Bisinfotech Magazine May Issue 2021 by Bis Infotech

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Editorial

The robotics market in India has gained momentum as a result of industrial expansion, digital revolution and adoption of automation at a large scale. In terms of annual installation, the industrial robotics market in India is estimated to reach 11,760 units by 2025. Industrial robots can be automatically controlled, programmed and manipulated in three or more axes. Based on mechanical configuration and level of autonomy, industrial robots are classified as stand-alone robots, cobots and mobile robots.The automotive, healthcare, pharmaceutical, plastic, metal, electrical and electronics sectors are the major end users of industrial robotics in India. The automotive industry has been the leading end user of industrial robots, accounting for ~48% of annual installations. Automotive manufacturers have been keen to adopt automation solutions in their production plants to improve productivity. The strong presence of various international and domestic automotive manufacturers has fueled the demand for industrial robotics in the country. The demand for industrial robotics from general manufacturing industries including plastic, metal, electrical, electronics, food and pharmaceutical is anticipated to pick up at a healthy rate. The fourth industrial revolution or industry 4.0 is expected to play a pivotal role in propelling the demand for industrial robotics in India. The healthcare industry has also emerged as one of the prominent users of robotics, especially in the areas of hospital applications, surgery, diagnostics and rehabilitation. Technological evolution has helped in dealing with complexities of industrial operations and thus led to a spurring demand for automated robotic solutions across the different industrial sectors. Robotics offers an array of advantages such as cost-efficiency, enhanced quality and flexibility in production, as well as improved safety and solution for labor shortage, which has stimulated the adoption of robotics. Furthermore, smart manufacturing through robotics has driven the demand for robotics in various sub-sectors of the manufacturing industry including electronics, pharmaceutical, food, machinery and equipment, and metals. India has embraced robotics at a slower pace as compared to countries like the U.S., China, South Korea and Japan. The high cost of ownership owing to the exorbitant cost of hardware components, maintenance, support, and research and development is a major roadblock. Our Cover story this month has talked to six veterans in this industry. Hope you have a good read and please share your opinion about the subject with us. Happy Reading!!!

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Contents 08

COBOTS COBOTS A WALK WITH LEADERS

14 POWER FUTURE

ADDING HYSTERESIS FOR SMOOTH UNDERVOLTAGE AND OVERVOLTAGE LOCKOUT

18 IOT-FEATURE

WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW FOR IOT

21 AUTOMATION|OP-ED REIMAGINING MANUFACTURING FROM “MADE FOR MASSES” TO “MADE FOR ME” 22

BIG PICTURE AN INTERVIEW WITH HUEI SIN EE, KEYSIGHT TECHNOLOGIES

Walt Maclay

behalf of Digi-Key Electronics

Swaminathan Vangal Ramamurthy General Manager | OMRON's Automation Centre & Robotics, Asia Pacific

24 POWER

PROTECTING AV CONTROL CIRCUITS THE MISSION-CRITICAL SUBSYSTEMS MUST BE ROBUST AND RELIABLE TO ENSURE DRIVER AND PASSENGER SAFETY

MEDICAL ELECTRONICS NEW AC/DC POWER SUPPLIES FOR MEDICAL APPLICATIONS

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ACCELERATE THE IMPACT OF AI IN YOUR BUSINESS WITH MLTIPLY

OBSOLETE ELECTRONICS A WIND TURBINE BURNS DOWN – DID IT HAVE TO HAPPEN? RELIABLE TECHNOLOGY PROTECTS AGAINST IRREPARABLE DAMAGE

Huei Sin EE

President and General Manager, General Electronics Measurement Solutions Vice President, Keysight Technologies

Michael Schrutka,

MSc. AC/DC Product Manager, RECOM

EMBEDDED-FEATURE HOW CAN EMBEDDED APPLICATIONS ENSURE SMALL DENSITY NOR FLASH PRODUCT LONGEVITY?

POWER-ENGINEER'S DESK UNDERSTAND AND APPLY SAFETYLIMITING VALUES FOR DIGITAL ISOLATORS

INDUSTRY 4.0 THE USE OF HIGH PERFORMANCE STANDARD CMOS SENSORS FOR 3D VISION, DETECTION AND MEASUREMENT

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE TECHNOLOGY: A CASE OF ADOPTING NEW TECHNOLOGY IN INDIA

TECHNOVATORS NINJACART PROMOTES ‘SAFE FOOD A BILLION PEOPLE’ TECHNOVATORS ENABLEX.IO : A STARTUP ADDRESSING REAL-TIME COMMUNICATION CAPABILITIES AUTOMOTIVE-FEATURE HIGH RELIABLE AND PERFORMANCE DEEP LEARNING ACCELERATOR FOR ADAS AND AUTONOMOUS DRIVING SYSTEMS

Katsushige Matsubara Sr. Manager, Automotive Solution Business Unit Renesas Electronics Corporation

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> COBOTS

Cobots A Walk with Leaders

- Nitisha Dubey

James McKew

Regional Director – APAC, Universal Robots

Dibyananda Brahma

VP – Growth, Mukunda Foods Pvt Ltd

> MAY 2021

Jayakrishnan Thrivikraman Nair

Sameer Gandhi

CEO, ASIMOV Robotics Pvt Ltd

Managing Director, OMRON Automation, India

Dr. Sudhir P. Srivastava

Kaundinya Panyam

MD Chairman & CEO, SS INNOVATIONS

VP- Marketing, Invento Robotics

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Cobot also known as collaborative robots work as an assistant of a human being and in other words it can be defined as the hardware version of Augmented Intelligence. As robots replace humans and do their jobs, but it’s not in the case of cobots. Cobots can automatically learn any kinds of tasks through demonstration and reinforcement learning. According to Barclays Equity Research, the global sales of cobots have already crossed US$120 million in the year 2015 and this figure is predicted to grow to $12 billion by the year 2025. The best part of cobots is, they don’t replace humans and they do work with them and learn easily. The use of cobots is safe because they can be interactively controlled by the humans while performing a joint task. Cobots have been trained in a different manner as comparison to traditional industrial robots. The main theory of the cobot is its cooperation and ability to work in close proximity to humans. These cobots are aimed at augmenting what humans do, to make humans more effective, efficient, and enhanced. Indeed, if the old robotics focused on the 4 D’s, then you can think that cobots focus on efficiency, effectiveness, and enhancement. If we see the usage of cobots, so it can be easily programmable than industrial robots because they are capable of “learning” on the job. If a normal worker wants, he can re-program the cobots movements and from that moment cobot will learn and do work accordingly on its own. Industrial robots is totally opposite of cobots, it cannot be reprogrammed easily, and require an engineer to write new code for any changes in the process to be implemented.

Sameer’s Omron Cobots come with several industry leading features like integrated vision and easy programming which help in easy setup and ease of use. Also, Omron offers a wide portfolio ranging from panel components, PLCs, safety components, vision, etc, which is extremely helpful to the customers to build complete one stop solutions. The robotic features are not only available in automotive sector or healthcare; it has widely been used in hospitality also. While emphasizing the Mukunda Foods’ specialities, Dibyananda explains, Mukunda Foods is not only a kitchen equipment company, we work as an extended arm of kitchen automation partner. The company helps a lot of brands even before the first rupee hits its accounts. Unlike other fancy kitchen bots, our bots are price sensitive and also guarantee ROI. Since we take care of all three aspects of the product (R&D, Manufacturing & Aftersales) it gives more confidence to the customer. Dr. Sudhir says, we have developed a low-cost robotic surgical system that costs 1/3rd that of the market leader. This brings our system within reach of medium and small hospitals and also reduces the cost per surgery making it affordable to a large section of the population who can benefit from this technology.

Nitisha from BISinfotech, talks with James McKew, Regional Director – APAC, Universal Robots, Jayakrishnan Thrivikraman Nair, CEO, ASIMOV Robotics Pvt Ltd, Sameer Gandhi, Managing Director, OMRON Automation, India, Dibyananda Brahma, VP – Growth, Mukunda Foods Pvt Ltd, Dr. Sudhir P. Srivastava, MD Chairman & CEO, SS INNOVATIONS and Kaundinya Panyam, VP- Marketing, Invento Robotics about the cobots and its future potential to disrupt advance and current applications.

The Leading Players – An Overview

While sharing the USP of its company, James says, Universal Robots is the pioneer of lightweight robotics as well as humanrobot collaboration. We’re a Danish company that develops and manufactures collaborative robots or cobots with the goal of making automation accessible to everybody. Our products are easy to program, flexible and cost-effective. Asimov robotics has a specific focus on developing robots that coexists and cooperates with human beings and capable of working with dynamic and unstructured environments. Our robotic solutions are comprehensive, compact and costeffective compared to our competitors, shared Jayakrishnan. The company also focuses on keeping the key software and hardware robots modular and reusable. It also helps them to customise its offerings for undertaking any complex tasks in a short period of time.

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Kaundinya creator of one of the popular robots ‘Mitra’ has not only achieved appreciation from India but also from all over the world. “Mitra - The Healthcare Robot” is all about taking steps towards self-reliance and innovativeness in the field of manufacturing and bringing a healthcare revolution in India. While talking about Invento Robotics and its Mitra Robots, Kaundinya shares that its customers include Bosch, Accenture, MG Motors, Apollo Hospitals, Fortis Hospitals and Yatharth Hospital among many others. The company is scaling up fast and ready to tap into the massive healthcare industry not only in India but globally. Its products have already been shipped to five countries so far - Australia, Qatar, UAE, Singapore and The United States of America.

Used Cases

Today, cobots can perform any task from farmers to factory, healthcare to hospitality everything. There is a huge market

MAY 2021 <

> COBOTS which can improve every sector and industry in today’s world. The electronics & technology, food & beverages, automotive, medical/pharma, and the plastics/polymer sectors have a great potential. These are the sectors that can highly benefit with robots. Elaborating about Universal Robots’ extensive testing on cobots at its facilities, James stated, “Bajaj deployed the cobots as a standardized solution for all its functional requirements, primarily due to the collaborative nature of the robots, and key benefits such as their compactness, flexibility, light weight, cost-effectiveness, accuracy and safety. Several processes such as material handling and machine tending are now collaboratively handled by the cobots and Bajaj employees”. In an effort to solve the issues created by changing production lines with manual loading systems, the ZEISS Metrology Centre, part of Carl Zeiss India (Bangalore) Pvt. Ltd., installed a UR5 cobot, which increased the company’s machining utilization by over 90% and gave it the ability to manufacture 24x7. A single cobot arm now tends three metrology machines in the same cycle, James added. While explaining the difference between industrial robots and cobots, Sameer says, Industrial Robots do not have innate safety features and hence need to be isolated from humans by safety fences, scanners and other devices. Cobots on the other hand are equipped with power, force, speed and separation limiting functions that enable them to sense the presence of human body parts like hands, arms, etc. and slowdown and stop accordingly. Other benefits are - cobots are usually lighter, compact, can be turned mobile, easy-tooperate, and easy-to-train. Mukunda Food is solving major pain points in the F&B sector such as People, Process and Product using automation. We make the machines which are affordable and not too fancily priced. All our products give ROI in 9 to 12 months of time. We are currently working with reputed F&B companies and large Kitchens such as Rebel Foods, Ola Foods, ITC, Chaayos, Swiggy, etc. in automating parts of their foods and beverages. Till now, we have automated 21+ processes, said Dibyananda.

Industrial automation has huge role in medical sector. Today, numbers of hospitals are trying to adapt robotic features. “The use of the surgical robotic system improves medical outcomes for the patients in terms of quicker recoveries and enabling surgeons to perform complex surgical procedures for extended periods of time with an ergonomic and intuitive user interface”, mentioned Dr. Sudhir. There was a time when due to COVID-19 pandemic, nobody was capable to meet their loved ones. Phone and internet was the only source of communication, but for Covid patient that facility was also not allowed. During that time ‘Mitra Robot’ from Invento Robotics played a major role. “Yatharth hospital wanted to add more ways of automation to their already impressive hospital. Located in Delhi NCR, the director of the hospital, wanted a solution using which patients would be able to interact with their friends and relatives. We chose to solve this problem using Mitra robot”, shared Kaundinya. He added, “The danger of the virus was well known and having an autonomous machine, backed by face detection and speech recognition technology, to do the dangerous job sounded like a perfect idea. The robot was able to facilitate multiple one to one conversations between the patient and their friend and relatives. The doctors also used the robot to conduct routine checkups with help of the remote consultation feature in the robot.”

Sectors Adopting Collaborative Robots (Cobots)

• Universal Robots collaborative robot arms are used to boost performance and add value in countless industries every day. Resilient businesses use collaborative robots to adapt and grow, even during difficult times. In almost every industry, cobots are taking on new tasks, helping companies stay competitive, and protecting workers. • Bigger manufacturers in the arena of industries like automotive, secondary packaging, FMCG, consumer electronics have made considerable progress in adopting them. The SMEs who are keen to make rapid strides in achieving better levels of flexibility, quality, consistency amidst challenges like little or no scope of extension or modification of the shop floor space, shortage of skilled manpower, meagre capital infusion capabilities are also showing enhanced levels of interest in cobots especially in the new normal, shared Sameer. Dibyananda feels, from Large Cloud kitchens to Large FMCG brands for Fresh food vending or from Individual outlets to QSR chains every industry is moving towards the Cobots. In fact, post COVID we are seeing client coming from US, UK and other parts of the world to have their food automated using our technology. Recently, we have signed up with a large US brand to make Pizza line automatic. According to Dr. Sudhir, sectors such as Automotive and Aerospace have been the traditional users of robotics for material handling and automated assembly. The advantage that cobots offer in terms of close collaboration with humans has opened up avenues in varied sectors such as healthcare, services, food industry, etc.

> MAY 2021

•Vol - 03 / 05

Kaundinya says, manufacturing sector has adopted cobots long ago and has seen great improvements in productivity. Healthcare sector will see the next big wave of adoption. Surgical robots are advancing rapidly while the demand for companion robots has been realised in recent years and industry leaders are opening up to its use in hospitals and senior care.

The benefits of Cobots (Collaborative Robots)

Today’s modern world has definitely required such facilities, which can make our lifestyle much easier and simpler. Collaborative robots or Cobots have numerous benefits, James says, Resilient businesses use collaborative robots to adapt and grow, even during difficult times. In almost every industry, cobots are taking on new tasks, helping companies stay competitive, and protecting workers. When business conditions call for agility, flexible cobots fit the bill. Optimize them for output or precision as needed. Move them from one task to another. Redeploy them for new product lines. With easy setup, they get to work fast so you can start reaping the benefits right away. Cobots let you automate more processes with greater consistency and higher quality. Precise, flexible, and easily redeployed cobots support your agile production requirements. Safely distance workers on repetitive tasks while increasing output. Cobots help you reduce the risk of human contamination in sensitive processes and clean environments. UR collaborative robot arms can be used for sterile, precise handling and assembly of medical devices or implants. Robots can also relieve workers from material handling jobs in dusty, loud, and high-vibration operations, allowing them to move to highervalue tasks. And with UR+ certified vision systems, cobots can perform detailed quality inspections, he added. Jayakrishnan emphasized the valued of cobots and says, Covid has worked as a catalyst to the adoption of Industry 4.0. Perhaps, Covid is the biggest and latest socio-economic black swan event that has redefined almost everything including our lifestyle and social behaviour. Since pandemic has affected the physical closeness and cooperation of the human work

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force, Collaborative robots gained a lot of importance. These cobots not only work safely alongside human workers but also interact with other robotic systems to form a comprehensive human-robot collaborative workforce. Sameer shared the benefits of Cobots and said it will help to maintain social distancing on the floor. He says, cobots are of great utility here in not only reducing the manpower density on the floor but also in bringing higher levels of efficiency. Manufactures of HMLV products have to grapple with constantly changing routings, quick and frequent changeovers as well as a lack of consistency. However, with cobots as companions, the calibration becomes instant and easy owing to their precision guidance and built-in vision. Moreover, same cobot can be used for different cells, on-the-fly, which adds on to the convenience. Dibyananda emphasized the value of kitchen automation, he says it was a trend even before the coronavirus pandemic, as hospitals, campus cafeterias and others tried to meet demand for fresh, customised options 24 hours a day while keeping labour costs in check. Now, some say, robots may shift from being a novelty to a necessity. What used to be forwardthinking – last year, pre-COVID – has become current thinking. The interest shown by organizations in knowing more about them and studying the massive potential for automation, but this is not necessarily translating into a significant increase in sales or investment in automation by businesses. Without a doubt, the Kitchen Automation will reach exponential growth in the coming years, he added. Kaundinya explaining the healthcare sector says, T Kallupatti is a village near Madurai which doesn’t have proper access to healthcare. The residents of the village have to go to Madurai (1.5 hours away) or Chennai (8 hours away) to access quality healthcare. But, Mitra Robot is now trying to bridge that gap and enable remote consultation by bringing top doctors from reputed hospitals and institutes. The process is simple. The patients will be needed to get to their panchayat, talk to the robot in Tamil (it can both understand and speak), get the power of AI decision trees and robotic vitals collection. The robots connect them to specialists across India through “immersive telemedicine” who collaborate with the robot for diagnosis and help patients walk out with a prescription. No cost!

Challenges and Future Scopes

Since the future of the work is going to be in sync with the robots, there is a huge learning curve for the mankind to make it a seamless process to work with the robots. Cobots are also one of the biggest vehicles of AI into the real world, says Kaundinya. Challenges in terms of integration of cobots into existing industrial automation systems come due to compatibility with legacy systems and extensive work needed to include cobots into current setups of large manufacturing organizations, noted Dr. Sudhir.

MAY 2021 <

> COBOTS The interest shown by organizations in knowing more about them is at all time high and trying automation, but how much is translating into investment in automation by businesses is something we would like to see. These are two very different aspects. The actual challenge here is the speed of adaptation which is slow because of the fear to let go the past. Or in other words to translate the interest in to investment, says Dibyananda.

floor. When we visualise of a robotics enabled shop floor, we should not imagine caged or fenced machines. We should visualise machine working in sync with other machines and human beings sans cages! This is the set-up that will lead to optimal utilisation of the factory space with no compromise on safety delivering higher levels of harmony and productivity in true sense. And Cobots are very well equipped to contribute towards this scenario and this future.

The dilemma of choosing the right robot-based solution between a cobot and a traditional industrial robot is the biggest challenge. Another hurdle for adoption of robots, especially in India is the availability of a partner eco system. Most robot/cobot requirements are unique and need to be run like a small project. Another deterrent is the cost. Most of the times, a cobot is more expensive than an industrial robot. And while it is true that Industrial Robots require more paraphernalia (like fencing, safety scanners, etc.) which adds to the overall cost, most cobot applications also require interfacing of some safety devices to be able to perform optimally. Hence, one needs to look at the total cost of implementation and not just the cost of devices, mentioned Sameer.

Dibyananda explains, it will not be arriving until, sometime in the next five years. Humans to human interactions while have currently reduced due to Covid, this is something that will come back on track, because humans love to speak to someone when transacting. Also humans are good at doing complex, artful & skillful tasks and get bored when doing repetitive tasks. It’s best to use the human quotient here than using it in working at a kitchen flipping burgers all day, where cobots can help. A human can create new varieties of biryanis or breads, while machine/cobot can replicate what has been designed at scale.

Having said that cobots are extremely capable of undertaking precise operations and allow human colleagues to work safely side by side with them, they are currently unable to respond meaningfully to unusual situations and also require a minimal configuration to get ready for a fresh task. At the same time, human workers can compensate for these limitations just by providing a high level of supervision while focusing on more complex tasks, says Jayakrishnan. According to James, India lags in robot adoption, with just three robots per 10,000 employees compared to a global average of 74. The India has been slow in this sphere, but adopting a human-robot approach can be particularly helpful for the manufacturing sector. Denmark is and always will be our robot-stronghold. Although we do not plan to have any production facility outside of the country, we are constantly expanding our operations to develop an entirely new market segment with a mission to enable even the small and medium sized companies to automate tasks they thought were too costly or complex.

Future of Cobots (Collaborative Robots)

Universal Robots has put a lot of work into creating awareness, influencing standards, and changing customers’ perceptions influenced by their experience of traditional robots. Cobots are tools of the future. They do much more than just repetitive tasks; they are like the Acrobats or contortionists of robots—they can do anything, anywhere, in utmost safety to their environment and the humans that work alongside it. We are constantly innovating and updating our technology to ensure that we produce the best in class machines that reduce burden on humans and empower businesses to thrive, mentioned James.

