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Digital transmitter gives kmrange on WiFi HaLow traf c

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A few weeks ago, our friends at distributor

Premier Farnell sent me a summary of a surveyit had conducted about attitudes to self-drivingcars, and other aspects of automotive technologydevelopment. The headline read, “Global researchshows drivers want improved safety and e ciency,not self-driving cars” - which didn’t entirely re ect thepicture painted by the gures in the study; “Improvingef ciency and passenger safety should be the top

areas addressed by engineering and technologydevelopments in the automotive sector, according

to global consumer research from element14. Incontrast, areas that are seeing signi cant funding anddevelopment, such as sensors, self-driving cars andelectric vehicles, have considerably less consumer

appeal... 56% of consumers feel technology in the automotive sector should be primarily focussed onef ciency and 53% said safety respectively. Only 7%

agree the focus should be on driverless cars and8% on sensors, for example for judging distances...The results are more positive when looking at overallenthusiasm for driverless cars, with 44% of survey

respondents saying they are of interest, more thanvirtual reality (41%) or g estu re control (43%).” (Youcan read that research here .)This might be somewhat missing the point. Theoutcome that today’s drivers might not prioritise ashift to autonomous driving is not really a surprise;but to a certain extent (not quanti ed in any study I’vecome across) they may not be the target market for

those vehicles when they do become available. The

sector of whom those questions should be asked isthe non-drivers; it is a documented fact that in manydeveloped economies (even in the USA, accordingto research from 2014) the proportion of teenagersacquiring a driving licence is falling. Gaining thatlicence is no longer the automatic rite-of-passageexperience it once was. This is (if you like) the Ubergeneration, the purchasers of TAAS – transport as aservice. And its priorities may be di erent. Considerthis quote from a newspaper column;

“...in 10 or 20 years the three biggest car makers inthe world will not be Toyota, Volkswagen and GeneralMotors. They will be Google, Apple and Uber. That’s

because they have come to understand something more important than what goes under the bonnet.They’ve come to understand that you don’t need

a car. But you do need one tomorrow morning, at about ten past eight. And on Thursday afternoonfor a couple of hours. Think about it. This morning

your car is parked outside your house doing nothingexcept costing money. You probably won’t use it at

all until tomorrow morning, when you’ll be forced todrive through all the roadworks and all the jams sothat you can leave it outside your of ce all day... Lifewill go on like this for months until one day it needs a

service, or it breaks down, and that’ll be a nuisance because then you’ll have to make alternative travel arrangements, which will be a chore. You’re payingthousands of pounds a year, then, for something that

you use for — what? — 5% of the time? Two per

cent?” Who wrote that? An eco-warrior? In fac t it is bya motoring journalist; Jer emy Clarkson writing inthe Sunday Times (UK) . You have to allow thatMr. Clarkson is writing for entertainment and e ectbut, nevertheless, when motoring journalists startto question the merits of “default” car ownership,something my have changed. Or be changing.This matters, because it feeds directly back todecisions about where the focus of on-going

research and development in automotive engineeringshould lie. Should we work towards a self-driving carthat is like today’s car, but with “autopilot”, assumingsome residual skills on the part of the operator? Orone that “contains no user-operable controls”? Dowe continue to add sophistication in the infotainmentand connected-services dimension? If the carbecomes less of an aspirational purchase, perhapsthat is less important: conversely, if the occupantsare to have nothing else to do, perhaps it becomes ofeven more importance.There is almost no area of automotive engineering,from basic energy source, to “V2X” communications,to entertainment bandwidth, that does not facedramatic changes, and on (for the auto industry)unprecedented short timescales. Having the pro leof the buying market transform itself at the same timecan only add to the fun.

taas, tHe new autOMOtiVe reality EDN.COMMENT

http://www.edn/http://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/-europe.comhttp://www.element14.com/community/community/applications/automotive/blog/2015/12/09/engineering-a-connected-world-connected-cars-and-the-future-of-automotivehttp://www.element14.com/community/community/applications/automotive/blog/2015/12/09/engineering-a-connected-world-connected-cars-and-the-future-of-automotivehttp://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/the-clarkson-review-2015-renault-kadjar/http://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/the-clarkson-review-2015-renault-kadjar/http://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/the-clarkson-review-2015-renault-kadjar/http://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/the-clarkson-review-2015-renault-kadjar/http://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/the-clarkson-review-2015-renault-kadjar/http://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/the-clarkson-review-2015-renault-kadjar/http://www.element14.com/community/community/applications/automotive/blog/2015/12/09/engineering-a-connected-world-connected-cars-and-the-future-of-automotivehttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/-europe.comhttp://www.edn/


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6 EDN Europ e JANUARY 2016

what can you expect in a

development board with a $9price tag? Known as CHIP, whichstands for “Computer Hardwarein Products,” the open sourceproduct features a 1-GHz R8

ARM processor, 512 MB of RAM,and 4 GB of onboard storage;has built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetoothconnectivity; and is designed towork on any screen.

Smaller than a cr edit card, C HIPis t he creation of Next ThingCo ., which is based in Oakland,California, and was started byfriends Dave Rauchwerk, GustavoHuber, and Thomas Deckert. Thegroup raised more than $2 millionfrom over 39,500 backers through

a May Kickstarter campaign , far

exceeding its initial $50,000 goal.“If you’re wondering how CHIPcould be this inexpensive, you canthank cheap Chinese table ts,” saidDavid Scheltema of Make: . “Thesystem on chip (SoC) used in thedevelopment board is based onan A13 processor by Allwinner, aShenzhen-based semiconductorcompany. As recently as 2013,

Allwinner was the second-largesttablet manufacturer in the world,and the A13 was the mostsuccessful processor in Allwinner’slineup.”CHIP comes preinstalled withdozens of applications, tools,and games. The Chromium

browser makes Web sur ngpossible. LibreO ce can beused to create word documentsand presentations and also editspreadsheets. Scratch is a freebasic programming language thatallows users to create interactivestories, games, and animations. Inaddition, CHIP can run thousandsof free applications from theopen so urce community. Several

tutorials are available on topicsthat include powering on thedevice, ashing the board, andsetting up Bluetooth.The company is currently focusedon ful lling orders from theKickstarter campaign, but thesystem is expected to be availablefor direct purchase at a later date;the venture’s site says June 2016.CHIP joins another Kickstar tero ering from Next Thing — OTTO,a customisable “hackable GIF”camera powered by Raspberry Pi,was introduced in May 2014 andhas a starting price of $199.

$9 single-board computer is set to make its debut by Amy Norcross

pulse Connecting Global CompetenceBusiness meets technology

Book yourticket now!

lopec.com/tickets

Join your community and benet from Networking— Where manufacturers

and end users come together.Knowledge transfer— Research thatinspires product ideas.

Industry orientation— State of theart technology that reveals marketopportunities.

This is the place where printedelectronics come to life.

