EP&Dee no 3

APRIL, 2015 足 ISSUE NO. 3, VOL. 13

DESIGN & MANUFACTURING

EP&Dee ELECTRONICS

PRODUCTS

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DESIGN

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EASTERN

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APRIL 2015 Table of Contents

DESIGN FEATURES 8 Wearable health devices and power management Inspired by element14’s Sudden Impact design challenge, this is the third in a series of exclusive blog posts for MDT that explores the challenges of creating wearable medical devices.

10 Avoid the pitfalls of obsolescence The market for electronics components has changed radically over the past three decades. The driving force in terms of component volume is now the consumer market and no longer applications such as mainframe computers or military and industrial systems. Almost two-thirds of global sales now are into the PC and mobile-telephony markets, which are heavily consumer driven.

12 Sentinel – always on guard Wattics Sentinel is a self-learning energy analytics system providing the solution: The system converts all the complex meter readings into insightful information, and notifies customers with clear recommendations. In the past, the local intelligent platform powering up Sentinel produced considerable maintenance costs.

16 Global Support for Automotive Manufacturers and Suppliers With its newly founded Automotive Business Unit, the distributor Rutronik promises to provide focused support to manufacturers and suppliers on a global level. Uwe Rahn, Senior Manager and head of the Automotive Business Unit, explains this in detail in the interview below.

20 Method for Low Power Physical Design in EDI In this paper, we provide physical implementation methods base on Cadence Encounter Foundation Flow environment.

24 Missing links How to perform a simple link budget analysis to evaluate wireless transmission using sub-GHz modules in indoor and outdoor environments

27 Internet of Things - The new single and dual band Wi-Fi modules by Qualcomm 30 Internet of Things, Hype or Hypertension?

“Internet of Things” was one of the biggest buzz words of 2014 however were the interconnected technologies it tries to describe really novel, or rather the evolution and expansion into new areas of existing programmes such as Smart Metering or Grid, Home Automation, Industry 4.0 and Intelligent Automotive Systems.

34 Simple Analog ASIC solves difficult thermal analisys problems These chips are being built on smaller lithographies, running at higher speeds, dissipating more power and to make things worse, they are being encapsulated in ever decreasing package sizes. What could possibly go wrong?

38 Home Automation with Raspberry Pi and an Embedded Touchscreen Display 44 Measuring light curtain better integration – faster alignment – simpler operation.

45 DDLS 500: The data travels at 100 Mbit/s by means of light 50 Design Spark - HINTS AND POSSIBILITIES FOR CAPACITORS IN YOUR DESIGN PRODUCT NEWS Embedded Systems (p 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 15, 18, 23) (p 29, 39) Sensors (40, 41, 42, 43, 45) Active Components (p 46 - 48) Lighting Solutions/Display (p 49) Passive Components (p 54 - 55)

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Group Publishing Director Gabriel Neagu Managing Director Ionela Ganea Accounting Ioana Paraschiv Advertisement Irina Ganea WEB Eugen Vărzaru © 2015 by Eurostandard Press 2000

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Contributing editors Radu Andrei Ross Bannatyne Consulting Marian Blejan Bogdan Grămescu Mihai Savu Asian Reprezentative Taiwan Charles Yang Tel: +886­4­3223633 charles@medianet.com.tw

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EUROSTANDARD PRESS 2000 Tel.: +40 31 805 9955 Tel: +40 31 805 9887 office@esp2000.ro www.esp2000.ro VAT Registration: RO3998003 Company number: J03/1371/1993

EP&Dee (Electronics Products & Design ­ Eastern Europe) is published 10 times per year in 2015 by Euro Standard Press 2000 s.r.l.

It is a free to qualified electronics engineers and managers involved in engineering decisions. Starting on 2010, this magazine is published only in digital format.

Copyright 2014 by Euro Standard Press 2000 s.r.l. All rights reserved.

INDUSTRY NEWS Altera and Eutecus Single-chip, FPGA-based Solutions “See” and Provide Intelligent Vision for Smart Cities Altera Corporation and strategic IP partner Eutecus are announcing the availability of the ReCo™-Pro Multi-channel High Definition (HD) Video Analytics platform based on Eutecus MVE™ video and fusion analytics technology and Altera’s Cyclone® V SoC and Enpirion® PowerSoC devices.

Available from Eutecus, the ReCo™ platform has been chosen by Sensity Systems as the foundation for adding intelligent vision processing to its high-speed, Light Sensory Network (LSN), which is currently being installed in several US metropolitan areas.

The Sensity open, multiservice NetSense platform enables industrial lighting owners and operators to reduce energy costs while offering advanced networked services for smart city applications, such as environmental and weather monitoring, parking management, retail analytics and enhanced public safety.

The integration of Eutecus’ intelligent video and sensor analytics implemented on Altera FPGAs within the Sensity NetSense platform extends the capabilities of the applications, enabling greater operational awareness, effectiveness, and security.

The ReCo™ product family with video and fusion analytics solutions from Eutecus is now available for customers to enable dual and quad channel HD video processing systems.

The embedded MVE™ IP cores are available on both the Altera Cyclone IV FPGA-powered ReCo™-Duo and the Altera Cyclone V SoC-powered ReCo™-Pro platforms.

Both platforms are also supported by Altera’s Enpirion power solutions.

ALTERA www.altera.com 4

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EUTECUS www.eutecus.com | www.epd-ee.eu

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS Highly Integrated IO-Link® Temperature Sensor Is More Flexible, Robust, and Lower Cost than Any Discrete Alternative Designers can save power, cost, and space with the MAXREFDES42# IO-Link temperature sensor reference design (RD) from Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. The new MAXREFDES42# IO-Link resistance temperature detector (RTD) joins the company’s portfolio of other IO-Link reference designs for industrial control and automation.

This design’s highly integrated analog front end (AFE) measures temperature, while detecting overvoltage, shorts, and open circuits. This is a set of capabilities not found in competitive discrete solutions. The reference design consumes minimal power and provides better than ±0.5°K accuracy. The temperature appears immediately on an LED display for a quick and convenient snapshot of coarse temperature values. For user convenience, MAXREFDES42# fits in a standard industrial form factor. For versatility, it supports all three IO-Link speeds - no other competing device can do this. The MAXREFDES42# is available for use with a 2-wire, 3-wire, or 4wire PT100 RTD over a wide temperature range.

Applications include air, gas, and liquid temperature measurement.

The configuration software for this smart IOLink temperature detector was developed in collaboration with IQ² Development.

The MAXREFDES42# uses their IO-Link device stack to communicate with any IOLink version 1.1-compliant master. This software control lowers operating cost because it enables fast setup, diagnosis, and event monitoring from a PC and without a trip to the installation site. Maintenance can be done at the PC and not on the floor.

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Key Advantages Low Power: during operation over a temperature range of -40°C to +150°C, the system consumes less than 300mW of power by utilizing an industrial DC-DC step-down converter.

Highly Integrated: integrated into the front-end is the MAX31865 RTD-to-digital converter which provides flexibility, robustness, and optimal performance for an IO-Link platform.

Cost Savings: PC control with IQ² software saves configuration and maintenance cost and increases uptime.

MAXIM INTEGRATED

www.maximintegrated.com

INDUSTRY NEWS

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

Chukong Technologies and Imagination collaborate on the latest version of the Cocos2d-x game engine Imagination Technologies (IMG.L) and Chukong Technologies, creator and maintainer of the widely adopted open source game engine Cocos2d-x, announce that the latest version of Cocos2d-x has been fully optimized to run on devices with Imagination’s MIPS CPUs or PowerVR GPUs.

Win a Microchip dsPIC33EV 5V CAN-LIN Starter Kit EP&Dee is offering the chance to win a Microchip dsPIC33EV 5V CAN-LIN Starter Kit! The dsPIC33EV 5V CAN-LIN Starter Kit (DM330018) features the dsPIC33EV256GM106 Digital Signal Controller (DSC) for automotive and motor control applications.

The Starter Kit contains serial data ports for CAN, LIN and SENT, a self-contained USB programming/debug interface, and an expansion footprint for flexibility in application hardware development.

This board allows users to explore three popular automotive and industrial serial data formats (CAN, LIN and SENT). The PICkit On-Board (PKOB) USB programmer and debugger allows simple programming without the need for an additional hardware interface.

More than 400,000 developers worldwide, including developers of seven out of the ten top grossing games in China, rely on Cocos2d-x to build their mobile games. The exciting collaboration between Imagination and Chukong means developers can easily target games built with Cocos2d-x to MIPS-based devices running Android, including Imagination’s Creator CI20 microcomputer.

The Creator CI20 microcomputer combines two of Imagination’s key technologies – MIPS CPUs and PowerVR GPUs – to deliver a compelling gaming experience for entry-level mobile and embedded devices.

By also optimizing Cocos2d-x for the PowerVR graphics architecture, Chukong is ensuring a smooth user experience for 2D and 3D graphics for all games using the game engine. Additionally, Chukong is leveraging the latest version of the PowerVR SDK and tools from Imagination to enable rapid graphics application development, from asset exporting and optimization to prototyping and performance analysis.

Says Bryce Johnstone, senior manager for third party alliances at Imagination: “Imagination's ecosystem reaches more than 60,000 developers, from established game studios to indie programmers. We are very excited about the work that Chukong Technologies has been doing with Cocos2d-x on the CI20. Our collaboration has resulted in a fully optimized game engine that will enable developers to create exciting games for the many devices in the market using PowerVR GPUs, and also port some of the world’s most popular titles to the MIPS architecture. This is a superb example of how companies benefit from working with PowerVR and MIPS.” More information about Imagination’s developer community can be found at http://community.imgtec.com For an overview of the new Creator CI20 microcomputer, visit http://www.imgtec.com/creator CHUKONG TECHNOLOGIES IMAGINATION TECHNOLOGIES

www.chukong-inc.com www.imgtec.com

With 5V operation up to 150°C Microchip's dsPIC33 "EV" Digital Signal Controllers (DSCs) provide harsh applications with robust performance as well as integrating peripherals for safety-critical functions, motor control, CAN, SENT and touch sensing.

The dsPIC33 “EV” family is the first to offer Error Correcting Code (ECC) Flash for increased reliability and safety. For safety-critical applications, Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC), Deadman Timer (DMT), Windowed Watchdog Timer (WWDT) peripherals as well as a backup system oscillator and certified Class B software.

For the chance to win a dsPIC33EV 5V CAN-LIN, visit: www.microchip-comps.com/epdee-dspic33ev-can-lin

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INDUSTRY NEWS

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

Microsemi Announces RTG4 Radiationtolerant FPGAs For High-speed Signal Processing Applications Microsemi Corporation announced availability of its RTG4™ highspeed signal processing radiation-tolerant FPGA family. The RTG4’s reprogrammable flash technology offers complete immunity to radiation-induced configuration upsets in the harshest radiation environments, requiring no configuration scrubbing, unlike SRAM FPGA technology. RTG4 supports space applications requiring up to 150,000 logic elements and up to 300 MHz of system performance.

Typical uses for RTG4 include remote sensing space payloads, such as radar, imaging and spectrometry in civilian, scientific and commercial applications. These applications span across weather forecasting and climate research, land use, astronomy and astrophysics, planetary exploration, and earth sciences. Other applications include mobile satellite services (MSS) communication satellites, as well as high altitude aviation, medical electronics and civilian nuclear power plant control. Such applications have historically used expensive radiationhardened ASICs, which force development programs to incur substantial cost and schedule risk. RTG4 allows programs to access the ease-of-use and flexibility of FPGAs without sacrificing reliability or performance.

The flexibility, reliability and performance of RTG4 FPGAs make it much easier to achieve this. RTG4 is Microsemi’s latest development in a long history of radiation-tolerant FPGAs that are found in many NASA and international space programs.

Key product features include: • Up to 150,000 logic elements; each includes a four-input combinatorial look-up table (LUT4) and a flip-flop with built-in single event upset (SEU) and single event transient (SET) mitigation • High system performance, up to 300 MHz • 24 serial transceivers, with operation from 1 Gb/sec to 3.125 Gb/sec • 16 SEU- and SET-protected SpaceWire clock and data recovery circuits • 462 SEU- and SET-protected multiply-accumulate mathblocks • More than 5 Mbits of on-board SEU-protected SRAM • Single event latch-up (SEL) and configuration memory upset immunity • Total ionizing dose (TID) beyond 100 Krad To learn more about the new RTG4 technology and upcoming events visit www.microsemi.com/products/fpga-soc/radtolerant-fpgas/rtg4 MICROSEMI 6

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www.microsemi.com | www.epd-ee.eu

CAN Flexible Data-rate transceiver family from Microchip meets and exceeds global automotive requirements Microchip announces a new family of CAN FD (Controller Area Network Flexible Data-Rate) transceivers, the MCP2561/2FD. As an interface between a CAN protocol controller and the physical two-wire CAN bus, these transceivers can serve both the CAN and CAN FD protocols. This product family not only helps automotive and industrial manufacturers with today’s CAN communication needs, but also provides a path for the newer CAN FD networks that are increasingly in demand.

In-vehicle networking growth continues to be driven by the need for electronic monitoring and control. As application features increase in power train, body and convenience, diagnostics and safety, more Electronic Control Units (ECUs) are being added to existing CAN buses, causing automotive OEMs to become bandwidth limited. In addition, the end-of-line programming time for ECUs is on the rise due to more complex application programmes and calibration, which raises production-line costs. The emerging CAN FD bus protocol solves these issues by increasing the maximum data rate while expanding the data field from 8 data bytes up to 64 data bytes.

With their robustness and industry-leading features, including data rates of up to 8 Mb/s, Microchip’s MCP2561/2FD transceivers enable customers to implement and realise the benefits of CAN FD. These new transceivers have one of the industry’s lowest standby current consumption (<5 μA typical), helping to meet ECU low-power budget requirements. In addition, these devices support operation in the -40 to 150°C temperature range, enabling usage in harsh environments.

The new family of MCP2561/2FD CAN FD transceivers is available in 8-pin PDIP, SOIC and 3×3 mm DFN (leadless) packages, providing additional design flexibility for space-limited applications. The family also provides two options: The MCP2561FD comes in an 8-pin package and features a SPLIT pin. This SPLIT pin helps to stabilise the common mode in biased split-termination schemes. The MCP2562FD is available in an 8-pin package and features a Vio pin. This Vio pin can be tied to a secondary supply in order to internally level-shift the digital I/Os for easy microcontroller interfacing.

MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY

www.microchip.com/MCP2561FD-032315a

INDUSTRY NEWS

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

Renesas is the First Semiconductor Supplier to Achieve Full Certification of G3-PLC Modem Solutions for Worldwide Frequency Bands Renesas Electronics Europe announced the certification of the second generation of its market leading OFDM powerline (PLC) modem for the FCC frequency band. This makes Renesas the first supplier worldwide to achieve certifications for all frequency bands as defined by the G3-PLC Alliance specifications, including ARIB ( Japan Route B), Cenelec A and FCC. As a result, Renesas is again demonstrating its leadership and commitment to developing state of the art and future proof PLC solutions, contributing to the worldwide adoption of powerline communication standards such as G3-PLC.

G3-PLC is an orthogonal frequency-division multiplex (OFDM) based technology capable of addressing the difficult challenges of powerline communication in harsh and highly dynamic network environments, such as those found in metering applications. This outstanding behaviour is ensured by using dedicated modulation methodologies and making efficient use of the available spectrum under varying circumstances. It also uses specific signal processing techniques, such as two layer forward error correction (FEC), adaptive tone mapping and channel estimation, among others. In parallel, mesh routing mechanisms allow each node to determine the best path between remote network nodes. Renesas is a leading contributor to the G3 standard and has worked closely with the G3 alliance in the development of the worldwide G3 protocol. Based on the G3PLC specification, the differentiating factor for Renesas’ PLC modem is its use of dedicated implementation techniques. This is the result of the company’s several decades of experience with connectivity technologies. The certified device integrates a MAC controller as well as a high performance digital signal processor (DSP), covering the physical layer (PHY) implementation. The embedded analogue front end (AFE) contains an adaptive gain amplifier with automatic gain control (AGC) functions. This ensures exceptional signal quality with outstanding robustness and unique sensitivity characteristics. The system architecture of Renesas’ second-generation device keeps the flexible concept of its award winning predecessor, allowing support for multiple standards and frequency bands with a single device.

RENESAS ELECTRONICS EUROPE

www.renesas.eu

Microsemi Continues Leadership in Timing Solutions with the Newly Enhanced Quantum Rubidium Miniature Atomic Clock Quantum Rubidium MAC Family Exceeds Wireless LTE Base Station and Mission-critical Defense Infrastructure Holdover Requirements Microsemi Corporation announced the availability of its enhanced Quantum™ Rubidium Miniature Atomic Clock (MAC) SA.3X family. As one of the industry’s smallest, lightest and highest-performing MACs, the enhanced Quantum MAC SA.3X family is based on Microsemi’s exclusive coherent population trapping (CPT) technology, leveraging its 40-plus years of timing solution leadership. The MAC SA.3X family meets all traditional, broad market frequency reference application needs.

The Quantum Rubidium MAC family delivers superior holdover accuracy over extended time periods, exceeding all wireless LTE base station and mission-critical defense infrastructure requirements. The MAC-SA.3x will meet the LTE holdover requirements for several days, a significant feature. This innovative capability far exceeds conventional quartz-based oscillators, which only meet holdover requirements for a few hours at most. This critical difference results in an improved mitigation solution during periods of GNSS vulnerabilities caused by jamming and outage.

According to industry market research and internal analysis, the market for high performance oscillators is estimated to be around $470 million in 2015, and quantum rubidium MAC technology helps Microsemi to access this growing market.

Microsemi’s Quantum MAC SA.3X Family Features: • One of the smallest rubidium clocks on the market • Compact design 51 x 51 x 18 mm (2.0 x 2.0 x 0.7 in) • Lower power than traditional rubidium clocks • 5 watts (W) at 25 degrees C (14 W max during warmup) • Superior atomic clock performance • Monthly aging <1E-10 • 1 Sec ADEV <3E-11 • Rapid operational stability after turn-on • Exclusive CPT technology does not use a lamp, utilizing a laser that needs hundredths of watts (milliwatts) versus the traditional rubidium lamp, which consumes power in watts.

This CPT technology does not require a microwave resonator, also allowing for a smaller size than traditional rubidium which requires a resonant cell.

• The MAC is PC board mountable without the need for a heat sink or fan.

