Electronica Azi International no. 1 - 2020

1/2020

I N T E R N A T I O N A L A PAN EUROPEAN MAGAZINE

www.international.electronica-azi.ro

http://electronica-azi.ro

CONTEST

Win a Microchip SAM D20 Xplained Pro Evaluation Kit

Win a Microchip SAM D20 Xplained Pro Evaluation Kit from Electronica Azi International.

The SAM D20 Xplained Pro evaluation kit is a hardware platform to evaluate the ATSAMD20J18A microcontroller. The SAM D20 Xplained Pro evaluation kit is ideal for evaluation and prototyping with the SAM D20 Cortex®-M0+ processor-based microcontrollers that are ideal for a wide range of home automation, consumer, metering, and industrial applications These devices offer 256KB of self-programmable flash, 32KB of SRAM and are capable of running at up to 48MHz. The Xplained Pro MCU series evaluation kits include an onboard Embedded Debugger, and no external tools are necessary to program or debug the ATSAMD20J18A. This offers additional peripherals to extend the features of the board and ease the development of custom designs. The user can get started using the ATSAMD20J18A peripherals right away and to get an understanding of how to integrate the device in their own design. Supported by the Atmel Studio integrated development platform, the kit provides easy access to the features of the ATSAMD20J18A. Users also have the option to expand with the many Xplained Pro extension kits available, including the I/O1 Xplained Pro, OLED1 Xplained Pro, and PROTO1 Xplained Pro. The evaluation kit includes the following features: • Atmel ATSAMD20J18A microcontroller • Embedded debugger (EDBG) • Digital I/O • Two possible power sources • 32kHz crystal

For your chance to win a SAM D20 Xplained Pro Evaluation Kit, visit https://page.microchip.com/E-Azi-Int-D20-Kit.html and enter your details in the online entry form. www.international.electronica-azi.ro

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Electronica Azi International » TABLE OF CONTENTS

3 | CONTEST: Win a Microchip SAM D20 Xplained Pro Evaluation Kit

14 | Interview on the new RA Family 16 | INICnet™ technology simplifies the implementation

6 | Maxim Integrated Inspires Embedded Innovations at embedded world 2020

of audio/acoustics functions in Vehicles 20 | New components, New Possibilities

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24 | “Intelligent” displays: Getting to market faster with modules

6 | Infineon at embedded world: Fast lane to smart

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and secure IoT devices 7 | Digi-Key Electronics helps companies innovate faster at embedded world 2020 7 | Rutronik will exhibit these demos at embedded world 2020 in Hall 5, Booth 467

28 | Infineon starts first flip-chip production specifically designed for automotive applications 29 | Powerbox announces high peak load power supply for medical laser applications

8 | Fundamentals of FPGAs: What Are FPGAs and 29

Why Are They Needed?

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33 | Murata announces world’s smallest LoRa®-based module with significantly reduced current 12 | Renesas Electronics Expands RA Microcontroller Ecosystem with Ready to Use Partner Solutions

consumption 34 | Martin offers an innovative solution to gently

® Management Managing Director - Ionela Ganea Editorial Director - Gabriel Neagu Accounting - Ioana Paraschiv Advertisement - Irina Ganea Web design - Eugen Vărzaru

“Electronica Azi” is a registered trademark at OSIM - Romania, Registered position: 124259

Contributing editors Cornel Pazara PhD. Paul Svasta PhD. Norocel Codreanu PhD. Marian Blejan PhD. Bogdan Grămescu

ISSN: 1582-3490 Printed by

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Electronica Azi International is published 6 times per year in 2020 by Euro Standard Press 2000 s.r.l.

It is a free to qualified electronics engineers and managers involved in engineering decisions.

Copyright 2020 by Euro Standard Press 2000 s.r.l.

All rights reserved.

Electronica Azi International | 1/2020

PRODUCT NEWS

Maxim Integrated Inspires Embedded Innovations at embedded world 2020 At the embedded world 2020 Exhibition and Conference in Nuremberg, Germany (Feb. 25-27, 2020), Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. will demonstrate how it is inspiring embedded innovations by showcasing its latest leading-edge analog technology for automotive, healthcare, industrial and security applications.

Maxim will have demos as well as experts available to discuss ways to enhance designs with these innovative technologies.

Visitors can register at www.maxim.click/

Maxim_giveaway_ew2020 for a chance to take home a MAXAUTHDEMO DeepCover® secure authenticator demonstration kit, a featherboard featuring a low-power micro with ChipDNA™ physically unclonable function (PUF) technology, or an Essential Analog Toolkit containing a collection of Maxim’s high-performance, analog building block products. Please bring a printed copy of the registration form to the Maxim demo stand to claim a board. Maxim will showcase demos in a variety of end markets:

Demos at Maxim’s Booth (Hall 4A, Stand 606) • Essential Analog ICs for High Performance • Automotive ICs for Smarter, Safer Cars • Healthcare ICs for More Personalized Care • Industrial ICs for Adaptive Manufacturing • Security Solutions for a Safer World • IoT Technology for Greater Intelligence Demos at Avnet Silica’s Booth (Hall 3A, Stand 221) • Go-IO industrial IoT reference design.

• MAX22701EVKIT, which lets you evaluate the MAX22700-MAX22702 family of single channel isolated gate drivers with ultrahigh common-mode transient immunity (CMTI) of 300kV/μS (typical) Demos at EBV’s Booth (Hall 3A, Stand 221) • MAX98390 boosted Class-D amplifier with integrated Dynamic Speaker Management™ (DSM) technology for 2.5 times louder sound and vastly deeper bass from micro speakers • ChipDNA secure Arm Cortex-M4 microcontroller with secure boot for IoT applications Maxim Integrated www.maximintegrated.com

Infineon at embedded world: Fast lane to smart and secure IoT devices At this year’s embedded world, Infineon Technologies AG will present easy-to-integrate technology for smart mobility, smart industry and smart lifestyle. Focussing on holistic system solutions, the Infineon booth will feature applications for automated driving and in-vehicle health monitoring, wireless charging, multicopters and drones as well as automotive and industrial gateways.

laptops, or outdoor security cameras to a high-power solution for power tools, robots, and drones, for example.

Keeping drivers safe and sound At embedded world, the chipmaker will showcase a concept for monitoring the health of the driver. The in-vehicle system uses a 24 GHz radar to monitor the respiration rate and heart rate.

Powerful and secure drones Multicopters have to be specifically certificated and authenticated. To close this security gap, PrimeKey and Infineon have developed an LTE based transmitterresponder solution that enables companies to make full use of multicopters while minimizing security risks.

Infineon Technologies www.infineon.com

Ease-of-use ecosystem for AURIX™ At embedded world 2020, Infineon launches the latest generation (TC3xx) into the broad market. In order to facilitate a quick and efficient design implementation, the chipmaker has created the AURIX Development Studio, a free toolkit for software development and testing.

Comprehensive wireless power solutions Together with its partner Spark Connected, Infineon will present a comprehensive roadmap, including reference designs, for inductive and resonant wireless power solutions. They range from lowpower solutions for devices such as wearables, toothbrushes or headphones across medium-power levels for smartphones, 6

Electronica Azi International | 1/2020

PRODUCT NEWS

Digi-Key Electronics helps companies innovate faster at embedded world 2020 Digi-Key Electronics, the leading global electronic components distributor, is excited to return to Embedded World 2020, the trade fair for embedded-system technologies, Feb. 25-27, 2020, in Nuremberg, Germany.

Digi-Key plans to have interactive and unique technical demonstrations in their booth area, as well as more traditional games and giveaways. The company is also an official sponsor of Student Day on Feb. 27, when 1,000 final-year engineering students from around the world gather to meet potential employers.

Digi-Key’s demonstrations will feature DigiKey’s IoT Studio, IoT sensor technology, infrared devices, board level solutions, value-added design tools and augmented reality. Some of the themes will include: • Systems and solutions created by the Digi-Key applications engineering team to demonstrate the latest trends in IoTbased design • Project-based solutions that highlight how using the DK IoT Studio has evolved rapid prototyping with both ease and speed of design • How to leverage free, world-class design tools to reduce design time and accelerate time to revenue. This will include all types of solutions, from Scheme-it –

Digi-Key’s back-of-the-napkin design editor – to leveraging the Digi-Key product portfolio in KiCad – the leading open source EDA design environment.

• Understanding how Digi-Key’s engineering design support is leading the way in innovative customer assistance, including: o TechForum – Digi-Key’s online community with a direct pipeline to our technical support team o eeWiki – a broad source of technical knowledge that is driven and supported

by Digi-Key’s application engineering team

o Maker.io – project-based solutions to help designers get a jump start on rapid prototyping of their ideas o Telephone and chat support available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week Attendees should plan to visit Digi-Key at Embedded World in Hall 4A, booth 633. To learn more about Embedded World, please visit https://www.embedded-world.de/en.

Digi-Key Electronics www.digikey.com

Rutronik will exhibit these demos at embedded world 2020 in Hall 5, Booth 467 The range of demos that Rutronik will be presenting at embedded world (Hall 5, booth 467) from Tuesday, Febrary 25 to Thursday, February 27, 2020 in Nuremberg ranges from short-range technologies to IoT security and storage media.

In addition to demos from five product segments at eight counters and six showcases, Rutronik partner PBV-Kaufmann will present its blockchain-based smartphone payment application.

The following demos await visitors at the Rutronik booth: • Storage: Storage media from SD and microSD cards, CFast and DRAMs to SSDs, and HDDs from Apacer, Goodram, Swissbit, Toshiba and Transcend • Displays: TFT and touch solutions from Tianma, DLC, URT and OLEDs from Raystar, e-paper from Holitech, passive LCDs from Yeebo, and smart TFTs from 4D Systems • Wireless: The latest wireless technologies (Bluetooth LE Audio, WiFI 6E and WiFi 6E, Multi-GNSS, 0G and 5G cellular) from Garmin, Insight SiP, Nordic, Redpine www.international.electronica-azi.ro

Signals, and Telit. Visitors will also be able to play a demo of the classic video game Doom on a combination of BLESoC from Nordic Semiconductor with TFT from Tianma and PiezoListen speakers from TDK • Boards: Tinkerboards from ASUS, NUC Elements, and Lidar cameras from Intel as well as embedded boards Asus, DFI, F&S, and Kontron • Semiconductors: Different commodities as well as RPM and RPX modules from Recom

Exhibition Booth as an Event Truck Rutronik is breaking new ground with its exhibition booth – the Rutronik event truck, which is also used at start-up fairs, road shows, and customer events, will be used at embedded world as the exhibition booth.

The demos will be presented both in front of and inside the truck. The high-quality design of the truck’s interior invites visitors to linger and offers sufficient space for meetings.

Rutronik www.rutronik.com

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FPGAs

Fundamentals of FPGAs:

What Are FPGAs and Why Are They Needed?

By Rich Miron Contributed by Digi-Key's North American Editors

Designers are constantly looking for ways to architect their systems to provide an optimal computing solution that addresses all their application requirements. In many situations, that optimal solution often requires the use of field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), but many designers are woefully unfamiliar with the capabilities of these devices and how to go about incorporating them.

This article will briefly describe design scenarios that can benefit from the use of 8

Optimal processing solutions are often provided by combinations of RISC, CISC, graphics processors and FPGAs,

by FPGAs on their own, or by FPGAs that boast hard processor cores as part of their fabric. However, many designers are unfamiliar with the capabilities of FPGAs, how they’ve evolved, and how to use them. This article, Part 1 of a 5-part series, will discuss the fundamentals of FPGAs and introduce example solutions from major providers. Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5 will focus on the FPGA device families and design tools offered from Lattice Semiconductor, Microchip, Altera, and Xilinx.

FPGAs. It will then go into the fundamentals of how they work before introducing some interesting FPGA solutions and development kits.