Dr. Sudhir says Cobots can truly democratize robotics and make it accessible for small and medium enterprises that had been traditionally priced out of the robotics technology within the industrial automation domain. Improved efficiencies and quality at small and medium enterprises can shift the traditional method of setting up huge factories and create local jobs. Cobot will become a commonplace in our lives. They will be helping us in every sector in some form or the other. It has already begun. Smart AI programs are rehashing news for us, massive robotics arsm assemble cars and humanoid robots are taking care of seniors. The adoption rate is only going to multiple massively from here, concluded Kaundinya.

CONCLUSION

The upcoming time will get lots of advancement in our surroundings. Collaborative robots are going to play huge role in the next industrial revolution. Many unskilled labours will learn numerous tasks from cobots. This advancement will also provide opportunity for job seekers and it will prove beneficial for industrial jobs. Numbers of hospitals, collages and hospitality industry will definitely try to adopt cobots. Developments will be seen in upcoming times and cobots will make everything easier than before.

Sameer says, Human-machine harmony is the bedrock of an ideal industrial automation system on a manufacturing shop

> MAY 2021

•Vol - 03 / 05

> POWER

FEATURE

Adding Hysteresis for Smooth Undervoltage and Overvoltage Lockout

Pinkesh Sachdev

Senior Applications Engineer

Resistive dividers attenuate high voltages down to a level that low voltage circuits can accommodate without getting overdriven or damaged. In power path control circuits, resistive dividers help set up power supply undervoltage and overvoltage lockout thresholds. Such supply voltage qualification circuits are found in automotive systems, battery-powered portable instruments, and data processing and communication boards. Undervoltage lockout (UVLO) prevents the downstream electronic system from operating with abnormally low power supply voltages, which could cause system malfunction. For example, digital systems can behave erratically or even freeze up when their supply voltage is below specification. When the power supply is a rechargeable battery, undervoltage lockout prevents battery damage due to deep discharge. Overvoltage lockout (OVLO) protects the system from damagingly high supply voltages. Since undervoltage and overvoltage thresholds depend on the system’s valid operating range, resistive dividers are used to set up custom thresholds with the same control circuit. Threshold hysteresis is needed to obtain a smooth and chatter-free lockout function even in the presence of supply noise or resistance. After discussing a simple UVLO/ OVLO circuit, this article will present some simple methods for adding threshold hysteresis, which is necessary when the default value is insufficient.

Undervoltage and Overvoltage Lockout Circuit

Figure 1 shows an undervoltage lockout circuit (without hysteresis for now). It has a comparator with a positive reference voltage (VT) at its negative input. The comparator controls a power switch that opens or closes the path between the power supply input and the downstream electronic system. The comparator’s positive input connects to a resistive divider from the input. If the supply is turned on and starts rising from 0 V, the comparator output is initially low, keeping the power switch off. The comparator output trips when its positive input reaches VT. At this moment, the current in the bottom resistor is VT/RB. The same current flows in RT if the comparator has no input bias current. Therefore, the supply voltage when the comparator trips is VT + RT × VT/RB = VT × (RB + RT)/RB. This is the supply UVLO threshold set up by the resistive divider. For example, a VT of 1 V and RT = 10 × RB yields a UVLO threshold of 11 V. Below this threshold, the comparator output is low, opening the power switch; above this UVLO threshold, the switch is closed and the supply flows through to power up the system. The threshold can be easily adjusted by changing the ratio of RB and RT. The absolute resistor value is set by the amount of bias current budgeted for the divider (more on this

> MAY 2021

later). To set up an OVLO threshold, just swap the two inputs of the comparator (for example, see the lower comparator in Figure 2) such that a high going input forces the comparator output low and opens the switch.

Figure 1. Power supply undervoltage lockout using a resistive divider, comparator, and power switch.

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While not the focus of this article, the switch can be implemented with an N-channel or a P-channel power MOSFET. The previous discussion assumes an N-channel MOSFET switch that opens (high resistance) when its gate voltage is low (for example, 0 V). To completely close (low resistance) an N-channel MOSFET, the gate voltage must be higher than the supply by at least the MOSFET threshold voltage, requiring a charge pump. Protection controllers such as LTC4365, LTC4367, and LTC4368 integrate comparators and charge pumps to drive N-channel MOSFETs while still consuming low quiescent current. P-channel MOSFETs don’t require a charge pump but the gate voltage polarity is reversed; that is, a low voltage closes whereas a high voltage opens a P-channel MOSFET switch. Getting back to resistive dividers: a 3-resistor string sets up both undervoltage and overvoltage lockout thresholds (Figure 2), saving one divider’s bias current vs. using two separate 2-resistor strings. The UVLO threshold is VT × (RB + RM + RT)/(RB + RM) while the OVLO threshold is VT × (RB + RM + RT)/RB. An AND gate combines the output of the two comparators before sending it to the power switch. Therefore, the power switch closes to power the system when the input voltage is between the undervoltage and overvoltage thresholds; otherwise, the switch is open, disconnecting the supply from the system. If divider current consumption is not a concern, separate undervoltage and overvoltage dividers provide more flexibility in adjusting each threshold independently of the other.

different thresholds for a rising (for example, VT + 100 mV) vs. a falling input (for example, VT – 100 mV). The hysteresis at the comparator level is scaled up by RB and RT to 200 mV × (RB + RT)/RB at the supply level. If the noise or the drop at the supply input is below this hysteresis, the chatter is eliminated. There are ways to add or increase hysteresis if that provided by the comparator is either absent or insufficient. All these methods use positive feedback at the divider tap—for example, a rising comparator input jumps higher when the comparator trips. For simplicity, the following equations assume no intrinsic hysteresis in the comparator.

Figure 3. Adding undervoltage lockout threshold hysteresis with a resistor from the divider tap to the power switch output.

Resistor from Divider to Output (Figure 3):

Figure 2. Undervoltage and overvoltage lockout using a single resistive divider.

Undervoltage and Overvoltage Lockout with Hysteresis

In Figure 1, if the power supply rises slowly and has noise or if the supply has inherent resistance (as in a battery) that causes the voltage to drop with load current, the output of the comparator will switch high and low repeatedly as the input crosses its UVLO threshold. This is because the comparator’s positive input repeatedly goes above and below the VT threshold due to the input noise or the drop due to load current through the supply resistance. For battery-powered circuits, this can be a never-ending oscillation. Using a comparator with hysteresis eliminates this chatter, making the switch transition smoother. As illustrated in Figure 3, a hysteretic comparator presents

•Vol - 03 / 05

Add a resistor (RH) from the divider tap (the comparator’s positive input) to the power switch output. When the supply starts rising from 0 V, the comparator’s positive input is below VT and the comparator output is low, keeping the power switch off. Assume that the switch output is at 0 V due to the system load. Hence, RH is in parallel with RB for input threshold calculation. The rising input undervoltage threshold is VT × ((RB || RH) + RT)/(RB || RH), where RB || RH = RB × RH/ (RB + RH). The switch turns on above this threshold, connecting the supply to the system. To calculate the falling input undervoltage threshold, RH is in parallel with RT since the switch is closed, giving the falling input undervoltage threshold as: VT × (RB + (RT || RH))/RB, where RT || RH = RT × RH/(RT + RH). If the comparator itself had some hysteresis, substitute VT with the rising or falling comparator threshold in the previous equations. Recall the Figure 1 example, with VT = 1 V and RT = 10 × RB, where both the rising and falling thresholds are 11 V in the absence of comparator hysteresis or RH. Adding an RH = 100 × RB, as in Figure 3, gives a rising input threshold of 11.1 V and a falling threshold of 10.09 V; that is, a hysteresis of 1.01 V. This method does not work for OVLO because a rising input turns off the power switch, causing RH to pull the comparator input lower (which turns on the switch again) instead of higher.

Switching in a Resistor (Figure 4):

Another method of adding hysteresis is to switch in a resistor that changes the effective value of the bottom resistor. The switched resistor can be in parallel (Figure 4a) or in series (Figure 4b). Consider Figure 4a: when VIN is low—say, 0 V—

MAY 2021 <

> POWER

FEATURE

the comparator’s output (UV or OV node) is high, turning on the N-channel MOSFET M1 and connecting RH in parallel with RB. Assume that M1’s on-resistance is either negligible compared to RH or is included in RH’s value. The rising input threshold is the same as in Figure 3: VT × ((RB || RH) + RT)/(RB || RH). Once VIN is above this threshold, the comparator output is low, turning off M1 and disconnecting RH from the divider. Therefore, the falling input threshold is the same as in Figure 1: VT × (RB + RT)/RB. Continuing our example with VT = 1 V, RT = 10 × RB, and RH = 100 × RB, the rising input threshold is 11.1 V and the falling threshold is 11 V; that is, RH yields a hysteresis of 100 mV. This and the following methods can be used for either undervoltage or overvoltage lockout as their purpose depends on how the comparator output turns on the power switch (not shown).

Figure 4. Adding undervoltage or overvoltage lockout threshold hysteresis with a switched (a) shunt resistor or current and (b) a series resistor. The configuration of Figure 4b gives the rising input threshold as VT × (RB + RT)/RB and the falling input threshold as VT × (RB + RH + RT)/(RB + RH). RH = RB/10 in Figure 4, giving 11 V as the rising input threshold and 10.091 V as the falling threshold—that is, 909 mV of hysteresis. This shows that the Figure 4b configuration needs a much smaller RH to yield a much larger hysteresis.

Switching in a Current (Figure 4a):

The resistor RH of Figure 4a can be replaced by a current source IH. This method is used in the LTC4417 and LTC4418 prioritized controllers. When VIN is low, the comparator’s high output enables IH. At the rising input threshold, the negative input of the comparator is at VT. Therefore, the current in RT is IH + VT/RB, yielding the rising threshold as VT + (IH + VT/RB) × RT = VT × (RB + RT)/RB + IH × RT. Once VIN is above this threshold, IH is turned off by the comparator’s low output. Therefore, the falling threshold is the same as in Figure 1: VT × (RB + RT)/RB, and the input threshold hysteresis is IH × RT.

Resistive Divider Bias Current

The previous equations have assumed that the input bias current of the comparator input is zero while the examples have only considered resistor ratios instead of absolute values.

> MAY 2021

Comparator inputs have both input offset voltage (V OS), reference inaccuracy (which can be clubbed with VOS), and input bias or leakage current (ILK). The zero leakage assumption works out if the divider bias current, VT/RB at Figure 1’s trip point, is much larger than the input leakage. For instance, a divider current that is 100 times the input leakage current keeps leakage-caused input threshold error below 1%. Another method is to compare the leakage induced threshold error to that from the offset voltage. The comparator nonidealities change the Figure 1 input undervoltage threshold equation to be: (VT ± VOS) × (RB + RT)/RB ± ILK × RT (similar to the previous hysteretic current equation), which can be rewritten as (VT ± VOS ± ILK × RB × RT/(RB + RT)) × (RB + RT)/RB. The input leakage shows up as an error in the comparator’s threshold voltage and this error can be minimized in relation to the offset voltage—that is, ILK × (RB || RT) < VOS, by proper resistor selection. As an example, the LTC4367 undervoltage and overvoltage protection controller has ±10 nA maximum leakage for the UV and OV pins while the UV/OV pin comparator’s 500 mV threshold offset voltage is ±7.5 mV (±1.5% of 500 mV). Budgeting a ±3 mV (±0.6% of 500 mV, or less than half of the 7.5 mV offset) leakage caused threshold error gives RB || RT < 3 mV/10 nA = 300 kΩ. To set up an 11 V input undervoltage threshold with a 0.5 V comparator threshold requires RT = RB × 10.5 V/0.5 V = 21 × RB. Therefore, RB || RT = 21 × RB/22 < 300 kΩ, giving RB < 315.7 kΩ. The nearest 1% standard value for RB is 309 kΩ, yielding RT to be 6.49 MΩ. The divider bias current at the trip point is 0.5 V/309 kΩ = 1.62 μA, which is 162 times the 10 nA leakage current. This kind of analysis is important when minimizing the divider current without increasing the threshold error due to the comparator’s input leakage current.

Conclusion

Resistive dividers enable easy adjustment of power supply undervoltage and overvoltage lockout thresholds with the same comparator-based control circuit. Supply noise or resistance requires threshold hysteresis to prevent power switch on and off chattering as the supply crosses the threshold. A few different methods for implementing undervoltage and overvoltage lockout hysteresis have been shown. The essential principle is to have some positive feedback at the divider tap when the comparator trips. When adding or increasing hysteresis of protection controller ICs, some methods depend on the availability of the comparator output or a similar signal at the IC output pins. While picking resistor values, care should be taken that the comparator’s input leakage doesn’t become a dominant source of threshold error. A comprehensive set of related equations, including those in this article, have been implemented in a spreadsheet that’s available to download.

About the Author

Pinkesh Sachdev is a senior applications engineer for power system management at Analog Devices. He received his B.Tech. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India, and his M.S. degree from Stanford University, both in electrical engineering. He can be reached at pinkesh. sachdev@analog.com.

•Vol - 03 / 05

5G > Enea Presents 5G MicroCore for Enterprises

Fujitsu, Trend Micro to Secure Private 5G

Enea has released the new Enea 5G MicroCore, for enterprises using private 5G networks to support smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0 initiatives.

Fujitsu Limited and Trend Micro have partnered to focus on the security of private 5G networks. The companies will demonstrate the effectiveness of Trend Micro’s security for private 5G using a simulated smart factory environment and an operational Fujitsu environment before the product’s public availability. Private 5G network technology will be the catalyst for true smart factories globally. Connectivity and automation will link factory devices and business applications, improving production capabilities and overall factory performance. However, the expanded IT infrastructure within operational technology (OT) environments can lead to exposed risk for cyberattacks. There is an urgent need to implement cybersecurity measures to secure private 5G networks to protect against potential attacks. Fujitsu and Trend Micro have incorporated Trend Micro’s 5G security solution into a private 5G system that simulates an actual smart factory environment equipped with high-definition monitoring cameras and automatic guided vehicles (AGV) at the FUJITSU Collaboration Lab in Kawasaki, Japan. This environment was used to visualize and centrally manage the status and security of systems, as well as correlate threat detection and prevention data from the devices and network. This demonstration shows how the Trend Micro solution protects smart factories from internal threats, such as unauthorized or malware-infected devices, as well as external threats attempting to enter the factory through the 5G network.

Developed for a minimal footprint, Enea designed its 5G MicroCore based on the company’s award-winning 5G Core solutions that have been deployed by some of the world’s largest tier 1 operators. There are multiple trials taking place in Asia for Enea’s 5G MicroCore. As with the operator version, the 5G MicroCore is interoperable, giving enterprises the freedom to mix and match best-ofbreed products and avoid vendor lock-in. The 5G MicroCore leverages several data management capabilities including Unified Data Manager (UDM), Authentication Server Function (AUSF) and and delivers numerous benefits for enterprises to effectively manage their data. Zero-touch operations using self-management features enable easy configuration and fast deployment. The solution also works across private and public clouds including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Affirmed UnityCloud. Several Asian enterprises are actively trialing the 5G MicroCore, where many businesses have launched private 5G networks in smart factories and require robust data management for automation and robotics to support Industry 4.0 initiatives.

MediaTek Strengthens India Footprint in 5G, IoT MediaTek has decided to further strengthen its India footprint by enabling the smart device ecosystem through OEM collaborations in technologies like 5G, IoT and Wi-Fi routers across both smartphones and smart device categories. The leading provider for Smartphone SoCs has also introduced its flagship System-on-Chip (SoC), Dimensity 1200, in the Indian market with realme being the first smartphone brand to feature the MediaTek Dimensity 1200 SoC in India. MediaTek showcased its latest technologies at the 8th edition of the MediaTek Technology Diaries titled “Incredible Technologies empower Incredible Experiences.” MediaTek also reiterated its commitment to spurring innovation in the smart devices segment across a wide range of products powered by MediaTek – such as Chromebooks, Smart TVs, Voice Assistant Devices (VAD). Also present on the occasion were Madhav Sheth – Vice President – realme and CEO, realme India and Europe, Nitish Singal – Category Head for Notebooks & Desktops, HP India, Varun Gupta – Whole Time Director, Kent Ro Systems, Prabhu

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Ram – Head – Industry Intelligence Group (IIG), at CyberMedia Research (CMR), Aveg Agarwal – SVP, Institutional Sales, Toppr, Anku Jain – Managing Director, MediaTek India, Kuldeep Malik – Director, Corporate Sales, MediaTek India, Raghavan Sampath – Director, Business Development, MediaTek India and Anuj Sidharth – Deputy Director, Marketing & Communications at MediaTek India.

MAY 2021 <

> IOT-FEATURE

Wireless Technology Overview for IoT

Walt Maclay

behalf of Digi-Key Electronics The Internet of Things (IoT) is both known and unknown in the modern world. It is a common term for individuals in the tech industry and corporate world, but only seldom heard by the general populace although it’s part of their daily lives. IoT is the connectivity of physical objects such as devices, vehicles, buildings, electronics, and networks that allows them to interact, collect and exchange data. It applies to millions of different things, including updated traditional products previously not connected to the internet. This article will take a look into the many ways these devices can communicate wirelessly.

Three ways to get data into the cloud

One challenge of IoT is getting data from the device’s sensor to the cloud, where that data is used, processed, and stored. The ubiquitous use of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth through smartphones, along with the widespread availability of cell towers and public Wi-Fi access points, provides more access to the cloud for IoT sensors than ever before. There are three basic ways to get data to the cloud. Sensor to gateway to cloud. In some applications, it is optimal to send the sensor data to a gateway which then transmits the data efficiently to the cloud. Depending on the application

> MAY 2021

needs, the gateway can range from simple relay systems to “smart” platforms that perform more compute-intensive functions called “edge processing”. Devices like parking lot sensors and desk utilization sensors typically rely on gateways to transmit the data. Wi-Fi is an example of a gateway. For in-home use, you need to install a Wi-Fi gateway. In public locations where the gateway is already installed, Wi-Fi operates directly to the cloud. Other types of wireless communications, such as Bluetooth, require a gateway. An example of Wi-Fi in the home is Hatch Baby Grow, a smart changing pad and connected scale. It uses Wi-Fi to transmit data from the scale in the changing pad to the home internet. The parent and pediatrician can track cloud-based information through either an Android or iOS application. Sensor to cell phone to cloud. In some cases, the gateway can be a cell phone. Smartphones with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth capability act as gateways to send data to the cloud. For instance, Voler helped with the development of earbuds that monitor the elderly for balance. They have Bluetooth LE wireless transmission to a smartphone where there is an associated app. The data is also sent to the cloud from the smartphone where further processing can be done and data can be shared.

•Vol - 03 / 05

Smart device directly to cloud. The sensor can connect directly to the cloud using technology such as NB-IoT, LTE-M, or LoRa. These technologies transmit for miles at very low power, as long as the data rate is low. They connect to the internet through equipment usually installed at cell towers. They work much the same way cell phones work except the data rate and power are much lower. There is a monthly charge, but it is typically very small. Factors to consider in planning an IoT wireless communication strategy include: how much data will be transferred, how far the data source is from the internet, how much power is required, and how high the cost is for the service, if any. The widespread use of smartphones and the choice of Wi-Fi or Bluetooth radio standards offer very convenient connectivity. Newer standards, such as NB-IoT and LTE-M open up more options for the future Internet of Things.

than one week after prototyping. Voler revised the code to meet the needed battery life. The original code was not working as intended. In wireless transmission, three things must be managed: the power required to transmit, the data rate, and transmission range. Choosing the right wireless standard is important. Refer to the table below when selecting a wireless standard for the IoT device being designed. The table lists the common wireless standards used for IoT devices, along with their characteristics.

Why are new technologies needed?

IoT is still evolving. With every iteration comes lower power consumption, longer wireless communication, and better features. New devices can take advantage of the new technology and provide better performance.

What should be considered for trade-offs

Every time Voler designs a wearable device or any batteryoperated device, customers require it to: • Operate for a long time • Transmit lots of data a long distance • Have a tiny battery There are trade-offs to these competing requirements. Engineering is about trade-offs. Consider the system functionality required and make the engineering trade-offs necessary to provide optimum performance in accordance to the system requirements. It is important to simultaneously provide a satisfactory user experience. The result is a design with the best compromises among the many choices.

Table 1: Common wireless standards and their capabilities. (Table source: Voler) Different wireless standards require very different levels of power. The required power depends on the data rate and range of transmission. For example, referring to Table 1, a device may require 120 mW of power to transmit 100 bits of data per second one kilometer using LTE Cellular. But using Bluetooth LE to transmit 1 meter, a device may only need 0.15 mW of power.