MICROSEMI

www.microsemi.com www.epd-ee.eu | April, 2015

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DESIGN

‘SUDDEN IMPACT’

Wearable health devices and power management Author: Christian DeFeo, eSupplier and Innovation Manager, Newark element14

Inspired by element14’s Sudden Impact design challenge, this is the third in a series of exclusive blog posts for MDT that explores the challenges of creating wearable medical devices.

As our Sudden Impact design challenge comes to a close, we take a look back at the last stage of the design process and see how our twelve finalists’ prototypes coped when put to the test. While trialling their wearable health solutions across various terrains, our competitors unanimously faced one key challenge – power management.

The process of collecting and analysing data over long periods of time has had an inherent impact on energy consumption in our competitors’ sport-related designs. As such, the finalists have been trialling both new and established power management platforms. In this blog, we take a look at how these are being used to optimise their designs.

Wireless charging One Sudden Impact competitor, Douglas Wong, has been looking at wireless charging as a long-term solution to powering his helmet-mounted trauma monitor for hockey players. To ensure his device remains userfriendly and weather resistant, Douglas’s approach was to embed a Lithium polymer battery into the helmet, enabling it to be 8

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charged wirelessly using a Qi charger.

Qi charging is a global standard developed

by Wireless Power Consortium that enables any device with a compatible battery to be charged from a wireless pad, using induction transfer. This is a standard that many smartphones already adhere to, and its practicality means that it is beginning to filter into the wearable health industry too.

From a usability point of view, Qi charging provides a simple solution for hockey team managers. By using handful of Qi charging pads, the entire team’s helmets could be fully charged before a game which would consequently ensure the safety of every player on the pitch.

However, with that said, at this stage it is likely that designs such as Douglas’ may still

DESIGN

be too much for a QI pad to handle. While the concept has been proved, for this to be a feasible long-term solution, the Qi system needs to be implemented on a significantly larger scale to enable wireless charging to become second nature.

Bluetooth 4.0 and BLE Another Sudden Impact competitor, Hendrik Lipka, has been trialling various Bluetooth protocols for his helmet-mounted impact and heart-rate monitors, aimed at skiers and footballers. Although the terms Bluetooth 4.0 and Bluetooth Low Energy are often treated interchangably, during his design process, Hendrik discovered just how different the two standards are.

Bluetooth 4.0 is a relatively new type of wireless technology, offering considerably lower power consumption versus previous standards.

It is a combination of three different protocols: Bluetooth Classic, Bluetooth High Speed and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). With the exception of their data transmission processes, Bluetooth Classic and Bluetooth High Speed are relatively similar. BLE, however, is designed for extremely low power devices and works best for short lived, low-data transmissions.

As such, during the design process, Hendrik found that BLE is particularly useful for the transmission of real-time information.

Hendrik’s heart rate sensor could therefore capture an athlete’s heartbeat as a ‘current state’, alongside the minimum and maximum values within a specific time frame. As such, BLE proved itself to be an appropriate protocol for athletes that want to use the heart-monitor as a safety measure and be notified of irregular heart rates. However, for continual monitoring, BLE is not ideal and sheds light on the functionality vs. longevity battle that engineers are constantly grappling with.

Ultimately, present day power management solutions still have some way to go before they are totally suitable for use in the wearable health market. The methods that our finalists have been testing highlight the need for more data-intensive technologies that can relay large quantities of data for long periods of time.

In our next and final blog, we look at the final steps our Sudden Impact finalists have taken to elevate their design from an idea, to a viable and usable device ￭

INDUSTRY NEWS Microchip’s new 5 GHz Power Amplifier Module extends the range and reduces production costs of WLAN applications based on IEEE 802.11ac Wi-Fi® standard Microchip announces its new SST11CP22 5GHz Power Amplifier Module (PAM) for the IEEE 802.11ac ultra-high data-rate Wi-Fi® standard.

This PAM delivers 19dBm linear output power at 1.8% dynamic Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) with MCS9 80MHz bandwidth modulation.

Additionally, the SST11CP22 delivers 20dBm linear power at 3% EVM for 802.11a/n applications, is spectrum mask compliant up to 24dBm for 802.11a communication, and has less than -45dBm/MHz RF harmonic output at this output power, making it easier for the system board to meet FCC regulations.

Achieving the maximum data rate and longest range, while minimising current consumption, are essential to designers of Wi-Fi MIMO access-point, router and settop-box systems. The SST11CP22’s low EVM and high linear power facilitate MIMO operation and significantly extend the range of 802.11ac systems in ultrahigh data-rate transmission mode. The module, housed in a space-saving 4×4 mm, 20-pin QFN package, includes an output harmonic rejection filter and is 50Ohmmatched, requiring only four external components. It is easy to use and reduces board size. Additionally, the integrated linear power detector provides accurate output power control over temperature and 2-to-1 output mismatch. These features are critical for 802.11ac Wi-Fi set-top boxes, routers, access points and wireless video streaming devices that operate at high data rates.

MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY

www.microchip.com/SST11CP22-031715a

Microchip introduces 3V 16-Mbit, 32-Mbit and 64-Mbit Serial Quad I/O™ interface SuperFlash® memory family Microchip announces a new family of 3V Serial Quad I/O™ (SQI™) interface Super Flash® memory devices: the SST26VF. This three-member “26 Series” SQI interface family is available with 16Mbit, 32-Mbit or 64-Mbit of memory and is manufactured using Microchip’s high-performance CMOS SuperFlash technology, which provides the industry’s fastest erase times and superior reliability.

The SST26VF memory family provides the fastest erase times in the industry, due to its use of SuperFlash technology. Sector and block erase commands are completed in just 18ms, and a full chip erase operation is completed in 35ms. Competing devices require 10 to 20 seconds to complete a full chip erase operation, making the SST26VF approximately 400 times faster. These fast erase times can provide a significant cost savings to customers, by minimising the time required for testing and firmware updates, and therefore increasing their manufacturing throughput.

Microchip’s SQI interface is a low pin-count, high-speed 104MHz quad-bit address and data multiplex I/O serial interface, which allows for high data throughput in a small package. This interface enables low-latency execute-in-place (XIP) capability with minimal processor buffer memory, reducing the overall design footprint compared to traditional parallel memory interfaces. The SST26VF family provides faster data throughput than a comparable x16 parallel Flash device, without the associated high cost and high pin-count of parallel Flash.

MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY

www.microchip.com/SST26VF064B www.epd-ee.eu | April, 2015

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INDUSTRY NEWS

OBSOLESCENCE

Avoid the pitfalls of obsolescence Author Dave Doherty VP Global Supplier and Product Operations Digi-Key

The market for electronics components has changed radically over the past three decades.

The driving force in terms of component volume is now the consumer market and no longer applications such as mainframe computers or military and industrial systems. Almost two-thirds of global sales now are into the PC and mobile-telephony markets, which are heavily consumer driven.

The focus of the consumer markets is to maintain a rapid pace of development in which manufacturers attempt to take full advantage of the advances in process technology that occur typically on a two-year cadence. Components made on what was the most advanced process two or three years ago are quickly rendered obsolete by their replacements.

Because most of the products that these devices go into have an even shorter average shelf life, this constant renewal is not a problem.

For users in industrial markets, the replacement cycle of many modern integrated circuits (ICs) has become increasingly problematic. Although dedicated industrial-grade parts, such as those qualified for extended temperature ranges, will generally be supported for more than ten years by IC manufacturers, other systems within the vehicle that do not need the environmental support 10

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of industrial market-focused components will often use consumer-grade parts as they offer a high performance-cost ratio or simply are the only components available with the required computational, bandwidth or signal-processing performance.

Manufacturers of medical systems often have to face the problem that, by the time they have succeeded in obtaining regulato-

ry approval for their systems, suppliers will already has classified the parts they depend on as mature.

Memory ICs tend to be highly vulnerable to short-term shifts in supply strategy. Parts designed for memory buses that were state of the art five years ago are now regarded as legacy designs, with all but specialist manu-

INDUSTRY NEWS

facturers choosing to focus on more recent bus interfaces such as DDR4 or LPDDR3.

In many cases, manufacturers will announce the end of production with a last-time-buy announcement, which may only arrive six months before manufacturing on that product ceases. The decision that the user needs to take at this point is to work out whether sourcing an alternative is viable and, if not, if there is a requirement to place a last-time buy. The user needs to work out how many they are likely to need to continue to support their products to cover their own lifetime-support commitments.

If they wait and miss the deadline, they need to find other ways to source spare parts, which may be through the grey market.

Manufacturers will often place device stock they no longer need onto the grey market in order to recoup some of their expenditure.

Unfortunately, the grey market is the way in which many counterfeit products enter the supply chain.

Distributors can help with the situation of monitoring the supply situation and provide advance warning of last-time buys and of the signs that may indicate that a manufacturer will want to suspend production. DigiKey, for example, sends out obsolescence notifications to customers for parts they have bought previously to ensure they are updated on supply status.

A last-time buy can introduce further issues as some procurement policies are designed to reject products with old date codes. As the target product ages, components bought on a last-time buy will often have date codes that will be too old to fit with this policy.

If a part has gone into its end-of-life phase and the user has missed the last-time-buy deadline, other options may be available.

Devices that experience lower sales volume than other parts within a family are more likely to face the end of production more quickly. In many cases it is possible to replace the obsolete part with one that is a near-match, often with minimal redesign.

For example, a replacement microcontroller may have more onchip peripherals than the original part but will, when it runs the same software, demonstrate the same behaviour.

The technical department within a distribu-

OBSOLESCENCE

tor such as Digi-Key can provide valuable advice on form and fit compatibility for many parts.

The long-term answer to obsolescence issues is to plan for the eventuality and build procurement strategies around components and families that have supply guarantees. To try to provide customers with long lifetime requirements, some semiconductor manufacturers will commit to longer support cycles for a selected group of their parts.

For example, Intel sells a range of PC-compatible processors that are standard parts but, so that they can be used in long lifecycle industrial applications, has earmarked some products as being supported and sold for ten years or more from initial production. This information provides users with high confidence of supply when they design the parts into their systems.

Franchised distributors are vital sources of information in the design phase by indicating to users which parts are supported under long life-cycle plans. Digi-Key, for example, has extensive experience of advising on the medium- to long-term supply scenarios for the components they provide.

Customers can provide a bill of materials and experts will check the document for parts that are at risk of going end-of-life.

In some cases, it is impossible to avoid using a part with a high risk of obsolescence because it offers key features not available in competing parts. In those cases, franchised distributors such as Digi-Key can set up contracts in which, in exchange for a commitment on the number of components needed during a productâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lifetime, they will arrange that number to be made available and stocked in the warehouse and released for manufacture as needed like any other device.

Changing the product-design strategy to accommodate obsolescence is another approach that users can adopt. This strategy assumes that a number of the parts in the original design are likely to become obsolete during the productâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life-cycle. It involves planning component purchases such that they can be replaced more easily by similar parts and accommodate technology insertions that may involve changes in package type and device speed. By designing products such that they can take form and function compatible replacements, it is possible to reduce the risk of being subject

to supply problems caused by the obsolescence of a single component.

For example, the use of programmable solutions provides a way to future-proof key elements of a design. Programmable solutions are often designed in such a way that they can provide a high degree of assurance over form, fit and function for replacement products. Even though the manufacturers may retire older parts in favour of those built on newer processes, the same design will easily move to the replacement parts, which can often be obtained in packages pin-compatible with the originals. The design tools are built in such a way that a design ported to a later, more capable part will in most cases behave as it did in the older product.

Similarly, choosing microprocessors and microcontrollers that use industry-standard architectures available from multiple vendors can provide a greater degree of protection against obsolescence than a product line that may be available from only a single manufacturer. Although finding a direct match for a microcontroller from another supplierâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s range may not be possible, changes to the design and software may be minimal as such parts often provide similar features and peripherals.

The only change may be to device drivers to ensure that the peripherals are mapped to the correct areas of memory for the application. Microcontrollers with on-chip programmable logic and analogue peripherals have proven to be the answer in a number of cases when fixed-function parts have disappeared from the market.

Replacing a dedicated part with the programmable solution involves greater design and integration effort but, in an industry prone to sudden obsolescence, it provides an effective way of managing the problem for key parts of the system.

Even with effective design strategies, obsolescence remains an issue that faces many users of electronics components. But with the help of supply-chain partners who can advise on potential alternatives and keep customers informed of trends in production, it is possible for companies to stay on top of the problem. www.digikey.com www.epd-ee.eu | April, 2015

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Kontron Box-PC makes Wattics’ energy analytics system maintenance-free

Sentinel – always on guard

Although reducing energy use is on everyone’s agenda, organizations face difficulties in identifying saving opportunities. Wattics Sentinel is a self-learning energy analytics system providing the solution: The system converts all the complex meter readings into insightful information, and notifies customers with clear recommendations. In the past, the local intelligent platform powering up Sentinel produced considerable maintenance costs. This is why Wattics has spruced up its solution and now uses German manufactured Kontron Box-PCs in ‘wartungsfrei’ (maintenance-free) quality.

Author: Ingrid Einsiedler, Marketing Manager, Kontron

With increasing energy costs, companies need to significantly reduce their energy consumption and find solutions to identify energy waste and inefficiencies.

Conventional commercial solutions will often only deliver dashboard tools showing ‘big data’ from all the different measurement devices such as utility meters, building management systems and other electricity, gas and water meters. Unfortunately, in the majority of cases the time and/or knowledge of how to process all this information in order to identify improvement opportunities are lacking. Companies consequently desire intelligent solutions to support them in this analytics challenge more or less auto12

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matically. With its Sentinel energy analytics solution, the Irish company Wattics offers the solution: built around intelligent selflearning algorithms the system automatically identifies energy waste and cost-optimization opportunities for the end customers. It also features an innovative monitoring gateway for cloud services delivering round-theclock, instant information – accessible from anywhere – to accredited staff.

Self learning software solution The Sentinel energy analytics solution works with an innovative software engine that – immediately after installation – automatically begins to learn from collected meter

readings to identify energy use patterns.

The solution thereby keeps watch over energy usage across all monitored meters from the main energy distribution board to equipment level. It constantly improves its knowledge about the operation of appliances and grid areas, identifying correlations between their use models, and characterizing good and bad energy use. After the initial learning phase, the system starts notifying area managers and operators according to settings. Crucial energy issues are displayed via clear text messages which provide detailed and easy understandable information and recommendations which can be displayed on a range of different

DESIGN

POWER

The Wattics Sentinel notifications are forwarded through the Wattics Messenger Dashboard, to an email or mobile phone depending on urgency and preferred settings devices such as smartphones, tablets or notebooks and desktop PCs. Compatible to any existing infrastructure The information provided by these messages is not data-centered but alert- and activity-oriented which prompts users to focus on the implementation of the recom-

mended actions. This ultimately culminates in increased power savings which are achieved more efficiently. The messages and recommendations the system generates are not static, but they are continuously improved and adopted according to best practice comparisons, optimal usage values, standard figures and comparable installations. A further benefit of the Sentinel ener-

gy analytics solution is its compatibility to any common meter from site to equipment level. The investment is therefore futureproof and its interoperability helps customers to remain independent from meter manufacturers. Another benefit of the Wattics solution is the fact that a local hardware investment in such an analytics system is limited to a single monitoring gateway. www.epd-ee.eu | April, 2015

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The central energy monitoring gateway Wattics will deploy one enterprise-class Sentinel energy monitoring gateway per customer site requiring energy analytics, with the benefit that no additional communication hardware is required. This gateway is used to retrieve the meter readings through serial and/or Ethernet communication and to secure data communication towards the cloud to the system backend, hosted by Wattics. Additionally, the gateway manages pre-processing the collected data to analyze variations on power measurements. It also acts as a local back-up for easy recovery in case of an internet failure as well as a data compressor to reduce storage demands in the cloud. The energy monitoring gateway is connected to the internet via the customers’ existing wired LAN or a wireless 3G router.

tenance requirements are particularly crucial. This is due to the fact that distributed solutions often increase costs, which can easily match or even exceed the investment cost for the entire gateway system.

Even the smallest of failures can call for maintenance work which, ideally, should not occur at all. If, for example, the gateway operating system would be causing problems or the system would crash for whichever reason, this would at least require a manual reboot. Plus, in order to identify and investigate the kind of failure, the client would have to run a number of checks.

Based on the results, an on-site visit might be required and the hardware may need to be serviced, causing an increased workload as well as additional costs. In case of a distributed usage model with nation- or even

Maintenance-free system designs To achieve a maintenance-free system, industrial computers have to be built without rotating components. Rotating components wear out, are vulnerable to shock and vibration, and have to be exchanged regularly in long-term installations. Maintenancefree systems offer a fanless design in combination with the latest energy efficient processor technology. With regards to data and OS storage, maintenance-free systems rely on durable and fast Solid State Drives, ruling out mechanical failure. Another critical factor is the power supply. Some systems which Wattics previously installed experienced failures after just two years of operation. High quality power supplies that are durable and available for the entire lifecycle are crucial to maintenance-free designs.

Features of the Wattics Sentinel energy monitoring gateway Configuration

Run the Wattics user interface to configure metering deployment (discover meters, associate circuits to meters, configure meter and current transformer settings and set up internet)

Data Collection

Manage reliable retrieval of meter readings through serial and LAN communication

Data Back-up

Local back-up in the event of internet failure recovery

Data Pre-processing

Analyze variations on power measurements to identify initial list of energy events of interest

Data Compression

Provide compressed data and reduce cloud data storage through data pre-processing service

Data Secure Communication

Handle secure communication with Wattics cloud servers via API

The Wattics Sentinel energy monitoring gateway based on Kontron’s Box-PC KBox-A101 is the central ‘edge node’ at the customer’s site. It is connected to both the local energy grid as well as to the Sentinel grid built on modern IoT technologies.

Managing costs and reliability The Sentinel energy monitoring gateway is instrumental with both the overall availability of the energy analytics solution and the cost efficiency of the installation at the customers’ factories, shop-floors and buildings.

As such, the gateway needs to be highly reliable. In installations with a required long life like in the case with Wattics solutions, main14

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worldwide installations, avoiding these failures is mandatory in the interest of economic operation and customer satisfaction.

With the Kontron Box-PC KBox-A101, Wattics finally found a platform to fit the bill.

It offers German manufactured ‘wartungsfrei’ (maintenance-free) quality so that Wattics can now cut maintenance costs and offer a long-life solution to their customers.

