Bisinfotech Magazine June Issue 2021

JUNE 2021 80.00

R.N.I. No: DELENG/2019/77352 l VOL 3 l ISSUE 06 l TOTAL PAGES 64 l PUBLISHED ON 1ST OF EVERY MONTH |WWW.BISINFOTECH.COM

UNVEILING

KUBERNETES Presence Detection Changing Space Mangement Storm in Electronic Component Supply

Securing Remote Machine Access Power converters in Railway Application

Automotive Software Development for Next-Gen Vehicles

V2X for ADAS

AC-DC LED Power Supply Based on LCC Topology

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Editorial India leads AI adoption The Covid-19 pandemic that hit the world a year and half ago impeding the lives of both individuals as well as organisations, has forced high technology adoption across the globe, with Indian organisations being dominant in such upgrades.

According to a global study by PwC India, the highest increase in use of artificial intelligence (AI) during COVID-19 times has been witnessed in India.

The study also showed that 94 per cent of the over 200 chief executives in India surveyed said they've either adopted or are planning to implement AI in their companies.

Over 90 per cent companies are implementing or planning to invest in AI solutions to address current business concerns.

AI is deployed across business functions like customer service, finance and tax, HR, IT and cyber security, manufacturing and operations, R&D, risk, legal and compliance, sales and marketing, supply chain and logistics, among others.

It also reveals that optimism with regard to AI in reducing cost and maximising revenue has gone up significantly from 72 per cent to 92 per cent in India , and 45 per cent of organisations have increased the use of AI since the pandemic hit them.

AI is now regarded as a critical factor for firms to emerge from the present crisis, plan and make fundamental changes in their business model for lasting competitive advantage.

To get the best out of AI, companies should start investing in it now rather than waiting for an perfect time.

However, companies also find adopting AI difficult and fail to realise the optimum value from their AI investments. For instance, 37 per cent of them find it challenging to identify the right use cases for AI and 28 per cent lack high-quality data for use in AI solutions.

Organisations of all sizes across different sectors are investing either time or money in Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) today more than ever before.

This is game-changing for business, as they look to leverage automation, natural language processing, data-driven decision-making, and a host of other capabilities.

Happy Reading!!

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

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

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. BisInfotech 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.

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Contents 08 WHITE PAPER 2-PHASE INPUT BASED 300W AC-DC LED POWER SUPPLY BASED ON LCC TOPOLOGY 12 TEST & MEASUREMENT

ADAS – RADAR AN IMPORTANT COMPONENT

14 TECH-EXCLUSIVE

‘PERFECT STORM’ CREATES ELECTRONIC COMPONENT SUPPLY CHAIN SHORTAGES

16 BIG PICTURE ANALOG DEVICES LEADING CREATOR OF AUTOMOTIVE SOLUTIONS SMARTER & GREENER 18

TECH-EXCLUSIVE A DIFFERENTIATED HMI SOLUTION USING CAPACITIVE TOUCH SENSING TECHNOLOGY

Madhukar Tripathi

Associate Director - Optical Business & Marketing, Anritsu India Pvt. Ltd.

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Srinivas Kantheti

Product Line Director, Automotive Technology Group, Analog Devices

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24 COVER STORY

UNVEILING KUBERNETES – THE LEADERS AUTOMATING THE FUTURE

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PRODUCT-FEATURE MORNSUN 75W COST-EFFECTIVE AC-DC DIN-RAIL CONVERTER

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BIG PICTURE HOW TO MANAGE SUPPLY CHAINS IN A RAPIDLY CHANGING MARKET

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POWER-FEATURE HOW TO DESIGN MODULAR DC DC SYSTEMS, PART 1: FOUR STAGES OF DESIGN

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TECHNICAL-FEATURE HOW RELIABLE AND AFFORDABLE PRESENCE DETECTION CAN CHANGE THE SPACE MANAGEMENT OF THE FUTURE

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BIG PICTURE POSSIBILITY OF FULLY AUTOMATED VEHICLES ON INDIAN ROADS IN THE NEAR FUTURE, FARFETCHED!

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BIG PICTURE GLOBALLY, BESS IS EXPECTED TO COMPRISE 50% OF THE ENERGY STORAGE MARKET

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TESTING-OPINION TESTING V2X SYSTEMS

Lee Turner

Global Head of Semiconductors and SBC, element14

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Raghunandan Kamath Radar Software Development Managerat Texas Instruments

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AUTOMATION-FEATURE SECURE CLOUD SERVICES FOR REMOTE MACHINE ACCESS

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TECHNOVATOR CHARGEMYGAADI OFFERS BUDGET FRIENDLY CHARGERS’

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AI-FEATURE CONVERGENCE TOWARD UBIQUITOUS RAS PRODUCT DEPLOYMENT

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AUTOMOTIVE-FEATURE PHYSICS BASED MODELLING FOR POWER ELECTRONIC SYSTEM DESIGN AND VALIDATION USING ANSYS

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Ashish Gaikwad

Managing Director, Honeywell Automation India Limited

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> WHITE

PAPER

2-Phase Input based 300W AC-DC LED power supply based on LCC topology

Akshat JAIN

Staff Engineer, SRA System Research and Application, STMicroelectronics

Fabrizio DI FRANCO

Technical Marketing Manager – Power & Energy, SRA System Research and Applications, STMicroelectronics In recent years, resonant converters have become more popular and are widely applied in various applications like server, telecom, lighting and consumer electronics.

One key attractive characteristic is that a resonant converter can easily achieve high efficiency and allow high frequency operation with their intrinsic wide softs witching ranges. This paper highlight the 300W power supply featuring digital control of half bridge LCC resonant converter along with synchronous rectification.

The STEVAL–LLL009V1 shown in Figure 1, is a digitally controlled 300W power supply.

The primary side constitutes of PFC and DC-DC power stage (half bridge LCC resonant converter) while the secondary side constitutes of synchronous rectification and STM32F334 microcontroller. The DC-DC power stage (half bridge LCC resonant converter) and output synchronous rectification are controlled digitally using STM32F334 microcontroller, while the power factor correction (PFC) stage works in transition mode based on L6562ATD. The evaluation kit can either work in constant voltage (CV) mode or constant current (CC) mode as per requirement. The on-board fast protection circuits guarantee all essential protection features with high reliability. The performance of the evaluation kit developed has been evaluated under AC mains ranging from (270-480V) over the entire range of load. The power quality parameters are within the acceptable limits of harmonic standard IEC 61000-3-2.

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Introduction

The proposed solution adopts a digital conversion control approach rather than the standard design based on analog ICs. The main advantage of the digital control is programming flexibility to tune the parameters and the operating points on the fly, for any given condition, without any HW modification, whereas the analog control can only be tuned for a specific range. Advanced features such as dimming methods (analog or digital), dimming controls (0-10V, Wireless communication), dimming resolution, temperature monitoring, various protections and communication functions tend to be significantly more cost-effective since they can be implemented by a single IC and are easier to implement using digital techniques compared to an analog control. Additionally, the digital control guarantees more stability than analog in noisy conditions: a solution digitally controlled is less sensitive to component tolerance, temperature variations, and voltage drift.

The PFC stage is based on MDmeshTM K5 Power MOSFET while the half bridge of the LCC converter is based on MDmeshTM DK5 Power MOSFETs for high efficiency performance. Synchronous rectification (SR) with STripFETTM F7 Power MOSFETs is employed on the secondary side to reduce conduction losses.

The evaluation kit is equipped with comprehensive safety provisions like open circuit, short circuit, resonant current protection, DC-DC power stage input under voltage and over voltage protection.

Both the primary and secondary sections are supplied by an off-line flyback circuit based on VIPer267KDTR which provides regulated voltages to the control board, the gate driver ICs and the signal conditioning circuits.

The experimental results show high efficiency, power factor near unity, and low THD% under wide input voltage and load conditions due to the performance of the ST power products as well as the control strategies implemented using the 32-bit STM32F334 microcontroller.

Figure 1: STEVAL-LLL009V1 Evaluation Kit

SYSTEM OVERVIEW

The STEVAL-LLL009V1 evaluation kit convert 270 V to 480 V AC mains input voltage to 48 V DC, 6.25 A maximum current in a constant voltage (CV) mode while in constant current (CC) mode it can delivers 6.25 A of current with output voltage ranging from 36 – 48V. The evaluation kit can either be configured in CV mode or CC mode by using the toggle switch SW1 mounted on main power board.

The DC-DC power stage is referred to the primary ground while the microcontroller is referred to the secondary ground.

Thanks to STGAP2DM galvanically isolated half bridge gate driver which drives the DC-DC power stage MOSFETs with the control signal coming from the microcontroller.

Figure 2 present the block diagram of the STEVAL-LLL009V1 evaluation kit which embeds the topologies and components being used for different sections.

Figure 2: Block Diagram of STEVAL-LLL009V1 Evaluation Kit

LCC ResoNANT CONVERTER

The DC-DC power stage converts the PFC output voltage to the desired output voltage. There are various topologies which can be used for DC-DC conversion especially LLC resonant converter and LCC resonant converter etc. Each topology has its own advantages and disadvantages. The applications like battery chargers and LED lighting may require their isolated DC-DC power stages to handle wide input or output voltage ranges. Considering the requirements, the half bridge LCC resonant topology is implemented in DC-DC power stage of STEVAL-LLL009V1 as shown in Figure 3.

On evaluation kit there is a provision of 0-10V input to control the brightness of the LEDs. The dimming control 0-10V is only applicable when the evaluation kit is operated in constant current (CC) mode. The analog dimming approach is implemented in STEVAL-LLL009V1 evaluation kit with a current resolution of 1%.

A daughter card with isolated amplifier serves the purpose of sensing of PFC output voltage that is also the input voltage to the DC-DC power stage.

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Figure 3: Half Bridge LCC resonant stage with sync. rectification

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PAPER

In STEVAL-LLL009V1 the parallel capacitor Cp is connected to the secondary of the transformer. As a result, the parasitic capacitances of the synchronous rectification and the leakage inductance of the transformer becomes a part of the resonant tank.

The PFC output voltage charges the bulk capacitor, in order to generate a stable DC-BUS. The half bridge configuration MOSFETs switches to generate a square voltage waveform between GND and DC-BUS. The square voltage is applied to the LCC resonant tank circuit which comprises of capacitor Cr, capacitor Cp (placed in secondary), inductor Lr and isolation transformer.

The half bridge of the LCC resonant converter high voltage MOSFETs/switches are driven with 50 percent PWM duty cycle and an appropriate dead time. As the approximately sinusoidal resonant tank current always lags the voltage waveform (inductive region) as shown in Figure 4, the MOSFET output capacitance has time to discharge during the dead time before the next turn-on, and achieve zero voltage switching (ZVS). PWM switching frequency control is used to regulate the voltage gain of the resonant tank and keep the converter in the inductive region. This allows ZVS over the entire operating range and reduced switching losses.

The gain of the half bridge LCC resonant converter in the evaluation kit has been analyzed using the fundamental harmonic analysis (FHA) method.

Based on the gain equation derived using FHA method and the LCC parameters selected for half bridge LCC resonant converter in STEVAL-LLL009V1 evaluation kit, the plot between gain and normalized is shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5: HB LCC Converter - Gain vs Normalized Frequency

SYNCHRONOUS RECTIFICATION (SR)

On the secondary side of the transformer shown in Figure 3, the input voltage waveform is rectified by the synchronous rectifier in full bridge configuration and smoothed by output capacitors. The synchronous rectification stage is controlled digitally by the STM32F334 microcontroller.

Synchronous rectification (SR) stage node voltages (VDS_SR1 and VDS_SR2) are sensed to drive SR stage MOSFETs. The MOSFET VDS (Drain-Source voltage) sensing and the control algorithm is explained below.

Figure 4: HB-LCC Stage Waveform @ 100% Load Table 1 : LCC vs LLC Resonant Converter

The sensing network is composed of a fast diode and a pullup resistor connected to the microcontroller (MCU) supply voltage as shown in Figure 6. When the SR MOSFET drain voltage is above the MCU Vcc, the diode is reverse biased and the sensed voltage is pulled up to Vcc. When drain voltage is below Vcc, the diode is forward biased and the sensed voltage is equal to this voltage plus the voltage drop of the diode that gives a positive shift. The current during positive biasing is limited by the pull-up resistor.

Figure 6: Synchronous Rectification VDS Sensing Technique

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Initially the body diode of SR MOSFETs start conducting and VDS is sensed. Thanks to the VDS sensing technique implemented, when the voltage (VDS) falls below the set threshold (Vthreshold_ON – OFF set by MCU DAC peripheral), the comparator output (falling edge) triggers the MCU TIMER peripheral in one pulse non-retriggerable mode as shown in Figure 7.

The MCU TIMER peripheral initiates a pulse to corresponding synchronous rectification gate driver. The pulse sustains for a certain minimum time (TON min).

Figure 8: CV Configuration : Input Voltage vs Eff. % w.r.t. Load

When the voltage (VDS) increases above the set threshold (Vthreshold_ON – OFF set by MCU DAC peripheral), the comparator output (rising edge) resets the MCU TIMER peripherals and correspondingly the pulse is stopped at the corresponding synchronous rectification gate driver as shown in Figure 7.

The MCU continuously monitors the DC-DC power stage (HBLCC) frequency and the output current. In case the frequency exceeds above set threshold with hysteresis or the output current falls below set threshold with hysteresis, the microcontroller (MCU) disable the gate drive to synchronous rectification stage. Thanks to MOSFETs body diode for rectification at this stage. The synchronous rectification gate drive gets enabled when the frequency falls below set threshold with hysteresis or the output current rises above set threshold with hysteresis.

Depending on the DC-DC power stage (HB-LCC) operating frequency, the threshold (Vthreshold_ON – OFF) is being adjusted from the look-up table stored in MCU.

Figure 9: CV Configuration : Input Voltage vs PF w.r.t. Load

Figure 10: CV Configuration : Input Voltage vs THD w.r.t. Load

Figure 7: Synchronous Rectification Digital Control Algorithm

Experimental RESULTS

The overall Efficiency, Power Factor (PF), and Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) of the STEVAL-LLL009V1 has been calculated at different loads. With 100% load, the efficiency is above 93.5%.

Figures 8, 9, 10 and 11 show the evaluation kit performance in terms both in constant voltage (CV) and constant current (CC) configuration.

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Figure 11: CC Configuration : Input Voltage vs Efficiency w.r.t. LED Voltage Drop

The digitally controlled power supply presented in the current work can deliver the power output of 300W both in constant voltage (CV) and constant current (CC) mode.

The experimental results show high efficiency, power factor near unity, and low THD% under wide input voltage and load conditions due to the performance of the ST power products as well as the control strategies implemented using the 32-bit STM32F334 microcontroller. For more details, please contact STMicroelectronics sales office.

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> TEST

& MEASUREMENT

ADAS – RADAR an important component The automobile industry is entering a new paradigm with rapidly advancing technologies where vehicles of the future will incorporate mobile communications technologies and AI implemented as the CASE (Connected, Autonomous, Shared and Electric) revolution. Making CASE a reality will not only solve social issues, such as traffic congestion, energy consumption, and environmental pollution but will also lead to creation of new mobility services contributing to industrial and regional revitalization.

To bring self-driving vehicles and connected cars to market, automobile makers must accurately and reliably test the safety of mission-critical advanced technologies supporting CASE. To reduce road traffic accidents caused by driver errors, countries worldwide are progressing with development of Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) as well as selfdriving vehicles. This progress is supported by various sensor technologies, including radar.

Implementation of self-driving vehicles uses mmWave and highfrequency communication systems for transferring more data, and automobile radar is transitioning to higher frequencies.

Consequently, developers require better solutions, such as wideband spectrum analyzers and signal generators. This article cover use of VNA based measurement for car radar.

With continued customer demand for advanced automotive safety systems like automatic emergency braking, blind-spot detection, lane-change assist, and adaptive cruise control (to name just a few), manufacturers continue to utilize automotive radar systems to enable these functionalities. Radar systems have proven to have inherent advantages that make them an ideal solution (all-weather, better measurements, detection of more objects, easily incorporated in to the design of the car, and more). These radar systems typically fall into three categories: short-range radar (SRR), ultra-wideband SRR (UWB SRR), and long-range radar (LRR)- Figure 1

These impact driver safety and convenience, as well as increasing capacity of roads by maintaining optimal separation between vehicles and reducing driver errors.

Utilizing LRR-provided data (transverse, longitudinal, and relative velocity), ACC is then able to make necessary Madhukar Tripathi adjustments based on the Associate Director - Optical Business & Marketing, Anritsu India Pvt. Ltd. preselected car speed by moderately influencing breaking and acceleration. Typically, the LRR used is designed for an angular range of up to ±10° and a distance range of 10 to 150 m, which enables the adjustment of the automobile’s velocity between 30 to 180 km/h.

SRR and UWB SRR systems, with a shorter range of .5 to 30 meters, are more typically used in automobile safety systems and commonly referred to as advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS). These include functions such as blind spot detection (BSD), collision mitigation (CM), and lane change assist (LCA) radar systems. The focus of these systems is to enable applications like 360° degrees vehicle surveillance, object identification and distinction, rear-end crash avoidance, and car-to-car infrastructure communication (CAR2X).

Car Radar Technology

In almost all ACC systems, a 77 GHz LRR system is used and typically mounted behind the car emblem. Transmit and receive patch antennas of the radar are focused by a dielectric lens and operate at a 4 mm wavelength range. The radar beam looks through the car emblem and the reflected signal from the target is thus exposed twice to the influence of the radome.

While the measurement principle seems intuitively simple, the requirements for automation and safety are enormous.

The advantage of using a frequency modulated continuous wave radar (FMCW radar2) is that not only can it measure the distance of other vehicles, but more importantly, it can directly measure the speed at which they are travelling.

For example, with a range of 10 to 250 meters, LRR systems are often used for adaptive cruise control (ACC) systems.

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The Principle of FMCW Radar

When using an FMCW radar for distance measurements, the output signal frequency continuously changes over the transmission time, usually around 76-77 GHz, and it is linearly modulated to reach a maximum of 81 GHz over a given time period. This waveform is called a chirp. A frame consists of N number of chirps, each lasting for a given chirp time (TChirp).

