO

ACHIEVE MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE FOR YOUR CONFORMAL COATINGS PROCESS

11

UPDATES - ALTIUM LAUNCHES ALTIUM 365 FOR PCB DESIGN

•Vol - 02 / 06

35 T&M - AGILENT PD-L1 ASSAY RECEIVES FDA

06

APPROVAL

28 SOLDER PASTE PRINTING - MEETING

SOLDER PASTE PRINTING CHALLENGES FOR SIP IN “SMART” IOT DEVICES

50 RPA BIG STORY - OUR ROBOTS CAN BE CUSTOMIZED FROM DISTANCE

47 5G - WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT 5G

40 SECURING NETWORK DEVICES -

SECURING NETWORK DEVICES WITH THE IEC 62443-4-2 STANDARD— WHAT YOU SHOULD K NOW

56 TECHNOVATORS- BIS TECHNOVATORS | ROBOGYAAN – A TEAM ROBOTICIZING NEW INDIA! 17 INDUSTRY KART - INTEGRATED BI-

DIRECTIONAL POWER CONVERTER SOLUTION

43 UPDATES - MICRON INTRODUCES NEW SSDS WITH NVME PERFORMANCE

36 IGBTS - HOW TO IMPROVE THERMAL PERFORMANCE OF IGNITION IGBTS


JUNE 2020

Electrolube’s HPA Coating Receives Approval Electrolube India has announced a recent approval from one of India’s leading Defence Electronics Manufacturers. The global electro-chemicals specialist has been officially added to a key customer’s approved vendor database for its MIL approved conformal coating, HPA, and conformal coating thinner, UAT. Electrolube’s HPA (High Performance Acrylic) conformal coating is specifically designed to meet the challenging requirements of more demanding applications, such as those found in the defence and aerospace industries.

Delta Electronics Honoured by the Uptime Institute Delta Electronics has been recognized with the TIER III Ready Award from the Uptime Institute, a prominent advisory organization for the global IT industry. The TIER III Ready certification, which entails rigorous uptime requirements and long-term viability for IT equipment, was evaluated based on a number of factors including N+1 architecture design, mechanical and electrical components, as well as environment conditions. Delta developed its POD solution by leveraging pre-engineered designs of in-house IT racks, aisle air containment, in-row precision cooling, modular UPS systems, a monitoring system, and redundant distribution to support the IT load.

Updates

Altium has recently announced the availability of Altium 365, the world’s first cloud platform for PCB design and realization. The platform is poised to transform the electronics industry by bridging the gap between PCB designers, part suppliers, and manufacturers through seamless collaboration as the design evolves. Altium 365 works harmoniously with Altium Designer, the industry standard for PCB design, to deliver the most connected experience for PCB design and manufacturing. This allows design teams to drastically reduce miscommunication, re-design iterations, and time to market. With Altium 365, users can bring together the stakeholders and participants of their choosing (even those who do not have Altium Designer), while keeping their IPs secure and design under control. This cloud-based platform provides a completely new way to share, visualize, and mark-up PCB designs for all stakeholders involved, from design managers to manufacturers, while allowing other designers to connect to the same PCB design with Altium Designer to author changes.

Infineon Fully Self-contained Raspberry Pi Audio HAT Board Infineon Technologies has developed the world’s first fully self-contained Raspberry Pi audio amplifier HAT (Hardware attached on Top) board. It offers high definition audio at boom box power levels in a small form factor. The Infineon proprietary multilevel technology ensures minimum size and consumption, state of the art power efficiency, and HD audio quality for Raspberry Pi users and makers. Target field of use are active speakers with wireless music streaming. The board (KIT_40W_AMP_HAT_ZW) is compatible with Raspberry Pi Zero W and Raspberry Pi 3 and 4. It leverages the MERUS multilevel class D amplification enabled by the MERUS MA12070P amplifier, which allows for filterfree amplifier design that does not need to use a filter-coil at the output filter.

•Vol - 02 / 06

Altium Launches Altium 365 for PCB Design

07


Perspective

JUNE 2020

Niloy Banerjee

Veterans Draw Semiconductor Industry Post COVID-19

Dr Satya Gupta

•Vol - 02 / 06

IESA Chairman and Founder & CEO, Seedeyas Innovations Pvt Ltd

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As deaths climb and the human toll mounts, leaders are focused on containing the virus and saving lives. Alongside, pertinent efforts are been made to clutch the consequences of COVID-19. Long-running lockdown in this country(India) has its own implications to several businesses, and many seem to face the heat. But, one industry, i.e. Semiconductor is known for influential approaches for decades and has been a mill-runner has understood the balance and has found new opportunities during this crisis. In our earlier articles, I did skedaddle on the latest announcements made the Central

Kuldeep Malik

Director – Corporate Sales, MediaTek India

Government including a production-linked incentive scheme, with a total outlay of almost Rs. 48,000 crore, Production Incentive Scheme (PLI) for Large Scale Electronics Manufacturing among other vital announcements to help foster indigenous electronics manufacturing. Dr Satya Gupta | IESA Chairman and Founder & CEO, Seedeyas Innovations Pvt Ltd & Kuldeep Malik | Director – Corporate Sales, MediaTek India shares their school of thoughts on the situation of the Semiconductor Industry and way-forward transformations post COVID-19.


JUNE 2020

Semiconductor Can Empower India Stating about how India can be empowered, Kuldeep Malik stated, India has a huge talent pool and a massive opportunity for new use cases in the semiconductor sector. Development of the sector will lead to tremendous new job opportunities as well as a $60 billion to $100 billion reduction in imports, according to the IESA report. To empower India on the semiconductor front and make the country self-reliant, measures need to be taken by design companies to incentivize training, internships, and IP creation. A public-private seed fund for start-ups and incubators would support capital requirements, boosting innovation. Considering India’s vast potential in terms of space, it is important to include all states and territories under electronic innovation schemes. Reports also suggest the creation of national institutes for semiconductor and electronics research to aid the segment. The government has recently taken three major steps to empower India on the semiconductor front, including the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme, Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMC) 2.0 and Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronics Components and Semiconductors (SPECS). These schemes are aimed at supporting electronics manufacturing in India by further expanding it and incrementing domestic value addition. We look forward to positive outcomes from such schemes and are prepared to support the country in all possible ways. Dr Satya Gupta elaborates, Govt and Industry has to come together and create eco-system, infrastructure and funding mechanisms to kick-start the fabless product industry. Leverage the R&D in academic institutes. Help faculty and Scholars to take their cutting edge ideas to successful fabless product companies. Consolidate our efforts. If we can do a couple of initiatives well and make them successful, rather than doing many, it will certainly help. For example, we can create a single meaningful infrastructure which can be used by everyone across the country via the cloud rather than creating infrastructure in many places. India as a Market India as the market for semiconductor players has been a highway for the global semiconductor players. Kuldeep Malik believes, India as a country has, and will continue to provide global semiconductor players tremendous opportunities, in terms of both, supply and demand. As a market, India’s large population and demographic diversity ensures that the country is one of the major consumers in the world. According to IESA data, India currently imports 50% of its total electronics products demand, worth $134 billion, and by 2025, the total product demand is seen rising to $368 billion. Further, India has a large, educated youth populace, as well as government support through initiatives such as ‘Make in India’, 100% foreign direct investment (FDI), support of subsidies, and major incentives, making the country an attractive investment option for global players. With India recently signing an MoU with the Singapore Semiconductor Industry Association, to

Perspective

invest in such indigenous companies and provide the funds necessary to propel development.

•Vol - 02 / 06

Ingredients to Make India a Fabless Semiconductor Manufacturing Hub According to the recent IESA ESDM 2020 report, the Indian market has grown at a CAGR of 14%, between 2016-19, and is likely to grow at 16.6% CAGR from 2020-25. While electronics production contributes 3.3% to the economy at present, it is seen rising to US$320Bn by 2025. Citing about the fabless industry, Dr Satya Gupta quoted, The fabless industry by the very definition does not depend on local manufacturing. Fabless companies like Qualcomm, Broadcom etc. have developed path-breaking semiconductor products without having their own fab or fab in the close proximity. Most of the fabless companies use the fabs in Taiwan, Singapore etc. Fabless semiconductor product companies are very important & essential for any country in today’s environment as these products are at the heard of most of the systems across any industry. It also gives the country a significant strategic edge and paves path for successful wafer Fabs in the future. In India, for various reasons the Chip design talent which has been groomed by many MNC companies over last 3 decades, has not translated in vibrant fabless product companies & Eco-system. Some of the factors which can help in changing this situation are 1). Provide mechanisms for appropriate funding, 2). Help start-ups and Innovators on business, funding and product marketing type of the areas. 3). Create mechanisms of creating fabless product companies out of the R&D done at premier technology institutes in India. This has worked very well in Silicon Valley, Taiwan & China. Whereas, Kuldeep Malik, Director – Corporate Sales, MediaTek India believes, The COVID-19 crisis and resulting social distancing have made wireless communications necessary for India’s economic and strategic interests. The lockdown has created a major opportunity for the semiconductor sector as the work from the home economy is seen increasing the requirement for storage solutions. We expect to see an economic shift due to the work from home trend which will continue to raise demand for mobiles, routers, servers, data centers, laptops, display monitor, and other computing segments, boosting opportunities for India’s fabless semiconductor segment as newer business models will be created, centering around technology. MediaTek has always been focused on R&D in India and is keen to support the government’s ‘Make in India’ initiatives. While announcing the economic relief package, the Finance Minister stressed on technology-driven systems as one of the five key pillars of growth and focused on selfreliance. The stimulus and relief packages are expected to help India’s economy to overcome the negative effects of the lockdown and we are hopeful that these initiatives will further India’s growth towards becoming a digital economy. Authorities are also taking several measures to harness local talent, while helping nurture academic institutions and startups. The huge talent pool in India is a major ingredient that could enable the semiconductor sector, and several local companies and incubators have already become functional. These companies and test centers are designing and testing chips, microprocessors, and allied technology that could power the sector. However, to ensure that these initiatives are successful, it is imperative that venture capitalists

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JUNE 2020

•Vol - 02 / 06

Perspective

develop trade and technical collaboration in electronics and semiconductor industries, global players are now recognizing the potential of India’s electronics sector and investing heavily in manufacturing. Dr Satya Gupta cited, India is the excellent market for consumption of Electronics products and therefore the semiconductors which go into these products. Unfortunately since these products designs are not conceived or belong in India, the decision about choice & procurement of the semiconductors for these products is also not made in India, thus giving India very little leverage.

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Current Scenario of the Indian semiconductor Industry and Way Forward Post COVID-19 The current Semiconductor industry in India is predominantly engaged in design & R&D, where cutting edge chips and products are designed by Indian engineers for the Global companies. Due to Covid-19 related situation and lock-down, most of the Global Semiconductor companies have decided to take very cautious approach keeping the safety and health of employees of paramount importance. As most of the design work can be done by working from home, things have started working quite efficiently with minimal staff going to the office. Most of the companies in this domain are encouraging their employees to work for home much beyond the governmentmandated lock-down said Dr Satya Gupta. Dr Gupta further apprises on the post-COVID 19 situation, As far as to post Covid-19 situation, although the economy world-wide has slowed down but it has also created significant opportunity for technology innovation to keep things moving in the new environment. We foresee increased demand for Healthcare, Medical Electronics, Sensors, Communication (5G and others), augmented and virtual reality, Cloud, AI/ ML and automation-related technologies and products in the very near future. We also foresee a lot of interdisciplinary collaborations between researchers and companies find solutions to complex problems. Kuldeep Malik stated, beginning 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic started to impact business and manufacturing hubs, affecting productivity across the globe. Epicenters were greatly impacted, and the crisis highlighted the need for a strong electronics research and manufacturing ecosystem, within the country. Intelligent electronics form the backbone of economically and strategically relevant sectors, such as healthcare, telecommunication, security, transport, agriculture, and financial institutions. According to the recent IESA ESDM 2020 report, the Indian market has grown at a CAGR of 14%, between 2016-19, and is likely to grow at 16.6% CAGR from 2020-25. While electronics production contributes 3.3% to the economy at present, it is seen rising to US$320 Bn by 2025, thus boosting the economy and supporting important ancillary sectors. The report suggested that the Indian semiconductor industry has the potential to reach US$410 Bn by 2025, with additional impetus. The sector has enormous potential to provide alternate employment sources to the IT sector and meet the domestic demand, making the country self-sufficient and promoting the “Make in India” initiative.

However, the crisis and the resulting economic slowdown have impacted consumer buying sentiment and, it is likely that business may be affected in the short-term. We are hopeful that, going ahead, consumers will resume buying, in keeping with the pent-up demand that has been created during the lockdown period. As the country prepares to resume manufacturing activities, semiconductor companies should focus on implementing contingency plans to manage disruptions, in the near term. The crisis reminds the industry that global supply chains are quite fragile and completely unexpected aspects can cause significant levels of impact. The COVID19 the situation provides us with an opportunity to rethink and remodel industrial paradigms, creating space for semiconductor-based business, suppliers to collaborate and establish agile supply networks for a more resilient future. Post COVID-19, it is imperative that semiconductor companies assess and consider modifying their supply chain strategies and operating points to mitigate single points of failure like geographically concentrated hubs. India - The Next Manufacturing Hub? Can India become the next manufacturing hub? If so, then how and by when? Many questions conclude to what Dr Satya Gupta had to say, India has put up a very good set of policies for Electronics and Semiconductors and everyone in both the Government and Industry is working very hard to make more manufacturing happen in India. While there is a significant opportunity, we have to be aware of the competition coming from 2 fronts. i. Firstly from the other Asian countries like Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia etc. These countries have got bulk of benefit during the trade was between the US and China and may still get significant benefits from the current situation as well. ii. Secondly, the challenge is coming from the parent countries of the product companies (e.g. Cisco, Apple) which have potential of moving their manufacturing operation out of China. Based on recent announcements from Japan and USA, it appears that both of these countries are putting up the significant effort and incentives for their product companies to move back to home countries rather than to some other destination. As the manufacturing of Electronics & Semiconductors have become highly automated, availability and cost of labour may not be significant factors any more. On the other hand, Kuldeep Malik shared the concluding words, emphasizing, the current situation has made us realize the importance of setting up agile supply chains that are not confined to a specific geographic location and we believe India has huge potential and capabilities, in terms of resources and trained manpower, to attract such manufacturers. In addition, the government has consistently taken efforts to promote ‘Make in India’ and boost FDI, ensuring the country is a suitable ecosystem for manufacturing plants. Preferences of manufacturing companies will be reshuffled post-COVID, and we expect positive momentum in the country’s manufacturing sector, arising out of this.


JUNE 2020

Vicor with Ccell Renewable to Power New Coral Reef Growth The CCell reef-growing system is based on the electrolysis of seawater to deposit calcium carbonate (limestone) on large steel frames which function as anodes and cathodes (electrodes) and to give the new reef its early structure. The technique is revolutionary in that instead of hundreds of years, it takes just five years to produce incredibly strong limestone rock on which coral can grow. CCell also uses renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and wave energy to power the reefgrowing systems. All of these renewable power sources have widely varying output voltages due to environmental conditions, a major problem for the electrolysis process. The limestone structure on which coral grows must be grown at an optimum rate, without impurities and with a strong molecular structure. The electrolysis process must be precise: too slow and nothing will grow, too fast and the limestone will not be tenable. The power delivery network must therefore be able to operate over wide-ranging and challenging conditions with a high degree of control and accuracy. The Power Delivery Network Faced with a widely varying input-voltage specification and the need to tightly regulate the potential difference (electric field) between the electrodes within a ‘goldilocks zone’ of 1.2 – 4V to drive a precisely calculated current through seawater, Vicor recommended its Factorized Power Architecture or FPA. By factorizing the DC-DC function into two modules, a PRM regulator and a VTM current multiplier, the power delivery network can be optimized for regulation and conversion. The PRM buck-boost regulator operates over a wide input voltage range and has a zero-voltage switching (ZVS) topology, delivering very high efficiency and power density. In addition, PRMs are easily paralleled for higher power. The VTM is a fixedratio (non-regulating) resonant converter with high current density. Working seamlessly together, the PRM tightly regulates the voltage required for the reef and the VTM handles the down conversion and current delivery to the electrodes.