What’s more, this type of high quality power supply can also often handle power failures of several milliseconds. This valuable additional feature prevents system reset and consequently serves to improve system availability.

Maintenance-free systems do not require classic button cell batteries to continuously power the BIOS or the EFI memory and the

DESIGN

internal clock system which would have to be replaced every two to three years. Instead they use wear-free double layer capacitors – so-called gold caps – which do not require replacement and thereby maintenance. In addition to these inner values, maintenance-free systems also feature a rugged as well as dust-protected casing. This helps to further increase the reliability of the whole installation even in harsh environments, as can often be found on the shop floor or in other industrial environments.

All these features contribute to a high Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) and consequently to the maintenance-free design of the application, provided that the MTBF is in line with the life cycle expectations of the application. The Kontron Box-PC used for the Wattics Sentinel gateway has an MTBF of 70.000 hours. That corresponds to 24/7 operation of up to eight years or in single shift operation up to 24 years. From a technical perspective, during this period the system does not require any maintenance.

“For Wattics, the high MTBF in combination with fair pricing and the long-term availability of the Kontron Box-PCs of at least 5 years delivered the winning arguments for us to choose an industrial computer out of Kontron’s new ‘wartungsfrei’ range. Further to this, the global availability of Kontron technologies and services fits perfectly into our long-term strategy. We’re convinced that with the Kontron system we’ve found a really sustainable solution,” Anthony Schoofs, CTO at Wattics, comments ￭ Additional resources: The Kontron Box-PC KBox-A101 product website. www.kontron.com/products/systems-and-platforms/embeddedbox-pcs/fanless-box-pc/kbox-a-101.html The press release about the Kontron Box-PC KBoxA101 launch: www.kontron.com/about-kontron/news-events/detail/kontronmini-box-pcs-with-iot-gateway-solutions-from-intel-regMore about Wattics and Sentinel can be found at the Wattics website: www.wattics.com Contact Details Ingrid Einsiedler, Dipl. Wirtsch. Ing. Marketing Manager, Kontron AG / Site Kaufbeuren Sudetenstrasse 7 87600 Kaufbeuren, Germany Ingrid.Einsiedler@kontron.com www.kontron.com Wattics contact details: Anthony Schoofs, CTO Wattics Ltd 31/33 The Triangle, Ranelagh Dublin 6, Ireland anthony.schoofs@wattics.com www.wattics.com

INDUSTRY NEWS

RT-RK adopts QA·C for automotive software defect detection RT-RK and PRQA | Programming Research announce that QA·C, a leading static analysis solution for defect detection has been made mandatory on all RTRK projects for the automotive industry.

The use of QA·C has been imposed by TTTech, the technology leader in robust networked safety controls for automotive, aerospace and other safety related markets. TTTech is based in Vienna, Austria, and uses RT-RK as NSDC (Near Shore Development Center), providing a vital link in their development process, which generates the highest quality code for safety-critical systems.

In particular, RT-RK’s automotive engineering team needs to comply with MISRA coding guidelines. This team is also extremely keen to generate code which is sustainable and reusable – enabling them to provide their customers with shorter delivery times across a growing number of increasingly complex and dynamic projects. The necessity to conduct frequent and effective code reviews makes QA·C an unsurpassed solution, and its use is critical in delivering bug-free, well structured code to the subsequent stages in the project. RTRK also use the output from QA·C to generate reports which demonstrate that their code complies to MISRA. “RT-RK is entering the automotive industry with full force. It is evident that PRQA provides the defacto solution in this market, and we have wholeheartedly adopted QA·C. The underlying changes to our development process are beneficial on many levels, the main one being more effective compliance with the coding rules, but also in up-skilling our engineers and streamlining our broader work-flow,” said Danijel Spasojevic, Head of Automotive Software at RT-RK. “The training provided by PRQA has also been very valuable. This included courses on coding standards and best practices, as well practical workshops to enable our teams to take full advantage of all the functionality in QA·C.“ Paul Blundell, PRQA’s CEO stated, “We are pleased to have earned another valued customer. PRQA’s solutions have been adopted globally across multiple safety-critical industries, but in particular throughout the automotive supply chain.

Near-shore outsourcing is a common deployment model, and we are delighted to extend our coverage in Eastern Europe to include the growing automotive center at RT-RK.” RT-RK

www.rt-rk.com

RT-RK LLC is a R&D company and national research institute that delivers development services and own products in the arena of real time embedded systems, with strong focus on consumer electronics and automotive.

PRQA | PROGRAMMING RESEARCH

www.programmingresearch.com

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Rutronik Automotive Business Unit

Global Support for Automotive Manufacturers and Suppliers Uwe Rahn, Senior Manager and head of the Automotive Business Unit, Rutronik Elektronische Bauelemente GmbH

With its newly founded Automotive Business Unit, the distributor Rutronik promises to provide focused support to manufacturers and suppliers on a global level. Uwe Rahn, Senior Manager and head of the Automotive Business Unit, explains this in detail in the interview below.

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What can customers expect from the new Automotive Business Unit?

Uwe Rahn: The customer will receive technical and commercial support at eye level from a team of experts with many years of experience in the automotive industry. We will be working in close cooperation and coordination with specially selected manufacturers. In addition, we will also be providing support to our European customers in their efforts to gain access to the American and Asian markets.

Which services in particular does this include?

Integrating electronics into automobiles on a mass scale due to increased networking, focusing a greater amount of attention on comfort, infotainment and assistance systems, not to mention e-mobility technology, has created the need for components, which originally were not even developed for automotive use. Any developer of new vehicles now faces huge challenges as a result of offering Internet connectivity in a vehicle and the more-or-less indirect communication with safety relevant systems, among other things. With our experience in both the automotive and electronics industries and our close ties to manufacturers, we can offer valuable support in these areas, allowing our customers to concentrate fully on their own applications.

Of key importance in our global business are the central information technologies that are available around the world. One important component here is our ability to centrally handle all PCNs and EOL messages in one database, which then makes them available worldwide to every customer and manufacturing service provider in the accustomed data quality. These IT systems are now being expanded step-by-step, by adding such information as standards and certifications, including AECQ-100 or 200, PPAP and APQP (Advance Product Quality Planning), Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) documents, and even VDA compliant process descriptions.

Process support is yet another important aspect. Many Tier 2 suppliers now have an even more stringent requirements profile.

We can provide them with the support they need in developing and implementing processes similar to the support we provide to Tier 1 suppliers.

The third large component here is our ability to support our international customers in the North American and Asian markets.

AUTOMOTIVE

To do so, we will make the focus of the business unit a global one by working hand-inhand with the regional RUTRONIK branches and our manufacturers locally.

Which manufacturers do you cooperate with in the new business unit?

We will be gradually expanding this current network over the next few years, yet our focus will always be on quality, not quantity.

Our selected partners will have to meet a range of criteria, which we consider to be absolutely necessary for our customers, primarily an innovative portfolio of automotive products and a global presence.

What does this cooperation with these partners look like?

The members in our unit deal very closely with the contacts among the group of manufacturers. They receive special training on working with the derivatives at a very early stage. On the other hand, we provide our manufacturers with information on the most current challenges that our customers face.

We are the pulse of the market, so to speak.

For several years now, we have been offering the Tech Days event, where a selected group of customers and our special manufacturers come together for a concentrated exchange of ideas. Typically, this is followed up by a customer-specific Expert Design Workshop with one manufacturer in particular. Here, a specific customer application and its system architecture are discussed.

What kind of products are currently being focused on?

In addition to the new semi-conductors in the micro-controller and MOSFET fields that are currently being developed for automotive applications specifically, these are, for example, MLCCs, which are ceramic multifaceted capacitors used in safety relevant applications. AVX has developed its own Automotive Plus series, which complies with the AEC-Q200 standard. These MLCCs are extremely reliable and resilient against mechanical and thermal influences.

Some products can even be used at temperatures up to 250째C. The new capacitors feature an extremely high current carrying capacity and high insulation resistance coupled with low ESR / ESL. They were developed for highly sophisticated applications, such as high pulse current switchings, aviation and aerospace technology as well as for use in hybrid automobiles.

Another example from the electromechanical range of products are the new crimp contacts, which we offer from JAE. They make it possible to connect any kind of wire to a circuit board quickly, easily and costeffectively, yet while creating a connection that cannot be easily detached, featuring a high degree of electrical and mechanical reliability. In automotive applications, the connection is approved first. Not until then is the housing developed. Omitting this housing makes it possible to save costs considerably as well as a great amount of space.

Which applications do you feel currently have the greatest need for consulting?

These would certainly be such current trends as: e-mobility, car-to-car communication and networking within the vehicle, including infotainment, advanced driver assistance systems, so-called ADAS, and even autonomous driving in its various stages of development from driver only to assisted, partially assisted and highly to fully automatic. Moreover, with the constantly increasing safety requirements as per ISO 26262, which cover on-board applications in various voltage ranges from 12, 24, 48 and up to 450 volts for hybrid systems, there is a huge range of topics that require in-depth consultation.

LED lighting as well is still a huge topic.

Today's state-of-the-art applications for LED daytime driving lights have a power consumption of only about 15 watts - this while at the same time offering the ability to be more visible to other road users. This equates to savings of around 0.2 liters of gas per 100 kilometers, which equals 4 grams fewer CO2 emissions per driven kilometer.

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The next phase of development in this field of application will be realized with OLEDs as of 2017. Where in the past the use of OLED technology was limited to high-resolution displays, for example, in the future they will also be used in automotive vehicles as a tail light or a turn signal. The main reason for their use in the future is that they require very little space and can also be designed as convex or concave light sources. However, OLEDs will also be a modernizing feature for the interior. Currently, they are being developed as ambient solutions in areas such as the footwell, the ceiling panel, the dashboard and door lighting in various design options.

Finally, the entire vehicle design concept is currently undergoing significant change as in hardly any other industry. These developments shift from mechanical to electronic innovations. This is why there is so much uncertainty and the need for consulting is extremely high right now. At the same time, European suppliers are under increased competitive pressure from new suppliers, especially from BRIC countries such as Brazil,

Russia, India, China and South Africa. Here, we feel we are well positioned to offer our customers the support that they need.

What distinguishes the Automotive Business Unit for this purpose?

First of all our many years of experience.

The automotive segment takes up more than 45 percent of our business at Rutronik and has thus always been one of the most important business segments. This means: We know what our customers need. We speak their language, know their processes, requirements and rules. And for many years we have also had close contacts with the most important manufacturers in this innovative sector.

This also applies to the range of products you have offered in the past. So why do you need a separate Business Unit?

Our aim is to bundle the specific support, expertise and synergies that the various manufacturers and their products can offer and make them available to our customers on a global level.

Would you like to briefly introduce the Business Unit?

Yes, I'd be happy to. Our team is made up of experienced special FAEs for automotive applications, who are supported by their colleagues from outside sales, inside sales and back office administrators. In addition, the automotive specialists act as an interface to the colleagues from the product sectors, such as power train, micro-controllers, passive or e-mechanical products. The global unit is managed by myself in the Ispringen headquarters. My business partner Lutz Henkel provides support to the North American market within the unit. We both have well over 25 years of experience in a number of positions at Tier 1 suppliers and distributors. Our colleagues in our branch offices around the world provide support to our customers locally and coordinate with us closely ďż­ Rutronik www.rutronik.com

RUTRONIK SMART & RUTRONIK EMBEDDED Rutronik to start a Global Series of Seminars for the Internet of Things Networking paired with sensor technology is currently the drive behind many developments related to the Internet of Things (IoT). Rutronik Elektronische Bauelemente GmbH has bundled all components for these applications under its services RUTRONIK SMART and RUTRONIK

EMBEDDED. In a global series of seminars, the distributor in coordination with a focus group of manufacturers, will be introducing innovations from these sectors â&#x20AC;&#x201C; from wireless components and sensor technologies to power management solutions and microcontrollers through to boards, displays and storage components.

These one-day seminars will be held in London on June 4th. During the course of the year, there will be additional dates in Germany, Sweden, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Slovenia, the Netherlands and in China. Participants can choose between a Smart and an Embedded seminar, each of which take place at the same place and at the same time.

RUTRONIK SMART The Smart seminar is geared towards developers who design their own modules and use SMT components in the design.

The seminar focuses on smart devices within the Internet of Things, especially on the segments Lifestyle (e.g. wearables, sport applications, indoor navigation solu-

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tions), Comfort (e.g. home automation, illumination and climate control systems, home appliance), Healthcare (e.g. patient monitoring, hearing aids, diagnostics carts) and Safety (e.g. surveillance and alarm systems, tracking and tracing solutions, smoke detectors).

RUTRONIK EMBEDDED The Embedded seminar is geared towards developers who use a mainboard as the basis for their pluggable peripherals with standard interfaces. The applications from the focus markets industrial automation, transportation, medical and digital signage are characterized by the demand for ruggedness, long-term availability and a high degree of integration capability.

To the extent possible, these seminars will be held in the language of the country. The seminars are free of charge. Due to limited places, you will need to register at www.rutronik.com/IOT_Seminars_2015\ RUTRONIK

www.rutronik.com

DESIGN

LOW POWER

Method for Low Power Physical Design in EDI Authors: Savindar Fu, Freescale Semiconductor, Suzhou Ken Du, Freescale Semiconductor, Suzhou Alex Cai, Freescale Semiconductor, Suzhou

Today’s market increasingly expects MCU with higher performance and lower power consumption. Low power implementation becomes the key challenge in SoC. Physical design is one of the critical phase to implement it. In this paper, we provide physical implementation methods base on Cadence Encounter Foundation Flow environment.

The methods focus on SOG utilization increase or gate count decrease hence to reduce power dissipation. These methods include: floorplan adjustment, GigaOpt application, leakage power optimization, new version EDI application (13.12.000) and etc. These methods have general applicability. This paper also provides some examples with power reduction results for a mixed signal design on 90nm process.

Keywords: Low Power, Cadence EDI, GigaOpt, Leakage Power 1. Freescale Kinetis Family Introduction Freescale Kinetis is the first broad-market mixed-signal MCU family base on the ARM Cortex™ core and the most scalable portfolio of low power, mixed-signal ARM Cortex™ MCUs in the industry.

Kinetis MCUs are built on Freescale’s innovative 90nm Thin Film Storage (TFS) flash technology with unique FlexMemory.

Kinetis MCU families combine the latest low power innovations and high performance, high precision mixed-signal capability. Kinetis portfolio consists of multiple hardware and software compatible MCU families with exceptional low-power performance, memory scalability including onchip FlexMemory/EEPROM, and peripheral integration. Families range from entry-level to highly integrated and include a wide selection of analog, human-machine inter20

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face, connectivity, and safety and security functions. Kinetis MCUs are supported by a market-leading enablement bundle from Freescale and numerous ARM 3rd party ecosystem partners.

2. Kinetis Low Power Physical Implementation 2.1 Introduction Kinetis MCU families combine the latest low power innovations and high performance with smaller chip size. On Feb. 25, 2014, Freescale announces the KL03 MCU, the world’s smallest and most energy efficient 32-bit MCU based on ARM® technology.

The increasingly low power and small chip size requirement brings big challenge for backend physical implementation.

This paper provides physical implementation methods base on Cadence Encounter Foundation Flow environment. The meth-

ods focus on SOG utilization increase or gate count decrease hence to reduce power dissipation. These methods include: floorplan adjustment, GigaOpt application, leakage power optimization, new version EDI application (13.12.000).

2.2 Floorplan Adjustment Hard block placement is one key factor which will impact final chip utilization. It’s time worth to adjust hard placement to get a good SOG shape for easier routing and higher density.

During back-end implementation of one Kinetis project, there is routing issue with below floorplan around red area (Flash hard block) and timing requirement cannot meet with this floorplan in figure 1. It will lead to die size increase if no smart adjustment.

• Each Flash have 64bit output for read data. There are 4 Flash in chip. From

DESIGN

floorplan view, there is no enough space for routing. This cause congestion issue.

• Flash also have high frequency requirement according to high performance definition.

There are critical paths around Flash.

Long distance routing cause worse timing.

MCUs

with faster runtime. GigaOpt provides significant improvement in worst negative slack (WNS), total negative slack (TNS), and density while simultaneously reducing dynamic and leakage power across the board.

Below are different data that compares implementation with/without GigaOpt in two Kinetis projects. Tables compare the result for gate count, utilization, timing WNS/TNS and total power.

Project 1 is a small project showing in table1.

During analysis, it is split into two charts. One Gate Count

• Chart 1 compares three items.

- Gate count got 0.28% improvement with GigaOpt. - Utilization got 1.3% improvement with GigaOpt. - Total power got 14.97% improvement with GigaOpt. • Chart 2 compares two items.

- Timing WNS got 27.17% improvement with GigaOpt. - Timing TNS got 74.49% improvement with GigaOpt.

Utilization Total Power Timing WNS Timing TNS (mW) (ns) (ns)

Proj1 (without GigaOpt) 709096

53.70%

133.6

-0.254

-1.943

Proj1 (with GigaOpt)

53%

113.6

-0.185

-0.690

707105

Table 1: Project 1 Implementation Result Figure 1: Initial Floorplan

Chart 1: Project 1 Items Group 1 Figure 2: Final Floorplan After deep analysis and much discussion, floorplan change to shape in figure 2.

• Keep enough space for Flash output routing.

• Keep enough space for Flash soft wrapper placement.

This floorplan shape makes routing and timing closure easier.

2.3 GigaOpt Application Cadence® Encounter® Digital Implementation (EDI) system provides the most effective methodology to maximize performance, and minimize power and area for high-performance, 100M+ instance, and power-efficient designs. EDI System delivers the most comprehensive and deterministic solution for physical implementation and design closure of today’s most demanding chip designs.

GigaOpt is an ultra-fast and multi¬threaded/highly scalable optimization technology that provides better quality of results (QoR)

Chart 2: Project 1 Items Group 2 includes gate count, utilization and total power. Another includes timing information.

Gate Count

Project 2 is a bigger projects showing in table 2. It also is split into two charts for analysis.

Utilization Total Power Timing WNS Timing TNS (mW) (ns) (ns)

Proj2 (without GigaOpt) 3311051

46.80%

216.4

-0.437

-379.15

Proj2 (with GigaOpt)

46.10%

195.9

-0.349

-87.745

3300296

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• Chart 3 compares three items.

