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FEBRUARY 2019|` 80
BISinfotech Gospel Of Industrial Tech
S E M I C O N D U C T O R | T & M | L E D | A & D | S E C U R I T Y | C L O U D & D ATA | T E L E C O M
R F PHASED ARRAYS TRANSCEIVERS BEAMFORMING
SECURING EMBEDDED SYSTEMS IN INDUSTRIAL
ENVIRONMENTS POWER MANAGEMENT FOR ENERGY HARVESTING SYSTEMS
‘HACK’ TO STAYING
SECURE IN 2019
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CONTENT PAGE
24
TRADING THE FLAGSHIP FOR2019
28
BACKSEAT DRIVING FROM THE FRONT: THE FUTURE OF DRIVERLESS CARS
06 TECHNICAL INSIGHT
20 BIG PICTURE
16 POWER MANAGEMENT
22 BIG PICTURE
RF TRANSCEIVERS ENABLE FORCED SPURIOUS DECORRELATION IN DIGITAL BEAMFORMING PHASED ARRAYS
POWER MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS FOR ENERGY HARVESTING SYSTEMS
RHONDA DIRVIN SENIOR DIRECTOR MARKETING PROGRAMS | ARM
SANJAY GUPTA VP AND INDIA COUNTRY MANAGER NXP SEMICONDUCTORS
40 AEROSPACE & DEFENCE
38 BIG PICTURE
42 OUTLOOK MARKET
32 INDUSTRY UPDATES
ELECTROLUBE ACHIEVES GLOBAL AEROSPACE STANDARD
IOT ADOPTERS IN APAC REAP SIGNIFICANT BUSINESS GAINS
46 COVER STORY THE ‘HACK’ TO STAYING SECURE IN 2019
SUMIT PADMAKAR JOSH|VICE CHAIRMAN AND MANAGING DIRECTOR SIGNIFY INNOVATIONS INDIA LIMITED
INFINEON NEW COOLSIC MOSFET POWER MODULES
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR EDITOR MANAS NANDI manas@bisinfotech.com
TEN DIMENSIONS FOR 10 TRILLION BY 2030
CONSULTANT EDITOR NILOY BANERJEE niloy@bisinfotech.com SUB EDITOR JYOTI GAZMER jyoti@bisinfotech.com
“To create a Digital India reaching every sector of the economy, every MARKETING MANAGER corner of the country and impacting the life of all Indians with Digital ARNAB SABHAPANDIT Infrastructure by 2030, will be built upon the successes achieved in recent years in digitisation of Government processes and private transactions. arnab@bisinfotech.com Youth will lead in this endeavour with innumerable start-ups creating digital India, and millions of jobs in this eco-system” is Finance Minister Piyush Goyal one of the 10 dimension while presenting the Budget DESIGN HEAD for 2019-20. SANDEEP KUMAR India is now on the way to becoming a global manufacturing hub in various sectors including automobiles and electronics, defence and medical devices. In a nutshell let’s check the budget WEB DEVELOPMENT MANAGER allocations in the following sectors:
JITENDER KUMAR
Schemes
20182019 Revised Estimates (INR crore)
20192020 Budget Estimates (INR crore)
R and D Basic Science and Engineering
1000
1320
Optical Fibre Cable based network for Defence Services
2500
4725
Compensation to Service Providers for creation and augmentation of telecom infrastructure
5000
8350
Promotion of Digital payment
692
600
Promotion of Electronics and IT HW Manufacturing (MSIPS, EDF and Manufacturing Clusters)
844
968
Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme of Government of India (EAP)
500
950
Space Technology
6993
7483
Space Applications
1595
1885
Amended Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme(ATUFS)
623
700
My Question, is this enough to make electronics and IT manufacturing in India surge to a level and make a net zero importer for a $400 billion consumer base? Well, right now, I don’t have the answer for this but do have lot of interesting and informative articles inside for you. Happy Reading!
ManasNandi manas@bisinfotech.com
WEB PRODUCTION BALVINDER SINGH SUBSCRIPTIONS S. RADHIKA radhika@bisinfotech.com Bisinfotech is printed, published, edited and owned by Manas Nandi and published from 303, 2nd floor, Neelkanth Palace, Plot No- 190, Sant Nagar,East of Kailash, New Delhi- 110065 (INDIA), Printed at Swastika Creation 19 DSIDC Shed, Scheme No. 3, Okhla Industrial Area, PhaseII, New Delhi- 110020
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. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Editor and publisher. The information in the content and advertisement published in the magazine are just for reference of the readers. However, readers are cautioned to make inquiries and take their decision on purchase or investment after consulting experts on the subject. Saur Energy International holds no responsibility for any decision taken by readers on the basis of the information provided herein. Any unauthorised reproduction of Bisinfotech magazine content is strictly forbidden. Subject to Delhi Jurisdiction. Cover Image: Created by starline - Freepik.com
TECHNICAL INSIGHT
RF Transceivers Enable Forced Spurious Decorrelation in Digital Beamforming Phased Arrays Peter Delos, Michael Jones, and Mark Robertson Analog Devices, Inc. Introduction
In large digital beamforming antennas, dynamic range improvements through the beamforming process of combining signals from distributed waveform generators and receivers is highly desirable. A 10logN dynamic range improvement can be obtained in both noise and spurious performance if the associated error terms are uncorrelated. N in this case is the number of waveform generator or receiver channels. Noise by nature is a very random process and therefore lends itself well to tracking correlated and uncorrelated noise sources. However, spurious signals make it less obvious how to force spurs to be uncorrelated. Therefore, any design method that can force spurious signals to be uncorrelated is valuable to phased array system architecture. In this article we review a previously published technique to force spurious signals to be uncorrelated by offsetting the LO frequencies and digitally compensating for this offset. We then show how the most recent Analog Devices transceiver product, the ADRV9009, has built-in features enabling this capability. We then conclude with measured data demonstrating the results of the technique.
Known Spurious Decorrelation Methods
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Various methods to force spurious decorrelation in phased arrays have been known for some time. Our first known publication dates back to 2002,1 where a general method to ensure receiver spurious are uncorrelated is described. In the approach, signals are first modified in a known way from receiver to receiver. Then the signals become distorted by the receiver’s nonlinear components. At the receiver output, the modifications introduced earlier in the receiver are inverted. The intended signals become coherent or correlated, but the distorted terms are not restored. The modification method implemented in their testing was to set each local oscillator (LO) synthesizer to a different frequency, then correct for the modification by digitally tuning numerically controlled oscillators (NCOs) in the digital processing. Several other methods have also been published.2, 3 Years later, with the advanced integration of full transceiver subsystems in single monolithic silicon, embedded programmable features in the transceiver products enable the spurious decorrelation method described in the article “Correlation of Nonlinear Distortion in Digital Phased Arrays: Measurement and Mitigation.”
BISINFOTECH // FEBRUARY 2019
Figure 1. ADRV9009 functional block diagram.
Transceiver Features Enabling Spurious Decorrelation
A functional block diagram of the Analog Devices transceiver ADRV9009 is shown in Figure 1. Each waveform generator or receiver is implemented with a direct conversion architecture. Daniel Rabinkin’s article, “Front-End Nonlinear Distortion and Array Beamforming,” discusses direct conversion architectures at greater length.4 The LO frequencies can be programmed independently on each IC. The digital processing section includes digital up/ down conversion with NCOs that can also be programmed independently across ICs. Peter Delos’ article, “A Review of Wideband RF Receiver Architecture Options,” provides further description of digital downconversion.5 Next, we will demonstrate a method to force spurious decorrelation across multiple transceivers. First, the LOs are offset in frequency by programming the on-board phaselocked loops (PLLs). Then the NCO frequencies are set to digitally compensate for the applied LO frequency offset. By adjusting both features inside the transceiver IC, the digital data to and from the transceivers does not have to be offset in frequency and the entire frequency translation and spurious decorrelation is built into the transceiver IC. A representative block diagram for an array of waveform generators is shown in Figure 2. In our description we will describe the method and show data for waveform generators, but the method is equally applicable to an array of receivers.
INSIGHT TECHNICAL
Figure 2. Forcing spurious to be uncorrelated by programming LO and NCO frequencies across an array of waveform generators.
To illustrate the concept in frequency, an example with two transmit signals from a direct conversion architecture is shown in Figure 3. These cases are shown where the RF is on the high side of the LO. In a direct conversion architecture, the image frequency and third harmonic appear on the opposite side of the LO and are shown below the LO frequency. When the LO frequencies are set to the same frequency across channels, the spurious frequencies are also at the same frequencies, as shown in Figure 3a. Figure 3b illustrates a case where LO2 is set at a higher frequency than LO1. The digital NCOs are equally offset such that the RF signal achieves coherent gain. The images and third-harmonic distortion products are at different frequencies and thus uncorrelated. Figure 3c illustrates the same configuration as Figure 3b but adds modulation to the RF carrier.
Figure 3. Spectral illustration showing the spurious signals in frequency. Three cases are shown: (a) Two combined CW signals with no spur decorrelation, (b) two combined CW signals with forced spur decorrelation, and (c) two combined modulated signals with forced spur decorrelation.
Measured Results
An 8-channel, transceiver-based RF testbed was assembled to evaluate the transceiver product line for phased array applications. The test setup for evaluating the waveform generators is shown in Figure 4. For this test, the same digital data is applied to all waveform generators. A calibration is performed across the channels by adjusting the NCO phase to ensure the RF signals are in phase at the 8-way combiner and coherently combine.
Figure 4. Waveform generator spurious test setup.
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TECHNICAL INSIGHT
Next we will show test data comparing spurious with the LOs and NCOs all set to the same frequency vs. spurious when the LOs and NCOs are offset in frequency. The transceivers used share an LO within a 2-channel device (see Figure 1), so for the eight RF channels there are four different LO frequencies. In Figure 5 and Figure 6, the transceiver NCOs and LOs are all set to the same frequency. In this case, the spurious signals produced from the image, the LO leakage, and the third harmonic are all at the same frequency. Figure 5 shows the individual transmit outputs measured on a spectrum analyzer. Figure 6 shows the combined output. In this particular test the spurs of the image and the LO leakage measured in dBc relative to the carrier showed improvement, but the third harmonic did not improve. In our testing we found the third harmonic was consistently correlated across channels, the image frequency was consistently uncorrelated, and the LO frequency varied depending on start-up conditions. This is reflected in Figure 3a, where we show coherent addition for the third harmonic, noncoherent addition for the image frequency, and partially coherent addition for the LO leakage frequency. In Figure 7 and Figure 8, the transceiver LOs are all set to different frequencies and the digital NCOs are adjusted in both frequency and phase such that the signals coherently combine. In this case, the spurious signals produced from the image, the LO leakage, and the third harmonic are forced to be at different frequencies. Figure 7 shows the individual transmit outputs
Figure 5. Waveform generator spurious of each channel with LOs and NCOs set to the same frequency.
08
Figure 6. Combined waveform generator spurious with LOs and NCOs set to the same frequency. Note there is no improvement to the thirdharmonic spur in this configuration.
BISINFOTECH // FEBRUARY 2019
measured on a spectrum analyzer. Figure 8 shows the combined output. In this test the spurs of the image, the LO leakage, and the third harmonic measured in dBc relative to the carrier begin to spread into the noise and every spur shows an improvement when channels are combined. When a very small number of channels are combined, as was done in this test, the spurs actually show a 20log(N) improvement in their relative levels. This is due to the signal components combining coherently and adding as 20log(N) while the spurs do not combine at all. In practice, with a large array and a much greater number of channels being combined, the improvement is expected to approach 10log(N). This is for two reasons. First, with a large number of signals being combined it will not be practical to spread the spurs out sufficiently such that each one can be considered in isolation. Consider a 1 MHz modulation bandwidth as an example. If a specification says that spurious emissions are to be measured in a 1 MHz bandwidth, then ideally the spurs would be spread out so that they are at least 1 MHz apart. If this is not possible, then each 1 MHz of measurement bandwidth will include multiple spurious components. Since these will be at different frequencies, they will combine incoherently and the spurious power measured in each 1 MHz of bandwidth will increase
Figure 7. Waveform generator spurious of each channel with LOs and NCOs offset in frequency.
Figure 8. Combined waveform generator spurious with LOs and NCOs offset in frequency. Note in this case that the spurs are spread in frequency and there is a clear SFDR improvement relative to the individual channel SFDR.
INSIGHT TECHNICAL
as 10log(N). However, no single 1 MHz of measurement bandwidth will contain all the spurs, so in this case, N for the spurs is smaller than N for the signal and although the incremental improvement will be 10log(N), once N is large enough for the spurious density to place multiple spurs inside the measurement bandwidth, the absolute improvement will still be better than 10log(N) compared to the system without spurious signal decorrelation—that is, it will be somewhere between 10log(N) and 20log(N) decibels (or dB) better. Secondly, this test was done with CW signals, but real-world signals will be modulated and this will cause them to spread out, making nonoverlapping spurious signals impossible to achieve when a large number of channels are combined. These overlapping spurious signals will be uncorrelated and add incoherently, as 10log(N), in the overlap region. It is worth making special mention of the LO leakage component when the LO is set to the same frequency across channels. The LO leakage is due to imperfect cancellation of the LO in the analogue modulator when two signal branches are summed. If the amplitude and phase imbalances are random errors, then the phase of the residual LO leakage component will also be random and when many different transceivers’ LO leakages are summed they will add incoherently, as 10log(N), even when they are at precisely the same frequency. This should also be the case with the modulator’s image component, but not necessarily the modulator’s third harmonic. With a small number of channels being coherently combined, it is unlikely the LO phases would be completely random, and thus the cause for partial decorrelation is shown in the measured data. With a very large number of channels, the LO phase approaches a much more random condition across channels and is anticipated to be an uncorrelated addition.
Conclusion
The measured SFDR results when the LOs and NCOs are offset in frequency, which clearly shows the spurious created is all at different frequencies and is not coherent in the combining process, thus ensuring an SFDR improvement as channels are combined. LO and NCO frequency control is now a programmable feature in the latest Analog Devices’ transceiver products. The results demonstrate this feature can be exploited in phased array applications, which ensures an array-level SFDR improvement over single-channel performance.
References 1 Lincoln Cole Howard and Daniel Rabideau. “Correlation of Nonlinear Distortion in Digital Phased Arrays: Measurement and Mitigation.” 2002 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest.
4 Rabinkin, Song, “Front-End Nonlinear Distortion and Array Beamforming.” Radio and Wireless Symposium (RWS) 2015 IEEE 5 Peter Delos. “A Review of Wideband RF Receiver Architecture Options.” Analog Devices, Inc., February 2017 Delos, Peter. “Can Phased Arrays Calibrate on Noise?” Microwave Journal, March 2018 Harris, Jonathan. “What’s Up with Digital Downconverters—Part 1.” Analog Dialogue, July 2016. Harris, Jonathan. “What’s Up with Digital Downconverters—Part 2.” Analog Dialogue, November 2016. Howard, Lincoln, Nina Simon, and Daniel Rabideau. “Mitigation of Correlated Nonlinearities in Digital Phased Arrays Using Channel- Dependent Phase Shifts.” 2003 EEE MTT-S Digest.
About the Authors
Peter Delos is a technical lead in the Aerospace and Defense Group at Analog Devices in Greensboro, North Carolina. He received his B.S.E.E. from Virginia Tech in 1990 and M.S.E.E. from NJIT in 2004. Peter has over 25 years of industry experience. Most of his career has been spent designing advanced RF/ analog systems at the architecture level, PWB level, and IC level. He is currently focused on miniaturizing high performance receiver, waveform generator, and synthesizer designs for phased array applications. He can be reached at peter. delos@analog.com. Mark Robertson graduated from Cambridge University, UK, in 1990 with a degree in electrical and information sciences. He worked as an RF and analog circuit design engineer for various companies in the test and measurement, cellular phone, and cellular base station industries before joining Analog Devices in in Bath, UK as a systems engineer in 2012. He still likes to design real circuits whenever he can. He can be reached at mark.robertson@analog.com. Mike Jones is a principal electrical design engineer with Analog Devices working in the Aerospace and Defense Business Unit in Greensboro, North Carolina. He joined Analog Devices in 2016. From 2007 until 2016 he worked at General Electric in Wilmington, North Carolina as a microwave photonics design engineer working on microwave and optical solutions for the nuclear industry. He received his B.S.E.E. and B.S.C.P.E. from North Carolina State University in 2004 and his M.S.E.E. from North Carolina State University in 2006. He can be reached at michael.jones@analog.com. n
2 Salvador Talisa, Kenneth O’Haever, Thomas Comberiate, Matthew Sharp, and Oscar Somerlock. “Benefits of Digital Phased Arrays.” Proceeding of the IEEE, Vol. 104, No. 3, March 2016 3 Keir Lauritzen. “Correlation of Signals, Noise, and Harmonics in Parallel Analog-to-Digital Converter Arrays.” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Maryland, 2009.
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HOW FAR EXACTLY CAN AN ELECTRIC VEHICLE (EV) TRAVEL?
10
Since 2017, many countries have announced or begun setting timelines for banning sales of conventional vehicles. In a recent gazette notification, the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises said that the Indian government has increased the outlay for the first phase of Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles (FAME) scheme to $126.74 Mn (INR 895 Cr).The FAME scheme is part of the government’s ambitious National Electric Mobility Mission Plan to convert at least one-third of the automobiles on Indian roads to EVs by 2030. This is exciting yet unsettling news for automobile makers. On one hand the direction has been set, removing any lingering hesitation but on the other hand, purely from the perspective of recharge mileage, few commercially available EVs fulfill consumer expectations at this moment. To date, the 500km range achieved by Tesla’s Model S (global scenario) still holds the record in terms of EV development. According to a study by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), the conversion to 100% EV will save India more than $300B or INR 20Lakh Cr in the form of oil imports. This industry will require extensive support from the government to survive and grow. Initial policies that subsidize buses and individual cars will now be extended to 2-wheelers and other vehicles like auto rickshaws. What is heartening to
BISINFOTECH // FEBRUARY 2019
see is that even though a concrete EV policy is still awaited and there has been scale down of the EV adoption target from 100% to 30% by 2030, end users in small and medium sized towns are readily accepting e-rickshaws and small EV vehicles. Therefore, "how far can an EV travel" is no longer just a question of mileage range technology but also one of great concern to businesses within the field, or rather how much more the industry can achieve. Quite understandably, this has become a major issue of concern. From the technical perspective, two problems must be resolved so EVs can "travel further": increasing energy density and conserving energy. "Increasing energy density" pertains to improvements in power battery technology so that vehicles are equipped with higher energy capacity while "conserving energy" refers to better battery control and management so as to improve operational safety efficiency and optimize potential. This is where Battery Management System (BMS) comes into play. Let us temporarily put aside unrealized technologies not yet commercially viable and focus on lithium ion battery technologies that are already in use commercially or nearing market launch. Lithium ion batteries are typically categorized according to the electrode material used. Types that can be
EXCLUSIVE AUTOMOTIVE
–Sambit Sengupta
Associate Director – Field Applications|Avnet India categorized by their use of cathode materials include the lithium manganese battery, lithium manganese iron phosphate battery, lithium iron phosphate battery, and ternary battery. Categorized by the use of anode materials, they can be differentiated into graphite and lithium titanate batteries. See Table 1 for the performance and properties of these batteries.
