Bisinfotech Magazine April Issue 2021

APRIL 2021 80.00

R.N.I. No: DELENG/2019/77352 l VOL 3 l ISSUE 04 l TOTAL PAGES 64 l PUBLISHED ON 1ST OF EVERY MONTH |WWW.BISINFOTECH.COM

2021

COMPONENT DISTRIBUTION

BUSINESS

Anil Kumar Challyil element14

Practical EMI Control in a Power Component Design Space

Tan Aik Hoon Avnet

NTC Temperature Control for IGBT & Power MOSFET

Tony Ng

Digi-Key Electronics Journey to Developing a Successful Cellular IOT Device

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The Future Stows Here!

Editorial

Although Internet of Things (IoT) market in India is at its development stage, however in last few years, the market registered key growth backed by the increase in number of connected devices coupled with increasing internet penetration and exponential growth is anticipated in the coming years due to launch of government projects – Smart City Project and Digital India campaign.

The IIoT segment is registering growth on account of rise in industrial applications for increase in production. Government’s efforts to increase internet penetration through “Digital India campaign” are resulting in spreading awareness and adoption of IoT amongst end users.

With the incorporation of IoT in both consumer and industrial sector, there is a rapid expansion of the ecosystem. Major companies are turning to adopt IoT to increase their efficiency and customer experience.

Five key segments are contributing to the overall IoT market demand in India - Large Enterprises, Global Capability Centers (GCCs), Small Medium Businesses (SMBs), Consumers, and the Government. As per reports there are over 1200 public-listed Large Enterprises in India, with a current IoT adoption rate of around 35%. The base of 1400+ GCCs is further propelling the IoT segment in India and these GCCs are rapidly testing, implementing, and scaling IoT technologies and use cases.

With 75 Million+ SMBs, India has the second highest base of SMBs in the world. About 50,000 of these leverage some form of advanced digital technology solutions for driving business operations, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cloud, IoT, etc. These burgeoning segments, coupled with the increasing connectivity and smartphone penetration across the country, is driving the adoption of IoT-based solutions in the consumer segment. The Indian Government is also driving large-scale initiatives such as the Smart Cities project with a budget outlay of USD 31 Billion.

It is certain that developing IoT solutions requires massive investment and planning. Thus, hiring Internet of things companies in India must be a well-planned decision. One must consider IoT companies in India who have exposure to multiple IoT verticals including consumer electronics, smart homes, cities, and industrial automation. Also, these IoT developers hold deep domain expertise which ensures deploying successful IoT projects.

Happy Reading!!

CONSULTANT EDITOR & External Communication NILOY BANERJEE niloy@bisinfotech.com SENIOR SUB-EDITOR NITISHA DUBEY nitisha@bisinfotech.com CORRESPONDENT AISHWARYA SAXENA editorial@bisinfotech.com WEB DEVELOPMENT MANAGER JITENDER KUMAR

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Editor, Publisher, Printer and Owner make every effort to ensure high quality and accuracy of the content published. However he cannot accept any responsibility for any effects from errors or omissions.

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•Vol - 03 / 04

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Contents 08

COVER STORY ELECTRONIC COMPONENT DISTRIBUTORS – THREE BIGWIGS EMBED 2021

14 BIG PICTURE

ST BELIEVES IN STRONG CULTURE OF INNOVATION, COLLABORATION & DIVERSITY & INCLUSION FOR GENDER EQUALITY

18 5G | COLUMN PRIVATE 5G NETWORKS

20

IIOT FOCUS GETTING YOUR NETWORKS READY FOR THE FUTURE

22

IOT | COLUMN YOUR JOURNEY TO DEVELOPING A SUCCESSFUL CELLULAR IOT DEVICE

Rajita D’Souza

President|Human Resources and Corporate Social Responsibility|STMicroelectronics

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Sangeet Kumar

CEO & Co-Founder|Addverb Technologies

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24 POWER

PRACTICAL EMI CONTROL IN A POWER COMPONENT DESIGN SPACE

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WHITE PAPER NTC TEMPERATURE CONTROL FOR IGBT AND POWER MOSFET MODULES

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POWER FORTY YEARS OF KNOW-HOW HOW INFINEON SHAPES POWER FOR GROWTH THROUGH MOSFET INNOVATION

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BIG PICTURE ADDVERB INTENDS INDIA AS A HUB OF INNOVATION FOR INDUSTRY 4.0 TECHNOLOGIES

36

BIG PICTURE WE HAVE A LONG LEGACY IN DEVELOPING LEAD-FREE SOLDER SOLUTIONS

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5G TECH PAPER INDUSTRY SET TO TEST THE SIX NINES CAPABILITY OF NEW 5G MOBILE TECHNOLOGY

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SMART LIGHTING MY SMART LIGHTING SYSTEM IS TELLING ME IT IS UNSAFE IN THIS ROOM!

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AUTOMOTIVE | TECH COLUMN SPORTS INNOVATED: THE INFLUENCE OF MOTOR RACING ON NEXT GENERATION PASSENGER VEHICLE DEVELOPMENT

Tim Twining

Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Technical Support, Indium Corporation

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RUSHABH CHAMPANERI Founder & Managing Director, Iottive

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BIG PICTURE INDIUM SOFTWARE TO DEVELOP MORE IPS AND QA SPACE

46

TECH FOCUS FIVE WAYS TO PROTECT AUGMENTED REALITY WEARABLES FROM ELECTROSTATIC DISCHARGE DAMAGE

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ELECTRONIC MATERIALS 2K CONFORMAL COATINGS ADDRESS PERFORMANCE CHALLENGES IN THE HARSHEST ENVIRONMENTS

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TECHNOVATOR IOTTIVE TARGETS HEALTHCARE INDUSTRIES & HOME AUTOMATION

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TECHNOVATER A US BASED START-UP FOCUSING ON CONSUMER ROBOTS

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JUN YE

CEO, Moorebot

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> COVER

STORY

Electronic Component Distributors – Three Bigwigs Embed 2021 Tony Ng VP, Business Development, APAC, Digi-Key Electronics

Tan Aik Hoon Regional President, South Asia, Korea and Avnet United | Avnet

Anil Kumar Challyil GTC Site Manager, Global Technical Marketing, element14

> APRIL 2021

-Niloy Banerjee

In a world of rapid technological innovation, the electronic components industry has become important than ever. Coping up with the electronics component demand, maintain quality and reliability, upfront market strategies, inventory management and reaching the last mile all comprising the electronic component distribution business to evaluate and assess newer strategies. To manufacture a readily available supply of electronic products that consumers now expect, the industry must continue to grow and be supported by effective supply chains. Advance technologies like Artificial Intelligence(AI), Machine Learning (Ml) and the Internet of Things(IoT) are deriving new mean of prospects and adapt to new behaviors and requirements of global customers.

One crucial thing on the brighter side is the global advancement of technology which is creating a holistic demand for electronic components and helping electronic component distributors to compile a global blueprint. Another aspect that makes this story more pivotal than ever is the pandemic, bringing along the big names and companies to respond to the pandemic situation was inevitably important. Hence in an aim to unveil the potential of the electronic component distribution industry and trends foreseen in 2021 or say in this new normal, I tried to get alongside the best-inthe-business paving the new cognizance for electronic components distribution business. As leading electronic component distribution players, the collective voice of Tony Ng|Vp|Business Development, APAC|Digi-Key Electronics; Tan Aik Hoon| Regional President, South Asia, Korea and Avnet United| Avnet and Anil Kumar Challyil|GTC Site Manager|Global Technical Marketing|element14 came across as more decisive, impelling and indeed ingenious. This is what the leaders had to say.

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Key Drivers of Electronic Components Distributing Biz in 2021

There is always a light at the end of the tunnel! 2020 washed off many pre-determined strategies as we all became onlookers stranding to get everything normal. Moving away in a flick and determining to take the next step stronger, the electronic component distribution business certainly kept its tempo high.

Meanwhile, Tony from Digi-Key believes 2021 to be a recovery year. Elaborating further, he said, “We expect to see the growth of the distribution business of all technologies across multiple industries. The major automotive players in Europe and China are already feeling the pain of not getting enough semiconductors they will need in the coming months. Cloudrelated hardware infrastructure and portable terminals remain strong, and they are well coupled by the new generation of chipsets for CPU and wireless applications supporting equipment upgrades. The continuous implementation of 5G infrastructure and related applications will trigger stable demand at least through 2022. With all governments’ money policies, research and development across industries will also be indirectly benefited.

Tony indeed foresees a bright year to come!

Emphasizing the prevalence of AI and IoT, Aik Hoon from Avnet said, “As Artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly prevalent, it is expected to become one of the catalysts driving the electronics components industry. IoT can bring data from millions of devices but we need to apply AI to IoT data to generate insights. AI is driving both hardware and software products, from custom chips to AI neural networks.

Many companies are also designing AI-specific chips.”

Talking about the stay-at-home economy, Aik Hoon foresees a robust demand for gaming, laptops, servers and other devices supporting remote work and education. She said, “We have seen a huge jump in the demand for electronic component needs. In automotive, the chip-reliant industry has recovered much faster than expected but was hit hard by a global chip shortage partially as a result of the stay-at-home economy.

That said, the automotive electronics market is expected to continue growing. There is also a current boom in hybrid and electric vehicles which require even more components.”

Witnessing the market unpredictable, Anil from element14 cites, “The industry is expected to rebound and witness recovery in 2021. We see the automotive sector picking up pace in electric and traditional vehicles. COVID-19 has driven demand in the telecommunication industry due to remote working, online learning, home gaming, etc. With the pandemic currently showing no signs of slowing down, the telecommunication industry will continue to go strongly.”

He continues, “COVID-19 has also accelerated the need for touchless technology, resulting in wireless technology such as Bluetooth and NFC becoming increasingly popular. 5G will enable different levels of innovation across multiple market segments, including healthcare, autonomous vehicles, smart cities, and industrial automation.”

Sharing a report, Anil added, “The world is shifting towards

•Vol - 03 / 04

clean, eco-friendly energy sources. The IEA forecasts that the renewable electricity capacity will rebound in 2021 as delayed projects are expected to come online. Currently, India is the third-largest producer of solar energy in the world.”

Ready-To-Go Strategies and Collaring with Rapid Innovations in Product Development

Talking about their expertise in this rapidly changing technology world, Aik Hoon affirms, “As a global technology solutions provider and a distributor, Avnet is uniquely positioned to guide businesses to use the best and most effective parts from the world’s best suppliers and also offer customers an end to end solution.”

Furthermore, Aik Hoon talks about product life cycles as it gets increasingly shorter. In this scenario, she believes, “Businesses need to be quick in introducing new products to the market or risk being superseded by their competitors. Avnet has been supporting our suppliers and customers in demand creation.

Our extensive ecosystem of experts supports customers at every stage of the product lifecycle. We offer design, product, marketing and supply chain expertise to help companies reduce the time, cost and complexities of bringing their products to market.”

On the other hand, Tony seconds on the question elaborating, “Digi-Key can’t agree more in this area. To maximize customer innovation, Digi-Key continues to invest in enlarging our product portfolios. In the past two years, we have increased 200 franchised lines, 1,100,000 searchable parts, and 300,000 SKUs for immediate purchase. Digi-Key now offers more than 11.5 million components, with over 2.6 million in stock and available for immediate shipment, from over 1,500 quality name-brand manufacturers. All of these investments are designed to enable innovation and making parts ready-togo when customers need them.”

Lastly, Anil underlines the importance of R&D, adding, “The rapid pace of innovation in electronics technology creates a constant demand for newer and faster products and applications. This demand puts a greater emphasis on R&D to keep changing their input components to suppliers having innovative and latest product roadmaps at competitive prices. Multiple alternatives will help them to mitigate losses, shortages, and cost escalations.

Elaborating on disruptive technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Nanoelectronics, IoT, Cloud computing, Advanced Robotics, 3D printing, and Wearables, Anil believes these technologies are changing the face of many OEMs' manufacturing focus.

Talking about element14, he said, “element14 can offer new and expanded services as an absolute value-add to our customers in new markets at a pace never seen before. Our websites, Community, and various resources help provide the most up-to-date information about our suppliers' latest product trends. Members can easily access datasheets, design notes, example schematics, and example codes to start their research. They can build prototypes with ready evaluation

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> COVER

STORY

boards, processor boards, and modules available in stock.

Manufacturers have moved up the value chain to concentrate on more technically advanced industries or products. Success in the future of manufacturing requires an agile process including research, technology, innovation, and training targeted towards getting better-differentiated products to market more swiftly. As OEMs increasingly outsource product design and manufacturing to strategic partners, they can reduce overall costs. They can focus on expanding into new lines of business and revenue opportunities. Avnet and element14, as value-added component distributors, offer advanced design and testing services. A component consultancy based on the latest trends, the supply of sub-assemblies of processor and connectivity solutions for customers to deliver more sophisticated products at unprecedented speed with accuracy – while simultaneously controlling costs.”

Coping Up With Digital Transformation in Electronic Component Distribution Biz

Sharing about Digi-Key’s major initiatives to lead in this digitaltransformation era, Tony quotes, “Digital transformation remains a major topic for Digi-Key to focus its investments for the years to come. In 2020, we launched connectivity solutions in India and multiple APAC countries. Our B2B customers can easily automate their daily quotation and order entry process with us via the API portal. Even for small businesses without the IT resources, they are also encouraged to utilize our online tools like BOM and Quote Manager or even reach out to our sales reps to explore alternatives to process their frequent POs with us faster and more accurately, as long as they have a standard order format.

Tony talking about the Indian market cited, “We also launched online scheduled orders for the India market in INR. Together with potential credit term support, we enable our customers to plan better and buy more conveniently. Digi-Key continues to explore ways to make doing business with us easier for our customers.”

Anil talks about element14’s investment and strategies for digital transformation, he said, “element14 is a pioneer in online component distribution. We have invested heavily in this area for the past few years. We are well poised to take advantage of and lead the digital transformation process. element14 has recently rolled out new website functionality to further enhance user experience as there is a growth in the use of online channels and services and there is a clear roadmap of further developments to continue to enhance the experience. The enhancements provide element14 customers with increased flexibility and ease of use when identifying and buying components for new product design, production, and testing.”

Adding on their customer support and services, Anil said, “Customers expect seamless 24/7 service for consultancy on component suggestions, solutions to technical queries, placement of orders, and supply chain tracking through email, phone, and chat. An efficient E-commerce platform, mobile tools, depth and breadth of stock inventory, order and delivery tracking are a must for distributors.”

> APRIL 2021

Aik Hoon takes us through an overview of Avnet’s digital transformation capabilities aimed to enhance customer experience. she elaborates, “Avnet is continuously strengthening our digital capabilities to enhance customers’ experience.

E-commerce is an encompassing part of the way we do business, and Avnet has a sizeable digital footprint.

Our enhanced digital portal offers customers 24/7 e-commerce expertise to our expansive list of products and services. It is the first source of information for stock and price details for all our customers. Even before the buying happens, customers use our online communities such as element14 and hackster. io to do preliminary research for the products, technologies and seek help using various tools like live chat, or community groups online. Through Farnell, we also fulfill small-volume (or catalog) orders in addition to large volumes. These enable our customers to get their required components with ease, and empowering them to design and test out their ideas or prototypes much quicker.”

Demand & Supply Critical for Electronic Component Distributors?

Tony emphasizing their sales and customer-retention strategy said, “There are many reasons why customers keep coming back to Digi-Key. Two years ago, 2019 was kind of a year of correction of industry cycles and 2020 had the pandemic causing fluctuated demands, but that has not stopped Digi-Key from investing. With the additional franchised lines, searchable parts, and stock-keeping units (SKUs) for immediate delivery, Digi-Key is better equipped to support our customers for their business needs.”

Whereas Aik Hoon believes “Demand far exceeds supply at present. The challenge is to gain more visibility on our customers’ forecast numbers and longer-term requirements to allow us to plan better. Even with a proper forecast, many raw materials like minerals are in shortage and are difficult to procure. But with this visibility, it will mitigate the risk and loss of business opportunities for both customers and suppliers.”

Lastly considering advanced supply chains in this new normal, Anil had to say, “The impact of potential disruptions such as COVID-19 are reduced by clear communication and guidance for industries in the broader network of “essential supplies”, yet the experience of the pandemic has taught us that we need a future supply chain that is more resilient and greener, with a strong capacity for innovation, whilst satisfying required regulatory regimes and taking into consideration risk, ethics and security needs.

Key Sectors Driving the Demand For Electronic Components in the APAC Market

According to Anil, “The automation industry, IoT, machine learning, and medical are key sectors driving the APAC market.

• The automation software market is projected to reach $7.0 billion by 2023, due to the increasing penetration of digital marketing and social media in APAC, especially by the populace under 40.

• The APAC Internet of Things (IoT) market is expected to

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•Vol - 03 / 04

expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29.3% between 2018 and 2025 to reach a size of $424.2 billion by the end of the forecast period with the study sizing spending across the entire IoT value chain including chips, modules, sensing, connectivity, enablement platform, system integration and applications.

• The machine learning market value in Asia-Pacific is expected to reach USD 10.00 Bn by 2023, expanding at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 51.3% during 2018-2023.

Asia Pacific Medical Products Market Share was valued at around USD 4.9 billion in 2019 and is estimated to show around 7.5% CAGR from 2020 to 2026. The growing geriatric population, increasing number of disabilities and rising investments in healthcare infrastructural development are significant factors that boost regional growth. The ever-growing ageing population experiencing mobility issues in the region is one of the major factors propelling the demand for wheelchairs and increasing the overall market growth.”

On the heels, keeping its crisp, Tony noted, “Automotive, 5G and computing infrastructure are three of the biggest sectors we see right now key sectors driving the APAC market.”

Re-emphasizing AI/ML & IoT as key drivers, Aik Hoon said, “AI and machine learning are gaining prevalence as businesses turned to AI to gain insights into data that is growing exponentially.

This is further amplified during the pandemic as we strive to make sense of more data to keep people safe at schools, workplaces and public areas. Avnet has been providing design chain services and technical expertise to our customers to facilitate their product development in the areas of AI, IoT, machine learning, embedded vision, autonomous driving and so on to better serve the community.”

She continues, “Covid-19 has also accelerated automation in various sectors as a means to reduce human interaction.

In the area of food delivery for instance, Avnet supported a startup in China with the development of an unmanned delivery vehicle. We provided support to the customer in system architecture, device selection, design support on both hardware and software. In addition, we also helped them to implement AI design and system optimization. During the Covid-19 outbreak, this unmanned delivery vehicle has been deployed in Hunan’s science park to provide truly contactless delivery of meals.”

“There was an uptick in demand for unique SaaS solutions for healthcare requirement. Before the pandemic, contact tracers were not something we would have thought of developing.

Now it has become a necessity and Avnet supported the design of the hardware as well as the firmware for the contact tracing device and gateway which work together as an ecosystem. Remote patient monitoring and virtual care are also on the rise” adds Aik Hoon.

Strategies and Importance of Indian Market

The concluding words from Tony highlighted, “India is an important market to support our continuous growth in APAC. As the market continues to grow, we also continue to learn

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how to serve our customers better in the country. We are exploring solutions from daily service support, bringing parts to customers’ doorstep, and making payment easier. We will continue to grow alongside our customers.”

Anil sums up stating, “The world's fastest-growing industry, Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM), continues to transform lives, businesses, and economies worldwide. The global electronics market is estimated to be over $2 trillion and India's global electronics manufacturing share grew from 1.3% in 2012 to 3% in 2018.

Technology transitions such as the rollout of 5G networks and IoT drive the accelerated adoption of electronics products.

Initiatives such as 'Digital India' and 'Smart City' projects have raised the demand for IoT in the market and will undoubtedly usher in a new era for electronic products.