- Gate count got 0.32% improvement with GigaOpt. - Utilization got 1.5% improvement with GigaOpt. - Total power got 9.47% improvement with GigaOpt.

tion during EDI implementation in figure 3.

2.5 New Version EDI Application (13.12.000) In EDI 13 release, GigaOpt technology is the default engine for optimization, including setup/hold/power optimization.

EDI 11.13 and EDI 13.12 for same design and database. The result is shown in table 3.

The result analysis also is split into two groups.

• Chart 5 compare three items: - Gate count got 0.27% improvement with EDI 13.12.

- Utilization got 0.74% improvement with EDI 13.12.

- Total power got 28.02% improvement with EDI 13.12.

• Group 2 compares two items: - Timing WNS got 0.256ns improvement with EDI 13.12.

- Timing TNS got 1.943ns improvement with EDI 13.12.

3. Issues and Workarounds Cadence EDI System delivers the most comprehensive and deterministic solution for physical implementation and design closure.

But EDI is not a impeccable tool. During Kinetis implementation there are issues which we have to find workarounds to meet the tape-out schedule.

Chart 3: Project 2 Items Group 1

Chart 4: Project 2 Items Group 2 • Chart 4 compares two items.

- Timing WNS got 20.14% improvement with GigaOpt. - Timing TNS got 76.86% improvement with GigaOpt.

GigaOpt simplifies the timing closure flow.

For project 1, there is comparison between

3.1 Fix Hold Time 3.1.1 Issue Description For timing optimization purpose, there are special delay cell which cell day is much bigger than buffer in our library. During hold time fix phase, EDI cannot smartly select delay cell firstly for big violations but inserts small buffer chain instead.

From two projects analysis, GigaOpt will help backend to improve EDI performance.

2.4 Leakage Power Optimization For 90nm and below technologies, leakage is the main factor which dominates over the dynamic power. Use optLeakagePower in EDI to optimize total leakage power of the design by swapping gates for gates with lower leakage power without degrading timing. Use this command after the design meets timing requirements.

This command resizes only those cells that have positive slack, unless a negative target slack is specified by the user.

Based on project 1, there is different result to show enable/disable leakage power optimiza22

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Chart 5: Project 1 EDI Version Compare Gate Count

Utilization Total Power Timing WNS Timing TNS (mW) (ns) (ns)

Proj1 (with edi11.13)

709096

53.70%

133.6

-0.254

-1.943

Proj1 (with edi13.12)

707888

53.30%

96.17

0.002

0.000

Table 3: Project 1 EDI Version Compare

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3.1.2 Workaround During implementation, first step only use delay cells to fix big hold violations, then use buffers to fix remaining violations. This will reduce total gate count and area significantly.

3.2 Fix Transition Time 3.2.1 Issue Description For some hard block pins with strict transition time requirement in timing model, EDI tool inserts buffer in each optimization

MCUs

stage, result in a redundant long buffer chain before those pins in the end.

3.2.2 Workaround After placement, manually insert a big buffer for those pins and set don’t touch for them to prevent tool from optimizing.

Check final database to find redundant long buffer chains and delete them to save gate count and area.

3.3 Critical Path Modules Placement 3.3.1 Issue Description A part of Kinetis project have high frequency requirement. For some critical path related soft modules, EDI cannot smartly place them in a proper location thus lead to extra effort for optimization and gate count increasing.

3.3.2 Workaround We need to provide some guidelines for tool during placement stage for better timing (createGuide, createDensityArea, createInstGroup and etc).

4. Conclusion Freescale Kinetis projects face to embedded MCU market and there are many requirements for low power application. We use above methods in those projects with Cadence EDI new feature and new version to improve performance and also speed up run time.

Working with Cadence EDI, we will continue to improve the low power implementation flow to reduce power dissipation while keeping high performance ￭

Figure 3: EDI Leakage Power Optimization

Reference [1] Freescale, http://www.freescale.com [2] Cadence, EDI System Text Command Reference [3] Cadence, EDI System User Guide www.freescale.com

Portescap introduces the next model of innovation with a new high performance 16 mm ECH Brushless Slotless Motor Portescap introduces the newest addition to our Ultra EC™ mini motor platform - the 16 ECH brushless motor, designed specifically to provide an economic motor solution for high performance applications. The 16ECH has been developed to be one of the most advanced and highest performing brushless

slotless motors in its class, specifically optimized for high continuous torque at low to medium speeds, maximizing power between 40 K and 55 K rpm, and rated speed at approximately 60 K rpm.

The 16ECH provides high performance and is constructed with an enhanced high efficiency magnetic circuit that significantly reduces both iron and recirculation losses, the primary causes for motor stator heating. The new patented EC motor coil also achieves higher available torque and mechanical power compared to similar brushless motors. The result is the new 16ECH stays cooler and offers greater power density than equivalent models within its target operating zone.

The 16ECH offers an effective economic solution for high performance end applications by pairing the right amount of com-

plexity, minimizing motor size and optimizing cost effective materials in its design. By optimizing the electro-mechanical motor design and material selection of the 16ECH, Portescap succeeds in providing a high quality, long lasting, high performance brushless motor that is simple and efficient to operate.

The advantages of the 16ECH make it a great match for low speed, high torque end applications, or applications in the medium speed range (30 K to 55 K rpm). The 16ECH is a good choice for geared applications because of its minimal speed drop and low motor heating under load. Additionally, the 16ECH’s efficiency, power density and long life make it an excellent alternative for a brush DC motor solution.

PORTESCAP www.portescap.com www.epd-ee.eu | April, 2015

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WIRELESS

Missing links

By Pradeep Shamanna, Microchip Technology

How to perform a simple link budget analysis to evaluate wireless transmission using sub-GHz modules in indoor and outdoor environments Short-range wireless is growing in popularity in home, building and industrial applications, notably in the sub-GHz (less than 1GHz) band. This means system designers need to understand the methods, estimation, cost and trade-offs involved. Apart from the range estimation formula, it is good to understand the wireless channel and propagation environment involved with sub-GHz. Generally, RF and wireless engineers perform a link budget when starting an RF design. The link budget considers range, transmit power, receiver sensitivity, antenna gains, frequency, reliability, propagation medium (which includes the principles of physics linked to reflection, diffraction and scattering of electromagnetic waves), and environmental factors to calculate the performance of a sub-GHz RF radio link.

Sub-GHz wireless networks can be costeffective in any low data rate system, from simple point-to-point connections to much larger mesh networks, where long range, robust radio links and extended battery life are priorities. Higher regulatory output power, reduced absorption, less spectral pollution and narrow band operation increase the transmission range. Improved signal propagation, good circuit design and lower memory usage can reduce the power consumption, thus increasing battery life.

Usually, sub-GHz channels are part of unlicensed Industrial Scientific Medical (ISM) frequency bands. Sub-GHz nodes generally target low-cost systems, with each node costing about 30 to 40% less than advanced wireless systems and they use less stack memory. Many protocols such as IEEE 802.15.4 based ZigBee (currently, the only protocol offering both 2.4GHz and sub-GHz 24

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versions in the 868 and 900MHz bands), automation protocols, cordless phones, wireless Modbus, remote keyless entry (RKE), tyre pressure monitoring systems and lots of proprietary protocols (including MiWi), occupy this band. However, operation in the sub-GHz ISM band induces the radios to interfere with other protocols using the same spectrum, which includes a threat from mobile phones, licensed cordless phones and so on.

Link budget Link budget is the accounting of all gains and losses from the transmitter (TX) through the medium (free space) to the receiver (RX) in a wireless system. Link budget considers the parameters that decide the signal strength reaching the receiver. Factors such as antenna gain levels, radio TX power levels and receiver sensitivity figures must be determined to analyse and estimate the link budget.

Antenna types and sizes should also be considered as well as secondary factors such as required range, available bandwidth, data rates, protocols, interference and interoperability. Receiver sensitivity is not part of the link budget but the threshold is needed to decide the received signal capability.

The simple link budget equation is that the received power (dBm) is equal to the sum of the transmitted power (dBm) and gains (dB) minus the losses (dB). By assessing the link budget, it is possible to design the system to meet its requirements and functionality within the desired cost. Some losses may vary with time. For example, periods of increased bit error rate (BER) for digital systems or degraded signal to noise ratio (SNR) for analogue systems.

Test requirements The Microchip MRF89XA modules and MRF49XA sub-GHz transceiver based PICtail boards can be used for the performance measurements. The MRF89XA modules are FCC, ETSI and IC certified. They differ from other embedded sub-GHz modules by providing various regulatory and modularly certified PCB antenna (Serpentine type) features. The PICtail boards are based on wire type (1/4) antenna for different frequencies, usually mounted on the development boards or daughter cards.

Figure 1 Microcontroller to MRF89XA module interface; wireless and RF node diagram

Figure 2 Microcontroller to MRF49XA transceiver and PICtail card interface; wireless and RF node diagram

DESIGN

The hardware interface of the transceiver modules with any of the PIC microcontrollers, generally known as wireless nodes, is illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2. The wireless nodes can be realised with a combination of the PIC MCU development board and PICtail daughter board.

WIRELESS

For range tests, the main differentiating factors are the module mounting, antenna orientation and the constant battery power source.

Fig. 3 shows the vertical mounting of the antenna on the baseboard. The vertical is with elevation lobe and plane; horizontal mounting is with azimuth lobe and plane.

To carry out range measurements, first programme the two RF and wireless sub-GHz based transceiver nodes with MiWi P2P demonstration code. Then place one RF node on a stand on a 1.5 to 2m pole after configuring a specific operating channel. By default, the wireless node is in receiving mode.

Figure 3: Vertical mounting of PICtail boards The range and performance experiments require at least two wireless nodes for testing. The measurement setup is done using any of the two development boards with, for simplicity, identical sub-GHz modules on each. Otherwise, a combination of these modules can be used for measurements and analysis, based on the application.

Measurement environment Operating terrains highly impact the wave propagation. Range tests should be conducted in various indoor and outdoor environments to provide a basic understanding of the performance of the modules. The chosen environments included line of sight (LoS) on level and uneven terrain, and obstructed paths on level and uneven terrain.

The measurements are also based on PCB antenna orientation (vertical or horizontal), output power of the sub-GHz modules (maximum or default), power amplifier or low noise amplifier (enabled or disabled value), type of antenna (PCB, wire or standard) dipole, and antenna (Serpentine, wire, or whip and dipole).

The factors affecting indoor measurements include office equipment and whether there are any signals from Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or microwave in the vicinity. Concrete structures, walls, nearby glass, wood and metal can all have an effect.

The antenna is mounted either vertically or horizontally based on the effective output power achieved, application space requirements and constraints, such as having a strong primary lobe based on the centre fundamental frequency and secondary lobes based on its third harmonic frequency.

As radio frequencies are reduced, the antenna sizes increase proportionally. The wire length in centimetres is equal to 7500 divided by the frequency in hertz. For 433MHz, this comes to 17.3cm, and for 915MHz, it comes to 8.2cm. This equation holds good for antenna wire sizes up to a quarter of the wavelength.

Range measurement procedure

Place a similar RF node on a second stand and set for the same working channel. Make one of the nodes stationary and the other mobile.

Set up the nodes and ensure they are connected to each other. Move the mobile node and test for transmission and reception. Make the measurements every 1.5 to 3m.

Once the critical point is attained, measure the actual and radial distance from the TX to the RX. The critical point is where the TX and RX communications become intermittent.

Return about 1.5m from the critical point and check again for reliable communications. The distance measurement method is illustrated in Fig. 4 showing that the increase in range value is a function of variables with the TX module height being the most sensitive.

Figure 4: Distance measurement method www.epd-ee.eu | April, 2015

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WIRELESS

The packet error rate (PER) test analyses the indoor and outdoor valid data coverage between two wireless nodes. The PER test setup is similar to the open field test setup.

The PER test between two devices is done in a single iteration with a predetermined number of data packets. The ISM (IEEE 802.15.4) specification defines a reliable link as having PER below or equal to 1% for the 1000 data packets transmitted and received. PER measures the capability of a device to receive a signal without degradation due to undesirable signals at other frequencies. The desired signal’s degradation of its PER must be less than 1% or the BER must be less than 0.1%. The PER test is conducted by adding the delay between data packets, if required.

through attenuators until the PER is less than 1%, and is no longer measured at the receiver. The test setup consists of two sub-GHz modules, see Fig. 5.

The transmitting sub-GHz module is connected through an electronic attenuator to the receiving module. Both modules are connected to a PC with a USB cable or via an RS232 serial port. The PC executes the test tool with PER test scripts using the driver utility software. All the PER tests are performed without retransmission. The PER test for sensitivity provides the user with the freedom to increase the distance between the two nodes and check how far the communications can keep PER below 1% with the compensations across channels.

such as diffraction helping sub-GHz signals bend further around an obstacle, reducing the blocking effect.

It is good to use sub-GHz ISM bands for proprietary low duty cycle links and they are not as likely to interfere with each other.

The less noisy spectrum indicates easier transmissions and fewer retries, which is more efficient and saves the battery power.

Both power efficiency and system range are functions of the receiver sensitivity plus the transmission frequency. The sensitivity is inversely proportional to channel bandwidth, so a narrower bandwidth creates higher receiver sensitivity and allows efficient operation at lower transmission rates.

For example, at 433MHz, if the transmitter and receiver crystal errors are both 10ppm,

Figure 5: Test set up for sensitivity The BER measurement is done by sending the data through the wireless nodes and comparing the output to the input. Over an infinitely long period of time, the general assumption is that the data transmission is a random process. Therefore a pseudo-random data sequence is used for the BER test.

It is “pseudo” random because a truly random signal cannot be created using deterministic (mathematical) methods, but few approximations of random behaviour are available to perform accurate BER measurements. The modulation modes provide good BER performance at low SNRs. However, no simple test methods exist that enable direct BER measurements.

An accepted simple method is to calculate BER from PER. The setup for measurement of the PER and BER is similar to the range measurement.

The sensitivity test setup is used to get an indication of the sensitivity limit. The input power level to the receiver is lowered 26

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Conclusion Sub-GHz radios can create relatively simple wireless products that can operate uninterrupted on battery power alone for up to 20 years. Sub-GHz wireless networks can be cost effective in any low-data-rate system, where long range, robust radio links and extended battery life are priorities. Higher regulatory output power, reduced absorption, less spectral pollution and narrowband operation increase transmission range.

Better circuit efficiency, improved signal propagation and a smaller memory footprint can result in years of battery-powered operation.

The narrowband operation of a sub-GHz radio can ensure transmission ranges as long as a kilometre or more. This allows sub-GHz nodes to communicate directly with a distant hub without hopping from node to node. The primary reasons for the sub-GHz range performance are lower attenuation rates, lesser signal weakening, and effects

the error is 4.33kHz for each. For the application to transmit and receive efficiently, the minimum channel bandwidth is twice the error rate, or 8kHz, whichever is ideal for narrowband applications.

For urban environments, the use of 12dB is a good rule of thumb for predicting the required increase in the link budget to double the transmission distance. Receiver sensitivity is the first variable in a system that must be optimised to increase the transmission distance. Other variables in a system also affect distance but must be changed by a greater percentage to equal the effects offered by changing the receiver sensitivity.

Fading due to multi-path can result in a signal reduction of more than 30 to 40dB, and it is highly recommended that adequate link margin is factored into the link budget to overcome this loss while designing a wireless system ￭ www.microchip.com

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IoT

Internet of Things

The new single and dual band Wi-Fi modules by Qualcomm

Internet of Things (IoT) is used to describe a phenomenon where home PCs as devices are gradually being replaced by "intelligent objects". Instead of being at the centre of human attention, as it is currently the case with the Internet, IoT will inconspicuously be assisting humans in their daily tasks. The objective of these ever-shrinking tiny computers is to help people in their everyday lives without distracting them or even being noticed.* According to official estimates, more than 25 billion such devices will be connected to each other over the Internet by 2020. With respect to Wi-Fi, the industry is looking for solutions that are even smaller and more compact, while costing less and less. Low power consumption is also an issue in IoT, since such devices are often powered by batteries. CODICO offers two Wi-Fi modules tailored specifically to meet these requirements, which were developed by market leader Qualcomm. *See: Wikipedia We already presented the single-band DNSA-141 Wi-Fi module in detail in our 2014 Impulse issue. Now we added a second module that also supports dual-band (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) and diversity at 2.4GHz, the DNSA-144. Although both modules are produced and marketed by Wistron, they are based on the SP141 and SP144 Wi-Fi reference designs by Qualcomm.

Therefore, Wistron appears as an original design manufacturer (ODM), which precisely observes the reference design specifications and manufactures according to these.

While Wistron delivers the hardware, Qualcomm exclusively provides technical support and development boards.

A support page was set up specifically for this purpose, where users can download the entire support package (demos, drivers, datasheets, user guides, etc.): https://developer.qualcomm.com/mobiledevelopment/development-devices/ioewifi-development-platform/tools-andresources Both development kits can be ordered through CODICO online: www.codico.com/de/formulare/qualcomm/ Both module solutions are based on the

same highly integrated QCA4002 (DNSA141) and QCA4004 (DNSA-144) Wi-Fi components (image 1) by Qualcomm. The SPI interface allows for a quick and easy connection to an MCU-based system environment. For this purpose, the corresponding open source API drivers, available as C-code

on the said support website, will have to be ported to the host MCU. In both cases, users benefit from the fact that the entire TCP/IP protocol stack and higher protocols such as HTTP, DHCP, and DNS and encryptions are already integrated in the QCA4002/4 modules.

Image 1: QCA4002/4 architecture www.epd-ee.eu | April, 2015

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As a result, no in-depth Wi-Fi skills are required for development, and users can instead focus their attention on the core applications on their host MCU. The QCA4002/4 thus operates as a "black box" which, although it can be controlled from

QCA4002/4. Of course, the modules also support the low power features integrated in the QCA4002/4, such as, for instance, Low-Power-Listen, Green-Tx-Power-Saving, or IEEE-Sleep-Mode (sleep: 130μA / 2 ms wake up, suspend: 10 μA/ 35 ms wake up).

• Green Tx Power Saving, Low Power Listen and IEEE Sleep Mode • On-board printed antenna or IPEX connector • Single power supply: 3.3V • Integrated IPv4/IPv6 networking stack

Image 2: QCA4002/4 software architecture the outside, executes all network processes using its internal CPU. Image 2 shows the software architecture of the QCA4002/4 modules. All protocols/functions below the red line are covered by the integrated network processor and the hardware (MAC and PHY), while the API (application programming interface) and applications run on the host MCU. As the arrows indicate, the API allows direct access to each individual protocol layer, allowing users themselves to manage the distribution of the protocol function between the host MCU and QCA4002/4. So it is possible, for instance, to circumvent the entire TCP/IP stack and address MAC and PHY directly from the host MCU if, e.g. users want to use their own stack in the operating system.