WHY USE FPGAs? There are a wide range of computing applications, each of which may be best served by a different approach, including off-the-shelf microprocessors (MPUs) and microcontrollers (MCUs), off-the-shelf graphics processing units (GPUs), FPGAs,

and custom system-on-chip (SoC) devices.

Deciding which one to use requires a close look at the application requirements and considerations.

For example, when working on the cutting edge of technology like 5G base stations, designers need to consider that the underlying standards and protocols are still evolving. This means that designers need to be able to respond quickly and efficiently to any changes in specifications that are beyond their control.

Electronica Azi International | 1/2020

DESIGN SOLUTIONS » FLEXIBILITY, PROCESSING SPEED, AND POWER

Likewise, they need the flexibility to respond to future changes in standards and protocols that occur after the systems have been deployed in the field. Similarly, it is also necessary to be able to respond to unexpected bugs in system functionality or holes in system security, to modify existing functionality, or add new functionality in order to extend the life of the system.

While the highest performance is typically provided by an SoC, this route is expensive and time consuming. Furthermore, any algorithms that are implemented in the fabric of the chip are essentially “frozen in silicon.”

This inherent inflexibility becomes a problem given the considerations outlined above. In order find the sweet spot of optimum performance and flexibility, an alternate route is required. That route is often provided by FPGAs, combinations of microprocessors/microcontrollers and FPGAs, or

by FPGAs that boast hard processor cores as part of their fabric.

WHAT ARE FPGAs? This is a tricky question because FPGAs are many things to many people. Also, there are many different types of FPGAs, each with different combinations of capabilities and functions.

At the heart of any FPGA – the defining aspect of “FPGA-dom,” as it were – is its programmable fabric, which is presented as an array of programmable logic blocks (Figure 1a). Each of these logic blocks contains a collection of elements – including a look-up table (LUT), a multiplexer, and a register – all of which can be configured (programmed) to act as required (Figure 2).

Many FPGAs use 4-input LUTs which can be configured to implement any 4-input logic function. In order to better support the wide data paths employed in some applications, some FPGAs offer 6, 7, or even 8-input LUTs. The output from the LUT is directly connected to one of the logic block outputs and to one of the multiplexer inputs. The other input to the multiplexer is directly connected to a logic block input (e). The multiplexer can be configured to select either of these inputs.

The output from the multiplexer feeds the register input. Each register can be configured to operate as an edge triggered flipflop or a level sensitive latch (having said this, the use of asynchronous logic in the form of latches inside FPGAs is not recommended). Each register’s clock (or enable) can be configured to be active high or active low; similarly, the active level of the set/reset input(s) can also be configured. www.international.electronica-azi.ro

Figure 1: The simplest FPGAs contain only programmable fabric and configurable GPIOS (a), different architectures augment this fundamental fabric with SRAM blocks, PLLs, and clock managers (b), DSP blocks and SERDES interfaces (c), and hard processor cores (Image source: Max Maxfield) and peripherals (d).

Figure 2: Each programmable logic block contains a collection of elements, including a look-up table, a multiplexer, and a register, all of which can be configured (programmed) to act as required.

(Image source: Max Maxfield)

These logic blocks can be thought of as “islands of programmable logic” floating in a “sea of programmable interconnect.” The interconnect can be configured to connect any output from any logic block to any

inputs(s) of other logic block(s). Similarly, the primary inputs to the FPGA can be connected to the inputs of any logic blocks, and the outputs from any logic blocks can be used to drive the primary outputs from the device.

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FPGAs

Regarding the primary general-purpose inputs/outputs (GPIOs), they are presented in banks (groups), where each bank can be configured to support a different interface standard such as LVCMOS, LVDS, LVTTL, HSTL, or SSTL. Additionally, the impedance of the inputs can be configured, as can the slew rate of the outputs.

The next step up the FPGA fabric includes things like blocks of SRAM, called block RAM (BRAM), phase lock loops (PLLs), and clock managers (Figure 1b). Digital signal processing (DSP) blocks (DSP slices) can also be added. These contain configurable multipliers and a configurable adder that allows them to perform multiply-accumulate (MAC) operations (Figure 1c).

which are implemented directly in the silicon (Figure 1d). These hard processor cores may include floating point units (FPUs) and L1/L2 cache.

Similarly, peripheral interface functions like CAN, I2C, SPI, UART, and USB can be implemented as soft cores in the programmable fabric, but many FPGAs include them as hard cores in the silicon.

Communications between the processor cores, interface functions, and programmable fabric are typically realized using highspeed busses like AMBA and AXI. The first FPGAs, which were presented to the market by Xilinx in 1985, contained only an 8 x 8 array of programmable logic blocks (no RAM blocks, DSP blocks, etc.).

Figure 3: An FPGA can be used to provide an intelligent interface between other devices that use different interface standards or communications protocols, thereby extending the life of existing designs based on legacy devices.

(Image source: Max Maxfield) Another common FPGA feature, high-speed SERDES blocks, can support gigabit serial interfaces. It’s important to note that not all FPGAs support all of the aforementioned features. Different FPGAs offer different collections of features targeted at different markets and applications.

The programmable fabric in an FPGA can be used to implement any logical function or collection of functions desired, all the way up to a processor core, or even multiple cores. If these cores are implemented in programmable fabric they are referred to as “soft cores”. By comparison, some FPGAs commonly referred to as SoC FPGAs, contain one or more “hard core” processors, 10

By comparison, today’s high-end FPGAs can contain hundreds of thousands of logic blocks, thousands of DSP blocks, and megabits of RAM. In total, they may contain billions of transistors equating to tens of millions of equivalent gates (e.g. 2-input NAND gates).

ALTERNATIVE CONFIGURATION TECHNOLOGIES The way in which the functions of the logic blocks and the routing of the interconnect is determined is by means of configuration cells, which may be visualized as 0/1 (off/on) switches. These cells are also used to configure the GPIOs interface standard,

input impedance, output slew rate, etc.

Depending on the FPGA, these configuration cells may be implemented using one of three technologies: • Antifuse: These configuration cells are one-time programmable (OTP), meaning that once the device has been programmed there is no going back. These devices tend to be limited to space and high security applications. Since they are sold in small quantities, their price tag is high, and they are an expensive design option.

• Flash: Like antifuse-based configuration cells, flash-based cells are nonvolatile.

Unlike antifuse cells, flash cells can be reprogrammed as required. Flash configuration cells are tolerant to radiation, making these devices suitable for space applications (albeit with modifications to their upper metallization layers and packages).

• SRAM: In this case, the configuration data is stored in an external memory from where it is loaded each time the FPGA is powered up (or as commended in the case of dynamic configuration scenarios).

The advantages of FPGAs whose configuration cells are antifuse- or flash-based is that they are "instant-on" and they consume little power. One disadvantage of these technologies is that they require additional processing steps on top of the underlying CMOS process used to create the rest of the chip.

The advantage of FPGAs whose configuration cells are based on SRAM technology is that they are fabricated using the same CMOS process as the rest of the chip, and offer higher performance because they are typically one or two generations ahead of antifuse and flash technologies. The main disadvantages are that SRAM configuration cells consume more power than their antifuse and flash counterparts (at the same technology node), and they are susceptible to single event upsets (SEUs) caused by radiation.

For a long time, this latter point meant that SRAM-based FPGAs were considered unsuitable for aerospace and space applications. More recently, special mitigation strategies have been employed, with the result that SRAM-based FPGAs are found on systems like the Mars Curiosity Rover, alongside their flash-based cousins.

USING FPGAs OFFERS FLEXIBILITY FPGAs are used for many diverse applications. They are particularly useful for implementing intelligent interfacing functions, motor control, algorithmic acceleration and high-performance computing (HPC), image Electronica Azi International | 1/2020

DESIGN SOLUTIONS Âť FLEXIBILITY, PROCESSING SPEED, AND POWER

and video processing, machine vision, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), deep learning (DL), radar, beamforming, base stations, and communications.

One simple example is to provide an intelligent interface between other devices that use different interface standards or communications protocols. Consider an existing system that contains an application processor connected to a camera sensor and a display device using legacy interfaces (Figure 3a).

Now assume that the creators of the system wish to upgrade the camera sensor and display device to something more modern that are lighter, cheaper, and consume less power. The only problem is that one or both of these new peripherals may use a

Figure 4

ed to ones that require the same sequence of operations to be performed repeatedly.

This is because a single processor core running a single thread can only execute one instruction at a time (Figure 4a).

By comparison, multiple functions can be executing simultaneously in the FPGA, thereby allowing a series of operations to be pipelined, which in turn allows for much greater throughput. Similarly, rather than perform the same operation, say an additional 1,000 times on 1,000 pairs of data values with the processor, the same calculations could be performed in a massively parallel fashion in a single clock cycle in the FPGA by instantiating 1,000 adders in the programmable fabric (Figure 4b).

Unlike microprocessors in which only a single instruction can be executed at a time (sequentially), multiple functional blocks in an FPGA can execute at the same time (concurrently); also, FPGAs can implement appropriate algorithms in a massively parallel fashion.

(Image source: Max Maxfield)

modern interface standard that is not supported by the original application processor (AP). Alternatively, they may support a completely different communications protocol, like the Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI). In this case, using an FPGA with its ability to support multiple I/O standards, coupled with some soft MIPI IP cores, will provide a fast, low-cost, risk-free upgrade path (Figure 3b).

As another application example, consider some compute-intensive task like performing the signal processing required to implement a radar system, or the beamforming in a communications base station.

Conventional processors with their von Neumann or Harvard architectures are wellsuited to certain tasks, but they are less suitwww.international.electronica-azi.ro

WHO MAKES FPGAs? This is an ever-evolving landscape. The two main manufacturers of really high-end devices with the highest capacity and performance are Intel (which acquired Altera) and Xilinx. The Intel and Xilinx offerings span the range from low-end FPGAs to high-end SoC FPGAs. Another vendor that focuses almost exclusively on FPGAs is Lattice Semiconductor, which targets lowand mid-range applications. Last but not least, Microchip Technology (via its acquisitions of Actel, Atmel, and Microsemi) now fields multiple families of small- to medium-sized FPGAs and low-end members of the SoC FPGA category.

Choosing the best device for the task at hand can be tricky because there are so

many families, each offering different resources, performances, capacities, and packaging styles. Case in point, here are some examples: Intel devices; Lattice Semiconductor devices; and Xilinx devices.

HOW TO DESIGN WITH FPGAs? The traditional way to design FPGAs is for engineers to use a hardware description language like Verilog or VHDL to capture the design's intent. These descriptions may first be simulated to verify they perform as required, after which they are passed to a synthesis tool that generates the configuration file used to configure (program) the FPGA. Each FPGA vendor either has its own internally developed tool chain or offers a customized version of a tool from a specialist vendor. In either case, the tools can be accessed from the FPGA vendors' websites; also, there may be free or low-cost versions of the full-blown tool suites.

In order to make FPGAs more accessible to software developers, some of the FPGA vendors now offer high-level synthesis (HLS) tools. These tools interpret an algorithmic description of desired behavior captured at a high level of abstraction in C, C++, or OpenCL, and generate the input to feed the lower-level synthesis engine.

For designers looking to get started, there are many development and evaluation boards available, each offering different capabilities and features. Three examples are the DFR0600 development kit from DFRobot which features a Zynq-7000 SoC FPGA from Xilinx, the DE10 Nano from Terasic Inc. which features a Cyclone V SoC FPGA from Intel, and the ICE40HX1K-STICK-EVN evaluation board which features a low-power iCE40 FPGA from Lattice Semiconductor. Designers planning on using an FPGA-based PCIe daughter card to accelerate applications running on an X86 motherboard may wish to look at something like one of the Alveo PCIe daughter cards, also from Xilinx.

