Madhukar Tripathi

TEST & MEASUREMENT “Testing Consumer Electronics” Under Test And Measurement

Madhukar Tripathi

Head-MARCOM & OPTICAL PRODUCTS at Anritsu India Pvt. Ltd

An introduction to Consumer Electronics & Market Trend:

Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic (analog or digital) equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment, communications and recreation. Some of the most popular consumer electronics are, Smartphone, TV, Radio, Smart Watch and similar wearables, Video Game consoles, Bluetooth speakers, Set Top Box (STB), Music System, Camera, Laptop, Tablets, PC etc. Consumer electronics industry has largely merged with the software industry in what is increasingly referred to as the consumerization of information technology. This is enabling new customer experience and customer expectation has increased – better customer experience and better-quality products.

*According to IBEF, Indian appliance and consumer electronics (ACE) market reached Rs. 76,400 crore (US$ 10.93 billion) in 2019. Appliances and consumer electronics industry is expected to double to reach Rs. 1.48 lakh crore (US$ 21.18 billion) by 2025.

*National Policy targets production of one billion mobile handsets by 2025. Production linked incentives (PLI) are being provided to companies to establish manufacturing plants in India.

All these data show India is emerging as big market and ready for consumer electronics production hub. In order to meet time bound production and good quality product, test and measurement will play an important role.

Smartphone Testing:

A smartphone or mobile phone undergoes various testing right from design/ R&D phase to components integration and then final assembly testing or final QA before packing and dispatch from factory.

Mobile phone testing can be divided in to 2 major parts (A) Functional Testing (B) Non-Functional Testing

Functional Testing is a type of black box testing whereby each part of the system is tested against functional specification/ requirements. Functional testing verifies that the software performs its stated functions in a way that the users expect. The process of functional testing involves a series of tests: Smoke, Sanity, Integration, Regression, Interface, System and finally User Acceptance Testing

Further in mobile production zone following types of testing is carried:

• mobile application testing • hardware testing • battery (charging) testing • signal receiving • network testing • protocol testing • mobile games testing • mobile software compatibility testing

Non-functional testing includes:

• Security. • Accessibility. • Performance and availability. • API testing.

Sometimes local government regulation requires specific testing to be mandated and many mobile service providers also have specific provision for mobile testing before this is launched in market. These testing are referred as certification testing. SAR Testing is one of them. Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) testing is the radiofrequency (RF) dosimetry quantification of

the magnitude and distribution of absorbed electromagnetic energy within biological objects that are exposed to RF fields. These levels are expressed as watts per kilogram (W/kg). Every manufacturer must specify SAR value for each model.

Smartphone Production Challenges

Today's smartphones use 3G and 4G/LTE and 5G cellular wireless technologies with MIMO antennas for faster data transfer rates. With more RF components, smartphone manufacturers need more calibration and testing. As well as meeting the need for faster data communications, the fusion of cellular wireless and connectivity wireless technology is essential to smartphones. In implementing connectivity wireless, the module maker tests the connectivity wireless technology when the smartphone vendor purchases connectivity wireless modules for their smartphone. However, when implementing both cellular wireless and connectivity wireless in one chipset or when mounting a connectivity wireless chipset on-board (CoB: Chip on Board), the smartphone manufacturing vendor tests the connectivity wireless technology.

The many RF components and wireless technologies to test complicate the calibration of the test system by adding splitters and switches and control software. In addition, the many wireless technologies to test increase production costs through additional investment in test equipment at production ramp-up. In future smartphone manufacturing, a key issue in adapting to multiple wireless technologies is how to simplify test systems and cut production costs.

Key Testing Parameters:

Testing of Mobile parameters are performed according to various standards such as 3GPP, IEEE etc. today handset supports multiple wireless technologies and interfaces. Below picture gives an idea about various wireless technologies incorporated in one mobile handset.

Anritsu Solution to Smartphone Manufacturing Test:

Wireless Test Set to expedite mobile handset manufacturing testing. MT8872A have below features • One module supporting multiple wireless standards Supported standards: 5G NR sub-6GHz, LTE/LTE-Advanced, LTE-V2X, NB-IoT, Cat-M, W-CDMA/HSPA, TD-SCDMA, GSM/ EDGE, CDAM2000/1xEV-DO, WLAN 802.11a/b/g/n/p(V2X)/ ac/ax, Bluetooth v5.0, ZigBee, Z-Wave, FM/RDS, GPS/Galileo/ GLONASS/BeiDou/QZSS, DVB-H, ISDB-T/ISDB-Tmm • Built-in audio analyzer/audio generator • Simultaneous Measurement of Two Devices with Direct Connection of up to 12 Device Antennas

Installing two test units in the MT8872A main unit supports simultaneous parallel measurement of up to two connected devices under test. Since the number of antennas in wireless communications devices is increasing to facilitate more wireless communication methods, each installed MU887002A test unit supports connection of up to 12 antennas to greatly simplify the test setup

Two TRX Test Modules can be used to measure multiple wireless technologies in one wireless device or module. The multiple antennas for the various wireless technologies in the wireless device or module are connected all at one time to execute measurements in parallel, greatly reducing the problems of moving smartphones between test stations and re-booting time for smartphone.