Despite the fact that the QCA4002/4 parts already integrate several RF components, many customers shy away from the efforts of an own RF design and the subsequent calibration and certification procedures. To relieve them from this last burden, the two module solutions offer quick, simple, and cost-optimized system integration.

Measuring only 20x25mm (DNSA-141, image 3 and 4) and 20x42mm (DNSA-144, image 5 and 6) the modules can be addressed via SPI with the exact same API as 28

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Instead of the dual-band functionality, the second antenna connection of DNS-144 can be used for reception diversity, allowing for a more stable wireless connection and thus a higher range. Support for Rx/Tx diversity, however, is only available at 2.4GHz. DNSA-141 specifications: • QCA4002-based Wi-Fi module • 2.4GHz Single-Band IEEE 802.11b/g/n • Internal PA and LNA, no external RFSW

Image 4: DNSA-141 block diagram

Image 3: DNSA-141 module

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IoT

• Full security support: SSL, WPS, WPA, WPA2, WEP • Integrated services: HTTP, DHCP, DNS, ICMP, IGMP • Easy-to-use SPI host interface • 25mm × 20mm, dual-layer, single-side component • Operation temperature: -40°C – 85°C (Industry Class Version) • Regulatory compliances: CE, FCC and IC DNSA-144 specifications: • QCA4004-based Wi-Fi module • 2.4GHz and 5GHz, Dual-Band IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n • Rx/Tx Diversity for 2.4GHz • Internal PA and LNA, no external RFSW • Green Tx Power Saving, Low Power Listen and IEEE Sleep Mode • On-board printed antenna or IPEX connector • Single power supply: 3.3V • Integrated IPv4/IPv6 networking stack • Full security support: SSL, WPS, WPA, WPA2, WEP • Integrated services: HTTP, DHCP, DNS, ICMP, IGMP • Easy-to-use SPI host interface • 25mm × 42mm, dual-layer, single-side component

• Operation temperature: -40°C – 85°C (Industry Class Version) • Regulatory compliances: Planning CE, FCC and IC ￭ André Ehlert Tel.: +49 89 1301 438 - 11 Mobile: +49 160 9413 9909 E-Mail: Andre.Ehlert@codico.com www.codico.com

Image 5: DNSA-144 module

Image 6: DNSA-144 block diagram

Next Generation PMBus™ Digital Controller for Communications Infrastructure and High-Performance Computing Powervation Ltd., the Intelligent Digital Power™ company, announced its latest high-performance digital DC/DC controller for FPGA, ASIC, and POL

power for communications & computing applications.

Designed for key rails that demand precision output voltage regulation and tight control dur-

ing transient conditions, the PV3105 digital controller provides low jitter and low output voltage ripple, and improved transient response, making it ideal for powering low-voltage, high current rails on leading process nodes for ASICs/FPGAs. Additional hardware and firmware features have been implemented to further improve the control of the output voltage under static and dynamic conditions.

To meet the power needs of today’s advanced ASICs, PV3105 provides support for latest senseFET power stages, precision telemetry & reporting, and includes features such as voltage tracking, margining, and sequencing.

The PV3105 provides temperature compensated fault protection, more flexible protection feature settings, and alerts over PMBus™ are fully configurable & selectable. Fully scalable, PV3105 can be used in single phase mode or can power multi-phase high power loads using Powervation’s DSS® current sharing bus.

The PV3105 is designed to flexibly operate with all leading FET power stages, to give the designer maximum flexibility for powering the latest FPGAs, ASICs, processors, and POL. The PV3105 is RoHS compliant and is available now in a 4 mm × 4 mm QFN package.

POWERVATION www.powervation.com

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IoT

Internet of Things, Hype or Hypertension?

“Internet of Things” was one of the biggest buzz words of 2014 however were the interconnected technologies it tries to describe really novel, or rather the evolution and expansion into new areas of existing programmes such as Smart Metering or Grid, Home Automation, Industry 4.0 and Intelligent Automotive Systems.

So how are the connected innovations these prior programmes initiated and proved finding their way into other market areas and what are the benefits and challenges to be overcome?

As we move into the new year of 2015 will the term “IOT” become stale and fade and will the progression of interconnection between embedded devices continue, without the headaches associated with the issues to realising tangible business opportunities being faced.

Author: Joachim Hüpper, Industrial & Communications Business Unit Renesas Electronics Europe GmbH

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DESIGN

How is IoT changing the world There are one billion people on the internet today and Gartner predicts 26 billion devices will be online by 2020, a 30 fold increase from 2009. This presents a $300Billion incremental business opportunity to the ecosystem of suppliers to the embedded market and services providers for the connectivity and data management.

There are many areas of where IoT connected embedded devices can bring real benefit and are currently being developed & deployed, some examples of these being: Buildings Smart Meter deployments have on going in many European countries with the EU mandate to have 80% of European homes using Smart Electricity and Gas meters by 2020.

Most of these programs have a HAN (Home Area wireless Network) and WAN (Wide Area Network back to the supplier via the internet). This brings the possibility of meter connection to smart thermostat, boiler and radiator valves a close reality. British Gas in the UK have already released the HiVE app for controlling heating via a smart phone, with boiler and thermostat connected via Wi-Fi to router.

These is of course also the much publicized “Google Nest” connected learning thermostat which is being enhanced by the Google “works with Nest” programme , this would enable for example a Phillips Hue lighting system to flash the lights if the “Nest protest” sensor detects carbon monoxide.

The features of these early leaders may well become standard in years to come, providing greater control and energy saving which will be great for consumers and the environment.

Also in the built environment, printers have had the feature to prompt users for online ink cartridge replacement for many years.

Home Appliances and AV equipment may extend this further being able to report fault codes back to the manufacturer or provider, initiating service calls or spares and consumables to be ordered. No more digging around in the back of the user guide for the fault finding table or searching for a spare part supplier.

Manufacturing The next generation of interconnected manufacturing equipment has become known as “Industry 4.0” where intelligent factories, machines and products communicate with each other, cooperatively driving produc-

IoT

tion. Companies such as Siemens are in advanced stages of research and development of these systems. Enhancing this further smart tags will provide connectivity of the ingredients required for the manufacturing process, giving asset management & materials tracing, reducing errors, providing improvements to “Just in Time” processes and reducing theft.

Environment Connected sensors to detect environmental changes and report early warning for earthquake, avalanche, eruption & tsunami have existed for some years. Now there is the start of the installation of sensors and beacons in major towns and cities. Trials are already under at many sites including San Francisco airport and the city of Reading UK to aid the visually impaired navigate their environment via beacons that send audio announcements of where they are and what is close by to a headset. At San Francisco Airport when users walk past one of the 500 transmitter beacons, their iOS device will announce nearby points of interest; they can find flight gates, ATMs, information desks and power outlets without asking for help.

This could be projected further into the future with self-driving cars avoiding congestion and intelligently rerouting for optimal flow by receiving information from beacons en-route connected to a central traffic management system.

Advertising With products like smart watches and the creation of sensor beacons, advertisers have started to realize the massive potential of all this data being collected, and how it can be used to reach consumers. The potential of target adverts being pushed to consumers smart devices as they pass by or browse within a store are not far off and have already been presented in the 2002 Tom Cruise film Minor Minority Report.

Retail In a similar vain to manufacturing in the industrial sector, retail could also benefit greatly from internet connected products.

Tesco in the UK generated almost 30,000 tons of food waste in the first six months of 2013. Industry-wide, 68 percent of salad sold in bags are thrown away . IoT offers the prospect of better tracking and management of food items to reduce wastage.

Healthcare The recent explosion of home healthcare products such as blood pressure & heart rate, blood glucose & body mass index, lend themselves perfectly for evolution to connected devices which send the collected data to predict trends and send to services for analysis.

At the Consumer Electronics show this year Connected Health was centre stage.

Monitoring of body signals and activity using wristbands such as FitBit is now widely accepted and the launch of Apple Healthkit in iOS 8 will initiate many more connected monitors.

What are the new challenges that this evolution brings?

So behind the hype there is some reality today but for each of these application areas to become mainstream there are still many challenges. Five of these we will now consider.

Wireless For distributed connectivity wireless is the most practical solution but there is massive fragmentation. Cellular technologies are well established but can’t provide a solution for battery or energy harvested devices such as sensors or beacons. There are no shortage of wireless standards in fact a mind numbing array: Wi-Fi, Wireless-Mbus, Bluetooth and IEE 802.15.4. Each of these may be a good candidate but many have sub standards and frequency or software stack options such as ZigBee, 6LowPAN, Thread for ‘802.15.4, each with different stack versions and profiles, causing concerns for interoperability.

The Industrial Internet Consortium was founded to help resolve these problems and has a following of greater than 100 member companies, but results are yet to come.

Wireless solutions also need careful antenna design and optimisation plus certification to ensure compliance with the chosen wireless standard, both of which are complex fields and require specialist skills.

Security Security is probably the greatest headache to most. Many IoT application areas could result in some financial transaction, so a lack of tight security would leave systems open to fraud and any linked to infrastructure could be a target for terrorism, for example energy or traffic management. www.epd-ee.eu | April, 2015

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Many embedded development companies do not have the skill or expertise in house to ensure robust encryption and authentication so will need to reach out to external experts. For the end consumer, data protection will become a big topic, with remote sensors and beacons tracking our every movement and activity, ensuring that this data is kept private and the consumer feels they are in control, will be key for acceptance. A number of much simpler smart metering trials were aborted due to consumer pressure on this issue.

Big Data A further challenge for the evolution of IoT will be what to do with all the data that results from the connected sensors. A years’ worth of UK smart metering data of ½ hourly gas and electric meter reads is approximately 3Tera bytes , which come from essentially just two connected sensors.

Therefore professionally managed IT web server infrastructure will be required for collection, aggregation, analysis and presentation of the potentially massive amount of data created from IoT systems.

As well as collection data there is also the enablement of download or pushing data to the remotely connected devices. Careful design and testing will be required to support features such as remote firmware code

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module update, feature addition or deployment of apps in interpreted languages such as Java, python or other languages, including appropriate security features to ensure only authenticated updates are accepted.

Power source limitations The next technical issue to be considered will be the power source for the end sensors. As most end devices in an IoT environment will not be mains supplied, consumers will reject them if constant battery replacement is required. As the quantity of end devices increases so must the battery life of each to avoid consumer inconvenience. If you consider that 24 devices with a battery like of 2 years each has the same replacement rate as 1 device with a battery life of a month. So efficient low power component choice, system design and battery less techniques such as energy harvesting will need to be embraced.

Use cases to be translated to business cases Finally, ideas need to be translated into money. There will no doubt be many IoT products launched, but it will be ones with well thought out business case that will thrive. Interestingly as we will consider next, IoT will bring more possibilities for a positive revenue stream than simply the value of the physical device as has been in the past.

So how will this benefit embedded solution providers?

For embedded solution providers, the evolution of an internet connected world which IoT promises, opens up many opportunities and will probably be a disrupting influence in a number of application areas where slow moving dominant players may be displaced or lose market share by more dynamic innovative new entrants. Some examples of these opportunities are: Differentiation & Innovation Platforms and interconnect with sensors and actuators can allow differentiation from competitors or new entry to disrupt market areas currently serviced by others. A good example here is integrated home environmental control, where a supplier of security systems today could differentiate themselves by enabling security presence sensors to interact with lighting control or heating system providing energy management or vulnerable person monitoring. “Alertme” in the UK is a good example of this.

Offer new services For consumers, new services that can increase customer satisfaction or create new revenue streams will appear. Data services, for collection, analysis and presentation of the information from IoT sensors and pro-

DESIGN

vide control of connected actuators. These services may be provided directly to the consumer or via other parties that produce “mash up’s” with added value of data from different sources. Think how google maps has been combined with house prices from property sales portals to produce heat maps of property values for an idea of what may come next.

IoT

For the developers of IoT products, sourcing proven platforms of software and hardware will be a key enabler, especially as many of the technologies required such as wireless and security are beyond the capabilities of existing equipment manufacturers and certainly start-ups. Communications modules are an easy option for quick addition of wireless technologies particularly

whilst de-facto standards for IoT are very much in flux. Finally consultancy services will be very much in demand especially for security and communications technologies.

Increase or add value Electronic products prices are continually reducing, whether its security systems, appliances or semiconductors. With the advent of IoT adding new innovative features to products that differentiate, will allow product prices to be maintained, whilst offering new services that make use of the collated data or provide control of connected actuators, allowing new revenue streams to be created.

Going forward companies have already identified that the model of revenue purely from hardware is being replaced by profit and value from solutions, software & services.

Conclusion In this article we have shown that though there is a lot of hype around the term Internet of Things there is much reality today with immense opportunities for the future.

However to fully realise the opportunities of internet connected devices will require new IT infrastructure, embedded technologies, software, standards & certifications that end equipment designers and manufacturers today have limited experience of.

A way forward to enable developers is for proven platforms combining wireless, security, and low power operation along with IT data infrastructure that are “production ready” with high quality software stacks, integrated, tested and qualified to required standards ￭ www.renesas.com

References i www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2636073 ii www.hivehome.com iii http://nest.com iv http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/nest-announces-smart-home-partnerships-at-ces v http://www.siemens.com/information-technology/videos/industry-4-0-fourth-industrial-revolution.html vi http://mashable.com/2014/07/31/san-francisco-airport-beacons/ vii http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/11210926/How-3D-audio-technology-could-unlock-cities-for-blind-people.html viii www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bXJ_obaiYQ ix www.bbc.com/news/uk-24603008 x www.ibtimes.com/ces-2015-preview-connected-health-wearable-tech-will-take-center-stage-2015-1769180 xi www.fitbit.com xii www.industrialinternetconsortium.org/ xiii 3Terabytes= 4bytes per meter read x 48 per day x 356 days x 2 meters per home x 22M homes in UK xiv www.alertme.com www.epd-ee.eu | April, 2015

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DESIGN

ASICs

Simple Analog ASIC solves difficult thermal analisys problems

By Bob Frostholm, JVD, Inc.

In a world where Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) and Application Specific Standard Products (ASSPs) are dominating every conceivable application, greater attention is being applied to their long term reliability. These chips are being built on smaller lithographies, running at higher speeds, dissipating more power and to make things worse, they are being encapsulated in ever decreasing package sizes. What could possibly go wrong?

Plenty! Higher device performance comes at a price; higher temperatures. And with higher temperatures comes lower reliability if thermal considerations aren't carefully controlled. Semiconductor manufacturers have long been aware of the problems associated with heat. Most have application notes and white papers plastered across their web sites espousing the benefits of careful calculation of power management using their values of ΘJA and ΘJC ( Junctionto-Ambient and Junction-to-Case thermal resistance, respectively) often with sidebars suggesting various heat sinks to use in marginal situations. This puts the burden of solving temperature related problems on the backs of the user.

Recent technology advances and the proliferation of the use of Thermal Test Chips like those developed by JVD, Inc. for Thermal Engineering Associates of Santa Clara, CA is allowing semiconductor manufacturers and companies designing their own ASIC/ASSP devices to get ahead of the curve by thermally engineering their silicon before going to production.

Thermally Engineer Your Own ICs Today, almost anyone can design a thermally engineered IC. Whether you’re a designer at a commercial semiconductor company or you’re crafting your own ASIC, the tools are readily available to physically simulate the thermal effects of your design, well in advance of spending any money to produce your first silicon prototypes. Thermal Test Chips (TTCs) allow system designers to fully model, measure and modify their designs before committing to costly silicon.

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TTCs are special silicon die (yes, they are Analog ASICs) that are used to model and measure the thermal performance of your chip design in situ before you commit those tooling dollars for masks and wafers.

Modeling allows you to create multiple individual heat sources on the TTC die, identical to the heat sources that will occur on your final IC. Temperature sensors, strategically located throughout the TTC give you precise measurement of the temperature of the die at multiple locations simultaneously. The heat sources can be modulated to replicate various portions of your IC being power on, off or in an intermediate mode. By tracking the absolute or changes in temperature at any point on the TTC, you can determine if one or more heat sources combine to exceed safe operating temperatures of the intended IC design. If temperatures are problematic, you can go back to your IC design and modify the chip’s layout to isolate the heat sources and alleviate the potential problem.

How It’s Designed TTCs are produced like any other Analog ASIC. In this example, the individual Unit Cell is 2.5mm × 2.5mm and each cell contains two heat sources (metal film resistors) and four strategically located temperature sensors (diodes). See Figure 1a and 1b.

It is rare that a thermal analysis would need to be performed on a die as small as 2.5mm × 2.5mm. For this reason, all of the cells on the wafer are interconnected, forming a wafer scale product. This is important because thermal modeling and measurement must be done with a die that closely

Figure 1a: A basic TTC Unit Cell schematic. Note the strategic placement of the temperature sensing diodes.

Figure 1b: A basic TTC Unit Cell layout.

Each cell has two heat source resistors (show in orange) that occupy 86% of the die area contained within the electrical contact pads. Four temperature sensing diodes shown in green.

DESIGN

ASICs

approximated the size (mass) of the IC being simulated. The wafer scale product can then be sawn into any of hundreds of different die configurations, ranging from a single cell die (2.5mm × 2.5mm) up to an array die that is 10 cells by 10 cells (25.68mm × 25.68mm) or even larger, to obtain a size commensurate with the IC being simulated.

ing one pair of connections to provide just enough forward current to operate the diode at the break of its forward currentvoltage curve, while the second pair of connections can accurately measure the forward voltage. It is critical to keep the current below the point of self-heating, yet above the point that can cause problems with repeatability. See figure 2a and 2b.

How It Works Metal film resistor heat sources were chosen for their better uniformity and matching across the wafer compared to polysilicon resistors. Additionally, their relatively stable temperature coefficients of ±20ppm/°C results in constant power dissipation over the course of the thermal measurement.

Creating and Configuring Arrays of TTCs There are two basic concepts in creating and configuring TTCs; uniform heating and distributed heating. Uniform heating implies that the heat source is consistent across the surface of the die, eliminating any thermal gradients across the silicon surface. To

achieve this, the resistances in each TTC must be dissipate the same heat and therefore must be passing the same heating current. By configuring the TTCs in the correct series, parallel or series-parallel combination, uniform heating is achieved.

