EP&Dee no 8 - October 2012

OCTOBER, 2012 ­ ISSUE NO. 8, VOL. 10

DESIGN & MANUFACTURING

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Microchip’s new embedded Wi-Fi® Development Boards integrate TCP/IP stack to enable Internet of Things via simple serial connection Microchip announces the integration of its Wi-Fi® modules from the recent Roving Networks acquisition into its flexible, modular Explorer development systems supporting all of Microchip’s 8, 16 and 32-bit PIC® microcontrollers. The RN-131 and RN-171 PICtail™/PICtail Plus daughter boards are the first two products developed by Microchip based on Roving Networks modules.

These modules use a simple serial interface to connect with any PIC microcontroller, and expand Microchip’s wireless portfolio with the industry’s lowest power consumption combined with an integrated TCP/IP stack in a certified Wi-Fi solution.

The Roving Networks RN-171 and RN-131 fully-certified modules, from Microchip, are

comprehensive networking solutions that include a true 802.11 b/g radio, baseband processor, TCP/IP stack and a host of networking application features. No external processor drivers are required, enabling Wi-Fi connectivity for 4, 8, 16 and 32-bit processors. This on-board-stack approach significantly reduces customers’ integration time and development effort in a small form factor, while offering ultra-low power consumption, down to 4µA in sleep, 35mA in receive and 120mA in transmit mode.

The new boards allow designers to add WiFi connectivity to the entire portfolio of PIC microcontrollers, without integrating a TCP/IP stack and whilst using standard development tools, which speeds time to

market and reduces R&D resources. The RN131 PICtail Daughter Board (RN-131-PICtail) is priced at $44.95 each, whilst the RN-171 PICtail Daughter Board (RN-171-PICtail) is priced at $39.95 each.

Both boards are available now.

MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY www.microchip.com/get/T074

Higher availability, lower costs

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Options in Android™ Accessory Design with Google’s Open Accessory Framework

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Taking the ARM strategy to the next level ARM technology on ×86 standard form factors

T H E E A S T E U R O P E A N J O U R N A L F O R E M B E D D E D A P P L I C AT I O N S

OCTOBER 2012 Table of Contents COMMENTS INDUSTRY NEWS 5 Personal vs Company IT

INDUSTRY NEWS COMPANIES INDUSTRY NEWS EMBEDDED SYSTEMS DESIGN EMBEDDED 8 Options in Android™ Accessory Design with Google’s Open Accessory Framework.

Google’s Android Accessory Framework outlines several different options for accessory development. For designers considering developing Android-based accessories, this article covers some of the design considerations for determining which of the possible routes to take.

Each application is different and these criteria may or may not change a designer’s mind, but knowing the options is the key to ending up with the best possible outcome.

12 Taking the ARM strategy to the next level ARM technology on x86 standard form factors.

With the availability of the PC-like ARM processor technology, there is a huge chance to improve time to market and to reduce R&D costs by facilitating processor implementations via ×86 form factors. One example is the availability of the NVIDIA® Tegra™ 2 processor on Pico-ITX™ boards. What are the benefits?

New Box PC Expands Breadth of AMD G-Series APU Offerings: Low-Power AMD G-T16R APU up Page 14 to Dual-Core AMD G-T56N APU.

DESIGN ENCLOSURES 16 Enclosures for electronic appliances.

Transfer Multisort Elektronik offers a wide range of enclosures for electronic appliances. One of TME’s suppliers is a manufacturer of high quality enclosures – FIBOX which has over 40 years of experience in their manufacturing. In 1966, FIBOX introduced for production modular enclosures made of polycarbonate resin (PC), that were the first of this type in the world’s market.

COMPANIES LOGISTICS 18 Higher availability, lower costs.

More than two million electronic components with different, partly extremely long and fluctuating delivery times are currently available in the market. Due to this huge variety, it can result in repeated supply shortages. When there are communication problems between those involved in the supply chain, the manufacturer produces and the distributor orders without knowing what customers actually need.

Whether the customer then receives what they need in good time, is purely a gamble.

Transfer Multisort Elektronik offers a wide range of enclosures for electronic appliances.

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POWER DESIGN 20 Are all those batteries really necessary?

Boosting a single battery can replace multiple batteries to cut costs and size, explains Jason Tollefson, Mikhail Voroniouk, and Adam Jakubiak, Microchip Technology Inc. and Energizer Battery Company.

INDUSTRY NEWS EMBEDDED SYSTEMS INDUSTRY NEWS ACTIVE COMPONENTS INDUSTRY NEWS PASSIVE COMPONENTS INDUSTRY NEWS SMT INDUSTRY NEWS CONNECTORS DESIGN SENSORS 38 New Products - AUTOMATION INDUCTIVE SENSORS FROM CONTRINEX.

INDUSTRY NEWS SENSORS 2

EP&Dee | October, 2012 | www.epd-ee.eu

Boosting a single battery can replace multiple batteries to cut costs and size, explains Jason Tollefson, Mikhail Voroniouk, and Adam Jakubiak, Microchip Technology Inc. and Energizer Battery Company.

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COMPANIES INDUSTRY NEWS

Atmel Expands Automotive-Qualified maXTouch Controller Family for In-Car Control Systems Atmel® Corporation announced new automotive - qualified maXTouch® controllers for in-car control systems. These new devices will bring today’s smartphone experience into contemporary cars, even for drivers wearing gloves. Expanding the Atmel portfolio of maXTouch automoti ve - qualified devices, the new mXT143E and mXT224E touch controllers are designed for small automotive touchscreens and touchpads up to 7 inches in diameter such as center stack displays, navigation systems, radio humanmachine interfaces (HMIs) and rear-seat entertainment systems.

By addressing smaller screen and touch-pad sizes, the mXT143E and mXT224E controllers complement the company’s growing family of automotive-qualified touchscreen controllers that sup-

port screens/pads from 2 to 12 inches in diameter.

With these new automotive-qualified maXTouch devices, Atmel strengthens its position as a market-leading touch innovator and supplier. The maXTouch family is known for its superior perform-

ance and rich feature set, including unlimited touches, fast response time, touch precision, robust operation and low power consumption.

ATMEL www.atmel.com

Laird Technologies to Present at Medical Device Connectivity Conference Laird Technologies, Inc., a global leader in the design and supply of customized performance-critical components and systems for advanced electronics and wireless products, announced it will present at the fourth annual Medical Device Connectivity Conference and Exhibition (MDCC). The event will be held November 1-2 at the Joseph B. Martin Conference Center at Harvard Medical School in Boston and will focus on connecting medical devices to people, workflow, and information systems.

During the second day of the conference, Chris Bolinger of the Laird Technologies Connectivity Products Business Unit will give a presentation on FIPS 140-2 security and its implications for Wi-Fi networks. A United States Government computer security standard used to accredit cryptographic modules, FIPS 140-2 is

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required by Veterans Administration hospitals. Healthcare providers outside of the federal government view FIPS 140-2 as an increasingly relevant and desirable standard. The presentation describes what is contained in the standard and how Wi-Fi products are tested and certified as compliant.

MDCC presents an ideal opportunity for Laird Technologies, a Platinum Sponsor of the conference, to showcase its embedded wireless solutions LAIRD TECHNOLOGIES www.lairdtech.com

EP&Dee | October, 2012 | www.epd-ee.eu

Microchip offers industry’s first Audio Mixer Development Boards Microchip announces two new digital audio mixer boards based on low pin-count 32-bit PIC32 microcontrollers (MCUs). The DM320014 USB digital audio accessory board uses standard USB 2.0 Mini-B connectivity; whilst the DM320413 digital audio mixer board offers Apple® portable device connectivity.

These two development boards, each powered by a Microchip PIC32MX250F128 32-bit MCU, enable audio and voice device development for a broad range of applications. Key features include interfaces for digital audio via USB Mini-B or the Apple iOS interface; line-in and microphone-in for convenient connectivity to analogue audio sources, such as microphones or instrument pickups; and line-out and headphone-out for line-level output and headphone connectivity.

Each board provides an excellent starting point for a portable music player dock design. Additionally, these features allow the mixing of digital and analogue audio, using the power of the PIC32’s advanced processing capabilities.

The development boards are suitable for applications in the consumer and automotive markets, such as consumer audio docks, including those in stereo systems;

noise-cancelling headsets; clock radios; or A/V entertainment system sounds bars; as well as in automotive vehicles that offer portable music player docking capabilities.

MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY www.microchip.com/get/LCWH

Microchip expands USB portfolio with fifteen new 8-bit PIC® MCUs Microchip announces the expansion of its certified Full-Speed USB 2.0 Device PIC® microcontroller portfolio with three new Enhanced Midrange 8-bit families comprising 15 scalable MCUs ranging from 14 to 100 pins with up to 128 KB of Flash. All feature internal clock sources with the 0.25% clock accuracy necessary for USB communication, which saves up to $0.15 by eliminating the need for an external crystal.

In addition, all three families are eXtreme Low Power compliant, with power consumption down to 35μA/MHz Active and 20nA in Sleep mode. These crystal-free USB microcontrollers are the first to be offered with pin-counts ranging from 14 to 100 combined with such a high level of integration and low power consumption.

The 14- and 20-pin PIC16F145X

MCUs are Microchip’s lowest-cost and smallest-form-factor USB MCUs to date. Available in packages as small as 4×4 mm and featuring a wide array of integrated

peripherals, the three-member family enables embedded applications that require USB connectivity in addition to capacitive touch sensing, such as pulse oxymeters, PC accessories and security dongles.

MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY www.microchip.com/get/DB2T

Personal vs Company IT Picture this – companies are recruiting now from a generation whose expectations of technology have been profoundly shaped by Facebook, mobile apps and other innovations. But it isn’t just “digital natives” who are shocked by the state of technology in their workplaces.

The rapid spread of tablets and smart phones, and the magnetic attraction of social networks and other online tools such as Twitter, mean that people of all ages have grown accustomed to having powerful yet easy-to-use technologies at their fingertips. Many of them want the same stuff at work too.

Their demands are also being fuelled by changes in the society. Among these is the increasing mobility of the workforce, whether commuting or visiting clients, which has made smart phones and tablets especially popular with corporate road warriors. There has also been a gradual blurring of the lines between personal and business lives, which means that people rely on technology much more to allow them to work or play anywhere at any time.

As a result, one can notice two main trends.

On one hand, people increasingly use personal devices to access business information, partly also because of the arrival of the tablets. This happens in spite of the concern companies have for data security. On the other hand, one can notice a constant influx of employee-owned gadgets in the workplace. As a result, many companies modify their IT infrastructure to allow a person to work more easily from different places, which means employees will be free to access the company data they need.

No matter where we will be in a decade or so, it is quite certain that looking back then we will see a completely different world, which will be difficult to recognize.

We will be amazed how primitive that world will appear to all of us. n (inspired by and adapted from The Economist)

Radu Andrei www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2012 | EP&Dee

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EMBEDDED SYSTEMS INDUSTRY NEWS

Kontron launches ARM-based ultra low power module to reduce cost and energy consumption of imaging-centric low profile applications Kontron launched its first ultra low power, low profile ARM-based Computer-on-Module specifically designed to extend the proven and scalable Computer-onModules-based usage model to new modules with ARM and SoC processors. The new Kontron Computer-on-Module, designated the Kontron ULP-COM-sAT30, offers a low profile solution that measures 82mm x 50mm and integrates NVIDIA Tegra 3 Quad Core ARM 1.2 GHz technology. The Kontron ULP-COM-sAT30 delivers an advanced, rugged and scalable building block for industrial tablet and imaging-centric applications where power consumption must be extremely low such as for those in the POS/POI, infotainment, digital signage, security/surveillance, medical and military markets. The combination of the

low power NVIDIA Tegra 3 ARM processor and ULP-COM's optimized ARM/SoC pin-out definition enables designers to build fanless, passively cooled systems that dramatically reduce power consumption and costs of deployed systems. The Kontron ULP-COM-sAT30 is based on the

new module standard ULP-COM (Ultra Low Power Computer-onModule).

KONTRON www.kontron.com

Maxim Integrated´s High-Voltage Battery Sensor Extends Battery Life and Supports Highest Automotive Safety Rating Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. introduces the MAX17823, a fourth-generation high-voltage battery sensor for mission-critical automotive and industrial lithium-ion battery and fuel cell applications. Offering a full suite of proprietary integrated ISO26262 diagnostic features, the MAX17823 maximizes electric and hybrid electric vehicle driving range while ensuring battery and fuel cell safety and reliability.

A proprietary, differential UART communications link is automotive EMC - hardened, enabling uninterrupted cell monitoring during battery pack service disconnect and eliminating costly digital isolators. An innovative shutdown feature safely enters all daisy-chain devices into

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submicro-ampere sleep mode when a host microcontroller loses 12V power. ASIL-D (Automotive Safety Integrity Level “D”, per ISO-26262) compliance is achieved and maintained with unmatched, accurate 96-cell, 100 measurements-per-second performance.

The 96-cell hot-plug immunity ensures highest reliability during BMS (battery management system) manufacturing.

MAXIM INTEGRATED www.maximintegrated.com

EP&Dee | October, 2012 | www.epd-ee.eu

Silicon Labs Obsoletes Optocouplers with Drop-in Digital Isolators Silicon Laboratories Inc., a leader in high-performance, analogintensive, mixed-signal ICs, introduced the industry’s first drop-in replacement for optocouplers based on mainstream CMOS technology and incorporating an innovative light-emitting diode (LED) emulator input. The new Si87xx digital isolators offer a perfect pin configuration, package and footprint fit for a number of optocoupler products while offering superior noise immunity, more robust performance and greater reliability, making them ideal for solar power inverters, switched mode power supplies (SMPS), uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), industrial drives, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), high-voltage medical equipment and other applications that often use optocouplers.

Used for more than 40 years, optocouplers are inherently limited by outdated LED-based technology, which exhibits significant output variation over input current, temperature and age. These variations reduce the operating per-

formance and reliability over the optocoupler’s lifetime, resulting in increased design complexity and shorter life expectancy for end products. Because of their aging effects, optocouplers are often specified to last only 10 years, posing a serious problem for industrial system designers who want to develop products with 20+ year warranties.

Silicon Labs’ Si87xx opto-replacement devices use a patented CMOS-based isolation architecture that is completely immune to the output variations that plague LED-based optocouplers. CMOSbased capacitive isolation technology provides more than ten

times the mean-time-to-failure (MTTF) rate of optocouplers.

SILICON LABORATORIES www.silabs.com

Infineon XMC4000 Hexagon Kit from Rutronik Infineon presents the Hexagon Development Kit which is a versatile new tool for the XMC4000 family. At the heart of this fourboard development platform is the CPU board with the new XMC4500 microcontroller. Satellite cards allow the expansion of the kit functionality to suit specific applications. The application kit is available at distributor Rutronik as of now.

The actuator satellite, for example, provides an extensive range of motor control functions thanks to its resolver circuit, encoder interface and shunt current sensing.

The human-machine interface (HMI) board contains an OLED display plus audio, touch and SD/MMC functions. The communication satellite enables developers to implement remote con-

trol via Ethernet. This board also supports MultiCAN and RS485 interfaces. Developers can also connect their own boards and

easily adapt the hardware to individual application requirements. Therefore, the Hexagon Kit is the ideal platform for developers interested in evaluating XMC microcontrollers and quickly creating prototypes.

RUTRONIK www.rutronik.com

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS INDUSTRY NEWS

Microchip expands low-cost dsPIC® digital signal controllers and PIC24F microcontrollers Microchip announces a new addition to the 16-bit PIC® microcontroller (MCU) and dsPIC® Digital Signal Controller (DSC) portfolios with the cost-effective dsPIC33FJ32MC104 family which offers up to 32 KB Flash, 16 MIPS of performance, and small pin outs for cost-sensitive motor control, consumer, medical and industrial applications.

The dsPIC33FJ32MC104 family delivers a low-cost 16-bit solution with powerful peripherals in packages ranging from 18 to 44 pins. Using a dsPIC DSC to digitally control a motor enables several industry-leading features, including greater energy efficiency, sensorless operation and more precise control.

The dsPIC33FJ32MC104, with its low-cost and integrated DSP capabilities in addition to on-chip and advanced motor-control peripherals, enables sensorless BLDC motor control in cost-sensi-

tive applications, such as power tools and high-end toys.

The dsPIC33FJ32M104 is an excellent solution for customers working on low-cost motor-con-

trol applications by providing a higher performance with the 16bit dsPIC core at low cost.

MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY www.microchip.com/get/J88W

Freescale Semiconductor’s Vybrid controller solutions gain true dual-core debug support from Atollic TrueSTUDIO Atollic® announced they have incorporated dual-core development and debug support for Freescale Semiconductor’s new Vybrid™ controller solutions within the latest release of Atollic TrueSTUDIO®.