Trade-off considerations

• Data rate • Transmission distance • Battery size • Cost • Licensed vs. unlicensed spectrum • Carrier deployed vs. customer deployed • The density of end devices • Where it gets deployed • Firmware updates • Drivers for your OS • Component/module selection • Antennas • Maturity of technology

Comparison of IoT wireless standards

Table 2: A comparison of wireless IoT standards. (Table source: Voler)

Voler recently worked with a start-up to improve the battery life of their connected product. It was based on Murata’s impModule™ with an ARM processor and Wi-Fi transceiver. They needed a battery life of many weeks, and it was less

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Power requirements for popular wireless options

If a device is required only to transmit data as far as 10 meters, BLE and Bluetooth are sufficient. But IoT devices for industrial and commercial purposes such as inventory management or

MAY 2021 <

> IOT-FEATURE wearable devices for health monitoring may require longerrange communication, such as NB-IoT or LTE-M. If a device sends a lot of data, such as a video camera, BLE cannot handle it. High-power choices such as Wi-Fi and LTE are required.

Needless to say, that technology is not even remotely close and never will be. Therefore, devices are limited by the space required for the chemical storage of energy.

On the other hand, cellular wireless protocols NB-IoT and LTE-M allow IoT devices to transmit data to distant locations at low power. The same is true for SigFox which can transmit data as far as 50 kilometers. But unlike cellular standards with a high data rate, SigFox can only transmit up to 300 bits of data per second.

Today’s batteries are about 10% of the ultimate in chemical energy storage, which would be something like gasoline. However, gasoline has a problem with safety. Another more efficient option is nuclear energy, but there again would be a safety issue not to mention a portability problem. There will be incremental improvements in batteries in the future, but the changes will be slow.

Private vs. public network

Cost considerations

A private network has a gateway installed and controlled by a provider for one or a limited number of users. A public network has a gateway that many users can use by paying a monthly fee. An example is cellular service. Public networks require infrastructure to be installed, such as cell towers. Cell phones are popular and can easily roam because of the widespread installation of cell towers. SigFox and LoRa have limited infrastructure in place in the USA, so a device using this technology would not work in most places. LoRa does have the option of a private network using a gateway. In 2019 the installation of infrastructure for NB-IoT and LTE-M passed the point where 90% of the United States population is covered. It is approaching the availability of cellular coverage. Although it has been around for years, finally, this technology can be used in new devices. The infrastructure is in place in most major countries in the world as well. Expect a rapid increase in the use of NB-IoT and LTE-M. Sigfox and LoRa are way behind in installation of public infrastructure. Below is a summary of the private and public wireless options: Private y Both ends of the communication owned privately y It can be installed anywhere y Unlicensed spectrum y Cost to install base stations and endpoints y No monthly fee Public y The network owned by provider – for example, cellular y Only works where base stations exist y Easy roaming y Licensed spectrum y A monthly charge for the use of the network

When will battery technology improve?

If batteries were better, these trade-offs would be simpler. Chemical energy storage is approaching the limit of its efficiency. There is, however, a lot of research being done on higher density and better safety. If batteries had progressed like semiconductors over the last 50 years, you would have a battery the size of the head of a pin that would cost a penny and would power your car.

> MAY 2021

Many IoT device manufacturers underinvest in security to keep their products affordable and accelerate time-to-market. Integrating security during the development stage can significantly add cost and time to the development. However, building IoT devices with weak IoT security can result in more damaging consequences not just to the customers, but also to the manufacturer’s brand — in terms of lost productivity, legal/ compliance fines, damaged reputation, and monetary losses. The wireless standard chosen for IoT devices can significantly influence its performance, usability, security, and reliability. The best-fit standard for an IoT device depends upon its application. Knowing the purpose of the device can help determine the key requirements for building it, such as how much power it needs to operate efficiently, how fast it should transmit data, and how long the battery needs to last. Voler System’s team of IoT device development experts can guide a designer through choosing the right wireless standard for IoT machines. Contact an IoT expert now to learn more about choosing the right wireless standard for any IoT device design.

Mr. Walt Maclay, President and founder of Voler Systems, is recognized as a domain expert in Silicon Valley technical consulting associations. He has spoken on sensors, wearable devices, wireless communication, and low power design. He was President of the Professional and Technical Consultants Association (PATCA). He is a senior life member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and a member of the Consultants Network of Silicon Valley. Mr. Maclay holds a BSEE degree in Electrical Engineering from Syracuse University.

•Vol - 03 / 05

AUTOMATION|OP-ED >

Reimagining Manufacturing from “Made for Masses” to “Made for Me”

In today’s rapidly evolving society, manufacturers are constantly challenged to meet the changing demands of the customers. While offshore manufacturing may have helped companies in the past to operate in highly specific markets, the future looks different. The era of “Personalization” is upon us and only the pragmatic will be able to keep up. As a manufacturer, what practices and technologies you should be investing in to stay relevant? Read on to find all the answers! What is personalized manufacturing? In manufacturing when we talk about areas like smart logistics, agile supply chain, flexible & decentralized manufacturing and zero-touch manufacturing, they are all about changing the paradigm from “Made for Masses” to “Made for Me”. We have entered an era of personalization where every individual consumer can get whatever they want customized to satisfy their aspirational taste. They are also willing to pay a little more to get their personalized product, but they want to be the part of the creation or conceptualization of the product which they buy and expect the same responsiveness and ordering experience as they get with mass products. Role of digitalization in personalized manufacturing Global digitalization has resulted in a direct connection between the user and the manufacturer to allow them to interact and respond in this personalization process. To make this unison even more responsive and productive, manufacturing must become autonomous. This in turn is forcing us to rethink manufacturing. With the quickly changing user needs factory processes need to be reinvented to support autonomous

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Swaminathan Vangal Ramamurthy

General Manager | OMRON's Automation Centre & Robotics, Asia Pacific. manufacturing using flexible, quickly reconfigurable and connected platforms. Technologies that are enabling personalized manufacturing At OMRON, our autonomous manufacturing policy involves seamlessly combining process, plant and people through integrated, intelligent and interactive technologies. Autonomous Mobile Robots that use natural feature navigation without the need to add any new infrastructure to transfer and transport products have become key to flexible manufacturing. These robots allow for quick re-routing of the materials to adapt to process changes that come with personalized manufacturing. Many of the new plant are planning to have process shelves on mobile platforms that can move autonomously to configure themselves as per the needs of process sequence. Now, inserting a new process in an automation line becomes quite easy because mobile robots can close the manufacturing loop without having to make physical changes to the existing line. Digitally connected manufacturing using smart sensors and AI vision sending real-time information feedback to the plant to take immediate corrective and preventive action, real-time health and safety monitoring with wearable and digital records, augmented reality based immersive training are all part of the current manufacturing evolution that is enabling personalized manufacturing.

MAY 2021 <

> BIG

PICTURE

An Interview with Huei Sin EE, Keysight Technologies Huei Sin EE, President and General Manager, General Electronics Measurement Solutions Vice President, Keysight Education

What is your forecast for the semiconductor market in 2021? We expect the strong growth in the worldwide semiconductor market to continue. The acceleration of digital transformations arising from COVID-19 has created a strong demand for semiconductors.

What are Keysight’s semiconductor products and solutions? Keysight provides a complete suite of solutions for semiconductor testing and semiconductor manufacturing process technologies. These include the latest advancements in high-speed, high-accuracy probe, and optical scanning inspection, and ranges from lab level tools (including simulation software) to production testers for high volume testing.

What are your flagship products and solutions, and what are the features of your flagship products and solutions? The P9000 series massive parallel parametric tester is our flagship solution. The P9000 is used in all advanced node logic fabs and memory fabs in the world. This solution enables faster throughput and expandability to support our customers’ demands and need to be first-to-market.

Huei Sin EE

President and General Manager, General Electronics Measurement Solutions Vice President, Keysight Technologies

How are the needs of the semiconductor field changing in line with the trend of Industry 4.0 or smart factory? Industry 4.0, and in fact the global advancement of the digital transformation trend driven by the deployment of 5G, high performance computing and IoT, is pushing the envelope of chipset design and fabrication process. Semiconductor technology advancements are progressing along two tracks: Moore’s Law which is about miniaturization (packing more What is Keysight’s competitive edge in the semiconductor and more transistors into ever smaller and smaller devices); field? and, More than Moore which is about functional diversification What makes Keysight outstanding is that we provide total combining analog and digital functions within an IC package. solutions rather a mere set of physical products. Keysight’s solutions solve customers’ challenges and includes the world’s Demands arising from these new technologies like millimeter best hardware, software, support, services and consultation. wave, silicon photonics and high-power devices are requiring We continue to increase our value offerings through our close different types of semiconductor testing and manufacturing engagements with key semiconductor players worldwide. process. The P9000’s unique per-pin parallel measurement capabilities and functionality enable our customers to develop and manufacture their products with cutting edge technologies faster and more cost competitively. In addition, the P9000’s expandability combined with Keysight’s semiconductor expertise support our customers’ ever evolving technical challenges.

> MAY 2021

•Vol - 03 / 05

How do you plan to expand the semiconductor market this year? We are engaging with our worldwide customers very early in the development cycle to help them to be first in the market. And, we will continue to provide high value-added solutions that will meet the needs of our customers, like new test solutions to overcome device manufacturing challenges (for example in extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV)). As an innovator in semiconductor test and measurement solutions, Keysight will continue to be at the forefront of new semiconductor technology advancements and aligned with industry demands to ensure our customers’ success.

How is Keysight responding to those changing needs? We are enabling semiconductor technology advancements through a combination of our design verification solutions, our nanopositioning tools used in lithographic processes, parametric testing and on-wafer test solutions. We are currently working with technology leaders on the next-generation process node, and new More than Moore devices such as silicon photonics, and millimeter wave ICs. Essentially, Keysight is responding with solutions to help address the increasing complexity of wafer fabrication.

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For example, Keysight has developed a unique IoT test platform catering to the widest range of solutions (from millimeter wave to optical) with superior performance, accuracy, unique value and experience on production to meet customers’ requirements.

•Vol - 03 / 05

MAY 2021 <

> POWER

How to Protect Autonomous Vehicle Electronics Circuits

Jim Colby

Marketing Engineer, Littelfuse, Inc.

Widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles (AV) cannot be achieved unless the vehicle’s electronic circuits are robust to electrical shocks to ensure high reliability as well as driver and passenger safety. Electronics design engineers can significantly reduce the potential of circuit failures by incorporating electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection, overcurrent protection, transient surge protection, and reverse polarity protection. This article presents circuit protection recommendations for three mission-critical subsystems in their autonomous vehicles—camera, radar, and ADAS.

Figure 1. Advanced Autonomous Vehicle Sensing Systems Recommended protection for ADAS subsystem

As the name implies, the advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) incorporate the communication, signal processing, and control subsystem that operate an autonomous vehicle. This main subsystem must be robust and reliable. These circuits must identify other vehicles in traffic, may need to make fast stops due to an animal or person obstructing the vehicle’s path, and needs to have a fail-safe response to a failed sensor. This article’s focus is on ensuring the hardware survives transient energy strikes. All circuitry that supplies information to the ADAS controller needs ESD protection. Figure 2 shows an example ADAS communication and control subsystem block diagram.

> MAY 2021

Figure 2. ADAS Subsystem •Vol - 03 / 05

The power supply requires protection from overcurrents, surges, and reverse polarity. The ADAS power supply fuse can be located within the module, or further upstream in the vehicle’s low voltage junction box. A transient voltage suppressor (TVS) diode, selected for its surge power rating, provides the necessary surge transient protection. A Schottky diode in series with the power supply input line provides reverse voltage polarity protection. Each LIN, CAN, and Ethernet communication links require ESD protection designed for the unique performance and configuration of each port. The communication protocols used in the ADAS communication and control subsystem and their different data rates are shown in Table 1. A wide range of TVS diode arrays and polymer ESD suppressors enable electronics engineers to incorporate robust protection without compromising its data rate or its high-to-low voltage differential.

Protocol

LIN CAN Automotive Ethernet

Bit Rate / Frequency

< 20 kbps < 1 Mbps to < 10 Mbps 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps

Table 1. Communication protocols used in vehicles All signal lines connecting with the DSP circuit block require ESD protection. Use TVS diode arrays or polymer ESD suppressors with bipolar protection for the high and low signal lines. The primary intelligence for autonomous vehicles starts and ends with the ADAS subsystem. It is mission-critical to ensure that this subsystem remains operational at all times. Be sure to incorporate protection on all subsystem inputs and outputs from disabling ESD strikes and use TVS diodes to provide surge protection against transients generated by electric and electromechanical devices.

Recommended protection for camera subsystem

The cameras provide backward and forward vision that enable the system to “see” objects behind or in front of the vehicle for lane maintenance and collision avoidance. Multiple cameras provide depth perception and convert visual light using a CCD/CMOS image sensor into signals sent to the ADAS subsystem. Figure 3 illustrates a camera subsystem’s circuitry. The key circuits that need protection are the blocks connecting with external power and communications circuitry.

Power Supply

The camera power supply requires protection from three potential sources of damage: overcurrents, high energy transients, and ESD. Overcurrent protection is provided via a fuse. Select either a one-time blow ceramic fuse, or a polymer-based, positive temperature coefficient (PPTC) resettable fuse. The PPTC’s advantage is that it will not need replacement if an overcurrent condition occurs. In response to the heat generated by an overcurrent, the PPTC increases in resistance. Once the overcurrent is removed, the PPTC recovers to a low resistance, then it resets the circuit. Both components have surface mountable packages that save valuable PC board space. In addition to overcurrents, power supply circuity requires protection from high energy transients that can be caused by in-vehicle sources (e.g., motors energizing and de-energizing). As defined by ISO Standards 7637 and 16750, the circuitry must be capable of withstanding significant transients. Compliant components include TVS diodes that can safely absorb both low-energy transients and high-energy transients as specified in Pulses 1, 2, 3 and 5 in the above referenced standards. If the voltage polarity to the power supply is accidentally reversed, designers can insert a Schottky diode in series with the fuse to avoid catastrophic failure. The diode’s low forward voltage drop will have a minimal impact on power supply performance while providing reverse polarity protection.

CAN Transceiver

The Controller Area Network (CAN) transceiver requires protection from ESD, fast electrical transients, and overvoltage transients. High ESD robustness is available with TVS diode arrays that have 30kV air and 30kV contact discharge capabilities. These devices help meet the ISO 10605 standard for ESD in vehicles. The recommended circuit for protecting a CAN transceiver is shown in Figure 4. Both the high and low lines are protected by a two-channel diode array, like the automotivequalified AQ24CANA. To help reduce pick-and-place costs in production, a single protection component is recommended.

Figure 3. Camera Subsystem •Vol - 03 / 05

Figure 4. CAN BUS transceiver ESD protection

MAY 2021 <

> POWER Ethernet Transceiver

Provide the needed protection for the Ethernet transceiver’s high-speed differential data lines using either diode arrays or polymer ESD suppressors. Models of these diode arrays can provide up to ±30 kV ESD protection and can protect a differential line pair in a single package for space savings. An 0402 version is also available as a discrete component to allow for more PC board layout flexibility. When the capacitance must be the absolute lowest, a polymer ESD suppressor like the AXGD1 series with 0.04pF should be considered. With this low capacitance, it won’t impede 1 Gbit Ethernet transmission rates. See Figure 5 for an example circuit configuration that is consistent with recommendations from the OPEN Alliance Ethernet organization

Figure 5. Ethernet transceiver ESD protection Image Sensor

The image sensor is the most important camera circuit. A bipolar, low-capacitance TVS diode, like the AQ3045 series, withstands an ESD strike up to ±30 kV, and has a low leakage current less than 10 nA, and has capacitance around 0.35 pF. For space efficiency, this diode is available in a very small, 1.0 mm x 0.5 mm SOD882 package. Protecting the circuitry that interfaces with external circuits and environments help ensure a robust, reliable, visible light detection system. Using these recommended components, as close as possible to the circuit inputs, helps keep extraneous energy from damaging critical circuitry.

Recommended protection for radar subsystem

The radar system is crucial for the safe operation of an autonomous vehicle. It is, like the camera system, another set of eyes that monitor road conditions. Protection of its circuitry from external hazards is essential. The radar subsystem (shown in Figure 6) provides the input for the forward-and-side pedestrian detection and collision avoidance functions. The circuit has two DC power supplies. The power supply that powers the analog radar transmitter and the radar receiver circuits is a low-noise supply. A conventional power supply handles the logic and communication circuits.

Power Supplies

The radar subsystem’s power supplies should have protection against four threats: overcurrent, transient surges, reverse polarity, and ESD. One set of devices protect both supplies from overcurrents and reverse polarity. Again, the design engineer can select

> MAY 2021

Figure 6. Radar subsystem from either a surface-mount fuse or a PPTC resettable fuse. To provide reverse polarity protection for the power supplies and for all the radar subsystem circuitry, use a low forward voltage Schottky diode in series with the input line to both supplies. Be sure to also provide the individual supplies with surge protection at the input to each supply. Use TVS diodes for surge protection. Choose the part based on its transient power rating. To protect the power supplies, use 400W/600W for low-power transients and 1,500W to 7,000W for high-power transients.

Waveform Generator and Analog Frontend

The waveform generator and analog frontend are part of the radar transmitter and radar receiver, respectively. They are separated from the transmitter and receiver circuits in Figure 6 since the addition of protection components on the transmitter output and receiver input circuits would alter their transmission and reception impedance. The protection components safeguard as much of the circuits as possible. To provide the necessary ESD protection, use a bipolar TVS diode like the one recommended for the image sensor in the camera subsystem. The radar subsystem, like the camera subsystem, transmits its information to the vehicle’s central processing subsystem. Bipolar TVS diode arrays provide ESD protection for both the high and low sides of CAN lines. The Ethernet transceiver can use either diode arrays or polymer ESD suppressors to minimize signal distortion without impacting the Ethernet transmission rate.

Conclusion

Design engineers have a broad range of passive devices that they can use to protect their electronic circuitry from potential stresses. Utilizing AEC-Q qualified circuit protection can accelerate compliance with standards certifications while giving the design team confidence that the devices will provide the necessary level of protection. For additional information on automotive circuit protection, see the Automotive Electronics Applications Guide courtesy of Littelfuse.

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IOB - COLUMN >

Internet of Behaviors (IoB)—An Extension of IoT

- Aishwarya Saxena

With the ever-increasing popularity of the Internet of Things (IoT) going on during the last few years, the number of devices using the technology has grown at an alarming rate. Ranging from wearables like smart fitness bands that track your fitness 24/7 to remotely accessing the electrical devices in your homes, IoT has expanded its reach in people’s day-to-day activities. While this technology has made a great shift in the market with its ever-advancing applications, industries still face difficulties to satisfy their customer’s needs according to their personalized demands. So, what if it’s possible to get every customer’s personalized preference data based on their usage of data? This is where the term Internet of Behaviour (IoB) came into existence. Let’s explore this new term and how it will help in profiting industries with its data collection.

Understanding IoB

We can better understand the Internet of Behaviours (IoB) as an extension of the Internet of Things. So, what makes it different from IoT? While IoT is a network of interconnected physical objects, gathering and exchanging information and data over the internet, IoB simply makes sense of this collected data of every customer and attaches it to specific human behaviors such as purchasing type or following a specific brand online, etc. Internet of Behaviours or IoB can be defined as a process by which user-controlled data, collected during customer’s usage of apps, is analyzed through a behavioral psychology perspective. And using those results, the company can then offer a similar type of end product according to the customer’s preference. The IoB concept aims towards understanding collected data properly and applying that understanding to create and promote new products using human psychological behaviors.

Significance of IoB

IoB’s main aim is to capture, analyze and respond to all types of human behaviors in such a way as to allow tracking and interpreting people’s behaviors using advanced technological innovations and developments in machine learning algorithms. Thus, using this concept, customer’s behaviors are analyzed and incentives or disincentives are applied to influence them to perform towards the desired set of operational parameters. What makes IoB more valuable is that it is not only descriptive but is also proactive that is detecting which psychological variables are going to influence that will bring about a certain outcome. IoB, not only influences consumer choice but is also redesigning the value chain. Though a majority of consumers do not feel secure at giving away their data for free, many are satisfied with doing so if it brings them an added value. And that’s what gives companies the upper hand we don’t

•Vol - 03 / 05

love engaging with, especially insurance providers and banking, the opportunity to change their image. Utilizing IoT, they can provide data-driven value, thus getting more success rates in satisfying their customer’s needs.