Among them, lithium manganese batteries melt easily under high temperatures and perform poorly in terms of stability and
safety. Lithium manganese iron phosphate batteries are not yet technologically mature and have a short lifespan. Neither of the above are therefore suitable for powering EVs. Lithium iron phosphate batteries exhibit stable voltage and are economical, able to withstand temperatures up to o 800 C, and highly safe. For these reasons, they are widely applied in electric passenger cars that require high battery energy levels, long run time, extended lifespan, and high safety performance. Meanwhile, ternary batteries have high energy density, long lifespans, and are able to withstand o temperatures of up to 200 C, but cannot be manufactured into high capacity single cells due to safety constraints. They are however becoming increasingly prevalent in the passenger car market where demands on spatial constraints, mileage range and energy density are high. For example, Tesla uses ternary batteries supplied by Panasonic. For this to be adapted to Indian conditions, we must have local innovators producing and supplying in India. Innovation in anode materials is another key to improving battery performance. Lithium-metal dendrite precipitates on the surface of the carbon electrode during overcharge that can pierce the membrane separator in the middle of the battery, causing internal short-circuit and thermal runaway. This has always been one of the safety concerns of lithium ion batteries. If lithium titanate is utilized as the anode material, however, lithium-metal dendrite will not precipitate, thereby eliminating the risk of thermal runaway. Such batteries perform well in low temperatures, exhibit high power efficiency, and can be charged up to 10,000 cycles. Lithium titanate batteries nevertheless have several disadvantages such as high temperature flatulence, lower inherent voltage, and high cost. Therefore, they are currently used mainly in low range scenarios or hybrid vehicles, and do not contribute much to a longer traveling distance. It is worth noting, however, that lithium titanate batteries have the advantage of fast recharging, a feature that may change user conceptions of battery charging from "charge once for a longer distance" to "recharge along the way". Developing new battery technologies and enhancing battery mileage range are now no longer the objectives of individual enterprises, but have escalated into national strategies. Countries all around the world are now formulating plans to develop power battery technologies. For example, the US Department of Energy has proposed a series of technological improvements to increase battery energy density from 100W.h/kg in 2012 to 250W.h/kg in 2017. In India, while plans are not firmed up, BHEL and Libcoin are reportedly in talks to form a consortium to initially build a 1GWh lithium-ion battery plant in India. The plant's capacity will be scaled up to 30GWh in due course. Even though we have yet to identify a clear winner from existing power battery technologies, and a perfect solution for EV application has yet to emerge, the sheer amount of resources that have been poured into relevant developments can perhaps serve as assurance that future prospects remain bright. n
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INDUSTRY FEATURE
ROHM’S LATEST TECHNOLOGY TOWARDS ACHIEVING A SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY: NANO ENERGY ULTRA-LOW CURRENT CONSUMPTION TECHNOLOGY
Introduction
Recent years have seen the increased proliferation of battery-driven electronic devices, including wearables and IoT, along with portables such as smartphones. For the electronic components that comprise these sets, miniaturization is required to improve design and secure space for new functions, while lower power consumption is needed to prolong battery life. Configuration typically consists of a CPU in charge of overall control, sensor(s) for acquiring necessary environmental data, and wireless devices to provide communication. Optimized processing of this information makes it possible to achieve a variety of functions. In addition to these, a power supply IC is used to provide stable voltage from the battery to operate all of the various components. And since electronic devices need to immediately respond to external signals even during standby, it is necessary to include a function for continuous monitoring. To supply voltage to this function, the power supply IC must continuously operate. Consequently, the current consumption of the power IC must be reduced in order to prolong battery life.
Current Consumption Comparison
Wearable Device Configuration Example
ROHM has developed a power supply IC that meets market needs by leveraging a vertically integrated production system along with analog design technology and power processes. These days, there is an increasing demand to achieve a sustainable society. In fact, '10-year drive on a coin battery’ has become a key phrase in the IoT and wearable fields. To respond to market needs, ROHM leveraged ultra-low current consumption technology, dubbed Nano Energy, to develop an ultra-low power supply IC that makes it possible to achieve continuous 10-year operation on a single coin battery. ROHM’s BD70522GUL switching regulator utilizes Nano Energy technology to deliver a current consumption of just 180nA, the lowest in the industry (Fig. 2). Next we will introduce Nano Energy technology.
Achieving 10-year drive on a single coin battery
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The most well-known example of a coin battery is the CR2032. Battery capacity is typically 220mAh, with specifications common among different manufacturers. To achieve a continuous drive time of 10 years on a coin battery, it is first necessary to calculate the current consumption required for the power supply IC. However, it must be noted that not all of the battery capacity will be consumed by the power supply IC. Many calculations assume a power supply IC consumption of 100mA. ICC (Current Consumption)=100mAh (Battery Capacity)÷87,600h (10 years)≒1uA (Fig. 3) This 1uA is the average current consumption during maximum operation that is allowed to flow in the power supply IC. In other words, current consumption of the power supply IC must be on the order of nA. Limiting IC current consumption will make it possible to expand functionality while maintaining continuous operation without increasing battery capacity. The BD70522GUL meets this need with a current consumption of only 180nA.
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FEATURE INDUSTRY
Requirements for Achieving 10-Year Drive on a Single Coin Battery
Technical issues resulting from reducing current consumption
The easiest way to reduce current consumption in power supply ICs is to increase the internal resistance. However, simply increasing the resistance can cause a number of problems. • Larger circuit area • Increased effects against element leakage current • Higher sensitivity to external noise due to larger impedance • Reduced response speed of the analog circuit Larger circuit area refers to the increase in the area of the resistance component following the increase in resistance. Increased effects against element leakage current relates to problems with the MOSFETs that make up the power supply IC. A constant leakage current flows even when the transistor is in the OFF state. This leakage current occurs in the internal circuit and output stage. As an example, although the leakage current flowing into the feedback resistor (Fig. 4) is sufficiently small so as to be considered negligible with respect to the steady-state current (=output voltage÷feedback resistance) resulting from the output voltage and conventional resistance value, increasing the resistance reduces the steady-state current, so the effects of the leakage current cannot be ignored. Higher sensitivity to external noise due to larger impedance assumes a pi-type filter connected by resistor (for simplicity’s sake). When a voltage is applied to one end and noise enters the other, the time constant until the voltage of the noisy terminal settles to the original voltage is determined by the RC of the pi-type filter. As this resistance increases the time constant also increases, and the time until a stable state is reached becomes longer. The response speed of the analog circuit is determined by a number of factors, but let us consider the case of charging the capacitor. The time it takes for the charge to reach a certain operating voltage is the response speed, which is proportional to the charge current and consequently degrades as the current consumption increases.
Problems Associated with Reduced Current Consumption (Current Leakage)
Problems Associated with Reduced Current Consumption (Response Speed)
Overcoming challenges with element technology and the resulting characteristics
In response to the various issues mentioned above, ROHM developed Nano Energy technology that combines analog circuit design, processes, and layout with a vertically integrated production system. This fusion has allowed ROHM to achieve optimized countermeasures for a variety of challenges. Here we will introduce 2 element technologies and their results as an example of circuit design technology for Nano Energy used in the BD70522GUL. • Reducing current consumption in the reference voltage and control monitoring blocks • Overcoming the trade-off between high accuracy, fast response, and low current consumption in the control monitoring block The BD70522GUL is a buck (step-down) switching regulator. In a switching regulator, switching to intermittent operation when the output current (load) becomes smaller than a certain value makes it possible to reduce current consumption
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INDUSTRY FEATURE
while maintaining the output voltage. In many applications where Nano Energy is required, intermittent operation is expected to prolong operating time. For the BD70522GUL, we conducted a thorough analysis of the current during intermittent operation and implemented a reduction based on these results. First, from the analysis results we narrowed down the primary factors of current consumption to two areas, the reference voltage and control monitoring blocks (Fig. 6). Next, we applied an optimized reduction method that allowed us to reduce current consumption in each block by 100x vs conventional products. As a result, efficiency, which is the most important characteristic of power supply ICs, was increased to over 90% at a load current of 10uA during standby of the subsequent stage (Fig. 7). What's more, these characteristics can be maintained over a wide range up to a load current of 500mA.
Switching Regulator Block Diagram
BD70522GUL Efficiency Characteristics
Next we will describe the technology for overcoming the trade-off in the control monitoring block. As we mentioned previously, when we reduce the current consumption in the control monitoring block the response speed degrades. There is also another important circuit characteristic determined by the control monitoring block. Namely, stable output voltage. In the circuit configuration of a conventional control monitoring circuit, it is impossible to simultaneously achieve fast response with low current consumption and high accuracy. In contrast, the BD70522GUL utilizes Nano Energy, developed after conducting a thorough review of the circuit configuration, to achieve all 3 characteristics. We were able to deliver the industry’s lowest no-load current consumption along with high-speed response during load fluctuations (load response) and stable output voltage (load regulation) over the entire load range (Figs. 8, 9).
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BD70522GUL High-Speed Response Characteristics
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BD70522GUL Output Voltage Stability
FEATURE INDUSTRY
Nano Energy expands the range of applications
Nano Energy is expected to be an extremely effective technology for reducing current consumption, which is a constant theme in all applications requiring power supply. As mentioned in the beginning, this technology is ideal for sets demanding long standby state along with fast response during operation. Suitable applications include security and portable devices that operate on li-ion and coin batteries. And in recent years, the accelerating digitization of vehicles is spurring adoption of this technology in automotive systems. ROHM’s power supply IC lineup includes not only switching regulators, but LDO (Linear Drop Out) regulators as well. We have already started development of LDOs that incorporate Nano Energy technology, and will continue to propose solutions that provide greater space savings with lower noise in order to contribute to a sustainable society. (Fig. 10)
Application Examples for Nano Energy Technology
Summary
Nano Energy technology developed by ROHM is an ultra-low current consumption technology that dramatically reduces power consumption of the power supply IC. As a result, the BD70522GUL equipped with Nano Energy technology delivers a current consumption of just 180nA, the lowest in the industry. And in response to the trade-off caused by reducing power consumption, Nano Energy technology allows the BD70522GUL to achieve simultaneously fast response, stable output voltage, and ultra-low current consumption. This allows us to propose solutions for a broader range of applications, including automotive systems that are seeing increased digitization and portables that demand 10-year drive on a single coin battery. ROHM currently offers 2 advanced power supply IC technologies, Nano Energy and Nano Pulse Control*1. These technologies are not only effective for specific markets, but are also ideal for areas pursuing greater performance. And going forward, we will continue to expand our Nano technology lineup in order to respond to market needs and achieve a sustainable society. *1: Technology for stably controlling the pulse width as narrow as possible to achieve a single-chip power supply system in high step-down ratio environments and a smaller mounting area (including coil).
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POWER MANAGEMENT
POWER MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS FOR ENERGY HARVESTING SYSTEMS
Carmelo BATTAGLIA
Technical Marketing Engineer – Asia Region STMicroelectronics The Global Smart Home market is expected to reach around 97B$ before the finish of 2025; main application categories are represented from Security Management, Energy and resource management, Convenience and comfort, Health and wellness management and Media Entertainment. Inside the home multiple kinds of energy remain normally unused: Light, temperature differences, Motor mechanical vibration, Doors and windows movement; nowadays these harvest energy can be utilized thanks to Photovoltaic cell, thermoelectric element, piezoelectric generator, other. STMicroelectronics offers different power management devices that match many requirements of these sources. As a typical application, we will consider a photovoltaic harvest system; see Fig.1, a block diagram of a General Harvest application.
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Photovoltaic energy is limited during the day, unregulated, and mainly concentrated during the time of morning light; for this reason, it should be used as best as possible with high efficiency converter to supply the system or stored inside a main Li-ion battery for later usage. STMicroelectronics’ new battery management STBC15 series can manage the charge of battery every time the source voltage is higher than the battery level as well as supply the system at the same time. This is accomplished with an internal power path MOSFET, which automatically provides the battery energy to the system and simultaneously recharges the LI-ion battery when a valid source is available. The ultra-low power architecture allows the STBC15 to consume less than 250 nA from the battery (see
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figure 2) when the input power source is removed, and only 0.48 µA supply current (see figure 3) will be used to control the
POWER MANAGEMENT
charging phase when a source is available. In this way, almost all the source energy available will be stored inside the battery. The ultra-low quiescent battery management embeds digital controls (1.8V compatible GPIOs) to set one of the four programmable battery floating voltages, battery overcurrent threshold among four different current levels, and provide a real time input and battery monitor flags. More details can be found at the product home page: www.st.com/ battery-chargers. In order to optimize the battery-stored energy or to use direct source generated from a photovoltaic cell, STMicroelectronics recommends designing the harvest system using a very low quiescent current switching converter. The most recent product available on the market is the Nano-quiescent buck ST1PS01 series. It is a miniaturized synchronous step-down converter, which is able to provide up to 400 mA output current with an input voltage ranging from 1.8 V to 5.5 V. This converter is specifically designed for applications where high efficiency, PCB size, and thickness are the key factors. The output voltage can be set using two digital control inputs (D0, D1) and a VOUT from 0.6 V to 3.3 V can be dynamically programmed. A typical application schematic is shown in figure 4. With its enhanced PCC (peak current control loop), the ST1PS01 reaches very high efficiency conversion using just a 2.2 ÂľH inductor (L) and two small capacitors (CIN and COUT).
consumption to 1 nA. The STLQ020 is also designed to keep the quiescent current under control and at a low value during dropout operation, which helps to extend the operating time of battery-powered devices even more. It also includes short-circuit constantcurrent limiting and thermal protection, and a choice of several small packages are available. More details can be found at the product home page: www. st.com/ldo. In table1 below, we highlight a tailored products selection that could be used to design a harvesting system or a portable high efficiency application. It ranges from just a few mA current capability up to more than 1A, depending on the final application requirements and the battery capacity selected. The discussed applicable devices are detailed in bold font.
Advanced design circuitry is implemented to minimize the quiescent current, just 500nA during no load standby conditions, and as a result, the overall harvesting system operating time will be extended as long as possible while waiting next battery recharge event. More technical details can be found at this link: www.st.com/dcdc. If necessary, an additional low current voltage rail can be generated using STMicroelectronics’ ultra-low quiescent current linear voltage regulator STLQ020 series. The STLQ020 is a 200 mA low-dropout voltage regulator, able to work with an input voltage ranging from 2 V to 5.5 V. The typical dropout voltage at maximum load is 160 mV. The ultra-low quiescent current, which is just 300 nA at no load, extends the battery life of harvesting systems. See figure 5 for a graph showing the STLQ020 quiescent current behavior temperature dependence. Despite the ultra-low consumption design, the STLQ020 is able to provide a fast transient response and good PSRR performance due to its adaptive biasing circuit. When the voltage rail and the harvest subsystem is not used, the STLQ020 can be set in shutdown mode by enable pin input, reducing total current
In case the harvest system requires an operating voltage rail higher than the minimum battery voltage cut-off (typically 2.8V), the low quiescent current buck-boost converter STBB series could be used to generate the requested fixed rail from every battery condition: even a fully charged battery 4.2V-4.35V level, or worst case, fully discharged level 2.6-3.0V (see figure 6).
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POWER MANAGEMENT
The high efficiency of STMicroelectronics buck-boost converter STBB series and its extended operative input supply range, enables the harvest system to store in the battery more energy generated from the photovoltaic panel source. With the minimum voltage of 1.8V, the buck-boost converter is able to generate a high enough voltage to recharge the Li-Ion single cell battery. Figure 7 illustrates the typical buck-boost efficiency at different input and output voltages.
Other complementary optional function such as an RGB LED Driver could be add to the harvesting system to simplify and attractively implement the graphical user interface communication (GUI). ST’s LED1202, I2C standard interface 12-channel LED driver, represents the new STMicroelectroncis product line that will reach the mass production by Q1.2019. Figure 8 shows a general electric schematic for this sub-section. The LED1202 is designed to reduce the current consumption down to 5 ¾A during off mode, guarantee high accuracy led current control up to +-1%, and implements special features like phase shifting to reduce inrush current, including automatic sequencing without microcontroller
intervention through 8 programmable patterns and up to 12-bit local PWM resolution. n
Automotive Lighting Bringing energy-saving LED solutions to automotive lighting applications Infineon automotive lighting portfolio provides the right solution both for interior and exterior automotive lighting applications. Highlights: › Power MOSFET PROFET™ products with smart diagnose and protection features › SPOC™ products allow you to control, configure and diagnose on the Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) › Infineon LITIX™ Auto LED drivers provide top LED advantages and fully protect your automotive lighting application
Contact: support@infineon.com, india.sales@infineon.com India toll free customer support : +91.0008004402951
www.infineon.com/automotive-lighting
BIG PICTURE
RHONDA DIRVIN
Senior Director Marketing Programs, ARM MAIN CHALLENGE FACING ALL DESIGNERS OF SECURE EMBEDDED IOT SYSTEMS IS THE CREATION AND VALIDATION OF THE THREAT MODEL Security is the new concurrent to Embedded Technologies. Real-time visualization, cloud connectivity & Bluetooth Mesh Networking, AI capabilities and machine learning all integrating and boasting embedded security. In one of the biggest interview of 2019, Niloy Banerjee, Consultant Editor loops Rhonda Dirvin, Senior Director Marketing Programs, ARM tranquilizing on the growing concerns of ‘Embedded Security’ and also underlining their mammoth expertise in this domain. Edited Nub.
Q
What are the Embedded Security Requirements in IoT?
There are four generic groups for embedded IoT security n Communication security: are all exchanges with the cloud protected? n Lifecycle security: Is the product protected as it changes hands from supplier to user? n Software security: Is the product upgradeable and protected from software attacks? n Physical security: Is the product immune to physical tampering? Usually the first three are required in all products, while physical security is reserved for use cases where the value of the embedded asset is high enough to merit the additional cost associated with physical security. Arm offers solutions for all four categories, along with the Platform Security Architecture (PSA), which is the framework for designing secure embedded IoT products.
Q
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Challenges and Solutions in maintaining the security in Embedded Systems? The main challenge facing all designers of secure embedded IoT systems is the creation and validation of the threat model, which defines what needs to be protected in the product and from what types of threats. Most designers find this to be the hardest step since one has to not only define and defend how the product should behave in normal operations, but one needs to also imagine all the ways that the product should not behave to include in the threat model. Once that threat model is defined then the rest of the process is back to the standard
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embedded engineering approach of designing something that meets the project requirements. Arm and the ecosystem already provide, as in the past, all that is required to build the product once those requirements are clearly defined.
Q
What modern design architecture will build-in embedded security technologies of future?
Arm TrustZone is the key architecture that will be used to build all embedded IoT products in the future. By definition, all IoT products need to be protected from software attacks and need to be upgradeable to handle the recovery after an attack. The only method to meet those two requirements is to have hardware isolation which can be achieved either by using two distinct compute elements or by using one processor that has TrustZone. TrustZone is a hardware isolation scheme running on a single processor. It is the most costeffective and energy efficient scheme for isolation. Given that cost is a key factor for IoT deployment, an industry-standard technology, such as TrustZone, is key to drive mass IoT deployment.
Q
Being on the designing-front, what critical issues do you foresee in the Embedded systems? Security: If we want to reach one trillion connected devices, but do not have security builtin devices from the ground up, then they cannot be
PICTURE BIG
trusted. Just one weak point in a device could compromise when you get to smaller geometries. Here Arm has two the entire device, all its data, and others it is connected to in technologies to reduce static power. Arm’s processors a network. That is why we have TrustZone for Arm® Cortex®-M work with Arm’s Artisan Physical IP to lower dynamic and based devices, now available in chips from the major MCU static power. This includes turning off functional blocks suppliers. It provides system-wide, hardware-enforced isolation that are not currently executing and lower voltage to to ensure security is baked in the device. It uses the familiar reduce the power needed to run the processor. Arm Cortex-M programming model, making security accessible has introduced an optimized physical IP library (POP) for all embedded and IoT developers. for its Cortex-M microprocessors and its Neural Network Custom, application-specific design: We are seeing many Processor (Machine Learning POP). manufacturers and silicon start-ups pursue custom system-onDeep learning, machine learning and other AI concepts, chip designs (or ASICs). The barriers of IP, cost and expertise how critical will it be for designers and developers to have been lowered, making custom silicon more accessible than ever. In particular, Arm has been investing in companies’ provide next-gen secure embedded solutions? success by reducing both risk and initial investment through While the first wave of ML focused on cloud computing, the the Arm DesignStart program: fast, low-cost access to Arm IP combination of improved techniques for shrinking models to so companies can design and prototype their custom SoC run on low-power hardware and the increased capabilities of compute on edge devices means that ML inference is quickly and affordably. And if design expertise is a concern, it doesn’t need to be – already performed on millions of microcontroller-based companies can outsource some or all of your chip design to IoT devices today. one of our Arm Approved Design Partners, a global network Edge compute brings a number of advantages – not least of design service companies with a wealth of experience privacy and security. By keeping data on-device, rather in Arm-based design. No matter a company’s technical than shifting it back and forth to the cloud, exposure is expertise, they can get the right level of design support you minimized and the risk of a privacy breach reduced. Onneed to take advantage of the benefits of custom chips. It device processing also brings benefits in terms of latency. is a great choice for both Internet of Things (IoT) start-ups A robot arm can't wait for instructions to be sent down from and established companies looking to develop a workable the cloud to tell it what to do; even a small delay could have serious safety implications. The ability to run ML directly proof-of-concept. Also, recently Arm and Xilinx announced a collaboration that on the device assures a rapid, and secure response. makes FPGA-based innovation faster, easier and more diverse: But for AI and ML to scale to 1 trillion connected devices Arm DesignStart FPGA. You can read the announcement here. across the Embedded and IoT markets, both hardware and The design possibilities for embedded and IoT are wider and software platforms have to be easy to design, program more accessible than ever with free, no-royalty use of Arm and deploy. Arm is making that easier with Project Trillium, Cortex-M soft processor IP on Xilinx FPGAs. Now developers a suite of Arm products that gives device-makers all the can access the benefits and ecosystem of Arm Cortex-M hardware and software choices they need. The parameters for adding intelligence to a device vary processors with the flexibility of FPGA. according to the application – from home-based products Low-power design and optimization will be key in MCU like toothbrushes and forks, to industrial equipment in sectors Embedded systems design space, your expertise in it? as diverse as agriculture, healthcare and manufacturing. AI can save power. For example, an electric motor controller There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, which is why Project Trillium could have additional sensors that detect vibration or noise is all about scalability and versatility, offering a range of to gather information about how the motor is operating, performance options based on the compute world’s most and then use a machine learning algorithm to self-adjust widely-deployed advanced technologies. the motor to be more efficient. The power saved by the Selecting the right solution for your application entails a electric motor will be many times greater than the power series of trade-offs: from small, low-power microcontroller used by the processor. units (MCUs) for cost- and power-constrained systems; to To reduce the power consumed by the processor, Arm has central processors (CPUs) for greater performance and a wide range of processors with different capabilities. Some general-purpose programmability; graphics processors of Arm’s embedded processors for low-cost microcontrollers (GPUs) for faster performance with graphics-intensive have additional functionality for accelerating the applications; and neural processors (NPUs) for the most mathematical functions used in machine learning algorithms, intensive and efficient ML processing. which can reduce the area and power of another chip. Efficient NN kernels are key in enabling inference on Arm Specifically, one of the key design criteria for the Arm Cortex-M based CPUs. CMSIS-NN provides optimized functions Cortex-M CPUs is power efficiency. This combined with to accelerate key NN layers, and helps to reduce the memory the CMSIS-NN optimized software library enables best-in- footprint – vital for memory-constrained microcontrollers. class ML low-energy performance on embedded devices. Arm NN provides a bridge between existing neural network Most MCUs are built using older geometry processes frameworks – such as TensorFlow or Caffe – and the (55nm and larger) where static power is less of an issue. underlying processing hardware – such as CPUs, GPUs or Static power becomes an increasingly important issue the Arm Machine Learning processor.
