EP&Dee no 2 - March 2012

MARCH, 2012 ­ ISSUE NO. 2, VOL. 10

DESIGN & MANUFACTURING

EP&Dee ELECTRONICS

PRODUCTS

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DESIGN

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EASTERN

EUROPE

Ben Heck transforms Apple iPhone into the ultimate hand-held gaming device in element14’s “The Ben Heck Show” element14, the first collaborative community and electronics store for design engineers and electronics enthusiasts, and modding guru Ben Heck pay homage to the 2012 CES International tradeshow in the latest episode of the “The Ben Heck Show.”

This week’s modding project features an Apple iPhone® that Ben morphs into an enhanced hand­held gaming tool – sure to impress even Android fans.

To successfully implement video gaming capabilities onto the smaller­footed iPhone, Ben first deconstructs an iCade®system that enables gaming on an Apple iPad® to inte­ grate a scaled­down version of the circuitry.

Then, by connecting a PodBreakout board to a simulated battery, Ben borrows voltage from the iPad to enable the Bluetooth required to power the iPhone for mobile gaming purposes.

Noise reduction technology makes everything clearer Face to face meetings and conversations in our business and personal lives are becoming less frequent in order to save cost and time. Mobile phones and voice over internet technology (VoIP) have enabled this significant change in how we interface with one another. The quality of sound and the suppression of noise are crucial to ensure a good user experience with voice communications. page 14

Ben wraps up the episode by showing viewers how to build the case and required controller components – from designing and routing the shell and laser button pads using an Epilog Laser Engraver to creating and printing buttons. The final result is a tricked­ out innovative hand­held Apple iPhone gaming device. Show fans are invited to join the element14 community to send Ben a challenge for a future build, engage with community members, and enter for a chance to win the build from this episode. element14 www.element14.com

T H E E A S T E U R O P E A N J O U R N A L F O R E M B E D D E D A P P L I C AT I O N S

MARCH 2012 Table of Contents COMMENTS INDUSTRY NEWS 3 Do We Grow?

INDUSTRY NEWS COMPANIES INTERVIEW 6 Rutronik discusses its progress and future prospects Asian expansion With five subsidiaries in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Rutronik stepped onto Asian soil in 2011.

EP&Dee discussed Rutronik’s goals, current status and future plans with Lambert Hilkes, General Manager Rutronik Asia.

DESIGN TECHNOLOGY 10 Resistive current sensing for accurate application monitoring This article introduces the fundamental concepts of current sensing resistors, current sensing techniques and outlines the advantages and disadvantages of three typical high-side sensing configurations.

DESIGN EMBEDDED 14 Noise reduction technology makes everything clearer Face to face meetings and conversations in our business and personal lives are becoming less frequent in order to save cost and time.

Mobile phones and voice over internet technology (VoIP) have enabled this significant change in how we interface with one another.

The quality of sound and the suppression of noise are crucial to ensure a good user experience with Page 14 voice communications.

DESIGN WIRELESS 16 A second chance for Near Field Communication There’s life in the old dog yet The NFC (Near Field Communication) standard is already nine years old.

At the time of its launch there was a non-stop flood of ideas about the functions mobiles would be able to offer, from acting as keys and wallets to ID. Up to now, not much has happened but now these – and many more – functions are actually going to become reality.

DESIGN MECHANICAL ELEMENTS 18 Mechanical elements for electronics in TME’s range of products At least two factors decide about functional properties of any electronic appliance: hardware - software and mechanical solutions. Mechanics is usually treated by electronics designers as necessary evil, but expertise concerning this subject is necessary even at the PCB designing stage.

PCB-DESIGN TRAINING

It is rumoured that Apple is going to incorporate NFC chips into the next iPhone and that Google Page 16 will install the chip in its new Nexus S.

20 EAGLE Version 6 Introduction of the Control Panel CadSoft Computer introduced a new major release of their Layout Software EAGLE in December 2011. The new version 6 starts with all the functionality an Electronic Design Engineer needs for drawing schematics and creating a printed circuit board.

INDUSTRY NEWS LIGHTING INDUSTRY NEWS EMBEDDED SYSTEMS INDUSTRY NEWS ACTIVE COMPONENTS INDUSTRY NEWS PASSIVE COMPONENTS INDUSTRY NEWS SMT INDUSTRY NEWS SENSORS 36 Cylindrical optical sensors

INDUSTRY NEWS CONNECTORS 38 ODU ROM Manufacturing

INDUSTRY NEWS MISCELEANEOUS 2

EP&Dee ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ www.epd-ee.eu

CadSoft Computer introduced a new major release of their Layout Software EAGLE in Page 20 December 2011.

COMPANIES INDUSTRY NEWS

Microchip introduces general-purpose 8-bit PIC® microcontrollers with next-generation digital and analogue peripherals Key Facts: • On-board Complementary Output Generator (COG), 5-bit DAC, high-performance comparators and 50mA outputs for direct FET drive • Supports increased system capabilities with reduced costs for battery-charging, LED lighting, ballast-control, power-conversion and general-purpose applications • High-voltage variant suits cost-sensitive applications with high-voltage power rails • Fast development with Microchip’s standard suite of low-cost development tools

Do We Grow?

For a business to be sound, profitable, it needs to grow. It is easier for a business to grow if the economic environment grows as well.

This leads to a very simple question – did the semiconductor industry, the fundament of electronics, grow on 2011 and what are the prospects for the current year.

After a stellar grow in excess of 33% in 2010, worldwide semiconductor revenues grew a lit­ tle bit less than 1% to $301 bn in 2011. This development is still remarkable primarily because, on aggregate, the two years yielded very well. Focusing on Europe, the last year has shown a flat growth rate for the entire industry, however, the distribution share in Europe has shown a 7.6% increase. This growth has been spurt primarily by the Nordic region, as well as

by Eastern Europe (3% growth in 2011).

The performance comes across like an above average good one, mainly because most of the key European countries, like Germany and France have yielded negative performance figures for distribution in 2011.

For 2012, most of the pundits foresee a 4% growth for the worldwide semiconductor revenue to approximately $ 315 bn, which is a good reason to be optimistic. This growth is expected to be driven by NAND Flash memory, analog and microcontrollers. On the device level, growth will be driven by consumer, mobility and mobile consumer devices.

Traditionally, the European growth of the distribution market is higher, while that for Eastern European even higher, which spells good news.

It is safe to conclude that 2012 has the potential to become another record year for the Eastern European electronics industry. This development, coupled with the prospects of a slower growth rate in China, gives our region a chance to outperform the industry average.

The short answer to the title­question is “yes, we grow” and it is up to us to successfully ride this growth wave. n Radu Andrei

Microchip announces a new family of 8bit microcontrollers (MCUs) featuring next-generation analogue and digital peripherals, making them ideal for general-purpose applications, as well as battery charging, LED lighting, ballast-control, power-conversion and system-control applications. The PIC12F(HV)752 MCUs feature an integrated Complementary Output Generator (COG) peripheral that provides non-overlapping, complementary waveforms for inputs such as comparators and Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) peripherals, while enabling dead-band control, auto shutdown, auto reset, phase control and blanking control.

Additionally, the new MCUs feature 1.75 KB of self read-write programme memory, 64B of RAM, an on-chip 10-bit ADC, Capture-Compare PWM modules, high-performance comparators down to 40 ns response, and two 50 mA-capable I/Os, enabling engineers to increase overall system capabilities and reduce costs. Engineers are constantly challenged to increase system performance and efficiency while reducing system costs, especially for newer LED-lighting and battery-charging applications. With their numerous onchip, general-purpose and specialised peripherals, including the integrated COG, high-performance comparators and 50mA outputs for direct FET drive, the PIC12F(HV)725 MCUs meet these needs. The high-voltage variant, PIC12HV752, incorporates a shunt regulator that allows operation from 2V to an unspecified user-defined maximum voltage level, with less than 2mA operation current.

This high-voltage variant is ideal for cost-

sensitive applications with high-voltage power rails. Additionally, the 4-channel, 10-bit ADC can be used to implement various sensors and mTouch™ sensing applications, including capacitive touch.

The PIC12F(HV)725 MCUs are supported by Microchip’s standard suite of world-class development tools, including the MPLAB® Integrated Development

Environment (IDE); the PICkit™ 3 (PG164130) priced at $44.95 each; MPLAB REAL ICE™ (DV244005) priced at $499.98 each; and MPLAB ICD3 (DV164035) debugger/programmer priced at $189.99. Engineers can also use Microchip’s HI-TECH C® Compiler for PIC10/12/16 MCUs (SW500010 and SW500005). The PIC12F752 and PIC12FHV752 MCUs are available in 8pin 3 mm × 3 mm DFN, as well as 8-pin PDIP and SOIC packages.

MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY www.microchip.com/get/37J4

www.epd-ee.eu ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ EP&Dee

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COMPANIES INDUSTRY NEWS

Silicon Labs Launches Industry’s Most Flexible and Developer-Friendly 32-Bit Mixed-Signal MCUs

Atmel’s maXTouch Controllers Enable Touch Capabilities for In-Car Control Systems

Bringing unprecedented design flexibility to the 32-bit market, Silicon Laboratories Inc. introduced the Precision32™ microcontroller (MCU) family. Based on the ARM® Cortex™-M3 processor, the new Precision32 family includes 32 SiM3U1xx and SiM3C1xx MCU products with footprint-compatible USB and non-USB options. Offering a highly integrated, flexible architecture, a rich peripheral set, ultra-low power and Eclipse-based development tools that are downloadable at no charge, the Precision32 family is suitable for a wide range of applications including portable medical devices, point-of-sale peripherals, motor control, industrial monitoring, barcode scanners, optical touchscreen interfaces, sensor controllers and home automation systems.

To help developers reduce system cost, design complexity and component count, the Precision32 family offers an exceptionally high level of peripheral integration that can enable a bill of materials (BOM) savings of up to $1.34 (USD). The following on-chip peripherals greatly reduce component count and system cost: • Integrated precision oscillators with an advanced phase-locked loop (PLL) eliminate the need for a costly 8MHz crystal by providing the clocking accuracy necessary for crystal-less USB operation while running the core independently at any frequency from 1 to 80MHz. • An internal 5V voltage regulator enables the MCU to be powered directly from USB or a 5V source without the need for an external regulator.

• Six high-drive I/Os (up to 300mA each) can directly drive high-power LEDs, small motors, buzzers and power MOSFETs, as well as serve as a boost converter controller.

• Up to 16 capacitive touch channels eliminate the need for separate touch sensor ICs in applications requiring buttons, sliders or wheels.

• The Precision32 family offers a complete USB 2.0 PHY and analog front-end interfacing directly to the USB connector, while most

other MCUs require an external USB pull-up resistor and termination circuit.

Using Silicon Labs’ patented dualcrossbar technology and a dragand-drop GUI, developers can easily choose their analog and digital peripherals and pin locations for these peripherals.

Atmel® Corporation announced the availability of its maXTouch® family for 5" to 10" automotive touchscreens and touchpads used in center stack displays, navigation systems, radio human-machine interfaces (HMIs) and rear-seat entertainment systems. With these new automotive-qualified devices, Atmel strengthens its position as a market-leading touch supplier and extends its range of supported maXTouch applications from consumer and industrial into automotive.

The new automotive-qualified maXTouch devices include the mXT768E and the mXT540E, which are part of a family known for its superior performance and rich feature set. This family offers unlimited touch identification, fast response time, exacting precision, robust operation and low power consumption.

The Precision32 family’s analog peripherals are specified and tested to operate over temperature and voltage (down to 1.8 V). In fact, these high-performance analog peripherals are so reliable they can replace standalone analog components. Moreover, the Precision32 analog peripherals are highly configurable, enabling developers to simplify their designs and optimize performance for a wide variety of embedded applications.

Silicon Labs engineered the Precision32 family to achieve industry-leading power efficiency in both active and sleep modes.

The MCUs leverage Silicon Labs’ state-of-the-art, patented lowpower design technologies to achieve power reductions within every block of the MCU design, resulting in up to 33 percent lower active current (22 mA at 80 MHz or 275 μA/MHz) and 100 times lower sleep current (0.35 μA with RTC enabled and 4 kB of RAM retention) than competing 32-bit solutions. Numerous power modes and clocking options enable developers to optimize their embedded designs for the lowest power at a given performance level.

Dedicated Embedded Functionality for Automotive The mXT768E and mXT540E devices are fully automotive-qualified (Grade 2, AEC-Q100-compliant), supporting a temperature range of -40 up to +105°C.

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SILICON LABORATORIES Inc. www.silabs.com

EP&Dee ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ www.epd-ee.eu

With maXTouch automotivequalified devices, designers can use single-layer sensors instead of dual or even triple layers, as is currently applied in many applications. Conventional touch controllers are unable to handle LCD noise, so a shield is required to prevent noise coupling.

Automotive-qualified maXTouch devices provide superior noise immunity, eliminating the need for shields. This, in turn, enables

single-layer sensor designs for thinner stacks, which reduces system complexity, lowers overall cost and power consumption, and results in higher product yield during automotive systems production. The high signal-to-noise ratio of 80:1 in automotive-qualified maXTouch devices makes them ideally suited for very noisy environments. Since only a high signal-to-noise ratio enables detection of touches with a “gloved” finger, the devices provide full support for gloved hand operation on automotive touchscreens.

The mXT768E/ mXT540E devices also embed single- and dualtouch gesture calculation as well as post-processing algorithms which eliminate unintended touches. Users can perform multitouch gestures (pinch, stretch, etc.), while unintended touches such as a resting hand on the screen are classified and rejected.

These functionalities bring the smartphone experience into contemporary cars.

Additional maXTouch capabilities targeting automotive applications include frequency hopping dur-

ing burst generation, self calibration, detect integration addressing EMI/EMC requirements and high reliability in harsh environments. With a scan speed of up to 150Hz, design engineers can provide character recognition for alphanumeric inputs to the automotive HMI interfaces, another key feature for modern cars.

ATMEL CORPORATION www.atmel.com

INTERVIEW COMPANIES

Rutronik discusses its progress and future prospects

Asian expansion With five subsidiaries in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Rutronik stepped onto Asian soil in 2011.

EP&Dee discussed Rutronik’s goals, current status and future plans with Lambert Hilkes, General Manager Rutronik Asia.

EP&Dee: Rutronik has long been a European distributor. What led to the decision to expand its operations into Asia?

Hilkes: Our customers. Electronics, and consequently distribution, have long been a global industry. Many European companies have moved their production to Asia, either with their own manufacturing plant or in collaboration with local production companies.

However, what is relatively new is that more and more medium-sized companies are doing this – and they are our traditional customer base. They approached us, wanting the support and service that they are familiar with from Europe to be expanded to Asia. We were happy to fulfil this wish – not only for Asia but globally. For a few years now, we have been supporting our customers around the world, either via company subsidiaries, as in Mexico, or via hubs. Initially, the volume was not very large, so we did not explicitly communicate our global commitment. However, now that this has increased significantly, particularly in Asia, we have decided to actively offer our customers global support and to establish our own presence in Asia.

lished contacts with 200 potential new customers. This year’s goal is to acquire around 30 to 40% new customers in Asia and to double our turnover.

Which vertical markets do you believe offer the greatest potential here?

These are very similar to Europe: The fastest growing market in China is the automotive market, due both to the increasing number of cars being produced and also to the growing proportion of electronics in each vehicle. We have a great deal of experience to offer in this area, because at around 40% the automotive sector is traditionally very strong at Rutronik.

Industrial electronics also offers great potential, both in transfer business and due to the growth of the Chinese middle class. We see other growth markets as lighting and renewable energies, which is partly state-subsidised and funded.

What difficulties have you encountered while entering the Asian market?

The European and Asian markets certainly differ in some respects, as do the customers.

What are your medium and long-term goals in Asia?

We have three goals: To safeguard the transfer business, to increase our representation in the portfolios of our customers and to acquire new customers in Asia.

And what is your current status?

Can you tell us how things are going?

Yes, we can definitely say that things are going well. The first stage has already been completed, our offices are all in place, our teams are complete and offering local support to numerous existing customers from Europe in Asia. We are currently working on increasing our volume here and preparing for new business. With this in mind, we have already estab-

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EP&Dee ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ www.epd-ee.eu

In the Hopewell Center, there are based the headquarters of Rutronik Asia HK Ltd..

Well, actually, the markets themselves aren’t that different because they all function in accordance with the same market laws. But you are right, there are still differences. During the time I have lived and worked in Asia, three key characteristics have become evident to me: First is the enormous speed. Business all over the world has become faster, but while in Europe and the USA, for example, an answer within 24 hours will suffice; in China the response must be immediate. Second is the competitiveness. Yes, this exists everywhere, but nowhere is it as extreme as in China.

Comparability is very important, with price right at the top, followed by product availability and, to an increasing extent, also quality.

The third aspect is what I call network thinking. Personal relationships are far more important in Asia than they are in Europe. But there is a fundamental difference for which one should be prepared: At the beginning of a partnership, there is no leap of faith like there is in Europe; instead trust must be built up over a long period of time. We have taken this into account in setting our objectives, allocating sufficient time to the process. In addition, we rely on employees who, like me, already have many years of experience in the business and who bring many existing relationships with them to Rutronik. And we are fortunate that long-term partnerships are key to the Rutronik philosophy. That has definitely been registered in Asia and positively perceived.