CONCLUSION Optimal design solutions are often provided by FPGAs, combinations of processors and FPGAs, or by FPGAs that boast hard processor cores as part of their fabric.

FPGAs have evolved rapidly over the years and are able to address many design requirements in terms of flexibility, processing speed, and power, making them useful for a wide range of applications.

Digi-Key Electronics www.digikey.com 11

MICROCONTROLLERS

Renesas Electronics Expands RA Microcontroller Ecosystem with Ready to Use Partner Solutions New Software and Hardware Building Block Solutions Developed for RA Family of 32-bit Arm Cortex-M MCUs

Renesas Electronics announced the first 10 ready to use partner solutions that support the Renesas Advanced (RA) microcontroller (MCU) Family of 32-bit ArmÂŽ CortexÂŽ-M MCUs. RA MCUs deliver optimized performance and ease of use with the Flexible Software Package (FSP) and partner building block solutions that work out-of-box to address a range of Internet of Things (IoT) endpoint and edge applications.

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Electronica Azi International | 1/2020

DESIGN SOLUTIONS » IoT endpoint & edge applications

The RA MCU ecosystem today has more than 30 partners with continuous investments planned. Each partner’s building block solution will be labelled with the RA READY badge and is designed to solve real-world customer problems. Ready to use RA solutions accelerate time to market by providing plug & play options that enable a variety of IoT capabilities like security, connectivity, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and human machine interface (HMI). Because the RA FSP is an open architecture, it allows customers to re-use their legacy code and combine it with software examples from Renesas and ecosystem partners to easily implement complex IoT capabilities.

“Explosive IoT growth has exponentially increased embedded design complexity over the last few years,” said Kaushal Vora, Director of Strategic Partnerships & Global Ecosystem at Renesas Electronics Corporation. “Due to the dynamic nature of IoT devices combined with growing design problems and shrinking project timelines, designers struggle to deliver on-time products with competitive feature sets. Now, more than ever, customers need a flexible platform design approach leveraging pre-developed building blocks that work out of the box.”

The RA MCU solution packs are available now from Renesas Electronics.

Each solution pack typically includes a 2page partner brief, short introductory solution video, demo project, and technical documentation.

For more information on the Renesas RA partner ecosystem and RA MCU partner solutions, please visit the web page: https://www.renesas.com/ra-partners.

Renesas will continue expanding the Renesas RA partner ecosystem and RA MCU partner solutions.

First 10 Ready to Use RA Partner Solutions Immediately Available: • Advanced Media Inc. (AMI) and Techno Mathematical Co. (TMC) deliver a smart voice solution using algorithms and decoding for human machine interface communication • BFG Engineering provides algorithms, hardware, and software in a motor control reference driver platform for home appliances • CapExt capacitive touch simulation software reduces prototyping time and delivers optimal touch screen performance • Cyberon offers a voice recognition command and control solution for human machine interface communications • Cypherbridge Systems provides SDKPac™ secure go-to-cloud connectivity and IoT gateway operation, along with the uLoadXL™ secure bootloader • GT&T has developed a small, reliable and ready-to-manufacture GPS and Cat-M1/NB-IoT fleet tracking solution • Reloc provides a production ready Wi-Fi driver enabling connected IoT devices • SecureRF DOME™ platform provides zero-touch onboarding, authentication, secure firmware update delivery and ownership management for IoT endpoint devices leveraging its quantum resistant Group Theoretic Cryptography (GTC) technology • SEGGER emWin embedded GUI is integrated out-of-box in the RA FSP to enable the creation of highly efficient and high-quality graphical user interfaces • Silex provides Wi-Fi and Bluetooth® Low Energy (BLE) 5.0 connectivity modules for IoT devices

Renesas Electronics www.renesas.com

Join us at embedded world 2020 in Nuremberg for further details.

You’ll find us in Hall 1-310! www.international.electronica-azi.ro

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MICROCONTROLLERS

Interview on the new RA Family

RENESAS HAD RECENTLY ANNOUNCED THE NEW RA FAMILY. WHAT IS THE NEW FAMILY ABOUT? We had introduced in October 2019 the new RA (RA = Renesas Advanced) Family of 32-bit Arm-based MCUs. This first wave of RA MCUs comprises five different product groups in three different product series, encompassing 32 different part names total.

We designed the new family to deliver the ultimate combination of optimized performance, security, connectivity, peripheral IP, and easy-to-use Flexible Software Package (FSP) needed for intelligent IoT applications.

The RA Family offers industry-leading IP including Renesas’ best-in-class flash memory technology and proprietary embedded security IP. We are also announcing a new software and support strategy based around our new Flexible Software Package (FSP).

WHAT MARKETS/APPLICATIONS WILL THE RA FAMILY TARGET? The RA Family and ecosystem will help customers accelerate the development of IoT endpoint and edge devices for industrial and building automation, metering, healthcare, and home appliance applications. In fact, it might be difficult to find an application field where RA Family won’t have a fitting offer.

Answers by Bernd Westhoff, Senior Manager, Microcontroller Marketing, IoT and Infrastructure Business Unit Renesas Electronics

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THE RA FAMILY PROVIDES A BROAD MCU OFFER. WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENTIATING FEATURES OF THE NEW RA FAMILY MCUs? The RA Family MCUs offer a strong value proposition for customers, who are interested in a flexible open software approach that leverages the robust Arm® ecosystem.

The RA family deliverables can be summarised in 4 major points: 1. Highly optimized feature set to differentiate RA MCUs against major competitors while providing the combination of Arm Cortex-M core with Renesas’ unique functionalities and market-proven peripherals from the RX and Synergy families.

2. Scalability and compatibility across the RA Family for hardware and software portability, allowing customers to build their own platform with the scalability to support a range of products now and in the future.

3. Scalable HMI solutions, including an integrated Capacitive Touch Sensing Unit for display control. Some RA MCUs offer an embedded TFT controller supported by a 2D drawing engine and JPEG engine; other MCUs include an embedded segment LCD driver.

Electronica Azi International | 1/2020

DESIGN SOLUTIONS » IoT endpoint & edge applications

4. The RA devices incorporate hardwarebased security features from simple AES acceleration to fully-integrated crypto subsystems isolated within the MCU. The Secure Crypto Engine provides symmetric and asymmetric encryption and decryption, hash functions, the latest encryption algorithms, RSA/ DSA/ ECC/AES/SHA, true random number generation (TRNG), and advanced key handling, including key generation and MCU-unique key wrapping. An access management circuit shuts down the crypto engine if the correct access protocol is not followed, and dedicated RAM ensures that plaintext keys are never exposed to any CPU or peripheral bus.

ESPECIALLY THE LAST ITEM OF YOUR RA FAMILY IS OF SPECIFIC INTEREST, COULD YOU PLEASE DESCRIBE YOUR SECURITY STRATEGY A BIT MORE? The RA MCU family provides a cost-effective, scalable, and power-efficient security solution to support the needs of tomorrow’s embedded systems. Our customers can choose among many, incrementally sophisticated but easy-to-use solutions, starting with MCU devices that provide hardware acceleration for cryptographical operations, and a true random number generator.

The next feature level includes systemlevel programmable MPUs to enhance security, reliability and availability of the system, and a crypto engine that shields and protects the crypto resources from malicious or unintentional usage.

At the top level, TrustZone-enabled cores provide built-in isolation and security embedded at processor level.

With this broad portfolio, Renesas supports customers’ security roadmaps with optimized options that meet their unique business needs. To support customers requiring specific certifications, we offered NIST and PSA Level 1 certifications already at launch time, and we will certify additional industryrecognized standards as required.

WHAT SORT OF TAMPER RESISTANCE IS INCLUDED? The measures included in the RA Family MCUs are quite wide, we can basically talk about 5 different approaches to help our customers best making their design tamper resistance.

1. The RA MCUs can detect tampering attempts by monitoring dedicated pins connectable to environmental sensors or switches attached to the housing of www.international.electronica-azi.ro

2.

3.

4.

5.

the equipment. A tamper attempt triggers a timestamping of the real time clock (for logging and auditing purposes) and flag the incident to the processor in order to perform the required countermeasures.

The secure crypto engine embedded in the MCU is protected by a hardware firewall enforcing execution of a Renesas pre-defined and validated sequence of commands and data inputs. Monitoring of the procedure is essential to ensure no tampering of the expected procedure takes place by means of malicious software or intrusive probing via debuggers. Only validated procedures can proceed and produce the expected outputs.

Users can also lock the included Flash memory to prevent accidental or malicious modification by means of self-programming software or external agents.

The debugger and factory programming interfaces can be secured against nonauthorized access or disabled before deployment in the field.

Additionally, we are in the process of evaluating resistance to SPA/DPA side channel attacks, to prevent extraction of security relevant information by means of non-intrusive power and emissions analysis during chip operation.

WHAT IS THE CUSTOMER DEMAND FOR TRUSTZONE? Customers seldom ask for a specific technology; they are more interested in a solution. We see a steady, increased awareness of the critical role that security plays in embedded design and the need to consider security, strategically, from the early stages of design. TrustZone is a hardwareassisted technology included within the latest Arm MCU cores that allows customers to achieve such goals in a flexible and programmable way. Later Renesas RA CortexM33-based devices will include TrustZone.

WHAT IS RENESAS’ STRATEGY FOR THE RA ECOSYSTEM? HOW WILL YOU ENGAGE WITH THIRD PARTIES? Renesas built the RA Family product line around flexibility and openness. The FSP (Flexible Software Package) is built such that developers can either leverage the out-of-box options or easily use their own resources and combine software building blocks from several providers to get to market quicker, depending on their needs and existing investments.

Renesas is heavily engaging the Arm partner ecosystem as well as key Renesas partners to develop software and hardware building blocks that will work with the RA MCUs out of the box. The RA Family ecosystem will help accelerate the development of IoT applications, including core technologies such as security, safety, connectivity, HMI, and AI among others.

More than 30 partners are already and further ones will be closely integrated in early 2020 into the Renesas partner ecosystem and the building block solutions they create will have a close plug & play association to the Renesas RA family. Renesas will also tightly integrate partners and partner solutions holistically into its promotion and marketing plans with direct exposure to Renesas customers.

ARE ALL RA FAMILY PRODUCTS COMPATIBLE? Yes, they are highly compatible, as they are based on the same library of our leading peripherals and IPs. Of course, we are incorporating some evolutionary upgrades on later devices. Customer designs are made easier with RA devices offering compatibility among their peripheral feature set, the pin layout between the different packages, and all this across the different MCU groups.

WILL THE RA FAMILY HAVE A PRODUCT LONGEVITY PROGRAM LIKE OTHER RENESAS MCUs? With our long history enabling industries that require long and reliable device life cycles, such as industrial, healthcare, and automation, we recognize the importance role that PLP (product longevity program) plays in product design. Renesas will support the longevity program for RA MCU devices, targeting a 15-year PLP statement.

WHERE DOES THE RA FIT INTO RENESAS’ MCU STRATEGY WITH SYNERGY? Renesas Synergy is a fantastic value proposition for those customers who appreciate an “off the shelf” software solution, including customers managing limited resources or specialized in-house expertise. For customers who want to utilize their existing inhouse infrastructure, the RA Family offers a flexible open software approach. Between the two solutions, Renesas enables customers across the design spectrum, offering different development options depending on the customers’ preferred approach.

Thank you!

15

simpliďŹ es the implementation of audio/acoustics functions in Vehicles

By Carmelo De Mola, Manager Sales & Marketing Microchip Technology Inc; K2L GmbH & C0. KG.

In the last years the automotive industry is trying to consolidate the proliferation of the networking technologies that are used in the vehicles. The vision is to have a so called “mono technological network� and the solution approach is to adapt the Ethernet technology that has a proven track record in other areas to the automotive requirements.