Real-Life Applications of IoB

The way big companies like Google, Facebook or Amazon have started doing marketing research is becoming more and more comprehensive. These companies have designed their algorithms such that they can anticipate their customer's desires and behaviors to get them a personalized experience. And though the B2B sector is advancing faster than B2C in IoB, it’s only a matter of time before it becomes popular. Let’s start with an example of a software company BMC that has developed a health app for smartphones to track users’ diet, sleep patterns, heart rate and blood sugar levels. This app can send an alert in adverse situations in the user’s health and also suggest behavioral modifications towards a more positive outcome. Taking another example into account, Uber uses IoT data on drivers, passenger locations and preferences to reinvent customer’s experience. Also, large companies, like Ford, have partnered with startups, like Argo AI, to design and develop autonomous cars soon that will vary their behavior in each city based on that city’s vehicle traffic, bicycles and scooters, etc. Taking another innovative approach in this technology, software company GBKSOFT has been working on a project to implement the IoB concept. The project is based on helping golfers to improve their playing skills with the help of a mobile app and tracking of wearable devices, that will correct existing ball-striking techniques and helps in learning new techniques. As the player uses the handheld device connected to the mobile phone, each hit on the golf ball is recorded in the app and then analyzed so that player can see their mistakes and get visual recommendations on how to improve their swing and stroke techniques.

IoB’s Future Horizons

Though we talked at length about the wide applications of IoB, the technology is still in its developing stage and it will take time for companies to unlock the full potential of the Internet of Behaviours or IoB, and also for the users to accept it as a way to get better services and customized products. Also, the security of personalized data is still a big task for companies to handle and make their users secure. Despite all these shortcomings, many companies have started investing in IoT technologies now and have developed strategies to win the tough competition for customers' loyalty with the power of data and psychology.

MAY 2021 <

> MEDICAL

ELECTRONICS

New AC/DC Power Supplies For Medical Applications Abstract:

are standards to apply to the endproduct in areas such as labelling, connectors, fusing and internal AC mains wiring. For example, if the AC supply cabling to the equipment features connectors, double fusing, in live and neutral, must be used.

Power supplies for medical applications are in great demand, especially with health crises sweeping the world. With more equipment needed for ventilators, analysers and life support in general, product designers must choose appropriate power supplies that meet the latest medical standards based on IEC 60601-1:2005 and its collateral documents. There are national variants: ANSI/AAMI ES 60601-1:2005 in the US, EN 60601-1:2006 in Europe and yet more round the world, all with local deviations. On the 20th August 2020, IEC 606011 amendment 2 was issued (IEC 60601-1:2005 +A1:2012 + A2:2020). This amendment updates out-of-date references to other standards, aligns the standard more closely with IEC 62368-1 (safety of audio/video, information and communication technology equipment), corrects errors and makes clarifications. Collateral electromagnetic disturbance standard IEC 606011-2 is at edition 4.

There are also considerations to be aware of with any EMI filter added Michael Schrutka, MSc. between a built-in power supply AC/DC Product Manager, RECOM and external connections. The medical EM disturbance standard, IEC 60601-1-2 4th edition, is more onerous than the previous edition, but care must be taken not to increase mains leakage current beyond the proscribed level for the application by applying additional EMI filtering. Even if an added filter claims medical leakage compliance to a certain level, this adds to any existing leakage current in the built-in power supply and may exceed the allowed limits. Ideally, a built-in AC/DC power supply should connect as directly as possible to the medical equipment power inlet with double fusing at that point and with no further EMI filtering. If the power supply holds the highest levels of medical certification and has good EMC compliance margin, there is then a high level of confidence that overall product safety and EMC performance is compliant. It has been possible to use non-medically certified power supplies in medical applications with some extra precautions; a power supply certified to standard IEC 62368-1 for example, with reinforced mains isolation, can be considered to have two measures of operator protection (2MOOP) suitable for lab testing environments with no patient contact. However, the new 4th edition EM disturbance requirements also apply

When specifying a built-in AC/DC power supply for a medical application, a product pre-certified to IEC/EN 60601-1 is a safe option. There are however still issues to consider, such as requirements for external fusing and possibly EMI filtering. This article discusses the requirements and introduces some available power supplies that make end product certification easier.

Using built-in medical power supplies

Medical equipment taking more than around 100W will normally have a built-in AC mains power supply rather than use an external adapter. This places obligations on the endproduct designer as there are now unsafe voltages and energy sources within his equipment. Although a built-in power supply can be medically certified, the whole end-product must also comply with electrical safety and EMC requirements so there

> MAY 2021

•Vol - 03 / 05

to operator environments so a non-medical power supply many not be compliant. Using the same power supply, assuming its 2MOOP is equivalent to 1MOPP is also a risk; the exact application must be evaluated for over-voltage category, pollution degree, altitude and the potential medical environment that the product may be used in. A risk assessment will indicate which environment is relevant, for example, ‘professional facility, ‘home healthcare’, or ‘special’, which might be in emergency vehicles where the levels of electromagnetic emissions could be intentionally high from RF communication systems.

The safe option is the only option

The safe solution for medical applications is to specify a power supply with 2MOPP certification and appropriate leakage current and EMC performance for the intended application. Examples are the RACM230-G, RACM550-G and recently released RACM-1200V product ranges from RECOM (Figure 1).

Figure 2: Safety barriers RACM230/550/1200 series The RACM1200-V parts also have a PMBusTM interface which may be used internally within the medical product for control and monitoring. If this interface connects outside of the product, it is classified as a SIP/SOP (Signal Input/Output Part) and must have 2MOPP isolation to the patient connection. Alternatively, at low power, a separate medically-certified DC/DC converter with 2 x MOPPs can be interposed between the power supply and patient connection (Figure 3). This can also guarantee yet lower leakage current. Suitable DC/DC converters include the REMxx series from RECOM with ratings from 1W to 30W.

Figure 1: The RACMxx series of medically certified power supplies, left to right 230W, 550W and 1200W rated. These power supplies are for medical built-in applications with power ratings of 230W, 550W and 1200W with forced air or peak power without airflow. They all feature the ability to operate with baseplate cooling at continuous ratings of 160W, 300W and 800W, avoiding the need for fans which are often disallowed in medical environments. Each power supply type has 2MOPP/250VAC rating up to 5000m altitude and leakage currents suitable for patient connection in the B (Body, earthed) category (RACM230) and B/BF (Body/Body Floating) category (RACM550/1200). The RACM230 is compliant to IEC 60101-1-2 3rd edition EM disturbance requirements and the RACM550/1200 are 4th edition certified. The RACM550-G and RACM1200-V products include an isolated +5V 1A/1.2A standby output and all types feature a ‘smart fan’ output which can control system fan cooling, if required. The products are in industry-standard form factors: 4” x 2” for the RACM230-G, 5” x 3” for the RACM550-G and 9” x 3.8” for the RACM1200-V, giving them class leading power density. The latest release, the RACM1200-V has single 24V, 36V or 48V outputs, operates with an efficiency of over 95% and meets EuP Lot 6 requirements for standby losses. The safety arrangement of each of the RECOM power supplies is shown in Figure 2.

•Vol - 03 / 05

Figure 3: Extra levels of isolation may be required with SIP/ SOP connections Latest editions of the IEC 60601-1 safety standard have made it less viable to use commercial or AV/IT grade AC/ DC power supplies in medical equipment with ‘added-on’ modifications and/or declared restrictions on use. For an easy passage through the certification process and for the widest applicability of an end product, a fully medically-certified power supply such as one from the RECOM RACM series is the best and ultimately the cheaper solution when product development and test house costs, along with time to market are factored-in. RECOM products are supported by a global network of distributors offering technical application support for customers wishing to incorporate AC/DC power supplies into their medical products with the minimum of difficulty.

MAY 2021 <

> ARTIFICIAL

INTELLIGENCE

Accelerate the impact of AI in your Vijay Malali business with MLtiply Principal Architect – Hi-Tech, QuEST Global

It is claimed that, by 2035, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will have the power to increase productivity by 40% or more. It is no exaggeration to say, AI is now absolute for businesses to stay competitive, and it isn't an option anymore. Early adaptors of AI are already reaping benefits by staying on top of their competition and can vouch for the impact AI brings to research and development, innovation, and market rollouts to even predict future shifts in any business model. Digital disruption is no more the buzz, and the next big thing we are looking at is the AI disruption, which brings a much larger scale of insight and knowledge that is transformational.

> MAY 2021

According to Gartner, AI will be one of the top five investment priorities for more than 30% of CIOs globally by 2020 - a trend we are looking forward to. Many organizations are still early in their data science journey and understand how AI can transform their businesses. AI makes it possible to make machines smarter with its ability to learn from experience and adapt new inputs while performing human-like tasks. AI combines large amounts of data with fast, iterative processing and highly intelligent algorithms that enable machines to recognize patterns and ultimately sense, comprehend, learn, and act. As AI's potential makes it ubiquitous, how can enterprises accelerate the impact of AI further with the right

•Vol - 03 / 05

machine learning platform, as everything a machine learns is based on it? Progressive enterprise organizations are already using automated machine learning and deep learning to increase their productivity >20x using platforms such as MLtiply.

So, how can such platforms help, keeping in mind the big picture – holistic business growth? What is MLtiply, and how it helps? MLtiply is an API driven software platform that helps create statistical machine learning models used in artificial intelligence with minimum effort. It is designed to be used with the popularly available frameworks for machine learning and can be considered an accelerator solution for designing, training, comparing, and validating machine learning models. This platform is also adaptable for multiple industries and can aid in creating costeffective AI solutions. MLtiply provides the developers with a simplified and guided model creation process through a visual, menu-driven interface for exploratory data analysis, feature engineering, model training, finetuning, and cross-validation. It is specifically designed to automate the repetitive operations involved in the development of machine learning models. The organized and streamlined workflows help achieve a beneficial and fast process to explore data, process features, and train multiple models with multiple hyperparameter combinations. Crossvalidation of models is possible to find the best model for a particular problem. MLtiply is a robust platform that helps achieve productivity improvement for data engineers, data scientists, and data analysts. This is supported with intuitive dashboards, auto-suggestions using prescriptive analytics, performance metrics, and custom model creation capabilities. The framework is meant for data engineers, data scientists, and data analysts involved in creating statistical and text-based (NLP) machine learning in any vertical/industry. It complements human intelligence by freeing them to add value-added activities using domain and technical knowledge. Since it is possible to achieve a streamlined and cost-effective workflow for model creation within a shorter time, this could be a real value add to our customers. Data exploration & visualization, feature engineering, model training, cross-validation of models, etc. are some of the key operations that can be automated.

How can businesses benefit from it?

Automated machine learning democratizes this fascinating

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technology by making the power of machine learning accessible to everybody with reduced time and money and by incorporating the best practices from top data scientists. MLtiply can be integrated with any popular ML frameworks like SciKit Learn, Keras, TensorFlow, etc. and supports modeling through code with a visual interface. Using prescriptive analytics and suggestions based on data, understanding is provided to guide users in experimenting with different problem settings in every stage of the model building workflow. Model versioning can be customized, and hyperparameter tuning and crossvalidation options are provided. Model training can be done using GPUs, and the results can be saved for comparing models. There is a high level of flexibility and transparency to understand and modify training a model. Modularized architecture brings in improved governance. MLtiply boasts a simple UI and is web-based with a backend on-premises servers or on the cloud. The system runs on any UNIX based Operating System and is developed using Python. The training automatically makes use of the available GPU.

Some use cases where MLtiply can be successfully implemented

MLtiply can be proven efficient in various scenarios, and some of these include: • Component failure prediction: When it comes to maintaining and repairing aircraft components due to regular wear and tear, MLtiply predicts future failures and proactively plans appropriate maintenance activity to reduce downtime. • Customer intent analysis: On a live chat platform, MLtiply can help build an intent analysis ML algorithm model to analyze each question's intent. Based on the intent, the system assigns the confidence scope for the predicate. This can lead to quicker abandonment of the chat window and subsequent customer dissatisfaction and loss. • HR attrition data analysis and prediction: In the HR industry, MLtiply can help determine the probability of a particular employee being in the high-risk zone of leaving the company. This significantly reduces the manual analysis of studying employee behavior over time and minimizes attrition.

Conclusion

While AI/ML is itself bringing in intelligent automation to data analytics, we now have automation of these models' development, thus increasing its efficiency. Snapshots of models can be saved, and access to previous versions are available. The developed models can be downloaded as code to be further optimized by experienced data scientists. The individual results are displayed in the user interface, and a comparison of model performance across versions can be viewed. Automation of ML pipeline helps to avoid errors that might creep in if done manually. The platform helps make data scientists and developers more productive, improve return on investment, and reduce human effort.

MAY 2021 <

> OBSOLETE

ELECTRONICS

A Wind Turbine Burns Down – Did it Have to Happen? Reliable Technology Protects Against Irreparable Damage

Michael Kopp

Manager Sales & Marketing Distribution, Vishay ESTA Division

There are many wind turbines installed throughout the world already, and experience has shown that they are prone to severe damage. In fact, it is not unusual for wind turbines to catch fire. Once this happens, a flaming, 30-m long rotor blade may crash to the ground from a height of 100 m. In extreme cases, the towers threaten to break or topple over. In many countries the fire department cannot extinguish fires at such a height. Instead, they can only cordon off the area and let the system burn in a controlled manner. As a result, the damage can quickly reach into the millions of dollars under certain circumstances, depending on the size of the turbine. This raises the question: how can we make wind turbines safer? To answer this question, manufacturers have defined key areas to eliminate every source of error in advance. This is why Vishay investigated the connection of capacitors in particular. It was possible to trace some of the faults causing fires to defective electrical connections. The most important requirements placed on an electrical connection include contact pressure that is adequate over the long term and a low contact resistance. If the contact pressure is too low or if the contact resistance is too high such as happens in an intermittent contact, the power dissipation, converted to heat, increases when current flows at the connection point. As electrical connections are made of metal, the resistance increases with increasing temperature and may generate temperatures of up to 600°C at the defective connection point depending on the magnitude of the contact resistance and of the current flowing (P = R * I²). A technician considers a power dissipation of 50 watts or more combustible. Processes that change the current load can increase a contact resistance that is already too high even further because they subject the electrical connection to expansion and contraction due to pronounced thermal stress. This results in a further degradation of the contact pressure. In addition, the thermal stress usually causes a further degradation in the conductivity of the conducting material leading to even higher contact resistance. Aggravating factors also include the following: It is almost impossible to detect defective electrical connections with a contact resistance that is too high all the time even using regular, comprehensive inspections. This is because the resistance of these connections can change depending on the operating state of the turbine. These conditions may also develop slowly over years.

Using Obsolete Technology

The investigations yielded the following: Electronic circuit boards used in the nacelle today predominantly use spring connections to handle the aforementioned problem of increased contact resistance. Even if these spring connections

> MAY 2021

•Vol - 03 / 05

are a recognized and proven connection technology in terms of cost-effectiveness and flexibility, many manufacturers of power capacitors still rely on screw connections. The greatest disadvantage of these is that, despite the cable making contact, installers cannot determine visually whether they tightened all screws reliably with the correct torque. With several capacitors connected in parallel with a battery, the situation becomes virtually unmanageable.

Figure caption: Quick and easy – ESTAspring reduces assembly time by 60 percent

Figure caption: ESTAspring protects valuable investments against irreparable damage without any screws at all using springs and lever action. (Photo: Vishay)

The UL/ULC has approved the polypropylene foil capacitors, in combination with ESTAspring, as a complete system. They provide a completely maintenance-free connection for applications such as low-voltage power-factor improvement or harmonic filters in wind turbines as well as other applications subject to high vibration stress. The always-constant contact force assures reliable connection over the entire service life of the capacitor. This makes them ideal for applications where there is the risk that a screw connection might come loose. This renders fires caused by defective capacitor contacts in the nacelle virtually impossible.

Capacitor with Spring Connection

To solve this problem arising from loose connections especially in environments undergoing permanent vibrations over the long term, Vishay developed the ESTAspring, a new generation of LVAC power capacitors that do not use any screws and have lever-action spring contacts. The capacitors of the PhMKP Series are available with rated voltages of 230 V to 1000 V, maximum reactive powers ranging from 2 KVAR to 37.1 KVAR and maximum connection currents of up to 90 A. They have stainless-steel springs, are corrosion resistant and are available in designs with an oil filling or dry with a gas filling. These are the first capacitors of this type worldwide using the ESTAspring technology. They use a lever-lock spring connection for premade flexible conductors from 2.5 to 25 mm² with bootlace ferrules. The maximum rectangular crimp geometry is 6.0 x 7.6 mm. The spring used is made of stainless steel. The conductor material is a copper alloy. It can carry currents of up to 90 A. No tools are needed to insert the conductor directly into the clamping unit. With the orange, offset lever, operation is intuitive and easy using force that is user-friendly. The unit itself, without any torque specifications, provides the connection force needed. A simple visual check is possible for completeness of the connections using the lever position. The lever being closed assures reliable contact. This also eliminates the potential source of error in industrial series production of simply overlooking the clamping units.

•Vol - 03 / 05

Figure caption: For reactive power compensation, a discharge resistor can be inserted on the back using the push-in feature. The resistor can be released again at the press of a button.

MAY 2021 <

> POWER-ENGINEER'S

DESK

Understand and apply safety-limiting values for digital isolators

Anant Kamath

Texas Instruments

Galvanic isolation is common in industrial and automotive systems as a means of protecting against high voltages or to counteract ground potential differences. Designers traditionally used optocouplers for isolation, but in the last few years, digital isolators that use capacitive and magnetic isolation have become more popular. With any such isolators, understanding the importance of their safety-limiting values and how to utilize them is important to system design. In systems using isolators it may be important to ensure that their insulation remains intact even under fault conditions. To achieve this goal, component standards governing optocouplers (such as IEC 60747-5-5) or capacitive and magnetic isolators (such as VDE 0884-11) specify safety-limiting values. These values specify the isolator’s operating condition boundaries within which the insulation is preserved, even if the functionality is not.

Isolator failure modes determine safety-limiting values

To understand what safety-limiting values specify, consider how isolators are designed. Figure 1 and Figure 2 illustrate the construction of an optocoupler and a capacitive digital isolator, respectively. In the case of the optocoupler, silicone material and insulating tape provide insulation between the two signal sides, while an LED and a photodetector provide the signal transfer. In the digital isolator, the series connection of two high-voltage capacitors on two separate silicon die provides insulation while electrical transmit and receive circuits coupled to the high-voltage capacitors provide the signal transfer.

A high-voltage/high-current/high-power fault event on one side of the isolator can damage the circuits on that side. For example, events like short circuits, electrostatic discharge (ESD), and power transistor breakdown can force unintended high voltage and current into the isolator’s pins, damaging LEDs, photodetectors, transmit and receive circuits, and onchip ESD protection. If there is enough power dissipated in the chip, there could also be significant structural damage to the circuits, such as fused silicone insulation, shorted highvoltage capacitor plates, or melted bond wires. Such structural damage can reduce the isolator’s insulation capability. The TI white paper, “Understanding failure modes in isolators,” discusses the effects of these fault events in more detail. From the end-system perspective, isolation requirements may need to remain in force even after electrical and thermal stress events have impeded the isolator’s signal-transference operation. This is because damage to the isolation barrier can lead to secondary system failures, or the risk of an electrical hazard. For example, in Figure 3, a digital isolator protects the earthed control and communications module while the rest of the system floats. The effects of any faults in and around the digital isolator that may reduce the isolator’s insulation capability must be considered to avoid the effects of shorting DC- to earth.

Figure 1

Figure 2

> MAY 2021

Figure 3 The practice of safety limiting is designed to minimize potential damage to the isolation barrier should the isolator’s input or output circuitry fail. Isolator component standards define the safety-limiting values as the maximum input or output current (IS), the maximum input or output power (PS), and the maximum junction temperature (TS) the device can withstand in the event of a fault without compromising its isolation, even if the function of the coupling elements may be destroyed. Device

•Vol - 03 / 05

manufacturers must specify these parameters, but it remains up to you to ensure that these values are not exceeded in the event of a fault or a failure so that there is no insulation breakdown. As an example of manufacturer-supplied safety limits, Figure 4 shows the IS for different supply voltages and PS as a function of ambient temperature for TI’s ISO7741 digital isolator. These values are specified so that the device’s maximum safety junction temperature (TS = 150°C) is not exceeded. Based on these curves, for instance, at an ambient temperature of 100°C up to 600 mW of power may dissipate inside the device without any potential damage to the insulation.