Q
Q
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BISINFOTECH // FEBRUARY 2019
BIG PICTURE
SANJAY GUPTA
VP and India Country Manager | NXP Semiconductors DATA PRIVACY & SECURITY WILL HAVE INCREASED FOCUS, CONSIDERATION AND INVESTMENT IN 2019
“At NXP Semiconductors, we believe that if companies are pre-emptive in the data protection zone, there will be a huge business opportunity for Indian industry” notes Sanjay Gupta |VP and India Country Manager| NXP Semiconductors, in a candid chat with Jyoti Gazmer, Sub-Editor, BIS Infotech while discussing ‘Security & Semiconductors’ in 2019.
Q
The Road Ahead for AI in Security?
Artificial Intelligence has been revolutionizing continuously and has already begun to combine pattern recognition, cognitive intelligence and other intricacies of human intelligence with the capabilities of machine intelligence. With AI advancing, it has stepped out of the realm of business to the mainstream applications. In this world of connected workplaces and the growth of cloud technologies, risks have sparked a chain reaction when it comes to security. Predictive analytics powered by Artificial Intelligence will build on this by giving security teams the predictive insight needed to tackle with threats before they become an issue as opposed to reacting to a problem. Also, there is no doubt machine learning has become more sophisticated in the past couple of years and will continue to do so as its learnings are compounded and computing power increases.
Q
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Predicting Security in 2019?
While India's cybersecurity requirements are not different from that of the rest of the world, there are multiple areas which require unique tactics to be implemented in order to ensure proper security. With the advancement in technology adoption, IoT and cloud security will emerge as a focus in 2019. Also, we’ll continue to see a shift away from prevention to resilience when it comes to security breaches.
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PICTURE BIG
Along with the Personal Data Protection Bill and the recent Aadhaar ruling in India, the focus on data privacy has already reached a tipping point. According to Gartner, global AI-derived business value will reach nearly $3.9 trillion by 2022, so it is very important for corporates to start adapting the new changes in cybersecurity. In fact, it has been predicted that soon the blockchain security will help beef up cybersecurity to a point where threats are being identified and dealt with even before they hit.
Q
Q
Credibility of the Cloud?
When talking about cloud, security becomes the top priority. As data breaches become recurrent, more corporates want to be sure to invest in technologies to prevent a devastating, public attack. There is great effectiveness to be achieved with cloud so there needs to be operative cloud security. Data privacy and security will have increased focus, consideration and investment in 2019 with greater cloud adoption, especially around crypto threats, endpoint security and social engineering attacks. Companies have started appointing network specialists to Security Challenges – A Dare for the Indian Market? fulfill security roles in part due to emerging roles of IoT and cloud.
The skills needed to deal with frequently changing cyber threats must develop and the challenge for businesses is to stay ahead of the game. Account hacking is one of the biggest threat vectors in the cybersecurity industry today as attackers find the top management’s emails lucrative, targeting the vulnerable data. The regular upgradation in security norms will certainly need to be adopted by the corporates for smooth functioning of their businesses. As the cybersecurity threat increases every day, there is a lot of work to be done to increase awareness of risks and drive home the need for continuous focus and investment in security procedures.
Q
Data Protection Bill – Boon or Bane?
In today’s market, data is a company’s most valuable asset, and undoubtedly, customer information is the key to delivering personalized, relevant and compelling experiences to them and in a connected world, there are several trillion digital records that get created every second. It is crucial on everybody’s part to understand and have a single data norm for easy function, as every data is a personal information which needs consent from both the parties. We, at NXP Semiconductors, believe if companies are preemptive in the data protection zone, there will be a huge business opportunity for Indian industry players, not just in the European and US markets but globally as well.
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BISINFOTECH // FEBRUARY 2019
TRADING THE FLAGSHIP
FOR2019
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BISINFOTECH // FEBRUARY 2019
TRADING TEST & MEASUREMENT
YOUR 5G PARTNER: ANRITSU MEASURE, MONITOR, MONETIZE
RADIO COMMUNICATION TEST STATION: MODEL MT8000A All-in-One Support for RF Measurements and Protocol Tests in Sub-6 GHz and Millimeter Wave Bands With a 5G base station emulation function, a single MT8000A test platform supports both the sub-6 GHz, including band n41, and the millimeter wave bands used by 5G. Combining it with the OTA Chamber enables both millimeter wave band RF measurements and beamforming tests using call connections specified by 3GPP. • All-in-One Support for RF Measurements and Protocol Tests in Sub-6 GHz and Millimeter Wave Bands • Supports mm-wave band RF measurements and beam forming tests combined use with the RF chamber. • Flexible Platform using Modular Architecture • Supports Existing LTE Test Environment
THREE FEATURES OF NEW 5G TEST PLATFORM MT8000A 1. Support for Various Test Requirements
MT8000A supports both Non-signalling/Signalling RF TRx measurements as well as Protocol tests on all-in-one hardware by switching applications. The leading-edge design with flexibility and scalability uses a modular architecture; in addition to supporting high-order 4×4 MIMO and 8 Carrier Aggregation (8CA) by implementing eMBB (Enhanced Mobile Broadband), the MT8000A offers a flexible test environment for future new applications covering a wide application area by supporting new 5G test needs, including URLLC (Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communications) and mMTC (massive Machine Type Communications).
RF TRx Measurement and Protocol Test Environment Image
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TEST & MEASUREMENT TRADING
2. Support for 5G mm-Wave Bands
5G NR requires not only expanded sub-6GHz band test but also the new mmWave band test that is not used by earlier mobile communications. The main mm-Wave evaluation such as RF TRx measurements based on TRP/EIRP characteristics and handover test with Beam Management require OTA environment. MT8000A supports sub-6GHz including band n41. Moreover combining the MT8000A with the RF Chamber MA8171A supports evaluation of 5G NR terminals in an OTA environment. Example of Millimeter-wave Band RF/Protocol Test in Combination with RF Chamber
Example of supported band Band
n41 (2.5 GHz)
n78-79 (3.5 GHz/4.5 GHz)
n257 (28 GHz)
n260 (39 GHz)
* Please enquire about other supported bands.
3. Early Support for NSA/SA Test Environments
Image of 5G NR NSA/SA Configuration
The MT8000A is Anritsu’s market-leading NSA test solution (for Non-Standalone, 5G NR and LTE network architectures), but it is also a timely solution (for SA Standalone, and 5G NR-only architectures) expected to be introduced in future markets. In addition, customer can utilize Anritsu LTE measurement solutions such as stable LTE test environment and existing test scenario resource, and easy to configure a 5G-LTE coupled test environment. n
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TRADING TEST & MEASUREMENT
NEW R&S ZNA HIGH-END VECTOR NETWORK ANALYZER COMBINES OUTSTANDING RF PERFORMANCE WITH A UNIQUE OPERATING CONCEPT Rohde & Schwarz introduces the R&S ZNA, a new generation of high-end vector network analyzers offering outstanding RF performance and a unique hardware concept that simplifies measurement configuration. Its excellent measurement stability and trace noise enable users to perform demanding measurements on active and passive components and modules. Thanks to its innovative, DUT-centric approach, the world's first purely touch-operated vector network analyzer reduces configuration times to a minimum. Rohde & Schwarz presents the new R&S ZNA high-end vector network analyzer, a powerful, universal test platform for characterizing active and passive DUTs. The two models R&S ZNA26 (10 MHz to 26.5 GHz) and R&S ZNA43 (10 MHz to 43.5 GHz) offer an outstanding dynamic range of 146 dB (typ.) and a trace noise as low as 0.001 dB at 1 kHz IF bandwidth. These two features are essential for measurements on high-rejection filters. With its unique hardware concept, the R&S ZNA can perform mixer measurements for RF and IF in parallel, delivering measurement speed twice as fast as with the conventional approach. Amplifier characterization becomes easy with a 100 dB power sweep range, a pulse generator and modulator per test port, versatile intermodulation measurement capabilities and spectrum analyzer functionality.
Unique hardware concept with four independent sources and two LOs The R&S ZNA offers four internal, phase-coherent sources, eight truly parallel receivers and two internal local oscillators (LOs). This simplifies the test setups for characterizing frequency-converting devices, amplifiers and even complex T/R modules, requiring the DUT to be connected only once. Users can perform vector corrected conversion loss, phase and group delay measurements
in half of the time required with the conventional approach and without the need for a reference mixer.
DUT-centric approach for best user experience
The R&S ZNA offers a unique approach, focused on the DUT, to simplify measurement configuration. The user first selects the type of DUT (e.g. mixer or amplifier) and is then guided step by step through configuration to the desired test setup. This solution significantly speeds up and facilitates test setups. Alternatively, users can take the conventional approach and configure measurements individually, providing high flexibility to master even the most challenging measurement tasks.
Modern touch interface replaces hardkey panel
The R&S ZNA is the world's first purely touch-operated vector network analyzer, using a 12.1" touchscreen as the main display and a 7" touchscreen instead of a hardkey panel. Together with the DUT-centric approach, the second touchscreen provides a seamless user experience. The new R&S ZNA26 and R&S ZNA43 high-end vector network analyzers are now available from Rohde & Schwarz.
For further info:
https://www.rohde-schwarz.com/product/zna
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Backseat driving from the front:
The future of driverless cars
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Airplane pilot is still a career that elementary school kids tell their teachers they want to be when they grow up, alongside firefighters and President of the United States. Pilots command a lot of respect from the public for their skills, but what most people do not know is that the majority of the flight is controlled by computers rather than the pilot. Once the cockpit doors close, the pilots could take a nap and the passengers would not know the difference. However, when it comes to driving vehicles, handing over control to autonomous vehicles will be a much more difficult transition, as most of us drive on a regular basis and are used to having cars respond to our every command. Statistics show that machine-driven vehicles boast better safety records than human-driven vehicles, but these have had little impact on human perception. Some of the companies developing autonomous vehicle technology have driven their cars millions of miles with fewer at fault accidents than you can count on one hand. Humans have a hard time meeting that standard. The reason we trust airplanes is that we see a human in command and assume that a human mind is at work keeping us safe. Humans like to be in control, as evidenced by the fact
BISINFOTECH // FEBRUARY 2019
that manual-transmission cars are still common despite the developments of advanced automatic transition technology. To gain the trust of humans enough to let computers drive us around, we need to abandon any assumptions that we will make an instant switch from driver to driverless and accept that there will be a transitional period, starting with basic functions like automatic braking, lane keeping assistance and hands-off parking. Even airplanes took many years to transition functions away from pilots, who controlled takeoffs and landings manually until very recently. In order to gain the trust of passengers we need to make sure that the underlying technology of cars is working at a high standard of excellence. The same way the DMV makes all prospective drivers take an eye exam, automated car developers need to make sure their vehicles are not operating blindly. There are several different technologies being leveraged to help cars “see� the world around them and react to the changing environment. Each has its own set of limitations and requirements for reliability. � Cameras: The most simple of the current methods for sensing the world, cameras use light waves to detect the world. They must be supported by advanced machine-learning
TRADING TEST & MEASUREMENT
cameras, they are highly susceptible to environmental issues, especially as changing light levels require different calibrations. ● V2X: Vehicle to vehicle, vehicle to signs, vehicle to cloud, vehicle to everything communications. Connecting vehicles to the world around them by using the wireless communications holds great potential for safer driving. With these kinds of connections, cars can know the intentions of other cars around them and adjust more efficiently than human reactions can. They also inform on changes in traffic flow beyond the line of sight of their other sensors, such as stopped or slowed traffic around a corner. Implementing this requires a great investment in infrastructure and standardized communication from all vehicles. It will also place stringent requirements on improving the reliability of wireless connections, especially while moving at high speeds.
techniques for image recognition, but they are the most effective at recognizing shapes, such as obstacles in the road or letters on a sign. However, their effectiveness can be limited by conditions such as light, strong rains or darkness at night that affect a vehicle’s ability to accurately detect and respond to changes in its environment. ● Radar: Based on the same technology used for airplane navigation, these systems provide the most accurate representation of the distance of physical objects by using electromagnetic waves. The more sensors put on a vehicle the more accurate the picture, but this increases the likelihood that they will interfere with each other. Different frequencies can be used to develop different understandings of the world from general long-range impressions, to detailed close-range pictures. ● LIDAR: These systems use pulsed laser light and their reflections to develop precise understandings of the world. They are best-used for high-definition close-range imaging. Like
While some companies invest more in their preferred sensor approach, the truth is that before cars can be fully autonomous they need all of the information they can gather. The same way that we use our sight and our hearing to understand what is happening in the world in front of us, supplemented with traffic updates from the radio, our automated cars will need multiple senses in order to operate effectively. Each sense needs to meet the highest standards for accuracy and reliability. The road can be unpredictable, even if all vehicles are moving in sync with each other and tiny differences in the way that a signal is received can make a significant difference in how the car responds. Current versions of these sensing systems have as many as 24 unique radar sensors. Each needs to be carefully tuned to make sure it does not interfere with the others around it, while still working to receive the highest fidelity signal it can produce. To do this, auto manufacturers will need to employ rigorous testing against a range of potential environments. These sensors and signals can be affected by the chaos of signals around them, weather conditions like snow or rain as well as hardware limitations. Despite these challenges, they must produce consistent and accurate results every time for humans to fully trust these systems to take the wheel. Car manufacturers are now facing increasing demand for innovation and dependability of electronics engineering components of their vehicles, even more than the mechanical. Getting these sensors right are key to the future of autonomous driving, they will help ensure operational efficiency of driverless vehicles while ensuring human trust.
Fred Weiller is Senior Director of Solutions Marketing at Keysight Technologies, where he combines his knowledge of IT infrastructure with business insights to help customers seize opportunities in the changing IT environment. Fred has over 20 years of experience in technology marketing in a variety of domains including networking, infrastructure monitoring, security, and cloud.
Frederic Weille| Senior Director
Solutions Marketing, Keysight Technologies
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TEST & MEASUREMENT TRADING
NI SYSTEMLINK™ SOFTWARE Trends like the Industrial Internet of Things, 5G, and the electrification of vehicles, coupled with realities like maintaining distributed legacy systems, have inspired companies to seek new approaches to systems management. The push toward connected and centrally coordinated systems has transformed theories and pilot projects into large-scale, distributed deployments with impactful business returns. These returns are largely derived from the actionable, data-driven insights that help companies maximize uptime, increase efficiency, and drive future product innovation. While systems that manage, maintain, and extract insight from small-scale pilots or groups of systems are relatively straightforward to implement, attention is now shifting toward the next challenge: scaling and managing large deployments, varying lifecycle stages, and distributed testers and nodes across entire plants, fabs, and factories. SystemLink software can help you tackle this challenge by empowering you to connect, manage, and optimize automated test and measurement systems.
You can use SystemLink Software to:
• Improve operational efficiency and system uptime by delivering a centralized web application for automating tasks like systems deployment and management, test monitoring, and data analysis and reporting. • Enhance the operational efficiency of managing system states, configurations, and uptime with capabilities for remote software deployment, configuration management, health and performance tracking, and calibration reporting. • Increase production efficiency and yield with automated test insights. • O ptimize data management workflow efficiencies by automating data search, analysis, and reporting tasks. We released the first public version of SystemLink software in May 2018, and we have had multiple releases with updates and new features since then. The latest release was in January 2019.
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LabVIEW NXG 3.0
Since the initial launch of LabVIEW NXG in 2017, NI has worked to make programming and measurement automation more approachable for engineers and scientists. With LabVIEW NXG systems engineering software, you can configure, automate, and visualize your test results with a single, efficient tool. The latest version of LabVIEW NXG simplifies some of the most time-consuming tasks in automated test and automated measurement applications like setting up and configuring the system, developing test and measurement code, and creating web-ready applications. LabVIEW NXG 3.0, the latest version of LabVIEW NXG, introduces new features for smarter test. LabVIEW NXG 3.0 gets you to measurements faster with optimized workflows, drives rapid customization with simple integration and software development tools, and increases data visibility with tools for remote viewing from anywhere, including your tablet or phone. • The latest version of LabVIEW NXG features the new LabVIEW NXG FPGA Module for faster prototyping and validation of communication designs. It supports USRP-RIO and Kintex-7 FlexRIO targets and offers new workflows for faster FPGA development and debugging. • New integration and software engineering tools help you rapidly customize applications. These include support for registered .NET assemblies, new project dependency tools, and the ability to interface with your The MathWorks, Inc. MATLAB® code. • The LabVIEW NXG Web Module empowers you to create web-ready applications. The latest version introduces support for the most common events and properties in dynamic web applications and for the integration of JavaScript libraries into WebVIs. It also includes access to SystemLink™ Cloud, an NI cloud service for hosting your WebVIs in a simple and secure way. Access to SystemLink Cloud is granted with a LabVIEW NXG Web Module active service contract.
INDUSTRY UPDATES
INFINEON NEW COOLSIC MOSFET POWER MODULES Addressing the fast growing demand for Silicon Carbide (SiC) solutions, Infineon Technologies launches new devices in the 1200V CoolSiC MOSFET family. The CoolSiC Easy 2B power modules enable engineers to reduce system costs by increasing power density. In addition, they can also lower operational costs significantly. Owing to about 80 % lower switching losses compared to silicon IGBTs, inverter efficiency levels exceeding 99 % can be reached. Because of the specific SiC properties, the same or even higher switching-frequency operation can be realized. This is particularly attractive for fast switching applications such as UPS and energy storage. The Easy 2B standard package for power modules is characterized by an industry-leading low stray inductance. With a variety of half-bridge, six-pack and booster modules, Infineon offers the largest SiC portfolio in the Easy package on the market. The half-bridge configuration of the CoolSiC Easy 2B can easily be used for building up four- and six-packtopologies. The new device widens the power range of modules in halfbridge topology with an on-resistance (R DS(ON)) per switch to only 6 mΩ. This is a benchmark performance for devices
in Easy 2B housing. Additionally, the integrated body diode of the CoolSiC MOSFET chip ensures a low-loss freewheeling function without the need for another diode chip. While the NTC temperature sensor facilitates the monitoring of the device, the PressFIT technology reduces assembly time for mounting the device.