Incorporating both an ARM® Cortex™-M4 core and an ARM Cortex-A5 core within a single Vybrid controller solutions device, Atollic TrueSTUDIO v3.2 can debug both cores at the same time using a single IDE GUI instance, greatly simplifying the task of debugging a multicore application for embedded developers using this new device. With its heterogeneous architecture, one of the key strengths of the Vybrid controller solutions device is its ability to partition tasks based on their characteristics. For tasks that need predictable interrupt management, for example, a typical

need for realtime applications, the Vybrid platform has the ARM Cortex-M4 core with a Nested Vector Interrupt Controller (NVIC) while allowing graphical applications and connectivity stacks to be run on the ARM Cortex-A5 applications processor.

The recent release of Atollic

TrueSTUDIO v3.2 has also introduced native RTOS-aware debugging for leading RTOSes such as FreeRTOS, OpenRTOS, ThreadX and embOS. ATOLLIC www.atollic.com

Maxim Integrated’s Serial-Data Chipsets Transmit over Coax Cables, Lower Automotive Camera System Cable and Connectivity Costs by 50% Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. introduces two, high-speed serialization/deserialization (SerDes) chipsets that significantly lower the costs for automotive camera systems. Operating over standard coax cables, the MAX9273/ MAX9272 (22 bits) and MAX9271/MAX9272 (16 bits) chipsets do not need the extra wires of an Ethernet setup to power a camera. With today’s highend automotive camera systems often using multiple cameras and cables, this coax solution represents a 50% reduction in cable and connectivity costs compared to current standard twisted-pair (STP) solutions.

Maxim’s new camera chipsets operate at very high data rates (1.5Gbps) which is critical for today’s fast video and megapixel image transmissions. Using coax cables, the chipsets do not need to compress data and thus process

images immediately - a crucial requirement for safety applications like sign recognition, collision avoidance, and night vision. In comparison, Ethernet-based solutions require data compression, which requires external components, resulting in higher costs, power consumption, and power dissipation. The chipsets’ reduced

power consumption, from both the elimination of external components and low 75mA supply current, helps to prevent camera heat sensitivity issues.

MAXIM INTEGRATED www.maximintegrated.com

Rutronik offers expanded QNX portfolio from emtrion Still in its infancy, the cooperation between Rutronik Elektronische Bauelemente GmbH and the software and development specialist emtrion is offering Rutronik customers even more benefits: Thanks to the recent strategic partnership concluded between emtrion GmbH and Triadem Solutions AG with respect to QNX real-time operating systems (RTOS), Rutronik customers now have access to more high-end 32-bit CPU modules for QNX as well as higher quality and more reliable BSPs (Board Support Packages). emtrion has recently entered into a strategic partnership with Triadem Solutions, the objective of which is to increase the range of high-end 32-bit CPU modules which support QNX for industrial products. The companies also want to increase the quality and reliability of the BSPs. Customers

of Rutronik, emtrion's distribution partner, will also benefit from the wider product range, the shorter development times for QNX-based products, greater flexibility and better support.

The first joint product from emtrion and Triadem Solutions is

the QNX 6.5 BSP for emtrion’s DIMM-MX53 module, for which development kits are already available via Rutronik. Two additional BSPs for TI AM335x and Freescale i.MX6 will also be available shortly.

RUTRONIK www.rutronik.com

www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2012 | EP&Dee

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EMBEDDED DESIGN

Options in Android™ Accessory Design with Google’s Open Accessory Framework

by David Flowers Principal Applications Engineer - Advanced Microcontroller Architecture Division Microchip Technology Inc.

Google’s Android Accessory Framework outlines several different options for accessory development. For designers considering developing Android-based accessories, this article covers some of the design considerations for determining which of the possible routes to take. Each application is different and these criteria may or may not change a designer’s mind, but knowing the options is the key to ending up with the best possible outcome.

USB Hosts and Peripherals USB is logically a point-to-point communication system between an attached peripheral and the host controller. Peripherals can never talk to each other through USB. There is only ever one host on the bus.

Typically in a USB system, the USB host is the more powerful machine (more memory, more CPU power, better connectivity, and is going to typically be the focal point for the user), while the peripheral is often a simpler device with basic functionality on the bus as a service to the host.

The host also has two key responsibilities on the bus; the first is to supply power to attached peripherals and the second is to manage the devices on the bus. Because of these differences, the USB host-enabled device and USB peripheral devices often have very different designs.

point for the user, and the accessory is likely going to be providing a service for the phone/tablet. Having the phone/tablet supply power to the accessory is also an attractive option. The option to use the Android phone or tablet as a USB host was enabled in the Android 3.1+ devices.

However, this option is not available in other operating-system versions.

Android Accessories as USB Hosts When Google released their OpenAccessory framework they recognised that many Android devices already in the marketplace were designed only for USB peripheral capability and as such these phones and tablets don’t have the hardware required to operate as a USB host.

Android Accessories as USB Peripherals At first glance, the choice between these two USB options might seem clear. An accessory to a smartphone/tablet makes the most sense as a USB peripheral. The phone or tablet is likely to be the central focus

Figure 1a: To create an Android accessory, where the accessory is a USB peripheral but doesn’t use a standard USB class.

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EP&Dee | October, 2012 | www.epd-ee.eu

Figure 1b: To create an accessory that needs to support Android devices that don’t already have USB host capability or are running an OS version that doesn’t support the USB hos, mode, the accessory must be the USB host and use the OpenAccessory framework to talk to the Android device.

In order to enable these products to attach to an accessory, Google created an accessory framework option based on the accessory being the USB

EMBEDDED DESIGN

host and the Android phone/tablet being the USB device. This OpenAccessory-framework option is enabled in both the Android 2.3.4 and Android 3.1+ operating-system versions.

Android Accessories for Standard USB Accessories A third option that is available is native OS support; with the addition of USB host capabilities to the operating system, support for some standard accessories such as mice, keyboards, thumb drives, etc. was also added. For USB peripheral manufacturers who make these types of standard accessories, they don’t need to worry about creating new devices or software to work with Android phones/tablets because their accessories will work on any operating system that supports that specific standard class driver. All three of these support options are highlighted in Figures 1a, 1b and 1c.

Figure 1c: Android accessory using a standard USB device class.

Which Option Should I Choose?

Each of the three available options has implications in the creation of an accessory. The first issue is the target set of Android devices for the accessory - In order to create an accessory that is a USB device, it requires the target Android phone/tablet to have the built-in hardware capability of being a USB host. Even if the hardware is capable of running USB host, unless the Android device is running Android 3.1+, it will not be able to use either of the USB host options. So an accessory

Standard or Custom Applications?

In addition to the power-supply requirements, a designer must also consider how the accessory is going to be used and whether a custom application is acceptable. Any designer using the accessory mode, with the accessory as the USB host, will likely need to create a custom protocol for their application. Using the same two examples as before, the refrigerator and the pulse oximeter, it would be reasonable, or even expected, for the refrigerator to have a custom protocol, wherein the customer must use a vendor-specific application to talk to that device.

The pulse oximeter, however, would likely want to use the built-in Personal Healthcare Device Class (PHDC) available in the USB protocol.

Using this protocol allows the device to be used on any USB host machine, and allows the hardware to interface to a wide range of software. However, limiting this hardware to a vendor-specific application might be too constraining for consumers to accept.

If an accessory should be compatible with Android devices that don’t have USB host functionality, either due to hardware limitations or because they haven’t received an OS update to 3.1+ or later, then the accessory must use a custom protocol, as seen in Figure 1b. For accessories that can be limited to use with USB-host-enabled Android devices, the choice between a standard USB class or a custom class is entirely up to the designer. Though the OS may not have native support for a device, a custom application should still be able to access the device. This also allows the Android phone/tablet to work on other USB hosts that may support that device natively.

USB Physical Connectors While they may not be a major determining factor, the physical connectors might also play a role in deciding which mode is used. For an accessory that is acting as the USB host, the USB specification indicates that that accessory should have a full-sized, A-style female connector, like the connector found on a computer. Figure 3 shows how an accessory supporting a USB-peripheral-only Android device would connect to that device.

Figure 2: Android version adoption percentages, as of July 2nd 2012.

(Source: http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-versions.html)

designer needs to weigh the options of cost/features against what the Android 3.1+ adoption rate will be when the accessory is released. As new Android devices are released to the market, most are including the latest versions of Android. Figure 2 breaks down the adoption rates for the various versions of the Android operating system.

USB Host Must Provide The Power The decision to select accessory mode, where the accessory is the USB host, isn’t as clear cut as just looking at the version adoption-rate information. In a USB system, the USB host must provide power to an attached peripheral. Peripherals can request up to 500 mA of current from the host. Most USB peripherals expect that a host can supply at least 100 mA. While this might be a suitable requirement for a refrigerator doing diagnostics or firmware updates, it might be too large a limitation for a device like a pulse oximeter, where the consumer is expecting the device to be mobile, small and have a long battery life. Having to provide a minimum of 100 mA is a very large power requirement for many mobile applications. Figures 1a, 1b and 1c show how the power is provided in the three possible accessory configurations.

Figure 3: Accessories wanting to support Android devices that have only USB-peripheral capability can use the OpenAccessory framework to interface to the device; similarly to how the device connects to a PC. If the accessory is designated as the USB peripheral, designers have the option of using the full-size-B, mini-B, or micro-B female connectors. The other side of the cable must also be considered, however. For accessories that run as a USB peripheral, the Android device will be the USB host and most Android devices don’t have a full-size-A female connector, in which to plug a USB cable. For this reason, many of the Android devices on the market today that enable USB host mode require an adapter of some sort in order to use this functionality. In an ideal situation, the Android device would have a micro-A/B female connector, and the user would be able to use a micro-A to micro-B OTG cable to connect the accessory to the Android device and then use a micro-B to full-size-A cable to connect the Android device to a USB host, such as a standard PC. www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2012 | EP&Dee

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EMBEDDED DESIGN

Figure 4 shows how a USB OTG-capable Android device could connect to various targets.

Figure 4: Android devices having both host- and peripheral-mode capability, through a standard micro-A/B USB OTG connector, can connect to both a host-mode target (either PCs or accessories) or to USB peripherals (eg standard mouse and keyboard peripherals).

USB OTG for Both Peripheral & Host If the choice between the USB host-mode accessory and USB peripheral accessory options is not obvious, or both are desired—USB host in order to support devices without USB host capabilities, and USB peripheral for those that do, in order to use standard software—then there is another option available. Android accessories can be designed as a USB OTG device. The USB OTG specification allows an accessory to be either USB host or USB device, based on the cable that is plugged into it. Using USB OTG, an accessory can be a USB host for Android phones/tablets without host capability, and a USB peripheral for those Android phones/tablets with USB host functionality.

tional micro-A cable would be required. Due to the various hardware connectors found on Android devices, this cabling issue is a significant challenge as only a micro-A to micro-B cable as a standard USB cable can be used, but many Android devices have either mini-B receptacles or custom female connectors. To further complicate the issue, there are some tablets and phones on the market that have OTG capability but are not using the micro-A/B receptacle. Instead, they use a micro-B receptacle with a custom, non-USB-compliant cable to enable the host-mode operation. Figure 5 shows how an OTG-capable accessory is able to interface to these types of Android devices; those with USB peripheral capability only, as well as those with USB host or OTG functionality.

If the accessory mode is selected, with the accessory acting as the USB host, there is still one more decision that needs to be made—which API set to use. When the accessory framework was added to Android 2.3.4, it was added as a Google API add-on library. The library module used in Android 2.3.4 (com.android.future.usb) is slightly different than the library used in Android 3.1 (android.hardware.usb). The interface between these two libraries also varies, but the functionality is basically the same. The main consideration here is that the android.hardware.usb library is only available in Android 3.1+, whereas the com.android.future.usb library is available in both Android 2.3.4 and Android 3.1+ devices. It is also important to note that the com.android.future.usb library is not a required library in Android 2.3.4, so there might be devices that are running Android 2.3.4 but do not have support for these features. It is up to the device manufacturer to determine whether they will include this feature in their OS build.

Using IOIO – The Android Debugger Interface One final option should be covered on the topic of Android accessories.

The IOIO solution enables the development of Android-based accessories through the Android ADB debugger interface. This solution provides a method for enabling accessories for Android phones/tablets running Android 1.5 or greater, eliminating the issue of having to wait for the hardware manufacturers to push out Android 2.3.4 or Android 3.1+ to their devices before the accessory will work with them. There are also downsides to this solution as the following example, presented in the accessory development class at Google I/O 2011, demonstrates. While the ADB interface has not changed much in recent history, the presenters indicated that Google reserves the right to change this interface as it needs to on future devices, in order to enable development and debugger features for hardware and software developers. Additional information about comparing the accessory framework and the IOIO solution is available at the IOIO developers’ blog ( http://ytai-mer.blogspot.com/ 2011/06/ioio-over-openaccessory-adk-available.html ).

This article has covered some of the design considerations for determining which of the possible routes to take when considering Androidbase accessories. Developers looking for additional information about Android-based accessories can refer to http://developer.android.com/ guide/topics/usb/index.html or www.microchip.com/android. Questions can also be sent to androidsupport@microchip.com. n

Figure 6: PIC24F Accessory Development Starter Kit for Android™ (Part Number DM240415) from Microchip interfacing to a Nexus S phone, using the Open Accessory Framework.

Figure 5: OTG-capable accessories are be able to connect to both types of Android devices. It would use the OpenAccessory interface for Android devices that only support USB peripheral, and use standard USB peripheral drivers when connected to the USB host/OTG-capable Android devices.

There are some complications associated with using USB OTG. The cable that is provided with the Android device will not connect to the accessory because that cable is likely going to have a full-size-A plug, which will not fit into the micro-A/B receptacle of the OTG accessory, so an addi-

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EP&Dee | October, 2012 | www.epd-ee.eu

www.microchip.com

EMBEDDED DESIGN

Taking the ARM strategy to the next level

ARM technology on x86 standard form factors

by Daniel Piper Product Marketing Manager Kontron AG

With the availability of the PC-like ARM processor technology, there is a huge chance to improve time to market and to reduce R&D costs by facilitating processor implementations via ×86 form factors.

One example is the availability of the NVIDIA® Tegra™ 2 processor on Pico-ITX™ boards. What are the benefits?

The current performance level and low power consumption of ARM technology, which is applied in standard tablet applications, make it particularly interesting for embedded SFF applications. Consequently ×86 embedded platform vendors now also enter the ARM technology market, as an addition to x86 technology. One strategy of these vendors is to level out the technological barriers between ARM and ×86 using scalable building blocks. This strategy is very appealing to a large number of OEMs - as this means they can obtain very scalable platforms with completed Board Support Packages for all popular operating systems. And thanks to the corresponding hardware-specific software the underlying hardware can be abstracted so that more and more homogenous, application ready platforms come into existence. For OEMs, swapping from one board, module or system to another becomes a relatively easy procedure. But this goal can only be achieved if vendors will ensure

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ARM board

KTA55/pITX

pITX-SP

Processor platform NVIDIA® Tegra™ 2 1 GHz Dualcore

AMD Embedded G-Series, Intel® Atom™ Z5x0 1 GHz Dualcore 1.1 / 1.6 GHz Singlecore

Ethernet

1× 10/100 Mbit

1× 10/100/1000 Mbit

1x 10/100/1000 Mbit

USB

3× USB 2.0

6× USB 2.0

6× USB 2.0

Graphic output

DVI-I, 24 bit single DVI-I, 24 bit dual channel LVDS, Display Serial Interface channel LVDS

DVI-D, 24 bit single

RAM

512 / 1024 MB DDR2

Max 4 GB DDR3

Max 2 GB DDR2

Storage interfaces

MicroSD Card Slot, Onboard NAND flash

2× SATA, MicroSD Card Slot

2× SATA, 1× PATA

Audio

2ch. In/out, Mic, SPDIF

HD Audio

HD Audio analog / SPDIF

Other I/Os

16× GPIO, 2× RS232, CSI, I2C, SPI, JTAG

8× GPIO

8 Bit GPI/O, SDIO

channel LVDS

Table 1: When comparing the three Pico-ITX™ feature sets it becomes apparent, that in terms of the most important interfaces like USB, Ethernet, graphics and storage for SFF devices, there are hardly any differences, so that basically, with the extension into ARM technology, scalability is further increased.

EP&Dee | October, 2012 | www.epd-ee.eu

EMBEDDED DESIGN

this with the right standardizations on board and software level and by offering extensive software services. Depending on the programming of the application and which operation system is employed, no software changes have to be made, or only very few. Further to this, ARM solutions are always available as full-custom designs on board and system level, so that OEMs can fully concentrate on their application development, without having to consider any individual differences.

