March issue

Vol : 1, Issue 03, March 2017, Monthly

Science Gazette &Technol gy David Somo ON Semiconductor

Andre Bouwer Analogix Semiconductor

Outlook for 2017

Creating semiconductors for global markets with design and engineering excellence: Analogix Semiconductor

Challenges of digital controlled

DC-DC converters in

Renewable Energy Applications

NOTION

For the benefit of our readers

While working on the content for this March edition of Scigazette Magazine, I noticed how restrictive the number of pages in a magazine becomes when compared with the limitless possibilities we have on the scigazette.com website or even our increasingly popular weekly email newsletter, Scigazette Weekly. The shortcoming with those restrictions is that so many up-to-date core electronics technology topics that could be of great interest to our readers take months to convert into the solid content we include in the pages of the magazine.

Meanwhile, news and innovations continue to flood our email, forcing us to mainly work online and issue brief updates. Therefore, we thought of using this space to reinforce the appeal for article and opinion submissions that could fill that gap.

We see so many professional papers that were introduced to a few dozen people who attend convention and seminar sessions that could be of great interest to this publication’s audience once they are properly converted to a magazine article format. Increasingly, engineers are sharing “drafts” of what could be material of great interest to our readers, posted as updates on social media that only reach a restricted group of “followers.” Often, that content contains valuable information that could be expanded into an extremely motivating article. To those authors, please reach out to scigazette.com.

We can help share your efforts with the engineering and design community and open doors to valuable interactions and additional business. We have interacted with several companies and engineers at recent trade shows and we have seen many interesting developments that we would like to share.

Unfortunately, the little information we could collect is not sufficient to create a news report, much less a serious article for the magazine. At certain stages of development, we understand only those in charge can provide the level of information our publication requires. Again, we would like to reiterate that we have multiple channels where we could—working together—make your work known.

Scigazette, website and magazine is the perfect channel to discuss technology at an early stage with an interested audience, particularly for development platform providers. In the last three years, we have invested heavily to reach out and personally meet industry leaders, and we are developing a

new article series to reflect much of what we are learning. But as with any technical magazine, we need direct collaboration—even sometimes for things that are quite traditional, such as writing a product review.

While some companies are used to submitting their products for media to review, technology and parts manufacturers are less accustomed to the process (or not at all). Scigazette doesn’t intend to evaluate products in a subjective way. We understand that writing for developers and even DIY enthusiasts requires a different approach and we publish reviews that explain why our readers need what you have.

This month we have started a new series on amplification and we are expanding our process of finished product reviews with objective analysis, from a simple product design validation in any class of product, to key trending technology areas. The entire Scigazette team continues to work to fulfill that vision.

We sincerely hope you enjoy reading the March issue of our magazine.

Best Regards, Sagar Rawat Asst. Editor edit@scigazette.com, sagar@scigazette.com The Team Managing Editor: Abhishek Prasad abhishek@scigazette.com Marketing Manager: Jose Abraham jose@scigazette.com Advertising Manager: Chandan Singh chandan@scigazette.com Head Office: Science and Technology Gazette E/218 B, Sector 63, Noida, U.P., PIN Code – 201301 Ph: +91 9413278903 | info@scigazette.com Editorial Inquiries: Send editorial correspondence and manuscripts to: Scigazette, Editorial Department: edit@scigazette.com Our Contributors: Andre Bouwer, Ravi Pagar, David Somo, Sanjay Joshi, Monica Rozenfeld Legal Notice: Each design published in Scigazette is the intellectual property of its author and is offered to readers for their personal use only. Any commercial use of such ideas or designs without prior written permission is an infringement of the copyright protection of the work of each author.

Scigazette | 02 | March, 2017

contents 11 Cover Story

Challenges of digital controlled

DC-DC converters in

Renewable Energy Applications

Inside News

03 07 Report Outlook 2017

In Conversation

10

India is gearing up for big changes to come in terms of government policies and industry upheavals Ravi Pagar Managing Director (South East Asia) element14

18 Company Watch Creating semiconductors for global markets with design and engineering excellence: Analogix Semiconductor

19 How Emerging Technology Will Disrupt the Financial Industry 21 Signal-Generation Advances Support Electronic Warfare's Evolution 24 Does your business needs an AP Controller for better mobility?

27 Particles from outer space are wreaking low-grade havoc on personal electronics 29 New Products

News

Electric push to India electronics manufacturing

The increasing pervasiveness of the Internet bringing along with the growing number of connected devices has boosted the power of electronics. The combination of hardware and software elements is driving the entire Indian electronic system design and manufacturing (ESDM) industry which is expected to double in the next three

years.

The India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) along with EY in a recent report said that the ESDM industry is poised to grow at a CAGR of 16-23% to reach $171-228 billion by 2020 from the current level of around $100 billion plus. In 2015, India’s ESDM industry was at $82 billion growing at a CAGR of 8% from 2013.

Apart from sector specific drivers, the IESA-EY forecast is based upon several parameters such as overall GDP growth of India, currency movement, inflation, existing trade agreements, consumer sentiments, potential government consumption, existing government policies, investments (foreign and domestic), manufacturing entities and type of value addition in India. In the base case, the drivers are assumed to stay at existing levels or move as perforeseeable forecasts. However, in optimistic case all drivers are expected to stay positive leading to a significant growth (resembling a hockey stick growth chart) over the forecast period.