MEDIATEK COMBO CHIP WITH WI-FI 6 AND AP+BLUETOOTH
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MediaTek announced its newest intelligent connectivity chipset to support the next generation of WiFi technology - Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) - for home and enterprise wireless network services. It will support a range of products including wireless access points, routers, gateways and repeaters, bringing faster and more reliable connectivity throughout the smart home. MediaTek’s Wi-Fi 6 chips support 2x2 and 4x4 which comply with the most updated standards. The Wi-Fi 6 chip also has a flexible architecture to support updated features when the Wi-Fi 6 specification is finalized later in 2019. “Consumers rely on our high performance connectivity portfolio to power their favorite intelligent devices, and now with support for next generation Wi-Fi 6 we deliver an even more, robust and seamless connectivity experience,” said Jerry Yu General Manager of MediaTek’s Intelligent Devices business unit. “We will continue to innovate and bring the most advanced technology and
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standards to consumer and enterprise markets.” MediaTek currently holds market-leading positions in powering TVs, streaming devices, smart speakers, voice assistant devices and tablets. The Key Advantages of the MediaTek’s Wi-Fi 6 chips include: • O r t h o g o n a l F r e q u e n c y D i v i s i o n Multiple Access (OFDMA): Uplink and Downlink OFDMA increases efficiency and capacity of wireless network devices. It ensures bandwidth for voice, video, social network and gaming applications via download and uplink scheduling. • Multi-User MIMO (MU-MIMO): Increases channel capacity when servicing multiple devices that operate simultaneously. • T arget Wake Time (TWT): Defines the specific times when clients wake and sleep enabling IoT devices to reduce power consumption and increase battery life. • Spatial Reuse: Allows access points to share channel capacity by making intelligent decisions on when to transmit data.
MediaTek also brings unique builtin solutions to its chipset along with meeting the newest Wi-Fi standard to improve the end-users experience. MediaTek connectivity technology, empowered with OFDMA, 1024QAM solves data traffic conflicts. It reschedules multi-user’s packets and provides a higher internet data rate so there is no lag while playing on-line games or streaming video. It also delivers better concurrent performance between Wi-Fi and Bluetooth with the latest Wi-Fi 6 access point + Bluetooth combo chip to guarantee spectrum efficiency when two radios work simultaneously. MediaTek also supports and is leading the deployment of the Wi-Fi Alliance EasyMesh standard for extended Wi-Fi coverage. MediaTek’s family of smart home chipsets will be EasyMesh compatible. The new standard extends the Wi-Fi signal for total access in the home or even into the backyard. MediaTek’s is currently the market-share leader of chips for the Wi-Fi AP solution.
UPDATES INDUSTRY
ST STM8L050 EXTENDS CHOICE IN 8-BIT MCUS STMicroelectronics is boosting feature integration in low-cost, low-power 8-bit microcontrollers (MCUs) with the new STM8L050. As the latest in the ultra-energyconscious STM8L series, it embeds rich analog peripherals, a DMA controller, and separated data EEPROM, all in an inexpensive SO-8 package with up to six user I/Os. Leveraging ST’s powerful, efficient STM8 core running at up to 16 MHz, the STM8L050 delivers economy and performance for resource-constrained products like industrial sensors, toys, access cards, e-bike controllers, home-automation or lighting products, smart printer cartridges, or battery chargers. The integrated DMA (Direct Memory Access) controller speeds application performance by streamlining data transfers between peripherals and memory, or from memory to memory,
ultimately saving power consumption. The 256 bytes of separated EEPROM allows applications to store important program data when the MCU is powered down, while allowing maximum utilization of Flash for code storage. Alongside two comparators, the STM8L050 has a 4-channel 12-bit analog-digital converter (ADC) and a low-power realtime clock (RTC) with programmable
alarm and periodic wakeups, allowing designers to minimize external analog components. In addition, support for either an external or internal clock at up to 16MHz further enhances flexibility to balance performance with bill-ofmaterials (BOM) savings. Other features include 8Kbytes of on-chip Flash memory, 1Kbyte of RAM, two 16bit timers, one 8-bit timer, and popular connectivity and debug interfaces including SPI, I2C, UART, and SWIM. As an STM8L device leveraging ST’s ultralow-power technologies, the STM8L050 provides power-saving modes that cut current to as little as 350nA, and operates over a wide voltage range from 3.6V down to 1.8V. The MCUs are fully specified from -40°C to 125°C, ensuring robustness and reliability in demanding applications such as industrial controls or lighting products.
RECOM SIGNS ÖZDISAN ELEKTRONIK AS DISTRIBUTOR
SAMSUNG ULTRA-SLIM 20MP ISOCELL IMAGE SENSOR
RECOM announces its new distribution agreement with Özdisan Elektronik A.Ş. effective immediately. Özdisan Elektronik is now authorized to market and distribute the extensive range of RECOM converter modules. RECOM’s product portfolio is designed for distributed power architecture: the combination of a centralized switching power supply with many local “on board” converter modules for more flexible and efficient designs. “This appointment is a strategic move for RECOM to strengthen its position in the Turkish market. Özdisan has a strong sales team, and we are confident that this appointment will improve our customer service and expand our presence in Turkey.” said Marco Peretta Southern Europe Regional Sales Manager, RECOM. “We believe that providing not only part numbers but also total solutions is the most important and indispensable key to whole electronic applications. Özdisan Elektronik A.Ş., which has been acting with this mission for 40 years, has started to collaborate with RECOM, which is the world’s most innovative and essential power supply manufacturer. This way, we aim to provide more sustainable and efficient solutions for all power management applications on the Turkish market.” commented Mustafa Yurttaş, General Manager of Özdisan Elektronik A.Ş.
Samsung Electronics introduced its smallest high-resolution image sensor, the ISOCELL Slim 3T2. While being the industry’s most compact image sensor at 1/3.4 inches (approximately 5.1-millimeters diagonally), the 0.8μm-pixel ISOCELL Slim 3T2 delivers 20-megapixel (Mp) resolution for both front and back cameras in today’s sleekest mid-range smartphones With 20-million active 0.8μm-sized pixels, the ISOCELL Slim 3T2 not just provides excellent clarity and detail. It also offers high color fidelity by adopting Samsung’s ISOCELL Plus technology that enables sensors to capture and absorb more light information for accurate color reproduction even with sub-micrometersized pixels. In order to support smartphones with the latest display features such as the ‘hole-in display’ or ‘notch design,’ front-facing image sensors need to minimize their size while being able to capture high-quality images. The 1/3.4-inch 3T2 snuggly fits into a tiny module making more space for the display. In addition, Samsung’s Tetracell technology, which merges four pixels to work as one, lets the 3T2 take brighter and sharper pictures in low-light settings as the color filter array’s light sensitivity increases to that of a 1.6μm-pixel image sensor at 5Mp resolution.
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INDUSTRY UPDATES
ARM NEW-GEN OF IMAGE SIGNAL PROCESSORS Arm announced the launch of a new generation of image signal processors (ISPs), in response to the demand for realtime higher image quality in IoT devices: the Arm Mali-C52 and Mali-C32 ISPs. The new Arm Mali-C52 and Mali-C32 apply over twenty-five processing steps to each pixel, of which three critical ones deliver key differentiation in terms of image output quality. These include highdynamic range (HDR), noise reduction and color management. By incorporating Arm’s market-leading Iridix technology and other industry-leading algorithms for noise and color management, Mali-C52 and Mali-C32 ISPs efficiently deliver all three at high resolution and in real-time (e.g. 4k resolution at 60fps). The new Mali ISPs, with Arm’s dynamic range management and tone mapping technology, are also designed to overcome device limitations with respect to high-dynamic range (HDR) needs and enable viewers to see enhanced shadows, without touching or changing the highlights of the image. The Mali-C52 can be configured for two different optimizations - image quality or area. This flexibility allows our silicon partners to use the same IP and software across a range of products and use cases. The Mali-C32 is optimized specifically for area in lower-power, cost-sensitive embedded vision devices such as entrylevel access control or hobby drones.
Both ISPs are a complete solution as Arm delivers the hardware IP along with ISP software drivers, including the 3A libraries (auto-exposure, auto-white balance, auto-focus) and the calibration and tuning tools. “Arm’s vision to enable one trillion devices needs vision. Specifically, achieving our vision of a world of a trillion connected devices will require a sharper digital eye for many of those devices to see and understand their environments in order to be reliable sources of information to both machines and humans. This all starts with enabling the highest possible image quality, and the new Mali ISPs that Arm is making available to the market today will deliver it.” - Thomas Ensergueix, senior director of embedded, Embedded & Automotive Line of Business, Arm The Key Features and Benefits ofnew Arm Mali-C52 and Mali-C32 include:
• H i g h e r I S P i m a g e q u a l i t y : I r i d i x technology is designed to deliver a precise model of human retina contrast adaption, enabling cameras to see like the human eye. • Higher performance as the ISP can process 600 megapixels/sec, which is essentially professional photography quality (e.g. DSLR) at premium smartphone-level frame rates. • C omplete software package for controlling the ISP, sensor, auto-white balance, auto-focus and auto-exposure. Both bare metal and Linux (Video4Linux framework - v4L2) software are provided. • Flexible tuning: Tune it both objectively and subjectively with a full set of tuning and calibration tools. Specialized tuning training courses and support for tailored tuning for specific use cases and sensors are also available.
MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC DEVELOPS ULTRA-WIDEBAND DIGITALLY CONTROLLED GAN AMPLIFIER
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Expected to contribute to large-capacity communication and reduce power consumption of mobile base stations Mitsubishi Electric Corporation announced its development of the world’s first* ultrawideband digitally controlled gallium nitride (GaN) amplifier, which is compatible with a world-leading range of sub-6GHz bands focused on fifth-generation (5G) mobile communication systems. With a power efficiency rating of above 40%, the amplifier is expected to contribute to large-capacity communication and reduce the power consumption of mobile
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base stations.
The Key Features of the GaN Amplifier include:
1) Novel load modulation achieves wideband operation and contributes to large-capacity communication • Mitsubishi Electric’s novel ultra-wideband digitally controlled GaN amplifier uses an advanced load modulation circuit with two parallel GaN transistors. The circuit expands the bandwidth of load modulation, a key factor for the amplifier’s high-efficiency operation, for wideband (1.4–4.8GHz) operation.
• W ide-band operation of amplifier supports several frequency bands. 2) Digital control realizes high-efficiency operation and reduces power consumption of mobile base stations • Digitally controlled input signals for amplifier realize high-efficiency load modulation of above 40% over 110% of the fractional bandwidth. Digital control employs learning function based on Maisart • Improved efficiency of amplifier helps to reduce power consumption in mobile base stations.
UPDATES INDUSTRY
ALLEGRO CODE-FREE FOC SENSORLESS BLDC FAN DRIVERS Allegro MicroSystems announced the launch of the company’s QuietMotion family. This family consists of the first-tomarket Field Oriented Control (FOC) brushless DC (BLDC) electric motor controllers that are customer code-free. The devices are designed to provide reliable and efficient low audible noise performance while reducing design cycle time. Whereas most FOC BLDC drivers require software developers to code the algorithm in a microprocessor, QuietMotion devices integrate Allegro’s innovative FOC algorithms. These advanced algorithms allow for smooth, quiet motion while eliminating the need to write software. This significantly lowers R&D expenses and reduces time to market. With only five external components, these devices also minimize bill of materials (BOM) cost, improve reliability and reduce design complexity. “This is the way of the future for motor drivers,” explained Vijay Mangtani, Vice President of Allegro’s Power IC Business Unit. “Our QuietMotion devices are
on-soft-start algorithms, the AMT49406 provides reliable, industry-leading audible noise performance.
incredibly efficient and easy to use. Flexible user interface and development boards allow customers to tune and evaluate various motors effortlessly, reduce development time and implement product designs with very few external components.”
The First Code-Free Devices
The first member of Allegro’s QuietMotion family is the AMT49406, which is an ideal solution for applications that demand high efficiency and low acoustic noise—such as pole and ceiling fans, humidifiers, dehumidifiers, air purifiers and exhaust fans. With its embedded proprietary windowless sinusoidal algorithm and soft-
The A89301 is also part of the QuietMotion family. This device offers ultra-quiet operation, as well as additional flexibility and programmable features for premium appliances, such as high end appliance fans, high end ceiling fans and air purifiers. The A89301 is specifically targeted at systems with low speed requirements. “We’re passionate about innovation,” explained Mangtani. “We are continuously working to develop intelligent solutions that give our customers a competitive edge, and we’re excited to bring this new QuietMotion family to market.” The AMT49406 and the A89301 have a 5.5 to 50 input voltage rating with an operating range of -40° to 105°C. They are available in a 24-contact 4 mm × 4 mm QFN with exposed thermal pad (suffix ES), and a 24-lead TSSOP with exposed thermal pad (suffix LP). These packages are lead (Pb) free, with 100% matte-tin leadframe plating.
HUAWEI NEXT-GEN CHIPSET TAILORED FOR SERVERS Huawei lately rolled-out next-gen chipset for servers to vie AMD. The new chipset, dubbed Kunpeng 920, is tailored for data centers and will power the company's TaiShan server, which was also launched recently. Huawei's new silicon, known as a central processing unit (CPU), was designed by the company and based on a chipset architecture created by ARM, the U.K.-headquartered company now owned by SoftBank . The Kunpeng 920 is a 7 nanometer chip, a designation tied to its size. Such technology is the latest in the semiconductor industry and allows for smaller components that are more powerful and energy efficient than their predecessors. Huawei said its new servers with the Kunpeng 920 are designed to help process and store large amounts of data. ARM has typically been a player in mobile devices with its chipsets, but it has of late tried to push into the server and cloud market. Huawei is not the only company with a 7 nanometer chipset designed for servers. AMD has its own product that it launched last year. Huawei's latest move puts it in competition with the likes of that semiconductor firm and NVIDIA. It's also not Huawei's first 7nm chipset. The company has the Kirin 980, which is designed for its own mobile phones, and the Ascend 910, which was created to handle artificial
intelligence applications run in the cloud. The Ascend 910 is also designed for data centers, but serves a different function than the new Kunpeng 920. The technology giant has worked with Intel for many years on semiconductors for its servers, but the Kungpeng 920 is based off of ARM architecture. Xu said that Huawei will continue its relationship with Intel but it chooses the best option for each use case
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INDUSTRY KART
MOUSER ELECTRONICS STOCKS 5G INTERCONNECT Mouser Electronics stocks a wide variety of 5G-capable interconnect solutions from Amphenol SV Microwave. 5G cellular communications promises to transform the Internet of Things (IoT) through more data, better reliability, and broader connectivity. SV Microwave high-frequency interconnect products, available from Mouser Electronics, enable designers to start product development for these upcoming changes. Amphenol SV Microwave 3 mm boardto-board interconnects feature 3 mm board-to-board spacing and 0.15” (3.81 mm) minimum pitch between adjacent connectors. These connectors offer a frequency range from DC to 40 GHz and provide an ultra-low stacked board-to-board high-frequency coaxial connection system. SV Microwave’s Mini-D connection system offers high-frequency RF performance up to 67 GHz with a high-density design and proven SMPS interface. The SMPS interface is recessed from the D-sub
housing to protect from damage. The keyed D-sub design helps engineers avoid mis-mating while thumbscrews allow for easy mating and unmating. LiteTouch solderless coaxial and surfacemount connectors meet the need for high-performing, highly reliable solderless connectors for precision thin substrate mounting. SV's LiteTouch PCB connectors, available in 2.92 mm, 2.4 mm, and SMA configurations, maintain a solderless connection on
thin dielectric PCB substrates of less than 0.01” while keeping the board material intact. Amphenol SV Microwave solderless PCB edge launch connectors feature a solderless compression mount for fast and easy installation. The connectors are available in SMA, 2.92 mm, 2.4 mm, and 1.85 mm options and are adjustable for multiple PCB thicknesses with minimal reflections through an impedance-matched PCB launch. SV Microwave’s tin-dipped surface mount and edge launch connectors prevent rust, corrosion, and oxidization and enable fast and easy soldering while also increasing solder joint durability. Mouser also stocks a wide variety of SV Microwave’s RF cable assemblies in both semi-rigid and flexible options. The high-performance, costeffective cable solutions are available with SMA, SMP, SMPM, and 2.92 mm connectors that support frequency ranges from DC to 40 GHz.
HEILIND AWARDED 2018 EXMATRIX VOICE NOW AT CELLENT PASSIVE COMPONENT PREMIER FARNELL
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Heilind Electronics was bestowed with 2018 Excellent Passive Component Authorized Distributor by China Electronics Distribution Association (CEDA) during annual summit of CEDA in Shenzhen, China. China Electronics Distribution Association (CEDA) is a nonprofit organization chartered to serve franchised electronics component distributors with operations in greater China. “I’m glad to accept this Award on behalf of Heilind. Heilind provides a high quality, flexible and responsive resource that can shorten lead times, consolidate SKUs, reduce manufacturing & handling costs, and improve inventory performance & response to manufacturing, which delivers multiple customer benefits. ” said Ken Liu, the Branch Manager of Heilind Asia Pacific. The selection result came from electronic industry experts’ selection and public vote. This award evaluates supply chain management and value-added services of authorized distributors, especially their abilities in providing passive component products with short lead time to support the fast development of China market. Besides that, Heilind Electronics operates fully-equipped value added centers in New Hampshire, USA and Hong Kong offering a complete menu of value added services such as part assembly, part modification, and packaging services.
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Premier Farnell is shipping the MATRIX Voice from MATRIX Labs, available from Farnell element14 in Europe, element14 in Asia Pacific and Newark element14 in North America. The MATRIX Voice enables users, makers, and developers to create IoT applications based on sound driven behaviours, quickly and efficiently. As the Internet of Things continues to expand, the prospect of developing unique IoT solutions should excite makers, engineers, and hobbyists. However, the process of successfully integrating artificial intelligence, hardware, and software in order to create a viable solution can be both expensive and time-consuming. The MATRIX Voice aims to lower the barriers to entry for the creation and deployment of IoT voice applications. Powered by a Raspberry Pi computer or used as a standalone device with the ESP32, the MATRIX Voice specifically targets the development of voice recognition and detection projects, allowing users to utilise existing platforms such as Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa, or any other voice recognition API. The platform gives users the ability to integrate custom voice and hardware-accelerated machine learning easily into their applications. Beamforming, noise cancellation, far-field speech recognition, and de-reverberation capabilities ensure high quality performance for all voice applications.
KART INDUSTRY
AVNET BRINGS IOT SECURITY WITH AZURE SPHERE STARTER KIT Security is the biggest challenge to developers bringing new IoT endpoint devices to market. Avnet introduced the Avnet Azure Sphere MT3620 Starter Kit, which supports rapid prototyping of IoT implementations using Microsoft’s Azure Sphere. Avnet demonstrated the new starter kit for the first time at CES 2019. The Starter Kit leverages the Avnetdeveloped Azure Sphere module that is based on the MT3620 reference development board. The productionready module is the fastest and easiest way to equip IoT endpoint devices to be highly secure, ensuring that developers can quickly move from prototype to production. Last spring, Microsoft named Avnet as a strategic partner for Azure Sphere and the first to distribute the solution. Today’s introduction of the Avnet Azure Sphere MT3620 Starter Kit further helps developers accelerate their IoT deployments while also addressing security holistically, from the silicon layer to the cloud. The kit is ideal for creating secured IoT edge devices, such as consumer appliances, as well
as smart retail, remote access, building and factory automation applications. “Security is critical to continued growth within the connected devices market,” said Jim Beneke, vice president, engineering and technology, Avnet. “Microsoft has delivered significant advancements in connected security with Azure Sphere. Our new starter kit builds on that by offering an easy way for customers to accelerate prototyping, proof-of-concept development and time to market of their Azure Sphere powered
devices, while providing confidence in the security of their solutions.” The Avnet Azure Sphere MT3620 Starter Kit includes a small form factor carrier board supporting Avnet’s production ready Azure Sphere MT3620 module with WiFi connectivity. Multiple expansion interfaces provide developers with easy integration of off-the-shelf sensors, displays, motors, relays and more. The downloadable “getting started” tutorial guides developers through the development steps from board setup to application coding. “Avnet is pushing to accelerate the adoption of secure, connected MCU solutions with Azure Sphere,” said Rodney Clark, vice president IoT, Microsoft. “The Avnet Azure Sphere MT3620 Starter Kit provides developers with the components, tools and resources they need to efficiently build and bring a wide variety of innovative and highly secured MCU devices and solutions to market.” The Avnet Azure Sphere MT3620 Starter Kit is now available to pre-order for $75 USD, with delivery scheduled for early April.
RS BUCK-BOOST CONTROLLER BOARD
ARROW AT CES 2019 SHOWCASED TECHNICAL EXPERTISE
RS Components is offering a new board that has been designed for the evaluation of Renesas Electronics’ recently launched ISL81601 bidirectional buck-boost controller IC. The ISL81601EVAL1Z evaluation board integrates the ISL81601, which is a true bidirectional four-switch 60V high-voltage synchronous buck-boost controller. Employing the silicon vendor’s proprietary buck-boost algorithms, the chip offers peak and average current sensing and monitoring in either buck or boost mode. It can ensure high reliability for end equipment by providing cycle-by-cycle current limiting in fast transient conditions – in both directions and at either the line or load end. Other capabilities of the ISL81601 include external soft-start, independent enable functions, and a wide series of protection features, including under-voltage, over-voltage/current and over-temperature. The IC also delivers peak efficiency of up to 99% for point-of-load (POL) and voltage rail conversion; a gate driver that delivers up to 20A for the buck-boost output; and programmable switching frequency ranging from 100 to 600kHz, which aids optimization of inductor size.