Conclusion:

Testing plays an important and crucial role in success of consumer electronics be it smartphone or laptop or printer or digital camera or smartwatches. Todays customers are demanding better high-quality products and manufactures have pressure to deliver product in market in less time. Therefore, less testing time, cost and energy efficient, future proof test instruments are demand of today manufacturers.

References:

*Source-www.ibef.org ** www.anritsu.com

Conserve battery power in HEV/EVs with automatic host reverse wakeup

Deepak Uppal

System Engineer, Texas Instruments

As more vehicles become electrified, the need to achieve the highest levels of functional safety with high-accuracy battery monitoring is paramount. Yet to improve battery-monitoring accuracy, the vehicle’s battery management system must work efficiently in real time to monitor the performance of the individual battery cells within.

In typical hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) and electric vehicle (EV) configurations, the battery management unit (BMU) is powered from a 12-V battery. This battery remains on even when the car is parked or turned off, in order to support features like remote key entry, security and battery monitoring. When the car is parked, to ensure proper health of the battery, the microcontroller (MCU) has to periodically wake up to look for faults in high-voltage battery packs. This periodic wakeup draws current and can prematurely discharge the 12-V battery. Design engineers and automotive manufacturers can now consider a new automatic host reverse wake-up feature that enables the host MCU to be off and rely instead on a supply power-management integrated circuit (PMIC) to remain in low-power mode and conserve 12-V battery power.

Examining a wake-up-at-fault battery design

As illustrated in Figure 1, EV battery packs can stack up to 800 V and beyond to support the demanding loads of the AC motor. These battery packs comprise hundreds of cells stacked together in series. A distributed battery pack system supports high-cell-count packs by connecting multiple highaccuracy battery monitors on separate printed circuit boards called cell sensing units. The BMU board holds the host MCU, its supply (a PMIC or system-basis chip [SBC]) and a communication interface, which links the MCU and battery-monitoring devices on the cell monitoring unit, which then connects to the actual battery cells. A ring connection is supported to reverse the daisy-chain communication direction in the event of cable failure. The host MCU interfaces with the control unit of the vehicle through a Controller Area Network bus. By effectively monitoring each battery cell, an EV’s MCU can ensure the proper operation of all battery cells.

Figure 1: Simplified battery management system diagram

Improving accuracy with TI’s battery monitors and balancers

TI’s BQ79616-Q1 battery monitor, and balancer can continuously monitor the high-voltage battery even in sleep mode. In case

of a fault in the battery, the BQ79616-Q1 transfers the fault information through the daisy-chain configuration to the BQ79600-Q1 communication interface. In turn, the BQ79600-Q1 wakes up and commands the PMIC and MCU to wake up. The MCU does not have to periodically wake up on its own and can instead rely on the BQ79616-Q1 monitor. Thus, the BQ79600-Q1 – along with the BQ79616-Q1 automatic host reverse wake-up feature – allows the MCU to be off and its PMIC to be in lower-power mode, which minimizes current draw on the 12-V battery and conserves battery power.

As illustrated in Figure 2, when the BQ79616-Q1 is in sleep mode, the low-power operation mode, cell overtemperature and under temperature, cell overvoltage and undervoltage, and thermistor overtemperature and under temperature fault detections are still active. Because communication is not available in sleep mode, the device provides an option to transmit the fault status through heartbeat (device in no fault state) and fault (device in fault state) tones.

These tones are transmitted in the same direction as a communication command frame. Unlike communication tones, heartbeat and fault tones are transmitted periodically. The heartbeat and fault tone receivers are always on in sleep mode. For the tone signal to return to the base device (in order to trigger NFAULT), a ring architecture is necessary to support transmitting fault status in sleep mode. Once the BQ79600-Q1 sniffer detects a fault tone, it puts itself into validate mode to check if a true fault exists or not. If a true fault exists, the BQ79600-Q1 triggers the INH pin, a high-voltage output pin that provides voltage to enable the PMIC.

Figure 2: Automatic host reverse wakeup with TI battery monitors and balancers

Conclusion

The BQ79616-Q1 family of battery monitors and balancers supports automatic host reverse wakeup, which enables the host MCU to remain off and its power supply to be in the lowest-power mode while the BQ79600-Q1 monitors for faults coming from stacked battery-monitoring devices. The BQ79600-Q1 wakes up the SBC through the INH pin, which then further wakes up the MCU if the event of an unmasked fault detected by the BQ79600-Q1 or stacked BQ79616-Q1s. This enables the conservation of 12-V battery power and supports functional safety requirements like cell monitoring for overvoltage, undervoltage, overtemperature, under temperature, thermistor overtemperature and thermistor under temperature, even when the EV is parked or turned off.

OpenStack Automation with Ansible

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to provide insight on an alternative approach to provisioning virtual machines aside from VMware. The target audience includes, but is not limited to, software developers who deal with virtual machine automation. Due to the high expense of VMware’s service provider license and its infrastructure that supports vRealize, vCenter, and other tools, we utilized our resources to put together a cost effective, alternative approach that accomplishes the same tasks. Our solution is an approach that makes use of open-source technologies that have DevOps methodologies using Ansible Tower® to interact with OpenStack®, which are implemented via playbooks to provision virtual machines. We integrated this technology in our Cyber Range™ software, described as a case study in this article to prove this methodology a success.