Exhibition: April 6–7, 2016Conference: April 5–7, 2016

Messe München, Germany

©: FlexEnable Ltd (top),Takao Someya Group,University of Tokyo (bottom left),Thinlm, Norway (bottom right)

Completearticle, here

http://nextthing.co/http://nextthing.co/http://nextthing.co/http://nextthing.co/https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598272670/chip-the-worlds-first-9-computerhttp://makezine.com/2015/05/07/next-thing-co-releases-worlds-first-9-computer/http://makezine.com/2015/05/07/next-thing-co-releases-worlds-first-9-computer/http://makezine.com/2015/05/07/next-thing-co-releases-worlds-first-9-computer/https://nextthingco.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/sections/201702957-Gettting-Started-with-C-H-I-P-https://nextthingco.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/sections/201702957-Gettting-Started-with-C-H-I-P-https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598272670/meet-otto-the-hackable-gif-camerahttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598272670/meet-otto-the-hackable-gif-camerahttp://www.edn-europe.com/en/36-9-single-board-computer-is-set-to-make-its-debut.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10007991&vID=1321http://www.edn-europe.com/en/36-9-single-board-computer-is-set-to-make-its-debut.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10007991&vID=1321http://www.edn-europe.com/en/36-9-single-board-computer-is-set-to-make-its-debut.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10007991&vID=1321https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598272670/meet-otto-the-hackable-gif-camerahttps://nextthingco.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/sections/201702957-Gettting-Started-with-C-H-I-P-http://makezine.com/2015/05/07/next-thing-co-releases-worlds-first-9-computer/http://makezine.com/2015/05/07/next-thing-co-releases-worlds-first-9-computer/https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598272670/chip-the-worlds-first-9-computerhttp://nextthing.co/http://nextthing.co/


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Researchers at MIT and Texas

Instruments have developeda radio frequency identi cation(RFID) chip that is virtually impos-sible to hack, potentially defeatingcapture of data in scenarios suchas theft of credit card number orkey card information, or of high-value goods where inventory sys-tems may be deceived by dummy

tags.

The problem is tags that are vul-nerable to side-channel attacks,which typically analyse patternsof memory access or uctuationsin power usage when a device isperforming a cryptographic opera-tion, in order to extract its crypto-graphic key.One way to thwart side-channel

attacks is to regularly change

secret keys. Such a system wouldstill, however, be vulnerable to a“power glitch” attack, in whichthe RFID chip’s power wouldbe repeatedly cut right before itchanged its secret key. Power-glitch attacks have been used tocircumvent limits on the numberof incorrect password entries inpassword-protected devices, but

RFID tags are particularly vulner-able to them,since they’recharged by tagreaders andhave no on-board powersupplies.Two designinnovationsallow the MITresearchers’chip to thwartpower-glitchattacks: Oneis an on-chippower supplywhose connec-tion to the chip

circuitry would be virtually impos-sible to cut, and the other is a setof nonvolatile memory cells (NVM)

that can store whatever data thechip is working on when it beginsto lose power. Texas Instrumentshas built IC prototypes to theresearchers’ speci cations, andfor the NVM, used the ferroelectricmemory technology (FRAM) thatTI has in-house: the TI and MITworkers report thechips behave as

expected.

Adding a little FE memory makes RFID chips hack-proof

pulse


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The FPGA maker says that it

has achieved a level of serialdata performance that will, “bringgreater cost e ciency to datacentre interconnects,” as its VirtexUltraScale devices are the “ rstFPGA to support 25 Gbps per lanecopper cabling at ve metres.”Xilinx’s Virtex UltraScale deviceshave achieved compliance to the25GE, 50GE and 100GE copper

cable and backplane IEEE andrelated speci cations which sup -ports up to ve metres of coppercabling in the data centre andup to one metre of backplaneinterconnect. These speci ca -

tions include the IEEE 802.3bj

100GBASE-CR4/KR4, IEEE802.3by 25GBASE-CR/CR-S/KR/ KR-S, 25 Gigabit Ethernet Con-sortium 50GBASE-CR2/KR2. Datacentre users can now make useof nx25G lanes of copper cablingversus optics for more cost- andpower-optimised solutions toconnect servers to top-of-rackswitches using any o -the-shelf,

speci cation-compliant vendor. Along with integrated 100G Ether-net MAC IP, soft error-correction(RS-FEC) IP, and ASIC-class logicfabric, Virtex UltraScale FPGAsprovide a complete, high perfor-

mance and low-latency Ethernet

solution for data centre workloadacce leration. More on this storyhere .

16nm Finfet now shippingXilinx has also announced that ithas made a “ rst customer ship -ment” of the Virtex UltraScale+FPGA, which it describes as therst high-end FinFET FPGA built

using TSMC’s 16FF+ process.Ultrascale+ is the architecturebehind Xilinx’ latest generation ofhigh-end FPGAs; the companysays it has over 100 “engage-ments” on the technology stage;

and has shipped devices and/ or boards to over sixty of thesecustomers.

Together with the Zynq Ultra-Scale+ MPSoCs and Kintex Ultra-Scale+ FPGAs, Xilinx says it nowhas availability of the three fami-lies in its 16nm portfolio. VirtexUltraScale+ features capabilitiesincluding 32G transceivers, PCIeGen 4 integrated cores, and Ultra-RAM on-chip memory technology;Xilinx con gured the parts for du -

ties in areas such as next genera-tion data centre, 400G and terabitwired communications, test andmeasurement, andaerospace anddefence.

FPGA transceivers send 25 Gbps 5m over copper - Xilinx

pulse


C adence has released its Mo-dus test package that enablesa reduction of up to three times,in system-on-silicon-scale IC testtimes. It incorporates technologytermed physically-aware 2D Elas-tic Compression architecture that

can reduce test logic wirelengthby up to 2.6-times, and enablecompression ratios to scale be-yond 400X without impactingdesign size.SoC test engineers, the EDAvendor says, have become used

SoC test software cuts test times,

eases DFT burden

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tomatically discover any Pi con-nected to the same network asthe host computer, then download

its agents into the Pi. When the Pireboots, it is ready to serve as thebasis of an IoT device.Cayenne provides developers with

a host of capabilities for turningthat Pi into a fully functioning IoTsystem node. Cayenne will auto-

matically detect any sensors con-nected to the Pi and make theirdata available on a drag-and-dropcon gurable data display dash -

board in a choice of numeric andgraphical formats. Another dash-board gives developers full access

to the Pi's GPIO resources forrapid con guration and sensing.Triggers allow events on one to in-voke action on another device, or

send messages via SMS or email.The tool also automatically con g -ures a mobile or web-based app

to replicate the dashboard.

pulse

The latest release of KeysightTechnology’s RF simulationand synthesis software, Genesys2015, features Keysight Sys-Pa-rameters, that enables RF system

simulation with o -the-shelf com -ponent datasheets; and compre-

hensive RF circuit synthesis toenable the fastest realisation of RFsystems and circuits.

Keysight Sys-Parameters de neRF system component parameters

such as ampli er P1dB, IP3, gainand noise- gure over frequency,temperature and bias in a con-venient spreadsheet format thatdesigners can use directly in RFsystem simulation. This eliminatesthe tedious creation of non-stan-dard data les or writing of customprograms to interpolate the data;addressing a long unful lled needof the RF industry to use compo-nent datasheet speci cations infast design simulations instead ofwasteful prototyping iterations.Genesys 2015 accepts multi-di-mensional Sys-Parameter data ina regular spreadsheet format thata user creates from RF componentdatasheets. The software also pro-

vides Sys-Parameter libraries fromMini-Circuits and Analog Devices.Easy access to Sys-Parametersduring design enables designers

to accurately evaluate and selectavailable RF system componentsbefore hardware implementation,thereby eliminating wasteful itera-tions.Genesys 2015 includes tutorialvideos for its comprehensive suiteof automatic RF circuit synthe-sis capabilities. The tutorials aredesigned to teach users how toquickly design and realise circuitssuch as lters, matching networks,oscillators, mixers, couplers andtransmission lines. Genesys 2015also features a Matlab script de-bugger, multi-dimensional interpo-lator and interac-tive 3D graphing.