INTERVIEW COMPANIES

Rutronik has established five subsidiaries simultaneously in Asia: In Shenzen, Chengdu and Shanghai in China, in Taipei in Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Why this strong presence all at the same time?

Well, you see, there are already more than 2000 distributors of various sizes and orientations currently active in China. If we are to break into this market and be successful at it, then, as a newcomer, we must be able to clearly demonstrate our added value. This requires a certain level of presence, manpower and stamina.

And what is this added value that Rutronik is able to offer in Asia?

In our broadliner function and in our universal global support. There are, of course, also other global distributors that maintain a complete range of components, but they concentrate on individual product groups, primarily high-margin products. We represent all types of components equally. This requires a completely different strategy and approach. We require more qualified engineers so that we can provide informed advice across our entire portfolio. This also requires a different type of warehousing and logistics. With the passive products in particular, there are immense quantities to be handled. This business model also means that we also require a certain size and presence in Asia. But we are convinced that this will enable us to provide

our customers with significant benefits and that the model will therefore be successful in the medium and long term.

What are these benefits that you mention?

First, greater efficiency due to the reduction in procurement sources. Some companies pay close attention to price and source their components wherever they receive the most favourable terms. But increasing numbers are realising that the internal costs concealed by such a procurement process often eat up any cost savings that may have initially been made. In China, many companies have focused on this observation in recent years.

They have analysed their total cost of operation and determined that their overall costs with respect to several suppliers are significantly higher than when they purchase everything from one source.

There is another benefit: Via the technical support and design-in, our engineers are able to completely cover the customer’s application. They take into account 100% of the components and can adapt them to each other. This is often crucial to the functionality of an application, because the most important components often cannot fully utilise their advantages if they are not combined with the right passive components.

You previously mentioned the universal global support you offer.

What do you mean by this?

In contrast to most other distributors, we are not regionally fragmented. The lynchpin of our global presence is an IT system to which all our subsidiaries around the world are connected. This enables us to support and supply our customers around the world universally. It does not matter where development and production take place. One procurement source meets all their global needs, with one central contact partner that oversees all global activities. This is backed up with local onsite support. They encounter the same ordering and delivery processes everywhere along with logistics services of the same quality that they have come to expect in Europe.

What specifically is Rutronik currently able to offer its Asian customers?

The same as our European customers. Our focus in Asia is also on field application engineering. So our team is made up of approximately 50% field application engineers and field sales engineers. They receive training and excellent support from Peter Klöpfer, Technical Director for Rutronik Asia. He offers many years of experience as an application engineer at Rutronik and in-depth technical knowledge. We also offer all our logistics services and almost our entire product portfolio.

Distribution agreements with manufacturers are often restricted by region. Have you already extended all of these to the Asian market?

Many of our franchise contracts already apply worldwide. In those instances where we only have a pan-European contract with a manufacturer, we are discussing an expansion or an additional franchise for China.

And what has been the response from the manufacturers?

Generally, it has been very positive because these manufacturers are also faced with the challenge of supplying their customers worldwide. The fact that we are able to pursue projects worldwide and ensure design support in Europe, even when production takes place in Asia, is an added benefit. Very few manufacturers or distributors are able to do this. Whether we are also able to represent a manufacturer in Asia will depend on its individual strategy, whether it is currently focusing strongly on distribution or whether it is reducing its supply partners in general. But so far, our negotiations have been around 90% successful, so we are able to offer almost all products in Asia also.

With its presence in Asia, will Rutronik seek to increase the number of Asian manufacturers in its portfolio?

No, this is not the starting point of our strategy.

It is instead to constantly optimise our portfolio, in other words to offer the components www.epd-ee.eu ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ EP&Dee

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INTERVIEW COMPANIES

with which our customers can develop competitive and innovate products, to fully meet the actual needs of our customers and, as far as is possible, to also supply second or third sources for each component. Nevertheless, we have observed that Asian manufacturers frequently offer more competitive products, thereby boosting their share. The greater price pressure in Asia may mean that, in the future, we will include a greater number of Asian manufacturers in our portfolio.

What do European companies gain from Rutronik’s expansion into Asia?

Those with a purely European base do not benefit. All others do because, by utilising just one procurement source to meet all their global requirements, they are able to operate significantly more efficiently. They now also receive local on-site support in Asia, perhaps for adapting their products to the Chinese market. Other country-specific regulations must be taken into account here, as well as the greater price pressure, only sometimes with lower quality demands. Our logistics centre in Hong Kong enables us to supply the Asian manufacturing plants quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively without detours via Europe.

How is this Asian logistics centre linked with the main logistics centre in Germany and what unique features characterise it?

Like the logistics centre in Germany, the centre in Hong Kong is also linked to the IT department at our head office in Ispringen via a realtime connection, so that we can guarantee universal processes worldwide. In contrast to the German centre, our logistics centre in Hong Kong is operated by a service provider. We deliberately chose to do this, because it offered some specific benefits. For example, as an expert in this area, our logistics partner JSI is able to supply customers in this region far more cheaply than we could ourselves. JSI also has a global presence and is therefore able to assist in the further geographical expansion of our operations in line with market needs.

Are there already specific plans in place for further expansion?

This year, the expansion of our Mexican subsidiary is on the agenda. In the medium and long term, we definitely also want to further expand our global presence, particularly in south-east Asia, where Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and India are all showing promise.

Fundamentally, our strategy is to go where our customers are.

There have recently been comments in the press that the Chinese market is stagnating or even in decline.

What is your assessment?

This seems to be a popular opinion at the moment. But if you look closely at the figures,

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EP&Dee ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ www.epd-ee.eu

this statement should certainly be qualified: China did have high double-digit growth, which is now levelling off at a high single-digit figure, which is still substantially greater than that achieved by most other countries.

This means that, in reality, there is no decline, just a lower growth rate. As a ‘producer for the world’, China is of course dependent on the macro-economic situation in the US and Europe. Consequently, capacity utilisation in many Chinese companies has also fallen. But domestic demand is rising, thereby narrowing the gap between export and domestic consumption. Growth within China is increasingly compensating for falling demand from importing countries. In addition, as China is so large with an immense population, growth of 3 to

4% would still mean an increase in comparison with Europe or the USA. For these reasons, I see China as the engine room for all of Asia and am convinced that this will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future. EPDee We thank you for the interview.

The Chinese symbols for “Rutronik” translate as ‘wisdom’, ‘first class’ and ‘powerful’.

COMPANIES INDUSTRY NEWS

IAR Systems provides development tools for the low-power V850E2 MCUs from Renesas

The new Standardization Group for Embedded Technologies (SGET) is on its way

IAR Systems® announces complete support for the V850E2/ Fx4-L microcontroller series from Renesas Electronics. The V850E2/Fx4-L series features very low power consumption paired with high functionality. It is designed for the automotive comfort and body segment, for applications such as roof or window lifters, HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), body control modules, and door, seat and light modules. These new microcontrollers provide powersaving features such as the sequencer (SEQ). The SEQ supports hardware monitoring of digital inputs in deep stop mode without any usage of the CPU or memory. When the SEQ detects activities at the digital inputs, the device switches from deep stop mode to run mode. Another feature is the LIN-master controller (LMA) which supports the automatic LIN-frame detection without CPU interactivity.

The founding of the Standardization Group for Embedded Technologies ('SGET' for short) has been announced.

Leading embedded computer manufacturers, namely Advantech, congatec, Data Modul, Kontron, MSC, SECO, and the publishers WEKA Fachmedien and Vogel Business Media have announced to be among the founding members.

The SGET will hold its inaugural meeting at the beginning of March and will be committed to developing and maintaining worldwide valid embedded computing specifications, in order to propel new embedded technology standardizations meeting the demands of the markets. With the founding of the SGET, a globally-operating, manufacturer-independent consortium has been created, which is in position to react to the accelerated speed of technological progress and changing market demands fast and flexible. The founding members of the SGET are confident that, worldwide,

The highly-optimizing C/C++ compiler and debugger tool suite IAR Embedded Workbench® for V850 supplies extensive support for all devices in the V850, V850E, V850ES, and V850E2 families. The

V850E2/Fx4-L microcontrollers are supported by IAR Embedded Workbench for V850 version 3.81, available today. This new release also adds support for Reneas E20 emulator, integration with the version control system Subversion, and new license features, such as commuter licenses, automatic license activation and support for virtual servers.

IAR SYSTEMS www.iar.com/ewv850

more than one hundred ventures are going to join the group within a year - underlining the great need for improvements in market orientation and fast specification implementation. Other companies and institutions which work in the area of embedded

computing are invited to join the new Standardization Group for Embedded Technologies.

In particular, the SGET welcomes embedded computer manufacturers on board- and systemlevel, research and educational institutions as well as embedded system integrators, OEM solution providers and industries’ end-users.

KONTRON www.kontron.com

Bluebook® 2012 from DSM Computer

Maxim’s Overvoltage Protectors Use Reverse Bias Blocking to Protect a Portable Device with Multiple Power Sources

DSM Computer provides a clear overview of its complete standard product portfolio with many innovations in the updated 2012 edition of its “Bluebook®”. New additions include the hybrid-cooled ARCTIS™ high-end IPC family, the first Nanoserver® embedded system of the second generation, compact DIN rail-mounted PCs as well as the ultra high-performance Infinity® 19inch industrial computer and slot CPUs with Intel® Core™ processors. Because the industrial computers and display systems slightly-modified for DSM and also developed customer-specific on the basis of standard products

Maxim Integrated Products Inc. announced the MAX14606/ MAX14607, advanced overvoltage protectors which handle up to 3A of continuous current for today’s high-power electronics.

Reverse bias blocking protects a portable device from damage caused by multiple power sources supplied simultaneously.

The MAX14606/MAX14607 are optimized to protect the internal components of portable electronics such as tablets, smartphones, and portable media players. The MAX14606 /MAX14607 feature reverse bias blocking capability so that two power sources can be safely interfaced simultaneously without damage to either one.

In this design two integrated back-to-back FETs prevent the voltage applied at the intended output from feeding back into the input. Without this reverse

described in the Bluebook® are becoming ever more important, the first pages of the color catalog cover this topic.

Not only the manufacturing process established at the Munich location, but also the workflow of an individual project solution optimized to the customer requirement, are described here. The foreword from DSM CEO Axel Schäfer under the slogan “We can implement your project quickly” is augmented with a short description of some successfully developed customer products.

DSM COMPUTER GmbH www.dsm-computer.com

bias blocking, users are forced to use multiple discrete, space-consuming external components to protect the end equipment. To support today’s demanding highpower portable devices, the MAX14606/ MAX14607 also use low, 54mΩ (typical) on-resistance (RON), integrated FETs that allow up to 3A of continuous current and protect low-voltage systems against voltage faults up to +36V.

MAXIM www.maxim-ic.com

www.epd-ee.eu ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ EP&Dee

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Technology DESIGN

Resistive current sensing for accurate application monitoring Current sensing is a fundamental requirement in virtually every item of equipment that features electronic control or supervision of its operation. More sophisticated monitoring brings many benefits; longer battery life in hand-held devices, more efficient and quieter operation of equipment that includes motors, faster detection of fault conditions with benefits for safety – to list only a few. Precision control depends on precision measurements; and accurate monitoring of current flow is an essential function.

This article introduces the fundamental concepts of current sensing resistors, current sensing techniques and outlines the advantages and disadvantages of three typical high-side sensing configurations.

by Darren Wenn, Microchip Technology Sense resistors Current is almost always meas­ ured indirectly, often inferred from the voltage (V = I.R) deve­ loped across a resistor placed in the current path. Current sense resistors are low­cost, can offer high measurement accuracy from very low to medium current lev­ els, and are applicable to both AC and DC circuits: their disadvan­ tages include adding an additional resistance into the measured cir­ cuit path, which may increase source output resistance and result in undesirable loading effect; and the associated power loss (P = I2.R). Therefore, current sensing resistors are rarely used beyond low and medium current sensing applications.

These disadvantages can be minimised by using low­value sensing resistors. However, the voltage drop across the sensing resistor may then become low enough to be comparable to the input offset voltage of subse­ quent analogue conditioning circuit, which would compro­ mise measurement accuracy.

If the measured current has a significant high­frequency com­ ponent, the sense resistor's inherent inductance must be low, or the reactive voltage developed across it will degrade measure­ ment accuracy. Other important

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parameters in the performance of a sense resistor include resist­ ance tolerance, temperature coefficient, thermal EMF, tem­ perature rating, and power rat­ ing – which should be high enough to handle short duration and transient peaks.

Low- and high-side sensing Two basic techniques can be categorised as low­side current sensing and high­side current sensing: each has advantages and disadvantages.

As shown in Figure 1, low­side current sensing connects the sensing resistor between the Figure 1

load and ground. Normally, the sensed voltage signal (VSEN = ISEN × RSEN) is so small that it needs to be amplified by subsequent op amp circuits (e.g., non­invert­ ing amplifier) to get the measur­ able output voltage (VOUT). This configuration provides low input common­mode voltage, with

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ground­referenced input and output, together with simplicity and low cost: but is is susceptible to ground path disturbance, and the ground level seen by the load (application circuit) is lifted from system ground since RSEN adds undesirable resistance to the ground path. Other disad­ vantages are that any high load current caused by accidental short (to true ground) goes undetected; and the need for low VDD parts.

In a single­supply configuration, the most important aspect of low­side current sensing is that the common­mode input volt­ Figure 2

age range (VCM) of the op amp must include ground. Select low­ side current sensing where short circuit detection is not required, and ground distur­ bances can be tolerated.

As shown in Figure 2, high­side current sensing connects the sensing resistor between the

power supply and load, eliminat­ ing ground disturbance effects, allowing the application to be directly connected to ground, and enabling detection of short­ circuit currents. However, the measurement arrangement must be able to handle very high and dynamic common­mode input voltages, leading to com­ plexity and increased costs, and the need for high VDD parts.

In a single­supply configuration, the VCM range of the difference amplifier must be wide enough to withstand high common­ mode input voltages, and the difference amplifier must be able to reject dynamic common­ mode input voltages.

High-side sensing implementation High­side current sensing is typically selected in applications where ground disturbance can­ not be tolerated, and short cir­ cuit detection is required, such as motor monitoring and con­ trol, overcurrent protection and supervising circuits, automotive safety systems, and battery cur­ rent monitoring.

Figure 3 shows the first of sev­ eral high­side configurations; a single op amp difference ampli­ fier that consists of the MCP6H01 op amp and four

Technology DESIGN external resistors, to amplify the small voltage drop across the sensing resistor by the gain R2/R1, while rejecting the com­ mon­mode input voltage.

Figure 3

The difference amplifier’s com­ mon­mode rejection ratio (CMRRDIFF) is primarily deter­ mined by resistor mismatches (R1, R2, R1*, R2*), not by the op amp's CMRR; tight tolerance resistors will add cost. For R2/R1 = 1, resistor tolerances of 0.1%, yield a worst case DC CMRRDIFF of 54 dB: if 1% resis­ tors are used the figure will be only 34 dB (Reference 1 pro­ vides the detailed calculations).

RSEN should be much less than R1 and R2 in order to minimise resistive loading effects. The dif­ ference amplifier’s input imped­ ances, seen from V1 and V2, are unbalanced. Note that the resis­ tive loading effect and the unbal­ anced input impedances will degrade the CMRRDIFF. The reference voltage (VREF) allows the amplifier’s output to be shifted to some higher volt­ age, with respect to ground.

VREF must be supplied by a low­ impedance source, to avoid making CMRRDIFF worse.

In addition, as shown in Figure 3, the input voltages (V1, V2) can be represented by common­mode input voltage (VCM) and differ­ ence­mode input voltage (VDM): V1 = VCM + VDM/2 and V2 = VCM + VDM/2 VOUT = (V1 – V2) × G + VREF = VDM × G + VREF, where G = R2/R1 In order to prevent VOUT from saturating supply rails, it must be kept within the allowed VOUT range between VOL to VOH. The VCM range of the difference amplifier has been increased due to the resistor dividers made by R1, R2, R1* and R2*. In brief, this

12

places limits on the difference amplifier's VDM and VCM specifi­ cations; again, Reference 1 pro­ vides an example calculation.

In summary, difference ampli­ fiers offer reasonable common­ mode rejection ratio, wide com­ mon­mode input voltage range, low power consumption, low cost and simplicity: their draw­ backs include resistive loading effects, unbalanced input imped­ ances and the fact that adjusting the difference amplifier’s gain requires changing more than one resistor value.

Three op-amp instrumentation amplifier Figure 4 shows the three­op­ amp instrumentation amplifier (3­op­amp INA), that amplifies small differential voltages and rejects large common­mode volt­

amp INA’s CMRR (CMRR3INA), as CMRR = 20 log (GDM/GCM).

Another benefit is that the over­ all gain of the 3­op­amp INA can be modified by adjusting only the resistance of RG without having to adjust the resistors of R1, R1*, R2 and R2*.