Introduction

Moinul Islam

Analog Devices

This article covers how Ansible Tower is one of the easiest ways to create, deploy, and configure virtual machines from OpenStack using playbooks. System performance, IT automation, deployments of complex systems, and speed productivity are the key criteria in software development in regard to interacting with virtual machines. All these features are available in Ansible Tower, which have REST APIs to easily embed it into existing tools and processes. A secure portal where users can request new IT services and manage specific cloud and IT resources can be achieved using Ansible Tower as an open-source tool for automating application deployment and upgrades, as well as the configuration of software for networking and security.

Why Ansible?

Ansible® is a simple automation tool that can perfectly describe an IT application infrastructure. It’s easy-to-learn, self-documenting, and doesn’t require a grad-level computer science degree to read. Automation shouldn’t be more complex than the tasks it’s replacing. ► Simple ■ Human readable automation ■ No special coding skills needed ■ Tasks executed in order ■ Become productive quickly ► Powerful ■ App deployment ■ Configuration management ■ Workflow orchestration ■ Orchestrate the app life cycle ► Agentless ■ Agentless architecture ■ Uses OpenSSH and WinRM ■ No agents to exploit or update ■ Predictable, reliable, and secure

What Is Ansible Tower?

Ansible Tower is a web-based user interface for managing Ansible. It centralizes and controls Ansible infrastructure with a visual dashboard. It can be referred to as the hub for automation tasks.

Ansible Tower

► Web-based user interface for managing Ansible ► Centralizes and controls Ansible infrastructure with a visual dashboard ► Provides REST API for Ansible ► Ansible ■ Is an open-source automation tool ■ Designed to be easy for anyone to understand and learn ■ Does not require custom scripting or code ■ Provides automation engine ■ Manages networks, infrastructure, operating systems ■ Provides prebuilt modules for managing and configuring of hosts (over 450) ■ Provides an API based on Python® ■ Uses OpenSSH ■ Provides automation and orchestration through playbooks.

What Is OpenStack?

OpenStack is a cloud operating system that controls large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources throughout a data center, all managed through a dashboard that gives administrators control while empowering their users to provision resources through a web interface. It is an open-source project that provides an infrastructure-as-a-service platform to build cloud-aware applications, and it supports multiple hypervisors for provisioning and orchestrating the cloud. It can run multi-tier workloads or open-source development tools. End users can easily provision resources and support almost all the hypervisors including VMware ESXi, Xen, and KVM.

Why OpenStack?

OpenStack easily integrates with Ansible Tower, VMware hypervisor, and Hyper-V to utilize existing infrastructure. OpenStack and KVM hypervisor are free, but require configuration by skilled administrators. OpenStack is an opensource platform for deploying, developing, and building cloud platforms. It is a command line interface and it is powerful, with administration, APIs, and RESTful web services as well as web-based control panel controls. This open-source cloud software is used for managing computing (Nova), block volume storage (Cinder), virtual machine image service (Glance), and networking constructs (Neutron). OpenStack is a foundation that simplifies not only the deployment process, but also the development, storage, networking, monitoring, management, and applications.

OpenStack

► Open source: the technology is supported by a large community of developers ► Provides clients with value, efficiency, and agility ► Comprised of modular, scalable, and flexible set of utilities ► Tried and tested by large businesses ► Interoperability and open-source APIs allow admins to manage hybrid IT environments without the additional overhead layer

Ansible Playbooks

A playbook is a YAML file which describes a list of tasks to be performed against a set of hosts, which are defined in the Ansible inventory. A playbook is made up of one or more plays, which are used to group the tasks. It defines virtual machine names, the VMDK file, networking, IP addresses, and scenario information. Playbooks are the basis for a really simple configuration management and multimachine deployment system. Playbooks can declare configurations, but they can also orchestrate steps of any manual ordered process.

Playbooks

► Define tasks to be performed on hosts ► Tasks are executed in the order in the playbook ► YAML format

Interaction of OpenStack with Ansible

An Ansible playbook defines a series of tasks and configuration on the OpenStack environment. Examples of tasks include provisioning instances of virtual machines, defining the IP of the virtual machines, and a switch to network the virtual machines.

Case Study: Cyber Range a Real-Life Software

The Cyber Range provides customers with an extensible virtualized platform for cyber security training, modeling, simulation, and advanced analytics. We offer our solution to multiple customers which include the U.S. Department of Defense, the Singapore Cyber Security Agency (CSA/SITSA), and the Kyushu University at Japan.

Figure 2. Cyber Range web application interacts with Ansible and OpenStack through REST API. About the Author

Moinul Islam is a software engineer at the Trusted Security Solutions (TSS) Group of Analog Devices in Tampa, Florida. He has 20 years of experience in software engineering, design, and development. He received an M.C.I.S. degree from Cleveland State University, Ohio in 1997. In TSS Group, Moinul focused on the design and development on a product called Sypher Ultra, a security add on to a Xilinx® Zynq® UltraScale+™ device. He is also focused on another project called key management, that integrates with nCipher® hardware security modules. He can be reached at moinul.islam@analog.com.