The bandwidth and slope of each chirp also crucial to the performance of the FMCW radar. These parameters have a direct influence on the maximum range, maximum velocity, and their corresponding resolutions.

In FMCW radars, the chirp configurations control all the basic requirements like maximum range, range resolution, maximum velocity, and velocity resolution. As the range resolution is dependent just on the chirp bandwidth (FChirp), it becomes clear that range accuracy requirements below 10 cm necessitate a bandwidth of 4 GHz (or even larger). This large bandwidth is extremely beneficial as it increases range and velocity resolution, thereby enabling the distinction of objects that are closely spaced. This makes it ideal for features such as automated parking. Whereas the maximum range is mainly dependent on the maximum “designed” IF frequency, the range resolution is determined by chirp time and the chirp bandwidth. Below equation shows the fundamental math behind it.

mmwave Measurement using Anritsu Shockline VNA:

VNAs for mmWave applications have been historically large, heavy, complicated, and very expensive. A new approach that shows significant advantages for these car radar radome and bumper measurements can be seen with the Anritsu ShockLine MS46522B VNA (Figure 10) with option 82 or 83, a dedicated E-band VNA for 55-92 GHz applications. For antenna characterization and material measurement, this kind of VNA is best suited for industrial applications where ease of use along with ruggedized handling and interfacing are major requirements. The ShockLine MS46522B E-band VNAs with options 82 or 83 configuration consists of small tethered source/receiver reflectometer modules and a base chassis.

The modules are attached to the chassis with the option of

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either one or five meter cables that are permanently attached to the unit, making this a compact, ready-touse E-band VNA. The remote, small form factor reflectometer modules (6 x 10 x 4 cm) have native WR12 waveguide interfaces for convenient connection to typical waveguide devices. In addition to their miniature size, these reflectometers provide highly attractive features such as: short/long term thermal stability due to the vanishing thermal gradient across the modules; high amplitude and phase stability; and, raw directivity (to mention a few). Most importantly, placing the sampling directional bridge closest to the AUT/DUT provides long-term amplitude and phase stability. The ShockLine MS46522 has a 3U high chassis and uses simple & easy GUI, software, command syntax, drivers, and programming environments as the rest of the Anritsu ShockLine VNA family. Compatibility to the Interchangeable Virtual Instruments (IVI) Foundation allows users to get the maximum possible measurement speed for their own SCPI-based programs. This enables a reduction in test time, which is an important parameter for antenna or material characterization.

Transmission measurement (S12) -Attenuation and phase shift is important parameter to characterise radome’s cover transmission behaviour. The phase shift of the electromagnetic wave refers to a time delay, which is caused by longer transit time through the dielectric material. The attenuation of the wave is caused by loss of energy inside the material. The attenuation has an influence on the detection range of the radar.

It is possible to visualize the impact of materials in front of the radar by conducting VNA-based transmission and phase measurements. As a result, it is possible to judge if such material might have an influence upon the radar detection range.

Reference:

i) Anritsu Application Note E-Band Based Car Radar Emblem Measurements

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> TECH-EXCLUSIVE

‘Perfect Storm’ Creates Electronic Component Supply Chain Shortages We’re in the midst of what could be called a “perfect storm” that is creating significant supply chain shortages for electronic components.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chains were beginning to show signs of shortages, and the far-reaching effects of the global pandemic starting in 2020 slowed or shuttered production of these essential components for days, weeks or even months at a time.

Now, with the development and rollout of several COVID-19 vaccines, industries are once again beginning to ramp up production, and the demand for electronic components has skyrocketed. Here’s a look at what’s causing pain points, and how purchasing professionals can navigate shortages.

Demand ramps up

Demand for components in nearly every industry is ramping up, all at the same time, including automotive, smart phone, medical and IoT markets, which need increasingly larger numbers of components for finished products.

For example, electric vehicle engines use as many as 22,000 multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) each, and smartphone manufacturers alone use approximately 1.5 trillion MLCCs, accounting for 50 percent of worldwide production.

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Margaret Cunha

Furthermore, Gartner reports the Digi-Key Director of Regional Supply Chain Solutions IoT market is expected to grow by more than six times from $212 billion in 2018, to $1,319 billion in 2026. IoT products like smart home thermostats, doorbells, alarm systems, cameras, appliances, fitness equipment, and more, need sensors and multiple components to run.

While this increased demand certainly puts pressure on suppliers, it is overall a positive sign of recovery.

Suppliers try to keep up

At the same time as demand is increasing rapidly, supply has experienced a significant strain due to the pandemic and exacerbating circumstances.

One major factor that affects many manufacturers is reduced staffing capacity in facilities, in order to allow for social distancing and other workplace COVID prevention policies.

Additionally, freight is taking longer to move, across all industries and countries, for similar reasons, as well as fewer available commercial flights, and port issues that are causing delays in product transfers and receipt of materials, including, of course, the recent blockage of the Suez Canal, which is predicted to create a ripple effect in global trade for several weeks.

Systemic issues such as under-investment in 8-inch fabs has resulted in a real struggle to ramp up production. When there

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is not significant investment in the early stages of a fab, the supply chain can be impacted many years down the road.

Unfortunately, there was an under-investment in this very standard size years ago, which is causing significant issues right now.

With a wide breadth of components, including 2.6 million instock products from more than 1,700 manufacturers, working with global distributors like Digi-Key assures customers that they will likely be able to find what they need among the 11.8 million available products.

Climate change has also created increasingly extreme weather patterns that are putting strains on local areas, such as the drought in Taiwan, which is forcing some manufacturers to truck water in, creating delays that could continue into June 2021.

There have also been several major factory fires affecting commodity production, from the Asahi Kasei Micro (AKM) and Renesas Electronics plant fires in Japan, and the PANJIT International factory fire in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. All of these factories were critical to the production of specific oscillators, semiconductors and chips, and could take several months to get back up and running.

Additionally, Digi-Key is in constant contact with its suppliers and has long-term relationships with key manufacturers and has invested in significant inventory to help customers weather the “perfect storm,” now and into the future. DigiKey has also developed a suite of digital solutions to help customers integrate technology and a digital strategy for faster communication and better use of data for planning and procurement. Digi-Key provides three robust digital solutions including API (Application Programming Interface), EDI (Electronic Data Interchange), and punchout, which all help customers to maximize efficiency and speed, and improve operations through automation.

Despite these challenges, suppliers are doing their best to keep up with demand, working around the clock to get components into the hands of engineers around the world.

Weathering the storm

The good news is that many distributors like Digi-Key predicted this sharp spike in demand several months ago, and proactively invested in inventory, while working closely with suppliers to expedite orders to ensure enough product is on hand for customers, despite worldwide shortages.

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For more information, Digi-Key has published a free Demystifying Digital Transformation for Procurement eBook.

Margaret Cunha is the director of regional supply chain solutions at Digi-Key Electronics. Digi-Key is one of the world’s largest, full-service distributors of electronics components, offering more than 11.8 million products with over 2.6 million in stock and available for immediate shipment, from more than 1,700 quality, name-brand manufacturers.

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> BIG

PICTURE

Analog Devices Leading Creator of Automotive Solutions Smarter & Greener Analog Devices is massively focusing on EV/HEV, 48V and 12V Battery Management Systems, powertrain, cabin electronics and infotainment and power management. In this interview with Niloy from BIS, Srinivas Kantheti, Product Line Director, Automotive Technology Group, Analog Devices elaborates on how Analog Devices technologies are enabling customers to build cars that are safer, environmentally friendly while enjoying rich multimedia content. Edited nub below.

Srinivas Kantheti

Product Line Director, Automotive Technology Group, Analog Devices

Q

The automotive industry in India is bigger than ever before, with electronics and semiconductors playing the lead role. ADI’s focus, offerings and innovations to foster this sector?

Analog Devices is at the forefront of creating smarter and greener solutions to improve the overall automotive user experience. We concentrate heavily on EV/HEV, 48V and 12V Battery Management Systems, powertrain, cabin electronics and infotainment, in addition to power management. Analog Devices technologies allow the customers to build cars that are safer, environmentally friendly while enjoying rich multimedia content.

We have industry-leading precision for battery monitoring in the EV/HEV powertrain Battery Management Systems (BMS).

EVs come with perceived challenges with range and safety concerns and upfront battery costs. Precise measurements enhance the range of the vehicle for a given battery, improve safety and reduce cost (battery capacity for a given mileage).

Our DSP and Automotive Audio Bus (A2B) technologies in cabin electronics and infotainment allow advanced audio and voice applications to be developed and experienced while saving weight and expense. They enable users to

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experience a high-quality audio experience in their home theatres by cancelling road noise and enhancing the audio within the vehicle. Also, we are a leader in 12V Start-Stop Battery Management Solutions to improve the mileage of traditional ICE vehicles. ADI also has solutions in MEMs, crash sensors and other technologies needed for an automobile.

One of our recent innovations that is path-breaking is the WBMS (Wireless Battery Management Systems). Batteries are cells assembled into modules and arranged as packs to meet the high-power requirement of EV automotive power train systems. These modules are organized in multiple topologies and a robust communication framework is needed within the high electromagnetic interference (EMI) environment of an EV/HEV. The traditional approach has been to daisy chain the batteries to read the measurements using CAN / isoSPI interface. Instead of these two, each module is interconnected through a wireless link in a wireless BMS device.

Wireless BMS represents a major advancement for large multicell battery stacks for electric and hybrid/electric vehicles that offer the potential for better reliability, lower cost and reduced wiring complexity.

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Q

The technology trends expected earlier in 2020 had not been as reckoned due to the pandemic, though newer trends and sectors, specifically digital-driven and empowerment of technology, created sustainability and helped during the pandemic. According to you, this year (2021), what are the key trends you foresee that will drive the semiconductor business?

Key trends that will drive the semiconductor business apart from the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence include: • Connectivity: 5G will be the fourth technological revolution, powered by the integration of digital and physical technology, such as digital connectivity, cloud and edge computing, IoT and smart devices, AI, robotics, Blockchain and AR/VR. 5G will improve the autonomous car adoption rates.

• Sensors: While the quality of our images will improve with more pixels and cameras, smart sensors enable us to choose the best shots as well. Other sensors are also catching up to replicate human capabilities beyond image sensors. For example, sensors in the future cars will monitor the health of the patient, driver drowsiness and can warn of a serious situation well in advance.

automotive space, we have been partnering with several Tier-1 customers to develop advanced technologies around Automotive Road Noise cancellation systems, spawning multiple technologies like processing, connectivity etc.

Q

What are the key innovations of ADI for a connected automotive future?

We transition from independent, manually driven and fossilfuel vehicles to interconnected, electrified vehicles that are fueled by a range of renewable energies. It is a development that is sustainable for this planet. It gives us a tremendous opportunity to make vehicles more capable and robust through our strengths, expertise and record in the automotive industry.

The electrification of the car encourages a revolution in battery technology. Electrification is now at the forefront of many innovations in automobile safety. Analog Devices products offer the highest level of functional safety standard with features within the IC that check the IC itself. They can also sense a potential battery fire and alert the user well in advance, thus protecting the user’s life and saving the valuable vehicle from the fire.

Q

Please outline the scope and challenges for EVs, HEVs and connected automotive technologies in India. What • Data: Storage technologies have grown from core storage to a hybrid multi-cloud infrastructure with big data on the rise. are the scope and challenges?

• The future of electric vehicles remains bright. Rising fuel prices • Artificial Intelligence: It will be crucial in moving from cloud- and pollution are sufficient reasons to drive EV adoption by based AI to edge-based AI to allow decision-making in consumers in India. However, EV adoption is reliant on creativity real-time. It is particularly important in autonomous mobility. and public incentives. The government must concurrently fight the slowdown and invest in technologies for the future.

• With the digital transition of businesses, semiconductors are playing a significant role. A macroeconomic pattern post- • While government incentives are not lacking in India, some COVID normalization is a tailwind for semiconductors exposed of the challenges that persist for EVs and HEVs are: to much more cyclical automotive and industrial sectors.

• Shortage of infrastructure charging amenities These are all in addition to the automotive semiconductors • Reliance on imported batteries and imported parts for the that are driving greener, smarter and intelligent cars. products leading to higher cost of EVs/HEVs. Developing core Creating newer ecosystems through collaborations and technologies for battery manufacturing is a key need of the driving consolidated innovations seems pivotal. What hour for the country. are ADI’s strategies that will drive newer business models for growth in this new environment?

• Lack of high-performance EV options The global automotive industry is undergoing a paradigm shift where safety, energy efficiency, and environmental • Shortage of solutions for quality maintenance and repair sustainability have emerged as the key themes.

• The slowdown in the wider automotive sector due to COVID Analog Devices works with partners and customers to deliver impact pathbreaking solutions, thereby enabling them to be in the driver seat for specific segments. At the heart of it, the company follows an ethos of developing tech-first solutions. Analog Devices has been innovating and developing grounds-up solutions in the space of WBMS, autonomous driving and cabin electronics, to name a few.

Q

For example, in the communications space, Analog Devices has partnered with Intel Corporation to develop a scalable radio infrastructure to meet the demands of 5G network growth and help clients scale 5G networks faster and cheaper. In the

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> TECH-EXCLUSIVE

A Differentiated HMI Solution using Capacitive Touch Sensing Technology Jaya Bindra

Vibheesh Bharathan

Sr. Applications Manager, Connected Secure Systems | Infineon Technologies

Principal Engineer, Connected Secure Systems | Infineon Technologies

Capacitive sensing is a popular interfacing alternative to switches and knobs in consumer electronics, industrial and automotive front panel applications. IoT devices span across consumer, industrial, and business applications. All these applications can benefit from a sleek user interface, with product-differentiating features such as a touch display, buttons/sliders, proximity sensing, and intelligent touch switches for smart homes. For the best user experience, touch displays may also need to be able to support gesture recognition, water resistance, wrist detection, and gloved touch. Each of these features can be implemented using capacitive sensing technology in a manner that enables intuitive ways for users to interact with the product.

surface for the button. There are two types of sensing methods commonly used in capacitive touch sensing applications.

Self-Capacitive Sensing (CSD)

Figure 2: Self-Capacitive Sensing (CSD) Method

Figure 1: Touch enabled Home Appliance (Example)

CapSense Basics

CapSense (www.cypress.com\capsense) is an Infineon’s capacitive touch sensing technology. It works by measuring changes in the capacitance between a plate (the sensor) and its environment to detect the presence of a finger on or near a touch surface. A typical capacitive sensor consists of a copper pad of proper dimensions on the surface of a PCB, where a nonconductive overlay serves as the touch

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CSD – CapSense Sigma-Delta is Infineon’s preoperatory self-capacitance sensing method. A sensor is nothing but a conductive object connected to a PSoC MCU pin. Sensor can be constructed using a copper pad on PCB, transparent materials such as ITO or silver-oxide printed on glass for Touchscreens, it could be even conductive paint printed in non-conductive material or even as simple as a wire. The highperformance touch sensing engine measures capacitance of electrode w.r.t ground. The algorithms in touch firmware library identifies touch pattern and user interactions. Self-cap sensing is used in interface that support one finger operation such as buttons, slider, proximity sensor and touchscreen with one finger operation.

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Mutual-Capacitive Sensing (CSX)

Figure 3: Mutual-Capacitive Sensing (CSD) Method

CSX – is Infineon’s preoperatory mutual-capacitance sensing method. As the name suggests, Mutual-capacitance works by measuring the capacitance between two electrodes, the transmit (Tx) and receive (Rx) electrodes. When a finger is placed between the Tx and Rx electrodes, the CM decreases.

Because of the reduction in CM. the charge received on the Rx electrodes also decreases. The capacitive-sensing system measures the amount of charge received on the Rx electrode to detect a touch/no touch condition. Example of an application that benefits from mutual-cap is touchscreen that can simultaneous detect multiple finger touches.

Challenges in designing a Robust Touch HMI Solution

Building a robust and reliable capacitive sensing system gives many challenges to an embedded designer. Detecting a finger touch on touch panel requires measuring capacitance in range of femto farads. There are several noise sources that can affect the measurement, hinder the operation and create false touch detection. These noise sources include but not limited environmental factors, liquid presents, metal objects, dust, moisture, wet, extreme temperatures or electrical noise such as conducted and radiated noises from other equipment.

The touch interface must reliably work in all these conditions, should meets the EMC & EMI and regulatory requirements.

A good reliable touch HMI design should consider Robustness, Response Rate, Low Power and Aesthetics & Form Factor.

Robustness

Infineon offers a high performance, robust solution with high immunity t various noise sources and it works reliably in harsh operating conditions. The high immunity from external noise sources in is built into silicon hardware and the extensive firmware algorithms that hides this silicon complexity and gives a reliable Capacitive Touch sensing solution. Some of the important parameters that helps provide robust solution includes: • Signal to noise ratio: This is the most important specification for a design. A high SNR is indicative of a highly reliable touch interface. Infineon’s advanced sensing algorithms provides reliable performance even in noisy environments with Signalto-Noise Ratio (SNR) of > 100:1.

• Robust Liquid Tolerance: Touch sensing must work reliably in presence of water droplets, rain, mist and other liquids

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and protect from false touches even under streaming water.

Infineon’s capacitive sensing with drive shield electrode guards the sensor from liquids. The hybrid sensing (ability to perform multiple types of measurements – self-capacitance, mutual-capacitance and inductive sensing) enables further safe guard against complex failure conditions by making decision logics based on data from multiple sensing methods on same interfaces. This is very useful and important for outdoor equipment and as well as Home appliance in which users can spill liquid or clean the panel with soap or wet cloths etc.

• EMC/EMI Compliance: The sensor operating frequency plays an important role noise emission from HMI interface as well as high immunity from external electrical noise sources. Infineon provides several solutions. Spread Spectrum Clock (SSC) and Pseudo random sequencer (PRS) are two methods in which operating clock is spread over a wider range of frequency thus attenuate the noise emission at specific frequencies. This clock spread also protects sensing system is not sensitive to interference from specific frequencies and its harmonics. The Multi-Frequency Scan (MFS) is a method of performing multiple “micro” scan in using multiple narrow band frequencies. This method helps to provide robust performance against both high frequencies conducted and radiated noise sources and is comes handy in meeting EMC/EMI regulatory requirements.

This is very important for touch interface on industrial equipment as it is expected to reliability work in harsh noisy conditions.