Standards alleviate implementation The hardware design on board level goes to demonstrate how easy the selection of the right CPU building blocks for the application can be. For example, the interface feature set of a Pico-ITX™ board with Tegra™ 2 from NVIDIA® is hardly any different from the Intel® Atom™ or AMD Embedded G-Series designs which are already available. The major difference is to be found in the processor and consequently in its performance class (see table 1).

A major difference is that ARM processors are more dedicated and thus offer less generic interfaces like SATA or PCI Express which in ×86 designs are often used for connecting individual extension options. Having said this, many of the ARM SOCs have several UARTs, I2C and SPI interfaces. So, theoretically speaking, the generic interfaces could be levelled out with additional components and some development effort. That would, however, also level out the valuable energy-saving advantages which make ARM designs so attractive: The need for cooling is reduced, fanless designs are possible which makes them more failsafe and results in a better MTBF. Developing and manufacturing the systems becomes easier - and the systems lighter in weight - due to the lack of heat pipes, cooling elements or fans.

But bringing back these generic interfaces is superfluous as, especially in SFF designs, the trend is towards less not more generic interfaces. Subsequently, the difference between the feature set of the Pico-ITX™ board is of little relevance. As the Pico-ITX™ format is standardized, the application-specific choice of the right ×86 or ARM designs can be carried out within one single ecosystem - and no technological barriers have to be considered. The mechanical compatibility to the whole existing product portfolio is a major advantage and goes to simplify system design. Even more simplified desings can be achieved if besides the mechanical design advantage, ARM based boards additionally offer a range of software benefits. For example, the extensive support for all operating systems which are currently available for these processors. With such application-ready platforms the time-to-market can be reduced significantly and with it the costs for development.

Pico-ITX™ board: SFF Singleboard Computer with NVIDIA® Tegra 2 Dual Core processor The Small Form Factor board in Pico-ITX™ format (100 mm × 72 mm), which is currently being developed, is equipped with a 1 GHz NVIDIA® Tegra™ 2 Dual Core processor and integrates a completely passive cooling concept while boasting very low power consumption of 3 watts and an attractive feature set: in addition to 10/100Mbit Ethernet, five USB 2.0 ports and up to 24 configurable GPIOs the ARM Cortex A9 architecture-based mini-board has a slot for Micro SD cards and 512MB or 1GB 32bit DDR-2 memory. The audio-visual experience is also worth looking into too: the integrated ultra lowpower (ULP) NVIDIA® GeForce® GPU delivers graphic performance for mobile devices in high-quality gaming console quality and can simultaneously stream two HD videos (1080 p). Displays can be connected via DVI-I for analog and digital signal transmission and via a 24 bit LVDS converter. Backlight support is provided by either an internal 5V intern or an external 12 V. Following audio support is available: via SPDIF and stereo line-in and line-out as well as MIC. A whole range of hardware accelerations for flash, video and audio codecs ensures fluent and brilliant playback of multimedia and web content.

New Mini-ITX embedded motherboard with NVIDIA® Tegra 3 processor Besides the Pico-ITX form factor, Kontron recently extended its ARM portfolio with a Mini-ITX form factor (170mm × 170 mm) motherboard, the Kontron KTT30/mITX. Thanks to its standardized form factor it paves an efficient path for OEMs to integrate ARM technology straight off-the-shelf and into their embedded applications. The Kontron KTT30/mITX is based on the NVIDIA® Tegra 3 processor with four ARM Cortex-A9 CPU cores each with up to 900 MHz. An additional core with up to 500 MHz clock speed reduces power consumption to less than 1 watt in phases, when just media playback or background services are running.

With its integrated 12-core NVIDIA® GeForce® GPU for low-power applications, lifelike 3D graphics with dynamic lighting are possible at screen resolutions of up to 2048 × 1536 pixels. It also offers HDMI 1.4a and 24 bit LVDS video interfaces.

Thanks to the integrated video encoder and decoder, as well as high resolution video playback it offers real time video compression, which can, for example, be supplied via the CSI/DSI camera port. Peripheral devices can be connected via three USB 2.0 ports and two RS232 ports. Operating system and application data can be hosted on the bootable eMMC. Two PCIe slots, one of which can also be used as an mSATA port, are available for application-specific extensions. An RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet port and analog audio-I/Os add the final touches to the feature set. www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2012 | EP&Dee

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EMBEDDED DESIGN Scalability across all processor platforms Are ARM processors now integrated into the realm of ×86 form factors? Has this brought an end to the whole technology argument? If it was up to the embedded standard form factor vendors to decide, then, yes. Because at the end of the day, it is simply these vendors goal to deliver standard platforms to its embedded customers and to embrace new applications, which to date were not possible with all other existing processor implementations. A high level of scalability of the fitting standard form factors across all processor platforms makes a lot of sense, as then OEMs can port their applications more easily between RISC and CISC architectures. If additional hardware-specific software services are provided to realize the code modifications which are sometimes necessary, then the underlying processor architecture is less and less a fundamental criterion for decision-making.

Two other factors will play principle roles: energy consumption and performance per watt. One could also say that the market has now entered an era – after the enormous successes which the ×86 technology inspired – in which thanks to the extensive software sup-

port, the borders of the processor technology are disappearing as the software ecosystem can be extended to further technology platforms. Consequently, the standard form factors on board level have to be extended to accommodate these new processor platforms.

Wide range of services for direct entry In order to enable customers to make an immediate entry into the ARM technology, embedded platform vendors need to offer their ARM-based building blocks in a bundle with extensive custom design services, so that OEM customers can get integrated ‘applicationready platforms’ on board and system level either as standard or as customer-specific versions. Besides this individual hardware development service on board and system level, Kontron for example also focuses on providing extensive services for software development, which ranges from driver development and OS code adjustments to a broad range of application porting and validation services as well as hw/sw bundles including quantity licensing.

Application developers profit from efficient migration, fast time-to-market and, parallel to this, can reduce development risks and cost, as application-ready platforms are available which

are already certified, so that the customer can completely concentrate on his core competence: application development.

Needless to say, that embedded platform vendors need to support all the ARM-relevant operating systems. Apart from Windows CE 6 and Windows Embedded Compact 7 (WEC7) in particular Linux-based operating systems are supported on ARM products. VxWorks support is planned for TI processors. These operating systems are especially interesting for applications, which demand the highest availability and best real time behaviour.

Furthermore, support of an ARM-native version of Windows 8 is in the pipeline. The Android operating system which is at home in the smartphone and tablet market is a must to open the door to the vast market of networked multimedia-oriented applications based on ARM technology which this relatively young operating system caters for. The BSPs are validated right up to system level which enables OEMs to focus on the application without having to train accordingly and this minimizes timeto-market and TCO. n www.kontron.com

New Box PC Expands Breadth of AMD G-Series APU Offerings: Low-Power AMD G-T16R APU up to Dual-Core AMD G-T56N APU • New standard processor: dual-core AMD G-T48N APU • New family member: AMD G-T16R APU • Two DisplayPort channels with a resolution up to 2560x1600 • -40 to +70 (+85)°C operating temperature • Up to IP65 rating optional • EN 50155 compliant (railways) • e1 certification ready (automotive) MEN Mikro Elektronik announces the release of the BC50M box computer based on the latest AMD Embedded G-Series Accelerated Processing Unit (APU). The robust and maintenance-free BC50M (formerly called the BC1) is based on an innovative modular design that offers flexible display and I/O solutions with optimal performance for mobile applications such as use in trains, commercial vehicles, airplanes, and mobile machines.

Leading-Edge Graphics for Buses and Railway As a new option the BC50M can be equipped with the new AMD Embedded G-T16R APU with a

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power consumption of just 2.3 watts on average or 4.5 watts thermal design power (TDP). This new system complements the existing 1.4 GHz dual-core AMD Embedded G-T48N APU with AMD Radeon™ HD 6310 Graphics standard system as well as the high-end AMD Embedded G-T65N APU with AMD Radeon™ HD 6320 Graphics version.

"The new AMD Embedded GT16R APU targets very low power, small form factor and cost-sensitive designs while maintaining the computing and graphics performance embedded customers demand," said Mike Greig, director, product marketing, AMD Embedded Solutions. "In combination with the robust and fanless design, MEN's box and display computers are an attractive solution, especially for temperature-critical, mobile graphics applications."

If an application requires more or less graphical performance and power consumption, product designers can select any model of AMD Embedded G-Series APU for use in the system.

EP&Dee | October, 2012 | www.epd-ee.eu

Thanks to the modular design of the BC50M box computer also the interfaces can be customized individually with minimal overhead based on design requirements for even greater system flexibility. The two DisplayPort channels of the standard BC50M box computer model support a maximum resolution of 2560 × 1600 pixels each with dedicated graphic cards and up to 1920 × 1200 pixels in combination with the AMD G-T16R APU and are accessible from the front panel.

The antenna connectors for two PCI Express® MiniCard slots are also

conveniently located on the front panel. And that's only one variant of many. Basically, up to 6 displays and a multitude of wireless functions with, e.g., 12 antenna connectors can be controlled.

The BC50M sets practically no limits for the user and its design and flexibility make it ideal for applications in mobile and safety-critical markets with high graphics demands.

Price starting from EUR 995 plus VAT for single units.

MEN MIKRO ELEKTRONIK GmbH www.men.de

ENCLOSURES DESIGN

Enclosures for electronic appliances

by Grzegorz Gorzka, Transfer Multisort Elektronik

Transfer Multisort Elektronik offers a wide range of enclosures for electronic appliances. One of TME’s suppliers is a manufacturer of high quality enclosures – FIBOX which has over 40 years of experience in their manufacturing. In 1966, FIBOX introduced for production modular enclosures made of polycarbonate resin (PC), that were the first of this type in the world’s market. It opened a new era in manufacturing of box switchboards, which led to fast development of the company. Enclosures manufacturing takes place in modern facilities near Helsinki in Finland and Inchon in Southern Korea.

The biggest share of FIBOX company offer belongs to MNX series enclosures Those enclosures are made of polycarbonate (PC) and ABS materials. There are over 260 items available (PC100/125HT, ABS125/60HG, ABS150/150XHG and many other) from that series with the dimensions from 100 × 100 × 35 to 255 × 180 × 175mm. Those enclosures have been designed to furnish and protect electronic and electric apparatus. FIBOX gives an opportunity of ideal fitting the enclosure to the needs of every customer, thanks to the sales launch of enclosures in two different types of locks. They are divided into transparent, darkened or grey covers. External side of the cover is equipped with a special depression designed for the assembly of a membrane keyboard (covers in the following sizes: 150 mm and 175 mm). The set with enclosure also includes corrosion resistant screws.

The FIBOX offer contains over 500 different standard enclosures made of: ABS, polyester enforced with glass fibre, aluminum and polycarbonate (PC). Those enclosures, due to their application, have been divided into several groups.

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Additional option offered by FIBOX is fixing an additional panel with hinges, which enables simple assembly of electronic apparatus.

Special holder enables its installation at different depths both in the basis as well as in the enclosure’s cover. The set includes: a basis with PUR seal and screws to the assembly / DIN bus and a cover with polyamide screws.

Additionally, the MNX series includes enclosures which are equipped with overpresses for metric chokes (they are marked in the catalogue as PCM enclosures) which enables mounting of chokes. Thanks to this, it is possible to introduce all types of cables in an simple and fast way. Also, we can save a lot of precious time during the manufacture of appliances.

For the installation of control buttons and signal lamps, FIBOX recommends the PICCOLO series which is also fit for mounting of sensors, terminals and electronic apparatus. This product line is available in the ABS material version (ABSF85G) and polycarbonate (PCB65T). The most important feature is the leakproofness class, thanks to the use of polyurethane seals (PUR) - IP 66/67, which ensures high leaktightness against dust and water (up to 15cm of depth). The scope of enclosures dimensions from 110 × 80 × 65mm to 230 × 140 × 95mm.

Thanks to their parameters, PICCOLO series products are used among others: in gas engineering, mining, but also in companies endangered with the existence of large quantities of dust. Those enclosures can be purchased in

two types of covers: grey – made of ABS material (ABSF65G) and transparent – made of polycarbonate (PC) (ABSF65T).

Thanks to a smooth surface, we can easily make an overprint.

FIBOX by wanting to reach even the most demanding recipients, introduced ATEX certified enclosures.

ENCLOSURES DESIGN

ATEX enclosures are designed to be used in gas explosion zones.

They are designed, manufactured and tested in accordance with international standards. Those enclosures are made of aluminum, polycarbonate and polyester. This group includes the following enclosures: • ALX (aluminum) (among others ALX161609) holding the IP 54 leakproofness class and IK 08 strength class. The set consists of a basis, a cover with a silicone seal and stainless ferrite screws, mounting and grounding screws, as well as grounding clamp. The ALX enclosures are available in the following dimensions: from 45 × 50 × 32mm to 600 × 310 × 180mm.

• FEX-PC-7 (polycarbonate) with IP 66 leakproofness class and UV radiation resistance class UL508.

They are available in the following dimensions: from 45 × 50 × 32mm to 600 × 310 × 180 mm. The set consists of: a basis with screws to the mounting plate / DIN bus and a cover with a silicone seal and polyamide screws.

• PEX (polyester) with the IP 66/67 class. They are available in the dimensions from 75 × 80 × 55mm to 405 × 400 × 120mm. An example of enclosure representing this group is PEX162609 with the mechanical resistance of IK08, which ensures high level of equipment protection. The set includes: a basis and EPDM seal cover and stainless steel screws.

In case of creating electronic measuring, control or monitoring appliances, the CARDMASTER series is indispensible.

Those enclosures comprise of two segments: clamping and apparatus with guideways for printed board circuits, which enables fast and efficient manner of mounting virtually all kinds of electronics – helping save time and money. All enclosure dimensions are manufactured in two versions – polycarbonate (PC) (example: PC25/22FC3) and ABS material (ABS36/31-3).

All enclosures belonging to this group are complaint with the NEMA 4X requirements.

They are IP 65 class certified, and in case of polycarbonate (PC) enclosures, the UV radiation resistance class is UL508.

Enclosures are manufactured in the dimensions from 166 × 160 × 80mm to 390 × 316 × 167mm. The set comprises of: a basis, clamping segment cover with EPDM seal and mounting screws.

Companies designing, among others, switching stations, should pay particular attention to FIBOX SPACE LINK series enclosures (marked as EKI).

This is a system enabling production of box sets to be applied in energy distribution and automatics.

In order to guarantee reliability and repeatability, FIBOX company has implemented highly developed quality system.

FIBOX holds ISO 9001 certificate issued in 1992 by Bureau Veritas International. This certificate proves that all the ISO 9001:2000 norm requirements has been met.

SPACE LINK enclosures have big-size side holes that simplify assembly.

New system of linking enclosures (QUICK- LINK SYSTEM) together with a more rigid structure of side holes, simplifies joining enclosures.

New frames for DIN buses make mounting of modular apparatus simple, at the same time they also facilitate mounting of cap plates. Bus bar circuit brackets are adjusted for cooperation with the most popular bus bar systems (ABB, Woehner, Weber, etc.).

Copper, collective bus bars with the cross-section of 5 × 20mm and 10 × 30mm can be used.

FIBOX offers a wide range of accessories for SPACE LINK enclosures: • Corner brackets facilitate assembly of cap plates, DIN bus frames and mounting plates, frames with DIN buses and mounting plates at different levels.

• Corner brackets together with hinges allow opening the front panel by the angle of 90°.

• Enclosure can be mounted to a wall directly by special holes in the basis. Mounting by means of special holders is also possible.

• QICK LOCK screws have several types of nuts: with a groove, butterfly, cross and with a hole plug.

• Accessories also include: hinges, sparing elements, ventilation elements etc.

• For introducing cables, cable chokes and cable heads are used.

All FIBOX enclosures are compliant with the RoHS requirements and do not contain any toxic substances (halides), thanks to which FIBOX products are environment friendly. n

Transfer Multisort Elektronik Tel.: +48 42 645 54 44 Fax: +48 42 645 54 70 export@tme.eu www.tme.eu

• Additionally, FIBOX offers side covers – smooth or with overpresses for a choke.

SPACE LINK enclosures are available in the dimensions from 200 × 300 × 170mm to 600 × 400 × 270mm. They offer IP65 leakproofness class and UL508 UV radiation resistance.