India's IT Services Brands Becoming Increasingly Dominant Globally

u-blox and Digicom partner to develop new NB-IoT products and solutions

Every year, leading valuation and strategy consultancy Brand Finance values the brands of thousands of the world’s biggest companies. Brands are first evaluated to determine their power / strength (based on factors such as marketing investment, familiarity, loyalty, staff satisfaction and corporate reputation) and given a corresponding letter grade up to AAA+. Brand strength is used to determine what proportion of a business’s revenue is contributed by the brand, which is projected into perpetuity to determine the brand’s value. The world’s most valuable IT services brands are ranked and included in the Brand Finance IT Services 15. IBM is the world’s most valuable IT services brand with a value of US$19.4 billion, closely followed by Accenture at US%17.5 billion. However Indian brands are making the biggest impact in 2017. Fully one third of the brands in the list hail from India and are improving their rankings year on year.

u-blox announced its partnership with Digicom, a key player in the IoT ecosystem. Digicom offers a wide range of hardware and software with cellular connectivity to develop Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) products and solutions.

Both companies were amongst the first ones to carry out a series of innovative and successful field trials of the new NB-IoT technology.

“We have collaborated with u-blox for a long time and the quality and innovation of their modules enable us to develop cutting-edge products and solutions, ”says Stefano Galzignato, Business Line Manager at Digicom.

“We are excited to be part of this partnership, which showcases u blox as a global leader in developing NB IoT solutions for IoT applications,” adds Stefano Moioli, u blox Director of Product Management Cellular.

Scigazette | 03 | March, 2017

News

Maxim Appoints Ting Li as Vice President of Sales for Greater China and ROA Maxim Integrated has named Ting Li as the company’s Vice President of Sales for Greater China and Rest of Asia (ROA), effective immediately.

Prior to joining Maxim, Li was the Vice President of Sales, Greater China, for OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, based in Shanghai, where he led a large sales and marketing team.

Before OSRAM, Li was at Free scale Semiconductor as Executive Director, Asia Pacific Channel Business where he was responsible for demand-creation in the Asia Pacific market including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, South Asia, and India. Li also worked at Avago Technologies as their China Country Manager and held a leadership role at STMicroelectronics.

“Li is an experienced sales leader who understands the semiconductor industry, the Pan Asia region, large and broad-market customers, and the distribution channel,” said David Loftus, Maxim’s Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing.

Aireon and Thales Begin Validation of Space-Based ADS-B Data Aireon announced that Thales has officially begun the testing and validation of the Aireon space-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) data.

Initially signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in June of 2015, the start of data validation marks a major milestone for Aireon and Thales’ efforts to ensure the successful integration of space-based ADS-B into the TopSky–ATC automation platform. The MOU was

also designed to pave the way for Aireon data to be efficiently and effectively distributed to TopSky-ATC end-users.

With the Aireon system now receiving initial air traffic information from its first orbiting satellites, Thales will

independently validate the spacebased ADS-B air traffic surveillance data. This collaboration will include an assessment of technical performance, defining requirements associated with utilization of the data safely and reliably, as well as determining the impact the service will have on existing maintenance and operational processes. The MOU was the first agreement signed between Aireon and an air traffic management automation platform provider.

element14 Expands its Successful BeagleBoard.org Range element14, is now shipping three new products in the successful open source BeagleBone range. The ever popular BeagleBone Black and element 14 BeagleBone Black Industrial are now joined by BeagleBone Black Wireless, the element14 Wireless Connectivity Cape and the element14 4.3″ Display Cape.

The BeagleBone Black Wireless now has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities built in, removing the need for design or hardware workarounds. Focused on connectivity, the 10/100 Ethernet port from the BeagleBone Black is replaced with a TI WiLink WL1835 which is a highperformance 802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz Wi-Fi module with Bluetooth. With Debian Linux preinstalled and 4GB of onboard eMMC memory, designers can be developing using their web browser in less than 5 minutes using just one USB cable. The new BeagleBone Black Wireless is also fully compatible with existing cape plug-in boards designed

for BeagleBone Black.

Scigazette | 04 | March, 2017

News

Foxconn Starts Construction of US$8.8 Billion LCD Plant in China Taiwanese electronics contract manufacturing giant Foxconn has officially started construction of its US$8.8 billion liquid-crystal display (LCD) plant in China’s Guangzhou City.

The USD 8.8 billion investment is just for the first phase of the plant which covers an area of about 1.5 square kilometer, is designed to manufacture 10.5-generation 8K displays, smart TVs and electronic whiteboards, among others.

According to officials of Zengcheng district, the location of the project, the annual production value of the new plant is estimated to reach

Rmb92 billion, or about US$13.34 billion, and provide 6,000 to 10,000 technical jobs.

Foxconn is the trading name of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., a Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturing company headquartered in New Taipei City, Taiwan.

Foxconn is the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, and the third-largest information technology company by revenue.

Mouser Electronics Sponsors India Electronics Week

Mouser Electronics once again remained a major sponsor of India Electronics Week 2017, that featured three days of fun and engaging activities held from March 2–4 at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre. Mouser showcased the newest products from Mouser’s valued supplier manufacturers, including informative product demonstrations from Analog Devices, Cypress Semiconductor, and Intel. Visitors to Mouser Booth discovered a wide range of innovative solutions for applications such as automotive, wireless technology, and power management, and took part in hands-on, interactive sessions with industry leaders to share design ideas, discuss challenges, and find tomorrow’s innovations. The event marks the second year that Mouser is a major sponsor of India Electronics Week, which is designed to highlight the achievements of the electronics industry in India and beyond. As a sponsor of India’s largest trade show for electronic components, systems and applications.