• Operating Conditions: The touch sensing interface works by measuring capacitance of touch sensors which may be sensitive to environmental factors such as humidity and temperature around the sensors. High immunity from such factors surrounding touch sensor is important for equipment that are subjected to changing surroundings such as Cooktop (fast change in temperature). The Capacitive touch sensing solutions implements relative measurement to detect user interaction on sensors to overcome this challenge.

As the product becoming smaller and smarter more components are packed into small form factors and this is why high immunity to noise from other electronics components and RF transmitters are important for good HMI interface. Thanks to Infineon’s proprietary sensing method for providing world’s best noise protection in Capacitive HMI solutions for almost decades now.

Response rate

Response rate indicates how quickly the touch HMI can react to a user interaction. For a smoother user experience, a simple touch button interface detecting on or off status requires about 40 Hz report rate. A slider interface or touchscreen interface that detects and tracks finger positions as well as detect Gesture requires response rate about between 60 to 120 Hz for smooth user experience.

Infineon touch solution provides higher than 120 Hz report rate enabling smoother user interface designs. This is achieved using a high-performance delta sigma architecture-based capacitance digital converter and using multiple capacitance to digital converters to sense multiple sensors in parallel to each other in some touch controllers.

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> TECH-EXCLUSIVE Low power

In most products, the touch HMI interface will be active always active including in standby mode of the product as users may use touch interface to wake the product up from standby mode. This emphasis an increased focus on need for low power touch solution, especially for battery powered designs.

Optimizing average power consumption of touch system requires little more than selecting a chip that has lowest datasheet power specs. Selecting a touch controller that offers response rate higher than required for the product helps to put chip in Deepsleep power domain for portion time while maintaining the required response rate. Features and flexibility such as ganged sensing and hybrid sensing allows to optimize scan duration in standby mode and put controller in Deepsleep power domain for longer duration without affecting user interface functionality. The ganged sensing method allows to combine multiple sensors together inside chip and sense it as on giant touch or proximity sensor capable of sensing a touch or proximity event on any of the sensor with shorter scan time. Hybrid sensing allows to scan sensors or ganged sensor using sensing method that uses lowest average power consumption to detect a touch in standby mode. Flexibility to operation sensing subsystem in Sleep or Deepsleep mode where unused peripherals of touch controller can be turned off useful to optimize average power consumption further.

Therefore, one must carefully select a controller with features and flexibility to optimize overall touch HMI power consumption to achieve best results.

Form Factor and Aesthetics

Today’s customers don’t need a product that just fine, they want unique solutions and great aesthetics. For example, Smart Thermostat is not more a just equipment, is a beautiful piece of art in living room wall. These products require everything to be elegant including an HMI interface. It is worth to note many successful products that emerged in last decade has great touch HMI and aesthetics. As the IoT product becoming smaller and smaller with more components packed into small form factors, it is challenging to design a touch interface with limited space available on the product.

quickest way to implement a touch interface a product, even with beginner who does not have prior experience with capacitive sensing can quickly and easily complete the design.

Figure 4: MBR - Configurable Touch Controllers

PSoC 4 MCU (www.cypress.com/PSoC4) device family is Infineon’s programmable MCU with touch interface.

Programmability gives greater flexibility to implement complex interfaces and fine tune performance of touch interface.

The programmable analog and digital blocks in PSoC 4 devices allow to customize your analog-front-end, enabling you to easily integrate intelligent analog sensors into your application. Programmable wired communication (USB, CAN, I2C, SPI, UART) and wireless communication (BLE) integrated into some PSoC 4 devices simplifies RF design and interfacing with external devices. PSoC 4 simplifies complex HMI interfaces such as capacitive and inductive sensing enabling sleek, robust, and easy-to-use interfaces

Designing a small form factor touch interface demands a high-performance touch sensing system that can detect a touch signal as small as femto-farads, enhanced immunity to defend various noise challenges a tightly packed company design may pose, flexibility to support wide ranges of sensor designs and a scalable hardware and software architecture.

One can find all of these in Infineon’s touch sensing solution as result of 2 decades of technology innovation.

CapSense enabled PSoC MCUs

Infineon’s capacitive touch technology is offered mainly under 3 variants: MBR devices (https://www.cypress.com/products/capsensembr3), a configurable CapSense controller that does not require firmware development or manual tuning, that allows to quickly and easily replace mechanical buttons with sleek & reliable touch user interface. This is one of the easiest and

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Figure 5: PSoC 4 MCU- Programmable Touch Controllers

Figure below shows Touch HMI enabled PSoC 4 CapSense portfolio which have more capabilities in addition to touch sensing, that makes them suitable for HMI Plus Sensor or System controller and many more. For example, Integrated CapSense + Analog Front End (AFE) + Digital Peripherals makes them ideal for low memory footprint applications (i.e.

Housekeeping MCUs).

PSoC 6 MCU (www.cypress.com/psoc6) device family from Infineon has lot more than HMI interface. It is purpose built dual core application processor for IoT applications. This device is suitable for Embedded IoT applications providing touch HMI, wireless connectivity, security, graphics and lot more.

Figure above shows PSoC 6 portfolio.

Key features of PSoC 6 MCU are 150-MHz and 100-MHz dual-core Arm® Cortex®-M4 and Arm Cortex-M0+ ultra-lowpower 40-nm architecture. Industry-leading ultra-low-power design that consumes as little as 22-μA/MHz in active power mode. Best-in-class Wi-Fi connectivity options enabled with ModusToolbox and cloud services support like Amazon Web Services and Integrated, hardware-based ‘Secure Execution Environment (SEE)’ with secure data storage.

Comprehensive Software Solution with Intuitive GUI interface (ModusToolbox)

Implementing a robust touch embedded system requires a great silicon and an easy use software solution, that is why Infineon provides a state-of-the-art touch library with Modus toolbox IDE, that enables quick implementation of a touch interface with few API calls on CapSense enabled programmable MCUs.

Figure 6: PSoC 6 MCU - Purpose Built IoT Host Controllers

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CapSense Middleware Touch Firmware library provides set of APIs to quickly implement robust touch user interface of end product. Additionally, a graphical interface-based wizard to customize firmware library and create interfaces, widgets and configure that suite each application. The Tuner Software tool is a real-time performance analysis software tool providing tuning, testing, validation and debugging support I2C, UART, Bluetooth interface capabilities.

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Figure 7: CapSense Solution in ModusToolbox

Reference

Read Infineon CapSense Design Guides Comprehensive and ideal documents for those who want to design touch HMI. It guides from concept through production and helps to overcome various system level challenges in create robust touch HMI for your product.

• › CapSense Capacitive-Sensing Overview Web Page https://www.cypress.com/products/cypress-sensing-technologies • › Getting Started With CapSense Application Note https://www.cypress.com/documentation/application-notes/ an64846-getting-started-capsense • › ModusToolbox CapSense Configurator Guide - https:// www.cypress.com/file/520281/download • › PSoC 4 and PSoC 6 MCU CapSense Design Guide https://www.cypress.com/documentation/application-notes/ an85951-psoc-4-and-psoc-6-mcu-capsense-design-guide

Start with a Code Example Start and complex code examples for CapSense touch HMI solutions • › Code Examples for ModusToolbox Software on GitHub - https://github.com/cypresssemiconductorco/Code-Examplesfor-ModusToolbox-Software

Reach out to us on the Cypress Developer Community for help!

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PSoC MCU Dev Kits in 3 Flavors You can evaluate PSoC MCUs with a variety of Dev Kits. There are fully featured “Pioneer” Kits which provide enhanced functionalities such as on-board sensors, CapSense, on-board wireless and Arduino® shields to add displays, external sensors, and more. All CapSense Dev Kits can be viewed here - https:// www.cypress.com/cypress-store

Author

Vibheesh Bharathan A dynamic marketeer with strong engineering background in system design and semiconductor fields. Vibheesh Bharathan is a Product Marketing Manager responsible for Touch sensing technology portfolio of MCU product line at Infineon Technologies AG. He has over 15 years of experience in technical and business roles and enjoys technology and business development. Vibheesh can be reached at Vibheesh.Bharathan@Infineon.com Jaya Kathuria Bindra Works as a Sr Manager Applications Engr at Cypress Semiconductor Corporation where she is managing the Embedded Applications Group and Solutions Development using the PSoC and WiFi/BT platform. She has 17+ years of experience in the Semiconductor Industry. She earned her MBA credential from IIM, Bangalore and holds a bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering from the Kurukshetra University. Jaya can be reached at Jaya.Bindra@ Infineon.com

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> COVER

STORY

Bikram Gupta

Product Manager for DigitalOcean-Kubernetes, DigitalOcean

Unveiling Kubernetes – The Leaders Automating the Future

- Nitisha Dubey

An open source that automates your manual task related to in deploying, managing, and scaling containerized applications is known as the Kubernetes or one can say k8s. Kubernetes is an ideal platform for hosting cloud-native applications that require rapid scaling, like real-time data streaming through Apache Kafka. It was originally made by Google’s engineers.

This is the first company which talks about how everything at Google runs in containers. Kubernetes makes each cloud services task convenient for its users. For developing an app for cloud, kubernetes plays a major role. While focusing on the same scenario, Nitisha Dubey from BISinfotech talks with Sachin

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Mishra, Chief Operating Officer, Protonshub Technologies and Bikram Gupta, Product Manager for DigitalOcean- Kubernetes, DigitalOcean.

Solutions Catering Kubernetes Technology

DigitalOcean, a leading cloud computing platform has a mission of simplifying cloud computing so developers and businesses can spend more time creating software that changes the world. DigitalOcean provides mission-critical infrastructure and fully managed offerings for developers, startups, and small and medium-sized businesses.

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signature simplicity to the Kubernetes experience. Users can set up a Kubernetes cluster in minutes just by selecting a data center region and specifying the cluster capacity required for their needs. The managed service includes a free control plane and provides customers with a free quota of egress bandwidth depending on their Droplet selection.

Protonshub Technologies comprises of certified IT professionals keen to offer exemplary Web Design Services, Custom Software Development Services, Web Application Development Services, and Mobile Application Development Services including Native iOS Development and Advanced Android Application Development. The company’s core services are backed by remarkable implementation of modern effective technologies that one can count upon in 21st century namely the Block chain Development, Cloud Computing, PHP, Java, AI, Node.JS, MongoDB, UI/UX Design, and much more.

Industry Leaders on Kubernetes

While talking about DigitalOcean, Bikram says that in 2020, we introduced a fully managed Platform as a Service offering called DigitalOcean App Platform, which allows developers to focus on building their apps and not on managing the underlying infrastructure. App Platform is built on Kubernetes and other associated open-source technologies. In designing the service, we followed the same principles of cloud-native architecture that Kubernetes enables, which allows customers to benefit from the power of Kubernetes while still having a developer-friendly and simple experience.

Sachin Mishra

Chief Operating Officer, Protonshub Technologies

DigitalOcean Managed Kubernetes (DOKS) was launched into general availability in 2019. The solution brings DigitalOcean’s

On the other hand, Sachin says, being dynamic software, we help our clients decide better on Migration to Kubernetes and Business Flow Optimization of Micro services. Our consulting experts will give you tips on simplification of Container Orchestration, CD/CI Process and further Scaling and Smoothening up the performance of multiple applications with Kubernetes. Continuous and expedite deployment of Kubernetes is what is found as challenge by most of the service providers in which we can proudly say that Protonshub Technologies is pretty phenomenal. Our solutions are based upon intelligent deployment, operational efficiency, and accelerated solutions with state-of-the-art infrastructure.

Both the companies have its own speciality which no doubt can improve the daily usage of software or cloud services. The engineers make such services to make our life much easier. Maintaining data or handling cloud computing is a major task nowadays.

Kubernetes and the Market situation

Kubernetes has a major quality of operating an automated, elastic web server platform in production without the vendor lock-in to AWS with the EC2 service. Kubernetes works for public cloud hosting services and all of the major companies offer competitive

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STORY is also a combination of benefits and drawbacks. The most common challenges any organization faces when they deploy Kubernetes are; security concerns (47%), Difficulty in scaling up (37%) and insufficiency of IT resources (34%).

Bikram also shares some similar challenges, he says, Kubernetes require a steep learning curve. Developers need to be comfortable with microservices-based architectures, concepts and terminology around Ops including deploying code and operating apps, in addition to the Kubernetes platform itself.

pricing. Not only that, it also enables the complete outsourcing of a corporate data center. Kubernetes can also be used to scale web and mobile applications in production to the highest levels of web traffic. Kubernetes allows any company to operate its software code at the same level of scalability as the largest companies in the world on competitive data center pricing for hardware resources.

While elaborating the value of Kubernetes, Bikram says Kubernetes helps users to build and deploy cloud-native, portable applications. The developer tooling around Kubernetes has become very mature. For example, one can deploy its working code to a production application on managed services like our Managed Kubernete services or App Platform offering in minutes. One trend we see across the board is around the cost of maintaining infrastructure. Most of the customers are startups and small and medium-sized businesses. They want to focus on building their apps and businesses - and not on managing infrastructure. So, they tend to not have dedicated SRE or DevOps employees. Managed Kubernetes is very helpful for these types of teams because they can grow on this platform easily without needing a dedicated infrastructure staff early on. Additionally, Managed Kubernetes provides the scale on demand so users can focus on writing code for the business.

Sachin also agreed with Bikram, he says, Kubernetes can work virtually with any type of cloud application and is highly portable because it can be used on a variety of infrastructures.

It has the ability to scale its environment from one cloud to another. Kubernetes is a market leader nowadays, there was the time when it arises and never looked back since then.

With its deployment, it has increased the productivity of the organizations and approx 59% of companies are working with it.

Challenges Foreseen

Technology has numbers of pros and cons. At one side, we take all kinds of leverage by using numbers of applications, another side we also face numbers of issues, either its related to security or data management. Kubernetes has also some challenges, emphasizing the challenges Sachin says, Kubernetes

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He also says that the information and resources available about the Kubernetes do not cover many topics beyond “getting started” and introductory concepts. Few resources exist to prepare developers and teams for “Day 2 operations,” including issues they are likely to face when their workloads are deployed into production. Finally, Kubernetes technology is constantly evolving (one release per quarter), which outdates much of the technical content and tutorials within 1-2 years.

Potential Future of Kubernetes

Kubernetes' future is inextricably linked to that of containers and micro services. While shifting to micro services without containers is possible, the benefits aren't as significant. Containers are quickly gaining traction in the software development world, and so does Kubernetes. Because of its deep expertise, business acceptance, and robust infrastructure, it has become the go-to container orchestrator, states Sachin Despite having lots of challenges, Bikram believes that Kubernetes has a bright future, because Kubernetes is becoming the de-facto standard for running containerized workloads for organizations of all sizes - from very large IT departments to fast moving development teams building SaaS apps. Standardized developer workflow will emerge to enable rapid onboarding (from code to running services in the cloud) and iterations (canary, blue-green, rollback) for developers. More and more offerings will take away the effort currently involved in operating Kubernetes - whether it is providing a managed PaaS experience on top of Kubernetes (like DigitalOcean App Platform) or simplifying other aspects of “Day 2 Operations” such as monitoring, logging, CI/CD integration, security, governance etc.

Conclusion

According to a Gartner’s report, by 2022, more than 75% of global organizations will be running containerized applications in production, which is a significant increase from fewer than 30% in 2019. It means that the future of IT sector will be seen a greater impact in upcoming days. Today, we can see the major transformation in IT sector and the reason is Kubernetes. It has totally renovated the way industry looked at the infrastructure of orchestration. Lastly, it has become useful not only for vertical and horizontal scaling of containers, but also made the drastic changes for engineers’ expectations. Kubernetes has earned a lot of appreciation and from last few years it spread drastically all over the world. Upcoming time will hear some interesting stories and appreciation of kubernetes as it has shown positive results in a short span of time.

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> PRODUCT-FEATURE

MORNSUN 75W Cost-effective AC-DC DIN-Rail Converter

To meet customers' needs for performance, size and cost in applications, MORNSUN launches 75W cost-effective AC/DC DIN-rail converter LI75-20BxxR2S Series with metal case. The LI7520BxxR2S series features an 90-264VAC universal input voltage range, and has a compact dimensions of 32*125*87.5mm. It also has excellent EMC performance, high efficiency, high reliability and competitive cost.

Product Advantages

1) Wide operating temperature range Operating temperature range: -30°C to +70°C

5) Cost-efficiency Advanced technology and manufacturing systems continue to optimize product costs.

Applications

It is widely used in industrial control, LED, street light control, electric power, security, communication and other scenes with limited space to provide high stability, high anti-interference and high electrical performance power supply. This product is normally using in natural air-cooled environment, please contact our FAE when using in confined environment.

2) Compact size Compact size: 105*90*55.4mm 3) Good EMI performance CE and RE are CISPR32/EN55032 CLASS B, Harmonic current meets IEC/EN61000-3-2 CLASS A.

Features

4) High reliability a. 3-year warranty, MTBF up to 300000 hours. b. Output short circuit, over-voltage, over-temperature, and constant-current protections.

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● Universal Input voltage 90 - 264VAC or 120 - 370VDC ● Accepts AC or DC input (dual-use of same terminal) ● Operating temperature range: -30°C to +70°C ● High I/O isolation test voltage up to 4000VAC ● Output short circuit, over-current, over-voltage, overtemperature protections ● DIN rail TS-35/7.5 or 15 mountable ● Suitable for small chassis and narrow space installation ● According to UL61010, UL62368 For more information, please visit www.mornsun-power.com

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> BIG

PICTURE

How to manage supply chains in a rapidly changing market "An interview with Lee Turner, Global Head of Semiconductors and SBC, element14"

Q

Do you think that we should have foreseen the challenges experienced in the pandemic?

Senior commentators have been talking about the potential for there to be a global pandemic for many years and never before have such big-budget movies such as Contagion seemed so on point. The last 12 months have been unlike any other and the electronic components market in particular has struggled with a series of upheavals that couldn’t possibly have been foreseen 24 months ago. From this experience, there is much that buyers in the semiconductor industry might wish they’d have known before, which can help everyone prepare for future global issues, or strengthen their supply for high-end products relating to remote working and home chain in a market that continues to change rapidly. entertainment. This in turn, led to an increase in demand for How did COVID-19 change the distribution market? reliable connectivity, adding greater pressure on the need We saw Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and for delivering 5G and its associated infrastructure.