•Vol - 02 / 06

Vicor has new DCM3717, which enables customers in data center, automotive and industrial markets to quickly deploy high-performance 48V power delivery for legacy 12V loads while achieving significant power-system size, weight and efficiency benefits. The DCM3717 operates from a 40 – 60V SELV input, is non-isolated and provides a regulated output with a range of 10.0 – 13.5V, a continuous power rating of 750W and a peak efficiency of 97% in a 37 x 17 x 7.4mm Surface-Mount Converter housed in Package (SM-ChiP). The DCM3717 supports the LV148 specification (48V automotive standard) for pure electric and hybrid vehicles and the recent Open Compute Project (OCP) Open Rack Standard V2.2 for distributed 48V server backplane architectures, providing a regulated 48V-to-12V option for downstream legacy 12V multiphase point-of-load converters. Applications not requiring regulation of the 12V supply can take advantage of the Vicor NBM2317, a 800W, 48V-to-12V fixed ratio converter which is available in a smaller 23 x 17 x 7.4mm SM-ChiP with 69% higher power density and higher efficiency at 97.9%.

Vicor - Exclusive

Vicor DCM3717, a 750W Regulated 48V-to-12V Converter

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Niloy Banerjee

he modern automobile is fast becoming a sensor-laden mobile Internet of Things device, with considerable on-board computing power and communication systems devoted to three broad areas: vehicle location, driver behaviour, engine diagnostics and vehicle activity (telematics); the surrounding environment (vehicle-to-everything or V2X communication); and the vehicle's occupants (infotainment). Meanwhile, leading connected car companies are expected to maintain their leadership in the global market and generate higher revenues from connected car sales thanks to their heavy investments in the R&D of relevant innovations and technologies. Who could have shared the know-how and diligence of technology emerging in connected cars segment more than the leaders themselves. In this interactive article, Satish Sundaresan, Managing Director - Elektrobit India Pvt. Ltd | Padmesh Mandloi, Lead Technical Account Manager, Ansys & Vivek Vasantha, Manager, Technical Marketing, Automotive Business Unit, Renesas connects to unravel the connected future of cars.


JUNE 2020

Early Adopters of Connected Cars Commercial vehicles, Cab service aggregators are the early adopters that will be soon followed by passenger vehicles. Also interesting there is requirement from farm vehicles for applications like VTS, Geo-fencing, TCU etc. said Vivek Vasantha.

•Vol - 02 / 06

Satish Sundaresan, Managing Director - Elektrobit India Pvt. Ltd states India is now the fourth largest passenger car manufacturing nation in the world, and connectivity is on the rise. As per as per Nokia MBiT Index report, overall data traffic in India grew by 144 percent (YoY) last year, and estimated smartphone users are around 600 million already. Hence, one can argue that Internet penetration and steady passenger car sales are driving the connected car market in India. Updates in vehicle legislation and industry compliance regarding convenience features, such as navigation, remote diagnostics and multimedia streaming through various platforms such as Android Auto, CarPlay and MirrorLink, are also moving the India connected car market forward. Additionally, new safety norms are pushing automakers to equip vehicles with latest connected features or safety and security, and this is also propelling the demand for connected cars. The relatively younger population that buys cars translates to a significant percentage of Indian customers thinking increased vehicle connectivity will be beneficial in the long-term. Given our acceptance of online music via affordable 4G connections, bringing interfaces via Apple CarPlay or Android Auto and other basic vehicle connectivity features are now in vogue. Hence, there is demand. A closer look at the supply side indicates that car manufacturers (OEMs) are increasingly using connected car features as a differentiator. The connected cars market in India is currently getting driven by several factors and customer's willingness to pay is certainly one of them, noted Padmesh Mandloi, Technical Leader, Enterprise Accounts, Ansys. While the automotive market in India remains largely price sensitive, infotainment and connectivity features are gaining some prominence now, particularly in mid-market and luxury brands. Consumer's affinity and understanding of data is another aspect that is a driver. From navigation requirements to knowing more about the health of the vehicle to the need to connect and interact with the vehicle, data is at the center of it all. Another factor is the gradual proliferation of electric vehicles. The need to locate the nearest charging station is growing. Lastly, the availability and affordability of reasonably high-speed network is also fueling the growth of connected mobility, said Padmesh. Whereas, Vivek Vasantha, Manager, Technical Marketing, Automotive Business Unit, Renesas, Government regulations in terms of BS VI regulations backed by strong consumer demand is driving the connected cars market in India. One of the largest car markets in the world, India ranks first in data anxiety related to the connected vehicles. At 69 per cent, Indian customers are the group of buyers who are concerned with the security of biometric data generated and shared with external parties by connected vehicles, reveals the a leading study.

Cover Story

Drivers of Connected Cars Market in India According to leading reports, 80 per cent of Indian customers think increased vehicle connectivity will be beneficial in the long-term. The connectivity in a car allows it to share internet access and data, with other devices both inside and outside the vehicle.

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JUNE 2020

•Vol - 02 / 06

Cover Story

Meanwhile, Padmesh Mandloi, elaborated, Globally, the early adopters have been the heavy vehicles (working in remote locations like mines and forests) and they felt the need for connected technologies first. The need to remotely operate such systems in either adverse weather or accessibility conditions led to this surge in the heavy vehicles. The adoption or proliferation in commercial vehicles (mainly trucks) and passenger cars started later but has picked up heavily across the world, mainly in the developed economies. Over 90% of cars sold in Japan today have fairly evolved connected mobility solution. In India however, passenger cars seem to adopt this faster when compared to the commercial and heavy vehicles. The reason being, India is largely unorganized when it comes to commercial vehicle fleet operations with several small fleet operators who are very cost conscious. However, truck operators are now resorting to connected technologies mainly to monitor driver behavior (driving pattern, stoppages) and also to monitor basic vehicle parameters like fuel economy etc. Another major reason for slow adoption in heavy vehicle and commercial vehicle in India is the poor network quality in remote locations including highway stretches added Padmesh.

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Emphasizing on segment-wise adoption, Satish Sundaresan cited, This is an educated guess in India and largely dependent on what the customers push for as market standard while the OEMs work out what makes their products enticing and profitable. We believe that each of these segments already has interesting use-cases and our experience is as below: • Passenger vehicles in India currently focus on basic infotainment features like telephony, remotely-controlling vehicle accessories (e.g.: turning on air conditioning before you get into the vehicle) • Commercial vehicles manufacturers are extremely interested in fleet management and possibly remote diagnostics for logistical reasons • Heavy equipment like tractors, excavators might have more compelling reasons in comparison to commercial vehicles. Elektrobit (EB) India already works with a farm equipment OEM where the end objective is to run diagnostics, read real-time data in and around the vehicle to a central control room, if needed, and to also be able to download and upload software from this equipment remotely. Challenges and Scopes for Connected Cars in the Indian Market New models and segments are wooing the connected cars market in India. Given the scenario, Satish Sundaresan believes The service segment is expected to drive the growth of the global connected car market due to the application of different features such as advanced driver-assistance systems (and autonomous driving), vehicle management and mobility management. Hence a debatable challenge for India would be to either upgrade and/ or create road transport, highways and vehicle infrastructure that can benefit from the above segments or to limit the scope of what features do we want to focus in India for the moment. Additionally, a

stronger network infrastructure also could help the growth of the connected car market. This implies that until advanced driver-assistance systems features are needed in India, we assume end customer expecting more accessible features like seamless smart phones integration, remote diagnostics and certain remotely accessible vehicle information and features. And this is where we possibly face our first challenge related to data privacy and security. Data ownership isn’t well defined, and our ecosystem, legislation, market dynamics, customer and consumer expectations must catch up to this new world. Then there is the question of payment models. Will vehicle owners wish to pay for new features that can be made available via software? Or will OEMs find another way to still stay profitable while fulfilling customer wishes? If the customer does not pay a service model like we do for online music apps on our phones, then the OEMs will be challenged on how to bring global features at the Indian price. Platform standardization, profitable business forecasts for the OEMs and all associated supply chain partners depend on volumes sold and the selling price. And if that is not reliable, then entering a cost-sensitive market like India can be considered a deterrent. And this means raising the possibility for lesser reliable and lower quality aftermarket fitments. Citing on the challenge, Vivek Vasantha said, Major challenge is on the infrastructure availability especially in the rural areas of the country. TAM continues to grow for connected vehicles and it will soon be a standard part of passenger vehicles. Padmesh Mandloi shares, One of the major drivers of growth of connected technologies globally (mainly developed economies) is autonomous vehicles (or self-driving cars). Countries like Germany and US have started to test SAE level 3, 4 and 5 autonomous vehicles. Particularly the highly (level 4) and fully (level 5) autonomous driving would require V2V (Vehicle to Vehicle) as well as V2X (Vehicle to Infrastructure) interactions, which depend on availability of 5G network. Unfortunately, India is still far behind when it comes to adoption of autonomous driving vehicles. The biggest challenge is urban traffic and the lack of road infrastructure among many others. Therefore, while globally, the connected car market will benefit from the movement towards autonomous driving, this factor doesn't contribute in the Indian context. This is one big challenge. The rather slow growth of telematics related features and solutions (both in passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles) would be another challenge. Vehicle health management needs are growing but not at the rate at which infotainment and basic connectivity features (like voice recognition etc.) are growing. This is a current challenge but can turn into a future scope if consumers are educated properly about the benefits of telematics to the overall cost of ownership of a vehicle. At the moment there is a tremendous potential for basic level infotainment and connectivity solutions in mass-market vehicles, and I believe OEMs and Tier-1s would continue to focus on that.


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On the other hand, Satish Sundareshan, wrapped up stating, The trend toward “Connected Everything” is among the most important social and technological changes of our time and is revolutionizing every industry, including automotive. For automotive, it is touching most everything that we do. Simply put, the connected car is an enabler for technologies that will

Significantly, embedded software is estimated to be fastestgrowing component for connected cars in India in the foreseeable future. This is driven by increased demand for infotainment and navigation services. The government is working on mandates for connected services, like AIS-140. This is part of the intelligent transportation system, which in turn is a key feature of a smart city – a model vision for the authorities. Hence, the embedded market is influenced by government initiatives and regulations which in turn trends to accelerated development in this electronics space. Additional trends in the connected ecosystem include: • Highly Automated Driving and driverless cars, driven by innovations in sensor technology like LiDAR, radar, cameras and ultrasonic. • AI-based convenience interfaces like virtual personal assistant responding to voice commands • Telematics for assessing driver behaviour for a wide range of purposes like insurance, fleet management or police investigations • Vehicle-to-Vehicle Connectivity to share emergency information like accidents, map re-routing etc. • In-cabin monitoring systems that could anticipate driver behaviors and even unsafe driving practices • A constant connectivity to the Internet and/ or a Cloud where software updates to the car seem as normal as to our mobile phones today

About the Companies and Their Leadership in Connected Cars: ELEKTROBIT INDIA PVT. LTD. EB is a pioneer and leader in embedded and connected software, powering over one billion devices in more than 100 million vehicles with more than 30 years serving the automotive industry. Our benefits to our customers are many, and we anticipate that we will continue providing value and expertise to our OEM and Tier 1 customers for many, many years to come. Software is critical to the disruptive change taking place in the automotive industry, and EB software is the critical foundation for our customers’ innovations. Driven by automated driving and connectivity, the classic vehicle is being transformed into a software-defined IoT (Internet of Things) device. Personalization, connectivity and mobility-as-a-service are becoming more and more important for end customers, driving the demand for sophisticated software. EB offers software solutions to enable secure connectivity, big data analytics, and management of a vehicle over the course of its lifecycle. As a cornerstone of our decade-long experience in AUTOSAR, automotive security, backend operations, and vehicle diagnostics, we have developed

Cover Story

Keeping its gist, Vivek Vasantha scooped, Market is responding well to the connected ecosystem and we see there are several new designs and enquiries from OEM and Tier 1 customers alike. The present trend would start with applications like Telematics, Vehicle tracking, remote locking/unlocking, remote turn on/ off with the integration of app from Android and IOS.

define the mobility of the future and further enrich our lives. When we imagine what cars and mobility mean to customers in the next five, ten or twenty years, it is hardly conceivable without connectivity.

our technologies for connected vehicles based on the same secure platform for connected services and hence have a dedicated market vertical catering to connected vehicles: EB products associated with in-vehicle connectivity include

EB cadian Sync and EB cadian Analytics. OEMs can enable firmware and software updates over the air in their vehicles with EB cadian Sync and create value out of data by collecting and analyzing it using EB cadian Analytics. Both are reliable, scalable, flexible and secure toolchains based on EB’s secure connectivity platform including the required on-board and off-board components to enable secure and

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Trends in the Connected Ecosystem For The Automotive Sector Though there are enormous new technologies emerging to complement the connected ecosystem for the Automotive sector, the veteran Padmesh Mandloi reckons there are several trends shaping connected mobility in the automotive sector. Voice assistance systems are one of them. Personalized voice assistance and alert systems are gaining lot of prominence right now. Augmented Reality enabled Head Up Displays indicating for example lane markings or vehicle speed or distance to collision while reverse parking is also becoming more important. Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2X) connectivity is another trend which is fundamental to several other solutions that will be built upon it. From a commercial vehicle standpoint, truck platooning and fleet management solutions will become more pervasive as new value streams will become clearer to the fleet operators. Finally, the need to keep the vehicle safe and avoid hacking through layered cybersecurity solutions would nearly become a necessity.

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Cover Story

efficient data flow and easy integration of additional services. Together with our subsidiary company Argus Cyber Security, EB can additionally provide a holistic end-to-end security solution at all levels.

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Ansys Ansys is a global leader of engineering simulation software industry. We offer a deep and broad portfolio of solutions that are used not just during the validation phase of product development, but are now used across the entire product lifecycle, all the way from concept designs to the in-service phase. Talking specifically about connected mobility, Ansys offers a wide variety of solutions and is working with OEMs, Tier-1s and technology providers globally to provide these offerings cheaper, faster and better. We let our customer accelerate, differentiate, and win market using our simulation software. Telematics Control Units are an important aspect of connected solutions and Ansys simulation software ensures electrical, thermal, and structural reliability of these TCUs. Ansys’ optical and VR solutions are used to not just during ideation stage, but also at the design stage as well as while working on the experience aspects when it comes to Head Up Displays. A case is in point - Ansys & Elektrobit have partnered for virtual testing of AR HUDs. Ansys' digital twin solutions are used to modern IVHM solutions, which are being used for predictive maintenance of vehicle systems, sub-systems and components. For example, ensuring uniformity of cell temperature in Battery Pack of EVs is critical to the range of EVs and Ansys’ digital twin solutions along with physics based

Reduced Order Models can provide real time information about cell temperature which can then be used to take appropriate corrective action. Sensors are key to V2V and V2X solutions and Ansys electromagnetic solutions allow modeling of radar performance under different road, traffic, and weather conditions. Ansys solution for Functional Safety of E-E systems now extend to perform Threat-and-Risk-Analysis for cybersecurity systems and are used by several global Tier-1 suppliers, mainly in Europe. Finally, 5G is a critical enabler for connected mobility solutions. Yet, before 5G can deliver on its promises and quality of service (QoS) metrics, wireless systems designers and engineers must overcome sizable challenges. Ansys 5G simulation solutions empower these individuals to solve the complexities impeding device, network, and data center design. Ansys 5G simulation solutions provide electromagnetics, semiconductor, electronics cooling and mechanical analysis tools to accurately simulate 5G radio and related technologies. Renesas Experience a new form of hospitality with “Connected Cars” Integrated cockpit products that combine cluster and central displays with HUDs, etc are coming to the fore with the digitization of in-vehicle infotainment systems. Renasas delivers a platform development for integrated cockpit products, reducing development costs. By doing so, we provide a new way of providing hospitality that achieves personal authentication, safety, reliability, and comfort.


Digi-Key Partners with ICP DAS USA

Arrow Electronics launches an integrated bi-directional power converter solution for equipping electric vehicles (EVs) with a robust mobile energy charger, capable of both storing electricity and contributing excessive energy to power homes and network grids if needed. Advancing such vehicle-tohome (V2H) and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capabilities helps smooth momentary spikes in electricity demand, capitalize on untapped energy sources during battery idle period, and thus promote a more sustainable and energy-efficient development of smart cities. V2G and V2H will enable both energy storage and contribution of excessive energy back to the network grid and community. With the bidirectional converter, EVs can be used to supply electricity to a house or a building which then help reduce pressure on the national supply grid.