• India is expected to have a digital economy of $1 trillion by 2025 • India’s electronics market will be one of the largest in the world and reach approximately $400 bn by 2025 • India's ESDM sector is expected to generate $100 - 130 bn in economic value by 2025 100% FDI is allowed under the automatic route. Electronics for defence can attract FDI up to 49% under automatic route and beyond 49% through government approval.”

Lastly, Aik Hoon pins on the importance of the Indian market by sharing her concluding words, “India is an important market for Avnet. We are committed to supporting the government’s “Make in India” initiative such as in developing smart cities.

We have been working closely with the local companies to develop smart, market-ready solutions that address their IoT needs, ranging from thermal sensors, e-meters, to improving logistics and developing a smarter tracking system.

For instance, Avnet worked with a local module manufacturer and provided them logistics and design support to secure a major design in a smart street light project. The project calls for the installation of 1lac plus smart street lights. Avnet also worked with various design houses to create smart horticulture solutions. Whether it is BLE or wifi-based solutions - Avnet has deep expertise in providing support to the customer. We also developed a system in India that converts and uses solar energy to run agriculture pumps, delivers maximum power to the motor depending on solar energy, while offering maximum protection to the motor and the drive. Recently, we collaborated with Infineon Technologies to support their ‘Infineon Solar Pump Motor Drive Challenge 2021′ in efforts to encourage affordable and reliable solar-powered irrigation systems for farmers that are designed and manufactured locally in India.

As more and more EMS move into India, a distributor with a strong global supply chain network such as Avnet with presence in the country will also boost investor confidence to know that there is supply chain stability.”

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>

T&M Anritsu, Spirent New Solution for 5G Video Quality

VIAVI Presents New Fiber T&M Solutions

Anritsu Corporation has collaborated with Spirent Communications to establish a new solution for evaluating the video quality of 5G devices.

This lab-based solution was developed in partnership with Spirent Communications and leverages the strengths of Anritsu’s SmartStudio NR Network Simulator and Spirent’s Umetrix Video software, providing the world’s first integrated 5G video quality system.

The accelerating shift from 4G to 5G mobile communications as well as increasing adoption of teleworking are driving increased viewing of streamed video content as well as the growing use of online meeting tools.

As a result, the video-quality experience is a key factor influencing users’ choice of 5G mobile operator and smartphone brand. Consequently, mobile operators, 5G device vendors, and content providers urgently need a solution for evaluating the video quality of 5G devices.

This solution integrates Anritsu’s Radio Communication Test Station MT8000A and SmartStudio NR (SSNR) control software with Spirent’s Umetrix Video system for evaluating video quality.

The MT8000A operates as a 5G Call Box by simulating a 5G base station and core network using a state-machine-based GUI. Users can simulate a full range of 5G network conditions including both Standalone (SA) and Non-Standalone (NSA) topologies at FR1 or FR2 frequencies, all without creating protocol scripts.

Viavi Solutions (VIAVI) has released new fiber test and measurement solutions, expanding the industry’s most complete portfolio for fiber optic testing. New optical power meters, fiber characterization modules, and an enhanced optical Time Domain Reflectometer (OTDR) solution enable service providers, colocation and hyper-scale data centers, enterprises and contractors to reduce costs, improve quality of service, minimize downtime and speed time to revenue.

As networks expand and transform to meet tomorrow’s demands, new processes, tools and solutions are needed to address rapidly changing business and network needs.

The comprehensive VIAVI fiber portfolio continues to evolve with a full range of essential instruments, systems and software required to address today’s fastest-growing technologies and functional needs, providing end-to-end support for the construction, activation, monitoring and maintenance of fiber optic services.

These solutions complement the most comprehensive fiber test portfolio in the industry, including PON/FTTx innovations for fiber monitoring (ONMS), construction/installation (Optimeter), and first-to-market certification of unbalanced PON architectures (PON OTDR).

R&S Joins FiRa Consortium for UWB Solutions

Rohde & Schwarz has become an associate member of the FiRa Consortium. FiRa, short for "fine ranging", is an organization dedicated to growing the UWB ecosystem by ensuring interoperability between multiple devices through compliance and certification programs. The FiRa Consortium focuses on three core UWB services: hands-free access control, locationbased services and device-to-device services that rely on the latest UWB based secure ranging technology specified by the IEEE 802.15.4z.

By joining the FiRaTM Consortium, Rohde & Schwarz contributes to the organization’s efforts to establish a certification program

> APRIL 2021

for UWB devices. Rohde & Schwarz brings along broad expertise in mobile device testing and certification.

As a leader in wireless device testing, Rohde & Schwarz collaborates with industry partners to develop UWB test solutions for R&D, certification and production, including essentials like time of flight (ToF) and angle of arrival (AoA) measurements as well as device calibration procedures.

The R&S CMP200 radio communication tester from Rohde & Schwarz, for instance, is ideal for solving UWB challenges in production as well as in R&D. It combines the capabilities of a signal analyzer and generator in a single instrument.

In combination with the Rohde & Schwarz WMT software service to implement automated wireless manufacturing testing and a wide portfolio of shielded chambers, the R&S CMP200 offers a complete solution for a transmitter, receiver, ToF and AoA measurements in conducted and radiated mode, compliant to IEEE 802.15.4a/z specifications.

The R&S SMM100A is a midrange vector signal generator covering up to 44 GHz, and the only in its class to offer a maximum RF modulation bandwidth of 1 GHz, thus meeting the requirements to generate broadband signals used by UWB devices in R&D and production.

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•Vol - 03 / 04

> BIG

PICTURE

Rajita D’Souza

President|Human Resources and Corporate Social Responsibility|STMicroelectronics

ST Believes in Strong Culture of Innovation, Collaboration & Diversity & Inclusion for Gender Equality

What are the key HR skills, strategies needed to lead as an HR in a leading semiconductor company like STMicroelectronics? Niloy from BIS in an exclusive-extensive interview with Rajita D’Souza, President, Human Resources and Corporate Social Responsibility, STMicroelectronics pans around the skill-sets of talent acquisition, tabling her hefty experience in this new window of opportunities, being women in tech and programs to abridge the talent-gap. Most importantly the veteran also highlights her plans in this post-pandemic world where working culture has dynamically changed and how she is keeping the balance and shaping ST in this new normal.

Much more in this edited nub below.

Q

. Rajita D’Souza, now you will be leading ST’s global HR organization, tell us about your journey till now and how you strategize to drive ST’s programs in coming years?

I joined ST in Jan 2021 and am still learning about the organization.

Fundamentally, I believe that the HR & people strategy must align with the business strategy. The approach I will follow will be to work closely with my colleagues to understand and get

> APRIL 2021

to know our expectations for the next 3-5 years, understand what we want to do and what capabilities, processes, and investments we need to focus on in talent development. Based on that, we will build programs and create opportunities to develop our people, close gaps of capabilities, and teach and coach our people on the technologies in this new digital world that we need to embrace. We also need to recruit

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Q

people with the best technical and leadership capabilities . You bring along an experience from co-related yet we can find from everywhere in the world to help ST grow diverse fields. How different you see the strategy and our portfolio and achieve our strategic goals. programs in the semiconductor workplace when it comes to talent acquisition? . What it is like being a women-leader in a tech company. One big difference is that the semiconductor industry requires How responsibilities and strategies are drawn and specific highly specialized skills, and the availability of these evaluated on a day-to-day basis and your thoughts as global skills is very limited. The number of students studying the kinds companies move towards gender equality? of electronics or electrical engineering that we want is small Women leaders in global Tech companies are making lots of and sometimes the employed base of these skills in the industry news and will continue to make their presence felt in C-suite is very low. And, of course, with the industry boom, there is roles. It is very important and satisfying for a female leader to a high demand for the kinds of profiles we’re looking for. So, be considered for, and promoted into, roles for the capability to drive talent acquisition becomes even more challenging: and experience they bring to the table instead of for their you have to appeal to candidates with the job and the gender. Most women leaders have collected enough stories company by offering them a complete value proposition, such about their sacrifices, addressing gender bias, balancing as giving people an environment, community, opportunity work/life, and the difficult competition at work. to grow and change, to do different things and to inculcate entrepreneurial skills and an innovation mindset, while still Gender diversity will continue to be a priority as companies following guidelines and compliance with company rules and implement diversity policies and take constructive actions to norms. Infact, talent acquisition for manufacturing technology build cultures that are inclusive so that everyone feels that is particularly challenging. they belong and is treated fairly.

The strategy we have in place at ST is to secure quality talent Being a women leader in a Tech company in some ways is not and new-generation talent, whether male or female, as different from being a woman leader in any other company. there is a shortage of both. ST’s value proposition and the If there are differences, it may be in thought processes or experience we offer employees has to be full spectrum. in the way organizations approach things, and these are We have to provide a stimulating environment to foster the certainly not triggered by gender thinking. However, in Tech ability for someone to fulfill his or her desires and we should companies, the challenge is from the strategic side and less have a performance-driven culture that also encourages operational on a day-to-day basis i.e., strategically, being entrepreneurship so people can be innovative and creative. able to coach yourself, and groom and guide capabilities Another requirement is flexibility - because the younger within the company to be very agile and quick and to take employees want flexibility; they don't want to be in an office calculated risks, and to make sure we ride innovation to serve building or at a desk, from nine to six. They have different customers and put ST on the map for new products that we ways of thinking and want a balanced life. want to roll out.

Covid-19 has forced many of us into home working, which is Gender equality is already in place at ST and we will set also another challenge in our talent acquisition strategy that further clear targets to drive it as well as putting in place lots we have to consider. Employer branding and the awareness of different initiatives to support it. This includes speeding of people with different cultures in different countries that we up STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) operate in are also paramount when identifying and hiring programs by, on one hand, going to schools to influence new talent. girls and young women to think about having a career in an . You have around two decades of experience in your industrial environment. And, on the other, directly addressing respective field-leading different responsibilities. What the challenges that most women have of trying to balance career and family, home, and other obligations. We (both the will be your one suggestion to women seeking success in executive team at ST and Women Leaders) must create an the HR field? environment that encourages and fosters open conversations We are living today in a largely technology-driven world where on gender equality and the importance of cultivating diversity virtual connectivity has, to a large extent, replaced in-person within organisations. We also need to teach and educate all and personal connectivity. There is an ever-present challenge peers to understand the differences in approach and thinking of losing touch with your internal and external colleagues that women can have and how those peers can support, and associates. My mantra, even more, important in my HR capacity, has always been to engage often with colleagues. interact, and coach women in their teams.

This may not be easy to do, but successful engagement I have had the pleasure of working with some fantastic women leads to higher retention. So leaders need to communicate, leaders in my career. We look at problems and challenges in a share their vision, listen actively, and finally provide open broad framework and tend to make our decisions not just on continuous feedback. what the best strategy or action is but also think through what Tied into the need for connectivity, to be successful in any the impact of these decisions will have on all stakeholders. field, you need to speak the language of the business as well

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APRIL 2021 <

> BIG

PICTURE

as understanding that business as deep below the surface as you can. The most successful HR programs are the ones that address first, the interests of the business supported by the human capital in the company.

Q

. How would you shape the workplace and company culture in ST? ST already has a strong culture in place as I've discovered from spending my first few months doing a lot of what I call “listening tours,” although due to Covid-19 global travel restrictions, I’m using the new way of virtual sessions.

ST features a strong culture of innovation, collaboration, and a sense of belonging. These are some of the expressions that I have heard constantly and consistently from all geographical and functional parts of the ST world. So rather than focusing on changing the culture or reshaping the workplace, I think we should further strengthen the solid base we have - to create more agility, increase cross-functional collaboration, inject more inclusiveness of different people and share the diversity of our experiences.

Most importantly, we need to step up our existing programs and initiatives on Diversity and Inclusivity company-wide.

This I believe we have much room to expand and facilitate.

As organizations are striving to become more global, digital, and transparent, they can’t overlook diversity and inclusion because employees have become more exacting in their demands for respect for diversity, inclusion, and gender equality.

Today, HR is a custodian to promote diversity and inclusion among employees and this can, in turn, help companies become more efficient, innovative, and productive.

Just to reiterate, ST’s Diversity & Inclusivity philosophy and practice, which says that as an organization we are convinced that diversity and inclusion bring value to our business through effective innovation, (organizational) attractiveness, engagement, and agility. Also one of our ongoing objectives is strengthening the role of women in building ST’s future. Our ambition is to create value from the diversity of our workforce by ensuring that all employees reach their highest potential in an environment that respects and harnesses the richness of our differences for both individual and collective success.

to strengthen competencies in, for example, performance management, coaching, and leadership development to boost the career development of employees.

So, while in my view training and mentorship programs remain fundamental, the avenues for such programs have changed from traditional methods to using more digital tools.

For us, talent retention is very challenging as this young generation is highly mobile and ambitious. So, it is imperative to have good plans & programs in place to increase employees’ interest in staying with ST as well as monitoring the effectiveness of HR initiatives implemented by our competition in the industry.

Q

. What trends will shape Human Resource departments over the next five years?

The digital world has gradually redefined the HR function.

More than just the way we manage our people, it has also redefined how HR operates. From recruitment to performance management, we are seeing automated processes being used.

I expect Bots will continue to take over the mundane function of sifting through applications to select the qualified few. In other words, extend the paradigm shift from human-driven to digital-driven in recruitment. AI has also begun to play a strategic role in HR functions. So that's a huge part of the change.

The other area where I believe the shift will continue is that HR has to continue to up its game as a consultant in terms of know-how, competency building, agility, and flexibility to provide advice on many aspects of employees’ well-being and welfare. Here the consultations must cut across different organizations, different projects, different countries, different languages, and different cultures.

In short, while preserving the relevant aspects of traditional ways of working, we must embrace automation that will greatly enhance job productivity. Usage of AI will also enable us to address whatever is the next level of complexity for recruitment, as chatbot services have found a niche in most companies.

And as far as ST is concerned, we have already started the journey and process of digitization, wherever possible and relevant. This is particularly challenging for ST where a large percentage of the employees are operating in manufacturing environments. Regardless of whatever trends will shape the . What are the qualitative and quantitative results of the future of companies and the human resources function, talent acquisition strategy and how it has changed over enhancing employees’ engagement in the company is the years? critical. The bottom line is to significantly increase employees’ Changes in the talent acquisition strategy extend beyond the engagement and satisfaction level in this ever-demanding Semiconductor industry. I think technology has also pushed and ever-changing industry we operate in. the frontier in talent harnessing, talent development, and talent retention. Today, companies constantly invest to attract In addition, organizations around the globe are looking for a and retain the right talent by using social networking, new new type of leader - one that has both a strong technologycognitive technologies, and big data. Taking a simple example: infused capability and is largely grounded in using human physical job fairs have been largely replaced by social media touch to manage dynamic and diverse teams in continuous channels like LinkedIn; online forms and Skype/Zoom interviews learning and development and in taking accountability for have spread like wildfire. This has sped up recruitment and their work and career. So really, as effective as it is, my priority reduced costs. Nevertheless, employees’ experience is not at ST is in helping make the company even more engaged to be discounted. Organizations are also using multimedia and empowering to its employees.

Q

> APRIL 2021

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INDUSTRY KART > Digi-Key Honored as Global High Service Distributor

Mouser, NXP eBook on Smart Mobility

Digi-Key Electronics has been recognized as on Semiconductor’s Global High Service Distributor for 2020. This is the second year Digi-Key has been honored with the Global High Service Distribution Partner Award, which honors the distributor that led channel sales, grew market share, captured increased sales of products and scored highly on overall process excellence in the evolving semiconductor market.

“Digi-Key is thrilled to be recognized with this prestigious award for the second consecutive year from one of our most valued global partners to our engineering community, ON Semiconductor,” said David Stein, vice president of global supplier management at Digi-Key. “ON Semiconductor continues to provide Digi-Key’s customers with high-quality semiconductor-based solutions that empower innovators to reduce global energy use.”

ON Semiconductor is an industry leader in leveraging partnerships in the global distribution channel. Approximately 60 percent of the company’s business results from distribution sales and distribution remains the fastest channel to market.

Arrow Electronics Partners with Secureworks

In Smart Mobility and the Technologies Paving the Way, subject matter experts from NXP offer their perspectives on secure identification and authentication solutions for intelligent transportation systems.

Traffic congestion, aging infrastructure, and rapid urbanization are increasing the need for new mobility solutions. The ease of getting from point A to point B, the efficient movement of goods and services, and the flexibility and integration of different modes of transportation all play a key role in developing solutions that enhance mobility.

Smart Mobility and the Technologies Paving the Way, the new eBook from Mouser and NXP, explores the applications, design topics, and featured technologies essential for developing smart mobility solutions that will move us forward. Topics include advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), radar, vehicle networks, and vehicle electrification.

element14 with Yageo to Expand Portfolio

Arrow Electronics has signed a pan-European distribution deal with global cybersecurity company Secureworks to offer a comprehensive portfolio of software and services that deliver scalable, complementary security solutions to the European channel.

The collaboration between Arrow and Secureworks intends to deliver the ability of businesses to digitize and to do so securely.

As a software-driven security solutions leader, Secureworks will provide Arrow with a streamlined way to meet growing customer demand for cybersecurity.

Secureworks has joined forces with Arrow for its capabilities in channel recruitment, channel enablement, and sales support.

Products and services available through the new distribution agreement include Secureworks Taegis XDR (Extended Detection and Response), Secureworks Taegis ManagedXDR, Secureworks Taegis VDR, and the Secureworks Incident Management Retainer, for proactive and emergency incident response.

•Vol - 03 / 04

Mouser Electronics has launched a new eBook produced in collaboration with NXP Semiconductors that explores strategies for enabling safe, secure, and efficient mobility in cities through new technologies.

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element14 has formed a partnership with Yageo, extending its’ existing relationship to give customers access to the full product range.

This new agreement represents a further strengthening of element14’s extensive passive component range, with the complete portfolio of Yageo products available for fast delivery.

Passive component solutions, available from element14, will support design and maintenance engineers working in the following key markets: • Automotive and transportation • Telecommunications • Industrial and smart manufacturing

APRIL 2021 <

> 5G|COLUMN

Private 5G Networks

PRIVATE 5G NETWORKS 5G equips communication service providers with the ability to serve a multitude of use-cases with lightning fast connectivity, enhanced mobility, flexibility, reliability and security. The global pandemic has highlighted the importance of evolving networks and the major role digital technology plays. From smart phones to smart factories the unique combination of ultra-high speed connectivity and ultra-low latency, 5G is all set and ready to transform the communication landscape and the way we perceive it.

Transforming the connected ecosystem and enabling societies to take the leap with other next generation technologies such as; Internet of Things (IoT), network slicing & machine to machine communication, 5G is pushing the boundaries of connectivity to break new ground, spurring innovation for a smarter, safer and sustainable future.

With commercial 5G networks live around the globe and continue to roll out in many regions, the development of private networks over 5G — something that started in LTE — will create the infrastructure needed to expand the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), as well as enable greater capacity for critical radio communications, campus environments, sports venues and enterprises.

Private networks generally consist of a wireless local area network (LAN) that uses 5G technologies to deliver dedicated bandwidth, providing massive connectivities to support defined automation and IOT needs. One significant driver behind the growth of private 5G networks is the release of unlicensed spectrum for industry verticals, enabling deployment

> APRIL 2021

Sameh Yamany

Chief Technology Officer, VIAVI Solutions of private 5G networks without going through a mobile operator. This development is expected to give rise to new classes of business-to-business service providers, changing the competitive landscape for today’s network operators.

Capturing new opportunities

Generally, an enterprise turns to a private network to guarantee coverage, gain network control, ensure data security and meet performance profiles. Private networks can take several forms.

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Beyond the traditional model of operator-run networks, private 5G networks can be deployed and managed by infrastructure vendors, including traditional, large infrastructure vendors, as well as suppliers with cloud and software backgrounds.