This approach solves many of the automotive networking challenges; however, it generates other challenges in certain infotainment, audio, or acoustic use-cases, just to mention some. In particular the transmission of audio signals is the big challenge and needs additional expensive hardware and software components. All these measures are complex and costly and impacts the risk, cost and time to market of the design to the negative.

The new INICnet technology though offers all needed audio features such as the transfer of multiple dedicated audio and video channel in parallel with high quality of service and low latency without the need of 16

additional hardware or software. On top of that it provides also an Ethernet/IP channel enabling use-cases such as SW download (incl. Over The Air - OTA) and diagnostics plus a seamless link to the remainder of the vehicle network which is for sure Automotive Ethernet.

But why do we need another open standard in the already crowded automotive standards landscape?

This answer can be found by having a glance on the major challenges facing the overall automotive industry. It is struggling to become more innovative as it begins to imitate the fast-moving consumer product

lifecycles while at the same time trying to save costs. Vehicle electronics are at the heart of this. There has been a rapid rise in the amount of electronics in a typical vehicle, as can be seen in Figure 1. This growth will continue due to the three megatrends of vehicle electrification, more sophisticated driver assistance on the road to autonomous driving, and increased connectivity both within the vehicle and with other vehicles and the infrastructure.

This has led to vast amounts of data being exchanged between different components inside a vehicle and between the vehicle and the infrastructure, and the numbers are only going to increase.

Electronica Azi International | 1/2020

DESIGN SOLUTIONS Âť Automotive standards

This places a new burden on the in-vehicle networks, which have traditionally been domain-based networks such as CAN,

As such, it is becoming more common for domain-based architectures to be replaced by a backbone approach in which an

nology with which a large number of engineers are comfortable and is available with a low-cost physical layer. UTP can help reduce development costs, project risk and time to market for new cars. However, not all data exchanged in in-vehicle networks are natively available as packet data.

Consider for example audio data in an infotainment system or in an acoustic application such as active noise cancellation (ANC), or in passenger-to-passenger communications.

Figure 1

Trend rate of electronics content in vehicles.

Flexray, LIN and MOST, covering dedicated tasks for different types of data depending on the bandwidth and realtime requirements of the communications.

unshielded twisted pair (UTP) based highspeed Ethernet backbone covers the networking requirements. This has the obvious advantage that Ethernet is a mature tech-

The implementation of this kind of application with an Ethernet network would imply the use of special standards such as Audio Video Bridging (AVB) that fulfils all requirements of audio applications such as synchronisation, low latency and reliability, but are very complex to implement in software and require high performing computing power just for handling the networking.

The implementation cost of a complex software stack on a high performing microcontroller eat up all s the benefits of a network standard.

Figure 2

INICnet technology – Ethernet coexistence. www.international.electronica-azi.ro

17

EMBEDDED APPLICATIONS

How to avoid that and deploy a network standard for audio, acoustics and infotainment without high implementation costs?

The answer to this questions INICnet technology. INICnet technology will become an open ISO standard in 2021 and supports high quality of service audio and video channels that are completely managed through the INICnet ICs or through the available lean software, so that the engineers do not need extra development effort for handling the traffic on the network. INICnet technology provides UTP or coaxial cable as physical layers, is fully compatible with Ethernet, as each node has its own MAC address and it supports all Ethernet related mechanisms, addressing modes and packet sizes.

INICnet technology is available in two different speed grades with a high bandwidth efficiency of more than 95%: 50Mbit/s or 150MB/s. Both options support ring or daisy chain. 50 Mb/s are available over UTP, 150Mbit/s are available over coaxial cable.

INICnet technology supports phantom

Figure 3 power and provides a comprehensive diagnosis without the need for extra triggering cables. Figure 2 shows a typical example of how INICnet technology and an Ethernet network can coexist. The advantage of this network architecture is that the audio video applications can be based on INICnet technology as it handles audio or video data in native format; developers can concentrate on their applications without 18

caring about complex data transforming or network tasks. Another advantage is that a fast firmware update in each INICnet device could also take place over the air, as INICnet technology supports native Ethernet packets as well and is connected to the rest of the vehicle backbone over one of its devices, such as, for example, the head unit. There is no need to have a gateway application in the head unit as each INICnet device can be directly addressed by its own unique MAC address.

Considering the ISO/OSI model for the , INICnet technology’s Ethernet Channel, it covers the first two layers of the model only, as can be seen in Figure 3; therefore, it can be completely abstracted from the higher layers, so that software that has been written for other technologies can be reused after a driver update. Currently there are drivers for Linux and QNX available that can be used together with the INICnet ICs and allows the INICnet technology’s Ethernet channel to be integrated into already existing IP-based system in a completely trans-

work master or network slave and can change its mode automatically if, say, after a car accident, the network is damaged, and the car user wants to perform an e-call.

The network resource management and the network configuration of INICnet technology can be done by Microchip’s UNICENS unified centralised network stack. All other system management functions such as device control for example might be supported by available IP stacks such as SOME/IP stack, or any other Remote Procedure Call (RPC) techniques. UNICENS is an open source application, is available for free and lets users configure the whole network from a single device; this make it is possible to implement devices that do not need a microcontroller like microphone nodes. In case that there are nodes in the network that are only dealing with ethernet traffic like e.g. a smart antenna, this kind of nodes do not need to contain any kind of network software, or best case, if the generated data is native ethernet, it is possible to design the node without using a microcontroller in it.

INICnet technology in the ISO/OSI model. parent way, so that the development engineers do not need to care about the underlying networking technology.

Microchip offers a complete family of application-specific products targeting low-latency applications such as ANC, motor sound generation, road noise cancellation, e-call or other application that requires low latency, as shown in Figure 4.

Each INIC IC can be configured as a net-

The market understands the advantages of the INICnet technology, as evidenced by the first automotive OEM adoption of this technology which began in mid of 2018 and will go into production in 2020. OEMS and Tier1s in different regions across the globe have also already started the evaluation of the technology and are working together with the Microchip experts to make another success story of it.

Electronica Azi International | 1/2020

DESIGN SOLUTIONS » Automotive standards

Figure 4

Microchip’s INICnet family with scalable interface options driven by application focus.

For more information about the INICnet technology, please contact your local Microchip representative or send an e-Mail to INICnet@microchip.com

Microchip Technology www.microchip.com

PRODUCT NEWS

Microchip Simplifies Functional Safety Requirements with MPLAB® TÜV SÜD-certified Tools Functional safety certifications are required in many industries, but it is often a time-consuming and expensive process. Certifications can also require extensive justification for using specific development tools, unless the tool is already certified for compliance by functional safety experts such as TÜV SÜD, a Munich-based certification organization. To this end, Microchip Technology Inc. announced TÜV SÜD certification of its MPLAB® XC compilers for functional safety, significantly simplifying the functional safety qualification process for Microchip’s PIC®, AVR® and SAM microcontrollers (MCUs) and dsPIC® Digital Signal Controllers (DSCs).

To further simplify testing and diagnostics, Microchip also introduced MPLAB Code Coverage license, which determines parts of software that have or have not been executed with minimal impact to the application. www.international.electronica-azi.ro

The MPLAB XC functional compilers certified by TÜV SÜD aid in satisfying the verification and validation requirements specified in the ISO 26262 standard for automotive safety, IEC 61508 for industrial applications, IEC 62304 for medical software and IEC60730 for automatic electric controls.

The MPLAB XC Compilers for Functional Safety will be packaged with additional documentation for qualification of the MPLAB X Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and MPLAB debuggers and programmers.

With no annual renewal fees, the licenses are the lowest-cost solution on the market.

Using Microchip’s MCUs with the functional safety licenses will reduce application costs and time to market.

Microchip Technology www.microchip.com 19

PRODUCT NEWS

New components, New Possibilities Würth Elektronik, one of Europe’s biggest manufacturers of electronic and electromechanical components, is exhibiting at embedded world (Nuremberg, February 25 to 27, 2020). At booth 3-247 (covering 126.5m²) in Hall 3, various company departments will present their product innovations and provide information about services for electronics developers. The range extends from components for EMC to optoelectronics, from oscillators and simulation tools, to radio modules and sensors. Experts from Würth Elektronik also participate in the show’s congress program with four lectures.

The central theme of the trade show is the Internet of Things and communication between machines. Here Würth Elektronik showcases its LAN transformer “WE-LAN AQ” for industrial Ethernet systems and the minute signal transformer “WE-STST”, just 2.9 mm high, for LAN interfaces and singlepair Ethernet applications. “Proteus-III” is presented from the field of radio modules a Bluetooth 5.1 low-energy module based on the Nordic nRF52840 IC. “Thyone-I” is another module enabling developers to implement proprietary wireless solutions based on the same chipset in the globally accessible 2.4 GHz band.

RAPID EXPANSION OF THE SENSOR LINE With its “Elara” and “Erinome” series of GNSS modules, the component manufacturer’s emerging “Wireless Connectivity & Sensors” division steps up for the first time to present solution components for global positioning. “Elara-I” is one of the smallest GNSS modules currently available on the market. Alongside their pressure and acceleration sensors, the Würth Elektronik

portfolio now also includes temperature sensors.

Electromagnetic compatibility is one of Würth Elektronik’s traditional strengths.

This year the focus is on the WE-MPSBSMT ferrites with specified peak current capability and the compact WE-CCMF multilayer common mode choke, which is particularly suitable for use on high-speed data lines. The family of magnetically shielded WE-HCM SMT high current inductors has a recent addition with very low inductance values.

GOOD VIBRATIONS: HIGH-END OSCILLATORS IQD Frequency Products, the UK-based market leader in the field of frequency control and part of the Würth Elektronik eiSos Group, is represented on the booth with its high-end oscillators: The IQD rubidium oscillators offer a thousand times higher accuracy than conventional Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillators (OCXO), independent of temperature fluctuations.

Central areas of application are network time servers, large PTP (Precision Time Protocol) clocks and LTE base stations. A Disciplined Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator with integrated GNSS is released, and is available for use in smart power grids and radar. IQD also presents very stable OCXOs and a full range of digital and analog compensated ZCXO/VCTXOs. FURTHER PRODUCT GROUPS The trade show audience can look forward to WCAP-CSRF MLCC, a new ceramic capacitor for high-frequency applications.

The family of MagI³C Power Modules—

DC/DC switching regulators with integrated regulator ICs and passive components (power inductors, capacitors, resistors) as a system-in-package (SiP)—is expanded with the extremely compact MagI³C VDMM in an LGA-6EP housing.

Among the electromechanical solutions on display in the booth are the REDFIT IDC SKEDD, (a solderless, multi-pluggable direct connector utilizing the SKEDD technology invented by Würth Elektronik), WRFPC LIF connectors for SMT assembly, SMT spacers as well as new USB sockets, modular jacks (Cat 6 cable capability), REDCUBE terminals and various types of switches.

LECTURE PROGRAM Würth Elektronik experts are participating in the congress program with the following lectures: • Tuesday, February 25, 2020, 12.0012.30 pm: Single Pair Ethernet Filter Design (Martin Leihenseder) (in session 2.1) • Wednesday, February 26, 2020, 10.3011.00 am: Analysis, Design and Optimization of a Combined Wireless Power Transfer and Near Field Communication System (Christian Merz) (in session 5.2) • Wednesday, February 26, 2020, 2.002.30 pm: USB Type-C, A New Power Paradigm (George Slama) (in session 5.3) • Wednesday, February 26, 2020, 5.005.30 pm: Surviving Automotive Power Transients (George Slama) (in session 5.3) Würth Elektronik eiSos www.we-online.com

New series of WE-STST Super Tiny Signal Transformers for LAN interfaces Image source: Würth Elektronik

WE-LAN AQ for high-quality Ethernet interfaces Image source: Würth Elektronik 20

Electronica Azi International | 1/2020

PRODUCT NEWS

OptiMOS™ Source-Down 25V power MOSFET in PQFN 3.3 × 3.3 mm package Infineon Technologies AG is focusing on system innovation with enhancements on component level by addressing the challenges of modern power management designs. The Source Down is the new industry standard packaging concept. The first wave of power MOSFETs launched in this new package is the OptiMOS™ 25V in a PQFN 3.3 × 3.3 mm.