Arrow Electronics is showcasing successful startup customers and a hands-on engineering lab at the Consumer Electronics Show(CES) 2019, Las Vegas. Among the technologies demonstrated at Arrow's booth, located at the Eureka Park, are 3D depth-mapping in advanced driver assistance systems for autonomous vehicles, and artificial intelligence-based visual analytics tools that have applications in retail and advanced medical research. "Innovators and engineers in every corner of the world are constantly at a race not just against current or emerging competitors, but also against themselves: how to maximize the impact of their products, how to tweak the design to make user-interface more intuitive, how to scale for more sustainable growth, how to capture adjacent market opportunities, and how to rapidly broaden their footprint to other geographical locations... At Arrow, we are able to offer the kind of innovation partnership that it takes to keep these creators and makers stay ahead, with critical resources and support of a well-connected, incredibly broad global technology company," said W. Victor Gao, chief marketing officer of Arrow.
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BIG PICTURE
SUMIT PADMAKAR JOSHI
Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Signify Innovations India Limited LED PENETRATION WILL INCREASE IN INDIAN MARKET, ACROSS PUBLIC, PROFESSIONAL & HOME LIGHTING
Sumit Padmakar Joshi, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Signify Innovations India Limited in a candid discussion with BIS Infotech Sub-Editor, Jyoti Gazmer, lays down the road map for Signify in the year ahead alongside, giving an erudite analysis of the Indian LED market in 2019. Edited Nub
Q
To start-off, what key trends would be popular in 2019 productivity. Thanks to luminaires fitted with sensors, building for the LED market? managers can easily monitor energy usage and occupancy data to control other facilities such as air conditioning, heating As the global leader in lighting, we at Signify foresee that and meeting room availability in a building. LED penetration will further increase in the Indian market, However, the biggest challenge remains the monitoring and across public, professional and home lighting. In the LED bulb analysis of data collected through the various luminaires. Due category, new shapes and forms will emerge, such as our to a lack of training and education, building managers are not Philips T Bulb that we launched last year in India. prepared to handle the new demands for data transmission, Connected lighting will also continue to be a key trend, as storage, processing and its complex analysis, which is of utmost the world becomes more digital. With the expansion of the importance. This is where our recently launched Interact IoT IoT ecosystem, we anticipate a shift towards a fully integrated platform fits in, and can deliver useful insights to administrators, lighting system in cities, building, retail shops, hotels and stadiums. bringing connected lighting to offices, retail shops, hotels, We recently announced our new Interact IoT Platform that cities and landmarks. connects seamlessly with smart controls, networks, devices India’s UJALA scheme and drive to low-power green as well as apps to offer a customizable and tech-enabled lighting has nudged the Indian LED industry. How evitable lighting experience. The platform delivers new insights to help customers drive operational efficiencies and take more will these initiatives be in 2019? effective decisions. Over the past few years, there has been a significant 2018, created a lot of buzz for the IoT-based LED Lighting transformation in the lighting industry with the introduction of as well as the AI-based lighting. What advancements are LED lighting. In 2014, LED lighting products were available at a being made for this domain in 2019? What are the challenges higher cost owing to low demand, which resulted in higher cost of adopting it? per unit. However, after the introduction of various government schemes like UJALA, the industry gained the critical mass that The year 2018 witnessed the emergence of IoT and AI based was essential to increase volumes and decrease prices due lighting. Since then the concept has gained further popularity to economies of scale. As a result, LED’s are now available amongst the consumers. It not only represents the next at a significantly lower cost as compared to earlier. generation in LED lighting, but also the opening up of a host The UJALA scheme also enhanced consumer’s understanding of new possibilities in lighting. about LED and its advantages such as good lifetime, efficiency, At the home front, AI-based lighting can be controlled through low power consumption and brightness amongst many others. various apps and gadgets, making them easier to use. Our This resulted in enhanced penetration of LED products at Philips Hue connected home lighting system enables customers homes, public spaces and private buildings. We expect the to change their lighting color to create an ambience of their transition towards LED products will keep growing in this year choice as per their mood and occasion. These lights can also as well, especially in homes and public spaces. be programmed to switch on/off at specific time during the Indian LED market in terms of (new markets, ROI, etc) day, thus enhancing safety when you are away from home. in 2019? In 2019, we will add more applications for the Hue ecosystem for the entire home. Modern workplaces are also moving towards intelligent lighting, Lighting pervades every area of an individual’s life – home, as building managers are beginning to understand the value work, on the road and in public places, and we believe addition brought in by these lighting systems. Connected that connected lighting will play a significant role in the lighting systems increase both energy efficiency and employee development of smart cities of the future. It has the potential to
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PICTURE BIG
enhance overall quality of life, transform everyday experiences, services and ensure sustainability in our ever-expanding global cities. India is also home to the world’s youngest population that is increasingly smartphone savvy and an early adopter of the latest technology products and trends available globally. At Signify, we have also witnessed a growing awareness about IoT and connected lighting amongst consumers. We introduced our Philips Hue product range specifically targeting this tech-savvy population that are keen on enhancing their homes and lifestyle using technology. Philips Hue is easy to install and can be operated remotely from anywhere using just a smartphone, allowing users to truly personalize their lighting experience at home. Furthermore, over the years, the lighting market in India has evolved with lights surpassing their functional usage and now serving a more aesthetical purpose. Recently we also launched the Philips CeilingSecure LED downlighter bulbs, focused on the home lighting segment. This innovative Twist & Fit LED downlighter has a modular design featuring a separate LED cartridge that can be fastened into the outer housing installed in the false ceiling of a room. This not only enables easy installation, but also prevents ceiling damage when customers want to replace their inoperative downlighter.
Q
Lastly, what would be your company’s major focus this year?
As the global leader in lighting, Signify has always been a pioneer in introducing new technologies in the fast evolving lighting sector. We were the first company to introduce the concept of connected smart lighting solutions with our Philips Hue range, the world’s smartest web-enabled LED home lighting system. This year, we will expand our retail presence with our Philips Smart Light Hubs across more cities in India, offering the complete Philips Hue range to more and more customers. In the LED category, we will focus on our new innovations such as TBulb and Ceiling Secure downlighters, expanding their reach to more cities in India. With our connected professional lighting systems for offices, public buildings, retail stores, hotels and landmarks, we are helping to pave the way for massive urban growth by developing a peoplecentric blueprint for lighting and Internet of Things (IoT) services for smart cities of the future. We will also focus on our most innovative lighting solution – LiFi, that provides a stable and fast broadband data connection through light waves. LiFi is highly suitable for use in banks, schools, government, healthcare and industry, indeed anywhere where WiFi is poor or unavailable. It offers a secure, personal connection for anyone concerned about data privacy.
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AEROSPACE & DEFENCE
NASHIK CHOSEN AS SECOND DEFENCE INNOVATION HUB MoS Defence Subhash Bharme said the Ministry of Defence had set a target of making the country among the top five arms exporters by 2025 After Coimbatore, the next-step moves to Nashik which is according to become the next defense dub in India. Nashik in Maharashtra is now been sanctioned for the site of the country's second defence innovation hub after Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, Union Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre said. During his speech in defence industry stakeholders meeting Thursday in Ojhar town, he said the defence innovation hub at Nashik will help local industries and entrepreneurs and further the Centre's Make in India push in the country's defence sector. He informed the gathering the Ministry of Defence had set a target of making the country among the top five arms exporters by 2025.
By then, he added, the plan was to achieve annual arms exports of Rs 35,000 crore. Among those who were present at the function were Maharashtra Water
Resources Minister Girish Mahajan, Ajay Kumar, Secretary, Defence Production, Air Marshal VR Chaudhari and HAL chairman-managing director R Madhavan.
ELECTROLUBE ACHIEVES GLOBAL AEROSPACE STANDARD
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Electrolube has been awarded the AS 9100 internationally recognized Quality Management System standard, specific to the aerospace, aviation and defense industries. This standard is strongly supported and adhered to by major aerospace OEMs and is increasingly being required by customers and end users. AS 9100 is based on the ISO 9001:2008 quality management global standard that exemplifies quality and trust. It provides 80 additional requirements and 18 amplifications specific to aerospace business operations, which satisfy DOD, NASA and FAA quality requirements. The AS 9100 standard recognizes Electrolube’s excellent manufacturing and service capabilities that address the aerospace industry’s demands for safe, reliable products that meet and, wherever possible, exceed the requirements of customers and all regulatory authorities. Electrolube is committed to excellence in every aspect of its business and provides its commercial and military aerospace customers with rigorously tested electronics protection products
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that deliver the highest level of reliability in the harshest of environments. Aerospace applications are expected to operate first-time, every time in some of the most varied and demanding environmental conditions known to man. The majority of aerospace electronics, will be exposed to significant amounts of vibration, often extreme variations in operating temperature (depending on whether the electronics are situated in cabin or nonheated areas), as well as the prospect of
exposure to cleaning chemicals, de-icing fluids and more.. Commercial and military aerospace applications will typically have multidecade program lifetimes and the hardware will usually be upgraded several times during its service life. The levels of required systems integration continue to increase, creating ever-increasing demands for greater packaging densities, reduced weight and increased reliability over a wider range of conditions, such as wider temperature ranges, increased thermal rates of change, greater ranges of vibration and longer storage in field conditions at the point of deployment. Achieving the AS 9100 standard demonstrates Electrolube’s continued pledge to total customer satisfaction, to developing unique, high performance products that solve problems, reducing costs and implementing procedures that meet AS 9100 requirements. Electrolube is dedicated to providing revolutionary solutions for the industry from their stateof-the-art manufacturing sites in the UK, China and India.
AEROSPACE & DEFENCE
FLIR SYSTEMS ACQUIRES AERYON LABS FLIR Systems recently announced the acquisition of Aeryon Labs, a leading developer of high-performance unmanned aerial systems (UAS) for the global military, public safety, and critical infrastructure markets for $200 million. Aeryon’s vertical takeoff and landing quad-copter airframes integrate multiple sensors, including FLIR thermal technology, to provide users with immediate highresolution intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capability. Based in Waterloo, Canada, and with offices in Denver and Salt Lake City, Aeryon Labs was founded in 2007 and is a leading designer and manufacturer of mission-focused Group 1 UAS solutions built around aircraft under 20 pounds. Aeryon’s family of UAS are deployed by 20 militaries in over 30 countries around the world, including the United States Department of Defense. Aeryon develops UAS solutions that includes hardware, embedded software, ground control stations, sensors, software for flight operations, as well as supporting services for its global customers. “The acquisition of Aeryon Labs reinforces our long-term strategy to move beyond providing sensors to the development of complete solutions that save lives and
livelihoods,” said Jim Cannon, President and CEO of FLIR Systems. “This acquisition, coupled with our acquisition of Prox Dynamics in 2016, greatly increases our unmanned systems solutions capabilities, expanding beyond nano-UAS into Group 1 UAS solutions for military. We intend to continue to invest and build this area of our business and broaden our capabilities as we view unmanned and autonomous solutions to be a significant opportunity for organic growth in the coming years.” Rugged, reliable, and field-proven, Aeryon’s SkyRanger UAS are rucksack portable and can be deployed in minutes by a single operator. SkyRanger UAS are renowned for operating in demanding environments and inclement weather, including at high altitudes, gusting winds, and rain and snow. The latest additions to the SkyRanger family of aircraft
establish a new benchmark for small UAS performance and reliability. Now with a modular and open architecture, end users and third party developers can create tightly integrated payloads and software systems for the SkyRanger platform, enabling rapid solution development, onboard artificial intelligence, and autonomous operations. “We’re thrilled to join the FLIR family and to have a large, growth-oriented technology company as our new home,” said Dave Kroetsch, Co-founder and CTO of Aeryon Labs. “As drone technology and its markets evolve, customers are seeking UAS as just one component of a broader solution. While Aeryon has been evolving in that direction for the past few years, being part of FLIR Systems brings a path to include our hardware and software technologies in much bigger solutions than would have ever been possible on our own.” Aeryon Labs is now part of the FLIR Government and Defense Business Unit’s Unmanned Systems and Integrated Solutions division.The transaction is expected to be $0.02 dilutive to FLIR Systems’ 2019 earnings due to anticipated product development investments, and accretive thereafter.
MATHWORKS AEROSPACE DESIGN WITH MATLAB & SIMULINK MathWorks unveils new flight analysis and visualization capabilities for aerospace design with MATLAB and Simulink. In Release 2018b, Aerospace Blockset adds flight control analysis tools to help analyze flying qualities of aerospace vehicles. Aerospace Toolbox adds the ability to customize user interfaces featuring cockpit flight instruments to visualize and analyze the motion and behavior of aerospace vehicles. Engineers can now develop continuous workflows from the early stages of vehicle design and development to flight prototyping, reducing time between design and testing. Aerospace design needs to meet stringent design and regulatory requirements to ensure compliance with standards like MIL-F-8785C, DO-178 B and DO-178 C, for
which engineering teams typically rely on Simulink and the DO Qualification Kit. Engineers working with in-house or third-party tools for flight visualization and analysis can now work directly within the Simulink environment for flight simulation, visualization, and analysis. By using Model-Based Design and Simulink earlier in the design workflow, teams can more easily maintain models and code. They can also share models across teams and with contractors to make sure that all requirements are met. “The ability to model, simulate, analyze, and visualize is critical to the highly regulated aerospace industry. That’s why Simulink has become the design environment of choice for these engineers,” said Paul Barnard,
Design Automation Marketing Director, MathWorks. “Now these teams can reduce design time even more, because they can iterate to reach prototyping in a few weeks instead of many months. This will help them meet development deadlines while ensuring high-fidelity and compliance with standards.” Aerospace Blockset helps engineers quickly model, simulate, and analyze aerospace vehicle dynamics. New in R2018b are flight control analysis tools to perform advanced analysis on the dynamic response of aerospace vehicles. The tools include templates to get started and functions to compute and analyze flying qualities of airframes modeled in Simulink.
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OUTLOOK MARKET
IOT ADOPTERS IN APAC REAP SIGNIFICANT BUSINESS GAINS Decision makers must come to terms that the Internet of Things (IoT) is no longer a futuristic concept. Many enterprises are already progressing beyond the conceptualization stage and embarking on their IoT deployment. However, it is important to understand that as with all new digital initiatives, IoT implementation is a journey. Frost & Sullivan's latest survey comprised 300 respondents in Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore, and sought to understand the IoT maturity of enterprises and the impact of IoT adoption on business performance. The study also looked at respondents' attitudes and perceptions towards IoT and other enabling technologies, and how IoT is being implemented in their organisations. "Close to 40% of enterprises in Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore have already embarked on their IoT journey and realised significant gains in their business performance," said Spike Choo, Director of Cognitive Industries (IoT and AI), Frost & Sullivan. "Our study shows that enterprises surveyed have experienced improvement in overall business metrics of 12.1% after implementing IoT initiatives." As a result of the study, the Internet of Things Actualisation Quotient (IoT AQ) was created to quantify enterprises' digital
maturity in their IoT journey. The IoT AQ is a framework that maps an enterprise's IoT journey and the business value it creates. The quotient measures IoT maturity and links this maturity to business outcomes. "The end-user study conducted found that enterprises at different stages of their IoT actualisation journey have realised increasing business benefits as they mature. Across all business outcomes covered in the study, IoT-mature enterprises realised more gains, seeing an average improvement of 16.8% in
their business performance," said Spike. Frost & Sullivan's new white paper, in collaboration with Singtel, The Internet of Things Actualisation Quotient: An AsiaPacific Perspective provides insights into where most Asia-Pacific enterprises are in their IoT journey by leveraging the IoT Actualisation Quotient (AQ) framework and the associated business benefits they reap at each stage of this journey. The whitepaper and the IoT AQ will also guide enterprises in planning their IoT roadmap.
RENEWABLE, EV POWER ELECTRONICS MARKET IN 2019
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Global Power Electronics market grew from $35.02 billion in 2017 to reach $64.98 billion by 2026 with a CAGR of 7.1%. The report writes, rising need for power management devices, growing adoption of power electronics in electric vehicles, increasing awareness of the impact of fossil fuel depletion are recent key growth trajectories of the market. However, high infrastructure deployment cost and current leakage at high temperature are some of the factors hindering the market growth. One of the major opportunities in the market is increasing industrialization in developing economies. Power electronics is the application of solid-state electronics to the control and conversion of electric power. It is used to
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control the fluctuated power from one device to other power devices such as diodes, transistors, and thyristors. In addition, power electronics can control the flow of energy in unidirectional as well as bidirectional manner, depending upon the usage. Presently, it is used in renewable resources and electric vehicles
to develop switching speed and prevent power loss. Factors such as increasing utilize of electronic devices, significant fabrication of HEVs and EVs and growing demand for electric vehicle charging stations are boosting the growth of this segment. By End user, automotive segment has acquired the significant growth during the forecast period due to growing concerns over environmental pollution. By geography, Asia Pacific has been the fastest-growing region during the forecast period. Due to the improvement in power transmission and use of renewable energy and increasing demand of industrial and energy & power verticals are some of the factors driving the market in this region.
MARKET OUTLOOK
INDIA AMONG TOP NATIONS LEADING GDPR READINESS Cisco announced its 2019 Data Privacy Benchmark Study which placed India amongst the leading nations globally in their preparedness towards the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). According to the report, organizations worldwide that invested in maturing their data privacy practices are now realizing tangible business benefits from these investments. The study validates the link between good privacy practice and business benefits as respondents report shorter sales delays as well as fewer and less costly data breaches. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR), which focused on increasing protection for EU residents’ privacy and personal data, became enforceable in May 2018. Organizations worldwide have been working steadily towards getting ready for GDPR. Within Cisco’s 2019 Data Privacy Benchmark Study, more than 55 percent of organizations reported meeting all or most requirements, 29 percent expect to do so within a year, and 9 percent will take more than a year. Interestingly, Indian stood sixth globally with 65% of
Indian organizations showing higher preparedness towards meeting most or all of the GDPR requirements. “This past year, privacy and data protection importance increased dramatically. Data is the new currency, and as the market shifts, we see organizations realizing real business benefits from their investments in protecting their data,” said Michelle Dennedy, Chief Privacy Officer, Cisco. “At Cisco, we absolutely believe in both protecting our customers and driving business success by maximizing the value of data and minimizing risk.” Customers are increasingly concerned that the products and services they deploy provide appropriate privacy protections. Those organizations that invested in data privacy to meet GDPR experienced shorter delays due to privacy concerns in selling to existing customers: 3.4 weeks vs. 5.4 weeks
for the least GDPR ready organizations. Overall the average sales delay was 3.9 weeks in selling to customers, down from 7.8 weeks reported a year ago. Vishak Raman, Director, Security, Cisco said, “India has greatly improved upon its GDPR readiness with its fast evolving data privacy ecosystem, which is primarily because of a collaborative approach by the government and private organizations. However, there remains a huge scope for Indian organizations to increase their investments in people, and technology controls to meet customer privacy requirements faster. GDPR-ready organizations cited a lower incidence of data breaches, fewer records impacted in security incidents, and shorter system downtimes. They also were much less likely to have a significant financial loss from a data breach. Beyond this, 75 percent of respondents cited that they are realizing multiple broader benefits from their privacy investments, which include greater agility and innovation resulting from having appropriate data controls, gaining competitive advantage, and improved operational efficiency from having data organized and catalogued.
IOT SPENDING TO HIT $745 BILLION IN 2019, REVEALS IDC The worldwide IoT spending will reach $745 billion in 2019, a 15.4 percent increase over the $646 billion spent in 2018, and surpass the $1 trillion mark in 2022, according to IDC’s latest forecast. IDC's report titles, "Worldwide Semiannual Internet of Things Spending Guide" further reveals that the IoT spending will maintain a double-digit annual growth rate throughout the 2017-2022 forecast period. The insurance industry will see the fastest compound annual growth rates (CAGR) over the five-years at 17.1 percent, followed by federal/central government (16.1 percent), and healthcare (15.4 percent). In terms of technology, IoT services will be the largest category in 2019 with $258 billion going toward traditional IT and installation services as well as non-traditional device and operational
services. Hardware spending will be close behind at $250 billion led by more than $200 billion in module/ sensor purchases. Meanwhile IoT software spending will total $154 billion in 2019 and see the fastest growth over the five-year period with a CAGR of 16.6 percent. Services
spending will also grow faster than overall IoT spending with a CAGR of 14.2 percent. IoT connectivity spending will total $83 billion in 2019. The report also looks at IoT use cases and says the ones that will see the most investment in 2019 are driven by the industry spending leaders: manufacturing operations, production asset management, smart home, and freight monitoring. The IoT use cases that are expected to deliver the fastest spending growth also provide a picture of where other industries are making their IoT investments. These include airport facility automation (transportation), electric vehicle charging (utilities), agriculture field monitoring (resource), bedside telemetry (healthcare), and instore contextualized marketing (retail).