The second stage is implement­ ed by a difference amplifier (A3) which amplifies the difference­ mode voltage and rejects the common­mode voltage.

In a practical application, the R2/R1 ratio is usually set to 1.

CMRR3INA is primarily deter­ mined by the difference­mode voltage gain of the first stage and net matching tolerance of R2/R1 and R2*/R1*. The toler­ ance of resistors RF and RG do not affect CMRR3INA. For the 3­op­amp INA, there is a common issue that can be easi­ Figure 4

Figure 5 ages. Its first stage is a pair of high­input impedance buffers (A1, A2) and resistors (RF and RG) that avoid both the input resistive loading effect and the unbalanced input impedances issue. In addition, RF and RG increase the buffer pairs’ differ­ ence­mode voltage gains (GDM) to 1 + 2RF/RG while keeping their common­mode voltage gains (GCM) equal to 1. This sig­ nificantly improves the 3­op­

EP&Dee ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ www.epd-ee.eu

ly overlooked, reduced com­ mon­mode input voltage range (VCM). Referring to Figure 4, the input voltages (V1, V2) can be represented by common­mode input voltage (VCM) and differ­ ence­mode input voltage (VDM).

That is, V1 = VCM + VDM/2 and V2 = VCM + VDM/2.

The amplifiers (A1, A2) provide a difference­mode voltage gain (GDM), which is equal to the over­ all gain (G), and a common­mode

gain (GCM) equal to 1. VOUT1, VOUT2 and VOUT must remain within the allowed output volt­ age range between VOL and VOH. The 3­op­amp INA configura­ tion also places specific limits on VDM and VCM and, specifically, its VCM range will be significantly reduced when it operates in a high gain configuration.

The 3­op­amp INA offers high common­mode rejection ratio (CMRR3INA), freedom from resistive loading effects, bal­ anced input impedances and the ability to adjust the overall gain without needing to change more than one resistor value.

Conversely, its VCM range is reduced, and the increased number of op amps increases power and cost.

Two-op-amp instrumentation amplifier Compared to the 3­op­amp INA, the 2­op­amp INA in Figure 5 provides savings in cost and power consumption. Its input impedances are also very high, which avoids resistive loading effects and the unbalanced input impedances issue. Its common­mode rejection ratio (CMRR2INA) is primarily deter­ mined by the overall gain and the net matching tolerance of R2/R1 and R2*/R1*.

As shown in Figure 5, the input voltages (V1, V2) can be repre­ sented by common­mode input voltage (VCM) and difference­ mode input voltage (VDM). That is, V1 = VCM – VDM/2, and V2 = VCM + VDM/2. Once again, VOUT and VOUT1 must stay the allowed output voltage range between VOL and VOH, and this configura­ tion also places limits on VDM and VCM values.

Unlike the 3­op­amp INA, the VCM range of the 2­op­amp INA will be significantly reduced when it operates in a low­gain configuration. Moreover, the circuit’s asymmetry in its com­ mon­mode signal path causes a phase delay between VOUT1 and V1, degrading the AC CMRR per­ formance. Referring to Figure 5, the input signal V1 must pass through amplifier A1 before it can be subtracted from V2 by amplifier A2. Thus, the VOUT1 is slightly delayed and phase shift­ ed with respect to V2. This is a significant limitation.

Figure 6 shows that by adding the resistor RG between two inverting inputs, the overall gain of the 2­op­amp INA can be eas­ ily set by adjusting only RG. The R2/R1 ratio is usually cho­

sumption, compared to the 3­ op­amp INA. Its disadvantages include reduced VCM range, poor AC CMRR2INA, due to the cir­ cuit’s asymmetry, and inability to operate at unity gain. n Figure 6

sen for the desired minimum gain. Another benefit of adding the resistor RG is that the large resistor value usage of R2 and R2* can be avoided in very high­ gain configurations. As with the other configurations, detail cal­ culations (Reference 1) yield the requirements for VDM and VCM, for the of 2­op­amp INA with additional RG. This final circuit arrangement offers high DC common­mode rejection (CMRR2INA), absence of resistive loading effect, bal­ anced input impedances and reduced cost and power con­

REFERENCES 1. Zhen, Yang, “Current Sensing Circuit Concepts and Fundamentals”, Microchip Application Note AN1332 2. Smither, M. A., Pugh, D.R. and Woolard, L.M., “C.M.R.R. Analysis of the 3-Op-Amp Instrumentation Amplifier”, Electronics Letters, 2 Feb. 1989.

3. Sedra, A.S. and Smith, K.C., “Microelectronic Circuits”, 4th Edition, Oxford University Press, 1998.

www.microchip.com

Microchip expands family of low-cost, small-package 32-bit PIC32 microcontrollers Microchip announces a new series of low pin-count 32-bit PIC32 microcontrollers (MCUs) that provide 61 DMIPS of performance in packages as small as 5 mm × 5 mm, for space-constrained and costsensitive designs. The PIC32 “MX1” and “MX2” MCUs are the smallest and lowest-cost PIC32 microcontrollers, and are the first PIC32 MCUs to feature dedicated audio and capacitive-sensing peripherals. Rated for operation up to 105°C, the PIC32 MX1 and MX2 MCUs include up to 128 KB of Flash and 32 KB of RAM, two I2S interfaces for audio processing, an integrated hardware peripheral for adding mTouch™ capacitive touch buttons or advanced sensors, and an 8-bit Parallel Master Port (PMP) interface for graphics or external memory. Additionally, the new devices feature an onchip 10-bit, 1 Msps, 13-channel

Analogue-to-Digital Converter (ADC), and serial-communications peripherals, with the PIC32 MX2 MCUs adding USB OTG. The MCUs are offered in packages from 28- to 44-pins, with sizes down to 5 mm × 5 mm, and a 0.5 mm pitch. The PIC32 MX1 and MX2 devices are compatible with Microchip’s 16-bit PIC24F product line for easy migration, and are supported by the MPLAB® X IDE single development environment for all of Microchip’s 8-, 16- and 32-bit MCUs.

Microchip Technology www.microchip.com/get/S79W

Microchip Further Expands Stand-Alone Real-Time Clock Calendar Device Family Microchip announces the expansion of its family of standalone Real-Time Clock/Calendar (RTCC) family with the I2C™ MCP7940M RTCC device. This new device is designed for the price-competitive consumer products market, and includes 64 Bytes of SRAM as additional scratchpad memory, as well as a digital-trimming circuit that can compensate up to 11 seconds per day for crystal error.

The MCP7940M devices provide accurate timekeeping at a low cost for applications in the home-appliance; audio/video; and consumer-electronic markets, among others.

Following the launches of Microchip’s stand-alone I2C MCP79410 and SPI MCP795WXX/BXX RTCC devices in 2010 and 2011, respectively, the MCP7940M device has a simple feature set that meets the needs of the high-volume segment of the RTCC device market.

Microchip now has stand-alone RTCC devices for the low, mid and upper-mid ranges of this market. The on-chip digital trimming circuit has a wide trim-

ming range of ±127 ppm, enabling designers to select lower-quality crystals for their designs to reduce overall system costs.

Microchip’s MCP79410 RTCC PICtail™ Plus Daughter Board (part # AC164140, $45) is available, today. The board works with Microchip’s Explorer 16 Development Board (part # DM240001), PIC18 Explorer Board (part # DM183032),

PICkit™ Serial Analyzer (part # DV164122), and XLP 16-bit Development Board (part # DM240311).

The MCP7940M RTCC is available today in 8-pin MSOP, PDIP, SOIC, TSSOP and 2mm × 3mm TDFN packages.

Microchip Technology www.microchip.com/get/SS5J

Microchip expands PIC24 Lite MCU portfolio with lowest-cost 16-bit PIC® MCU family Microchip announces a new 16bit PIC24 Lite microcontroller (MCU) family that combines eXtreme Low Power (XLP) technology, low price and low pincount packages for the most cost-sensitive consumer, medical, and safety/security applications. The PIC24F “KL” family features typical sleep currents of 30 nA at 25°C, and typical run currents of 150 μA/MHz at 1.8V. In order to optimise lowcost applications, these products include flexible peripherals, such as the Master Synchronous Serial Port (MSSP), which enables designers to configure either an I2C™ or Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI), as well as the Enhanced Capture/ Compare/PWM (ECCP) peripheral that allows designers to customise for multiple PWM and input-capture configurations.

The “KL” family of products is available in 14-, 20- and 28-pin packages. Today’s manufactur-

ers are under intense pressure to cut costs, even as they deliver more sophisticated, lowerpower products. With a combination of features in low pincount packages, the PIC24 “KL” MCUs provide an ideal entrylevel 16-bit solution for applications with lower I/O and memory requirements, such as lowcost electronic toys, electric shavers and portable bloodpressure monitors. The MCUs perform at up to 16 MIPS with a flexible peripheral set, enabling customers to differentiate their products in the marketplace while keeping costs low.

Microchip Technology www.microchip.com/get/TK5R

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13

EMBEDDED DESIGN

Noise reduction technology makes everything clearer Face to face meetings and conversations in our business and personal lives are becoming less frequent in order to save cost and time.

Mobile phones and voice over internet technology (VoIP) have enabled this significant change in how we interface with one another.

The quality of sound and the suppression of noise are crucial to ensure a good user experience with voice communications.

by David Coode, Manager – Audio DSP, ON Semiconductor

Rarely do we experience true quiet, and we have become so accustomed to noise that most of us don’t notice it anymore. The human brain can do an outstanding job of filtering out noise that we are exposed to; we hear it all, but only listen to what we’re interested in. However, as the world becomes a noisier place and the use of mobile phones, laptops and webcams increases, it is more difficult to filter out the noise.

Due to rapidly advancing electronics tech­ nology, several approaches and potential solutions now exist to manage noise and improve voice clarity. The effectiveness of various solutions can vary dramatically, and what constitutes good clean communi­ cations is contextual and subjective. It can be difficult to understand how one solution compares to another, and which is better for a given application.

The value of a technology solution to improve the communication capability of a laptop, for instance, is highly related to the context in which that laptop will be used.

The user of a notebook for a Skype call will want the netbook to pick up only his voice and suppress background noise, whereas a student using the same notebook to record a lecture will want to effectively pull speech from any location out of the ambi­ ent noise of the lecture hall. A solution may be judged effective in one scenario and a failure in another. A compromise solution may perform sub optimally in both, but

14 EP&Dee ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ www.epd-ee.eu

A digital approach to advanced noise management

provide value to both users.

Mapping the technical solutions available by use is hard enough, but it is even more challenging to explain audio differentiation to retail consumers, when all products can tritely boast “great audio performance” in marketing material. With few audio demo opportunities available, consumers are often left to chance on first purchases.

Comparing noise reduction technologies The technology that provides noise reduc­ tion solutions breaks into three broad classes: electro acoustic, analog and digital.

Electro acoustic solutions involve micro­ phone element design, selection and place­ ment of the microphone and the acoustic coupling design for microphone mounts.

Noise cancelling or gradient microphones are a simple example of an inexpensive solution that can give a moderate benefit in some situations. Good electro acoustic design is important to get good perform­ ance out of any voice communications

device, but that base performance can be further improved through the use of mod­ ern digital and analog circuits.

Analog solutions involve direct manipula­ tion of the electrical signals that are pro­ duced by a microphone or an array of microphones. Simple solutions such as compression or directional ‘time of arrival’ processing may be more efficient in an analog form since they avoid the digital conversion stages. However, manufacturing variances inherent in semiconductor processes directly affect the performance of an analog solution in a way that digital processes are designed to avoid. As analog solutions become more complex in a bid to deliver more value, the performance vari­ ance at each processing step will com­ pound with each subsequent step. This has effectively kept any successful analog audio products relatively simple. Analog solutions also lack the functional flexibility possible with a digital solution, since analog systems implement processing within the silicon design, rather than as a software layer over a flexible foundation.

Digital solutions involve the sampling or quantization of the electrical signal from the microphone so that computer proces­ sors can apply repeatable algorithms on the signal. This is then either transmitted in digital form or reconstructed as an improved analog representation of the

EMBEDDED DESIGN captured speech. Since the digital solutions have many inherent benefits with today’s silicon tech­ nology, it is not surprising that most of the available solutions fall into this class.

Digital solutions can realize any algorithm in order to reduce noise or improve the quality of speech.

Typically, these algorithms consist of spatial selectivity (where is the speech coming from?), temporal selectivity (when is there speech or not speech?) and frequency selectivity (is the speech at higher or lower pitch than the noise?).

Some solutions only focus on one of these aspects, but the best will use a combination of them.

Additional refinements can be added in the form of gain control, advanced environmental modeling, or other concepts.

A solution that relies heavily on spatial selectivity – also known as beam forming or directional pro­ cessing – will be well suited to an application where the speaker is in a known location relative to the microphones. Such approaches are used in notebooks and mobile phones, but carry inherent disad­ vantages. In notebooks, this sce­ nario is well suited for video call­ ing, where the sound pickup is confined to the direction of the camera, but it doesn’t allow for the same computer to be used as a conference phone with several people around a table. In mobile phones, the location of the speech is usually very tightly constrained to enable ambient noise reduction, but this means that the voice may be dropped if the phone isn’t held in the correct position.

In contrast, a solution that relies on the statistics of human speech to make ongoing instantaneous decisions about what should be kept as speech and what should be filtered out as noise can handle a broader scope of uses effectively.

Unfortunately, these solutions are never completely accurate in classi­ fying the speech against the noise.

The more aggressively they are tuned, the more distortions a user will hear as parts of the speech get filtered out as a result of misclassi­ fications. Typically, intelligibility is maintained while naturalness can suffer. On a mobile phone, this may not matter since naturalness is already degraded by the wireless network, but in other applications

such as a voice recorder, it may be of critical importance.

The best digital solutions tend to be blended algorithms that com­ bine pieces of all the approaches in an intelligent way.

These solutions can often adapt to different circumstances, but also often add a heavier burden of tun­ ing or customizing a more complex technology.

Products such as ON Semiconductor’s BelaSigna R261 single chip digital noise reduction processor are representative of the latest digital technology available to give clean voice capture. The device’s ultra miniature SoC format and low power consumption fit well with the needs of small form factor portable voice products.

BelaSigna R261 has an advanced two microphone noise reduction algorithm that improves perceived speech quality while preserving naturalness. Offered with a range of prototyping tools, it is an exam­ ple of the easier to design in solu­ tions that are becoming readily available to consumer electronics product designers.

An engineer selecting a technical solution to improve voice quality needs to consider the impact beyond the audio performance merits of a solution. Some solutions will demand specific microphone types or microphone placement and acoustic design which can compromise the overall industrial or mechanical design of the prod­ uct. Some solutions may draw an unacceptably high level of power from the battery or not fit into the available space on a PCB. In almost any design, cost will also be a deciding factor.

Conclusion Currently there is no universal standard by which solutions can be compared. Product designers have a challenging task to interpret the audio performance needs of their market and translate those into the best technology choice for their product. However, the latest digital noise reduction solutions offer small chips, low power consump­ tion and advanced algorithms.

These solutions give excellent options to choose from when designing products for clear high quality voice communications. n

www.farnell.com

The Freescale Cup Challenge hits the road at embedded world Intelligent car racing competition showcased in live action in foyer between the East Entrance and Hall 4A where the main Freescale booth is located.

The Freescale Cup, sponsored by Freescale Semiconductor is a global competition where student teams build, program and race an intelligent model car around a track. The fastest car to complete the track without derailing wins the race. 2011 ­ 2012 is the first season of the Freescale Cup in the EMEA region. More than 200 undergraduate students from the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Poland, Romania, Russia and Slovakia signed up to partici­ pate as teams in the EMEA Freescale Cup. This challenge offers a collaborative, com­ petitive and hands­on way for students to learn about embedded systems engineer­ ing and how to apply it in a real­world application.

Anatomy of an Intelligent Car The creation of this intelligent car requires: • embedded software programming and basic circuit creation using Freescale parts included in the entry kit • students to create motor control hardware and soft­ ware to propel and steer their intelligent car • students to interface with a camera to navigate the car through the race course by follow­ ing the guideline The standard intel­ ligent car compo­ nents are the model car kit, servo, electric mo­ tors, a battery with a charger and a quick start guide. Below is a list of the specific ele­ ments by function: • chassis ­ 1/18 Scale model • propulsion ­ 7.2V DC motors (one for each rear wheel) • steering ­ servo motor • control system – Freescale Qorivva MPC5604B automo­ tive microcontroller

• motor control – Freescale analog board • an MC33931 H­Bridge • guidance ­ CMOS camera The teams of up to three students each received their Freescale Cup car kits in October and have been working with their school professors to create the fastest smart car in the EMEA region.

European Final On April 3­4, 2012, more than 90 students from the 15 enrolled schools will race for the EMEA Freescale Cup title.

At the event, which will be hosted by the Czech Technology University, the students will have a chance to demonstrate what they have learned during two qualification rounds where each car has to run its best lap time over two consecu­ tive laps. The 112 sq/m race­ track includes challenging sections with speed bumps, an intersection, a hill, a tun­ nel and zigzag curves.