Findings by ABI Research estimate that the total market value unlocked by 5G could reach $17 trillion by 2035, fueled by vertical enterprise services. Savvy CSPs are recognizing the greenfield market opportunities that can be created in enterprise markets. Not only can mobile operators lease their own spectrum to support private enterprise networks, they also can develop private wireless networks that are then sold to enterprise customers.

Unlike networks that provide mobile network services to the general public, private 5G networks are deployed on the company’s premises, such as; across a campus or in a factory. Such networks have high quality of service (QoS) and security requirements, helping to isolate the network against problems that occur in the public mobile network. As such, private networks can improve performance, security, privacy and safety for the enterprise, while also making it easier for the enterprise to manage availability, maintenance and operations.

Stage for future operations

Private 5G networks that use coordinated shared spectrum will require improvements in RF planning, network design, installation, test, management and operation. As such, private network operators would be well-advised to automate workflows and service assurance. Doing so not only provides immediate benefits for existing, hardware-based 4G networks, it also sets the stage for future operation of new virtualized and cloud-native 5G networks.

5G for business 5G networks present a number of exciting opportunities; not only for mobile operators, but for enterprises as well. Yet it’s important for enterprises to consider the level of technical skill needed to set up and service a private 5G network. Ultimately, those enterprises that fully understand the benefits — and challenges — of private 5G networks will reap the rewards offered by this next-generation technology.

About the Author

Sameh Yamany, PhD, is Chief Technology Officer at VIAVI Solutions where he drives technology innovation and execution for the company.

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Private mobile networks also provide enterprises with opportunities to optimize and redefine business processes in ways that are not possible or feasible on wired and Wi-Fi networks.

Already, several test cases have emerged demonstrating how private 5G and IoT networks can contribute to improvements across a range of sectors, including manufacturing, healthcare, transportation, oil and gas production, mining and utilities. For instance, Ford is building a private network to test connected cars on a private LTE/5G network located in a parking lot of its Dearborn, Michigan campus. And in the healthcare sector, Norwegian CSP Telenor is partnering with Oslo University Hospital to trial the use of 5G for remote-controlled medical procedures.

As enterprises and network operators continue developing trials for private networks, the need for service assurance and business-to-business SLA management becomes vital at every stage of development. Historically speaking, testing and service assurance has been primarily manual, reactive and time-consuming, especially in relation to service activation, change management, service quality monitoring and fault isolation.

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> IIOT

FOCUS

Getting Your Networks Ready for the Future

It may be tempting to rest on your laurels when you finally have your IIoT networks up and running. Nonetheless, change remains the only real constant in life, and the world of industrial networking is no exception. Your IIoT network may be sufficient for your current needs—it may even be ready for your foreseeable application requirements over the next several years. But what about the next decade or more? Change is always on the horizon, and we need to be prepared.

Since the early days of industrial automation, manufacturers have adopted a variety of purpose-built protocols and systems, instead of standard Ethernet technologies, for highly specialized industrial control applications. However, as the IIoT market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 24%1 by 2023, industrial networks of the future will in all likelihood be required to transmit large amounts of data between interconnected devices or collect data from remote devices. With these growing demands on the horizon, how well-prepared you are for the future of industrial networking may determine your success in tackling new challenges. This section provides three considerations to help you prepare your IIoT-ready industrial networks for the future.

> APRIL 2021

Achieve Greater Integration With Unified Infrastructure

Over the years, various devices using different industrial protocols have been deployed on industrial networks to provide diverse services. Under these circumstances, network integration usually costs more than expected or becomes more difficult to achieve.

Manufacturers can either choose the status quo, that is, maintain their preexisting isolated automation networks with numerous purpose-built protocols of the past, or alternatively seek solutions to provide deterministic services and integrate these “islands of automation”.

If our goal is to be ready for the growing demands on our IIoT network in the future, the choice is obviously the latter.

The rule of thumb is to take potential industrial protocols into consideration and ensure you can redesign your networks in case any new demands arise in the market.

Time-sensitive networking (TSN) is a set of new standards introduced by the IEEE 802.1 TSN Task Group as an advanced tool box. With TSN, you can build open, unified networks with standard Ethernet technologies that reserve flexibility for the future. Furthermore, you may consider selecting solutions offered by the key players who are advocating this new technology because they actively participate in TSN plugfests to complete the ecosystem and ensure compatibility among different vendors.

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cause of problems and maintain sufficient network visibility.

Control engineers often have to revert to trial and error to get the system back to normal, which is time-consuming and troublesome.

Access Anywhere to Your Remote Machines With Hassle-free Cloud Services

Cloud-based remote access offers many benefits to IIoT customers, such as reducing the traveling time and expenses of sending maintenance engineers to multiple remote sites.

Furthermore, cloud-based secure remote access can provide flexible and scalable connections to meet the dynamic, changing requirements of the future. However, operational technology (OT) engineers for water and wastewater treatment plants, machine builders, and other IIoT customers may find it cumbersome to set up and maintain their own cloud servers to provide new services and applications. Indeed, considerable efforts are associated with setting up new infrastructure, even if it is in the cloud. Fortunately, OEMs and machine builders can now deliver secure cloud-based services and remote access to their customers without having to maintain their own cloud servers.

One key issue you should definitely scrutinize is the cloud server license scheme. Often, upfront costs may seem low for limited server hosts. However, these apparent cost savings on server hosts may actually make your project uneconomical due to a limited scale of connections. Secondly, you may also need to consider central management capabilities in order to flexibly expand remote connections in the future. With this said, carefully weigh the costs and benefits of incorporating secure remote access to your industrial networks. Always select solutions that can eliminate the hassles mentioned and help you focus on delivering more value and benefits to your customers.

Therefore, in order to facilitate and manage growing industrial networks, network operators need an integrated network management software to make more informed decisions throughout network deployment, maintenance, and diagnostics. In addition, as your systems continue to grow, you will need to pay attention to a number of network integration concerns. First, only managing industrial networks in local control centers may not be feasible three or five year later, especially when existing systems need to be integrated with new ones. It is therefore important to use network management software with integration interfaces, such as OPC DA tags for SCADA system integration or RESTful APIs for external web services.

Furthermore, an interface to facilitate third-party software integration is also a key criteria to ensuring future flexibility.

As a pioneering expert in industrial networking, Moxa provides a number of innovative technologies and solutions, such as secure cloud-based remote access and a network management tool, that already satisfy the above three factors to help you accelerate your network readiness for future IIoT applications. If you are interested in learning more about industrial networking, download our E-book.

Visualize Your Network Status for Both OT and IT Professionals

You may have seen the following scene in a movie or photograph in the news. The control room of a metro system has a group of monitors showing the current status of each metro station in the system, the locations of all the moving trains, and so on. Managers or operators need to quickly judge the current situation and take action according to the information aggregated on the screens in front of them.

This visibility helps them keep everything under control. When complexity increases with greater connectivity on industrial networks, it can become very difficult to identify the root

•Vol - 03 / 04

1. The Industrial Internet of Things Market Forecast, MarketWatch, March 2019

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(The article is an original piece written by MOXA.)

APRIL 2021 <

> IOT|COLUMN

01

02

YOUR JOURNEY TO DEVELOPING A SUCCESSFUL CELLULAR IOT DEVICE

Lavi Semel

CTO|Sony Semiconductor Israel There are many hurdles to overcome on the path to developing a successful cellular IoT device.

Today, the IoT device and smartphone ecosystems are worlds apart

The cellular IoT market is very different from the smart phone market. With varying requirements & challenges, there is no one size fits all. KPIs such as battery life, size, latency, location accuracy and radio conditions all change according to use case. The fact there is no human access for many of the use cases, leads to challenges of reliability, monitoring, security, and battery life.

> APRIL 2021

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What are the main challenges of Cellular IoT?

The main challenges to cellular IoT relate to the lack of physical access, and the need to sustain (sometimes) extreme radio & ambient conditions for a very long time. How can we ensure that radio conditions will remain good enough for 15 years?

Would the network coverage remain the same? At what cost? How do we monitor, debug or upgrade the devices?

Are there long-term (e.g. seasonal) implications on device behavior & power consumption?

Global connectivity challenges – With smartphones, there is human access involved, rechargeable batteries, and no issues with connectivity. Users can select which networks to search and lock on to, and when to do so. By contrast, a cellular IoT device must autonomously decide when to search for a network and which to connect to – based on low data-connectivity costs, and ‘good enough’ coverage.

In addition, the need to support more than one RAT (radio access technology, e.g. NB-IoT and CAT-M and sometimes also 2G) doesn’t make it easier.

The limited /out of coverage problem is much more severe than with broadband. Since the device is static, has one antenna, and with limited bandwidth, it is sensitive to coverage and interference.

Battery life is sometimes the most important KPI, yet it is very difficult to predict power consumption in a cellular environment. It is affected by many factors, including; chipset, wireless conditions, network parameters & application. Power consumption may change drastically between carriers and within the same carrier (between eNB vendors).

Reducing the device’s size and cost is another challenge.

Manufacturers need to look at the whole BOM structure. A high level of integration reduces costs, eases development and reduces size.

There are also many security challenges. Aggressive cost targets impact memory sizes, CPU performance, certification and the production process. Devices sleep most of the time and connection is not maintained. There is a strict limit on the amount of information that can be communicated. Legacy protocols may be inefficient and power-hungry.

Top Things to Consider When Building a Cellular-Based IoT Device

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Below are a few tips on what to pay attention to when building a cellular-based IoT device.

Let’s start with the obvious:

1. Target battery life: First we need to define the battery lifetime, and its probability. Meaning, do we want to target the 90%-tile, 95%-tile, or the average power consumption of all devices?

2. Transmission profiles and message sizes: We need to take security into account. In some cases, a 50B packet becomes the negligible part when security is involved….

3. Reachability (i.e. PSM or eDRX): Do we need the device to be reachable? And if so, what is the maximal latency?

4. Device conditions – stationary – and if so, where is it located?

Mobile? And if so, what is the mobility profile?

Followed by the less obvious….

5. Radio technology – NB-IoT or CAT-M? The industry has developed two standards for radio technology – NB-IoT and CAT-M, with quite a large overlap between them.

NB-IoT is targeted for very low data rate applications, usually non-TCP, batch-communication, and focused on stationary devices, such as water meters. CAT-M is targeted for higher data throughputs, mobility and voice. There is a myth that NBIoT power consumption is lower than CAT-M. This is not always the case. Also, network coverage is not constant, especially if the device is deployed for years. A device deployed for over 2 years in the field might need an upgrade. Doing this over NB-IoT is very challenging, as throughput is low. Therefore, a dual-mode device gives you peace of mind. You enjoy both worlds, at a higher cost (which could pay off, at the end).

6. Power consumption: Networks today are not optimized for edge IoT devices, as they are tuned to smartphones. This leads to issues with SIM power consumption, network timers, C-DRX and scheduling parameters. Close discussions between network operators and chipset/module suppliers could overcome some of these challenges.

7. Transport and Application Protocols: HTTPs is not relevant for IoT devices with battery/data connectivity constraints. MQTT is better, but still not efficient. COAPs (used by LWM2M) is the most (standard-based) efficient protocol.

8. Addressing network coverage: Firstly, optimize your network scanning parameters. Then, monitor battery life, integrate a FOTA solution, design a robust connection manager. Finally, test extensively in the field.

9. Positioning technologies: In terms of GNSS, in many cases the need is for occasional fixes (non-tracking mode). For cellularbased positioning, NB-IoT/CAT-M networks are new and base station databases are still immature. A multi-mode modem (as opposed to single-RAT) can be used to close this gap.

Work with a trusted cellular IoT partner As you can see so far, designing a cellular IoT device is very challenging, and you need an experienced partner. As a leading provider of Cellular IoT chipsets, targeting all IoT markets and all relevant use cases, Sony Semiconductor Israel are here to help you achieve your goals.

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> POWER

Practical EMI Control in a Power Component Design Space

-David Bourner

Vicor

Abstract

Comments on the Model

Managing conducted emissions from concept through implementation

Implementing a system with such products involves introducing measures that the OEM should provide in applications literature.

Module self-noise can be reduced with the introduction of suitable external components that are selected and arranged in a board layout designed to introduce minimal parasitics.

The components will interact with the printed circuit layout, which means that noise performance is not something that can be automatically guaranteed. In almost every case that such provisions are offered, there will be reference made to engineering standards for CE (conducted emissions) such as CISPR22 or EN61000-4-6. These two standards contain clear definitions and detailed test arrangements that can be used to authenticate a power system’s emission and susceptibility characteristics.

The control of electromagnetic interference (EMI) within switched-mode power systems is a perennial topic. This article attempts to address the notion of control of conducted emissions in the context of applying Vicor Power Components in a customer application. Vicor has developed quasi-resonant topologies that mitigate noise to a great extent by design.

Although there are significant noise reductions to be had using resonant topologies in SMPS, no converter is ever noise-free.

Applying power modules in a way to assure compliance with CE engineering standards can often prevent unforeseen, costly delays in bringing products to market.

Introduction Conducted emissions control must be a consideration at the outset of a power system design, made well before final integration with other parts of a complete application. The noise mitigation schemes used must be developed alongside the power and signal processing pathways. The implementation of the system should be routinely subject to a series of prequalification tests, which although subjective, quickly bear results which indicate whether or not the final product will be adequately arranged for successful qualification outcomes.

We look for minimal emissions that are below those levels that represent adequate performance.

Model of an embedded power component

The block diagram shown in Figure 1 is the author’s attempt to show all the features of a power system that address aspects that go beyond a simple DC input / output power specification. Identifying power support functions in this way allows us to be able to look at tradeoffs and interactions between these various functions. Knowledge of interactions between required functions allows the designer to adopt a design sequence that effectively addresses all aspects of performance of the finalized design.

Figure 1 Generic system block diagram for a switching power system.

DC power flow on the busses are represented with bold arrows. The DC-DC converter is generally arranged with galvanically-isolated input and output power ports

> APRIL 2021

In the context of noise, analog and digital systems are thought of respectively as receivers and transmitters of electrical noise.

Switched-mode power converters present a mixed-mode environment. Controllers, be they digital or analog in nature, are set alongside switched power devices. Power components are modular: to a great extent the OEM (original engineering manufacturer) will have taken great pains to mitigate the effect of noise sources internal to the module, sometimes with mixed results. If not countered, self-noise of a power module is often sufficient to affect signaling affecting control of power within the component.

CE standards focus on conducted electrical noise that propagates to the input power source. Noise appearing at the output side of the system can also be attenuated, with either CM (common-mode) or DM (differential-mode) filtering or a combination of the two, just as for input-source-terminated CE. It can be argued that using power components facilitates noise control design in the integrated application. Although it is generally not possible to integrate all the suppression elements in a power component, the manufacturer will recommend the minimum effective external measures required in an optimal board layout. Given the nature of the varied types of applications being worked on by customers, applications engineers at the OEM can often be called upon to determine adequacy of current noise control strategies and suggest ways to suppress noise. This paper illustrates such an example.

Applying the Model

To illustrate an important interaction example using Figure 1, the inductance of the input power bus and the capacitors situated at the input port of the DC-DC converter (be they part of the hold-up or the filtering function) interact with the dynamic (negative) input impedance the converter presents.

This introduces the prospect of input power bus instability.

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Clearly, the choice of the hold-up capacitors with their attendant ESR is critical. These components, along with necessary surge and transient protection elements, impact the differential filtering of conducted noise travelling from the DC-DC converter’s input port to the source.

[b]

Besides DM noise, there are CM noise currents emanating from each of the converter’s input and output ports. Controlling such noise mandates the use of highly localized commonmode filtering components. These components will offer HF currents very small loops which are formed going from the power terminal, back through the coupling capacitance, afforded by a specially devised shield plane, back into the converter. Figure 2 shows the equivalent circuit of the DC-DC converter expressed in noise terms, as input-referenced noise current sources with X and Y capacitors set in place.

Once a zero-energy input profile has been secured and collected, data should be developed for a signal with known characteristics. This test data set will be used as a background template which can be used to assess noise sources associated with the application’s CE noise profile. With the veracity of the oscilloscope instrument and its coaxial probe established, it is now possible to exploit featured FFT processing running on the wideband oscilloscope as a rapid indicator of the conducted noise signal spectrum. It is easy to quickly establish read-back of the effectiveness of differing arrangements of CM and DM filtering and to iterate on topologies and discrete component selections for CE control.

Example of noise-control assessment

The block diagram in Figure 3 shows a system that was set up and augmented using networks of CE control elements.

Some experimentation on component technology options and optimal placement of component networks (such as for the set ups shown in Figures 4 and 5) carried out to maximize noise control. At the completion of the iterative phase of establishing and testing noise control arrangements highlighted with Figures 6 through 9 inclusive, the customer had a full qualification test done on their previously non-compliant target system, modified in accordance with the measures outlined. It was established that the CE noise profile of the system was robustly attained with a good margin to spare. [h]

Figure 2 Input-power-port noise equivalent circuit of a DC-DC converter expressed with differential and CM noise current sources, along with noise-suppression X and Y capacitors, installed and connected to an underlying shield plane which offers HF capacitive coupling (Cs1, Cs2 shown as lumped equivalents) back to the source at low impedance.

Noise-control development strategy

A full qualification test is expensive and time-consuming.

This process should only be carried out once, at the preproduction stage of development, before freezing the design for production. In the meantime, many simpler tests can be performed using equipment that is accessible to most designers and technicians working on hardware in a laboratory setting.

It will be possible to set up and tailor noise control networks so as to minimize noise. This is often an iterative process, based on engineering intuition and a detailed understanding of parasitics in the layout, possibly exploiting them to aid in noise control. [h] Test references should be established at the outset. It is important to run some “zerosignal” tests to establish the instrumentation’s noise floor and to establish whether there are other noise sources that unexpectedly contribute energy to the system. These sources, if present, need to be noted; if it is possible to eliminate them with modest measures, then a small investment in shielding and grounding of the lab bench may be in order.

Figure 3 Block diagram showing basic source / power converter and load arrangement for the unsuppressed system

Figure 4 Intermediate bench set up shows coaxially-grounded scope probe, inboard-shield ground contacts made at measurement stations out of adapted pieces of shielding cages of Johnson jacks. Shield ground plane is a solid copper layer. Y-cap provisional placement was changed to gain better oscilloscope acquired noise spectra

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Figure 5 View on the VTM™ evaluation test fixture board’s edge. Shows the noise reference voltage point for the system which is located at VTM’s (–OUT) terminal

Figure 9 Outcome of the CE noise‑suppression arrangements measured at the 28VDC source (+) terminal, location of which is shown in Figure 8 Figure 6 Unsuppressed CE noise characteristic for the PRM™ (+IN) power terminal

Table 1 Summary of DC power figures or system under test

Summary

Figure 7

A suggested method for resolving a functional design whilst testing and providing for control of CE noise early on in the design and development of a power system has been outlined. This forms a paradigm that is easily followed. The noise reductions arising from exercising this approach have been successfully demonstrated, using equipment commonly available in most electronic development lab settings.

