EP&Dee no 9

OCTOBER, 2014 足 ISSUE NO. 9, VOL. 12

DESIGN & MANUFACTURING

EP&Dee ELECTRONICS

PRODUCTS

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DESIGN

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EASTERN

EUROPE

THE EAST EUROPEAN RESOURCE FOR EMBEDDED APPLICATIONS

OCTOBER 2014 Table of Contents

Win a Microstick Development Board for dsPIC33F and PIC24H

DESIGN FEATURES 8 Aurocon COMPEC offers a wide range of microcontrollers 10 Solutions? Empty Words? Buzz Words?

Solution, Smart, Internet of Things, Value Add, Time to Market, Production Ready, Simplified API, Cost of Ownership, Partnership, Collaboration…you decide!

14 Radar and Functional Safety technology for advanced driving assistance This presentation will describe advanced development in 77GHz radar technology, enabling smaller and better collision avoidance systems. Then new development in functional safety chipset solution, MCU and analog, will be explained. The combination of these technologies forms a comprehensive safe solution for advanced driver assistance or autonomous driving.

18 The Possibilities of Digital Power Just five years ago, ‘digital power’ remained a hazy concept for the great majority of the engineering community. Even the term held meanings that could demand clarification, as digitally aware power-management ICs were well accepted while the latest digital power-converter solutions struggled to penetrate mainstream consciousness.

EP&Dee and Microchip are offering readers the chance to win the Microstick development board for dsPIC33F and PIC24H (P/N DM330013). The Microstick for dsPIC33F and PIC24H devices is designed to provide an easy to use, economical development environment for 16-bit digital signal controllers and microcontrollers, in a compact 20×76 mm footprint. The board includes an integrated debugger/programmer, a socket for the device under test and pins that facilitate insertion into a prototyping board for extremely flexible development.

22 Remember Dr. Who’s Tardis time travel machine?

The British sci-fi television show, Dr. Who, used a Tardis to move around space and time. The Tardis looked like a police box on the outside, but the inside was huge with tons of rooms and equipment.

How did the Tardis do this?

24 Accuracy optimization of True Color Sensor solutions for LED color control of multiple LED light sources Besides many advantages, LEDs also have several disadvantages.

To compensate for these (for example the temperature and aging drift phenomena) an LED light control with accurate color measurement is required.

28 The Challenges & Benefits of Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillators (OCXOs) An Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) represents the peak in quartz crystal frequency product technology and it’s where the crystal in the circuit is maintained at a constant temperature in order to achieve a high level of stability.

PRODUCT NEWS Embedded Systems (p 3 - 7), (p 31 - 37) Sensors (p 38, 39) Lighting Solutions/Display (p 40, 41) Active Components p 30, (p 42 - 45) Connectors (p 46, 47) Passive Components (p 48, 49)

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For the chance to win a Microstick development board, please visit: www.microchip-comps.com/epdee-mstk and enter your details in the online entry form.

Group Publishing Director Gabriel Neagu Managing Director Ionela Ganea Accounting Ioana Paraschiv Advertisement Irina Ganea WEB Eugen Vărzaru © 2014 by Eurostandard Press 2000

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At the low cost of $24.99, the Microstick offers an integrated USB programmer/debugger, which shortens learning curves. For maximum flexibility, the Microstick can be used stand-alone or plugged into a prototyping board.

Software support includes the same free MPLAB® IDE and software libraries that work with all of Microchip’s 8/16/32-bit PIC® microcontrollers and DSCs. Additionally, the dsPIC33F DSCs are supported by the free demo version of Microchip’s Device Blocksets for the MATLAB® language and Simulink® environment, which work seamlessly within the MPLAB IDE. This combination of low-cost tools and free software provides an industry-leading platform for experimentation and development of smart-sensor and a host of other embedded-control applications.

EP&Dee | October, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

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

EP&Dee Web page: www.epd­ee.eu EP&Dee Subscriptions: office@epd­ee.eu

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

EP&Dee (Electronics Products & Design ­ Eastern Europe) is published 11 times per year in 2014 by Euro Standard Press 2000 s.r.l.

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

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

INDUSTRY NEWS

Microchip introduces world’s first Development Platform with 2D Multi-touch and 3D Gestures Key Facts: • PC peripheral and gesture development platform for applications and drivers • Production-ready development kit with free GUI & SDK for advanced human-interface designs • Driverless, out-of-the-box features for Windows® 7/8.X and MacOS® • New capacitive touch-screen line driver, MTCH652, also announced

Microchip announces the expansion of its Human Interface Input Sensing Solutions portfolio with the introduction of the 3DTouchPad, a PC peripheral and world’s first Development Platform for 2D multi-touch and 3D gestures.

The 3DTouchPad reinvents input sensing by adding free-space gesture recognition to projected-capacitive multi-touch as a compelling development platform and reference design. The 3DTouchPad is the first development platform that combines 2D multi-touch and 3D air gesture input focussed on the PC/peripheral market. The 3DTouchPad provides robust and innovative 3D gesture recognition utilising Microchip’s GestIC® technology that offers a detection range of up to 10 cm for 3D gestures, along with Microchip’s highly responsive projected-capacitive 2D multi-touch solution supporting up to 10 touch points and multi-finger surface gestures. The 2D multi-touch is enhanced

by Microchip’s new capacitive touch-screen line driver, MTCH652, which was also announced today.

The new 3DTouchPad includes driverless, out-of-the-box features for Windows® 7/8.X and OS X®, 3D air gestures, advanced multi-touch performance including surface gestures, and a free downloadable GUI and SDK/API package tailored for developers. The possibilities for this technology also expand beyond the PC market and computer touch pads to include hands-free sanitary products, home automation, remote controls, game controllers, wearable devices and automotive applications.

The production-ready development kit includes free GUI and SDK to enable innovative 2D and 3D input devices for advanced human-interface designs. The 3DTouchPad (DM160225) is priced at $99.00 and is available to order today with free downloadable software under the Documentation & Software section at www.microchip.com/get/RL1J MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY www.microchip.com www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2014 | EP&Dee

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INDUSTRY NEWS Develop designs faster with the unique Pmod™ Adapter for Arduino® Platforms Maxim Integrated’s subsystem reference design allows designers to interface Pmod peripherals with an Arduinocompatible microcontroller board.

Achieve rapid prototyping with a wide range of production-quality sensors using the Pmod-to-Arduino adapter (MAXREFDES72#) from Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. The MAXREFDES72# allows any board with Pmod connections to plug easily into Arduino-compatible microcontroller platforms. Using industry-leading Maxim components, this adapter is ideal for quickly creating Internet of Things designs, and allows for more convenient accessibility to a broader range of digital processors and applications.

The Pmod form factor has long allowed integration of professional-grade peripherals into engineering prototypes, especially on FPGA-based platforms.

The MAXREFDES72# bridges the gap between the Pmod and Arduino-compatible form factors, thus opening a new audience of developers using Arduino-compatible microcontroller boards. The result is greater accessibility to quality components and faster, easier designs. Maxim offers 15 single function peripheral modules and 13 reference design boards with Pmod connectors, and now each is easily compatible with any Arduino-compatible development board.

Key Advantages • Ease of design and time savings: designers achieve proof of concept faster; no more struggling with the interface between boards.

• Expanded functionality and versatility: makes Pmod boards more accessible to a broader range of applications; quickly connects to Arduino-compatible microcontroller boards for evaluation.

MAXIM INTEGRATED 4

www.maximintegrated.com

EP&Dee | October, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS Microchip announces the full release of its MPLAB® Harmony firmware development framework supporting all 32-bit PIC® MCUs Microchip announces availability of MPLAB® Harmony Version 1.0. MPLAB Harmony is a flexible, abstracted, fully integrated firmware development platform for all 32-bit PIC32 microcontrollers (MCUs).

It takes key elements of modular and object-oriented design, adds in the flexibility to use a RTOS or work without one, and provides a framework of software modules that are easy to use, configurable for specific design requirements and that are purpose-built to work together. The new fea-

ers and system services that are readily accessible for application development.

The framework offers many new and powerful features that provide code interoperability with modular architecture that allows drivers and libraries to work together with minimal effort, an integrated single platform that enables shorter development time and easy and seamless third-party software integration of RTOS, middleware, drivers, and other elements into the software framework.

tures in this release include the MPLAB Harmony Configurator for quick and easy driver and middleware settings management a fully compatible, professional graphics library and significant functional and performance improvements across many of the Harmony driver libraries.

Additional enhancements have been made to existing middleware such as IPv6 certification of the Microchip TCP/IP stack.

Microchip’s new MPLAB Harmony framework reduces development time and costs by providing a single integrated platform with Microchip-tested, debugged and interoperable source code that is production-ready while offering an RTOS-independent environment. Additionally, MPLAB Harmony includes a set of peripheral libraries, driv-

The MPLAB Harmony Configurator GUI environment reduces the amount of time it takes to change the configuration of peripherals anytime during development while practically eliminating the possibility of bugs in the peripheral and middleware configurations. Designers looking to get to market quickly can benefit from this easy-to-use code development solution, which is better able to meet their ever-shorter product design schedules and decreasing budgets.

The MPLAB Harmony Integrated Software Framework is supported by Microchip’s free MPLAB® X Integrated Development Environment (IDE).

The MPLAB Harmony basic framework is available today, via a free download from www.microchip.com/get/3GWJ.

Key Facts: • MPLAB Harmony integrates internal and third-party middleware, drivers, peripheral libraries and RTOSs • Accelerates and simplifies the code development process • Production-ready interoperable source code in an RTOS-independent environment • Minimal effort needed to combine drivers and libraries in a modular architecture • Re-configurable throughout development whilst virtually eliminating bugs in peripheral and middleware configuration

INDUSTRY NEWS Altera and ARM Expand Strategic Partnership for SoC Development Tools Altera Corporation and ARM announced a long-term agreement to expand their strategic partnership for best-in-class embedded software development tools for SoC FPGAs. In 2012, Altera and ARM announced the creation of the ARM® Development Studio 5 (DS-5™) Altera® Edition, which pioneered the invention of FPGA-Adaptive Debugging for SoC FPGAs. Through the expanded agreement announced today, the ARM DS-5 Altera Edition toolkit is being enlarged to include the following additional tools: • ARM Compiler 5 and ARM Compiler 6, providing the only build tool chains specifically designed to optimize software for the Cortex®-A9 and Cortex-A53 processors in Altera’s SoC portfolio.

• Debug support for ARM Cortex-A53 quad-core processor in Stratix® 10 SoC, including FPGA-Adaptive Debug capabilities for removing the debug barrier between the multi-core subsystem and FPGA fabric.

The companies also agreed to a long-term OEM agreement for DS5 Altera Edition to provide support for all future ARM-based Altera SoC devices, ensuring a consistent, industry-leading software development platform across Altera’s portfolio of SoC FPGAs. ARM DS-5 Altera Edition Yields Unprecedented Developer Productivity ARM Development Studio 5 is ARM’s flagship tools solution for embedded software development. ARM DS-5 Altera Edition is a complete tools solution exclusively for Altera SoCs, sold and distributed by Altera, and optimized to remove the debugging barrier between the integrated multi-core CPU subsystem and the FPGA fabric. The new DS-5 Altera Edition provides a substantial productivity gain for product development based on Altera SoC FPGAs. Key features include the following: • Debug and trace support for 32-bit dual-core Cortex-A9 CPUs in Cyclone® V, Arria® V and Arria 10 SoCs and 64-bit quad-core Cortex-A53 in Stratix 10 SoCs • ARM Compiler 5 (ARMv7) and ARM Compiler 6 (ARMv8) tool chains • FPGA-Adaptive Debug support for SoC FPGAs, including software register views of IP programmed into the FPGA and cross-triggering between CPU and FPGA logic domains for hardware/software co-debugging • Advanced trace, including time-correlated events in FPGA fabric with software events and processor instruction trace • DS-5 Streamline™ performance analyzer for identification and correction of system-level bottlenecks ALTERA www.altera.com

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

MSC Technologies offers Linux Development Kit for E3800 and i.MX6 based modules MSC Technologies, offers a Linux Development Kit (LDK) with board support package (BSP) for its Qseven™ and COM Express™ modules with Intel® Atom™ processor E3800 (codename Bay Trail) platform, and for the Qseven™ and nanoRISC® modules with Freescale’s i.MX6 processor. Using this LDK, Linux developments for these processors can be shortened greatly, and its scalability feature allows generating embedded systems with minimum memory footprint.

The LDK from MSC Technologies is available for Qseven™ platforms MSC Q7-BT with Intel® Atom™ processor E3800 and MSC Q7-IMX6 with Freescale i.MX6 processor. In the near future, LDKs will be available for the COM Express™ module families MSC C6C-BT (Type 6) and MSC CXC-BT (Type 2), which are also based on Intel® Atom™ processor E3800 technology, and nanoRISC® modules with i.MX6.

The MSC-LDK is created with the Yocto Project Framework and enables configuration and building of embedded Linux systems. This results in a Linux system, which optimally supports MSC hardware families across multiple platforms. By solid support of the processor manufacturers through hardware and software-specific Yocto layers, the integration of drivers in the system is supported and simplified. Yocto provides recipes for the structured development of a customerspecific, and optimized to the application, Linux system.

The Yocto Project was founded in 2010 as collaboration among many hardware manufacturers, open-source operating systems vendors, and electronics companies. Its goal is to provide drivers and applications templates, tools and methods to help develop Linux-based embedded systems for embedded products that are optimized for the particular application, regardless of the hardware architecture.

MSC Technologies offers Qseven™, COM Express™, and nanoRISC® computer-on-modules in different performance and pricing classes. The applications include industrial automation systems, medical and measurement devices, image processing systems, digital signage, and gaming products.

Please visit MSC Technologies at electronica in hall A6, stand A6.510.

MSC TECHNOLOGIES www.msc-technologies.eu www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2014 | EP&Dee

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INDUSTRY NEWS Starter Kit Shortens Development of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Designs Kit includes all ICs, sensors & software needed to create BLE subsystem Toshiba Electronics Europe (TEE) has introduced a starter kit that will help shorten development times when creating Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) subsystems. The kit features a Toshiba BLE IC and microcontroller, hosted on separate printed circuit boards, together with sensors and the associated software development tools necessary to simplify system creation. BLE is finding uses in an increasing range of applications including wearable and healthcare-oriented smart devices, sensors and control systems. The growth of the Internet of Things is likely to accelerate its adoption.

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

Arrow Announces Evaluation Board for Altera’s Non-volatile Max 10 FPGAs Coinciding with the release of the Altera MAX®10 field-programmable gate array family, Arrow Electronics has released the BeMicro Max 10 FPGA evaluation board.

Developed in collaboration with Altera and Analog Devices, the BeMicro Max 10 is ideally suited for testing the features and functionality of MAX 10 FPGAs. MAX 10 FPGAs revolutionize non-volatile FPGAs by integrating within a small-form factor device dual-configuration flash, analogue blocks, memory, DSP and embedded processing capabilities. Specifications for the BeMicro Max 10 are available at www.arrow.com/bemicro.

The BeMicro Max 10 was developed by Arrow’s engineers for customers seeking

a low-cost method to test the Altera MAX® 10 FPGA product family, particularly in applications that require instanton functionality and the performance and flexibility of an FPGA. Developers of automotive, industrial and communica-

tion electronics are potential users of the evaluation board.

ARROW ELECTRONICS www.arroweurope.com

Arrow features lifecycle services platform and semi-autonomous motorcar at electronica 2014 Toshiba’s TC35667FTG BLE IC features a low-power circuit design and integrates a highly efficient DC-DC converter, reducing peak current consumption to below 6mA and deep sleep current consumption to below 100nA. The receiver has a sensitivity of -91dBm and transmitter output power can be varied from 0dBm to -20dBm in 4dB steps. In addition to the TC35667FTG, the BLE daughter board contains two oscillators (26MHz and 32.7kHz), 512kbit EEPROM, a PCB antenna and an RF connector for connection to RF testers.

The mother board is based around a TMPM395FWAXBG microcontroller featuring an ARM Cortex-M3 CPU core with an operating frequency of 20MHz, 128KB of internal ROM and 8KB of internal RAM. The MCU has an independent RTC and IO capable of shutting off power supplies and supports low power operation at 1.8V. The board also houses a thermal sensor, accelerometer and buzzer, and has GPIO, JTAG and USB interfaces. Integrated development environments (IDEs) from Keil and IAR Systems are usable with the starter kit enabling software debugging and testing to be conducted via the JTAG interface.

TOSHIBA ELECTRONICS EUROPE www.toshiba-components.com 6

EP&Dee | October, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

Arrow Electronics, Inc., is combining the impressive with the extraordinary at electronica 2014. The impressive part is Arrow’s showcasing of its online design, specification and purchasing platform, parts.arrow.com. The extraordinary part is the presence of a customised track racing car and its truly inspirational driver, Sam Schmidt. As visitors would expect from one of the world’s largest global sources of electronic components and services, there will also be a wealth of expertise and information from Arrow’s own technical experts and those of its broad community of suppliers. The Arrow stand will feature a Corvette C7 Stingray racing car that was created as part of the SAM (semiautonomous motorcar) Project. It has been specially adapted to be controlled solely by movement of the driver’s head; this allowed former racer, Schmidt, who is paralysed from the shoulders down, to take part in this year’s Indy 500 festival and steer the car around the track unaided. Schmidt and a team of Arrow engineers will be on the stand to discuss the car’s ground-breaking technology and

show it to visitors. Further information on the SAM project can be found at www.arrowsamcar.com.

Elsewhere on the stand, Arrow will be joining its suppliers demonstrating expertise in areas including machine-to-machine and

Internet of Things solutions, power, LED lighting and embedded solutions. There will be a particular focus on parts.arrow.com, the first fully integrated online product lifecycle services engine for electronic components. Parts.arrow.com enables engineers and buyers to research and compare components, virtually deploy them with interactive reference designs, manage the resulting bill of materials and much more. To sign up and explore, go to http://parts.arrow.com ARROW ELECTRONICS www.arroweurope.com

INDUSTRY NEWS

Low-Power Microcontroller Provides Low Power, Superior Precision, and the Highest Level of Security for Wellness Metric Measurements Demonstrating its commitment to the wearables market, Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. will preview its Wellness Platform at electronica 2014. The new Wellness Platform is a suite of design hardware and software, including the WASP/MAX32600 microcontroller unit (MCU), for wearable medical applications. Using this flexible and scalable platform, designers will be able to optimize wellness device performance and lower their R&D costs, all while meeting stringent time-to-market requirements.

Wearable medical and fitness devices empower people to live healthier lives. To enable the comfort, wearability, and effectiveness of new body-worn devices, Maxim is coordinating a company-wide initiative to develop products for wearable solutions. The Wellness Platform provides power and battery management, digital processing, highly integrated sensors, ultra-low-power communications, and industry-leading security. With wellness applications developing quickly, Maxim will continue to expand this product portfolio.

At the heart of the Wellness Platform is MAX32600, a highly integrated ARM® Cortex®-M3 low-power microcontroller with highprecision analog performance. Its integrated Trust Protection Unit provides the highest level of security with onboard public key authentication, data encryption, and tamper detection. This integrated security ensures that data cannot be compromised.