For example, figure 3 (below) shows how the two heating elements in a TTC can be configured either in parallel (for a heater resistance of 3.8Ω) or in series (for a heater resistance of 15.2Ω).

Most chip designers strive to achieve an end product whose silicon die aspect ratio is 1:1.

Occasionally this isn’t possible due to I/O requirements (bonding pad locations).

When an asymmetrical TTC array is needed, consideration should be given to the aspect orientation of the array.

Figure 2a: Proper Measurement Current, IM, shown above, corresponds to the diode’s forward current-voltage curve.

Figure 2b: Kelvin connections for the temperature sensing diodes (center diode connected in this example).

The heat sources are laid out to occupy 86% of the die area, thus conforming to the JESD51-4 standard. Each heat source has a pair of contacts for power connection and a second pair of contacts for Kelvin (e.g., 4wire) connections to measure precisely the voltage being applied to the heat source.

Similarly, each of the temperature sensing diodes also have Kelvin connections, allow-

Figure 3: Configuring a TTC. www.epd-ee.eu | April, 2015

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DESIGN

ASICs

For example, thermal simulation of a die that is 13mm × 8mm can be achieved by using a TTC array that is 5 × 3 cells or 3 × 5 cells.

Both contain the same number of cells and, therefore can dissipate the same amount of power and both offer a center diode for temperature sensing. For uniform heating, both operate the same and the only difference would be the voltage and current needed to generate the same amount of power dissipation. For example, see figure 4. The 3×5 array has 5 series strings of resistors with each string having a resistance of about 37.5 Ohms (= 5 × 7.5 Ohms). Paralleling these strings results in a total resistance of about 6.25 Ohms. For 10W of power dissipation, a voltage of 7.9V @ 1.265A would be required.

The 5×3 array, shown in figure 5, has 10 series strings of 3 resistors with each string having a resistance of about 22.5 Ohms (= 3 × 7.5 Ohms). Paralleling these strings results in a total resistance of about 2.25 Ohms. For 10W of power dissipation, a voltage of 4.74V @ 2.1A would be required.

TTCs are designed to accommodate either wire-bond or bumped wafer flip chip packaging. In the wire-bond configuration, the pads surrounding each TTC are connected to their adjacent neighbor with metal. Only

Unit Cell specifications for each TTC are important to understanding the overall expected performance of the array being used to simulate the new IC under development. See figure 7.

Figure 7: Specifications.

Figure 6: Individual cells can be powered to simulate high power dissipation portions of the IC. Temperature sensing diodes in these and all other cells can then be used to measure heat transfer across the die.

Figure 4: A 3 x 5 TTC array.

Figure 5: A 5 x 3 TTC array.

Either approach works but the preference is to go with the lower current alternative since it is less stressful and will require smaller trace widths on the board where the packaged chip is mounted.

Distributed heating is actually more representative of what one might expect to see in a large ASIC or ASSP. Certain parts of the circuit that are designed for higher speed or must manage greater power are expected to dissipate more heat. Chip designers will want to know how hot these hot spots actually get and how the heat might affect circuitry on another area of the chip that might have some sensitivity to heat, such as a precision voltage reference.

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when the die is sawn into its desired configuration (2×2, 5×5, 7×9, etc.) is the connection severed. Conventional wire bonding techniques pretty much limit package pinout access to only those pads around the periphery of the array. Due to the way the masking is done on the wafers, the maximum chip size of wire bond chip version, is a 40X40 array, (1,600 TTCs occupying a total of 10,000mm2 ~100mm X ~100mm).

When an application calls for a more localized heating, for power mapping purposes, the flip chip design is ideal. With no internal interconnects between the TTC in the array, all bonding pads are accessible. For example, for an 8 × 8 TTC array, heat can be generated at selected cells. See figure 6.

Figure 8: Wire bond 1 × 1 chip mounted on a wire bond 2 × 2 chip.

DESIGN

In addition to single chip packages, TTCs can also be obtained in custom stacked die configurations (see figure 8) as well as multichip (horizontal layout) packages and package on package components. Custom packaging services are also available for those requirements that cannot be addressed by the standard packages described above.

TEA recently introduced a new TTC Unit Cell size version that is 1mm X 1mm and contains a single heating resistor and a single temperature sensing diode. The smaller Unit Cell allows for greater power mapping capability. Both TTC Unit Cell sizes are available in 150mm (6”) diameter wafer form as well as sawn array chips.

Using Re-Distribution Metal An RDL (Re-Distribution Layer) is used to redistribute the electrical contact pads – either wire bond or bump – into a configuration other than that originally designed on the chip. Some reasons for this are: ￭ Mounting a chip onto BGA package substrate originally designed for a different chip pad configuration; ￭ Wire bond chips may have a single row of wire bond pads in the center of the chip. ￭ Stacked chips may require all wire bond pads along one chip edge.

The process for creating an RDL on the wafer consists of creating one or more metal layers between insulation layers.

The metal layers are etched to form traces

ASICs

The new pads can be used for wire bonding connection or act as the base for adding Flip Chip bumps.

Figure 9 is a TTC-1002 2×3 array with an RDL that provides for wire bonding either along specific locations on the periphery or down the center of the chip. The RDL is a custom requirement that needs to be discussed in detail with TEA before any implementation can begin.

How Hot is Hot? Calculating power density using empirical data derived from Thermal Test Chips, IC designers and packaging engineers can model the actual performance of a product well in advance of committing a design to silicon or a package to hard tooling.

Semiconductor process advancements are merging heretofore incompatible pieces of complex systems onto a single substrate.

Gone are the days of isolating the power elements to their own heat sunk packages. Now they reside a few microns away from temperature sensitive structures. Something has to give. Or does it?

The use of Thermal Test Chips allows designers to precisely pinpoint the heat sources on their designs and simulate its effect on the performance of the entire system. Take the 2.54mm × 2.54mm Unit Cell discussed earlier. With its two 7.6Ω resistor heating elements, each capable of handling 1 Amp at 6 Volts, the cell can dissipate 12 Watts of power. Its area (6.45mm2) yields a power density of 186W/cm2. The newly introduced 1mm ×1mm Unit Cell with its single 10.5Ω resistor heating element, capable of handling up to 0.55 Amps at 5.5Volts, can dissipate 3 Watts of power. Its area (1mm2) yields a power density of 300W/cm2.

Combining Unit Cells into an array derates these figures slightly due to the additional silicon required for saw streets between Figure 9: Re-distribution Layer to align bonding pads. the cells. For example a 10 × 10 array of the 6.54 that connect the existing chip contact pads square mm cell has a power density of to created new pads in desired locations. 182W/cm2, while a 10 × 10 array of the 1 Depending on the trace routing complexity, square mm cell has a power density of there will be multiple layers of metal and 261W/cm2. These are exceptionally high PDs and are difficult to achieve by other means. insulator stacked upon one another.

In power mapping applications, these high PDs per unit area offer the user an opportunity to better simulate power density levels resulting from multi-point localized heating in high performance CPUs and ASIC chips. Additionally, they can better simulate high power and high frequency transistors - SiC (Silicon Carbide) and GaN (Gallium Nitride).

Although seldom discussed in public journals , the use of these Analog ASIC Thermal Test Chips play an important role in allowing semiconductor manufacturers and companies designing their own ASIC/ASSP devices to get ahead of the curve by thermally engineering their silicon before going to production ￭ JVD designs and manufactures Analog ASIC Semiconductors, including the chips described in this article. Bob Frostholm is Director of Sales and Marketing at Analog ASIC company, JVD Inc. (San Jose, CA.) www.jvdinc.com About the Author:

Bob has held Sales, Marketing and CEO roles at established and startup Analog Semiconductor Companies for more than 40 years. Bob was one of the original marketers behind the ubiquitous 555 timer chip. After 12 years with Signetics-Phillips, Fairchild and National Semiconductor, he co-founded his first startup in 1984, Scottish based Integrated Power, which was sold to Seagate in 1987. He subsequently joined Sprague’s semiconductor operations in Massachusetts and helped spin off its semiconductor group, creating what is now known as Allegro Microsystems and later helped LSI Logic acquire SEEQ Technology.

Bob has been consulting with numerous start-ups until joining JVD in 2010.

He is the author of several technical articles and white papers.

Email: bob.frostholm@jvdinc.com www.epd-ee.eu | April, 2015

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INDUSTRY NEWS

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

Home Automation with Raspberry Pi and an Embedded Touchscreen Display

By Tyler Crumpton Makers Local 256, Huntsville, AL USA

Remembering which light switch controls each light in your home can be difficult sometimes, especially when three-way switches and more complicated setups are thrown in. Compound that complexity with the amazing versatility of home automation systems, and simple switches start limiting the potential to fully control the lighting environment.

To fight this growing complexity, I decided that I wanted a “smart” light switch that would let me know what lights in the house are currently on and allow me to turn any light on or off without having to figure out what switch goes where. It needed to be custom-fit to my home, yet flexible enough to be useful if the number of lights are changed, lamps are added, or if someone else wants their own switch in their own home.

There were not any solutions that fit my needs, at a low enough cost, so I turned to my trusty Raspberry Pi (RPi) single-board computer to help me make my own smart switch.

Since RPi has USB ports and general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins, it could be used to control ZWave, Zigbee, or Wi-Fi smart lights using a USB dongle or to control some LED indicators for debugging and testing without having to run around the house to check if lights are turning on or off.

Since having a simple LED home lighting “simulator” would be extremely helpful in developing a smart switch application, I went down to the local makerspace, Makers Local 256 in Huntsville, AL

and started creating a vector image of the house floorplan. This floorplan was then laser cut from a few sheets of acrylic plastic which were glued together afterward.

LED lights were then glued to the back of the floorplan, one LED in each room, and wired up to the GPIO pins on the Raspberry Pi. Using a small Python script, I was able to turn each room’s LED on or off with a command.

Completed simulation with LED lights

Acrylic floor plan with ELI screen and Raspberry Pi 38

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With the simulator complete, I began working on the switch interface. I decided that the easiest and quickest way to turn a room’s lights on was to just tap on a room in a floorplan, since touchscreens have become second-nature to most of us. I wanted the floorplan interface to be available from a computer, smartphone, or even a dedicated touchscreen device mounted on a wall where a light switch would normally be.

Using the Tornado Python web framework and a little bit of Java script and HTML, I wrote a tiny webserver that displayed the floor-

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

plan of the house and let you click on each room to change the light.

The room would glow when the light was turned on so that I could tell what the state of each room’s lights was in. The server sent a command to the simulator each time a light was changed, so each tap on a room lit up or turned off the corresponding LED on the simulator.

The web application worked perfectly on a computer or smartphone, but I still needed a dedicated replacement for the old light switches on the walls. Since the Raspberry Pi that ran the web server has an HDMI output and a spare USB port, I decided to use the ELI70-CR 7.0” embedded color touchscreen from Future Designs, Inc. to display the web application.

Apacer PCIe SSDs go far beyond SATAIII in transmission efficiency, ascending to the mainstream specification Since the PCIe SSD was adopted by Apple as a standard accessory in MacBook Air in 2013, its excellent flash storage performance featuring high-speed transmission has led the competition to follow, including the fully PCIe SSD-supported Microsoft Windows 8.1 operating system and the new generation Intel CPU chip. According to a survey conducted by the global market research firm TrendForce, the transmission speed of PCIe G2 (PCIe Generation 2.0) surpassed that of SATA III SSD in 2014.

mPDM+ 7.0” Easy LCD Interface (ELI) The ELI, which stands for Easy LCD Interface, is an off the shelf embedded touch screen LCD solution for use with an SBC like the RPi. The screen required no extra configuration other than switching to portrait mode and I set the Raspberry Pi to jump straight into the floorplan controller whenever it boots.

I have not yet decided on a wireless technology for controlling lights in my house, so the next step is to install ZWave, Zigbee, or Wi-Fi lights or light controllers. There are many projects for ZWave that have Python mappings, so making the web server control those devices via a ZWave USB dongle would only require a few lines of code.

Changing the floorplan for use with someone else’s house is as simple as drawing up the plan and defining the rooms. There are so many options that can be added, including dimming control, color control with the Phillips Hue, and energy conservation by scheduling lights to turn off at certain times.

Overall, I was able to create a custom, personal light controller for my home using only a Raspberry Pi, the FDI ELI70-CR touchscreen, and a USB dongle for ZWave, Zigbee, or Wi-Fi. It took less than a day to get most of it working, so expanding upon the initial design should be quick and fun, and hopefully make my home just a little bit easier to use and a whole lot cooler.

Find more information: ELI (EASY LCD INTERFACE) FROM FDI: http://www.easylcdinterface.com MAKERS LOCAL 256: https://256.makerslocal.org/

M.2 PCLe

Moreover, several high-end notebooks are expected to replace SATA III SSD with PCIe SSD since Apple and Microsoft are boosting the market demand. With the price gap between them shrinking, PCIe G2 will potentially become the mainstream specification in the PC SSD market in 2015.

As a quick response to market demand, Apacer launches two PCIe-interface products, including an mPDM+ and an M.2 PCIe SSD. The mPDM+ is a mini PCIe SSD with the dimensions in line with that of mSATA products. The 50.8×29.8mm size can be a perfect substitute for the storage device of mSATA attached to the motherboard. M.2 PCIe SSD, on the other hand, is about 40% smaller than the mSATA SSD module in dimensions of only 22x42mm. As M.2 SSD module has been included in standard interface, and supports both the transmission signals from SATA and PCIe. PCIe boasts transmission bandwidth and speed far beyond that of SATA, achieving higher transmission efficiency than that of SATA 6Gbps. With high compatibility, both these two PCIe SSDs match AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) and have up to 128GB capacity, which ensure their competitive edge.

Apacer has more than ten years of experience in the SSD market.

According to a 2013 Gartner Report, Apacer was named top global industrial SSD supplier for consecutive years, as well as one of the few Taiwanese manufacturers with software, hardware and firmware R&D capacity. The firmware and major components can be fixed right after customer’s recognition and validation. This reduces the risks of out-of-stock and compatibility issues by providing customers with stable supply and high reliability. For that reason, Mini PCIe SSD and M.2 PCIe SSD have successively passed international OEM vendors’ strict tests and have 100% gone through rigorous environment tests (extended temperature and high/low pressure testing for longer periods of time) and motherboard tests.

APACER TECHNOLOGY INC. www.epd-ee.eu | April, 2015

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39

PRODUCT NEWS

SENSORS

OVAL WHEEL FLOW METER FOR (ALMOST) EVERY NEED… Oval Wheel Flow Meters Model DOM are versatile and economical flow meters, which fulfill almost every need in liquid flow metering. Whether it is about precise control of additives amount into a mixing tank in each batch or simply about transferring diesel fuel from delivery truck into your storage tank, an oval wheel flow meter is there to provide you accurate readings.

DOM is designed to measure clean liquids, whereas viscosity value can be as high as 1000000 cP, while variation of density does not affect the measurement, nor does the liquid conductivity. Furthermore, this kind of flow meter doesn't require any inlet/ outlet runs.

Consequently, it needs a smaller installation space compared with other flow meters.

You may have a completely mechanical flow meter, or else a variation of LCD Indicators and / or output signal transmitters.

Below is one application which is served by Kobold's DOM Oval Wheel Flow Meters.

The fluids to be measured are a variety of polyols, high viscosity chemicals used for car-seat production. There are different

types of polyol flowing inside the flow meter in each batch.

With the variation of fluid viscosity, which may reach 5000 cP

at maximum, it is not easy even for coriolis mass flow meters to compete with the oval wheel ones.

Several DOM with Stainless Steel housings are needed, serving the production line 24 hours a day. Customers select flow meters with LCD display showing both flow rate and total flow. The 4 – 20 mA analogue output is connected to a separate PLC.

• Tel. +40 256-201346 • office@oboyle.ro • www.oboyle.ro

Vibrating limit level detection NSV type level monitors of KOBOLD Messring GmbH, Hofheim, are almost free of maintenance and abrasion, because they operate without mechanically moving parts. The devices especially designed for use in powdery and fine-grained bulk solids work according to vibrating fork principle. Thereby a fork especially optimised for use in bulk solids is continuously put into vibration. When it is covered by a medium, the vibration 40

EP&Dee | April, 2015

behaviour changes. Mountable evaluation electronics are well protected at upper device ending in a protection class IP 65 plastic terminal box. It detects vibration change and displays it using a red LED. An additional relay output is provided for signal transmission.

The rugged limit level detectors of stainless steel have compact construction and high insensitivity against material humidity. They don’t need calibration and are suit-

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able for solids with low mean density. Mounting is possible from the top and from the side so that devices are not only suitable for protection against over-filling, but also to signal minimum level very well. Specific versions with elongated neck pipe make it easy to install vibrating forks in applicable height.

• Tel. +40 256-201346 • office@oboyle.ro • www.oboyle.ro

PRODUCT NEWS

Leuze n n n

Optical sensors Sensors for logistic applications Safety at work

Contrinex n n

Optical Sensors Inductive Sensors

SENSORS

ASM n n n

Linear Sensors Angle Sensors Tilt Sensors

Selec n n n

PLCs Temperature Controller Timer

Harting n n

HTP n n n n

Sensor Instruments n n n

Color Sensors True Color Sensors, Spectrometers Gloss Sensors

Kobold n n n

Flowmeters Level Indicators and Switches Pressure Sensors and Switches

Heavy Duty Industrial Connectors Power and Data Transmission Connectors

Circular connectors M8; M12; M23 Cable and Connectors for Sensors Valve Connectors Distribution Blocks

Visit our online shop www.oboyle.ro

Intertec n n

Linear Solenoids Permanent Electromagnets

AUTOMATION Suitable for automobiles The compact Type PNK pressure transmitter is extremely resistant to shocks and vibrations. This is because of the very reliable measuring process, in which the deflection of a copper-beryllium Bourdon tube is registered by a differential transformer without touching it. This makes the measuring devices, which are closely aligned to save space, ideal for monitoring engines and other machines.

It is possible to choose between 13 different measuring ranges between -1 ... 0 bar and 0 ... 100 bar. These highly robust measuring instruments can take temperatures of up to 80° C and pressure peaks of up to 160 bar.

They are connected to the process with

thread M16 × 1.5 with conical nipple or by means of an adapter and screw threads R ¼, R ½ or ½” NPT. Besides the standard indus-

try solutions for vehicles, cable connections conforming to DIN 89280 or VG 88812 are also provided for use in ships or for military purposes.