Let’s look at two example circuits for implementing safety limiting for a digital isolator. While these examples will not be exhaustive, identifying all possible faults and outcomes, they elucidate the principles of safety limiting and should provide a sense of how to approach safety limiting in your isolatedsystem designs. For the first example, Figure 5 shows a digital isolator serving as the interface between an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) or analog front end (AFE) and a microcontroller (MCU). I’ll analyze this system for any one primary fault, including any secondary faults this single fault produces. (Additional circuits may be necessary to protect against multiple primary faults.) This analysis will focus on the MCU side for safety limiting, although you can apply the same principles for the ADC/ AFE side as well.

Figure 5 In this example, a 24-V industrial power supply (variable up to 36 V) powers the MCU side (VIN24V). A DC/DC converter bucks this down to 5 V (VDC5V), followed by a low-dropout regulator (LDO) that creates a 3.3-V supply (VDC3P3V) for the MCU and the digital isolator. Current-limiting resistor RSUP is included in the supply path, and resistors ROUT and RIN are included in the input/output (I/O) path. Let’s examine some faults and their implications on safety limiting. Figure 4

Circuits utilize safety-limiting parameters

The materials and circuit design parameters the manufacturer has adopted govern a device’s safety-limiting values. What the safety standards require is that optocoupler/digital isolator users provide adequate safety arrangements in their circuit design and ensure that the device’s application conditions not exceed the device’s safety-limiting values. Such safety arrangements might include current and voltage limiting that kicks in under fault conditions, or thermal management that prevents an operating temperature above a maximum value.

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• Primary fault #1: Internal short in the isolator from VCC1 to GND1. The short circuit offers a resistance, RFAULT, from VCC1 to GND1. Using the maximum power transfer theorem, the maximum power dissipation within the isolator occurs when RFAULT = RSUP. The maximum power dissipation is equal to (VDC3P3V)2/(4 × RSUP). For very low values of RFAULT, the current through RSUP and VCC1 equals 3.6 V/RSUP. RSUP must be designed to dissipate this power. The power dissipated in the isolator itself, however, is very low (because RFAULT ~ 0 Ω). Example: If RSUP = RFAULT = 20 Ω, the maximum power dissipation in the isolator is (3.6 V)2/(4 × 20 Ω) = 0.162 W. According to its spec sheet, this is well within the ISO7741’s

MAY 2021 <

> POWER-ENGINEER'S

DESK

safety-limiting power. For cases where RFAULT ~ 0 Ω, the 20 Ω RSUP must be a 0.65-W resistor to account for the power it will need to dissipate. A higher value of RSUP is always beneficial, since it reduces power dissipation under fault conditions. However, you must also consider the voltage drop across RSUP in normal operation. An isolator with a wide supply range (such as the ISO7741, which supports operation down to 2.25 V) or a very low-power isolator like the ISO7041 (which consumes only 100 µA/channel at 1 Mbps) are options that can support a higher value of RSUP. • Primary fault #2: Input-to-output short circuit in the 24-V to 5-V DC/DC converter. In this case, the 24-V system supply (variable to 36 V) appears on the LDO input. To prevent further propagation of the fault, you must design the LDO to handle 36 V at its input. The isolator would likely not be able to withstand this voltage. • Primary fault #3: Input-to-output short circuit in the LDO. In this case, the 5-V input of the LDO occurs at its output. To prevent further propagation of the fault, the digital isolator must be able to handle 5 V on its supply (the ISO7741 meets this requirement). You must also consider any damage to the MCU (if the MCU cannot support 5 V on its supply). In the worst case, the MCU I/O pins are damaged and offer low impedance to supply or ground. • Primary fault #4: Short to ground or supply on the MCU IN and OUT pins. In this case, the current into the isolator pins can be higher than in normal operation. Resistors ROUT and RIN can help keep this current within safety limits. For example, ROUT = RIN = 100 Ω limits the current through the isolator’s I/O pins to 50 mA for 5-V conditions, which is well below the ISO7741’s safety-limiting current. For the second example, an isolated digital input using the ISO1211 as shown in Figure 6.

current limit, the values of RSENSE and RTHR are 562 Ω and 1 kΩ, respectively (see the ISO1211 data sheet for details). • Primary fault #1: Internal short circuits inside the ISO1211 result in a low impedance of RFAULT between the SENSE and FGND pins. As before, the worst-case power dissipated inside the ISO1211 is (36V)2/(4 × RTHR). With RTHR = 1 kΩ, the worst-case power is 0.324 W, which is within the safety-limiting power for the ISO1211. • Primary fault #2: A short circuit on external resistor RTHR. The built-in current limit on the ISO1211 limits the current draw from the pin to a value set by RSENSE. Resistor RTHR has no significant role to play in determining the input current, so shorting RTHR does not change the current going into the ISO1211 or the power dissipation very much. • Primary fault #3: The input voltage rises to 60 V. Safety digital input systems must consider the 24-V industrial supply rising to 60 V under fault conditions. The ISO1211 can tolerate 60 V on its input pins while maintaining the current limit of 3.1 mA (RSENSE = 562 Ω). The maximum power dissipated is 60 V × 3.1 mA = 186 mW, well within the safety-limiting power of the ISO1211. These two examples demonstrate how to analyze and mitigate different faults in the context of safety-limiting values. Based on the actual application and safety goals, though, you may need to take additional measures.

Conclusion

When using isolators it is important to understand their safetylimiting values, and to make provisions in your design to meet these values. Failure to design for safety limits could result in faults generating extensive system damage and possible fire and electrical hazards should the isolator’s barriers fail. The example circuits demonstrate ways to ensure the maintenance of safety-limiting values under fault conditions.

Figure 2 The isolated digital inputs receive signals from field sensors and interface them to a host programmable logic controller. The voltage input is nominally 24 V, but with variation can be as high as 36 V. The ISO1211 uses an external RSENSE resistor to provide a precise limit to the current drawn into the SENSE terminal. The external resistor RTHR can adjust the digital input’s voltage threshold. For an 11-V input threshold and a 2-mA

> MAY 2021

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The use of high performance standard CMOS sensors for 3D vision, detection and measurement Overview

3D imaging technology appeared several decades ago but the first products were only commercialized in the 2000’s, when many big studio movies were released in 3D, using the latest HD video cameras. Since then, the field has evolved in leaps and bounds in terms of speed, accuracy and 3D imaging resolution and it has been extensively adopted not only in consumer markets but also in the machine vision industry. With the Industry 4.0 revolution upon us, the need for 3D vision is increasing due to the limitations of 2D vision in terms of accuracy and distance measurement for complex object recognition, dimensioning and also limitations in complex interaction situations such as human/robot cohabitation. 3D vision increases the autonomy and effectiveness of robots/ machine systems in the factory automation market as it’s essential for higher accuracy quality inspection, reverse engineering and object dimensioning where 2D vision is limited. In addition, the use of visions system guided robotics is growing and requires 3D vision for better remote guidance, obstacle recognition and accurate moving. 3D vision also protects workers in factories from intensive human/machine interactions, with systems preventing and resolving dangerous situations, and with surveillance systems that are able to count and differentiate people from robots or objects. 3D vision is influencing society with its ability to make safer, better performing and more effective assistance systems for end-users. For instance, 3D vision is an enabler for advanced automotive assistance driver systems in autonomous vehicles, collaborative robots etc. When considering scanning barcodes and OCR, 2D imaging is nevertheless here to stay. It plays an integral role in factories and warehouses, where its deployment is rising through block-chain adoption, as well as the e-commerce boom, which is driving spectacular growth in fulfilment centers and transportation. Teledyne e2v has unique 2D imaging products dedicated to code scanning such as the Snappy sensor family with performance and features to achieve high scanning rates and reliability.

perspectives of an object, and calibration techniques are used to align pixel information between the cameras and extract depth information. This is similar to how our brains work to visually measure distance. • Structured light: A known light pattern is projected onto an object and depth information is calculated by the way the pattern is distorted around the object. • Laser triangulation: Laser triangulation systems enable 3-dimensional measurements to be captured by pairing a camera with a laser source. Due to a known angular offset between the laser and the camera, the system measures the geometrical offset of a laser line (whose value is related to the height of the object) using trigonometry. This technique is based on the scanning of the object. • Time-of-Flight: A light source is synchronized with an image sensor to calculate distance based on the time between the pulse of light and the reflected light back onto the sensor. Each technique has its pros and cons and so, depending on the targeted applications (especially the distance range and the depth accuracy requirements), some are more suitable than others. A relative comparison is done in table 1.

Performances

Stereo Vision Limrted (2m to 5m)

Could be improved by combining with a light source

Rang

(cm) Could be improved by combining with a light source

Laser Triangulation Short & Limited

Time of Flight (ToF)

Scalable (cm to 3-5m

(cms to 1m)

Scalable (<50cm to 20-50m)

High (µm to cm)

Very high (µm)

Medium (mm to cm)

Slow

Fast

High

Low

Depth accuracy

Response time

Medium

Software Complexity

High

Slow Medium

Low-Light Performance

Weak

Bright-Light Performance

Good

Medium

Good

Changing Light Conditions

Weak

Medium

Good

Compactness

Low

Medium

High

Manufacturing & Calibration efforts

High

Low

Material Cost

Low

High/Medium

Medium

Field of view

Limited (fixed and calibrated)

Scalable (large FoV possible, source, sensor resolution, distance dependent)

Several techniques and technologies exist in order to get a 3D image. The main ones are: • Stereo vision: Two cameras are used, mounted with different

> MAY 2021

Structured Light

Light source dependent Light source depen(IR or visible) dent (IR or visible)

Good (IR, laser, LED)

Table 1. 3D Imaging techniques ‘top-level’ comparison

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Although it still represents a small part of the vision systems used in factory automation and warehouses, currently more and more 3D systems are deployed based on 3D stereo vision, structured light cameras or laser displacement. These systems operate at fixed working distances and require significant calibration efforts for specific areas of detection. A Time-ofFlight system overcomes these challenges and gives more flexibility from an application point of view but most of them are still limited in image resolution. Teledyne e2v has a track record of successes in machine vision, both in line scan cameras and area scan sensors, and is now building a unique platform dedicated to 3D imaging. This will support the latest industrial applications such as vision guided robotics, logistics automated guided vehicles (AGV), factory surveillance and safety, handheld scanners as well as outdoor applications. Teledyne e2v aims to provide a consistent offer based on several 3D techniques that will meet the applications requirements of the customer.

Beyond 2D, 3D vision for high speed and accurate inspection to increase productivity

Factories are automated to increase productivity and gain time and money in all the cycles of product inspection and inventory. In order optimize these factors, the machines including vision systems need to operate at higher speeds and with better performance. Subsequently, whereas 2D vision is limited, 3D vision is extensively deployed for higher accuracy quality inspection, reverse engineering or object dimensioning. The laser triangulation technique is commonly used in in these types of applications because of the high resolution required on the three axis, therefore demanding very high speed sensors. 3d Inspection

Measuring shapes

Volume Inspection (Logistics)

Designed to enable easy and cost-effective integration for camera makers, the new sensors include a wide range of application-based features enabling high flexibility in use such as: ► High Dynamic Range modes with up to 100 dB that enables the measurement and inspection of both highlyreflective surfaces and dark areas in the same image through a HDR mode up to 100 dB ► Multiple Region of Interest mode that allows a perfect trade-off between profiling rate and range/resolution in the height measurement ► Frame to frame ‘hot’ changes mode of some parameters that enables flexibility and real-time adaptation to the environment conditions ► Different trigger modes that allow a perfect adaptation to the speed of production lines The main benefits for the industrial market are: ► Higher production rate due to it providing the highest speed on the market with a 2k or 4K horizontal resolution ► Cost effective system : The Flash family provides the best value for money (best Gbps/price ratio in the market) ► High flexibility in use such as allowing a real-time adaptation to the environmental conditions and to the speed of the production lines

Beyond 2D, 3D vision to ease autonomy and effectiveness of factories In order to improve the autonomy and effectiveness of factory automation, the use of autonomous guided robots is growing. As factories and warehouses become increasingly automated, working stations are intensively collaborative between humans and machines making prevention and safety are even more essential.

In such unpredictable working environments, Time-of-Flight (ToF) systems are ideal due to their real-time 3D information and decision capability and the ability to detect objects or people within fast scenes. There are two methods when talking about the Time-of-Flight technique: direct Time-of-Flight and indirect Time-of-Flight.

Figure 1. Laser triangulation applications examples For more than 10 years, Teledyne e2v has been working with market leaders in 3D laser triangulation and developing custom sensors. Last year Teledyne e2v launched a family of off-the-shelves sensors to meet the challenging demands of high speed volume measurement and inspection to comply with high speed production lines. The Flash CMOS sensors outstandingly combine a resolution of 4,096 x 1,024 pixels and 2,048 x 1,024 pixels with a respective frame rate of 1800 fps and 1500 fps (8 bits) and a respective readout speed of 61.4 Gbps and 25.6 Gbps in a standard optical format (APS-like optics and C-Mount respectively).

In the case of direct ToF, the system measures the distance by directly calculating the time it takes for the light to bounce off an object. In the case of indirect ToF, the system measures the distance by calculating the phase differences of the light waves when they are emitted to the object and when they bounce back. This allows the system to build a 3D map. Indirect ToF-Phase shift Advantages • Full speed (with multiphase pixels) • Background subtraction, compatible with outdoor • Low software complexity Weaknesses • Aliasing

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Direct ToF - Pulse reconstruction of a box/package in order to get the most efficient palletization or conditioning (packing and truckload optimization) or for efficient product lines. ► Goods identification for intelligent and efficient warehouse management: ToF imaging systems detect the goods or dimensions of a package in a shorter time than 2D conventional image processing ► Pick and place: ToF imaging system detect and identify the right object to be picked and placed, in the right position, with a very high level of accuracy and in shorter times than conventional 2D image processing

Advantages • No aliasing • No wrong distance measurement (due to mist, dust, multipath reflections..) Weaknesses • Tough speed specifications (light puses are ~ns) • Computational complexity relatively high

Figure 2. Pros and Cons of Direct ToF and Indirect ToF Teledyne e2v offers solutions for both direct Time-of-Flight systems through custom sensors and indirect Time-of-Flight systems through a complete portfolio of standard products. Teledyne e2v has been working for over 10 years on Time-ofFlight technologies and solutions and has strong capabilities with an innovative Time-of-Flight pixel, which is based on a track record of custom sensors developed for leaders in automation robotics automotive, and surveillance. The key differentiators of our standard ToF sensors are listed below and these are what customers are seeking: ► High spatial resolution sensors enabling a large field of view coverage and high angular resolution ► Fast and real-time 3D detection without any motion blur and over 30fps depth map at full resolution ► Both short and mid, long distance detection and management ► Ultra-reliable distance measurement in any condition: excellent precision and robust to ambient light conditions and multiple systems operation

Compared to the current products in the market, the Bora sensor (introduced by Teledyne e2v last year) offers unique advantages for applications where the scene to be analyzed is static. With a high spatial resolution of 1.3MP, it captures a large scene with a wide field-of-view in both 2D and 3D, making a cost effective and optimized system. All of our ToF sensors are designed to be highly flexible and adapt to various operating conditions as well as providing real-time 3D image capture with a depth map and at high speeds of over 30 fps in full resolution in a four-phase operation. Some features and highlights of the Bora sensor: ► Innovative 10µm pixel design ► A spatial resolution of 1,280 x 1,024 pixels ► Excellent sensitivity and a unique on-chip gated global shutter mode, which enables gating times as fast as 42ns Helping robots to navigate autonomously and safely in factory environment in another application where ToF systems are beneficial compared to other 3D techniques.

Time-of-Flight to handle complex environment operations Compared to others 3D techniques, ToF system is fast, simple, inexpensive and has excellent 3D performances at mid and long range.

In addition, as previously mentioned, due to its highly flexible use – a ToF system could be mounted in a moving robot as the system doesn’t need to be calibrated depending on the setup (e.g. factory calibration). The system can also be adapted to any operational setup making a ToF system well suited to being operated in complex environments and conditions. Below are some examples of factory and warehouse applications where Time-of-Flight is the best candidate.

Figure 3. ToF applications examples ► Measure the size and volume of a box or package: ToF imaging systems can measure the size and volume

> MAY 2021

Figure 4. Robot navigation application’s example Today, most navigation systems use a traditional Lidar scanner to detect objects but there are some cons and more and more solutions are emerging with alternatives technologies such as indirect ToF. Compared to the traditional Lidar scanner, indirect ToF systems provides real time image information with fast response times and no motion blur. They are also more robust and compact as no mechanical part is involved and cheaper since it’s a solid-state design using less power and less computation.

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Parameters

Traditional Lidar

Indirect Time of Flight (ToF)

Range

Long (Up to 70m-100m)

Scalable (Short distance: 30-50cm to 5m-10m; Long distance: >10m-100m)

Precision

Medium: Laser scanning, mm

Medium: mm, cm

Resolution

Low

Medium-High: Up to 1.3MP: 1280x1024 (state-of-the-art)

Speed

Slow: 20 fps

High: >60 fps for 3D depth map

2D and 3D images

No: no image, coordinates reconstruction by computation

Yes: 2D greyscale mage (CMOS sensors) + 3D Map

Motion blur/Motion artifacts removal

No:: one single point scanning of the object, may cause artifacts or miss the object

Yes: capture of moving objects instantaneously (in one frame)

Field of view

Large in horizontal (laser scanning up to 360°) Low in vertical

Medium: Can be large (> 120°) depending on sensor resolution, precision, illumination trade-off

Response time : 3D map

Low: Scanning before 3D reconstruction

High: Real time capture of the scene at whole field of view

Compactness of the system

Medium

High: solid state system

Robustness of the system

Medium: mechanical parts

High: solid state system

Robustness to the outdoor environment (changing-light, sunlight…)

High

Medium

Price

Expensive

Cheaper Cheaper

Table 2. Traditional Lidar vs Indirect ToF ‘top level’ comparison In the aforementioned applications, a ToF system tackles many challenges. The system needs to handle both short and mid, long range distances starting from 10 meters as well as needing to be fast without any motion artefacts (today, most ToF solutions on the market are focused on short ranges up to 5-6 meters). In addition, the system could be exposed to several changing lighting conditions as the robot is moving throughout the factory/warehouse and needs to operate without any interference from others robots in the same area. At the end of July 2020, Teledyne e2v introduced the Hydra3D sensor, the best in class ToF sensor, to handle all of these challenging conditions due to innovative pixel and its highly flexible configuration, delivering very high dynamic range, which is quite intrinsic to the applications. Hydra3D has a 832 x 600 pixel resolution incorporating a 10µm, three tap cutting-edge pixel, which allows the highest levels of 3D performance, including high depth resolution, high speed and flexible operation conditions.

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Hydra3D has an innovative multi-tap pixel that is able to acquire all of the three phases required to build the 3D image, enabling accurate 3D information to be captured of fast moving scenes without any motion blur. The three-tap pixel provides the ability to capture and store the information of the different phases needed to reconstruct the 3D map in one single frame, instead of the multiple frames

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required with other indirect ToF technologies. This is particularly powerful in avoiding any motion blur in fast moving scenes. It’s similar to comparing a global shutter mode to a rolling shutter mode in 2D vision.

We often compare Time-of-Flight sensors to CCD sensors since the complexity of the set-up requires a significant effort at system level to integrate the sensor and so the need to master the applications set-up becomes critical.

The three-tap pixel can capture all phases with a single train of light pulses, making optimal use of the light power. In this example, frame rate has been maintained, so average light power consumption is much lower. However, light power can be traded-off to get a higher frame rate or higher precision (through multiple acquisition).

Based on our expertise in ToF CMOS sensors and from working closely with our customers, Teledyne e2v has gained solid experience in assessing the challenges inherent to ToF systems. In order to help our customers to shorten their time-to-market and get the best ToF system to fit their application requirements, we provide technology solutions ranging from CMOS image sensors and customized camera modules, right up to full system integration support. This includes a reference design of our evaluation platform, light & optics assessment, eye safety consideration, modelisation and simulations, algorithms and calibrations.