Outline of CE noise suppression arrangement The M-FIAM™ is a filter and input attenuator module offering CE compliance in

References

conformance with MIL-STD 461E

Figure 8 Partial view of adapted noise‑control prototype: see the probe attached for the measurement of CE at the M-FIAM‘s (–IN) terminal. Note that the “bypass style” Y caps (C4a, C4b)

[a] Vicor Application Note AN: 005 “FPA Printed Cicuit Board Layout Guidelines” P. Yeaman Rev 1.2, Nov 2013 [b] Vicor Application Note AN:023 “Filter Network Design for VI Chip DC to DC Converter Modules” Xiaoyan Yu, Vicor Applications Engineering, Aug 2012 [c] “Power System – CE EMI Topology Review”, Vicor Internal document [d] “Introduction to Electromagnetic Compatibility” P Clayton, (Wiley Interscience ISBN-13 978-0471755005) [e] “The Circuit Designer’s Companion” T Williams, 2nd Edition, (EDN Series for Design Engineers, Newnes ISBN-13: 978-0750663700) [f] “Back to Basics -- What are Y-Capacitors?” Vicor PowerBlog, June 5, 2013 [g] “Capacitor Characteristics Impact Power Supply Decoupling” D Bourner, PCIM, May 2001 [h] “CE EMI Topology Review” D Bourner, Vicor Internal Report

across the top and bottom of the VTM™ isolation barrier are mounted underneath the VTM evaluation board

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5G >

Reach of 5G in Cybersecurity As 5G has started making its marks in every sphere of today’s technology, it has enabled society to take the leap towards a smarter, safer and sustainable future.

Related to the increasing stress of secure network with the advent of new technology, the IEEE experts have shared their insights on the scope of 5G in terms of cybersecurity.

The Ericsson Mobility Report 2020 shows how the impact of Covid19 has led to the network’s crucial role in society.

The report expects the global number of 5G subscriptions to top 2.8 billion by the end of 2025. In India, 5G is expected to represent around 18 percent of mobile subscriptions at the end of 2025.

It also states that in India, the projected value of the 5G-enabled digitalization revenues will be approximately USD 17 billion by 2030. With 5G being a platform for innovation it will enable the development of new services for consumers, enterprises, and industry, including large-scale IoT use cases.

BUT WHAT EXACTLY IS 5G?

When we spoke with Dorothy Stanley, IEEE Member and Chair of the IEEE 802.11 Working Group, she pointed out that confusion stems from the term ‘5G’ being used to refer to several ideas interchangeably: “Is 5G a vision? A set of services and data rates that are a goal to be accomplished, requiring multiple technologies? Or something that’s tied only to cellular carriers and what they can deliver?”

Some experts are most focused on the mixed nature of the technology. Babak Beheshti, IEEE Member and Interim Dean, College of Engineering and Computing Sciences, New York Institute of Technology, for example: “The very design philosophy of 5G is based on network heterogeneity. This means that the network can be a combination of technologies such as Wi-Fi and LTE.”

That will be coupled with a globally unique subscriber permanent identifier (SUPI) for each user. Beheshti: “The SUPI is never broadcast over the air during connection establishment for a mobile device, which can help prevent the hijacking of a mobile’s identity. 3G and 4G networks are inferior in this respect.”

For Stanley, top of mind is “The latest security solution, Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Easy Connect. You scan the QR code, and that bootstraps a protocol exchange that gets you on the network securely, so your traffic over the wireless link will not be snipped.”

Since IoT devices don’t often have robust user interfaces, using a QR code lets manufacturers create security protocols that can be operated without the use of a keyboard, Stanley says. “The QR code is just a way to encode data. You’re encoding a public key that then can be used to establish and bootstrap trust. Only the peer device that has the private key can decode that.”

So upcoming security technologies are promising.

WHAT CAN CONSUMERS DO TO MAKE SURE THEIR CURRENT IoT SETUPS ARE SECURE?

For Kayne McGladrey, IEEE Member and Director of Security and Information Technology at Pensar Development, “Consumers should use the ‘guest’ network of their home Wi-Fi routers as a dedicated network for IoT devices, so if one of those devices were compromised, the threat actor can’t easily pivot to more valuable data.”

That’s the case for newer devices, he says. “For older, cheap, IP-based security cameras and digital video recorders (DVRs), the easiest way to secure them is to recycle them responsibly as there often are no security updates available.”

Therefore, what 5G means depends on the context of the discussion, but it’s likely to include a combination of technologies.

The ability to update devices over their lifetime is essential to security, and should factor into buying decisions, he says.

This heterogeneity makes security more complex. However, there are already some exciting developments in the pipeline for 5G and IoT device security.

Han Guangjie, IEEE Senior Member and professor at Hohai University, seconds this point: “Check and update the IoT device firmware. If IoT devices have exploitable vulnerabilities, manufacturers often identify and fix problems before the hacker can access the device’s environment.”

“According to T-Mobile US, 4G information being carried across mobile networks was not always encrypted. In 5G, end-to-end encryption is intended to provide much stronger safeguards for data privacy,” Beheshti says.

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PAPER

NTC Temperature Control for IGBT and Power MOSFET Modules Temperature control is one of the key factors for a MOSFET or IGBT power module to work efficiently. Although some MOSFETs are equipped with an internal temperature sensor (body diode), there are other ways to monitor and control temperature. A semiconductor silicon PTC resistor can be used with well-defined current control or a Pt- or Ni-based resistance temperature detector (RTD) with moderately low resistance values and more linear performance. Whether the sensor is an SMD, a wire bonded die, or even a sintered die, an NTC thermistor remains the most sensitive and versatile temperature sensor. When designed properly, it will ensure the proper derating and eventual shutdown of the module in case of overheating or excessive external temperature.

In this article we will focus on a bondable NTC die and adopt the path of analog electronic simulation to show how fundamentally a derating and a shutdown can be operated in a power module. Why analog? It’s the best way to simplify things and illustrate the different phenomena in a visual way.

It’s also ideal for developing an intuitive application. The last motivation is pecuniary: we will develop a simulation within the limits of a free software (LTspice), while other design tools would possibly allow for more sophisticated designs.

So, let’s take the LTspice design in Figure 1, which is a simple boost converter design. However, thanks to the versatility of LTspice, the IGBT and the diode models have been replaced with thermal models, where the heat fluxes are explicitly represented with an output pin, allowing them to be connected to a thermal circuit (the heatsink, for example). We will here use a simple RC circuit (in the real world, the designer would need to carefully define the Zth model as a Cauer or a Foster model).

Figure 1

Alain Stas Bruno Van Beneden Vishay NLR Product Marketing temperature to control). This temperature is input into an NTC model (Vishay wire bondable die NTCC200E4203_T). The NTC signal is used via a Wheatstone bridge, compared to a threshold, amplified, and compared to a sawtooth signal (Vsaw). The final output Vsw is the pulse signal applied at the gate of the IGBT. Under the temperature threshold defined by the Rlim resistor value, we apply a 100 % full duty cycle pulse at the IGBT’s gate. When there is overheating — produced by the IGBT and the diode — cumulated with the ambient temperature (the voltage at the node Tamb in the thermal circuit), the duty cycle is reduced and the output / input ratio of the buck converter (Vout / Vcc) will be reduced. This produces less heat and the temperature begins to stabilize.

At the limit above a certain temperature, this ratio must be reduced to 1.

In order to perform a simulation within a reasonable time, we must scale down the thermal capacity of the heatsink.

Thermal increases can take minutes or even hours, and we want to visualize them within a very short time.

Here are the results of the simulation: in each figure, the results are shown with or without temperature derating (in order to eliminate the temperature control, the Rlim value is taken as very low).

Figure 2

During the converter’s operation, the heat flux results in a hot spot (the voltage at the node Tsyst in this case, which is the

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Figure 3

Figure 4

In Figure 8, we visualize the sum of the heat-power produced by the IGBT’s switching (I(V6) expressed in W), together with temperature (V(Tsyst) expressed in degrees Celsius) increase in time.

Figure 7

In Figure 2, you will notice the usual oscillating, non-optimized behavior of a boost converter during the first 20 ms. The temperature Tsyst (Figure 4) begins to increase, and then when the ambient temperature increases, the derating Vout / Vcc begins when the Tsyst reaches 90 °C. Every further increase of the ambient temperature decreases the duty cycle until the total deactivation of the boost converter. At 110 °C, the derating is maximum.

Without temperature protection, Tsyst can reach 160 °C to 170 °C (Figure 4). In real power modules, peak die temperatures could reach 200 °C or more. The voltages Vsense, Vntc, and Vlim are shown in Figure 3. The variation of the duty cycle is also illustrated at different times in Figures 5 and 6.

Of course, all the thresholds are scalable and the switch threshold can be adapted accordingly.

Figure 5

Going further into more complex simulations, we can also try to reproduce a full-bridge IGBT module (as shown in Figure 7). This circuit produces a 50 Hz sinusoidal current through an inductive load, with an IGBT switching at 30 kHz. The gate driver stimulation circuit will deliver a constant frequency up to 125 °C and will reduce the duty cycle in order to mitigate the IGBT losses above this temperature.

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Figure 6

The produced current is also shown in the lower pane of Figure 8.

Figure 8

Without entering into the details, it is possible to mitigate the temperature increase (Figure 8 lower pane, red curves) in time by playing into the modulation parameters: a reduction of switching duty time will reduce the heat production, but will also result in a less sinusoidal signal. We will not go further in the details of this case, but we hope to have shown with the provided examples that LTspice circuit simulations with NTC thermistors can be pushed very far and can help a MOSFET / IGBT power module design engineer to develop their intuition about their circuit, and help them to mitigate the crucial thermal aspects related to circuit protection.

The simulations shown in this article are available on request at edesign.ntc@vishay.com and can be downloaded at: https://www.hackster.io/alainstas/spice-simulation-of temperaturederating-of-boost-converter-5acef8 https://www.hackster.io/alainstas/ltspice-inverter-simulation-withthermal-effects-dadf6a

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Forty years of Know-How

How Infineon shapes power for growth through MOSFET innovation Ashita Mirchandani

Lead Principal – Device Design and Technology Development and Bastian Lang| Product Marketing Manager at Infineon Technologies

Our world has experienced dramatic change over the past 50 years. New economic, social and technological trends have emerged significantly impacting our way of life in different ways. Regardless of the way and degree to which the world has been changing, one thing remains: technology plays a crucial role in it.

Whether we think about electro mobility, internet of things, artificial intelligence, connectivity or 5G, all are heavily technology-driven innovations of today and tomorrow. These new application areas not only have profound implications for our lives, but also for underlying design requirements. Design engineers face new challenges in their jobs every day: adapting new power architectures and increased bus voltages, needing more power in small form factors, demanding higher levels of power density and energy efficiency. Looking at the value chain behind the solutions that respond to these challenges, it all comes down to the tiniest detail: the microchip. System performance (including reliability aspects) hinges on the selection of the right power switches.

At the forefront of key power semiconductor innovations With more than 40 years of experience in power MOSFET innovation, Infineon has led the way in solving the challenges design engineers face on a daily basis while helping engineers achieve their targets. Although these targets may have changed over the years, the innovative spirit behind Infineon’s product offering has persisted – from device design, technology-, package- and product development through manufacturing.

Looking at the evolution of MOSFETs in the industry, numerous advancements in MOSFET technology have enabled the applications and trends that have become an indispensable part of our lives. Consider the introduction of the first hexagonal topology MOSFETs in 1979 or the new generation of MOSFET technology launched in 1995 which was based on an advanced four-mask process utilizing innovative self-alignment features to improve manufacturing precision and increase yields. That process enabled MOSFETs to be manufactured with a low cycle time (compared with requirements for the six-step process) and allowed junction depths up to 40 percent smaller than conventional processes thereby greatly reducing the transistor junction resistance while increasing ruggedness.

Shortly after these technological developments, the world’s first FETKY product was introduced integrating the MOSFET and a Schottky diode into a single package reducing form factor and losses in DC-DC applications. Later, in 1999, leveraging manufacturing expertise, a stripe planar technology with a

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fully self-aligned manufacturing process that featured high density planar structure providing extremely low on-resistance, excellent high-frequency operation, industry-best ruggedness and excellent manufacturing cycle time was introduced. The same year, a family of MOSFETs with the industry's highest cell density and lowest RDS(on) trench MOSFETs was also introduced.

That technology focused on the latest products for handsets, laptop computers and a variety of other portable electronic devices, paving the way for ever-better performing products in the market.

In 2000, the first family of OptiMOS™ MOSFET technology featuring ultra-low switching losses for high efficiency to help designers increase power density was launched. The OptiMOS™ family has evolved throughout the years and is now in its sixth generation. OptiMOS™ products offer an impressive reduction in RDS(on) combined with superior switching performance. The OptiMOS™ family is optimized for a variety of applications and circuits, such as synchronous rectification in switched mode power supplies (SMPS) in servers, desktop PCs, wireless chargers, quick chargers, and OR-ing circuits. Additionally, in 2012, the StrongIRFET™ family of MOSFETs optimized for low RDS(on) and high current capability – making them the ideal choice for low frequency applications requiring performance and ruggedness – was also introduced to the market.

Figure 1 Technology development and product family positioning of Infineon’s 12-300 V power MOSFET offering Packaging innovation has also been at the heart of Infineon MOSFET development. In 1993, the SOT-223 was introduced as the first surface mount power MOSFET in the industry. In 2002, the DirectFETTM power package was introduced as a proprietary

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surface mount package featuring a new interconnection methodology with radical gains in both conduction and thermal efficiencies. In 2013, the widely utilized TO-Leadless package that allows for high current capability in a reduced footprint compared to a traditional D2PAK was introduced.

Most recently, Infineon has launched a family of OptiMOS™ power MOSFET devices in a PQFN 3.3 x 3.3 Source-Down package with a flipped die inside to allow for improved thermal performance and reduced RDS(on).

benefits of the innovative package include: – 30 percent lower RDS(on), decreasing I²R losses – Lower package-related parasitics, reducing the FOM and leading to lower switching losses – Lower Rthjc, optimizing the distribution of the generated heat from the package – Thermal pad located on the source pin, enabling optimized layouts where the large GND area can be utilized as a heatsink To compare the performance benefits, two versions of an 8:1 hybrid switched-capacitor (HSC) converter board were examined. One is based on a standard Drain-Down device (BSZ011NE2LS5I) and the other on the new Source-Down device (IQE006NE2LM5). Figure 2 shows the thermal performance of the devices. With the traditional package a hot-spot can be observed (Figure 3a) that is eliminated with the use of the new Source-Down package (Figure 3b). The surface temperature of the MOSFET is significantly improved, showing a 9°C difference compared to the Drain-Down device. Figure 4 illustrates the efficiency comparison (including auxiliary losses). The higher efficiency of the system featuring the new Source-Down device leads to a significant increase in power density as well.

Figure 2 Space-saving and high performance packages in the StrongIRFET™ and OptiMOS™ product families

Figure 3 The thermal behavior of the HSC at 450 W from 48 V input at Tamb=24°C and v=3.3 m/s: a) with BSZ011NE2LS5I, b) with IQE006NE2LM5

Let’s take a closer look at what benefits packaging innovations can bring to an application.

Innovating on chip-level for system performance

The chosen application example is artificial intelligence.

Power management – more specifically, the power density of the power converters fueling the processors and ASICs in a system – is one of the biggest challenges designers face in enabling artificial intelligence and keeping up with the calculation and storage needs in the cloud.

With the introduction of 48 V bus voltage, some additional power conversion is introduced into the power chain. This conversion has to be done close to the payload to avoid transmission losses and benefit from the higher bus voltage. With Infineon’s Hybrid Switched Capacitor (HSC) resonant DC-DC converter, innovation is at the system-level by utilizing Infineon’s newest Source-Down OptiMOS™ power MOSFETs. This new topology shows great potential to offer higher power density and efficiency levels than the current solution. Combined with Infineon’s new Source-Down product portfolio, this solution can be optimized from the ground up, component-level innovation with the system in mind.

Let’s take a look at how this is done.

Addressing power density challenges requires innovation at the component level with advancements in resonant topologies. With the introduction of Infineon’s Source-Down package technology, the IQE006NE2LM5 further enhances electrical and thermal performance, enabling the power density needed in modern datacenter applications. The main

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Figure 4 The HSC converter efficiency from 48 V to 6 V, including auxiliary losses, with the BSZ011NE2LS5I and with the IQE006NE2LM5 at Tamb=24°C and v=3.3 m/s The current megatrends shaping everyday life pose tough challenges for design engineers and semiconductor manufacturers. For more than 40 years, Infineon power MOSFET innovation has proven that optimization at the component level brings significant system-level performance advantages and contributes to an easier, safer and greener future.

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Addverb Intends India as a Hub of Innovation for Industry 4.0 Technologies

Sangeet Kumar

CEO & Co-Founder|Addverb Technologies

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Global robotics and automation company Addverb, known as a pioneer in implementing state-of-the-art robotic and automation solutions across factories and warehouses.

Addverb provides end to end automation solutions using a unique approach of 4D’s (discovery, design, develop and dedicate), i.e., discovering the right automation for a customer’s problem, designing the solution to manufacturing the product and project execution and dedicated after-sales support. During Covid pandemic, they invented a new MicroFulfillment Centers specifically dedicated for the e-grocery segment. While talking with Nitisha from Bisinfotech, Sangeet Kumar, CEO & Co-Founder, Addverb Technologies talks about its latest launch and upcoming inventions.

locations. Micro fulfilment centers are small distribution centers powered with various advanced automation solutions such as AMRs, picking technologies, softwares etc. With the perfect combination of rigid & flexible automation solutions, Assverb designs lean and efficient MFCs; it has already proved its mettle in setting up a model distribution centers for one of the e-retail giants. In the coming few years, Addverb focuses on becoming the largest MFC solution provider for these 2 sectors. Along with them, hospitals, hotels and airports are the other sectors that Addverb is trying to get into with its advanced technological automation solutions.

Q

During Covid-19 there was a huge economical breakdown.

How Addverb coped up with such situations?

Please elaborate on your new automated Micro-Fulfillment The biggest challenges covid-19 posed for the logistics & the Centres and how it will be helpful for the Indian market? intra-logistics sector are; Due to Covid19 scenario, as people are shifting towards more A. from suppliers to then manufacturers and the final goods online shopping and home deliveries, so we have come up to customers. with its new automated Micro-Fulfillment Centers specifically B. Shortage of labour–As most people left for the hometown, dedicated for the e-grocery segment. The company through very less availability. its innovative in-house solutions and robots is working towards C. Lack of strong contingency plan – many businesses have making e-Grocery segment future ready. Micro Fulfillment not been prepared to handle this unprecedented crisis Centers are the small-scale warehouse facilities, located and at this scale. Certain industries like essentials such as inside the cities at strategic locations enabling a less than groceriesTransport- which was completely closed in all the 2-hour delivery from the time; an order is placed till it gets 3 modes – sea, road, air; both domestic & international. This delivered. Being on time every time, MFCs eliminates the resulted in complete stopping of transport of raw materials, complex web of last-mile delivery for the e-grocery retailer fmcg, medicines have seen a demand surge, and some through its more efficiency in picking, packing and shipment other industries like entertainment, travel, luxury shopping services. We provide advanced robotics, picking & packing etc took a worse hit. solutions to enable these mini-sized fulfilment centers to churn D. Reduced consumer spends– The uncertainty prevailed out 1000s of orders in smaller durations of time for the e-grocery in the marketmade consumers spend averse except on the customer using minimal space and manpower. With a robust essentials & also as the economy came to a standstill, there micro-fulfillment strategy, we prepare you for the future of is no availability of liquid cash in the market. e-fulfillment trends in the Indian market.

As mentioned, while some industries had an adverse blow How was the year 2019 in terms of business? due to the shutdown of the economy & the lockdown, We clocked a revenue of INR 113 Crore in FY 2019-20 some other industries flourished especially the groceries, which was our fourth financial year since our inception. We f&b, Pharma & FMCG industries. To meet out the increased have already reached an employee base of around 450 and demand & the handicapped supply chain, automation has have setup a world class manufacturing facility in Noida, where emerged as the leveling point & with-it various distribution “Robots Make Robots”. We have opened offices in Mumbai, concepts such as micro fulfillment centers arose. Till now, the Pune & Bengaluru in India and in Singapore. We will soon concept of micro fulfillment centers was restricted to some of expand our office in Europe depending on how the second the advanced countries but now they are mushrooming in wave turns out. In the next three years, we aim to generate India. With a diverse range of automation product portfolio, revenue of INR 4000 cr & looking forward to penetrating the we can design multiple solutions of micro fulfillment centers. consumer industries such as education, hotels, and airports Some of the major components that can fulfill the customer through another level of breakthrough solutions and expand order fulfillment within an area of 2k to 10k sq.ft. and within our footprint globally.