1. User clicks the start button to start an exercise (hands-on cyber security training). 2. The Cyber Range software calls the training scenario name and user name via the REST API to Ansible Tower using a POST request. 3. Ansible Tower executes the exercise playbook tasks and provides configuration information to OpenStack. This information includes the virtual machine images and networking information. 4. OpenStack provisions the virtual machine image and configures the network. 5. OpenStack returns the status back to Ansible Tower and Ansible Tower returns back the status to the web application. 6. If status is successful, Cyber Range software displays the Windows or Linux icon that enables a hyperlink to open the console.

Summary

With the integration of the Ansible Tower with OpenStack to the Cyber Range software, we are able to build an application that provides on-demand training and real-world scenarios to our customers throughout the globe. The integration with the Ansible REST API with the playbooks has greatly leveraged many of the codes required for provisioning to a more systemized automated process. We can summarize the key point of this article as follows: ► Ansible can automate a variety of IT tasks, including system provisioning, software package installation, network configuration, and security, as well as instance provisioning of a cloud service. ► The approach of using playbooks, which simplify the tasks of orchestrating and configuring the virtual machines, as well deployment of complex scenarios that may contain multiple virtual machines in a custom network, may need to run custom scripts during deployment. ► The unit of the process in which commands are executed one-by-one using a playbook is called task. ► To implement OpenStack automation with Ansible, one needs OpenStack, Ansible, Ansible Tower, and a source control (for example, Git repository).

We recommend Ansible and OpenStack be considered for automation and cloud infrastructure deployment on other cloud projects of Analog Devices.

Alliance Memory Now Reseller of Micron Products

HONGFA Awarded by CCIA

Alliance Memory has recently become an authorized reseller for additional legacy NOR Flash devices from Micron Technology.

In addition to the previously announced M29F 5V Parallel NOR Flash devices, Alliance is now reselling select offerings from Micron's M45PE Serial NOR Flash, the N25Q Serial NOR Flash, the J3 Parallel NOR Flash, and the P30/P33 Parallel NOR Flash families, all of which Micron previously discontinued product change notification #32163 (last time buy: March 2018). Micron is continuing to produce these devices for Alliance Memory and intends to only supply Alliance Memory for any new orders placed through mid-2021.

The Micron-made legacy NOR Flash parts highlighted in the following sections are now available directly from Alliance Memory:

M45PE 3V Serial NOR Flash

Micron's M45PE Series products are 3V page erasable Serial NOR Flash memory devices accessed by the SPI-compatible bus. The memory can be written or programmed 1 byte to 256 bytes at a time using the PAGE WRITE or PAGE PROGRAM commands. China Components Industry Association has recently released the list of China’s TOP 100 electronic components enterprises in 2020 (the 33rd session). With its strong strength in scale, R & D ability and financial situation, Hongfa was honorably listed in the TOP 10, and ranked the eighth among the top 100 electronic components in China, becoming the only enterprise in the relay industry to enter the TOP 10 of the list.

So far, Hongfa has been one of the top 100 electronic components enterprises in China for 26 consecutive years. In 2019, with the global economic downturn, the development of the main downstream application market of electronic components is experiencing a slowdown, even decline. Affected by this, the overall situation in the electronic components industry is not promising.

However, the performance is still commendable for China’s TOP 100 electronic components enterprises in 2020 (the 33rd session). The TOP 100 electronic components enterprises of this year have achieved ¥ 589.9 billion in main business income, ¥ 40.2 billion in total profits, ¥ 16.4 billion in taxes, and provided more than 500 thousand job vacancies.

Indium’s New Approved Jetting Solder Paste

Indium Corporation’s newest jetting solder paste, PicoShot NC-5M, has received official approval from Mycronic as a qualified jetting solder paste.

PicoShot NC-5M and its associated purging gel are designed for customers needing a halogen-free no-clean SAC305 solder paste for their Mycronic jetting systems or add-on and repair modules.

Developed jointly with Mycronic, PicoShot NC-5M is a no-clean, halogen-free solder paste designed to meet the specifications of Mycronic’s MY600/MY700 jetting systems.

PicoShot can be used in standalone applications such as systemin-package (SiP), jetting into cavities, stencil-replacement, shield attach, and microBGA. PicoShot NC-5M’s formulation meets or exceeds:

• ANSI/IPC J-STD-004B ROL0 requirements • Halogen-free requirements per IPC and IEC61249-2-21 standards • IPC standards for SIR and ECM Additionally, PicoShot® NC-5M: • Provides exceptional jetting performance for a halogenfree Pb-free solder paste • Reflows in air or nitrogen (ppm O2 level from 50-1,000) • Has a clear residue with minimal flow-out • Significantly reduces head-in-pillow (HIP) • Eliminates or significantly reduces graping • Minimizes reflow spatter

Ola E-Scooters Powered by ABB

Ola has chosen ABB as one of its key partners for robotics and automation solutions for its megafactory in India that will roll out the much-anticipated Ola electric scooter.

Ola’s scooter megafactory billed to be the world’s largest scooter factory, is expected to be ready and operational in the coming months.