Digi-Key Electronics has expanded its product portfolio by signing a U.S. distribution partnership with ICP DAS USA, providing Digi-Key customers with some of the widest selection of communication converters of any offering, including the conversion of CAN bus, BACnet, DeviceNet, EtherCAT and many other common protocols. This expansion is part of DigiKey’s Marketplace initiative to broaden the product offering now available for customers, making Digi-Key more of a onestop-shop than ever before. ICP DAS USA is a manufacturer of cutting-edge industrial automation and control hardware and software. It products range from M2M and IoT controllers and protocol convertors to remote data acquisition I/O modules that support a variety of communication protocols including Modbus RTU, Modbus TCP, CAN bus, Profibus, Profinet, Ethernet/IP, HART.

TE Connectivity’s enetSEAL+ Connector System at Mouser

element14 New Tektronix Digital Storage Oscilloscope element14 has added the new entry level TBS2000B Digital Storage Oscilloscope from Tektronix to its test and measurement portfolio. Electronics designers, test engineers and educators will benefit from its easy-to-use controls, automated measurements and large 9” display. The TBS2000B offers exceptional performance and advanced debugging at an affordable price. Customers can also benefit from a special new product promotion of up to 15% off whilst stocks last. The new Tektronix TBS2000B digital storage oscilloscope is built on the legendary performance and value of the earlier TBS2000 model, providing higher performance and greater ease of use at an affordable price.

Mouser Electronics, has now stocked the enetSEAL+ connector system from TE Connectivity (TE). TE’s enetSEAL+ connector system, available from Mouser Electronics, offers environmental protection by providing sealing to the wires and between the connector halves. The optimal, high-quality design helps reduce manufacturing and service costs, while the built-in secondary locking feature is designed to secure contact retention. Engineers can use enetSEAL+ products to connect sensing modules to improve operator awareness and enhance safety using Ethernet differential signal transmission communication protocols. TE’s enetSEAL+ connector system features IP67- and IP69rated connectors to protect against dust, dirt, and moisture to reduce environmental failure in automotive applications such as cameras, onboard diagnostics, and infotainment as well as agriculture, radar and lidar, and construction systems.

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Integrated Bi-Directional Power Converter Solution

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Conformal Coatings

JUNE 2020

How to Achieve Maximum Performance For Your Conformal Coatings Process

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n this article, we will explore different aspects of conformal coatings, circumnavigating a plethora of coating topics as comprehensively as possible to ensure you get the most from your coating process. Thoughtful design will always pay huge dividends down the line and the designers among you will have friends for life among your production colleagues if you make their jobs just that little bit easier! Identifying potential production problems at the design stage will always be preferable and far easier than trying to fix problems following finalization of the engineering drawings. So, let’s take a closer look at how we can achieve maximum

Phil Kinner Electrolube

performance for your conformal coatings process. Choosing a coating: the prime considerations Firstly, determine the expected operational temperature range for the circuit board – the highs and the lows. If it’s greater than 150-160°C, for example, it is almost certainly an application for a silicone rather than an acrylic or polyurethane conformal coating. Also, consider the temperature excursions; if thermal shock or thermal cycling is not taken into consideration it could lead to cracking, severely compromising a coating’s protective capabilities.


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Secondly, what degree of chemical resistance is required? Acrylic materials, whilst ideal for rework, are generally highly susceptible to attack by solvents; polyurethane materials, however, provide more chemical resistance but are not as amenable to rework. Assess whether immersion or splash resistance is required and whether the coating may be exposed to heated solutions of potential contaminants, which will increase their ability to act as a solvent. Thirdly, consider what level of corrosion protection is required. Humidity generally only becomes problematic when condensation occurs, which would require close attention to the thickness and coverage of the coating. But do remember, while a thicker coating might provide superior protection in condensing environments or where salt-spray or corrosive gases are present, anything deeper than the 50 micron target thickness may be prone to cracking under conditions of thermal shock or thermal cycling.

Understanding Coating Values When choosing a conformal coating, designers should be aware that the values listed in a vendor data sheet are generally for ambient conditions for newly cured coatings. Designers need to be aware of how the behaviour of materials will vary with temperature and time. Temperature excursions will also need to be factored in, for instance, if thermal shock or thermal cycling is overlooked, it could lead to cracking. Simplify board layout By the ‘simple’ act of placing connectors and components that must not be coated along one edge of the assembly, the conformal coating application process will be simplified. It is also advisable to avoid large arrays of discrete components, which can pose a huge coating challenge due to the high levels of capillary forces present. Similarly, tall components present challenges of their own by the creation of shadowed or hard to reach areas. Splashing is another associated problem. The trick is to avoid placing tall components next to ‘must-coat’ components in order to avoid this eventuality.

Conformal Coatings

How important is the application method to the reliability of coatings? This is probably the number one determinant of success. Often a poor material applied well, can be just as good or sometimes better than a material with great properties that is applied badly. Coating is about getting sufficient coverage of the sharp edges and metal surfaces without applying the material too thickly elsewhere. Of course, some materials ‘apply better’ than others and make this process as easy and foolproof as possible; ultimately, the performance of liquid applied coatings will always be determined by how well they were applied.

Be mindful of the processes that can impact on the coating It is important to be aware of what kinds of manufacturing practices may occur following the application and cure of the coating, as other materials such as thermal greases/putties and rework/repair chemicals, can all have an impact on the integrity and overall performance of a coating. When selecting adhesives for assemblies, do ensure that they are compatible with the selected coating materials and processes. Incompatible adhesives can have a detrimental effect on the overall performance of the coating.

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Know Your Components Knowing your components is central to achieving a successful coating process. Simply by being aware of what kinds of components should be coated or should not be coated will provide more flexibility to the coater in assembly operations. When a component will NOT be coated, it becomes a “keep out” zone. The engineering drawing should not only identify components but identify the tolerance on that keep out zone. It is important to be very specific on the tolerance. The manufacturer needs to know exactly where you want coating and where you don’t want coatings. It is best practice to specify the areas that need to be coated and the areas that don’t as well as the ‘don’t care’ areas to help the coating process run as smoothly as possible. Avoid vague statements at all costs in an engineering drawing. This is especially true when specifying coating around connectors.

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Conformal Coatings

The importance of pre-coat cleaning The overall cleanliness of the substrate or the potential presence of residues on the substrate will have a critical impact on coating performance. If the substrate is not adequately clean, the residues present may interfere with the curing mechanism, lead to poor adhesion of the coating to the substrate and trap conductive/ionic materials under the coating. Without meticulous attention to preparation or pre-coat cleaning regimes, corrosive residues bridging the PCB’s conducting tracks can cause failures over time.

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Create a buffer to make coverage easier for production Conformal coatings are usually liquid when applied and will flow with a combination of gravity and the capillary forces present. Understanding and controlling this behaviour, and its effect on conformal coating coverage, will be key to the performance of coated assemblies operating in harsh environments. So, whether the process specifies masking or a reliance upon the process of selective conformal coating, a production team will be greatly relieved if you leave a buffer of at least 3mm clear between the areas that must be coated. This small buffer will make the production process easier and prevent future issues in production. Getting Coating Thickness Right Achieving the correct coating thickness is essential; bear in mind that if the coating is too thick it can lead to entrapment of solvents in areas where the coating does not fully cure. Similarly, it can cause the coating to crack as it cures or as the result of changes in temperature, or due to mechanical shock and vibration. Conformal coatings should not be applied in thicknesses greater than necessary or exceed the thickness they were designed to be applied at.

dramatically for each mechanism. For instance, oxidative cure can have a longer cure time, often requiring many hours at 80-90°C to develop optimum properties, whereas, UV curable materials such as Electrolube’s UVCL range, cure extremely rapidly (in seconds) when exposed to UV radiation of a suitable wavelength and intensity. If in any doubt about cure mechanisms, do talk to your coating vendor.

How important is the reworkability characteristic of a coating? Reworkability of a coating can often be a very important consideration in the selection of a conformal coating, especially when boards are of high value, and have long service life expectancies, e.g. Military and Aerospace assemblies. A coating may display many favourable characteristics that make it superior for assembly protection in the field, but may also make the assembly very difficult to rework or repair in the field. A difficult-to-rework coating will not only make repairs and upgrades time consuming, but will also add cost and complexity to the product.

What are the reasons for coating failure? Coatings fail for any number of reasons – some common and some not so common. The fundamental reasons for failure are generally the result of poor product selection and/or application, or some underlying problem arising from insufficient surface preparation or some chemical activity going on beneath the coating that is entirely unrelated to the coating chemistry. Further potential reasons may also include insufficient cure time, poor coverage or insufficient thickness, an unexpected interaction with another process material or there is something else going on that isn’t directly related to the coating, such as corrosive residues bridging the PCB’s conducting tracks can, over time, cause failures.

It’s all about the cure The cure mechanisms of the main classes of coating materials are: drying, oxidative, moisture, heat, chemical and UV. Choice will depend on a variety of factors such as the performance requirements of the application and physical constraints, including the maximum permissible cure temperature and the time allotted for curing. The cure time in particular varies

Protecting against condensation, immersion and salt-spray The greatest test of coating performance is posed during powerup under wet conditions, whether this is due to condensation, immersion or salt-spray. Liquid water with soluble impurities is electrically conductive and, finding any weak spots in a coating, will eventually leading to short-circuits at the PCB surface. In order to provide protection in these circumstances,


JUNE 2020

Due to the combination of machine X/Y positional accuracy, material fluid dynamics and component topography, 2-3mm is usually as close to keep out areas as anyone would be comfortable coating for a repeatable process. So must coat and keep-out areas within 2-3 mm of each other present a problem and again dispensing will be required, another

Test, test and test again Environmental testing is key to ensuring that coatings are fit for purpose and will stand up to the most rigorous of conditions. Environmental testing includes extremely high and low temperatures; rapid excursions of temperature sufficient to impose thermal shock; salt spray and salt fog; very high humidity or condensing conditions; saturated environments; exposure to fungal growths, corrosive gases and solar radiation, and high and low atmospheric pressures (especially for aeronautical and space equipment). In reality, a coated board will be subjected to a variety of environmental impacts, not just one. The conditions and exposures should be chosen to be representative of what could reasonably be expected in a real life, end-use environment. When design and production work together, the outcome will nearly always be successful. Having explored the importance of making sound early-stage design decisions, it is important to understand "what effects what" on the surface of the board to ensure successful conformal coating is achieved. Implementing these lessons will prevent potential production disasters not only with conformal coatings, but also in other areas of production as well. In short choose the right material for the protection required, apply it appropriately and cure it well. Check for interactions with other process chemistries, and thoroughly clean and dry the assembly prior to coating, and ultimately you will establish a solid and reliable electronic assembly process.

Conformal Coatings

Coating Cycle Time Coating cycle time is clearly very important to the balance of the production line, so what kills coating quality and cycle time on a typical selective coating line? Selective coating machines deposit a stripe of coating material that can be programmed to stop and start on demand. Stripes of coating can be deposited to create a coating pattern, avoiding areas such as switches, connectors and test points, which must not be coated to prevent interference with form, fit or function. The coating stripes are usually in the 8-15mm range. When the area to be coated is less than 8mm in width, then it is necessary to utilise a dispensing step, which is a cycle time killer.

process step which kills cycle time.

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it is essential to achieve 100% defect-free coverage of the PCB’s metal surfaces, and this poses a real challenge for both the material itself and the application process. A new class of conformal coating materials dubbed ‘2K’ enable a much greater thickness and perfect application coverage to be achieved, resulting in a higher level of protection. Electrolube’s 2K materials have been positively demonstrated in the harshest possible tests, including powered condensation testing and powered immersion testing in salt-water.

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Continuous Investment

in

Technology helps make our cars safer. The growing demand for improved vehicle safety is driving rapid innovation in active safety and ADAS among vehicle manufacturers. Niloy from BIS hops in with Yan Goh | Sr. Marketing Manager, Far East, Automotive Products Group | Microchip Technology Inc to understand how Microchip is fuelling into the ADAS market. In this candid interview, Yah shares about the evolving ADAS technology, Microchip’s expertise and how it is shaping the future cars while driving e-mobility, V2X. Edited Nub Below.

What are Microchip’s key offerings and which automotive application areas is the company’s major focus? Microchip Technology has been supplying automotive semiconductor solutions for over 20 years. Our areas of expertise cover a wide range of products which include 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit microcontroller solutions, touch controller solutions, in vehicle networking solutions, high voltage analogsolutions, automotive security solutions and non-volatile memories. Our products are used in a broad spectrum of applications such as body controllers, smart actuators, switches, cluster-infotainment systems and electrical driving modules. With the explosion of autonomy and electrification in cars, this is one focus area for investments on technologies that are key enabler in this application segment.

Q

The automotive market in India with respect to active safety is no different compared to other parts of the world.

Role of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) in achieving Vision Zero and drive functional safety for cars in the Indian market? The automotive market in India with respect to active safety is no different compared to other parts of the world. ADAS features are proven in making the car safer and road accident prevention, hence will be integrated into the India market towards the objective that it become a standard feature.

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What are the challenges i.e.(network coverage, data security) you foresee in the growing connected cars segment and Microchip’s expertise and solutions to simplify these snags? In a V2X system with connectivity to the cloud through 4G or 5G networks, security

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Big Picture

Emerging Automotive Connectivity Technologies

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is the upmost important factor during system definition and design consideration. As we have seen from various examples where cars are being hacked while driving, it’s a matter of life and death. In order to simplify and address this critical security need, we have dedicated hardware security module (HSM) enabled microcontrollers and hardware security chips supporting features such as secure boot, node authentication and data encryption.

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Electronics architecture that optimize on the costs while providing value to the customer is the need of the hour, Microchip’s expertise to bring value to their customers? Total electronics cost aspects cover a wide range of variables. Semiconductor components supplied by Microchip Technology are just one of the many ingredients. From a semiconductor perspective, using the microcontroller as an example, our new generation product packs far more advance functionality with high level integration of such peripherals as high precision ADCs, DACs converter and op-amps which allow electronic designers to reduce external BOMs in an effort to efficiently optimize cost.

power density. On the other hand, electrical power modules are designed to achieve maximum efficiency by introducing better power conversion often utilizing a high switching frequency at a higher voltage through semiconductor solutions. Microchip Technology offers dedicated microcontrollers coupled with silicon carbide (SiC ) MOSFETs and diodes which are capable of reaching over a 90 percent efficiency rating.

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Integrating security into existing automotive networks with minimal design impact - possibility and application? As explained earlier, Microchip Technology has been investing a lot in making security simple. For example, we have designed a dedicated hardware security solution which is plug in ready for existing automotive networks to achieve a secure CAN connection. By doing this, Tier 1 clients can achieve a secure CAN network with minimal engineering enhancements from existing solutions.

Q

Methods to incorporate new functionality while minimizing impact to in-vehicle electronics? For semiconductor manufacturers like Microchip Technology, we have the capability to integrate more functionality at Ways in which Automotive solutions are enabling the chip level. One example is a simple switch actuator box Automotive OEMs to save component costs, development where previously, our clients would need to use over 4 to 5 integration, and prototype time. different IC components to achieve the solution. Today, our As described in the previous answer, our solutions enable latest microcontroller solutions are capable of performing the Tier 1 clients with an optimized solution that will benefit the controlling, LIN connectivity, voltage regulation and various car OEMs down the line. Beyond cost savings from design op-amps to ADC input signal conditioning all in one single attributes, Microchip Technology’s products are designed to package. This level of integration will minimize engineering operate in robust environments with the aim to achieve high effort while maximizing reliability due to less component count. reliability and to help suppliers achieve their targeted functional Strategies that will result in a sustainable system which can safety system rating. Looking long term, automotive OEMs will adopt new connectivity technologies as they emerge? be able to reduce development costs with microcontroller architectures that support reuse of software and shorten time Like the earlier question on new functionality, Microchip Technology continues to invest in emerging automotive to market cycles. connectivity technologies. Taking for example, automotive How advanced touch screen controllers (HMI) are CAN, LIN and Ethernet product families, we have been offering redefining capacitive touch systems in automotive these solutions since the specification was formalized. Early designing and applications. engagements with automotive OEMs and key Tier 1s during If we look at the car offerings today, capacitive touch enabled the product development cycle is critical for new connectivity center display consoles are to become the norm. Microchip technologies. This will ensure compatibility and compliance to Technology has been a front runner in this technology and the strict automotive standards which enable our customers to we are starting to offer our clients further differentiation paths achieve a working solution as new connectivity technologies such as supporting wide aspect ratio wide screen up to 40”, emerge. Microchip Technology remains committed to advance 3D gesture and knob on touch technology. On delivering networking solutions to address the needs of the the other hand, Microchip’s microcontrollers have a built automotive market. in capacitive touch button controller enabling Tier 1 clients to easily migrate any mechanical type button to a flush capacitive type without adding any chip components while increasing styling capabilities which appeal to the occupants of the vehicle.