A standard set consists: a basis with side holes and EPDM seals dedicated for those holes, mounting plate / DIN bus screws, corner plugs and a cover with PUR seal and CS 12137 screws. www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2012 | EP&Dee

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COMPANIES Logistics

Higher availability, lower costs More than two million electronic components with different, partly extremely long and fluctuating delivery times are currently available in the market. Due to this huge variety, it can result in repeated supply shortages.

When there are communication problems between those involved in the supply chain, the manufacturer produces and the distributor orders without knowing what customers actually need. Whether the customer then receives what they need in good time, is purely a gamble.

by Joachim Kaiser Managing Director Logistics and Materials Management Rutronik Elektronische Bauelemente GmbH

Contemporary logistics systems are therefore based on a significantly closer cooperation between companies and suppliers than was previously the case.

This includes a relationship of trust, which deterred many companies in the past. But an increasing number of them are seeing the advantages of such systems and benefit from virtually 100% supply security. A pleasant side effect is that they can simultaneously optimise their processes significantly, reduce process costs and increase process quality.

Opening of borders In the traditional supply chain, every company border also represented a border in the value added and supply chain. Processes are usually uncoordinated between supplier, manufacturer and customer and communication is inter-

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EP&Dee | October, 2012 | www.epd-ee.eu

rupted. Decision making, which goes beyond company borders, is therefore not possible.

To nevertheless ensure their own supply, every party involved operates its own buffer stock. The main reason for introducing logistics systems is to reduce stock and procurement costs and to transfer them to service providers.

Today, however, the securing of supply and process cost reduction are at the top of the list of priorities. Because the sheer quantity of components with their derivatives and the trend to release second or even third sources increasingly rarely, makes need-compliant procurement a real challenge. To ensure it, all contemporary logistics systems are based on a timely, precise and comprehensive exchange of data. Crucial is that the customer provides the distributor with long-term planning figures

and passes on all data at item level in an unfiltered manner. Because every manual influence with factors, which change the figures upwards or downwards, may result in supply problems at a later stage.

Electronic data exchange A large number of IT systems with different data formats is available for electronic data exchange, which a distributor should be able to easily process. This creates the foundation for automatic procurement and supply processes, which are ultimately identical for every logistics system: the customer sends its detailed short-term and long-term forecasts to the distributor on a set defined weekday. The latter defines from the weekly planning the current need and supplies the required components in the corresponding units collected

COMPANIES Logistics

to the supply address(es) of the customer on a weekday that is also defined in advance.

Due to the long-term planned figures from production, the distributor orders the items probably required with an advance of up to eight months from the manufacturer.

A suitable backlog management of the logistics partner can also cushion longer delivery periods any time. To this end, the distributor automatically generates from the customer's forecast the orders with the manufacturer in a time window of up to one year. The manufacturer then keeps the corresponding production capacities in stock. In doing so, the customer retains best possible flexibility, because it does not need to determine the precise items until about four to six weeks before delivery date.

At the same time, transport costs can be reduced in this way, which may make up a significant proportion of unit costs in particular for passive components. If the components can be shipped by sea instead of air freight thanks to a long advance period, the cost share drops from ten to about one per cent of the component price.

If the customer does not have such planning itself, the distributor should be able to provide it. With the use of forecast models, which include figures from the historical use and production of the weeks ahead, for instance, it can generate an artificial forecast, which represents a good basis for the entire supply chain.

This creates a real win-win situation for all parties involved: the manufacturer knows the requirement of the market and therefore has a solid indication for its production planning.

The distributor has the security of having items in stock at the time of requirement even in the event of longer delivery times. And the customer benefits from nearly 100% supply security. It can also be maintained in the event of unforeseeable extensions to delivery periods – ash clouds, earthquakes or an unusual economic performance therefore become less terrifying, at least as regards production.

Other benefits: as the company borders are permeable in such a logistics system and planning involves manufacturer as well as distributor and customer, one single security storage is sufficient for all three parties, which means that fewer capital commitment costs are incurred.

As a rule, the distributor keeps in stock the customer requirement of the coming one to

two months in the security stock, which means that surprising additional requirements or production losses of the manufacturer can be bridged for several weeks.

Leaner and better processes The basis for this kind of cooperation in the supply chain is electronic data exchange.

Because this is the only way of transmitting the planning figures in good time and comprehensively on a regular basis and in sufficient quality. In addition to ensuring the supply, many process steps in procurement therefore become unnecessary – and quite automatically without a process analysis.

As such, the demand carriers are not required to submit requests or demands with procurement, for example, procurement does not obtain any offers and convert orders, in goods inwards, the verification, posting and merging of the goods and the work of the registration, i.e. the storage of the delivery note, the invoice and order processes, is entirely unnecessary.

As the costs of manual activities are reduced dramatically, the process and procurement costs fall clearly. At the same time, the quality of the processes improves, as the risk of erroneous inputs or typos drops significantly.

Contemporary logistics systems are also based on the three classic systems of consignation, kanban and delivery schedule. Which one suits the relevant customer best results from

the circumstances and relevance, which has a series of factors for the customer, e.g. how much room is available in goods inwards or in the warehouse or how continuously production is carried out. If these factors are interpreted correctly, the customer gets the system that meets its ideal requirement.

Trust is the start of everything The fear of opening too strongly and being bound to the suppliers, has kept some companies from using such logistics systems until now.

In particular during the internet boom, it was standard practice to choose suppliers solely on the basis of price without considering product

quality and availability. This narrow focus often resulted in quality issues and production losses, which frequently overshadowed the cost savings. Due to this experience and the fact that short-term orders with the strongly risen quantity of components are hardly possible anymore with the various and occasionally very long delivery periods, a different culture of trust developed in which customer and supplier work together more closely.

Another consequence of this development is companies' focus on fewer suppliers. The impact on the process costs of the customer must not be underestimated: every supply partner has its own processes and its own contact, with which the order, the supply and the invoicing must be discussed. As such, not only the selection of the relevant supplier takes up time, but also the communication with every individual one. This means: the bigger the proportion of the requirement that a logistics partner can cover, the fewer suppliers a company needs. The time requirement and costs are reduced accordingly. A long-standing relationship of trust between the customer and supplier or distributor, which is contractually secured, forms a solid basis for such a close connection, which benefits all parties involved. n www.rutronik.com www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2012 | EP&Dee

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POWER DESIGN

Are all those batteries really necessary?

Boosting a single battery can replace multiple batteries to cut costs and size, explains Jason Tollefson, Mikhail Voroniouk, and Adam Jakubiak, Microchip Technology Inc. and Energizer Battery Company

Whilst rechargeable batteries are suitable for applications which have high levels of used combined with higher drain rate, a primary battery is still the easiest and lowest-cost design option for most portable devices and the one which can support a significant reduction in physical size.

Regardless of whether the design is for a medical blood-glucose meter; a PC peripheral, or a camera, the goals will be to deliver intelligent control combined with the longest possible battery life, and reducing the size and weight of the end-product to make it more portable.

Of course, deciding to implement a singlebattery design is just the start: there is then the decision to be made on which battery technology to use. Figure 1 shows a range of popular primary battery technologies, and their typical applications.

For timers and watches, which have a comparatively low energy draw combined with an operational life of up to 10 years, small, lightweight lithium coin batteries such as Li/MnO2, are available in 13 different sizes.

For portable products which have a low to medium drain rate, alkaline cylindrical batteries are available in three compact form factors: AA, AAA, and AAAA packages.

Cylindrical lithium (LiFeS2) batteries offer just

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two form factors, AA and AAA, and are most suitable for applications with a medium to high drain rate, or which need to operate in cold temperatures. Compared to cylindrical alkaline batteries, the lithium alternatives are 33% lighter, provide higher reliability and have a

shelf-life of up to 15 years which is two or three times more than alkaline batteries.

Single-battery designs Higher silicon integration and smaller passive components mean that the size of portable

Figure 1: Comparison of primary battery technologies and applications.

POWER DESIGN

products is shrinking year on year. For most designs, the barrier to further reductions in size is the physical size of the battery cavity which may need to allow space for two or more batteries. The alternative is use a microcontroller which can run on a single 1.5V battery.

A battery boost converter, such as Microchip’s MCP1640, provides a power supply by stepping up an input voltage up to a higher, regulated voltage, such as 2.0 to 5.0V. This means that the device can start up with an input voltage which is significantly lower than the operating voltage.

Many microcontrollers, for example, cannot operate with a voltage which is lower than 2V, whereas the boost converter can provide the voltage from a startup voltage as low as 0.65V. Figure 2 shows a typical startup waveform, where the low-voltage startup begins to charge the output voltage up to the input voltage. Once the output voltage is charged, the N-Channel begins to switch, pumping the output voltage up, after which the internal bias switches from the input to the output. This enables an application using a boosted single alkaline battery to start up at any point in its discharge curve, provided that it has enough remaining capacity to operate the device.

While a battery boost converter may be able to deliver a consistent output voltage from very low input voltages (for example 0.35V), battery suppliers, such as Energizer, do not recommend discharging alkaline or lithium batteries below 0.8V, as it can damage the battery.

Figure 2: Typical waveform for low-voltage startup using a battery boost converter.

The advantages of using a single-battery approach depend on which type of battery is being replaced. For example, by replacing two alkaline batteries with a single alkaline battery saves both the space and the weight of the second battery although there is a tradeoff in the small amount of space required by the converter and its supporting components.

Using a battery boost converter also maximises the system power efficiency by providing regulated power over the battery’s entire operating range. This regulated voltage can make the microcontroller operate more efficiently, by enabling it to run at a lower and flatter voltage. For example, reducing the microcontroller operating voltage from 3.3V to 2.2V

provides 1.8 times lower power consumption on the microcontroller side (voltage difference squared). Additionally, the boost converter provides short-circuit protection through current limiting.

The OEM cost for implementing the boost converter with a single battery is a little higher than the cost of two alkaline batteries, but the consumer operating cost can be similar between the two approaches if the boost converter is operating at high efficiency. Adopting a single alkaline battery approach enables developers to shrink their product size without switching between battery chemistries from a legacy multi-battery alkaline design.

Working with a single battery also simplifies the mechanical considerations of the battery housing and reduces the risk that batteries will be installed incorrectly by the user.

Designers comparing the advantages and disadvantages of implementing a single alkaline battery versus a rechargeable lithium ion polymer battery will find similar but different reasons for selecting the single-battery approach.

Because the boost converter provides a regulated power output, it allows the tuning of the voltage to maximise system efficiency. Similar to the alkaline example, the boost converter provides short-circuit protection through current limiting. The 352mm2 footprint for a single AAAA alkaline battery is smaller than a single lithium ion polymer battery at 650mm2 (31.0 × 21.0 × 3.5mm), even though they have the same volume (2.3 cc), assuming a two-sided board design.

Using an alkaline implementation versus the lithium ion polymer simplifies logistics because it avoids the need for charging circuitry and conforming to lithium shipping regulations. For those applications where using a replaceable battery is more convenient, implementing a boost converter with a single AAAA alkaline battery can provide a 50-70% cost reduction for the battery portion of the system compared to a single lithium ion polymer battery plus a charge controller and charger.

Comparing a single alkaline battery implementation versus a lithium coin battery demonstrates yet another set of conditions where the single battery approach is favorable. For this example, the comparison is between an AAAA alkaline battery with a 600mAh rated capacity and a CR2032 lithium coin battery with a 225mAh rated capacity. Similar to the lithium ion polymer example, using a single boosted alkaline battery avoids the need to conform to lithium shipping regulations.

Cylindrical batteries, such as the AAAA, are more familiar to consumers than the coin batteries, and this makes it easier to ensure the battery is installed correctly.

The footprint of using either power source is similar, with the single alkaline AAAA battery taking approximately 352mm2 compared to 314mm2 for the CR2032 lithium coin battery,

assuming a two-sided board.

The single alkaline battery continues to benefit from the tunable voltage to maximise efficiency and provide short-circuit protection through current limiting. However, unlike the CR2032, the alkaline battery is able to deliver a higher continuous current. Specifically, the boosted alkaline battery can source 150mA continuously, while the CR2032 can only do that for very short pulses. Extended continuous current beyond 10mA from the CR2032 battery dramatically decreases its usable capacity and, even at 20mA, it can only deliver 1/5th the energy that boosted AAAA batteries can provide, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Comparison of current draw for a single AAAA battery and a lithium coin.

System-level trade-offs While using a battery boost converter provides many advantages, such as enabling a microcontroller-based design to operate with a single battery, it is important to consider the system-level tradeoffs between a boosted single-battery implementation and a multiplebattery design. The efficiency of the battery boost converter is highly dependent on the current draw, as well as the input and output voltages. The dominant loss for a boost converter is resistance, so the efficiency of lower input/output voltages is lower than the efficiency of higher input/output-voltage applications, as shown in Figure 4. Other factors that

Figure 4: Boost converter efficiency dependent on current draw and voltage. can impact the boost converter’s efficiency are the resistive losses in the inductor and capacitors. Inductors with lower DC-series resistances, and capacitors with low ESR (Equivalent Series Resistance), allow higher efficiency with the potential trade-offs being size and cost. www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2012 | EP&Dee

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POWER DESIGN

To support a lower system current draw, the boost converter may include a low quiescent operation mode that typically draws 20μA, and a shutdown mode that draws less than 1μA. When coupled with a microcontroller, a booster can provide a voltage to power the application in a sleep mode, using a coast-down method. The microcontroller turns on the boost circuit when the system voltage falls below a pre-determined level, then shuts it off to eliminate the operating current of the booster while continuing to power from the booster’s output capacitor. Using this method, the total power consumption of the MCU and the boost regulator can drop by as much as 87%.

Implementing a battery boost converter does enable a design to reduce the overall system area by the size of the second battery, with the trade-off of including the boost converter, two resistors, two capacitors and an inductor, as shown in Figure 5. The weight of the boost converter and its accompanying components is negligible for most designs. The area of a typical boost-converter circuit is approximately 60mm2, which is considerably smaller than the 450mm2 area of a second AAA battery or the 352mm2 area of a second AAAA battery, and still yields a 290 to 390mm2 area reduction in the overall system, assuming a 2-sided board design. The OEM cost to implement the boost converter and its accompanying components is about $0.20, which may or may not be offset by the alternative battery technology which is being replaced.

Many semiconductor companies offer application notes and/or reference designs for their boost converters, such as Microchip’s MCP1640 single AAAA battery boost converter reference design, shown in Figure 6.

Modifying this pre-engineered circuit for a specific application can save a considerable amount of design time.

Flashlights, especially LED flashlights, can also benefit from a regulated supply voltage by using the boost converter to power a microcontroller, which in turn controls a more complex supply for the LEDs. The regulated supply can avoid a dimming of the flashlight as the battery discharges to provide consistent lighting through to the battery’s end of life.

End-product benefits A boosted single battery implementation not only enables differentiation through a smaller form factor for many applications, but it can provide a cost advantage over using coin or rechargeable batteries. Being able to minimise the width and weight of an electric toothbrush’s handle enables the handle to feel more natural in a user’s hand.

Using a single battery also simplifies the mechanical design effort to ensure that the user has installed the battery correctly.

Using a boosted, single alkaline battery can be appropriate in value-priced devices, such as a portable, wireless mouse. A value-priced mouse focuses on longer battery life by operating with low-frequency positioning updates appropriate for Web browsing and text editing, as opposed to higher-frequency updates for gaming. Wireless mice are able to deliver a compact form factor with the single replaceable battery, and save on design and materials cost versus implementations that rely on a rechargeable battery. In addition to the cost difference between the battery technologies, using a replaceable battery means the mechanical design avoids including an expensive connector for a recharging source.

Most consumers are familiar with AA, AAA, and AAAA cylindrical form factors, and they know where to acquire them. Designs using these form factors can provide a simpler access hatch to replace the battery, so that the user is confident the battery is installed correctly. While other form factors, such as a coin battery, are not unusual, most consumers are not as familiar with the notations for the different coin form factors – nor are they as familiar with ensuring that the battery is installed correctly. The clear orientation for installing a cylindrical battery and ease of acquiring replacement batteries provides an ease-of-use differentiation for a design.

Another benefit of using a boosted battery is that the power supplied to the device is regulated, so that it receives a flat voltage profile throughout the life of the battery. This enables the toothbrush to provide a consistent vibration throughout the life of the battery, without a noticeable drop-off in vibration strength and performance, as the battery discharges.

Additionally, the microcontroller can modulate the vibration signal, such as generating pulsating vibration to signal to the user that the battery is approaching an end-of-life condition.

Boosted equipment can also be differentiated by incorporating RF connectivity in the volume that was freed up by using a single battery.

Applications that can benefit from this are portable medical equipment, such as bloodpressure modules and blood-glucose meters, as well as beacons used in industrial environments for tracking transportation containers.

Figure 5: Typical battery boost-converter circuit.