Ola will utilize ABB’s automation solutions in its factory’s key manufacturing process lines, including its painting and welding lines, while the ABB robots will be deployed extensively for the battery and motor assembly lines.

These include ABB’s “IRB 5500” paint and “IRB 2600” Integrated Dressing robots in its painting and welding lines, and “IRB 6700” robots for assembly and material handling in the battery and motor assembly areas.

ABB robots will be digitally integrated into Ola’s AI-enabled mega-factory, to optimize robot performance, productivity and product quality.

The use of ABB’s robots and automation solutions will ensure remote digital connectivity and monitoring of the robots that will ride on Ola’s proprietary AI engine and tech stack.

ADI’s BMS ICs to Power Volvo’s All Electric XC40 SUV

Analog Devices and Volvo Cars have reported that Volvo Cars’ first pure electric SUV—the Volvo XC40 Recharge, will feature ADI’s integrated circuits (ICs) that support the battery management system (BMS) and Automotive Audio Bus (A2B).

ADIBy saving vehicle weight and maximizing range, these advanced technologies deliver an attractive total cost of ownership for electric vehicles while also supporting a sustainable future. “Electric vehicles are the future of Automotive, and the market is growing significantly with up to 10 million fully electric vehicles per year expected by 2025,” said Patrick Morgan, Vice President, Automotive at Analog Devices. “We are committed to continuing delivering innovative technologies with all of our collaborators that lead the Automotive industry to a sustainable future.”

The Volvo XC40 P8 Recharge was a 2021 semi-finalist in the North American Car, Truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year Awards (NACTOY) utility vehicle category. The NACTOY awards honor excellence in innovation, design, safety, handling, driver satisfaction and value. The awards are intended to recognize the most outstanding new vehicles of the year.

ADI’s ICs provide industry-leading accuracy over the life of the vehicle that significantly increases miles per charge and is scalable across the vehicle fleet from hybrid vehicles to fully electric vehicles. The ICs meet the highest global security standards, and scale across multiple battery chemistries, including the zero-cobalt chemistries such as lithium iron phosphate (LFP) that support social and environmental sustainability.

“The BMS performance is critical to the electric XC40 Recharge delivering on its promise of a silent-but-powerful, carbon emission-free, safe driving experience,” said Lutz Stiegler, Solution Manager Electric Propulsion at Volvo Car Corporation. “An extraordinarily high level of thought and research went into every single aspect and component in our first pure electric SUV to ensure more miles per charge, longer vehicle life and peace of mind while lowering the cost of ownership.” ADI’s solutions enable the audio system to be connected into a low-latency bus architecture that guarantees high audio fidelity and saves up to 50 kg of wire and insulation in the vehicle.

This combination is especially important in electric vehicles, such as the XC40 Recharge, as the reduction in weight translates directly to increased range.

Electrolube Applies New Resin Solution for EVs

As the demand of hybrid and electric vehicles are advancing at a rapid pace, a need for effective counter of thermal heat effect on the performance of these electric vehicles has arisen. To tackle this issue, Electrolube has successfully executed a new resin solutions for EV customers that have proven highly successful in solving their heat, performance and protection issues. For issues with securing the battery at the base and ensuring effective heat dissipation away from the battery, Electrolube’s SC4003 is a thixotropic two-part silicone potting and encapsulating resin, initially designed for the Indian market, which was primarily developed for the protection of LED Drivers. However, its properties make it ideally suited for battery protection. The Thermal Conductivity of SC4003 is 1W/mK, which is the highest in the industry for a silicone resin. It has excellent high-temperature properties, suitable for use in applications where the operating temperature will be up to 200°C, while its flexibility allows for temperature cycling. Another key product for battery protection includes the thermal gap filler - GF400. Electrolube’s thermal gap filler, GF400, is a highly effective heat transfer solution, providing excellent thermal performance at 4.0 W/m.K. To seal the battery pack, Electrolube has the ER6001 two-part epoxy encapsulation resin, which has also been developed for the Indian EV market. To achieve prolonged battery life and higher efficiency, Electrolube’s Thermally Conductive Epoxy Potting Compound, ER2221, is a highly thermally conductive resin with low viscosity, ideal for potting cells within electric vehicle batteries.

New Motor Driver Launched for MHEVs

Texas Instruments (TI) has released a highly integrated Grade 0 brushless DC (BLDC) motor driver for 48-V high-power motor control systems, such as traction inverters and starter generators in mild hybrid electric vehicles (MHEVs).

The DRV3255-Q1 can help designers shrink their motor system size by as much as 30% while providing the industry’s highest gate-drive current for increased protection and output power.

Meeting the most stringent safety requirements, the new motor driver was designed according to TI’s TÜV SÜD-certified functional safety development process, helping enable up to Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL) D.

To help decrease greenhouse gas emissions globally, automobile manufacturers are increasing the production of MHEVs, which use 48-V motor-drive systems to help reduce emissions from a vehicle’s internal combustion engine.

The TI Functional Safety-Compliant DRV3255-Q1 allows manufacturers to design a motor-drive system to help enable MHEV systems up to ASIL D, supplying as much as 30 kW of motor power which can improve the response time of a 48-V motor-drive system in heavy vehicles.