2 hours of order placement are Dynamo - our autonomous mobile robots, Quadron – our carton shuttle bots, Veloce – What are the key focuses of Addverb? According to you, our multi-purpose vehicle, Box-it- our picking stations, and the which sectors are the new drivers in the automation and web of smart conveyors. robotic segment?

Egrocery and epharma are two of the sectors that are Also, to successfully fight the pandemic and assist the frontline emerging lately across every nuke and corner of the country. warriors of Covid-19, we have designed and deployed These industries are attuning the customers for less than 2-hour Decimator – our disinfectant mobile robot across hospitals, delivery, 4-hour delivery at a negligible last mile delivery costs and quarantine centers. This can be used across multiple from customers’ end. To achieve this successfully, micro fulfilment public places such as shopping malls, airports, railways stations, centers are emerging inside the cities closer to customers schools.etc to disinfect with UV rays. With 50mj/cm2 UV light,

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it kills the virus/bacteria/fungai to 99.99% & helps in reducing the contraction of facility acquired infections by keeping the surroundings clean. With the natural navigation capability and the computer vision Decimator moves from place to place and sprays UV rays in 360 degree.

Q

Please share your vision and future strategies for upcoming fiscals?

The company aims to become the world leader in Material Handling Automation and for the mobile robotics segment and intends to make India the factory of the world and a hub of innovation for industry 4.0 technologies. In the next three years, we aim to generate a revenue of INR 4000 cr and are looking forward to penetrating the consumer industries such as education, hotels, and airports through another level of breakthrough solutions. We endeavor to setup one of most innovative and research-oriented company with a vision “To pioneer human-robot collaboration to touch human lives” and to deliver affordable and sustainable technological solutions to industries and businesses.

master fresh skills as their current jobs evolve alongside the rise of automation, robotics, AI, and the capable machines thereby enabled. The talent with robotics-related capabilities is already a rather scarce resource, its scarcity will increase soon, fast, and significantly due to the projected dynamic rise of automation and robotics. So, government should come up with a strategic learning & upskilling plans.

• Infrastructural facilities: The required infrastructural facilities such as internet, roads, water, electricity and other necessities for the OEMs to set up facilities in tier-2,3 cities to make the robots available to SMBs as well as to increase the employment opportunities.

Q

Major focus and roadmap for the year 2021?

Once restricted to the industrial sectors such as factories, warehouses and other manufacturing hubs, now they are performing a wide variety of functions and are much advanced with features such as sharp vision control techniques, advanced sensor mechanisms that enable human robot collaboration, and robust software interfaces that provide ease of use and Apart from India, are you planning to reach any other flexibility. With robots being a part of daily operations in many market? If yes, then what will be your strategy to touch sectors, the overall prospects for this industry are on the high the overseas market? growth end. The robotics market is expected to reach a In addition to setting up a strong footprint & transforming the value of $37 billion between 2019 and 2021, according to the Indian manufacturing sector, Addverb is rapidly expanding International Federation of Robotics (IFR) with an average globally. It has already established offices across Netherlands growth rate of 21% each year. Logistics robots are expected and Singapore which serve as nodal offices for the European to lead the way in terms of sales volumes, with approximately and South East Asian regions, respectively. Along with them, 485,000 units to be sold between 2019 and 2021, representing Addverb has acquired some renowned clients in Australia & an average 18% increase each year.

Dubai, to make their warehouses into the most advanced warehouse technological facilities. The global strategy of With the commissioning of the state-of-the-art world class Addverb is to partner with some of the local automation firms manufacturing facility in Noida, Addverb aims to become the with similar synergies, acquire clients and then establish its world leader for the mobile robotics segment and intends to physical presence. In partnerships, depending on the cluster make India the factory of the world and a hub of innovation for the partner belongs to, it provides support at various levels, industry 4.0 technologies. In the next year, we aim to generate such as just product supplier, or overall solution implementation, revenue of INR 4000 cr & looking forward to penetrate the or even providing after project support etc. consumer industries such as education, hotels, and airports through another level of breakthrough solutions. The end goal What are your expectations from the Government? is to pioneer human-robot collaboration to deliver affordable Biggest problem with the robotics manufacturing is the and sustainable technological solutions. manufacturing/procuring of the small components. To procure these components from outside would increase the overall cost of the robot, hence indigenous manufacturing is the best solution. To encourage this OEMs need to be provided with;

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• Support & Funding from governments: Under Make in India initiative, though government is supporting the setting up of the manufacturing facilities in India, one has to cross a lot of legal and other regulations. The overall process can be smoothening, and the benefits can also be increased.

• Retraining current workforces and qualifying the next generation of workers: According to a recent study, the total number of jobs related to developing and deploying new technologies, i.e., automation-, IT-/ AI-, and robotics-related applications, may grow to 20 to 50 million globally by 2030 – and that as many as 375 million workers globally will have to

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EV > COGOS, Altigreen to Deploy 1000 EVs in Its Fleet

Porsche Increases Stake in EV Maker Rimac

COGOS has partnered with Altigreen by deploying 1000 EVs in its fleet, a step to further strengthen its commitment towards electric mobility in the country. This partnership has materialized at an opportune time as the budget 2021 and the later impositions of green tax and new scrap policy extensively showed the government's intent to enhance EV adoption in India.

Rimac Automobili has received another investment from Porsche AG. Porsche said that it has invested €70 million ($83.3 million) into Rimac, a move that increases its stake from 15% to 24%.

This is the third time Porsche has invested in Rimac. Porsche is most interested in Rimac’s development of components, according to comments made by Lutz Meschke, the deputy chairman of Porsche AG’s executive board.

COGOS would initially operate across all metros in India including Bangalore, New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, and Kolkata, before expanding to Tier 1 and 2 cities. COGOS plans to bring in at least 30% of its revenue from green technologies by 2023 and this agreement paves the path to reach its sustainable goals. COGOS will provide multiple offerings including a scalable, sustainable, and cost-efficient solution to its end users.

Porsche has already placed its first orders with Rimac for the development of highly innovative series components, according to Meschke. Despite its continued investments, Porsche said it doesn’t have a controlling stake in Rimac.

In Phase 1, COGOS is focused on deploying a fleet of 1,000 vehicles. The initial focus will be on three-wheeler cargo applications and the company will primarily utilize Altigreen three and four-wheelers that are custom-designed with highquality components & custom-built software that delivers high energy-efficiency and long life.

The German automaker made its first investment into Rimac in 2018. Porsche increased its equity stake into Rimac in September 2019. A few months earlier, Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors jointly invested €80 million ($90 million at the time) into Rimac.

However, Rimac does more than produce hypercars. The company, which employs 1,000 people, also focuses on battery technology within the high-voltage segment, engineers and manufactures electric powertrains and develops digital interfaces between humans and machines.

REE Presents New REEcorners and EV Platforms

WEVC First Coupe Inspired Sports EV

REE Automotive (REE) has introduced 5 new and improved REEcorner architecture designs and the technology behind its EV platforms designed to support the broadest range

of commercial electric vehicles.

The REEcorners shows the breadth and depth of versatility that can be afforded to customers when it comes to designing vehicles based on their requirements.

REE intends to provide a comprehensive range of technical configurations to fulfill specific B2B customer needs, including EV platform size selection based on preferred length, width and vehicle height; front, rear or all-wheel-drive with peak motor power ranges of 35 to 200 kW. REE’s smaller footprint and a lower center of gravity will also allow for taller cabin designs and lower step-in height, yielding more volumetric efficiency.

A variety of mobility players will be able to use REEcorners and EV platforms to custom-design vehicles to meet their exact needs.

•Vol - 03 / 04

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Watt Electric Vehicle Company (WEVC) has declared to redefine premium electric sports cars with its first model: the classic-inspired Coupe.

Under the skin is WEVC’s in-house developed EV platform, called PACES. Made from bonded aluminium, it features an integrated battery enclosure built into the primary chassis as opposed to a separate battery case, allowing the entire platform to be lightweight and very structurally efficient.

Over the last 10 months, WEVC has carried out extensive prototype testing and further refinements will continue to be made over the coming year. The WEVC Coupe’s advanced development phase will continue over the coming months ahead of a full production car reveal in late summer.

Manufacturing will begin at WEVC’s home in Cornwall in November with first deliveries in early 2022. Each WEVC Coupe can be individually tailored to a customer’s tastes, with the 21 120kW Launch Edition Coupes starting at £81,250.

APRIL 2021 <

> BIG

PICTURE

We Have a Long Legacy in Developing Lead-Free Solder Solutions Indium Corporation has been the only materials supplier known for its focus on reliability on the Automotive Electronics Council. Given its expertise and leadership in this domain, Indium, seems to be tapping the Indian automotive market vigorously.

Understanding more about their plans, Niloy of BISinfotech tables an exclusive interview with Tim Twining, Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Technical Support, Indium Corporation. During the interaction, the veteran highlights on their innovative solutions like lead-free solders, Indian market focus, and their strategic leadership in the PCB and SMT Assembly market, and also shares their master plan to keep the tempo during the pandemic. Edited Nub below.

Q

. Given 2021, what will be the key offerings and focus of Indium Corporation in India?

In 2021, we’ll continue to focus on the proliferation of electronics in the automotive market. Due to higher power requirements, hybrid and electric vehicles are using electronic power modules at higher and higher voltages and current densities, with long-range-capable battery systems to match. Ensuring long-term reliability drives our innovation in assembly materials for automotive modules and packages.

Indium Corporation’s proven products for automotive applications include: y Indalloy®292, an innovative alloy engineered to provide advanced lifetime reliability to industries requiring highperformance and to address the increased temperatures in many automotive applications. y Indium8.9HF Solder Paste, an industry-proven solder paste series that delivers no-clean, halogen-free solutions designed to produce low-voiding, enhance electrical reliability, and improve stability during the printing process for high-reliability automotive electronics. y InFORMS® preforms are innovative reinforced matrix solder composites, which provide even bondline thickness, as well as enhanced joint strength, mitigating reliability challenges for EV modules.

Tim Twining

pandemic including: the medical community for the production of ventilators a nd p a c ema k ers; fire suppression in producing fire sprinklers; emergency Vice President of Sales, Marketing responders, supporting the and Technical Support, development of advanced Indium Corporation telecommunication devices; and the transportation industry with the production of automotive lighting and aerospace electronics. We meet or exceed best practices for virus containment, minimizing economic hardships on our communities, and protecting our people, their families, and their communities while we continue to supply high-quality materials to the industry.

During this pandemic and despite all the challenges, Indium Corporation’s team kept innovating with new materials and processes to meet the demands of new products that are currently or will shortly enter the market. We kept investing in R&D and engineering and installed more manufacturing tools and analytic capabilities than any previous year. To accommodate this increased activity, we increased our manufacturing footprint in virtually all of our facilities and created a new 42,000 sq. ft. headquarters. You will hear about more expansion in 2021.

Q

. Your sales and marketing strategies in this new normal?

Like many in the industry, we shifted our marketing and sales focus to digital platforms. For example, we developed and launched our own webinar program—the InSIDER Series—to allow us to continue to share our expert industry insight and products with our customers. We’ve been honored by the success and participation the program has seen so far and Indium Corporation remains the only materials supplier on the will continue to cover exciting topics in 2021 and beyond. reliability-focused Automotive Electronics Council.

For those interested, our archived webinars can be found at www.indium.com/webinar. In addition to our webinar program, . Talking about last year which faced a major turmoil we work with industry organizations and media to support due to the pandemic, Indium Corporation strategies to them with technical content and advance the industry. keep processes and business seamless? Also, segments and . How are you meeting the advanced needs of the global regions where your business was mostly hit? electronics assembly materials market?

Indium Corporation has continued to support our customers, ensuring essential industries are supplied during the To us, our motto of From One Engineer to Another® is more than

y QuickSinter® silver sintering paste delivers consistent, highspeed sintering on a variety of surfaces and die metallizations.

QuickSinter® works well in both high- and low-temperature pressure or pressureless applications. It can be used for discretes, small modules, and integrated power modules.

Q

> APRIL 2021

Q

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Q

a phrase; it is a commitment to collaborating with customers . PCB market in India is quite vibrant and bullish, Indium’s and partners on the challenges facing our industry. In support focus into PCB assembly sector and how dynamic it of that, Indium Corporation’s team has continued to innovate has become with advance technology demand (smaller, with new materials and processes to meet the demands of sophisticated, and more powerful devices) dominating the new products that are currently or will shortly enter the market. market?

Throughout the pandemic, this included investing in R&D and Indium Corporation has continued to develop materials engineering. We also installed more manufacturing tools and designed to meet the evolving challenges of the PCB industry. analytic capabilities than any previous year. To accommodate The demands for smaller, more reliable, and low-temperature this increased activity, we increased our manufacturing solutions create exciting opportunities for the development footprint in virtually all of our facilities, created a new 42,000 of innovative enabling technologies. For example, some of sq. ft. headquarters, and added new manufacturing facilities Indium Corporation’s newest offerings, such as CW-232, a in India (2020) and Malaysia (2021). flux-cored wire for robotic and laser soldering applications, features additional wetting power for higher throughput as well . What is driving the evolution of lead-free solders? Your as exceptional post-soldering cleanliness. Where traditional offerings and focus into this technology? low-temperature solders can product brittle joints, Durafuse™ When the world was moving toward green manufacturing, LT is a low-temperature alloy system designed to provide highlead-free soldering—originally driven by RoHS (Restriction on reliability in low-temperature applications that need to reflow the use of Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic below 210°C. PicoShot® NC-5M is specifically engineered to equipment) of Europe —was becoming the mainstream for support smaller components that require precision materials. Its the electronics industry, and Sn-rich alloys—including SnAgCu, innovative formulation provides exceptional jetting performance SnAg, and SnCu—had been prevailing for more than a and its unique oxidation barrier promotes complete powder decade. While the electronics industry keeps advancing rapidly coalescence during reflow to eliminate graping and similar toward miniaturization, two important drivers are dictating the reflow issues. evolution of lead-free solders: low cost and high-reliability. .Any flagship solution you want to highlight for our Indian Indium Corporation has a long legacy in developing lead-free reader and industry, benefits, pricing, etc.? solder solutions designed to meet our customers’ needs. This has included the development of Indium8.9HF Solder Paste, We have excellent relationships with our customers as part a lead-free product that delivers superior printing and voiding of our commitment to the collaboration inherent in From performance, to our ongoing efforts with the Die Attach 5, or One Engineer to Another® and we continue to advance our DA5, consortium (composed of Infineon Technologies, Bosch, materials technology. There are almost always trade-offs in STMicroelectronics, NXP Semiconductors, and Nexperia) to solutions, e.g., cost vs. reliability, assembly vs. performance, develop high-temperature, lead-free alternatives to traditional etc., and we help our customers make those decisions in order lead-containing solders. Indium Corporation’s efforts have led to help them achieve the lowest cost of ownership. We have to the development of numerous high-temperature solder a strong technical team near our customers and a strong products, including BiAgX®, a high-temperature lead-free development and engineering team at our sites to advance solder paste, as well as the QuickSinter® silver sintering paste, our technology. Almost all of our product development is and Durafuse™ HT, a high-temperature alloy system. driven by solving our customers’ challenges.

Q

Q

Q

. Indium Corporation is a world-leader in solder paste and SMT assembly. How do you find the market out in India? Challenges and scopes.

Indium Corporation works tirelessly through the research and development of our products to prove again and again that materials science changes the world by enabling a large variety of future technologies. These include, but aren’t limited to, novel thermal materials removing heat from highperformance computer chips and ultrafine solder powders of novel alloys, allowing the creation of the tiny solder joints needed for mobile and wearable devices. As a percentage of our sales, India is relatively small today, but the growth rate of both our business and the electronics market in India is tremendous. We are also adding more technical support resources in addition to our new factory in Chennai. We see a bright future for India in the global electronics supply chain going forward and we are proud to be a part of it. We look forward to continuing to participate in local organizations and events.

•Vol - 03 / 04

Q

. Lastly, how important is the Indian market for Indium and your future plans for the Indian market?

We are seeing India becoming much more important in the electronics industry due to both domestic demand as well as increasing participation in global supply chains. As a result, we are investing more heavily in the region with local manufacturing and more technical support personnel along with developing local partners. This investment includes the opening of our first manufacturing facility in India, located in Chennai. We are in the process of ramping up production with tremendous support from our customer base in the region.

We already have more expansion plans planned for 2021.

37

APRIL 2021 <

> 5G

TECH PAPER

Industry Set to Test the Six Nines Capability of New 5G Mobile Technology

Brendan O’Dowd

General Manager, Industrial Automation| ANALOG DEVICES

Until the launch of 5G, every previous generation of mobile phone technology was primarily intended to improve the operation of the handset. First-generation mobile phone networks were analog systems that provided just enough bandwidth for voice calls. Introduced in the early 1990s, 2G was the first digital mobile technology, while 3G in the late 1990s made it possible for handsets to carry email messages and provide rudimentary access to web pages.

It was not until the adoption of 4G technology in 2008 that real smartphone capability was enabled: 4G mobile broadband led to the development of smartphone apps, the proliferation of multimedia and streaming services, and access to high speed internet on-the-go.

The recent installation of 5G networks marks the first time that a new generation of mobile technology has been built around the needs of machines and systems rather than handset users.

The telecommunications industry’s plan for 5G envisaged technical breakthroughs in three main parameters: ► Latency, reliability, and determinism ► Connection density ► Bandwidth and the speed of data transfer The reason for enhancing performance in these parameters was to enable real-time monitoring and control of dense concentrations of devices communicating concurrently. In a smart city scenario, for instance, 5G is expected to enable real-time information about the location of available on-street parking spaces to be displayed in the navigation system of cars in the vicinity. Such a smart parking system will require the simultaneous connection of thousands of proximity sensors or cameras and thousands of cars in a small area, continually transferring real-time data about space availability and location.

The requirement of this and other applications for latency,

> APRIL 2021

density, and bandwidth is met by three technology enhancements embodied in the 5G standard specifications: ► Ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC) for real time-control systems ► Enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) to support new bandwidth-dependent use cases, including augmented and virtual reality ► E n h a n c e d / m a s s i v e m a c h i n e t y p e communications (eMTC) for low power, wide area wireless networking These 5G technology features make it capable of supporting the requirements of factory control systems for real-time determinism and six nines (99.9999%) availability. Yet the real-world experience of most mobile handset users accessing 2G, 3G, or 4G networks still involves black spots where coverage is weak or nonexistent, and of occasional and unpredictable dropped connections.

So is there a realistic prospect that mobile phone technology will be used to connect mission-critical, time-sensitive industrial machines?

Replacement of the Mature 4 mA to 20 mA Technology

For all the hype around state-of-the-art 5G technology, the reality is that most process equipment installations today include a provision for control via mature wired 4 mA to 20 mA links—a proven, dependable technology that dates back to the 1950s. This speaks to industry’s need for certainty and the avoidance of risk when implementing mission- or safetycritical control systems.

But the tides of change cannot be beaten back forever, and innovations in the way factories operate give control system designers good reason to evaluate alternatives to 4 mA to 20 mA technology. As Industry 4.0 and other global phenomena accelerate the pace at which factory operations evolve, two trends are driving the introduction of new networking technologies: the introduction of autonomous mobile machinery and the development of more flexible manufacturing facilities to meet growing consumer demand for personalized or configured products.