Design & simulation software speeds realisation of RF circuits



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Plessey Semiconductors (Plym-

outh, UK), Anvil Semiconduc-tors and the University of Cam-bridge have announced that theyare working together to fabricatehigh e ciency LEDs in cubic GaNgrown on Anvil’s 3C-SiC-on-Sisubstrates, as part of a drive formore e cient LED light sources.Cubic GaN has the potential toovercome the problems caused in

conventional LEDs by the stronginternal electric elds which impaircarrier recombination and con-tribute to e ciency droop. Thisis particularly true for green LEDswhere the internal electric eldsare stronger and are believed tocause a rapid reduction in e cien -cy at green wavelengths known as"the green gap". The availabilityof cubic GaN from a readily com-mercialisable process on largediameter silicon wafers is seen asa key enabler for increasing the ef-ciency of green LEDs and reduc -ing the cost of LED lighting.The collaboration, which is partlyfunded by Innovate UK underthe £14m Energy Catalyst Pro-

gramme, follows on from work

by Anvil Semiconductors and the

Cambridge Centre for GaN at the

University of Cambridge where

they successfully grew cubic GaN

on 3C-SiC (cubic silicon carbide)

LEDs in cubic GaN to overcome “green gap”

pulse

International Exhibition and Conferencefor Power Electronics, Intelligent Motion,Renewable Energy and Energy Management

Nuremberg, 10 – 12 May 2016

More information at +49 711 [email protected] or pcim-europe.com

Connecting Global Power

I . . . :

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on silicon wafers by MOCVD (metal oxidechemical vapour-phase deposition – pictureshows a CVD chamber). The underlying 3C-

SiC layers were produced by Anvil using itspatented stress relief IP that enables growthof device quality silicon carbide on 100 mmdiameter silicon wafers. The process is read-ily migrated onto 150 mm diameter wafersand potentially beyond without modi cationand is therefore suitable for large, industrial-scale applications. Plessey has started to

commercialise LEDs produced in conven-tional (Hexagonal) GaN grown 150 mm siliconwafers using IP originally developed at The

University of Cambridge. Anvil’s high quality3C-SiC on Silicon technology, which is beingdeveloped for SiC power devices, providesan e ective substrate, to allow single phasecubic GaN epitaxy growth and provides aprocess which is compat-ible with Plessey's GaN on Sidevice technology.

pulse


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Toshiba Corp. has decided

to exit most sectors of thecompany’s semiconductor busi-ness—except for its NAND ashmemory products, Japan’s eco-nomic newspaper Nikkei reportedon Saturday morning, 23rd Febru-ary 2016.The move is viewed as a neces-sary step by the Japanese giant toreturn to pro tability, after expen -

sive post-scandal restructuring.

Under the new strategy, Toshibawill focus and consolidate its in-vestment and business operationson “ ash memory” and “nuclearenergy” businesses. Toshiba hasnow positioned them as the twopillars to carry the company’sfuture.Toshiba, the world’s second larg-est NAND supplier after Samsung

Electronics, will keep its ash

memory business but will selleverything else in its chip busi-ness. Those scheduled for saleinclude: analogue, LSIs, MCUsand other energy saving devices.These products have served theautomotive and industrial markets,while also broadly designed intoconsumer appliances and homeequipment.

Toshiba’s overall semiconductor

business (except for NAND), whichwill go on sale, is estimated togenerate the annual sales of about200 billion yen [approx. €1.5bil-lion]. Toshiba hopes to devoteproceeds of the sales to the com-pany’s Yokkaichi fab – the homeof its NAND ashproduction.

Toshiba to pare chip business down to NAND by Junko Yoshida, EETimes

pulse

J udging from the nearly 30,000backers Californian startupPINE64 Inc. gathered around its$15 64-bit single board computeron KickStarter, 64-bit is the wayto go for makers and electronicshobbyists of all horizons with thepromise to run any complex taskincluding graphics processing formultimedia streaming.With only 48 hours to concludeits crowd-funding campaign, thecompany had secured $1,362,677,well over 40 times its initial goal.Based on Allwinner Technology's

recently released 64-bit tablet pro-cessor Allwinner A64 (itself onlycosting $5), PINE A64 is describedas a 64-bithigh per-formanceexpandablesingle boardcomputer(SBC). The

Allwin-ner A64features aquad-core

ARM A53

64-bit processor that runs at 1.2GHz and a dual-core MALI-400MP2 running at 500 MHz for the

GPU,capableof 1.1Gpixel/sthrough-put. TheGPUprovidesOpenGLES 2.0,hardware-acceler-

ated OpenVG, 4Kx2Kp30 H.265decode, and 1080p60 H.264 high-pro le encode and decode.The founders claim their SBCdelivers up to 20-30% better per-formance than other 32-bit opensource boards (think Raspberry Pior Arduino-type). While providingthe same power of desktop com-puting, it only draws 2.5 to 3.5W,either from a 5V supply throughMicroUSB or using a 3.7V batterythrough on-boardpower manage-ment.

A craving for cheap 64-bit computing by Julien Happich



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TDK's ultra-small SESUB-PAN-

D14580 Bluetooth module isavailable from distributor MouserElectronics; the Bluetooth 4.1Low Energy (LE) micro module isclaimed as the world’s smallestmodule for Bluetooth Smart de-vices.The 3.5 × 3.5 × 1 mm SESUB-PAN-D14580 module is based on

TDK’s Semiconductor Embedded

in Substrate (SESUB) technology,reducing the size by 60%compared to modules us-ing discrete components.The single-mode module’sultra-compact footprintand low current consump-tion suit it for battery-poweredwearable devices.

It integrates a Dialog Semiconduc-

tor DA14580 Bluetooth 4.1 chip,32-bit ARM Cortex-M0microcontroller, and DC-DCconverter onto a thin sub-strate, along with all pe-ripheral circuitry includinga 16 MHz crystal, induc-

tor, and capacitor. All inputs andoutputs (I/O) from the substrate

layers are routed to a ball gridarray (BGA) footprint on the mod-ule’s bottom surface. Interfaces

include UART, SPI, and I²C, help-ing to speed the hardware designprocess. The low-power modulerequires a voltage supply of 3.0V,and consumes only 5.0 mA whentransmitting, 5.4 mA when receiv-ing, and 0.8 µA instandby mode.

Ch p- z B oo h mod fo b , d b o

pulse

Nordic Semiconductor saysthat a third-party open source module, 'OSHChip', suppliedin a specially-developed 16-pinthrough-holeDIP stylepackage canallow Blue-tooth Smartand 2.4GHzproprietarywirelessprototypesusing Nordicchips to bebuilt withoutsolderingbecause the

module plugs straight into anystandard bread board, as used bymakers a nd hobbyists.OSHChip (OSH standing for 'OpenSource Hardware') from U.S.maker and hobbyist startup of thesame name, employs a NordicnRF51822 System-on-Chip (SoC)and in addition to eliminating theneed for soldering, its 1.98 x 0.89cm form factor is said to be lessthan 5%t the size of an ArduinoUNO or 22% the size of an Ar-duino Nano.To develop OSHChip OSH hadto develop its own IC-style pins

that would be compatible withthe vast majority of o -the-shelfbread boards. OSH also saysthat were it not for the NordicnRF51822's chip-scale pack-age option it wouldn't have beenable to t his module into such asmall form-factor. OSHChip canbe programmed and de-bugged(Keil) from a partner OSHChipprogrammer board that supportsUSB drag-and-drop programming,SWD debugging, and bi-directionserial communica-tions.

Nordic silicon in Bluetooth Smart module packaged for the makers



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A nalog Devices has announced

that the Ford Motor Companyhas selected the Automotive Au-dio Bus (A2B) as its primary info-tainment network technology within-vehicle deployments starting in2016.