Requiring minimal discretes, the onboard, highly configurable analog front-end (AFE) includes high current LED drivers and facilitates one or more wellness metric measurements, such as heart rate monitoring (HRM) and galvanic skin response (GSR). The MAX32600 is available in 192-ball, 12mm × 12mm CTBGA, 120-ball, 7mm × 7mm CTBGA, and 108-ball WLP packages.

A Product on Module (PoM) board and a separate application board with medical wellness sensors is being created using components from the Wellness Platform. This board will program the ARM microcontroller, configure built-in analog peripherals, operate with built-in security, drive the RF links and sensors, and manage the system power. The PoM board will be an easy-to-use, high-quality turnkey solution for a wide range of customers. Communication, sensors, and human machine interface functions are integrated so the user has a complete system-level solution. To achieve scalability, the PoM will be compatible with multiple applicat ion boards through the expansion connector. An Android® demo GUI application running on a smartphone or tablet will be available to chart the readings from the PoM. MAXIM INTEGRATED www.maximintegrated.com

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

3-Phase BLDC motor gate drivers from Microchip integrate power module, LIN transceiver and sleep mode Microchip announces two new 3-phase Brushless DC (BLDC) motor gate drivers with integrated power module, LIN transceiver and Sleep mode: the MCP8025 and MCP8026 (MCP8025/6). These devices can power a broad range of Microchip’s dsPIC® Digital Signal Controllers (DSCs) and PIC® microcontrollers (MCUs), complementing their control algorithms by driving MOSFETs, sensing current, preventing short circuits, outputting zero crosses, controlling dead time and blanking time, and monitoring for fault conditions such as over/under-voltage, over-temperature and other thermal warnings. This combination enables Microchip to provide a complete motor control and drive solution for a broad range of automotive and industrial applications. In addition, the new drivers’ 150°Celsius ambient temperature, low sleep current of 5µA (typ.) and LIN transceiver make them particularly well suited for automotive designs, such as those that operate under the hood, such as pumps and HVAC blowers, or need to reduce key-off power consumption. The on-chip LIN transceiver is compliant with the LIN Bus 2.1 and SAE J2602 standards, as well as the previous-generation LIN 1.X standards.

The MCP8025/6 are highly integrated brushless motor drivers that reduce the resources needed from the MCU or DSC used for control, therefore lowering both component counts and overall BOM costs while providing maximum design flexibility.

For example, these drivers integrate a LIN transceiver, voltage regulator, op amp and over-current comparator, in addition to configurable housekeeping functions. Battery-powered or energy-efficient motor applications in the industrial and automotive sectors can benefit from the combination of their 5µA (typ.) Sleep mode, as well as the drivers’ low-power standby mode, which enables them to act as either Master or Slave.

Additionally, the MCP8025/6’s adjustable buck regulator is among the industry’s most efficient for stepping down from 12V supplies to power 3V and 5V MCUs. MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY

www.microchip.com/get/D3EG

www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2014 | EP&Dee

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INDUSTRY NEWS

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

Aurocon COMPEC offers a wide range of microcontrollers ANALOG DEVICES EVALUATION BOARD ADSP-CM408F CORTEX-M4

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS TMS320C6748 DSP DEVELOPMENT KIT (LCDK)

This Mixed-Signal Control Processor integrates dual high precision 16 bit ADCs and an ARM® Cortex-M4TM processor core with floating-point unit operating at 240 MHz core clock frequency. It also integrates 384KB of SRAM memory, 2M byte of flash memory and accelerators and peripherals optimised for motor control, photo-voltaic (PV) inverter control and other embedded control applications.

The scalable platform breaks down development barriers for applications which require embedded analytics and real-time signal processing, including biometric analytics, communications and audio. The lowcost LCDK will also speed and ease your hardware development of real-time DSP applications.

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DSP-CM408F mixed-signal control processor Two 16-bit ADCs with 8 inputs each 10/100 Ethernet PHY 40 character TWI display interface Expansion Interface RS stock no.: 798-9711

BEAGLEBONE BLACK REV C This low-cost, community-supported development platform for developers and hobbyists features 4GB of built-in storage.

The eMMC storage is faster, and the move to double the amount of included storage will allow the developers to make another change: The Rev C board will ship with Debian Linux instead of Angstrom Linux. l l l l l

Processor: Sitara AM3358BZCZ100 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 Graphics engine: SGX530 3D, 20M Polygons/sec SDRAM memory: 512MB 800MHz DDR3L Flash memory: 4GB 8-bit eMMC Video out: HDMI 1280 × 1024 max resolution (microHDMI)

RS stock no.: 775-3805

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EP&Dee | October, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

l l l

Integrated floating-/fixed-point DSP with up to 456 MHz performance Software, expansion headers, schematics and application demos SDKs, DSP/BIOS RTOS, drivers, stacks and protocol, algorithm libraries, flash and boot utilities and StarterWare RS stock no.: 798-3716

INDUSTRY NEWS

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

ATMEL SAM4S-XPRO ARM CORTEX M4 DEVELOPMENT KIT The evaluation kit is a hardware platform to evaluate the ATSAM4SD32C microcontroller.

With the Atmel Studio integrated development platform, gain easy access to the features of the Atmel ATSAM4SD32C and see how to integrate the device in a custom design. Includes an on-board Embedded Debugger and no external tools are necessary to program or debug the ATSAM4SD32C. l l l l l

ARM Cortex M4 processor microcontroller ATSAM4SD32C Two crystals: 12MHz,32kHz can be used as clock sources for the SAM4S device LCD display header and three extension headers 2Gb NAND Flash for non-volatile storage SD card connector RS stock no.: 800-7620

TIVA™ C SERIES TM4C123G LAUNCHPAD EVALUATION BOARD The Tiva™ C Series TM4C123G LaunchPad Evaluation Kit is a low-cost evaluation platform for ARM® Cortex™-M4F-based microcontrollers from Texas Instruments. The design of the TM4C123G LaunchPad highlights the TM4C123GH6PM microcontroller with a USB 2.0 device interface and hibernation module.The EK-TM4C123GXL also features programmable user buttons and an RGB LED for custom applications. The stackable headers of the Tiva™ C Series TM4C123G LaunchPad BoosterPack XL Interface make it easy and simple to expand the functionality of the TM4C123G LaunchPad when interfacing to other peripherals with Texas Instruments' MCU BoosterPacks. l l l l l

TM4C123G LaunchPad Evaluation board On-board In-Circuit Debug Interface (ICDI) USB Micro-B plug to USB-A plug cable Preloaded RGB quickstart application ReadMe First quick-start guide

RS stock no.: 795-0729

PIC32MZ EMBEDDED CONNECTIVITY STARTER KIT The PIC32MZ EC Starter Kit provides the easiest and lowest cost method to experience the high performance and advanced peripherals integrated in the PIC32MZ Embedded Connectivity (EC) MCUs. This starter kit features a socket that can accommodate various 10/100 Ethernet transceiver (RJ-45) plug-in connectors for prototyping and development.

On-board PIC32MZ2048ECH144: 200MHz, 2MB Flash and 512KB RAM Includes 10/100 Fast Ethernet LAN8740 PHY Daughter Board Features Energy Efficient Ethernet (IEEE 802.3az) and Wake-On-LAN functionality l l l l l l l

Integrated debugger/programmer USB powered 10/100 Ethernet CAN 2.0b, HI-Speed USB 2.0 host / device / dual-role / OTG 4MB SQI Flash Can be used with Multimedia Expansion Board II Can be used with PIC32 Expansion Board using a PIC32MZ adaptor board

RS stock no.: 796-1586

Aurocon Compec www.compec.ro www.designspark.com www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2014 | EP&Dee

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DESIGN

IoT

Solutions? Empty Words? Buzz Words?

Solution, Smart, Internet of Things, Value Add, Time to Market, Production Ready, Simplified API, Cost of Ownership, Partnership, Collaboration…you decide!

We work in an industry that thrives on “Buzz Words”. They are all too easily used, but not always so readily explained. If you’re lucky enough to be able to visit Electronica this year, then I challenge you to put this to the test – as you go round the exhibition, every time you see one of these Buzz Words used, ask the vendor: “What do you really mean?” and “How do you justify your use of these words?”. Apart from some awkward silences, you may find some surprising answers!

It’s easy to call something “smart” and in recent years companies felt almost compelled to. I mean, it wouldn’t help your marketing message to call your product “stupid”, would it?! So we have the Smart Grid, the Smart Home, Smart TVs, actually Smart Everything.

Smart implies intelligence, rich features and connectivity, whatever the reality. And what really is the Internet of Things? People talk about this as though it’s something for the future. But it’s here today - I already have a multitude of devices in my home which are connected to the internet – the fact that my TV and AV rack needs its own Ethernet splitter is witness to that! Having said that, there is no doubt that there is a plethora of new concepts riding the wave of the internet and it’s right to be ready to address the opportunities that are presented. It’s just wrong to use IoT as a Buzz Word, as though everyone instantly understands what you mean or how your products are relevant.

An explanation is clearly needed.

At Renesas we see a real challenge for our customers related to the IoT. As already mentioned, there is an explosion of opportunity 10

EP&Dee | October, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

created by the internet – it’s estimated that there could be 60Bn IoT connected devices in the world by 2020. In order to establish and maintain a profitable business you need to constantly find ways to differentiate your product offering and re-invent what you’re offering to customers (see figure 1).

our customer partners already has a backlog of more than 2 years scheduled development work for their hard pressed design team. They simply have too much work and it will get harder as the marketing department demands more new features, coupled with lower development costs.

Figure 1: IOT profit vs commodity zone In an increasingly fast moving world, there is no such thing as standing still…you either continue to differentiate, or you fall quickly into the commodity zone and can only compete on price. Competitive pricing is of course always essential, but if price is your only differentiator then you’re in trouble.

So what does this mean for customers and their development teams? They are under ever more pressure to spin new designs and to differentiate their products in an increasingly crowded market. For example, one of

As we endeavour to help meet the challenge, one of the areas we are investing is in offering a wide choice of convenient solutions. “Buzz Word!” I hear you say. And you would be correct. “Solutions” is another example of an over-used and under explained Buzz Word, whilst it’s increasingly popular amongst semiconductor vendors.

The problem is that all too often the customer gets some un-warranted, un-proven sample code which they have to spend man years proving, debugging and certifying. Or

DESIGN

worse still, a bunch of library files that are poorly documented, difficult to understand and impossible to validate, certify or maintain. Where is the “Value Add” in that?

That’s the key question…..

“Value Add” is central to a number of programmes at Renesas, right through the product life cycle. Let’s study some examples in detail.

1. Something for nothing.

Our RX-MAX programme offers customers the chance to secure high value, software products from leading industry leading partners including IAR, Micrium, Segger, Express Logic and more.

The available software can range from a safety certified real time operating system to a choice of convenient communications stacks. The software is provided completely free of charge, for qualifying projects (terms and conditions apply) as an investment by Renesas and our partners to simplify and cost reduce product development.

More information is on our website ( just google Renesas RX-MAX). Browse our website and you’ll find plenty of other opportunities to get free development boards and starter kits.

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times we go the whole way and integrate full, royalty free, license free source code.

A great example is our new RX-111 motor control solution kit (YROTATE-IT-RX111) which offers an out of the box solution capable to drive any 3-phase permanent magnet synchronous motor (also called Brushless AC motor).

Shown in figure 2 above, the kit provides: l

Auto-tuning of the current proportionalintegral (PI) coefficients: Kp, Ki

l

Identification of intrinsic motor parameters: Rs, Ls, Λm

l

Real-time visualisation of the motor phase, current and step response.

Both kits include an intuitive PC graphical user interface (GUI), providing engineers with a ready to use inverter reference prototype that enables them to drive their own motors in a few clicks.

They also feature a sensorless vector control algorithm, which is used to accurately control

2. Solve-IT! At this year’s Electronica we are launching a line up of 15 “solution” kits branded “Solve-IT”. We strive to offer much more than just products …. sometimes a complete product solution, with software included.

This takes away some of the challenges for inexperienced designers who need to get to market sooner.

Sometimes this is by enabling quick evaluation of different software products from competing third parties, whilst at other

the speed and the torque. This algorithm uses flux weakening in order to achieve rotation speeds higher than the nominal speed of the motor.

Figure 2: Motor Control Reference Design Each kit contains an inverter board, a 24VDC permanent magnet AC motor, a CD-ROM including the embedded software source code, the PC GUI, the board schematics, the bill of materials, Gerber files, user manual, quick start guide and the power stage schematics / Gerber files.

3. Reducing Time to Market.

How many times have you started out on a new development project and shortlisted the possible candidate products, only to discover they ’re on long leadtimes and that you have to wait weeks or even months to start your evaluation or early development?

Our Star Product programme guarantees that when you choose our most popular devices, you’ll find they are available ex-stock from all our leading distributors. This applies to development tools and sample device quantities.

YR OT AT E-I T-R X1 11

Renesas backs this up with pre-production quantities held centrally so you can start up your new design project in next to no time, radically reducing your time to market. www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2014 | EP&Dee

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4. Cost of ownership.

Too often decisions are made purely on a component cost without considering the bigger picture (see figure 3). Of course, the component price is important and with a world leader like Renesas you can be sure this will be competitive.

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when you’re on vacation…and some more unmentionable things! It was in this sense that Renesas launched its MCU Journey Programme, recognising that the initial purchasing decision is only the beginning of a journey during which you need support, not only to get the first design completed, but to migrate to other family devices when your requirements change, or even to completely new generations of devices if you continue using the product for many years.

And the time will always come when demand has declined and the product doesn’t meet the requirements of latest technology. At this time you need clear and

as sensor characters vary with age. Again, this Smart Solution simplifies design and speeds time to market.

Smart Analogue packs an awful lot in a very small package - 36pinFBGA (4mm × 4mm)、 32pinVQFN (5mm × 5mm). The device is built around a true low power RL78 microcontroller, together with 32KB flash, 4KB of data flash and 8KB RAM. The Analogue Circuitry includes a 24-bit Delta-Sigma A/D with Instrumentation AMP, 10-bit SAR A/D, 12-bit D/A, Configurable AMP × 3ch and Temperature Sensor with Sensor Bias.

Available in industrial temperature range up to 125°C. Now how smart is that?!

Figure 3: Cost of Ownership But you should consider much more than this in making a purchasing decision.

Suppose you’re selecting a microcontroller for a washing machine. Perhaps the device costs €4, whilst the appliance costs €400.

Let’s say you manufacturer 100K washers every month. A 10% saving in the device price would save you a total of €40,000 each month. Sounds eminently sensible to take the saving, doesn’t it? But at what price? If you can’t rely on the product quality and you discover a bug for example. It could result in a production stop for say 2 weeks whilst you trace and resolve the problem. Cost? A mere €20M of lost sales!

And when you consider your company’s reputation the long term damage can be significant – lost market reputation leading to reduced demand (and consequentially lower prices and profits) and retailers not wanting to stock your appliances because they cannot depend on reliable deliveries.

The damage can be unestimable.

5. The MCU Journey.

There was a famous NSPCA (National Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals) television advertising programme in the UK a few years back. The punch-line was “a dog is for life, not just for Christmas”.

They were trying to influence families to stop buying cuddly puppies as Christmas presents for the kids, only to realise a few months later that there are some harsh realities to pet ownership – they need walking, they need feeding, they need looking after 12

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Figure 4: Convenient design environment for Smart Analogue honest information on product life expectancy and we deliver this through an online product status checker.

Let’s return briefly to the subject of solutions and Buzz Words. On display in Europe for the first time ever at Electronica this year is a complete new comer on the block. Known as Smart (sic!) Analogue, this unique product combines analogue and digital die in a single package. The analogue section is designed for sensor signal conditioning, whilst the digital part manages configuration and tuning as well as application functionality. Together with a simplified GUI configuration tool (see figure 4), Smart Analogue makes a convenient entry point for newcomers to analogue circuit design, whilst delivering exceptional added value for more experienced designers through, for example, the possibility to re-tune the AFE during a product’s lifecycle

Come and see for yourself the simplicity of designing with Renesas’ Smart Analogue on booth 243 in hall A6 where you’ll find the product, combined with a ready to use IO Link interface in our Sensor Solution Kit. I started this article with a challenge – as you go around this year’s Electronica Exhibition, whenever you see a Buzz Word being used, challenge it. Check out if there is any substance or real meaning behind them. And we welcome you to try the same at Renesas.

We are sure you will find that, true to our traditions, we do what we say and we say what we do. Our theme for Electronica this year is “Connect with Tomorrow” as we enable customers to connect with solutions to meet design challenges for the future and prepare themselves for the Internet of Things. Too many Buzz Words?! n www.renesas.com

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SAFETY TECHNOLOGY

Radar and Functional Safety technology for advanced driving assistance This presentation will describe advanced development in 77GHz radar technology, enabling smaller and better collision avoidance systems. Then new development in functional safety chipset solution, MCU and analog, will be explained. The combination of these technologies forms a comprehensive safe solution for advanced driver assistance or autonomous driving. The development of these technologies is driven by the automotive market and can be redeployed to many other types of mobile machines.

Author: Yves Legrand, Freescale Semiconductor

Radar systems will become more and more prevalent in cars in the near future.

They offer a number of comfort and safety applications. Short range radar from a few centimeters up to 30 meters can be used for blind spot detection, backing aid or parking slot measurement to guide the car

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to self-park. Long range radar up to 250 meters can be used to enable an adaptive cruise control aligned with the speed of the preceding car.

More critical functions can be enabled such as collision warning, emergency braking and even pre-crash sensing that could trigger

seat-belt tensiometer or other active and passive safety features. With these later functions, it is obvious that the electronic control system needs to reach highest functional safety level as the system will eventually steer or brake the car without the driver intervention.

Figure 1: Automotive Radar Application

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The advance in this radar technology development can be leveraged in other applications such as mobile industrial machine, cranes, factory safety equipment where an area needs to be closely protected.

Coupling radar with machine vision can also create a powerful combination with both technologies supplementing each other in order to create more accurate and reliable systems. Radar works through rain, fog and dirt when vision does not. Radar also extends further in distance and event in non direct line of sight. A system combining vision and radar with some smart sensor fusion algorithm could leverage the benefits of both sensing technologies.

77 GHz Radar Technology In a collision warning system, a 77GHz transmitter emits signals that is reflected from objects ahead and are captured by multiple receivers integrated throughout the vehicle.

The transmitter emits a frequency modulated continous wave signal, meaning that the frequency varies up and down over a fixed period of time by typically a triangle wave signal. Since radio waves propagate at constant speed of light, distance can be calculated by measuring the frequency difference between the transmitted and received waves knowing the frequency slope over time. Speed measurement uses the Doppler effect which uses the difference between the observed reflected signal frequency and the emitted frequency.

Radar systems are not new. What is new is that car makers want to include them in medium line kind of cars in a few years, so the system has to be really low cost and high quality. This is a big shift from specialized and costly radar systems to standard car equipment type. The challenge is then to reduce cost while actually improving quality and defect part per million. This shift is illustrated by the quality versus cost marketing value map.

Figure 2: Marketing Value Map

SAFETY TECHNOLOGY

This marketing value map illustrate the shift from a high cost and good quality system to medium / low cost with even greater quality.

To achieve this many challenges have to be addressed.

Radar cost and quality challenges Traditional radars use a rotating antenna.