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OUTLOOK MARKET
TECHNOLOGY IS BECOMING A KEY ENABLER FOR CURRENT AND FUTURE WORKFORCES We are living in times which are defined by dramatic progress in work and life. How people live their lives and do their jobs is becoming indistinguishable. Enterprises wish to support their workforce with capabilities and exhilarating work experiences that ‘they’ want, and literally transform the way they work. This could be at a physical environment or one which is virtual. Technology is becoming a key enabler for current and future workforces whether they are geographically and culturally distributed or going beyond language barriers where the power of AI delivers performance; to using augmented reality that helps in creativity at work. Here are some predictions with respect to workforce transformation: • AR/VR will bring more on-site learning and creativity to the workplace Leaps in Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) have been made over the course of 2018 to create more immersive,
Indrajit Belgundi|General Manager Client Solutions Group|Dell India
enhanced visual experiences – and as a result, we’ll see increased adoption in the workplace during 2019. On-site training opportunities and the ability to access data in real-time at the edge will not only fill a skills gap across certain trades and industries, but also give the workforce even more freedom to do their best work untethered from the workplace. Further, employees will be able to collaborate
and create in real-time through AR and VR experiences – bringing everyone into one virtual environment as if they’re all physically working together. • Collaboration will break out from the meeting invite While the notion of working from 9-5 has long evaporated in a world where connectivity and productivity are possible from even the most remote locations, the calendar invite still rules where and when we get together. But that’s all changing as we have the ability to quickly grab a colleague based overseas through new collaboration tools that allow us to make video calls and share files in real time. 2019 will advance collaboration as more enterprises adopt web-based collaboration tools, and device technologies takes advantage of advances in wi-fi connectivity and compute power to get more done, better, faster – together.
LOW NOISE AMPLIFIERS MARKET 2019 – APAC MARKET ON TREND
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Global Low Noise Amplifiers market is expected to grow up to USD 3 billion at CAGR 13% through the forecast period 2018 to 2023. Asia Pacific holds the largest market share for global Low Noise Amplifiers market. North America holds the second largest market share in the global market. In this region, the market is growing due to Global Positioning System (GPS) enabled devices, increased adoption of smartphones, and offering of Wi-Fi services in public areas. Europe is the second most important regional market due to the technological advancement that is second only to North America. In this region, the crucial country-specific markets are France, Germany, and the United Kingdom (UK). A low noise amplifier is used for amplifying low strength signals from an antenna that are of low frequency. Market Research Future (MRFR) has published a research report about the global low noise amplifiers market that estimates
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ample advancement for this market at 13% CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) between 2017 and 2023. The major forces contributing to the growth of the global Low Noise Amplifiers Market are the adoption of low noise amplifiers in automobiles, increasing usage of smartphones, major technological upgradations, and rising technological investments in telecommunications. However, the falling use of landline phones and a decrease in manufacturer's lower
price margins can restrict the market growth. Global Low Noise Amplifiers Market Research Report by Frequency (Dc To 6hz, 6 To 60hz, More Than 60hz) By Type (Silicon, Gallium Arsenide), By Application Areas (Consumer Electronics, Industrial, Military and Defence, Automotive) to Forecast Till 2023 The regional segmentation of the low noise amplifiers market has segmented the market into regional markets known as Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, and the rest of the world (RoW). Asia Pacific holds the largest market in the global market due to the growing urbanization, increase in developments in telecommunications, rapid technological advancement, the rise in usage of smartphones, and LTE networks replacing 3G networks in telecommunications. In this region, the big league country-specific markets are China, India, and Japan, followed by the remaining countries of the Asia Pacific region.
TECH EMBEDDED
SECURING EMBEDDED SYSTEMS IN INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENTS A saying attributed to Warren G. Bennis notes that the factory of the future will employ only a man and a dog. The man’s function will be to feed the dog, while the dog will keep the man from touching the equipment. That day appears to be coming closer and closer to reality, but one now must ask whether the dog is also capable of keeping not only its minder’s hands off the equipment but the hands of malicious hackers that would attempt to meddle through code instead of physical manipulation.
Computer Security: A Never-ending Job
Despite many people’s best efforts to keep computers secure, new computer viruses seem to pop up every day. Occasionally, these viruses can be rather nasty, like the Meltdown/Spectre vulnerability discovered in 2018 that inherently exists on the chip level of computers. Another example is the Mirai botnet that was discovered in 2016. Frustratingly, the Mirai botnet malware infects Internet of Things (IoT) devices using only a list of default passwords that have never been changed. Information and virtual chaos are normally the objective of these attacks—and certainly shouldn’t be acceptable—but malicious programs can be designed to jump into the real (i.e., “physical”) world to affect the operation of industrial machinery. Unfortunately, securing this machinery can be a challenge because of the varied nature of these embedded systems and because they can be in service for 10, 20, or more years in many cases. Adding to this difficulty, in a factory environment, network security is generally left in the hands of “the information technology (IT) people.” While they may know how to secure a network in the traditional computer/hardware/software sense, in most cases they rely on the control engineers to take care of specialized manufacturing equipment. While skilled at keeping the machinery running, these manufacturing and control engineers often don’t have sophisticated knowledge of IT concepts, much less an understanding of what is going on from a security perspective in the manufacturing plant environment as a whole. This presents a sort of gray area as to who is responsible for what in plant automation—creating an obvious attack vector. In addition to designing, managing, and safeguarding the general operations of automated manufacturing lines, engineers and IT personnel in this environment must also consider securing the asset management software and hardware. An inaccurate count of parts caused by a security compromise, for instance, can wreak havoc on a supply chain: Thus, if a bar code scanner somehow becomes corrupted or spoofed, this presents another vector of attack for a determined virtual adversary. If the inventory count is corrupted, this could cause the machinery and production equipment to become overworked on the one hand or
missed delivery schedules on the other due to non-existent inventory. Preventive maintenance could even go unfulfilled or be put off in an effort to “catch up” to false data, meaning equipment damage could happen as a secondary effect. Design for Security Given these potential security holes, if a company’s task is to design new hardware for industrial environments, your customers’ security needs must be paramount. However, the conundrum is that you can’t solely rely on engineers and IT personnel to keep equipment secure for generations throughout the computer hardware’s evolution. In fact, as a former manufacturing engineer myself, I’m certain that many engineers wish they still had physical serial and parallel ports on their notebooks, and I would be very surprised if there aren’t computers still running processes that say “Windows 3.1” (or earlier) when a screensaver is displayed. Despite these challenges, industrial products must be and remain rock-solid security wise and have an end-to-end approach so that one node of a system doesn’t lead to a breach elsewhere. This kind of security-centric design does have some costs associated with it, however, and your organization may not have expertise in-house or the time to develop a security system from the ground up. The good news is that your company doesn’t have to start from scratch—and probably shouldn’t. Maxim has been involved in digital security for the last 30 years, including producing hardware for critical pointof-sale (POS) terminals, and its MAXREFDES155 DeepCover Security Reference Design is ready for integration into your application. This reference design uses a DS2476 DeepCover® ECDSA/ SHA-2 coprocessor on the base shield to verify that the secure signals from the corresponding sensing endpoint—which uses a DS28C36 DeepCover ECDSA/SHA-2 authenticator—are legitimate. Security is built into hardware at the chip level, so ruling out some sort of physical hardware exchange at both points, there is no known way to spoof this type of arrangement. This means that you can develop the type of hardware that you’re best at while integrating world-class cryptographic protection from Maxim.
Conclusion
While we as engineers will never be able to prevent every possible intrusion into an industrial environment, using hardware designed with security in mind goes a long way towards this goal. It’s a concept that hardware designers need to embrace, and those responsible for keeping the machines running would be wise to consider when to specify new or retrofitted equipment. Source: Mouser Electronics n
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THE ‘HACK’ TO STAYING
Sudhindra Holla
Sales Director | India & SAARC Axis Communications
Rahul Kumar
Country Manager | India & SAARC F-Secure
Rajesh Maurya
Regional Vice President|India & SAARC Fortinet
SECURE IN 2019
Binu Thomas
Co-Founder & Executive Vice President Paladion Networks
COVER STORY
Security is creating a buzz. Predictions would be tough given that many of the well-known organizations were a victim of cyber hacking and undoubtedly, it will be inevitable in 2019. Because, security being my pique of interest, I interviewed some of the sagacious industry veterans, Sudhindra Holla, Sales Director, Axis Communications – India & SAARC; Rahul Kumar, Country Manager India and SAARC at F-Secure; Rajesh Maurya, Regional Vice President, India & SAARC, Fortinet; Binu Thomas Co-Founder & Executive Vice President, Paladion Networks was an enlightening experience. I am hoping that anyone with an inquisitive mind would also be beguiled with this erudite interaction. Major Developments on ‘AI-Integrated Security’
Rajesh Maurya
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they are detected. AI-led MDR solutions also constantly analyze the data generated across an organization’s entire IT stack to identify security threats and vulnerabilities. They can swiftly separate false positives from actual breaches and automate security processes to deal with low-threat, high-volume attacks used by cybercriminals to camouflage more advanced attacks. This allows AI to significantly optimize the enterprise threat detection, response, and mitigation capabilities. Attacks are detected on a near-instant basis, minimizing the response time and their area of impact. The post-breach forensics that AI enables also helps organizations address exploited vulnerabilities and improve their security posture against similar attacks in the future.
While security professionals continue to grow in skill and acumen, the volume and acceleration of attacks, coupled with the evolving threatscape of our digital economy, far outpace any improvements to security, widening our gap in protection. For example, in 2007, security operations centers (SOCs) saw fewer than 1,000 alerts on an average day. Now, SOCs are seeing more than 10,00,000 alerts a day—a 1,000% increase. Every day to detect and block attacks of these volume, organizations must react to threats at machine speeds. Machine learning and AI are becoming the new norm in network security to respond to threats at machine speeds. Integrating machine language and AI Sudhindra Holla across point products deployed throughout the distributed network, combined with automation and innovation, will In the current scenario, we see a migration to Network IP significantly help fight increasingly aggressive cybercrime. from the analog camera. As more and more devices get Disrupting the criminal economic model, however, can only integrated on to the network, the security risks associated be achieved by tightly integrating security systems into a with it will also increase. Industries have begun to run their cohesive, integrated security fabric framework that can surveillance system on AI with the aim of being proactive freely share information, perform logistical and behavioral in an emergency situation. The overall crime reduces with analysis to identify attack patterns, and then incorporates the smart AI technology which uses analysis, while helping that intelligence into an automated system that can not only overcome human flaws in the surveillance system – such as respond to attacks in a coordinated fashion, but actually the response and accuracy. For this reason, AI (along with machine learning) deployed in surveillance systems have begin to anticipate criminal intent and attack vectors. catapulted the video analytics feature of the system. Just Binu Thomas like IoT, AI will evolve in the security market and take video surveillance to the next level. Speed, scale, accuracy: this is what artificial intelligence AI is also a cost-efficient way to monitor and analyze large brings to the table, and this is why the technology is streams of data. In terms of security and operations, various registering rapid adoption across multiple industries. AI uses sectors have taken notice of the positive impact of adopting its computational power to crunch through massive volumes AI into their IP-based solutions. of data and to extract relevant insights – all in a fraction of the time it would take human experts to accomplish the Rahul Kumar same task. It also allows businesses to automate certain repetitive tasks and processes, and can be programmed to Artificial Intelligence has emerged as a game-changer learn how to perform better over time to enhance overall within the cybersecurity space. Today, it is enabling us to automate non-critical processes and has been making productivity and the speed of business output. When it comes to cybersecurity, these factors are extremely cybersecurity professionals more productive with a singular critical. The volume of data that is generated across the focus on serious issues. The technology is also turning out to enterprise IT infrastructure is too large for human-only teams be quite pivotal in Detection and Response. This is further to analyse and respond to swiftly. As a result, attacks dwell reducing the average dwell time while simultaneously within enterprise networks, data flows, and devices for increasing the precision of cybersecurity measures. several weeks, causing significant damage till the time It must be noted that the technology is still in its embryonic
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STORY COVER
state. It is currently being refined and will soon become more effective in dealing with dynamically evolving cybersecurity challenges. Security Trends Catching Fire in 2019
Binu Thomas There are two broad trends that I see panning out in 2019 which will influence most developments within the global cybersecurity domain: greater adoption of AI-led cybersecurity solutions, and the shift from standalone prevention-based security models to an interconnected detection-driven security approach. It is almost certain that the adoption of AI-led cybersecurity solutions will accelerate. Artificial intelligence has already becoming integral to enterprise security, powering innovative countermeasures such as security automation and security analysis. Recent developments also hint at the rise of augmented intelligence. Such integration between human intuition and AI capabilities is expected to further enhance security operations. Organisations will also move away from standalone, prevention-based security systems to collaborative security networks.
Rahul Kumar Though Artificial Intelligence is gradually becoming part and parcel of cybersecurity solutions, in 2019, positive deve lopments will be seen targeted towards reinforcement learning. Also, since the breakout of NotPetya attack in 2017, a constant diversification of the attack has been observed throughout 2018 and we believe that such supply chain-based attacks will increase in 2019. Cybersecurity researchers, on the other hand, will hunt for alternative data repositories this year. This will help them in pre-emptively dealing with emerging security issues rather than responding to, and remediating them later. So, the honeypot infrastructure can be seen mounting globally. This infrastructure will also help in detecting the flaws in novel technologies such as IoT and cloud.
Rajesh Maurya To manage increasingly distributed and complex networks, organizations are adopting artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to automate tedious and time-consuming activities that normally require a high degree of human supervision and intervention. These newer defensive strategies are likely to impact cybercriminal strategies, causing them to shift attack methods and accelerate their own development efforts. In an effort to adapt to the increased use of machine learning and automation, Fortinet predicts that the cybercriminal community is likely to adopt the following strategies, which the cybersecurity industry as a whole, will need to closely follow in 2019.
• AI Fuzzing: Because they target unknown threat vectors, exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities is an especially effective cybercrime tactic. Fortunately, they are also rare because of the time and expertise needed by cyber adversaries to discover and exploit them. The process for doing so involves a technique known as fuzzing. Fuzzing is a sophisticated technique generally used in lab environments by professional threat researchers to discover vulnerabilities in hardware and software interfaces and applications. Though using fuzzing to discover zero-day vulnerabilities has, so far, been beyond the scope of most cybercriminals, as AI and machine learning models are applied to this process it will become more efficient and effective. As a result, the rarity of zero-day exploits will change, which in turn will have a significant impact on securing network devices and systems. • Continual Zero-Days: Traditional security approaches, such as patching or monitoring for known attacks, will become nearly obsolete as there will be little way to anticipate which aspect of a device can be potentially exploited. In an environment with the possibility of endless and highly commoditized zero-day attacks, even tools such as sandboxing, which were designed to detect unknown threats, would be quickly overwhelmed. While there are some frameworks like zero-trust environments that may have a chance at defending against this reality, it is fair to say that most people are not prepared for the next generation of threats on the horizon — especially those that AI-based fuzzing techniques will soon begin to uncover. •S warms-as-a-Service: Advances in swarm-based intelligence technology are bringing us closer to a reality of swarmbased botnets that can operate collaboratively and autonomously to overwhelm existing defences. These swarm networks will not only raise the bar in terms of the technologies needed to defend organizations, but, like zero-day mining, they will also have an impact on the underlying criminal business model, allowing them to expand their opportunity. •A la Carte Swarms: In a swarm-as-a-service environment, criminal entrepreneurs should be able to pre-program a swarm with a range of analysis tools and exploits, from compromise strategies to evasion and surreptitious data exfiltration that are all part of a criminal a la carte menu. And because swarms by design include self-swarms, they will require nearly no interaction or feedback from their swarm-master or need to interact with a command and control center, which is the Achilles' heel of most exploits. •P oisoning Machine Learning: One of the most promising cybersecurity tools is machine learning. Devices and systems can be trained to perform specific tasks autonomously, however, this process can also be a two-edged sword. Machine learning has no conscience, so bad input is processed as readily as good. By targeting and poisoning
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COVER STORY
the machine learning process, cybercriminals will be able to train devices or systems to not apply patches or updates to a particular device, to ignore specific types of applications or behaviours, or to not log specific traffic to better evade detection. Security Tussle in 2019
Rahul Kumar
One of the biggest security challenges that organizations currently face is that of mind-set. Security, to most enterprises, is an afterthought instead of a priority. IT systems are designed, deployed, and upgraded without any consideration to cybersecurity. This culture propagates downwards; most business users don’t tend to apply recommended cybersecurity practices while using connected enterprise devices and networks. The other major challenge is that of growing interconnectivity. The connected infrastructure is becoming more and more enmeshed within day-to-day business processes across multiple industries. SMAC (Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud) technologies are becoming popular within the enterprise setup, while BYOD-led work cultures are also gaining acceptance in a big way, delivering higher productivity and better operational efficiency.
Global IoT adoption has been increasing across all walks of life. Today, the technology is being used in everything from surveillance cameras to TVs, refrigerators, and ACs. However, there are a lot of vulnerabilities that are yet to be discovered within the technology. Apart from that, unsecured IoT devices can be compromised and be used to penetrate deeper into a secured network using a range of TTPs. The technology poses as a prime security challenge for cybersecurity personnel. Cloud Security and Indian Organizations – Just Not a Story Also, privacy concerns were a part of the mainstream dialog last year. So, businesses will be more focused on protecting Rajesh Maurya their both infrastructure, as well as data. One of the biggest challenges multi-cloud environments Rajesh Maurya have introduced to the security posture is the isolated cloud environments found within networks. With every new The challenge with our growing reliance on digital economy cloud-based application, infrastructure, or software service is that anything that can be generated, transmitted, added to a network, the number of potential entryways into stored, or analyzed, no matter how valuable, can also be the organization’s network that cybercriminals can exploit breached, corrupted, or misused. So the question businesses increases. With these disparate multi-cloud environments are grappling with today is, how can they capitalize on comes a variety of obstacles for IT personnel responsible the opportunity of the digital economy while managing for securing cloud siloes. associated risks? When multi-cloud security is siloed, cybersecurity efforts have In this new environment, constant change is the new to be manually carried out across each disparate cloud normal. And given the rate of change that network, environment, limiting the response time and efficiency of devices, and applications are undergoing, organizations cybersecurity personnel’s efforts. One of the biggest pain must establish a way to maintain control in an constantly points created when any siloed element enters a network churning environment. This includes establishing a deep is its impact on threat analysis In order to properly maintain understanding of every device on their network at any given effective security posture, IT personnel need to understand moment, where their most critical data lives, who has access the threats across their network, helping to expose attack to which digital resources, where and how workflows and vectors and their subsequent solutions. However, with data move, and how applications and services connect disparate cloud solutions acting as digital point products, this everything together. adds complexity to an already sophisticated IT environment, However, as the rate of adoption of devices and applications forcing cybersecurity professionals to individually analyze accelerates, maintaining visibility and control over these each cloud. elements is becoming increasingly complicated. The sheer As organizations continue to adopt more cloud-based volume alone can overwhelm many organizations. And capabilities into their networks, each siloed cloud needs given the current rate of security breaches and malware to be properly integrated into a unified Security Fabric. By development, however, it is clear that yesterday’s security unifying siloed multi-cloud environments with additional strategies and tools are increasingly less effective. And virtual and physical network elements, cybersecurity the complexity and scale of securing against this evolving personnel can gain broad visibility and protection across threat landscape will be compounded further as we move the attack surface, while gaining the capabilities for rapid infrastructure and services to multi-cloud environments, advanced threat detection and automated threat response leverage increasingly transitory network resources, embrace and breach mitigation. a more mobile workforce, and continue to merge our public, Binu Thomas private, and business lives.
Binu Thomas
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Cloud-based security solutions such as MDR will be game-
STORY COVER
changers for Indian businesses, particularly those belonging personal data from misuse and criminal activities, building to the MSME sector. Small and medium businesses lack a strong relationship of trust between the users and the the resources required to set up in-house cybersecurity organizations. operations, but still face sophisticated attacks like larger enterprises do. Tackling advanced threats becomes a big Rahul Kumar challenge for them as a result. This is exactly where cloud-based MDR solutions step Till now, data privacy and cybersecurity initiatives were into the fray. By providing access to AI-led cybersecurity taken quite lightly by Indian businesses and government capabilities through the cloud, such security solutions departments. The Data Protection Bill will change this culture enable enterprises of all sizes to adequately secure their by pinning responsibilities on individual stakeholders. This will business operations and data – all at a fraction of the cost not only protect people’s data and ensure timely disclosure of setting up dedicated cybersecurity operations of their of breaches as and when they occur, it will also lead to own. This, in a fast-digitizing large economy such as India, adoption of more superior cybersecurity measures in India. We believe this is a very positive development. will be the need of the hour.