ADI’s A2B technology is capable

of distributing audio and con-trol data together with clock andpower over a single, unshieldedtwisted-pair wire (UTP), enablingadvanced infotainment systemswhile reducing system costs in

wiring-intensive automoti ve appli-

cations. Ford will use the AD2410 transceiver, the rst product inthe A2B portfolio, in four vehicleplatforms moving to produc-tion in 2016. The A2B series alsoincludes the AD2401 and AD2402

transceivers that have been spe-

ci cally tuned for microphone con -nectivity, for applications such asactive noise cancellation, hands-free, and in-carcommunications.

Ford opts for Analog Devices’ UTP-based Automotive Audio Bus for infotainment

pulse

Microcontroller, analogue andash memory IC vendorMicrochip Technology(Chandler, Arizona) has agreed to buy Atmel(San Jose, Calif.) for about $3.56billion and Dialog Semiconductor,previously set to buy Atmel, hasbeen paid a $137.3 million termi-nation fee.

Microchip's purchase is $8.15 pershare made up of $7 per share incash and $1.15 per share in Mi-crochip common stock. Atmel hasterminated its previous agreementto be acquired by Dialog Semicon-ductor plc (London, UK) and paidDialog a termination fee.The deal has been agreed by both

boards of directors and is expect-ed to close in the second quarterof 2016, subject to approval by

Atmel’s stockholders, regulatoryapprovals and other customaryclosing conditions. "As the semi-conductor industry consolidates,Microchip continues to executea highly successful consolidation

strategy with a string of acquisi-tions that have helped to doubleour revenue growth rate comparedto our organic revenue growthrate over the last few years," saidSteve Sanghi, CEO of Microchip.

Microchip signs to buy Atmel by Peter Clarke



S pecialists in deterministicEthernet silicon, Innovasic(Albuquerque, New Mexico) dem-onstrated TSN-ready DeterministicEthernet at the 2016 AutomotiveEthernet Congress in Munich (3rd

and 4th February 20126). Innova-sic says it will demonstrate howtime-critical control data can bee ectively managed on an Ether -net network using technologiesthat are being adopted and evalu-

ated by the IEEE standards as-sociation for 802.1 Time SensitiveNetworking (TSN).By using its do5000 Real-timeEthernet Multiprotocol (REM)switch chip, Innovasic will

demonstrate scheduled tra c(802.1Qbv), time synchronisation(802.1AS-Rev) and ingress polic-ing (802.1Qci). These capabilitiesenable deterministic control ofcritical data packets, even in thepresence of very high levels ofnon-critical tra c. The do5000

Time-sensitive Ethernet ready for demo, says Innovasic

http://www.edn/http://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/-europe.comhttp://www.analog.com/A2Bhttp://www.analog.com/en/products/interface-isolation/automotive-interfaces/automotive-audio-bus/ad2410.htmlhttp://www.analog.com/en/products/interface-isolation/automotive-interfaces/automotive-audio-bus/ad2410.htmlhttp://www.analog.com/media/en/news-marketing-collateral/product-highlight/Automotive-Audio-Bus-A2B.pdfhttp://www.analog.com/media/en/news-marketing-collateral/product-highlight/Automotive-Audio-Bus-A2B.pdfhttp://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/ford-opts-for-analog-devices-utp-based-automotive-audio-bus-for-infotainment.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008024&vID=1325http://www.edn-europe.com/en/ford-opts-for-analog-devices-utp-based-automotive-audio-bus-for-infotainment.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008024&vID=1325http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.edn-europe.com/en/ford-opts-for-analog-devices-utp-based-automotive-audio-bus-for-infotainment.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008024&vID=1325http://www.edn-europe.com/en/microchip-signs-to-buy-atmel.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=10008010&vID=1326http://www.analog.com/media/en/news-marketing-collateral/product-highlight/Automotive-Audio-Bus-A2B.pdfhttp://www.analog.com/en/products/interface-isolation/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with this addition to the busi-

ness models on which itsupports its development tools,Microchip says it is o ering theability to license PRO compilingoptimisations on an ‘as-needed’basis, providing exibility andgiving access to tools that enablebest execution speed and codesize for all ~1,400 PIC MCUs anddsPIC DSCs.

The exible, low-cost, renewable

monthly subscription license isavailable for the PRO editions ofthe MPLAB XC line of C compil-ers. The MPLAB XC8, XC16 andXC32 compilers o er reducedcomplexity, and are available withthree optimisation levels: Free,Standard and PRO. By o ering amonthly-subscription PRO license,Microchip is providing 8-, 16- and

32-bit MCU designers the ability

to make use of the most featuresand best code optimisation - onlywhen needed in the design cycle.Subscribers will also have theability to receive updated versionsof the MPLAB XC compiler typeto which they subscribe, withoutthe need for an active MicrochipMPLAB XC High Priority Access(HPA) maintenance subscription.

Unlike most software subscrip-

tions, this license is not cloud-based, providing designers theadditional exibility of using thecompilers o ine. Renewablemonthly subscription licenses forthe following compilers are pricedat $29.95 per month, for eachcompiler.

Microchip opens PIC compiler licensing to low-cost rolling monthly subscription

pulse


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The shunt-bas ed " IVT Modular" sensormodule from Isabellenhütte measures bat-tery current and voltage to within less than 0.1percent. This extraordinary precision enablespermanent energy monitoring and e cient utili -sation, even on high-capacity battery systems.This is why KUKA Roboter GmbH ts the IVTsensor modules as standard in its mobile plat-forms for transporting heavy loads.

KUKA's omniMove platform stands outthanks to its ability to perfectly manoeuvreheavy loads in any direction and rotate themon the spot. "The omniMove makes it possibleto move heavy parts very precisely in limitedspace, with 360° exibility and a positioningaccuracy of ± 2 millimetres", explains PaulWyszynski, developer at KUKA Roboter GmbH."In the lifting platform variant, the omniMovecan move in the millimetre range, even whenthe platform is raised. This is used when paint-ing airliners, for example." The platform is alsocalled upon to transport gas turbines the sizeof a house, moving them between the indi-vidual production areas or to the testing area.The size, width and length of modular platformsystem are freely scalable, and it can be com-bined with additional vehicles to form tandemor tridem con gurations. This makes it possible

to transport loads the size of an entire aircraftfuselage. The platform can be operated viaremote control, optical tracking, or fully autono-mously with laser scanners.

Precisely measured battery capacity allowsgreater utilization

The omniMove's electrical drive is extremely

e cient and quiet, even when used for longperiods. The model KoM UTV-2 E375, forexample, achieves a minimum operating dura-

tion of four hours. For technical and economicreasons, it is important that the available energyin a heavy-duty vehicle can always be used ef-ciently. This is why the lead gel batteries ttedas standard in the omniMove use current andvoltage sensors based on sensor modules fromIsabellenhütte, which are among the best inshunt-based current measurement technology.

Only by determining the current and voltageas precisely as possible is it possible to get a

reliable picture of battery function, such as thestate of charge, state of health, or the ability ofthe battery to ful l a certain requirement suchas start capability (state of function). "Thesemeasurement values can then be used tocontrol the ow of energy in the battery, im -prove charging times and cycles, and lengthenthe service life of the battery", con rm s Jens Hartman n, Sales Director ISAscale at Isabel-lenhütte . The high utilisation of the omniMovebatteries is achieved by precisely measuringthe battery capacit y.

KUKA uses the " IVT Modular" sensor modulefrom Isabellenhütte to measure the current andvoltage values in the omniMove vehicles.