Figure 6: Reference design for Microchip’s MCP1640 single AAAA battery boost converter.

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EP&Dee | October, 2012 | www.epd-ee.eu

Summary Replacing multiple-battery designs with a single battery and a battery-boost converter, such as Microchip’s MCP1640, has real benefits for a wide range of portable applications. Using a single boosted battery can enable designs to gain a competitive edge by becoming smaller and lighter, with a lower cost of materials and more straight-forward mechanical design than using multiple batteries. End-users benefit too because of the wide-spread availability and familiarity with cylindrical batteries. All of these are valid reasons for moving to a single-battery design for portable devices. n www.microchip.com

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS INDUSTRY NEWS

Laird Technologies Releases New WL Series Liquid Cooling Product Line Laird Technologies, Inc., a global leader in the design and supply of customized performance-critical components and systems for advanced electronics and wireless products, announced the release of its WL Series Liquid to Air Heat Exchanger Systems product line.

The WL Series products are self-contained units designed to remove a large amount of heat from densely packed electronic environments that are not conducive to conventional heat sink fans. The WL series provides customers the benefit of investing in a full assembly, rather than having separate components and making them work together. Ideal for the medical and industrial markets, these products are able to maintain peak performance of high powered x-ray scanning systems by

keeping the x-ray generator and tube cool. The WL Series also extends the life and improves the performance of machine tools

used in CNC machining for fabricating metals. The robust WL Series products use world class components sourced from brand name suppliers and are assembled through proprietary processes.

They are designed to circulate water or water with glycol (antifreeze) and run on AC voltage.

LAIRD TECHNOLOGIES www.lairdtech.com

Next-generation of SmartFusion®2 SoC FPGA with Breakthrough Capabilities in Security, Reliability and Low Power Microsemi´s new SmartFusion®2 system-on-chip (SoC) field programmable gate array (FPGA) family is now available at MSC. The next-generation of SmartFusion2 SoC FPGAs are designed to address fundamental requirements for advanced security, high reliability and low power in critical industrial, defense, aviation, communications and medical applications.

SmartFusion2 integrates inherently reliable flash-based FPGA fabric, a 166 megahertz (MHz) ARM® Cortex™-M3 processor, advanced security processing accelerators, DSP blocks, SRAM, eNVM and industry-required high-performance communication interfaces all on a single chip.

Microsemi has already engaged with lead customers who plan to use SmartFusion2 in a broad range of applications including flight data recorders, weapons systems, defibrillators, handheld radios, communications management systems and industrial motor control. Recent

attacks on industrial, defense, aviation, communications and medical systems have highlighted the need for security and anti-tamper safe-

guards within electronic systems.

SmartFusion2 includes breakthrough security capabilities that make it easy to protect classified and highly-valuable designs against tampering, cloning, overbuilding, reverse engineering and counterfeiting with state-of-theart design protection based on non-volatile flash technology.

MSC VERTRIEBS www.msc-ge.com

Thingsquare selects development tools from IAR Systems for the Internet of Things

Ultra low power server platform from Supermicro

Thingsquare, a pioneering provider of software connecting the physical world through the Internet, has selected IAR Embedded Workbench for developing its Thingsquare Mist connectivity platform for home and building automation, and for smart lighting. IAR Systems’ embedded software development tool chain gives Thingsquare and its customers the compact and highly efficient code that is fundamental when smart objects communicate with each other via the Internet.

Thingsquare and its customers contribute to the growth of systems for smart homes, smart offices and smart cities, based on battery-operated systems and low-power Internet communication. Thingsquare Mist uses Contiki, the open source operating system for the Internet of Things, created by Thingsquare co-founder Adam Dunkels.

IAR Embedded Workbench is the world’s most widely used tool

The next generation, ultra low power, compact form factor embedded server platform 5017P-TLN4F from Supermicro is based on their Mini-ITX motherboard. This server platform delivers 15% more processing performance, up to 50% more 3D graphics performance supporting the latest graphic APIs-DX11, OpenCL 1.1 and OpenGL 3.1. Combined with new features such as Intel® Smart Response Technology enabling increased storage I/O performance with SSD caching. The product is available at distributor Rutronik as of now. The X9SPV-F/LN4F embedded server platform features Mobile, 3rd generation Intel® Core™ i7/i5/i3 processors and Mobile Intel® QM77 Express Chipset. It offers Dual/Quad core 1.6GHz to 2.7GHz 35W and 25W M Series and 17W U Series processor options and up to 16GB ECC

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chain for 8-, 16-, and 32-bit MCUs, and is available for more than 7,400 devices. The highlyoptimizing C/C++ compiler and debugger tool suite is a completely integrated development environment for developing, building, and debugging embedded applications with strong requirements on performance and reliability.

IAR SYSTEMS www.iar.com

EP&Dee | October, 2012 | www.epd-ee.eu

DDR3-1066/1333MHz in dual vertical SO-DIMMs. 1PCI-E 3.0x16 slot (i3 2.0 only), 2 SATA 6Gbs/, 4 SATA 3Gbs/ ports (RAID 0/1/5/10) and a SATA DOM (Disk on Module) power connector are included. The platform also features VGA Output, Matrox G200eW (default) or Intel® Integrated Graphics (DX11) via

BIOS setup. Furthermore, it contains Quad Gb LAN ports (4x82574L), IPMI 2.0 with dedicated LAN and four USB 3.0 ports and six 2.0 ports (four rear and two header).

RUTRONIK www.rutronik.com

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS INDUSTRY NEWS

PLS’ Universal Access Device 2pro now also enables strong electrically isolated connections to the target

Ericsson Sets the Standard for the Evolution of Board Power in Advanced Bus Converters

PLS Programmierbare Logik & Systeme presents its Universal Access Device 2pro (UAD2pro) at electronica 2012 in Hall A6, Booth A12. The UAD2pro is an especially high-performance, versatile target access device for on-chip debugging of a wide range of 16 bit and 32 bit microcontrollers.

Connection of the debug hardware to the PC is achieved via a USB 2.0 interface. For all Windows versions, starting from Windows XP including the 64-bit version, easy-toinstall device drivers are available by means of plug & play.

Connection to the target takes place by means of architecturespecific adapters - available for JTAG, cJTAG, DAP, SWD, OnCE and other manufacturer-specific debug interfaces - via a universal interface. When changing to another microcontroller architecture the user only needs a different adapter and a corresponding

Ericsson’s Advanced Bus Converter (ABC) footprint is fast becoming a new standard in digitally controlled power converters.

Introduced in 2008, the Ericsson ABC footprint was designed to provide additional functionality to system architects developing advanced power architectures to reduce energy consumption and also increase flexibility in their operation and supply chain.

The Ericsson ABC footprint has been established as the de facto industry standard for Advanced Bus Converters, as it is used in more than 90% of the installed base of digitally controlled PMBus-based DC/DC products worldwide.

Additionally, a growing number of companies are now developing Ericsson ABC footprint compatible products. Delivering a high level of robustness, low power losses, and an all-in-one interface for input/output (I/O) control and monitoring, the Ericsson platform is ready for future evolutions of Advanced

license. Updates and downloading of the firmware takes place transparently for the user. Apart from the universal target interface, the UAD2pro offers a D-sub connector that can optionally be used as serial or CAN interface. Thus, not only various bootstrap loader mechanisms of the respective

microcontroller are supported; the UAD2pro can also be used as CAN recorder hardware in parallel to debugging.

PLS www.pls mc.com

CUI Introduces the Industry’s First No-Bus Self Compensating Digital Point-of-Load Modules CUI Inc releases the industry’s first self-compensating No-Bus digital point of load dc-dc module family.

The modules are specifically designed for customers who value the efficiency and compensation advantages inherent in digital power but do not want to incorporate digital bus communication in their systems. The NSM2P series will allow customers to access many of the same features as a fully digital POL, however the access will be via header pins that will connect to a USB dongle and CUI’s Digital Power GUI. The designer can dynamically test and manipulate the desired functions within their system, monitor the results, and set the desired fault management functions. In production, the engineering header is pulled and the specified parameters are loaded into the module by CUI based on the customer’s specific requirement.

The NSM2P has the same features

and functions of the recently announced NDM2P series without the need for a serial bus connection on the board, also offering true cycle-by-cycle self compensation, autonomously balancing the trade-offs between dynamic performance and system stability.

With this feature, designers are able to bypass the traditional practice of building-in margins to account for factors such as compo-

nent ageing, manufacturing variations, and temperature, which inevitably lead to higher component cost and longer design cycles.

CUI www.cui.com

Bus Converter technology including a greater level of integration into the digital power chain.

The Ericsson ABC footprint was designed to simplify board layout and to provide room for power tracks without having to develop complex routing – all the I/O pins are arranged within a microconnector so are not subject to interference from the power pins. The original ABC layout also took into

account new capabilities such as high current handling, which requires additional power pins, as used for example in ‘The DoubleP’ (Thermally Enhanced Double Power Pins) industry standard for high-power converters.

ERICSSON POWER MODULES www.ericsson.com/powermodules

CML Microcircuits Release Credit Card size SDR Demonstrator CML Microcircuits, a leader in the design, development and supply of low-power analogue, digital and mixed-signal telecommunication semiconductors, has released a small demonstration platform for a complete Software Defined Radio (SDR) for wireless data applications.

The DE9941 is a credit card sized demonstration board for a complete linear modulation-based Software Defined Radio (SDR) for wireless data. It is designed to be small and low-cost with minimal components/values. The small form factor is made possible by the high integration of key functions provided by CML’s market-leading devices.

There is a growing market requirement for small, flexible Software Defined Radio (SDR) data modems. The technology to

accomplish this is now available with the releases of CML’s highly integrated RF and Baseband product offerings: the CMX998, CMX994 and CMX7164.

The CMX998 is a market-leading Cartesian Loop Transmitter IC providing optimum PA linearisation for non-constant envelope/ linear systems

CML MICROCIRCUITS www.cmlmicro.com

www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2012 | EP&Dee

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EMBEDDED SYSTEMS INDUSTRY NEWS

MSC announces promotional pricing for Lattice iCEblink40 evaluation Kits MSC announced promotional pricing for its recently released iCEblink40 Evaluation Kits. The iCE40™ mobileFPGA™ family, fabricated on non-volatile 40nm technology, is optimized for consumer and mobile applications that require low power, low cost and small footprint programmable logic devices.

With two new iCEblink™ Evaluation Kits, engineers can easily evaluate and adopt non-volatile iCE40 technology. The iCEblink40-HX (High Performance) Evaluation Kit comes with an iCE40HX1KVQ100 device (72 user I/Os) and the iCEblink40-LP (Low Power) Evaluation Kit comes with an iCE40LP1K-QN84 device (67 user I/Os). Both devices offer 1280 logic look up tables and 64K bits of on-chip memory.

The USB-powered iCEblink40

Evaluation Kits include features such as 1Mbit of SPI Flash memory, capacitive touch buttons, LEDs and access to all user I/Os. The free iCEcube2™ development tool controls programming,

accesses virtual I/O functions and runs the included demos.

Both the iCEblink40-HX1K and iCEblink40-LP1K Evaluation Kits are available at a promotional price of $19 for immediate purchase through MSC. This limited time promotional price will be valid through October 31, 2012.

MSC VERTRIEBS www.msc-ge.com

Kontron announces next-generation digital signage kit to help streamline development and deployment of intelligent signage systems Kontron announced the availability of the next-generation Digital Signage Evaluation Kit-12 (DSEK12). The Kontron DSEK-12 is designed to help streamline the digital signage development and the evaluation process allowing OEM designers and advertisers alike to reduce the time to deployment and costs. The new kit is codeveloped with Intel Corporation and with technology from Microsoft to address the growing demand from companies in markets such as retail, transportation and medical that want to use digital signage as a powerful new vehicle to interact with customers and gain valuable consumer information in real time. Up until now, the basic design resources and tools that allow for cost-effective digital signage development and deployment have lagged behind the latest display and graphics technologies, which have led to expensive and time-consuming integration.

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The Kontron DSEK-12 offers a prevalidated system that features technologies from Kontron, Intel and Microsoft. The kit uses the modular OPS-compliant Kontron

media player KOPS800 based on 3rd generation Intel Core processors, which will also be available as a standalone media player in early Q4 2012.

KONTRON www.kontron.com

EP&Dee | October, 2012 | www.epd-ee.eu

Microchip’s new 8-bit PIC® microcontrollers combine high integration, low power and automated touch sensing Microchip announces the expansion of its 8-bit eXtreme low Power (XLP) Enhanced Midrange Core PIC® microcontrollers (MCUs), with the new PIC16F1512/13 devices. These new 28-pin MCUs offer a combination of advanced digital and analogue peripherals, combined with XLP for the extended battery life required by many applications. These features make the generalpurpose PIC16F1512/13 MCUs ideal for a broad range of applications in the appliance, medical, consumer, automotive and many other markets. In addition to industry-leading active current down to 30 μA/MHz and sleep current down to 20 nA, these MCUs integrate a 17x10-bit ADC, EUSART, I2C™/SPI, two Capture Compare PWMs, 7 KB Flash and 256B RAM. Compared to other members of the PIC16F151X family, these two new devices deliver increased ana-

logue capability, including a 10-bit Analogue-to-Digital Converter (ADC) with hardware Capacitive Voltage Divider (CVD) support for implementing mTouch™ capac-

itive touch sensing. The additional control logic enables automated touch sampling, which reduces software size and lowers CPU usage. It also provides an automatic control of guard-ring drive and a programmable sample-and-hold capacitance to better match larger touch or proximity sensors.

MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY www.microchip.com/get/6WVQ

Meet tomorrow now!: Innovative products for future technologies Under the motto “Meet tomorrow now!”, Rutronik Elektronische Bauelemente GmbH will be demonstrating its prowess as a global supplier of innovative electronic components and complete solutions at the electronica fair (hall A5, stands159 & 260). The broadliner will be focusing on technological and logistical developments of tomorrow, showing product trends and new releases for a wide variety of market segments based on example applications. Visitors to the stands will be able to select applications from touchscreens and view the matching components with their technical specifications. Operational applications for each market will demonstrate the potential benefits. With the multi-sense system illumotion, Rutronik will be exhibiting state-of-the-art presentation techniques. Many Rutronik partners will also be showing their latest product releases, including

Rutronik subsidiary Rusol, which will be featuring high-end PV modules, inverters, mounting systems and accessories. One of the highlights will be the updated online platform Webg@te, which visitors will have the opportunity to try out live.

Over a million products from across the full spectrum of elec-

tronic componentry are available to order at up-to-the-minute, customer-specific prices.

RUTRONIK www.rutronik.com

ACTIVE COMPONENTS INDUSTRY NEWS

Atmel Showcases World’s First ARM Cortex-M4 Processor-Based Single-Chip Solution for PRIME Smart Metering Applications Atmel® Corporation showcased the world’s first single-chip power line communications (PLC)-based solution using an ARM® Cortex™-M4 processorbased microcontroller (MCU) targeting the rapidly growing PRIME smart metering market at the Metering Billing/CRM Show in Amsterdam.

Atmel’s SAM4SP32A is a new compact, highly integrated solution that combines a Cortex-M4 processor-based MCU, 2MB of dual-bank Flash, 160KB SRAM and a high-performance PLC transceiver in a single-chip SoC that lowers overall system costs.

The SAM4SP32A SoC is fully compliant with the latest PRIME (Power Line Intelligent Metering Evolution) PLC specification.

In order to support the complex protocol required by smart meters to make firmware upgrades of the application and the protocol stack independently in the field, the new SoC inte-

grates Atmel’s PLC technology with a high-performance CortexM4 MCU with 2MB of program

memory on a dual-bank configuration. The new solution also leverages the powerful peripherals of the Cortex-M4 MCU, including serial peripheral interface (SPI), TWI and USARTS, to support the various communication interfaces required by smart metering applications.

ATMEL www.atmel.com

Silicon Labs Enables Lowest 32-Bit System Power with Microcontroller Architecture Breakthroughs Silicon Laboratories Inc. introduced the industry’s lowest power ARM® Cortex™-M3 processorbased microcontroller (MCU) family and first-of-a-kind “poweraware” development tools. The Precision32 SiM3L1xx MCUs and development environment leverage mixed-signal innovations to

enable developers to reduce power consumption to 175 μA/MHz in active mode and less than 250 nA in sleep mode with the real-time clock (RTC) enabled at 3.6 V. The new ultra-low-power mixed-signal MCUs are ideal for smart metering, utility monitoring,

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home automation, wireless security, asset tracking, personal medical devices and other power-sensitive applications to enable the Internet of Things (IoT). Ultra-low-power MCUs are key building blocks of IP-enabled devices being connected to the IoT. Experts believe the IoT will comprise an estimated 50 billion intelligent devices by 2020, autonomously sensing, monitoring, processing, controlling and communicating over wireless networks.