The device sets a new industry benchmark in MOSFET performance, reducing on-state resistance (RDS(on)) and offering superior thermal management capability to the marketplace. The product is well-suited for a wide range of applications such as drives, SMPS (including server, telecom, and ORing) and battery management.

The new package concept connects the source potential (instead of the drain potential) to the thermal pad. Along with the enabled new PCB layout possibilities, this helps achieving ever higher power density and performance. Two different footprint versions are released – the SourceDown Standard-Gate and the Source-Down Center-Gate in a PQFN 3.3 × 3.3 mm package. The Source-Down Standard-Gate footprint is based on the current PQFN 3.3 × 3.3 mm pinout configuration. The location of the electrical connection remains the same, simplifying the drop-in replacement of

today's standard Drain-Down packages with the new Source-Down package. For the Center-Gate version, the gate-pin is moved to the center supporting easy parallel configuration of multiple MOSFETs. With its larger drain-to-source creepage distance, it is possible to connect the gates of multiple devices on a single PCB layer. In addition, moving the gate connection to the center leads to a wider source area for improved electrical connection of devices.

This technology innovation results in major reduction of RDS(on) by up to 30 % compared to current technology. The thermal

resistance between junction to case (RthJC) is also significantly improved compared to the current PQFN packages. Reduced parasitics, improved PCB losses, as well as superior thermal performance, add significant value to any contemporary engineering designs.

The OptiMOS™ Source-Down will be showcased at Infineon’s booth 1510 at the 2020 Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC), which takes place in New Orleans, LA from March 16-18. www.infineon.com/pqfn-3-source-down.

Infineon Technologies www.infineon.com

UR32 - Compact industrial 4G cellular router Three characteristics distinguish the UR32 mobile router series from ICP Germany.

One is the housing format, which makes the router particularly compact. Secondly, the equipment variants, which make the router both inexpensive and versatile. The compact IP30 protected metal housing is 108 mm long, 90 mm wide and just 26 mm high. Built into the housing is the main board, on which the router's many functions are provided. The core is an ARM Cortex A7 with 528MHz clock speed, preinstalled 128MB DDR3 RAM and 128MB Flash memory for the router operating system. Two 10/100 BaseT network interfaces are available for communication with peripheral devices, which can be configured in a combination of 1x WAN and 1x LAN or 2x LAN. The LTE/3G/2G mobile radio modem features secure data transmission.

The LTE/3G/2G mobile radio modem establishes a simple connection between several network operators through its dual SIM functionality and includes a www.international.electronica-azi.ro

failback/failover function. In addition, the connection can be extended by security frameworks such as IPsec, OpenVPN, GRE, L2TP, PPTP or DMVPN. Central authentication and authorization are realized by Radius, TACACS+, LDAP or local accounts.

Three optional extensions of the router are available: WLAN functionality, according to standard IEEE802.11b/g/n with WPA/WPA2 authentication and WEP/TKIP/AES encryption, which supports operation as an access point or client mode. GPS module with

NMEA 0183 protocol. Power over Ethernet functionality for alternative power supply of the router. Standard features include a digital input and output and an RS-232 communication port with speeds from 300bps to 230,400 bps. The UR32 supports transparent mode as TCP client/server or can be used as a Modbus gateway (Modbus RTU on Modbus TCP).

The power input is 9 to 48 VDC with the router typically consuming 1.9 watts, or a maximum of 2.4 watts in PoE mode. The router is designed for use in a temperature range of 40°C to 70°C, with best performance up to 60°C. The UR32 is easily configured via the Web GUI or CLI. If multiple devices need to be managed, the use of the DeviceHub is recommended, which allows easy and centralized management.

To be seen live at the Embedded World in Nuremberg in Hall 1 Stand 201.

ICP Deutschland www.icp-deutschland.de/en/home 21

PRODUCT NEWS

New at Kontron: SMARTCASE™ Solutions for Box-PCs “Designed by Fujitsu” Kontron, a leading global provider of IoT/Embedded Computing Technology (ECT), is adding the proven SMARTCASE™ chassis kits from Fujitsu to its portfolio and thereby further expanding its product range.

Five variants of the Kontron SMARTCASE™ are currently available: S500, S520, S700, S710 and S720. These serve as the basis for fully assembled Box-PCs, consisting of Kontron motherboards “Designed by Fujitsu”, including cooling and housing according to customer specifications. Within the second quarter of 2020, Kontron will launch another SMARTCASE™, the S711, for the mITX board D3713-V/R with the AMD Embedded V1000/R1000 series processor. This will enable developers to implement complete systems quickly, easily and without a high level of testing effort. This lowers costs and

shortens the time-to-market.

For all SMARTCASE™ chassis kits the housing, motherboard and cooling solution are optimally tailored to each other, climate-tested and CE certified at system level.

This saves customers timeconsuming and costly oneoff costs and reduces the risk of violating legal requirements.

Due to a series production of the housings with series composite tools, the SMARTCASE™ models stand out due to their high manufacturing quality and attractive prices. An extensive range of accessories consisting of Wifi modules with antennas (RED certified, of course), extension cables for COM, USB Type C, AC adapters (both external and internal use), cooling solutions and mounting kits, offer extensive customization options.

The SMARTCASE™ S5xx for Mini-STX motherboards excel through their minimal dimensions with an overall height of only 36 mm and a housing volume of merely 0.9 litres. Nevertheless, these cases offer extensive connectivity for graphics, Ethernet, USB, COM and much more. The S500 is designed for the industrial motherboards of the D3544-S series, while the S520 fits to the D3654-B and D3664-B motherboards.

For applications with extended expandability yet still compact design, the SMARTCASE™ solutions of the S7xx series for motherboards in Mini-ITX format are ideal.

The S700 is suitable for the D3543-S series motherboards; the S710 for the D3313-S is particularly suitable for use in the extended temperature range thanks to a wide selection of active and passive coolers.

The S720 can be equipped with four motherboards: the D3433-S, the D3434-S, as well as the D3633-S and D3634-S. Thanks to a low-profile slot for PCIe expansion cards and a 2.5" drive slot, the system can be easily expanded despite its compact design.

Kontron | www.kontron.com

Mini ITX Board for Intel® Core processors of the 9th and 8th generation The classically designed Mini-ITX board PH13FEI from ICP Germany impresses with its support of the 9th and 8th CoreTM processors from Intel®. Standardly equipped with a 24-pin ATX voltage connector, it supports six-core processors with up to 95 watts and eight-core processors with up to 35 watts. In other words, all Hexa-Core and Octa-Core of the 8th and 9th generation can be operated with a maximum IA Core current of 138 Ampere on the board.

ICP Germany offers two variants, a low-cost variant with Intel® H310 chipset and a functionally fully equipped variant with Q370 chipset.

Two vertically arranged SO-DIMM DDR4 memory banks allow an upgrade to a maximum of 32GB nonECC memory in dual channel operation. The PH13FEI supports triple displays and offers a HDMI version 1.4, two display ports version 1.2, a LVDS or an embedded display port. The maximum resolution of the three display ports is up to 4096×2304 at 60Hz and up to 4096×2160 at 30 Hz 22

for HDMI. For LVDS at 60Hz a maximum resolution of 1920×1200 is available. For the connection of USB components, the Q370 variant offers four USB 3.1 Gen.2 with 10Gb/sec, two USB 3.0 and two USB2.0 and the H310 variant four USB 3.0

and two USB2.0. Furthermore, one Intel® I219LM and one I211AT GbE port and four RS-232 as well as audio MIC-In, Line-In and Line-Out are available. The MiAPI interface offers eight programmable GPIOs and the possibility to monitor the boards.

Expansion cards can be operated on the PCI Express x16 slot, the M.2 2260/2280 with PCEe x2 and SATA signal and the M.2 2230 with PCIe and USB signal. For system protection the board can be delivered with a TPM 2.0 Nuvoton NPCT750AAAYX equipped. For the connection of storage media the Q370 variant offers four SATA-6G ports with RAID 0,1,5,10 support, the H310 variant offers three SATA-6G ports without RAID support. All variants work reliably in a temperature range from 0°C to 60°C. Upon customer request, ICP also delivers the PH13FEI as a bundle with processor, industrial RAM and storage medium.

ICP Deutschland www.icp-deutschland.de/en/home Electronica Azi International | 1/2020

PRODUCT NEWS

ARIES Embedded will present Embedded Vision Kit “C-Vision” at ew2020 ARIES Embedded, specialist in embedded services and products, will present its new "C-Vision-Kit" for the first time at Embedded World International trade show at stand 441 in hall 3A in Nuremberg, Germany, from February 25 to 27, 2020.

“With the new CVision-Kit, we provide a design platform for industrial applications with embedded vision Andreas Widder and artificial intelligence (AI)”, explained Andreas Widder, Managing Director of ARIES Embedded.

“The combination of computer vision and AI in one kit enables the immediate processing and evaluation of image data.”

resources can also be used in a decentralized manner. "Many AI applications run on rather power-hungry x86 architectures that are expensive, complex, and not universally applicable with high power dissipation," added Andreas Widder. The FPGA also offers great flexibility to connect and control many different sensors and actuators. These include optical line, position, orientation, and acceleration sensors, AD converters, cameras, and more.

The core of the C-Vision-Kit is the MCV System-on-Module (SoM) on the MCVEVP baseboard, which can be

optionally expanded with a 7-inch TFT display and capacitive touch screen. The CVision adapter can be used to connect two Basler Dart LVDS cameras, a miniPCIe card with Movidius Myriad X chip, Intel's Vision Processing Unit (VPU), and a monitor via an HDMI slot.

ARIES Embedded www.aries-embedded.com

For the C-Vision-Kit, the embedded specialist has added two Basler dart cameras, an adapter board, and an AI accelerator board to the proven MCVEVP FPGA development board.

SIMPLE AND AFFORDABLE FPGAS OFFER HIGH FLEXIBILITY ARIES Embedded has chosen the Cyclone V SoC-FPGA for the C-Vision-Kit because the ARM architecture with defined

Kontron presents D3713-V/R mITX motherboard for AMD Ryzen™ Embedded V1000/R1000 processor Kontron will present the D3713-V/R mITX industrial motherboard based on the AMD Ryzen™ Embedded V1000 and R1000 line at this year's embedded world tradeshow. It features the SoC integrated AMD Radeon™ Vega GPU with particularly brilliant graphics and supports up to four independent displays in 4K resolution via DisplayPorts, one Embedded DisplayPort and a dualchannel LVDS (24bit). With five different AMD processors, the board can be adapted for various graphics applications, e.g. for kiosk, infotainment, digital signage, professional casino gaming systems, as well as medical displays, thin clients and industrial PCs. The Kontron D3713-V/R mITX motherboard is “Designed by Fujitsu” and manufactured in Germany. This guarantees short delivery times, highest manufacturing quality, competent technical support directly from Augsburg, as well as long-term repair www.international.electronica-azi.ro

service. Kontron also offers a “kitting” service, where motherboards are assembled 'ex factory' with the requested processors, memory latches and even an individual BIOS. For the D3713-V/R mITX motherboard, the

Kontron SMARTCASE™ S711 is also currently in preparation. It offers a customer-specific configured and certified system solution consisting of the board, CPU, memory, expansion cards, BIOS, cooling and housing.