Contract Electronic Manufacturers (CEMs) pausing or reducing production at the start of the pandemic, uncertain of what lay The initial uncertainties that had hit markets, caused in part by ahead. The industry moved focus to the immediate challenge the assumption that the pandemic would present relatively centred around medical equipment including ventilators short-term difficulties, gave way to the realisation that what along with booming demand for consumer related electronic began to be called “the new normal” was in fact a long-term items supporting work-from-home initiatives. But it wasn’t as situation. With hundreds of thousands of businesses able to simple as changes in demand, as moving products around liaise with a home-based workforce, activity within the market the globe was equally challenging. Air freight capacity, increased and a new-found confidence returned. Surplus which traditionally utilises space within passenger flights, was component stock was swept up by manufacturers of highrestricted as passenger air travel all but stopped. The cost end products and uncertainty was replaced by buoyancy of transporting containers by sea rose by up to 10 times. It and expansion in demand. was even difficult to transport components within countries Has the semiconductor market changed forever? as lockdowns imposed regional borders that had never The world’s semiconductor market has always mirrored previously had to be navigated. As the pandemic swept across the globe, the general consensus at the time was of the global behaviour of GDP but this changed during the a slowdown in the semiconductor market – but as events pandemic. We saw a massive global dip in GDP – whilst the have since shown, this opposite was actually happening as worldwide market for semiconductors grew by 5.4 per cent. “new demands” sucked up already stretched component Growth is looking healthier than it has in many years and as traditional semiconductor customers – most noticeable the production capacity. automotive industry - have turned production back on they 18 months on, we are experiencing a shortage in have found that supplies of key components are not there semiconductors. Why is this? waiting for them. Industry experts believe that there will be It was impossible to predict the long-term changes that would no going back to what was the status quo. be created by the pandemic as there was no roadmap or playbook to follow. The impact of the universal instruction to The global shortage of electronic components has been a “stay at home” led to rapid digitisation driven by the need wake-up call for many in the industry and focus is moving to

Q

Q

Q

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how these challenges can be avoided in the future. Although it’s unlikely that there will be a move away from mass sourcing from China and Taiwan, some countries such as the USA are looking to increase their indigenous manufacturing capabilities with the aim of supplementing current resources and offering protection should another crisis hit external supply chains.

Q

How should buyers change their approach to manage their supply chains in the new world?

The first lesson is to diversify your sources of components with multiple vendors and in multiple regions, but there are other key practices that can be adopted to help avoid similar crises in the future. Key tips include: 1. Always have purchase orders in place for essential components and where possible, dual sourcing options.

2. Source your entire bill of materials to eliminate the risk of holding costly stock that cannot be used due to the unavailability of one component.

3. Use distributors effectively: Fulfil c80% of components required with your broadline distributor, and stay close to these suppliers to check on the status of deliveries from up

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to three months in advance. Use High-service distribution to top-up quantities where needed and provide flexibility, in the knowledge that critical components can be delivered from stock as quickly as the next day.

4. Survey all points of a supply chain to ensure they are being managed effectively 5. Review contracts with manufacturers and distributors to ensure they offer maximum protection

Q

How can element14 help its customers? element14’s policy of investing heavily in stock availability has enabled its customers to mitigate many of these unforeseen issues of the pandemic. element14 has more stock available in its warehouses than ever before, enabling customers to have better access to products during the pandemic. As element14is a fully authorised and fully franchised distributor, customers can be confident that only genuine manufacturer products are supplied.

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JUNE 2021 <

> POWER-FEATURE

How to design modular DC DC systems, part 1: four stages of design Vamshi Domudala

Application Engineer, vicor

When designing a modular DC-DC system, it is important to look at the entire power-delivery system from source to load to achieve the desired functionality and performance. This tutorial series examines the modular DC-DC system design process and walks through an example set of system loads and the process to supply those from a given source.

This series also addresses overall system integration of DC-DC modules and the support circuitry necessary for a complete power system design. This includes considerations for the power source and decoupling, filtering and stability analysis, output filteringand transient response, driving specialized loads (i.e., pulse loads), safety and protection, current sharing, and faulttolerant arrays, as well as signal-level input/output.

Advantages of modular design DC-DC power modules enhance the overall system design process and offer three main benefits to the designer.

High performance – DC-DC modules present a prequalified solution that enables designers to deliver power reliably and efficiently, which is of paramount concern for the demanding load requirements of today’s power systems. A variety of module classes are available, and these offer numerous benefits in terms of their power density, integration and efficiency.

Modular nature – Unlike discrete designs, modules provide flexible building-blocks to construct complex power systems and enable designers to more easily take advantage of advanced power delivery architectures for decentralized power systems like the Vicor Factorized Power Architecture™ or the older intermediate bus architecture. Once developed, these solutions are easily scaled to meet different requirements and different power levels. Additionally, operating requirement changes that occur late in the system design do not derail a project completely: different modules can be substituted or multiplied as system requirements evolve.

Speed – With power modules, it is possible to realize faster development time from conception of the design to final implementation — all while incurring minimal technical risk.

Four stages of design

Stage 1: Basic system requirements The first stage in designing a power system is identifying system requirements. At this stage, ask the following questions to conceptualize a high-level definition of the system and its operation: • Where is the power coming from?

• What are the characteristics of the power source?

• What types of loads need to be supplied?

• What architecture best meets the system needs?

Next, tabularize the system operating voltages, currents and

> JUNE 2021

Jonathan Siegers

Principal Applications Engineer, vicor

power levels. Do this by listing the loads and organizing them according to the required output voltage and the loads’ current requirements.

It is also useful to begin thinking about specialized functions that may be required. In the example below, there is a point-of-load at 1.2V with a 120A current requirement. That particular load has a tight regulation requirement and can experience up to 200A peak current. The second example is a 2.2V load — an LED driver, for example — which must be current-regulated.

Stage 2: System architecture Develop a power delivery architecture and begin to select and finalize the power modules needed to fulfill the system conversion needs. Construct a block diagram of the system and settle on an architecture for providing power from source to load.

Begin by laying out the system outputs, as shown on the far right side in the figure below. The points-of-load range up to 48V, 16A. A review of the available power modules on the market makes it possible to decide what classes of modules are appropriate to supply those loads.

Basic system architecture using load characteristics and estimated efficiencies to establish module requirements.

Next, consider some of the physical constraints of the system.

This can include things such as the available space for system implementation, design considerations for isolation requirements, and whether or not it will be possible to take advantage of specialized power delivery network (PDN) architectures. Factorized power (an architecture developed

by Vicor) is shown in this example supplying some of these points-of-load using a 48V bus.

With the loads laid out and the point-of-load regulators and power modules in place, it is possible to begin working backward from the load side to the source, using data sheet

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efficiency estimates for each load branch to formulate the current output requirements of the upstream conversion blocks.

Working towards the 48V bus from the points-of-load, the block diagram indicates that the system will need to supply at least 9.5A of current from the bus converters, and effectively sets the requirements for selecting modules.

More refinements may be necessary as part of this design. For example, the 2.2V load where the load specification could change, perhaps doubling the required current for that load.

This is easy to solve with a modular approach: simply double up the voltage transformation modules to satisfy the new design requirement. Adjust the efficiency estimates and the load requirements on the upstream bus converters as needed to form a picture of the overall system design.

Stage 3: Implementation At this point in the design process, module configurations and external circuitry necessary for final system integration are finalized. A module or a collection of modules is not a complete power system; spanning the gap from source to load means addressing many areas of concern: • Compliance with international EMI standards requires additional filtering • Module protections are often narrow and limited to preservation of the module itself • Source and load characteristics dictate decoupling needs • Specialized load or redundancy requirements for highreliability applications • Connection to system controllers and power sequencing Determining what these concerns entail is where the bulk of the design work is done. Start by examining an idealized example of supporting circuitry, which for simplicity is shown around a single DC-DC module.

Example of supporting circuitry required to build a complete system with DC-DC power modules.

Working outward from the power module, designers must first mitigate the noise characteristics of the switching converter, which includes input- and output-side filtering. Second, ensuring system stability requires analysis of power source and distribution line impedances in order to provide appropriate decoupling of the source from the regulating power module. Additional support circuitry may be required to meet safety requirements and protect the system from surges and spikes, depending upon the operating environment. Finally, any special load considerations must be accounted for in the system design.

Stage 4: Module control and monitoring The final stage of the design process is interacting with the modules, tailoring behavior and managing the control and

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monitoring interfaces. Power modules have various signaling and low-voltage I/O capabilities: analog interfaces and digital interfaces for interacting with the modules.

A typical analog interface for a power converter provides access to various control capabilities – output voltage trim, for example. There may be an enable pin that can be connected to an external controller, as well as basic monitoring capabilities in the form of a fault flag pin. The module might provide a representative voltage that corresponds to an internal temperature monitor.

For more detailed monitoring information and control, many power modules offer PMBus® over a digital interface, which provides output voltage trim control, enable/disable control, and other configuration options. Set points for current-limit threshold and fault protection may be available, which makes tailoring the module behavior to specific application needs possible. Additionally, digital fault-status flags give a better capability to identify fault causes such as undervoltage, overvoltage or overcurrent events.

Regulated modules often provide remote-sensing capabilities that enable tighter regulation at the load by compensating for distribution line impedance drop. Remote sensing makes use of a Kelvin connection of two sense leads that monitor the voltage directly at the load terminals so that the controller can offset voltage drop in high-current distribution systems.

Irrespective of analog or digital control signaling, it is important to differentiate the grounds to which the power signals and low-level signals are referenced. If a lowpower signal-level connection shares a common ground return path with the module’s power Analog and digital signal output, high-frequency noise c a p a b i l i t i e s w i t h p o w e r from the switching action of the modules. module can be coupled into the signal due to trace parasitics and cause erratic operation. To prevent the power current from flowing through the signal ground, connect the signal ground and the power ground at a single point only.

Conclusion

Having completed this general overview of the design process for systems that employ DC-DC power modules, the following series of tutorials will address in greater detail the major considerations of the third design stage.

Also in this series • How to design modular DC DC systems, part 2: filter design • How to design modular DC DC systems, part 3: stability analysis and decoupling • How to design modular DC DC systems, part 4: safety protection systems • How to design modular DC DC systems, part 5: load considerations

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JUNE 2021 <

> TECHNICAL-FEATURE

How Reliable and Affordable Presence Detection Can Change the Space Management of the Future

Christoph Kämmerer

Abstract

in a variety of lighting scenarios.

Emerging Business Manager Analog Devices The active infrared sensor is much more effective as it actively emits infrared light in order to detect people. This is in contrast to passive sensing, which relies only on reflections of infrared light from the human body.

This article will first look at the growing role of presence detection. It will then consider current market detection systems and specifically detail the advantages of active infrared sensors vs. passive infrared sensors. Finally, it will introduce a new solution for active infrared tracking.

What Is Presence Detection?

Presence detection, which is also referred to as human presence detection, is the ability to identify or locate the existence of people in a specific area or physical space.

Why Presence Detection Is Important

Presence detection in interior spaces is becoming more and more important— and especially accelerated by the recent developments of COVID-19. Interesting use cases of presence detection can range throughout interior spaces such as offices, elevator cabins, corridors, and retail space. In elevators, for example, detection can be a helpful and even life-saving tool in case of emergency situations. In retail applications, presence detection can be used to monitor behavioral patterns, and this data can help optimize product placement and in turn benefit both retailers and consumers. Additionally, presence detection can be used to detect the utility of an office space. For example, if offices are underutilized due to travel or work-from-home, a company can use presence detection to assess usage and reduce the number of office desks where/if applicable. Presence detection can also be applied in applications such as mobile offices, where in some locations a remote worker may not have a designated work desk but would need to locate an available workspace through a mobile office provider. These applications require intelligent, cost-effective solutions that are easy to integrate into current designs.

Current Market Presence Detection Systems

There are multiple solutions for presence detection on the market, such as time of flight, radar, 2D cameras, and passive or active infrared presence detectors. The price range, but also accuracy, of these can differ significantly. While a high end time of flight sensor provides the highest accuracy in presence detection, it is on the upper end of the cost scale. Thus, it is used for critical solutions such as human-robot interactions.

Infrared presence detectors, on the other hand, can offer a desirable level of accuracy for less critical applications at a much lower cost.

Active Infrared Sensor Advantages over Passive Sensors While both active and passive sensors can provide a costeffective solution, active sensors can be used in high accuracy counting mode. Additionally, it is mandatory for a presence detection sensor to recognize even the smallest movements

> JUNE 2021

An active infrared solution also can contain an active infrared sensor (IR) that can not only be used to detect moving, but also non-moving people, thus preventing false negatives. Due to its optical principle, the sensor can be hidden behind toned plastic or glass, which is IR transparent and can therefore be conveniently incorporated into the design of the product and the interior environment.

Active Infrared Sensing Solutions

Analog Devices’ ADPD1080 evaluation board, shown in Figure 1, realizes active infrared tracking.

Figure 1. ADPD1080 evaluation board for motion and long-range presence detection.

The evaluation board consists of power management, one photodiode, six LEDs, and a photometric front end, the ADPD1080. The infrared LEDs emit light, and the reflected intensity of the light is measured up to 5 m away from the sensor. 2 How Reliable and Afforda ble Presence Detection Can Chang e the Spac e Manag ement of the Future Movement can be detected by the change in intensity—when there is no motion in the room, the intensity is unchanged. The photodiode is centered between the LEDs and can be placed behind a black dyed plastic screen, an added design feature providing a customer with the option for discrete placement.

The evaluation board consists of two setups. The first one is for closer proximities, and the second one works best for longrange distances. This is due to the LED intensity. The ADPD1080 is a full photometric front end with eight front-end inputs, which are connected to the photodiodes. It also has three integrated LED drivers and offers two time slots, which can be programmed independently to read out the photodiode and

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control the LEDs. With those time slots, different modes can be enabled without reprogramming the registers to save power (about 20% compared to the previous version). In addition, it has in-built ambient light rejection to filter for other light factors, such as sunlight, lamps, or other ambient light. Even fluorescent light bulbs, despite their broad frequency spectrum, and LED luminaires, despite their switching frequency, are effectively filtered.

change corresponding to the movement is significant.

Figure 4. IR sensor response to walking motion: intensity value (left) and corresponding change in intensity (right).

In a second test, the evaluation board was tested under more difficult circumstances. The test person stood still while allowing only very little motion to test the detection capability of not only movement, but also people presence. Figure 5 shows the signal and a clear intensity change.

Figure 2. ADPD1080 evaluation board schematic.

Figure 5. IR sensor response to standstill position with limited movement: intensity value (left) and corresponding change in intensity (right).

Conclusion

Figure 3. Timing configuration of the ADPD1080 photometric front end.

Figure 2 shows a block diagram of the ADPD1080. The current of the photodiode is amplified and converted with a transimpedance amplifier. Afterward, the band-pass filter and integrator are used for the ambient light filtering. The band-pass filter blocks the DC light, and the integrator is used to filter out the AC component of the ambient light, reducing it by 80 dB. The working principle of the analog front end is shown in Figure 3.

Real-Life Measurement Shows the Advantages

The evaluation board was tested by mounting it on the ceiling of an office in multiple test environments. For each run, the test person walked around the office in different intervals, and the signal of the sensor was recorded. Figure 4 shows the sensor signal and a clear response to movement for the represented test run. On the left side, the intensity value is plotted, while on the right side, the change of intensity is shown. The intensity

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In conclusion, the ADPD1080 delivers an out-of-the-box experience, offering an active infrared presence detection solution that is not only low cost and highlyaccurate, but is also small in size. It operates at significantly lower power than time of flight or radar solutions, and can measure in a radius of up to 5 m. Its robust features allow easy integration into existing products and in addition to presence detection, it can be used for a variety of use cases, including gesture sensing. Overall, the advantages can enable customers to improve efficiency and safety at reduced costs, thus helping to shape facility management in the future.

About the Author

Christoph Kämmerer has worked at Analog Devices since February 2015. He graduated in 2014 from the FriedrichAlexander University in Erlangen with a master’s in physics.

Christoph also holds an MBA from Mannheim Business School, which he completed in 2020. He started as a tr ainee at Analog Devices and afterward became a field applications engineer for emerging applications. In 2020 Christoph joined the Analog Gar age (ADI’s start-up incubator), as an emerging business manager focusing on identifying new technologies and driving future innovation. He can be reached at christoph. kaemmerer@analog.com. Engage with the ADI technology experts in our online support community. Ask your tough design questions, browse FAQs, or join a conversation.

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JUNE 2021 <

> BIG

PICTURE

Possibility o Indian road

Raghunandan Kamath

Radar Software Development Manager at Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments (TI) is holding a tight grip of innovations for Level 2 of driving automation, or driver assistance.

ADAS is today almost ubiquitous in every other vehicle on the road. Monitoring, braking and steering alongside the driver require an increased level of sensing, which comes with additional power, weight and size requirements. In this interview Niloy talks to Raghunandan Kamath, Radar Software Development Manager at Texas Instruments understanding how TI is meeting the most challenging design requirements and ensure confidence every time a driver hits the open road.

This would of course require government regulations, an automotive ecosystem and more importantly an inculcated mindset and discipline in citizens. A gradual adoption of Level 5 vehicles starting with government regulated public transportation could pave the way for adopting autonomous driving in India.

> JUNE 2021

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of Fully Automated Vehicles on ds in the Near Future, Farfetched!

ADAS Technology in India?

Statistics show that around 1000 road crashes occur every day in India, of which 90 percent are caused due to human error. Curbing road accidents have always been a major concern, and almost 50 years ago, research and development in Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) began its journey to help improve safety standards, along with comfort, convenience, and energy efficiency.

An increasing number of Electronic Control Units (ECU) are being deployed in vehicles for ADAS functions. These ECUs are a combination of Central Processing Units, sensing units and intelligent software that help take required actions and achieve safety goals. Over the years, this has resulted in vehicles outfitted with cruise control, parking sensors and navigational systems. It’s interesting to note that a small semiconductor chip is at the heart of ADAS technology. This chip has helped propel developments in the areas of warning, breaking, monitoring, and steering systems that can assist drivers and potentially reduce errors. ADAS functions like Emergency Brake Assist (EBA), Blind Spot Detection (BSD), adaptive cruise control, Lane Change Assist (LCA) and Cross Traffic Alerts (CTA) are efforts towards building driver and passenger safety.