Meanwhile, a Chinese official said China’s long-term growth fundamentals have not changed and the country’s economy is expected to remain the strongest driver for global economic growth this year.

Infineon and IESA join hands to nurture start-ups in the Electropreneur Park

Supporting India’s ambition to become a global start-up hub and leveraging on India’s creativity and talent to codevelop innovative solutions, Infineon Technologies India entered into an agreement with India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) to support the Electropreneur Park (EP), giving a major boost to the ‘Make in India’ and Start-up India initiatives.

Infineon will work with start-ups incubated by EP, offering business and technical consultation and mentoring. The agreement was signed by Vinay Shenoy, Managing Director, Infineon Technologies India and K. Krishnamoorthy, Chairman, IESA in the presence of Andrew Chong, President, Infineon Technologies Asia Pacific and in the presence of MN Vidyashankar, President, IESA. Speaking on the occasion, Andrew Chong said,“India is fast emerging as an important market for Infineon in the Asia Pacific region and also a promising location to develop innovative products and solutions for our global needs.”

Scigazette | 05 | March, 2017

News

Path Breaking Imaging Technology for a New Era of Smartphones Corephotonics has partnered with prominent camera module integrator Samsung Electro-Mechanics (SEMCO) to develop a complete reference design, based on its revolutionary dual camera technology. Through this reference design, which is now in volume production, smartphone manufacturers are able to benefit from dramatic enhancements in image quality without any impact on the slim designs that consumers now expect from their handsets.

The new partnership combines SEMCO’s universally recognized expertise in camera module design

and manufacturing, with Corephotonics’ innovative camerarelated technologies. It enables a far greater number of smartphone manufacturers to access groundbreaking imaging technology that will help them to elevate user experience.

The dual camera concept made possible by Corephotonics’ proprietary technology presents smartphone manufacturers with the means to distinguish their handsets from those of their rivals through greatly improved imaging capabilities – with better zoom, increased effective resolution and broader

dynamic range all being derived. It comprises one camera producing a wide field of view (FOV) image – much like the technology found in a conventional smartphone.

GE, Nokia, Qualcomm bet on private LTE networks for IIoT deployments Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) deployments may rely on private LTE networks for connectivity as enterprises layer in analytics and sensors into infrastructure.

GE, Nokia, and Qualcomm said they have completed a private-LTE network trial for IoT. A standalone LTE network would be use to connect users, analytics, and devices in a local area.

Private LTE networks use LTE technologies in shared, unlicensed, and dedicated licensed spectrum.

At Mobile World Congress, the trio of companies will outline the private-

LTE-meets-IoT demo.

The demo from GE, Nokia and Qualcomm uses LTE-TDD in the US 3.5 GHZ shared spectrum band.

Unlicensed spectrum bands can be used to create LTE networks that are private.

What's interesting is that such private LTE build outs could cut out wireless companies in some cases. Wireless carriers see IoT as a big growth opportunity either through connectivity or services attached to them.

Qualcomm, GE, and Nokia said they will conduct live field trials throughout 2017. With these trials, Qualcomm will provide the chipsets, Nokia adds the base station and network management and GE is integrating the connections into its Predix IoT operating system.

Renesas Electronics Completes Acquisition of Intersil

Renesas Electronics Corporation has announced the completion of acquisition of Intersil Corporation. The transaction brings together the advanced technology and deep end-

market expertise of the two companies, and solidifies Renesas' position as a leading global supplier delivering advanced embedded systems to customers.

“I am excited to welcome the Intersil employees into the Renesas Group and look forward to building a robust organization that will bring the capabilities of both companies to bear to proactively address changing market dynamics and customer needs," said Bunsei Kure, Representative Director, President and Scigazette | 06 | March, 2017

CEO of Renesas Electronics Corporation. "With the close of this acquisition, Renesas has transformed into an industry powerhouse with one of the most comprehensive set of advanced embedded solutions. We believe that this compelling and complementary combination will enable significant synergies and crossselling opportunities and contribute to creating superior value for our customers and stakeholders."

Report

OUTlook

for 2017

By David Somo Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy & Marketing, ON Semiconductor

2016 was a challenging year for the semiconductor industry as it continued to face global macroeconomic headwinds. China saw GDP growth continue to slow to around 6.7% and the US experienced sub 2% GDP growth, while other global economies were relatively flat in 2016. This represents the third consecutive year of lackluster global GDP growth of slightly below 3%. As a mature sector, the semiconductor industry closely follows global GDP expansion.

Scigazette | 07 | March, 2017

Report

In some ways, 2016 showed similarities to 2015 with consolidation remaining high on the agenda. Through acquisition, companies can continue to achieve growth in a relatively flat market while having the requisite size and scale to deliver the R&D necessary to realize ever-more complex integrated solutions and products.

ON Semiconductor’s goal is always to outperform the market; and we continued to achieve this in 2016. Our strategy combines a focus on developing innovative solutions for key application areas with identifying strategic acquisitions. Significant growth areas for us include automotive, Internet of Things (IoT), and high-performance power conversion (HPPC) and motor control.