Big Picture

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Key Technology Solutions that will revolutionize the e-mobility evolution for India? One of the key requirements for e-mobility is power efficiency. In simple words, “how do we get the maximum mileage from one full charge?” To achieve this objective, there have been huge steps taken by battery manufacturers to improve battery cell


JUNE 2020

India’s electronics and semiconductor industry - a new sunrise after the COVID-19 crisis

We are also seeing promising startup activity in the electronics area with dynamic teams looking at product development in Electric Bikes, Charging Infrastructure, IoT, Health-Tech, Drones, Robotics and so on. Dedicated incubators and Rohit Girdhar It is the supply side where challenges accelerators focusing on hardware VP Strategy, Mergers and Acquisitions, remain. A good part of India’s development have sprung up Infineon Technologies demand is still met by imports across the country with the visionary and India being well aware of this, is encouraging local leadership and excellent support provided by MeitY, DST, manufacturing. The government (especially MeitY) has Startup India as well as the Atal Innovation Mission of Niti Aayog. consistently supported electronic manufacturing and has encouraged global companies that they will get all the All the building blocks have been diligently put in place by support in making India as a location for not just serving the MeitY and other stakeholders in the government but a new domestic market but also an export hub. and significant challenge has emerged due to the spread of COVID-19. Obviously this is a difficult situation for the industry At the same time, local entrepreneurs are also being but looking ahead, every crisis leads to opportunity. There is encouraged to venture into establishing R&D and manufacturing. a sharp, short-term demand drop due to the COVID-19 crisis Indeed, the most important aspect of the Prime Minister’s but it is expected that demand will pick up fairly quickly and address to the nation on May 12th was about the need for by CY2021 we should see a return to pre-crisis levels. vkRefuHkZjrk or "self-reliance”. The PM repeatedly urged the country to turn the crisis into an opportunity by focusing on We may also see the emergence of new and interesting local manufacturing. application areas e.g. Health-Tech, Robotics and Automation and Cyber security. The second aspect is re-location of supply For a strong electronics industry, semiconductors and chains. What the crisis has brought out is the need for diversified embedded software play a key role. In recent years, almost supply chains and distributed manufacturing. We also expect all global semiconductor companies have grown their R&D to see moves in this regard over the next few months and presence in India with most now having multiple design centres years. Over here, India with a youthful demographic and a across the nation. The capabilities of the design centres has strong domestic market has natural advantages. Lastly, in a also steadily evolved from design support to full product post-COVID world, global mobility will lessen and we are likely ownership (hardware and software) in some areas. Global to see many more of India’s best and brightest STEM graduates semiconductor companies today are not just doing sales in stay in India and further deepen the talent pool. So, all in all India but increasingly have strong application engineering we may see a new sunrise after the current crisis blows over.

Expert Column

teams spread across the country that can enable electronics companies to develop and get their products to market quicker. Spill-over from these design centres and application engineering teams has meant that teams of experienced engineers are now foraying on their own and establishing startup fabless semiconductor companies.

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India's electronics production during 2018-19 was estimated to be approximately US$70 billion which represents 3.3% of the global electronics production of US$2.1 trillion. This number is rather low and there is immense potential to grow. As a rapidly growing economy blessed with a young population of average age 29, India has a number of structural demand drivers in its favour. Be it increasing consumer electronics content or automotive electronics content, there are favourable tailwinds which will drive demand in India over the longer-term.

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JUNE 2020

MEETING SOLDER PASTE PRINTING CHALLENGES FOR SIP IN “SMART” IOT DEVICES

Solder Paste Printing

SZE PEI LIM

Sze Pei Lim is the Semiconductor Product Manager and is based in Malaysia. She manages the technical support team in the Southeast Asia region, which supports Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, India, and Indonesia. Working closely with customers in the semiconductor and surface mount technology industries, she helps them optimize their processes, troubleshoots, and offers solutions.

Introduction System-in-package (SiP) is an increasingly important package type that comprises a variety of assembly materials and processes that minimizes volume, without sacrificing computational intensity. This market is mostly being driven by mobile Internet of Things (IoT) devices, such as smartphones and smartwatches. Materials deposition techniques, especially solder paste printing, are also changing to match this need. The development of ultra-fine solder powders and solder pastes began in the late 1990s, as the standard flip-chip assembly process of wafer/under bump metallization (UBM) solder bump, onto solder-on-pad (SoP) on the substrate became strongly established. The size and nature of the die-side flip-chip solder bump has also evolved, as illustrated in Figure 1. Major changes in flip-chip solder deposition processes have taken place over the last 10 years, and are outlined in Table 1. The extensibility of solder paste usage for very fine-pitch solder bumps was originally believed to be pushing the need for even finer solder powder types such as type 8, and even a putative type 9—powder size distributions that are not even defined by IPC standards to this day ([2] and Table 2). The extensibility was curtailed quite rapidly as fundamental limits of printability and reflow (especially voiding) made other solder bumping processes, especially plating, more favored.

Sze Pei joined Indium Corporation in 2007. Prior to that, she was a research and development chemist. Her research included solder paste a n d f l u x f o r m u l a t i o n . S he a l s o worked as a technical manager for nine years at Inventec, where she provided technical support and managed testing in the lab.

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email: splim@indium.com Full biography: www.indium.com/biographies

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Figure 1. Flip-chip solder bump evolution.

Solder Paste and SiP Semiconductor assembly and packaging in SiP are driving the use of embedded devices, wafer-level chip-scale packaging (CSP), and similar space-saving techniques [3], while passive devices are also getting smaller and smaller. The adoption of 0201, 01005, and now even 008004 components (to be used in high-volume manufacturing (HVM) production in 2017) is underway, and these devices are, or are becoming, the norm in high-volume consumer "smart” IoT devices.


JUNE 2020

KENNETH THUM

height variability of +/- 1.0%, a type 7 solder powder must be used (if the bump-to-bump variability is due to the number of particles per deposit varying by +/- 5 or more particles (print-to-print variation)).

Solder Powder As devices shrink, the size of the solder powder deposit must also shrink. A large deposit of solder paste can effectively be considered a continuum. However, as the deposit volume decreases, the finite size of the solder powder starts to become a problem, causing increases in the variability in the deposit size. The result of a simple analysis [4] using an allowable variability of +/- n solder powder particles per deposit is shown in Table 3. This demonstrates, for example, that for a 100 micron diameter bump, with an allowable

Cleaning: No-clean Versus Water-Soluble Fluxes It is no surprise that as devices get smaller and the footprint efficiency (total device area/package area) increases toward its 1.0 maximum (absent 3D packaging, of course), that cleaning is becoming more of a challenge. As we have shown previously, similar device and feature shrinkage is driving flip-chip assembly from water-soluble fluxes to ultra-low residue no-clean fluxes [5]. Meeting Solder Paste Printing Challenges for SiP in “Smart” IoT Devices.

email: kthum@indium.com Full biography: www.indium.com/biographies

•Vol - 02 / 06

Challenges Shrinking the final package size places constraints on the assembly materials and processes, some of which will ncessitate major changes, as will be discussed in this section.

Kenneth Thum is Senior Technical Support Engineer for Indium Corporation and is based in Penang, Malaysia. Kenneth assists customers in northern Malaysia with troubleshooting issues, and provides technical support for Indium Corporation’s full product range. He has years of experience in leading teams of technicians to improve yields and supplier quality. Kenneth holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Malaya in computer aided design and computer aided manufacturing. Additionally, he is an SMTA-certified process engineer.

Solder Paste Printing

At 130 microns, ODM may stay with organic substrate and standard solder bump, while an OSAT may move to copper pillar and interposer

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KENNETH THUM

•Vol - 02 / 06

Solder Paste Printing

ANDY C. MACKIE, PhD, MSc Andy C.

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Mackie, PhD, MSc, Senior Product Manager, Semiconductor and Advanced Assembly Materials, is an electronics industry expert in physical chemistry, surface chemistry, rheology, and semiconductor assembly materials and processes. He has more than 25 years of experience in new product and process development and materials marketing in aspects of electronics manufacturing from wafer fabrication to semiconductor packaging and electronics assembly.

email: amackie@indium.com Full biography: www.indium.com/biographies

Figure 2. Outline of the print test vehicle.

Paste Rheology and Printing The rheology of the solder paste is critical; not only must the paste print consistently over a long stencil life, it must also print without slumping. This means it must have a yield stress greater than approximately 3N/m2, which is still low enough to allow the paste to roll. It is also low enough to allow the paste to release from small apertures. A long stencil life necessarily reduces printto- print variability over time, and also maximizes the usage of the paste. Solder Paste Testing A detailed printing test was carried out to study the printing performance of d if ferent solder p a stes. A test vehicle consisting of different pad sizes, and different gaps between two neighboring pads, was specifically designed for the printing test, which will be described in the next section. Experimental Four different solder pastes were used for the printing tests. The water-soluble solder paste is halogen-free, and the noclean solder paste is ultra-low residue, having been specifically developed for tight-clearance SiP applications (Table 4). The test vehicle is 237mm in length, 62mm in width, and 0.5mm thick. The land patterns are grouped into five columns, with gaps of varying sizes between pads, and three rows of different pad sizes. Each board hasn an array of two of these. The patterns are arranged in 0- and 90-degree

orientation to simulate different directions of squeegee passes (Figure 2). The test vehicle consists of three 008004 pads and one 01005 pad. In this study, however, we focused on the 008004 pads as shown below: • 125μm x 150μm • 100μm x 150μm • 112.5μm x 150μm • The gaps between pads are 50μm, 80μm, 100μm, 130μm, and 150μm The pad metallization was a standard NiAu (ENIG). The stencil used was 50μm thick, laser-cut with a final electro-polish. The stencil aperture was designed to be 1:1 to the size of pad to be printed. The aspect ratios (AR) for the various stencil openings are shown in Table 5, where a DEK Horizon printer was used to deposit the paste, and a Koh Young SPI was used to measure print volume. Results and Discussions Gap Size Effects Please note that bridging is observed for all the pastes with 50μm gaps between pads, hence the results for 50μm gaps are omitted in this paper. However, even with the nonoptimized printer setup condition, there is no problem printing all the pastes at gaps of 80μm and more. Future studies will focus on improving the printer clamping system and developing a support system for thin substrates and E-fab stencils to achieve better printing performance for 50μm gaps.


JUNE 2020

All paste print behavior is similar; a wider gap results in increased solder paste volume. The box plot in Figure 4 shows the volume vs. gap distance for paste D. This may be due to a stiffer stencil with a wider gap, therefore causing better solder paste release.

Print Consistency We also performed print process capability (print volume consistency) using Paste D with 90.5% metal loading, and the Cpk for various pad sizes are shown in Table 6. This further confirms that Paste D with 90.5% metal is capable of reliably and reproducibly printing 008004 components. Reflow Testing Reducing voiding in the final solder joint is an important consideration for mechanical reliability. Extensive studies were carried out to show that choosing the correct reflow profile could easily minimize voiding, and a more complete overview of these results can be found at [6]

Future Technology Drivers The future trend of discrete passive devices for IoT is uncertain. Some ceramic capacitor manufacturers, for example, have chosen not to develop 008004 and lower technology, resulting in a shrinking supplier base. At some point in the next five years, embedded passive devices will become favored, and at that point the need for increasingly finer solder paste for SiP will disappear. For the near term, this is clearly a trend, and many OSATs and contract manufacturers are investing in resources to make sure they are ready to deploy fine feature printing in the range of 100-120μm stencil opening for HVM.

Figure 3. Paste comparison on 0.68 AR pads (as example of data).

Figure 4. Example of paste D volume compared to different pad distances.

Solder Paste Printing

Metal Loading In order to further study how the viscosity and rheology of a particular paste affect fine-feature print performance, a solder paste sample with 0.5% less metal loading than that used for paste D was prepared and printed. The results are shown in Figure 5. We observed that this apparently trivial reduction in metal load caused the average solder paste volume to increase. A two-sample T test was performed to investigate whether the results were statistically significant. A significance level of α = 0.05 and a P-value of 0 indicates that this was the case for 90.5% (much better), and 91% metal loading was statistically different, showing that 90.5% does perform significantly better than the 91% metal load.

Figure 5. Comparison between different metal loading of paste D. References 1. N-C Lee, A. Mackie; “Insights from industry and customer experience.” 2. ANSI/IPC J-STD-005A section 3.3 “Solder Powder Particle Size,” http://www.ipc.org/TOC/IPC-J-STD-005A.pdf. 3. W. Chen, “Heterogeneous integration for fan-out SiP,” keynote at IMAPS Device Packaging Conf., AZ 2016. 4. A. Mackie, www.indium.com/blog/wafer-and-substrate -bumping-with-solder-paste-ii.php. 5. M. Durham, H. Jo, SP. Lim, J. Chou, A. Mackie; “Ultra-low residue (ULR) semiconductor-grade fluxes for copper pillar flip-chip assembly,” Chip Scale Review, July/Aug 2015. 6. K. Thum, J. Sjoberg, SP. Lim, W. Qu, F. Chen; “Printing capability study of 008004 (0201m) components for SiP application,” SMTA Penang 2016.

•Vol - 02 / 06

Solder Pastes As shown in the box plot in Figure 3, pastes A and D perform better than pastes B and C, with reduced minima and higher volumes. We observed more paste insufficients with lower aspect ratios apertures.

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Big Picture JUNE 2020

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JUNE 2020

IIOT

Industry 4.0 Factory Automation is becoming more and more digital with the advent of smart manufacturing and the fact that India is a preferred manufacturing hub, it becomes imperative to increase competitiveness and build efficient value chain. Hisahiro Nishimoto, Director, Division Manager-Factory Automation & Industrial Division, Mitsubishi Electric India Pvt. Ltd. in an exclusive interaction with Niloy from BIS, underlines the leadership and expertise of MEI in the growing Industry 4.0 and Factory automation segment, their solution and offerings, trends and also harps about the overall market scenario. Edited Nub below. What are the offerings of Mitsubishi Electric in the growing Industry 4.0 and factory automation segment? IIoT, or Industry 4.0 is changing the landscape of the manufacturing industry in India. While technologies such as robotics, AI, ML, cloud computing and big data analytics exist in the manufacturing sector, their integration with one another will transform the way we do business. In India, IIoT is still in the early stages, but it is already transforming the manufacturing sector in terms of responsiveness to customer needs, better transparency, agility, and cost savings. At Mitsubishi Electric, we call it e-F@ctory - it enables Digital Transformation of the manufacturing industry. The key to digitalisation is integration of IT & FA/OT systems. For this, all our FA Products like PLCs, HMIs, Inverters, AC Servo Systems, NC Controllers, Industrial Robots, IPCs and Low Voltage Switchgear are equipped with advanced technologies for communication. e-F@ctory offers greater visibility of the production processes. Factory Automation is becoming more and more digital with the advent of smart manufacturing and the fact that India is a preferred manufacturing hub, it becomes imperative to increase competitiveness and build efficient value chain.

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SMEs and Start-ups are helming towards automating their processes. How do Mitsubishi Electric’s offerings and solutions simplify their journey? The market is expanding into new territories with SMEs and start-ups adopting automation, thereby, creating demands for industrial robots. The availability of high-precision and costeffective Robotic solutions from Mitsubishi Electric is enabling the penetration of robots into industries. We support our

customers to implement the most appropriate automation systems, well supported by our experienced Channel Partners. Most SMEs and start-ups in India have good technical capabilities, however, they need to implement and improve their processes of Design and Quality Measurement. This will help them to expand their horizons and help them explore markets in Asian countries, other than India. Apart from helping them with technological assistance, we also partner with our customers to help build a sustainable solution for issues related to modern industry floors.