Finally, as grand prize, the winning team will be invited to attend the Freescale Technology Forum (FTF) in San Antonio, TX to show their achievement and race their vehicle against finalists from other regions.

FREESCALE SEMICONDUCTOR www.freescale.com

www.epd-ee.eu ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ EP&Dee

15

WIRELESS DESIGN

A second chance for Near Field Communication

There’s life in the old dog yet The NFC (Near Field Communication) standard is already nine years old. At the time of its launch there was a non-stop flood of ideas about the functions mobiles would be able to offer, from acting as keys and wallets to ID. Up to now, not much has happened but now these – and many more – functions are actually going to become reality. It is rumoured that Apple is going to incorporate NFC chips into the next iPhone and that Google will install the chip in its new Nexus S. As reference mobiles for all developers who write Android programs, this will give NFC a significant boost. Analysts from Juniper Research estimate that, over the next year, every fifth mobile will be an NFC device; NXP anticipates 70 million NFC mobiles in 2011 alone.

by Bernd Hantsche Manager Wireless Competence Center Rutronik Elektronische Bauelemente GmbH NFC is a transmission standard for the contactless transfer of data over a few centimetres. It operates in the 13.56MHz frequency range with a maximum data rate of 424kBit/s. NFC technology is standardised in accordance with ISO 14443, 18092, 21481 ECMA 340, 352, 356, 362 or ETSI TS 102 190. There are three modes available which can be selected according to the requirements of the application: In reader/writer mode, the device equipped with the NFC chip, e.g. the mobile, functions purely as an RFID read/write device. It reads or writes to passive transponders which comply with ISO18000-3 Mod1, ISO14443A/B/C or ISO15693.

This mode is used to retrieve information which is stored in a tag.

In card emulation mode, the NFC device is recognised as a transponder. By recording and automatically responding to signals, a mobile can be used to unlock a car, as an access card, to pay in the supermarket or to buy tickets in buses or on trains.

When two NFC devices actively communicate with each other, this is known as the peer-to-peer

mode. Simply by holding two devices next to each other, users can exchange contacts, links, photos or music files without any further clicks. It is even possible to play a game together on both

16 EP&Dee ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ www.epd-ee.eu

devices. This is also possible more easily, quickly and energy efficiently using two Bluetoothcompatible devices, but an NFCbased connection is considerably more secure and cheaper.

NFC components STMicroelectronics offers two NFC components: With an SPI and UART interface, the IC CR95HF transceiver only supports the reader/writer mode.

WIRELESS DESIGN The data rate varies depending on the ISO/IEC standard.

With ISO 14443 A and B, a maximum gross data rate of 424Kbps can be achieved, with ISO 18092 424Kbps is possible and with ISO 15693 just 52Kbps. However, the read range is the greatest with ISO15693. This makes this IC transceiver ideal for applications such as access control and timerecording systems.

The ST21NFCA system-on-chip (SoC) solution from STMicroelectronics contains all the hardware and software for a complete NFC system and supports all three modes. In addition to the standards which also support the CR95HF, ECMA340 (NFCIP-1) and FeliCaTM also complement the NFC microcontroller. An I²C or SPI interface is available for connecting the component with a host processor.

The single-wire protocol (SWP) interface provides the connection with a universal integrated circuit card (UICC).

For example, using parameter settings, the SoC enables filling quantities to be regulated or temperature and mixing ratios to be set for industrial coffee machines, firmware updates to be installed from TVs, devices to be calibrated or POS terminals to be protected against misuse via product activation. All these applications can be provided with an RFID reader or an NFC device in combination with the dual interface EEPROM. In addition to the passive HF interface as per ISO15693, the IC transponder has a standard I²C interface for communication with a μController. The memory capacity is 64 Kbits and it has a unique ID with 64 bits. For security, the component offers 32-bit password protection.

With a μController, a CR2032 battery and a sensor (e.g. temperature sensor), the ST21NFCA is ideal for use as a data logger.

The μController reads the temperature data of the sensor and writes it via the I²C interface into the memory of the dual interface EEPROM. An RFID reader can then read this on request. This passive data transfer has the advantage that the stored data cannot just be read when there is power to the memory, as is usually the case, but also when the

data logger is switched off or there is no power supply.

The RFID antenna can be placed directly on the PCB. Should there be insufficient space for this, then the antenna can also be realised by an inductor. In addition to a program for the dimensioning of

the pairing of the Bluetooth hands-free device.

Google has chosen to focus the theme of a ‘smart home’ with Android. Here smartphones and tablets recognise and communicate with devices in the household via wireless technologies –

… and today In reality, only isolated NFC offers are available at the moment.

Deutsche Bahn is currently trialling its Touch&Travel NFC ticketing system. Before and after their journey, the passenger scans their mobile at a reader in the station.

the antenna, STMicroelectronics also provides application notes for the antenna design.

Such a design permits the convenient and reliable recording of temperatures during the transport of blood supplies or food. If other sensors are connected, other physical values such as pressure or vibrations can be measured and recorded.

in effect like a universal remote control for the entire home.

From Version 2.3, Android already supports NFC. Other NFC applications are described by the NFC Forum, an association comprising manufacturers of mobile phones, semiconductors and consumer electronics as well as other interested companies. Members include Microsoft, NEC, Nokia, NTT Docomo, Renesas Electronics, Samsung, Sony, MasterCard and Visa. They promote the so-called ‘smart poster’ where NFC chips in reader/writer mode are integrated into a poster, billboard, the page of a magazine or even three-dimensional items. When an NFC device is held close to the tag, it reads the information stored there, perhaps a website address for buying tickets on a concert poster, the day’s menu with the option to place an order on a restaurant menu or special offers on display in a shop.

Deutsche Bahn then calculates the route travelled and the ticket price which is deducted from the account specified by the customer. NFC ticket purchasing at Hanau near Frankfurt or paying at the Metro ticket office are still in the test phase.

The applications of tomorrow …

Concepts such as cashless payment, access control and immobilisers using wireless technology are sufficiently well known.

The renewed popularity of NFC technology is also encouraging the development of new ideas.

For example, BMW is working on a solution where, when the driver is identified using an NFC device, the car will not only unlock itself and disarm the immobiliser, but also automatically adjust the seat position, mirror, radio station and

The unanimous opinion: Technically, the system functions smoothly, customer feedback is positive – all that is missing are the NFC mobiles. But it seems that this is all about to change: It is not only Google and Apple that are turning to short-range wireless technology; at this year’s Mobile World Congress, almost all the manufacturers announced the installation of wireless technology and the mobile operators currently agree on uniform NFC standards.

So the signs are good that this time round that NFC won’t just be a flash in the pan! n www.rutronik.com

www.epd-ee.eu ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ EP&Dee

17

Mechanical elements PCB­DESIGN

Mechanical elements for electronics in TME’s range of products At least two factors decide about functional properties of any electronic appliance: hardware - software and mechanical solutions. Mechanics is usually treated by electronics designers as necessary evil, but expertise concerning this subject is necessary even at the PCB designing stage.

Designers responsible for the mechanical part of electronic equipment will find in TME’s range of products a number of various elements used in their manufacturing.

Because of obvious reasons, this offer will be presented in the most important points.

Grommets Let us start the overview from small–sized, inconspicuous rubber gromets used for leading electrical wires from the inside to the outside of the enclo­ sure. Their task is to prevent damages of insulation which result from rubbing wires against sharp edges of encapsula­ tion holes. Grommets available in TME are categorized under FIX­GR symbol. Each of these elements is characterized by three parameters: mounting hole diameter, grommet hole diameter and wall thick­ ness. Grommet hole diameter is selected depending on the thickness of wire bundle or a single cable that go through a grom­ met mesh. The smallest mesh has a diam­ eter of 3,2mm and the biggest: 18,5mm.

The mounting hole is always several dozen percent bigger. The thickness of the walls to which FIX­GR grommets are adjusted amount from 1 to 20 mm.

poliethylene protections of hole edges marked by the KG­xxx symbol. Their advantage, in comparison to rubber grom­ mets, is the possibility of protecting holes without the necessity of taking cables through the protection mesh. Therefore, such guards can also be used to protect grommets in case the original grommet is damaged. These elements are licensed in 10 meter segments cut during the assem­ bly to the length corresponding to the hole circumference (figure 1). They can also be assembled onto walls with the thickeness from 1 to 3 mm..

Hole plugs Unused holes may disfigure equipment enclosure, and due to their sharp edges,

they pose certain threat to users. TME’s range of products includes FIX­M hole plugs by means of which those deficien­ cies can be removed in efficient and aes­ thetic manner. Hole plugs are made of balck, matt nylon holding 94V­2 incom­ bustibility certificate. They can be used to mask holes with the diameter from 4,8 to 30mm and wall thickness from 4,5 to 12mm. To mask rectangular holes with the dimensions of 9,5×13 mm and 9,5×26 mm, FIX­MSQx hole plugs can be used.

Rivets By no means constitute riveted connec­ tions a totally forgotten relict of the past.

On the contrary, this method of connecting two elements is in particular cases

Figure 1 All grommets are manufctured from matt, black rubber.

Another type of wire protection led out to the outside of the enclosure are

18 EP&Dee ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ www.epd-ee.eu

Figure 2

Mechanical elements PCB­DESIGN willingly used up till now. Rivets, apart from their basic mechanical function, fulfill decorative functions. TME’s offer includes a rich range of these assembly elements. They can be found under the GR symbol. These elements are made of black or white polyamide, and can be used in the range of temperatures from –40 to +85°C. GR rivets are pressed in, which allows their simple disassembly. The thickness of connected elements may be range from 1 to 20,5mm, whereas the assembly hole diameter should be within 3,1 and 6,1 mm (figure 2).

Spacers Properly selected spacers are frequently used for electronic appliances assembly works. They ensure adequate spacing of electronic elements from enclosure chas­ sis, by which they protect against acciden­ tal short circuit and ensure proper ventil­ lation on both sides of the board. TME offers spacers types appropriate for a given appliance:

Figure 3

A hexagonal intersection allows easy fasten­ ing of the spacer to a carrying element by means of an appropriate wrench.

By means of TFM spacers, a distance of 5 to 50 mm can be obtained, in case of TDYSFM spacers, this range is from 5 to 30 mm.

PCB guards Assembly of printed circuit boards on appliances is very often achieved by pcb guards, which , on the other hand, are mounted on the enclosure by means of a

The bottom thickness may be from 1 to 3,5mm. Those elements are manufactured from modified polyethylene in black colour, whereas external wheel is made of polypropylene.

Figure 4 snap fastener. In TME these elements are marked as CGLA. The pcb guards length is 38,4 or 81 mm. A slot in which the board is located has got in each case the thick­ ness of 2,1 mm (figure 4).

Quick mounting feet Feet constitute an obligatory element of every electronic appliance. They should be selected according to the size and shape of the enclosure. TME’s range of feet is very rich. Those elements bear the marking FF and FIX­FR. The feet are adapted for quick

Figure 5

• Polyamide spacers with a hole with the internal diameter of 2,2 to 4,2 mm (figure 3a). They have cylindrical shape and smooth internal surface. Those spacers, whose TME symbol is FIX, have the length from 2 to 6 mm, 2…20 mm or 2 …30 mm, depending on the diameter.

• Polyamide spacers with M3 two­sided internal thread (figure 3b) – HP marking.

They have a hexagonal intersection and ensure spacing on the length of from 6 to 45 mm..

• Metal (Nickel plated brass) spacers with two–sided M3 internal thread (figure 3c) – TFM and TDYSFM marking. They perform a similar function as polyamide spacers, how­ ever, they are available with M3 and M4 external and internal threads (figure 3d).

snap fastening, which considerably facili­ tates related operations during equipment manufacturing. FF feet height can be selected from the range from 4,4 to 15mm, whereas FIX­FR feet are available in the versions from the height of 5 to 18mm.

Handles and holders Almost the whole enclosure is finished now, but it often happens, in particular in case of professional equipmen,t that hold­ ers are mounted to enclosures to enable easy carrying and their installation in switchboxes. For example, TME offers handles marked with the FIX­HANU sym­ bol. They are made of ABS or nylon. They are available in various mounting holes spacing and holder height dimensions.

Mounting holes footprint is equal to: 26, 32, 40 or 51 mm.

The presented part of TME’s range of products regarding mechanical compo­ nents includes several elements most frequently used in electronic appliances.

Elements visible outside of the enclosure constitute aesthetic completion of the design and at the same time they maintain high functionality. Snap or holders fasten­ ing considerably reduces the time neces­ sary to conduct mounting operations time.

Those elements are continuously available both in retail and wholesale quantities. n

More information available at:

Transfer Multisort Elektronik Tel.: +48 42 645 54 44 Fax: +48 42 645 54 70 export@tme.eu www.tme.eu

www.epd-ee.eu ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ EP&Dee 19

PCB-Design TRAINING

EAGLE Version 6 Introduction of the Control Panel CadSoft Computer introduced a new major release of their Layout Software EAGLE in December 2011. The new version 6 starts with all the functionality an Electronic Design Engineer needs for drawing schematics and creating a printed circuit board.

New is that EAGLE's internal data structure is in XML format,which currently is unique in the professional ECAD software world.

The first article of this series will explain the basics of the EAGLE Control Panel which is the EAGLE starting window.

The user can get an overview about the Libraries and the User Language Programs EAGLE comes with and that's the place where you manage existing and new projects. It's also the place where you can decide about a number of pro­ gramm settings.

On the left hand side of the Control Panel you find the so­ called tree view.

Click onto one of the entries and the preview of the compo­ nent will be shown.

The same can be done for “User Language Programs” or, for example, for the “Projects” branch. By the way: User Language Programs (ULPs) are more or less simple, C­like programs that can be used for a variety of tasks. It is possible to export data from your schematic or layout into any format. There is for exam­ ple “dxf.ulp” which creates DXF data or “bom.ulp” for creating a

Language is described in the EAGLE help file. ULPs can be used to modify your project and automize certain tasks. All in all that's a very flexible tool with countless options. Look into the ULPs that come with EAGLE or check for additional

folder, either on your local com­ puter or on a network server.

You are allowed to specify sever­ al folders, if you like to. Let's say you prefer to have the default libraries available on a server, and your personal ones are located in your private folders.

Library preview

Control Panel -- Tree view Opening one of the branches, for example “Libraries”, shows all the library files that come with EAGLE. Expand one of the entries and you will see the Devices and Packages that are contained in the library file.

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bill of materials. Importing data is possible as well. Provided you have a good description of the data format you could write such a program by yourself in order to import data into EAGLE. The whole User

EP&Dee ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ www.epd-ee.eu

files in the Download area of CadSoft's web site. www.cadsoft.de On top of the Control Panel there is located the menu bar.

The “Options” entry leads you to some interesting configura­ tion possibilities.

Click onto the first entry “Directories”. Here you can decide about where EAGLE has to look for its files. Libraries, User Language Programs, the Projects, Design Rule files and CAM jobs can be located in any

Directories dialog The second entry in the “Options” menu is about “Backup”. EAGLE creates a number of backup files each time you save your project.

There is a maximum of 9 possi­

ble backups. They are named with the file extension .b#1 to .b#9 for the board file (*.brd).

The same for schematics (*.sch) and library files (*.lbr).

They get the extensions .s#1 to s#9 and .l#1 to .l#9 accordingly.

The automatic backup which is created automtically in the given interval has the extension .b/s/l##. If you have to recover one of the backups you rename it to a valid EAGLE extension.

Backup dialog The “Options/User Interface” menu allows you to change the background colors of the Editor

can be found in the “Help/Check for Update” menu. Here you can control whether EAGLE is allowed to check for newer versions avail­ able on the CadSoft webserver.

As soon as a new release is available EAGLE will tell you.

You can EAGLE let check for beta versions as well. So you can be sure to be always up to date.

As stated in the beginning, all the basic settings can be made in the EAGLE Control Panel.

EAGLE will save all these in your “home” folder in a user­ specific configuration file which is named .eaglerc for Linux and Mac OS­X and eaglerc.usr for Windows.

There are some more options in the menus. Look into them and find out what you can do with the Control Panel. By the way: The EAGLE manual which comes with EAGLE as a PDF

Freescale Xtrinsic eCompass software provides fast, accurate orientation data for mobile devices New sensor fusion solution delivers highly accurate context awareness for mobile, 3D gaming, and eHealth applications

Smart devices in a variety of markets require precise head­ ing information from multiple sensors to better understand the context of their surround­ ings. Freescale Semiconductor announced Xtrinsic eCompass software, a new sensor fusion solution that works together with a Freescale Xtrinsic accelerometer and magne­ tometer to provide highly accurate magnetic data.

User interface

Check for update windows or the appearance of the mouse cursor. You can also decide about the toolbars to be displayed or hidden.

One further interesting setting

file, contains an extra chapter about the Control Panel. n

www.farnell.com

With Xtrinsic eCompass soft­ ware, mobile applications such as augmented reality, 3D gaming, eHealth and location­ based services have faster and more accurate orientation data with optimized performance to significantly enhance the user experience.