The D3713-V/R mITX motherboard optionally offers different processors of the AMD

Ryzen™ Embedded V1000 and R1000 line: AMD Embedded SoC V1202B, V1605B, V1807B, R1305G or R1606G. Due to the Intel® i210LM Ethernet Controller with 10/100/1000 MBit/s the board supports protocols such as EtherCAT or TSN. Furthermore it offers 2x SO DIMM sockets for up to 32GB memory. The use of a data carrier or extensions is possible via 2x Serial ATA III 600 interfaces (up to 6GBit/s), a Mini PCIe (halfsize/fullsize), a PCI Express® x4 Gen3, an M.2 PCIe x2 Key-M and an M.2 PCIe x4 Key B. It also offers various interfaces, such as USB 3.1 Gen1/Gen2, USB 2.0, serial I/O, GPIO and High Definition Audio Input/Output via the Realtek ALC256 chip codec. The board contains an AMI Aptio 5.x (UEFI) BIOS, a HW Watchdog, a BIOS integrated HW Diagnostic Tool, AMD integrated TPM V2.0 onboard, and a socket for an optional TPM module.

Kontron | www.kontron.com 23

FLASH MEMORY TECHNOLOGY

Getting to market faster with modules

“Intelligent” displays

By Nikolai Schnarz, Product Sales Manager Professional Monitors & Applications

So-called intelligent displays already contain an integrated controller board including a graphics processor. They can thus be used without additional components such as PCs or single-board computers, both for display and device control with bidirectional communication. Especially for low or medium production volumes, they offer significant advantages over traditional displays. If all components have to be integrated individually, this takes a great deal of time and involves high development costs. The developers have to carry out every step of the design-in process themselves, from selecting suitable microcontrollers, graphics controllers and drivers, to board design, programming, testing and GUI (Graphic User Interface) development.

24

The demands placed on displays have altered dramatically.

Even in industrial applications, users now expect attractive user interfaces with touchscreens and interactive displays as well as intuitive operability. Consequently, it is worth thinking about display modules.

Especially with smaller quantities, the costs and effort can quickly exceed the benefit or even the resources of a company.

For example, use of a TFT display with a 4.3" diagonal (cost approx. €40) including an independent design requires the deployment of two engineers for six months. A TFT display module (cost approx. €59), on the other hand, can be integrated into an application by a developer within about a month. Thanks to reduced development costs, the overall costs are reduced in this case despite higher unit costs for the display module. As many of the time-consuming development steps are eliminated, the time-to-market is drastically reduced.

ALL-IN-ONE SOLUTION WITH CORRESPONDING SOFTWARE With its intelligent display modules, manufacturer 4D Systems offers such "one-stop" solutions for the embedded display sector.

With their existing interfaces alone they enable countless extensive applications – without PC boards, which cause additional license costs for operating systems and whose functional scope exceeds requirements, especially for simple applications.

For example, an intelligent display without an additional controller is sufficient for a fully-automatic coffee machine.

However, if the application is to perform complex calculations with database queries, use Internet-based data streams or contain high-performance sensors or Electronica Azi International | 1/2020

DESIGN SOLUTIONS » power supplies

actuators, a single-board computer (SBC) or host controller is required. For the connection of SBCs such as Arduino, Raspberry Pi or BeagleBone Black, 4D Systems display modules offer an adapter.

In addition, they are compatible with microBus (M-Bus) boards and support microelectronic compilers and microSDK as well as MPLab and Atmel Start.

In order to use the display modules and create applications, 4D Systems offers the free "4D Workshop" software with four different modes: Designer mode allows 4DLG codes to be generated to program the display, while Serial mode allows the module to be converted to a slave device and controlled using any microcontroller host with a serial port. The “ViSi” and “ViSi-Genie” modes offer simplified visual programming with accompanying automatic 4DGL code generation.

SEAMLESSLY SCALABLE Even after the initial creation of an application, the decision between simple displays and intelligent display modules has an effect on the development processes, because other processors are often used in new product generations. For traditional development with a chipset solution, this usually means that the GUI also needs to be adapted. In order to significantly reduce the amount of work this involves, 4D Systems has designed its development environment in such a way that the GUI is also fully supported by subsequent processors.

The same applies when the production volume increases. Manufacturers then often change display suppliers – for example, because they receive more favorable conditions. This generally means, however, that the previous programming has to be adapted to the chipset of the new display.

With 4D Systems display modules on the other hand, increasing production volumes without having to invest in new software development is easy. This is because both small and large order quantities are possible and the chipsets remain compatible with the existing software.

STANDARD MODULES AND CUSTOMER-SPECIFIC ADAPTATION For large displays (1.38" to 7.0") – whether with or without touchscreens – 4D Systems uses TFT technology. For smaller displays without a touch function (0.96" to 1.7"), OLED technology is used because it allows a much thinner structure. The TFT displays are optionally available as open frames or with a cover glass (cover lens bezel). If the www.international.electronica-azi.ro

display is to be mounted on the inside of the housing, an open-frame version with side mounting brackets is available. If on the other hand the display is mounted on the outside, the glass frame (cover glass) model can simply be glued into the housing.

All 4D Systems display modules are connected via an interface board (USB, 5V) and require a micro SD card to store the graphic content. In order to ensure the

tems, info displays for smart pedelecs, control panels for soldering and welding equipment in the jewelry sector, 3D printers and timing devices.

smooth functioning of the application, especially if data from the memory needs to be processed not only temporarily but permanently, it is strongly recommended that industrial memory cards be used.

These have higher-quality underlying technology and thus offer more read and write cycles than basic “consumer cards”. This increases the reliability of the entire application. Such cards can be obtained from Swissbit or Apacer, for example.

With these features, the intelligent displays are particularly suitable for low-volume applications such as fully-automatic coffee machines, medical scales, dispensing sys-

The display modules are equipped with the serial interfaces I2C and SPI or RS-232 and RS-485.

The standard modules, which achieve a resolution of up to 800×480 pixels, already cover a wide range of applications. In addition, 4D Systems also meets customer-specific requirements, such as a certain brightness level or the anti-reflective coating of the display, as well as specific certifications for applications in medical technology or the automotive sector.

In conjunction with other embedded and wireless products, the display modules enhance a wide range of applications, e.g. airconditioning systems with temperature displays that can also be used for touch-control.

Rutronik www.rutronik.com 25

PRODUCT NEWS

New System-on-Module M100PFS Based on Microchip’s Low-power PolarFire SoC FPGA ARIES Embedded will present their brandnew System-on-Module (SoM) M100PFS at Embedded World 2020, stand 441 in hall 3A from February 25 to 27, 2020 in Nuremberg, Germany. The M100PFS SoM is based on the PolarFire® SoC, the Systemon-Chip (SoC) FPGA family from Microchip that combines a high-performance 64-bit RISC-V multicore processor subsystem with low-power FPGA technology.

The new M100PFS FPGA SoM is ideally suited for secure, power-efficient computation in a wide range of applications including Smart Embedded Vision, Industrial Automation, Communications, and Industrial Internet of Things. The 74 by 42 mm small M100PFS SoM runs with low device static power, low inrush current and low-power

transceivers. The PolarFire FPGA technology stands out for its reliability with single-event upset (SEU) immunity, built-in SECDED and LSRAM memory interleaving built into the FPGA fabric. In addition, SECDED runs on all processor memory resources and the system controller suspend mode serves safety-critical designs. Several features support security aspects: for example, Cryptography Research Incorporated (CRI)-patented differential power analysis (DPA) bit stream protection, integrated dual physically unclonable function (PUF), and 56 KB of secure, non-volatile memory (sNVM).

The PolarFire SoC onboard the M100PFS SoM from ARIES Embedded combines a Quad 64-bit RISC-V 64GC core and a 64-bit

RISC-V 64 IMAC monitor core. The SoM uses the FCVG484 package that scales from the PolarFire SoC’s 23k logic element (LE) device up to the 250k LE device. A SoM offering the largest 460k LE PolarFire SoC device will be offered in later versions. The RISC-V CPU micro-architecture implementation is a simple 5-stage, single issue, in-order pipeline that is immune to the Meltdown and Spectre exploits found in common out-of-order machines. All five CPU cores are coherent, with the memory subsystem allowing a versatile mix of deterministic real-time systems and Linux in a single multi-core CPU cluster.

Processor I/Os include: 2x Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0 OTG, 2x CAN 2.0 A and B, Execute in place Quad SPI flash controller, 5x multimode UARTs, 2x SPI, 2x I²C, RTC, GPIO, and 5x watchdog timers. Memory comprises 1/2/4 GByte LPDDR4 RAM dedicated to the HMS, 1/2/4 GByte LPDDR4 RAM dedicated to the FPGA, 32 Mbit NOR Flash, and 4 - 64 GByte eMMC memory. The default configuration contains Gigabit Ethernet, UART, CAN, SPI, I²C, and USB. ARIES Embedded www.aries-embedded.com

2 TOPS KI Power for retrofitting ICP Germany completes its portfolio of AI accelerator cards with the Mustang-M2BMMX2 card. In addition to Mini PCIe and PCIe based solutions, an M.2 PCIe plug-in card variant is now available. With the M.2 format in the size 22 × 80 mm, system integrators are able to build small embedded PC systems with AI functionality as deep learning inference systems. Two Intel® Movidius™ Myriad™ X MA2485 Vision Processing Units (VPUs) provide AI functionality through 16 SHAVES cores each.

Each Myriad™ VPU delivers up to one trillion calculations per second. With a maximum power of 8 watts, the MustangM2BM-MX2 is particularly suitable for lowpower AI applications. Additionally, the multi-channel capability allows each VPU to be assigned a different DL topology. This allows simultaneous calculations to be performed, and at the same time, for example, object recognition and face recognition can be performed. Compatibility with the Open Visual Inference Neural Network Optimization (OpenVINOTM) Toolkit from Intel®, ensures a simple and rapid integration of various AI training models.

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The OpenVINO™ Toolkit not only optimises the performance of the training model but also ensures that it scales to the target system. Thanks to this fast and optimised integration, both developers and customers benefit from lower development costs.

The Mustang-M2BM-MX2 is compatible with common Linux operating systems such as Ubuntu, CentOS and Windows® 10, and supports numerous architectures and topologies of neural networks, such as

AlexNet, GoogleNet, SqueezeNet and Yolo. In addition to other AI accelerator cards, ICP also offers ready-to-use embedded systems, which are also equipped with AI functionality.

The products can be seen live at the Embedded World in Nuremberg in Hall 1 Stand 201.

ICP Deutschland www.icp-deutschland.de/en/home

Electronica Azi International | 1/2020

PRODUCT NEWS

ON Semiconductor Launches Automotive LED Drivers and Controllers for Advanced Vehicle Lighting Applications ON Semiconductor has launched a new family of four devices that facilitate the high levels of performance and innovative functionality that vehicle manufacturers and consumers now expect from automotive exterior and interior lighting. Aimed specifically at low power solid state lighting, the new family comprises two LED drivers (NCV7683 and NCV7685) and two current controllers (NCV7691 and NCV7692).

In the pursuit of improved road safety, automakers are moving away from the simple ‘on/off’ operation to sophisticated systems that incorporate movement and variable intensity within rear combination lamps (RCLs), turn signals, fog lamps, and other externally modulated LED clusters to give clearer and highly visible warnings to other road users.

The NCV7685 and NCV7683 integrate twelve and eight linear programmable current sources, respectively, enabling multiple strings of LEDs to be driven with up to 100 mA per channel. The

devices provide an array of configurability options, including daisy-chaining, illumination level control, current regulation,

sequencing functionality, and channel combination. The NCV7685 incorporates an 8bit I²C interface with CRC8 error detection

for individual output current adjustment via pulse width modulation (PWM), and for advanced diagnostics - including detection of an open LED string or under voltage condition – a dedicated diagnostic pin is also available. The NCV7685 may be powered with a DC-DC controller and/or LDO voltage regulator, depending upon specific design requirements.