Through the acquisition of Fairchild, we are now firmly established as a Tier 1 semiconductor manufacturer that is not only a leader in power semiconductors, but also offers a distinct competitive advantage in the aforementioned higher growth areas. Our comprehensive portfolio of power discretes, ICs and power module products covers solutions across low, medium and high voltage technologies allowing us to better serve the full range of requirements in many systems in the automotive, industrial and wireless device end-markets. This further strengthens our ability to gain market share and stay ahead of the industry growth curve.

Perhaps more than any other area of industry, the electronics sector continues to advance and innovate quickly, driven by, and indeed driving, exciting sectors such as the IoT (including industry 4.0), portable communication and the automotive industry. We will continue to see exciting developments in all of these areas, including advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) as we evolve to connected cars and semi and, ultimately, fully autonomous vehicles.

The companies that will succeed in this fast-paced environment will be those that combine scale in terms of technology portfolio and ability to innovate with a solutions-based approach that allows customers to focus efforts on their own core competencies.

Looking forward to 2017, the consensus among analysts seems to be that the semiconductor industry will experience low single digit growth through the year. We also expect to see further consolidation as companies look to achieve the scale necessary for high-value investments.

At the technology level, it is likely that semiconductor manufacturers will continue their evolution to supplying and establishing a comprehensive set of technologies and ecosystems that go beyond the component – in effect growing their value with customers by providing access to complete solutions that address challenges ranging from the board to the cloud.

Design tools and reference designs provide a clear demonstration of this philosophy and one in which ON Semiconductor has invested heavily. Examples can be seen in the recent introduction of modular IoT and wearable development kits that provide engineers with all of the hardware and software building blocks needed to speed the evaluation, design and implementation of applications.

These tools are backed up by strategically located engineering support and application specialists, In the case of ON Semiconductor, this takes the form of the company’s Solutions Engineering Centers (SECs) that too have, and will continue to benefit from significant investment.

Bolstered by the Fairchild acquisition, our plans are to leverage our broad product portfolio, packaging expertise, scale and global operations to provide comprehensive, differentiated solutions that help customers accelerate time-to-market and time-to-revenue across a variety of applications.

We have identified strategic growth opportunities in a number of areas including automotive, the IoT, HPPC and motor control. These will drive the development of differentiated solutions such as power, analog, and sensing products that support continued vehicle electrification, LED lighting and the wider adoption of autonomous driver assist systems. We will also see advances in sensor, connectivity, processor and power technologies optimized for IoT designs and emerging industry 4.0 applications amongst others.

Evolution rather than revolution is generally the way that new technologies and ways of working are adopted and there is no reason to think the areas mentioned will be any different. IoT encompasses many applications, but if we look specifically at industrial IoT, we believe there will be a ramp-up of activity associated with areas such as smart buildings and industrial automation. With respect to autonomous driving, 2017 will see new sensor and vision technologies and solutions that support ADAS applications for semi-autonomous cars and that will provide the platforms needed to move towards the ultimate goal of fully autonomous vehicles.

The challenges that ON Semiconductor faces are the same as those faced by most semiconductor manufacturers operating in a global market. However, the company is well-positioned – not least in terms of technology, breadth of portfolio, application focus, R&D, operations and supply chain – to address these challenges and retain its competitive advantage and technology leadership.

Scigazette | 08 | March, 2017

In-Conversation

India is gearing up for big changes to come in terms of government policies and industry upheavals

Ravi Pagar Managing Director (South East Asia) element14

In this interview, Ravi Pagar, Managing Director (South East Asia) element14 outlines the factors that differentiate element14 from the competition and how they are helping design engineers get trusted information on processes, software products and development tools.

Ravi Pagar took over reins of element14 Business in India in 2007 and is currently the Regional Director of the India/ASEAN operations. Ravi spearheaded the setting up of the India business with the acquisition of Hynetic Electronics. He has overseen significant growth in India since the acquisition of the business from Hynetics with the operations now 12 times larger.

Sagar Rawat recently had the opportunity to get responses from Ravi Pagar on the following questions.

Scigazette | 09 | March, 2017

In-Conversation

Scigazette: What makes element14 a preferred choice for design engineers and small production buyers?

Ravi Pagar: element14, through its expertise and heritage, has positioned itself as a “Development Distributor”.

Therefore, the company is committed to promoting electrical engineering and introducing young people to the world of coding and lastly, enhancing the maker community through the creation of the latest development tools and software products.

The company’s strong partnerships with the world’s leading electronic component and single board computer companies give us a deep understanding and design knowledge that allows element14 to provide consistent and reliable support to customers with differing design needs. element14 offers an entire solution – from concept through design to manufacturing, helping the customer get their new products to market quickly. We have the broadest range of Semiconductor and Passive inventory available and a world class line card.

Scigazette: In a time when more and more products are being flown into the market in a short time and are soon to be integrated into the new designs, distributors have to overcome many hurdles. What makes element14 stand out of the competition?

Ravi Pagar: element14 has been a one stop shop for the latest products, services and development software in the electronics industry. Whether researching a new technology, designing an electronic product or looking for parts to repair an existing system, element14 is the trusted global source partner for companies that need to keep their projects on the fast track mode, right from the start.

The company is the only high service distributor in India that manufactures exclusive development kits for

customers and this provides us with a leading edge over our competitors. We are also one of the only distributors in the country that provide a suite of solutions to support the engineers throughout their research, design, prototyping and production phases. We provide our customers with personalized, continuous support and our global reach as part of Premier Farnell Group provides us with greater access to stocks and helps us build stronger relationships with suppliers thereby allowing us to better serve the customer’s needs.