In factory and warehouse settings, the use of autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs), cobots, and other types of autonomous mobile devices offer an effective way to increase efficiency and productivity. As automated equipment takes on the burden of performing repetitive and mundane tasks, workers are freed to transfer to higher value and more interesting factory operations that machines cannot perform.

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The new generation of autonomous mobile devices such as AGVs requires a wireless communications connection that offers low latency for real-time control, high bandwidth to carry the signals from multiple sensors such as LIDAR scanners and video cameras, and high immunity to interference—the hallmarks of 5G mobile networks.

When factory operators replace wired with wireless connections, they also gain the flexibility to quickly reconfigure factory equipment to meet new or varied demands from consumers.

The rise of e-commerce raised expectations from consumers for near-instant delivery of ordered products and for the ability to choose from a wider range of product options than ever before. The ability to move production or process equipment more quickly and easily is growing in value. A fixed, wired communications infrastructure is less flexible than a wireless network to which equipment can connect from any location.

Wireless networks also reduce the cost, inconvenience, and technical difficulty involved in installing communications cabling.

Over the long-term, then, factory operators are open to the benefits of wireless control capability alongside established wired communications technologies. In the immediate future, however, industry must prioritize its most important requirements, which are: ► High reliability and availability ► Security ► Robustness to cope with challenging industrial operating conditions ► Ultralow latency These factors underlie the longevity of the 4 mA to 20 mA standard for factory communications. And while factory operators are looking to replace 4 mA to 20 mA technology, their focus today is on the implementation of the time sensitive networking (TSN) standard for wired Industrial Ethernet communications, rather than for anything wireless.

TSN has emerged as the preferred standard for high bandwidth, wired data communications in the factory, since it offers the ideal combination of reliability, robustness, a high data transfer rate, low latency measured in microseconds, and easy integration with enterprise IT network systems.

And because the TSN specification is a standard benefiting from cross-industry support, it is rapidly developing a rich ecosystem of suppliers of TSN components and systems, which includes Analog Devices.

OpenRAN: Non-Public Networks Enable the Validation of Claims Made for 5G Performance

Alongside the implementation of TSN networks, the scope for enhancing factory operations through the implementation of wireless networking is also coming under active evaluation.

Some early adopters in the industrial community have already begun the work of testing, validating, and evaluating the operation of 5G networking systems inside the factory, while concurrently replacing legacy 4 mA to 20 mA systems with new TSN Ethernet networks. This validation process will find the most suitable applications for 5G technology.

•Vol - 03 / 04

So factory operators are now starting to test the innovative features of the 5G specification, such as massive MIMO capability—the use of arrays of antennas to provide multiple physical transmission paths between a transmitter and receiver.

An array may be configured to form multi-antenna beams transmitting to multiple receivers. This allows the implementation of techniques such as channel hardening, beamforming, rapid channel estimation, and antenna (spatial) diversity, the effects of which are to dramatically improve reliability and reduce latency compared to 4G mobile networking.

Indeed, one of the aims of the developers of the 5G standard was to enable wireless networks to achieve six nines reliability for packet delivery, comparable to that of a wired Ethernet network, and equivalent to a packet error ratio of 1:1,000,000.

Latency of just 1 ms is also possible, which is well within the limit imposed by many industrial control applications.

The question is, can this performance be achieved in the real-world conditions experienced inside a factory, where communications equipment might be subject to multiple sources of high amplitude radio frequency interference, transient voltage events, high temperatures, and other disturbances?

In validating the real-world performance of a 5G installation, factory system designers have a choice: they can, of course, take advantage of 5G coverage provided by mobile network service providers. But the 5G standard also makes provision for the implementation of private systems, or so-called non-public networks (NPNs) that cover, for example, an industrial campus or a large factory complex. Different industrial users and use cases will favor a different choice of public or private network.

The implementation of 5G networking in the factory is also facilitated by developments from mobile network operators of the OpenRAN (Open Radio Access Network) specification.

This has opened the market for 5G radio and core equipment to a broader range of suppliers in addition to those which traditionally served the telecoms equipment market. This has the potential to broaden the choice of equipment available to meet the needs of use cases different from those of massmarket public network operators and to encourage the development of 5G products by suppliers that are focused on the industrial market.

As a supplier of physical layer components and protocol software to manufacturers both of TSN equipment and of 5G infrastructure, Analog Devices is ideally placed to assess the prospects of each technology for implementation in industrial control systems. While the immediate future belongs to wired Industrial Ethernet technology, it is easy to imagine a future where AGVs and robots inside the factory transmit and receive time- and mission-critical data payloads via a 5G network—and the availability of 5G network coverage means that this is an actual rather than a theoretical possibility today.

About the Author

Brendan O’Dowd has over 30 years of experience in the industry working for companies like Tellabs, Apple, and Analog Devices. He is currently the general manager of Analog Devices’ industrial automation business. He can be reached at brendan.odowd@analog.com.

39

APRIL 2021 <

> SMART

LIGHTING

KevinKing

Senior Manager, Electrical Design Engineering Company:-Renesas Electronics Corporation

My Smart Lighting System is Telling Me it is Unsafe in this Room! > APRIL 2021

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•Vol - 03 / 04

We are all waiting a return to social and business normalcy after the Covid-19 vaccine is successful. Whether in a conference room, meeting room, cafeteria, or break room, all will start being used again enabling groups of people to gather to interact face-to-face. Prior to Covid-19, how many of you remember the meeting coordinator saying, "we’ve been here awhile, let's take a short break" or "I am feeling like I need a breath of fresh air"? Even working from home, how often have you found yourself taking frequent breaks to stroll around the house because you feel a bit "worn" from sitting in a closed home office?

The US084 Sensor Module (Figure 2) is available and uses the standard mikroBUS™ click format, allowing it to be used or evaluated with any MCU development kit providing a "Click" socket.

Image

Build-up of carbon dioxide (CO2) and volatiles expelled by human breath in these tightly closed rooms generate, in part, "unhealthy" air quality. If we could detect the decline in a room’s air quality and "warn" people or automatically turn the ventilation up, this would be a great solution. All these rooms have one thing in common, lighting. Many of today’s new lighting systems are "connected" for ease of control for color, presence and ambient light detection.

Connected lighting is expected to grow in all geographies, even expanding to older building retrofits. Since lighting modules are so pervasive, it would be logical to add a simple sensor module so they could monitor the lighting and "unhealthy" levels of gases such as CO2. Designers of a lighting system would just need to add a few extra bits of data to the already existing communications infrastructure.

Renesas’ connected lighting solution, including air quality and lighting, shows a typical connected lighting block diagram (Figure 1). The sensor array contains an HS3001 for temperature and humidity, a ZMOD4410 for indoor air quality (eCO2 and TVOC gas monitoring), and an ISL29125 for monitoring ambient light and color control. We also have a ZMOD4510 outdoor air quality sensor for entry ways, streetlights, loading docks, etc. In addition, connectors are provided for optional PM2.5 sensors.

Image

Figure 2. US084-1 Sensor Module The next evolution in environmental air quality is here. So, when your LED lighting system tells you to "get some fresh air", do not be surprised.

Figure 1. US084 Connected Lighting with Air Quality Solution

•Vol - 03 / 04

41

APRIL 2021 <

> AUTOMOTIVE|TECH

COLUMN

Sports Innovated:

The Influence of Motor Racing on Next Generation Passenger Vehicle Development With total annual viewing figures measured in the billions, motor racing represents one of the world’s most popular televised sports. It gains widespread media attention and generates huge sponsorship revenues. With many of the world’s leading automotive brands participating in some form of motorsport, it provides a valuable platform for these companies to showcase the strength of their engineering credentials.

As well as being of value competitively, car manufacturers appreciate the other plus points that motorsport involvement brings in terms of contributing to their ongoing product development programs. Many of the technological wonders that were first seen on the racetrack have eventually been adopted into passenger cars - resulting in enhancements in performance, improvements in fuel economy and higher degrees of occupant safety. Key innovations that stem from this source relate to hybrid engines, in-vehicle networking, the acquisition of diagnostic data, more effective camshaft arrangements, automatic transmission systems, improvements in aerodynamics, use of advanced chassis materials and regenerative braking.

A New Era of Motorsport Endeavor

With the prevalence of electric vehicles (EVs) now starting to grow significantly, the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship race schedule is now being recognized as vital testbed for automotive ingenuity. With a very engaged and continuously

> APRIL 2021

rising global fan base, its E-Prix events are helping to dispel the myth that EVs can’t be exciting.

There are an array of high-profile automotive brands taking part in this competition, including MercedesEQ ®. There is, once again, huge potential for technology to crossover into mainstream cars - particularly in relation to energy recovery mechanisms or power management systems.

Dave Priscak

VP, Worldwide Solutions Engineering, ON Semiconductor

In Formula E, the format is constantly evolving - with teams needing to be able to respond accordingly. For example, the first four Formula E seasons, drivers had to change cars halfway through the race, ditching the one they had originally started with for a second fully charged car. In Formula E’s fifth season (in late 2018), this all changed. From that point onward, the cars of all competing teams needed to have the battery capacity to complete that whole race, without any substitutions. To address this change, the teams’ technical staff have had to make huge steps forward in the operational efficiencies of their vehicles, as well as boosting energy storage densities substantially.

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Bringing Formula E Engineering into Real World Scenarios will, however, also be of considerable value from a charging So let’s now look at the ways in which what is happening on the racetrack will have an effect on the EVs that we will be buying in the years ahead. There are several areas where the technology developed for Formula E Generation 2 race car should have long term benefits to mass market EV designs.

Here are some of the most important ones: 1. The battery technology - a key obstacle that needs to be overcome if the commercial uptake of EVs is to be accelerated is allaying consumers' worries about not being able to travel adequate distances in such vehicles before they run out of charge. Through experimentation with new battery chemistries, combined with improvements to powertrain efficiencies (both of which have been derived from work being done in Formula E race car to some extent), EV models now on the market are capable of covering over 200 miles before needing to be recharged. At the same time, comprehensive roll-out of charging infrastructure and the advent of fast charging technology are each helping to address consumers ‘range anxiety’ issues still further, by ensuring charging can be done in a quick and convenient manner.

2. The powertrain - for the powertrains in both Formula E race cars and mass market EV models the objectives are much the same. These are predominantly to maximize power transfer efficiencies as much as possible (by employing sophisticated motor algorithms, undertaking switching at faster speeds to avoid losses) and supplement battery reserves via use of kinetic energy recovery mechanisms. By successfully achieving these objectives, the rate at which the battery depletes will be slowed and the range that the vehicle can cover before needing a recharge will be expanded.

The main power bus used in the majority of consumer EVs will currently have a 400 V (voltage) rating. Through the impetus provided by Formula E race cars, where higher voltage powertrains are already utilized, 800 V systems are now being developed for mass market deployment. These elevated voltage figures will not be addressable using conventional silicon power discretes. They will instead call for the incorporation of wide bandgap devices, such as those based on silicon carbide (SiC) process technology. SiC already features in the powertrains of Formula E race cars, with its elevated levels of efficiency and resilience to harsh operational conditions proving to be extremely advantageous. ON Semiconductor is playing an integral role in Formula E powertrain development.

For example, it has assisted the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team in developing ultra-efficient powertrain systems through use of superior automotive-grade power devices. The two companies have worked closely together on improving the efficiency levels at the traction inverter power stage. What has been learnt from projects like this is then subsequently being leveraged to improve consumer EV powertrain efficiencies.

3. Fast charging - migration to higher voltages is already underway within the EV mains bus - helping to increase operational efficiencies and combat potential wastage. It

•Vol - 03 / 04

perspective, allowing transmission losses to be curbed. Much as prospective EV customers have concerns about vehicle range, they are also keen to ensure that charging doesn’t present unwanted difficulties. The charging technology for the latest generation of Formula E race cars enables 4kWh worth of charge to be supplied in an interval of just 30 seconds. Such speeds won’t be achievable by consumer charging points for a very long time yet (with electrical distribution grids struggling to support this, as well as there being issues in relation to the current carrying capabilities of the charger and cabling).

Nevertheless, the period taken to fully charge EVs is constantly being shortened - and this trend will continue, with incorporation of the latest wide bandgap power semiconductor devices being of paramount importance here.

4. Regenerative braking mechanisms - regenerative braking is an important aspect of Formula E race cars, as it means there are greater available energy resources that the race car can access. In a racing scenario, where hard braking is commonplace, there is clearly ample opportunity for regeneration. That said, the time taken to capture this energy during a hard brake is not long enough for it to be transferred back into the battery. Supercapacitors provide a means of temporarily storing the recovered energy, so that it can then be returned to the battery, or applied back to the motor when the race car starts to accelerate again. Inclusion of these supercapacitors is justifiable in Formula E designs, but their high price tag will preclude them from use in consumer EVs, where costs need to be kept in check. Also the brake to run ratio will be far lower in consumer EVs, and so the benefits derived will not be as great. Even so, EV manufacturers are putting a lot of engineering effort into the development of cost-effective energy recovery systems for mass market deployment.

Conclusion

The relationship between innovation in motorsport and the development of better road vehicles is still very much apparent. Formula E race cars like the Mercedes-EQ Silver Arrow 02 are now taking on the mantle as a technology drive Formula E is the global platform for OEMs designing new EV models and specifying the constituent components. The ongoing knowledge transfer that arises from it will be pivotal in enabling society’s vehicle electrification goals to be met.

ON Semiconductor has been heavily involved in this knowledge transfer. The company is able to draw on the experiences it has gained at Formula E racetracks and research centers, plus the expertise it possesses in SiC and gallium nitride (GaN) technology, then apply this to EVs on our roads. In doing so DC/DC conversion can be made more efficient, plus higher voltages and faster switching speeds can be attained. Through such innovations, EVs will become a much more attractive option to the car buying public, and over time this will help to increase the proliferation of these vehicles.

43

APRIL 2021 <

> BIG

PICTURE

Indium Software to Develop More IPs and QA Space Indium Software, a well-known name in technology solutions companies with deep expertise in Digital and QA services has been serving a wide range of customers from several industries including Banking, Technology, Healthcare, Life sciences, Retail and Education. Indium Software’s Digital Solutions focus on offering Data Engineering Services, Advanced Analytics, Application Development (Full Stack & Mobile) and Low-Code Development services to its clients. While talking with Nitisha from BISinfotech, Srikanth Manoharan, SVP, QA solutions, Indium Software shares his plans on investing in R&D to develop more IPs in the Digital and QA space.

Q

. Kindly share the growth journey of Indium Software from QA to Digital Services to Product IP. Indium has been a forerunner in the QA space for almost 2 decades, we have been a “quality custodian” for many customers, and we continue to do so. We stay ahead of competition through constant innovation in our services and offerings.

As the industry began to take new avatars like Digitization, Digitalization and recently Digital transformation, Indium launched solutions to aid in this transformational journey. One of the strong success factors is our product IPs, both on the QA and Digital front, which attract many customers as it gives bespoke and ready-to-deploy solutions.

IPs - uphoriX - Smart Test Platform and teX.ai – Text Analytics Product.

Q

. What is the role of QA in digital transformation?

How QA contributes/ benefits the digital transformation objectives?

Be it IT or Manufacturing, QA always gets paramount importance in any field, though it is termed differently e.g. QA, QC etc. In the digital world, we are making systems smarter, intelligent, powerful and resilient. This has led to transformation in development methodology too e.g. Waterfall to Agile, Monolithic architecture to Microservices architecture, Bare metal to Cloud, DevOps, DevSecOps and the list goes on.

In digital development, there has been a huge absorption of open source into development, developers have zillions of reusable codes and frameworks available, the quality of such open source are not guaranteed unless we put them in proper testing. We are also seeing the advent of “Low Code” platforms like “Mendix & Claris” to build applications. These applications pose challenges of a different kind. This makes QA an indispensable part of digital transformation.

> APRIL 2021

Srikanth Manoharan

SVP|QA solutions|Indium Software

Q

. How was the year 2020 in terms of business and what will be your marketing strategy for the upcoming year?

December 2020 was possibly the best one we have had.

Indium signed on nearly 30 new customers between April and September, a 11% increase from a 2019. A significant portion of this was in Q2, post July 2020.

The ongoing pandemic has hamstrung most of us. Sales Leaders and Marketing Leaders across industries are immobile. NO -

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events, meet-ups, in-person meetings, travels, luncheons, etc.

There are many interesting things on the digital marketing front that we focus on to help increase traffic and generate more inbound demand.

• Keyword Optimization - We optimize on-page and off-page SEO. Ranking for long-tail keywords, which tend to have high conversion rates, is vital in the quest for maximum inbound traffic.

• Content Repurpose - To complement SEO efforts and generate traffic, we create content on a large-scale, repurpose it for multiple channels.

• Reference Platforms – Then, there’s branding content, which is vital to enhancing a brand’s online and offline image.

• Digital Adaption – We have been utilizing this time to analyze historic data from Google Analytics, CRM, SM handles, and other sources to initiate new marketing campaigns We regularly update our marketing collateral and other resources, optimize UI/UX and ensure the right message is conveyed to the target customers.

Q

. Kindly share Indium's Business vision for India and global market.

We clearly see that IP based solutions deliver tremendous value to our customers. We will invest heavily in R&D to develop more IPs in the Digital and QA space.

Our presence is predominantly in the US Market and India.

We plan to diversify and increase our business in UK, Europe and APAC in the coming years.

We, as an organization have learned to set the bar high in terms of benchmarks. From a revenue standpoint, we plan to grow at 40% CAGR for the next 2-3 years given the tailwinds the technology industry is seeing.

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Q

. Kindly explain the digital transformation testing journey.

In terms of QA , the way organizations should stay abreast with the dynamic nature of the digital transformation journey by adopting a transformation in the Quality space as follows: • Quality Assurance (QA): These are our traditional testing methods which still are relevant in some cases.

• Quality Engineering (QE): Testing the code as white box, early in the development stage using Automation along with Devops.

• Intelligent Quality (IQ): Measurement driven assessment using code instrumentation, AI based prediction on failures to become proactive rather than reactive.

Q

. During the lockdown and given the pandemic situation how Indium Software performed?

We have been fortunate that a large segment of our customers did well in 2020. There was an air of caution and “wait & watch” mode during the April to June 2020 period.

Post that and as the Work from Remote and New Normal’s settled in, we have seen a resumption to pre-Covid levels of business activity and IT projects by our clients. There are few cases impacted negatively but by and large we have not seen any major disruption to our business, which helped us grow over 30% in 2020.

Q

. Latest announcement for the year 2021?

We are targeting to do $30 million in revenue by 2021. As mentioned previously, we will invest heavily in R&D to develop more IPs in the Digital and QA space. We plan to diversify and increase our business in UK, Europe and APAC. From a revenue standpoint, we plan to grow at 40% CAGR for the next 2-3 years given the tailwinds the technology industry is seeing.

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FOCUS

Five Ways to Protect Augmented Reality Wearables from Electrostatic Discharge Damage Design for connectivity, reliability, and safety using the latest circuit protection technologies and board layout strategies Those of us who wear vision correction glasses are used to seeing the world through lenses. New technologies now allow a virtual world to be layered on top of the real world that we normally see. The lenses will become displays that allow us to see the “real” world that is augmented with overlaid information and images, creating an Augmented Reality (AR).

An example would be the integration of navigation into the AR glasses to allow a user to walk through town with turn-byturn instructions (visual or verbal) to help them easily get to their destination. Other examples include facial recognition, fitness tracking/health-sensing, travel assistance, business news, first-person photos and videos (Figure 1).

Todd Phillips

Global Market Manager, Electronic Business Unit, Littelfuse, Inc.

ESD Selection and Configuration Factors for TVS Diodes utilized in AR wearables 1. Increasingly Smaller Form Factors Today’s ESD diodes offer a variety of performance benefits for AR applications led by a small form factor (Figure 2).