While we are progressing in the direction of research and innovation in vehicular safety in India, the possibility of fully automated vehicles on Indian roads in the near future, may be farfetched. There are about 6 levels to vehicular automation, and vehicles driven on Indian roads are largely at SAE Level 0 and 2. While Level 5 fully automated vehicles remain a longterm goal, there is a possibility of seeing semi-autonomous vehicles with dedicated lanes in India. For example, certain countries like UAE, Canada and US have dedicated bus lanes for semi-autonomous buses that could be adopted for India.

meters, with high accuracy when it comes to distance, angle, and velocity. The system’s accuracy rate has been notable even in environmental conditions that challenge visibility like dust, rain, fog etc.

TI’s AWR1x/AWR2x millimetre wave (mmWave) sensor portfolio helps developers create a safer and easier driving experience.

This portfolio supports highly precise sensing applications across ADAS, body and chassis, and in-cabin applications.

The portfolio scales from a high-performance radar front end (AWR1243, AWR2243) to single-chip radar solutions (AWR1443, AWR1642, AWR1843).

TI’s work around RADAR and ADAS technologies in autonomous cars?

As the market adapts to ADAS and autonomous vehicles, TI’s mmWave AWR1x sensor portfolio of devices supports different ADAS radar-sensor configurations ranging from Ultra ShortRange Radar (USRR ~ 10-15m detections) and Short-Range Radar (SRR ~ 60-100m) to Medium Range Radar (MRR 120180m), and Long-Range Radar (LRR ~ 200-250m). The portfolio also supports imaging.

It further enables a smart sensor architecture, where all radar processing occurs at the edge; and a satellite sensor architecture, where the radar sensor sends object data over CAN-FD to a central processor for further processing and sensor fusion.

All these devices come with fully equipped packages that include hardware and software modules that oversee evaluation, development, and production intents. It makes the customer’s turnaround time to market simple and efficient.

This would of course require government regulations, an automotive ecosystem and more importantly an inculcated mindset and discipline in citizens. A gradual adoption of Level 5 vehicles starting with government regulated public transportation could pave the way for adopting autonomous driving in India.

Texas Instruments India’s (TI) offerings and product portfolio that caters to ADAS? The Millimetre Wave (mmWave) radar system is a primary sensing modality and can be seen used in several ADAS applications. It has the ability to detect objects ranging from as close as a few millimetres to as far as several hundred

•Vol - 03 / 06

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JUNE 2021 <

> COMPANY-EXCLUSIVE

HARTING har-modular® The new modular connectivity solution for your board application. CREATE YOUR OWN!

Developing engineers for electronical industry devices knows this problem. The livelines of data, signal and power have to be connected from one PCB to another, and the most stock connectivity solutions do not fit for the own project. No reason to despair. The new HARTING har-modular® PCB connector system gives you over a billion combination possibilities for data, signal and power. Configurable online by yourself from quantity 1. The ideal solution for innovative prototyping or your next successful device series.

Modularity and flexibility are becoming increasingly important in equipment development. The development times of new devices are becoming shorter and shorter and prototyping is playing an increasingly important role. A limited selection of available standard components is often an obstacle in device development. The solution to this need for modularity, flexibility and more speed in device development is called har-modular. A plug connection with future potential that can be configured absolutely individually by the customer.

No matter how innovative and creative the arrangement within a device design, it is no longer dependent on whether a suitable standard strip or variant is available. The developer adapts the connector to his requirements. Not vice versa.

Every solution is conceivable and can be realised from batch size 1. This offers developers completely new perspectives for fast and cost-effective prototype development.

> JUNE 2021

3 steps to your individual connector STEP 1 - How many modules In the first step you have to ask yourself what lifelines and how many lifelines you want to connect. Data, signal or power?

Or all three? Check out our har-modular® modules.

STEP 2 - The guiding pin For a safe connection of all your modules, every har-modular® connector needs two guiding pins. Depending on your application you can select them in plastic or metal. If you ask us, the best places for the guiding pins are the connectors ends, but every other place is also possible.

STEP 3 - The connecting rail Found the right sort and number of connection modules?

Two guiding modules? Perfect. Lets finish

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> BIG

PICTURE

Globally, BESS is Expected to Comprise 50% of the Energy Storage Market Who could have been better than Honeywell Automation India Limited? As we further explore this segment, we get hold-off Honeywell, the company pioneering in energy storage production. In an exclusive interview with Niloy from BISinfotech, Ashish Gaikwad, Managing Director, Honeywell Automation India Limited talks about Honeywell’s Renewable Energy solutions, especially Battery Energy Storage Solution (BESS) and how it is helping the renewable energy sector produce energy more efficiently, lower Total Cost of Ownership, Boost Revenue Streams, and to Optimize Asset Performance while reducing the environmental impact and improving safety and regulatory compliance. Edited Excerpts below.

Ashish Gaikwad

Managing Director, Honeywell Automation India Limited

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Q

Kindly tell our readers about key features, specs In this respect, I would like to mention a critical project that of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) and key Honeywell executed for Saturn Power, a Canadian renewable case study you want to highlight? and clean energy provider.

Today’s electricity supply system dictates a two-way communication schema that integrates multiple sources of energy to create a more efficient grid system. This can often be a difficult balancing act given the unpredictability of power consumption mixed with the inevitable failure of generation and distribution equipment and the volatility of weather patterns that can have a direct effect on power production and consumption. Therefore, the inclusion of battery energy storage systems makes the grid more resilient and effective.

Saturn Power chose Honeywell, to provide a multiple megawatt-hour battery energy storage system (BESS) solution at a commercial site classified by Ontario’s grid operator, the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) as a Class A customer of electricity with high peak demand. Honeywell supplied batteries for the BESS that Saturn Power integrated to provide global adjustment mitigation services and helped the customer achieve lower electricity bills. Honeywell’s technology enables the batteries to charge during off-peak times and draw from BESS when energy demand on the grid and costs spike — typically on hot, air conditioning-intense summer days or cold heating-intense winter days.

Experience has shown that deploying batteries for peak shaving can help decrease supply costs due to the lower portion of energy drawn from the grid onsite. Ultimately, that can enable reliance on fewer non-renewable sources of energy while providing a resilient and reliable solution for the customer or energy storage system host. In the renewable and clean energy market, Honeywell’s unique, modular battery management technology minimizes installation and commissioning time, making it ideal for quick deployment and a fast return on investment.

Honeywell’s Renewable Energy solutions, especially Battery Energy Storage Solution (BESS), help the renewable energy This rising populace, coupled with environmental sector produce energy more efficiently, lower Total Cost of challenges, puts even greater pressure on already Ownership, Boost Revenue Streams, and to Optimize Asset Performance while reducing the environmental impact and strained energy resources. Hence liberating electricity seems to get more traction with renewables getting improving safety and regulatory compliance.

Q

mainstream. Given the new demand, how does BESS fit into marking the future of electricity?

Under the Paris Climate Agreement, India’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) include reduction in carbon intensity by up to 35% (from 2005 level) by 2030. India also hopes to get around 40% cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel sources within the same time frame.

Over the last five years, installed capacity for renewable energy increased 226%, and renewable energy now accounts for a little over 23% of the total installed generation capacity in the country.

India has set an ambitious target of 175GW installed renewable power by 2022. With continued growth of renewable energy, battery energy storage technology is seen as an enabler to expedite the transition to a future where renewable energy plays a central role in the push for decarbonization and decentralization.

BESS will help reduce carbon footprint, optimize energy costs, and manage grid stability by:

•Vol - 03 / 06

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JUNE 2021 <

> BIG

PICTURE avoidance on operations and maintenance of Peaker plants, etc.- instead of looking at individual siloes of benefits.

Q

Your expert comments on India’s battery market, types of battery and the future trends shaping the indigenous market?

India’s battery market is bifurcated into the market for Electric Vehicle batteries and stationary storage batteries.

Battery storage application areas in the Indian market are found in bulk storage, ancillary services, Transmission & Distribution (T&D) operations and behind the meter (BTM) applications.

As the mix of renewables increase in the overall energy portfolio, we expect ancillary services to become a major driver Which sectors, applications are of your key targets? supporting the power system or grid operation in maintaining Also, your thoughts/ comments on the storage’s power quality, reliability, and security of the grid. These services upfront cost? may include scheduling and dispatch, frequency regulation, BESS stores large amounts of renewable energy for use at voltage control, generation reserves, etc. the most basic level when demand is high. On the most sophisticated level, BESS expands control, reduces costs, and The other development in battery integration is expected in the creates revenue streams.

T&D space, with batteries helping to defer capex investments in transmission and distribution infrastructure.

The sectors of interest to BESS applications are – Utilities (Front of the meters), Commercial and Industrial (Behind the meters) We also expect significant adoption of battery storage systems and renewable integration (of distributed renewable assets). among the commercial and industrial customers, who would leverage behind the meter installations for energy arbitrage, Some of the benefits of the Honeywell BESS include: reducing power costs, improve power quality and pursue • Increased savings: Honeywell BESS helps customers reduce grid independence. peak demand and energy costs by leveraging low-cost stored energy, innovative control algorithms maximize distribution The two major types of batteries prevalent in India currently efficiency. are Lithium Ion and Metal Air. The uptake of flow batteries

Q

• Revenue gains: BESS helps increase revenue opportunities for customers. End customers can invite building owners to join demand response programs, expand renewable energy and other programs to their clients, and more. The system enables customers to lower costs while also adding revenue.

• Improved customer experiences: Honeywell BESS assures high quality, seamless power for mission critical customers such as hospitals, police precincts, data centers, and other critical facilities. BESS ensures there is no discontinuity in power supply.

• Scalable solution: Honeywell can customize BESS designs to meet the exact needs of customers. Solutions are fully independent, but they can operate together for scalability, expansion, and reliability.

Installation of BESS entails capex costs as well as operations and maintenance costs. Current studies indicate that lithiumion batteries offer the best option today in terms of cost, performance, calendar and cycle life, and technology maturity.

In continuance, the greater the value stacking, the higher the returns that can be generated from BESS project. This is to say, it is imperative that BESS is used for more than a single use case, and we treat the BESS value proposition as a bundle of multiple adjoining benefits – such as capex deferral, cost

> JUNE 2021

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depends on their cost viability and remains to be commercially tested and adopted at a large scale.

BESS is relatively new in India and some of the barriers to adoption include lack of financial incentives and upfront capital costs. A NITI Ayog study highlights some of the barriers to adoption of BESS. These include dual tariff systems (to charge and discharge), licensing (generation and consumer licenses), long cycle time for recovering investments, dependency on regulatory rate-setting and revenue recovery cycles, etc.

However, clearer financial incentives – supported by regulatory policies and benefits of BESS – will hopefully drive stronger adoption in the years to come.

Q

Key USP of Honeywell BESS, your aftermarket, and service-front strategies?

Honeywell is a global leader in the development and deployment of developing and deploying advanced BESS, offering turnkey BESS solutions, advanced controllers and energy management systems. Globally, Honeywell and its partners have delivered more than 1 GWh of BESS solutions to date.

Honeywell offers end-to-end BESS solutions comprising of remote operation centre with key performance outcome guarantees. This helps reduce the total cost of ownership for the customer. Honeywell consists of a strong aftermarket services team to provide instant support to customers 24x7.

With Honeywell’s remote operating centres Honeywell can deliver real-time monitoring, diagnosis, and intervention around the clock, thereby minimizing incident exposure and improving incident response.

Q

Future market strategies for BESS?

Experts believe that in due course, with increase in the installed capacity of renewable energy, non-renewable sources of energy will evolve into providing only base load.

The former is seen as a sustainable source of energy in the long term. However, its dependency on forces of nature brings its own set of challenges, especially for the grid it feeds into.

Therefore, BESS is seen as a reliable and flexible solution to address this issue. BESS also has several applications in ancillary services, generation smoothening, load following, peak power shaving, energy time shifting and emergency back-up etc.

India is witnessing a rapid growth in solar PV installations and wind farms. The growth of electric vehicles too is seen as a positive sign for the increased demand for BESS in the country.

The energy storage market is expected to achieve a near term market size of around $160B, reaching $300B by 2030.

Globally, BESS is expected to comprise 50% of the energy storage market. In India, this figure is projected to grow up to 70-75%. Currently, though, the market is still in its nascent phase, with baby steps being taken by companies such as Tata Power Delhi Distribution. In due course, demand will pick up.

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JUNE 2021 <

> TESTING-OPINION

Testing V2X Systems V2X communication technology is an important enabler for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), a system developed to facilitate autonomous driving and smart cities with intelligent transportation systems (ITS). Asia Pacific continues to lead the global connected car market, for cars to communicate with each other local govt plays an important role to mandate and implement V2X technology.

As assisted driving technology and connected cars are becoming a reality, there will be significant growth in the importance of V2X communication in vehicles. New vehicles are becoming more connected – with each other, internet and with surrounding infrastructure. New systems are being developed and integrated at a rapid pace, as automotive brands compete to claim an edge by harnessing the potential to improve the driver and passenger experience – in terms of safety, information, convenience and entertainment. The arrival of new systems and protocols requires new testing approaches and will increase demands upon automotive research and development in terms of network expertise.

> JUNE 2021

To ensure absolute reliability from automotive systems, testing is crucial to meet the challenging requirements of conformance, performance, safety and reliability. In order to achieve truly flexible and robust V2X testing and dynamic behaviour of V2X entities, in a virtual and field environment that accurately re-creates the key conditions, T&M companies are playing a vital role in accelerating adoption of V2X technology, delivering rigorous and cost-effective tests, while empowering automotive companies to shape the future of transportation.

Testing V2X systems

Testing V2X communications is becoming a critical part of vehicle development and presents a unique combination of challenges. As with any automotive system, it is essential to test and ensure, that every connected vehicle is safe, performs accurately and responds to real-world situations and challenges in a way the user would expect. Testing to evaluate the systems should include metrics for precision, robustness, repeatability, safety and much more.

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y Testing for conformance and interoperability:

Connected vehicles need to interact with roadside infrastructure – and just as importantly, each other. That means, all manufacturers will need to conform to a common set of agreed standards. As with all new automotive technology, consumers’ trust will be essential to adoption – and any failures, particularly those affecting safety, will reflect directly upon the brand involved. But in many respects, interoperability is a new challenge for the automotive sector. OEMs and their supply chains have an excellent track record in setting, meeting and policing their own standards – but direct interoperability, based upon shared protocols, will be something many automotive test engineers are facing for the first time. Manufacturers in the sector therefore, need to define test cases that will enable them to confirm any new V2X systems conform fully to the relevant protocols for each territory.

y Testing for functionality and performance:

Conformance with agreed protocols is only a first step. For V2X, this means it needs to send, receive and interpret signals correctly, interact well with infrastructure and other vehicles and make sense of all this information to react appropriately in every scenario. A framework for tests would include: • Evaluating response to real-world challenges; such as, radio channel impairments, obstacles to reception, and both deliberate and accidental cyber-attacks.

• Including other on-board units (OBUs) and roadside units (RSUs) to scale up the complexity of the environment and see how systems cope with a changing variety of V2X signals at once.

• Finding failure points by pushing the system beyond its limits, to evaluate its tolerances and discover how it behaves.

• Capturing how the device under test (DUT) behaves, with clear reporting to enable performance comparisons and confirm whether it responded as expected • Testing at component and system level – including both software-in-the-loop (SiL) and hardware-in-the-loop (HiL).

y Testing V2X security:

Alongside any tests for standards conformance or system performance and functionality, it is essential that the V2X test regime confirms security in the face of a growing number of increasingly realistic threats: V2X communications give hackers a direct route into a vehicle’s systems – the technology and knowhow to abuse that opportunity. To mitigate the risk, V2X systems need to be robust, reliable, and capable of recognizing when they are under attack – and these capabilities need to be tested. It is essential that V2X test equipment includes the flexibility to recreate current and future threats as they emerge. A configurable, GUI-based emulator gives the required control.

Recently, we’ve seen growing support for usage of cellular radio technology for the same purpose.

Now with Cellular V2X (C-V2X) specifications published by 3GPP the need for testing C-V2X to ensure interoperability and validate performance is becoming urgent. C-V2X defines Proximity Services (ProSe) and the PC5 interface for device-todevice communication, to support Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) applications.

Testing V2X in lab and field – best of both

Although live, drive testing in the field remains a key part of developing any automotive system, laboratory-based tests also have a critical role to play. The two approaches have complementary strengths. Both laboratory and field testing have important roles to play in the future of V2X development and the industry should make the best possible use of both in order to drive innovation in a safe, robust and cost-effective way. However, as the technologies involved become more sophisticated and numerous, the gap between the two approaches is growing. It is becoming increasingly difficult to reflect all the internal and external influences upon the connected car in a laboratory environment and harness the respective strengths of both. There is a pressing need for smart integration of lab test equipment, with a higher standard of simulation, to give a more precise, accurate and controllable lab-based version of live test conditions.

The way forward

Increasing integration of V2X, ADAS and automated systems present automotive companies with a number of challenges, most notably, interoperability and cyber security. To find a reliable, robust and cost-effective way to ensure that the vehicle and all its components deliver the best & safest experience for the driver – remains the same as it has always been. Solutions for testing the next generation of connected vehicles should be built upon proven methods, technologies and techniques that deliver robust results, while enabling rapid innovation.

About the Author Ravi Patil is Solution Head – APAC South, Ethernet and Automotive, Spirent Communications, engaged in designing and testing automotive Ethernet ECU conformance and interoperability.

Testing V2X

Distributed Short Range Communication (DSRC) defined in IEEE802.11p has been around for years as the main radio technology for V2X, supporting Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) as well as Infrastructure-to-Vehicle (I2V) communication.

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> AUTOMATION-FEATURE

Secure Cloud Services for Machine Access Remote maintenance and troubleshooting services are enabling original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and machine builders to support their customers with greater efficiency, as well as helping them to enhance productivity.

These remote services not only facilitate faster and smarter decisions, but also reduce the time and cost of after-sales support and maintenance for machines and equipment.

water that is safe for human consumption. To achieve this, thousands of sensors are deployed to measure the quality of the water. The sensors are located at hundreds of facilities and all need to be reliably monitored. In addition to water treatment and purification, the handling and distribution of water after it is processed is equally important to ensure the water continues to be safe for human consumption.