This is how the spatial mapping of object is done. This might be OK for large system with expensive control system but certainly not for volume car production. One solution to eliminate rotating antenna is to use phased array or patch antenna with multi channel transmit and receive channels.

Spatially separated antenna will receive reflected signals with a slight time difference. That difference is then used to reconstruct the object position without the need of a moving antenna. The drawback of the patch antenna is that several Tx and Rx channels are needed to be connected to the antennas. A typical system will use something like 4 Tx and 16 Rx antennas.

Duplicating Rx and Tx circuitry 16 and 4 times is not economically viable.

This is where another piece of innovation comes to the rescue. Instead of using discrete RF circuitry, Freescale has developed a specific RF BiCMOS process with enough performance to integrate 77 GHz RF circuitries into a single chip. Starting from a high performance Silicon Germanium Carbide (SiGe:C) 180 nanometer process, Freescale has developed a specific 300 GHz Fmax RF transistor capable of handling the 77 GHz radar signals on chip. Together with analog and digital CMOS circuits, this process enables a comprehensive integration of multi channel 77 GHz system on chip.

So the multi channel cost overhead is absorbed by the on chip integration.

Advanced Packaging Technology Having 77 GHz solid state silicon process is a great asset but handling it and reporting it on a printed circuit board is another challenge.

At these high frequencies traditional package parasitic impedance can destroy the signal information. One way to cope with this problem is to use bare die soldered on specific PCB with precision wire bonding techniques and not typical packages and wave soldering meaning higher cost. Here again new advanced packaging technology called Redistributed Chip Package(1) (RCP) comes to the rescue.

RCP uses coarse lithography technology to build up copper interconnect layers on top

of a die or multi-dies system instead of using PCB type materials. This substrate-less packaging technology has much lower capacitive and inductive parasitic behavior. It is then possible to route high frequency signals at 77 GHz through this package with acceptable performance compared to the bare die soldering process. The advantage is that traditional PCB tool set can be used to solder this parts; meaning low cost processing.

Figure 3: RCP package build-up layers With this process and packaging technologies Freescale is designing integrated transmitter and receiver radar circuits.

Figure 4: 77 GHz radar transmitter die The Transmitter integrates a 77GHz frequency synthesizer, a VCO at half the frequency, a 10GHz fractional N PLL, and a Power Amplifier with a 28 bit sigma delta modulator. This comes with specific ESD protection (RF and DC) and digital control through a SPI interface.

On the receiver side, we integrate typically 4 receive channels with a local oscillator at 38GHz, and differential IF output. Typical noise figure of 13dB is achieved without the need of a low noise amplifier. This helps keep power consumption low with high linearity. www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2014 | EP&Dee

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Figure 5: RCP packaged radar chip set Functional Safety Microcontroller A microcontroller is used to control the RF radar transmitter and to process the data coming from the receiver. Given the critical safety nature of the application, a functional safety MCU is used. The challenge for system engineers is to architect their system in a way that prevents dangerous failures or at least sufficiently controls them when they occur. Dangerous failures may arise from: l l l

Random hardware failures Systematic hardware failures Systematic software failures

The functional safety standard IEC 61508 and its automotive adaptation ISO 26262 are applied to ensure that electronic systems in general industry and automotive applications are acceptably safe. The IEC 61508 document defines four general Safety Integrity Levels (SILs) with SIL 4 denoting the most stringent safety level.

The ISO document defines four Automotive Safety Integrity Levels (ASILs) with ASIL D denoting the most stringent safety level.

Each level corresponds to a range of target likelihood of failures of a safety function.

There is no direct correlation between the SIL and ASIL levels, but the ISO 26262 takes the safety process and requirements to a deeper level. From the beginning of the design process, evidence must be collected to show that the product has been developed according to regulation standards.

Any potential deviations that have been identified must be documented to ensure that adequate mitigation is in place.

They are different ways to implement safe MCUs. The traditional technique is to use two separate MCUs to duplicate the software on physically different controllers. The same 16

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SAFETY TECHNOLOGY

software can be run identically on each MCU and then the results are compared. If they are the same all is good, if not then the system knows there is an error and either solves it and/or puts the system into a safe state.

Another option is that one MCU only runs safe software and monitor the other MCU which is running the application software.

With separate MCUs the system designed has to design and implement from scratch the safety system.

On the opposite, there are now pre-certified MCU solutions available. These solutions focus on detecting and mitigating single-point faults, latent faults and dependent faults. This is achieved through built-in safety features, including self-testing, monitoring and hardware-based redundancy in the MCUs, but also power management ICs and sensors. For the MCU on-chip redundancy is offered for the critical components such as: -

detect and control random hardware failures depends largely on the SW. For a dual-core lock-step MCU, it is possible to verify and validate key functional safetyrelated properties of the computational infrastructure at the hardware level independently from the SW since the computational infrastructure is offered in an integrated form and represents an integrated safety mechanism. This is a significant benefit within the HW/SW co-design process.

Furthermore, the separation of concerns facilitates faster location of issues. If the safety mechanisms monitoring the dual-core lock-step trigger then the cause can most likely be attributed to random hardware failures at the HW level, while if the SW monitoring triggers then the cause is most likely to be a fault at system level or a systematic fault within the SW.

Multiple CPU computational cores with delayed lockstep I/O processor core Direct Memory Access controller Interrupt controller Dual crossbar bus system Memory protection unit Fault collection unit Flash memory and RAM controllers Peripheral bus bridge System and watchdog timers and end-to-end Error Correction Code

The main benefit of this sphere of replication is the capability of the MCU to detect single point failures that tend to occur more frequently as soft errors, not only in the cores but also in key sub-modules.

Built-in self test (BIST) mechanisms are also provided for the cores, memories, crossbars, communication blocks and peripherals. In addition, the device is optimized for prevention of common cause failures induced by clock or voltage supply issues. The MCU provides hardware blocks for detection of clock deviations as well as hardware monitors for main voltages such as internal core voltage and Flash supply voltage.

Dual-core lock-step MCUs do not alleviate the need to implement safety measures at SW level and at system level, such as sufficiently independent monitoring of output values calculated by the SW path. However, among other aspects, such as higher integration, these MCUs do offer a separation of concerns for validation. In solutions based on multiple single-core MCUs the ability to

Figure 6: Dual-core lock-step MCU block diagram The dual-core lock-step MCU approach offers a potential availability advantage. In modern MCUs, the core area is diminishing well below 5 percent of the overall MCU, while the MCU as a whole is typically allocated a budget of approx 1percent contribution to the Probabilistic Metric for random hardware failures (PMHF). Hence, the contribution of the core is at first approximation in the region of 0.05 percent.

However, certainty about the correct operation of the cores is key for any forward recovery technique implemented in SW to address the remaining 99.95 percent of contributions to the PMHF in order to maintain availability of the system. Additionally the dual-core lock-step MCU provides an appropriate infrastructure to implement multiple sufficiently independent channels.

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Functional Safety Companion Device To support a total system solution for functional safety applications, a class of companion power system basis chips (SBCs) combining both safety monitor role for the MCU and power supply generation has been developed.

These SBC devices provide power to MCUs and other system loads and optimize energy consumption through low-power saving modes. They also typically integrate physical layers interfaces and a serial peripheral interface to allow control and diagnostic with the MCU. The combination of the MCU and analog system basis chip, designed as a Safety Element out of Context (SEooC), facilitates the assessment of the safety of a system. This architecture enables the number of components at the system level to be reduced, addresses the functional safety requirements and increases reliability.

Four safety measures are implemented to secure the interaction between the MCU and SBC: -

uninterrupted supply fail-safe inputs to monitor critical signals fail-safe outputs to drive fail-safe state and watchdog for advanced clock monitoring

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toring timing, provides external measurement of the system and offers a redundancy to further secure fault detection. In line with safety architecture of the system basis chip family, a redundant path for safety state activation occurs through dedicated fail-safe outputs. These outputs complement the MCU fail-safe outputs by setting the application into a deterministic state when a failure condition occurs.

These hardware implementations help software engineers simplify the software architecture and implement a software development strategy that focuses on safety using a single MCU approach.

System versus chipset compliance Functional safety compliance is achieved at system-level which is the responsibility of the system designer. The MCU and SBC chip set are designed independently of its final application which can be a barking car system, Advanced Driver Assistance System or a moving crane. The chip set is thus developed by treating it as a safety element out of context (SEooC). An SEooC is a safety-related element which is not developed in the context of a particular vehicle function or end application. We can then follow the tailored guideline for developing SEooC components from the ISO26262 specification.

ing the development phase of the various products. Typical diverables will include: -

Safety Analysis of Architecture: FMEDA, CCA or FTA User Guide: Safety manual, safety application notes Development Process evidence: PPAP, Safety Plan, Certificates

-

The objective is to reduce the time and complexity required to develop safety systems that comply with ISO 26262 and IEC 61508 standards and to simplify the process of system compliance, with solutions designed to address the requirements of the specific automotive and industrial functional safety standards.

Figure 9: Freescale Safe Assure Program n

(1) Freescale is licensed by EPIC Technologies Inc. to make and sell packages that include EPIC's "Chips First" technology and other related patents Yves Legrand Freescale Semiconductor yves.legrand@freescale.com www.freescale.com

Figure 7: SBC Fail Safe Machine When combined with the MCU, each safety measure is optimized for the highest level of safety performance. At the system level, safety check mechanisms proposed by the MCU can be monitored by the SBC device through the bi-stable protocol of the Fault Collection Control Unit (FCCU). This IC cross-checking, like the challenger for moni-

Figure 8: Chipset IEC applicable area Freescale has summarized its initiatives to support the functional safety needs of the market under the SafeAssure brand. It covers safety support, safety hardware, safety software and a safety process to ensure that procedural aspects are covered adequately dur-

References 3

[1] EE Times, Christopher Temple, Freescale Semiconductor [2] Freescale.com/safeassure www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2014 | EP&Dee

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DIGITAL POWER

The Possibilities of Digital Power Just five years ago, ‘digital power’ remained a hazy concept for the great majority of the engineering community. Even the term held meanings that could demand clarification, as digitally aware power-management ICs were well accepted while the latest digital power-converter solutions struggled to penetrate mainstream consciousness. In 2008, the first modular digital power converter arrived to revamp the quarter-brick format, beating the best-developed analog modules.

Author: Patrick Le Fèvre,

Complementary parts have quickly completed the industry’s first family of modular digital power-converters, so expectations have run high for the explosive growth that the digital revolution has stimulated elsewhere. But to date, uptake for the digital power sector overall has been firm rather than explosive, despite first-generation modular solutions being at least equal and typically outstripping the key performance metrics of highly developed analog counterparts. Importantly for product designers, off-the-shelf digital power-converter modules enable matchless opportunities for new design without spending endless hours in power supply studies.

What’s wrong with analog?

It is worth remembering that ‘digital power’ is something of a misnomer – much of a digital power supply mirrors analog practice and uses similar or identical components in key areas such as the power switches and output filter. Also, digital power-supply controllers are almost certain to exploit mixed18

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Marketing and Communication Director at Ericsson Power Modules

signal construction rather than commodity logic bulk CMOS. Fundamentally, only the inner control loop changes to implement digital’s flexible methodology, with the PMBus™ measurement-&-control subsystem representing a crucial adjunct that adds little to component cost, yet hugely influences future outcomes.

So, what are analog’s shortcomings that justify a new approach and working methods?

The answer is of course a combination of factors with conversion efficiency often highest on the list. Campaigns between competitive products are increasingly becoming inseparable apart from a banner statistic of ever-decreasing magnitude.

Clearly, a 1% improvement in any application is worthwhile, but it is the recognition of impending product maturity that explains Ericsson’s decision in 2006 to a blue-sky project that explored digital power conversion. Following two years of intensive effort that included inventing software tools to ease firmware development, 2008 saw the release of the BMR453 advanced intermedi-

ate bus converter (IBC), followed by the BMR456 in 2012, which embedded the Ericsson DC/DC Energy Optimization firmware. This new product doubled the power density of a tightly regulated bus converter and also bettered key efficiency and regulation performance parameters.

For instance, under normal operating conditions the efficiency metric rose slightly to 96% or more within the 50 to 70% of full load area that is the traditional sweet spot for analog converters. Unlike a regular analog converter, digital converters can adapt to changes in line and load conditions in real time, as the new converter demonstrated by flattening the efficiency graph to extend similar performance toward the 10% lowload area that seriously challenges analog converters. This is significant because along with ‘permanently-on’ consumer goods such as set-top boxes, systems large and small increasingly shut down circuits that are not needed to support throughput during periods of low demand to save on energy bills.

These savings can be maximized via the use

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of intermediate bus and similar architectures by backing off the bus converter’s output voltage to minimize dissipation in the point-of-load regulators during low-load periods. This dynamic bus voltage regulation technique is straightforward to implement using digital converters that feature comprehensive PMBus measurement and control capabilities. Apart from an on/off

DIGITAL POWER

n

n

Any PMBus-compliant device must be capable of powering up and working seamlessly without the need for digital connectivity or programming (i.e. in stand-alone mode) When programmed, the device shall retain its configuration data indefinitely or until it is next programmed (the ‘set-&-forget’ facility).

PMBus, our connector-less vendor retains the capability through the artifice of three special-purpose connections.

These consist of the same serial bus connections that appear on any PMBus connector and echo original design exercises at Ericsson, as Figure 1 shows for the USB-toPMBus adapter with a BMR453 advanced bus converter.

Figure 1: Don’t exclude PMBus by leaving connections off the application board.

control via a hardware input, analog converters use voltage levels to influence internal circuitry, typically constraining functionality to output-voltage trims.

Accessibility A typical digital converter that implements the PMBus offers an array of control options that are bewildering at first sight. As a result, one modular power vendor has taken to promoting products that omit the terminals needed for PMBus connectivity in the interests of easing customers’ conversion to digital power. Ericsson does the same, but only to minimize cost in applications that will never benefit from PMBus or be useful as an evaluation exercise using hardware whose performance characteristics are well known.

Yet this approach highlights two cornerstone requirements that are embedded within the PMBus protocols:

These features make it easy to employ digital converters as upgrades for obsolescent analog parts, delivering efficiency improvements and a feature set that can be precisely tailored to a particular part’s role within the design: output voltage, power up/down delays and fault thresholds are common examples. The engineer does not have to program off-the-shelf parts that arrive suitably configured; this work has been done at the chipmaker’s facility. If changes are necessary at a later stage, it is easy to accomplish them using low-cost tools that replicate the functionality that is familiar from working with other programmable logic devices.

Similarly, in-circuit programming is possible if an access route exists, which is sufficient reason for including PMBus connections every time the possibility exists.

Because programmability is a key feature of

Users who do not want PMBus do not have to use it, and would better advised to retain the conventional format and connect the bus to a header. This avoids the user maintaining different PCB library footprints and leaves the door open for programming and monitoring the part during development through to a repair technician’s visit, or any time that a PMBus connection is available. It also provides a platform for designers to accumulate real-time experience that is likely to stimulate product improvements.

The smart way to make digital power conversion and PMBus control approachable is to acquire a development kit in the same way as for any other programmable device or system. Assuming normal bench test equipment, what is required is at least one test board to accommodate the product line of interest, product samples, a PC-to-PMBus adapter and development software. www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2014 | EP&Dee

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These elements appear in purpose-built products that Ericsson constructs to withstand representative current levels, such as the six point-of-load regulator board, shown in figure 2.

The connectors that daisy-chain PMBus connections between assemblies are visible at each end with additional boards allowing configurations that can replicate many systems. Engineering support includes the industry’s greatest depth of literature in support of digital power conversion – and one that is freely available to all.

T h e latest development software to become available is Ericsson Power Designer, which can be downloaded for free and run without target hardware to gain an impression of its capabilities.

In common with its vendor’s earlier software packages, the initially daunting PMBus command language soon becomes the friend that was intended by its designers. Standard commands occupy one byte whose value is most often arbitrary thanks to English-like names that are divided into functional groups, as can be seen by downloading the specifications for free.

Fears that it is necessary to understand the mechanics of digital signal processing soon give way to appreciating the rationale behind an elegant working methodology that simplifies design processes by rationalization that is applicable across the gamut of application complexity.

For instance, if an application justifies visiting 20

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DIGITAL POWER

the complexities of proportional-integraldifferential (PID) control, the user can access and configure the constants that determine a converter’s inner-loop behavior to finetune transient response performance for a given set of load conditions.

As always, a common-sense approach works best, founded upon starting simple, and peripheral

Figure 2: Example of a PMBus-enabled test board for six point-of-load regulators.

features of the digital workflow that encourage recording a project’s progress highlight their value when experimenting to build confidence as well as during a real project.

An example is synchronizing multiple converters for EMC control purposes or to enable current sharing between converters in parallel without needing steering diodes, as figure 3 shows.

Working in harmony with the in-built capabilities on offer from today’s digital converters, it is easy to implement tasks using PMBus commands that truly challenge analog converters n For more information, please www.ericsson.com/powermodules

Figure 3: Example graphical-user-interface setting phase offsets between switching converters.

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NETWORKING TECHNOLOGIES

Remember Dr. Who’s Tardis time travel machine?

The British sci-fi television show, Dr. Who, used a Tardis to move around space and time. The Tardis looked like a police box on the outside, but the inside was huge with tons of rooms and equipment. How did the Tardis do this? It presumably exploited extra dimensions in space time to step out of our 3D world into new dimensions, providing plenty of room inside the police box and the opportunity to sustain decades of new storylines and a worldwide cult following.

Author: Sam Fuller, Head of System Solutions, Freescale Semiconductor

What has this got to do with networking equipment?

The Tardis, while physically a small box, provides a gateway into other dimensions. In a similar fashion, the combination of softwaredefined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) provide mechanisms to extend the processing capabilities of a networking gateway well beyond the capabilities of the processor that is contained in the gateway box. The result is a 22

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cyberspace equivalent of a Tardis. This is important because next-generation networking equipment is challenged with both significantly higher bandwidth requirements (Gigabit to the home is a reality in many

“

places now), but also the need for more network service processing such as firewalls, content filters and traffic shaping. These new services can provide more revenue to service providers and value to customers.

“SDN and NFV are two different technologies.

They are designed to solve different problems in networking, but they are quite complementary when used together.”

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How do SDN and NFV allow for this to happen?

SDN and NFV are two different technologies. They are designed to solve different problems in networking, but they are quite complementary when used together. n SDN separates the control plane and the data plane of networking equipment and allows the control plane to be centralized such that a single controller can manage many data forwarding elements. n NFV is a technique to implement networking functions as virtual appliances running on general purpose processors. n SDN deals with the way networks are controlled and managed, while NFV provides a new approach to implementing network functions such as routing, firewalling and even switching.

In traditional networking, customer premise equipment combines a local LAN switch and a routing function. These two functions operate independently – a bridging/switching function to locally switch packets at the Layer 2 level and a routing function to forward the packets to WAN (Wide Area Network) at the Layer 3 level. Network elements’ bridging and routing functions operate based on the Ethernet MAC addresses and IP addresses of the packets. In the SDN paradigm these two separate functions are combined into a single flow forwarding function. Each flow path can be controlled independently with no special considerations to MAC addresses and IP addresses of the packets. Additionally each flow can be programmed with various actions independently. This flow level fine grain granular control is one of the unique properties of SDN.