Because many of these intelligent end nodes will be powered by batteries or harvested energy sources, they require exceptionally energy-efficient MCUs such as the SiM3L1xx devices that enable developers to optimize systemlevel power consumption.

SILICON LABORATORIES www.silabs.com

EP&Dee | October, 2012 | www.epd-ee.eu

High-performance compact GPS module with only 22 mA current consumption in tracking operation MSC now offers the L70, a particularly high-performance and at the same time ultra low power consumption GPS module, from Quectel. The L70 module comes in a compact 10.1 mm × 9.7 mm × 2.5 mm form factor.

The L70 module is based on the MTK MT3339 chipset and has 66 acquisition channels and 22 tracking channels that, in combination with advanced AGPS technology called EASY™ (Embedded Assist System), provide the highest performance. Thanks to EASY™ technology, the L70 module can calculate and predict orbits automatically and using the ephemeris data store up to three days in internal flash memory. The L70 can fix the position quickly even at indoor signal levels. At the same time, with EASY™ technology the Time To First Fix (TTFF) can be reduced to 5 seconds for a warm start and 15 seconds for a cold start. Furthermore, with the help of AlwaysLocateTM technology, an intelligent controller of L70 normal mode and sleep

mode, the L70 can adaptively adjust the on/off time to achieve balance between positioning accuracy and power consumption. With a current consumption of 25mA during acquisition and 22mA in tracking operation, the L70 is currently one of the most energy efficient GPS modules on the market. The extremely compact size, ultra low power con-

sumption, high sensitivity of -148 dBm at cold start and -163dBm at tracking as well as a wide operating temperature range of -40 to +85°C make the L70 GPS module ideally suited for use in portable devices, automotive applications, industrial PDAs and a wide range of other applications.

MSC VERTRIEBS www.msc-ge.com

Intersil Expands Video Surveillance Leadership Coalition Intersil Corporation, a world leader in the design and manufacture of high performance analog and mixed signal semiconductors, announced the expansion of the Intersil Techwell SLOC™ (Security Link Over Coax) ecosystem. Intersil has worked closely with global technology leaders to address the need for increased security worldwide and reasserted its commitment to the next-generation video surveillance system solution. Expanding the SLOC ecosystem brings the technology’s various benefits to a wide range of systems and applications. Intersil has joined forces with nearly 100 global companies, including Sony, Altronix, and Hikvision, to create a SLOC ecosystem for standardization

and solution awareness, designed to accelerate the global adoption and implementation of hybrid IPbased security systems for the video surveillance market.

System integrators and manufacturers can now architect an efficient hybrid surveillance system that addresses all of the technical barriers, while enabling all of the benefits of IP networked cameras and network analytics.

INTERSIL www.intersil.com

ACTIVE COMPONENTS INDUSTRY NEWS

Renesas Electronics Announces the RL78/D1A Group of Single-Chip Microcontrollers for Automotive Instrument Clusters; Industry’s Smallest MCUs for Two-Wheeled Vehicles Renesas Electronics, a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, announced 21 new 16-bit microcontroller (MCU) products in the RL78/D1A Group, including 48-pin versions, which are the industry’s smallest singlechip MCUs for two-wheeled vehicle meter applications. The new devices with packages ranging from 48 to 100 pins are designed for cost-sensitive meter control applications in two- and fourwheeled vehicles in various markets. Affordable two- and fourwheeled vehicles have become increasingly popular in emerging markets such as China, India and Brazil, and further growth is expected. As the volume of information to be handled by MCUs used in automotive meter control increases, package pin count goes up, requiring larger internal flash memory capacity to accommodate the software for implementing enhanced functions. This has created demand for electronic sin-

gle-chip solutions to replace systems employing many external components, as a way to achieve greater compactness and reliabi-

lity, and reduced cost. Currently, there is a trend of replacing mechanical meters such as gauges with electric ones to improve reliability for two-wheeled vehicles.

RENESAS ELECTRONICS EUROPE www.renesas.eu

Renesas Electronics Introduces USB 3.0 Hub Controller with Industry-Leading Low Power Consumption and Small Mounting Area Renesas Electronics announced the availability of its SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0) hub controller system-on-chip (SoC), the μPD720210, for use in hubs that enable connection of multiple devices supporting the USB 3.0 standard, such as PC peripherals and digital TVs. The USB interface standard has been widely adopted worldwide. The recent proliferation of video content and largecapacity recording media has increased demand for interfaces capable of handling higher data transfer rates. In response, new products are coming to market with support for USB 3.0, which delivers speeds 10 times faster than the 480 megabits per second of USB 2.0 speeds. Adoption of USB 3.0 in non-PC products, such as digital consumer electronics, is growing due to factors such as the appearance of solid state drives

(SSDs), which allow reading and writing of data at faster speeds than conventional hard disk drives (HDDs), and chipsets with a builtin USB 3.0 host controller. A USB 3.0 hub device supports the proliferation of USB 3.0–compatible peripheral devices by allowing multiple such devices to connect to a single host device. The needs for the products with built-in USB 3.0 hubs are increasing, including docking stations, monitors, and digital TVs, enabling high-speed data transfer with a variety of peripheral devices.

RENESAS ELECTRONICS EUROPE www.renesas.eu

Microchip expands dsPIC® DSCs optimised for digital power and lighting applications Microchip announces a new family of dsPIC33 “GS” Digital Signal Controllers (DSCs).

The dsPIC33FJ09GS302 family is an expansion of Microchip’s dsPIC® DSC portfolio and adds lower-cost options for digital power conversion.

The new family of DSCs also brings new features while lowering power consumption, enabling higher efficiency in ACDC and DC-DC power supplies, HID and LED lighting, solar inverters and other power-conversion applications. The five-member dsPIC33FJ09GS302 family is optimised for digital-power applications via integrated high-speed ADCs, a zero-wait-state signal processing core, and flexible high-resolution PWMs. These peripherals are integrated for streamlined interoperation, enabling submicrosecond digital control loops.

Other key features of this family include on-chip analogue comparators with programmable hys-

teresis and rail-to-rail operation, and an on-chip PMBus™ address selection current source to reduce external components. These new DSCs offer the lowest power dissi-

pation of any of the GS family members and are the first available in a 20-pin SSOP package and the even smaller 36-pin VTLA package, which has a 5×5 mm footprint.

The dsPIC33FJ09GS302 family enables the efficiency of full digital control in more cost-sensitive, lower-wattage power-conversion applications.

MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY www.microchip.com/get/M52F

Power Integrations Unveils A19 LED Driver Reference Design Targeting 100 W Incandescent Bulb Replacements Power Integrations, maker of the most efficient, longest-lasting offline LED driver ICs, announced DER-323, a reference design for an 18W, 88%-efficient, non-isolated A19 LED driver based on LNK460VG, a low-profile IC from the company’s LinkSwitch™-PL family.

The design is suitable for a 100 W incandescent bulb replacement and is optimized for low-line (90 VAC to 135 VAC) operation. The circuit is low-cost, requiring only a simple single-sided board and 25 components. No potting is necessary and the transformer is replaced by a low-cost inductor.

DER-323 utilizes a simple buckboost converter topology that fits easily inside the A19 bulb.

The design is EN61000-3-2 (C)

compliant and has a high power factor of over 0.98, easily satisfying commercial and consumer compliance requirements.

Because LinkSwitch-PL ICs combine both PFC and CC converter functions in a single-stage topology, no electrolytic bulk capacitor is required, resulting in a very long operational life.

POWER INTEGRATIONS www.powerint.com

www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2012 | EP&Dee

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ACTIVE COMPONENTS INDUSTRY NEWS

N2Power’s 330W AC/DC power supply achieves 15W/in3 power density and up to 90% efficiency N2Power, a division of Qualstar Corporation, announces a new 330W AC/DC power supply that features an industry-leading combination of power density and efficiency. The 1.35-inch high, open-frame XL330-54 has a 3inch × 5.3-inch (76mm × 135mm) footprint to deliver a power density of 15W/in3 with only 13CFM cooling, a space saving of 32% compared to typical 1U units of similar rating, most of which have a 6-inch × 4-inch (102mm × 152mm) footprint. Its maximum full-load efficiency of 90%, achieved through synchronous rectification, Or-ing MOSFETs and a unique active PFC design, means that the XL330-54 generates 23% less heat than most comparable power supplies, minimizing cooling requirements and increasing system reliability. The high efficiency

delivers energy savings throughout the product’s life, providing greater return on investment.

The XL330-54 has two primary outputs: 54V/6.1A and 12V/9A, plus a 12V/1A auxiliary output.

The 54V output is 2250VDC isolated from the other outputs making it Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) compatible. The design allows active current sharing on the 54V output for up to four power supplies to be operated in parallel. N+1 operation can also be configured.

QUALSTAR www.qualstar.com

Eighth-brick 240 Watt DC-DC converter achieves 94.5% efficiency Murata announced the RBE series of fully isolated DC-DC converters.

These Murata Power Solutions products are designed for a broad range of applications including 12

VDC intermediate bus architectures or distributed power-based applications used in servers, wireless base-stations, data storage, telecom switches and networking equipment. The RBE-12/20-D48 model will deliver a regulated 12V output @ 240 Watts from a nominal 48 VDC input. With an efficiency of 94.5%, most applications with forced air cooling will not require an external heat sink. For applications where there is no

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forced air cooling or the operating temperature range is high, an optional baseplate is available that will allow for attaching a heat sink.

The RBE DC-DC converter has been designed to meet the requirements of the Distributed power Open Standards Alliance (DOSA) eighth-brick configuration measuring 58.42 × 22.86 × 10.16 mm (2.3 × 0.9 × 0.4 inches).

The standard module is a through hole mounted package, configured as an open frame converter with 4.6mm pins and negative logic. Optional configurations include various pin lengths to eliminate secondary process for trimming pins, positive logic control, conformal coating and the baseplate for conduction cooling applications.

MURATA www.murata.eu

EP&Dee | October, 2012 | www.epd-ee.eu

Microchip’s 5 GHz RF power amplifier for new IEEE 802.11ac Wi-Fi® standard delivers low EVM at high power for WLAN applications Microchip announces the expansion of its RF portfolio with the new SST11CP16 5GHz power amplifier (PA). This PA supports the new IEEE 802.11ac ultra-high data rate Wi-Fi® standard, for 351 Mbps with 1.8% Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) at 19dBM output power, to enable a longer range. In addition, the SST11CP16 provides low operating current of 360mA at 22dBm, which enables more transmission channels at a higher data rate, per system. To conserve space, this PA is offered in a 3 × 3 × .45mm, 16-pin QFN package.

In-Stat predicts that one billion 802.11ac products will ship by 2015. The SST11CP16’s low EVM and high linear power provide an attractive option for set-top boxes, routers, access points and other Wi-Fi devices that require data rates of up to 3Gbps for applications such as wireless streaming video. Additional features of this new PA include a 50 ohm on-chip input match and sim-

ple output match for ease of use and smaller board sizes.

The SST11CP16 also includes a linear power detector that is temperature-stable and insensitive to

voltage standing wave ratios.

Existing 802.11 standards can also take advantage of the SST11 CP16’s features, at the following performance rates: • 802.11a: 3% added EVM for 54 Mbps at 22 dBm; spectrum-mask compliant up to 25.5 dBm using Orthogonal FrequencyDivision Multiplexing • 802.11n: Spectrum-mask compliant up to 24.5 dBm using HighThroughput 20 Mhz mode MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY www.microchip.com/get/D2JG

1.5A miniature SIP Addition to Okami Range of POL DC-DC converter Murata has added a miniature 1.5A SIP model to the Murata Power Solutions OKR family of non-isolated point-of-load converters. The OKR-T/1.5-W12-C provides an ideal solution for designs that require low load current with limited board space. In addition, this SIP packaged, through-hole mounted miniature device combines a wide input voltage range with programmable output voltage to give engineers a high degree of flexibility in their designs. Part of the comprehensive Okami family of PoL DC/DC power converters, the OKR series offers designers a choice of 1.5, 3, 6 and 10 Amp modules in a through-hole (SIP) format. The use of a common, industry-standard footprint and form factor across the product range helps simplify inclusion of

the devices in both existing and new designs. Applications include the powering of ASICs, FPGAs, DSPs, microprocessors and communications ICs in both datacom and industrial equipment. Based on 600 kHz synchronous buck topology, the OKR-T/1.5-W12-C offers high power conversion efficiencies of 93% and also has the ability to drive up to 200 uF ceramic capacitive loads.

MURATA www.murata.eu

ACTIVE COMPONENTS INDUSTRY NEWS

Power Integrations Launches TinySwitch™-4 Off-Line Switcher IC Family Power Integrations introduced the TinySwitch-4 family, the latest generation of its industry-leading TinySwitch series of off-line switcher ICs. Featuring line-compensated overload power protection, TinySwitch-4 devices dramatically reduce the maximum overload power that can be delivered into the load over the entire AC input voltage range. The devices incorporate a 725 V MOSFET that easily allows 80 percent de-rating for high reflected voltage and high bus-voltage designs.

Efficiency of greater than 70 percent at five percent load enables designers to meet the stringent European standby specifications scheduled to take effect in 2013, while no-load power consumption of less than 30 mW at 230 VAC meets critical energy-saving requirements in the market today.

The line-compensated overload power protection of TinySwitch-4 ICs is particularly helpful in appli-

cations such as PC standby and appliances where unusually high current demands from the load may be indicative of a fault.

Prompt action by the power supply to limit the current to a

designed maximum value may prevent damage to the circuitry and enhance overall system safety and reliability. The BP/M pin permits the MOSFET current limit to be adjusted up or down, allowing designers to optimize power delivery and efficiency in a variety of physical implementations.

POWER INTEGRATIONS www.powerint.com

New family of high speed 600V discrete IGBTs from Advanced Power Electronics Corp. feature very low saturation voltage Advanced Power Electronics Corp.

(USA) has recently released a new family of high speed 600V discrete IGBTs for use in AC and DC motor control, home appliances (such as air conditioning, refrigerators, microwave ovens), UPS, solar inverters, and induction cookers.

All AP20GT60 family IGBTs feature a collector/emitter voltage rating, VCEs, of 600V, a peak gate emitter voltage rating, VGE, of ±20V, and a very low saturation voltage. AP20GT60P-HF-3 benefits from a typical saturation voltage, VCE(sat), of 1.8V at Ic=20A, a maximum power dissipation at 25°C of 104W, and comes in a fully RoHS-compliant and halogen-free TO-220 package. AP20GT60ASPHF-3 (with internal diode) has a typical saturation voltage of 1.7V at Ic=19A, a maximum power dissipation at 25°C of 78W, a diode forward current rating of 8A, and a diode pulse forward current rating of 40A. It comes in a fully RoHScompliant and halogen-free TO-

220 package. Featuring a saturation voltage of 1.8V at Ic=20A and a maximum power dissipation at 25°C of 25W, the AP20GT60IHF-3 device comes in a fully RoHS-compliant halogen-free TO-220CFM insulated package.

The corresponding AP20GT60 ASI-HF-3 IGBT with internal diode has a typical saturation voltage of 1.7V at Ic=12A, a maximum power dissipation at 25°C of 33W, a diode forward current rating of 8A, and a diode pulse forward current rating of 40A .

ADVANCED POWER ELECTRONICS www.a-powerusa.com

Renesas Electronics Introduces New Super Junction MOSFETs with Industry-Leading Low On-State Resistance, Low Gate Charge and Fast Body Diodes for Improved Reverse Recovery Performance Renesas Electronics, a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced the availability of three new superjunction metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect-transistors (Super Junction MOSFETs) (Note 1) featuring figure of merit: on-state resistance x gate change in a 600 V power semiconductor device suitable for highspeed motor drives, DC-DC converters, and DC-AC inverter applications. This industry-leading low on-state resistance and low gate charge combination benchmark, combined with the fast body diode feature, allow the new RJL60S5DPP, RJL60S5DPK and RJL60S5DPE devices to contribute to improved power efficiency in home appliance motor drives, such as for air conditioners, that employ high-speed motors with inverterized control. In recent years, greater environmental awareness

has led efforts to increase the energy efficiency of electronic devices and reduce our energy footprint.

In particular, there has been a strong emphasis on reducing loss and improving power efficiency in the power supply circuits of home appliances. This has spurred

demand for lower loss (which is a function of lower on-state resistance and better switching characteristics) in the power devices used in such products, to improve overall energy efficiency.