The NCV7691 provides a regulated wide current range for driving LEDs in one or multiple strings, with only an external NPN bipolar transistor and a feedback resistor. The driver provides design flexibility to add additional single channels to multichannel systems, and supports a dimming function via its PWM input. The NCV7691 includes open string, short circuit, and thermal shutdown, ensuring safe and reliable operation of essential lighting.

The derivative NCV7692 offers a faster response time and a reduced threshold for open load detection.

ON Semiconductor | www.onsemi.com

High efficiency: A multi-mode, forced-frequency-resonant digital controller IC for SMPS applications Infineon Technologies AG launches the XDP™ digital power XDPS21071, the first flyback controller in the industry with zerovoltage switching (ZVS) on the primary side to achieve high efficiency. This controller is aimed at fast-charging applications such as USB-PD or QuickCharge. Lightload efficiency is optimized for variable output application.

The XDPS21071 is a high-performance digital flyback controller with an integrated dual-MOSFET gate driver and a 600 V depletion startup unit. The primary-side controller drives a high-voltage external MOSFET in a flyback topology and an external low-voltage MOSFET to create a pulse for achieving ZVS condition at the high-voltage MOSFET. It supports fixedfrequency switching up to 140 kHz. The patented forced-frequency-resonant (FFR) switching scheme is implemented by means of a digital algorithm, which is configwww.international.electronica-azi.ro

urable via parameter settings (UART port is included) to meet application requirements and the conversion efficiency of international regulatory standards (i.e., EU CoC version 5 Tier 2 and DoE Level VI).

Ease of design and system optimization are

ance. Hereby ZVS operation enables for lowest switching losses. Highest system performance is achieved by only a minimal adder in BOM cost. This controller comes with adaptive overcurrent protection. It is lead-free and RoHS compliant.

made possible thanks to the intelligent, selfadaptive multi-mode operation that matches each line/load conditions with the bestfit operational mode (i.e., FFR, CrCM, burst mode) for unparalleled system perform-

Availability The XDPS21071 in DSO-12 SMD package is now available. In addition to the controller, a 45 W USB-PD Type-C quick charger reference design (REF_XDPS 21071_45W1) will be on offer in March 2020 featuring Infineon’s digital flyback controller XDPS 21071, 700 V CoolMOS™ P7 Superjunction MOSFET (IPD70R 360P7S), OptiMOS™ PD synchronous-rectification MOSFET (BSC0805LS) and small-signal-MOSFET (BSL606SN). More information: www.infineon.com/xdps21071.

Infineon Technologies www.infineon.com 27

PRODUCT NEWS

Miniature power supply: Infineon starts first flip-chip production specifically designed for automotive applications Infineon Technologies AG is taking the next step towards smallest power supply devices for automotive electronics. As first chipmaker, the company set up a dedicated production process for flip-chip packages that is fully aligned with the high quality requirements of the automotive market.

Infineon now launches the first respective product: the linear voltage regulator OPTIREG™ TLS715B0NAV50.

With flip-chip technology, the ICs are installed upside down in the package. With the heated part of the IC facing the bottom of the package and being closer to the PCB, thermal conductivity can be improved by a factor between 2 and 3. The higher power density enables a significantly smaller footprint than conventional package technologies.

The footprint of Infineon's new linear voltage regulator (TSNP-7-8 package, 2.0 mm × 2.0 mm) is more than 60 percent smaller

than that of an established reference product (TSON-10 package, 3.3 mm × 3.3 mm) while the thermal resistance stays the same.

This makes the new device particularly suitable for applications with very limited

board space, such as radar and cameras.

The OPTIREG TLS715B0NAV50 provides 5 V with a maximum output current capability of 150 mA. Flip-chip technology has been used in con-

sumer and industrial markets for several years. Due to increasingly strict space requirements, particularly in the growing number of radar and camera systems, also automotive electronics require smaller power supply solutions – albeit with much higher quality requirements. In order to offer best-in-class flip-chip quality Infineon does not rely on a subsequent qualification of existing consumer and industrial products but rather on a dedicated production process for automotive devices.

In the future, flip-chip technology will strengthen Infineon’s overall portfolio of automotive power supply products in the OPTIREG family. The chipmaker is planning to apply it also to its switch mode voltage regulators and power management ICs. www.infineon.com/tls715b0na-v50.

Infineon Technologies www.infineon.com

Renesas Electronics launches industry’s first radiation hardened single-chip synchronous buck and low dropout regulator for satellite power applications Renesas Electronics Corporation announced the industry’s first single-chip synchronous buck and low dropout (LDO) regulator targeting low-power FPGAs, DDR memory and other digital loads for spaceflight payload applications. The ISL70005SEH is the only point-of-load (POL) power solution that reduces size, weight, and power (SWaP) by integrating a synch buck and LDO in one monolithic IC. The device enables satellite manufacturers to reduce bill of materials (BOM) and power supply footprint for their medium Earth orbit (MEO) and geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) long duration mission profiles.

The ISL70005SEH rad-hard dual output POL regulator combines 95 percent high efficiency with the synch buck regulator and a low 75mV dropout on the LDO regulator.

The device enables easier thermal management for systems with 3.3V or 5V power buses and can support 3A continuous output load current for the buck regulator and ±1A for the LDO. The buck regulator uses a voltage mode control architecture and switches at a resistor adjustable frequency of 100kHz to 28

1MHz, enabling a smaller filter size.

The space-grade ISL70005SEH simplifies design configuration allowing designers to use it as a dual output regulator, DDR memory power solution or high efficiency low noise regulator for RF applications. The flexible LDO can source and sink current and accept input voltages as low as 775mV to reduce unnecessary power dissipation.

The externally adjustable loop compensation on the buck allows users to achieve an optimal balance of stability and output

dynamic performance. The device is wafer acceptance tested to 100krad(Si) over high dose rate (HDR) and tested for ELDRS up to 75krad(Si) over low dose rate (LDR).

Single event effects (SEE) testing shows no single event latch-up (SEL) and single event burnout (SEB) at a linear energy transfer (LET) up to 86MeV*cm²/mg. Single event transients (SETs) have been characterized at a LET range of 8.5 to 86MeV*cm²/mg.

Renesas Electronics | www.renesas.com

Electronica Azi International | 1/2020

PRODUCT NEWS

Powerbox announces high peak load power supply for medical laser applications Powerbox has announced the release of its new power supply solution for high peak load applications in the medical sector.

Based on digital control and high energy storage management techniques, the SMM3000A80024C series delivers 2.25kW repetitive peak power to medical lasers with high efficiency. The SMM3000A80024C complies with medical safety standards and for silent operation it includes a thermocontrolled cooling system.

Laser equipment is widely used in medical applications and from cosmetic through to general surgery they all require power supplies able to deliver very high peak energy levels to the laser or discharge tubes.

However, high peak energy and the repetition thereof generates electromagnetic radiation and line disturbance. This is a challenge for power designers who need power solutions that are able to deliver the required amount of power without generating line disturbances, whilst also guaranteeing patient and operator safety when high voltages and energy levels are involved during the process.

CO2 (carbon dioxide) lasers or Erbium YAG are commonly used in medical applications,

though the energy released during the pulse related to the specific task can vary by large amounts. There are different types of pulsing for CO2 lasers. In the cosmetic word, there is a newer technology called UltraPulse (a very short pulse duration with high pulse power and very high influence), that is even faster than SuperPulse (medium pulse duration with medium pulse power).

The power supply provides a level of protection, primary to secondary main output of

2xMOOP, and 2xMOPP to auxiliary output.

To accommodate different capacitor banks and applications, the output voltage can be adjusted from zero to 800VDC (600VDC nominal) with an output current of 5.5A at nominal. An automatic current controller guarantees that the power envelope is always within safe limits, reducing capacitor aging and overstressing of components, thus contributing to a longer lifetime.

Powerbox | www.prbx.com

New 2x4" industrial power supplies for conduction cooling certifed to safety standard IEC/EN/UL 62368-1 With two new models BEO-0812 (+12V) and BEO-0824 (+24V) presented, the power supply specialist Bicker Elektronik (Donauwoerth/Germany) is expanding its AC/DC switching power supply series BEO by power class 80 Watt fanless for contact cooling in the space-saving form factor 2Ă&#x2014;4". With forced air cooling, up to 150 Watt continuous power is available. The BEO-0800 series is also characterized by its high efficiency of up to 91% and low standby consumption <0.48 W. The rugged and reliable industrial power supplies have a wide-range input of 90 to 264 VAC with active power factor correction (PFC) for worldwide use and are certified to IEC/EN/UL62368-1. Due to the very good electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), the BEO-0800 series meets the stricter class B of EN55032. The high quality of the components used and the excellent circuit design ensure a long service life and safe 24/7 continuous operation in the extended temperature range of -20 ... +70°C. www.international.electronica-azi.ro

For optimum thermal connection of the power components on PCB bottom side to chassis of the application, BEO-0800 series already includes a suitable thermal pad.

Due to ideal heat conduction properties and the flexible pad surface, the preassembled thermally conductive gap filler creates an optimal connection between the power components and the connected housing chassis, so that no active cooling is necessary. Due to the very good thermal

management, the heating of the switchedmode power supplies are reduced to a minimum, making maintenance-free systems without rotating fans possible. The already included insulation foil has a precisely fitting opening for the thermal pad.

The BEO-0800 series combines high energy efficiency across the entire performance range with the compactness of a robust 2Ă&#x2014;4" industrial PSU. The switching power supplies can be used up to an operating height of 5000 meters and have short-circuit and overcurrent protection. The insulation voltage between input and output is 4000 VDC. The space-saving BEO-0800 series is suitable for a large number of fanless industrial applications and embedded IPC systems with single voltage supply: Industry 4.0 / IIoT, automation, process measuring and control technology, energy, communication, POS / POI, digital signage, and many more.

Bicker Elektronik | www.bicker.de 29

PRODUCT NEWS

Nexperia extends market-leading low RDS(on) MOSFET performance with the release of its 0.57 mΩ product in LFPAK56 Nexperia announced the release of its lowest-ever RDS(on) power MOSFET. Already recognised as the industry-leader in low voltage, low RDS(on) devices, the PSMNR5125YLH launched today sets a new standard of 0.57mΩ at 25V. Utilising Nexperia’s unique NextPowerS3 technology, this market-leading performance is offered without compromising other important parameters such as maximum drain current (ID(max)), Safe Operating Area (SOA) or gate charge QG. Very low RDS(on) devices are required in many applications such as ORing, hot-swap operation, synchronous rectification, motor control and battery protection, to reduce I²R losses and increase efficiency. However, some competing devices with similar RDS(on) values suffer from reduced SOA – a measure of the ruggedness of the MOSFET – and reduced ID(max)) ratings due to shrinking cell-pitches. Nexperia’s PSMNR5125YLH MOSFET offers a maximum drain current rating up to 380 Amps. This parameter is especially important in motor control applications where motor-stall can result in very high current surges for short periods,

which the MOSFET must withstand for safe and reliable operation. Some competitors provide only computed ID(max) whereas Nexperia demonstrates continuous current capability up to 380 Amps. The device is packaged in LFPAK56, Nexperia’s 5mm × 6mm Power-SO8 compatible package, offering a high performance copper-clip construction which absorbs thermal stresses, increasing quality & lifetime reliability.