For example, an email flow can be applied with various actions that take the packets across network services such as IPS, firewall, anti-malware and antispam, whereas HTTP flow can be applied with various actions that

NETWORKING TECHNOLOGIES

take the packets through firewall, anti-malware and content filtering. Other examples include applying various QoS parameters based on the application to which the flow belongs to. Essentially, in an SDN paradigm, flow properties and flow paths can be controlled from a different place instead of making local decisions, thereby providing an opportunity to control the customer premise equipment (CPE) devices by service providers remotely.

As discussed above, SDN-based CPE is designed to allow the CPE to be controlled remotely, on a per flow basis. Typically CPEs are implemented using multicore processors and discrete switching and modem ASICs. While the modem functionality will typically remain separate, for many applications the switch and the multicore processor can be integrated onto a single piece of silicon.

In fact, because of the performance of multicore processors such as QorIQ platform from Freescale, the SDN flow forwarding function for CPE can be implemented in software for the most common CPE equipment with network uplink connectivity between 100 Mbps and 10 Gbps.

With an SDN-enabled CPE, secure channels can be provided that extend the processing capabilities of the CPE back to the software running on an aggregated network processing infrastructure, thereby enabling the addition of value added network services such as firewalls, deep packet inspection, content filtering, antimalware and more.

The key insight is realizing that packet processing associated with a logical piece of network equipment does not need to occur within the single box located at the cus-

tomer’s premise. Rather, it can be divided between work occurring on the CPE and work occurring in the cloud or PoP (Point of Presence) location. The growth in backhaul bandwidth and low latency networks makes

this possible and the SDN and NFV paradigms provide a common scalable approach to providing these new capabilities.

“Cloud-based processing can reduce cost and allow all sorts of new services that were inconceivable based on traditional networking technologies.”

Designers of networking equipment can now open their horizons significantly in terms of how they provide the functions their customers demand. Cloud-based processing can reduce cost and allow all sorts of new services that were inconceivable based on traditional networking technologies.

Like the Tardis on Dr. Who, with its ability to transcend the limits of three dimensional space, the combination of SDN and NFV in next-generation networks provide new mechanisms to enable network services and capabilities that extend and expand well beyond what a traditional gateway box working alone could provide.

Freescale recognized the shift to SDN very early on and has made significant hardware and software investments to support it.

Freescale is committed to providing highperformance multicore processors and software solutions required to build SDN-based networking environments. Our product and development teams operate under the fundamental belief that SDN changes the way that processors are designed, enabled and supported and we have placed a strong emphasis on architecting our solutions to to meet the needs of next-generation networks.

Visit www.freescale.com/sdn to learn more.

And, check out the new informative video on SDN ( www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkZ4miDPWU&feature=youtu.be ).

Sam Fuller is the Head of System Solutions for the Digital Networking Group at Freescale Semiconductor. Mr. Fuller has over 20 years of executive leadership experience in computer architecture, SoC architecture, embedded systems and semiconductor marketing and applications, and has led innovative development efforts in SIMD processing, fabric interconnects and symmetric multicore processing. Mr. Fuller holds BSEE and MSEE degrees from Brigham Young University and an MBA degree from the University of Texas at Austin. www.linkedin.com/in/samuelfuller www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2014 | EP&Dee

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LED COLOR CONTROL

Accuracy optimization of True Color Sensor solutions for LED color control of multiple LED light sources Authors: Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Fredrik Hailer, and Dipl.-Inf. Thomas Nimz

Besides many advantages, LEDs also have several disadvantages. To compensate for these (for example the temperature and aging drift phenomena) an LED light control with accurate color measurement is required. Within the black body area an application-specific calibration can allow accurate color temperature control of for example 6500K, 4500K and 2700K and additionally compensate the negative side effects of LEDs. 24

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DESIGN

1. Introduction It is a known fact that LEDs are affected by temperature drift effects by shifting in wavelength and intensity. Additionally the latter is intensified by the aging factor. In many hightech applications - like medical illumination, machine luminaries or aircraft cabin lighting it is required to maintain constant and stable lighting conditions of LED light sources over the entire lifecycle of a product. These applications require long-term stable and reliable LED lighting control and regulation methods.

LED COLOR CONTROL

ables (a PWM configuration for each LED) to. In the resulting under-determined system multiple color point calculation options for one color point exist. The properties of light - depending on configuration can vary greatly - even though the resulting color point is the same. In practice this means that two LED lights can have the same light color but the illuminated environment can be perceived differently.

The long-run goal for LED feedback control systems with an n-fold of colored LEDs (n > 3),

Figure 1: LED feedback control system A LED feedback control system requires accurate and fast measurements of the current color point. For this purpose a True Color sensor (TCS) is required. Unlike a spectrometer, the TCS provides three ADC values, which are used to calculate the exact color point. This means that the control system does not require covering the entire spectrum - but that the color point is related to the specific LED configuration. Therefore, for an LED system with more than three LEDs and input values (XYZ) it is required to calculate with more than three control vari-

Figure 2: Color coordinates for 2700K, 4500K and 6500K

True Color sensors as well as control algorithm, is the accurate color point calculation including a secondary condition.

For example the Color Rendering Index (CRI) is a possible secondary condition. This means the control system algorithm optimizes in a way to improve the color point of a given LED configuration to the maximum possible CRI value.

The goal of calibration is to improve the absolute accuracy of the true color sensor. In order to allow a very good control system requirements, it is necessary that a color accuracy of 0.003 .u'v ' is achieved within the sensor controlled gamut range. The goal of this study is the controlled balancing of the color temperatures 2700K, 4500K and 6500K at maximum accuracy.

The following will describe the required series of measurements for the optimization.

Subsequently the results of the optimized calibration will be presented.

2. Collection of data 2.1. Color point calculation via adequate LED configuration It is intended to optimize the LED system for 2700K, 4500K and 6500K values. The first step is to calculate further Lu'v' color combinations in a radius of 0.005 around the three color temperatures- These values will be used later on to optimize the calibration settings. This generates 110 values for each color temperature, if an increment of 0.0012 is chosen. The brightness shall stay consistent. Image 2 demonstrates the distribution on measurement values.

Figure 3: LED spectrum of the used measurement setup www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2014 | EP&Dee

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DESIGN

A test setup consisting of 6 different LEDs is used as source for the required measurement data. LEDs: each one red R, green G, blue B, warm-white wW, cold-white cW and amber L (combined RBGwWcWA). The LEDs are controlled independently via PWM. The MAZeT True Color sensor (MTCS) is used as feedback control loop device. The reference measurement is performed by an JETI Specbos 1211 spectrometer. In addition, a temperature control for cooling or heating of the LED board is used.

To generate real measurement values for the 332 color locations, it is required to calculate the appropriate LED configurations.

The basis for the calculation are six LED spectrums measured at 20° C (compare Image 3). Using the following procedure, it is possible to calculate a CRI optimized PWM configuration for each color point even within an under-determined system.

Step 1 The underdetermined system is attributed to several specific systems by checking which sub-gamut, each consisting of three LEDs, which include the preset color point. The next step is performed for each affected subgamut, whereas a PWM configuration will be determined via linear transformation.

LED COLOR CONTROL

temperatures. The built-in temperature control allows the measurement station to perform measurements between 20° and 80°C (68° to 176°F).

The results of the measurements are 7 test series - (20° to 80°C in 10°C levels) at which each of the 332 measured color points consists of three ADC values of the true color sensor as well as the reference spectrum measured via spectrometer.

The Image 4: 20°C (68°F) and Image 5 compares the measurement results of the spectrometer at 20°C and 80°C. Even though the defined color points are the same, one can clearly see a color point shift. Depending on the operating temperature and LED configuration a color point shift of up to 0,038 .u'v' can be measured. To compensate the color point shift, which is visible to the human eye via an active feedback control, it is necessary that the True Color sensor reaches a high absolute accuracy (.u'v '< 0.003). For this reason, based on the measured spectrums and the reference ADC values of the TCS an optimized calibration of the color sensor is performed. Following, the optimization method will be presented in detail.

complete temperature range. In the demonstrated test setup, the average temperature is 50°C at a range of 20°C to 80°C. (1) (2)

(3) To optimize the calibration method, an additional ß is added as a weighting factor for each primary color. This beta is determined via the so-called process “simulated annealing”. This method of nonlinear optimization is based on a stochastic search for the global minimum value. This method is based on the simulated annealing of a material. At a high temperature atoms are subject to strong motion and at slower cooling tend to arrange themselves to a systematic crystal structure. This structure consists a minimum energy state and therefore the most stable and suitable for the material. Is the initial

Step 2 Optimization. The objective of the optimization process is to use the various PWM configuration from step 1 and unite them into one single PWM-configuration with the goal to achieve a very high color rendering index.

Step 3 A feedback control loop is simulated to eliminate the inaccuracies of the joint PWM configuration, and its limits of 0 and 255.

The PWM configuration is used as starting point and is adjusted via three selected LEDs, until the Delta of the target color point is less than 0.003.

2.2. Measurements The PWM configuration calculated in section 2.1 are used further during the test setup. The goal of the optimization is to find a calibration matrix for the TCS, which is within the range of the three color temperatures 2700K, 4500K and 6500K and additionally reaches a color accuracy of 0.003 .u'v'.

To ensure that the temperature-inflicted wavelength shift and change in intensity of LEDs can be measured, the calculated PWM configurations are also measured at several 26

EP&Dee | October, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

Figure 4: 20°C (68°F) 3. Optimization of the absolute measurement accuracy The calibration method is performed by polynomial regression based on a pseudoinverse equation (1). The values (2) are measured by a reference spectrometer and the values (3) are measured with an True Color sensors, whereas h equals the number of calibration targets (primary colors). The given combination RBGwWcWA has an h=6.

The primary colors are measured simultaneously with a reference spectrometer and a True Color sensor at a PWM of 100% duty cycle. It is recommended to perform the calibration at an average temperature of the

Figure 5: 80°C (176°F) temperature is not high enough, or the material cools off too quickly, the atoms arrange within a local minimum of the energy state. Therefore it is required to find an adequate initial temperature and temperature drop, to increase the probability of finding the global minimum within a finite time. The simulated cooling is related to the present application and can be used.

Whereas the weighting factors are subject to a beta of random motion between 0 and 1, and the calibration of the minimum delta u'v' is determined. As the number of iterations will slow the random motion and the weighting factors define a local minimum.

DESIGN

20 mixed colors of the over 100 mixed colors are selected for optimization, with the goal of a best possible even distribution to the respective color temperature. The Image 6 shows the selection for the color temperature

LED COLOR CONTROL

instead of 0.005.Via optimization it was possible to reduce the maximum error from 0,0035 to 0,0021 for the color temperatures 4500K and 6500K. The average values have been even lower: around 0.0011.

due to the high influence of the amber and red LEDs, which have a very high temperature drift, a maximum .u'v 'of 0.0057 can be achieved. For this color gamut, it is required to further adapt the properties of the LEDs to the optimization process.

The developed test setup and optimization are the basis for the implementation of LED systems with 4 or more LEDs. It is planned to improve the optimization and further promote the development of control algorithms. One approach to LED control is presented in paragraph 2.1: the procedure of determining PWM configurations.

Furthermore the test setup can be converted quickly to meet the demands of customerspecific LED systems. This allows a cost-efficient validation of further LED systems consisting of MTCS and 4 or more different LEDs. The overall goal: LED control systems with an absolute accuracy of a maximum .u'v = '0.003 and a CRI above 90 on the black body curve n www.mazet.de Authors:

Figure 6: Selected mixed colors around 2700K for optimization 2700K. Of these 20 mixed colors, the maximum error .u'v is 'minimized via simulated annealing. When reviewing if the optimization is successful, the optimized calibration is applied to all 110 mixed colors. Among them are 90 mixed colors, which were not used during the optimization. The result with and without optimization is shown in table 1. At 2700K the maximum error of .u'v = 0.0083 could be minimized to 0.0057.

The mean errors are now below 0.0034

4. Summary The results show that True Color sensors have ideal measurement characteristics, to enable feedback control systems to meet the requirements of a high quality LED lighting solutions and provide long-term color stability.

Via optimizing the measurement accuracy of the True Color sensor for neutral (4500K) and cool white (6500K) can be improved to a .u'v '< 0.0021. For warm white light (2700K),

Table 1: Results with and without optimization of 108-114 mixed colors

Fredrik Hailer

Thomas Nimz

The authors want to express their gratitude to Prof. Dr.-Ing. Joachim Denzler, Prof. Dr. Walter Alt (from the Friedrich-Schiller University Jena) as well as to Prof. Dr.-Ing Mladen Berekovic (Technical University of Braunschweig) for their support.

Literature sources (1) MAZeT Homepage: www.mazet.de (2) Product information about color sensors: www.mazet.de/en/products/jencolor (3) Application note, Calibration of JENCOLOR sensors based on the example of LED light sources, MAZeT GmbH, 2012 (4) F.Hailer, F. Krumbein, Application of JENCOLOR multispectral sensors in dermatology, Ilmenau University of Technology (Thur.), 2011, urn:nbn:de:gbv:ilm1-2011imeko-083:6 (5) Walter Alt, Nichtlineare Optimierung, Vieweg+Teubner, 2002, 978-3528031930 (6) WWW.EBERL.NET. Simulated Annealing, 12:14 Uhr 14.02.2010. URL: www.eberl.net/chaos/Eberl/node50.html (Copyright for all images is with MAZeT) www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2014 | EP&Dee

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DESIGN

CRYSTAL OSCILLATORS

The Challenges & Benefits of Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillators (OCXOs) An Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) represents the peak in quartz crystal frequency product technology and it’s where the crystal in the circuit is maintained at a constant temperature in order to achieve a high level of stability.

Author: Peter Sinclair, Application Support Manager, IQD Frequency Products

A Quick Introduction to Power Factor Due to the stable temperature, frequency stabilities as low as 0.2 E10-9 can be achieved with a high grade OCXO, this compares with a high grade TCXO (Temperature Compensated Crystal Oscillator) of around 0.1E-6 and this stability is held even over a temperature range as wide as -40 to 85°C. This high performance is a result of the crystal (either AT-cut or SC-cut), which is mounted within a metal package at a precise turn point or temperature. As can be seen from figure 1, the AT-cut has a definitive upper turn point, the temperature of which varies with the angle of cut (from the quartz bar).

Also shown in this image the SC-cut has a flatter, higher temperature turnover point

Figure 1 28

EP&Dee | October, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

so it lends itself to applications where a higher temperature of operation is required. The disadvantage of the SC-cut is that it’s much more difficult to produce and the yields expected are lower than with ATcut crystals so as a consequence costs are much higher. The style and design of the crystal package is dependent upon the overall specification as defined by the customer in collaboration with the manufacturer (including the environmental requirements required) typical holder styles are the ubiquitous HC49 and the HC37 which can include a four-point mounting structure which aides environmental resilience.

The actual heater circuit is normally one or two power transistors mounted onto a copper cavity on the inside of which are mounted the frequency dependant components such as the crystal and the frequency tuning capacitors. The transistors (often two are preferable in order to minimise temperature gradients across the cavity) are normally controlled by a wheatstone bridge which has a temperature sensor in one of the arms the output of which is fed back to the control circuit and used for balancing the actual inversion temperature of the individual crystal in the other.

Each crystal, within the same batch, manufactured at the same time and by the same

operative will have a slightly different performance. It is therefore vital that for best possible performance each heater circuit is set to match the exact inversion or turnover point of the specific crystal used. This is a time consuming operation due to the nature of the product and as such is a significant cost driver in the manufacture of an OCXO. Generally, OCXO’s can be manufactured at frequencies of between 5MHz and around 130MHz. Obviously certain frequencies tend to be more common than others and the actual frequency is dependent upon the customer’s application. If a lower frequency is required then this is achieved by frequency division.

The most commonly used OCXO frequency is 10MHz which is normally found in applications such as test equipment and reference micro clocks. Higher frequencies such as 100MHz are often found as reference oscillators in radar equipment and this is usually coupled with a requirement for a very low phase noise performance, an example of which is IQD’s IQOV-200F the phase noise plot for which can be found in figure 2.

A typical OCXO is represented in the block diagram shown in figure 3. Points to note are that the ‘core’ is the oscillator containing the specialised quartz crystal. As mentioned previously this will normally be either an AT-

DESIGN

cut or an SC-cut crystal. The added advantage of the SC-cut crystal is that it is able to maintain a lower ageing rate so requiring less adjustment with time to compensate for the frequency shift over time. Many OCXO manufacturers tend to manufacture the crystal as well as the oscillator since it allows for complete control and enables the best possible performance to be achieved.

The voltage regulation circuit again contributes to a high overall specification in that it minimises the effects of an externally varying supply voltage (within the specified voltage supply range).

CRYSTAL OSCILLATORS

described earlier in this article, and it is the main source of power consumption within the oscillator.

The voltage control circuit which would normally comprise at least one varactor or varicap diode that allows for a mechanism to ‘pull’ the frequency by a small amount to compensate for varying circuit conditions and for ageing of the crystal over the long term. This control can of course be carried out remotely for applications which require little user interface or by a Phase Locked Loop (PLL).

Significant consideration is given at the

perform as well as today’s generation, often used vacuum flasks in their construction since heat does not conduct in a vacuum!

As already referred to earlier, the key parameter with an OCXO is its stability over temperature and IQD’s IQOV-164 is an example of just how far OCXO’s have progressed in the last few years since this can offer a stability of ± 0.2ppb (0.2E10-9) over an operating temperature range of -40 to 85 °C. This is housed in the industry standard 5-pin 36 × 27mm Euro package. One of the issues to be considered when thinking about the use of an OCXO is its power consumption and warm-up time. In the case of the IQOV-164 this can draw up to 7.0 watts of power during it’s warm up period and then decreases to around 2.0 watts after the crystal has reached its turnover temperature.

One of the main advantages in specifying an OCXO is in its inherently good phase noise performance since the crystal temperature is held constant; it has an obvious advantage over a standard oscillator which could have a greater change in temperature. One of the best examples currently available in the world is IQD’s IQOV-200F series which at a frequency of 100MHz has a noise floor of -182dBc/Hz @ 1MHz offset (figure 4).

Figure 2

Figure 4

Figure 3 The output stage is self-evident in that it converts the low level output of the oscillator into the Sinewave or the HCMOS output that the customer’s application dictates.

Sinewave output is often preferable for OCXO applications as these give better spectral purity than a square wave.

The heating circuit has already been

design phase to the thermodynamic properties of the internal layout in order to maximise performance. This will include such design considerations as the location of the heating elements, positioning of the tuning capacitors and consideration will also be given to the type of internal insulation used.

In the past, OCXO’s, although they did not

An aspect of OCXO performance by both the manufacturer and the end user is the ageing rate of the crystal. Under normal circumstances the manufacturer will age the oscillator for a period of 30 days until it reaches a pre-specified level of performance. It’s at this point that the device will be released to the customer. It is also worth bearing in mind that SC-cut crystals age at a much lower rate than AT-cut crystals but of course these are considerably more expensive to produce.