SPONSORED ARTICLE

PRECISE BATTERY DIAGNOSIS MAKES MANOEUVRING XXL LOADS EASIERBy Athier J. Lafta, Product Manager Precision Measurement (VT-MT) Isabellenhütte

Figure 1. The omniMove mobile platforms fromKUKA for extremely heavy loads of up to 100tonnes, are used e.g. in aircraft construction.

Download PDFof Full Article

Find Current sensoron EETsearch

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How DSP platforms help engineers address the smart energy networkchallenge; The communication and connectivity requirements ofsmart meters and other ‘smart energy’ equipment and devices presentsigni cant challenges for designers and developers. DSP platforms cano er a practical, simpli ed and cost-e ective route to delivering the ex -ibility and future-proo ng demanded by these applications.

Fuelled by legislative, environmental and economic factors, utilities areunder pressure to improve e ciency and reliability and to better manage

electricity production and distribution. Fundamental to achieving thesegoals is implementation of ‘smart energy’ information and communicationtechnology (ICT) infrastructures. These infrastructures facilitate the auto-matic monitoring of consumer behaviour, deliver enhanced intelligence forsuppliers that help them align supply with demand, and improve exibilityfor customers in terms of how and when they consume energy.

Gr wth f the Smart GridWhile there is no formal de nition of a smart grid the term is generallyused to describe the application of automation, processing and two-waycommunications technology between the electricity generation and trans-mission infrastructure and the end user electric meter.

Driven largely by governments through legislation, mandated use andincentives, the global market for smart grid technologies is estimated tobe growing at a rate of around 8% per year meaning it will surpass the$400 billion mark by 2020. A key element of the smart grid is the smartmeter – an electronic device that interfaces between utility and consumerand combines usage measurement with in-built intelligence and commu-

nications capabilities needed to support enhanced monitoring and con-trol. According to a 2014 report by the US International Trade Commis-sion, the global market for smart meters will reach £20 billion in 2018.

Over the years smart meters have evolved from their original incar-nation as AMR (automated meter reading) devices with basic one-waycommunication to AMI (advanced metering infrastructure) platformsincorporating two-way communications. As well as providing consumerdata for billing and analysis, such meters allow commands to be sentto the consumer premises to implement initiatives such as ‘time-of-use’pricing, distribution automation and demand-response actions. They also

IOT COMMUNICATIONS

FLEXIBLE COMMUNICATION FOR THE SMART GRIDBy Emmanuel Gresset, CEVA

Figure 1. Key elements of the Smart Grid



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enable remote switch-on and shut-o , providea mechanism for assessing ‘feed-in’ payments,and give consumers the means to track their

own energy usage via browsers or apps whichenable direct connectivity to the smart meter.

Figure 1 depicts the key elements of themodern smart grid. The smart meter in theconsumer premises is connected to monitor-ing and control consoles and other devices atthe premises via a home area network (HAN)or building area network (BAN) and to a local‘concentrator’ via a neighbourhood area net-

work (NAN). Concentrators communicate datato and from the utilities using wide area net-works (WANs).

Smart Meter requirementsFigure 2 shows the key elements of a smartmeter, namely power supply and management;measurement circuitry for metrology; on-board‘intelligence’ in the form of microcontroller andmemory (and associated software); and theHAN and NAN communication blocks. A grow-ing number of meters also incorporate GPSfunctionality to simplify location identi cationand to provide accurate date stamps for data.

Smart meter designs must address theneed to deliver accuracy in line with legal re-quirements for billing purposes; keep powerconsumption to an absolute minimum (while

traditional electromechanical meters mayconsume less than 1W, modern AMI meterscan consume as much as 15W during opera-tion and around 2W when idle); ensure security(including tamper protection and detection);and deliver reliable operation over long peri-

ods, preferably with options to update softwareremotely.

The article continues to propose an IP-based strategy to meet these needs; click for pdf

IOT COMMUNICATIONS

Download PDFof Article

Find IoT Communicationson EETsearch

Figure 2. Key elements of an AMI smart meter

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How important is power design expertise?Power system design has often been con-sidered a bit of a black art and hence frequentlydelegated to skilled power design engineers.This was ne in larger companies that coulda ord such dedicated resource and where amore traditional serial design process allowedthe nal power requirements to be determinedonce the system design was complete.

This is rarely the case today and, increasing-ly, designers need to embrace both the powersupply design as well as the overall systemdesign. Not only that, but time-to-market pres-sures mean that these design elements need torun in parallel, requiring a reasonably accurateanticipation of the power budget long beforethe system design is complete. This is chal-lenging even for experienced hardware engi-neers – let alone someone new to developing apower system.

Regulat ry requirements Adding to the challenge is the need for powersupply certi cation to ensure compliance withnational and international regulations, such asUL for safety and FCC and CE regulations foremissions and interference. Here getting thedesign right rst time is even more important

because of the delays and added cost that areincurred if a design has to be reworked and re-certi ed.

So getting the power design right is vital.

Adapting t all s ill levelsFor the experienced power designer the abil-ity to “tweak” all aspects of a power manage -ment system is even more important. This can

reduce the system’s energy consumption andprovide a competitive advantage. It can meanlonger operating time, lower operating costs orresult in a smaller system. The ability to focuson particular areas such as transient responsecan provide bene ts too.

There are many trade-o s throughout the de -sign process, and while it is possible to look atthese with a calculator and a list of equations,a spreadsheet or even an evaluation board,the biggest challenge is achieving a workingdesign in a timely manner. Evaluation boardsare optimised to demonstrate optimum perfor-mance under a xed set of conditions and theirperformance rarely re ects real-world operatingconditions.

Hardware engineers may turn to design toolsfor help, however, this often requires a range

of tools, and switching from one to the otherto get a complete picture, all of which can beconfusing for novice power designers. It can

be particularly di cult with di erent types ofpower design. Industrial LED lighting, motioncontrols, general switch mode power suppliesand power trains all have di erent requirementsthat a general hardware engineer may not famil-iar with. Selecting the right components, fromthe MOSFETs to the power drivers and eventhe resistors, capacitors and inductors can takeconsiderable time and e ort.

Under these circumstances, Power SupplyWebDesigner – a suite of tools from Fairchildfor designing and optimising a power supplydesign – can save considerable time and e ort.Device selection, design, analysis, and simula-tion takes only minutes because the models,calculations, and iterative steps of power sup-ply design are built into the tools. The Automat-ic Design option provides all the mainstreamsettings and produces a full circuit diagramwith a single click.

LED lighting supplyConsider the example of designing a dimmable240Vac LED yback power supply using theFairchild FL6630 LED driver. Power SupplyWebDesigner generates the simulation for theschematic in under three minutes and providesthe transient analysis to show what is happen-

AUTOMATED PSU DESIGN

MAKING THE MOST OF AUTOMATED TOOLS FOR POWER SYSTEM DESIGNBy Rudy van Parijs, EBV Elektronik & Preet Sibia, Fairchild



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23 EDN Europ e JANUARY 2016

ing with the waveforms generatedby the design. It rapidly producesa workable design, dramatically

simplifying the challenge for thedesigner.The FL6630 itself is packaged

in an 8-pin small outline package(SOP). It’s the basis for a single-stage, power factor corrected(PFC), o ine LED driver circuitand uses Fairchild’s TRUECUR-RENT technology to provide con-stant current control. This allows

for the simpli ed circuit design forLED lighting applications that thedesign tool generates.

Using a single stage topologywith primary-side regulation, anLED lighting board can be imple-mented with few external com-ponents and minimal cost, as itdoes not need an input bulk ca-pacitor or feedback circuitry. Thetool implements the power factorcorrection and ensures low totalharmonic distortion, with discon-tinuous conduction mode (DCM)operation.