For the design community in India, we have help innovate by offering them the latest products first, with deliveries to their doorsteps, wherein the design engineers can focus on getting the designs faster to life Scigazette: What is your outlook for Indian electronics supply chain for the rest of 2017?

Ravi Pagar: 2017 has already shown itself to be a year of change. India is gearing up for big changes to come in terms of government policies and industry upheavals.

There has been a steady phase of growth and development when we consider India’s electronics components industry.

Strategic alliances formed between public-private players have accelerated this process and contributed to key developments. Government initiatives like ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’ have played a major role in tackling challenges that previously affected the industry.

Newer initiatives like lower Tax for SME’s, Tax rebates for start ups and Start up India mission is already fuelling a lot of innovation. Also relatively easier access to finance for startups and the success of home grown startups is already fuelling newer innovation. All these changes will see more aggressive growth in demand and which in turn will funnel newer requirements. Smart cities alone can see a large demand for devices which will communicate with each other.

Visit scigazette.com Active Pages & stay abreast with the Technology

Science Gazette &Technol gy Scigazette | 10 | March, 2017

Cover Story

Challenges of digital controlled

DC-DC converters in

Renewable Energy Applications

R

enewable energy is considered as sustainable alternative energy source for electricity generation because of its abundant availability, pollution free and potentially inexhaustible. The uncertainty and intermittency associated with it results in output power with changing dynamics like variable output voltages, and frequency which demands advance control techniques to fully tap their potentials. The control of power converters which serves as link between generated power and the load or grid have been widely controlled using analogue circuitry. In the past two decades, digital control has emerged as alternative due to decline in the price to performance ration of digital signal process. The advantages of high flexibility, programmability, less number of parts, less sensitivity to environment, monitoring and auto diagnosing capability in digital control has made it a better choice over the analogue counterpart. This report assesses the trend in digital control of power converters and its challenges in the design of interface scheme for renewable energy applications Scigazette | 11 | March, 2017

Power electronics devices has been playing important role in renewable energy applications by providing necessary power conversion and controls in stabilizing generations.

Advancement in power electronics industries in last few decades led to the development of fast semiconductor switches like MOSFET and IGBT capable of handling high power at high frequency with reduced losses. The introduction of real-time computer controllers that can implement advanced control algorithms at high frequency with low power consumption are now readily available.

These state of the art devices led to development of costeffective, grid-friendly power converters that serves in small and large renewable energy deployment. Power interface scheme provides the necessary controls to renewable energy system by managing generation variability, reactive power control to minimize harmonic distortion, frequency and provide phase matching for voltage regulation and smooth synchronization. Foremost renewable energy generators like solar photovoltaic (solar PV) are directly connected to load. At inception of power electronics interface, converters are built for a particular energy source like converter for fuel cell generator power converter for solar PV generator and converter for wind turbine generator.

The quest for high power density and improve efficiency led to development of multi-input power converters that now allows combination of two or more complementary renewable energy generating units like wind at night and solar during day light using the same control link. The increasing application of power electronic converter interface has improved the efficiency and power quality of renewable energy (RE) delivery to wide range of load application. A power converter has switching elements responsible for power conversion and the control circuit for stabilizing the power flow. Analogue control technique has been widely used in converter control till recent time due to its design simplicity, high control bandwidth and low cost. Recently, digital control of power converter has become viable option, credit to high speed digital signal processors with less power consumption at reduced cost.

Digital control offers the flexibility where protection, monitoring and prevention circuitry can easily be built and updated based on state of the system in real time.

This story presents the constrains associated with practical implementation of digital controlled dc-dc power converters including limited DPWM resolution, sampling time delay of the ADC and limited control bandwidth of the digital compensator. A review on some of the predominant issues with real time implementation of digital control converter and continuous effort being made to fully explore the digital signal processor computational speed were examined. It is expected that this will serve as guide

to power design engineers willing to take up research work in the area of digital control of power converters in identify some of the fundamental challenges.

2. Converter topologies and control techniques 2.1. DC�DC converter topology Power conversion process involves the use of electronics semiconductor device to change electrical energy from one voltage, current or frequency level to another. The two common techniques for achieving power conversion in power supply design are the linear regulators and the switch mode power supply (SMPS). The conventional power regulators adopt linear regulation technique by varying resistance in accordance to load demand. There is enormous heat dissipation and high power losses in the system with output efficiency ranging between 30 and 50 %. The quest for smaller, lighter and highly efficient power supply led to development of switch mode power supply.

SMPS uses switching regulators for power conversion by varying the control signal duty cycle. It offers advantages of improved power efficiency of more than 95%. Through increased frequency of operation there is significant reduction in magnetic components sizing like the transformers, inductors and capacitors leading to high power density. The disadvantages of this technique are the problem of ripples, noise on the output DC, conducted and radiated electromagnetic interference (EMI) which needs to be carefully managed. Different dc-dc converter topologies are used for efficient power conversion in renewable energy applications depending on the requirement. A topology is an arrangement of the power switching devices and their magnetic elements. Generally, converter topologies are classified as isolated and nonisolated type.