Although using a virtual private network (VPN) to remotely access off-site industrial machines and equipment is not a new technology, OEMs and machine builders are often faced with additional challenges such as various customer privacy concerns, complex VPN settings, IP address management, and compliance with IT security standards.

A common practice to avoid recontamination of water in the distribution system is the retention of residual disinfectants in the treated water. To ensure that the disinfectants do not reach dangerous levels, the water is continually monitored by sensors placed in the pipes. The sensors in the pipes send data through SCADA systems to equipment installed inside roadside cabinets along the distribution lines. Another benefit of these systems is that they allow the quantity of water consumed by each household or facility to be monitored to ensure appropriate billing. Traditional VPN is often used at these facilities, but it is hard to scale up and manage as more and more houses or facilities are built and need to have their water supply monitored.

To overcome these challenges, cloud-based remote connections can provide easy, secure, and flexible remote access to customers’ machines and equipment. We will now consider two common scenarios and see how they can benefit from secure cloud-based remote connections.

Scenario 1: Remote Data Acquisition

In a water treatment plant, raw water has to go through a treatment and purification process in order to produce potable

> JUNE 2021

Why Cloud-based Remote Connections

Due to the highly distributed topology, cloud-based remote

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Scenario 2: Remote Maintenance

Food processing machines are used to automate the large-scale production and processing of food. In order for food manufacturers to expand their business, it is essential that their machines do not experience network downtime. Companies that are involved in the production of food hope that the OEM can provide a very quick response time when machine maintenance is required in order to ensure any issues with the machines do not influence operations. In order to ensure that the response times are quick enough to prevent interfering with normal manufacturing operations, machine builders need a secure and more efficient method to troubleshoot and perform maintenance tasks without having to dispatch personnel to each site.

Why Cloud-based Remote Connections

r Remote s communications can provide an easier and cheaper way for water and wastewater treatment centers to extract data. Cloud-based remote communications alleviate the burden of setting up and purchasing additional VPN servers and clients when there is a new field site that needs to be monitored, as well as avoiding the cost of obtaining public IP addresses required for each VPN server and client. Furthermore, the management of certificates for each connection is simpler when using cloudbased remote communications.

Granting unrestricted remote access to machines on the production floor would subject business owners to unacceptable security risks and leave them vulnerable to cyberattacks. Fortunately, cloud-based remote access not only allows engineers to perform many maintenance tasks without having to travel to each customer’s factory in person, but also allows customers to control access to their network.

One option that is available for machine builders is to provide their customers with a physical key, which has to be activated in order for the machines to be accessed remotely. Customers can also restrict which programs in a machine can be used by remote service engineers. In addition, customers can also restrict remote connections to specific network segments so that off-site support engineers do not have access to the entire network.

The Current Challenge

Although cloud-based remote access offers clear benefits to IIoT customers, operational technology (OT) engineers, water and wastewater treatment managers, and machine builders may find it cumbersome to set up and maintain their own cloud servers to provide new services and applications.

Indeed, there is considerable effort associated with setting up new infrastructure, even if it is in the cloud.

Convenient Secure Cloud Services

Fortunately, OEMs and machine builders can now deliver secure cloud-based services and remote access to their customers without having to maintain their own cloud servers. In particular, Moxa Remote Connect (MRC) gateways offer the MRC Quick Link option to provide easy, secure, and flexible remote access to machines and equipment over the cloud. Simply activate MRC Quick Link by registering your MRC gateway on the Moxa Software License Portal, and you will receive five concurrent online nodes and 5 GB of data per month for each MRC Quick Link that is activated.

To learn more about how MRC Quick Link meets various communication requirements and enables remote access with flexibility that scales, please visit the Moxa Remote Connect microsite.

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

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TECHNOVATORS

> TECHNOVATOR

ChargeMyGaadi Offers Budget Friendly Chargers ChargeMyGaadi, a Delhi based startup aims at revolutionizing the Electric Mobility (e-Mobility) sector by offering a wide range of innovative solutions. It strives to provide e-Mobility solutions to help the stakeholders to setup customized EV charging stations and cater to their needs of Charging-as-a-Service (CaaS), Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS), Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Battery Swapping Solutions in the best possible way. ChargeMyGaadi™ is one of the leading EV charging solutions provider in India, which works as an e-Mobility (eMO) & Charge Point Operator (cPO) operator. While talking with Nitisha from BISinfotech; Ashish Kumar, Founder & CEO, ChargeMyGaadi talks about challenges and scopes in the EV industry.

Ashish Kumar

Founder & CEO, ChargeMyGaadi

Q

Kindly explain ChargeMyGaadi unique services and its special offerings?

ChargeMyGaadi acts as a platform that offers e-mobility solutions to its customers and develop chargers that are locally developed in line with the regulatory and guidelines of Make in India initiative. Our chargers are developed locally and are cheaper as compared to chargers which are imported. Our chargers are developed with high quality and much reliability as compared to imported chargers.

We, at ChargeMyGaadi offers a wide range of solutions for EV Charging solutions, Battery Swapping Solutions and Energy Storage.

Q

Electric vehicles are the future. What makes it different and how do you see the market?

EVs have already gained the importance and centre stage as the world is looking for environment friendly alternatives and solutions. Electric vehicles have gained a lot of traction in the present scenario due to associated cost benefits and environment cost benefits. The very much need of reducing the air pollution have increased and propelled the demand of EVs in the automobile sector.

The environment cost benefits in adoption of EV makes it completely stand out. We see a lot of tractions coming in the market, also a lot of top brands are using this time to explore the consumer base through digital mediums and to improve loyalty and sustainable solutions. EV will soon be set and emerge stronger than ever.

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Q

Kindly highlight any unique project you are working on and also launch in the loop of coming time?

The Indian EV ecosystem will see an exponential growth in the EV industry. We are developing the on-board chargers (OBC Chargers) and Battery Swapping Stations (BSS), these products and services are being developed by very few key players in the industry. The company scheduled three product launches this year, SMART off-board charger for both L3 and L5 category and On-Board chargers with 3kW for Cargo segment.

Q

As the Indian government has extensive plans for EV and charging stations in India, what are your expectations?

Please explain.

Government of India is taking a drastic steps and aggressive policies for the adoption of Electric Mobility. Key players in the market will be benefitted as the government plans faster adoption of EV thus helping in the manufacturing units set up at a faster rate than ever. Subsidies with the vehicles will indirectly boost the sales. We are continuously witnessing the rapid evolution and continues ongoing efforts in the EV industry.

Government can support and promote the key players to How do you differentiate ChargeMyGaadi with other build a strong and trusted network of EV by giving favourable companies? government policies and support in terms of subsidies, grants, ChargeMyGaadi works with an objective of providing rebates and even there can be non-financial benefits for all. the chargers which are cheapest compared to imported How was the year 2019-2020 in terms of business? What chargers and are more reliable. We, at ChargeMyGaadi will be your future marketing plan? aim at bridging the gap between demand and supply of the chargers in the market. We are working towards bringing For either of the industry, year 2019-20 was not so good, we the radical changes in the educational sector with our EV have experienced a slowdown from march and kick start training programs, equipping the industries with the required from mid-October. Though the resources were less, less manpower. Company also assists in Job placements through monetary profits but we were tending towards creating a our learning and development and with one of our programs huge customer base by aggressively promoting our product with a regular follow ups session to quench the lost benefit of of Fight Against Unemployment (FAU) the lockdown period.

Q

Q

Q

What improvement have you seen so far during this new normal after COVID? New normal benefits can only be summed up with making India self-reliant, many companies tend towards AtmaNirbharBharat, which we can witness as there a lot more companies manufacturing batteries and chargers, vehicles locally in India. Steps have also been taken to reduce the dependency even for the supply of raw materials and components for the industries. New normal benefitted us in creating a large customer base, as there was less import and more trust in Make in India. Soon, India will beat the global market in Electric vehicles manufacturing. Manufacturing of chargers locally have already seen an exponential growth in no time.

Q

Kindly explain the challenges and scope in the industry?

Though the commercial EV segment is propelled, and it will gain an edge in no time. But apart from the commercial segment, things could take time. Industry also sees a lack of professionally adept technocrats in the industry, experiencing a gap between demand and supply with the required set of skills. The only challenge we faced the dependency of raw materials, that is being imported to uphold the manufacturing operations in the country. The scarcity of charging infrastructure is another deciding factor. Range anxiety in customer base and the non-standardization of batteries and chargers create a hustle in the industry a lot and always

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> AI-FEATURE

Convergence Toward Ubiquitous RAS Product Deployment

Ching Hu

Principal Systems Architect at SiMa.ai

Though the number of robotics and autonomous system (RAS) products continues to climb, there are still many areas needing further development before RAS deployments become pervasive. One such area is the transition from automated systems to autonomous systems. Here we will take a look at some of the critical facets of RAS products that need to be addressed to help their widespread adoption and commercialization. Also highlighted in this article, we will discuss the machine learning technology that will certainly aid in the effort.

> JUNE 2021

1. Development costs depend on availability and affordability of resources. This includes the availability and maturity of an affordable talent pool along with hardware, software, and system integration tools. Currently there is a shortage of machine learning experts capable of using these complex tools. To mitigate this talent shortage, the software and hardware tools need to be very easy to use and flexible enough to support a variety of ML networks, frameworks and operators.

2. Production costs, driven primarily by supply chain costs, need to be low enough to support pricing that the market

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autonomous systems are (1) Cloud backend service that supports the mission or operations; (2) Communication backbone or infrastructure that communicates with fielded autonomous systems; (3) Deployment infrastructure to interface between OEM production and deployment to provide system updates; (4) Service ecosystem ensuring a scalable and sustainable operation for autonomous operations and; (5) Safety for humans interacting with the RAS. 5. Technology integration is tightly correlated to performance efficiency. The technology is defined to integrate both software and hardware, making it critical to have software-hardware co-design for more complex functional integration. Hardware integration, commonly referred to as SoC (System on Chip), integrates commonly used functions for ML, computer vision or perception, and image signal processing. Software integration should be tightly coupled to the SoC to provide additional design capabilities to enable further integration into the overall system software design. Most of the autonomous systems in development are primarily running on software.

6. Public infrastructure integration to support autonomous systems lags behind due to economic incentive and necessity.

Until there is a critical mass of demand that drives supply, the infrastructure piece will not be broadly available.

7. Depth of regulation of autonomous systems early on is more to control high-level goals with very little technical regulation due to rapidly changing technology and lack of understanding or deep insights into social impacts.

will bear. The production cost curve hits an inflection point as volumes increase, which drive down unit costs along with increasing alternative options available within the supply chain.

3. Performance efficiency needs to meet a minimum efficiency threshold, which is highly dependent on algorithm maturity and hardware performance efficiency. Algorithm maturity is achieved when the algorithms have converged enough to transition out of the R&D phase into production with extended coverage in many domains. Hardware performance efficiency is achieved when there are more aggregated functions to support the autonomy stack with lower SWaP-C (size, weight, power, and cost) that supports the desired computation capacity. Performance efficiency is tightly correlated to the level of technology integration as efficient algorithms will have poor performance if the wrong hardware is used. To prevent this poor performance, hardware-software co-design is required for complex development in the machine learning domain.

4. Operational efficiency has multiple subdimensions that affect performance. The subdimensions common to most

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Progress and innovation are often built upon existing technologies. The trend towards moving from automated operation to fully autonomous operation has driven the need for convergence of multi-domain expertise and integration into a RAS platform. Not only is it a convergence of technologies, but also engineering talents from multiple domains coming together to innovate. Some of the key subsystems to build an autonomous vehicle include high spectral range sensors with a wide field of view and long ranges; sensor data fusion subsystems; localization and mapping subsystems; perception and prediction; and path planning and intelligent decisionmaking. All of the above items contain elements from different industries which ultimately work together.

So, what is the vision of the future? If artificial intelligence is viewed as the “spirit” of an autonomous system, then machine learning is a key building block towards true general intelligence. Machine learning at the edge is where this transition will happen. SiMa.ai’s purpose-built MLSoC™ platform and associated SDK provide the foundational elements to enable innovative customers to address the capabilities required to accelerate the transition into the market. By helping enable this transition, SiMa.ai is paving the way to accelerate adoption of autonomous systems so the world can enjoy the great benefits of these ML-enabled RAS products much sooner.

Visit SiMa.ai for more information.

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> AUTOMOTIVE-FEATURE

R-Car Virtual Platform accelerates automotive software development for Next-generation vehicles

Recently, a significant change of development methodology for Automotive system is needed to meet new requirements such as CASE(*1) in development of Next-generation vehicles. (*1) CASE : Connected, Autonomous, Shared & Services, Electric Connection to networks and autonomous driving require high performance of communication and sensing, sophisticated coupling between recognition / judgement and control functionality, fulfilment of Functional Safety and security, etc.

As a result, Automotive system, especially software, becomes very large-scale and complicated. Moreover, to develop such complicated system, not only enhancement of each semiconductor device and software but also solution of total system become more important.

Development process for Automotive system consists of three layers; vehicle development, ECU(*2) development, semiconductor (SoC(*3)) development, and each layer collaborates with each other. The enlargement and complication of system as above make development period longer in phase of Requirement design for SoC specification in vehicle and ECU development, corresponding SoC Specification design in SoC development, and Software design and System verification by using SoC sample. Such long development causes difficulty to apply state-of-arts technology to products immediately. Moreover, when defects are found in System verification and require SoC specification changes, the risk of rework increases to go back more time. (*2) ECU : Electronic Control Unit (*3) SoC : System on a Chip To solve these issues, a SoC vendor is expected to provide solution to reduce development period for not only SoC but also whole Automotive system.

> JUNE 2021

Seiji Mochizuki

Senior Principal Engineer Renesas Electronics Corporation

Renesas can contribute to reduce development period by Shift-left of Software development and System verification, which shall enable; • To establish methodology to realize parallel and synchronous developments of Vehicle / ECU / SoC. • To avoid significant rework by verifying complicated use case in early phase of development.

Renesas proposes R-Car Virtual Platform as a key technology for above.

Image

Objectives of R-Car Virtual Platform (VPF)

Renesas is aiming to realize followings by providing R-Car VPF, a model to emulate function of device virtually.

1. Parallel and synchronous development by Software development without silicon Conventionally, a serial development of SoC and software is commonly applied because software is developed by using device sample delivered after SoC development. R-Car VPF enables to start Software development before the completion of SoC development. As a result, parallel and synchronous

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development by using R-Car VPF can reduce development period of whole Automotive system.

2. No significant rework by System verification in early phase Conventionally, because System verification is executed in the latest phase of Automotive system development, overhead of rework is large when defects are found in System verification.

R-Car VPF enables Shift-left of System verification to before the completion of SoC development. As a result, early System verification by using R-Car VPF can reduce overhead of rework.

Moreover, conventionally, because a serial development of SoC and software is commonly applied, there is the following risk in SoC quality.

• SoC requirements are not fixed in SoC design phase because software specification is not considered fully before Software development.

• SoC cannot be verified with actual software in SoC verification phase because software does not exist before Software development.

R-Car VPF enables to reduce the lack of requirements in SoC design phase and improve SoC quality by use case verification with actual software, by parallel development of SoC and software. This results in no significant rework to go back to SoC specification design and the reduction of risk to lower specification of Automotive system.

• Address map and calculation accuracy are exactly the same as those of device.

• Integrated IP models are gradually expanded according to the market requirement.

SoC model integrated in R-Car VPF follows the basic structure of device. Software is executed on CPU models and control IP models via Bus model. R-Car VPF and the corresponding device are binary compatible, and it enables to execute Software design seamlessly both on VPF before delivery of device sample and on device sample. Each IP model works according to register write via Bus model and supports bus master operation such as memory access and interrupt output to CPU models.

Image

Image

Overview of R-Car Virtual Platform (VPF)

R-Car VPF is simulation environment to enable Software design without device sample. It emulates function of R-Car device on register interface to enable Software design in the same feeling as on a device.

Assumed use case (Expected benefit) • To start Software design before delivery of device sample and migrate to Software design on device sample seamlessly.

• To execute System verification, where device and control software operate cooperatively, before delivery of device sample.

• To execute Regression test of software both before and after delivery of device sample.

• Major features • R-Car VPF integrates CPU models, and software can be executed on the CPU models.

• Available to read / write access to memory space such as DRAM.

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R-Car VPF supports the following feature for Software design to aim at the same feeling as Software design on device.

• To integrate UART(*4) console as user interface with software running on CPU model.

• Some communication interfaces can be connected to resource in Host computer where R-Car VPF is runnung.

Thus, software designers can use the resource in Host computer as target model of communication.

• To support synchronous connection with various software debuggers for source code debug. (*4) UART : Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter Development status of R-Car Virtual Platform (VPF) Renesas Automotive SoC, R-Car series are in mass production of the third generation. For newly-development products after 2021, Renesas is proceeding with the development to provide R-Car VPF. Renesas has already started to apply the prototype of R-Car VPF to in-company Software development. Conventionally, debug of software is executed on device after specification design and coding on paper. On the other hand, by starting debug on R-Car VPF before delivery of device sample, software delivery to customers can be accelerated.

In the next step, Renesas will offer R-Car VPF, which can realize software development without silicon, for customers of R-Car to enhance Shift-left of Software development and System verification for Next-generation vehicles.

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> POWER-EXCLUSIVE

Power Converters in Railway Applications

As we recover from the global COVID lockdowns, around the world, rail traffic and networks are expanding again, driven by increasing affluence and mobility, rebooted tourism and asset upgrades for better sustainable and environmentallyfriendly transport. Railways are an integral part of the EU’s Green Deal plan of becoming climate-neutral by 2050 [1], while China and India particularly are investing heavily into a market with a global CAGR growth rate of 3.4% [2]. Provision of new equipment is lagging demand however so there is also a program of upgrades to existing infrastructure and rolling stock to improve efficiency to keep transport moving.