RENESAS ELECTRONICS EUROPE www.renesas.eu

World’s smallest 5 & 10 Watt AC-DC power supplies XP Power announced the launch of what are believed to be the world’s smallest 5 & 10Watt single output AC-DC power supplies.

Measuring just 25.4 × 25.4 × 15.24mm (1 × 1 × 0.6 inches) the miniature 5Watt ECE05 series of encapsulated board mount power supplies are ideal for endproduct designs where the available board space is at a premium and a low power high power density supply is required.

Complementing the ECE05 series, the ECE10 series provides 10 Watt output from an equally compact encapsulated package measuring just 38.1 × 25.4 × 15.24mm (1.5 × 1 × 0.6 inches). Both series comprise seven models covering the popular nominal output voltages from + 3.3 to + 48VDC, all from a wide universal input of 85-264VAC with Class II construction, meaning no earth or ground connection is required. All models meet the internationally recognized no-load power consumption limit of less than

0.3Watt and average efficiency limits ensuring end-products can comply with world-wide energy efficiency standards.

A peak load capability permits an output of up to 130 % of nominal output power to cater for shortterm high power loads without the need to specify a higher rated power module, saving both board space and additional cost.

XP POWER www.xppower.com

www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2012 | EP&Dee

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PASSIVE COMPONENTS INDUSTRY NEWS

Multianode tantalum capacitors from AVX deliver power to laser source on Mars

Murata announces world’s first chip common mode choke coils for SATA Gen 2/Gen 3 interfaces

The ChemCam (chemistry and camera instrument) laser module on board of Mars rover ‘Curiosity’ - which successfully landed on Mars on 6th August 2012 - contains 630 tantalum multianode capacitors from AVX Corporation, a leading manufacturer of advanced passive com-

The laser from the rover’s ChemCam hit the rock with 30 pulses during a ten-second period.

Each pulse delivered more than a million watts of power for about five one-billionths of a second.

The design of the laser power source for the ChemCam had to meet extreme requirements.

ponents and interconnect solutions. The laser module is used to analyse chemical elements of rocks on Mars.

On 20th August 2012 ‘Curiosity’ successfully fired its laser for the first time on Mars to interrogate a fist-sized rock called ‘Coronation’.

A small size and very light-weight package delivering very high power performance using only well established, high reliability components was required.

Murata announced the mass production of the world’s first SATA Gen 2 / Gen 3 compatible common mode choke coils. Available in ultra compact 0806 and 0605 sizes, the DLP series are designed for use in Serial Advanced Technology Attachment-based (SATA) high-speed differential interfaces that are commonly used for high-speed mass storage hard disk drives found in computers, video recording equipment and solid state drives. Until now, noise in the SATA signal frequency band was excluded from corresponding EMI standards.

However, new measures became necessary in 2010 with the establishment of the International Special Committee on Radio Interference CISPR 22 standard that sets the noise regulation frequency upper limit to 6 GHz. Although a

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MURATA www.murata.eu

AVX www.avx.com

AVX develops high Q, low ESR, 500 and 250VDC multilayer organic RF capacitor AVX Corporation, a leading manufacturer of advanced passive components and interconnect solutions, has developed a 500 and 250VDC, 0603 case size surface mount capacitor capable of supporting frequencies from 1MHz to well above 5GHz. Designated the MLO3 Series, the advanced organic RF capacitors maintain high Q and high self resonance while providing low ESR values at high frequencies. The capacitors, based on AVX’s patented multilayer low loss organic (MLO™) technology, are polymer-based organic capacitors that use high-conductivity copper interconnects in a multilayer fashion. The ability to fabricate these components on large area substrates with sophisticated laser direct imaging allows for improved cost benefits and tolerance control. The end result is a low profile, low ESR and high-

noise suppression measure using common mode choke coils was needed, no products were available that could comply with the common mode reflection coefficient (Scc11) requirement as defined by the SATA Gen 2 specification. The DLP series comprises two models. The DLP0NSA 070HL2 is supplied in a 0806 package measuring 0.85 × 0.65 × 0.45mm, and the DLP0QSA 070HL2 in a 0605 format measuring 0.65 × 0.50 × 0.30mm.

performance RF capacitor. In addition, the MLO™ Capacitors are expansion matched to printed circuit boards for improved

reliability. The RoHS-compliant RF capacitors are 50VDC to 500VDC rated with capacitance values ranging from 0.1pF to 2.5pF with capacitance tolerance to +/- 0.02pF. AVX www.avx.com

EP&Dee | October, 2012 | www.epd-ee.eu

Surface mount safety capacitor targets automotive applications Murata announced what is believed to be the world’s first SMD safety “Y2” capacitor designed for automotive applications. Approval to the internationally recognized standard for safety capacitors, IEC 60384-14 that stipulates protection from electrical shock and risk of fire is pending.

With the growing demand for electric (EV) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), the KCA series of capacitors are ideal as part of an AC power line filter in a battery charger or as a DC line filter of a DC-DC converter/inverter unit. The construction of the KCA series also incorporates techniques to improve long-term resilience against vibration and bending stresses. This includes the use of metal terminals as protection against substrate expan-

sion and contraction forces that can cause solder crack failure as a result of the wide temperature changes experienced. Also, the series offer higher reliability characteristics compared to dis-

crete capacitor elements since they are designed to accommodate the higher levels of mechanical shock and movement encountered in any automotive environment.

MURATA www.murata.eu

PASSIVE COMPONENTS INDUSTRY NEWS

Rutronik includes new AVX Flexray Automotive Varistor in its portfolio AVX has expanded its Communication BUS Series of varistors by launching the miniature 0402 size Flexray Automotive Varistor. It offers engineers a more robust solution for the faster digital serial BUS systems being designed into today’s vehicles. The new varistor is available at Rutronik as of now.

The newly invented AVX Flexray Automotive varistor combines ESD protection with EMI/RF filtering in single miniature component. AVX FlexRay varistor is qualified according to AEC-Q200-002 and thanks to 17pF max capacitance optimized for the FlexRayTM Communications Systems in automotive applications. Accomodating data rates up to 10 times faster than the current Controlled Area Network (CAN) BUS systems, the new varistor fulfills the needs of demanding automotive applica-

tions. It protects against transients on high speed data lines, therefore supporting up to 10 Mbps data lines. The varistor has

very fast response time, multiple strikes capability and meets HBM ESD Level 6 per AEC Q200.

RUTRONIK www.rutronik.com

IQD launches new series of fast make programmable oscillators with class leading phase jitter performance The short lead-times offered by programmable oscillators are typically offset by relatively poor performance in comparison to standard crystal oscillators, especially as regards phase noise and jitter.

IQD’s two new ranges of programmable oscillators offer the best of both worlds with phase jitter performance comparable to traditional crystal oscillators combined with lead-times as short as 3 days. Both models, the IQXP-20 clock oscillator and the IQXP30 voltage controlled oscillator, offer RMS phase jitter down to 0.4ps across all output types. A very wide frequency range from 10.0MHz up to 1.5GHz is available from along with HCMOS output capable of driving 15pF; LVPECL & LVDS outputs are also available at the higher frequencies. Frequency stabilities down to ±10ppm and operating temperature ranges out to -40 to

+85 degrees C are available along with the option to specify all inclusive stabilities including temperature range, supply variations, load variations and 15 years ageing at 25°C. Customers can choose from 2.5V or 3.3V supply for both models, both of which are housed in a 5.0 × 3.2mm hermetically sealed ceramic package only 1.2mm high.

The IQXP-30 VCXOs are available with a total pull range of ±50ppm minimum and a control voltage nominal of 1.65V. IQD FREQUENCY PRODUCTS www.iqdfrequencyproducts.com

Highly sensitive thermistor aimed at battery pack and power supply temperature detection Murata announced the highly accurate NXRT series of radialleaded NTC thermistors.

Utilizing Murata’s highly accurate NCP15 series chip thermistor within an epoxy resin, the NXRT series is available with the nominal resistance values of 2k, 10k, 33k, 47k or 100k ohm at 25 °C. Nominal resistance accuracy is typically in the range of +/- 1 % to 5 %.

Measurement sensitivity is believed to be the best available within the industry.

At +50 degrees C the temperature detection sensitivity deviation is within +/- 0.6°C, and is within +/- 1.4°C at 100°C. The low cost NXRT series is ideal for accurate temperature detection in a wide range of consumer electronics and domestic electri-

cal appliances. The thermistor is particularly suited to measuring the temperature of a power sup-

ply circuit or battery.

The thermistor package measures 4.0 × 2.0 × 40 mm in total including the 0.4 mm diameter radial leads. The NXRT series is suitable for use in most environments and has an operating temperature range from – 40 to + 125°C. MURATA www.murata.eu

32.768 kHz crystal oscillator with a frequency drift of only ±35 ppm MSC now offers the DSO321SR32K crystal oscillator from Daishinku Corporation (KDS).

This 32.768 kHz crystal oscillator features a frequency drift of only ±35 ppm over a wide temperature range from -40°C to +85°C. Typically, in this frequency range of 32.768 kHz tuningfork crystals, whose parabolic frequency drift versus temperature curve over the same temperature range from 40°C to +85°C causes a variation of about -150 ppm, are used.

Due to the special AT-cut of the DSO321SR-32K, a 32.768 kHz crystal oscillator with a significantly higher frequency stability is now available for the first time.

Additional features of the

DSO321SR-32K include a compact 3225 size package (3.2 mm × 2.5 mm), a relatively low current consumption of 35 μA typical and a wide operating voltage

range from 1.62 V to 5.5 V. The DSO321SR-32K, which is lead-free and RoHS compliant, is ideally suited for use in timer module and real-time clock (RTC) applications.

MSC VERTRIEBS www.msc-ge.com

www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2012 | EP&Dee

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SMT INDUSTRY NEWS

KIC to Introduced New ProBot at SMTAI KIC showcased the new ProBot, a flexible, affordable and easy-touse automatic profiling system at SMTA International Conference and Expo (October 16-17, 2012) at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel in Orlando, FL. The ProBot is the profiling machine for your profile machine.

The ProBot automatically verifies whether each PCB is processed to specification in the reflow oven.

The suspect PCBs then can be sent off to batch X-ray. Since the typical batch X-ray machine only inspects less than one percent of all assembled PCBs, the ProBot allows for a more effective sampling.The ProBot is designed to fit virtually any reflow oven on the market. The product is highly

modular, allowing each user to specify the desired features.

There is no longer a need to pay for unnecessary or unwanted capabilities.

KIC www.kicthermal.com

ACD Implements Factory-Wide TTC Solution from Cogiscan ACD, a leading supplier to the electronics industry, announces the successful implementation of a factory-wide Track, Trace and Control (TTC) Solution from Cogiscan, the leading TTC solutions provider for the electronics manufacturing industry.

The Cogiscan TTC Solution replaces ACD’s incumbent MES software. Cogiscan was selected to replace the legacy system due to its proven track record to deliver on its commitments. The Cogiscan software architecture is very open for seamless integration with existing systems. This enables ACD to handle simple integration

projects with internal development resources.

The TTC Solution covers all material at ACD, including printed circuit boards (PCBs), electronic components, tooling (feeders, stencils) and consumables (solder paste, etc.) from receiving to shipping.

ACD www.ACDUSA.com

Tropical Stencil Enhances Products, Adds Full-Service Sourcing Tropical Stencil, a leading provider of laser cut stencils, recently has added several new product enhancements, along with full service printed circuit board (PCB) sourcing.

Product enhancements include nano coating, step stencils, electroformed stencils, nickel stencils and Datum PHD/ Datum PHD fine grain stainless. Now also available is full-service PCB sourcing to ensure that customers’ stencils and PCBs are delivered together on

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time. Tropical Stencil is a single-source provider for all PCB needs, including standard FR4, High Tg, Flex, Aluminum and more. From engineering to negotiating the most competitive price, Tropical Stencil handles all of the communication and import logistics (freight and customs) to ensure that customers receive a quality product on-time.

TROPICAL STENCIL www.TropicalStencil.com

EP&Dee | October, 2012 | www.epd-ee.eu

Virtual Industries to Feature Vacuum Handling Solutions for Medical Applications at MD&M Minneapolis Virtual Industries Inc., a leading supplier of manual vacuum handling solutions, announces that it will display several advanced systems for medical applications in Booth #1358 at the upcoming Medical Design & Manufacturing Minneapolis Exposition, scheduled to take place October 31November 1, 2012 at the Minneapolis Convention Center in Minnesota. Demonstrated at the show, the Small Part Handling Kit for Parts as Small as 200 μm (TV1000-SP8-BD) is a general purpose vacuum handling tool that plugs directly into 110 Volt (50/60 Hz). This compact unit will handle a wide variety of optics, ball lenses and SMT parts used in industry today. An optional tip handles parts as small as 0.004" (0.10mm) without damage.

Vacuum tweezers eliminate lost parts associated with mechanical tweezer handling. The long-life diaphragm vacuum pump

generates up to 10" of mercury with an open air flow of 2.3 lpm.

The unit connects to ground automatically with a three-wire power cord. Also to be displayed, the Deluxe Vacuum Tweezer Kit with 16 Delrin Small Part Tips (V8100A-FS-110-DLX-D) provides additional pick-up power for handling parts as small as 100 microns (with an optional tip) to extremely large sized components.

The precision pump generates up to 15 inches of mercury. The compact tower design takes up a very small footprint on the bench.

VIRTUAL INDUSTRIES www.virtual-ii.com

ESSEMTEC Exhibited Flexible Swiss-Made Solutions at SMTAI 2012 The Paraquda pick-and-place system combines a large feeder capacity, fast programming and changeover while the machine is running, with the ability to quickly place any component from 01005 up to 40×40 mm including fine-pitch, BGA, CSP or flip chips. At only $79,000 installed, the Paraquda series automatic pick-and-place machines are designed to fulfill the requirements of a highmix SMT production. All SMD components are placed quickly, and are reproducible and reliable using modern placement technologies.The system features a three-stage conveyor with manual rail adjustment, and a tool changer with 1×36 positions and 14 nozzles. The high-resolution fly-by vision system is equipped with the latest Cognex SMD image processing technology, thus can detect any kind of component – even odd-

shaped parts. The Paraquda is the first machine generation worldwide that is operated by ePlace – the new standard in pick-andplace software.

ePlace, the new software designed entirely by Essemtec, is based on the company’s eeztechnology. It has been fully developed in .net, uses an integrated database and offers a modern, interactive, intelligent and intuitive tool for controlling all parameters.

ESSEMTEC www.essemtec.com

SMT INDUSTRY NEWS

Propelec to Debut KIC’s X5 Profiler at Matelec in Spain KIC announces that its distributor in Spain and Portugal, Propelec, will highlight its new X5 Profiler and KIC RPI at the upcoming Matelec Trade Fair, scheduled to take place October 23-26, 2012 in Madrid Spain. The X5 Profiler redefines what a data intelligence profiler can and should do. As opposed to data acquisition profilers that focus purely on recording a product profile, a data intelligence profiler takes the additional active role of suggesting new oven setup in order to optimize the thermal process. The easy-to-use X5 ships standard with process optimization software that enables the user to improve his or her process along three dimensions: - To position the profile in the center of the process window - To maximize conveyor speed - To reduce the oven’s electricity use while running a deep in-spec process.

The process optimization soft-

ware verifies millions of alternative oven setups and automatically selects the optimal recipe within a few seconds. While the thermal process is inherently dynamic due to the natural drift in the process, a profiler displays a static “snapshot” of the process every time a

new profile is run. For this reason, the X5 comes standard with a basic SPC package and full twoyear warranty.

KIC www.kicthermal.com

Sono-Tek Corporation Debuts Dual Flux Option for the SonoFlux Servo Ultrasonic Spray Fluxing System Sono-Tek Corporation, a worldwide precision ultrasonic coating equipment manufacturer, introduces a new dual flux option for the SonoFlux Servo ultrasonic spray fluxing system. Designed for PCB manufacturers that require rapid process changeovers, especially contract manufacturers, the new dual flux option offers precision metered flow with automated dual flux capability, enhancing SonoFlux Servo’s versatility.

The full Windows®-based recipedriven control of flux 1 and flux 2 process parameters and recipe storage enable quick process changes without the hassle of manually changing the flux delivery configuration. A high-precision flux delivery pump and selective area fluxing capability as well as compatibility with all fluxes are trademarks of SonoFlux Servo’s versatile design. Sono-Tek’s ultrasonic spray fluxing systems are compatible with all flux types, and

system components can be configured to handle aggressive water soluble fluxes.