Typical applications include: battery protection; brushless DC (BLDC) motor control (full bridge, 3-Phase topologies); server power for ORing, hotswap operation and synchronous rectification. More information on the new low RDS(on) MOSFETS, including product specs and datasheets is available at www.nexperia.com/nextpowers3 Nexperia | www.nexperia.com

Mouser’s Inventory Strengthened by Qorvo’s Latest Wide Bandgap Power Amplifier & Advanced Motor Controller/Driver Mouser Electronics, Inc., continues to push forward with new product introduction (NPI) activity in the analogue space, by adding further Qorvo devices to its expansive portfolio. The 100-W QPA3069 power amplifier is predominantly focused on defence and avionics applications (such as radar). This high power density IC covers the 2.7-GHz to 3.5-GHz radio frequency (RF) band and offers a 25-dB power gain along with a 53% power-added efficiency (PAE). Fabricated using Qorvo's 0.25-μm gallium nitride on silicon carbide (GaN-onSiC) semiconductor process, this high-performance S-band amplifier has greater than 58-dBm of saturated output power and is subject to only minimal power losses. It is supplied in a compact 7.0-mm × 7.0-mm × 0.85mm package, with each of its two RF ports incorporating a DC blocking capacitor. A minus 40 to 85°C operational temperature range is supported. To learn more about the Qorvo QPA3069 power amplifier and the evaluation board that accompanies it, go to https://eu.mouser.com/new/ qorvo/qorvo-qpa3069-power-amp/.

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Targeted at situations where elevated levels of performance are required, Qorvo's PAC5556 is a highly-integrated, feature-rich motor controller/driver system-on-chip (SoC) that is suitable for both brush-less direct current (BLDC) and permanent-magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) designs.

This 600-V rated device comprises a flashbased 32-bit microcontroller unit with an Arm® Cortex®-M4F processing core (capable of running at 150-MHz), plus 128-kB of embedded flash and 32-kB of SRAM memo-

ry resource. High-side and low-side gate drivers, as well as signal conditioning (including a 2.5-MSps analogue-to-digital converter) and power management elements are also encompassed. Key applications include air conditioning systems, domestic appliances, water pumps, etc. The PAC5556 is housed in a compact 52-pin QFN package. https://eu.mouser.com/new/qorvo/activesemi-pac5556-controller/.

Mouser Electronics | www.mouser.com

Electronica Azi International | 1/2020

PRODUCT NEWS

New at Rutronik: Compact 4-Channel Power Management IC from NJR With the NJW4750, NJR presents one of the smallest 4-channel Power Management ICs on the market. The space-saving 3.4×2.6mm EQFN26 package incorporates three buck regulators and a LDO (low dropout) for precise voltage regulation.

The NJW4750 and the matching evaluation board are available at www.rutronik24.com.

Channel 1 of the Power Management IC is directly connected to the supply voltage of max. 40V and serves as the primary controller for the secondary synchronous buck regulators and the LDO. To increase the flexibility of circuit design, one of the two secondary regulators can be switched to LDO mode. Each controller has its own powergood pin and enables input, allowing for precise control of the output voltage during system power-on phase. The NJW4750 is controlled either via the external sync input or via an internal oscillator, which covers a frequency range from 280kHz to 2.4MHz, enabling the use of compact coils.

In a temperature range of -40°C to 125°C, the NJW4750 is well suited for example for generating a 3.3V power supply at max. 40V input voltage and derived voltages of 2.8V (LDO), 1.8V (channel 2) and 1.2V (channel 3).

Applications of the Power Management IC

include industrial controls, camera systems, IoT boards, photoelectric sensors, singleboard controllers and especially compact peripherals and sensors.

For more information about NJR’s newest Compact 4-Channel Power Management IC and a direct ordering option, please visit our

e-commerce platform at www.rutronik24.com. https://www.rutronik24.de/produkt/njrc/njw4 750mhh-t1-te1/12419258.html https://www.rutronik24.de/produkt/njrc/njw4 750+eva+board/12646236.html Rutronik | www.rutronik.com

XP Power announces compact, easy to use, extended range, programmable DC power supply XP Power announced a new single output programmable DC power supply that is ideal for use in a wide variety of applications including laboratory, production, and embedded test & measurement. Multiple interfaces including USB, analogue, and LAN are built-in as standard, enhancing the flexibility and controllability of the unit.

Measuring just 44mm (1.73”) tall and with a footprint of 224mm (8.82”) × 262 mm (10.3”), the PLS600 occupies very little space in benchtop applications and a 1U 19” rack mounting option accommodates either 1 or 2 PLS600 supplies.

There is a total of five units in the PLS600 range offering DC output voltages of 30V, 50V, 100V, 200V and 400V – all with a 600W power rating. The extended range allows a wide variety of voltage and current ratings to be obtained from a single unit, for example the 30V model supports output currents up to 33A with a maximum power rating of 600W. The units can be operated in series and / or parallel, allowwww.international.electronica-azi.ro

ing for higher voltages (600V) or higher power (2400W) to be achieved.

The units offer excellent load and line regulation and can be programmed to an accuracy of around 0.1%. Inbuilt 12-bit

D/A and A/D converters allow the units to report voltage and current with high degrees of accuracy.

Remote sense is included to allow use with loads that are located away from the unit.

Inbuilt OVP (over voltage protection), OCP (over current protection) and OPP (overpower protection) limit the output current and voltage to avoid any damage to the unit under test (UUT).

PLS600 PSUs are all LXI certified, thereby meeting interoperability standards for LAN-based instruments.

Standard LabVIEW and IVI drivers are available for use with all standard software. The units support “Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments” (SCPI) and user-developed SCPI-based software is also supported. An integrated scripting capability allows programming and generation of user-defined output profiles to suit a wide variety of unique requirements. www.xppower.com/product/PLS600-Series XP Power | www.xppower.com 31

PRODUCT NEWS

Microchip Announces Industry’s First Space-Qualified COTS-Based Radiation-Tolerant Ethernet Transceiver and Embedded Microcontroller Ethernet is becoming more common in spacecraft to enable hardwired communication speed, support higher data rates, and facilitate interoperability between satellites and other spacecraft. As Ethernet in space applications continues to expand, Microchip Technology Inc. announced the industry’s first space-qualified Ethernet transceiver – a radiation-tolerant device based on a Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) solution widely deployed in other industries now offering reliable performance for applications ranging from launch vehicles to satellite constellations and space stations.

In addition to Microchip’s new VSC8541RT radiation-tolerant Ethernet transceiver sampling, the company received final qualification for the new SAM3X8ERT radiationtolerant microcontroller, its latest Arm® Cortex®-M3 core processor and embedded Ethernet controller. These are designed to support space industry demand for radiation tolerant devices separately or in combination.

Both devices are COTS-based parts with enhanced characterized levels of radiation performance and high reliability quality

flow, available in plastic and ceramic packages. They share the same pin-out distribution, allowing designers to begin implementation with COTS devices before moving to space-grade components. This significantly reduces development time and cost.

The VSC8541RT transceiver is a single-port Gigabit Ethernet copper PHY with GMII, RGMII, MII and RMII interfaces. Radiation performances have been verified and documented in detailed reporting.

The VSC8541RT is latch-up immune up to 78 Mev; TID has been tested up to 100 Krad. With the same rad-tolerant die and package, a 100 MB limited bitrate performance VSC8540RT is also available in plastic and ceramic qualified versions, which provides performance and cost scalability for targeted missions.

Microchip Technology www.microchip.com

Preh Car Connect selects Excelfore eSync as the OTA pipeline for European OEM production deployment Excelfore, an innovator in automotive overthe-air (OTA) and data aggregation technologies, announces that its implementation of eSync has been adopted by Preh Car Connect GmbH of Dresden, Germany, to provide OTA updating capability to the Preh Android Embedded Module (AEM).

The Preh AEM is an innovative product which provides Android-based Infotainment to automotive head units. A major European automaker is expected to begin shipping new vehicles with AEM installed in the first quarter of 2020.

The eSync platform employs a serverclient-agent architecture to build a scalable and secure bi-directional data pipeline between the cloud and the various electronic end devices in a vehicle. It can update software and firmware over-the-air (OTA), and can collect real-time operating data from any eSync Compliant end devices in the vehicle.

Excelfore provides a full implementation of the eSync pipeline for Preh Car Connect, including server software in the cloud, and the client and agent firmware for the AEM. 32

The Excelfore eSync firmware has been implemented across numerous automotive operating systems including Linux, QNX, Integrity, AUTOSAR and several smaller RTOSs. It is the first OTA solution qualified as an accelerator for the Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform (MCVP).

The specifications for the eSync data pipeline and eSync compliant components can be accessed through the eSync Alliance, an open multi-company trade association.

Excelfore | www.excelfore.com

Electronica Azi International | 1/2020

PRODUCT NEWS

Murata announces world’s smallest LoRa®-based module with significantly reduced current consumption Murata announces a new LoRa®-based module that, at just 10.0 mm x 8.0 mm x 1.6 mm, is the smallest available in the world today. Suitable for a wide range of highvolume applications where small size, long range, extended battery life, security and a competitive price point are requirements.

Based upon a second-generation Semtech SX1262 radio frequency IC (RFIC), the Type 1SJ (https://wireless.murata.com/type-1sj.html) LoRa module also features an open STM32L0 microcontroller (MCU) from STMicroelectronics along with an RF switch and 192kB of Flash memory and 20kB of RAM. This extensive memory provision ensures that sufficient resources are available for the application layers. Also housed in the tiny module is a temperature-controlled crystal oscillator (TXCO) and multiple communication interfaces including UART / I²C / SPI / ADC / USB and various GPIOs. Designed for deployment globally, the module supports ISM bands from 868 MHz to 916 MHz, including those used in Europe, USA, India, China and the Pacific Rim. The device has a single part number globally, simplifying customer supply chains.

Operating from a single supply rail (up to 3.9V DC), the Type 1SJ module incorpo-

rates several low power modes that allow the real time clock (RTC) to operate while drawing a typical current of just 1.3μA. This enhanced current consumption allows devices based upon Murata’s module to operate for years from a single battery.

The open MCU allows the module to be easily flashed with code from Trusted Objects that ensures the Flash memory is secure and encrypted, protecting the end system against the ever-increasing threat

of malicious tampering. The resin mold package provides physical ruggedness, allowing the module to operate across the temperature range -40°C to +85°C. The new Type 1SJ LoRa-based module will help designers to develop solutions that meet the most demanding requirements, especially in areas such as asset tracking, utilities, agriculture, smart cities, smart buildings, industrial and other IoT applications.

Murata | www.murata.com

Proprietary Long-distance Connections Würth Elektronik presents its new Themisto-I radio module. It features high output power and can attain ranges of up to 10 km. Proprietary network solutions for IIoT/M2M applications can be implemented in the shortest possible time using the slim module, the WE-ProWare firmware, and the SDK package. With its 915 MHz frequency band, as well as FCC and IC module certification - Themisto-I is ideally suited for the American market.

Measuring just 17 × 27 × 3.8 mm, the radio module has an RF output power of up to 25 dBm. With the appropriate broadband profiles and increased input sensitivity at the receiver, the radio range can be increased from 800 m to over 10 km. Themisto-I is fully compatible with the Telesto-III low-power version in terms of radio profile, pins and command interface. So, for example, it extends the options for setting up decentralized sensor networks.

With Themisto-I, Würth Elektronik completes its product family of proprietary radio modules. www.international.electronica-azi.ro

The Themisto-I and Telesto-III 915 MHz modules are the equivalent of the Thebe-II and Tarvos-III 868 MHz modules. All radio modules are available from stock. Würth

Elektronik delivers the components with customer-specific firmware on request.

Würth Elektronik eiSos www.we-online.com

915 MHz radio modules: Themisto-I (left) and the Telesto-III low-power version Image source: Würth Elektronik 33

LTHD Corporation S.R.L. Head Office: Timișoara - ROMÂNIA, 300153, 70 Ardealul Str., lthd@lthd.com, www.lthd.com Tel.: +40 256 201273, +40 356 401266, Fax: +40 256 490813

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Electronica Azi International | 1/2020