An important consideration when using an OCXO is the balance between the operating temperature range of the oscillator and that of the ambient temperature. www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2014 | EP&Dee

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DESIGN

CRYSTAL OSCILLATORS

If the maximum ambient temperature is expected to be +70°C then the oscillator needs to be specified to run up to at least +75°C this will allow for an error margin because if the oscillator sees the temperature going above its specified level then it will become uncontrolled and revert to that of the crystal itself which means the frequency shift could amount to many parts per million (ppm). In effect this in reality means that consideration must be given to any heat sources that surround the oscillator externally.

Consideration must also be given to air flow around the PCB assembly and a methodology given towards its minimisation.

With an oscillator presenting such a high performance level it is advisable that the device is left in the permanently powered state since the very act of switching it on and off on a regular basis may well cause frequency re trace issues where the frequency at switch-off may well not be the frequency at subsequent power up’s even if the oscillator is allowed a suitable stabilisation period.

One of the main considerations when specifying an OCXO is the cost. Although it is true of most things in life it is particularly important to consider what is actually required from the oscillator for the application. The main cost drivers with any OCXO

are the frequency stability and the phase noise performance. It is useful to note that OCXO’s can vary in cost anywhere between £50.00 to £1000.00 each depending upon the specification.

It could be argued that in many situations a TCXO should be used especially if considerations such as package size and power consumption are issues, however for ultimate performance an OCXO must be specified, because the parameters like temperature stability, phase noise and ageing could not reached with an TCXO. IQD’s full range of OCXOs and TCXOs can be found on www.iqdfrequencyproducts.com n

Announcing a compact 2.4 GHz radio transceiver module for industrial applications

X-REL Semiconductor Extends Range with XTR60010 High-Temperature Crystal Oscillator Driver

Circuit Design has announced the release of the STD-503, a 2.4 GHz radio transceiver module for embedding in industrial equipment. With the globalization of the marketplace, there is a growing demand for industrial radio equipment that meets the requirements of a global market.

The STD-503 operates in the 2.4 GHz band available worldwide.

Designed to be embedded in equipment, this compact radio transceiver module was developed for industrial applications that require stable and reliable operation. With battery operation, it achieves line of sight radio communication beyond 300 m.

To ensure highly reliable radio communication in the congested 2.4 GHz ISM band, the module uses highly noise-resistant directsequence spread spectrum (DSSS) modulation, as well as a true diversity receiver function for preventing signal dropout due to multi-path fading. The data interface of the STD-503 is transparent, enabling users with proprietary protocols to use them without modification. In addition, the interface offers a high degree of freedom, enabling continuous transmission of LOW or HIGH signals without restriction.

Compared with Circuit Design’s

X-REL Semiconductor has broadened its clock and timing product line by introducing a low-power, small foot-print crystal oscillator driver, XTR60010. Intended for operation in high-reliability, extreme temperature and extended lifetime systems, the XTR60010 is specially tailored for crystal oscillators, clock generation, clock buffering, frequency division and precision timing applications, with supply voltages from 2.5V to 5.5V and with crystals from 32kHz to 50MHz. Several functional features have been implemented in the XTR60010 to minimize bill-ofmaterial (BoM) and ease adoption, such as automatic gain control of crystal driver, on-chip crystal load capacitors, customer selectable prescaler and programmable frequency divider.

This reduction in area and billof-material (BoM), together with the ability to adapt to the used crystal without the need for customer intervention, provides a drastic reduction in system complexity, cost and development time, greatly accelerating product qualification cycles and timeto-market.

As with all other X-REL Semiconductor products, the XTR60010 is able to reliably

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earlier models, the STD-503 is 50% smaller in volume through the use of smaller components

and appropriate layout. In addition to frequency channel switching using command control inherited from earlier models, the STD-503 allows channel switching according to a preset channel plan using H/L control of dedicated channel switching pins. A maximum of 20 frequency channels can be saved in the plan.

Circuit Design developed its own ASIC with DSSS modulation and true diversity processing in order to guarantee the long-term supply of key radio components.

Circuit Design will exhibit the product at the Electronica trade fair in Munich, Germany from November 11 to 14, 2014.

CIRCUIT DESIGN www.circuitdesign.de

EP&Dee | October, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

operate well below and above the -60°C to +230°C (5 years at +230°C) temperature range.

Being operational at high temperatures is mandatory not only in applications where the

environment is at elevated temperature, but also where selfheating of devices within the system increases the temperature inside the application casing. Additionally, all X-REL Semiconductor products can be used in applications running at lower temperatures (e.g. from 100°C to 200°C) where extended lifetime is expected or where failing is not an option. For example, the expected lifetime of X-REL Semiconductor parts in a driver application operating at Tj=150°C is over 35 years.

X-REL SEMICONDUCTOR www.x-relsemi.com

PRODUCT NEWS

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

ON Semiconductor announces high performance System-in-Package (SiP) solution for precision-sensing in portable medical devices ON Semiconductor has responded to rapidly-evolving product development demands within the portable medical market by introducing Struix, a semi-customisable System-in-Package (SiP) solution for precision sensing and monitoring in a variety of mobile medical electronics including glucose monitors, heart rate monitors and electrocardiogram analysers.

Struix, which means “stacked” in Latin, utilizes advanced die stack-

ULPMC10 offers superior performance with minimal dynamic and static power demands.

Through on-chip charge pumpbased power conversion and regulation, the microcontroller can operate at a current consumption of less than 200 μA/MHz. While in standby mode, current consumption remains below 500 nanoamperes (nA), a critical parameter for low-duty cycle medical devices.

ing technology to integrate a custom-designed analogue frontend (AFE) on top of an industryleading 32-bit Application Specific Standard Product (ASSP) microcontroller (ULPMC10), to form a complete miniature system. By using standard and customisable components, Struix offers medical device manufacturers the design flexibility required to create unique medical sensor interface applications while improving time-to-market and cost-effectiveness.

The ULPMC10 microcontroller element of Struix processes signals using an industry-leading 32bit ARM® Cortex®-M3 core capable of running up to frequencies of 30 megahertz (MHz). The microcontroller incorporates 512 kilobytes (kB) on-chip Flash memory and 24 kB SRAM memory to store critical program and user data. Designed to improve battery life in portable devices,

The system’s advanced power management subsystem monitors the device for fail-safe operation with a wide variety of battery voltages without requiring external components. The microcontroller also includes a12-bit analogue-to-digital converter with three multiplexed inputs, a realtime clock, a phase-locked-loop, and a temperature sensor. To simplify product development, ON Semiconductor offers a comprehensive and easy-to-use suite of development add-ins for IAR Systems to support the ULPMC10 microcontroller, including CMSIS based software interfaces.

Using ON Semiconductor’s custom chip engagement model, medical device manufacturers can take advantage of an extensive portfolio of intellectual property and design experience to meet the stringent feature and performance- level requirements of medical sensor applications.

ON SEMICONDUCTOR

Toshiba Launches World’s Smallest-class Embedded NAND Flash Memory Products New e∙MMCTM ICs developed using cuttingedge 15nm NAND Flash memory Toshiba Electronics Europe has launched the world’s smallest-class of embedded NAND flash memory products integrating NAND chips fabricated with cutting-edge 15nm process technology. The new memory devices are compliant with the latest e∙MMCTM standard, and are designed for a wide range of applications including smartphones, tablet PCs and wearable devices. Sample shipment of the 16GB devices start from today, with 8GB, 32GB, 64GB and 128GB products to follow.

The e∙MMC NAND chips are fabricated using Toshiba's cutting-edge 15nm process technology and the devices integrate a controller that manages basic control functions for NAND applications. By utilizing the 15nm NAND chips, the package size is approximately 26% smaller than comparable Toshiba products. The153-ball FBGA packages are suitable for use in smartphones, tablet PCs and wearable devices where miniaturization and weight savings are key requirements.

The 16GB e∙MMC NAND chips are available in several package sizes, 11.5 × 13.0 × 0.8mm (THGBMFG7C2LBAIL), 11.0 × 10.0 × 1.0 mm (THGBMFG7C2LBAIW) and 11.5 × 13.0 × 0.8 mm (THGBMFG7C1LBAIL). The 8GB, 32GB and 64GB devices are also available in the 11.5 × 14.0 mm and 11.0 ×10.0 mm formats. Embedded in a system, the 128GB device (THGBMFT0CBLBAIS) measures 11.5 × 13.0 × 1.4 mm and can record up to 16.3 hours of full spec high definition video and 39.7 hours of standard definition video.

The devices also offer faster read/write performance due to improvements in basic chip performance and controller optimization. The read speed is approximately 8% faster (max.), while the write speed is approximately 20% faster (max.).

Demand continues to grow for NAND flash memory that can support applications such as smartphones and tablet PCs. TOSHIBA ELECTRONICS EUROPE www.toshiba-components.com

www.onsemi.com www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2014 | EP&Dee

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PRODUCT NEWS

Altera Programmable Logic Inspires Innovation at 2014 Maker Faire Europe Altera Corporation in collaboration with ipTronix, a design house and Altera Design Services Network (DSN) partner headquartered in Rome, Italy, displayed FPGA-based solutions at the 2nd annual Maker Faire Europe held at the Rome Auditorium on October 3-5. In the demonstration ipTronix engineers was on hand in the Expo Hall (Gutemberg Area, Zone M) to showcase the flexibility, performance and versatility of FPGAs. Attendees of Maker Faire Europe saw how FPGAs are being used today to enable innovation in unique and varied ways.

Altera offers a wide variety of low-cost, easy-to-use, off-theshelf development kits for hobbyists and innovators alike.

Max 10 running unmodified Arduino servo demo In its booth, ipTronix showcased an Arduino port on the newly announced non-volatile MAX® 10 FPGA starter kit. ipTronix solution allows makers to run existing Arduino sketches on a soft core Nios® II processor embedded in the MAX 10 FPGA using the familiar Arduino IDE with the possibility to integrate the functionality of external shields onto a single board. MAX 10 FPGAs are flash based FPGAs targeted at cost-sensitive, highvolume applications which can replace microcontrollers in applications where a high degree of customization is required. ipTronix software integration brings the capabilities of these devices to the larger audience of makers without the steep learning curve of FPGA design practices, making programmable hardware a straightforward and cost effective solution for everyone at the same time offering the benefits of the Arduino ecosystem to FPGA enthusiasts. ipTronix implementation leverages a Nios II soft core processor which can be configurable for low footprint or high performance allowing users to fine tune processor performance between 33 and 192 MIPS, well above the 20 MIPS delivered by the original Arduino processor. In addition to the Arduino IDE, developers can also take advantage of the comprehensive eclipse based Altera Nios II IDE which provides full support for JTAG debugging and allows expert users to develop more advanced solutions including uClinux and full Linux support.

ALTERA www.altera.com 32

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EMBEDDED SYSTEMS Future Electronics takes IoT beyond the exhibition halls as low-power wide-area wireless network demonstration stars at Electronica Future Electronics gave prospective visitors to its stand A4.259 at Electronica (Munich, 11-14 November) a taste of the Internet of Things demonstration it will be making at the show.

In a joint project with Semtech and Microchip Technology, Future Electronics is to deploy an ISM-band IoT network using LoRa™ technology, providing wireless connectivity across most of the Munich area with only a few gateways (base stations) while Electronica is taking place.

Up to 1,000 free and fully functional wireless sensor nodes are available to qualified engineers visiting the Future Electronics stand at Electronica, each with its own unique identification code.

These demonstration boards, which provide standard interfaces to allow designers to integrate them with a sensor circuit, act as RF-enabled nodes, and connect automatically to the nearest available gateway in the temporary network.

practical demonstration of an innovative RF infrastructure to support the cloud-based monitoring of sensors, actuators and other types of IoT device. It will show that wide-area coverage can be achieved with low-power devices that can easily achieve multi-year battery lifetime with a common, off-the-shelf battery. In addition, the use of ISM-band licence-free spectrum frees IoT systems from the need to connect over wide areas via expensive mobile telephone networks. The demonstration IoT Low-Power Wide-Area Network (LPWAN) is backed by a series of displays on the Future Electronics stand on the theme of the Internet of Things, including a series of videos, product displays and tutorials showing how IoT systems can be built with components implementing the three stages of Collect, Control and Communicate.

Visitors will also be able to take part in the ‘Collect, Control, Communicate’ challenge, with prizes awarded to any visitor who can solve a specially modified Rubik’s Cube.

Future Electronics’ Vice-President Engineering and Vertical Markets, Stephen Carr, said: “Our customers are telling us that, while they hear a lot of talk about the Internet of Things, they are short on practical advice about how to implement it. A visit to the Future Electronics stand at Electronica will

Any engineer with a sensor node will be able to monitor in real time the communication link between their node and the network gateways by logging on to the network’s website via their computer, tablet or smartphone.

This live network will provide a

help to put this right, showing in detail how OEMs can achieve wide-area wireless coverage for sensors and other small devices, using standard components and in licence-free bandwidth”.

FUTURE ELECTRONICS www.FutureElectronics.com

PRODUCT NEWS

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

SEGGER announces support for ARM® Cortex®-M7 SEGGER is pleased to be one of the first tool vendors to announce their support for the new ARM® Cortex®-M7 architecture. SEGGER’s industry standard J-Link debug probes and middleware products, including embOS and the new emSecure Digital Signature Library are Cortex-M7 ready, ensuring innovators and early adopters the quickest way to successful product development. Close cooperation with ARM has allowed Cortex-M7 J-Link and middleware support for lead partners like, Atmel, STMicroelectronics, and Freescale from day one.

“SEGGER is always at the forefront in supporting new ARM technologies,” said Richard York, vice president, embedded marketing, ARM. “SEGGER debug probes, RTOS and middleware are widelyrespected products for embedded development and ARM welcomes

their support for the new ARM Cortex-M7 processor.”

“Atmel has partnered with SEGGER on debug probes, Flash programmers and software for many years.

Offering our customers support in continuity for tools, EmbOS kernel and middleware on Atmel’s future

ARM Cortex-M7-based microcontrollers is extremely important to us,” said Jacko Wilbrink Sr. Product Marketing Director at Atmel.

“SEGGER debug probes and middleware are an integral part of the Freescale ARM ecosystem” said Michael Norman, Freescale’s Manager for Kinetis Enablement.

SEGGER www.segger.com

Online Design Tool Simplifies Power Part Selection and System Design Toshiba Electronics Europe (TEE) has announced an online design tool that helps engineers to analyse the performance of components for the power stages of embedded designs and improve overall system effectiveness and efficiency. The Toshiba Semiconductor Web Simulator enables users to simulate MOSFET performance under various voltage and temperature conditions, and to analyse their switching waveforms in AC/DC and DC/DC converter applications using different topologies such as full-bridge, flyback and synchronous buck converters. In addition to MOSFETs the behaviour of LDO regulators and load

switch ICs can be analysed. Being cloud-based, data and designs can be shared easily among design teams, regardless of their locations. Additionally, the simulator can be downloaded and used in offline mode which offers even more flexibility in the circuit design. The tool is divid-

ed into three interactive elements: datasheet, application designer and design note.

TOSHIBA ELECTRONICS EUROPE www.toshiba-components.com

Microsemi Expands Customer Application Design Opportunities by Introducing SmartFusion2 Advanced Development Kit with Largest Density 150K LE Device Microsemi Corporation announced the availability of the company’s new largest density, lowest power SmartFusion®2 150K LE System-on-Chip (SoC) FPGA Advanced Development Kit. Board-level designers and system architects can quickly develop system-level designs by using the two FPGA Mezzanine Card (FMC) expansion headers to connect a wide range of new functions with off-the-shelf daughter cards, which significantly reduces design time and cost when creating new applications for communications, industrial, defense and aerospace markets.

The new SmartFusion2 SoC FPGA Advanced Development Kit offers a full featured 150K LE device SmartFusion2 SoC FPGA.

This industry-leading low power 150K LE device inherently integrates reliable flash-based FPGA fabric, a 166 MHz Cortex™ M3 processor, digital signal processing (DSP) blocks, static random-access memory (SRAM), embedded nonvolatile memory (eNVM) and industry-required high-performance communication interfaces—all on a single chip. Microsemi estimates its market for FPGAs to be around $2.5 billion. This is based on estimates garnered from iSuppli and competitive financial reports which report on revenue for individual product families.

The new FMC headers provide designers additional cost savings, the ability to accelerate design development, and helps significantly reduce time-to-market on designs by providing the opportunity to leverage a wide range of standard off-the-shelf daughter cards for applications such as image and video processing, serial connectivity (SATA/SAS, SFP, SDI) and analog (A/D, D/A). The release of this kit also complements Microsemi’s expertise and IP in JESD204B, supporting the growing enterprise market for high speed data conversion for applications such as radar, satellite, broadband communications and communications test equipment. Also included with the kit is a one-year platinum license for Microsemi’s advanced Libero SoC design software, valued at $2,500. With the Libero SoC design software Microsemi has created enhanced ease-of-use and design efficiencies with leading edge design wizards, editors and scripting engines that allow customers a faster time-to-market for SmartFusion2 and IGLOO2 FPGA-based designs.

MICROSEMI www.microsemi.com www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2014 | EP&Dee

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PRODUCT NEWS Electronic Assembly's DOGDisplays and Arduino – as if made for each other The Arduino open source computer platform has taken the hearts (and desktops) of product design engineers and programmers by storm.

The versatile, low-cost EA DOG series from Electronic Assembly is the ideal display for Arduino systems. As part of its “Arduino meets DOG” campaign, Electronic Assembly has given developers free-of-charge access to all of the documentation needed to connect DOG displays to the Arduino.

The support package includes circuit diagrams, EAGLE PCB layouts, component placements, initiation sequences and sample programs for operating the display on an Arduino Uno. Five product types based on different technologies are available in the DOG series: positive and negative character display as well as transmissive, transflective and reflective display technologies. These basic types can be supplied in one, two or three line versions. As the display units can be used in combination with 6 different backlight modules, there are a large number of possible versions.

Electronic Assembly's DOG series will run out of the box on 3.3V, which is highly recommended for mobile devices. Low current consumption (only 250 microamperes) is a definite advantage in these applications. The display can also be powered from a 5V source without problem. The external dimensions of the displays were also defined with handy, mobile devices in mind. The units are very compact.

Including the backlight module, they are only 5.8 mm thick. Without the backlight module, the thickness is just 2 mm. The 55 × 31 mm footprint including a 51 × 14.5 mm viewing window is also extremely compact. Besides the free support package, unpopulated boards (Arduino Shields) for text and graphic displays including the EA DOGS102-6, EA DOGM1325 and EA DOGLM128-6 are also available from Electronic Assembly at extra charge.

Please visit us at the electronica 2014 in Munich!

You will find us at booth 201 in hall A3.

ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY www.lcd-module.com 34

EP&Dee | October, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS SEGGER brings the Internet Services to USB devices SEGGER, leading supplier of embedded systems development tools, announced the release of a complete USB to Internet solution. This solution uses the RNDIS USB class. It enables developers to transform low-end stand-alone products into connected devices with the same functionality as other devices on a local network.

With an appropriate application server in the firmware of a USB-connected device,

additional USB host driver is not necessary.

Any USB device with a need to configure, retrieve, send or visualize data can benefit from this technology. Examples include printers, measurement devices (digital caliper, torque wrench, ...), cameras, debug probes, and mobile Internet access sticks. This technology can even be used on microcontrollers with as little as 128KB of Flash. SEGGER’s emUSB-

any internet service on the host computer can access it. Examples include Web, Telnet, FTP or other application specific services.