According to an IHS iSuppli MEMS & Sensors H2 2011 Special Report, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of magnetic sensors is 14 per­ cent in the wireless market and 56 percent in the con­ sumer market, while global

revenue from motion sensor technology in smartphones and tablets is expected to nearly double over the next five years, expanding from $1.1 billion in 2011 to $1.9 billion by 2015. Mobile appli­ cations rely on compass read­ ings based on combined data extracted from magnetome­ ters and accelerometers, and Xtrinsic eCompass calibration and compensation software is necessary to correct for mag­ netic distortions prevalent in today’s complex devices.

Advanced sensor fusion algo­ rithms allow the inherent strengths of various sensors to trade off one another in order to achieve far greater optimization.

Using Freescale’s Xtrinsic eCompass software, designers can quickly solve their design challenges and employ highly accurate sensing technologies for a variety of mobile appli­ cations. Supporting applica­ tion note documentation, development tools and an embedded simulation frame­ work are just a few of the essential tools provided to make this software integration effort seamless.

FREESCALE SEMICONDUCTOR www.freescale.com

www.epd-ee.eu ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ EP&Dee

21

LIGHTING INDUSTRY NEWS

OMC’s three decades of innovation conveniently highlighted by market sector

CompactPCI® Serial Multi-Display Controller G214 with AMD Radeon™ GPU E6760

OMC, the pioneer in LED lighting, backlighting and industrial fibre optic transmission, is presenting a wealth of new products and technologies on a new website at www.omc-uk.com.

Conveniently split into components – LED backlights for LCD displays, fibre optics including connectors, cable assemblies, transmitter/receivers etc and LED lamps and displays – and LED lighting covering luminaires, floodlights and conventional bulb and tube replacements, the new site also has a section highlighting the solutions relevant so specific market sectors.

OMC’s products are used globally in a wide range of industries including retail, leisure, petrochem, aerospace and defence, transportation, medical and instrumentation. In order to make it simple for engineers working in these markets to evaluate the technologies offered by the company, OMC dedicates part of its new website to these

MEN's latest CompactPCI Serial peripheral board G214 offers excellent graphics performance thanks to the AMD Radeon E6760 GPU and is especially suited for multi-display applications. It is used in control rooms for (video) surveillance, in simulators, in professional audio/video equipment as well as in digital signage applications.

A Real Eyecatcher: Excellent Graphics, a Lot of Power Thanks to AMD's Eyefinity technology which is supported by the E6760 GPU on the G214, up to six different displays can be controlled independent from each other.

By standard, the G214 is equipped with four DisplayPort 1.2 interfaces at the front which have a maximum resolution of 4096×2560 at 60 Hz and a color depth of 24 bpp. By choosing a wider front panel two additional DisplayPorts with a resolution of 2560×1600 can be accommodated. The GPU offers 480 stream processors with a fre-

and other industries highlighting the products and solutions that are most applicable to the sector.

For example, in the petrochemical and power distribution pages, the company explains how the use of industrial fibre optic links can transmit data quickly and securely. Similarly, in

the instrumentation section, OMC details how LED backlights – pioneered by the company over 25 years ago – provide a clean, bright and rugged display ensuring man-machine interfaces remain clearly legible throughout a product’s life.

OMC www.omc-uk.com

Slim, adjustable and energy-saving: the DOGM128-6 graphic display ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY, a leading supplier of TFT and LCD displays for industrial applications, has added the EA DOGM128-6 model to its EA DOGM product family. The seven different optional LED backlights can be combined with five different available display technologies to give some 20 different configurations. With its superflat design and extraordinarily low energy requirement, the DOGM128-6 is particularly ideal for use in battery-operated mobile devices. An optional touch panel allows the implementation of interactive controls.

The DOGM128-6 boasts a resolution of 128×64 pixels.

Alphanumeric characters can – depending on the character size – be displayed e.g. in 8 lines of 21 characters or 4 lines of 16 characters. The integrated ST 7565R controller provides a convenient means of control.

The display comes with an integrated SPI interface for communication with the outside world.

After a single calibration by command, the contrast is automatically kept constant by the

temperature compensation facility that is also integrated.

The DOGM128-6 is available in five different technologies – FSTN positive, transflective; STN positive, yellow/green, transmissive; STN negative, blue, transmissive; FSTN negative, transmissive; and STN positive, yellow/green reflective.

ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY GmbH www.lcd-module.com

22 EP&Dee ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ www.epd-ee.eu

quency of 600 MHz - having a power dissipation of only 35 W. The OpenCL standard supported on the E6760 GPU makes it possible to increase the computing power using GPGPU (general purpose computation on graphics processing unit). As the GPU

executes the programs with a high level of parallelity, speed is increased considerably.

A 3D graphics engine and Microsoft's DirectX 11 make for an increased graphics performance. The AMD Unified Video Decoder functionality supports the H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 formats.

MEN MIKRO ELEKTRONIK www.men.de

Certified KNX / EIB transceiver with UART interface Gleichmann Electronics now offers the new E981.03 KNX / EIB transceiver from ELMOS Semiconductor. The E981.03 is a particularly high-performance and energy efficient device for networking KNX fieldbus components. The device passed conformance testing according to KNX TP1-256 specification V2.0, volume 4 and EIBA AN 149, and is certified by the KNX Association. Data exchange with a transfer rate of up to 115 kbit/s is carried out via a UART interface which can be secured with optional cyclic redundancy check (CRC). Furthermore, an SPI-compatible interface is available to users for configuration and diagnosis.

The voltage supply of the KNX application comes from the KNX bus voltage. The transceiver internally provides two independent voltage regulators for this purpose. In addition, the

E981.03 supports various energy-saving modes. For example, the host controller can be put into standby mode with low power consumption and woken up again later by a special KNX message via the bus with the help of the transceiver.

Moreover, a configurable maximum KNX bus load (determined by a maximum bus current and a maximum slew rate) guarantees a KNX compliant behavior even when errors occur in the system.

GLEICHMANN & CO. ELECTRONICS GmbH www.msc-ge.com

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS INDUSTRY NEWS

Kontron harnesses the power of the 8-core Intel Xeon Processor E5-2600 Family Kontron announced the official arrival of two new carrier grade products that channel the incredible performance and bandwidth of the new 8-core Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 family.

Based on the standardized Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture (AdvancedTCA) specification, Kontron unveils the ‘dual-socket’ AdvancedTCA 10GbE node blade AT8060. Featuring a total of up to 16 processor cores or 32 threads, four memory channels per processor running at 1600 MHz, one AdvancedMC bay, and new intelligent power management controls, the Kontron AT8060 makes for a total powerhouse and ‘must-have’ node blade, best used for high-compute and content-aware network applications implemented on Kontron 10G and 40G AdvancedTCA Open Modular

Core Platforms.

With a long and proven history dedicated to designing ‘long-life’ carrier grade communication servers, Kontron also introduces the NEBS-3 compliant communication rack mount server CG2200. Featuring a ‘dual-socket’ approach with the 8-core

Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 family, this Kontron server combines high memory, flexible I/O and storage options, and dual redundant AC or DC power options into a compact 2U, 20inch deep form factor.

KONTRON www.kontron.com

AdvancedMC processor module AM4150 with 64bit Dual-Core Freescale QorIQ Processor Kontron announced the introduction of its powerful AdvancedMC processor module AM4150.

Equipped with a 64bit Dual Core Freescale QorIQ P5020 CPU running at up to 2.2 GHz and highspeed fabrics, the new Kontron AM4150 offers outstanding performance on MicroTCA integrated platforms and as a daughter compute-intensive module board in ATCA platforms.

The Kontron AdvancedMC processor module AM4150 incorporates the high-performance Freescale QorIQ P5020 dual core processor with cores based on the e5500 Power Architecture. With high-speed frame managers and multiple high-speed connections like Serial Rapid IO (1.3/2.1) and PCI Express, the Kontron AM4150 meets highest processing requirements. To support maximum throughput and low latency, the Kontron AM4150 provides a fast

24

dual-channel memory of up to 8 GB ECC DDR3 RAM. The Kontron AM4150 provides flexible configuration of high-speed fabrics. On AMC ports 4-7, 4× SERDES lines can be configured

either as PCI Express (root complex or end point) or Serial Rapid IO (host or agent), primarily for applications which require close programming to the chip without extensive overhead and with minimum latencies. AMC ports 811may be configured either for Serial Rapid IO or PCI Express or up to 3× GbE. KONTRON www.kontron.com

EP&Dee ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ www.epd-ee.eu

Kontron launches world’s first Pico-ITX embedded motherboard with dual-core ARM Cortex A9 processor At the Embedded World trade show, Kontron (hall 1, stand 460) has announced the completion of another major milestone along the path of strategic entry into offering ARM technology based building blocks with the launch of the world’s first ARM-based long-term available Pico-ITX embedded motherboard with dual-core ARM Cortex A9. The new Kontron Pico-ITX embedded motherboard KTT20/pITX is based on the NVIDIA Tegra 2 super processor and is the first key element to the planned Low power Embedded Architecture Platform (LEAP) offerings. It is specifically designed as a readyto-use board for video-centric applications that require an extremely low power profile on a small form factor (SFF). OEMs benefit from the Kontron KTT20/pITX and the established Pico-ITX ecosystem in terms of minimized time-to-market and TCO for innovative low power

applications.

With its standards-based form factor and readily available solutions for housings and cooling, the new Kontron Pico-ITX embedded motherboard KTT20/pITX is an easy to imple-

ment and cost-efficient building block for application-ready platforms. With a maximum power consumption of only three watts, the new embedded motherboard enables fanless designs with an unprecedented performance per watt ratio and rich graphics capabilities for costsensitive SFF applications.

KONTRON www.kontron.com

IAR Systems development tools selected

by Anoto for digital pen technology IAR Systems that its flagship product, IAR Embedded Workbench, was selected by Anoto AB after a comprehensive evaluation of competing products. IAR Embedded Workbench came out as the best choice in terms of feature richness, ease of use and reliability, and has been chosen as the development platform for the future generation of digital pens from Anoto.

Anoto Group, founded in Sweden 1999, is world leading in digital pen technology, which enables fast and reliable transmission of handwritten text and illustrations into digital format from different surfaces such as paper and whiteboards. The company offers products for text scanning and interactive learning as well as business solutions for the healthcare sector, field service sector and public sector. Customers of digital pen solutions include for example,

providers of healthcare and homecare, transportation and logistics companies as well as schools and universities.

It is the world’s most widely used tool chain for 8-, 16-, and 32-bit MCUs.

IAR SYSTEMS www.iar.com/ewv850

ACTIVE COMPONENTS INDUSTRY NEWS

TI introduces RF DC/DC switching converters for 2G, 3G and 4G power amplifiers Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) added a duo of new RF DC/DC switching converters to its industry leading portfolio of RF power management integrated circuits (ICs). The new National LM3242 and LM3243 regulators are adaptive power supply ICs that minimize power consumption of the RF power amplifier (PA) across all operating conditions. Together with the National LM3241, the ICs extend battery life and reduce heat dissipated in battery-powered 2G, 3G and 4G long term evolution (LTE) portable devices such as smartphones and tablets. Operation of the radio circuitry in portable devices accounts for a significant amount of total power consumption – easily 30-percent or more. RF PAs are among the least efficient components in today’s mobile systems, typically driven at maximum power regardless of the power actually needed. TI’s new

LM3242 and LM3243 dynamically adjust the power delivered to the PA based on how much power is actually needed, saving a significant amount of energy.

The LM3242 and LM3243 are unique from traditional DC/DC switching converters as they are designed to meet stringent RF

performance requirements and enable dynamic optimization of the PA output power, saving up to 50% or more battery current consumption and reducing the PA heat by up to 30°C. TEXAS INSTRUMENTS www.ti.com

Murata Power Solutions introduces 4:1 input 204 W Quarter-brick DC/DC converter Murata Power Solutions today announced the UWQ series of isolated open-frame 204 Watt DC/DC converters packaged in a through-hole mount industry standard quarter-brick format.

Measuring just 58.4 × 36.8 × 11.7 mm and boasting an efficiency of 92%, the UWQ series has an ultra-wide 4:1 input voltage range of 18 – 75 VDC around a nominal 48 VDC input. Providing a single output voltage of 12 VDC up to 17A of current with a line regulation of +/-1% and load regulation of +/-1.5%, the UWQ series is idea for applications that require a regulated bus converter. The input to output isolation is certified to 2,250 VDC in accordance with the internationally recognized safety standard EN/UL60950.

Controls include remote On/Off control of either negative or positive polarity. In addition the converter has a number of protection features including over

26

current, over temperature, input under voltage and output short circuit.

Designed for Regulated Intermediate Bus Architectures, typical applications include optical networking applications, wireless base stations and microwave radio communications equipment. An optional baseplate is available for appli-

cations requiring conduction cooling. The UWQ series can operate from -40 to + 85 degrees C suiting applications in most environments.

MURATA POWER SOLUTIONS www.murata-ps.com

EP&Dee ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ www.epd-ee.eu

Maxim Demonstrated Highly Integrated Solutions for Embedded Designs at EW 2012 Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. offered a rich choice of design ideas for embedded applications at Embedded World 2012 in Nuremberg/Germany. With its expertise in providing highly integrated analog and mixed-signal products as well as full-featured reference designs, Maxim offers solutions for a wealth of embedded applications and helps designers speed up timeto-market. At the Maxim Tech Lounge in Hall 4A, Booth #122, the company demonstrated product highlights in the areas of Green Power/Energy Management and Signal Chain. Among these are: the fully integrated analog front-end ICs MAX2991/MAX2992 for G3Powerline Communications in noisy industrial environments; the MAX13256, a very spacesaving 10W H-bridge transformer driver for isolated power supply designs; Maxim’s compact energy harvesting solution MAX17710, the industry's first

IC to integrate all of the powermanagement functions for ambient energy harvesting as well as for charging and protecting micro-energy cells (MECs); or the MAX14821/MAX14824, the industry's smallest, full-featured solution supporting connectivity with sensors and actuators using the efficient and future-oriented IO-Link protocol. Live demos, presentations and reference

designs and on-site consultancy through Maxim’s product experts will help to solve any design challenges ‘Embedded’ designers might face today.

MAXIM INTEGRATED PRODUCTS www.maxim-ic.com

Maxim Advances the Performance of GNSS Systems with Introduction of its Automotive Grade Universal Receiver Amplifier overall receiver sensitivity and Maxim Integrated Products Inc. (NASDAQ: MXIM) introduces enables faster satellite locking.

The MAX2670 is a highly versathe MAX2769B and MAX2670, tile design that allows external next-generation high performance solutions specifically filtering between first and second stage, providing flexibility designed to address Global for system optimization. Its high Navigation Satellite System integration eliminates large, (GNSS) applications. These flexiexpensive, discrete transistor ble receiver solutions are capable of operating over the naviga- solutions. Combining these two parts delivers a highly flexible, tion standards, GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and Compass and have completed PPAP and AECQ100 approval.

The MAX2670 is Maxim’s automotive grade universal GPS receiver a dual stage low with front end amplifier improves performance, noise amplifier reduces cost, and saves space. typically located in or close to the antenna module, while the MAX2769B resides within the dashboard as the receiver. The MAX2769B boasts the industry's lowest noise figure of only 1.4dB, a critical element that dominates the

high performance and robust system solution for navigation applications.

MAXIM INTEGRATED PRODUCTS www.maxim-ic.com

ACTIVE COMPONENTS INDUSTRY NEWS

MSC now also distributes embedded wireless modules from the Sweden-based Wi-Fi specialist H&D Wireless AB MSC, official distribution partner of H&D Wireless AB, presented for the first time the innovative Wi-Fi solutions from the Swedenbased Wi-Fi specialist at embedded world 2012, Nuremberg .

The HDG104 (size: 7 mm × 8 mm) and HDG204 (size: 8 mm × 8 mm), Wi-Fi complete System in Package (SiP) modules are ideal for Atmel's ARM and AVR solutions.

They support 802.11b/g and are connected with the microcontroller via Secure Digital Input Output (SDIO) or Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI). Both devices feature a very low power consumption of only 0.4 mW in power save mode and a high transmit power of +17 dbm for 802.11/b. The module requires only 0.2 mW in sleep mode. In addition, the receiver sensitivity is significantly higher than for comparable competitor products thus resulting in up to 33% higher

range. The SDK oWL© software suite, which is delivered with both of the complete modules (SiPs), provides users, despite a size of only 140 KB, with a wide range of functions and reference

designs such as a Web Server implementation, WEP, AES or WPA/WPA2 encryption ensure high levels of security. Since the HDG104 and HDG204 WiFi complete modules (SiPs) only require a few discrete external components, testing the module is simplified and the manufacturing yield is increased.