Sono-Tek ultrasonic spray fluxing systems are easily integrated with all major wave solder machines and feature very low maintenance with non-clogging, highly repeat-

Screen shot of SonoFlux Servo Main Recipe Screen able spray performance that can result in as much as 80 percent reduction in flux consumption SONO-TEK www.sono-tek.com

CONNECTORS INDUSTRY NEWS

TE Connectivity Introduces Integrated Overvoltage and Overcurrent Devices for Consumer Electronics TE Circuit Protection, a business unit of TE Connectivity Ltd., introduces the PolyZen CE (Consumer Electronics) series of circuit protection devices for tablet PCs and other portable consumer electronics. Consumer electronics require robust circuit protection to help protect sensitive electronics from overvoltage and overcurrent events that can result in costly product returns and warranty issues. The lowprofile (1.0mm-height) PolyZen CE device, rated at an industryleading 2.6A, is an innovative solution that offers significant performance advantages over discrete solutions employing fuses, Zeners and other passive devices. The PolyZen CE series offers board designers plug-andplay overvoltage protection devices that relieve them of the time it takes to integrate and test less effective discrete and more costly IC solutions.

TE Circuit Protection’s PolyZen products integrate a precision Zener diode, with 5.6V and 13.2V Zener voltage (Vz) options, and a PolySwitch PPTC (Polymeric Positive Temperature Coefficient) device in a single, surface-mount assembly. Offered in a thin, compact package useful for space-constrained applications, the PolyZen CE series uses a thermally protected Zener diode to help protect electronics against voltage transients, reverse-bias and the incorrect use of power supplies.

TE CONNECTIVITY www.te.com

TE Connectivity’s New Low Rho SMD Series Helps Save Space, Cost and Power Consumption in Mobile Electronics TE Circuit Protection, a business unit of TE Connectivity Ltd. (NYSE: TEL), has announced a new family of nine low rho (low-resistance) SMDs (surface-mount devices) designed for space-constrained mobile applications. The devices help provide both overcurrent and overtemperature protection for the battery pack PCMs (protection circuit modules) used in compact consumer devices such as smartphones, MP3/4 players and portable GPS units. The low rho SMD series addresses a need in the consumer-driven mobile device market for a low-cost, low power consumption and flexible solution for today’s increasingly compact products.

Manufacturers of handheld consumer products require the smallest possible components that occupy the least amount of board space while helping reduce production costs. Fulfilling these demands, the low rho SMD products provide low-resistance in an

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industry-standard form factor of 1210 (3.0mm × 2.54mm; or 0.12in × 0.10in), 1206 (3.0mm × 1.52mm; or 0.12in × 0.060in), or 1812 (3.0mm × 4.57mm; or 0.12in × 0.18in) thus meeting board space requirements. In addition, these

devices can be assembled with a reflowable soldering technique, as opposed to the spot welding process required by many other components, to save board space and reduce production costs.

TE CONNECTIVITY www.te.com

EP&Dee | October, 2012 | www.epd-ee.eu

AVX’s new IDC wire-to-board connectors for industrial and SSL applications expand the flexibility of its 9159 SMT connector series AVX Corporation has further expanded its 9159 Series of SMT connectors with the addition of IDC wire-to-board plug and socket connectors. The new 9159 Series IDC connectors facilitate the easy, reliable, and cost-effective termination of 22-24AWG discrete or cabled power and signal wires into standard 9159 Series twopiece connectors systems, maximizing their flexibility by providing them with wire-toboard capabilities. Designed to solve packaging issues in the broad industrial and solid-state lighting markets, the new, miniature IDC plug and socket connectors carry up to 5A per contact, can function at up to 125°C for extended periods, and enable coplanar PCB mating, which is characteristic of the PCB arrangement in linear strip lighting used in applications ranging from office lighting to harsh-environment transportation applications. Other applications that can benefit from

the new connectors include: portable commercial and industrial handheld terminals, scanners, and meters; medical devices, such as patient monitoring and drug-

dispending devices; and industrial electronic modules and controls.

The 9159 Series IDC connectors feature wire assembly support blocks that enable the single-step termination of two through six wires with any standard benchtop press, gold-plated BeCu contact systems for high reliability in harsh environments, and integrally molded latches, which provide positive latching during mating.

AVX www.avx.com

Rutronik presents the miniature waterproof connector from Molex The Mizu-P25 connector of Molex is a sealed wire-to-wire system with a space-saving size of 2.50mm (0.098’’) certified to the IP67 standard. The product is available at distributor Rutronik as of now.

The dust- and water-proof device is available in a low-voltage version rated up to 125V and in a high-voltage version rated up to 250V. The IP67 rating optimizes mating and signal integrity in rugged environments, making the Mizu-P25 connector ideal for demanding performance requirements in motorcycles, vending machines, air conditioners and any application packing more and more electronics into increasingly tighter spaces. The connector incorporates colors coding of housings and low-insertion terminal design to simplify

operator assembly. A raised-body male terminal design provides polarization to prevent accidental mismating. The integral watertight seal stopper and positive locks ensure secure mating retention. A cap lock system provides low terminal insertion force and high sealing performance. The springbeam design affords high pressure and small deflection in high-vibration applications.

RUTRONIK www.rutronik.com

CONNECTORS INDUSTRY NEWS

TE Connectivity Introduces Thermal Protection for Lithium Polymer Battery Cells in Ultra-Thin Portable Electronics

New VEAM lightweight plastic connector from ITT Interconnect Solutions saves weight in mass transit applications

Designers are increasingly turning to high-capacity, envelope-like LiP (Lithium Polymer) cells to optimize space in media tablets, ultra-thin PCs, electronic readers and other small, slim consumer electronics.

At the same time, battery manufacturers have been challenged to find ultracompact overtemperature protection devices that can meet the higher currents typically found in these applications. In response, TE Circuit Protection, a business unit of TE Connectivity Ltd. (NYSE: TEL), introduces the MHP-TA series of ultra-low-profile (L: 5.8mm × W: 3.75mm × H: 1.15mm) resettable thermal cutoff (TCO) devices for lithium battery protection. The MHP-TA series of devices features a 9VDC rating, two product categories with different levels of currentcarrying capacity, and multiple cut-off temperature ratings.

Lightweight advanced components are key to saving weight and reducing energy consumption in today’s highly competitive train market. Responding to developments in mass transit applications, leading global connector manufacturer and supplier ITT’s Interconnect Solutions announces its new VEAM rectangular plastic connector – a lightweight, small form factor replacement for the relatively large and heavy metal connectors previously used inside train cabins and carriages. ITT’s VEAM VRPC range is up to 80% lighter and 30% smaller than comparable traditional metal interconnects. The VPRC connector is IRIS compliant can be specifically sealed to IP67 or unsealed depending on application and are rated to Railway Standards NFF 16-101 and NFF 16-102 for both fire and smoke resistance. An innovative grommet system dispenses with the

The MHP-TA series is an extension of TE Circuit Protection’s innovative MHP (Metal Hybrid PPTC) technology, which connects a bimetal protector in parallel with a PPTC (polymeric positive temperature coefficient) device. The initial MHP product offerings, the MHP30-36 and MHP-SA series, targeted highercurrent (above 30Vdc, 30A) Li-ion battery pack applications used in portable power tools and energy storage systems.

TE CONNECTIVITY www.te.com

Harwin adds IDC to popular space-saving Archer 1.27mm pitch connector family Harwin, the leading hi-rel connector and SMT PCB hardware manufacturer is expanding its popular high density 1.27mm pitch Archer M50 connector portfolio with the addition of four new product series- including, for the first time, IDC cable connectors - plus associated cable assemblies.

Two ejector headers in both through-hole solder tail and surface mount options are available; surface mount devices are Tape and Reel packaged for fast, reliable, automated placement. Additional IDC DIP transition-style connectors and IDC socket connectors complete the enhanced connector line up.

Designed to provide fast, reliable and cost effective connection using fine pitch 0.635mm ribbon cable without the use of special dedicated tooling, IDC connectors are ideal for medium to high vol-

ume cable-to-board connection.

Complementing the range extensions, Harwin is also offering a number of different 150 & 300mm long off-the-shelf cable assemblies. All connectors are

available in 2×5, 2×10, 2×13, 2×17, 2×20 and 2×25 positions. Archer connectors employ a twin beam contact system with gold-plated copper alloy contacts and are mechanically very strong, minimising the installed cost.

HARWIN www.harwin.com

need for filler plugs to meet sealing requirements. A further benefit of the VEAM VPRC range is its flexible cable support which also acts as a panel fixing device. VPRC connectors utilise ITT’s proven Trident contact system and are available in 3, 6 or 12 contact layouts. Contacts are turned to maintain signal continuity in high vibration rail environments.

And polarisation can be set during connector assembly and a snap-in mechanism provides audible confirmation of correct mating for ease of use in restricted spaces.

ITT INTERCONNECT SOLUTIONS www.ittcannon.com

VEAM CIR-M12 connectors from ITT integrate Ethernet, MVB, video and WTB signals in a single interconnect Designed to reduce costs and increase functionality in mass transit applications, the VEAM CIRM12 connector from leading global connector manufacturer and supplier ITT Interconnect Solutions is a high-speed circular bayonet databus connector that enables different data types to be transmitted between cars in mass transit systems. The CIR-M12 was specifically developed to meet the demands of harsh and demanding environments and provide robust and reliable data transmission. Its ability to bundle data feeds means the VEAM CIR-M12 saves weight, critical to enhancing performance in today’s competitive rail industry, while component count is also reduced. VEAM CIRM12 technology allows designers to incorporate any databus such as Ethernet, MVB,

WTB and video lines according to VG95234 (where applicable) within the same connector. It uses ITT’s QXM12 contacts mounted into proven FRCIR series circular bayonet connector hardware.

Two, four or eight conductor wires and the associated braid from shielded cables are integrated into the QXM12 contact and a special plastic insert channels multiple QXM12 contacts and their associated cables into the single CIR-M12 interconnect.

ITT INTERCONNECT SOLUTIONS www.ittcannon.com

www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2012 | EP&Dee

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SENSORS DESIGN

New Products - AUTOMATION INDUCTIVE SENSORS FROM CONTRINEX MINIATURE High sensing density • Sizes from diameter 3 mm to M5 • Rectangular models • Increased and long operating distances • Protection functions built in

UP TO 4X OPERATING DISTANCES Long distances, large tolerances • Up to 4x standard operating distances • High temperature stability • Ideal for objects difficult to detect (small, thin, wires, etc.)

• Sizes from diameter 4 mm to M30

ANALOG OUTPUT Continuous information • Large sensing range from 0...4 mm (M8, embeddable) to 0...40 mm (M30, non-embeddable) • Exceptional resolution • High temperature stability

(ALMOST) INDESTRUCTIBLE

Reduced downtimes • Mechanically and chemically rugged • 3× standard distances on steel & non-ferrous metals • Pressure resistant up to 100 bar • IP 68 & IP 69K

HIGH-PRESSURE RESISTANT For highly dynamic pressure systems • For extremely dynamic pressure requirements • Operating pressures up to 500 bar (peaks 1000 bar) • Sealing of sensing face better than IP68, gastight • All-metal housing version also available

HIGH-TEMPERATURE RESISTANT For use in hot areas • For permanent operating temperatures of up to 230°C • Good long-term reliability, even under difficult operating conditions • Sizes M8 to M50, embeddable & non-embeddable

ECONOMICAL Maximum price/performance ratio • Sizes from diameter 3 mm to M30 • 2-wire DC and AC/DC models • High quality at attractive prices • For standard applications

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EP&Dee | October, 2012 | www.epd-ee.eu

Tel. +40 256-201346 Fax +40 0256-221036

Mail office@oboyle.ro Web www.oboyle.ro

SENSORS DESIGN

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Optical sensors Sensors for logistic applications Safety at work

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Flowmeters Level Indicators and Switches Pressure Sensors and Switches

Heavy Duty Industrial Connectors Power and Data Transmission Connectors Aluminium Junction Boxes

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

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AUTOMATION Janssen to lead Omron German and Eastern Europe sales teams Omron Electronic Components Europe announced the appointment of Daniel Janssen as Senior Sales Manager for Central Europe, Benelux and Emerging Markets, which includes Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Janssen reports to Leon Mordang, VP Sales and Marketing and will be based in Germany, and will lead Omron’s 10-strong sales team in the territory.

Commenting on the appointment, Mordang said, “Daniel Janssen brings an exceptional track record in business development to Omron’s strong teams covering strategic markets such as Germany and Eastern Europe. Omron is taking an account and market led approach, and Janssen experience in major account and project management will be invaluable.”

Daniel Janssen added, “Omron Electronic Components has an exceptional reputation for quality, a strong European management struc-

ture and a real commitment to the region.

As Senior Sales Manager, I have an exciting opportunity to lead an effective team with a clear vision for growth addressing markets with great potential.”

Janssen joins Omron from Chimei Innolux Corporation where he was Global Account Manager - Telecom & Automotive for over six years. Prior to this, he spent five years as Project Manager at TPO, formed from the merger of Philips Mobile Display Systems and Toppoly Opto. He started his career as a Design Engineer with Philips Mobile Display Systems and TPA Engineering.

OMRON ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS EUROPE http://components.omron.eu www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2012 | EP&Dee

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SENSORS INDUSTRY NEWS

Omron MEMS thermal sensors detect presence without motion New non-contact IR sensors detect occupancy even when stationary Omron Electronic Components has introduced a non-contact MEMS thermal sensor that can reliably detect the presence of humans in an area without the need for movement. The ultrasensitive sensor is an outstanding alternative to pyroelectric sensors or PIR detectors in home automation, building automation, healthcare, security and industrial applications.

The new Omron D6T is a super-sensitive infrared temperature sensor that makes full use of proprietary Omron MEMS sensing technology. Most human presence sensors rely on movement, but the D6T is able to detect occupation by sensing body heat and provides a more reliable basis for switching off lighting, air conditioning and other services when the space is empty. Conventional sensors often fail

to distinguish between an unoccupied space and a stationary person. This feature is a particular issue in healthcare system design, when detecting the presence of bed-bound patients in a room.

As D6T sensors are able to monitor the temperature of a room, they can also be used to control the level of heating and air conditioning systems and maintain optimal room temperature levels without wasting energy.

Unusual changes in temperature can also be used in other ways, for example to detect line stoppages, identify hot spots before a fire breaks out or in clinical applications to check whether a patient has left the bed.

While standard thermal sensors are only able to measure temperature at one contact point, the D6T can measure the temperature of an entire area contactlessly. Signals generated by infrared rays are extremely weak. To achieve reliable detection, Omron has developed and manufactured every part of the new high sensitivity thermal sensor in-house, from the MEMS sensors to ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits) and other application-specific parts.

The technology behind Omron’s D6T thermal sensors combines a MEMS micro-mirror structure for efficient IR radiation detection with a high-performance silicon lens to focus the infrared rays onto its thermopiles. Proprietary

application-specific integrated circuits then make the necessary computations and convert sensor signals into digital I2C outputs. All components were developed in-house and are fabricated in Omron’s own MEMS facilities. The result is high ±1.5°C accuracy with excellent noise immunity (measured as noise equivalent temperature difference) of 140mK.

With the cutting edge MEMS technology that is utilized in the D6T, Omron aims to contribute to creating new advanced energy-saving household appliances as well as home and building energy management systems and a wide variety of factory automation applications.

OMRON ELECTRONICS COMPONENTS http://components.omron.eu

OMRON and STMicroelectronics Unveil Industry-Unique Sensor for SmartGas Metering OMRON Corporation, a world leader in automation technology, and STMicroelectronics, a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronic applications, today announced the completion of the development of a MEMS-based gas flow sensor with industryunique built-in correction for differences in gas composition.

OMRON will start sample shipments of the new sensor in November 2012.

As with electricity-consumption measuring, gas metering is moving from conventional mechanical solutions to smart electronic meters with automatic meterreading functions.

There are over 400 million mechanical gas meters in the world and most major gas providers are readying to replace their traditional meters with more accurate and reliable electronic devices. In addition to higher precision and reliability, the

Group Publisher Director Gabriel Neagu Managing Director Ionela Ganea Accounting Ioana Paraschiv Advertisement Irina Ganea WEB Eugen Vărzaru © 2012 by Eurostandard Press 2000

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EP&Dee | October, 2012 | www.epd-ee.eu

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

OMRON/ST sensor solution enables the development of smart gas meters that are much smaller, less expensive, and more powerefficient than the conventional equipment, resulting in substantial cost savings for the utility companies and end users alike. Industry analysts expect the global smart gas meter market to exceed 10 million units a year by 2015.

OMRON ELECTRONICS COMPONENTS http://components.omron.eu

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EP&Dee (Electronics Products & Design ­ Eastern Europe) is published 8 times per year in 2012 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 2012 by Euro Standard Press 2000 s.r.l. All rights reserved.