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How does better connectivity help manufacturers keep up with their global operations? Connectivity within the manufacturing process is not new. Yet, recent trends such as the rise of IIoT, and the convergence of the digital and physical worlds including Information Technology (IT) and Operations Technology (OT), have made the transformation of the supply chain increasingly possible. Shifting from linear, sequential supply chain operations to an interconnected, open system of supply operations known as the digital supply network, could lay the foundation for how companies compete in the future. The smart factory represents a leap forward from more traditional automation to a fully connected and flexible system, one that can use a constant stream of data from connected operations and production systems to learn and adapt to new demands. A true smart factory can integrate data from system-wide physical, operational, and human assets to drive manufacturing, maintenance, inventory tracking, digitization of operations, and other types of activities across the entire manufacturing

•Vol - 02 / 06

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Big Picture

Indian Manufacturing Industry

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JUNE 2020

network. The result can be a more efficient and agile system, less production downtime, and a greater ability to predict and adjust to changes in the facility or broader network, possibly leading to better positioning in the competitive marketplace.

changing industrial environment and strive to provide cutting-edge solutions to our customers. In keeping with this philosophy, we believe that advances in Industrial Robotics and Smart Manufacturing solutions like e-F@ctory will drive the factories of tomorrow, which is why we have concentrated Which markets are of your pivotal focus in the Indian on three key features: “Intelligence, Integration & Safety” market? for our MELFA-FR Series Industrial Robots. They are capable Mitsubishi Electric offers vast range of automation solutions of handling virtually all the automation needs. We plan to and technologies, using its extensive range of products, develop more functions in these three areas. Also, nextincluding: Controllers, Drives, Industrial Robots, Visualization generation intelligent functions make it simple to carry out work products like HMIs and SCADA, LVS, CNCs etc. These solutions that has always defied automation. Safe, collaborative work are capable of catering to sectors like Pharmaceutical, Textile, applications allow robots and people to work together with Water and Wastewater treatment, Automotive Solutions, high levels of safety. Mitsubishi Electric’s e-F@ctory concept Food & Beverage etc. All these sectors play a major role in helps in integrating factory automation (FA) and IT functions, boosting the economy and fulfilling the societal needs. That thus supporting the next generation of smart manufacturing. is why, our e-F@ctory solution is instrumental in empowering We offer solutions that use FA technology and along with smart manufacturing for these sectors through IoT based data an IT interface, it helps reduce total costs in everything from utilization. They help achieve greater Productivity, Quality, development, through to production and maintenance, Sustainability, Safety and Security at the shop floor. We are supporting customers to continuously improve their business also helping in data processing, analysis and handling for these operations and achieve truly cutting-edge manufacturing. shop floors, which results in smarter production management Currently, what other industries are open to upfront and execution instructions. investment cost and to adopt new technologies? Auto Industry is on the slump, what strains does it put to Witnessing the current conditions, we think Pharmaceutical your business? is a crucial sector and, in order to handle the demands of All vehicle segments have been reporting de-growth due emergent challenging situations, it needs to be open to adopt to weak consumer sentiments and economic slowdown. In new technologies. We are focusing on the Pharma related addition to this, the global automotive outlook has also turned segments, where we are partnering through our solutions and negative with a decline in sales across geographies and due technologies. The automation systems can support industries to the severe conditions developed due to COVID-2019. Due in PPE manufacturing, and enables flexible manufacturing to this, factory automation players like us are also witnessing to develop and ramp up production of sanitizers and allied challenging times. However, looking at the flipside; it has now products, relevant in today’s tough conditions. Mitsubishi become even more imperative that the automobile industry Electric also brings innovative products like Graphic Operation should use this time to look at innovative ways to eliminate Controller (GOC) which can be useful in India’s quest to manual errors and use advanced IIoT based technologies such quickly develop Ventilators, that are crucial today in our fight as e-F@ctory to bring greater efficiencies and connectivity against Corona. at their shop floors. This will enable a quick start when the Post COVID-2019 epidemic, what transformations you industry is ready to boot up again and eventually compete reckon to witness in the whole industrial industry? and excel in these challenging times. The global supply chain is experiencing a level of disruption Your focus into the growing EV, HEV segment? that has never been seen before. Some manufacturers have Mitsubishi Electric India’s Factory Automation and Industrial ceased production completely, some have seen greatly Division has solutions catering to the manufacturing industries reduced demand and others have seen a huge increase in associated factory floors. We are consistently working towards demand. Every manufacturer is impacted by this crisis in some bringing greater efficiencies to the shop-floors through our way and for many this poses an existential threat. The priorities smart manufacturing concept - e-F@ctory – it connects for most manufacturers today fall into three distinct phases: and brings transparency in all manufacturing operations, Phase 1 – Survival; Phase 2 – Recovery; Phase 3 – Business as irrespective of the technology used in the vehicle segments. Usual in the new post-crisis paradigm. EV/HEV concept caters more towards the automotive/ The goal for all manufacturers will be to get to Phase 3 as soon auto component manufacturing companies in the market. as possible and at the lowest cost. In defining the operating Semiconductors & Devices – one of our other Business Divisions, model for Phase 3 they will factor in lessons learned from the and our Mitsubishi Electric Group company - Mitsubishi Electric crisis and try to build a more resilient and agile business. Automotive India Pvt. Ltd. are offering solutions for the EV/HEV It’s too early to say for certain, but it seems clear from events segment. Solutions like eMotor Drive Systems, CSTBTTM, etc. are unfolding before us that one of the major weaknesses is a helping the Automotive manufacturers reduce their power lack of real-time visibility across the business. Visibility that is consumption and ensuring a comfortable space in the car. essential to support critical business decisions. e-F@ctory from Mitsubishi Electric can certainly help in improving visibility, Initial hiccups in this industry and the way forward? connectivity and transparency of the new age enterprises. At Mitsubishi Electric, we continue to evolve with the

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Big Picture

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JUNE 2020

Agilent PD-L1 Assay Receives FDA Anritsu Achieves 3GPP Approval Approval for 5G NR SA Test Anritsu Corporation has recently announced that it has achieved approval for the world’s first 5G New Radio (NR) Standalone (SA) test for Carrier Aggregation. The tests are based on 3GPP TS 38.523 and was approved by 3GPP RAN5 working group in Frequency Range 1 (FR1). Anritsu has subsequently also achieved 3GPP approval for Carrier Aggregation testing for NR Non-Standalone (NSA) in Frequency Range 1. All these test are available on Anritsu’s 5G NR Mobile Device Test Platform ME7834NR. The ME7834NR is registered with both the Global Certification Forum (GCF) and PCS Type Certification Review Board (PTCRB) as Test Platform (TP) 251.

Acconeer Chooses R&S FSW to Develop New Mmwave Radar Based Sensor Technology

Spirent Named as Authorized Test Lab for Amazon Alexa Built-in

Rohde & Schwarz has provided Acconeer, a specialist for pulsed coherent radar (PCR) and IoT, with an R&S FSW85 signal and spectrum analyzer. Acconeer will use it to develop A111, its low-power pulsed coherent radar sensor that operates in the 60 GHz unlicensed frequency band and is particularly suited to IoT applications. The number of IoT applications and devices is rising, as is the use of sensor technology for consumer devices. To address these growing trends, Acconeer, based in Lund, Sweden, specializes in small radar solutions for consumer products. Thanks to its small footprint, the Acconeer A111 PCR lowpower radar sensor is particularly suited to battery powered IoT devices. The A111 can be used for many applications such as gesture control, material recognition, object and presence detection as well as level and speed measurements.

Spirent Communications has announced that it has been approved by Amazon as an Authorized Test Lab for Alexa Built-in devices. As an Authorized Test Lab, Spirent will work directly with manufacturers at its state-of-the-art lab facility in Maryland, USA to provide a range of audio and acoustic test services for Alexa Built-in products seeking certification from Amazon. The Spirent Performance Center features four automationenabled labs that focus on quality of experience testing. One of these labs is specially equipped to test and assure Alexa Built-in products meet performance requirements across acoustics, music, functional and user (UX) experiences. Examples of testing that Spirent performs in support of Alexa Voice Service requirements include functional testing, nearfield and far-field testing.

•Vol - 02 / 06

T&M

Agilent Technologies has recently announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the company’s PD-L1 IHC 28-8 pharmDx for expanded use in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Now, physicians will be able to use the PD-L1 IHC 28-8 pharmDx assay as an aid in identifying patients with metastatic NSCLC for treatment with the dual immunotherapy combination of Opdivo (nivolumab) and Yervoy (ipilimumab), manufactured by Bristol Myers Squibb. Based on the results of the Phase 3 CheckMate -227 clinical trial,Opdivo in combination with Yervoy was approved as first-line treatment for patients with metastatic NSCLC whose tumors express PD-L1 (≥1%) as determined by an FDA-approved test.

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IGBTs

JUNE 2020

How to Improve Thermal Performance of Ignition IGBTs Dr. Hugo Guzman

FAE & JosĂŠ Padilla, Product Marketing Manager Littelfuse, Inc.

•Vol - 2/06

Higher rates of environmental pollution and demanding government vehicle efficiency regulations are driving new technology investments in transportation

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Figure 1. Simplified schematic of the Ignition IGBT test circuit and the resulting IGBT gate voltage, collector current, and dissipated power. P1 is the ON-state power loss and P2 is the discharging cycle power loss A s a re su l t o f gre a t e r p ollut ion a nd m or e st ringent regulations, electric and hybrid research and

development includes developments in more efficient internal combustion engines and alternative fuels. While the all-electric vehicle is considered the leading solution to eliminate pollutants from vehicles, a number of factors are slowing their mass adoption. At the present time, both electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles are more expensive than traditional vehicles, comparable internal combustion-based vehicles and electric vehicles have distance limitations due to battery capacity. Re-charging the battery can cause a significant delay in a trip due to the number of hours required to re-charge. Furthermore, the most significant impediment is the lack of charging infrastructure c o mp a red w it h t he u b iq u it o u s ga s st a t ion. As a resu lt o f t he c u rrent c ha llenges wi th el ectr i c vehicle technology, the internal combustion engine is


JUNE 2020

D i l ut e d m i x t u re s a t low- a nd m id - loa d will req u ire the use of wider spark gaps to ensure sufficient heat transfe r w h e n t he c om b u s t ion p r oc e s s is init ia t ed. The use of wider gaps requires higher ignition circuit voltage ratings to initiate the arc in the spark gap. Alternatively, a direct injection process during the compression stroke avoids the mixture homogenization and forms a fuel rich zone in the pro x i mi ty o f t he s p a r k while k e e p ing t he t o t a l mixture lean. This achieves an additional efficiency improvement. The fuel spray must generate favorable conditions for the combustion development at the ti me an d l o c ati o n of t he s p a r k . H owe v e r , t he high local and temporal variation close to the spark compromise the ignition system, that ideally should contain a wide ignition space (larger electrode ga p) an d a l o n g e r ig nit ion t im e . T he s e c ondit io ns would require a higher breakdown voltage and greate r e n e rgy i n t he s p a r k . These innovations will have a significant impact on the engine’s solid-state ignition system. The primary power control element of the ignition system, an i gni t i o n i n su l at e d g a t e b ip ola r t r a ns is t or (I GBT) w ill have to support higher energy to achieve new engine efficiency levels. The ignition IGBTs also will req u i re h i gh e r c l a m p ing v olt a g e s t o ig nite lea ner fuel mixtures and will operate at higher frequencies to ge n e rat e mo r e p owe r in s m a lle r e ng in es. These operating conditions will increase the IGBT’s thermal dissipation. Under these conditions, the IGBT’s co l l e c t o r - to - e m it t e r O N - s t a t e v olt a g e ( V c e(ON)), w hi c h i s di re c t l y c or r e la t e d t o t he O N - s t a t e p o w er losses, will gain greater significance. Ignition IGBTs with lower Vce(ON) will be required to reduce power losses and, consequently, achieve lower junction temperatures, while maintaining a small sy ste m fo o t pri n t. The c h al l e n ge fo r t he d e s ig ne r is b ot h s e l ec t io n o f an appropriate IGBT and use of good technique i n p ri n te d c i rc u i t b oa r d ( P C B ) la you t . T he designer must select an IGBT with adequate power handling

To aid the design engineer, Littelfuse, a manufacturer of circuit protection, sensing, and power control products, has provided quantitative data (presented b elo w ) t o sho w ho w a n I GBT w it h a lo wer Vce(ON) a nd ho w different t herma l P CB p a d c ons tr ucti ons affect the thermal performance of ignition IGBTs. A Lit t elfu se ignit io n I GBT ho u sed in a T O-252 (al s o known as DPAK) surface mount package for high power components and another manufacturer’s dev ic e a re u sed in t he st u dy. All test data was obtained using the simplified diagram of the test bench setup shown in Figure 1. A lo a d indu c t a nc e o f 0 .3 mH w a s u sed i n or d er to emulate a common value of the leakage inductance of commercially available Ignition coils. The switching frequency is set to either 33 Hz, 50 Hz, 80 Hz, 100 Hz o r 1 5 0 H z . The dw ell t ime, o r t ime t ha t the Igni ti on IGBT is in the ON-state, is set to achieve 10 amps of p ea k c u rrent . The Dev ic e U nder Test (DUT ) i s then p la c ed in o ne o f t he different P CB P ADs s hown i n Figure 2 and left operating for 10 minutes, ensuring a st ea dy st a t e t emp era t u re mea su rem ent.

IGBTs

Smaller engine volume could require development of smaller cylinders. To maintain an appropriate output power, higher combustion cycle rates are needed. The i gn i t i o n sy ste m will b e r e q u ir e d t o op era t e a t hi ghe r sw i tc h i n g f r e q ue nc ie s a nd b e s ub jec t ed t o hi ghe r o pe rat i n g t e m p e r a t u r e s .

capacity and low switching power loss. That entails selecting an ignition IGBT with low Vce(ON) to minimize ON-state power consumption. The designer must also use optimal PCB pads both to dissipate the additional heat created by the higher power state of the ignition IGBT and to maintain a controlled thermal junction temperature within the device’s sp ec ific a t io ns.

Five types of PADs were analyzed to study the effect of different thermal conduction paths on IGBT case t e m pe rat u re (F igu re 2). T h e pad t y pe s w e re : a PCB cutout (PAD 0) where there is no heat conduction path from the collector of the Ignition IGBT to the PCB, a PAD with the same area as a DPAK packaged IGBT (PAD 1), a PAD with the same area as a DPAK packaged IGBT but including heat spreaders from the top to the bottom of the PCB (PAD 2), a PAD with the recommended PAD area for a DPAK packaged device (twice the area of the device) without thermal heat spreaders from the top to the bottom of the PCB (PAD 3), and a layout identical to PAD 3 with thermal heat spreaders from the top to the bottom of the PCB (PAD 4).

Figure 2. The PCB pad layouts used for the thermal analysis

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a long way from becoming an obsolete technology. Manufacturers are responding to lower government greenhouse gas emission limits and higher mileage standards by creating internal combustion engines and hybrid engines that are smaller in volume, o perat e at h i gh e r r e v olut ions / m inu t e ( R P Ms), a nd w o rk w i t h l e an e r f ue l m ix t u r e s .

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IGBTs

Figure 3 quantifies the effect of a lower Vce(ON) on the thermal performance. The Ignition IGBTs used in the comparison are Littelfuse DPAK packaged NGD8201A (Vce(ON)typ<1.35V), and a commercially available Ignition IGBT (Vce(ON)typ<1.5V) labeled as “Ignition IGBT A”. These devices were chosen since they possess similar electric and physical die characteristics and equivalent current and energy ratings. Figure 3 summarizes the measured steady state case temperatures achieved for each of the different PCB PAD layouts when driving the Ignition IGBT at frequencies of 33 Hz and 150 Hz. The slightly higher ON-state voltage of “Ignition IGBT A” results in a slightly higher steady state temperature, regardless of the PCB PAD used. As expected, this effect is more noticeable at high switching frequencies. Notice also that the use of different PCB PADs results in different steady state case temperatures.

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Figure 3. Comparison of the steady-state temperature of two Ignition IGBTs operating at 33Hz and at 150Hz. The NGD8201A Ignition IGBT has a lower Vce(ON) that results in a lower steady-state temperatures for all PAD configurations The effect of the use of the different PCB PADs can be fu rt h e r an al y z e d in Fig ur e 4 , whe r e t he st ea dy state case temperature for the NGD8201A is shown w h e n d i f f e r e n t s w i t c h i n g t e m p e r a t u r e s a nd PAD s are c o n si de re d. Onc e m or e , t he r e s ult s s h o w t ha t the use of a higher switching frequency results in higher steady state temperatures. However, of special importance is the effect of the PAD on reducing the measured temperature, especially when working at high switching frequencies. For instance, notice how the steady state temperature, w hen w o rk i n g at 1 5 0 H z , is r e d uc e d f r om ~ 9 0 °C t o ~70 °C when the minimum PAD with heat spreaders between top and bottom layer (PAD 2) or a PAD w i th t h e re c o mm e nd e d a r e a ( t wic e t he a rea o f a D PA K , PA D 3) are us e d .