MSC VERTRIEBS GmbH www.msc-ge.com

IAR Systems introduces I-jet™ IAR Systems® introduces I-jet™. Ijet is a slim in-circuit debugging probe, which is completely integrated into the high-performing C/C++ compiler and debugger tool suite IAR Embedded Workbench®.

and stable debugging platform, with download speeds of up to 1 MB per second, JTAG and Serial Wire Debug (SWD) clocking at up to 35 MHz, and Serial Wire Output (SWO) frequencies of up to 100 MHz. It can supply

I-jet integrates seamlessly into the IAR Embedded Workbench IDE for easy-to-use, fast and reliable debugging. It offers support for microcontrollers based on ARM7™, ARM9™, ARM11™, ARM® Cortex™-M, ARM CortexR4, and ARM Cortex-A5/A8/A9 cores. I-jet features automatic core recognition, and direct download into the flash memory of most popular microcontrollers. It has the capability of measuring target power consumption with a high degree of accuracy. I-jet provides a fast

the target boards with power and is entirely powered by USB. The Serial Wire Viewer (SWV) is supported using the UART and Manchester encoding modes.

Embedded Trace Buffer (ETB) and JTAG adaptive clocking are supported and all JTAG signals can be monitored.

The new in-circuit debugging probe will be available for purchase in April, priced at EUR 250/USD 299.

IAR SYSTEMS www.iar.com

Atollic adds support for NXP MCU

IDT Introduces New Series of Low-Jitter SiGe VCSOs for Fiber Optic Telecom Applications

Atollic® announced the addition of target support for NXP’s family of ARM Cortex™-M0 and CortexM3-based microcontrollers in its award-winning Atollic TrueSTUDIO® for ARM® C/C++ development environment. The new version of Atollic TrueSTUDIO (v3.0) is based on the latest ECLIPSE™ platform (Indigo), and provides a large number of improvements in the underlying IDE framework.

Atollic have improved the user experience, and the new TrueSTUDIO v3.0 has a redesigned and more intuitive GUI that removes some of the Eclipse interface peculiarities that often confused new users with experience from traditional embedded C/C++ development tools. Other new features of

Integrated Device Technology, the Analog and Digital Company™ delivering essential mixed-signal semiconductor solutions, announced a new series of low-jitter silicon-germanium (SiGe) voltage-controlled surface acoustic wave (SAW) oscillators (VCSOs). This new series of products supplements IDT’s popular M675 series and high-performance timing portfolio with a higher-frequency low-jitter oscillator designed to meet the stringent requirements of fiber optic telecom applications. The IDT M675S02 series is a single-frequency, single-output VCSO for low-jitter and lowphase noise clock generation, supporting fundamental frequencies from 500MHz to 1GHz. This new device provides

TrueSTUDIO v3.0 includes graphical charts for execution time analysis using statistical profiling, and improved real-time interrupt tracing, enabled by the ARM Serial Wire Viewer (SWV) interface.

Furthermore, TrueSTUDIO v3.0 includes the latest version of the

GNU C/C++ toolchain for ARM, comprising improved versions of the GNU compiler and runtime libraries, debugger and other command line utilities.

ATOLLIC TrueSTUDIO www.atollic.com

higher frequencies than previous generations, and the low jitter and phase noise help to reduce overall bit error rates (BER), making the device well-suited for phase-locked loop applications,

clock and data recovery circuits, and other timing applications in telecom and optical fiber networking systems.

INTEGRATED DEVICE TECHNOLOGY Inc. www.IDT.com

www.epd-ee.eu ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ EP&Dee

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ACTIVE COMPONENTS INDUSTRY NEWS

TI introduces world’s first configurable NDIR gas sensing and pH sensing AFEs

High-speed optocouplers: high isolation voltage & extended operating temperature range

Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) introduced two configurable analog front ends (AFE) that provide an easy-to-use, modular solution for bridging the gap between the microprocessor and sensor. Design engineers can dramatically reduce their development time by using a single AFE across multiple nondispersive infrared (NDIR) gas sensor and pH sensor platforms instead of designing several complex discrete solutions. The AFEs team with TI’s WEBENCH® Sensor AFE Designer software and bench-top development system. These tools allow engineers to select a sensor, design and configure the solution and download configuration data to the sensor AFE for immediate prototyping. For more information and to order samples, visit www.ti.com/sensorafe-pr.

The highly-integrated

MSC now offers two new highspeed optocouplers, the PS9123 and the PS9324, from Renesas Electronics. The new optocouplers feature a high communication bandwidth of 10 Mbit/s, a maximum isolation voltage of 5 kVrms and an extended operating temperature range from 40°C to +100°C for the PS9123 series and up to 110°C for the PS9324 series.

The PS9324 series has an open collector output and the maximum propagation delay time is specified as 75 ns at 25°C. The PS9123 series comes with a totem pole output, offering shorter propagation delay times as low as 65 ns at 25°C. The maximum pulse width distortion |tPHL tPLH| is less than 35 ns for the PS9324 series and less than 50 ns for the PS9123 series.

Furthermore, for operation in noisy industrial environments, the new high-performance optocou-

LMP91050 NDIR gas sensing AFE supports multiple thermopile sensors for NDIR sensing, indoor CO2 monitoring, demand control ventilation, HVAC, alcohol breath analysis, greenhouse gas monitoring and Freon detection.

The highly-integrated LMP91200 pH sensing AFE supports two electrode pH sensors used in analyzer platforms for emissions monitoring, steam and water quality monitoring, chemical/petrochemical plants, food processing and more.

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS www.ti.com

Intersil’s New 3A Rad-Hard LDO Regulator Delivers Industry’s Best Performance for High Reliability Systems Intersil Corporation has enhanced its power management portfolio with the addition of the ISL75051SRH, a radiation tolerant ultra-low dropout voltage regulator (LDO) that can operate over the full military temperature range of 55C to +125C and is offered in a 18-lead hermetic package.

The ISL75051SRH is an SMD-approved single output, ultra-low dropout linear regulator that is immune to high dose radiation up to 100krads (Si), and to single event effects without the need for additional diodes or filters, reducing board space and system cost. Dropout voltage is an ultra-low 65mV at 1A, and 225mV at 3A, permitting increased efficiency and

battery life. They operate over an input voltage range of 2.2V to 6.0V and can provide output voltages of 0.8V to 5.0V. The ISL75051SRH is an excellent design choice for DSP, FPGA and microprocessor core power sup-

plies, post-regulation of switch mode power supplies and down-hole oilfield drilling equipment.

INTERSIL CORPORATION www.intersil.com

28 EP&Dee ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ www.epd-ee.eu

plers have an internal shield providing a common-mode transient immunity (CMTI) of minimum 15 kV/μs and typical values of 20 kV/μs. The PS9324 optocouplers come in a small 6-pin shrink dual inline package (SDIP). The small package reduces the mounting space by 50 percent compared to a conventional 8-pin DIP package while guaranteeing a maxi-

mum isolation voltage of 5 kVrms and achieving a minimum creepage current distance of 8 mm (PS9324L2).

MSC VERTRIEBS GmbH www.msc-ge.com

Murata expands the line-up of micro DC-DC converters aimed at small portable devices Murata announced additions to its LXDC series of ultra compact DC-DC converters that are aimed at a broad range of mobile consumer electronics such as smartphones. The new devices, comprising the LXDC55B step-down and LXDC44A step-up models complement the existing LXDC2UR and LXDC3EP devices.

The LXDC55B measures 5.7 x 5.0 x 2.1 mm and can support output currents up to 3.0 A. Input voltage is within the range 2.7 to 5.5 VDC across the series and single output models provide the nominal output of 1.2, 1.8, 2.5, 3.0 or 3.3 VDC. Operating as an output boost converter, the LXDC44A measuring 4.0 × 4.0 × 2.0 mm can deliver up to 0.7 A output at 5 VDC from an input of 2.7 to 4.5 VDC. The existing models LXDC2UR

and the LXDC3EP, measuring 2.5 × 2.3 mm and 3.5 × 3.2 mm respectively, are believed to be the World’s smallest DC-DC converters.

Constructed on a ferrite substrate with an embedded inductor, multi-layer construction and inte-

grating the power IC and I/O capacitors together the LXDC family has good EMI suppression and reduced harmonic noise characteristics.

MURATA POWER SOLUTIONS www.murata-ps.com

ACTIVE COMPONENTS INDUSTRY NEWS

PMC is first to market with symmetric end-to-end 10G-EPON SoCs 10G-EPON ONU and OLT SoCs provide advanced features to reduce deployment costs and lower power consumption by 50% PMC-Sierra, Inc., or PMC, the semiconductor innovator transforming storage, optical and mobile networks, continues its FTTH leadership announcing the commercial availability of an end-to-end symmetric 10G-EPON fibre access System-on-Chip (SoC) solution. PMC’s highly integrated PAS9000 Optical Networking Unit (ONU) and PAS8000 Optical Line Terminal (OLT) SoCs are the industry’s first to support 10Gb/s downstream and 10Gb/s upstream access connectivity. This performance and feature integration enables carriers to provide advanced triple-play video on demand, high-speed Internet access and Voice-over-IP services to residential and business customers.

Transitioning from EPON to 10G-EPON allows carriers to connect up to 10 times more subscribers per Optical Distribution Network (ODN), reducing OPEX and CAPEX per subscriber. PMC’s 10G-EPON solutions are interoperable with deployed EPON equipment, allowing carriers to gradually upgrade their networks and deploy 10GEPON ONUs alongside EPON ONUs. PMC’s ONU devices feature the industry’s most advanced integration to reduce system cost and power. Integrated synchronization

functions enable backhauling of mobile networks over 10G-EPON, eliminating the need for external circuitry. Integrated power-saving modes reduce ONU power consumption by more than 50 percent, enabling energy-effi-

cient networks. PMC’s 10G-EPON solution complies with IEEE 802.3av and China carrier specifications and is targeted at Fibre-To-TheHome (FTTH), Fibre-To-The-Curb (FTTC) and Fibre-To-The-Building (FTTB) applications. All devices feature PMC’s field-proven GigaPASS™ architecture that achieves up to 10 gigabit data rates, and is already deployed in more than 20 million PON devices worldwide. PMC’s PAS9000 family includes the PAS9301 asymmetric ONU and the PAS9401 asymmetric and symmetric ONU. The devices include a 10G-EPON MAC, SERDES, powerful embedded controller and GigaPASS bridge for advanced classification, queuing and filtering (see figure 1).

An integrated programmable networking engine provides enhanced Quality of Service (QoS) that complies with China Telecom specification version 3.0, including IPv6 protocol support. PMC’s scalable User Network Interface is configurable to up to four GbE interfaces, up to four 2.5Gb/s interfaces, or to a 10 Gb/s interface for Single Family Unit or Multiple Dwelling Unit applications.

PMC www.pmcs.com

Zilog Announces New Z8051 MCU Product Family Featuring a Wide Array of IndustryStandard 8051-Based MCU Solutions

MSC presented e2studio, the first Eclipsebased development environment for Renesas’ RL78, RX and V850 families of MCUs

Zilog®, a wholly-owned subsidiary of IXYS Corporation and the pioneer supplier of application-specific, embedded microcontroller (MCU) system-on-chip (SoC) solutions for industrial, power management and consumer applications, today introduced its new Z8051 MCU Product Family. Zilog established itself more than thirty-five years ago as a trusted supplier of its classic cores, the Z80, Z8 and Z16 MCUs, for a variety of applications. Historically, Zilog and the 8051 core sprang to life from a common origin in Silicon Valley; for Zilog to introduce the Z8051 is simply a natural extension of this phenomenon. The Z8051 addition offers Zilog customers a wider MCU base, with freedom to design products with their cores of preference. New targeted customers within the world of IXYS products, with existing embedded design plat-

MSC presented an Eclipse-based platform, the Eclipse Embedded studio (e2studio), from Renesas Electronics at embedded world 2012, Nuremberg. The e2studio is a new Eclipse C/C++ Development Toolkit (CDT) based development platform for Renesas’ RL78, RX and V850 families of microcontrollers (MCUs).

The e2studio is equipped with build phase plug-ins for compiler toolchains from Renesas, IAR, Green Hills Software and the free-of-charge KPIT Cummins GNU compilers. Alternatively, a complete open-source solution based on Eclipse can be used.

Besides plug-in support for the various compilers, the Eclipse development environment also provides for each version a cor-

forms using the 8051 core, now have an MCU supplier committed to the long-term support of their manufacturing needs with a

wide range of peripheral mixedsignal circuits, driver ICs, power management circuits and power semiconductors.

ZILOG Inc. www.zilog.com

responding project management, version control and other useful productivity tools.

Debug support includes Renesas’ E1 & E20 on-chip debuggers, Renesas’ IECUBE full specification emulators and Segger J-Link debugger. The

implemented GDB interface enables powerful debugging functions such as real time memory update and trace.

MSC VERTRIEBS GmbH www.msc-ge.com

www.epd-ee.eu ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ EP&Dee

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PASSIVE COMPONENTS INDUSTRY NEWS

Vishay's New TANTAMOUNT® SurfaceMount Molded Tantalum Chip Capacitors Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. introduced the new TL3 series of TANTAMOUNT® surfacemount tantalum molded chip capacitors, the industry's first such devices to offer DC leakage current (DCL) as low as 0.005 CV, a capability that enables system designers to extend battery runtime in portable devices.

Offered with a wide range of capacitance and voltage values, devices in the TL3 series are optimized for a wide variety of demanding applications that require long product life, such as battery-operated equipment, portable instrumentation, tire-pressure monitoring, medical instruments, local power supplies, hand-held Instruments, and battery backup supplies.

The TL3 capacitors are offered in a molded package in five stan-

dard EIA-535BAAC case codes — A, B, C, D, and E — with standard and low ESR options. The devices offer a capacitance range from 0.1 μF to 470 μF over voltage ratings from 4 VDC to 63 VDC, with capacitance tolerances of ± 10 % and ± 20 %. Case

codes B, C, D, and E are 100 % surge current tested and offer improved reliability of 0.5 % / 1,000 hours. The devices are available with RoHS-compliant tin terminations and halogen-free.

VISHAY INTERTECHNOLOGY www.vishay.com

Murata launches ultra low-profile surface mount 2.4 kHz piezo sounders Murata announced the expansion of its PKLCS family with two new 2.4 kHz SMD piezoelectric sounders aimed at white goods, portable, industrial, and automotive applications. Both the consumer part PKLCS1212E2400-R1 and the automotive/industrial part PKLCS1212E24A0-R1 are available in low profile surface mount packages. They have a 5dB increase in sound pressure level compared to previous Murata devices, and are fully reflow solder compatible. They are ideally suited for applications that need to minimize the use of leaded components or have all components be low profile. The new PKLCS sounders’ thin 3 mm profile make them suitable for use in miniaturized portable electron-

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ics. Further, the SMD package enables more efficient manufacturing since the parts can be mounted using pick and place equipment. Other benefits include the ability to survive reflow soldering with no impact to performance and a low frequency operation (2.4kHz) with improved loudness verse existing

2kHz product. The small increase in operational frequency 2.0kHz to 2.4kHz permits significant gains in loudness.

MURATA www.murata.eu

EP&Dee ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ www.epd-ee.eu

Vishay Releases Lead (Pb)-Free and Lead (Pb)-Bearing Thick Film Chip Resistors Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. released lead (Pb)-free and lead (Pb)-bearing thick film chip resistors with IECQ-CECC approval.

Both devices are offered in two versions: approved to EN 140401-802, Version A, to meet the needs of the industrial electronics industry; and approved to EN 140401-802, Version E, for military, avionics, and space applications.

Version E devices feature established reliability with an assessed failure rate level of E6.

The CRCW....EN802 offers pure tin termination plating on a nickel barrier, which has been proven under extensive testing to provide immunity against tin whisker growth. The resistor complies with the RoHS Directive 2002/95/EC, and it is compatible with lead (Pb)-free and lead (Pb)-containing solder-

ing processes.

The D..EN802 resistor offers SnPb termination plating on a nickel barrier, with a minimum lead content of 10 %. This version is optimized for customers depending on matured technologies, including a purely lead (Pb)-bearing assembly process.

Both devices released today are offered in the 0805 and 1206 case sizes and provide TCR of ± 200 ppm/K, ± 100 ppm/K, and ± 50 ppm/K. VISHAY INTERTECHNOLOGY www.vishay.com

Syfer’s new ProtectiCap MLCCs for high voltage applicationsnow available from TTI TTI, Inc., the global distributor of Passive, Interconnect, Relay & Switch and Discrete components, now stocks Syfer’s ProtectiCap MLCCs. These high voltage, surface mount, multi layer ceramic capacitors have been designed specifically to reduce the occurrence of surface arcing in high voltage applications. An integral coating minimizes the risk of flashover without any requirement for the customer to apply conformal coating of the PCB after soldering. The new capacitors are ideal for use in power supplies, lighting ballasts, inverters, voltage multipliers and many other high voltage applications.

The coating Syfer uses to reduce the risk of flashover is based on a unique set of processes. A low permittivity glass coating is applied to an already optimised

high voltage MLCC design. The sealed, smooth finish and low dielectric constant allows for higher voltages and capacitance values in smaller case sizes. A prime example of this is the 1206P3K00102KXT device, which would previously only have been available in an 1808 case size. Syfer’s ProtectiCap

MLCCs are available in 1206 to 2220 case sizes in voltages from 2kV to 5kV. TTI Inc. www.ttieurope.com

PASSIVE COMPONENTS INDUSTRY NEWS

New 5200 MHz VCO from Crystek Corp.