The host can allow the USB device to access the LAN and Internet if desired. If the USB device is capable of accessing the Internet, like an internet access stick, it can allow host access as well. Installation of an

Device PRO and embOS/IP PRO packages form the first complete out-of-the-box solution for accessing stand-alone USB devices with standard Internet services such as a Web browser. emUSB-Device www.segger.com/emusb.html SEGGER www.segger.com

Micro PLC Platform Puts the Power of Industry 4.0 in the Palm of Your Hand Using the Micro PLC platform from Maxim Integrated Products, Inc., designers now have the tools to implement Industry 4.0 with less power, parts, and total costs. The platform consists of five

reference designs which can operate as stand-alone subsystems and be configured and tested with a laptop’s USB port.

A programmable logic controller (PLC) is the core building block that controls and coordinates sensors and machinery mov-

ing throughout a factory. Each year, $800 Billion is spent on factory maintenance and lost productivity. To reduce these expenses, the global Industry 4.0 movement is working to make manufacturing smarter and more efficient. Through “smart integration” (integration aligned with solving industry-wide issues) and proprietary process technology, Maxim’s Micro PLC platform delivers a 10x reduction in form factor, provides > 50% power savings, and processes digital I/O outputs up to 70x faster than ever before. The platform will immediately reduce industry maintenance costs and increase uptime. At electronica 2014, the Micro PLC platform will showcase Maxim’s quad analog input subsystem (MAXREFDES61#), as well as the company’s digital input module, digital output module, and IO-Link® master modules.

MAXIM INTEGRATED www.maximintegrated.com

PRODUCT NEWS

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

SOMNIUM® Unveils Innovative Device-Aware Software Development Environment SOMNIUM® Technologies Limited introduces SOMNIUM® DRT - a complete software development environment for ARM® Cortex® based embedded systems. Unlike other solutions currently available, SOMNIUM’s patent-pending resequencing technology provides much greater scope for optimization - resulting in shorter development times, improved performance characteristics and lower associated costs. Early tests have shown that

code size reductions of over 20% can be achieved without any impact on performance.

SOMNIUM DRT takes into account not only the processor element of the device but also its underlying memory system.

Thus every element of the code generation flow is fully aware of the target device in its entirety, resulting in optimizations beyond those possible with traditional tools and techniques. As it is fully automated, human intervention is not required there is therefore no need for profiler feedback or source SOMNIUM®

code changes. The result is smaller, faster, more efficient and less power hungry designs, produced on time and with less programmer effort.

“Embedded systems developers must ensure that the software they produce is completed on schedule and within budget, while simultaneously making it as streamlined as possible and maximizing its effectiveness,” states Dave Edwards, Founder, CEO and CTO of SOMNIUM. “SOM-

NIUM DRT differentiates itself from traditional software development tools via its patent pending device-aware resequencing optimizations. These analyze the whole program and identify all instruction and data sequences, as well as the interactions occurring between them and the hardware,” he continues. “As this process takes place after existing compilers have applied their optimization techniques, it builds upon traditional compiler optimizations, and integrates easily into code generation flows without the need for modifications.”

MikroElektronika & FTDI Chip Embark on Construction of Comprehensive FT90X Development Environment With announcement of close cooperation to develop new range of compilers for applicationoptimised, high performance microcontrollers Belgrade-headquartered development tool chain supplier MikroElektronika has signed a formal agreement with FTDI Chip to create mikroC, mikroBasic and mikroPascal compilers for the FT90X 32-bit microcontroller offering. The FT90X utilises a proprietary 32-bit RISC architecture - allowing it to set performance benchmarks beyond 2.93DMIPS/MHz, with true zero wait-states operation up to 100MHz frequencies, as well as capacious memory and an array of advanced connectivity resources.

The two companies previously teamed up in order to bring a graphic development software solution to market, based on Visual TFT, which supported the FT800 embedded video engine (EVE) graphic controller. This allowed more rapid implementation of next generation human machine interfaces (HMIs) via EVE’s innovative object-oriented approach and Visual TFT’s simple to use drag-and-drop functionality.

According to MikroElektronika’s CEO, Nebojsa Matic, “Through this partnership, MikroElektronika will build an entire FT90X ecosystem, including not just the compiler products but also development boards, useful examples for click boards and Visual TFT software support.”

Fred Dart, FTDI Chip's CEO and Founder, adds, “MikroElektronika was instrumental in furnishing our customers with the development tools needed to support their FT800 EVE-based design projects. Now with the FT90X we are looking to work with its team of imaginative and highly experienced engineers again in order to accomplish the same goal for our advanced microcontroller product lines.”

FTDI CHIP MIKROELEKTRONIKA

www.ftdichip.com www.mikroe.com

www.somniumtech.com www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2014 | EP&Dee

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PRODUCT NEWS Monitor Water and Heat Flow with 10x Better Accuracy and Ultra-LowPower Performance Utilities can now improve water- and heatmetering accuracy by an order of magnitude, while operating for up to 20 years on a single “A”-size battery with the MAXREFDES70# ultrasonic flow meter reference design from Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. Traditional mechanical flow meters measure water and heat usage with spinning wheels that easily get out of calibration due to wear

from friction and contaminants. This causes inaccurate meter readings and repeated, expensive on-site maintenance costs. Not only do these inaccurate readings reduce revenue, they also prevent leak detection, potentially wasting millions of gallons of clean water a year. The MAXREFDES70# ultrasonic flow meter is the modern alternative to that old technology. This solid-state meter is 10x more accurate that mechanical meters, and 4x more accurate than competitive ultrasonic solutions. This accurate measurement is done without the use of heavy batteries, and the flow meter uses a single “A”-size battery that can last up to 20 years. Measuring as little as 0.5 liters of water per minute with better than 1% accuracy, its fast ultrasonic pulses can be customized to the pulse frequencies required by flow conditions. It can detect even minor leaks t hat the mechanical meters will never find. With no moving parts, the MAXREFDES70# flow meter is highly resistant to contaminants, subject to less wear, and requires virtually no maintenance. It features no compromises, as it maximizes uptime and provides the most accurate data possible. In this era when natural resource consumption must be carefully managed, this complete, ready-to-use flow meter reference design lets utilities and other industrial flow-measurement applications get to market quickly with the necessary accuracy and precision.

MAXIM INTEGRATED

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www.maximintegrated.com

EP&Dee | October, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS Silicon Labs Simplifies Clock Tree Design for Complex Internet Infrastructure Applications Silicon Labs launched an online timing utility that eases the complexity of designing clock trees for a wide range of Internet infrastructure applications including high-speed networking, telecommunications and data center equipment. Silicon Labs’ new Clock Tree Expert tool enables embedded developers to generate sophisticated, streamlined clock tree block diagrams within minutes, simplifying system design, reducing bill of materials (BOM) count and speeding time to market.

Today’s networking and telecom equipment designers are under pressure to deliver best-in-class products at competitive prices.

Timing component selection and clock tree design are more important than ever because timing ICs provide low-jitter timing references for high-speed 10/40/100G data applications and can greatly impact system-level performance. When specifying clock trees for their applications, hardware designers must ensure critical jitter performance parameters are met with sufficient margin with the minimum number of timing components. Choosing the optimal combination of clocks, oscillators, jitter attenuators and buffers can be a daunting and time-consuming task for a given Internet infrastructure application.

As a one-stop shop supplier of timing

products with industry-leading technology, Silicon Labs is committed to providing the tools needed to simplify component selection and clock tree development.

Leveraging Silicon Labs’ DSPLL and MultiSynth technologies, the web-based Clock Tree Expert tool frees developers from the burden of designing clock trees by recommending the optimal combination of highly integrated, low-jitter, frequency-flexible clocks and oscillators

required to consolidate timing BOM into the fewest number of components.

The Clock Tree Expert is intuitive and easy to use. Users simply enter the required frequencies, number of clocks and desired signaling format, and the tool generates a recommended clock tree in seconds using the minimum number of timing components. Experienced users can also use the tool’s “Build Your Own” environment to design clock trees to their exact specifications.

SILICON LABS www.silabs.com

Exar Releases Rugged, High Throughput USB to Seria Exar Corporation announced a new family of USB to serial bridge devices for industrial applications. The XR21B142x family provides a convenient and straightforward way to interface with RS-232 or RS-485 serial networks through USB using a minimum of components and PCB space. The XR21B1420, XRB21B1422, and XRB21B1424 provide 1, 2, and 4 UART channels respectively. The

XRB21B1421 provides a single channel UART and uses the native operating system HID (Human Interface Device) driver.

The XR21B142x devices are fully compliant to the USB 2.0 (Full-Speed) specification with 12Mbps USB data transfer rate, and

PRODUCT NEWS

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

Highly Advanced, IO-Packed & Power Efficient USB 2.0 to SPI/I2C Bridge Chip FTDI Chip has long been regarded as synonymous with USB innovation and the company continues to introduce new semiconductor products that are helping engineers implement better designs. The FT4222H is the latest addition to its expansive USB offering. Compliant with the USB 2.0 hi-speed standard, this is a feature-rich single chip bridging solution with I2C and multichannel SPI interface capabilities.

With regard to SPI the device serves as a SPI Master/Slave interface controller and supports all 4 SPI modes (0, 1, 2, 3). It allows single, dual and quad data width transfer, so that total data rates of up to 27Mbit/s are possible. The integrated configurable I2C Master/Slave interface controller conforms completely with both I2C v2.1 and v3.0 specifications. Support is given for operation in 100kbit/s standard mode (SM), 400kbit/s fast mode (FM), 1Mbit/s fast mode plus (FM+) and 3.4Mbit/s high speed mode

(HS). Configurable general purpose IOs (GPIOs) can be easily controlled by software applications via the USB bus. The USB 2.0 interface draws very little current either when it is active (75mA typical) or while in suspend mode (375μA typical).

As with other FTDI Chip USB device controllers, the USB protocol is fully taken care of by the IC itself, so that such activities do

Microchip announces a new addition to its Human Interface Input Sensing Solutions portfolio with a standalone integrated high-voltage line driver to increase Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) for advanced projected-capacitive touch performance: the MTCH65X. The MTCH652 features an integrated boost converter and can interface to any touch controller via SPI to drive up to 19 Transmit (Tx) channels at selectable voltages up to 18V to increase the SNR in projected-capacitive touch systems. The improved SNR increases the robustness of the system in noisy environments, allows thicker cover lenses, and reduces the number of samples and time required by the touch controller to scan large displays. These capabilities are especially important in demanding environments such as white goods, including washing machines, refrigerators and security panels; automotive systems such as dashboard infotainment and navigation controls; PC peripherals such as touch pads and displays; and industrial controls including machine interface markets, among others.

not waste valuable resources on the system microcontroller, which could lead to performance compromises being witnessed. The FT4222H’s integrated OTP memory allows the storage of USB vendor ID (VID), product ID (PID), device serial number and product description string information, along with various other items of vendor specific data.

FTDI CHIP www.ftdichip.com

l Bridge Devices deliver significantly higher data throughput compared to competing devices, especially when multiple channels are operating simultaneously. Large 512-byte transmit (TX) and receive (RX) FIFOs enable a maximum data throughput of 9Mbps across up to four UART channels.

The XR21B142x family offers industry-leading ±15kV ElectroStatic Discharge (ESD) protection on the USB pins, eliminating the need for additional protection components and reducing PCB real estate. This makes these devices ideal for rugged applica-

Microchip introduces high-voltage capacitive touchscreen line driver for advanced touch performance

tions such as smart grid data collection, data aggregators and concentrators, security and access control systems, ATM and gaming terminals, and rugged USB to serial converters. The devices feature an internal oscillator, removing the need for an external crystal, further reducing the board area consumed. The devices can be powered directly from the USB host’s 5V supply and an integrated LDO provides a regulated 3.3V power supply output, removing the need for an external LDO. EXAR www.exar.com

Also announced, Microchip’s new 3DTouchPad, DM160225, incorporates the new MTCH652 and demonstrates its advantages including advanced touch performance in a noise-robust design. The MTCH652’s higher SNR enables Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) resistance and is a versatile companion chip to advance multi-touch performance.

The MTCH652 provides the industry with a simple highvoltage boost solution that can improve robustness and increase the sensor sizes for today’s touch controllers with support for displays up to 24 inches. The wide range of input and output voltages supported, combined with the ability to daisy-chain the MTCH65X devices, provides more design flexibility. The MTCH652 is supported by Microchip’s new 3DTouchPad (DM160225) which is priced at $99.00 and is available to order today with free downloadable software under the Documentation & Software section at http://www.microchip.com/get/G1WH. MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY

www.microchip.com/get/T1U7

www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2014 | EP&Dee

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PRODUCT NEWS

SENSORS

Sensirion at the COMPAMED 2014 trade fair (Hall 8a, Booth H19.6) Sensirion stands for innovative products, customer-specific solutions and excellent support. The company's products continually set new standards in various markets across the globe. At this year's COMPAMED trade fair, Sensirion is presenting new and enhanced sensor solutions for measuring gas and liquid flow rates and differential pressure. Visit Sensirion's booth to find out more about the products presented below: Disposable liquid flow sensors offer new possibilities for medical devices

Sensirion is offering new disposable liquid flow sensor solutions for medical devices. The use of intelligent, compact and cost-effective disposable liquid flow sensors will change the field of drug delivery from the ground up and enable solutions to be provided which are safer, more reliable and more mobile for care in the hospital and at home.

Versatile mass flow controller with ultra fast settling time The new SFC5000 digital mass flow controller enables mass flow to be measured and controlled rapidly and precisely with long-term stability over a wide dynamic measuring range. This makes the sensor ideal for medical applications such as mixing gases in anesthetic devices. Thanks to Sensirion's CMOSens® technology, the new SFC5000 offers maximum precision, repeatability and reliability at a highly attractive price.

Analog mass flow meter for artificial respiration devices in the medical industry Compact, precise and quick: that's the new SFM3100 analog mass flow meter from Sensirion. It is extremely easy to integrate into existing devices and can detect negative flow ranges, making it particularly suitable for use in artificial respiration devices (inspiratory) and for gas mixture. A temperature sensor is located in the flow meter's gas channel, enabling highly precise temperature compensation. An additional temperature sensor does not have to be installed.

SENSIRION 38

EP&Dee | October, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

www.sensirion.com

Highly Integrated EOL Programmable Hall Sensor Supports Direct Connection into Automotive/ Industrial Designs without Need for PCB or Discrete Components Melexis Technologies NV has followed up the success of its initial MLX92242 Hall effect switch/latch IC, which offers end-of-line (EOL) programmability and support for 2-wire operation, with a further product introduction. The company now announces a new version of this device which enables easier implementation and saves valuable space.

Strengthening its innovative ‘No PCB’ design concept, Melexis’ MLX92242has a built-in capacitor - so that the device can be implemented directly into the design without inclusion of supplementary board level components which would increase the overall dimensions and necessitate additional soldering. It achieves all this while still delivering identical performance and functionality to the original MLX92242, as well keeping the standard industry TO-92/UA package form factor, enabling

drop-in replacement solutions.

As with the standard MLX92242, a Hall sensing element, a voltage regulator (covering 2.7V to

24V), a current sink-configured output driver and a series of sophisticated IC protection mechanisms (over-voltage, reverse voltage, thermal shutdown, etc.) are all included, plus an EEPROM memory via which EOL programming can be executed. The EEPROM allows suitable magnetic thresholds to be set for the particular application scenario, then subsequently locked.

MELEXIS www.melexis.com

New from TTI Inc – Vishay Ambient Light Sensors adjust automatically to provide additional safety and conserve battery power New from TTI, Inc., the world’s leading specialist distributor of passive, connector, electromechanical and discrete components, Vishay Ambient Light Sensors detect light or brightness in a manner similar to the human eye, closely matching our ability to see light with wavelengths between 380nm to 780 nm. Vishay Ambient Light Sensors enable settings to be adjusted automatically in response to changing ambient light conditions and can turn on and off and adjust features of lighting systems to ensure safety and conserve battery power.

Vishay offers a wide variety of ambient light sensors in leaded and surface mount packages, with either photodiode or pho-

totransistor outputs. They are available in a range of viewing angles, narrow to broad, or angles of half sensitivity.

Vishay offers phototransistor and photodiode based ambient light sensors – there are four models

with photodiode output and five models with phototransistor output. Automotive parts designated X01 are qualified to AECQ101 standard and support operating temperatures from 40°C to +100°C. TTI, INC. www.ttieurope.com

Leuze n n n

ASM

Optical sensors Sensors for logistic applications Safety at work

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Heavy Duty Industrial Connectors Power and Data Transmission Connectors

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

Visit our online shop www.oboyle.ro

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AUTOMATION

Cascadable Type 4 Safety Light Curtains MLC 500 safety light curtains are now also available as linked versions.

In cases where multiplesided access guarding is required or point-of-operation guarding is to be combined with area protection as stepping-behind protection, the use of cascaded MLC devices reduces the cost of installation and cabling considerably. Rigid L and U-shaped connections as well as variants with flexible cable connections can be used. The host-guest variants are type 4 devices.

They provide reliable pro-

tection without dead space and with maximum system availability.

Additionally, they are unusually slim (29 Ă&#x2014; 35 mm) and extremely sturdy due to the slightly set back front screens, reinforced side walls and metal end caps. The installation of the MLC safety light curtains is very easy due to the large variety of possible mounting brackets.

Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;BOYLE www.oboyle.ro

Figure 2a: U-Shape

Figure 2b: L-Shape

Figure 1: Cascading without dead space

www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2014 | EP&Dee

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PRODUCT NEWS

Lighting Solutions / Display

Zytronic Reveals the Future of Touch Technology at electronica – and it’s Curved Zytronic will be showcasing applications at electronica that demonstrate what is possible at the limit of touch screen technology and give an insight into emerging trends for humanmachine interfaces. The company, which is the leading developer of projected capacitive touch sensor technology for ultra large format displays, will focus, in particular, on curved screens. The centrepiece of the stand will be a proof-of-concept kiosk incorporating a concave 40-inch multi-touch screen. A waist height 19-inch

‘Qwerty’ touchscreen keyboard has also been included on the same ‘zero bezel’ printed glass interface, with the two touch sensors managed by a pair of Zytronic ZXY200 controllers managed by a single PC. Competing for customers, companies are increasingly seeking more eye-catching units for digital signage and self-service applications that deliver a more enjoyable user experience. Large format, multi-touch-enabled screens are gaining wider acceptance and curved screens are seen by many observers as the next wave for adoption. Zytronic is in the vanguard of the application of high performance touch technology to large curved 40

screens for public use.

Zytronic is also demonstrating the newest addition to its proprietary MPCT™ multi-touch projected capacitive product portfolio, the ZXY300, a touch controller that enables significant improvements in operational performance on ultra-large format MPCT touchscreens (above 55-inches in size).

By combining innovative electronic design with updated firmware containing its latest touch detection algorithms, ZXY300 can boost the density of touch data captured by the screen, significantly increasing touch resolution, whilst still maintaining millisecond response times. This means it is possible to quickly distinguish between up to 40 individual touch points that are closer than ever before, even on the largest MPCT touchscreens.