To optimize their future circuit designs, design engineers should follow these recommendations for the selection and configuration of ESD diode technologies.

Figure 2. Available IC areas, form factors, and circuit protection components continue to shrink in size as the sophisticated chipsets used in wearable devices get increasingly smaller.

Figure 3. The SP3522 Series lowcapacitance bidirectional discrete TVS diode arrays provide symmetrical ESD protection for high-speed data lines when AC signals are present.

They are also designed for consumer electronics such as smartwatches, smartphones, tablets, eReaders, and fitness bands.

Figure 1. Example statistical information visible using Augmented Reality (AR) glasses.

This article discusses advanced circuit protection solutions and board layout strategies that safeguard wearable devices and their users. Applying these recommendations early in the design process will help today’s circuit designers improve the performance, safety, and reliability of their wearable technology designs and help build a more reliable IoT ecosystem.

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2. Choosing unidirectional or bidirectional ESD diodes ESD diodes are available in both unidirectional or bidirectional configurations. Unidirectional diodes are used for DC circuits, including keypads, pushbuttons, and digital circuits. Bidirectional

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diodes are used in AC circuits, which may include any signal with a negative component greater than -0.7V. These circuits include analog video, audio, RF interfaces, and legacy data ports.

Where possible, electronics engineers should choose unidirectional diode configurations to improve performance during negative-voltage ESD strikes. During these strikes, the clamping voltage is based on the forward bias of the diode, which is usually less than 1.0V. During a negative strike that is based on the reverse breakdown voltage, a bidirectional diode configuration provides a clamping voltage that is higher than the forward bias of a unidirectional diode. Thus, the unidirectional configuration dramatically reduces the system stress experienced during negative transients.

Figure 4. The SP1020 from Littelfuse provides robust ESD protection in a very space efficient 01005 package making it ideal for applications like AR Glasses where board space is very limited.

3. Determine diode location Board-level ESD diodes at each of the IC’s pins are not required in most circuits. Instead, the circuit’s designer should determine which pins might be exposed to user-generated ESD events that occur outside of the application. If the communications or control line can be touched by the user, it becomes a possible pathway for ESD to enter the integrated circuit.

Typical circuits include buttons, switches, USB, audio, and other data buses. While incrementally adding these discrete devices, it is important to reduce the size to fit 0201 or 01005 outlines to avoid using too much board space. There are also space-saving multi-channel arrays available for many wearable applications. Place the ESD device as close to the ESD ingress point as possible, which is typically defined as the connector or the I/O. 4. Consider routing of “ESD” trace To protect the IC’s pins with an ESD diode, there are several key considerations for trace routing—from I/O to ground. ESD, unlike lightning transients, does not unleash a large amount of current for a long duration of time. It is important to move the charge from the protected circuit to the ESD reference as quickly as possible to effectively handle ESD. The length of the trace are the overriding factors—from the I/O line to the ESD component and from the ESD component to ground— not the width of the trace to ground. Trace lengths should be kept as short as possible to limit parasitic inductance. This inductance results in inductive overshoot, which is a brief voltage spike that can reach hundreds of volts if the stub trace is too short. Recent package developments, include µDFN and Wafer Level Chip Scale Packages (WLCSP) utilize outlines that fit directly over the data lanes to completely eliminate the need for stub traces.

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5. Understand HBM, Machine Model (MM) and Charged Device Model (CDM) definitions HBM, MM, and CDM are test models for characterizing the ESD robustness of the integrated circuits that run the portable device or wearable, including the processor, memory, and ASIC. They are used by the semiconductor supplier to ensure the robustness of the circuits during manufacturing. The current trend is for suppliers to reduce the voltage test levels since it saves die space. Additionally, most electronics manufacturers not only provide for ESD protection, they have countermeasures in place during the assembly process.

If ESD protection is only becomes a consideration during assembly, then once the device reaches the consumer, the device is susceptible to ESD damage in the consumer’s environment. Without adequate ESD countermeasures built in, electronic devices will fail incrementally or catastrophically in the user’s environment. To guarantee fewer ESD related field failures and thus happy customers, electronics design engineers should select a board-level device that is robust enough to protect against intense electrical stresses yet offers the bandwidth and the electrical performance demanded by the end-user product. When evaluating ESD protection components, consider the following parameters: • Dynamic resistance: Defines the diode’s resistance to the change in state from blocker to conduit of electronic energy.

This value represents how quickly the diode will clamp and divert the ESD transient pulse to ground. It helps define how efficiently the avalanche diode conducts the excess voltage and current to ground. The more vertical the I-V or TLP curve is, the more efficient the avalanche diode is, and the lower the expressed dynamic resistance.

• IEC 61000-4-2 rating: Tested and confirmed during design and characterization, this rating reflects what the ESD diode is capable of withstanding repeatedly without degradation of the DC performance. Typically for this parameter, the higher the value, the better. A growing number of Littelfuse ESD diodes approach 20kV and 30kV under contact discharge conditions, which regularly exceeds industry standards for fielded electronics, nominally 8kV air discharge.

• DC (Direct Current) Performance: When designing circuits that need protection, remember these important considerations: • Parasitic capacitance, • Parasitic inductance, • Surge tolerance (8/20us), and • Nominal and maximum leakage currents.

The approach will vary depending upon the performance characteristics of the interfaces being protected.

For additional information on ESD protection for wearable devices, download the ESD Suppression Design Guide and Wearables Protection Application Note, courtesy of Littelfuse, Inc. This article was written by Todd Phillips, Global Market Manager, Electronic Business Unit, Littelfuse Inc., Chicago, IL.

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MATERIALS

2K Conformal Coatings Address Performance Challenges in the Harshest Environments

Phil Kinner

Electrolube Technical Director (Coatings Division)

Introduction

The performance requirements of coating materials continue to become ever more challenging, as electronics are subjected to ever more hostile operating environments, including higher temperatures along with increased levels of salt-spray and condensation. As OEMs try to save weight from their designs, the use of robust metal assembly housings are being replaced by less hardy designs, transferring increased performance requirements to the assembly, such as continued operation under full immersion conditions. Simultaneously, environmental legislation continues to evolve, with an emphasis on reducing solvent usage and VOC emissions. In response to these ever increasing performance challenges, a new generation of two-part 2K conformal coatings have been developed by Electrolube to provide even greater protection, compatible with the protection offered by an encapsulation resin, however, with the easy application of a coating. The 2K series of coatings have been rigorously tested in comparison to UV and silicone coatings in a variety of harsh tests, which have included thermal shock, powered salt-spray, condensation and mixed flowing gas (MFG) testing, which will be explored further in this article.

Firstly, let’s examine the driving forces for using conformal coatings in harsh environments. Given that the conformal coating is often providing secondary protection (housing normally provides the main barrier properties), it is useful to consider the main threats that must be mitigated against and other unique demands caused by the long service lifetimes of the assemblies, when selecting a suitable conformal coating material for harsh environments. The vast majority of decisions to use coatings traditionally falls into one of the following 4 categories: 1. Protection against corrosion in end operating environment (Humidity, Corrosive gases, Salt-spray etc) 2. Protection against condensation in end operating environment 3. Reduction in component spacing to meet safety or design criteria 4. Tin whisker mitigation By considering the requirements of each application independently, some common themes emerge.

1 Protect against corrosion in end operating environment

Corrosion is a complicated, diffusion controlled, electrochemical process that takes place on an exposed metal surface. Despite the vast variety of potential mechanisms and causes, in the majority of cases, there are 3 requirements that must be fulfilled in order for corrosion to take place.

> APRIL 2021

1. Intrinsically electrochemically dissimilar metals (e.g. Gold/ Silver and Nickel/Tin), or the creation of an anode and cathode by application of applied bias.

2. The presence of an ionic species (usually Salts, Halides, Hydroxides etc).

3. The presence of mono-layers of condensed water to dissolve the ionic species, resulting in an electrolyte solution.

In order to prevent the possibility of corrosion, it is necessary to remove one of the pre-requisite conditions. The choice of metals is limited to those used in the solder and solder finish chemistries (which are dissimilar), and there will always be areas of potential difference due to the nature of an electronic assembly. Cleaning can help remove ionic species, but cannot prevent the re-deposition of ionic species from the operating environment.

Conformal Coatings help prevent the formation of electrolytic solutions by acting as moisture barriers. Given the 3D topography of metal surfaces on a PCB, all metal surfaces need to be sufficiently well coated to prevent exposure of the metals surface to a potentially corrosive environment, in order to provide the maximum degree of protection. Small voids in the coating that expose the metal surface can actually accelerate corrosion under the right environment. The conformal coating challenge is achieving the required level of coverage on the three-dimensional, complex topography of exposed metals.

In addition to perfect coverage, the coating also needs to be a good barrier against moisture and provide good adhesion to the substrate to prevent delamination. Once the coating is delaminated, moisture can eventually collect in this ‘pocket’ and form an electrolytic solution with any preexisting ionic contamination. This is the reason that cleaning prior to conformal coating is recommended, to provide a powerful synergistic elimination of two of the three pre-requisite conditions for corrosion.

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2 Protect against condensation

Whenever there is a significant level of humidity, there is always the opportunity for parts of the assembly to drop beneath the dew point, resulting in the formation of condensed water on the surface of the assembly, which can significantly reduce the insulation resistance of the boards surface, resulting in the malfunction of electronics.

only real potential failure mechanism as two protruding tin whiskers meeting and forming a short, which is a statistically insignificant probability.

Whilst pure water is not a great conductor of electricity, any ionic impurities (e.g. salts from manufacturing or end use environment) will become solubilised and will form a conductive pathway, leading to corrosion as described above. Higher levels of liquid water can rapidly accelerate this process.

In addition to corrosion, condensation severely tests the insulation resistance of the coating. Considering this is essentially an immersion application, water will very quickly find weak spots or voids in the coating. Whether there is no coating, or the coating is thin, the insulation provided will be negligible or less than optimal. The conductive solution can carry the current from one weak spot to another very quickly, resulting in either immediate failure, which may be reversible when the board dries out again, or which may be permanent if conductive corrosion products, dendrites (metallic filaments) or other permanent sources of current flow are deposited on the surface of the coating.

3 Reduce component spacing

Although air is normally an excellent insulator, it can begin to break down when stressed by a sufficiently high voltage (an electric field strength greater than about 3 kV/mm), becoming partially conductive. Across gaps, breakdown voltage in air is a function of separation. If the voltage is sufficiently high, complete electrical breakdown of the air will culminate in an electrical spark or an electric arc that bridges the entire gap.

Conformal coatings provide additional insulation resistance and can be used to enable designers to make their designs more compact, by placing components closer together than would otherwise be possible.

4 Tin whisker mitigation

The application of conformal coating is a tin whisker mitigation strategy. Conformal coatings mitigate the risk of tin whiskers generating a short in one of three ways. a) A tin whisker eruption needs to puncture and penetrate out through the coating. Research shows that this is unlikely. b) In order to short, the protruding tin whisker must either: a. meet another protruding tin whisker from an alternative polarity b. penetrate back through the coating at a place of opposite polarity to create a short.

All of these situations for forming a tin-whisker short are unlikely (but not impossible) events. Research and modelling show that as long as you have adequate coverage and thickness of conformal coating on conductive surfaces leads, it is unlikely for tin whiskers to penetrate through the coating once, and almost impossible to do so twice. That leaves the

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By considering these 4 case scenarios, it should be clear that the coverage of the applied conformal coating must be as close to perfect as possible. In addition, it should be recognised that the greater the thickness of conformal coating achieved, the greater the protection will be from the environment.

For conventional liquid-applied materials and application processes, achieving good coverage and thickness has been shown to be problematic in the IPC’s ‘state of the industry assessment’, with literally thousands of cross-sections analysed, showing zero (for all practical considerations) coverage on many common component leads and bodies for all material/ process combinations.

Manual Spray applied UV curable material

Selectively applied UV curable material

Cross-sections courtesy of Rockwell-Collins.

Given the importance of edge-coverage and thickness and the challenge in achieving both, while still maintaining other performance requirements (e.g. temperature resistance,

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thermal shock resistance, cycle-time etc.) a new coating concept was developed to reliably meet these increased performance demands.

The Two-Component (2K) Approach

Electrolube developed the 2K conformal coatings series by way of providing a solution to common problems faced by manufacturers with performance issues of current coatings in harsh environments. The 2K series of coatings is significantly different in its protective capabilities due to its capacity for greater coating thickness and enhanced edge coverage. 2K coatings are VOC-free, fast-curing, high performance two-part conformal coatings that provide a solvent-free alternative to both UV and silicone materials, require less capital investment than UV materials and improve on the performance of most silicones in harsh environments. The majority of coatings in the 2K range are hydrophobic, giving excellent protection against water immersion, salt mist and humidity, making them ideally suited for automotive electronics.

2K materials are commonly used in high performance industrial applications such as adhesives, paints and even potting materials. The systems consist of a resin portion and a crosslinker portion, that are reasonably stable when kept separate.

However, once mixed in the correct ratio, an unstoppable chemical reaction begins which continues until a solid polymer is formed. By adjusting the nature of the resins and the hardeners, a wide variety of polymers can be produced from soft-rubber like materials to high-strength glass-like materials. Many of these materials are diluted with solvents, which increases the usable life of the system and enables the use of existing application methodologies. However, with the restrictions on solvent-usage, it was decided to focus on generating a solvent-free solution.

in a small, disposable static-mixer, immediately prior to application. Utilising this approach of mixing immediately prior to application, enables the use of more reactive materials, resulting in shorter cure times. The atomised spray application enables a wide range of material viscosities to be selectively applied within a normal cycle time. The use of larger pumps can enable faster cycle times, and the all metal design of the applicator provides the opportunity to heat the material to improve process consistency and enable the use of more viscous materials.

This applicator technology enables all of the 2K range of materials to cure within 10 minutes at 80°C, the typical drytime and temperature for a solvent-based acrylic. Indeed, the latest addition to the 2K range cures primarily with UV radiation (conventional microwave or arc-lamp systems (UVA) or the latest LED curing technology), whilst the chemical cure ensures complete-curing within shadowed areas in just a few hours, compared with weeks or months for moisture initiated secondary cure mechanisms.

Coverage and thickness

The following cross-sections demonstrate the achievable thickness and coverage for a variety of common components.

It should be clear from the following sections that the 2K materials enable a much greater thickness and perfect application coverage, to provide a higher level of protection. Performance advantages of the 2K materials can be demonstrated in three of the harshest tests employed by users today.

Thermal Shock

Coated automotive ECU assemblies subjected to 1000 thermal shock cycles from -40°C to +140°C without stress cracking.

Moving to a solvent-free 2K system required the development of a special applicator to facilitate this technology as shown below.

Images courtesy Nordson Asymtek and Precision Valve and Automation (PVA) The approach uses twin progressive cavity pumps to control the metering of the two reactive components, keeping the materials separate until the mixing process, which occurs

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Powered Immersion testing in salt-water

In order to assess the ability of the coating material to withstand powered immersion in salt-water conditions, two experiments were performed.

Firstly, standard IPC B-24 SIR coupons were spray-coated and cured at a variety of different thicknesses, achievable from a production process. The SIR coupons were placed in a horizontal position and powered up at 10V. Each SIR pattern was covered with 5% (w/w) saline solution, and the patterns were monitored to ensure they remained completely saturated with saline throughout the test duration. SIR measurements were recorded every minute. The experimental set-up is shown in Fig A.

Powered Condensation Testing

A populated Electrolube SIR test board was used to evaluate the NPL’s new condensation test method, prior to the launch of the current ongoing project.

The boards were tested uncoated, selectively coated with a solvent-based acrylic and selectively coated with a 2K material.

The board and test results for a BGA device and an SOIC are shown below. The results show that for both component types, the SIR results with the 2K coating remained 2 orders of magnitude higher and did not vary much whether the material was covered with condensed water or not. However, for the acrylic there was a fairly significant difference depending on whether the material was under condensing conditions or not.

The BGA device showed evidence of dendrite formation in the uncoated evaluation.

Fig A. SIR experimental set-up The SIR measurements for the OSP coated Cu, Reflowed SAC alloy, Ultra-thin conformal coating (3 micron) and Acrylic conformal coating (50 micron) are shown below in Fig B. Whilst the acrylic material showed very low SIR values, the results were at least consistent and significantly better than the Cu-OSP value. Interestingly, the SAC alloy showed reasonable resistance to Saline, whereas the UT coating was indistinguishable from the OSP coated CU, both of which showed evidence of electrochemical corrosion.

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Fig B. SIR comparison of Acrylic, Solder Paste, UT and AR coatings However, when we look at the results for the 2K materials during this same test we can see that within the intended thickness range (>100 micron), there is no impact from the salt-immersion throughout the duration of the 30 hour test.

At 50 micron thickness, the SIR shows some impact of the saline immersion, but the results are still 3 orders of magnitude greater than the UT or AR materials.

In the second immersion study, IPC-B52 test coupons were coated with 2K300, 2K850, UT and AR type materials by a normal application process. The coupons were cured in accordance with supplier recommendations and left or 28 days prior to commencement of the immersion test.

Conclusion

The 2K range of materials provide sharp edge coverage and protective thickness, unrivalled by other liquid applied conformal coatings. The materials have been developed specifically for thick film applications and engineered to optimise this performance advantage, whilst mitigating many of the issues associated with thick coatings, such as cracking during thermal shock testing and solder-joint lifetime degradation, especially for very sensitive devices such as BGA packages.

The rigorously tested two part systems can be applied thinly (50-75μm), however, they have been designed, formulated and tested to be applied at much greater thicknesses (150300μm), to facilitate superior encapsulation of components and component leads.

The materials will drop into any existing selective coating process with a simple valve modification and minimal investment.

The extreme protection provided by the increased thickness and superior coverage will be valued by many Automotive and Aerospace suppliers struggling with increased demands from OEMs for improved condensation resistance and even powered up sea-water immersion conditions.

The boards were immersed in saline solution and then immediately powered at 5V. The boards were filmed during their immersion. A significant degree of bubbling and the formation of corrosion products could be seen almost immediately with both the uncoated control and the UT coating material, especially on the components. The Acrylic coated board showed almost immediate bubbling, but the formation of corrosion products took approximately 2-3 minutes.

The 2K300 and 2K850 boards showed no evidence of bubble formation throughout the 30 hour duration of the immersion test.

> APRIL 2021

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< TECHNOVATOR

TECHNOVATORS

Iottive Targets Healthcare Industries & Home Automation

" Iottive is planning to expand its services in UI/UX, Quality Assurance, Embedded Hardware & Firmware developments"

RUSHABH CHAMPANERI

Founder & Managing Director, Iottive

Iottive, a Gujarat based IoT startup offers a complete IoT solution, which includes mobile apps, embedded development and Cloud Development. Iottive’s mobile apps and solutions for iPhone, Android, Web applications help a large number of enterprises, companies and startups from PoC to Production ready products. The company caters various clients from fitness, healthcare, building & home automation, wearables, automotive, asset tracking, and centralized & integrated system controls industry. During a chat with Nitisha from BISinfotech, Rushabh Champaneri, Founder & Managing Director, Iottive shares the ahead strategies and its upcoming projects.

Q

What are your latest products and how is it going to impact the IoT industry?

Iottive is expanding its services in different industries where things were not connected with internet previously. We recently helped many health care startups to integrate different medical devices with an application. This helps doctors and patients to remotely monitor different vitals.

Q

Please explain Iottive and how it defines itself different from other IoT companies?

Iottive mainly provides mobile application development services & embedded services. Our expertise lies in building iOS and Android applications, Bluetooth Applications, IoT Applications, iBeacon Applications, Hardware, and firmware development. I started this company back in 2016 with the vision to provide excellent services and products in areas of IoT. IOTTIVE is focused on IoT Apps only and that makes us expertise in this field and different from other companies.