Wide Terminal Thin Film Chip Resistors

Crystek's CVCO33BE-52005200 VCO (Voltage Controlled Oscillator) operates at 5200 MHz with a control voltage range 0.5V~4.5V. This VCO features a typical phase noise of 84 dBc/Hz @ 10KHz offset and has excellent linearity. Output power is typically +3 dBm. Engineered and manufactured in the USA, the model CVCO33BE5200-5200 is packaged in the industry-standard 0.5-in. x 0.5-in.

SMD package. Input voltage is 5V, with a max. current consumption of 26 mA. Pulling and Pushing are minimized to 6.0 MHz and 3.0 MHz/V, respectively.

Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. introduced new professional and precision series wide terminal thin film chip resistors that are the industry's first such devices in the compact 0406 case size.

Vishay's MCW 0406 AT professional and precision resistors are designed to deliver stable performance in harsh and high-temperature applications. The professional series devices feature high-temperature performance to 175 °C for 1,000 hours and high power ratings of 300 mW at an ambient temperature of 85 °C. Compared with traditional resistors, typically rated at 70 °C with

Second harmonic suppression is 20 dBc typical. The CVCO33BE5200-5200 is ideal for use in

applications such as digital radio equipment, fixed wireless access, satellite communications systems, and base stations.

CRYSTEK CORPORATION www.crystek.com

film temperatures of 125 °C or 155 °C, the MCW 0406 AT series defines a new standard in tech-

nology and performance. The MCW 0406 AT series includes a robust ability to handle thermal cycling and biased humidity.

VISHAY INTERTECHNOLOGY www.vishay.com

ALPS Develops and Commences Mass Production of “SSCQ Series” Compact Two-Way, Two-Stage Detector Switch ALPS ELECTRIC EUROPE GmbH has developed the SSCQ Series compact detector switch with two-position output in two directions for use in zoom lever control of mobile devices such as compact digital cameras and digital camcorders. Mass production commenced in February 2012.

Compact digital cameras are widely used because they are easy to both carry and use, and more now include functions like high-power zoom and full high-

definition video recording in response to diversifying needs. As electronic devices become more sophisticated, their parts have to be made smaller and must provide advanced functionality, such as the ability to control multiple functions.

The existing SSCM Series two-way detector

switch for use with zoom levers of compact digital cameras has been valued highly by the market. By giving the switch two detection positions in each direction and reducing its size, ALPS has now developed the industrysmallest SSCQ Series compact two-way, twostage detector switch. Mass production is already underway. Two detection positions in each direction, or four positions in total, allows control over zoom speed depending on how far the zoom lever is moved.

ALPS ELECTRIC Co., Ltd. www.alps.com

Vishay Intertechnology Introduces AC Polypropylene Film Capacitor

New line of LC filters for demanding radio, navigation and communication applications

Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. announced a new high-performance metallized AC polypropylene film capacitor featuring a wide capacitance range from 1 μF up to 70 μF, long life of > 60,000 hours, and voltage ratings up to 350 V. A 440 V version is under development.

With its long life and available 230 V, 250 V, 275 V, 310 V, and 350 V voltage ratings, the MKP1847 is optimized for AC filtering in UPS systems, power supplies, inverter grid interface, and welding equipment. The device will typically be used in output filters and tuned LC and LCL circuits to mitigate undesirable frequencies

MSC now offers a new line of LC filters from Precision Devices Inc. (PDI) that meets the highest quality standards. The initial standard products available are band pass, low pass, high pass and notch LC filters with a 10% bandwidth in the frequency range of 5 MHz to 100 MHz. These LC filters are ideally suited for radio, navigation and communication applications.

Depending on the requirements of the user, the stopband attenuation characteristics can have either 40 dB (3:1 shape factor) or 60 dB (3:1 or 2.5:1 shape factor). These LC filters are designed for a wide range of operating temperatures

and harmonics.

The AC capacitor features

capacitance tolerance down to ± 5 %, low self inductance of < 1 nH per mm of lead spacing, high peak current capabilities up to 750 A, and high RMS current up to 32 A. VISHAY INTERTECHNOLOGY www.vishay.com

from -55°C to +105°C and are therefore suited for industrial, military and space applications.

The return loss of the standard series is guaranteed to be 12 dB minimum across the frequency band of interest. Typically, this will be 15 dB minimum both on S11 and S22 measurements.

MSC VERTRIEBS GmbH www.msc-ge.com

www.epd-ee.eu ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ EP&Dee

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SMT INDUSTRY NEWS

Rising attendance and positive feedback SIPLACE pleased with results of APEX 2012

Cognex Sets a New Standard for Industrial OCR

Under the motto “Simplify your This year’s APEX welcomed 26 manufacturing challenges”, the percent more visitors than last SIPLACE team faced its cusyear’s show, and many of them tomers’ challenges at the show stopped by the SIPLACE booth ‘live’ and presented solutions in to learn more about the latest the areas of new product introproducts and services as well as duction (NPI), setup changeover the SIPLACE Challenge camand production run. In addition paign. A major highlight was the to the SIPLACE SX placement SIPLACE SX placement platform, platform, the company’s highlights included innovations such as the SIPLACE Smart Pin Support, the flexible SIPLACE Glue Feeder and SIPLACE LED Pairing. "The show was a great success for us: More visitors than last year, many people who Many visitors at the SIPLACE booth learned more about the latest were interested in our innovaproducts and services as well as the tive production concepts, and SIPLACE Challenge campaign. lots of positive feedback to our motto of ‘Simplify your manufacwhich combines capacity-onturing challenges’. Our guests demand capabilities with easy confirmed to use that we are def- operation. And this year’s motto initely moving in the right direc"Simplify your manufacturing tion," summarized Jeff Timms, challenges" demonstrated that head of SIPLACE’s Americas clushaving the right product soluter. This year’s APEX was only the tions lets you master any manusecond time that ASM Assembly facturing challenge.

Systems shared a booth with its ASM ASSEMBLY SYSTEMS new Asian parent company ASM www.siplace.com Pacific Technologies (ASMPT).

Cognex Corporation, the world’s leading supplier of machine vision systems, has introduced OCRMax™, a new tool for optical character recognition (OCR) and verification (OCV) applications that gives Cognex vision systems and vision software the power to achieve the highest read rates while keeping misreads to a minimum. OCRMax is fast, easy to set up and simple to use across all In-Sight® vision system and VisionPro® vision software platforms. OCRMax overcomes the limitations of other OCR technologies. It is an all-inone tool that can handle character variations, text skew, proportional fonts and variable string lengths, making it the most robust character recognition tool in the industry. OCRMax is easy to set up and use, with minimal training being required. The key to achieving the highest read rates with OCRMax is its superior character segmentation capability. The segmenting functionality takes each character line and splits it into individual regions that each contains one character. This robust functionality ensures that OCRMax can handle distorted,

H&T Global Circuits Launches Web-Based Division – H&T Express – to Support Online Quick turn Needs H&T Global Circuits, a leading PCB house based in the USA that provides customers with the best offshore products and pricing, announces that it has launched H&T Express. H&T Global Circuits has seen the market trend of ordering printed circuit boards (PCBs) online when they are needed urgently. Because speed is key in these cases, the company created H&T Express to meet these customers’ needs worldwide. For nearly 20 years, HT Global Circuits has expanded its capabilities and services to meet the broader needs of a diversified global market.

Through innovation and acquisition, H&T Global Circuits has grown from the largest PCB manufacturer in Florida to one of the largest privately held PCB manufacturers in the world. A critical part of H&T Global Circuits’ competitive

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advantage was the early development of a global manufacturing strategy. Production operations in both Germany and the Middle East provided the foundation for expansion in the world market.

H&T Global Circuits was founded in the continued effort to differentiate service and manufacturing capabilities for a global economy.

A strategy of positioning production facilities, engineering, customer service and logistic support centers around the globe make HT Global Circuits uniquely qualified to support its customers’ printed circuit needs.

HT GLOBAL CIRCUITS www.htglobalcircuits.com

EP&Dee ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ www.epd-ee.eu

touching and variably spaced characters. It can also accommodate uneven surfaces and lighting variations on the production line. In addition, OCRMax lets users control key parameters to further improve segmentation performance, resulting in even higher read rates and fewer misreads. OCRMax has an intuitive user interface that makes font training a very simple process.

This makes reads more consistent and repeatable in virtually any environment. OCRMax users

can also export and import fonts from external storage, making training easier and increasing the tool’s flexibility. In addition, users can share the same fonts across multiple OCRMax tools, further streamlining and simplifying font management.

COGNEX CORPORATION www.cognex.com

Multitest Launches Optimal Contactor for High-End Digital Applications Multitest, a designer and manufacturer of final test handlers, contactors and load boards used by integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) and final test subcontractors worldwide, recently launched the newest member of the Quad Tech™ contactor family: the Triton™ contactor for high-end digital applications.

The Triton™ responds to the dedicated needs of these digital applications, which include servers, computers, mobile smartphones, digital TV and graphics. Typically, they feature large array packages, highly integrated devices with high I/O count and many highspeed differential I/Os. Current existing solutions face several issues: contactor bowing, limited compliance and test handler

force limitations. The Triton™ solves these challenges by offering an enhanced compliance window to accommodate stack height variations, an optimized force to support large BGAs and LGAs, and multisite package test.

With up to 20 GHz differential bandwidth, it is ready for the next generation of digital devices.

MULTITEST www.multitest.com

SMT INDUSTRY NEWS

STI and SIPLACE: A long standing relationship spanning 2 decades STI Philippines follows in the footsteps of STI Limited by choosing SIPLACE SIPLACE and the STI Group of further expand their capabilities companies look back on a sucin order to secure higher value cessful and long standing partprojects. In addition, collectively, nership. Indeed, this strong part- the SIPLACE D-series and the nership was further strengthSIPLACE X-series lines allow STIened with the recent purchase Philippines to provide their cusof a SIPLACE X-Series Placement tomers with customised solutions Machine by STI for their plant in to meet their specific needs.

Cebu, Philippines.

As part of their planned programme of expansion, STI has acquired a High Volume PCBA Contract Electronics Manufacturing busiThe SIPLACE X-Series is equipped to handle ness. Since acquiring 01005 components, in order to ensure STI is the new business at the forefront of technology and capable STI has renamed it, of placing the smallest components.

STI-Philippines, the manufacturing facility is based in Cebu.

STI-Philippines have already been very satisfied and working successfully with the SIPLACE DSeries. As a result of growing customer requirements, STIPhilippines compleIn addition to box-build of electronic mented their existassemblies for the consumer, industrial, ing SIPLACE Dmedical and automotive industries, Series line with the STI-Philippines specialises in medium to highly flexible and high volume PCB assembly. innovative SIPLACE X-Series machine.

The SIPLACE X-Series is already STI-Philippines is the result of equipped to handle 01005 comSTI Limited’s acquisition of the ponents, ensuring STI is at the Board Assembly business operaforefront of technology and tors of a high volume PCBA concapable of placing the smallest tract electronics manufacturing components in the market with facility in Cebu, Philippines. In speed, accuracy and confidence. addition to box-build of elecWith the SIPLACE POE X-series, tronic assemblies for the conSTI-Philippines has a competitive sumer, industrial, medical and advantage by benefiting from automotive industries, they spethe exceptional price-performcialise in medium to high volume ance the SIPLACE POE scheme PCB assembly. provides, ensuring a faster return It is with this absolute confidence on investment, while not comin SIPLACE and its extensive line promising on the quality of the of products that STI-Philippines SIPLACE machines. decided on the SIPLACE X-Series STI to complement its existing www.sti-limited.com SIPLACE D-Series line. The SIPLACE X-Series was selected as ASM ASSEMBLY SYSTEMS it provided STI-Philippines a www.siplace.com value-for-money opportunity to

CyberOptics to Exhibit Its Newest Range of AOI and SPI Systems along with Unique Value-Add Programs at NEPCON China 2012 CyberOptics Corporation will debut the QX100™ – AOI Tabletop System equipped with AI2 next-generation image analysis software along with a preview of its latest in-line AOI and SPI systems at the upcoming NEPCON China exhibition, scheduled to take place April 25-27, 2012 at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center.

CyberOptics’ unique value-add initiatives such as one-step SPI/AOI programming, AOI-SPI correlation analysis and printer closed loop feedback capability also will be featured.

The QX100™ redefines tabletop inspection by combining the performance of an in-line inspection system with the flexibility of a tabletop system.

The system features CyberOptics’ unique image

acquisition technology, the Strobed Inspection Module (SIM), and is capable of inspecting component sizes down to 01005.

The sleek QX100™ is powered

by AI2 (Autonomous Image Interpretation), a patented nextgeneration image analysis technique that provides superior defect detection capabilities, lowest false call rates and improved clarity of defect identification.

CYBEROPTICS CORPORATION www.cyberoptics.com

SEHO Systems to Highlight PowerSelective Soldering System at NEPCON China 2012 SEHO Systems GmbH, a worldwide leading manufacturer of automated soldering systems and customer-specific solutions, announces that it will exhibit PowerSelective soldering system in booth #1A87 at the upcoming NEPCON China 2012. The event is scheduled to take place April 25-27, 2012 at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center.

SEHO's PowerSelective features a modular design, ensuring the highest flexibility.

The system offers SEHO's unique multi-nozzle technology and can be customized to meet specific production require-

ments. The SEHO multi-nozzle technology ensures short cycle times as low as 25 seconds per panel or carrier. With tool

change on-the-fly, customers can run high-mix production without losing changeover time.

SEHO SYSTEMS GmbH www.seho.de

www.epd-ee.eu ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ EP&Dee

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SMT INDUSTRY NEWS

SIPLACE Multi-Gripper Kit Odd shapes placed instantly

Multitest Leverages MT9510x16 for Quad-Site MEMS Applications

With its new Multi-Gripper Kit, SIPLACE speeds up electronics manufacturers' NPI processes. A single case contains a head connector, pincers, vertical stops and tools with which a user can build a matching gripper for odd shapes in just a few minutes. With the proper software configuration and mounted on the SIPLACE TwinHead, the gripper can then be used to reliably place connectors, switches and other

Multitest, a designer and manufacturer of final test handlers, contactors and load boards used by integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) and final test subcontractors worldwide, announces that it has expanded its MEMS portfolio to pick-andplace applications with the introduction of its test and calibration cart for the MT9510. Multitest MEMS solutions now are available for strip test and singulated package test –on Multitest InStrip® with optional InCarrier™, the well-established gravity test handlers MT93xx and MT9928, or the MT9510XP tri-temp pick-and-place handler.

This new combination is based on the two wellestablished platforms: MT MEMS and MT9510. This setup leverages Multitest’s long-term MEMS test expertise as well as thorough understanding of the challenges in DUT handling. Thus, the industry-leading positioning accuracy and tri-temp perform-

SIPLACE Multi-Gripper Kit includes everything you need to assemble grippers for special components on the spot. You simply select the right pincers from the kit and screw them onto the basic module, which connects to the placement head.

Depending on their needs, electronics producers can order additional basic components or highly specific pincer pairs – the case which holds the Multi-Gripper Kit is prepared for such With the new SIPLACE Multi-Gripper Kit requirements," says mounted on the SIPLACE TwinHead Bernhard Fritz, head connectors, switches and other odd-shaped of product marketcomponents can be reliably placed. ing at the SIPLACE team's headquarters in Munich, Germany.

With the SIPLACE Multi-Gripper Kit, electronics manufacturers can prepare their placement solutions and lines for components that are especially difficult to handle.

Designing and assembling the gripper and configuring it in the placement software takes only a few minutes. That way, electronics manufacturers can start running products for their customers right away.

Needless to say, the SIPLACE Applications Center Components which are difficult to manage in Munich with its with a standard nozzle do not pose a proven team of problem with the SIPLACE Multi-Gripper experts will continKit with its many possibilities to customize ue to produce speand configure special grippers. cial nozzles and odd-shaped components. Instead grippers for any customer of having to wait up to several requirements. SIPLACE cusweeks for a special gripper, the tomers can also put all products SIPLACE Multi-Gripper Kit ranging from hardware to softenables users to start the placeware through their paces in a ment process right away. Another realistic production environment benefit: Since the special grippers at the SIPLACE Applications no longer have to be customCenter in order to find even made for a specific product, elec- faster and more efficient solutronics manufacturers enjoy sigtions with the help of highly nificant cost savings. experienced SIPLACE experts.

"Flexibility for new product introASM ASSEMBLY SYSTEMS ductions is an important factor www.siplace.com for contract manufacturers. The

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ance of the MT9510 also is now available for MEMS test.

Multitest has developed this even further by leveraging the contact site dimension of the MT9510 ×16. The company now is able to offer a quad-site test solution for MEMS on pick-andplace handlers. Based on the same MEMS cart as for the MT9928, this MT9510 x16/MEMS setup uses both

Multitest’s pick-and-place and MEMS expertise.