Figure 4. NGD8201A top case steady state temperatures obtained for switching frequencies using the five PCB PAD layouts

For a better comparison, the obtained steady state case temperature under different frequencies are plotted when using the minimum PAD with heat spreaders between top and bottom of the PCB (PAD 2) and the recommended PAD of twice the area of a DPAK (PAD 3). It is shown that regardless of the switching condition, these two PADs can offer the same averaged thermal dissipation capability. This is of special importance in Ignition platforms in which size needs to be considered.

Figure 5. Steady-state case temperature of the NGD8201A operating from 33 Hz to 150 Hz using (PAD 2) and PAD 3 layout configurations. The results are nearly identical The automotive industry is designing more fuel-efficient internal combustion engines to meet the challenges demanded by more strict government regulations on lower fuel consumption and reduced CO2 emissions. The new engine enhancements will require ignition systems that can sustain higher energy and higher voltage to ignite leaner fuel mixtures. Ignition IGBTs will need to be capable of supporting higher energy with higher switching frequencies and higher voltage for spark initiation. As a result, the IGBTs will be subjected to higher operating temperatures. Selecting an IGBT with lower Vce(ON) and using an appropriate PCB pad layout that provides good thermal dissipation can ensure reliable operation in the harsh environment of an internal combustion engine.



Securing Network Devices

JUNE 2020

k r o w t e N C E I g n e i h r t u c h t — Se i d w r a s d e n c i a v t e S D d 2 l u 4 o 3 h 4 S u 624 o Y t a h w W o n K

Susan Lan

•Vol - 02 / 06

Product Manager, Moxa

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Industry Background As the Industrial IoT (IIoT) continues to expand, more and more devices are being connected to networks. This trend is seeing networks transitioning from closed networks to enterprise IT networks that are accessible over the public Internet. While this trend is enhancing operational efficiency, it is unfortunately causing asset owners to become increasingly concerned about the dangers posed by cybersecurity threats. The asset owners’ concerns are justified. A recent report released by the Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT) calculated that investigators responded to 392 incidents in 2016 in the U.S., compared to 295 the previous year regarding cyber attacks on infrastructure. The growth rate of product vulnerability incidents was 32.88% from 2015 to 2016. It is therefore unsurprising that asset owners are increasingly requiring cybersecurity solutions to allow them to build secure systems for industrial applications.

Fig. 1: Overview of cyber attacks affecting the critical manufacturing sector


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Fig. 2: Industrial Automation & Control System Overview The IEC 62443 guidelines define four security threat levels. The security standard level 2 is the baseline requirement of the automation industry. It relates to cyber threats posed by hackers, which is the most common attack experienced by system integrators who secure industrial networks. Level 1 is to protect against accidental unauthenticated access and Levels 3 and 4 are against intentional access by hackers who utilize specific skills and tools. IEC 62443-4-2 Level 2: Baseline Requirements of the Automation Industry Within the IEC 62443 standard are several subsections that relate to different parties. As SIs are demanding compliance with the

Infrastructure If a network component allows users to access devices or applications, the network component must be able to uniquely identify and authenticate all users, including humans, processes, and devices. This allows separation of duties and the principle of least privilege that ensures every user only has access to information and devices that are essential for the user to be able to perform their designated role within the network. It is essential to avoid the unnecessary security risk of granting users greater access to the network than is necessary for them to perform their roles. Avoiding this unnecessary security risk will restrict users with malicious intent from being able to cause greater damage to the network. Following this guideline will help secure the infrastructure of a network and provide a solid foundation to develop networks so that the networks are ready to meet the security challenges of today and tomorrow. Account Management The capability to support the management of accounts, including establishing, activating, modifying, disabling, and removing accounts, must be supported across the network. This ensures that no accounts are created, modified, or deleted unless permission has been granted, and forbids embedded devices from making any unauthenticated connections. The management of accounts feature has several possible scenarios, which if not implemented could cause problems for asset owners. For example, a person who works on the network gets promoted, so they now require more access to devices and applications, and their privilege level must be adjusted accordingly. Another example that is frequently encountered is when an employee leaves the organization. As soon as they cease being an employee they must no longer be able to access the network and must have their network privileges revoked. It doesn’t require a stretch of the imagination to envision the possibility of a disgruntled exemployee who was recently dismissed accessing the network after his departure with malicious intent. Identifier Management Any component of the network with a direct user interface must directly integrate into a system that identifies individuals by user, group, role, and/or system interface. This stops users from being able to access devices connected to the network that they haven’t been granted access to. As those with different roles on a network have different privileges, a network administrator’s account can often manage device configurations on a network, but someone who has guest level access can only view devices, but not alter configurations. In addition, there should be security

Securing Network Devices

A Quick Glance at the IEC 62443 Standard The IEC 62443 standard includes guidelines for different parts of a network and those who perform different responsibilities on the network. In the past, asset owners relied on system integrators (SIs) such as Siemens, Honeywell, and ABB to provide the security solutions for the network. However, many SIs now demand that component suppliers comply with the subsection of the IEC 62443 standard that pertains to their devices. The diagram below provides a brief overview including the scope and the significance of each part for those who must ensure the secure operation of a network.

IEC 62443-4-2 subsection, which issues guidelines for component suppliers, the subsection is becoming increasingly important. The component requirements are derived from foundational requirements, including identification and authentication control, use control, data integrity and confidentiality, as well as backup for resource availability. Due to the increasingly important role that component suppliers are playing on IIoT networks, the remainder of this paper will focus on the details of the security requirements that component suppliers must meet when designing devices for deployment on IIoT networks.

•Vol - 02 / 06

How Cybersecurity Standards Evolved In 2002, the International Society for Automation (ISA) produced the ISA-99 document to advise businesses operating in the automation industries how to protect against cybersecurity threats. Fifteen years ago, cybersecurity wasn’t the hot topic it is today. The ISA documents have been aligned with those more frequently used by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) as the concerns around cybersecurity have grown since the conception of the ISA standards. Currently, the IEC 62443 standard constitutes a series of standards, reports, and other relevant documentation that define procedures for implementing electronically secure Industrial Automation and Control Systems (IACS). If the guidelines within the IEC 62443 standard are followed, it significantly reduces the chances of a cyber attack affecting the network.

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procedures in place if an account hasn’t been accessed for a certain period of time that allows the account to be deactivated. The identifier management feature controls each user’s account on the network and ensures that users are confined to the roles assigned to them by network administrators so that users can’t accidentally or on purpose access parts of the network that they don’t need to access.

•Vol - 02 / 06

Securing Network Devices

Authenticator Management All devices on a network must be able to confirm the validity of any requests for system/firmware upgrades, and verify that the source isn’t trying to upload any viruses or malware. This is achieved by requiring the use of tokens, keys, certificates, or passwords. If no authenticator management system is in place, anyone wishing to attack the network could very easily upload malware, allowing them to change settings or take over control of the network.

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Password-based Authentication For network components that utilize password-based authentication, the network component must integrate a password policy that enforces the following: A) The password composition must state what type of characters are allowed, as well as the number of characters required before a password will be accepted as valid B) The frequency that the password must be changed The advantage of using a password is that it is a simple way for network administrators to protect their network without requiring any additional work from system engineer. Utilizing an effective password policy will keep out the majority of hackers who gain access to networks by using brute force to break weak passwords. A network that doesn’t support a password policy or a network that allows weak passwords to be used is at a much greater risk of hackers gaining access to the network. Public Key Authentication Public key authentication should be used in order to build a secure connection between servers and devices, or deviceto-device connections. In order to enable this function, each network component must be able to validate certificates by checking the authentication of the signature, as well as the revocation status of a certificate. In addition, it should construct a certification path to an accepted certification authority, or in the case of self-signed certificates deploy certificates to all hosts that communicate with the subject to which the certificate is issued. Public key authentication is important because it stops information from being sent to the wrong place, and also stops confidential information that should remain within the network from being transferred to unverifiable sources outside. Use Control All of the devices that appear on a network must support login authentication. To restrict unwanted users from gaining access to a device or the network, the application or device must limit the number of times a user can enter the password incorrectly before being locked out. As the majority of attacks on industrial networks are performed by hackers using brute force attacks, login authentication is an extremely effective method of stopping

hackers from gaining access to a network. In addition, the system or device must also be able to inform users whether their login attempt was successful or not. Informing users that they are logged into the network allows them to confirm their current status and proceed knowing that changes or alterations they make to network settings or devices have been authenticated. Data Integrity Across all IIoT networks data integrity plays a vital role. It ensures that data is accurate, and that it can be processed and retrieved reliably. There are several security measures that can be utilized to protect the data, including SSL, which enables encryption between a web browser and a server. As data is constantly moving around a network, network operators need to be sure that the data is moving in a safe, reliable, and efficient manner. If the data is sent to unintended recipients, the network operators will not only lose control of their data, but also leave their networks vulnerable to hackers. Backup for Resource Availability All of the applications or devices that are found on a network must be able to back up data without interfering with network operations. The main advantage of performing regular backups is to ensure that no data is lost and that if the network experiences some problems the network can utilize the data that has been backed up to return the network to normal. In addition, the backup process must ensure that any private information that is on the network is stored in accordance with data protection policies and is not accessible by anyone who should not have access to that information. In some cases this means that data can’t be stored outside the network. Any data breach containing users’ personal information is extremely damaging to network operators as well as to those whose data has been accessed by those it shouldn’t be accessed by. Conclusion As more devices are constantly being added to networks, the security of these devices is of paramount concern to asset owners. It is acknowledged throughout the industry that adopting the best practice approach to security gives asset owners the best chance of protecting their network from those with malicious intent. The complete system-level security must be built upon the foundations that consist of each individual component's security functions. To learn more about Moxa’s industrial network security solution, please visit: www.moxa.com/Security Disclaimer This document is provided for information purposes only, and the contents hereof are subject to change without notice. This document is not warranted to be error-free, nor subject to any other warranties or conditions, whether expressed orally or implied by law, including implied warranties and conditions of merchantability, or fitness for a particular purpose. We specifically disclaim any liability with respect to this document and no contractual obligations are formed either directly or indirectly by this document.


Suntsu Signs Agreement ADTech Electronics Asia

Micron Technology has recently announced new client solid-state drives (SSDs) that bring NVMe performance to client computing applications, freeing laptops, workstations and other portables from legacy architectures that can rob devices of battery power, performance and productivity. The Micron 2300 SSD combines the power and density needed to drive compute-heavy applications in a compact form factor with the reduced power consumption modern mobile users demand. For the first time, Micron brings together NVMe performance and low-cost quad-level-cell (QLC) NAND in the Micron 2210 QLC SSD. It combines fast NVMe throughput and Micron’s leadership in QLC technology to offer flash capabilities at hard disk drive-like price points while reducing power consumption by 15 times when compared to hard drives.

Suntsu Electronics has announced a regional distribution agreement with ADTech Electronics Asia Ltd. ADTech has become a world-renowned semiconductor hybrid distributor. This deal will bring expertise in market sectors such as aerospace, automotive, communications equipment, consumer electronics and much more. ADTech will distribute Suntsu’s complete product portfolio including antennas, capacitators, electromechanical, frequency control, interconnects, PCBs and PCBAs. Suntsu Director of European Sales, Anke Allen who brokered the deal commented, “I am delighted to be working with ADTech again. Their excellent customer service and wide product range will ensure that customers in the region receive the same high standard of support as if they were dealing directly with Suntsu offices”.

u-blox Announces its NINA-B3 and SARA-R410M-02B LTE M / NB IoT for LPWA

World’s Most Advanced Mobile Wireless Connectivity Portfolio

u-blox has announced that its NINA-B3 stand-alone Bluetooth low energy modules and SARA-R410M-02B LTE M / NB IoT and EGPRS cellular module for LPWA (low power wide area) applications are being used in a data logger (pulse counter) for a smart water metering solution that relies on mesh networking to simplify deployment. This trial should help demonstrate why the adoption of mesh-networked water meters in Australia can now be a reality. The WaterLink SmartMESH water meter from WaterSynergy Group, an Australian company focusing on the management of water resources, uses mesh-networking technology to connect a number of water meters to each other and to a cellular gateway. The mesh-networking technology relies on hardware within the u-blox NINA-B3 module and a software stack developed by Wirepas, a company based in Finland providing wireless mesh network connectivity for massive IoT.

Qualcomm Technologies has launched a flagship portfolio of mobile connectivity systems that represent the most advanced Wi-Fi 6E offerings of their kind. Qualcomm-logo123Building upon its leading Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth audio technology features, the Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 and Qualcomm FastConnect 6700 mobile connectivity systems feature the fastest available Wi-Fi speeds in the industry (up to 3.6 Gbps) on a mobile Wi-Fi offering, VR-class low latency and Bluetooth advancements delivering immersive audio experiences for classic and emerging LE Audio use cases. “With the introduction of the FastConnect 6900 and 6700 solutions, Qualcomm Technologies is redefining the mobile experience by extending the power of Wi-Fi 6 into the 6 GHz band and advancing wireless audio with cutting-edge integrated Bluetooth 5.2 features,” said Dino Bekis, VP and GM, mobile and compute connectivity, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

•Vol - 02 / 06

Micron Introduces New SSDs with NVMe Performance

Updates

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? R

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O T I

White Paper

N R U O O Y EM N AR I S C ’ T H A T H AL E H

W

Overview Consumers are increasingly interested in monitoring their own health due to both increased health awareness and the ability to use monitoring to prevent or treat various diseases. For instance, diabetes, obesity, and high cholesterol levels are pervasive problems—due in no small part to changes in lifestyles—while at the same time, the proliferation of smartphones and wearable devices enable consumers to use health monitoring applications to assist them in maintaining optimal health.

Tony Armstrong Business Development Director, Analog Devices

easy access to radiology and pathology reports, from mobile devices will no doubt boost the growth of patient-centric healthcare applications. Figure 1 shows an example of a monitoring system.

•Vol - 02 / 06

Patient-centric healthcare applications inform users of medication times, number of calories consumed, dehydration levels in the body, and so forth. A common way of doing this is via a mobile phone. For example, Apple, Inc. stated that, on average, an iPhone user unlocks their phone 80 times a day. This makes it an ideal medium through which to receive and view biometric data. This creates a large target population for developers of health applications and hardware platform manufacturers of portable health monitoring products to sell their wares.

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This increasing trend toward healthcare information technology systems enables practitioners to access patient data if the patient consents. Routine checkup of lab reports, as well as

Figure 1. An example of in-home patient monitoring.


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Another trend fueling the growth of portable and wireless medical instrumentation is a change in patient care. Specifically, this can be attributed to the increased use of remote monitoring systems within a patient’s own home. One reason for this trend is economic—the costs of keeping a patient in a hospital are prohibitive—both for the patient and the medical provider. This accounts for the growing trend of portable electronic monitoring systems that incorporate radio frequency (RF) transmitters, so that any data gathered from the patient can be sent directly back to a supervisory system within the hospital or doctor’s office for later review and analysis. It is reasonable to assume that the cost of supplying the appropriate medical instrumentation to the patient for home use is more than offset by the cost of keeping them in the hospital for observation purposes. Nevertheless, since the equipment will not be used under professional supervision, it is of paramount importance that the equipment used by the patient is safe and reliable. The manufacturers and designers of these products must ensure that equipment can run seamlessly from multiple power sources and have high reliability in the wireless transmission of the data collected from the patient. This requires the power management and conversion architecture to be robust, flexible, compact, efficient, and low noise over a wide bandwidth. Power Conversion Architecture Although switching regulators generate more noise than linear regulators, their efficiency is generally far superior. Noise and EMI levels have proven to be manageable in many noise sensitive applications if the switcher behaves predictably. If a switching regulator switches at a constant frequency in normal mode, and the switching edges are clean and predictable with no overshoot or high frequency ringing, then EMI is minimized. A small package size and high operating frequency can provide a small, tight layout, which minimizes EMI radiation. Furthermore, if the regulator can be used with low ESR ceramic capacitors, both input and output voltage ripple can be minimized. Nevertheless, not all system architects have a comprehensive switch-mode power conversion

Many of these systems also require a number of various low voltage rails for powering low power sensors, memory, microcontroller cores, I/O, and logic circuitry, further complicated by thermal design constraints due to a lack of air flow or heat sinking for cooling purposes. Analog Devices’ Power by LinearTM product group has focused on power supply solutions with industry-leading products and power experts. For example, there are many applications in medical electronic systems that require continuous power even when the main supply is interrupted, requiring robust backup power. The backup run time of these systems is generally defined by the time the system needs to shut down properly after its main supply is lost. This time varies from minutes to hours depending on the end application. New Solutions to Ease Design Constraints Supercapacitors are an excellent choice for systems that need high power, short duration backup power. Any IC that supports this type of application would typically require the capability to support 2.9 V to 5.5 V supply rails during a main power interruption. Supercapacitors have high peak power capabilities, making them an ideal choice for systems whose applications require high peak power backup for brief time intervals. For instance, the LTC4041 uses an on-chip, bidirectional, synchronous converter to provide high efficiency step-down supercapacitor charging, as well as high current, high efficiency boost backup power. When external power is available, the device operates as a step-down charger for one or two supercapacitor cells while giving preference to the system load. When the input supply drops below the adjustable power fail indicator (PFI) threshold, the LTC4041 switches to boost mode operation and can deliver up to 2.5 A to the system load from the supercapacitor. During a power fail event, the device’s PowerPath™ control provides reverse blocking and a seamless switchover from input power to backup power. Typical applications for the LTC4041 include ride-through dying gasp supplies such as those typically found in medical equipment, power meters, industrial alarms, and solid-state drives. Figure 1 shows a typical LTC4041 application schematic.