An amplifier for transmitting the signals is already integrated. Analogue outputs may be chosen from 0 ... 20 mA, 4 ... 20 mA or 0 ... 10 V. All access points are easily accessible even in an assembled state. Protection type is IP 56. A high quality powder coating protects the robust saltwater-resistant aluminium casing.

• Tel. +40 256-201346 • office@oboyle.ro • www.oboyle.ro www.epd-ee.eu | April, 2015

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41

PRODUCT NEWS

AUTOMATION

Voltage protection relays

• Tel. +40 256-201346 • office@oboyle.ro • www.oboyle.ro

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PRODUCT NEWS

AUTOMATION

Miniature Force Transducers The new miniature force transducers from Tecsis with measuring ranges from 0.25 N up to very high rated loads of 50 kN are specially designed for applications with very restricted installation space.

By virtue of their compactness and varied geometries they are suitable for many areas of application. They are used in measurement and control devices, apparatus and machinery construction, medical equipment, packaging machinery and production lines or cable force measurement, for example.

All miniature force transducers are available in various load ratings. They are easy to install and no trouble to handle because of the simple introduction of force.

The measuring bodies are made entirely of high grade stainless steel. Owing to their special form of construction they are insensitive to lateral forces. The high measuring accuracy is guaranteed by the robust form of construction, even with dynamic effects of force.

Areas of application • Construction of plant and apparatus • Medical equipment

• • • • • • • • • •

Packaging machinery Tensile force measurement Test and control devices Cable force measurement Production lines Experimental set-ups Press-in, stamping and cutting forces Bolt and pin mounting Insertion and extraction forces Solar cell production

• Tel. +40 256-201346 • office@oboyle.ro • www.oboyle.ro

Position control in harsh environment A manufacturer of bulk material-handling equipment uses Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to sense the position of a large railmounted reclamation-conveyor operating in a hot, dusty environment. A pair of read-write modules, mounted on the machine structure, interrogates a series of RFID tags, positioned at one-meter intervals along each travel rail. The control system identifies each tag individually and determines the exact position of the machine.

Customer value • Uninterrupted production as positional identification is highly reliable • No risk of skewing as movement of the machine structure is synchronized • Elimination of collision damage because of sensing distance up to 45 mm

• • • •

Advantages of high frequency RFID system Passive transponders require no power source and minimal maintenance ConIdent® technology provides extended sensing range ≤ 45 mm Rugged transponders with nylon or all-metal housings sealed to IP67 Read/write units interface with industrystandard PROFIBUS DP control systems

• Tel. +40 256-201346 • office@oboyle.ro • www.oboyle.ro www.epd-ee.eu | April, 2015

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43

PRODUCT NEWS

AUTOMATION

Measuring light curtain better integration – faster alignment – simpler operation.

Many weighty arguments speak in favour of the CML 700i measuring light curtains as the better solution for a wide variety of different applications.

Integrated interfaces enable the quick and easy integration of these measuring light curtains into fieldbus environments without additional gateway boxes and corresponding space requirements and mounting effort. Cascade mounting with a dead zone of just 23 mm between beams, fast response times and the detection of transparent media enable e.g. gapless object tracing on a transport system.

Operating concept

Performance reserve

• Large, integrated display with bar graph for easy alignment • Comprehensive teach-in functions for fast configuration of the sensors • 5° beam spread simplifies alignment

Mounting solutions

• Fast: Uniquely short cycle times of 10 / 30 μs allow even the fastest processes to be detected reliably • Powerful: Operating range up to 8 m • Improved detection of transparent media through adjustable sensitivity, e.g., for bottles or clear film

Interfaces and evaluation unit

• Intelligent fastening concept with standard profile, various cable outlets and rotating mounting bracket • Minimum dead zone when cascading by using the optional plug outlet on the rear of the device • Robust, warp-resistant metal housing

• Integrated system controller makes additional devices completely unnecessary, saves space, optimizes installation and reduces the number of cables required • No additional gateway required • Integrated interfaces • NEW: Integrated RS485 interface and Modbus RTU protocol for simple connection of the light curtains to the control

Detection of outside contours

Height measurement

Optimization of conveyor buffer sections

Contour measurement

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PRODUCT NEWS

AUTOMATION

DDLS 500: The data travels at 100 Mbit/s by means of light The DDLS 500 is much more than an optical cable – it offers many other features that make use simple and efficient.

Optical data transceivers are the right choice for any application where data needs to be transmitted without cables and without interference. They enable contact-free and wear-free optical communication wherever mechanical systems are pushed to their technical limitations.

Apart from their basic function – optical data transmission – the DDLS 500 devices offer additional functions that revolutionize and considerably simplify operation, start-up and diagnosis – that is Smarter Product Usability like only Leuze electronic can offer.

The DDLS 500 optical data transmission photoelectric sensor enables the transparent, contact- and wear-free transmission of data over distances of up to 120m in 100Mbit/s real-time. To this end, an invisible, infrared laser communicates bi-directionally between the devices. Additional functions considerably simplify handling of the devices.

Should mounting be possible by just one person?

With the patented, single-hand adjustment process and the integrated mounting plate with alignment screws, mounting and alignment are child's play.

Do you want to be able to easily align your device?

With the aid of the laser alignment aid and the integrated level, alignment is very simple, even over longer paths.

Do you want to combine the possible functions yourself?

The modular design allows the base model to be freely expanded with the available functions.

Does your data need to be transmitted transparently in real-time?

With 100Mbit/s all common Ethernet protocols can be transmitted without time delay.

Label detection on bottles Check your labels application easy and reliable.

• Reliable detection for a wide variety of different paper and plastic foil labels. One sensor will probably work with your entire material portfolio.

• Easy adjustment by teach button makes your installation fast, easy and cost efficient.

• Robust stainless steel housing in famous M18 housing design. Together with the Leuze mounting brackets the mounting and installation will be easy and fast.

Additional solutions for your labeling machine We are your partner for special requirements • Codereader for 1D- and 2D-codes • For all safety functions all around your labeling machines

• Tel. +40 256-201346 • office@oboyle.ro • www.oboyle.ro www.epd-ee.eu | April, 2015

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PRODUCT NEWS Murata introduces highly efficient 7kW 3-phase AC/DC power supply ideal for datacentres, broadcast and industrial applications Murata announced the D2U5T-H3-7000 3-phase input hot-swappable AC/DC power supply from Murata Power Solutions. This fan cooled highly efficient supply, typically up to 95.5% overall efficiency at 50% full load, provides a 54 VDC main output at up to 7,000 Watts from a 480 VAC input.

A user selectable standby output offers either 3.3 or 5 VDC. Up to 3,500 Watts can be delivered from a 230 VAC input. Active power factor correction gives this unit a 0.99 power factor and less than 10% harmonic current. The D2U5T offers true 3-wire 3phase operation without the need for a neutral connection and accommodates input voltages in the range 180- 264 VAC for 3,500 Watt operation and 320 – 525 VAC for 7,000 Watt output.

Packaged in an industry standard 2U format and delivering a 23.1 Watt per cubic inch power density the D2U5T is designed for use in broadcast, industrial and large data centre applications where high power conversion efficiency is vital. Up to three of these hot-swappable units can be connected in parallel operation and utilize droop current sharing to deliver increased power capacity to the system load or provide N+1 redundancy of supply to the application.

The D2U5T provides a number of features including over-voltage, over-current and over-temperature protection. LEDs give an indication of power supply status and any fault conditions occurring in the input, output or power conversion stages of the unit. Control and monitoring of the unit is also possible using the standard PMBus protocol via an I2C interface.

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ACTIVE COMPONENTS Silicon Labs Amplifies Innovation for iOS Accessories with Digital Audio Bridge Chip Silicon Labs introduced a digital audio bridge chip and evaluation kit designed to simplify the development of accessories for iOS devices. The new CP2614 interface IC provides a turnkey audio bridge solution for a wide range of Made for iPod/iPhone/iPad (MFi) devices that use the all-digital Lightning connector. The CP2614 IC also provides built-in support for communication between iOS applications and accessory hardware, enabling a broad array of IoT accessories that operate with a companion iOS app. Silicon Labs’ CP2614 bridge chip and MFI-SLCP2614-EK evaluation kit provide a cost-effective, comprehensive development platform for iOS accessory developers, enabling fast time to market through fixed-function MFi support. The CP2614 solution requires no firmware development, which helps developers get up and running quickly with their MFi accessory designs.

Developers simply select their customization options with an easy-to-use GUI-based configuration tool. The

CP2614 bridge chip carefully manages and minimizes power consumption, achieving ultra-low power in both active and idle modes. The CP2614 IC’s exceptional energy efficiency makes it an optimal choice for device-powered

accessories. The CP2614 also includes an integrated 5 V low drop-out (LDO) regulator, which reduces bill of materials (BOM) cost and footprint for selfpowered accessories.

SILICON LABS www.silabs.com

Murata 60A “Power Block” DC-DC Converter Module delivers high power density up to 481 W/cubic inch Murata announced the latest addition to the OKLP range of “Power Block” products from Murata Power Solutions.

In addition to the 25A & 35A, Murata now offers the OKLP-X/60-W12A-C, a 60A Power Block solution. This Power Block concept sits between a discrete Point-of-Load (PoL) design and that of a complete non-isolated buck converter module. The Power Block is essentially a non-isolated buck converter without the PWM controller. It provides a single package solution that incorporates all of the power handling components, fully tested and characterized for thermal and dynamic performance. The Power Block design approach allows the power engineer to achieve the highest efficiency and maximum possible power & current density while maintaining a high performance system at a lower cost when compared to a complete module design approach. Most analog or digital PWM controllers can be used with the Power Block. Reference designs are available

using Texas Instrument’s TPS40425 (2Phase, Stackable PMBUS Synchronous Buck Controller).

The OKLP-X60-W12A-C provides a regulated 0.6 – 3.63 VDC output of up to 60 A from a 7 – 13.2 VDC input and is suited to use in point-of-load (PoL) applications. Energy efficiency, rated at

12Vin and 3.3Vout, is typically 95% and with its compact dimensions of 25.4 × 12.7 × 12.2 mm a power density of up to 481 Watts per cubic inch can be achieved.

MURATA www.murata.com

PRODUCT NEWS Silicon Labs Launches Plug-and-Play Isolated Power Supply Solution Silicon Labs introduced a new family of high-speed, multi-channel digital isolators designed to provide a complete, highly integrated solution for signal and power isolation. Silicon Labs’ new Si88xx isolators feature an integrated dc-dc converter with 78 percent efficiency, deliver up to 2 W of power, and offer very low electromagnetic interference (EMI) emissions and high noise immunity. The Si88xx family reduces system cost, speeds timeto-market and enhances reliability for applications in harsh, noisy operating environments including factory automation, process control, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), solar inverters and automotive battery management.

Silicon Labs’ Si88xx isolator family addresses a critical need in industrial automation for plug-and-play isolated power supplies.

Developers often must design made-from-scratch isolated power supplies, which can be a time-consuming, frustrating and costly process requiring numerous discrete components.

Discrete power isolation solutions commonly use field-effect transistors (FETs), controllers, single-channel isolators or optocouplers, and other components. In contrast, a design based on a multi-channel Si88xx isolator requires the addition of only one miniature ferrite core transformer and a few discrete passive components. Solutions based on Si88xx isolators ultimately save multiple design iterations and reduce bill-of-materials (BOM) cost and design complexity while enhancing noise immunity and power efficiency.

Si88xx digital isolators provide up to 2 W of isolated power by harvesting power from the primary side to supply secondary side power. The isolators offer up to four high-speed digital isolation channels with excellent timing characteristics including low propagation delay and low jitter, enabling longer system lifetimes at high voltages.

SILICON LABS www.silabs.com

ACTIVE COMPONENTS Low profile full brick baseplate cooled ACDC power supplies require no external components XP Power’s ASB110 series provides a complete AC-DC power supply module requiring no external components. The full brick sized power supplies offer very high efficiency and a low profile for PCB pin mounted designs.

Aimed at ITE and industrial customers looking for a base plate cooled power supply solution, the ASB110 provides 110W of DC output power from a universal AC input. Its high efficiency of 91% means that the heat to be dissipated by the heatsink or base plate is minimal. No external components are required as the units include EMC filtering, bulk storage capacitors and an AC input fuse.

The ASB110’s low profile, full brick package measures just 116.8 × 61.0 × 17.0mm. Cooling can be accomplished by mounting the device to, for example, the host equipment’s metal chassis or by adding an optional heatsink.

For versatility, six single output models are available in standard outputs of 12, 15, 24, 28, 36 and 48VDC. The power supplies feature a no load power consumption of less than 0.3W maximum, which together with their high efficiency meets XP Power’s Green Power requirements, resulting in less wasted heat and a product that is better for the environment. Standard protection includes over current, over voltage and over temperature, and a universal input range of 85 to 264VAC is provided for.

With an operating temperature range of -40 to +85°C the range is suitable for use in applications where an extended operating temperature range is required. The ASB110 series have ITE 60950-1 international safety approvals per UL, TUV and CB agencies, and meet Class B emissions standards as per EN55022 without the need for additional filtering components.

The ASB110 will find favour with end users in automation and process control, broadcast, fixed telecom, instrumentation, networking/datacom/computing, mobile communications, specialist equipment, and transport market areas. Calling upon XP Power’s considerable in-house experience and knowledge, careful consideration of component selection and PCB layout design has resulted in the ASB110, a power supply that offers 110W output in a full brick format with pin mounting for PC boards. With its high efficiency and low profile, it is the ideal choice for space-constrained applications.

The ASB110 series is available from Farnell, element14, Digi-Key, approved regional distributors, or direct from XP Power and come with a 3 year warranty.

XP POWER

www.xppower.com www.epd-ee.eu | April, 2015

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PRODUCT NEWS Silicon Labs Pumps Up the Volume for Automotive Infotainment with Scalable Car Radio System Solutions Silicon Labs introduced a complete portfolio of receivers/audio processors and multi-standard digital radio ICs designed to deliver best-in-class AM/FM and digital radio performance for the global car radio market. The Si479xx family of AM/FM receivers and digital radio tuners delivers a new benchmark for car radio reception performance with on-chip audio processing at the lowest system cost. The new Si46xx family, which includes single-chip digital radio-coprocessors and data receivers, provides an advanced digital radio audio decoding and data reception solution for analog and digital radio.

ACTIVE COMPONENTS Rochester Electronics Adds Selective Mature CPLDs and FPGAs from Altera to Its Range Rochester Electronics today announced it has expanded its relationship with Altera Corporation to include selective members of its mature FPGAs and CPLDs product families. As a result of this agreement, Rochester is now able to provide users of Altera products with a flexible, long-term supply pipeline of devices for applications with extended lifespans. Under the partnership, Rochester will market selective Altera products with the manufacturer’s full support.

Devices covered by the agreement include select MAX® 7000 CPLDs and FLEX®, APEX® and Stratix® GX FPGAs. These devices are widely used in military/aerospace, transportation, medical, industrial and communications applications, all of which are characterized by long installed product lifetimes and the need for extended availability of component parts. Users of these FPGAs and CPLDs will have continued access to a secure and reliable source of parts for maintenance and

replacement purposes. With this deal, Rochester is also able to support demand of small quantities from customers.

Rochester customers will benefit from its extensive relationships with other

The Altera MAX® 7000 CPLDs, one of many devices now available through Rochester Electronics. semiconductor manufacturers and its ability to act as a single vendor of choice for a wide range of devices.

ROCHESTER ELECTRONICS www.rocelec.com

Dialog Semiconductor Launches the World’s First Bluetooth® Smart Wearable-on-Chip™

According to IHS Automotive, global automotive sales for 2015 will reach 88.6 million light vehicle units, with China leading the volume growth. Many of today’s vehicles feature sophisticated infotainment systems with multiple tuner ICs and antennas to support maximal ratio combining (MRC) for digital radio, FM phase diversity reception, Radio Data System (RDS) info-navigation data, and digital radio standards such as HD Radio™ and Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB). Silicon Labs developed the Si479xx and Si46xx portfolio to address the global demand for advanced car radio technology supporting all worldwide broadcast radio bands.

The Si479xx family of analog AM/FM receivers and digital radio tuners sets a new standard for automotive broadcast reception. Leveraging Silicon Labs’ patented low-IF digital architecture, the Si479xx family delivers superior RF performance and interference rejection for car radio applications.

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Dialog Semiconductor plc (FWB:DLG), a provider of highly integrated power management, AC/DC power conversion, solid state lighting (SSL) and Bluetooth Smart wireless technology, has released details of its DA14680 ‘Wearable-on-Chip’ Bluetooth Smart (v4.2) device. The small, ultra-low power integrated circuit includes the key functionality to create a fully hosted wearable computing product. It features flexible processing power, flash memory for virtually unlimited execution space, dedicated circuitry for sensor control, analogue and digital peripherals optimised for wearable products, and an advanced power management unit. This DA14680 eliminates several external chips from wearable product design, facilitating smaller form factors, lower system cost and lowest power consumption.

Addressing the wearable market predicted to reach approximately 170 million units by 2019,(1) the DA14680’s ultra-low power 30uA/MHz ARM®

Cortex™-M0 application processor may be programmed to a maximum clock frequency of 96 MHz. Security features include a dedicated hardware crypto engine with elliptic curve cryptology (ECC), delivering end-to-end bankinglevel encryption, ensuring personal data security.

The device integrates 8 Mbit flash memory, audio support with PDM and I2S/PCM interfaces, two separate I2C and SPI buses, three white LED drivers, a temperature sensor, multi-channel DMA, and an 8-channel, 10-bit ADC. DIALOG SEMICONDUCTOR www.dialog-semiconductor.com

PRODUCT NEWS

Lighting Solutions / Display

iC-Haus Puts Encoders in Their True – Blue – Light An Innovative Leap in Single-Chip Optical Encoders by using blue LEDs

EVERLIGHT Electronics extends Automotive LED Portfolio with high-efficient, sulfur resistant golden frame series and PC Amber options

The shorter wavelength and penetration of blue-light photons improve the resolution, signal amplitude, harmonic distor-

EVERLIGHT ELECTRONICS CO., LTD. introduces the most high efficient/sulfur resistant ‘golden’ Series which performs brilliantly, even in severe environments, satisfying all demands of Automotive applications.