Rahul Kumar
Rajesh Maurya
The Indian cloud industry has already become worth $2.5 billion in 2018 as per estimates and is further pegged to become worth $3.19 billion by this year. The growth is triggered by the increasing demand for cloud-based solutions in our rapidly digitizing nation. This directly increases the importance of Cloud Security solutions.
The Data Protection Bill makes individual consent central to data sharing as the previous privacy laws in India offered little protection against misuse of personal information. Unless an individual gives an explicit consent his/her personal data cannot be shared or processed. Also any person processing your personal data is obligated to do so in a fair and reasonable manner ans use it only for the purposes it was intended for in the first place. The onus of data integrity and compliance now shifts to the organization that will be processing an individual’s personal data. Employees can unwittingly cause severe damage to a business due to a lack of awareness. To minimize risk especially as connectivity and digital resources become more intertwined, organizations need to must educate employees and promote security hygiene best practices that will minimize risk, data leakage, and non-compliance while still allowing for operational flexibility and efficiency.
Impact of the Data Protection Bill
Sudhindra
With the Personal Data Protection bill (PDP) coming into being, data protection rights are enforced to the Indian citizens. While, the focus of the regulation is on mandating those rights, to any organization, regardless of geographic location, processing the citizens’ personal data. It details a number of Rights of Indian citizens in respect to how their personal data is used. India’s data protection law will shape the relationship between the citizens and the organizations Binu Thomas and government entities/institutions handling their data. The aim of this law is to ensure a free and fair digital Indian When the Data Protection Bill comes into effect, organisations economy and it is seen as an important milestone in setting will have to ensure that their security infrastructure is robust up a framework which gives the Indian citizens full freedom enough to protect sensitive data. The good news is that enterprises have become more aware about this need-gap to protect their data. While it will be applicable across domains, a large part of and are looking at state-of-the-art cybersecurity solutions the debate around the draft legislation has focused on to bolster their security postures how global IT technology companies use customer data A large percentage of Indian businesses are currently as one of the focal points of the bill is to mandate storage unequipped to do this. They have little to no visibility into of citizen data in servers located in India. The bill has a their networks, or how data flows within and outside it. This direct impact on businesses like retail, aviation, hospitality leaves them more vulnerable to security breaches and and so on running loyalty programmes, who will have to also makes accurate breach reporting extremely difficult. seek explicit consent from the user if they want customer CIOs and CISOs will have a massive challenge ahead of details for accumulating points and offering a service. them when it comes to achieving compliance with the Working closely with customers and partners to solve their Data Protection Bill. Recent security breaches, such as those security surveillance issues all these years, I can definitely at Facebook, highlight that even large organisations with state that end customers have deep concerns as to how extensive capital, human, and technological resources are their data, be it information, images, videos or any other struggling to keep up with advanced attacks and threats. format, would be stored and utilized at a later time frame -JYOTI@BISINFOTECH.COM without their knowledge. n Taking all these into considerations, it is one of the landmark judgement taken by the Indian judiciary to protect the
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SECURITY INSIDER
APAC CYBERSECURITY THREATS AND VULNERABILTY IN 2019 2018 has been another transformative time for security teams in APAC regions. The imposition of new regulations like Australia’s Notifiable Data Breaches scheme and the Indian government’s push to be GDPR compliant due to recent global breaches, have been influential on cybersecurity investment and strategy. Along with a rise in the number of incidents of data theft and cyberattacks in India and a workforce bogged down compliance management, 2018 has been another challenging year for cybersecurity and business leaders. But does 2019 face the same fate? Sivan Nir, Senior Analyst, Skybox Research Lab, makes her predictions for the year ahead.
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• Crypto-jacking keeps going: 2018 saw unauthorised cryptomining replace ransomware as themost popular malware, and this will not abate. Monero has been identified as the cryptocurrency which is most associated with this activity. This type of malware can often go around undetected,andit’s a good way for hackers to stay active for the maximum amount of time and make quick money. Why would they turn to an alternative? • Mobile vulnerabilities keep rising: A continuing trend which emerged at the end of 2017 is the exponentially growing number of mobile vulnerabilities. This is only going to continue as mobile further blurs the line between personal and business device. Furthermore, third-party applicationsused on smart phones are a good way for malware to enter an organisation, as well as open applications, particularly Android. • Cloud misconfigurations cause chaos: As more and more companies migrate to the cloud, the biggest risk will be seen in the misconfiguration of the cloud environment, showing that humans continue to be one of the weakest links in security. In addition, the incorporation of third-party software in the cloud means organisations won’t have full control over their attack surface. Cloud
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technology is still relatively new, with no set best practices,so it’s not as clear to IT people how to secure a cloud environment as opposed to on-prem networks.Next year, hackers will take more advantage of these weaknesses. • Ransomware won’t fade away: 2017 will always be remembered as the ‘year of ransomware’. While cryptomining is overshadowing ransomware, it’s important that CISOs don’t let their guard drop on this older threat. Although illicit cryptomining is easier
to undertake, ransomware has the potential to reap bigger immediate awards when precisely targeted at an organisation that cannot afford to kiss their encrypted files goodbye. So, ransomware will continue to wreak havoc, using a variety of new techniques to enter the network. • AI arms race: AI will be increasingly used to identify and protect against attacks, but 2019 will see a surge in the number of vulnerabilities in AI and chatbots as threat actors realise the value in this activity. Hackers will begin to use AI to make more efficient and persistent malware attacks. At some level this may even culminate in an AI cyber-arms race. There will be more investment being ploughed into cyber-AI on both sides ofthe battlefield.
INSIDER SECURITY
ALMOST HALF OF COMPANIES STILL CAN’T DETECT IOT DEVICE BREACHES, REVEALS GEMALTO STUDY Gemalto revealed in its latest study, that only around half (48%) of businesses can detect if any of their IoT devices suffers a breach. This comes despite companies having an increased focus on IoT security: • Spending on protection has grown (from 11% of IoT budget in 2017 to 13% now); • Nearly all (90%) believing it is a big consideration for customers; and • Almost three times as many now see IoT security as an ethical responsibility (14%), compared to a year ago (4%) With the number of connected devices set to top 20 billion by 2023, businesses must act
most (95%) businesses believe there should be uniform regulations in place, a finding that is echoed by by consumers195% expect IoT devices to be governed by security regulations.
Security remains a big challenge
With such a big task in hand, businesses are calling for governmental intervention because of the challenges they see in securing connected devices and IoT services. This is particularly mentioned for data privacy (38%) and the collection of large amounts of data (34%). Protecting an increasing amount of data is proving an issue, with only three in five (59%) of those using IoT and spending on IoT security, admitting they encrypt all of their data. Consumers are clearly not impressed with the efforts of the IoT industry, with 62% believing security needs to improve. When it comes to the biggest areas of concern 54% fear a lack of privacy because of connected devices, followed closely by unauthorised parties like hackers controlling devices (51%) and lack of control over personal data (50%).
Blockchain gains pace as an IoT security tool
quickly to ensure their IoT breach detection is as effective as possible. “Given the increase in the number of IoTenabled devices, it’s extremely worrying to see that businesses still can’t detect if they have been breached,” said Jason Hart, CTO, Data Protection at Gemalto. “With no consistent regulation guiding the industry, it’s no surprise the threats – and, in turn, vulnerability of businesses – are increasing. This will only continue unless governments step in now to help industry avoid losing control.” Surveying 950 IT and business decision makers globally, Gemalto found that companies are calling on governments to intervene, with 79% asking for more robust guidelines on IoT security, and while more than fifty percent are seeking clarification on who is responsible for protecting IoT. Despite the fact that many governments have already enacted or announced the introduction of regulations specific to IoT security,
While the industry awaits regulation, it is seeking ways to address the issues itself, with blockchain emerging as a potential technology; adoption of blockchain has doubled from 9% to 19% in the last 12 months. What’s more, a quarter (23%) of respondents believe that blockchain technology would be an ideal solution to use for securing IoT devices, with 91% of organisations that don’t currently use the technology are likely to consider it in the future. As blockchain technology finds its place in securing IoT devices, businesses continue to employ other methods to protect themselves against cybercriminals. The majority (71%) encrypt their data, while password protection (66%) and two factor authentication (38%) remain prominent. Hart continues, “Businesses are clearly feeling the pressure of protecting the growing amount of data they collect and store. But while it’s positive they are attempting to address that by investing in more security, such as blockchain, they need direct guidance to ensure they’re not leaving themselves exposed. In order to get this, businesses need to be putting more pressure on the government to act, as it is them that will be hit if they suffer a breach.”
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SECURITY INSIDER
CHECK POINT LAUNCHES MAESTRO Check Point Software Technologies introduces Check Point Maestro, the industry’s first truly hyperscale network security solution. Check Point Maestro is a revolutionary new architecture that enables businesses of any size to enjoy the power of flexible cloud-level security platforms, and to seamlessly expand their existing security gateways to hyperscale capacity. “Today’s threat landscape is evolving at a rapid rate. That means businesses must turn to agile cybersecurity platforms that can scale very quickly,” said Jon Oltsik, Senior Principal Analyst from the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG). “Check Point’s solutions continue to evolve with today’s threat landscape in order to meet the needs of enterprises, with capabilities that will combat zero-day attacks while limiting disruption to day-to-day business practices.” With Check Point Maestro, organizations can easily scale up their existing Check Point security gateways on demand, in
the same way as spinning up new servers and compute resources in public clouds. Maestro enables a single gateway to expand to the capacity and performance of 52 gateways in minutes, giving companies elastic flexibility and enabling massive Terabit/second firewall throughput. This almost limitless scalability enables organizations to support 5G networks’ high data rates and ultra-low latency, and secure the largest, most resource-hungry environments, setting new standards in hyperscale network security. “Check Point Maestro extends the Gen V security capabilities of our Infinity architecture into hyperscale environments. It ensures organizations can secure their dynamic, evolving environments without limits, now and in the future,” said Itai Greenberg, VP of Product Management at Check Point. “The principle behind Maestro is very simple: it enables organizations to start with their existing security implementations, no matter how
small, and scale their protection almost infinitely according to their changing business needs.” Check Point Maestro Delivers Advanced New Capabilities: • Hyperscale security: customers can scale up their existing gateways of any size on-demand, to support over 50x their original throughput, within minutes. It gives seamless expansion to hyperscale security, while protecting organizations’ existing investments. • Cloud-level resiliency: Maestro is the only unified security system that can offer cloud-level resilience and reliability to all organizations’ deployments, with Check Point’s HyperSync giving advanced telco-grade clustering and full redundancy. • Operational supremacy: It is managed intuitively by Maestro Security Orchestrator, which controls all of an organization’s gateways as one unified security system, minimizing management overhead.
FORTINET NAMED FOUNDING PARTNER OF WEF CENTRE
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Fortinet announced that the company has been named the first cybersecurity founding partner of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Centre for Cybersecurity and CEO Ken Xie will serve as a member of the Centre for Cybersecurity Advisory Board. Ken Xie, Founder, Chairman of the Board, and CEO, Fortinet commented, “We are proud to be the first cybersecurity company named a founding partner of the World Economic Forum Centre for Cybersecurity and look forward to collaborating with global leaders from the private and public sectors through our shared commitment to deliver a response to the growing global cybersecurity threat. The World Economic Forum’s Centre for Cybersecurity is important for global multistakeholder collaboration, and serving as a founding partner of the Centre is yet another step forward in our own mission to secure the largest enterprise, service provider, and government organizations in the world.” WEF and Fortinet both believe that the
BISINFOTECH // FEBRUARY 2019
global threat to our digital economy requires a global response. To respond to that threat and shape the future of cybersecurity, WEF has established the Centre for Cybersecurity, a global network of partners from business, government, international organizations, academia, and civil society to collaborate on cybersecurity challenges. Fortinet’s partnership with the Centre is further reinforcement of the company’s longstanding commitment to public and private sector collaboration. In conjunction with the Centre for Cybersecurity, Fortinet will continue its
efforts to collaborate, innovate and develop powerful global solutions to reduce global cyberattacks, contain current and future cyberattacks, and deter cybercrime. As part of its charter, the Centre for Cybersecurity is committed to: • Establishing, activating and coordinating global public-private partnerships to encourage intelligence sharing and the development of cyber norms. • Collectively developing, testing and implementing cutting-edge knowledge and tools to foresee and protect against cyberattacks, current and future. • Implementing global capacity-building and training programs to produce the next generation of cybersecurity professionals. • Establishing, coordinating and facilitating a Global Rapid-Reaction Cybersecurity Task Force comprised of experts from our partner community to help mitigate the negative impact of severe global cyberattacks.
EVENT LIST NAME, DATE &VENUE
TOPIC
INDIA ELECTRONICS EXPO 2019 FEBRUARY 04-05, 2019 HYDERABAD, INDIA
ELECTRONICS MANUFACTURING / EMS / PRODUCT / COMPONENT COMPANIES
CEEAMATECH-2019 FEBRUARY 08-10, 2019 AUTO CLUSTER, CHINCHWAD, PUNE, INDIA
7TH EXHIBITION & CONFERENCE ON ELECTRICAL INDUSTRY
CONTACT DETAILS WEBSITE : www.indiaelectronicsexpo.com, E-MAIL : esc@escindia.com Website :www.ceeamatech.com E-mail : ceeamatech@fairact.in
INDIA TECH EXPO FEBRUARY 09-11, 2019 GRAMIN HAAT BAZAAR, INDORE, MP, INDIA
GAIN ENERGY INDEPENDENCE
Website : www.indiatechexpo.in E-mail : indiatechexpo@gmail.com
ACMA AUTOMECHANIKA NEW DELHI FEBRUARY 14-17, 2019, PRAGATI MAIDAN EXHIBITION CENTER, NEW DELHI, INDIA
INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIR FOR THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY
Website : acma-automechanika-newdelhi. in.messefrankfurt.com E-mail : syed.javed@india.messefrankfurt.com
INDIA SMART UTILITY WEEK 2019 MARCH 12-16, 2019 MANEKSHAW CENTRE, NEW DELHI
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION ON SMART UTILITIES FOR SMART CITY
Website : www.isgw.in E-mail : isuw@isuw.in
IESS INDIAN ENGINEERING SOURCING SHOW MARCH 14-16, 2019, CHENNAI TRADE CENTER, CHENNAI, TAMIL NADU, INDIA
INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIR FOR MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
Website : www.iesshow.in E-Mail : eepcho@eepcindia.net
SEMICON CHINA 2019 MARCH 20-22, 2019, SNIEC, SHANGHAI, CHINA
INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIR FOR SEMICONDUCTOR TECHNOLOGY
Website : www.semiconchina.org E-mail : semichina@semi.org
ELECTRONICA CHINA MARCH 20-22, 2019 SNIEC, SHANGHAI, CHINA
INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIR FOR ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS, SYSTEMS AND APPLICATIONS
Website : www.electronicachina.com E-mail : tanja.stuermer@messe-muenchen.de
ELTEFA STUTTGART MARCH 20-22, 2019 STUTTGART
TRADE FAIR FOR ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING AND ELECTRONICS
Website :www.messe-stuttgart.de E-mail : info@messe-stuttgart.de
CEF CHINA ELECTRONICS FAIR APRIL 09-11, 2019 SHENZEN, CHINA
INTERNATIONAL ELECTRONICS FAIR
Website : www.icef.com.cn E-mail : cefinfo@ceac.com.cn
AERO APRIL 10-13, 2019 FRIEDRICHSHAFEN GERMANY
INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIR FOR GENERAL AVIATION
Website :www.aero-expo.com E-mail : datenschutz@messe-fn.de
GLOBAL SOURCES CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW APRIL 11-14, 2019, HONG KONG
TRADE FAIR FOR ELECTRONIC PRODUCTS AND ACCESSORIES
Website : www.globalsources.com E-mail : visit@chinasourcingfair.com
HONG KONG ELECTRONICS FAIR APRIL 13-16, 2019 HONG KONG
INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIR FOR ELECTRONIC PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
Website : www.hktdc.com E-mail : exhibitions@hktdc.org
NEPCON CHINA APRIL 24-26, 2019 SHANGHAI
EXHIBITION ON SURFACE MOUNT TECHNOLOGY AND ELECTRONICS
Website : www.nepconchina.com/en E-mail : Daniel.wang@reedexpo.com.cn
PCIM EUROPE NUREMBERG MAY 07-09, 2019 NUREMBERG
INTELLIGENT MOTION, RENEWABLE ENERGY, AND ENERGY MANAGEMENT
Website :www.pcim-europe.com E-mail : info@mesago.com
SMART CITIES INDIA 2019 EXPO MAY 22-24, 2019 NEW DELHI, INDIA
DEVELOPING SMART CITIES FOR OUR CITIZENS
Website :www.smartcitiesindia.com E-mail : aruns@eigroup.inm
ENGINEERING EXPO MAY 24-26, 2019, AUTO CLUSTER EXHIBITION CENTER, PUNE, MAHARASHTRA, INDIA
INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIR FOR MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
GUANGZHOU ELECTRICAL BUILDING TECHNOLOGY JUNE 09-12, 2019, GUANGZHOU, CHINA
ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING, BUILDING AND HOME AUTOMATION
Website : guangzhou-international-lighting-exhibition. hk.messefrankfurt.com E-mail : lucia.wong@hongkong.messefrankfurt.com
CHINA ELECTRONICS FAIR CHENGDU JULY 11-13, 2019 CHENGDU, CHINA
INTELLIGENT MANUFACTURING. CIVIL-MILITARY INOSCULATION. ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS
Website : www.icef.com.cn E-mail : cefinfo@ceac.com.cn
AUTOMOTIVE WORLD SEPTEMBER 05-07, 2019 PORTMESSE NAGOYA, JAPAN
TECHNOLOGIES SUPPORTING THE EVOLUTION OF CAR ELECTRONICS EXHIBITED TOGETHER
Website :www.automotiveworld-nagoya.jp E-mail : car-nagoya@reedexpo.co.jp
NEPCON NAGOYA SEPTEMBER 18-20, 2019 PORTMESSE NAGOYA, JAPAN
ELECTRONICS DEVELOPMENT / IMPLEMENTATION EXHIBITION
Website :www.nepconjapan-nagoya.jp E-mail : visitor-eng.inw-n@reedexpo.co.jp
ELECTRONICA INDIA SEPTEMBER 25-27, 2019 GREATER NOIDA, INDIA
INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIR FOR ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS, SYSTEMS AND APPLICATIONS
Website :electronica-india.com E-mail : info@mm-india.in
ELECTRONICASIA OCTOBER 13-16, 2019 HONG KONG
ELECTRONIC COMPONENT & TECHNOLOGIES
Website : www.enggexpo.in E-mail : info@enggexpo.in
dont compete with rivals, make them irrelevant
Website : m.hktdc.com E-mail : hktdc@hktdc.org
AIRTEC MUNICH OCTOBER 14-16, 2019 MUNICH
AEROSPACE MEETS AUTOMOTIVE – INNOVATIONS IN MOBILITY
Website :airtec.aero E-mail : airtec@demat.com
EMOVE 360° MUNICH OCTOBER 15-17, 2019 MUNICH
TRADE FAIR FOR MOBILITY 4.0 – ELECTRIC, CONNECTED, AUTONOMOUS
Website :www.emove360.com E-mail : info@munichexpo.de
CHINA ELECTRONICS FAIR SHANGHAI OCTOBER 30- NOVEMBER 01, 2019 SHANGHAI
EXHIBITION OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION INDUSTRY IN CHINA
EP CHINA SHANGHAI NOVEMBER 05-07, 2019 SHANGHAI
INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIR FOR ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS, SYSTEMS AND APPLICATIONS
Website : www.epchinashow.com E-mail : power@adsale.com.hk
SEMICON EUROPA MUNICH NOVEMBER 12-15, 2019 MUNICH
INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIR FOR SEMICONDUCTOR TECHNOLOGY
Website :www.semiconeuropa.org E-mail : semiconeuropa@semi.org
PRODUCTRONICA MUNICH NOVEMBER 12-15, 2019 MUNICH
INTERANTIONAL TRADE FAIR FOR INNOVATIVE ELECTRONICS PRODUCTION
Website :productronica.com E-mail : info@productronica.de
MODELL + TECHNIK STUTTGART NOVEMBER 21-24, 2019 STUTTGART
THE FAIR AROUND MODELLING AND ELECTRONICS
Website :www.messe-stuttgart.de E-mail : info@messe-stuttgart.de
AUTOMECHANIKA SHANGHAI DECEMBER 03-06, 2019 SHANGHAI
TRADE FAIR FOR AUTOMOTIVE PARTS, ACCESSORIES, EQUIPMENT, AND SERVICES
Website :automechanika-shanghai. hk.messefrankfurt.com E-mail : auto@hongkong.messefrankfurt.com
Website : icef.com.cn E-mail : cefinfo@ceac.com.cn
India's No. 1
B2B Media on Industrial Tech
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ICT CLOUD
AMAZON WEB SERVICES ANNOUNCES AWS BACKUP
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Centralized backup service makes it easier and more costeffective for customers to automate backups of their data and meet business and regulatory requirements Amazon Web Services announced AWS Backup, a fullymanaged, centralized backup service that makes it faster and simpler for customers to back up their data across AWS services and on-premises, helping customers more easily meet their business and regulatory backup compliance requirements. AWS Backup makes protecting storage volumes, databases, and file systems easier by giving customers a single service to configure and audit the AWS resources they backup, automate backup scheduling, set retention policies, and monitor recent backups and restores in one place. As enterprises move more and more applications to the cloud, their data can become distributed across multiple services, including databases, block storage, object storage, and file systems. While these services in AWS provide backup capabilities, customers often create custom scripts to automate scheduling, enforce retention policies, and consolidate backup activity across several services in order to better meet their business and regulatory compliance requirements. AWS Backup removes the need for custom solutions or manual processes by providing a centralized place to manage backups across AWS. With just a few clicks in the AWS Management Console, customers can create a policy that defines how frequently backups are created and how long
they are stored. Customers can then assign these policies to their AWS resources, and AWS Backup automatically handles the rest by automatically scheduling backup actions for the assigned AWS resources, orchestrating across AWS services, and managing their retention period. “As the cloud has become the default choice for customers of all sizes, it has attracted two distinct types of builders. Some are tinkerers who want to tweak and fine tune the full range of AWS services into a desired architecture, and other builders are drawn to the same breadth and depth of functionality in AWS, but are willing to trade some of the service granularity to start at a higher abstraction layer, so they can build even faster,” said Bill Vass, VP of Storage, Automation, and Management Services, AWS.