Figure 2. LTC4041 single supercapacitor backup for 3.3 V system.

White Paper

The power system architect must design a system that is protected against, and must sometimes tolerate, fault conditions to maximize operating run time—if powered from batteries—while also ensuring that normal system operation is reliable whenever a valid power source is present.

background to address these noise interference aspects.

•Vol - 02 / 06

Medical Devices Analog Devices, Inc. has serviced the medical market for many decades. We have observed that low power precision components have enabled the rapid growth of portable and wireless medical devices. These types of medical products generally have high standards for reliability, run time, and robustness, with much of this burden falling on the power management system and its components. Medical monitoring products must operate properly and switch seamlessly between a variety of power sources such as batteries, ac main outlets, supercapacitors, and even harvested ambient energy sources.

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If two supercapacitors are used, an internal supercapacitor balancing circuit maintains equal voltages across each supercapacitor and limits the maximum voltage of each supercapacitor to a predetermined value. Its adjustable input current limit function enables operation from a current limited source, while prioritizing system load current over battery charge current. An external disconnect switch isolates the primary input supply from the system during backup. The device also includes input current monitoring, an input power fail indicator, and a system power fail indicator. The LTC4041 also includes an optional OVP function using an external MOSFET that can protect the IC from input voltages greater than 60 V.

•Vol - 02 / 06

White Paper

For power supply designers of thermally and space-constrained medical systems, it is important to have a compact and efficient 5 V buck converter that has high conversion efficiency to minimize thermal constraints and a very small solution footprint and height profile.

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The Power by Linear LTC3309A specifically addresses space and thermal design constraints. The LTC3309A is a very small, low noise, monolithic, step-down dc-to-dc converter capable of providing up to 6 A of output current from a 2.25 V to 5.5 V input supply. The device employs Silent Switcher® architecture with external hot loop bypass capacitors to achieve both low EMI and high efficiency at switching frequencies as high as 3 MHz. Moreover, the LTC3309A is a constant frequency, currentmode, step-down dc-to-dc converter. An oscillator turns on the internal top power switch at the beginning of each clock cycle. Current in the inductor increases until the top switch current comparator trips and turns off the top power switch. The peak inductor current at which the top switch turns off is controlled by the voltage on the ITH node. The error amplifier serves the ITH node by comparing the voltage on the FB pin with an internal 500 mV reference. When the load current increases, it causes a reduction in the feedback voltage relative to the reference leading the error amplifier to raise the ITH voltage until the average inductor current matches the new load current. When the top power switch turns off, the synchronous power switch turns on until the next clock cycle begins or, in pulseskipping mode, inductor current falls to zero. If overload conditions result in excessive current flowing through the bottom switch, the next clock cycle will be delayed until switch current returns to a safe level. If the EN pin is low, the LTC3309A is shut down and in a low quiescent current state. When the EN pin is abo ve its threshold, the switching regulator will be enabled.

Figure 3. The LTC3309A application schematic delivering 6 A at 1.2 V from a 2.25 V to 5 V input. Since the LTC3309A uses a constant frequency, peak currentmode control architecture, it can provide fast transient response with minimal output capacitance. A 500 mV reference allows for low voltage outputs, while 100% duty cycle operation delivers low dropout. Other features include a power good signal when the output is in regulation, precision enable threshold, output overvoltage protection, thermal shutdown, a temperature monitor, clock synchronization, mode selection, and output short-circuit protection. The device is available in acompact 12-lead, 2 mm × 2 mm LQFN package. Conclusion There can be no doubt that the system designers of portable and wireless medical monitoring devices used for in-home patient health monitoring purposes face daunting design challenges. These include the multiple constraints that they must accommodate, many of which seem to be mutually exclusive. Examples are both thermally and space-constrained enclosures, as well as being able to transmit data without interference or interruption. Fortunately, thanks to Analog Devices’ recent introductions of the LTC3309A and LTC4041, the designer has viable solutions to meet the demands for small, compact, and thermally efficient solutions that will fit into portable equipment form factors. About the Author Tony Armstrong was the product marketing director for Analog Devices’ Power by Linear Product Group. He was responsible for all aspects of the power conversion and management products from their introduction through obsolescence. Prior to joining ADI, Tony held various positions in marketing, sales and operations at Linear Technology, Siliconix Inc., Semtech Corp., Fairchild Semiconductors, and Intel. He attained a B.S. (Honors) in applied mathematics from the University of Manchester, England. Tony retired in spring 2020. Engage with the ADI technology experts in our online support community. Ask your tough design questions, browse FAQs, or join a conversation.


Part 1

JUNE 2020

What You Need To Know About 5G Contributed By -

element14 is a Community of over 700,000 makers, professional engineers, electronics enthusiasts, and everyone in between. Since our beginnings in 2009, we’ve provided a place to discuss electronics, get help with your designs and projects, show off your skills by building a new prototype, and much more. We also offer online learning courses such as our Essentials series, video tutorials from element14 presents, and electronics competitions with our Design Challenges. Radio technologies have evolved over the recent decades, from early analog cellular systems to 4G LTE. And now, with 5G or fifth-generation wireless technology, we will see higher speed, lower latency, and the ability to connect several devices simultaneously. This eBook will discuss the basic concepts of 5G, the 1G to 5G evolution, a comparison between different generations of cellular technology, and more. We hope you will find this guide to 5G useful.

5G

element14 Community Team

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Radio technologies began a rapid, multidirectional evolution with the launch of analog cellular systems in the 1980s. Wireless communication technology evolved at a fast clip over subsequent years via research and innovation. The 1990s witnessed the invention of the 2G Global System for Mobile (GSM), which later evolved into the 4G Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A) system, and then 5G a few years later. 5G, or fifth-generation wireless technology, is the latest iteration of cellular technology. Three main features characterize 5G: Higher speed, lower latency, and the ability to connect several devices simultaneously. 5G technology finds use in diverse industries such as manufacturing, utilities, agriculture, retail, financial services, healthcare, transportation, and more. This eBook describes what you should know about 5G, its basic concepts, the 1G to 5G evolution, a comparison between different generations of cellular technology, and potential 5G applications.

The trend of users having constant and ubiquitous mobile connectivity to an existing network is growing. Activity data and IoT control commands are uploaded, funneling a massive reporting of uplink data flow. Massive machine-to-machine (M2M) communication and critical M2M communication are key functions in industry and service delivery operations.

Since the population of Internet-connected devices is anticipated to surpass hundreds of billions in the 2020s, the offload of networked data on unlicensed bands will play a pivotal role in network load balancing, offering guaranteed bit rate services and reducing control signaling. It is thus vital that 5G offers seamless compatibility with dense heterogeneous networks, to satisfy the insatiable demand of real-time traffic so that end-users can reliably connect to their network. Fifth-generation wireless (5G), as the name implies, is fifthgeneration wireless technology, engineered to increase the responsiveness and speed of wireless networks. 5G subscribers

•Vol - 02 / 06

CHAPTER 2 BASIC CONCEPTS The 21st century is the “connected” century; the Internet of Things (IoT), together with integrated and intelligent sensor systems, augmented with in-home sensor networks, are influencing the subscriber’s quality of life.

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will enjoy faster downloads and greater network reliability. Data transmission through 5G wireless broadband connections happens at blinding speeds, over 20 Gbps by some estimates. The numbers surpass wireline network speeds, and also provide a latency of 1 ms or even lower for specific uses that need realtime feedback (latency refers to the time consumed by devices to mutually respond over wireless networks). 5G makes possible a drastic rise in data amounts transmitted over wireless

Part 1

systems, due to more accessible bandwidth and innovative antenna technology. These 5G networks are powered by mmWave (millimeter-wave) technology. 5G connectivity enables businesses to be superefficient. Consumers can quickly access a huge quantity of information. Connected autonomous cars, immersive education, and industrial IoT are only three products and services which could utilize 5G.

5G

CHAPTER 3 HOW 5G WORKS As the generations of cellular telecommunications have evolved, each iteration has brought its own improvements. 5G is no exception.

■ First-generation (1G): These were analog phones, and historically the first cellular phones to be used. They offered basic, low-level security, and were spectrum inefficient. ■ Second-generation (2G): These incorporated digital technology and had comparatively better security, spectrum efficiency, and multiple new features, like low data rate communications and text messages. ■ Third generation (3G): This technology provided early highspeed data rates. The base technology was improved to permit data-speeds up to 14 Mbps and more. ■ Fourth generation (4G): This IP-centric technology offers data rates to a maximum of 1 Gbps.

•Vol - 02 / 06

5G cellular technology is a substantial improvement over these earlier generations. It eliminates all previous drawbacks, like an absence of coverage, reduced performance at cell edges, and dropped calls. 5G assures enhanced coverage and connectivity.

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CHAPTER 4 5G NETWORK ARCHITECTURE The fifth-generation (5G) mobile systems model is an all-IP centric mobile and wireless network interoperability model. This All-IP Network (AIPN) can satisfy burgeoning cellular communications market demands. The AIPN employs packet switching, and its continual improvement offers optimized cost and performance. The 5G Network Architecture is an asse blage of a user terminal and multiple autonomous, independent, radio access technologies (RATs), which all radio access technologies can use. All IP-centric mobile services and applications in 5G Network Architecture, such as mobile health care, mobile portals,

5G technology has introduced advances in network architecture. The 5G New Radio is regarded as the international standard for a better 5G wireless air interface, and encompasses spectrums unused in 4G. The new antennas include massive MIMO (multiple inputs, multiple outputs) technologies that make it possible for several receivers and transmitters to simultaneously transfer huge quantities of data. 5G technology, however, is not restricted to New Radio. It reinforces a converged and heterogeneous network combining both unlicensed and licensed wireless technologies. This adds bandwidth for users. 5G improves digital experiences via machine-learning-aided automation. The demand for fraction of a second response times (self-driving cars being a good example) compels 5G networks to develop automation with machine learning (ML) and, in the longer run, artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning (DL). Active management and automated provisioning of services and traffic improve the connected experience, and also reduce infrastructure costs. mobile commerce, mobile government, and mobile banking are piped through Cloud Computing Resources (CCR). Cloud computing is a model for on-demand network access to multiple configurable computing resources like networks, services, servers, storage, and applications. Consumers take advantage of cloud computing to use applications without installing them, and they can access personal data present within any computer connected to the Internet. The CCR connects Reconfigurable Multi-Technology Core (RMTC) to remote reconfiguration data from the RRD attached to the Reconfiguration Data models (RDM). RMTC’s principal challenge is to manage the growing number


Part 1

JUNE 2020

The advanced features of 5G technology include: ■ Architecture is device-centric, cloud-based, distributed, and programmable ■ Greater data rates, reduced battery consumption, and CHAPTER 5 5G REQUIREMENTS All 5G developments follow the mobile communication specifications as defined by the ITU component of IMT2020 The 5G standards are summarized as follows:

reduced infrastructure cost development ■ Better connectivity independent of location, and bigger population of supporting devices ■ Uses remote management, enabling the user to get a faster and better solution ■ Speed of upload and download is blazingly fast ■ Provides high resolution for heavy cell phone users and also bi-directional large bandwidth shaping ■ Provides a transporter class gateway with unmatched consistency The changeover from 4G to 5G means numerous transformational challenges. Challenges are inherent in the new technologies that enable 5G, like integrating this technology to provide services in diverse application scenarios. 5G has been criticized for its high cost and its incompatibility with previous generations. Similar to 2G phones failing to connect to 3G or 4G networks, the 3G and 4G phones cannot cross-pollinate the 5G network. A user is forced to procure a new phone, which (in all probability) is pricier than a 4G/LTE compatible one. The cellular architecture must also undergo a radical design change to solve these challenges. To perform, the 5G ecosystem requires femtocells, green communications, longer battery life, stringent latency, and network scalability. The challenge lies in not only satisfying such exacting requirements, but also to achieve the simultaneous minimization of costs. needed for the newly launched radio access network. The system uses flexible technology to respond to fluid mobile subscriber requirements depending on whether they are heavy data users, or a small IoT node.

5G

of different radio access technologies. The core is a confluence of radio, nanotechnology, and cloud computing and radio, based on the AIPN Platform. The core varies its communication functions depending on the status of that network along with user demands. The RMTC is connected to various radio access technologies ranging from 2G/GERAN, 3G/UTRAN, and 4G/EUTRAN to 802.11x WLAN, and 802.16x WMAN. A few other standards are also qualified, such as IS/95, EV- DO and CDMA2000, among others. Both RMTC and terminal take advantage of interoperable mechanisms and process criteria to select from heterogeneous access systems.

SUGGESTED 5G WIRELESS PERFORMANCE Peak data rate Connection Density Mobility Energy Efficiency Spectral Efficiency Real-world Data Rate Latency

SUGGESTED PERFORMANCE A minimum of 20Gbps downlink and 10Gbps uplink for every mobile base station. The rate signifies a 20-fold increase on downlink over LTE. At a minimum, 1 million connected devices every square kilometer (for enabling IoT support). From 0km/hour to "500km/hour high speed vehicular" access. The 5G spec demands energy-efficient radio interfaces under load, but they must also quickly drop into low energy mode when unused. Describes a 30 bits/Hz downlink and 15 bits/Hz uplink assuming 8x4 MIMO (8 spatial layers down, 4 spatial layers up). This spec "only" requests 100Mbps for every user download speed and a 50Mbps upload speed. In ideal circumstances, 5G networks must provide users only 4ms maximum latency compared to 20ms for LTE.

The 5G mobile cellular communications system is a tectonic shift in the mobile communications network space. A brand new radio access network and a new core network underlie its exemplary performance. 5G New Radio (5G NR): The new name “5G new radio” is given to the 5G radio access network. It has different elements

5G NextGen Core Network: Although the 5G initial deployments use the core LTE network or possibly even the 3G networks, the objective is to employ a new network that can manage massive data volumes and offer substantially reduced latency levels.

•Vol - 02 / 06

PARAMETER

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RPA Big Story

JUNE 2020

•Vol - 02 / 06

Our Robots Can be Customized from Distance

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Robotics has become a basic need for our generation. Nowadays everybody is keen to have advance technology. In fact many countries prefer robots instead of humans for their work. Without robotics many of Europe’s successful manufacturing industries would not be able to compete from their current European bases of operation. Kerala based ASIMOV Robotics Pvt Ltd is one of the companies in India, which totally focuses on robotics/automation needs. It provides engineering products solutions and consultancy in the areas like robotic simulation and control, machine-vision, training, virtual reality, and navigation applications. Jayakrishnan Thrivikraman Nair, CEO, ASIMOV Robotics Pvt Ltd in an exclusive interaction with Nitisha Dubey shares his company’s speciality and its unique products which make it different from others.


RPA Big Story

JUNE 2020

. Can you please explain your company and its offerings? We Provide engineering solutions and consultancy in the areas like robotic simulation and control, machine-vision, training, virtual reality, and navigation applications. Product: SAYABOT Sayabot is a service robot platform developed by ASIMOV robotics that has a wide array of capabilities that makes it work seamlessly in airports, hotels, hospitals, education & training institutes, corporate offices, banks and pretty much any human environment. Sayabot effortlessly navigates in indoor spaces using its autonomous navigation capabilities .Using NLP (Natural Language Processing) it can intelligently converse with humans through voice and text. Dexterous arms and hands enable Sayabot to perform a lot of human-like gestures and interactions . Through face and gesture recognition and other biometric recognition, Sayabot can perform many behaviour-influenced interactions. Sayabot can be interfaced with the Cloud making it ideal interface for user data collection and data analytics.