Following the trend of hightech design on automotive a p p l i cat i o n s, EVERLIGHT sees only the LEDs with stable performance and high quality can stand out to fulfill customers’ expectations. New golden automotive series exactly matches their highest requirements. A golden frame significantly improves a products' quality to resist sulfur. This means it works well, no matter how severe or bad the environment is, including a nearby vol-

tion, and jitter performance of incremental and absolute encoders. Blue light causes less diffraction at the same slot width compared to higher wavelengths, thus resulting in sharper imaging. Modern semiconductor processes provide small, shallow structures which can take advantage of the shorter penetration of blue light to improve efficiency. What’s more, smaller structures allow an interlaced photodiode lay-

out which produces sine and cosine encoder signals with lower offset. In addition, a high fillfactor for the photosensitive areas is achieved by an equivalent geometrical transformation. Blue LEDs are the basis for white emitters which are in extreme demand by the automotive and illumination markets.

Today, long term temperature-stable blue LEDs are available which outshine the IR and red LEDs used in encoders so far, because they offer higher light yield and efficiency at even lower cost.

Optical position sensors benefit notably as a result of the technological progress of both LED and CMOS technology. iC Haus has optimized the new incremental scanners in its high resolution iC PT H Series especially for blue light.

IC-HAUS www.ichaus.de

cano. The golden series are widely used in head lamps, DRL, fog lamps, side signal lamps and

rear tail lamps; over 0.5W products are especially suited for side Signal Lamp (A09K, 67-21 and 67-31). The new versions enhanced with a golden lead frame are named A09KU, 6721U and 67-31U. Their original counterparts with silver lead frame remain in the portfolio and continue to be offered.

EVERLIGHT ELECTRONICS CO. LTD. www.everlight.com

Toshiba Launches Improved High-Luminous Efficacy White LEDs

High power LEDs from Cree reduce system costs up to 40%

Toshiba Electronics Europe has launched a new series of high power LEDs ideal for use in a wide variety of residential, commercial and industrial lighting applications. The TL1L4 series offers significantly better performance than the preceding TL1L3 series.

The new TL1L4 series achieves an industry leading high luminous flux that surpasses 160lm at room temperature operation. Under conditions of Ta = 85°C, operating current can be driven to 1A and luminous flux is more than 60% greater than that offered by the preceding TL1L3 series.

This contributes to improved luminous efficacy and lower power consumption for LED applications. Available in nine-

MSC Technologies is offering the new XLamp Extreme High Power (XHP) LEDs from Cree . The first LEDs powered by Cree’s revolutionary SC5 Technology™ Platform, XLamp XHP50 and XHP70 LEDs provide twice the lumen output and improved reliability compared to previous LEDs of the same size.

XHP50 and XHP70 LEDs shatter the industry’s perceived limit of LED lumen density by delivering up to 2546 lumens at 19 watts from a 5.0 × 5.0 mm package and up to 4022 lumens at 32 watts from a 7.0 × 7.0 mm package, respectively. Through improvements in the light conversion process, Cree has reduced LED-to-LED color variations and, among other options, offers XHP LEDs in 2-

colour variations from 2700K to 6500K, the TL1L4 series utilises cost-effective gallium nitride-onsilicon (GaN-on-Si) wafer technology to create LEDs optimised

for both output and energy efficiency. The devices are housed in a compact 3.5mm × 3.5mm lens package and rated to support an absolute maximum forward current of 1.5A max at Ta<55°C and Tj<150°C. TOSHIBA ELECTRONICS EUROPE www.toshiba.semicon-storage.com

step and 3-step EasyWhite® bins for 3500K through 2700K in 80 and 90 CRI. The XHP LEDs introduce a new, innovative package that allows manufacturers to choose either 6 V or 12 V configurations from the same LED through the solder

pad design on the circuit board.

In addition, XHP LEDs enable other cost reductions at the system level not possible with other LED solutions.

MSC TECHNOLOGIES www.msc-technologies.eu

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INDUSTRY PRODUCT NEWS

HINTS AND POSSIBILITIES FOR CAPACITORS IN YOUR DESIGN Design Spark proposes for discussion HINTS AND POSSIBILITIES FOR CAPACITORS IN YOUR DESIGN. Aluminium electrolytic capacitors may withstand much higher ripple currents and at the same time the useful life expectancy is expanding.

Engineers must choose from a wide range of different options and while technical features vary from type to type – at the end of the day the component price may be the final decision maker.

Several general features: • X&Y Capacitors – are like an insurance policy, better to have it and never have to use it.

X & Y capacitors are absolutely necessary in cord-powered applications. In this case they are like an insurance policy which - X caps protect the device while the Y caps protect the operator while keeping the discharge current within allowable limits. Safety parts with all necessary certificates like VDE / ENEC / UL / CQC and / or TUV are available in the market as SMD & THD versions. Engineers need to take into account that these parts will set the reliability and quality level of the device in total.

• MLCC’s Mechanical Robustness Most of the ceramic type multilayer chip capacitors - MLCCs are obviously not designed for high mechanical stress.

Whether on a single PCB or an application where mechanical force is applied the MLCC will be the weakest point in the whole chain of parts.

• Special MLCC Features The mechanical weaknesses of MLCCs are of course well-known. There are several options which are available in the market to strengthen its performance. There are two main directions to follow: 1. MLCCs that are designed to withstand mechanical stress in most situations 2. The parts will not cause any malfunction if they are cracked in any way.

• MLCC in high Frequency Applications MLCC capacitors in this case need to offer the smallest possible inductance, which will consequently result in a rise in the resonant frequency. Together with the shortest connection given by the PCB design, the reverse geometry will help to reduce the capacitors inductance by more than 50%.

• MLCC Ageing While MLCC capacitors do have many advantages, there are disadvantages that have to be considered in all PCB designs.

That is why these caps will normally be used with only half of the specified voltage.

View our wide range of Capacitors from world leading Electronics Manufacturers available from RS stock.

Remember to view the Electronics Centre for up to date information on our Free Design Tools. Aurocon COMPEC have full range of resistors in stock, from single pieces to a full reel at a competitive prices.

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INDUSTRY PRODUCT NEWS l

ALUMINIUM ELECTROLYTIC CAPACITOR

1. WURTH ELEKTRONIK WCAP-AT1H Status RoHS: Conform RS Stock No.: 839-6182 Mfr. Part No.: 860240374004 Product Details • Wurth Elektronik Long Life WCAP-AT1H Capacitor Series • WCAP- AT1H are Long Life Aluminium Electrolytic Capacitor Series • Higher permissible ripple current • Load life: 5000h – 10000h @ +105°C • Operating temperature: -40°C to +105°C for UR < 400 V • -25°C to +105°C for UR ≥ 400 V • Wave soldering recommended

2. EPCOS B43305 Status RoHS: Conform RS Stock No.: 838-4902 Mfr. Part No.: B43305A5686M000 Product Details B43305 series ultra compact aluminium electrolytic snap-in capacitors with standard 6.3mm snap-in solder pin terminals and PVC insulation. These B43305 series ultra compact aluminium electrolytic snap-in capacitors have a high ripple current capability and voltage derating that enables 105°C operation.

Typical applications for these B43305 snap-in electrolytic capacitors includes frequency converters, solar inverters, uninterruptible power supplies, professional power supplies, medical supplies and telecommunications.

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Specifications Capacitance Construction Dimensions Lead Diameter Lead Pitch Leakage Current Lifetime Operating Temperature Mounting Type Ripple Current Series Tolerance Voltage

100μF Cylindrical 8 (Dia.) × 11.5mm 0.5mm 3.5mm 16μA 8000h -40°C → +105°C Through Hole 245mA WCAP-AT1H ±20% 16Vdc

Specifications Capacitance 68μF Construction Cylindrical Dimensions 22 (Dia.) x 25mm Lead Diameter 0.8mm Lead Pitch 10mm Equivalent Series Resistance 1990mΩ Lifetime >100000h Operating Temperature -40°C → +85°C Mounting Type Through Hole Ripple Current 1.37A Series B43305 Tolerance ±20% Voltage 450Vdc

CERAMIC MULTILAYER CAPACITORS

1. WURTH ELEKTRONIK 0402 Status RoHS: Conform RS Stock No.: 839-1464 Mfr. Part No.: 885012205020 Product Details • Multilayer Ceramic Chip Capacitors • High performance ceramic • High Capacitance stability • Minimal ageing • Copper, Tin and Nickel termination • High electrical precision and stability ceramic • Operating Temperature: -55°C to +125°C • Reflow soldering recommended

Specifications Capacitance Dielectric Dimensions Operating Temperature Mounting Type Package/Case Series Tolerance Voltage Temperature Coefficient

150μF X7R 1 x 0.5 x 0.5mm -55°C→ +125°C Surface Mount 0402 WCAP-CSGP ±10% 16 V dc ±15%

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INDUSTRY PRODUCT NEWS

2. MURATA 0402 Status RoHS: Conform RS Stock No.: 814-5599 Mfr. Part No.: GRM1555C1H241GA01D

Product Details • GRM series offer large-capacity and small size in a multilayer structure • Excellent solderability due to the Sn plating at the external electrodes • High reliability with no polarity

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Specifications Capacitance Dielectric Dimensions Operating Temperature Mounting Type Package/Case Series Tolerance Voltage Temperature Coefficient

240pF C0G 1 × 0.5 × 0.5mm -55°C → +125°C Surface Mount 0402 GRM ±2% 50Vdc 0±30ppm/°C

Specifications Capacitance Application Dimensions Operating Temperature Mounting Type Dielectric Series

2.5 → 5.5μF Multi-Speed Blower 1.1 (Dia.) × 2.2mm -25°C → +85°C Through Hole Polypropylene 9928

POLYPROPYLENE FILM CAPACITORS

1. EBM-PAPST 9928 Status RoHS: Not applicable RS Stock No.: 826-0982 Mfr. Part No.: 99283-4-7320 Product Details • Ebm-Papst's permanent split capacitor (PSC) type AC motors require a properly sized motor-run capacitor to operate.

• Actual capacitor value and rpm achieved are dependent on the nature of each application.

• Capacitor for ebm-papst's AC Multi Speed Blowers • Plastic or Aluminimum Housing Approvals • UL, CCSA, VDE

2. VISHAY MKP1848S Status RoHS: Conform RS Stock No.: 825-1417 Mfr. Part No.: MKP1848S61070JP2C Product Details • High ripple current capability, low ESR, low ESL • Very long useful life time: Up to 100 000 h at UNDC and 70 °C

Specifications Capacitance Application

10μF Battery Chargers, LED Street Lighting, On Board Chargers (EV/HEV), PV Micro Inverters Dimensions 42 × 27 × 18mm Maximum Operating +85°C Temperature Mounting Type Through Hole Dielectric Polypropylene Film Equivalent Series 11mΩ Resistance Tolerance ±5% Voltage 700Vdc

For another information access this link: http://www.rs-online.com/designspark/electronics/ or contact us by email: compec@compec.ro, tel: 0213 046 233, fax: 0213 046 234.

Author: Mihaela Sârbu Aurocon Compec 52

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PRODUCT NEWS

PASSIVE COMPONENTS

Rutronik includes new series of supercapacitors from Korchip in its program The new Starcap TR series of supercapacitors from Korchip provides a reliable package of high capacitance and low resistance with thin form factor. It is suited to DRAM back-up for SSD and peak power assist for battery.

The TR series is available at distribu-

tor Rutronik as of now. Korchip’s Starcap TR series supercapacitor with a rated working voltage of 2.5VDC has the ability to charge and discharge for a million times and more. It provides higher capacitance than electrolytic capacitors and higher power than a secondary battery. Thus, the supercapacitors are ideal for applications requiring great stability and efficiency, e.g. motor start power applications, memory back-up for car black box and pulse power assistance for smart meters. Its operating temperature range is from -40° up to +70°C. RUTRONIK www.rutronik.com

AVX introduces high performance single tine IDC contacts for harsh environment applications AVX Corporation has introduced a single contact version of its proven 9176 Series insulation displacement connectors (IDCs), which are widely recognized for providing highly reliable, gas-tight wire-to-board connections in a range of harsh environment applications. Backward compatible with existing 9176 Series connectors with regard to contact and footprint, the new 9176-65X single tine IDC contacts exhibit the same robust, reliable performance the series is known for while reducing cost by 25%, width by 50% (2.5mm vs. 5.0mm), and height by 10% (5.05mm vs. 5.6mm), the latter of which is especially valuable for SSL applications, as it helps prevent shadowing. Rated for 600VAC, 5–9A, and operating temperatures spanning -40°C to +125°C, the new 9176-65X Series contacts accept 24–18AWG wires, are available in two configurations for maximum flexibility (stopped end cap and through wire cap), and can be potted or overmolded for waterproof performance.

AVX www.avx.com

ECSpressCON™ - Configurable Low-Jitter Oscillators from ECS Manufacturer ECS Inc. International (sales: WDI AG) has launched a new product family of freely configurable oscillators under the name ECSpressCON™. This family addresses the growing need for increased functionality, miniaturization and low power consumption at reduced cost. The ECSpressCON™ comes with output signals in HCMOS (10~250MHz), LVDS (10~ 1500MHz) or LVPECL (10~1500MHz). With typical phase jitter values of just 1ps, the ECSpressCON™ family is ideal for applications demanding the very highest standards. The best possible frequency stability across the industrial operating temperature range from -40~ through +85°C is ±20ppm. The ECSpressCON™ family can be optionally supplied with a frequency stability of ±25ppm, ±50ppm or ±100ppm. The standard SMD sizes of 7.0x5.0mm, 5.0×3.2mm, 3.2×2.5mm and 2.5×2.0mm are available. The ECSpressCON™ family is optionally run on a 3.3V or 2.5V power supply. Power consumption is well below that of comparable programmable oscillators. The delivery period for samples is just a few days. Bulk quantities of up to 20,000 units will be supplied within two weeks.

WDI AG www.wdi.ag 54

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PRODUCT NEWS

PASSIVE COMPONENTS

TE Connectivity’s MHP-TAM Series Offers Compact Thermal Protection for Lithium Batteries Used in Ultra-Thin Portable Consumer Electronics

Vishay’s new solid tantalum surface-mount chip capacitors featuring ultra-low ESR now available through TTI, Inc.

Battery applications designers are tasked with meeting increasingly stringent safety standards for ultra-thin notebooks and

TTI, Inc. stocks Vishay’s new vPolyTan series of surface-mount polymer tantalum molded chip capacitors in five compact case sizes in Europe.

Optimized for computer, telecom, and industrial applications, the Polytech T55 series dev ices feature ultra-low ESR down to 30mΩ at +25°C and 100kHz. The low ESR of the capacitors is a result of their polymer cathodes, which offer greatly enhanced performance over manganese dioxide devices. In addition, the T55 series offers excellent ripple current rating up to 1.78A IRMS and provides low equivalent series resistance (ESR) for enhanced charge and discharge characteristics. The capacitors are ideal for use for

other portable consumer electronics powered by high-capacity lithium polymer and prismatic cells.

In response, TE Connectivity’s business unit, TE Circuit Protection, introduces the new MHP-TAM series. The MHPTAM device features an ultralow-profile (L: 5.8mm × W: 3.85mm × H: 1.15mm max.) package and a high (9VDC) rating. The devices in the series offer a choice of two different levels of current-carrying capacity and multiple cut-off tempera-

ture ratings. The device provides a space-efficient thermal cutoff (TCO) solution that helps designers meet the demanding peak-current requirements of consumer products.

Utilizing innovative MHP (metal hybrid PPTC) technology, the MHP-TAM device combines a bimetal protector in parallel with a PPTC (polymeric positive temperature coefficient) device. In battery applications, the MHPTAM device helps provide resettable over-temperature protection to shut down the battery when a fault is detected. The device rests when the fault is removed. The devices in the MHP-TAM series feature different open temperatures, ranging from 72°C to 90°C (typical), which are appropriate for the battery market. They also offer two levels of hold currents: lowcurrent (approximately 6A at 25°C) and high-current (approximately 15A at 25°C).

TE CONNECTIVITY www.TE.com

power management, battery decoupling, and energy storage in computers, tablets, smart

phones, and wireless cards.

Offered in the J, P, A, B, and T (low-profile B − 1.2mm max.) case sizes, T55 series devices feature a wide capacitance range from 3.3μF to 330μF over voltage ratings from 2.5V to 10V, and a capacitance tolerance of ± 20%. The devices operate over a temperature range of -55°C up to +105°C with voltage derating above +85°C. TTI, INC. www.ttieurope.com

Vishay Intertechnology's NTC Thermistor Dies Offer Gold and Silver Metallizations, Same Mounting Options as IGBTs

Ametherm Launches Industry-First 277 V Thermistor for LED Lighting, PFC, and Power Supply Applications

Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. introduced two new leadless NTC thermistor dies - contacted on the top and bottom -that provide designers with the same mounting options as IGBT semiconductors. Featuring gold metallization, the Vishay BC components NTCC300E4 supports gold wire bonding and conductive adhesive gluing, while the NTCC200E4 with silver metallization supports aluminum wire bonding and is compatible with reflow soldering and nano-silver paste sintering.

The devices released today are optimized for temperature sensing, control, and compensation in automotive and industrial applications. End products will include IGBT modules,

Ametherm released a new ULapproved circuit protection thermistor that is the industry's first to offer a 277V rating optimized for applications including LED lighting and ballasts, power factor correction (PFC) circuits, and inrush current control in uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) with ratings under 500 W. Ametherm's new SL10 10003 thermistor features the highest energy, continuous current, and ambient temperature ratings for any device in its size and class. The device handles steady state current up to 3A with a maximum received energy rating of 17J. The device features a dissipation constant of

power inverters, motor drives, and hybrid integrated circuits for electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles, solar panels, and wind turbines. Packaged in

conductive PS blister tape and resistant to leaching, the NTCC300E4 and NTCC200E4 offer high stability over a wide temperature range of -55°C to +175°C, with a drift of < 3% after 1,000 hours.

VISHAY INTERTECHNOLOGY, INC. www.vishay.com

11mW/°C and can handle a body temperature of 151°C at 100% of its maximum current rating. Maximum capacitance at the device's 277V voltage rating is 200μF. The SL10 10003 pro-

vides a more compact alternative to larger NTC devices or the more expensive combination of a power resistor, relay and timer or implementation of the same functionality with active circuits.

AMETHERM www.ametherm.com

www.epd-ee.eu | April, 2015

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