The constant current approachallows the operating frequency tochange by the output voltage to

guarantee Discontinuous Conduc-tion Mode (DCM) operation. Thisprovides higher e ciency andsimpler design. The device pro-vides protections such as open-LED, short-LED, and over-temper-ature, and the current-limit level isautomatically reduced to minimiseoutput current and protect exter-nal components in a short-LEDcondition.

However, the Auto-Completefeature avoids any of the optimisa-tions that the experienced powerdesigner would add to an imple-mentation... the conclusion of this

short article notes that the designtool described also offers the ex-

perienced designer the option to make advanced re nements – clickfor pdf.

AUTOMATED PSU DESIGN


Find Automated PSUDesign on EETsearch

Co-organizer:

Part of the activities of:

Munich, Germany, 9 – 10 March 2016smartsystemsintegration.com

International Conference and Exhibitionon Integration Issues of Miniaturized Systems– MEMS, NEMS, ICs and Electronic Components

BE PART OF IT! Knowledge exch ange

Trends and innovations

Networking

Main conference topics: • System integration and packaging

• Test and Reliability• Smart medtech systems • Hardware for the Internet of Things• Printed / stretchable and flexible electronics

Reg i s ter no w a t

smar ts ys tems in tegra t ion.com/reg

is tra t ion

Further information:

+49 711 [email protected]

http://www.edn-europe.com/documents/whitepapers/1-edn-pdfarticles/download-pdf-1602-feat-ebv-fairchild.pdfhttp://www.edn-europe.com/documents/whitepapers/1-edn-pdfarticles/download-pdf-1602-feat-ebv-fairchild.pdfhttp://eetsearch.com/search/?q=AUTOmATEd+PsU+dEsIgnhttp://eetsearch.com/search/?q=AUTOmATEd+PsU+dEsIgnhttp://eetsearch.com/search/?q=AUTOmATEd+PsU+dEsIgnhttp://www.edn-europe.com/documents/whitepapers/1-edn-pdfarticles/download-pdf-1602-feat-ebv-fairchild.pdf


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The uorescent bulb in mybattery powered uorescentcamp lantern failed. A new onewas not available, so I decided toreplace the defunct light bulb withseveral 1-W white LEDs. The bestway to drive the LEDs was to usean o -the-shelf integrated buckconverter.

Modern high-power LEDs aremore e cient and have longer op -erational lifetimes than incandes-cent or compact uorescent lightbulbs. In addition, their lack oficker helps to reduce eyestrain,making LEDs far superior to uo -rescent lighting.

This analog tip shows how the ADP2370 adjustable-output-volt-age buck converter can regulatethe LED current from a variety ofpower sources to make a simple,robust, high-e ciency dimmableLED driver.

Regulated current LED driverBuck converters such as the

ADP2370 normally regulate alower voltage from a higher volt-age source, but the LED drivercircuit shown in Figure 1 uses the

ADP2370 to regulate the LED cur-rent instead of an output voltage.R7 and R8 function as both ballastand current sense resistors; R6and R9 average the current sensevoltages at the input of op ampU2 and equalise the LED currents.U2 ampli es the voltage acrossthe current sense resistor, with thegain set by R2 and R3, and drivesthe FB input of the ADP2370,

thereby “fool-ing” it intoregulating theLED current.

A gain of 5.32sets the cur-rent in eachLED to about320 mA.R4, R5, R6,and R9 pro-vide a dim-ming func-tion. As R4

is decreased, the current-sensevoltage is slightly o set above 0V,reducing the LED current. A pho-toconductive sensor could replaceR4 to dim the LEDs as a functionof the ambient light level.Over-temperature protection canbe added by replacing or paral-leling R4 with an NTC thermistorto reduce the drive current if theLEDs exceed a certain tempera-ture. The thermistor must be ingood thermal contact with theLEDs for accurate temperaturesensing.

Analog TipsUSING THE ADP2370 AS AN LED DRIVER BY GLENN MORITA, ANALOG DEVICES

About the Author Glenn Morita [ glenn.morita@

analog.com ] graduated fromWashington State University with

a BSEE in 1976. His rst job outof school was at Texas Instru-

ments, where he worked on the infrared spectrometer instrumentfor the Voyager space probe.Since then, Glenn has worked

as a designer in the instrumen-tation, military and aerospace,

and medical industries. In 2007, he joined ADI as an applica-tions engineer with the PowerManagement Products Team inBellevue, WA. He has over 25

years of linear and switch-mode power supply design experience at power levels ranging from microwatts to kilowatts. Glenn holds two patents for harvestingenergy from body heat to power

implantable cardio-de brillators and an additional patent forextending battery life in externalcardio-de brillators.

Figure 1. Regulated LED driver using the ADP2370

http://www.edn/http://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/-europe.comhttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/[email protected]://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/[email protected]://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/[email protected]://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/[email protected]://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/-europe.comhttp://www.edn/


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w ireless network technologies such asWiFi, ZigBee, and Bluetooth are ne forconsumer applications of the Internet of Things(IoT), but many civic, industrial, and other IoTapplications need to operate over vastly greaterterritory than these technologies can handle.Cellular and satellite machine-to-machine(M2M) technologies have traditionally lledthe gap, but cost, power, and scalability con-cerns make these choices less appealing forthe future. A number of low-power, wide-areanetworking (LP-WAN) alternatives have arisenthat need careful consideration by developerslooking to address these wide-ranging IoT ap-plications.

The uses for wide-area IoT technology arelegion. Civic infrastructure systems such asparking resources, tra c control, utilities moni -toring and distribution control, and environmen-tal monitoring are only a beginning. Agriculturaluses such as monitoring of crop conditions andlivestock movements need wide-area coverage.

Asset monitoring and tracking, from taxicabs torefrigerated produce shipments need regional,national, or even worldwide coverage. Trans-portation infrastructures such as rail lines androadways need wide-area monitoring. Evenconsumer applications such as health monitor-

ing could bene t from having an alternative tocellphones for their wide-area connectivity.

LP-WAN essentialsWhile the applications are diverse, they havemany common attributes on their network wish

lists. These include:Low cost – Most wide-area IoT applicationsanticipate a need for many hundreds or thou-sands of end-node devices for each installa-

IOT AIR INTERFACES

LOW POWER WIDE-AREA NETWORKING ALTERNATIVES FOR THE IOTBy Richard Quinnell, EDN

-W -N -P

Frequency BandTV whitespace(400-800 MHz)

Sub-GHZ ISM Sub-GHZ ISM868 MHz/902 MHz

ISM433/868/780/915 MHz

ISMCellular

License-exempt bandsbelow 1 GHz, excluding

the TV White Spaces

433, 868, 915 MHzISM/SRD

2.4 GHz ISM Sub-GHz ISM

Channel Width 5MHzUltra narrowband (200Hz)

12.5 kHz Ultra narrow band

EU: 8x125kHz, US64x125kHz/8x125kHz,

Modulation: Chirp SpreadSpectrum

1. 4MHz 1/2/4/8/16 MHz 25 KHz or 200 KHz1 MHz (40 channels

available)Ultra narrow

band

Range 5 km ( ur ba n) 3 km ( ur ba n) 2 km ( ur ba n)30-50km (rural), 3-

10km (urban),1000km LoS

2 -5 k ( ur ba n) , 1 5k (r ur al ) 2 .5 - 5 km U p t o 1 Km (o ut do or ) 0 – 5 km >500 km LoS10km (urban), 20-

30km (rural)

End Node TransmitPower 17 dBm 17 dBm 17 dBm 10µ

W to 100 mW EU:


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tion. In some cases, such as city-wide parkingspace/meter monitoring, the numbers can getinto the millions. With such high volumes, unit

price is a major consideration in determiningthe return on investment (ROI) for the applica-tion.Low energy consumption – Few of the ap -plications for wide-area IoT have the luxuryof a local power generator. Most will dependon batteries and some may even need to useenergy harvesting. For those with batteries,replacing depleted batteries can represent amajor logistical challenge as well as a substan-tial cost. The longer the battery life in the endnode device, the better.Extended range – All wireless networks con -necting to the Internet need to work through anaccess point (AP) of one kind or another: gate-way, concentrator, or the like. So an IoT de-sign needs to consider both the endpoint costand the cost of the access point infrastructureneeded to support the application. The net-work's operating range, or allowable distancefrom an end node to its access point, can havea signi cant impact on that infrastructure cost.Range dictates the number and location of ac-cess points needed to cover the application'soperating area, so in general the longer therange the lower the infrastructure cost.Scalability – A given installation using a wide-area wireless IoT network may work well andthe network may well have the capacity to

handle any anticipated single user. But overtime it's reasonable to expect that many dif-ferent installations will be made in the same

geographic area. If these di erent installationsshare common access points, like cellphonesshare towers, then the number of devices anaccess point can support can become a limit-ing factor and require increases infrastructureto overcome. Even if they don't share accesspoints but do share the frequency spectrum, anincrease in installations can erode the opera-tional range of application through increasednoise levels. In the worst cases, available chan-nel capacity can ll and prevent new installa -tions from operating at all.

Among the more established wireless net-working technologies, only cellular and satellitecommunications o er the extended ranges thatthese applications require. Mesh networks suchas ZigBee can potentially cover large areasbut have limited scalability due to the need toforward tra c.

Unfortunately cellular and satellite commu-nications technologies have limitations in theother attributes. Their radio requirements in-volve higher energy use and complex protocolsthat lower battery life and increase cost beyondwhat many applications can sustain. This arises

in part from their history; they were originallydesigned to handle voice tra c. The networksare ill-adapted to handling short data messag-

ing.Still, some IoT applications and services –often called machine-to-machine (M2M) – didarise to exploit cellular and satellite communi-cations networks. Many of them were based onthe CDMA, or "2G" cellular technology. Unfor-tunately, those networks are now starting tobe phased out by service providers in order tofree spectrum for more advanced cellular tech-nologies. However, the cellular community hasmade some strides toward improving the situ-ation for M2M. The most recent speci cationfor LTE (release 12) de ned communicationsCategory 0 designed around the needs of M2Mtra c. Energy use and cost still remain con -cerns, however.

This situation has opened a door for alterna-tive approaches to wide-area wireless network-ing for the IoT, approaches that focus on thelow-power, low-cost requirements.

The article continues by considering the at-tributes required of low-power WAN schemes,

and tabulating all of the competing alternatives – click for pdf.

IOT AIR INTERFACES


Find Low Power WAN for IoTon EETsearch

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There are numerous applications where linearregulators are required to provide quiet,often extremely quiet, power supply rails, buthow does one ensure that the regulator per-forms as speci ed? Although we are in thedomain of power supply design, this immedi-ately presents a signi cant challenge in test &measurement

A quiet, well regulated supply is importantfor optimum performance in a number of cir-cuit applications. Voltage controlled oscillators(VCOs) and precision voltage controlled crystaloscillators (VCXOs) respond to small changesin their supply very quickly. Phase-locked loops(PLLs) require a stable supply, as signal on thesupply translates directly to phase noise in theoutput. RF ampli ers require quiet supplies, asthey lack the ability to reject supply variations,and regulator variation will appear as unwantedside bands and lower the signal-to-noise ratio.Low noise ampli ers and analogue-to-digitalconverters (ADCs) do not have in nite supplyrejection and the cleaner the regulator outputis, the higher their performance.

Once fully built, one can determine if the sup-ply has low enough noise for the application.

Oscillator phase noise is measured and com-pared against results achieved with a knowngood supply, ADCs are checked to ensure theyare getting the maximum number of bits. Theseare tricky, time consuming measurements andit would be better to make sure the noise levelsare low enough for your needs without expen-sive trials.

"Measuring lessthan 1 μVRMS n ise is n t a trivial tas "

In addition to noise, one must also considerthe supply rejection capabilities of the linearregulator. Poor rejection from a l inear regulatorwill bring switching regulator residue or otherunwanted signals through, corrupting the hardwork done to ensure a clean supply. Extremelylow noise from the regulator is worthless if poorsupply rejection brings enough signal throughto swamp noise levels.

Measuring utput v ltage n ise: beingQuiet is N thing NewThe subject of noise has been broached be-fore. Linear Technology Application Note 83,

“Performance Veri cation of Low Noise, LowDropout Regulators ,” published in March 2000,describes in detail a method for measuring out-put voltage noise of regulators down as low as4 µVRMS with con dence. The ampli er circuitand lters in the Application Note gave 60 dBof gain across a 10 Hz to 100 kHz bandwidth.This is a good starting point to determine con -dence in measurement of noise levels.

New linear regulators such as the LT3042are now in production with much lower outputvoltage noise levels. While the family of regu-lators released around the publication of Ap-plication Note 83 operate with approximately20 µVRMS noise in the 10 Hz to 100 kHz band,the LT3042 is now available with noise levels aslow as 0.8 µVRMS across the same frequencyband. Reviewing the circuit from ApplicationNote 83 shows an input referred noise oorof 0.5 µVRMS, which provides less than 1%error when measuring noise levels as low as 4µVRMS. With output noise levels of 0.8 µVRMS,this noise oor is now unacceptable; the regu -lator itself operates at noise levels only slightlyabove the measurement circuit. This translatesto almost 20% error, making the measurementcircuit too signi cant a factor to be able to

NOISE MEASUREMENTS

MEASURING 2 NV/ √ HZ NOISE AND 120 DB SUPPLY REJECTION IN LINEAR REGULATORS; THE QUEST FOR QUBy Todd Owen and Amit Patel, Linear Technology

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measure signals with con dence.

Measuring less than 1 µVRMS noise is not a

trivial task. Working backward from a 10 Hz to100 kHz measurement band, this equates toa noise spectral density of 3.16 nV/√Hz (as -suming white noise). This is equivalent to theJohnson noise of a 625Ω resistor! Measuringnoise at these levels within 5% requires thatinstrumentation have an input referred noise of1 nV/√Hz; measuring within 1% requires inputreferred noise of 450 pV/√Hz.

What measurement t ma e?We now have an idea of the noise oor requiredby instrumentation, but there is a question asto what frequency range is critical and whatinstrument is to be used to measure the resul-tant noise. To measure noise spectral density,the regulator output can simply be fed throughlow noise gain stages [Ref. 1] and then fed intoa spectrum analyser, blocking out unwantedfrequencies from measurement. If peak-to-peak or RMS noise is desired, then band stopsare warranted on the low noise gain stages toensure that only signal in the desired bandwidthis measured.

A commonly used broadband noise mea-surement frequency range is 10 Hz to 100 kHz.This encompasses the audio frequency bandand ensures minimal side bands for baseband

data transmitted over RF. Low noise regulatorsused in phase-locked loops and high accuracyinstrumentation require higher frequency mea-

surements (up to 1 MHz and beyond), so weshould not limit ourselves to only the 100 kHzrange. Ideally, band stops would be absolutebrick-wall lters at the desired frequency, butthe realities of circuit design prevent us fromachieving this. Higher order Butterworth ltersare selected to maintain maximum atnessin the range of the frequencies of interest aswell as their ability to give a better brick-wallapproximation. The order of the lter is deter -mined by the error introduced by their equiva-lent noise bandwidth (ENB): a second-order lowpass Butterworth has an ENB of 1.11f H, whichis too high an error. Fourth-order lters dropthe ENB to 1.026f H, which gives error levels ofapproximately 1.3%. Higher order lters wouldadd unnecessary complexity and cost whileaccomplishing minimal improvement in per-formance. Fourth-order lter error is coupledwith errors introduced by the input referrednoise, indicating that a measurement within 5%requires that input referred noise of the ampli-er be targeted to contribute no more than 1%maximum error.