Figure 5. One-tap pixel vs Three-tap pixel illustration Other benefits of the Hydra3D sensor are its flexibility in configuration and its multiple on-chip features. For instance, a powerful on-chip HDR feature combined with a high frame rate, and a flexible configuration allows you to trade-off between distance range, object reflectivity, frame rate, etc. as well as being robust to the ambient light. Or the unique on-chip feature for robust multiple ToF system operation that enables unsynchronized systems to work simultaneously without interfering with each other. Key characteristics of the Hydra3D sensor:

Time-of-Flight in the age of CCD adoption

Summary

As factories and distribution warehouse are increasingly automated, there is an increasing need for effective and autonomous industrial systems, particularly 3D vision for guided robots and machines (for object recognition, navigation, high speed and accuracy). Several 3D techniques exist, each with pros and cons, with the preferred technology, very much depending on the requirements of the application. All of these techniques are demanding and require high performance sensors with complex features.

Making Time-of-Flight image processing is much more complex than a conventional 2D vision system. It involves optics and a light system that will depend on several parameters (such as the sensor or the field-of-view, in-factory calibration, specific sensor configuration) to fit perfectly with the application requirements.

> MAY 2021

Figure 6. Teledyne-e2v ToF expertise and capabilities up to system level

Teledyne e2v has a successful track record with market leaders and offers a broad range of unique solutions, including 3D vision, to serve industrial markets such as factory automation, logistics and metrology applications. Our unique expertise in high performance CMOS image sensors (incorporating cutting-edge pixels and special features) coupled with over 10 years solid experience in ToF systems, enables us to help our customers to overcome the current challenges of 3D vision.

(The article is an original piece written by Teledyne e2v.)

•Vol - 03 / 05

EV > Elektrobit, SUSE’s Automotive-Grade Linux in China Elektrobit (EB) has extended its collaboration with SUSE, the multinational, open-source software company, to provide car makers and Tier 1 suppliers in China with automotivegrade Linux. EB corbos Linux is an operating system for high-performance CPUs providing a basis for the latest AUTOSAR standard and will enable car makers to accelerate the development of cutting-edge software for next-gen E/E architecture. The collaboration brings together the automotive experience and expertise of EB with the IT infrastructure experience of SUSE, which pioneered Linux in the enterprise. SUSE Linux Enterprise is. EB corbos Linux is based

on SUSE Linux Enterprise, and automotive customers will benefit from a robust, safe and reliable yet flexible solution that includes development, integration and deployment tools, software updates, and security patches for up to 15 years. EB corbos Linux together with EB corbos hypervisor provides a complete operating system and virtualization solution for Adaptive AUTOSAR development. EB was among the first to offer a commercially available software implementation of Adaptive AUTOSAR, and its scalable solutions are making it easier for car makers and Tier 1 suppliers to develop HPC systems.

Hella Extended its Electromobility Conditions

Hino Motors, REE Sign Business Alliance Deal

Hella has expanded its market position in electromobility. Its innovative power electronics ensure intelligent energy management and greater fuel efficiency. Back in 2007, the company launched the world’s first 12-volt voltage converter that supports the start/stop function in the vehicle. Since 2016, Hella has been enabling the trend towards mild hybridisation with 48-volt power electronics. The 48-volt DC/DC converters allow bidirectional energy transfer between 48-volt and 12-volt onboard networks and enable that the recuperation energy recovered during braking is made available to the 12-volt network again, thus enabling the energy to be used efficiently. In addition to the 48-volt DC/DC converters, the company also has a 48-volt PowerPack in its range, which combines power electronics plus battery management to monitor the lithium-ion battery. Hella has now also won an order for this from a German premium car manufacturer. Hella develops high-voltage converters and innovative solutions for charging electric vehicles. This includes, for example, a highly efficient on-board charger optimised for weight and installation space. It offers the possibility of charging the vehicle and feeding energy from the vehicle battery back into the grid. Integrated Smart Charging functionalities also allow intelligent control of the grid load and thus compensate for overload peaks for the grid supply.

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Hino Motors and REE have signed a strategic business alliance agreement to realize their shared vision of “providing new value to society through next-

generation commercial mobility.” Hino and REE’s next-generation electric commercial mobility solutions are geared to improve quality of life on a global scale by lowering carbon emissions, minimizing strain on infrastructure, reducing congestion and allowing companies to better allocate resources. The two companies will combine their advantages to realize this vision – Hino’s knowledge and technologies as a commercial vehicle manufacturer closely attuned to customer needs with REE’s innovative and highly competitive proprietary REEcornerTM EV technologies – and take on initiatives to create new value through next-generation commercial mobility solutions. The next-generation commercial mobility solution to be jointly developed by Hino and REE will be comprised of a modular platform (Powered by REE) that will carry a customized Mobility Service Module on top. The Mobility Service Module – which will carry passengers, goods and deliver services – would address a wide variety of current and future applications aligned with customer requirements, aimed to provide new value to society, and will be enhanced with data-driven services. The companies will first work to develop hardware prototypes by FY 2022, while evaluating business models, engaging potential customers, and conducting demonstrations in parallel.

MAY 2021 <

> AUTONOMOUS

VEHICLE

Autonomous Vehicle Technology: A Case of Adopting New Technology in India Sambit Sengupta Associate Director - SPM & FAE Avnet India

India is a country with vast possibilities of leveraging technology for the greater common good. One of the many ways where advanced technology adoption can help is in reducing road accident fatalities. According to a recent report by the World Bank, India accounts for 11 percent of the global death in road accidents, the highest in the world. However, stakeholders across levels are skeptical to adopt autonomous vehicle technology, mainly over concerns of potential job loss which will impact the livelihood of drivers. Another reason is because of the improvements required in road infrastructure to implement the technology. On the other hand, we see some segments in India where the gradual application of autonomous vehicle technology creates not only safety and security for users but also help in raising productivity. Farm equipment makers and reputable tractor manufacturers are coming up with level 2 autonomous tractors equipped with GPS for geofencing and auto-steer facility. Some advanced start-ups are creating trucks with autonomous technology for operation on Indian highways. These trucks will not eliminate the need for truck drivers, but instead, reduce fatigue and disaster avoidance. Besides, mankind's quest for innovative ways to travel has never stopped. Automated driving is aimed to turn drivers into passengers - letting them become supervisors, freeing them from tedious driving operations and allowing them to do more valuable things as well as giving intelligent inputs to avoid road accidents. Autonomous vehicle technology will also improve the productivity of our large number of farm equipment users.

Three major barriers to implementation

While Tesla has previously stated that its autopilot system will receive a major upgrade and is expected to reach the level 5 within the year, there are still many issues to be resolved even when it comes to the mass production of level 3 automated vehicles. Not to mention the lack of infrastructure for connected vehicles, and the associated laws and regulations necessary to get automated vehicles on the road. Implementing level 2 autonomy in tractors with more smart features will face less of these barriers. Here are three major barriers to the implementation of automated driving.

> MAY 2021

First, the development of technology is difficult and excessively expensive. Key components for high-level automated vehicles, including AI chips, integrated circuits and LiDARs, are still in the preliminary stages of development. These chips are yet to be tested in the market, and their actual effectiveness is hard to assess. Automotivegrade LiDARs are now facing significant challenges. The size, cost and reliability of front-mounted LiDARs cannot yet fully meet the requirements for automobile installation. And it is still a long way to go from mass production. Also, the level of functional security must be increased to ensure safety, and the upgrading of everything, from hardware to software, is inevitably cost-prohibitive. Secondly, it takes time to improve the infrastructure for connected vehicles. The industrialization of automated driving requires the interconnection of vehicles, roads, clouds, networks, and maps to develop in tandem. Although we have seen many innovative explorations of vehicle-road collaboration (V2X), due to the difficulty of crossindustry coordination across transportation, communications, and automotive, we still need to overcome technical barriers to accelerate the implementation of automated driving. It is by no means an overnight effort to build a 5G-V2X network, create big data platforms, integrate cloud platforms, and promote the information and intelligent transformation of road infrastructure. Lastly, the absence of relevant laws and regulations. To have automated cars on the road will create many conflicts with current laws and regulations. There is hardly any clear legal definition in the Motor Vehicles Act, National Highways Act, and so on that actually covers the automated driving aspect. For example, customers will have many concerns when purchasing an automated vehicle due to the lack of relevant traffic accident liability legislation, which will affect the marketability of high-level automated vehicles. Specifically in India, traffic infrastructure and directions are not very uniform unless it is in highways.

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ADAS, an essential step in the evolution of automated The global ADAS market is expected to reach $67 billion by driving 2025, according to a report by Research and Markets. As a Although there is a long way to go from the maturity of the technology to the commercial and regulation environment, the industry's goal to achieve automated driving is clear and firm. Auto companies globally are pushing hard to develop automated driving products. In order to realize fully automated driving without human intervention, three conditions must be met - the vehicle must be fully aware of the surrounding environment, be able to respond accordingly when the environment changes, and the security of the vehicle and data must be ensured. This can be made possible by the continuous evolution of the Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) technology. Currently, the main features of ADAS include providing information related to the vehicle's current operating status and changes in the exterior environment to the driver. Data is analyzed simultaneously and advanced warnings are issued when a potentially dangerous situation is detected, which will allow the driver to take early measures to prevent traffic accidents.

•Vol - 03 / 05

leading global technology distributor and solutions provider, Avnet saw a huge opportunity in the automotive electronics market and introduced its own ADAS solutions. In addition to providing various smart control features such as blind-spot detection, 360-degree full panorama view, emergency braking, automatic parking assistance and parking, Avnet’s ADAS solution also offers 3D HD surround view images for daytime and nighttime driving, as well as 2D HD surround-view images/road sign image recognition, lane-departure warnings /collision warnings to effectively help prevent traffic accidents. Moreover, Avnet's ADAS solution features a Driver Monitoring System (DMS) that can accurately identify the driver's mental state and behavior. When the driver appears to be yawning or drowsy, the system automatically activates the autopilot system to take over the vehicle in time to ensure driving safety. It can even sense the driver's emotions and play their favorite music to soothe their mood. In the future, the vehicle will no longer be a cold machine, but a thoughtful and warm companion that can better respond to human needs.

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> AUTOMOTIVE-FEATURE

High Reliable And Performance Deep Learning Accelerator for ADAS and Autonomous Driving Systems

Katsushige Matsubara

Sr. Manager, Automotive Solution Business Unit Renesas Electronics Corporation

Next-generation ADAS and autonomous driving (AD) systems, when deployed to market, will require accurate and highspeed recognition, judgment, and operation. Renesas presented these achievements at International SolidState Circuits Conference 2021 (ISSCC 2021), which take place February 13 to 22, 2021. We will continue to develop and deploy in-vehicle LSI based on this technology. We expect these will contribute to the realization of a safe and secure car society through the spread of ADAS and AD systems. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) require large amounts of computation for pattern recognition. As the number of sensors installed increases, higher CNN performance is required. However, as power consumption increases in proportion to performance, a heavy and expensive water-cooling system is needed. It is required to achieve both high deep learning performance and low power consumption that enables a lightweight and cost-effective air-cooling system. Achieving a CNN performance of 60TOPS with an efficiency of 10TOPS/W per one LSI device is the optimal target from a practical point of view.

> MAY 2021

CNN accelerator with high performance and power efficiency

A CNN accelerator (CNNA) performance/efficiency target is to achieve 60TOPS performance with 10TOPS/W efficiency. From an implementation point of view, it is realized with three identical accelerators instead of one accelerator. One CNNA contains 13,824 MAC arithmetic units and operates at 800MHz. The theoretical maximum performance of the three CNNAs is 66TOPS. In addition, each CNNA connects 2MB dedicated scratchpad memory (SPM) through a 512-bit interconnect module. This increases the execution efficiency of CNNA,

•Vol - 03 / 05

reduces the amount of data transferred between CNNA and external memory (DRAM) by about 90%, and saves the power consumed by the DRAM interface and interconnect. From the actual measurement of test chip, VGG16 has 32TOPS performance with 6.1TOPS/W efficiency, and CNNAoptimized network (Network-A) has 60.6TOPS performance with 13.8TOPS/W efficiency.

Safety mechanism for ASIL D tasks

Next-generation ADAS and AD systems are required to achieve the functional safety of ASIL D, which is the strictest safety level of ISO 26262. The dual core lockstep (DCLS) is one of the methods that can satisfy the metric of ASIL D. Fault can be detected by performing the same process on two redundant hardware and comparing their respective outputs. CNNA also requires hardware redundancy to meet the ASIL D metrics but simply applying DCLS requires a large MAC compute unit to be redundant. It is not practical because area and power consumption increase significantly. To achieve ASIL D metrics without adding redundant hardware, two CNNAs (CNNA1 and CNNA2) are dynamically configured by software to perform lockstep operation during processing that require safety. CNNA is used for both image recognition processing (ASIL B) input from the camera and modeling of the surrounding environment from the results input from each sensor (ASIL D). But most of the execution time is the former ASIL B image recognition processing. Therefore, by switching CNNA1 and CNNA2 to lockstep operation only during surrounding environment modeling processing, ASIL D tasks can be achieved without significantly compromising performance or power efficiency.

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The following is the lockstep operation of CNNA using lockstep DMAC (LDMAC). 1) LDMAC loads the same data from DRAM into SPM1 and SPM2. 2) CNNA1 and CNNA2 perform the same network processing. 3) LDMAC reads the execution results from SPM1 and SPM2 and compares them. If they do not match, it is judged as fault. Only the result of CNNA1 is stored in DRAM.

Another important factor in achieving ASIL D is freedom from interference (FFI). There are a mix of tasks with different ASILs in the system. They must not interfere to higher ASIL tasks. As mentioned earlier, CNNA is accessed by tasks at different ASIL levels, so the memory space used by each task must be separate.

The mechanism for memory space isolation is implemented in CNNA, LDMAC, and the memory protection tables of the memory management unit (MMU). The context index of the currently running task is given to the transaction output from CNNA and LDMAC. The MMU receives it and switches the context on a transaction-by-transaction basis.

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> EMBEDDED-FEATURE

How can Embedded Applications Ensure Small Density NOR Flash Product Longevity?

Grant Hulse

Product Marketing Manager, Memory Products Division, Microchip Technology

Typically, most small standalone and embedded systems contain an 8-bit or 16-bit microcontroller (MCU) surrounded by a collection of analog and sensor integrated circuits (ICs), display and communication interface ICs. Garage door openers, electric drills, manufacturing line equipment, medical analysis systems, etc. tend to fall under this category. Sometimes, they might even require, SRAM, EEPROM, and NOR Flash ICs if these are not present in the selected microcontroller (See Figure 1). For end equipment makers, longevity of NOR Flash ICs is a concern. Since larger density NOR Flash family members (256 Mbit to 1 Gbit+) drive the memory vendors’ business decisions, there is a constant push for smaller geometry processes and shorter product life cycles. When a move to a new process node causes an IC supplier to announce an end-of-life (EOL), it becomes necessary to requalify the device. This adds unexpected spend to existing programs since engineering resources often need to be diverted. Microchip Technology has a solution to address the NOR Flash longevity problem.

One approach to tackle this is to use a 128-Mbit NOR Flash IC to hold 4 Mbits of user programming code, thereby ‘futureproofing’ the system design. However, this can mean inefficient power consumption and higher overall system cost. Another way could be to seek out a non-traditional NOR Flash memory supplier that is equipped to supply the same memory product for 20+ years. This may result in a higher upfront cost but might work out over the course of time when one factors in the cost of requalification and involvement of engineering resources.

The Outlook for Small Density Memory

Figure 1 represents a microcontroller surrounded by other integrated circuit pieces. This gives the embedded application life and purpose. Here, the touchscreen display output IC shares a few different display images contained within the 8 Mbit NOR Flash [highlighted] as dictated by the program code (embedded in the microcontroller in this case). The key characteristics of this external NOR Flash memory IC are 1) 8 Mbits, 2) standard SPI interface, 3) low standby current, 4) low write current, 5) small area, and 6) available in production for 20 years.

As NOR Flash suppliers focus on bringing the most value and lowest cost points to their customers, they have increasingly been leaving behind their smaller density products in favour of high-margin, high-volume, high-density memory parts. The industry has been evolving towards higher density as lower density products reach EOL. These IC disruptions require that 20-year-product-life embedded system suppliers explore not just new versions of parts, but sometimes new suppliers altogether.

> MAY 2021

Microchip recognized the negative impact of this density trend on business plans and business objectives several years go. In order to remedy this, it emerged as a non-traditional NOR Flash memory IC supplier that offers serial SRAM IC, serial EEPROM IC, analog, and sensor IC products as well. Currently, it only provides for NOR Flash memory up to 64 Mbit densities, where focused memory suppliers will continue to supply product for the next 20 or more years.

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gate count application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) such as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs). For XIP applications offering low standby power consumption, NOR Flash memory ICs work well since they are directly accessible using a standard serial interface such as SPI.

Figure 1. With the microcontroller at the heart of an embedded system, several other IC technologies, including NOR Flash, are required for specific applications.

NOR Flash memory devices are also very board efficient since they are available in 8-pin packages, such as an 8-lead SOIC and 8-contact WDFN (6mm x 5mm), and small density as well. For applications where limited board space is a challenge, such as an electric toothbrush, a Wafer Level Chip Scale Package (WLCSP) can help achieve significant package space savings (almost 69%) as shown in Figure 2.

Table 1 compares a 128 Mbit NOR Flash IC for future proofing versus an 8 Mbit NOR Flash that has long term availability from a non-traditional memory supplier. Clearly, the 8 Mbit NOR Flash IC is best suited to meet the embedded application requirements. Table 1. A 128 Mbit NOR Flash IC compared to an 8 Mbit NOR Flash IC reveals obvious advantages.

Figure 2. Packaging size for an 8 Mbit versus a 128 Mb Wafer Level Chip Scale Package

1000X Faster ReFlash Times Using Small Density NOR Flash

As discussed, while large NOR Flash suppliers might choose not to focus on low-density NOR Flash from a strategic point of view, it makes sense for an embedded company’s product offerings and full-system-solution strategy. For instance, most homes today include several dozens of embedded systems (kitchen appliances, white goods, tools, etc.) with 8-bit, 16bit or even 32-bit MCUs that do not require a large amount of code. In these system, only small amounts of NOR Flash are needed to provide program code, calibration data, calibration parameters, event logs and more. There are several situations (such as in Figure 1) where external NOR Flash makes more sense than MCUs that come with built-in flash. For instance, there are cases where the cost tradeoff between total system bill of material (BOM) and offered microcontroller FLASH sizes works in favour of external NOR Flash. Other instances could include microcontroller function mismatch, quicker reflash time for test sets during line manufacturing, and system reflash events for field upgrades. Small NOR Flash is also used for Application Programming, boot code and execute-in-place (XIP) operation in lower

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Despite being a nontraditional memory supplier, Microchip ships a large number of microcontrollers with FLASH memory. Flash memory with SuperFlash® technology is designed to provide block erase times 20x faster and full chip erase 1000x faster, proving a significant technical and strategic advantage. While not commonly adopted by large NOR Flash memory suppliers, reflashing a NOR Flash helps lower manufacturing costs and allows for quicker low power field system upgrades. For example, the 8 Mbit NOR Flash (with the SuperFlash enhancement) has a block max erase time of only 25 ms, which is 30 times faster as compared to a 128 Mbit NOR Flash (without SuperFlash technology), which has a typical max block erase time of 0.7 to 1 second. Time savings aside, every block erase for a rewrite cycle also brings in a power difference of ~800 ms * 33 mA.

Embed NOR Flash in New Designs

Microchip Technology has an established practice to ensure availability for as long as customers need replacement products, even if some suppliers may be exiting NOR Flash memory products and even declaring EOLs. By committing to this availability for midsize, small and even large volume applications, Microchip ensures that customers can get what the embedded system needs as long as needed. SuperFlash is a registered trademark of Microchip Technology.

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Our vision is ‘Safe Food a Billion People’, to make safe food affordable and accessible for millions of people of this country.