The DRV3255-Q1 is the industry’s first three-phase, 48-V BLDC motor driver to integrate high- and low-side active short-circuit logic, which eliminates external transistors and control logic. By integrating the active short-circuit logic and dynamic fault response, the new motor driver enables designers to not only simplify their designs but also supply as much as 30 kW of motor power while reducing board space and bill-of-materials cost in 48-V motor-drive systems.

MediaTek New M80 5G Modem

MediaTek has released its new M80 5G modem which combines mmWave and sub-6 GHz 5G technologies onto a single chip. The M80 supports ultra-fast speeds on both non-standalone (NSA) and standalone (SA) architectures, with a peak rate of 7.67 Gbps in the downlink and 3.76 Gbps in the uplink. The M80 also supports dual 5G SIM, dual 5G NSA and SA networks, and dual Voice over New Radio (VoNR) for more reliable connectivity. MediaTek’s 5G modems are ideal for a range of devices, including smartphones, PCs, Mi-Fi hotspots, broadband customer premise equipment (CPE), industrial IoT applications and more. MediaTek’s first generation 5G modem, the M70, is built into MediaTek’s Dimensity series of powerful and power-efficient chipsets for 5G smartphones. The company’s 5G portfolio also includes the MediaTek T700, which will power 5G PCs set to hit the market in 2021, along with MediaTek’s T750 chipset for 5G fixed wireless access routers (FWA) and mobile hotspot devices.

Xilinx, Fujitsu to Provide 5G Deployments in US

Xilinx has collaborated with Fujitsu to supply its leading UltraScale+ technology to Fujitsu Limited for its O-RAN 5G radio units (O-RUs).

Fujitsu O-RUs using Xilinx technology will be deployed in the first O-RANcompliant 5G Greenfield networks in the U.S. Fujitsu is also evaluating Xilinx RFSoC technology to further reduce cost and power consumption for additional future site deployments.

Fujitsu O-RUs are ideal for a broad range of spectrum and multi-band applications for 5G O-RAN networks.

The Xilinx UltraScale+ devices used within Fujitsu O-RUs deliver the best balance of cost economies as well as the adaptability and scalability required for the evolving needs of 5G O-RAN network requirements.

Additionally, Xilinx will continue to work with other O-RAN ecosystem partners to ensure continued validation of the hardware and software necessary for world-class 5G networks.

Spirent Releases 5G Outlook Report

Spirent Communications has published its 5G outlook report, based on analysis from over 600 global 5G engagements.

The “5G 2021: Market Drivers, Insights & Consideration” report provides insights from across the 5G eco-system on the current status of 5G, illustrating the accelerated timetables from service providers in upgrading to 5G standalone (SA) with the new 5G Core and revealing how 5G is driving new initiatives and sector engagements.

Key findings from the report include:

• 5G SA core timetables accelerated rapidly: 5G activity surged in 2020 with accelerated timetables from service providers to deliver 5G SA core deployments, following non-standalone’s (NSAs) inability to really wow customers and deliver a solid new revenue proposition.

• Because 5G is moving so fast, operators are turning to

partners to deliver key elements: Through service contracts, elements that would previously have been delivered in-house are now being delivered by trusted partners.

• 5G is driving new initiatives and engagements: The year saw notable growth in engagements with government, military and academia around 5G experimentation and security initiatives, as governments explore new use cases

• Automated Assurance and 5G are the new dynamic duo:

Whether it was a core network buildout, lab certification, or new service delivered, 5G plus Automated Assurance were the dynamic duo that customers turned to as they sought to continue pushing forward with their 5G plans, with 80% of Spirent’s assurance business focused on 5G work.

• The trend of accelerated timetables is here to stay: While the pandemic has undoubtedly accelerated 5G timetables, it seems likely this accelerated trend is here to stay.

How Simulation-Based Digital Twins and the Industrial Internet of Things Can Improve Product and Process Performance

Simulation has long been used to improve the design of nearly every physical product or process by providing the opportunity to evaluate a wide range of alternative designs prior to building physical prototypes. Simulation has also long been used to model different operating scenarios to develop control strategies that are incorporated into control algorithms to improve operations. The emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) has created the potential for a transformational journey in which a simulation model of the product or process is tied through the Internet to sensors capturing data and to actuators controlling its operation. The result is a so-called digital twin of the physical product or process that can be used to analyze and diagnose its operation and optimize its performance and maintenance in real time. By using simulation in conjunction with the IoT, companies can analyze the performance of products in real-world operating conditions and make confident predictions about future performance to improve product operation and productivity, and to reduce the cost and risk of unplanned downtime.

Emergence of the Internet of Things

The IoT is changing the way companies approach the entire product lifecycle from development, testing and manufacturing to operations and maintenance. Smart connected products leverage connectivity with the cloud and other devices to deliver unprecedented functionality. The proliferation of smart connected products offers exciting new capabilities for their users and enormous opportunities to companies developing them. There are already more smart devices connected to the internet today than there are human beings in the world. IoT devices are creating massive opportunities for existing businesses and giving rise to brand new markets and companies. The potential economic impact by 2025 has been estimated to be up to $11 trillion per year.