IBM TOPS U.S. PATENT LIST WITH 9,100 PATENTS
HID GLOBAL LAUNCHES HID ORIGO CLOUD PLATFORM
IBM’s inventions include use of AI to help people converse, protect the earth’s lakes and combat voice phishing IBM inventors received a record 9,100 patents in 2018, marking the company’s 26th consecutive year of U.S. patent leadership. IBM led the industry in the number of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, cybersecurity and quantum computingrelated patent grants. “IBM is committed to leading the way on the technologies that change the way the world works – and solving problems many people have not even thought of yet,” said Ginni Rometty, IBM chairman, president and CEO. “Our clients and their customers are the beneficiaries of these innovations, particularly our leadership in AI, cloud, blockchain and security for business.” Overall, nearly half of the 2018 patents relate to pioneering advancements in AI, cloud computing, cybersecurity, blockchain and quantum computing. The industry-leading 1,600 AI patents IBM inventors were granted in 2018 include new ways to use AI to help us converse and protect the earth’s lakes and waterways. AI also played a large role in the more than 1,400 cybersecurity patents IBM inventors were granted in 2018, including an AI-powered security approach to combat voice phishing.
HID Global is availing its HID Origo cloud platform that opens a brand-new world of opportunities for partners to create more seamless and intuitive workplace experiences that are built on HID’s proven access control infrastructure. The platform combines HID’s technologies for mobile IDs (and location services in the future) with its expansive access control architecture to bring together physical security and a wide range of building applications, services and IoT use cases via a unified cloud experience. “HID Origo lays the foundation for a broad ecosystem of cloud-based access control technologies, products, services and business models that will accelerate workplace innovation; it dramatically increases our partners’ capabilities to create more connected and seamless building experiences for end users,” said Hilding Arrehed, Vice President of Cloud Services, Physical Access Control, with HID Global. “The platform will remove integration barriers between access control systems and smart building applications, and we will continue to expand its value with capabilities that further improve how people securely move through a facility and interact with its services.”
BISINFOTECH // FEBRUARY 2019
CLOUD ICT
PUBLIC CLOUDS LOSE THE BATTLE FOR DR BUDGETS Last year was one of substantial change in data protection as organizations grappled with new privacy regulations, exceedingly sophisticated ransomware attacks, and cloud-first disaster recovery strategies that ushered in unexpected costs and heightened risks of data loss. Arcserve Names Three Predictions for 2019 and Their Impact Over the Next 12 Months: Public cloud envy ends as sticker shock sets in Many organizations have adopted cloud-first strategies to benefit from the increased agility and economies of scale, however they face unexpected and significant fees associated with the movement and recovery of data in public clouds. Because of this, more organizations will scale back from using public clouds for disaster recovery (DR) and instead, leverage hybrid cloud strategies and cloud service providers (CSPs) who offer private cloud solutions with predictable cost models.
AI-powered solutions help IT teams work smarter A year in technology can be measured in seconds, with new capabilities transforming the way we interact with, and protect, critical business data. Over the coming year, organizations can expect data protection solutions to go beyond real-time insight and incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that can predict and avert unplanned downtime from physical disasters before they happen. These solutions will automate DR processes, intelligently restoring the most frequently accessed, cross-functional or critical data first and proactively replicate it to the cloud before a downtime event occurs. Cost concerns drive uptick of selfmanaged DRaaS in channel community The “as-a-service” model is growing at lightning speed, and this trend will continue in the next 12 months. Specifically, selfmanaged Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) will increase in prominence as
organizations seek to realize the cloud’s full value as a DR option with a lower investment than managed DRaaS. In response, channel partners will add more self-service options to support growing customer demand for contractually guaranteed recovery time and point objectives (RTOs/RPOs) while expanding their addressable market without the responsibility of managing customer environments. “It’s clear that companies are getting serious about data protection and will invest a significant amount of time and money into making sure they have the rights tools, resources and services to keep their invaluable corporate data safe,” said Oussama El-Hilali, VP Products at Arcserve. “However, if 2018 showed us anything, it’s that businesses still need quite a bit of education when it comes to managing their data in a cost-effective and efficient way. It’s going to be interesting to see how leaders address and rectify the challenges they previously faced as they head into 2019.”
TO THE NEW ACHIEVES HIGHEST PARTNERSHIP TIER
SMITHFIELD ADOPTS SAP WORKLOADS
TO THE NEW announced that they have achieved the highest partnership tier, Premier Consulting Partner status in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner Network (APN). Joining an elite group, this status recognizes partners globally that have made significant investments in their AWS practice and hold extensive experience in deploying solutions on AWS. It also takes into consideration the number of trained and certified technical consultants, other AWS competencies attained, and project management expertise. TO THE NEW has a team of more than 750 technologists, and provides end-to-end development for web, mobile, and smart TV platforms. The team also includes Quality Assurance (QA) automation engineers, big data scientists, and AI/ML experts. The team helps customers build their AWS Cloud adoption strategy, set up new applications on AWS, migrate legacy applications and infrastructure from data centers, DevOps automation, and 24*7 managed services. On this achievement, Deepak Mittal, CEO at TO THE NEW commented “Being recognized as an AWS Premier Consulting Partner is a significant milestone for us. We have been working in close collaboration with the AWS team for several years to build cutting-edge and cost-efficient cloud solutions for our customers across industries including media, mutual funds, insurance, and public sectors".
Virtustream announces that Smithfield Foods has successfully completed the migration of all SAP systems onto a single, unified S4/HANA SAP platform on Virtustream Enterprise Cloud. According to research from Forrester, 86 percent of organisations describe their cloud strategy as multi-cloud today. While 58 percent of those organisations are looking for improved performance with their multi-cloud strategy, 52 percent are looking to achieve cost savings. By consolidating their SAP applications onto Virtustream Enterprise Cloud, Smithfield is realising both goals, while also freeimng up resources for internal teams to focus on innovation.“To accomplish the next phase of our digital transformation journey, we needed a provider that had deep expertise and understood our specific requirements for mission-critical applications and multi-cloud support,” said Julia Anderson, Global CIO, Smithfield Foods. “In selecting Virtustream, we have already seen incredible results such as reducing our IT costs by consolidating SOWs and right-sizing our VMs to future proof our legacy infrastructure.” Through meticulous preparation, Smithfield and Virtustream developed a strategy, which resulted in the “One SAP” project, launched in July 2018 to move all of Smithfield’s operations for SAP to Virtustream Enterprise Cloud.
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ICT UPDATES
KONECRANES OPTS SIEMENS’ DIGITAL INNOVATION PLATFORM Siemens has lately announced that its digital innovation platform has been opted by Konecranes. The Siemens digital innovation platform touts to accelerate its product development process and connect product and performance data together. The company is using MindSphere, the open, cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) operating system, and the Teamcenter portfolio, the world’s most widely used digital lifecycle management software, to leverage the digital twin and reduce the number of physical prototypes, which helps to increase efficiency and decrease product validation time. The Konecranes proof of value is one of the first implementations of IoT to develop a framework that connects and synchronizes the virtual (engineering design, analysis and simulation) and physical (testing and operational reliability) worlds. Today design, simulation and prototype testing organizations operate in their own silos, often using out of date processes for their work. At Konecranes, a digital
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twin was utilized as the communication approach between all three organizations to review data and provide feedback around engineering, simulation and testing intent. Using the Siemens platform for digital innovation, Konecranes has been able to connect the data from all of these organizations to create one 360 degree view of how prototypes are running and performing, and correlating requirements
to, real world performance data. A closedloop digital twin framework using IoT and product lifecycle management (PLM) technologies can lead to faster design issue resolution and shorter prototyping phases by leveraging virtual sensor data in product simulations to provide accurate results. It can also improve overall quality and a support downstream product lifecycle processes.
AVAYA APPOINTS NEW REGIONAL SALES LEADER
DASSAULT SYSTÈMES PARTNERS FOR AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES
Avaya Holdings announces the appointment of Sanjay Pai, as the Regional Sales Director for the India market. In this role, Sanjay will be reporting to Vishal Agrawal, Managing Director, Avaya, India & SAARC, and will be responsible for leading the north and east markets for Avaya India. “I am eager to work closely with customers and a very talented Avaya team in leading Avaya’s sales for the India market,” said Sanjay Pai, Regional Sales Lead, Avaya India. “Avaya’s massive installed base along with the ability to penetrate new markets and add new customers, presents an unparalleled opportunity to extend our footprint as a major force in both Unified Communications and Contact Centre solutions. With Avaya’s renewed focus on creating stellar customer experiences and commitment to the API economy supported by its open and agile partner ecosystem, Avaya will be the partner of choice for organizations of all sizes.” “I am excited to welcome Sanjay to our team,” said Vishal Agrawal, Managing Director, India & SAARC. “He has a proven track record of driving tangible growth for customers and partners in the unified communications and contact centre space. Sanjay’s varied experience in the field of technology will be an asset for Avaya.”
Cognata’s Autonomous Vehicle Simulation Suite Integrated in Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE Platform Will Provide First-of-itsKind Holistic Solution to Validate Autonomous Mobility Experiences For Car Makers And Their Value Network in virtual worlds Dassault Systèmes and Cognata announce that they are partnering to embed Cognata’s Autonomous Vehicle Simulation Suite into Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform. The partnership will provide a first-of-its-kind solution for autonomous vehicle makers to define, test and experience autonomous driving throughout the development cycle within the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. This will make a fully integrated autonomous vehicle development process resulting in faster, more accurate and safer autonomous vehicles on the road. Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE Platform Provides: • Industry Solution Experiences such as Smart, Safe and Connected to the transportation and mobility industry that transform the way next generation vehicles are designed, produced, delivered and operated. • Cognata’s full product simulation solution leverages deep learning to enable autonomous vehicle manufacturers to run thousands of different scenarios based on various geographic locations, traffic patterns, and weather conditions.
BISINFOTECH // FEBRUARY 2019
UPDATES ICT
AUTOMATION ANYWHERE ROLLSOUT NEW DIGITAL WORKER Automation Anywhere unveils human-centric Digital Workers to help organizations augment their human workforce and accelerate digital transformation. With an aim to create the world’s first marketplace for the workforce of the future, the company is pioneering the concept of ready-to-deploy digital personas that combine task-oriented, cognitive and analytical abilities to automate repetitive activities. Beginning today, users can download Digital Workers from the Automation Anywhere Bot Store, the company’s online marketplace for off-the-shelf, plugand-play automation, and customize them to fit their unique business processes. With Digital Workers, organizations can rapidly scale their automation initiatives to drive productivity, efficiency and growth. “Our vision is to transform the enterprise
into an engine of unconstrained innovation, with cutting-edge automation and intelligent tools,” said Mihir Shukla, CEO and Co-founder of Automation Anywhere. “Today, we are taking a bold step forward, unveiling the first Digital Workers that not only enhance business performance, but also help unleash untapped human potential. We believe that this new, cognitive technology will liberate human workers, enabling them to focus on value-added activities and pursue new skills that exercise their creativity and ingenuity.” While software bots are typically task or process-centric, Digital Workers are human-centric – built to augment human workers in specific business functions, across a range of verticals. Some examples for Digital Workers in the Bot Store include a Digital Accounts Payable Clerk, Digital Talent Sourcer and Digital Talent Acquisition Coordinator. Over the
next year, the company, with its growing ecosystem of channel partners, system integrators and developers, expects to see innovation around hundreds of Digital Workers across functions and industries. Bot Store users can now leverage Digital Workers to expand the automation footprint of their organizations and infuse artificial intelligence into their business processes. The Bot store is focused on increasing the speed and adoption of automation with bot deployment — and now with Digital Workers. “The idea of a human-centric Digital Worker that augments the abilities of our employees has the potential to be truly transformative”, said Ravi Konda, senior manager of Automation at Symantec. “It shifts our thinking from – what tasks can we automate to what roles can we augment and enhance, which is a great way to approach automation.”
THOUGHTWORKS E4R SYMPOSIUM 2019 CONCLUDED
GCR NEW BRAND IDENTITY STATES INDIA HOME-MARKET
ThoughtWorks recently hosted the second edition of the Engineering for Research (E4R) symposium in Pune on January 19, 2019. This edition focused on the need and approaches to understand, and compute complex systems. Discussions centered on how the noble missions of grand exploration and big science need engineering excellence to become a reality. The E4R symposium hosted leading academicians, scientists, engineers and professionals from a diverse range of fields like physics, biology, economics and software engineering. The event saw representation from ISRO, University of Delhi, NIAS, IIM-A, IIT Mumbai and TCS Research who are at the forefront of the complex systems space. Gunjan Shukla, Head of ThoughtWorks’ Engineering for Research Initiative had this to say on what E4R aims to accomplish, “We want to build a community that will work with research organizations to craft tools for scientific exploration. This exploration will go on to discover patterns, frameworks and the computer science of the future.” On the event, she said, “The E4R symposium is a platform for multidisciplinary collaboration. This year, we chose the theme; complexity in systems - an important scientific concern that emerges from interactions of parts within a system.” On the pursuit of studying complex systems, Dr. Sanjay Jain, Head of Department of Physics and AstroPhysics, University of Delhi, who was the keynote speaker said, “Complexity is an integral characteristic of several systems that are crucial for human survival.
Global Channel Resources (GCR) announces major transformations that have been brought into the company. The company has now said to have unveiled new ‘Brand Identity’ which inculcates: • An upgraded website, with a new tagline: ‘Transforming Business the Digital Way’ • Declared India as its home-market for GCR’s global business strategy • Partnership with over 200 partners to offer over 300 IoT and Networking Infrastructure solutions on its Partners Platform GCR has undergone a makeover bringing in a new brand identity indicating a higher level of engagement with clients/ partners and brand evolution that would leverage GCR’s expertise to address their business requirements. “Our new and vibrant brand identity is a visual expression of what we follow and believe, for all our stakeholders, including esteemed integration partners, solution partners, service providers, customers, and employees; and this is directly energised and encouraged by our Values. The new brand identity and varied solutions mark GCR as a trusted digital transformation partner, delivering solutions and services at global scale, with localised capabilities, and leveraging cloud computing, networking, analytics, cognitive and emerging technologies” commented Tony Tsao, Founder and CEO, GCR.
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ICT NETWORKING
IBM STRIKES AGREEMENT WITH JUNIPER NETWORKS IBM announced a $325 million agreement with Juniper Networks in which IBM will assist the network technology giant in managing its existing infrastructure, applications and IT services to help reduce costs and enhance their journey to the cloud. As part of the seven-year agreement, IBM will use the IBM Services Platform with Watson to help Juniper Networks’ support systems including data centers, help desks and data and voice networks. "A key element of our digital transformation is to manage the complexities of our global operation and to get the most out of our current investments," said Bob Worrall, Chief Information Officer, Juniper Networks. "In working with IBM Services, we will be able to collaborate with them
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on innovative solutions for our cloud-first business model." In addition, this agreement will allow Juniper Networks to leverage IBM's cognitive technologies to create an agile IT environment. IBM will introduce the "Factory Development" concept for application management, using
automation and cognitive tools, designed to help Juniper drive efficiency, cost savings and assist Juniper Networks toward achieving a cloud-native landscape. "Our work with thousands of enterprises globally has led us to the firm belief that a 'one-cloud-fits-all' approach doesn't work and companies are choosing multiple cloud environments to best meet their needs," said Martin Jetter, Senior Vice President of IBM Global Technology Services. "Working with Juniper, we are integrating cloud solutions with their existing IT investments via the IBM Service Platform with Watson. This gives them the opportunity to generate more value from existing infrastructure, along with helping them manage strategic services that are critical to their business."
BLUEBIRD NETWORK TO BE ACQUIRED BY MIP
ERICSSON LAYS OUT VISION FOR CELLULAR IOT
Bluebird Network to be acquired by Macquarie Infrastructure Partners (MIP) for a transaction details yet undisclosed. MIP is a long-term infrastructure investment fund that is managed by the Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (“MIRA”) division of Macquarie Group. MIP has partnered with Uniti Group to finance the transaction. Uniti will acquire Bluebird’s fiber network and then lease it back to Bluebird under a long-term lease. As part of the transaction, Bluebird will also acquire Uniti’s Midwestern fiber business and receive a long-term lease over Uniti’s Midwestern fiber network, which consists of approximately 2,500 miles of network predominantly in Illinois. Upon completion of the transactions the two adjacent networks will be combined and operated as one company under the Bluebird name. The Company will be operated by the existing Bluebird management team and employee-base headquartered in Columbia, MO, led by Chief Executive Officer, Michael Morey. “We are very pleased to partner with Bluebird’s experienced management team as MIP expands its portfolio of investments in communications infrastructure,” said Karl Kuchel, CEO of MIP. “As bandwidth needs continue to increase, fiber has become the essential backbone for high-performance connectivity networks. We look forward to working with the Bluebird team to growing the platform in the years ahead” “This is an exciting opportunity for Bluebird. The investment by MIP and the addition of the adjacent network uniquely positions Bluebird as a scaled strategic network and data center provider in the Midwest,” added Michael Morey, CEO of Bluebird.
• Outlines evolution of cellular IoT in four segments leveraging new capabilities with 4G and 5G to tap growth opportunities from industry digitalization • Introduces Broadband IoT and Industrial Automation IoT as new segments in addition to Massive IoT and Critical IoT • Launches Massive IoT enhancements and new Broadband IoT solutions on existing LTE networks to enable more advanced use cases Ericsson unveiled the next steps in the evolution of cellular IoT and launched new solutions that will enable service providers to address a larger part of the IoT market with diverse use cases across verticals including automotive, manufacturing, and utilities. Ericsson outlines cellular IoT evolution in four market segments: Massive IoT, Broadband IoT, Critical IoT, and Industrial Automation IoT. Two of these segments are new – Broadband IoT and Industrial Automation IoT. Broadband IoT adopts mobile broadband capabilities for IoT and supports higher data rates and lower latencies than Massive IoT. Industrial Automation IoT will enable advanced industrial automation applications with extremely demanding connectivity requirements. In line with its cellular IoT vision, Ericsson is launching enhanced functionalities for Massive IoT and new solutions for Broadband IoT. One example of Massive IoT enhancement is the NB-IoT Extended Cell Range 100km, which stretches the standards-based limit from around 40km to 100km through software updates without changes to existing NB-IoT devices. This opens huge opportunities in IoT connectivity in rural and remote areas, particularly for logistics, agriculture and environment monitoring. Ericsson has deployed NB-IoT data connections up to 100km with Telstra and DISH.
BISINFOTECH // FEBRUARY 2019
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