TECHNOVATORS

> TECHNOVATORS

Thirukumaran Nagarajan

Co-founder and CEO, Ninjacart

Ninjacart Promotes ‘Safe Food a Billion People’ India’s largest fresh produce supply chain company, Ninjacart is solving one of the toughest problems in the world through technology. The startup based in Bengaluru, has a vision to build India’s most efficient and largest Supply Chain platform and improve the lives of producers, businesses, and consumers in a meaningful manner. Ninjacart connects producers of food directly with retailers, restaurants, and service providers using in-house applications that drive end to end operations. While talking with Nitisha from BISinfotech, Thirukumaran Nagarajan, Co-founder and CEO, Ninjacart explains the adoption of ML (Machine Learning) and AI (Artificial Intelligence) and its impact on agriculture. He says that now farmers can take decisions on which crops to produce by providing automated warnings and updates on weather conditions.

have reduced uncertainty related to demand and supply by creating market linkage. Every day we transport tonnes of fresh produce, from farms to businesses, in major cities across India within 12 hours. At Ninjacart, we have developed special apps for farmers, which enable them to check prices across the market. So the farmers have the freedom to settle on the marketplace for better price recovery. Retailers and small business owners associated with Ninjacart enjoy the convenience of receiving farm fresh produce at their doorsteps. At Ninjacart, the prowess of AI algorithms has been applied in several dimensions of the supply chain including the tasks of Predictive Demand Forecasting and Planning, Logistics Route Optimization as well as making Catalogue Pricing decisions as dictated by data. Demand Forecasting & Planning begins with identifying the leading indicators of demand changes. Kindly explain Ninjacart’s unique services and the This is followed by modeling our decisions depending on these use of AI and IoT in it? indicators using a regression-based approach which helps us Ninjacart is India’s largest B2B fresh produce supply chain provide better value and guarantees to the farmers. company connecting farmers directly with retail outlets. We

> MAY 2021

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Another important application lies in the optimization of our logistics routes for maximising efficiency. For the same, we have taken a constraint-based modeling approach. Constraints are based on distance, vehicle, cost, capacity & time. Post defining these constraints, we use a metaheuristic optimization technique (Guided Local Search), to maximize our objective function and reduce our supply chain cost.

RFID Scanning: The traditional supply chain lacks transparency, which is one of the many challenges in the Agri Supply Chain. Ninjacart uses RFID chips on crates to bring transparency by tracking the movement of vegetables and fruits across the supply chain as they move through numerous processes and facilities. Transparency is key to assure the quality of produce and accountability for farmers. Ninjacart’s integrated technology helps us track the movement of thousands of tonnes of produce from farms to shelves, every day. Vehicle Route Planning: Vehicle Route Planning is key to

driving the Ninjacart Supply Chain to move tonnes of fresh produce from farms to retailers in less than 12 hours. The algorithm registers retail customer order details that were placed the previous day. It utilizes information such as customer location, tonnage, crate count, delivery time window, etc. to determine the optimal delivery route. In the same manner, the algorithm utilizes vehicle information such as vehicle type, start location, max crate capacity, max no. of points, the time window in which it’s available, and average speed of the vehicle to assign the delivery route the next day for the door to door deliveries to stores. After considering customer specifications and vehicle information, the algorithm perfectly optimizes the vehicle route towards the customer locations. The route is determined to use the vehicles more efficiently in terms of vehicle usage, occupancy, and positioning the orders to be delivered. Our algorithms automate the planning and optimization of logistics by mapping 1000+ routes for vehicles crisscrossing 15 states for delivering to customers daily across 7 cities.

Facial Recognition: Being a supply chain company, Ninjacart

has a large workforce that operates on the ground level and labour is one of the biggest costs for the business. It becomes a mammoth task to keep a track of every single worker to ensure they get work done on time. Moreover, fraudulent activities are rampant on the ground, which leads to problems such as false reporting, increased dependency on the worker, issues with cash handling, incomplete work, pilferage, and less accountability. This can have a direct impact on the P&L of the company and the outcome of the supply chain. A comprehensive solution to all of these problems that Ninjacart’s tech utilizes is Facial Recognition Software. The software swiftly captures the entire face and it is fragmented into small pieces that are converted into data streams. Each time, 90% accuracy is required to mark the attendance. This data can be further used for tracking worker productivity from start to finish and at various touchpoints in the Supply Chain and also solve many of the prevalent problems to ensure an order is delivered on time without any hiccups.

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Machine learning / AI is also used in enhancing customer experience and value 1. an automated, goal-seeking revenue & margin optimizing pricing system which takes care of both supply & demand side constraints. 2. Customer segmentation, temporal, personalised, product frequency-based model to recommend the set of products and offers. The prediction model analyses hundreds and thousands of market factors. For instance, we analyse past buying data of consumers and the frequency of orders to determine the kind of produce that needs to be procured. This way, we inform farmers about what is expected of them for that particular month by issuing a ‘Harvest the farm’ calendar for weather forecasting.

What will be your next project and how will it be impactful for the farm industry?

Our vision is ‘Safe Food a Billion People’, to make safe food affordable and accessible for millions of people of this country. We have made significant advancements towards this, early last year we had launched ‘Foodprint’ initiative. Foodprint is a foundational information highway that allows us to know everything about the food we eat. Starting from, who is the farmer, when was it harvested, the truck that carried the produce, the warehouse that processed it, the helper who handled the product at the warehouse, a retailer who brought the product and how it was delivered to your doorstep. The 100% traceability helps us control the quality in each and every step and monitor how your product is handled in the entire supply chain with a robust and instant feedback loop.

Our recent association with Kilofarms brings us closer to our vision to adapt residue-free farming methods. Residue-free vegetables are grown with optimal farm inputs to meet the expected global food safety standards. There are inefficiencies in the traditional farming practice and with our association with Kilofarms, we are moving towards creating a community of farmers who are well informed about advanced technologies in agriculture. After achieving success in producing the first batch of residue-free tomatoes, we intend to add 18 more crops by mid of this year. With residue-free methods, we can increase farm productivity and consistency, empowering farmers with emerging technology concepts like moisture sensors, data analytics, software, and many other tools. For example, moisture sensors give a predictive estimate of the water content of the soil influencing the yield of the crop. Further, it helps reduce the amount of water used in the field by telling the farmers which part of the field has less water, thereby bringing more efficiency to the entire process with minimal wastage. This entire system is controlled through an app wherein farmers can take care of 30 to 40 acres of land during a single day, without having to spend the whole day in the field.

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> TECHNOVATORS We will continue to introduce various innovations that will bring us closer towards our vision and therefore enable us to bring in about a change and create a powerful impact towards the industry. We are also investing in Machine Learning (ML) to improve forecasting, price engine, crop monitoring recommendations based on our 5 years of data and research. Leveraging strengths and resources to ensure quality and efficiency remains our main focus as an Agritech platform.

capabilities after a disruption. We see this as an opportunity to re-design the supply chain with technology and long-term initiatives on this front.

How do you define Ninjacart different from the other agritech companies?

The supply chain infrastructure of fruits and vegetables is extremely fragmented with several uncertainties. Wastage is involved at every stage- assembling, transporting, storing, grading/sorting, processing, packaging and distributing. Given the complicated nature of the supply chain, the How the business was during lockdown and what presence of too many middlemen resulted in exploitation of will be your future plans for such kinds of issues? farmers pushing them to sell produce at cheaper rates. We When the nationwide lockdown was announced there was no have eliminated the intermediaries by taking control of the clarity on which part of the supply chain would be operative. supply chain by using technology and analytics. Ninjacart is Due to irregularities in the supply chain, we were unable to equipped to move tonnes of perishables from farms to stores reach the end consumers. Retail outlets were closed, and we every day, in less than 12 hrs. were allowed to operate a few hours a day, so we started working with government bodies to figure out how to ease Price and demand confirmation to farmers before harvesting the process. At the outset, we started engaging with farmers is initiated by setting both purchasing and selling prices using to understand the market value as they were struggling to an average of national prices to avoid price risk, which is never find buyers and sought our help in selling the produce. After heard of before. Farmers have to complete Ninjacart’s quality analyzing the situation and mutually agreeing on a price point control test and visit their nearby collection centre (CC) to we started delivering fresh produce to consumers, residents, sell their produce. Then, the merchandise is shipped to the supplying to orphanages, and multiple initiatives to drive the fulfilment centre (FC) where it undergoes a second check supply chain. and is dispatched to the distribution centre (DC). Finally, the produce is packed as per retailer’s orders and delivered via During the nationwide lockdown, operations at Ninjacart were planned routes at the scheduled time. temporarily shifted from B2B to B2C to assist the farmers with the harvested produce. Vehicle Route Planning is key to driving the Ninjacart Supply Chain to move tonnes of fresh produce from farms to retailers. y At the initial phase of the lockdown, essentials like fruits and The algorithm generated by Ninjacart registers retail details vegetables went out of stock, and if it was available it cost like location, crate count, delivery time window, among double the market price. As a result, Ninjacart launched the others to determine the optimal delivery route. In the same initiative- Reaching the underprivileged and began supplying order algorithm utilises vehicle information like start location, fresh produce in bulk to old age homes, orphanages, community max crate capacity, the time window in which it is available, kitchens, and slums at subsidised rates. Additionally, to fill the etc. After considering both the factors the algorithm perfectly gap between demand and supply, we started delivering fresh optimizes the vehicle route towards the customer locations. produce societies, colonies, and apartments across cities y Later, owing to the lockdown millions of farmers across the We have taken a constraint-based modeling approach. country were left in the lurch. That is when Ninjacart deployed Constraints are based on distance, vehicle, cost, capacity and the ‘Harvest The Farm’ initiative, and established a direct time. Post defining these constraints, we use a metaheuristic connection between the farmer and the end consumer optimization technique (Guided Local Search), to maximize our through Swiggy, Zomato, and Dunzo. All this was managed objective function and reduce our supply cost. Furthermore, by leveraging our existing supply chain while working overtime we ensure transparency in the entire food value chain through to help farmers and end consumers in an on-going lockdown RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), it enables us to track situation fresh produce as it undergoes various facilities. y Due to the Covid-19 virus outbreak, customers become more cautious about what they are consuming. We saw this We follow the best practices and utilise top-of-the-line as an opportunity and started working towards our vision ‘Safe monitoring tools to check what goes into a farm to produce Food for Billion People’ and launched ‘FoodPrint’ initiative. a particular vegetable which can be concluded as follows: Developed a traceability system that not only guarantees 100% traceability but also serves the purpose of safe food till y RFID Technology: Everything is enabled through the app. last-mile delivery Every crate has a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag so that the company can know exactly which vegetables and The pandemic has changed the way we source, manage and fruits have been delivered. deliver fresh produce. The plan is to make the supply chain y Tomorrow ready ERP: Mobile ready ERP ensures use zero transparent, resilient, and smarter with recovery operational paper in the supply chain

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y Demand Forecasting: Leveraged deep machine learning to perfect forecasting upto 97% and reduce the overall wastage to 4% [Traditional supply chains have wastage up to 25%]. y Farmer apps: Ninjacart also have specific apps for the farmers wherein they help them not only in demand forecasting but harvest planning and determining the price indent as well y Connected Logistics: Speed and cost can make or break any supply chain. Ninjacart’s indigenous route optimization and utilization keeps the load factor at 92% and puts fresh vegetables on the plate (they move the produce from farm to store within 12 hours) at a cost almost 1/3rd of the traditional supply chain y Vehicle Route Planning: Key driver of the supply chain at Ninjacart y Social security: Cashless and instant

water, crops vary within the field itself, and therefore farmers need to have information that directs them to handle these fluctuations in the field accurately. To supervise the field performance technology that is helpful is satellite imagery, GPS, Information Technology (IT), and other geospatial tools. The farmers are slowly getting to understand how leveraging solutions that use the latest technologies can offer them greater solutions. For example, the strategic combination of ML (Machine Learning) and AI (Artificial Intelligence) influence their decisions on which crops to produce by providing automated warnings and updates on weather conditions. With precise forecasting, farmers are empowered with actual data rather than relying on intuition or observation alone. As technology improves every day, mobile technology has

Is there any expectation from the government? also advanced. The use of IoT (Internet of Things) has altered Explain. the way of using data in a more prominent manner. It allows

Over the years, the government has provided tremendous support to farmers through policies and reforms. We can expect the government to collaborate with agritech players as they hold the potential to overcome the challenges faced by farmers in terms of pricing, technology penetration, farm tools, better market linkage, and many more. The government’s focus has been to provide technology access to farmers for better decision making while improving small and marginal farmer incomes. Post the COVID-19 outbreak, the government has announced several amendments to support farmers. However, execution remains a challenge.

Challenges and scope in the industry?

Indian agriculture grapples with challenges such as limited digital adoption, lack of infrastructure, uneven quality, and supply chain inefficiencies. The farmers have very limited access to technology, and the production part remains highly fragmented and unorganised. With a rise of new players and startups coming into the market, agritech has the potential to become a dominant industry in India. The scope is huge as these platforms are already leveraging technology for market linkages, controlling the end-to-end supply chain, and assisting farmers with access to data. On the demand side, consumers demand towards consuming healthier food, urgency to reduce food waste in India, quality management and traceability are helping push the adoption of agritech in the nation. As the agritech ecosystem matures, there are likely scenarios that could play out in this sector. There is an opportunity for players to expand and to own the end-to-end relationship with the farmers. Besides, they can build up a robust digital platform and physical infrastructure to handle post-harvest supply chains. Finally, leveraging data driven precision techniques in agriculture to increase the output.

farmers to measure all kinds of data remotely and provides this information to the farmer in real time to save both time and money.

Impact of IoT and advance technologies in the agri tech biz?

Internet of Things (IoT) and advanced technologies have acted as a driving force in the supply chain, enabling agritech businesses to improve productivity, neutralize wastage, reduce cost and ensure competitiveness in the market. Advanced technologies and IoT have the potential to transform agriculture in many aspects and it has gained momentum after the nationwide lockdown. It has made it easier to function on large scale operations such as agriculture planning, connecting logistics, internal communication in ways previously impossible if it were not for advanced technologies.

At Ninjacart, with the strategic use of IoT we have developed a Facial Recognition Software for employees, which captures the entire face and it is fragmented into small pieces that are converted into data streams. In this way we track workers productivity and ensure order is delivered timely without any hiccups.

Trends you foresee to shape agri-tech industry?

We can expect a surge in the development of new technologies. y Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) facilitate distribution methods from farm to fork in the food supply chain, making it efficient at all levels. y With startups and Agritech players, we can expect new business models that will be scalable, affordable and low cost. y A global shift towards healthy, residue free food with fewer pesticides and fertilizers and cheaper and more scalable than organic food. With the use of technology, farmers can The role of technology for farmers and how it can control inputs and target specific areas in the field. improve the style of agriculture? y Farm data, along with basic digitization will help agribusinesses Farming is becoming scientific and more technical, holistically- meet short and long-term goals. right from seed germination to the harvesting methods and processes. Whole facets of farming such as cultivation, soil,

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LAUNCH

Infineon EasyPACK CoolSiC MOSFET Module Infineon Technologies unveils new EasyPACK 2B module in the company’s 1200 V family. The module comes in 3-level Active NPC (ANPC) topology and integrates CoolSiC MOSFETs, TRENCHSTOP IGBT7 devices, and an NTC temperature sensor along with PressFIT contact technology pins. Applications: Features: Fast-switching • The module also increases the power rating and efficiency of solar systems. applications like • Designed to operate over the entire power factor (cos φ) range. energy storage • A single module per phase is capable of supplying a power level of up to systems (ESS). 75 kW. • Ensures short and clean commutation loops with reduced stray module inductances.

Availability: Available Now

Microchip Develops Radiation-Hardened Arm MCU Family

Microchip Technology has declared about the qualification of its SAMRH71 Arm-based microprocessor (MPU) and the availability of the SAMRH707 microcontroller (MCU), both implementing Arm Cortex-M7 SoC radiation-hardened technology.

Features: • System development cost and schedule optimization by leveraging standard software and hardware tools from the consumer devices. • Extending the portfolio of Microchip’s radiationhardened Arm Cortex-M7-based MCUs • Analog functions on top of a >100 DMIPS processor unit with Digital Signal Processing (DSP) capabilities.

Applications: Automotive and industrial processors

Availability: Available Now

Mitsubishi Electric’s New X-Series HVIGBTs and HVDIODEs

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation has developed seven new X-Series products—two HVIGBTs and five HVDIODEs—boosting the X-Series lineup to 24 power semiconductor modules suitable for increasingly large-capacity, small-sized inverters used in traction motors, DC-power transmitters, large industrial machinery and other high-voltage, large-current equipment.

Features: • Expanded lineup accommodates wide-ranging inverter capacities • Increase in rated current to support larger-capacity, smaller-sized inverters

Applications: Traction motors, DC-power transmitters, large industrial machinery and other high-voltage, large-current equipment.

Availability: The models will be released sequentially

MORNSUN High Power Density AC-DC Converter MORNSUN has released the newly 450W and 550W LOF series products to provide customers more options to satisfy the requirement for higher power AC/DC converter in Medical applications. Features: • Maintaining the high-power density advantage of the LOF AC/DC Converter series. • The LOF450 series has the dimension of 127mm × 76.2mm × 38.5mm (19.79W/inch3), and the LOF550 series is 127mm × 76.2mm × 40.5mm (22.99W/inch3). • Meet the reinforced insulation 2xMOPP, have active PFC function.

> MAY 2021

Applications: The AC/DC Converter is suitable for BF medical devices and non-patient contact medical devices of its low leakage current, and also for industrial applications.

Availability: Available Now

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ROHM’s New 600V IGBT IPMs ROHM’s new four new 600V IGBT Intelligent Power Modules (IPMs), BM6437x series deliver best-inclass low noise characteristics together with low loss ideal for power conversion in inverters. The devices are used in compact industrial equipment, such as small capacity motors for robots, as well as home appliances – including air conditioners and washing machines. Features: • New 4-model lineup of IGBT IPMs that achieve class-leading characteristics by simultaneously reducing both radiated noise and power loss. • Optimizing the built-in IGBT’s characteristics and soft recovery characteristics of the internal FRD (Fast Recovery Diode).

Applications: Power conversion in inverters.

Availability: Available Now

ST Adds STGAP2SiCS to its STGAP Family STMicroelectronics has expanded its portfolio of STGAP family of isolated gate drivers with the addition of STGAP2SiCS that is optimized for safe control of silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFETs and operates from a high-voltage rail up to 1200V. Features: • Capable of producing a gate-driving voltage up to 26V. • The STGAP2SiCS has a raised Under-Voltage Lockout (UVLO) threshold of 15.5V to meet the turn-on requirements of SiC MOSFETs. • The UVLO ensures the MOSFET is turned off to prevent excessive dissipation.

Applications: Consumer and industrial applications.

Availability: Available Now

ST Presents L6981 Synchronous Step-down Regulators STMicroelectronics has recently unveiled L6981 synchronous step-down regulators, extending the family of high-efficiency converters that simplify power-supply design by integrating power elements, feedback circuitry, and safety features on-chip. Features: • Rated to deliver up to 1.5A, with 90% typical efficiency at full load. • The L6981 converters are available in two variants optimized for light-load efficiency and noise performance.

Applications: Well suited to use in 24V industrial bus-powered applications, 12V and 24V battery-powered equipment, HVAC power supplies, decentralized intelligent nodes, smart sensors, and always-on applications.

Availability: Available Now

Extremely Small TVS Diodes Introduced by TDK TDK Corporation releases tiny high-power TVS diodes for ESD protection, extending its portfolio of components for bidirectional overvoltage protection of I/O interfaces. The space requirement of the so-called chip scale package (CSP) is just 400 x 200 µm2 (CSP01005) or 600 x 300 µm2 (CSP0201), while the package height of just 100 µm is also very low. Features: • Operating voltage of 5 V and a response voltage of 6.8 V. • The clamping voltages of the two new components are 7.2 V at a peak pulse current of 8 A or 8 V at a peak pulse current of 16 A. • Short response time and low leakage current of just 2 nA at 3.3 V.

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Applications: IoT, smart home, and Industry 4.0 applications.

Availability: Available Now

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> UPDATES

Aker Solutions and AVEVA Extend Collaboration

Indium Corporation’s Sze Pei Lim to Attend Virtual ICEP

AVEVA has sustained its long-term partnership with Aker Solutions to help accelerate the company’s digital transformation strategy. The two organizations will work together to deploy new engineering capabilities which will enable multi-discipline teams to work effectively together to develop and maintain the detailed definition of all the key operational items as well as deliver the full range of AVEVA’s process simulation, design, engineering, and lifecycle management technologies. The extended partnership which now comprises most of AVEVA’s Engineering offerings, including AVEVA E3D Design, AVEVA Enterprise Resource Management, AVEVA Asset Information Management, and AVEVA Point Manager, will further strengthen Aker Solutions and AVEVA’s relationship. Aker Solutions is one of AVEVA’s top 100 customers. The renewal of the agreement will extend the existing strategic partnership and secure AVEVA’s position as a leading industrial software solutions provider on the Norwegian continental shelf.