Early IoT applications focused on relatively simple applications, such as determining the state of assets and issuing simple commands, such as turning an asset on or off. But manufacturers and users of smart connected products are demonstrating that the power of the IoT can be increased through integration with simulation technology. Simulation can perform diagnostics and troubleshooting in real time, anticipate breakdowns and

Multiphysics-based simulation drives the product development process.

determine the optimal point to perform maintenance, tune the product to optimize its performance, and capture information that can be used to improve the next-generation design.

Role of simulation in the IoT

Industry leaders use simulation to create complete virtual prototypes of complex products and systems comprising mechanical, electronics and embedded software components, incorporating all the physical phenomena that exist in real-world environments. For example, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software is used to model and predict fluid flow, which is critical to optimizing the efficiency of so many products and processes, ranging from the combustion of gases in an automobile engine to the movement of a chemical solution through pores in a shale gas formation. Structural analysis software is used to predict how a product will react to forces, heat, electromagnetic fields, abrasion and other physical effects to determine whether a proposed design will meet design requirements. Electromagnetics simulation predicts the signal integrity, power integrity and thermal integrity of products such as computer chips, circuit boards, cell phones, automobile electronic components and entire communications systems, making it possible to quickly optimize the design without wasting time building and testing costly prototypes. Furthermore, software engineers leverage software development tools and certified code generators to ensure the high level of quality needed to prevent product failures in the embedded software that is increasingly being used to oversee and control the operation of many products.

Simulation is also used to design simplified reduced order models that are embedded in control algorithms to manage the operation of automobiles, power plants, machine tools, printing presses, chemical reactors and others. As an example, let’s look at the difficult challenge of operating electric batteries in electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). Batteries provide the primary drive power for the vehicle as well as power for numerous electrical auxiliary systems. The operation of the battery must be carefully managed to avoid overheating, which reduces power-generating efficiency and shortens battery life. Engineers typically employ an air cooling strategy for cylindrical cells that use housings shaped for optimal cooling and a blower and guiding vanes to provide adequate airflow. For rectangular cells, cooling generally is done with liquid circulating through heat exchanger elements in contact with the cells. A control algorithm varies the loads on different cells based on temperature readings and the charger status. life and risk battery explosion. Engineering simulation is ideal for designing such algorithms due to its ability to tightly integrate 3-D physical models (fluid dynamics and mechanical) into the control circuit simulation. Methods such as parameterization and design of experiments are used to identify the best control system parameters at each set of operating conditions. The simulation results are then used to generate reduced order models that are incorporated into the control logic used in a battery’s electronic control units (ECUs).

Advent of the digital twin

The IoT connects simulation to the product or process in near real-time, justin- time or in replay mode to aid in operating and maintaining the product or process. The simulation-based digital twin concept incorporates the physical product or process, the simulation models and the connections that facilitate

communications between the two. The digital twin may consist of a simulation model that has been developed to duplicate the current condition of the product or process, such as by incorporating wear or degraded performance into the simulation model. The data from sensors connected to the product or process may be used to provide real-time boundary conditions for the digital twin. The digital twin results can be calibrated based on the operation of the actual product or process. These enhancements to the digital twin can improve its predictive capabilities far beyond what can be obtained in the product design process. The predictions made by the digital twin can be used to determine the root cause of performance problems, evaluate results of different control strategies, determine optimized maintenance schedules, etc. The digital twin can also provide information about the product or process that cannot be measured with sensors, such as flow velocities through internal passages. The result is that digital twins can be used to substantially increase the performance and reliability of the product or process while reducing its operating cost.

Digital twin architecture

Simulation is typically used to evaluate and optimize the thermal performance of the cells under a wide range of conditions. Fluid dynamics solvers are used to analyze the complex 3-D cooling flows and conjugate (two way solidfluid) heat transfer. Engineers use electronic circuit simulation technology to evaluate control algorithms that manage the thermal performance of the battery while also preventing overcharging, high-current charging/ discharging, external shorts and other electrical problems that could reduce battery

Pump application demonstrates digital twin concept

ANSYS recently demonstrated how a simulation model can serve as a digital twin to process sensor data generated by an instrumented product or process to predict failures and diagnose problems so that action can be immediately taken over the IoT to fix problems and optimize performance. The demonstration showed a motorized pump operating in a hydraulic system with valves on the suction and discharge sides. The motor and pump were instrumented with sensors to

Digital twin used to verify the root cause of low operational efficiency and improve pump operation

measure key operating parameters such as mass flow rate, pressure, vibration and current draw. Actuators on the valves were used to control their operation based on instructions generated by evaluation of the simulation model.

In the recent demonstration, a machine learning algorithm predicted the number of operating days left until failure. Then an operator introduced an anomaly by closing the suction valve to 50 percent. The sensor readings on the physical product immediately indicated that something was amiss. For example, inlet pressure, outlet pressure and flowrate through the pump decreased drastically, while pump noise rose to higher than normal values. But the sensor readings provided minimal diagnostic information, and it was not possible to look inside the pump and see why it was vibrating. Furthermore, the sensor readings provided little or no help in determining what would have happened if various actions were taken to solve the problem.