The non-isolated converters are mostly used where the voltage needs to be stepped up/down by a relatively small ratio. The commonly used non isolated converters are buck, boost, buck-boost or cuk converters for low power application of up to or slightly above 200W. Forward, fly back, push pull, half bridge and full bridge converters are the isolated converters used for medium and high power application in the range of 500W and above as mostly found in renewable energy system. To design high efficient power converters, certain factors are put into consideration while deciding on the choice of converter topology. The required power level, the need for isolation between input and output voltage, high output current and the input/output type be it multiple input/outputs voltage.

Some design are targeted at high output voltage, low voltage, variable input voltage or variable output voltage.

After the choice of converter topology, the control circuit plays a major role in the system quality power delivery and

Scigazette | 12 | March, 2017

efficiency.

2.2. DC‐DC converter control techniques Power converter control encompasses signal monitoring, measurement, regulation, drive signal generation and protection of the power converter. The aim of the control system is to keep desired output power constant using feedback loop irrespective of variation in the line voltage, load current and circuit parameters. The output voltage largely depends on input voltage, duty cycle, load current and the converter circuit component values. Power flows from source through converter is regulated by varying the duty cycle of PWM control of power switches based on the drive signals provided by the compensator The two broadly classified methods for dc-dc converter control are the voltage mode and current mode control. Voltage mode control is a single loop control system with only output voltage been sensed to control the converter circuit while current control mode is a multi-loop control technique with AC current feedback loop in addition to the voltage feedback loop (Table 1) Control

Pros

Cons

Voltage Mode

-Single loop -Easy to implement -Good for constant loads

-Reliability problem -Slow response to line /load changes

Current Mode

-Multi-loop -Improved transient -Over current protection -Robust and reliable

-Instability at duty cycle above 50% - extra sensor -Noise/EMI issue on sensing signal

Table 1: Power Converter Control Technique

3. Digital control of power converters Until recently, implementation of dc-dc power converter controls was dominated with analogue control circuitry due to its simplicity and low cost. The disadvantages of this technique is large number parts, inflexibility, complex hardware configuration, and sensitivity to environment in terms of thermal and ageing . Advent of high speed and low cost digital signal processor (DSP) motivated the interest in digital control power supply development.

Digital control of power converters offers numerous advantages such online monitoring and auto diagnosing, less sensitive to parametric variation, high flexibility as they can be reprogram to different function. The complexity of control is moved from hardware to software, better noise immunity, implementation of complex and sophisticated control techniques are possible which are necessary for achieving tightly regulated power from variable renewable generations. There is also provision for peripheral like communication and data channels for digital power management.

In a digitally controlled switch mode power supply, the sensed output voltage is transform to discrete values using analogue digital converter (ADC) and compared with the desired reference voltage to generate error (e). The error is processed by a compensator block to determine the duty cycle of PWM which controls the converter switching ‘on’ and ‘off’ time. During supply voltage transient or load variation, the ability of the closed loop digital controller to accurately adjust the duty cycle of the pulse width signal is critical to output voltage regulation. High speed computational engine like digital signal processor (DSP), microcontrollers (µC), digital signal processor based controllers (DSC), and field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), complex programmable logic devices (CPLD) are used for implementing digital compensator algorithm and generation of digital pulse width control signal.

3.1. Analogue to digital converter (ADC) The analogue to digital converter (ADC) converts the sensed output voltage (Vout) or primary inductor current to its digital equivalent which is then compared with the reference value. The ADC resolution (n A/D) and sampling frequency determines the feedback voltage accuracy which has direct impact on converter dynamic performance .

Previous research work have shown that to accurately meet tight output voltage regulation, the ADC resolution error should be lower than the (quantization) output voltage ΔVo change.

Vref ªV0 V .H $ n Amax/ D A / D H = V0 V0 2 V0 , V0 V ] n A / D = int[log 2 max A / D ªV Vref 0

(1) (2)

Where, Vmax A/D - is ADC full range voltage Vref - is the reference voltage H - is the output voltage Int [] - denotes upper rounded integer of the argument.

3.2. Digital Compensator Digital compensator is another important unit of digital controller in switching power converter control. It generates control signal by compensating for the error (e) from the difference between the reference and sensed output voltage (Vout) to determine the duty cycle (D) of digital PWM. Most research work on converters control are based on classical controller like linear PID using linear models of power converter which does not properly take in to account the time-variant and nonlinear nature of the power switch. Continuous effort is geared towards development of new nonlinear control law algorithm that will take the advantages of digital signal processor to improve dynamic performance of power converter. The nonlinear control law that have been applied on converter

Scigazette | 13 | March, 2017

control includes nonlinear PID, fuzzy logic, feed forward control, and non-linear predictive which have all shown some significant improvement on dynamic performance of converters like reduce overshoot, faster transient and steady state time. Generally, the two major approaches for designing digital controller are the digital redesign approach (design by emulation) and direct digital design.

Design by emulation employs control design in the continuous time s-domain and then transformed to discrete z-domain using one of the discretization methods such as backward Euler, bilinear and pole/zero matching.

Digital redesign method is capable of providing good response using well known continuous-time analogue design method but suffers discretization delay effects. The direct digital controller design is done directly in z-domain.

A switching action in the converter is considered and modelled as a sampled-data system. This approach provides better transient to load variation, improve phase margin and control bandwidth. A typical example of a simplified block diagram of a direct digital control model for dc-dc converter with classical PID controller is illustrated in Fig. 1. The closed loop discrete-time transfer function G C ( Z ) of the system is given by Eq. 3.