The extra data gathering capability of the ZXY300’s electronics and firmware increases the performance on ultra large MPCT sensors. As a result it is possible for the largest Zytronic multi-touch sensors to determine the positions of individual simultaneous touch events with far greater precision.

Used in conjunction with MPCT multi-touch sensors, the new ZXY300 touch controller is suited to a variety of applications where multi-touch precision is of prime importance, even on the largest 4K displays. These include interactive exhibits in museums, multi-user design/ architectural workstations, cataloguing and assisted selling in retail and banking applications, car showrooms, as well as command/control systems in utility companies and industrial facilities.

ZYTRONIC www.zytronic.co.uk

EP&Dee | October, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

Toshiba Unveils 20-Megapixel CMOS Image Sensor for High-End Smartphones and Mobile Handsets Toshiba Electronics Europe (TEE) has announced a new 20megapixel (MP) 1.12-micron CMOS image sensor (CIS) for high-end mobile handsets and smartphones with 1080p resolution. With an optical height of 1/2.4 inch, the T4KA7 sensor enables the development of camera modules with a zheight of 6mm or less to meet consumer demand for ultrathin and ultralight mobile devices.

The new sensor joins Toshiba’s recently announced 8MP and 13MP 1.12-micron back-side illuminated CIS devices, which enable low-power, high-performance image capture and video recording. The T4KA7 employs high-speed circuit technology that delivers a frame rate of 22 frames per second (fps) at fullresolution image capture – an improvement of 83 percent compared to Toshiba’s previous 20MP sensor.

According to market research firm Yole Développement[1], the CMOS image sensor market will experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10 per cent between 2013 and 2018, with the total CIS market

set to reach US$13 billion by 2018. Drivers include not only mobile technologies (as the industry shifts further toward use of CMOS in place of CCD image sensors), but also automotive, industrial and medical imaging applications, as well as wearable electronics.

The T4KA7 features a pixel count of 5384 (H) × 3752 (V).

TOSHIBA ELECTRONICS EUROPE www.toshiba-components.com

Altera FPGAs Enable Dolby Vision for Ultra-HD TVs Altera announced its Arria® V FPGAs are delivering the high performance needed for Dolby Laboratories' innovative Dolby® VisionTM imaging technology for ultra-high definition (UHD) displays. The Dolby Vision value proposition is to deliver a dramatically different visual experience to TV displays, enabling content creators and television manufacturers to deliver greater brightness while also providing much deeper, more nuanced darks, and a fuller palette of colors. Dolby Laboratories reports that Dolby Vision can deliver signals that offer 40 times brighter highlights than today's TVs, along with up to 1,000 times greater contrast. According to Roland Vlaicu, vice president for Consumer Imaging at Dolby Laboratories, “Altera FPGAs pro-

vide the processing and compression capabilities that enable Dolby Vision to override previous technology limitations that required video content to be altered before being reproduced for transmission. With Dolby Vision,

producers and creative teams have the freedom to use a fuller gamut of colors, as well as peak brightness and deep contrasts for better viewing experiences."

ALTERA www.altera.com

PRODUCT NEWS

Lighting Solutions / Display

RUTRONIK EMBEDDED: New Highbright TFT from NLT Distributor Rutronik presents NLT’s new 15.6 inch wide WXGA amorphous-silicon thinfilm-transistor (TFT) liquid crystal display (LCD) modules. It is ideal for use in outdoor applications such as boating equipment or construction devices.

The new wide format TFT LCD module has a luminance of 1100cd/m2 and high contrast ratio of 900:1, resulting in excellent viewability even in high ambient light environments.

Easy and low cost maintenance is provided by the long-life, 70,000 hours, LED backlight.

Adoption of the white LED backlight also results in lower environmental impact since the

backlights consume limited power and are mercury free.

Thanks to the wide operating range of -20° to +70°C, the TFT LCD module guarantees stable operation even in extreme tem-

Demonstrating delivery of cutting-edge touch performance in the most challenging of operating environments

perature environments. The display’s wide format is ideal for use as a multi-functional display in marine equipment that shows a variety of information and data on a single display at the same time.

RUTRONIK www.rutronik.com/cde01143.l

MSC Technologies announces new 43cm (17”) industrial display from Innolux – ideal for outdoor applications MSC Technologies, a business group of Avnet Electronics Marketing EMEA, a business region of Avnet Inc., announced that it is now selling the recently-launched series of Innolux G170J1-LE1 displays with WUXGA (1920×1200) resolution. This display stands out due to its suitability for industrial applications, which is an unusual characteristic for display monitors of this size.

The new G170J1-LE1 (43 cm/17“) is ideal for use with medical devices, outdoor vending machines and industrial controls in harsh environments.

Based on S-MVA technology, the display provides high brightness of 600cd/m², wide-angle viewing of 176° in all directions and a working temperature range of between -20°C and +80°C (stor-

Siemens Selects TouchNetix Capacitive Touchscreens for Latest Industrial Control Panels

age temperature: -40°C – +90°C). The LED driver and LVDS interface are pre-installed, making integration easier.

Innolux indicates a lifecycle of at least five years for the new display. It is available now from MSC Technologies together with the

appropriate embedded boards and controllers.

Further information about the Innolux G170J1-LE1 series of displays is available from MSC Technologies at info@msc-technologies.eu MSC TECHNOLOGIES www.msc-technologies.eu

TouchNetix Ltd., a leading independent supplier of high performance projected capacitance touchscreens, today announced that Siemens Industrial Automation Division has selected its MultiTouch Capacitive touchscreen technology for the new generation of Simatic industrial human machine interface (HMI) panels.

TouchNetix acted as the principal engineering partner, helping to define, design and supply best in class touch technology for the series of 15.6”, 18.5” and 21.5” HMI systems. The company's brief was to help bring the advantages of full multi-touch performance to the Simatic HMI units while maintaining the robustness of the incumbent resistive touch technology.

The technology developed by TouchNetix, using a combination of innovative sensor designs and manufacturing processes, is coupled with a custom driver board and firmware to enable a choice of digitizer or mouse input modes.

The overall system outperforms all other currently available capacitive touchscreen offerings, providing flawless touch response even in high electromagnetic interference (EMI) conditions, where water is present, and when the application necessitates that the user wears gloves.

TouchNetix delivers the most advanced capacitive multi-touch performance through its expertise in electronics, sensor design, materials science and manufacturing technologies. The company's sophisticated deployment tools and performance modelling techniques simplify the design-in process and ensure that projects are completed on-time and according to the specification.

TOUCHNETIX

www.touchnetix.com www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2014 | EP&Dee

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PRODUCT NEWS

Silicon Labs Launches Industry’s Smallest PCI Express Clock IC for Consumer Electronics Silicon Labs introduced the industry’s smallest PCI Express (PCIe) compliant clock generator targeting consumer and embedded applications where reliability, board space, component count and power consumption are critical design factors.

Designed to meet the stringent specifications of the PCIe Generation 1/2/3 standards, the new Si50122 clock leverages Silicon Labs’ low-power PCIe and CMEMS® technologies to provide an energy-friendly, crystal-less timing solution for a wide range of applications. The PCIe clock is ideal for digital video and still cameras, IP set-top boxes, HD streaming video players, high-definition digital TVs, home entertainment and audio systems, multi-function printers, consumer and small-business storage, and home gateway and wireless access equipment.

The Si50122 is the first clock generator to incorporate Silicon Labs’ patented CMEMS technology. The internal CMEMS resonator provides a stable frequency reference to the device’s CMOS clock circuitry, eliminating the need for a bulky, discrete quartz crystal. By leveraging CMEMS technology, the Si50122 PCIe clock provides the benefits of shock and vibration immunity, exceptional reliability and guaranteed performance under harsh conditions such as extreme temperature swings. Because handheld consumer electronics products are susceptible to being bumped or dropped, using a robust CMEMS PCIe clock generator rather than a crystal-based solution eliminates the risk of system failure caused by a broken quartz resonator.

Offered in a tiny 2 mm × 2.5 mm 10-pin TDFN package, the Si50122 is the smallest PCIe clock generator available, as well as the industry’s lowest power crystal-less PCIe clocking solution.

This industry-leading combination of small size and ultra-low power makes the Si50122 a best-in-class solution for space-constrained, handheld and battery-powered consumer and embedded applications that are adopting the PCIe interconnect standard. To reduce system cost, power consumption and component count and to simplify board design, the Si50122 PCIe clock generator uses a low-power “push-pull” HCSL output buffer, which eliminates the need for all external termination resistors at the HCSL outputs.

SILICON LABS www.silabs.com 42

EP&Dee | October, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

ACTIVE COMPONENTS Intersil’s Highly Integrated Li-ion Battery Charger Safeguards Backup Battery in Automotive eCall Systems Intersil Corporation announced the ISL78692, a 4.1V single-cell battery charger designed to extend the life of lithium-ion (Liion) batteries in automotive emergency call (eCall) systems.

The ISL78692 battery charger dissipates lower leakage current (3uA) than competing solutions, allowing the backup battery to remain charged for a longer period of time.

Lower charging voltage also extends battery life while the device’s small footprint reduces total solution size. Vehicles equipped with eCall systems automatically place a call to an emergency service center in the event of an

accident. The ISL78692 Li-ion battery charger is designed to support emerging worldwide emergency call systems such as Europe’s eCall initiative, which brings rapid assistance to motorists involved in a collision

anywhere in the European Union, and OnStar®, which provides a safety and security service in the United States.

INTERSIL www.intersil.com

Intersil Announces Highly Integrated DC/DC Digital PWM Controller for Densely Populated Infrastructure Power Systems Intersil Corporation announced the ZL8801 dual-phase, DC/DC digital PWM controller. The ZL8801 expands Intersil’s fourth generation controller family by enabling a simple dual phase solution for higher current applications ranging from 40A to 100A. With the ability to current share across multiple devices, its range can be extended up to 300 amps for highend FPGAs and ASICs employed in densely populated power supplies in servers, storage equipment and basestations.

Used in conjunction with Intersil’s easy-to-use PowerNavigator™ graphical user interface (GUI), the ZL8801 simplifies system power conversion and speeds the design process. The ZL8801 utilizes Intersil’s latest advances in digital

power technology, leveraging the patented ChargeMode™ control loop architecture to deliver transient response performance that’s far superior to today’s analog controllers. The ZL8801 supports Intersil’s proprietary DDC (digital

DC) bus for inter-controller communication. Configuration is easily managed with the graphical PowerNavigator tool to provide drag and drop sequencing control, which is autonomously managed in system by the ZL8801.

INTERSIL www.intersil.com

PRODUCT NEWS

ACTIVE COMPONENTS

IDT Releases World’s First IEEE 1588 Time and Frequency Generators Transparently Disciplined by Synchronous Ethernet Integrated Device Technology, Inc. (IDT®) introduced a family of IEEE 1588 time and frequency generator chips to reduce costs while meeting the synchronization needs of LTE-Advanced, wireless backhaul and heterogeneous networks. The new family of chips includes synchronization management devices (SMDs) and port synchronizers for IEEE 1588 and synchronous Ethernet (SyncE).

The SMDs manage IEEE 1588 time and frequency generation and SyncE synchronization. The port synchronizers select between redundant SMD signals and provide accurate time and low-jitter clocks to the network ports in the system. The IDT 82P33810, 82P33814 and 82P33831 SMDs reduce the cost

of IEEE 1588 clocks by replacing stable but expensive oven-controlled crystal oscillators (OCXOs) with low-cost temperature-compensated crystal oscillators (TCXOs) that are stabilized with frequency information from the

Ericsson introduces highly robust power modules with ultra-wide input voltage range for industrial applications Ericsson has introduced two new series of DC/DC converter modules that are primarily aimed at industrial and railway transportation applications, as well as information and communications technology (ICT) applications that are operated with remote power supplies and/or multiple battery voltages. Ideally suited to use in distributed power architectures and industrial control systems, these new highly robust modules target typically 12V, 24V or 48V power supply line applications that require a board power supply to operate across a large range of input voltages, and without disrupting output characteristics when the input line is experiencing very high fluctuation.

SyncE physical layer. The process of stabilizing the TCXOs is automatic and transparent to the IEEE 1588 clock recovery software.

INTEGRATED DEVICE TECHNOLOGY www.idt.com

Intersil Announces High Efficiency Buck-Boost and Boost+Bypass Switching Regulators for Smartphones and Tablets Intersil announced five new additions to the ISL911xx family of market leading buck-boost and boost switching regulators, optimized to support system power supplies and peripherals such as Wi-Fi or 3G/4G RF power amplifiers. Intersil’s proprietary four-switch buck-boost architecture extends battery life by enabling industry leading efficiency of up to 96% and providing smooth transitions from buck to boost to prevent glitches and noise in smartphones, tablets and other single-cell lithium ion (Li-ion) or Li-polymer battery systems. The ISL9110x buck-boost regulator family is capable of working with the ultra-small inductors and capacitors to fit

within less than 14mm2 board footprint, making them the ideal 2A switching converter solution for space-constrained mobile devices. The advanced waferlevel CSP package requires only a single inductor and very few

external components, which minimizes overall space requirements. The ISL911xx regulators’ 2.5MHz switching frequency further reduces the power supply solution size.

INTERSIL www.intersil.com

The PKE3000PI operates over an input voltage range from 9V to 36V and the PKE5000PI operates from 18V to 75V. Each series offers four output voltages, delivering 3.3V/4.5A; 5V/3A; 12V/1.25A and 15V/1A. Offering a high efficiency of typically 89% at 12V out (full load), the modules offer low power dissipation and excellent thermal characteristics.

The modules are small and compact, measuring industry-standard dimensions 25.4 × 25.4 × 10.8mm (1.00 × 1.00 × 0.4 in), and come in highly robust encapsulated packaging, protecting the modules from dust, high humidity and highly corrosive or highly vibrational environments, which are commonly found in industrial or railway/transportation applications.

“In the industrial arena in particular, many applications require an ultra-wide-input voltage to handle a large variety of power sources”, said Patrick Le Fèvre, Marketing and Communication Director, Ericsson Power Modules. “These new compact and highly robust DC/DC converter enable the possibility to use a single module to accommodate at least two different battery voltages with a single module, thereby reducing inventory and also delivering flexibility for designers that are developing single boards to handle different voltage sources.”

ERICSSON POWER MODULES

www.ericsson.com/powermodules

www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2014 | EP&Dee

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PRODUCT NEWS

ACTIVE COMPONENTS

Rutronik presents 3 Amp Synchronous Buck Regulators from Intersil The new ISL85003 and ISL85003A 3 Amp synchronous buck regulators from Intersil with integrated high-side and lowside MOSFETs support the auxiliary rails on the latest FPGA plat-

forms for the most demanding infrastructure and industrial applications. They are available at distributor Rutronik as of now.

The new ISL85003/3A buck regulators support an input voltage range of 4.5V to 18V while delivering very efficient and continuous 3A current for the latest generation of FPGAs from leading manufacturers for high-end server, network communication and industrial process control applications.

From 0.8V, the output voltage is adjustable to ±1%. The low power loss extends product life.

The ISL85003/3A’s high-side FET, based on a proprietary high-performance power FET, runs at 65mO and the low-side RDS(ON) runs at 45mO. Up to 95% efficiency lead to lower die temperatures, keeping the system cooler and reducing reliance on fans or other outside cooling systems.

The light load mode allows systems to go into sleep mode when power requirements drop, effectively consuming less power. The ISL85003’s switching frequency runs at 500kHz or can be synchronized to a clock up to 2MHz, which enables smaller inductors for the design and lower ripple, further improving efficiency and ease of design.

RUTRONIK www.rutronik.com/cc0e1119.l

Renesas Electronics Expands True Low Power™ RX111 Group Microcontroller Lineup Renesas Electronics announced the addition of new product versions with larger memory capacity to the RX111 Group of 32-bit microcontrollers (MCUs) ideal for applications such as healthcare devices, industrial equipment, and building automation systems. Renesas’ existing RX111 Group product lineup offer package pin counts of 36 to 64 pins, flash memory capacity of 16 KB to 128 KB, and RAM capacity of 8 KB to 16 KB. The new product versions extend the flash memory capacity range to 512 KB and the RAM capacity range to 64 KB. The total number of product versions will grow from 31 to 46, strengthening the RX111 Group product lineup overall. Products such as healthcare devices, sensors for industrial applications, and measuring 44

and detection devices for building automation systems require high computational processing

performance due to the need to perform operations such as filtering at high speed, and they also need low power consumption to achieve extended battery life. The RX111 Group delivers functionality and performance that precisely match these requirements, and it has achieved wide adoption across a wide variety of systems.

RENESAS ELECTRONICS EUROPE www.renesas.eu

EP&Dee | October, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

XP Power extends line up of EN50121-3-2 certified DC-DC converters for railway and rolling stock applications XP Power announced the RDC20 and RDC40 series of 20 Watt and 40 Watt metal encapsulated wide range DC-DC converters designed for railway and industrial applications. These highly efficient PCB mounted converters, typically 90%, comply with railway and rolling stock EMC standard EN50121-3-2 and can accommodate a wide range of input voltages. Both series are available with either a nominal input of 72 VDC (range 36 – 140 VDC) or 110 VDC (range 55 – 176 VDC).

Combined with their small size, the RDC20 measuring only 25.4 × 50.8 × 10.16 mm (1.0 × 2.0 × 0.4 inches), and a high efficiency, the RDC20 and RDC40 offer a high power density with minimal wasted heat. Both series can be used over the extended temperature range of – 40°C to + 85°C and can operate to full power using convection cooling up to + 50°C or up to + 60°C with an optional heat sink. Maximum case temperature is + 105°C. Both series are available with

either single or dual outputs.

Single output models are available with + 3.3, + 5, + 12 or + 15 VDC. Duals comprise ±12 or ± 15 VDC outputs. The RDC20

also has a ± 5 VDC dual output option. Standard controls and signals include remote On/Off, output over voltage, input under voltage and over current protection. An output trim function provides +/- 10% adjustment from stated nominal output on single output models only.

XP POWER www.xppower.com

Digital 40 Amp 132 Watt Pol DC-DC Converter Murata announced the addition of the OKD series of non-isolated point-of-load (PoL) DC/DC converters from Murata Power Solutions. Available in three different package formats, through-hole, single-in-line, and surface mount, the OKDx-T/40 is a 40 Amp, 132 Watt digital DC/DC converter.

These highly efficient (typically 97.2%), fully regulated converters offer a high power density and measure just 30.85 × 20.0 × 8.2 mm.

The PMBus™ interface facilitates power management features not previously available in analog PoL converters. By interfacing the OKD converter to the system’s I2C bus, a systems engineer can monitor

critical system-level performance requirements that include Vin, Iin, Vout, Iout, and operating temperature. The PMBus™ can also be used to set warning flags for temperature, Vin, Vout, and Iout, and allows the user to customize parameters such as

Vout, Vin turn on/off thresholds, output over voltage protection, output current limit, and ramp up characteristics, to name a few.