> JUNE 2021

Utilising assets efficiently is vital

New and existing rolling stock can be utilised more efficiently with ‘smart’ systems, tracking idle and active stock to enable increased traffic density. Operational condition can also be monitored using the techniques of Remote Condition Monitoring (RCM) and Condition Based Maintenance (CBM). The techniques identify repair and maintenance just when needed, saving costs and improving reliability and availability. Condition monitoring can collect other data such as occupancy rates and distance travelled which can be analysed to achieve further efficiency savings. The rail sector IoT market is expected to reach USD 30.6 billion by 2026 with a GAGR of over 15% [3].

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Powering sensors

A sensor typically needs just a few watts to operate at a low voltage, down-converted from the main system rail using a DC/DC converter. The system rail nominal is often 110VDC but sometimes is as low as 24V. Power requirements can be higher though in multi-channel sensor arrangements or when actuators have to be driven, perhaps up to about 40W. Individual isolated DC/DCs are normally employed for each sensor to keep output voltage drops low and to avoid ground loops which might cause EMC problems such as sensor cross-interference. The system supply rail however is not ‘clean’. Standard EN 50155-2017 allows a variation of +25%/-30% in normal operation with dips to 60% and surges to 140% of nominal for 100ms with no ‘deviation of function’ allowed and 125% to 140% of nominal for one second with performance degradation. To cover these variations, DC/ DC converters for 110V systems must typically operate from 43 to 160VDC. Fast transient overvoltages are also present on the system rail as defined in the EN 61000-4-x series of standards, however suppressors and simple LC filters can attenuate these. Complete loss of supply can also occur though; EN 50155 defines interruptions in two classes S1 and S2 with the worst being 10ms loss of supply from nominal input with no degradation in performance. For some equipment the interruption can be 30ms on supply change-over (Class C2). To cover this, holdup capacitance external to the converter is normally added after a series isolating diode, which can also provide reverse polarity protection – another requirement from the standard.

An example application is shown in Figure 1 where a fan is activated by a carriage temperature sensor, with temperature and status signalled via a WLAN connection. A RECOM 8W DC/DC converter is shown with an input range of 43 to 160V providing a regulated, isolated, 5V power rail for the sensor circuitry. The DC/DC is very compact at just 32 x 20 x 10mm.

Extended hold up and reverse polarity protection is shown along with an optional EMI filter for high immunity to transients and low conducted emissions although the RECOM DC/ DC already has high compliance levels to rolling stock EMC standard EN50121-3-2.

Steve Roberts

Innovation Manager RECOM Power

Sensing Remote Condition

Asset status and condition can be determined by sensors measuring axle count, bearing temperature, supply voltage fluctuations, acoustic noise, shock/vibration, door operation cycles, occupancy, air quality, light levels and more. Although a sensor can be as simple as a thermistor to measure temperature, increasingly ‘intelligence’ is added, with perhaps a digital signal processor (DSP), data logger and a wired or wireless interface, possibly using long range (LoRa) or WLAN radio. Rolling stock might also be tracked

by GPS. With the sensor self-contained and communicating wirelessly, upgrades for legacy assets are easier and in new stock, cabling is reduced and flexibility improved with the possibility of remote updates and customisation.

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Figure 1: A temperature sensor in a rail application

JUNE 2021 <

> POWER

- EXCLUSIVE

Compliance with RIA 12

Specifications for rail DC/DC converters sometimes include compliance with the UK RIA 12 standard which defines higher energy surges up to 385V for 20ms in 110V systems. However, with a source impedance of just 0.2 ohms, clamping the input with a transient voltage suppressor dissipates excessive power.

A solution from RECOM is their RSPxx-168 pre-regulator (Figure 2) which drops the surge voltage to a maximum value within the input range of their DC/DC converters. Three different modules are offered for DC/DC converters with 20W, 150W or 300W ratings.

The rail environment is stressful Standard EN 61373 defines the levels of shock, vibration, temperature and humidity levels in the rail environment, dependent on the installation category, which ranges from most severe on the bogies to more benign in areas such as body-mounted inside enclosures (Category 1, Class B). DC/ DC converters for sensors are likely to be fitted in this less stressful environment but will often still require encapsulation and ruggedisation. Service life expectation is typically 20 years so products such as those from RECOM and PCS are qualified with tests including full performance characterisation, highly accelerated life testing (HALT), high temperature soak and thermal cycling.

Solutions are available off-the-shelf

RECOM [4] and their sister company Power Control Systems [5] have a wide portfolio of rugged EN 50155-compliant DC/DC converter products and complete turn-key solutions for rail applications from low power (8W-240W) modules up to 10kW power supplies, with customisation available.

Both companies have long experience of rail applications offering comprehensive engineering support, detailed environmental compliance reports and EMC evaluation. Reference designs are available which include the necessary EMI filtering for EN 50121-3-2 compliance for 24 - 48V or 72 - 110V DC nominal input voltage converters. (R-REF04-RIA12-1 and R-REF04-RIA12-2 respectively).

Figure 2: RECOM surge protector operation for RIA 12 applications

Conversion at higher power levels

Centralised rolling stock systems and trackside installations also require power converters at higher power levels. ‘Brick’ format DC/DC converters are popular such as the RPxxxRW and RPxxxRUW series from RECOM which include parts operating over a 12:1 input range with nominal values covering all the rail standards from 24 to 110VDC including surges and brownouts. The DIN rail format is also common with an example being the 120W ruggedised SQ120 part from RECOM’s sister company Power Control Systems (PCS) with its 110VDC input, compliant with EN 50155. The Power Control Systems portfolio also includes rack-mounted AC/DC and DC/DC converters for rolling stock and trackside applications with three-phase AC input parts rated up to 10kW. A 300W AC/AC inverter is also available EN 50155-compliant with adjustable output frequency between 30 and 600Hz.

> JUNE 2021

Off-the-shelf DC/DC converters and power supplies qualified to railway standards from RECOM and Power Control Systems offer a cost-efficient and easy route to provision of power for sensors and centralised systems from watts to kilowatts. RECOM Parts are available from their authorised distributors.

References

[1] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ IP_20_2528 [2] https://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/ rail-infrastructure-market [3] https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/ smart-railways-market [4] RECOM: www.recom-power.com [5] Power Control Systems: https://www.powercontrolsystems. com

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>

T&M

Anritsu Upgrades MT1000A Test Rohde & Schwarz to Supply Function for 5G Network Scanners for Heathrow Airport Anritsu Corporation has upgraded a synchronous measurement function for the company’s Network Master Pro MT1000A, the industry’s smallest- in-class tester supporting mobile networks up to 100 Gbps.

Fifth-generation (5G) networks are expected to support increasing future numbers of applications and services, such as hi-definition video streaming, autonomous driving, IoT sensing, smart factories, etc.

By upgrading this MT1000A test function, Anritsu hopes to facilitate the construction of time-synchronous infrastructure, a key technology supporting 5G networks.

Rohde & Schwarz has been selected to supply the Quick Personnel Security (QPS) scanners to Heathrow Airport, reducing wait times for passengers and enhancing security checkpoints.

R&S QPS201 scanners will be rolled out across the airport, ensuring that all passengers, staff and contractors accessing airside locations are scanned on entry.

“Heathrow Airport is the latest leading international airport to adopt the R&S QPS201, reinforcing our position as the go-to solution for airports around the world,” said Frank Mackel, Vice President Sales Europe, Rohde & Schwarz. “This scanner addresses the three key airport requirements: high accuracy of threat detection, low frequency of false alarms to minimize time-consuming manual pat-downs, and fast throughput to reduce passenger wait times even at busy periods.” machine-trained software algorithms, R&S QPS201 detects all types of potentially dangerous objects.

The MU100090B is a GNSS disciplined oscillator supporting GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, Beidou and QZSS. It receives signals from each of this GNSS to output a UTC-traceable reference time signal as well as 10-MHz signals as a time-synchronous, high-accuracy reference timing supplied to the portable MT1000A, supporting SyncE Wander and PTP tests up to 25 Gbps for measuring network time synchronization.

Furthermore, multiple MT1000A testers at various remote sites can be operated and monitored from the central office using the Site Over Remote Access MX109020A (SORA) software to help quickly pinpoint synchronization problems.

VIAVI Presents Fusion JMEP 10 Ethernet Transceiver

Base stations can be synchronized using wired-network technologies called SyncE and PTP, which require both measurements of the network time-synchronization performance when installing and maintaining a cell site, along with guaranteed network performance by the network operator.

VIAVI Solutions has released Fusion JMEP 10, a smart, small form-factor pluggable (SFP+) Gigabit Ethernet transceiver for network test, turnup and performance monitoring up to 10 GbE. Part of the VIAVI NITRO lifecycle management platform, the Fusion JMEP 10 addresses the emergence of 10 GbE as the dominant Ethernet bandwidth being used for applications like 5G xHaul, Business Ethernet Services, Distributed Access Architecture (DAA) for Cable or GPON/XGSPON for Fiber Access Networks.

“As the industry moves to 10 GbE as the common data link rate, while access and backhaul networks become more complex, it becomes imperative for operators to develop a test, turnup and performance monitoring strategy right from initial deployment,” said Mark Easton, Director, Transport Assurance, VIAVI. “With the Fusion JMEP 10, VIAVI has delivered carrier-grade testing and monitoring within the tiny footprint of a smart SFP+ transceiver.”

Moreover, the O-RAN Alliance, which is a mainstream promoter of base-station multi vendors, increasingly requires tests of overall mobile network time-synchronization performance to assure interconnectivity.

Time-synchronization quality is indicated by drift from coordinated universal time (UTC), so precise timesynchronization measurement requires expensive infrastructure to acquire UTC with high accuracy. This can be a challenge at the installation and maintenance of many cell sites.

Anritsu has developed many test instruments for measuring the jitter and wander of transport networks since the SDH/SONET era. Adding this new High-Performance GNSS Disciplined Oscillator MU100090B to the line of modules for the portable, battery-operated MT1000A will help simplify on-site I&M timesynchronization tests.

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> AUTOMOTIVE-FEATURE

Physics Based Modelling for Power Electronic System Design and Validation Using Ansys

Power Electronics is defined as the study of conversion of electric power from one form to another. The power generated is processed through several power electronics components converting AC to DC or DC to DC etc. With the increasing demand in power conversion, miniaturization and need for extended life of the components, the challenges faced by the designers in the process of design and validation increases exponentially.

When we specifically talk about the automotive system, which once upon a time was dominated by the mechanical components, it can be said that it is getting more and more electrified. IC engines are being replaced by electric motors, with greater focus on safety and electronic controls being incorporated into the two, three or four wheelers have increased tremendously [Figure 1]. All these are possible with the introduction of power electronics into the automotive system.

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Figure [1] Applications of Electronics in an automobile

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Trends and Challenges in Power Electronics for Electric Component Design & Characterization Vehicle The components of an electric powertrain system are the Electric vehicles come with their own design challenges and innovations are pertinent to overcome these challenges. The arrival of wide band gap devices such as Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) have resulted in increased operating frequency range, increased power handling capacity, and reduction in size of electronic circuits [1]. One of the biggest roadblocks in EV adoption is charging downtime. With fast charging and Level 2 charging (Charing at high Power rating), this has been minimized. However, these charging techniques require careful design of Power Electronics to support the charging rates. The above trends pose engineering challenges, which either relate to component sizing and validation, or system integration and performance. The reliability challenges such as thermal and structural integrity, while minimizing electromagnetic emissions, can significantly impact the design and development cycle.

If we consider the customer's perspective, the need for an improvement in the performance, safety and reduction in cost, becomes priority. In line with this, the designer has to focus on design refinement to improve mileage/range of vehicle, increased life of the battery, better comfort, confirm that the model complies with the various EMI-EMC standards, design thermally and structurally reliable system. Simulation through virtual modelling helps in addressing all these challenges prior to entering the prototype building stage.

Power electronic system design workflow

The different phases involved in the power electronic system design follows the V curve, which includes component design and characterization, reliability study, final system integration and validation with functional safety norms applicable at every single step.

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high frequency electronic transformers, switching devices like IGBT’s, MOSFETS, FET’s etc., control logics, traction motors, busbars and cables.

Let us focus on the challenges and design methodologies followed in the characterization of the electronic transformers and switching devices in this section.

The characterization of the high frequency transformers comes with its own challenges, where the functioning of the model is quite different from the low frequency transformers.

Understanding the relationship between the available output power and transformer parameters, such as core area product, peak flux density, operating frequency, and coil current density are needed for the core selection. Operating a magnetic core at high frequency causes increase in core and copper losses, with the increased losses temperature rise in the model becomes an issue [2]. At Ansys, we use physics-based simulation to design and optimize the various parameters of the transformer like size, turns, material of the core and winding.

Extraction of the magnetic parameters like impedance over a frequency range, losses in the core, temperature rise in the windings, structural integrity of the model are analyzed using electro-thermal and structural modelling.

The selection of the switching devices is based on the operating frequency, current rating, and operating temperatures.

Prediction of the switching and conduction loss and extraction of the power module parasitic are needed to precisely estimate the characteristics of the electronic circuit. Semiconductor characterization is one of the methods of extracting the required parameters of the switching components to be used for modelling the power electronic circuits. Using Ansys Twin Builder, we extract the model of the switches based on the data provided in the datasheet as shown in Figure [3].

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> AUTOMOTIVE-FEATURE of an inverter model being compared with the measured value and the standard.

Figure 4. LISN output for conducted emission Thermal reliability: Increasing the power density increases the challenges in designing thermally reliable components.

Controlling the temperature distribution, selection of right cooling topologies, heat sink designs, selection of the correct switching components (SiC or GaN) and more come under this.

Using Ansys thermal solutions we can design and analyze the structures and mechanisms that efficiently remove performance degrading and unwanted heat from the system. Figure [5] displays the temperature profile inside the electronic package with the heat sinks and cooling methodologies incorporated

Figure [3] Characterization based on datasheet inputs

Why reliability?

Why do we have to focus on the reliability study, be it electromagnetic, thermal or structural?

With increasing feature integration and reduction in size of the electronic components, the need for efficient power management, compliance with the emission norms, thermal and structural integrity of the system has become key challenges.

The need of the time is to rectify the issues at an early stage, before getting into prototype building or testing, resulting in saving costs and time to market.

Electromagnetic reliability: Compliance with the various EMI EMC standards (CISPR, SAE, ISO, IEC, AIS [3]) is mandatory for each entity, ranging from the component to the vehicle level. Simulation helps in early detection of the emissions and optimizing the designs. At Ansys, using the electromagnetic suite of products, we carry out conducted-radiated emissions, power integrity analysis and provide users with options to tune the design to overcome the design failures. Figure [4] shows the output of the LISN model for the conducted emission test

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Figure5. Temperature profile inside the electronic package Structural Reliability: How catastrophic would be a condition where the automotive electronic components lose its structural integrity while the vehicle travels over a bumpy road? This could lead to the failure in the functioning of control systems, leading to an accident amounting to the death of passengers.

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Virtual modelling helps us in estimating the structural reliability of the component under various situations. Figure [6] shows the deformation in the PCB model under the impact of the electro-thermal load.

Conclusion

Introduction of power electronics into the automotive system has led to electrification of the original mechanical system with improved performance and better safety measures at an affordable price. It is simulation that helps in the early assessment of the design, to understand the failures and to find solutions and incorporate the same in the design before moving on to a prototype building and testing phase.

References:-

[1]https://www.infineon.com/ cms/en/product/wide-band-gapsemiconductors-sic-gan/ [2]https://core.ac.uk/download/ pdf/147124489.pdf [3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ List_of_common_EMC_test_standards

Figure 6 Deformation of the electronic package under the impact of an electro-thermal load

About the author:

System integration and validation

In order to guarantee the functional efficiency of the system, verification and confirmation on the performance of the system post integration of the multiple components is crucial. Ansys system solution solver, Ansys Twin builder, provides us with the opportunity to integrate the various components and carry out the system level closed loop simulation to measure the functioning of each component of the electronic powertrain post integration. Figure [7] highlights the integrated system model for a hybrid electric vehicle with battery management system, motors and controls in place.

Reshmi Raghavan, Senior Electrification Specialist, Ansys

Figure 7. Closed loop control system of a hybrid electrical vehicle

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Reshmi Raghavan, is working as a Senior Electrification Specialist with Ansys for more than 9 years. She has extensive experience in working with global Automotive OEMs on the subjects such as Power Electronics Design, vehicle electrification and EMI EMC. She has also developed several workflows for Multiphysics modelling, virtual validations, and Machine Learning

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> 5G

Enea Becomes a Part of Telenor’s Initiative

The Linux Foundation, NGMN Partner on End-to-End 5G

Enea has joined Telenor’s trailblazing initiative to create the world’s most diverse multi-vendor 5G standalone (SA) solution, which includes Proof of Concept (PoC) of a fully secure cloud-native 5G Core for network slicing.

This is ready for deployment and can support both highperformance telecom and enterprise applications.

Having met stringent security requirements, Telenor’s solution is already being trialled by the Norwegian Armed Forces and is a pioneering use case of network slicing in action.

Enea provided Telenor with its cloud-native 5G data management solutions including its telco-grade fully secure Unified Data Manager (UDM) that can support up to 10 billion data entries at a rate of 1 to 500,000 transactions per second.

Enea’s solution also delivers automated end-to-end encrypted communications from the core to the edge.

Fujitsu and Rakuten’s Open RAN Solutions

and beyond.

NGMN’s mission is to provide impactful industry guidance to achieve innovative and affordable mobile telecommunication services for the end-user, placing a particular focus on Mastering the Route to Disaggregation, Sustainability and Green Future Networks, as well as on 6G and the continuous support of 5G’s full implementation.

This mission is complementary to the efforts of the Linux Foundation’s LF Networking and LF Edge umbrella projects, as well as others like LF Energy operating within the telecom, IoT, and networking spaces.

Creating and providing open, scalable building blocks for operators and service providers is critical to the industry adoption of 5G and beyond. Therefore, the collaboration between NGMN and the Linux Foundation will focus on endto-end 5G architecture and beyond 5G.

Three Ireland Joins Ericsson's Global Startup 5G Program

Rakuten Mobile and Fujitsu Limited have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), deepening collaboration on joint efforts to develop Open RAN

solutions for the global market.

Under the MoU, Rakuten Mobile and Fujitsu will collaborate to jointly develop 4G and 5G Open RAN solutions, promoting the creation of market-leading innovation.