> APRIL 2021

Lara Health makes it easy for patients to track their vitals from the comfort and safety of their home and share those automatically with their care providers

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Iottive's VATA7 mobile app allows riders to customize their LED experience on their VATA7 gear

Q

Which sectors are your pivotal focus and Indian market strategies?

We are helping customers from different industries like fitness, healthcare, building & home automation, wearables, automotive, asset tracking, centralized & integrated system controls. The study highlighted that by the end of 2019, India had 200-250 Million connected devices. Iottive estimates that this number will grow tenfold to touch 2 Billion devices by 2021, signaling the exponential market growth in the next few years. In fact, IoT adoption has exploded in the last 3 years, with enterprises spending billions of dollars in testing and deploying several IoT use cases. Iottive is looking to expand its service business for Indian Startups and Enterprises to help them to connect devices with internet.

Q

Apart from India, which market are you looking for in future?

Our services are already being served in 30+ countries and we are expanding to more. Our major customers are based out of USA, Canada, London, Ireland & Norway.

Q

What kind of challenges and scope do you see in your respective industry?

While working with hardware we face many challenges. One of the major problem is not having right components easily available in India, importing them from out of India adds more delay, custom clearance and additional duties.

Q

How has been the growth of business in the year 2020?

What will be your marketing strategy for the year 2021?

As most of the countries were affected by Covid-19 and were majorly in lockdown, business was affected in year 2020.

In percentage I can see we were 30% less to achieve our target in 2020. In 2021 we are more focusing on Healthcare Industries & Home automation industries as these two sectors are high in demand.

Q

Your upcoming project?

We are planning to expand our services in UI/UX, Quality Assurance, Embedded Hardware & Firmware developments.

Q BluePass Battery Indicator app is used to determine the battery health of BluePass devices. This app works with only BluePass devices.

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Lastly major trends you see catapulting and dominating the IoT technology in coming time?

I can see following industries will highly depends on IoT Technology • HealthCare • Home Automation • Asset Tracking

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TECHNOVATERS

A US Based Start-up Focusing on Consumer Robots

"Moorebot is planning to develop technologies that can make robots more sensible and interactive"

JUN YE

CEO, Moorebot

A US based start-up, Pilot Lab has recently introduced Moorebot, a robot brand. Moorebot is an interactive intellectual assistant that is best for home automation, housekeeping, baby companion, voice-activated service, and more. It also provides cutting-edge robot-assisted products and services in STEM, language learning, and even rehabilitation programs for special children in hospitals. During an interaction with Nitisha, Jun Ye, CEO, Moorebot shares that the company is committed to improving everyone’s life quality with exclusive smart robots that are versatile, personalized, content-rich, and helpful.

Q

Please explain Moorebot and Pilot Labs. How do you define your company differently from others?

Pilot Labs is the company and Moorebot is the robot brand.

Pilot Labs was founded by several semiconductor veterans.

The company is very focused on underline technologies.

Besides making consumer robot products, the company is investing in some long term technologies. For example, we are developing experimental analog neural network ICs, which we think could become the instinct response system for robots in the future.

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help people and can get widely accepted by consumer is quite challenging. It is all about applications.

Q

What are your marketing strategies? Please explain your further plans to improve everyone's quality of life with exclusive smart robots?

We see robots can play crucial roles in daily life to help people.

In the future, a robot will be a platform product and capable of doing many different tasks. However, we are still in a very early stage of the AI era. It is more realistic today to make a robot specifically to do one particular job. The key value of the product must be communicated with the consumer properly and efficiently.

Q

How was the year 2019 in terms of business? And what are your plans for the year ahead?

Technologies evolve at a rapid pace. We will continue developing and integrating state-of-art technologies into our products. Also, we will be expanding into different applications.

Q

How does Moorebot make Robots more affordable and ‘sensible’ in the real world?

Home robots still have a long way to go. Besides technology readiness, the cost is also a key factor for consumer robots.

That means fewer and less costly sensors, low-end CPUs, and GPUs. Moorebot’s team has put a lot of effort into the optimizing of AI algorithms, to achieve good results based on low-end hardware platforms.

Q

What are your latest projects and what are your plans to make it popular?

Our current robot is an autonomous mobile robot (AMR) for the home. It is fun and quite useful. Besides monitoring and autopatrol functions, it supports Scratch programming, suitable for kids learning robotics. We are gaining a lot of interest around the world. It is an open-source project. We are enabling robot lovers and application developers to program Scout to do much more with it.

Designing a consumer robot that truly can help people and also get widely accepted by them is quite challenging, nowadays

Q

Apart from house chores and children, are you planning to target any other sector?

Moorebot is primarily focused on consumer robot products. On the technology side, we do have collaboration on commercial robots, mainly AMRs (autonomous mobile robots).

Q

Major focus and roadmap for the year 2021?

We have several home robots in planning. More importantly, we are developing technologies that can make robots more sensible and interactive.

Q

During Covid-19 there was a huge economical breakdown.

How Moorebot coped up with such situations?

What are the key design challenges faced? How does Our business is hurt as well. That allowed us to put more effort Moorebot plan to ease and accelerate the design of on R&D for new robots. We hope 2021 is a good year for Robotics Technology? everyone.

We all think robots are the future. However, to date, besides vacuum cleaning robots, the applications of home robots are still rare. How to design a consumer robot that truly can

Q

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>

UPDATES Infineon, Siemens Mobility New Auxiliary Converters Siemens Mobility and Infineon Technologies have collaborated to establish new auxiliary converters for various train platforms, to improve the efficiency of onboard power systems using power semiconductors based on silicon carbide (SiC).

Siemens Mobility uses the new converter for various train platforms.

As a result, the platforms are maintenance-friendly, reliable, economical and, above all, powerefficient.

In addition to providing the AC voltage (e.g., 3 AC 400 V 50

Hz) required for the vehicle power system, auxiliary converters also deliver the required battery voltage (e.g., 110 V DC). To achieve this, they convert the DC voltage provided at the converter input.

They ensure that train passengers can charge laptops and smartphones; the air conditioning and ventilation systems are running, and the onboard restaurant can offer hot and cold drinks and food. Without them, connectivity, information or entertainment services on trains would not be available.

As part of the system, SiC reduces the overall costs in the on-board electrical system and the energy consumption of the auxiliary converter.

It also enables more compact and lighter converter designs, along with a modular and service-friendly design to ensure lower maintenance costs.

Microchip’s PolarFire FPGAs Now Available in Volume

Western Digital Declares V-WA 50 Awards

Microchip Technology has started shipping PolarFire FPGAs qualified for both the Automotive Electronics Council Q100 specification Grade T2 and military temperature grade in volume production quantities. These offerings extend Microchip’s low-power leadership as a supplier of FPGAs for diverse high-reliability markets. With their thermal and space design constraints, automotive, industrial and military applications deployed in harsh environments require solutions that offer power and space efficiency as well as cryptographic security.

PolarFire FPGAs offer on-chip security features that enable secure communication, an encrypted bitstream, and a cryptographically secured supply chain, ensuring tamperproof solutions for these market segments.

Unlike SRAM-based FPGAs, Microchip devices can operate without fans and in some cases without heatsinks, simplifying the thermal design of the system and creating new opportunities for smaller, lighter designs.

This is especially important in automotive applications such as blind-spot detection, lane change warning systems and backup cameras.

> APRIL 2021

Western Digital has declared the 'V-WA 50' awards in partnership with the Vedica Women's Alliance to amplify the voices of women leaders.

Under this initiative, 50 professionals will be awarded for their contributions. This includes senior women professionals across various fields and men who have advocated for inclusion in their organizations.

“We are excited to introduce the 'V-WA 50' to further augment the voices of women leaders and shine much-deserved spotlights on them. Celebrating Women at the top of their organizations inspires young girls and working professionals to emulate them. This is a sine qua non-intervention and change to help create better-balanced gender diversity roadmaps,” said Supria Dhanda, Vice President and Country Manager, India, Western Digital. "I am confident that the 'V-WA 50' will empower women leaders across the country and catalyze the next generation of upcoming leaders, bringing in a new change in the ecosystem," she added.

“Women are 50% of the population, make invaluable contributions in the world, and, increasingly, in their workplaces – but remain under-recognized and unsung. With ‘V-WA 50’, we are committed to changing this and ‘making women visible’. By presenting strong role models for the generations to come, we will set the wheels of change in motion, irreversibly,” said Anuradha Das Mathur, Founder of the Vedica Women’s Alliance and the Founder and Dean of the Vedica Scholars Programme for Women.

The application forms are available and will remain open till May 2021.

An online award ceremony will be hosted by the end of June 2021.

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ST Details of Common Share Repurchase Program

Micron’s New Senior VP & GM Micron Technology has appointed Raj Hazra as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Micron’s Compute and Networking Business Unit.

STMicroelectronics has published the full details of its common share repurchase program. The Program was approved by a shareholder resolution dated May 31, 2018, and by the supervisory board.

STMicroelectronics has announced the repurchase on the regulated market of Euronext Paris, in the period between February 22, 2021, to February 26, 2021 of 388,291 ordinary shares (equal to 0.04% of its issued share capital) at the weighted average purchase price per share of EUR 32.7865 and for an overall price of EUR 12,730,718.07.

The Company holds in total 8,518,495 treasury shares, which represents approximately 0.9% of the Company’s issued share capital.

Under Article 5(1)(b) of Regulation (EU), and Article 2(3) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU), a full breakdown of the individual trades in the program are disclosed at ST website.

Hazra succeeds Tom Eby, who plans to retire following more than a decade of leadership at Micron.

Eby will serve as a senior advisor to the company during the interim and will remain with Micron through April. Hazra has over 20 years of technology leadership experience. He joined Micron in June 2020 as the senior vice president of Strategy and Communications.

Before that, Hazra served as the Corporate Vice President and General Manager of the enterprise and government group at Intel, where he held multiple technical and business leadership roles and managed multi-billion-dollar P&L for its high-performance data center solutions.

Before starting at Intel in 1995, he spent five years with the Lockheed Corporation based at NASA’s Langley Research Center.

Hazra earned a doctorate in computer and information sciences and a master’s degree in computer science from William & Mary University and holds 16 patents.

Indium to Present Low-Temp Alloy Durafuse LT Indium Corporation has recently started featuring the awardwinning Durafuse LT–the novel, low-temperature alloy system designed to provide high-reliability in low-temperature applications–during Productronica China, held March 17-19 in Shanghai, China.

Durafuse LT is one of several products in Indium Corporation’s wide portfolio that meet the evolving needs of mobile and computing applications.

Patent-pending Durafuse LT is designed to provide highreliability in low-temperature applications that need to reflow below 210°C. Where traditional low-temperature solders can produce brittle solder joints that are susceptible to drop shock failures, Durafuse LT provides superior drop shock resilience, outclassing BiSn or BiSnAg alloys, and performing better than SAC305 with optimum process setup.

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Features: • Provides a solution for heat-sensitive components and flex polymers • Prevents thermal warpage of processor components and multilayer boards • Meets low-temperature requirements for step soldering, particularly in RF shield attachment, post underfill processes and rework applications From paste to wire, flux, and preforms, Durafuse LT joins a long list of Indium Corporation’s products that are specifically engineered to support the challenges of automotive electrification.

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UPDATES Fujitsu, Kyoto University Develop AI Verification System Fujitsu Limited and Kyoto University research group have established an AI verification system called "MGeND Intelligence” led by Professor Yasushi Okuno of the Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine. .

When the genetic mutation information of a patient is input into this system, its ability to cause disease is estimated by pathogenicity estimation AI using machine learning technology and the explanatory text of the basis of this finding is generated and displayed together with the estimated result by the explainable AI. This explanation offers a useful reference to doctors who are considering a treatment plan or genomic medical researchers.

Working with the Integrated Database of Clinical and Genomic

Information, "MGeND," which was made public by Kyoto University in 2018, Fujitsu supports the research and clinical interpretation of genetic mutations, including mutations with unknown pathogenicity, by medical professionals and researchers.

Since November 2016, Fujitsu and Kyoto University have been participating in the Integrated Database of Clinical and Genomic Information Program promoted by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, engaging in research and development to support the work of medical professionals and researchers in examining genetic mutations with AI and machine learning technologies.

Fujitsu and Kyoto University have now developed an AI system that can estimate the presence or absence of disease-causing potential for unknown genetic mutations and explain the basis for this finding. Kyoto University will make MGeND Intelligence available to joint researchers and collaborating institutions.

Honeywell, Syracuse University to Develop Air Quality Tech

Bosch All Set to Launch Chip Factory in 2021

Honeywell has formed a research partnership with Syracuse University to fund research on emerging indoor air quality technologies.

The partnership will include the naming of a Honeywell Indoor Air Quality Laboratory at Syracuse University's College of Engineering and Computer Science which will be used by researchers to help create healthier and safer building environments.

The Honeywell Indoor Air Quality Lab at Syracuse University will be used to solve several research objectives to determine the impact of air quality on human productivity and creativity.

Faculty will use the lab to conduct direct, side-by-side comparisons of next-generation indoor air quality improvement technologies and advanced building systems, in a controlled practical building environment, to provide a comparative analysis of the technologies based on key IAQ parameters measured by sensors and through AI-driven HVAC controls.

The research will include characterizing and evaluating IAQ sensors. The research will help to building owners and operators better determine the right technologies to meet specific building conditions and goals.

Additionally, the research will develop artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms for dynamic ventilation management.

> APRIL 2021

Bosch has confirmed the launch of its new semiconductor factory in Dresden, Germany by the end of 2021.

It is a milestone on the path to the chip factory of the future for German Tier 1 supplier Bosch, as its new semiconductor fab in Dresden, Germany silicon wafers are passing through the fully automated fabrication process for the first time. Harald Kroeger, members of the board of management, Robert Bosch: “Chips for tomorrow’s mobility solutions and greater safety on our roads will soon be produced in Dresden. We plan to open our chip factory in the future before the year is out.”

Manufacturing of automotive microchips will be a primary focus when Bosch’s fully digital and highly connected semiconductor plant is up and running.

The company already operates a semiconductor fab in Reutlingen near Stuttgart. The new wafer fab in Dresden is Bosch’s response to the surging number of areas of application for semiconductors. Tier 1 is investing around a billion euros (Rs 8,267 crore) in the high-tech manufacturing facility, which is said to be one of the most advanced wafer fabs in the world.

Funding for the new building is being provided by the federal German government, and more specifically the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. Bosch plans to officially open its wafer fab in June 2021. In January 2021, Bosch began putting its first wafers through the fabrication process in Dresden. From there, the company will make power semiconductors for use in applications such as DC-DC converters in electric and hybrid vehicles.

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Infineon’s New StrongIRFET 2 Power MOSFETs Infineon Technologies has released StrongIRFET 2, the new generation of power MOSFET technology in 80 V and 100 V. Features: • Featuring broad availability at distribution partners and excellent price/performance ratio.

• These MOSFETs are right-fit products an easy choice for designers interested in convenient selection and purchasing.

• Optimized for both low- and high-switching frequencies.

Applications: SMPS, motor drives, batterypowered tools, battery management, UPS and light electric vehicles.

Availability: The new portfolio will be available in various packages continuing with TO-220 FullPAK, D2PAK, D2PAK 7-pin and DPAK.

ST’s New Current-Sense Amplifiers STMicroelectronics launches three precision high-voltage bi-directional current-sense amplifiers that provide the extra convenience of a Shutdown pin to maximize energy savings.

Features: • Leveraging their precision characteristics to select low sense-resistor values.

• The offset voltage is within ±200µV at 25°C, with less than 5µV/°C drift, and gain accuracy is within 0.3%, • Detects a voltage drop as low as 10mV full-scale to provide consistently and trusted measurements.

Applications: Gives the flexibility to build precision current measurement, overcurrent protection, current monitoring, and current-feedback circuits for many different industrial and automotive systems.

Availability: Available Now

Vishay New High Voltage Chip Resistors Vishay Intertechnology has released a new series of AEC-Q200 qualified high voltage thick film chip resistors.

Features: • Offering working voltages to 3000 V. • The stability of 1.0 %, and power ratings up to 1.0 W. • Available in five compact case sizes ranging from 1206 to 2512.

• Enable designers to reduce component counts, placement costs, and PCB size.

Applications: Ideal for battery management and voltage monitoring, division, and regulation in power inverters and high voltage power supplies for automotive, industrial, and medical applications.

Availability: Available Now

Samsung Introduces 980 NVMe SSD Samsung Electronics has released 980 NVMe SSD, the company’s first consumer drive without DRAM.

Features: • Blazing NVMe speeds more accessible to a wider range of users.

• Samsung’s 980 utilizes Host Memory Buffer (HMB) technology • Links the drive directly to the host processor’s DRAM to overcome any performance drawbacks.

• Provide NVMe performance with six times the speed of SATA SSDs.

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Applications: Laptops

Availability: Available Now

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LAUNCH

Mitsubishi Electric to Launch MeIDIR Sensor Mitsubishi Electric Corporation has declared to release its Mitsubishi Electric Diode InfraRed (MelDIR) sensor lineup.

Features: • Wide field of view and high-pixel resolution • Superior images achieved with faster frame rate and optimized sensitivity correction • User-support tools shorten development time

Applications: Security, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), people counting, smart buildings and thermal scanners

Availability: Available on July 1.

Renesas’ New Power and Functional Safety Solution

Renesas Electronics has presented a new power and functional safety solution for systems based on the R-Car V3H system-on-chip (SoC) for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) automotive front cameras and driver monitor cameras.

Features: Availability: Applications: • Programmable Output Voltage, Sequencing, I/O Advanced driver assistance Available Now Configuration and Safety Configuration providing systems (ADAS) automotive flexibility to support R-CAR V3H and an expansive front cameras and driver range of SoCs monitor cameras.

• Integrated 12-bit SAR ADC with up to 16 external inputs monitors internal and external signals, eliminating the need for an added system ADC

New Coreless Hall Effect Current Sensor Allegro MicroSystems has launched a new coreless Hall-effect current sensor for demanding automotive and industrial systems, offering higher accuracy and sensitivity, additional fault detection capabilities, and user programmability.

Features: • Measure currents from 100 A to greater than 4000 A flowing through a busbar or PCB trace with a typical 1 percent accuracy.

• No need for an external concentrator or U-shaped magnetic shield.

Applications: Electric vehicle high-voltage traction motor inverters, 48V / 12V auxiliary inverters, heterogeneous redundant battery monitoring, overcurrent detection, smart fuses, power distribution units (PDUs), and power supplies.

Availability: Available Now

Toshiba’s New LDO Regulators Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation has released the “TCR5RG series” of 45 LDO regulators, all housed in a thin, compact WCSP4F package.

Features: • High ripple rejection ratio : R.R.=100dB (typ.) @f=1kHz • Low output noise voltage: VNO=5μVrms (typ.) @10Hz≤f≤100kHz • High output voltage accuracy : • VOUT min/max= -1.5/1.5% @1.8V≤VOUT≤2.8V, Tj= -40 to 85°C • VOUT min/max= -1.8/1.8% @VOUT>2.8V, Tj= -40 to 85°C

> APRIL 2021

Applications: • Wearables (smart watches and action cameras, etc.)

• Mobile (smartphones, tablets and portable audio players, etc.)

• Healthcare (electric shavers, electronic sphygmomanometers and blood glucose meters, etc.)

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WHAT IF WE MADE CARS MORE LIKE TREES? A LOT OF TREES. Electric vehicle batteries, equipped with Analog Devices’ battery management technology, can prevent 60 million tons of CO2 emissions every year. Which is the same as 71 million acres of trees, but maybe not quite as pretty.

Analog Devices. Where what if becomes what is.

See What If: analog.com/WhatIf