Gc(z) =

D (z). Z {K pwm (s). Gvd (s)}

(3)

1 + D (z). Z {K pwm (s). Gvd (s). K a/d (s)}

Where Gvd (s), is the control to output transfer function of the converter, T p/m is delay between the time the duty cycle is updated and the time the switch duty ratio changes, T a/d is delay of the ADC

3.3. Digital pulse width modulation Pulse width modulation techniques are used for generating gating control signal in power converter control. The Control signal switch the power devices ‘on’ and ‘off’ by varying the pulse duty cycle ratio as dictated by the control signal received from the digital compensator.

Fig. 1: Direct digital control system

In digital control, microprocessor and DSP are used to generate PWM. The modulating and ramp signal are sample at regular interval using timer divided in to

sequence of carrier period. The limitation with this techniques is that only one pulse can be produced within each carrier period which do have deteriorating effect on regulated output voltage most especially in highly varying source like renewable energy. Fig. 2 illustrates a digital PWM with the quantized error signal from digital compensator compared with a counter (ramp) for generating control pulse voltage.

Fig. 2: Block diagram of Digital PWM In power converter design, high resolution DPWM is required for high power density, tightly regulated output voltage and also for eliminating limit cycle effect. To meet voltage regulation requirement, some improvement have been proposed on the conventional modulation techniques to deliver high resolution DPWM at low clock frequency.

Some of the existing hardware and software DPWM architecture are presented in Table II with their advantages and drawbacks (Table 2).

4. Implementation constrains in digital control DC-DC converter Digital control implementation requires power design engineers to apply control stability criteria in the discrete time z-domain. The z‐domain is a transfer function of a sampled data system or discretised continuous time domain system for predicting system behaviour. Power converters operates in continuous time domain, therefore analogue signals are discretized before processing which introduces delay to the system. Aside associated delay, due to limited word length of digital processor there are also problem of accuracy most especially if resolution is not high enough.

Switching power converter controller design has been challenging due to non-linear nature of switching elements, fluctuation of input voltage and load currents.

The design and practical implementation of digital controller for power converters has constrains at the stage of analogue to digital conversion (ADC) in terms of conversion speed and quantization error. The development and implementation of linear and nonlinear control law

Scigazette | 14 | March, 2017

Table 2: Comparison of DPWM Architecture

algorithm and generation of high resolution digital pulse width modulation (DPWM) demand continuous research effort.

The other pronounced identified challenges includes accuracy of converter model for compensator design , control bandwidth limitation, computational speed of digital processor, resolution issues in time and voltage measurement. Research efforts are now focused on how to further improve ADC sampling and quantization effect, development of more accurate converter model, application of nonlinear compensator for wider dynamics performance and generation of high resolution DPWM generation with less delay at low clock frequency.

Improvement in the identified areas will results in high performance power converters with better dynamics that to meet the output voltage regulation requirement in highly varying renewable energy generations.

phenomenon called limit cycle oscillations which results from quantization effects of the analogue-to-digital (A/D) converter and the digital PWM. It is a steady state oscillation of output voltage at frequencies lower than that of converter switching frequency. If the desired output voltage, which guarantees zero error signal is not mapped to one of the available discrete values of DPWM, the feedback loop continually swing between at least two closest values of the duty cycle. As reported in literature, limit cycle oscillation can be eliminated by ensuring that the DPWM resolution is higher than that of ADC resolution (4) nDPWM =nA/ D +1

Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 shows a demonstration of quantitative behaviour of limit cycle oscillator on converter steady state voltage when the DP WM resolution is less than the ADC resolution and vice versa.

4.1. DPWM resolution Resolution of DPWM is an important factor that affects dynamic performance of digital controlled power converter. Different modulation architecture has been proposed in literature as presented in Table II. The higher the DPWM resolution the better the output voltage regulation and possibility of eliminating the problem of limit cycle oscillation on the output voltage. The undesirable effect of the modulation delay slows down dynamic response of power converters leading to prolong output voltage deviation from the reference value. The larger the DPWM modulation delays, the larger the output voltage deviation. During transient, a reduction in line voltage/ load increase leads to output voltage undershoots. Also transient increase of line voltage/lo d decrease will cause output voltage overshoots.

The Low PWM resolution usually leads t o a

(4)

Fig. 3: Vout with DPWM resolution lower than ADC resolution

Fig. 4: Vout DPWM resolution twice the ADC resolution

Scigazette | 15 | March, 2017

counter complete a cycle as shown at point td in Fig.6, the modulator will not respond until the counter reaches zero thereby introducing turn off delay leading to output voltage overshoot.

Research efforts to reduce modulation delay and increase the resolution of DPWM led to modifications on existing techniques and development of new ones. Some of the improved digital modulation architectures takes the advantage of integrating features of digital processor such as digital clock manager (DCM) in FPGA resource, while others combine basic techniques such as segmented hybrid DPWM, counter comparator with multi-bit DeltaSigma, dithered delta-sigma. The trade off with most of these methods is difficulty in timing constraint, increased power consumption, increase chip area, and cost.

Fig. 5: Leading-edge DPWM

To further improve transient and dynamic performance of digital controlled power converters for renewable energy application, continuous effort are being made to explore digital signal processor integrating feature and high computational speed. Digital control of power converter interface scheme has the potential for allowing implantation of complex and sophisticated control techniques that will eliminate the variable output associated with renewable energy generations.