MURATA www.murata.eu

PRODUCT NEWS

ACTIVE COMPONENTS

IDT Extends PCIe Timing Leadership with 1.5V Extensions to SoC-Friendly Ultra-Low-Power Clock Family

IR’s Automotive-Qualified 40V 5×6mm Dual PQFN COOLiRFET™s Deliver Benchmark Performance for Low Power Motor Applications

Integrated Device Technology, Inc. (IDT®) announced it has expanded its leading systemon-chip (SoC)-friendly PCI Express® (PCIe®) timing family with the addition of 1.5 V clock generators and clock multiplexers. The new devices join the previously introduced 1.5 V buffers to provide e n te r p r i s e - l e v e l performance for space- and powerconstrained designs. The chips offer up to a 90 percent reduction in power and board space compared to standard 3.3 V current-mode HCSL devices. The 9FGU clock generator family delivers two, four, six or eight outputs and is offered with and without internal terminations, giving the designer a choice of a flexible termination, or minimal board space with integrated terminations, for 100 ohm transmission lines.

International Rectifier has launched the AUIRFN8459 and AUIRFN8458 40V automotivequalified COOLiRFET™ power MOSFETs offering benchmark on-state resistance (RDS(on)) for automotive applications requiring compact size and high current performance including pump motor control and automotive body control.

The AUIRFN8459 and AUIRFN8458 are the first in a family of automotivequalified 5×6mm dual PQFN power MOSFETs based on IR’s most advanced COOLiRFET™ 40V trench technology. The AUIRFN8459 achieves ultra-low 5.9mOhm Rds(on) per channel benchmark performance and 50A high current carrying capability.

The new 5×6mm dual PQFN COOLiRFET™ devices also offer a low thermal path to the PCB and significant thermal performance improvement

All devices are pin-compatible with IDT's 1.8 V 9FGV PCIe G123 clock generator family.

The 1.5V 9DMU and pin-compatible 1.8V 9DMV clock multiplexers are two-input devices with either one or four outputs.

These clock multiplexers are offered with a choice of exter-

nal terminations or integrated 100-ohm terminations, and feature a choice of switchover modes. The user can choose between asynchronous switching or synchronous switching modes.

INTEGRATED DEVICE TECHNOLOGY www.idt.com

Renesas Electronics delivers improved Safety, Efficiency and Affordability for Small Appliances and Consumer Products with Brushless DC Motor Control Support Renesas Electronics Europe, is expanding its safety and efficiency support for home appliances and tools with the innovative new RL78/G1G Group of microcontrollers (MCUs). In complement to its current brushless DC motor control (BLDC) MCU offerings, Renesas delivers power-efficient performance with shorter development time and up to 40 percent lower system costs, in a small but powerful single-chip solution for appliances like advanced electric fans, electric tools, and food processors, and many other applications that require fine motor control.

Development based on a common platform supporting all product levels, from multifunc-

tion high-end to entry-level models, has become the mainstream for small electric appliances incorporating BLDC

motors. By using Renesas’ existing RL78/G14 Group in their high-end products, customers can utilize the same software resources in products at all price points, from high-end to entry-level models.

RENESAS ELECTRONICS EUROPE www.renesas.eu

compared to an SO-8 package to deliver higher efficiency, improved power density and overall system level cost savings.

IR’s automotive MOSFETs are subject to dynamic and static

part average testing combined with 100 percent automated wafer level visual inspection as part of IR’s automotive quality initiative targeting zero defects.

AEC-Q101 qualification requires that there is no more than a 20 percent change in Rds(on) after 1,000 temperature cycles of testing.

INTERNATIONAL RECTIFIER www.irf.com

Toshiba Motor Drivers Deliver Quiet, Cool Operation to Home Appliances and Office Automation Equipment Toshiba Electronics Europe (TEE) has announced the availability of several new motor driver ICs that reflect the demand for compact design and quiet operation in applications such as home appliances and office automation equipment.

The TB67S269FTG is a bipolar stepping motor driver that offers a high voltage of 50V and current of 2A. High speed, high capability motor drives are required in printers, office automation equipment, ATMs, amusement machines and home appliances.

At the same time, customer requirements for more compact, stylishly designed equip-

ment put pressure on manufacturers to reduce size wherever possible. This is combined with a need to reduce heat within the equipment. TB67S269FTG reduces heat and increases effi-

ciency by increasing the switching speed and adopting Toshiba’s ADMD motor driving technology. It has a low on resistance of 0.8Ω or less.

TOSHIBA ELECTRONICS EUROPE www.toshiba-components.com

www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2014 | EP&Dee

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PRODUCT NEWS

CONNECTORS

GCT - Trusted supplier of custom board to board connectors to the Smart Metering Industry Global Connector Technology offer a full package of connectors to the smart metering market, including SIM card, board to board and Flat Flexible cable and connectors. A huge range of standard board to board products is complimented by custom product expertise, which allows simple modifications to board to board connectors all the way up to complete bespoke connector design.

Customers trust that GCT have the experience, skills and technical expertise to assist with design of custom board to board interconnects, for example we recently designed a bespoke connector to meet SMETS (Smart Metering Equipment Technical Specifications). GCT offer a

high quality product at an extremely competitive unit price, critically the overall cost is not onerous as tooling costs and volume thresholds are low compared to many competitors. SIM connectors are offered for three standard card

sizes: Nano (4ff ), Micro (3ff ) and Mini (2ff).

To speed up design downloadable drawings, 3D models and specifications are available from the GCT website.

GLOBAL CONNECTOR TECHNOLOGY www.gct.co

TE Connectivity DEUTSCH 369 Series Connectors are lightweight, cost-effective and reliable - now available at TTI Inc The DEUTSCH 369 connector series from leading supplier TE Connectivity is now available at TTI, Inc. Designed to provide a high-reliability, lightweight, compact and cost-efficient interconnect solution in many applications, the TE DEUTSCH 369 Series is particularly suited to harsh environments including high vibration and moisture, as well as aerospace applications such as cabin systems (inflight entertainment and power) in civil aircraft. Fully sealed for use in areas with high moisture levels and manufactured from high-performance composite materials, the interconnects conform to the smoke, toxicity and flammability requirements of FAR 25.

The TE Connectivity DEUTSCH 46

369 Series is designed for applications where fewer contacts are required and shielding is unnecessary. Available in 3, 6 and 9 way configurations, these connectors offer fast and simple installation and maintenance of cabling and a range of individu-

ally colour-coded keying options. Each half of the connector can be configured with either male or female contacts, which offers the advantage of doubling the possible keying combinations and protecting contacts on the powered side of the system.

TTI, INC. www.ttieurope.com

EP&Dee | October, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

Rugged CCM03 series smart card connectors from C&K offering higher contact forces now available through TTI, Inc. Rugged CCM03 series smart card connectors from C&K offer higher contact forces for harsh environment applications and can now be sourced from TTI, Inc., the world’s leading specialist distributor of passive, connector, electromechanical and discrete components.

Compatible with SIM/SAM cards, the two new connector families feature a built-in card detection switch for machine-to-machine (M2M) applications, meet IEC 512 certification and are resistant to shock, vibration, humidity and extreme temperatures.

CCM03-3511 series smart card connectors provide an increased contact force to withstand shock and high vibration, while the CCM03-3512 series features extended soldering pads to withstand a second reflow upside down. The CCM03 series’ advanced contact system optimises electrical performance, flexibility and reliability, while minimising the elec-

trical contact resistance and overall cost. Further technical details include a vibration frequency rating of 10 to 500Hz, a mechanical life of up to 50,000 cycles in fixed cover configurations, and 10,000 cycles for hinged cover variants. The

CCM03 Series smart card connectors are available in either six- or eight-contact variations, hinged or fixed cover designs, as well as pick-and-place and leadfree SMT soldering compatibility. The connectors have a spoon design that maximises contact area, increasing reliability and performance.

TTI, INC. www.ttieurope.com

Miniature but rugged cable-to-board interconnects from 3M now available through TTI, Inc. New miniature and robust 450 series .050” (1.27mm) pitch ribbon cable to PCB interconnects from 3M can now be sourced from TTI, Inc., the world’s leading specialist distributor of passive, connector, electromechanical and discrete components.

The fine, .050” pitch saves space on the PCB and allows for high connection density. The devices also deliver on performance, reliability and cost savings.

The ribbon cable wiremount socket assembly, .050” × .050”, 451 series incorporates 3M’s insulation displacement contact (IDC) technology in the connector, helping maintain secure connections and high signal integrity. The IDC connector’s mass termination capability allows the termination of 30

lines in a single cycle, reducing the need for expensive automated termination equipment and allowing manual cable assembly operations. Available friction-latch configurations and

an optional strain-relief accessory can further increase connection reliability. An optional, unique header ejector latch mechanism provides positive latch and ejection capability with minimal size addition.

TTI, INC. www.ttieurope.com

PRODUCT NEWS

CONNECTORS

TTI Europe Stocks Industrial Mini I/O Connectors from TE Connectivity TTI, Inc. is stocking TE Connectivity’s (TE’s) mini I/O industrial connector system. This compact, latching, wire-toboard I/O interface measures one-quarter the size of a conventional RJ45 plug and features two points of contact for increased reliability in high vibration industrial applications.

Mini I/O connectors are available in two coding options to help prevent mismating. Each connector contains eight individual contacts that accommodate I/O sig-

nals or industrial Ethernet, and are available in angled and vertical configurations, and surfacemount and through-hole options. The unique latching system protects the plug from pullout in high vibration environments. The latest addition to the mini I/O product family is a field installable version with an innovative and time-saving wire termination and an easy to use hand tool that allows for field assembly in virtually any environment.

TTI, INC. www.ttieurope.com

FCI Introduces BarKlip™ Cable I/O FCI, a leading supplier of connectors and interconnect systems, announced today the release of the BarKlip™ I/O Power Connector. The BarKlip™ I/O connector, rated for up to 200Amps/contact per UL & CSA criteria, offers improved electrical performance and long-term reliability compared with alternative designs.

Designed to meet the Open Compute (OCP) Power Distribution Architecture Standard, the connector is designed to connect with a system rack bar to achieve a direct pluggable connection to an uninsulated busbar. The connection generates low energy loss with a maximum resistance of only 0.2mOhms per contact.

The BarKlip™ I/O Connector features 14 fully independent cantilevered beams, which provide

a true compliant spring to adjust for variations in busbar alignment and surface finish. In addition, the BarKlip™ I/O connector is a floating panel mount design.

An installed height of < 34mm

enables their use in 1U rackmounted equipment commonly found in datacenters and new hyperscale computing architectures. The available wire range is 14AWG to 2AWG, allowing users to define the wire gauge and length flexibly in terms of actual requirement.

The BarKlip™ I/O Connector is designed to operate between 40°C and 125°C. FCI ELECTRONICS www.fci.com

electronica 2014: POLYRACK TECH GROUP in hall B1, booth 441 Casing and system solutions for all industries At electronica 2014, the world's leading trade fair (November 11 - 14, Munich/Germany), the POLYRACK TECH-GROUP will be presenting its wide range of innovative case and system solutions as well as panel PCs for HMI / MMI applications in hall B1, booth 441.

In addition to application-specific system solutions, this year's highlights include the new industrial PC 2 series as well as the rugged MIL 1/2 short ATR chassis for rough conditions; a system platform that will be presented for the first time at electronica. For the IPC 2 series, POLYRACK has completely redesigned its successful industrial PC series to provide an easy assembly and greater flexibility in front design.

With its new rugged MIL 1/2 short ATR chassis, POLYRACK is presenting a heavy-duty, passively cooled case platform for tough mechanical, climate, chemical and electrical environments. The case is designed to conform to specifications in safety and defence technology.

It can also be configured using CPCI, VME, VMEX, VPX backplanes and OpenVPX, as well as power supply units and I/O connection cards. As a further innovation, POLYRACK will be demonstrating its expanded backplane collection to include standards such as VPX and CompactPCI serial. POLYRACK's EmbedTEC case series provides a casing solution that can be altered in almost all its dimensions. Primarily developed for embedded computing and HMI (human machine interface), EmbedTEC can also be used in other fields of application. The

portfolio of the POLYRACK TECH-GROUP embraces integrated solutions for racks and table top housings, Panel-PCs, Backplanes and microcomputer packaging systems (MPS), as well as customer-specific solutions in particular for the typical requirements of the railway applications.

Customized standard: The EmbedTEC case series from POLYRACK.

The POLYRACK MIL Rugged 1/2 ATR short chassis keeps harshest environments prior For the wide and deep offering; the Group combines the know-how of the corporations POLYRACK Electronic-Aufbausysteme GmbH, RAPP Kunststofftechnik GmbH und RAPP Oberflächenbearbeitung GmbH with over 35 years experience.

POLYRACK TECH-GROUP www.polyrack.com

www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2014 | EP&Dee

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PRODUCT NEWS

PASSIVE COMPONENTS

KEMET Introduces New High Temperature Ceramic Capacitors KEMET, a leading global supplier of electronic components, introduced its new High Temperature Radial Molded Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors which offer industry-leading performance in extreme environments and high temperature up to 200°C. These capacitors are designed specifically to withstand the severe shock and vibration conditions associated with deep-well and horizontal drilling activities, and are also well-suited for use in geophysical probes, hybrid and electric motor drives, aerospace engine compartments and defense applications. The gold-plated lead wires of these components help withstand extreme temperatures while the epoxy molded case provides environmental protection and mechanical durability.

“As high temperature electronic module complexity increases, the size reduction of components becomes more and more

critical,” said Dr. Abhijit Gurav, KEMET Vice President of Ceramic Technology.

“These new capacitors are typically smaller in size than competitor radial molded capacitors, allowing for significant downsizing and replacement opportunities. In addition, KEMET’s C0G dielectric platform is RoHS compliant, exhibits high

KEMET Introduces New ThroughHole Ceramic Capacitors for High Temperature and Automotive Applications up to 150°C KEMET introduced its expanded line of Aximax High Temperature Axial Capacitors. These new offerings are based on the same successful KEMET material technologies utilized in the surface mount X8L and X8R dielectric platforms. The new axial form factor now enables these technologies to be extended into high vibration environments.

The industry’s first X8L dielectric in an axial form factor, Aximax X8L, is a conformally coated device designed to operate in environments reaching temperatures as high as 150°C with capacitance up to 2.2μF and rated voltages up to 50 V.

breakdown strength, low leakage, low losses and negligible loss of capacitance as temperatures and applied voltages rise to their rated values.”

KEMET www.kemet.com

For applications sensitive to capacitance changes such as filters, the new Aximax Ultra-Stable X8R offers superior performance and more effective capacitance when compared to competitor X8R dielectric technologies. KEMET dielectric technology exhibits no capacitance loss with respect to applied DC voltage and negligible loss of capacitance as temperatures approach 150°C. These X8R devices are available with rated voltages up to 200 V. Typical applications include decoupling, bypass and filtering in extreme environments such as down-hole oil exploration, under-the-hood automotive, defense and aerospace. Both new Aximax products are leadfree, RoHS (without exemption) and REACH compliant and are available in Commercial and Automotive (AEC-Q200) Grades.

KEMET www.kemet.com 48

EP&Dee | October, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

PRODUCT NEWS

PASSIVE COMPONENTS

Rugged and Accurate Commutation Encoder Drastically Reduces Assembly Time on BLDC Motors

Rutronik presents new AEC-Q200-Qualified Ceramic Disc Safety Capacitors from Vishay

CUI Inc has announced an addition to its next-generation modular encoder series that generates standard U/V/W commutation signals for vectoring current to brushless motors.

delivers exceptional accuracy figures of ±12 arcmin (±0.2 mechanical degrees).

Thanks to the digital nature of the encoder design, the AMT31 series incorporates a

Positional information for the AMT31 series is generated using CUI’s patented, capacitive code generation system coupled with a proprietary ASIC. The technology makes the encoder ideal for use in brushless dc motor applications subject to vibration and contaminants - such as dust, dirt and oil - that typically stop optical encoders from working effectively. The AMT31 series also

One Touch Zero™ feature, allowing for significant time saving during the motor installation process. Installing a commutation optical encoder onto a brushless dc motor (BLDC) can be an iterative and timeconsuming process as the optical disk must be physically and precisely rotated to align with the correct motor windings.

CUI , INC. www.cui.com

Vishay has launched a new series of AEC-Q200-qualified, AC-line-rated ceramic disc safety capacitors designed to provide high reliability for Class X1 (440VAC) and Y2 (300VAC) automotive applications in accordance with IEC 6038414.3, 3rd edition.

This AY2 series is available at distributor Rutronik as of now.

The new components offer a capacitance range from 10pF to 4700pf with tolerances down to ±10% over a temperature range of -55° to +125°C. With their superior robustness, they provide a particularly high level of quality and reliability.

Incorporating the very latest in ceramic material, capacitor design, and production tech-

High tolerance small crystal unit suits wearable and data communications applications Murata announced the launch of the XRCFD and XRCMD series of highly accurate miniature 1612 size crystal units. With an overall*1 frequency precision of ±20 ppm, both series are able to support the stringent frequency tolerances required for wireless communications such as LTE/3G, WiFi, Bluetooth®, Bluetooth Low Energy, ZigBee and NFC. They are also suitable for wired data communications applications such as Ethernet, USB3 in addition to hard disk and solid-state disk computing systems.

Measuring just 1.6 × 1.2 × 0.35 mm the XRCFD-F series crystal unit is available with nominal operating frequencies from 24.000 to 31.999MHz. Operating temperature is across the range of -30 to +85°C. The XRCMD-F series has an operating frequency in the range 32.000 to 48.000MHz and measures 1.6 × 1.2 × 0.33 mm. Both

series employ Murata’s fusion sealing technology for a complete hermetic seal and uses an alloy in the metal cap structure.

Its proprietary packing technology, unavailable in existing crystal units, enables superior quality and cost performance, and is suitable for mass production. At the same time it achieves superior miniaturization, contributing to a high-density mounting and slimming of the unit. *1 overall frequency precision (initial) measured at + 25 °C with temperature characteristics of 30 to +85°C, aging and up to two re-flow soldering process MURATA www.murata.eu

nologies, the AY2 series withstands more than 2000 temperature cycles without a single failure. The devices consist of a silver-plated ceramic disc with tinned copper connection leads offering 0.6mm diameters. AY2 capacitors are avail-

able with straight leads with spacing of 5mm, 7.5mm, and 10mm. RoHS-compliant and halogen-free, their encapsulation is made of flame resistant epoxy resin in accordance with UL 94 V-0.

RUTRONIK www.rutronik.com

New miniature power inductors from Eaton offering the highest power density inductor solution currently available can now be ordered through TTI, Inc. TTI, Inc. now stocks Eaton’s MPI series miniature power inductors. Thanks to the molded technology, the components enable superior EMI shielding and the highest power density currently available on the market.

MPI power inductors are made of a unique composite magnetic core material and allow for soft roll-off inductance characteristics independent from the temperature while maintaining high efficiency. The devices are an ideal solution for space constrained power supply designs for either filtering or high frequency switching operation up to 10MHz. Amongst the main target applications are LED drivers, LCD displays, PLC/robot controllers, embedded PCs, handheld/ mobile devices, portable media

players, GPS systems, battery operated devices, notebooks/

netbooks, tablet computers, PDAs, and POL converters.

The rugged MPI4040 and MPI2520 series power inductors are magnetically shielded, can handle high transient inrush current spikes and have been designed for a maximum temperature of +125°C. All components are halogen-free, lead-free and fully RoHS compliant.

TTI, INC. www.ttieurope.com

www.epd-ee.eu | October, 2014 | EP&Dee

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