Indium Corporation has recently shared that Sze Pei Lim will present a paper on low-temperature first level interconnects during the virtual ICEP, May 12-14. The factors that are driving the wider electronics industry towards lower process temperatures are also having an impact on the first level interconnects that are the interface between the increasingly complex processors and the circuitry that relies on those processors for delivering the functionality on which modern society is now so dependent. In Low-Temperature First Level Interconnect in Packaging and its Challenges, Lim examines materials and processes currently used for first level interconnects and possible options for achieving significant reductions in temperatures to which the processor is exposed during packaging. Lim is the Global Product Manager for Semiconductor and Advanced Materials and is based in Malaysia. She manages the semiconductor product lines globally and works closely with the internal sales and R&D teams to develop solutions for industry needs and requirements. She also collaborates with external customers and corporate partners to support the industry’s move towards heterogeneous integration. Some of her recent work includes the development of materials and processes for advanced packaging for fine feature printing for SiP applications as well as for one-step OSP ball-attach applications. Lim has more than 25 years of experience, specifically in the areas of PCB assembly and surface mount technology.

Maxim, Aizip to Provide IoT Person Detection Maxim Integrated and Aizip, a company focused on artificial intelligence (AI) for applications in the Internet of Things (IoT), have declared that Maxim Integrated’s MAX78000 neuralnetwork microcontroller can detects people in an image using Aizip’s Visual Wake Words (VWW) model at just 0.7 millijoules (mJ) per inference. This is 100 times lower than conventional software solutions, and the most economical and efficient IoT person-detection solution available. The low-power network provides longer operation for batterypowered IoT systems that require human-presence detection, including building energy management and smart security cameras.

> MAY 2021

The MAX78000 low-power, the neural-network accelerated microcontroller executes AI inferences at less than 1/100th of the energy of conventional software solutions to dramatically improve run-time for battery-powered edge AI applications. The mixed precision VWW network is part of the Aizip Intelligent Vision Deep Neural Network (AIV DNN) series for image and video applications and was developed with Aizip’s proprietary design automation tools to achieve greater than 85 percent humanpresence accuracy.

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NTT Collaborates with Fujitsu STMicroelectronics’ 2021 First NTT Corporation (NTT) and Fujitsu Limited have announced collaboration for the “Realization of a Sustainable Digital Society,” leveraging their respective strengths to deliver innovation that contributes to the resolution of societal and environmental challenges. The two companies envision a new, energy-efficient digital society founded on global and open collaboration with a wide range of partners supporting the IOWN (Innovative Optical and Wireless Network) initiative. Specifically, Fujitsu and NTT will conduct joint research and development activities toward the realization of a variety of energy efficient, sustainable technologies in areas including open architecture optical transport and mobile communications technologies, combined with disaggregated high-performance computing, all of which are made possible by innovation in photonics-electronics convergence device technologies.

As the digital transformation (DX) of society and industry accelerates against the backdrop of the COVID-19 crisis, many anticipate a drastic shift toward a more decentralized society built around the premise of protecting public health as part of a post-pandemic “New Normal.” The ICT (information and communication technology) systems supporting this will connect vast amounts of data generated from people, devices and sensors, and digital space, and process these in real time, demanding ever faster and larger-scale communications technologies as well as enormous computing resources. Simultaneously, humanity continues to confront urgent societal and environmental challenges, including climate change. Awareness around these issues continues to grow, and a consensus has emerged throughout the world that businesses can no longer go on without making bold commitments to achieve sustainable growth that combine economic efficiency with the meaningful, substantive measures necessary to resolve these challenges.

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Quarter Financial Results

STMicroelectronics has reported U.S. GAAP financial results for the first quarter ended April 3, 2021. ST reported first quarter net revenues of $3.02 billion, gross margin of 39.0%, operating margin of 14.6%, and net income of $364 million or $0.39 diluted earnings per share. Jean-Marc Chery, STMicroelectronics President & CEO, commented, “In the first quarter of 2021, net revenues increased 35.2% year-over-year. All product groups contributed to this growth, on continued acceleration of demand globally. Operating margin improved 420 basis points to 14.6% and net income increased 89.6% to $364 million. “On a sequential basis, net revenues decreased 6.8%, 270 basis points above the mid-point of our outlook. Automotive and Power Discrete products and Microcontrollers increased sequentially, partially offset by Personal Electronics products. “ST’s second quarter outlook, at the mid-point, is for net revenues of $2.9 billion, increasing year-over-year by 39%, and decreasing sequentially by 3.8% due to usual seasonality in Personal Electronics; gross margin is expected to be about 39.5%. “We will drive the Company based on a plan for FY21 revenues of $12.1 billion, plus or minus $150 million, a year-over-year increase of 18.4% at the mid-point. This growth is expected to be driven by strong dynamics in all end markets we address and our engaged customer programs.

u-blox Module Named 2021 Industrial IoT Product of Year u-blox has reported that its ALEX-R5 LTE-M module with IoT Security-as-a-Service has been honored with the 2021 IoT Evolution Industrial IoT Product of the Year Award from IoT Evolution World. The ALEX-R5 LTE-M SiP module with IoT Security-as-a-Service makes it extremely simple to protect your data, both on the device and during the transmission of data from the device to the cloud. u-blox implements a true end-to-end concept where data are protected from the device to the end-user and are not visible by the intermediate nodes or platforms, nor by the service provider. Its out-of-the-box, simple, secure, and cost-effective onboarding process to leading cloud IoT platforms speeds up development, shortening timeto-market. IoT Security-as-a-Service is specifically optimized for low power wide area (LPWA) deployments that use resource-constrained IoT devices.

MAY 2021 <

EnableX io's face AI solution offers augmented live video combined with Cognitive and Emotional States understanding.

TECHNOVATORS

> TECHNOVATORS

Pankaj Gupta

CEO and Founder, EnableX.io

EnableX.io : A Startup Addressing Real-time Communication Capabilities EnableX.io founded in 2017 and now has established its foothold in APAC countries, especially in India. EnableX.io provides developers and service providers with powerful APIs to create video, voice and messaging conversations. From one-to-one chats to large scale broadcasts, EnableX.io makes communications more flexible and personal, helping enterprises stay ahead in the digital world. It has recently added a whole new set of AI-driven capabilities including facial detection, sentiment analysis, and object detection by introducing one-of-its-kind FaceAI solution. While talking with Nitisha from BISinfotech, Pankaj Gupta, CEO and Founder, EnableX.io explained responses of its clients, ahead strategies and focuses.

> MAY 2021

Brief on EnableX.io and its USPs. How is it different from other companies? EnableX.io is a cloud-based communications platform helping businesses and developers to quickly and easily integrate real-time communication capabilities into mobile applications and communication workflows. From feature-rich Video and Voice APIs to SMS, Number, and FaceAI APIs, EnableX.io is one of the few players in Asia-pacific offering a full-stack of communication capabilities with all the necessary toolkits to develop innovative and engaging communication experience. We are uniquely positioned in the market as one of the few global players with a complete suite of services ranging from

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Communication Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) to Video Communication Software-as-a-Service. Businesses can leverage EnableX.io to develop an omnichannel experience – allowing users to communicate on any device (Android, iOS), browsers (Chrome, Safari, etc.) and channels (voice, video and messaging). EnableX also supports multiple deployment options to fit businesses’ goals, budget, security and compliance needs. Most CPaaS providers offer CPaaS on a public platform which cannot address a number of critical enterprise use cases like having a business process workflow within a protected environment. For such requirements, we provide the flexibility to run real time communication in their own private cloud environment, on their own data center/on-premises or a hybrid of both. This will enable businesses to use the service within their preferred, safe and virtualized environment. In addition, our Next-generation CPaaS is complemented by AI and Machine Learning. For example, our FaceAI leverages on emotion AI to provide deep insights into the emotional impact of each conversation, taking customer experience to a whole new high.

real-time through the candidate’s facial expressions and gives an unbiased picture of the candidate’s personality. Retail- Retailers can use Emotion AI and Live Video to understand what is driving shopping experiences and purchasing decisions. With EnableX FaceAI, brands can provide live video-stream shopping and use emotions data captured from Facial Analysis and Emotion Recognition AI to offer the right solutions to the right customers. Marketers, on the other hand, can test the success of the marketing campaigns and Ads by measuring their emotional responses.

Is there any other project which you are planning to launch in the coming year? In the coming year, we are planning to come up with Onpremises deployment which will enable businesses which are remotely located or highly regulated to have all or part of the infrastructure hosted on premise, which is not provided by many CPaas providers. While, we are currently providing the on-premise deployment on a customised / ad-hoc basis to the businesses, moving forward we will be coming up with a defined scheme/SOW for quick automated and seamless deployment on any environment.

Last year EnableX.io introduced Face Analysis and Emotion Recognition AI solutions. How was the response from your clients? Please elaborate. With the Face AI, Face Analysis and Emotional recognition AI solution, we are enabling companies with deep insights into the emotional impact of each conversation. Our Face AI solution offers augmented live video combined with Cognitive and Emotional States understanding. We have been well received by the Indian market especially in sectors such as-

We will also be enhancing the quality and features of our CPaaS as well as VC/Webinar solutions such as enhanced recording – HD recording and client-side recording (beside the current server side recording that we are offering), Video transcription, and more.

Education– Our clients from the education sector are using FaceAI for effective eLearning. The enormous potential of FaceAI has been proven to be successful during online exam proctoring to analyze unusual patterns, counter cheating issues, and help evaluate students on their academic performance based on their mood, emotions, liveliness during online classes. Beside online proctoring, FaceAI has also helped our clients to engage students effectively. By sensing expressions and interpreting students’ facial features, it reveals meaningful patterns about them which can aid teachers in designing and implementing the right teaching strategy.

We will also be offering more no-code Software-as-a Service

While we have introduced FaceAI for CPaaS, we will be integrating the same technology for our Video conferencing solution.

HR– HR professionals are utilizing facial recognition and emotion analysis for improving talent screening. Live videos capabilities can bring candidates face-to-face with recruiters that can make recruitment more scientific, scalable and effective. Online screening and AI-enabled video interviews can help recruiters study body language patterns in

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MAY 2021 <

> TECHNOVATORS that is built from our carrier-grade CPaaS such as next-gen Contact Center. This will be useful for service provider to build it on their own cloud/data center and reselling it to their customers

How has been the growth of business in the year 2020? What will be your marketing strategy for the year 2021? We’ve seen 100% growth quarter-over-quarter in the last few months and are now generating good revenues with a growing number of paying customers for our platform. The number of developers on our platform has grown exponentially and we see the rate of growth only increasing as we further scale up our sales and marketing efforts The year 2020 saw key trends taking a centre stage, Firstly the increased adoption of video conferencing as an alternative to face-to-face meetings across industries. Secondly, the rising demand of omnichannel experience in order to communicate on their preferred channel – voice, video, email, messaging, etc. on any device which has created a need for communication APIs that allow for this flexibility. Therefore, with respect to the stated facts, we will be focusing on taking customer experience a notch higher, new set of improved enhancements including quality, advanced features, advanced analytics, Visual flow builder for orchestration and automation, etc. We will also be

focusing on enhancing our communication APIs (especially video API) to help companies deliver unique value and improve CX excellence.

During Covid-19, the industry suffered in a humongous amount, How has the business expected? How did you manage to survive/grow? The pandemic has definitely changed the landscape of the industry. Businesses were left with no option then adopting remote working and digital service ecosystems. This increased adoption resulted into a heightened interest in investments related to working technologies and infrastructure ranging from Video Conferencing and collaborative software to project and time management tools, to adding security mechanisms in order to ensure a seamless transition to ‘Work-from-Home’ so that business continues as usual. Therefore, businesses are embracing omnichannel digital communications now more than ever. In such times, It became quintessential to deliver an excellent digital customer experience and smart capabilities for personalization, emotional engagements, and much more. This has accelerated the adoption of CPaaS providers like us amongst businesses. Through our comprehensive suite of services across channels – voice, video, visit, SMS, and other collaborative tools – we are remarkably positioned to help organizations rapidly and effectively create omnichannel experience in the essential APIs. With the market developing progressively, we are further committed to provide cuttingedge solutions to our clients. One of our recently launched solutions- ‘FaceAI’ is yet another disruptive offering harnessing the power of AI with live video to further enhance customer experience. Moreover, we are supporting multiple deployment options – on premise, private cloud or hybrid – to fit businesses’ goals, budget, security and compliance needs.

Do you have any recommendations from the Union Budget 2021? If yes, Please elaborate. Past year has undoubtedly shown us how critical digital transformation is for businesses in the pandemic world. Therefore, with digital transformation being at the forefront in boosting Indian economy, we are expecting that the upcoming budget announcement will bring policies and initiative strengthening the further growth. Initiatives such as 5G rollout needs to be fast- tracked and special focus should be on areas such as cyber security, etc for a robust digital infrastructure. The startup ecosystem needs a lot more support & friendly policies including easier access to capital & funds, easier compliances framework & more friendly employment laws

What are your target markets apart from India, Which of the geographies you are planning to expand in the year 2021? Our target market areas include Asia Pacific regions including Japan, Australia, Vietnam, Indonesia etc. We aim to set a strong base in geographies including South East Asia and North America over the next few months.

> MAY 2021

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KART > Mouser’s 2021 Empowering Innovation Together Program

Mouser Electronics has recently announced the 2021 series of its award-winning Empowering Innovation Together™ program, with the debut of a new podcast, The Tech Between Us. The new series will delve deeper into technology than ever before, encompassing a timely collection of podcasts, videos, articles, blogs and infographics that center around today’s key tech trends, starting with 5G. The first episode of The Tech Between Us podcast will spotlight 5G technology and is available on the Mouser website, Alexa, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Pandora and Spotify.

Digi-Key Electronics has announced a global distribution partnership with ERNI Electronics to offer robust electronic connectors for a wide range of industries, including IoT, automotive, transportation, aerospace, military, industrial, medical, lighting, communications and instrumentation. ERNI connectors and cable assemblies are trusted for the security and strong vibration resistance, achieved through designs that include dual beam female contacts, terminal position assurance (TPA), and scoop proof housings. A number of termination styles are available with ERNI products, including surface mount, pressfit, and solder. ERNI first introduced DIN in 1968 and has continued to develop strong, reliable interconnect solutions since.

Avnet Publishes Latest Corporate Sustainability Report

element14 Offers New Panasonic PM Laser Sensor element14 has expanded its range of high-quality sensor products with the introduction of the SNGCJA5, a new particulate matter (PM) laser sensor from Panasonic Industry Europe GmbH. Designed in response to the increasing worldwide concern for indoor air quality, the SN-GCJA5 is an ideal solution for air quality monitoring, air conditioners, building automation, smart homes, HVAC, air purifiers, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, test and measurement and environmental monitoring applications. Key features of the Panasonic SN-GCJA5 Laser Type PM Sensor include: • high precision laser sensor that detects ultra-fine floating particles such as PM2.5, PM10 and PM1 in the air • laser diode for high accuracy, sensitivity and quick response • auto-calibration function • optimized air pathway structure that minimizes dust accumulation making it possible to avoid “tracking” for electrical safety • onboard microcomputer which analyses the wave profile and outputs a converted mass-density (μg/m3) through I2C and UART interface Panasonic Industry Europe GmbH is part of the global Panasonic Group and specializes in the development of automotive and industrial products. The company’s diverse portfolio includes electronic components, devices and modules to complete solutions and production equipment for manufacturing lines across a broad range of industries.

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Digi-Key Partners with ERNI Electronics

According to the Avnet’s latest corporate sustainability report published on its centennial celebration, highlighted its principle of helping its customers, suppliers and employees to reach further together to make a difference in the world and that serves as a cornerstone of the company’s way of doing business and outlines the company’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy. To celebrate the centennial, Avnet is also launching a new employee giving campaign, 100 Acts of Giving, to recognize and reward its employees’ charitable efforts. Highlights from Sustainability Report As part of Avnet’s ongoing ESG initiatives, the company published its latest sustainability report highlighting efforts completed in fiscal years 2019 and 2020. The report outlines the company’s strategy and key areas of focus, based on a materiality study Avnet administered in early 2020. A few things to highlight: The five topics that ranked highest in Avnet’s materiality assessment include ethics and compliance, occupational health and safety, climate, diversity and inclusion, and economic performance. Avnet’s Diversity and Inclusion strategy will encompass five main areas: listening and learning, policies and practices, education and awareness, community and partnership and business commitments.

MAY 2021 <

&M Agilent LC/MS Instruments Gains

Anritsu’s MT8000A and MediaTek M80 5G Modem Receive over 7Gbps DL

ACT Labels

Agilent Technologies has reported that both the InfinityLab LC/ MSD iQ and the Ultivo Triple Quadrupole LC/MS systems have earned the highly-respected Accountability, Consistency, and Transparency (ACT) Label from My Green Lab, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the sustainability of scientific research. Agilent is committed to helping labs meet their sustainability goals by including environmental considerations as drivers for innovation. In a recent global survey, 87% of lab managers indicated that sustainability goals are important in running their labs. Additionally, 68% reported that further work is required to achieve their sustainability goals, and they look to instrument vendors to support them in achieving these goals.

Anritsu Corporation’s Radio Communication Test Station MT8000A successfully achieved a do w nlink (DL) thr oughput over 7 Gbps using FR1+FR2 Dual Connectivity (DC) technology and 256QAM modulation in 5G Standalone (SA) mode in conjunction with MediaTek’s latest M80 5G modem. This industry-first achievement demonstrates Anritsu’s commitment to contribute to the development and wider rollout of new 5G services, which, through its collaboration with MediaTek, verifies leading-edge 5G technology features. Together MediaTek and Anritsu have been focusing on development and testing of both FR1 and FR2 technologies and functions. Increasing data throughput based on FR1+FR2 DC and 256QAM has been one of the latest successes in this ongoing partnership.

To celebrate these green instruments and also acknowledge Earth Day Agilent has kicked off a Plant a Tree program with customers and employees, to plant over 1,500 trees in Brazil, China, Colombia, Kenya and Tanzania, Mexico, and the United States, by the end of September 2021.

FR1+FR2 DC combines FR1 and FR2 technologies to improve data throughput per user by grouping cell base stations with different frequency ranges to transmit data; the 256QAM modulation technology uses advanced RF and signalprocessing technologies to support faster communications by sending 8 bits of data in a single symbol.

Keysight Shares Fourth Security

Rohde & Schwarz Unveils R&S

Report

NGA100 Series

Keysight Technologies has recently shared its fourth Keysight Security Report. The 2021 report features network security trends over the past year from Keysight’s Application and Threat Intelligence (ATI) Research Center and highlights three areas of critical concern to network security. The report draws on Keysight’s in-depth experience in network security testing, as well as the company’s expertise in network and cloud visibility. The elite, globally distributed team of dedicated cybersecurity professionals that make up Keysight’s ATI Research Center monitor and analyze evolving indicators that threaten the security of enterprise IT networks. This team leverages input to the research process from multiple sources, including honeypots placed worldwide which actively seek threats in the wild, independent research by the team, international exploit databases, the Dark Web, scans of security news alerts and crowdsourcing, as well as social media and partner feeds.

> MAY 2021

Rohde & Schwarz has recently announced its R&S NGA100 series. The R&S NGA100 is available in four models, providing a choice of single and dual outputs with up to 35 V / 6 A per output, or 100 V / 2 A per output. Single output models supply up to 40 W, dual output models up to 80 W power. The dual model outputs can be combined to provide up to 200 V or 12 A. Rohde & Schwarz has implemented a linear design throughout the output circuits of the R&S NGA100 which significantly improves performance compared to the switched-mode circuits frequently found in basic power supplies. The resulting higher accuracy means engineers can be confident of supplying exactly the right power level without any need for an additional multi-meter. The standard level of read-back resolution, 1 mV / 100 µA, is enhanced for currents under 200 mA to a resolution of 1 µA, ideal to test low current levels typical for IoT applications in standby and sleep mode. The R&S NGA100 also has the necessary dynamic range for the power and current spikes from the same devices when switched to active mode.

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

Bisinfotech Magazine May Issue 2021

Articles inside

AUTOMOTIVE-FEATURE

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE

TECHNOVATORS

INDUSTRY 4.0

EMBEDDED-FEATURE

TECHNOVATORS

POWER-ENGINEER'S DESK

MEDICAL ELECTRONICS

OBSOLETE ELECTRONICS

BIG PICTURE

IOT-FEATURE

POWER

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

AUTOMATION|OP-ED

POWER FUTURE