MULTITEST www.multitest.com

Count On Tools Offers New Laser Marking/Engraving Service Count On Tools Inc., a leading provider of precision components and SMT spare parts, announces that it has added a Laser Marking & Engraving capability to its manufacturing operations at its facility in Gainesville, GA. The recent expansion is in response to the growing market for SMT nozzles and consumables as well as the increased demand for its precision contract machining services.

According to company representative, Zach Shook, COT recently purchased a Keyence 3Axis 30W Fiber Laser Marker.

Touted as the world’s smallest marking unit, the Keyence Laser Marker’s fan-less architecture, 3axis beam control, 30 watt output power, and built-in power monitor give it an unrivaled advantage amongst industrial laser markers.

Surpassing the competition, the

Keyence Laser Marker delivers a full 30 watts of power directly on the target surface, ensuring that dense, hard metals can be permanently marked and etched in a matter of milliseconds. The ultra-small head offers the smallest footprint in its class, allowing for quick, easy installation in tight spaces.

COUNT ON TOOLS Inc. www.cotinc.com

SMT INDUSTRY NEWS

AIM to Highlight World-Class Solder Materials at SMTA Indiana 2012

Ask Kyzen How to Improve Your Cleaning Process

AIM, a leading global manufacturer of solder assembly materials for electronics assembly, PC fabrication, component manufacturing and other industries, announces that it will highlight NC258, NC265LR, NC275LR & SN100C at the upcoming SMTA Indiana Expo & Trade Forum, scheduled to take place Tuesday, March 20, 2012 from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Ritz Charles in Carmel, IN.

The superior wetting ability of NC258 results in bright, smooth and shiny solder joints. Additionally, the paste offers very low post-process residues that remain crystal clear even at the elevated temperatures required for today’s lead-free alloys.

Also at the show will be two popular noclean spray fluxes: NC265LR and NC275LR. AIM’s alcohol-based NC265LR and VOCfree NC275LR are halide-free, no-clean liquid fluxes formulated to offer a very wide process window allowing for extremely good wetting, even to difficult-to-wet materials. NC265LR and NC275LR offer low post-process residues and have proven to reduce preventative maintenance requirements for spray fluxing applications.

These fluxes are compatible with a broad range of lead-free and tin-lead solder alloys. Additionally, the company will highlight its tin-lead and lead-free alloys, including SN100C. SN100C is a lead-free solder alloy developed by Nihon Superior Co. Ltd. in Japan that is comprised of tin-coppernickel + germanium.

Kyzen will highlights its award-winning AQUANOX® A4638 Advanced Packaging Cleaning Chemistry at the upcoming SMTA Indiana Expo & Trade Forum, scheduled to take place Tuesday, March 20, 2012 from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Ritz Charles in Carmel, IN. AQUANOX® A4638 was developed to rapidly dissolve watersoluble polar flux residues and exhibits a low surface tension. A4638 is combined with Kyzen’s revolutionary inhibition technology to provide superior material compatibility. An engineered electronics assembly and advanced packaging cleaning agent, AQUANOX® A4638 is designed to remove flux residue from flip chip and low-clearance components. A4638 is a nonhazardous, biodegradable aqueous solution that contains no CFCs or HAPs.

AIM www.aimsolder.com

KYZEN www.kyzen.com

AIM’s most robust solder paste, NC258, has been developed to offer long pause-toprint capabilities while enhancing fine print definitions. NC258 Solder Paste reduces defects such as voiding and head-in-pillow.

SENSORS INDUSTRY NEWS

Cylindrical optical sensors The new optical sensor Series 318B from Leuze Electronic convinces with strong arguments: an excellent price/quality ratio, robust industrial plastic housing with IP 67, mounting system patented by Leuze which allows easy mounting and effortless aligning of the sensors, strong ambient light suppression A2LS. Series 318B – features and advantages

Series 318B

Universal mounting with 90° optics which is smaller than M18

Universal optical sensors for standard detection tasks – the economic alternative for when you just need an optical sensor

Amazingly simple – simply amazing.

Robust industrial plastic housing in IP67

Large temperature operating range: -40…+60°C Fast alignment due to brightVision® Robust active ambient light suppression A2LS

Yellow and green indicator LEDs

2 antivalent switching outputs

L318B Series 318B in detail

What is the main advantage of cylindrical sensors?

Through-Beam n n n

operating range: 10m (5.5m with 90° optics) Divergent beam for easy alignment 2 inputs for transmitter deactivation for testing in NPN and PNP world

There is not easier mounting!

We propose BT D18.5, 50113548

PRK318B

But… … how can you align the sensors???

Polarized Retro-Reflective

n n n n

Operating range: 4.5m on TKS 100 × 100 (4m with 90° optics) Operating range: 1.6m on TKS 20 × 40 (1.5m with 90° optics) Polarization filter to suppress shiny objects Homogeneous light beam without holes.

Series 318B – now with omni-mount Together with the compensation washer (comes with the sensors) and the spherical screw nuts, the sensor can be swiveled and locked. spherical screw nuts You only need a Φ 21mm hole in the bracket We call this omni-mount (patent pending) Works best with our L-bracket BT D21M, 50117257 O’BOYLE s.r.l.

Tel.: +40 (0) 256­201346 Fax: +40 (0) 256­221036

36 EP&Dee ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ www.epd-ee.eu

compensation washer

office@oboyle.ro www.oboyle.ro

Honeywell Introduces the PX2 Series Heavy Duty Transducers Honeywell expands its Heavy Duty Pressure product portfolio with the PX2 Series Heavy Duty Pressure Transducer.

These new highly configurable, stainless steel pressure measurement solutions are engineered to be resistant to moderately harsh media such as refrigerants, brake and hydraulic fluids, engine oil, tap water, and compressed air.

The PX2 Series is designed to monitor performance and efficiency in a wide range of potential industrial applications including HVAC/R

equipment, air compressors, system pressure, factory automation, pneumatics, valves, pumps, packaging/laminating equipment, sprayers, lasers, foam dispensing, solar energy, and emissions monitoring. Potential transportation (heavy equipment, alternative fuel vehicles) applications include system pressure, pneumatics, light hydraulics, brake and engine oil pressure, transmissions, and truck/trailer air braking.

HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL www.honeywellnow.com.

Honeywell Expands Hall-Effect Rotary Position Sensor Portfolio with New RTY Series Honeywell introduces its RTY Series Hall-Effect Rotary Position Sensors that provide a costeffective rotary position sensor solution with a variety of options (e.g., sensing range, pinout, voltage) that allow customers to customize the sensor configuration to meet their specific application needs, especially those in harsh environments. The RTY Series’ solidstate Hall-effect technology provides non-contact operation and low torque actuation which reduces worn-out mechanisms and provides a minimum 12M cycle product life. The sensor’s

IP67-sealed package has an integral connector. The integrated reverse polarity protection provides protection against installation errors. Robustness against electromagnetic interference is proven out by automotive-grade EMI/EMC testing. Industry-standard AMP termination, 32 mm mounting pitch, North American and European pinout styles, and the compact package provide easier drop-in replacement in existing applications.

HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL www.honeywellnow.com.

O’Boyle has become distributor of the Selec Company for Romania.

Selec is a young company which has become an important player on the industrial process control market.

The success of the company derives mainly from 3 aspects: • An innovative range of products that covers all of the customers’ needs • Very good price/performance ratio for all the products • Products with enhanced reliability and performance under harsh electrical conditions.

O’BOYLE s.r.l.

Tel.: +40 (0) 256­201346 Fax: +40 (0) 256­221036 office@oboyle.ro www.oboyle.ro

Honeywell Expands Portfolio with New SS39ET Series Linear Hall-Effect Magnetic Position Sensor IC Honeywell is extending its Linear Hall-effect Sensor Integrated Circuits (IC) product line with the addition of the new SS39ET Series to its SS49E and SS59ET portfolio of low-cost Linear Hall-effect devices.

With the launch of the SS39ET Series, Honeywell’s Linear Hall-effect product family now consists of three package styles with different lead configurations: • SS39ET: subminiature SOT-23 surface mount package (tape and reel format) • SS49E: leaded flat TO-92 package (bulk packaging, 1000 units per bag), SS49E-T2 (straight leads), and SS49E-T3 (formed leads) on tape in ammopack (fan-fold) format • SS59ET: miniature SOT-89B surface-mount package (tape and reel format) The SS39ET Series are designed to monitor magnetic fields from a permanent magnet or an electromagnet. All packages can be sup-

plied on tape for automated, lower-cost assembly. These devices respond to both North and South poles, and can be powered with voltages as low as 2.7V. A wide temperature range of -40°C to 100°C [-40°F to 212°F] allows use in many environments, and the thermally balanced, integrated circuit provides stable operation over the full temperature range. Thin film resistors improve accuracy and provide a stable output. The energy-efficient, low current consumption of 6 mA at 5 Vdc and the 2.7 Vdc to 6.5 Vdc supply voltage range allow circuit design flexibility.

Potential industrial applications for the SS39ET Series include: • Anti-tampering magnetic field sensing in smart remote utility meters • Basic current sensing for motor load monitoring, detection

• Pump control in heavy-duty equipment and household appliances • Simple linear or angular displacement sensing • Handlebar/throttle position sensing in ebikes and scooters • Current sensing in appliances • Speed adjustment trigger in tools and appliances • Magnetic code reading in safes, security, and building access control systems.

Potential medical applications for the SS39ET Series include: • Position sensing in infusion pumps HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL www.honeywellnow.com. www.epd-ee.eu ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ EP&Dee

37

CONNECTORS INDUSTRY NEWS

ODU ROM Manufacturing For over sixty years ODU has provided connector solutions to the international market.

Otto Dunkel GmbH founded in 1942 by Otto Dunkel, has its headquarter in Mühldorf am Inn, Germany. With three production sites in the USA, China and Romania, sales and marketing offices and technical support in every industrialized region of the world, ODU has become a leader in high-quality interconnect products.

ODU offers you three different series of cylindrical connectors. The MINI-SNAP series features metal push-pull connectors, while the connectors in the MINI-SNAP PC series are manufactured from the latest plastics, and the MEDI-SNAP series is custom tailored to applications in medical technology.

ODU MINI-SNAP The right solution The ODU MINI­SNAP product program provides countless combination options: • Connector with/ without cable bend relief; • In line receptacle; • Right­angle plug; • Receptacle, IP 50 or IP68 version; • Choice of several plug and receptacle styles; • Heavy­duty metal housings, matte or black chromate finish; • PEEK insulation bodies for autoclaving available; • More than 5000 mating cycles.

The push-pull connector advantages: • Quick and easy connect and lock; • Quick and easy separation; • Blind insertion and withdrawal are easy, even in hard­to­access locations; • Low space requirements for devices; • Suitable for robots; • The push­pull principle ­ during insertion, the connector locks itself into the receptacle. It can no longer be separated by pulling on the connector cable. The connector can, however, easily be separated from the receptacle by pulling back the outer sleeve.

Contact: Eng. Alina Cibu E­mail: alina.cibu@odu­rom.ro www.odu­rom.ro

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ODU ROM Manufacturing ­ Str. Fundătura Lânii nr. 22, 550019 Sibiu, Romania Tel: +40 (0) 269 206345; Fax: +40 (0) 269 221006 For general information visit: www.odu.de

CONNECTORS INDUSTRY NEWS

Series K

Series L n n n n n n

Shell size 00 to size 6 Up to 40 contacts per connector Pin and groove keying with numerous keying options Power, signal, high­voltage, pneumatic, and fiber optic contacts From ­50°C to +250°C IP50 and IP68.

n n n n n

Series B n n n n n n

Watertight, IP68 options Shell size 0 to size 4 Up to 40 contacts per connector Pin and groove keying with many keying options Power, signal, or high­voltage contacts.

Series S

Shell size 0 to size 3 Up to 40 contacts per connector FP­Locking principle using conical sleeve IP50 / IP68 with the same Outer­Ø possible Keying with Pin and Groove Tight sealing with small outer diameter.

n n n n n

Shell size 0 to size 2 Alignment via insulator half­shells Up to 14 contacts per connector Power or signal contacts LP and FP locking principles.

Series F n n n n n

Shell size 0 to size 3.5 Up to 27 contacts per connector Metal half­shell alignment with several coding options Blind mate FP locking principle using conical sleeve.

What do you need for the configuration of a connector: • • • • •

Life time (mating cycles); Number of contacts and type of contacts; Current load of the contacts; Operation environment ­ environmental temperatures; Operating voltage.

For further details please visit the company website - online catalog.

Together we can find the perfect solution!

Contact: Eng. Alina Cibu E­mail: alina.cibu@odu­rom.ro www.odu­rom.ro

ODU ROM Manufacturing ­ Str. Fundătura Lânii nr. 22, 550019 Sibiu, Romania Tel: +40 (0) 269 206345; Fax: +40 (0) 269 221006 For general information visit: www.odu.de www.epd-ee.eu ⏐ March, 2012 ⏐ EP&Dee

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MISCELEANEOUS INDUSTRY NEWS

TE Circuit Protection’s MHP Technology Now Offers Smart Activation Feature

Crisp action, long life tactile switch launched by Omron

TE Circuit Protection, a business unit of TE Connectivity, today announced a new Metal Hybrid PPTC (MHP) device offering Smart Activation (SA) functionality. The MHP-SA device provides a resettable, cost-effective and space-saving alternative to typical methods of protecting high-power lithium battery and module applications. These include cordless power tools, escooters and light electric vehicles (LEVs) and standby power and energy storage systems (ESSs).

The new MHP-SA device helps provide overcharge protection in large multi-cell battery packs and modules in which circuit protection devices interface with electronics as part of a sophisticated battery management system. The MHP-SA device’s Smart Activation design feature accomplishes this via a third terminal signal line that enables external activation.

In a typical scenario, an IC monitors the battery system’s temper-

Omron Electronic Components B.V. has announced a new IP67 sealed tactile switch offering long term reliability and a crisp clicking switch action.

Sealed to IP67 (IEC60529), the Omron B3SL provides enhanced resistance to dust penetration, helping ensure that its rated life of 100,000 operating cycles can be achieved even in harsh operating conditions. The vertically operated switch, which features a high operating force of 1.96N, is noted for its precise, crisp clicking action. The B3SL features a medium stroke which is achieved by using a rubber plunger, and has a pretravel of 0.3mm.

Featuring a compact design with dimensions of just 6.2mm (l) × 6.5mm (w) × 3.4mm (h) the B3SL

ature, current and voltage and, if an abnormality is detected, it switches on a FET and activates the heater element (PPTC) of the MHP-SA device to heat the bimetal. The bimetal contacts then open and cut contact to the main line. The first in a series of planned devices, the new MHPSA50-400-M5 device has a 50A/400VDC maximum rating and its hold current is 50A on

the main line. The device can be activated electronically with as little as 3A via the signal line.

is rated for switching currents of 1mA at 5VDC to a maximum of 50mA at 12VDC with a resistive load and features an insulation resistance of 100MΩ at 100VDC and a contact resistance of 100mΩ. The B3SL switch has a

maximum bounce time of 5ms and supports an ambient operating temperature range of 25°C to +90°C. OMRON ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS BUSINESS – EUROPE http://components.omron.eu

TE CONNECTIVITY www.circuitprotection.com

FAA Reaffirms Approval of LynuxWorks LynxOS-178 Reusable Software Components RTOS for Safety-Critical Applications LynuxWorks, Inc., the first and only embedded operating system vendor to receive Advisory Circular AC 20-148 approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for reusable software components (RSC), has received its second RSC approval for the LynxOS-178 product family.

LynxOS-178 addresses system developers' need to meet FAA certification by providing a time, space and resource partitioned commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) operating system that fully satisfies the objectives of the DO-178B,

level A and the ARINC 653 standard as well as full conformance with the IEEE POSIX Standard.

Currently, any time a systems integrator or developer wants to integrate components of any other RTOS, or any previously certified DO178B software in multiple hardware environments, each new hardware/software configuration or system must be recertified. In other words, integrators and developers cannot take full advantage of the software's existing

Group Publisher Director Gabriel Neagu Managing Director Ionela Ganea Accounting Ioana Paraschiv Advertisement Irina Ganea WEB Eugen Vărzaru © 2012 by Eurostandard Press 2000

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Contributing editors Robert Berger Ross Bannatyne Consulting Marian Blejan Bogdan Grămescu Mihai Savu Asian Reprezentative Taiwan Charles Yang Tel: +886­4­3223633 charles@medianet.com.tw

certification across other multiple platforms, but instead must go through the entire certification process for each new system they build.

LYNUXWORKS www.lynuxworks.com

EP&Dee Web page: www.epd­ee.eu EP&Dee Subscriptions: office@epd­ee.eu

EUROSTANDARD PRESS 2000 Tel.: +40 31 805 9955 Fax: +40 31 805 9887 office@esp2000.ro www.esp2000.ro VAT Registration: RO3998003 Company number: J03/1371/1993

EP&Dee (Electronics Products & Design ­ Eastern Europe) is published 8 times per year in 2012 by Euro Standard Press 2000 s.r.l.

It is a free to qualified electronics engineers and managers involved in engineering decisions. Starting on 2010, this magazine is published only in digital format.

Copyright 2012 by Euro Standard Press 2000 s.r.l. All rights reserved.