So the digital twin was used to address these challenges. The sensor readings from the demonstration unit were transmitted over the internet and used as boundary conditions for the system and component level simulation models. The simulation model immediately began exhibiting the same symptoms as the physical model, such as reduced pressure and flowrate. While engineers could only view the physical product from the outside, the digital twin enabled them to look inside the virtual product and understand what was going on. The digital twin showed that the fluid in the interior of the pump was cavitating. The drop in pressure inside the pump was forming vapor cavities – essentially bubbles – where the pressure was low. In locations where the liquid was subjected to a higher pressure, the voids imploded and generated noise. Next, engineers used the digital twin to evaluate the impact of changing the operating conditions. After evaluating the effect of different valve settings, they determined that opening the suction valve to 100 percent would restore pressure and flowrate to normal levels. The digital twin concept is being extended far beyond this simple example to encompass large and complicated assets such as petroleum refineries, automobile assembly plants, distribution centers, wind farms, large scale construction projects, etc. In each case, sensors and other devices capture data that is fed into the simulation model to provide a detailed understanding of the current state of the asset. Machine learning algorithms running on the edge or in the cloud access information from the physical asset and the simulation model to optimize the performance of the asset by scheduling maintenance, setting control points, sending alerts to operators, providing reports to management, etc. The information generated by the simulation model can also potentially be communicated by overlaying the flow contours of the fluid flow inside the pump onto an image of the pump so operating personnel can quickly understand and diagnose problems.

Application that demonstrates the potential for the digital twin concept Pump operating (left) at the Best Efficiency Point and (right) in cavitation

Conclusion

The simulation-based digital twin will help companies analyze smart machines in real-world operating conditions and make informed decisions that will improve their performance far above what is possible today. Physicsbased and system simulations with big data analytics and industrial devices augmented with embedded intelligence can reduce risk, avoid unplanned downtime and speed up new product development. The resulting efficiency and productivity gains will have a dramatic effect on an organization’s bottom line, as well as on the global economy. The combination of machine connectivity with a data lifecycle management platform powered by engineering simulation will enable organizations to perform diagnostics and troubleshooting, determine the ideal maintenance program based on the characteristics of the individual asset, optimize the performance of their assets, and generate insightful data that can be used to improve the next generation of the product.

Security Does Not Come In A Single Form

The complexity and criticality of developing IoT solutions is not anymore a spiel. Complex projects, helping developers in their development journey and also prompting easy and secure connectivity all lies important while developing IoT solutions and Microchip seems to have the answers and ecosystem for it. Niloy from BIS in this latest interview with Mike Ballard, Global Segment Leader, Microchip Technology Inc elaborates on Microchip’s offerings, how the company is helping customers with technical expertise, key drivers and the security myth busted. Edited Nub below.

QWhile developing IoT solutions, developers look for quick, easy and secure connectivity. Also increasing project complexity and cost is a major factor. How are Microchip solutions helping developers in their development journey to catering innovative IoT solutions?

While direct BOM cost is of importance to OEMs implementing IoT designs, time to market is often more critical in the design process. Missing a project date by months or even years can cost OEMs millions in lost opportunity cost. This is another reason why Microchip’s proven hardware and software solutions are so valuable to our clients. By utilizing our proven software stacks that have been optimized to be used with our hardware, OEMs can reduce engineering time and get to market faster.

QMicrochip touts to make IoT development journey easy with its offering of a complete embedded ecosystem? Can you help our readers understand more about this ecosystem and what benefits they can unveil with Microchip’s offerings in this space?

The first place to start is our website (www.microchip.com). There readers will find a vast array of information including reference designs, application notes, and software stacks that aid our clients and help in their development. This ecosystem of information provides customers value by offering corporate and third-party consulting services, hardware design, software design and even assistance with contract manufacturing. Helping our customers be successful in many different markets is a strength of Microchip in the industry

QHow is Microchip helping their customers who are need of technical expertise in a timely manner? Hence kindly elaborate about your partner ecosystem?

Since IoT is the marriage of the embedded world and the IT world, hence, creating robust IoT designs can become quite complex. By utilizing our partner network, our clients can gain expertise from us as well as our IoT partners who have extensive experience in connecting these two worlds.

Mike Ballard

Global Segment Leader|Microchip Technology Inc

QThe impact of 5G and how it will be a game-changer for IoT?

IoT has been growing quickly for the past +10 years in many markets and applications. Some of those applications have had limited growth due to the limitations of wireless technology with both speed, latency, and range. 5G is helping to break down these limitations and is enabling new applications that would not have occurred with older technologies.

QMicrochip has a gamut of offerings in the IoT space, how do you ensure security in your solutions?

Keeping our client’s proprietary designs, information, software, and access secure is the primary concern of all IoT developers. Security does not come in a single form but rather is and end-to-end doctrine that must be constantly addressed throughout and IoT design. From secure boot technologies to ensure the software has not been compromised to IP protection to ensure OEM’ intellectual property is not stolen, to secure communication to keep data from getting in the wrong hands, to secure access control, Microchip offers the most prolific security solutions in the industry today which is critical in all IoT designs.