Fujitsu will develop new O-RAN-based 4G and 5G radio units that Rakuten Mobile will integrate into its Rakuten Communications Platform (RCP) offering, with an eye toward expansion into the global market.

The MoU will allow the two companies to define joint global go-to-market plans to address the current and future needs of 4G and 5G Open RAN customers around the world, delivering new value with flexible, cost-effective solutions leveraging Rakuten and Fujitsu's respective strengths and expertise.

> JUNE 2021

The Linux Foundation and the Next Generation Mobile Network Alliance (NGMN) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for formal collaboration regarding end-to-end 5G

Ericsson has released Startup 5G, a program designed to help communications service providers (CSPs) to capture the consumer potential of 5G. Three Ireland is the first CSP to join the global initiative.

Three Ireland will be able to tap into Ericsson’s ConsumerLab research and analytical data, as well as gaining exclusive access to a worldwide network of 5G startups. The collaboration further strengthens the partnership between Ericsson and Three Ireland, with the companies working together to research and develop new 5G consumer offerings such as augmented and virtual realities, digital education, e-sports and other immersive media experiences.

Ericsson recently released the largest global 5G consumer study to date – Five Ways to a Better 5G – capturing opinions equivalent to 1.3 billion consumers and 220 million 5G users.

The report revealed that 5G is already beginning to trigger new smartphone behaviors, with 5G users spending more time on cloud gaming and augmented reality (AR) apps compared to 4G users.

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> EV

Analog Devices Broadens its BMS Portfolio

India EV Charging Infrastructure Market to Grow during 2021-27

Analog Devices has broadened its portfolio of battery management system (BMS) products including ASIL-D functional safety and innovative new low-power features to enable continuous battery monitoring.

These new devices further differentiate ADI’s BMS platform that today delivers the industry’s best-proven accuracy and supports all key battery chemistries—including zero-Cobalt LFP (lithium iron phosphate)—for mass-market electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage systems (ESS) used for reuse and recycling of battery packs.

Sales of full EVs continue to accelerate as consumers increasingly move to greener transportation and governments act to create a more sustainable future. Automakers are challenged to scale their EV fleets economically, while also staying ahead of evolving safety requirements across the world.

Despite being late in its entrance, India has started taking steps towards Electric vehicle (EV) growing market. And though, India has not yet standardized the requirements around private or public charging infrastructure, it has allowed various charging connector standards to be utilized by different automakers.

According to the latest TechSci Research report, “India Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Market By Type of Charging (Direct Charging and Battery Swapping), By Location (Highways, Cities and Others), By Application (Commercial, Residential),

By Charger Type (Fast Charger, Slow Charger), By Mode of Charging (Plug-in charging system, Wireless charging system),

By Company and By Geography, Forecast & Opportunities, FY2027”, India electric vehicle charging infrastructure market is expected to witness robust growth in the next five years owing to stringent government policies to support alternative fuel and minimize the burden on conventional fuels is the contributing factor for the electric vehicle charging infrastructure growth during the forecast period.

Etrio’s Dealership Extended in Six States

Ford to Develop Two EV Battery Plants

Etrio has decided to enter the B2C space by establishing dealerships in six states.

This move is part of its strategy to expand across the country with its unique EV dealerships. Currently, the company has dealers in Delhi, UP, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa.

Etrio plans to further strengthen its presence in the country by opening outlets in over 15 states by the end of this financial year. As part of this plan, the company will strengthen its presence in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and also enter Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bihar, and West Bengal, thereby deepening its presence in existing states.

The primary product line will be the electric three-wheeler range of Touro across both cargo and passenger segments.

Also, on the anvil are plans to launch new products in the three-wheeler (3Wh) category and enter the electric fourwheeler LCV segment with a one-tonne offering.

Etrio’s dealer-partner philosophy centers around building a strong entrepreneur network.

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Ford to create two North American factories to make EV Battery Plants for roughly 600,000 electric vehicles per year by the middle of this decade. The plan will be succeed in the partnership of SK Innovation of Korea.

According to a news portal, the name of joint venture will be BlueOvalSK. Ford’s plan to vertically integrate key parts of the electric vehicle supply chain. The company also informed that they have signed an agreement, but details on the ownership structure and factory locations have yet to be worked out.

SK Innovation already has a U.S. battery factory in Commerce, Georgia, and says it’s expanding production in Europe and China. It plans to be one of the top three electric vehicle battery suppliers in the world by 2025, according to a statement.

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> KART

Digi-Key Presents Power Focus Rochester Picked as Primary Campaign with Molex Testing Supplier for SNL

Digi-Key Electronics has launched a power focus campaign with Molex to provide Digi-Key customers with a wealth of power connectivity solutions to meet the demands of an increasingly diverse market.

As industries evolve to address new challenges, Molex power connectivity solutions have grown to embrace these trends, be it increased connectivity in tighter spaces, next-generation automotive and industrial solutions, or increasingly diverse medical applications.To meet current industry demands for smaller interconnects, Molex provides connectors designed to support power supplies and systems that require a very high-current transfer in challenging and thermal-constrained spaces.

Rochester Electronics has been chosen by the Microelectronic Packaging organization within the Microsystems Engineering, Science and Applications (MESA) division at Sandia National Labs (SNL) as one of its key external testing suppliers after Rochester’s successful completion of HBT (Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor) environmental and reliability (QCI) testing program in 2020.

“We are delighted to be selected as a key supplier by Sandia National Labs. This program leverages Rochester’s strong reliability testing capabilities, both in terms of facilities and engineering skills, and we look forward to a long-term partnership,” said Mike Dube, VP Manufacturing and Engineering, Rochester Electronics This organization within Sandia Labs is responsible for qualification testing of Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC) devices in applications such as sensors, photonics, and MEMS (Micro Electromechanical Systems) components.

Mouser Electronics’ 3,000 New Parts Mouser Electronics has expanded its distribution range as the company introduced new products and technologies, giving customers an edge and helping speed time to market.

Over 1,100 semiconductor and electronic component manufacturer brands count on Mouser to help them introduce their products into the global marketplace. Mouser's customers can expect 100% certified, genuine products that are fully traceable from each manufacturer. In April, Mouser launched 3,069 new parts for shipment to customers. Some of those innovative new components and technologies include:

Texas Instruments TMS570LS1227 16/32-Bit RISC Flash Microcontroller • The TI TMS570LS1227 is an automotive-grade solution ideal for high-performance real-time control applications with safety-critical requirements. The microcontroller family provides advanced safety architecture that includes dual CPUs in lockstep, CPU and memory BIST logic, ECC on both the flash and the data SRAM, and many more features.

element14, Infineon’s Quiz on Thyristors and Diodes element14 has allied with Infineon Technologies to release a thyristor and diode quiz, giving customers a chance to test their knowledge on the topic and win exciting prizes.

The competition is available to customers across India, with ten weekly giveaways of Amazon gift vouchers valued at ₹1000.

In addition to this, participants have a chance to win IGBT modules, technologies, driver and application books by Andreas Volke and Michael Hornkam.

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This book will provide students with valuable information about the main contemporary power semiconductors and the applications in which they are used, while development engineers targeting power electronic converters will find all the essentials of selecting, dimensioning and applying IGBT modules laid out clearly and comprehensively.

The quiz is open to working professionals, students and anyone else who is excited about power electronics until 30th May 2021. The prize winners will be announced in June 2021.

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> UPDATES

Elektrobit Hits 5 Years Milestone in India Elektrobit (EB) has successfully completed 5 years in India and the company is celebrating the milestone with great enthusiasm.

Since its establishment in 2016, the Indian entity has become a critical part of innovation for the company across the globe, contributing across product development and customer programs in the areas of highly automated driving, car connectivity and security, and user experience.

Elektrobit has a decades-long track record of automotive expertise and has been developing pioneering software technologies since its inception. Maintaining established relationships with leading carmakers like the VW Group including Audi and Porsche, Ford, BMW and Daimler, the company intends to bring its latest technologies to the Indian automotive ecosystem by partnering with local manufacturers and their suppliers.

The automotive software market is growing rapidly and exponentially, and industry experts conservatively estimate nearly 10 percent compound annual growth between 2020 and 2030.

With global demand for EB software and services, Elektrobit is focusing strongly on the growth opportunity that exists in India. The company has increased its headcount many times since its inauguration 5 years ago and intends to invest more in Indian talent.

Fischer Connectors Honored with Two Red Dot Awards

Infineon to Present Power Solutions in 2021 APEC Conference

Fischer Connectors has won the prestigious Red Dot Award for Product Design in two categories: the "Mobile Phones, Tablets and Wearables" category, and the new

"Smart Products" meta-category.

The judges praised the connectors’ unique design concept, which makes them both appealing to users and particularly easy to use.

What was rated "smart" in the Fischer LP360TM is the connectivity solution’s multifunctional integration capability and modularity.

The new connector is indeed truly multi-talented.

These features also convinced the Red Dot Award jury. In the citation for the award in the Smart Products category, the jury said: "These connectors impress as a miniaturized and, at the same time, versatile technology platform with innovative 360-degree plug-in connectivity."

For the award in the Product Design category, the LP360’s user-friendliness was particularly highlighted: “The LP360 is impressively intuitive to use. It can quickly be inserted into the socket and is integrated into a connected vest, forming a hub."

The winners of the Red Dot Awards 2021 will be announced during the virtual Red Dot Design Week from June 21-25, 2021. During the entire week, the award winners will be given a digital stage.

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Infineon Technologies to showcase industry’s broadest range of power management solutions during the 2021 APEC Virtual Conference and Exposition from 14-17June.

With a device portfolio that spans silicon and wide bandgap (WBG) devices, engineers look to Infineon for solutions that balance performance, efficiency, reliability and cost. Infineon’s power solutions set the pace for innovations that make life easier, safer and greener.

Products, demonstrations and design aids featured in the Infineon virtual exhibit illustrate how the company’s productto-system expertise in power management enables engineers to balance operating specs and application requirements.

It helps to optimize for higher power density, smaller size and improved performance. The virtual exhibit is organized around application and product groups, including: Computing / data center / telecom From computing at the device level to data centers and the telecom networks that connect all of us, Infineon power solutions are part of the backbone of our connected society.

Wide bandgap devices SiC and GaN change the equation for power supply designs, enabling breakthroughs in efficiency, reliability and form factor. Infineon has the portfolio and application expertise to help customers integrate WBG into their designs.

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ROHM Declares its Environmental Vision 2050

Murata Extends its Minato MIRAI Innovation Center

Murata Manufacturing has declared the opening of Murata Mirai Mobility, an exhibition facility for automotive products, and Murata Interactive Communication Space, a facility to promote open innovation, in its Minato MIRAI Innovation Center.

The use of both facilities is by appointment only and is designed primarily for visits by our partner companies.

The Minato MIRAI Innovation Center, established in December 2020 in the Minatomirai 21 district in Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture, is Murata’s largest R&D hub in the Kanto region.

Murata Mirai Mobility will introduce our solutions and technology initiatives for the automotive market. With exhibits of electronic components and introductions of solutions for the electrification of automobiles, as well as demonstrations equipped with Murata’s parts, visitors can experience Murata’s technology from various angles.

Also, at the “pit facility” attached to Murata Mirai Mobility, our automotive electronic components can be installed in actual vehicles for various experiments and verifications.

Murata Interactive Communication Space will promote open innovation that creates new value and sparks new business creation through collaboration with diverse customers across industries.

Visitors can experience exhibits that will lead to the technologies and applications of the future. Events of up to 100 people, such as technology exchange meetings, can be held to stimulate idea creation.

Through these facilities, Murata will reinforce coordination with other Murata R&D hubs such as the Yasu and Yokohama Divisions, and increase its collaboration with external partners.

By promoting open innovation, the company will continue to offer leading innovative products and technology for each of our core market segments.

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ROHM has announced its ‘Environmental Vision 2050’ that will contribute to achieve a sustainable society by 2050.

In addition to pursuing zero carbon and zero emissions (zero CO2 emissions) based on the three themes of ‘climate change, ‘resource recycling’, and ‘coexistence with nature’, ROHM will promote business activities in harmony with the natural cycle to protect biodiversity.

ROHM’s corporate objective is: ‘Quality is our top priority at all times. Since our company’s foundation, we have been actively contributing to society and the progress of our culture through a consistent supply, under all circumstances, of high-quality products in large volumes to the global market.

The role of semiconductors – ROHM’s main products – is becoming increasingly important to achieving a decarbonized society. In particular, improving the efficiency of motors and power supplies, which are said to account for most of the world’s electricity consumption, has become our major mission.

STMicroelectronics Acquires AI Specialist Cartesiam ROHM has announced its ‘Environmental Vision 2050’ that will contribute to achieve a sustainable society by 2050.

In addition to pursuing zero carbon and zero emissions (zero CO2 emissions) based on the three themes of ‘climate change, ‘resource recycling’, and ‘coexistence with nature’, ROHM will promote business activities in harmony with the natural cycle to protect biodiversity.

ROHM’s corporate objective is: ‘Quality is our top priority at all times. Since our company’s foundation, we have been actively contributing to society and the progress of our culture through a consistent supply, under all circumstances, of high-quality products in large volumes to the global market.

The role of semiconductors – ROHM’s main products – is becoming increasingly important to achieving a decarbonized society. In particular, improving the efficiency of motors and power supplies, which are said to account for most of the world’s electricity consumption, has become our major mission.

Against this backdrop, ROHM’s management vision for 2020 is: ‘Focus on power and analog products to solve social challenges by delivering greater energy savings and miniaturization in customer products.’

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>

LAUNCH

Honeywell Satellite-Based Tracking Technology Developed in Bengaluru, Honeywell has launched its next-generation portable satellite terminal to track, monitor and control high-value assets in virtually any environment anywhere in the world, using the Inmarsat network.

Features: • Helps businesses operating in remote or disaster-affected areas manage and track their fleet and assets through satellite tracking.

• Inmarsat owns and operates the world’s most diverse global portfolio of mobile telecommunications satellite networks.

Applications: Track, monitor and control high-value assets

Availability: Available Now

Infineon, Reality AI Develop Sensing Solution for Cars

Infineon Technologies together with Reality AI have developed an advanced sensing solution giving vehicles the sense of hearing. This solution adds XENSIV MEMS microphones to existing sensor systems.

Features: • Enables cars to “see” around the corner.

• Warn about moving objects hidden in the blind spot or approaching emergency vehicles that are still too distant to see.

• Based on XENSIV MEMS microphones in combination with AURIX microcontrollers (MCU) and Reality AI’s Automotive See-With-Sound (SWS) system.

Applications: Automotive

Availability: Available Now

Maxim’s Trinamic Servo Controller/Driver Module Trinamic Motion Control, now part of Maxim Integrated releases the smallest and lowestpower single-axis servo controller/driver module with integrated motion control.

Features: • Two-phase bipolar stepper motors in robotics and automation equipment.

• Optimize speed and synchronization of axes for quicker throughput while also reducing power loss by 75 percent.

• Onboard magnetic encoder and digital inputs for an optical encoder.

• Simplify servo control for advanced feedback and diagnostics.

Applications: Robotics and automation equipment.

Availability: Available Now

Moxa MXview Wireless Add-on Module Moxa has launched MXview Wireless add-on module for our MXview industrial network management software. MXview streamlines network management by visualizing networks, helping non-IT staff simplify operations and improve network uptime.

Features: • Furthermore, users can monitor connectivity patterns and customize alert settings to immediately notify them of any problems.

• Allows engineers to perform on-site troubleshooting quickly and efficiently, ensuring maximum network availability.

• The MXview Wireless add-on features a dynamic topology view to let users see the status of wireless links and connection changes at a glance.

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Applications: Industrial network management software.

Availability: Available Now

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Renesas Entry-Level RZ/V2L MPUs Renesas Electronics has extended its RZ/V Series of microprocessors (MPUs) with the new RZ/V2L MPUs. Features: • Incorporates Renesas’ exclusive AI accelerator – the DRP-AI (Dynamically Reconfigurable Processor) – to make embedded AI easier and more power-efficient.

• The RZ/V2M, such as high-precision AI inference capabilities combined with top-class power efficiency.

• Optimizations such as tailoring the DRP-AI operating frequency and memory interface for an entry-level MPU.

Applications: Entry-level AI-enabled applications.

Availability: Available Now

STMicroelectronics New MEMS Accelerometer STMicroelectronics has introduced AIS2IH three-axis linear accelerometer that brings enhanced resolution, temperature stability, and mechanical robustness.

Features: • Market-leading reliability.

• Delivering high-performance motion-sensing over a wide -40ºC to +115ºC operating temperature range.

• Ultra-low power consumption in a compact LGA-12 land grid array package, at an ultra-competitive price.

Applications: Automotive, medical, and industrial segments.

Availability: Available Now

TDK Compact Ring Core Double Chokes TDK Corporation new series of very compact current-compensated EPCOS power line ring core double chokes for very high frequencies. The B82791H2N010 series is available with current ratings from 1.5 A to 4 A at a nominal ambient temperature of +70 °C without derating, and for a nominal voltage of 250 V AC (50/60 Hz).

Applications: • Suppression of common-mode interferences at very high frequencies • LED driver circuits • Switch-mode power applications

Features: • Very compact design • Suitable for post-design EMC tuning on finished PCB • The very high resonance frequency and high saturation capability due to special core material and omission of potting • Effective common-mode filtering up to 300 MHz

Availability: Available Now

Vishay High Precision Thin Film Chip Resistor Vishay Intertechnology has released a new high-precision thin-film wrap around chip resistor for industrial, medical, military, and aerospace applications.

Features: • Tight TCR of ± 2 ppm/°C over wider resistance and temperature ranges — and in more case sizes with higher power ratings — than competing devices.

• Available in five case sizes from 0402 to 2010.

• Offers a wide resistance range of 100 Ω to 3.05 MΩ, with tolerances down to ± 0.01 %; operates over a broad temperature range of -55 °C to +155 °C; and offers a high power-rating to 1 W.

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Applications: Industrial, medical, military, and aerospace.

Availability: Available Now

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WHAT IF WE COULD STOP DISEASES BEFORE THEY COULDN’T BE STOPPED? The key to beating more illnesses is earlier detection, and ADI’s precision sensing technology is powering new, ultra-fast disease testing, bringing us one step closer to a healthier future for all.

Analog Devices. Where what if becomes what is.

See What If: analog.com/WhatIf