Product: KARMI-Bot ASIMOV Robotics has come-up with newly designed robotic platform, KARMI-Bot to support the health workers from getting infected inside the quarantine zone. KARMI-Bot is a very practical and capable of autonomously navigating inside the isolation ward to transport and dispense food and medical supplies for patients under care. The robot can engage the patients as well as initiate video conferencing between patients and the human caregiver from a remote location. They are capable of disinfecting the used items during the return journey to home station. Product: Chhaya Chhaya is non-mobile humanoid robot torso with silicone prosthetics. It’s capabilities & functionalities are primarily to assist people by answering queries, providing information & customer engagement through arm movements and/or ultrarealistic active human face with silicon prosthetics and emotion synthesis

•Vol - 02 / 06

Q

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JUNE 2020

Q

. What are the main sectors which your company is focusing on? Our main focus is Medical and healthcare. However, our robots are able to be customized for hospitality, security, retail, etc.

Q

RPA Big Story

. What is the USP of your company and your business models to be viable in the market? The team has 14+ years of experience in advanced robotics and have provided solutions to many internationally reputed clients including US, Canadian and Japanese defense, space and nuclear organizations. Our service robot platforms are highly customizable with a wide array of capabilities that makes it work seamlessly alongside with human beings. Our products can be managed and maintained from distance. We provide both robotic project as well as services of robots through subscription.

Q

. Your flagship product in this domain? SAYBOT Humanoid robot

Q

. What are your future plans for making Robotics technology more successful? With the current focus on medical and healthcare ASIMOV robotics is planning to scale-up the manufacturing of our robots to be able to supply the increasing demand in India and abroad

Q

•Vol - 02 / 06

. Please explain the impact of automation and robotics in Indian businesses. Robots will no longer remain confined to industrial applications. It already started becoming a part and parcel of our life. Requirements from services, military and space applications will grow in importance. More robotics will be used in medical applications. More floors will be swept; more lawns mowed by robots, more planets will be explored. The growth in service robotics is estimated as above 60% by 2025. In India this market is early stage or still need to be established. However because of the new normal due to the pandemic Covid19, automation will be getting highly significant in the coming years even in India.

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Q

. What will be your marketing strategy for making your offerings more successful? Can’t be disclosed at this point of time.

Q

. Lastly, trends you expect shaping the Automation and robotics sector? This is the time of fourth industrial revolution. New age industrial robots, play a pivotal role in Industry 4.0 revolution. During the last decade, the evolution of robotic capabilities was exponential. Robots have become more efficient, customizable, assistive, collaborative and multi-purpose, safer and have contributed immense value to manufacturing and service sectors. Advancement in IoT and AI work as cartelists to this. The impact of digital labour is not only helps the manufacturing process automation but also supports research and development in transforming ideas and concepts in to reality. 3D printers are a good example to this.


JUNE 2020

Advanced Energy’s Trek New Electrostatic Voltage Sensor Advanced Energy announces the new Trek Model 875 Electrostatic Voltage Sensor is now available. Unlike other electrostatic voltage sensors on the market today, the Model 875 can perform electrostatic monitoring without touching the product being measured and is insensitive to distance (within the specified range). Features: • Model 875 to monitor electrostatic charge in a continuously moving production process. • It is unique in being packaged in an industry standard 35mm width DIN rail enclosure.

Applications: For the manufacturing of many products.

Availability: Available Now

Industry’s First Software Configurable Industrial I/O Product

Features: • Enable flexible control systems to be designed with reconfigurable module channels quickly, easily, and remotely without requiring extensive re-wiring.

Applications: Building control and process automation

Availability: Available Now

Artesyn Embedded Power Open Rack Version 3 Power Shelf

New Launch

Analog Devices (ADI) releases industry’s first Software Configurable Input/Output (I/O) product line for building control and process automation, allowing manufacturers and industrial operators to achieve greater control system flexibility while reducing their own product complexities.

Advanced Energy has recently announced its Artesyn Embedded Power product group is introducing a new Open Compute Project Open Rack version 3 (OCP ORv3) power shelf, designed to support the move to 48-volt data center infrastructure. Features: • Create a common power platform for multiple customers across deployments, increasing adoption and creating economies of scale to benefit the whole OCP community.

Applications: Data center racks.

Availability: The launch of the new ORV3 power shelf was aligned with the OCP Virtual Summit, from May 12 to 15, 2020.

Dialog Semiconductor Presents a New SDK

Features: • Highly accurate and reliable distance measurement capabilities to its DA1469x family of BLE SoCs.

Applications: Distance Measurement Capabilities.

Availability: Available Now

•Vol - 02 / 06

Dialog Semiconductor has recently announced a new Wireless Ranging (WiRa) Software Development Kit (SDK).

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RPA Perspective

JUNE 2020

The

•Vol - 02 / 06

Future will See More RPA Acceptance

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Nowadays, whenever we see some latest version of our phone applications or accessories we eager to go and buy that products, because everybody knows that it will be more accessible and advance. As technology developing day by day, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has also become a part of it. The benefits of successful RPA are many – cost savings, freeing up staff for work that requires a higher skill-set, improving customer experience and the bottom-line. RPA also helps companies operate with very few people or when there is a shortage of labour. Gurugram based company, RPATech is one of the leading Robotic Process Automation services providers. Already rated among the best automation leaders by industry analysts. Alok Mani Tripathi, Founder & CEO, RPATech during an interview with Nitisha Dubey shares the importance and future of RPA industry in India.


JUNE 2020

Q

. Which sectors are more moving towards using RPA? The adoption of RPA in India is in the early stages, so far banking and financial services, healthcare, manufacturing and telecom industry are top adaptors of this technology. However, due to the pandemic situation all industries and verticals will be bound to adapt RPA for seamless production & services.

Q

. Challenges and Scopes in the Indian Market? Organizations in India encounter issues identifying the processes that need to be automated, here RPATech can help with their proprietary Framework which they call D3OSM. The first D stands for Discover at this stage RPATech team helps organizations to identify the processes which can be automated. After the process identification, a team of Solution Architect designs the solution, which is the second D called the Design phase. Post designing the Developer teams develop Bot on tools like UiPath, Automation Anywhere (as per the customer’s choice). The last O is for Optimization, where the RPATech team continues monitoring Deployed Bot and advising about how it can be utilized to the fullest. The major focus is on the Discovery and Optimization part to deliver managed services around RPA and automation. The company comprises of experts with rich experience in Six Sigma & RPA, who help to virtualize the workforce in a timeefficient manner. The RPATech team is also adept at UiPath, and Automation Anywhere software. Scope: As RPA continues to flourish, India is in a fantastic place to rise as a front runner in the industry's system, and to significantly profit from this chance. RPA is one of the eight technology identified in a survey by NASSCOM and the Boston Consulting Group, as part of the “Future Skills” platform. Large IT services organizations in India are using RPA to reduce delivery costs and to deliver benefits to their customers; captives of global firms that have increased through data-centered

process management and have now had to reduce costs in order to guarantee optimal cost structures. The strong adoption of the RPA in Indian companies is anticipated.

Q

. Latest trends in the RPA sector? "Latest" to "Future" Coming years can witness a high number of RPA offerings from new entrants. RPA solution providers who can deliver short term tactical solutions, as well as support to long term strategic growth of businesses, can expect more demand in the market. Customers will incline towards no-code RPA solutions that do not ask for a significant overhaul of business processes. RPA Solutions that require extensive coding and deployment efforts require high cost, which goes against the general business maxim of saving costs wherever possible. Therefore, businesses will naturally gravitate towards solutions that are cost-effective, faster to implement, and generates revenue quickly. Understanding about RPA applicability in business processes can increase as well. At present, only a few sectors are able to utilize RPA solutions, and that too, with limited success. The external environment is changing for businesses who were content with their existing processes. Solely depending on legacy work processes and only on human resources is less profitable and cumbersome to manage. Therefore, the future will see the acceptance of RPA in more business sectors and processes.

Q

. Your Expertise? Having a good understanding of the business expectations and the market needs, RPATech is positioned in this segment providing pure-play RPA solutions, takes pride in it and its expert knowledge of the domain. The company has solely focused itself on providing RPA technology to its business clients. The company has solely focused itself on providing RPA technology to its business clients. The company is fully invested in RPA, which derives natural language processing, computer vision, among other technologies. The company has developed its proprietary tool and methodology MotherBotTM & D3OSM to strengthen its service implementation. RPATech’s proprietary tool MotherBotTM, falling into the category of desktop mining tools, is a self-learning bot maker. Once installed on a system, it starts capturing daily activities of the user for a certain period, post which it prompts with the list of activities that can be automated for him. The MotherBotTM can then further be used to build a bot automatically without the help of a developer or business analyst. The bot can be built on UiPath or Automation Anywhere Platform.

RPA Perspective

. What is driving the RPA market in India? As it has been said desperate times need desperate measures - though old, yet relevant the proverb has forced the need for inventive methods to tackle the existing crisis. Robotic Process Automation is a significant one among them and serving the purpose quite effectively. It is helping the global workforce to respond to the pandemic brilliantly by helping them opt to remote work and create a highly efficient environment for continuous business operations. India is not exceptional, somehow all industries will have to adapt RPA. Due to its upsurging fame, a recent study by a reputed market research company predicted that the RPA market in India is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 20 percent during the forecast period of 2019-2025. The market is driven by accelerating demand to automate business processes leading to increased focus of vendors on developing world-class intelligent automation bots using RPA and AI collaboratively. These RPA enablers reduce human workforce requirements to perform repetitive and mundane tasks and manage a large client base and continuous support from the intelligent bots.

•Vol - 02 / 06

Q

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TECHNOVATORS

JUNE 2020

ROBOGYAAN

– A Team

Roboticizing

Technovators

New India! BIS kicks-off the first-of-its-kind series and initiative named ‘BIS TECHNOVATORS’. In this segment, BIS aims to be a hawk-eye for those companies and firms who are innovating and disrupting in their respective domains using electronics and next-gen technology. In this edition, we bring you the innovative journey of TALLAM SITARAM, (B.tech, TEP/ ISB), Co-Founder & CEO of ROBOGYAAN. ROBOGYAAN for years has been educating children on robotics and other exponential technologies and also has been automating new market verticals through their services and expertise. Niloy gets alongside the man behind the innovation and explores on what makes them the ‘BIS TECHNOVATORS’ for this month.

Q

•Vol - 02 / 06

What exactly do you do?

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Robogyaan was initiated with the motto of educating children on robotics and other exponential technologies. We haven't limited our services to the cities rather explored across the rural areas of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. To do so, we got funding from NATS(North America Telugu Society), the US-Based Nonprofit organization working to create sustainability in Telugu states. Our mission is to leverage the engineering skills and motivate professionals interested in robotics and niche technologies. Robogyaan, is a platform that brings experts, technicians, and allied professionals together to solve social problems through constructive interventions of technology and youth mobilization. We want to build a potential organization that solves social problems and changes the way we live. And also we help students in rising spirits towards innovation, technology and entrepreneurship. We contribute ourselves in a mission to ‘Transform the Education’ in India. We the group of emerging engineers who know well about the insufficiency, requirements and essential needs of the

TALLAM SITARAM students, have resolved to undertake workshops in schools at their convenient timings to counsel and guide the young ones, by explaining to them what they can do and how they can bring Laurels not only to their parents but also to their nation. We try to install practical and technical knowledge through hands-on sessions to raise the spirits of the students such that they can spin around and inspire others. Robogyaan specializes in providing experimental and interactive learning solutions through different modes of learning.

Q

What makes Robogyaan’s idea unique and leverages market sense?

We have a strong core team that can build a prototype to any idea that comes into the student's brain. We have developed few rapid prototyping kits which motivate children. Robogyaan


JUNE 2020

Making yourselves relevant and the growth stature?

I Sitaram tallam with my friend Sadu Sai Saandeep started an NGO named as ‘SCHOOLRONICS’ at the age of 18. Later, we formed a business organization i.e. ‘ROBOGYAAN’. Initially, we were only an educational company, having passion towards technology and flaunting problems solving skills. These qualities helped us attract different fundings for various socio-economic projects. Within 2 years, we were able to manage financial complexions. We were into vast areas of interest and developed a potential corporate network in a very short time.

What is your current offering and its USP?

To make it simple, As of now, we have 3 projects in our hand. Slowly, we are changing from a service-based company to a product based company. In future, we could offer a product with value-added service offerings. We were also focusing to improve international networks with the hope of opportunities. 5. What is your revenue mix as of now? Being a startup, from past 2 years, we were mainly concentrating on sales rather than revenue. In the FY 19-20, we have done workshops with 23 prestigious education institutions and sold kits and electronics worth of 15 lakhs to the electronic shops and schools.

Q

What motivates & keeps you going?

Being the founders (Sitaram tallam, Sadu Sai Saandeep ), we are passionate about driving the organization and create sustainable profits, we are entrepreneurs by heart and not by words. So, self-motivation is the key which helps us driving ahead. I also spend some time reading stories of successful entrepreneurs which gives enough motivation. Dr. Hafeez Basha (Advisor- UPSC, AIM-Mentor- NITI-Aayog) helped us a lot in networking to keep going. Our team really feels happy to have mentors like Dr. Hafeez Basha, C.V.Mahesh Kumar (COO, Orbit Shifters).

Technovators

Q

Q

•Vol - 02 / 06

has a team with knowledge on diversified fields which acts as a unique proposition when compared to others. Recently, we started mentoring children in Atal tinkering labs which made us more unique. After corona pandemic situations we started working on PPE (personal protecting kits) for doctors and contributed ourselves to society. Robogyaan also observed the problem at chicken stalls during weekends and resolved to make things digitalize and started an online chicken home delivery system. We were also working smart starters (mobile operated starter motors in farms) for farmers in collaboration with Kaanthi with the financial support, technical mentorship from IEEE. We have also developed low-cost home automation technology which is ready to go to market after few fundings. All these problem-solving skills, thinking out of the box make us unique from others.

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JUNE 2020

HOLTEK BM5602-60-1 2.4GHz Transceiver Module Holtek releases its new 2.4GHz RF module, the BM5602-60-1, the design of which is based on the BC5602 2.4GHz GFSK transceiver device.

Features: • Matching circuit and a trace antenna. • he RF characteristics are fully compliant with ETSI/ FCC specifications. • The BC5602 has frequency hopping function.

Applications: Smart homes, industrial/agricultural controllers, etc.

Availability: Available Now

New Launch

Infineon Three Devices in D²PAK 7pin+ package Infineon Technologies complements its StrongIRFET 40-60 V MOSFET product family with the addition of three new devices in D²PAK 7pin+ package. These new components offer extremely low RDS(on) and high current-carrying capability, which increases both robustness and reliability for high-power-density applications that require high efficiency. Features: Availability: Applications: • The package is optimized to hold a die with an increased Battery-powered Available Now area of up to 20 percent while sharing the same footprint and applications including, pinout as a standard D²PAK 7pin. battery-powered tools, • The new D²PAK 7pin+ package expands on an already large battery management variety of StrongIRFET packages. systems, and low-voltage drives.

ROHM New Automotive Monolithic LED Driver IC ROHM announces the development of an ultra-compact high output linear LED driver IC (BD18336NUF-M) that provides stable lighting even in the event of battery voltage drops on a single chip, making it ideal for a broad range of socket-type LED lamps used in vehicle systems, from DRLs (Daytime Running Lamps) and position lighting to rear lamps. Features: • New LED driver IC that enables mounting in ultra-compact socket-type LED lamp circuits while ensuring stable lighting even during drop in battery voltage.

Applications: Broad range of socket-type LED lamps used in vehicle systems, from DRLs (Daytime Running Lamps) and position lighting to rear lamps.

Availability: Available Now

Xilinx Industry’s First 20nm Space-Grade FPGA

•Vol - 02 / 06

Xilinx announces industry’s first 20-nanometer (nm) space-grade FPGA, delivering full radiation tolerance and ultra-high throughput and bandwidth performance for satellite and space applications.

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Features: • The new 20nm Radiation Tolerant (RT) Kintex UltraScale XQRKU060 FPGA provides true unlimited on-orbit reconfiguration, over a10x increase in digital signal processing (DSP) performance – ideal for payload applications – and full radiation tolerance across all orbits.

Applications: Satellite and space applications.

Availability: Available Now




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