Circuit gain must be considered as well. Ifthe gain is too low, noise of the measurementdevice will sum in and corrupt measurements

the same as input noise of the ampli er. At thesame time, instrumentation may not be sensi-tive enough to provide reliable results. For RMSnoise measurements, an HP3400A RMS volt-meter has a bottom range of 1 mV, so 60 dB isan absolute minimum gain. Based on the noiseoor of spectrum analysers currently commer -cially available (and available from the second-ary market), it was decided that 80 dB wouldwork best.

A block diagram of the noise measurementcircuit is shown in Figure 1. - this article contin-ues to cover circuit design of the measurement

setup; practical considerations of its construc-tion to eliminate unwanted conducted, radiated

and magnetic-coupling effects; and the instrumentation required.

This article has appeared as 4-pa rt series onthe EDN Europe website, start here ; or click

below for a single pdf of the complete article.

NOISE MEASUREMENTS


Find Linear Regulatorson EETsearch

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Teardown: Mis t Shine 2 – design win for sub-threshold silicon

A t DesignCon 2016 in Santa Clara, we put

the Mis t Shine 2 Fitness + Sleep moni -tor under the knife, and exposed the latest inlow-power technology, processes, and powermanagement techniques.

The Mis t Shine 2 is thinner, stronger, andsmarter than, well, the original Shine. Asper the maker’s advertisements, it really isbeautiful. Clad in T6061 T6 anodized air-craft-grade aluminium with glass-reinforcedpolycarbonate, the designers wisely optedfor a minimalist aesthetic with a capacitivetouch user-interface (UI) and visual feed-back via 12 LEDs on the face. Tap the face,and the LEDs indicate your daily progresstoward goal, followed by the time. You canset which comes rst.

The Shine 2 is 8-mm thin, 30.5 mm indiameter, and weighs 8.5 g (with batteryinstalled). It’s water resistant up to 50m anduses a 3-axis accelerometer and magne-tometer to sense movement.

A vibration alarm provides status feed-back and noti cations/alerts, which is usefulfor phone calls and texts from the paired Apple(iOS 7 or above) or Android (Jelly Bean) phonewhenever they’re in a bag or in mute mode.

Connectivity to the phone is achieved usinga Bluetooth 4.1 radio and motion sensing is

accomplished using a three-axis accelerometer

and magnetometer working together. Also, bydownloading the Mis t Link app you can con -nect using IFTTT recipes to control your mobiledevice to play music, take a sel e, or tap theShine to control one of a plethora of home con-

nect services, called IFTTT “channels,” suchas a WeMo switch, Nest thermostat, or evenTwitter feeds.

Aside from aesthetics and ease of use, theShine 2 stands out because the company ad-

dressed the common issue of battery life by

opting for a coin cell that can last up to sixmonths. This gets around the annoyance ofhaving to recharge all too frequently and hopingit’s done before you leave the house. Havingused the rst iterations of the Fitbit for a period

of time, this was de nitely a drawback.

Anyway, let’s get inside and look at howthe sleek design, low power consump-tion, and high functionality were achieved-- and who won and lost in the move fromthe original Shine to the Shine 2. In the fullversion of this article (click link) you’ll nddetails of the disassembly – but skippingonwards...

The Bluetooth 4.1 interface ca me co ur-tesy of Dialog S emiconductor’s Smart-Bond DA14581 , an optimised ver sion ofthe DA14580 SoC. .. [and] it’s the AmbiqMicro Apollo MCU that forms the brains-- and heart -- of both the overall process-ing and power management. So much so,that on talking with Keith Odland, director

of marketing at Ambiq, it became clear that theimplementation of Apollo on the Shine 2 was acase study in intelligent powermanagement. read on... click

link to full article

PATRICk MANNIoN, EDNt e a r D O w n


Figure 1. It’s sleek design and ability to go 6 months on a single CR2032 3V coin cell battery made the Mis t Shine 2 anEDN teardown target at DesignCon.

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design ideas

• Precisi n pr grammable current s urce uses tw ICs• Circuit rem tely adjusts PSU v ltage

Ci it t l dj t PSU lt g



33/46


design ideas

This Design Idea mates aprecision current source IC withprecision di erence amp chips tocreate a programmable currentsource or sink.The resistor-programmable currentsource/sink in Figure 1 illustratesthe basic topology, taking advan-tage of tightly matched on-chipresistor ratios instead of relying onabsolute tolerances.

The IIN current source gives rise toa reference voltage across R f atthe op-amp inverting input. Thesame potential is found across theRf /N resistor, so that an outputcurrent of N × I IN will be generated.Despite a decreased compliance

voltage due to the absence ofdirect conn ections to t he op-ampinputs, the LT1991/5/6 is usedas a single chip current divider.Figure 2 shows a n examp le con-guration, with a REF200 as theinput current reference. Due to thehigh value of the internal feedbackresistor connected to the op-ampinverting input (450 kΩ), a paral -lel connection with the 450/9 kΩresistor is necessary to avoid op-amp output saturation induced bythe injected I IN current. The nega-tive feedback resistance is thusequal to 450/10 kΩ, or 45 kΩ.

Given the 450 kΩ positive feed -back resistor, N for Figure 2 is 0.1,yielding an output sink current of10 μA. Di erent values of the out -put current can be obtained usingthe other available internal resis-tors. If an output source current isneeded, reverse the connectionsto the REF200 IC, and connect itto -VS.The dotted lines in Figures 2 & 3illustrate how unused internal re-

sistors can be paralleled to reducevoltage drops in the reference andload paths.Figure 3 shows a similar applica-tion based on the LT1995 chipand used to increase the outputcurrent, in this case, summing thecurrents from the two sections ofthe REF200 and multiplying by a

factor of ve.The absence of an internal com-pensating capacitor in the LT1995could induce instability. As ex-

Precision programmable current source uses two ICs By Stefano Salvatori & Pietro Oliva

Circuit rem tely adjusts PSU v ltage

Figure 1. IREF can be increased ordecreased to the load dependingon N.

Figure 2. LT1996 used as a pin- strap-programmable current sink/ source, in this case, dividing the reference current by 10.

Figure 3. LT1995 sinking vetimes the reference current

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Precisi n pr grammable current s urce uses tw ICs


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design ideas

This Design Idea demonstrates a way to adjust the output voltageof a power supply, for OVP/UVP testing, margin-testing the load, voltageprogrammability, or any other reason.

Circuit remotely adjusts PSU voltage By Chee Hua How


Figure 1. Circuit for bidirectional trimming of PSU output voltage




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design ideas

The circuit in Figure 1 is capable of bidirectional trimming of a powersupply’s output voltage by sourcing or sinking current into the feedbacknode. It can operate either manually with switches or digitally via threeinputs: S1 (STEP), S2 (RESET), and S3 (U/D).

Every S1 rising edge increases or decreases V O by one step (about 95mVin this design). S3 controls the adjustment direction (up/down), and S2resets V O to nominal.

One shot U4B ensures:- One incremental step per press (debounces S1).- Su cient waiting period for the UUT’s protection circuit to react.

The trim section comprising U5 & U

Documents

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