5. Conclusions

Fig. 6: DPWM with turn off delay

4. 2. DPWM Delay Modulation delay is another major drawback of most existing DPWM architecture in digital control of power converters. It is the time delay for the switch gate signal to change when modulator duty cycle is updated. A typical demonstration of delay effect in counter based DPWM is simulated in Matlab_Simulink as shown in Fig. 5 with turn off delay.

The share of renewables in the world electricity generation has been on increase in the past few decades. The uncertainty and intermittency associated to renewable generations is hindering its smooth deployment. To fully tap its potential, power interface scheme with advance control scheme are required. Digital control of power converters can provides the improved dynamics through implementation of sophisticated and advance control techniques that will correct the power fluctuation in renewable energy generations. Though with all the advantages of digital control system, there are constrains hindering maximization its capability in renewable energy applications.

A counter baseDPWM can be trailing-edge modulation (up counter), leading-edge modulation (down counter) and dual-edge modulation(combination of up/down counter).Fig. 5 shows a leading edge counter based modulation where a counter ramp signal is compared with the duty cycle value from the compensator to generate pulse signal. The generated PWM signal is presented in Fig. 6 where the modulator output (PWM signal) remain low when the duty cycle is below the counter, otherwise the counter S-R flip flop sets PWM signal to high and wait till counter finished counting to zero before resetting it to low state. Under transient line or load condition, if the duty cycle drops below the counter more than once before the Scigazette | 16 | March, 2017

Company Watch

Andre Bouwer Vice President of Marketing Analogix Semiconductor

Creating semiconductors for global markets with design and engineering excellence: Analogix Semiconductor

Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Analogix designs and manufactures semiconductors for the digital multimedia market, from smartphones, tablets and notebooks, to high-definition displays and media playback accessories. Its IP cores, full custom ASICs, and off-the-shelf ICs provide end-to-end connectivity through industry-standard interfaces like DisplayPort, HDMI, USB, and are found in millions of today's most popular consumer electronics devices.

From the start, the company has relied on design and engineering excellence, teaming up with talented individuals to create semiconductors for global markets. Its global team has now reached 250 people spread across geographies with engineering operation in Beijing, China, and design and sales offices in Taiwan, Korea and Japan.

Nearly a decade ago, Analogix pioneered the development of the DisplayPort standard, an innovative digital interface for high-resolution video and audio developed by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). Analogix provided the physical layer (PHY) for the initial DisplayPort proof of concept systems, and delivered to market the first VESA certified DisplayPort transmitter. Since then, the company has shipped more than one billion DisplayPort devices, becoming the leading supplier of DisplayPort semiconductors for phones, tablets, and PCs. With manufacturers opting for DisplayPort over USB-C for their flagship devices due to its capability to deliver the highest resolutions at the lowest power, Analogix’s SlimPort-branded products are the leading connectivity solution for mobile applications that require simultaneous transmission of high-resolution video, audio, USB data, and power. The company has shipped more than 10 million DisplayPort over USB-C controllers and transmitters into mobile devices and accessories featuring USB-C ports, even though the USB PD and USB Type-C Cable and Connector Specification were just released in early 2016.

Given the adoption of USB Type-C in mobile devices, it is very important for chips to be able to reduce power and electromagnetic interference (EMI). Also, it is essential for any transmitter IC, such as the DisplayPort transmitters that Analogix produces, to be integrated with the application processor (AP) that is being used. Analogix works closely with leading CPU and AP makers, such as

Qualcomm, Mediatek and others, to produce reference hardware and software that allows a fast time-to-market.

In February 2016, Analogix introduced SlimPort ANX7688, the first single-chip mobile transmitter to support 4K 60 frames per second (4096x2160p60) or FHD 120 frames per second (1920x1080p120) video resolution from a smartphone or tablet with full function USB-C, ideal for applications such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality(VR) which require superior video processing and performance.

The availability of itsANX7440/30 family was announced in August 2016, as the first integrated solution capable of switching DisplayPort version 1.3 and 1.4 at 8.1 gigabits per second (Gbps), as well as USB 3.1 Generation 2 (Gen2) 10 Gbps signals to support a single USB-C port. 10 Gbps data rates enable faster communication between devices raising the bar in many applications. For example, using the ANX7440/30 greatly improves performance of USB 3.1 external hard drives connected through a docking station.

Also, DisplayPort over USB-C allows devices to output video resolutions up to 8Kx4K which is one of the key elements in delivering an immersive VR or AR experience.

ANX7440/30’s ability to recover and reinstate high-speed signals reduces the thickness and enables longer cables to be used in these applications.

“We have a strong capability to manage very high-speed signals with reduced power consumption so that they can be used in battery powered mobile devices. We are committed to remaining at the state-of-the-art in this area – to be ready with the high-speed digital video interfaces when they are needed by various products such as connected AR/VR,” said Andre Bouwer, vice president of marketing for Analogix.

Connected portable VR is the ideal approach for providing the best performance and mobility without the burden of additional hardware cost or licensing fees. More and more sensors and cameras are being added in VR headsets and a connected VR headset allows the cost of these additional VR sensors to be removed from the phone.

“As we have seen, the VR industry will spread to smartphones. The ‘Google Cardboard’ approach, which the phone itself sits in front of your eyes, will be replaced with a ‘Connected VR’ approach, where the phone is in your

Scigazette | 17 | March, 2017

Company Watch

pocket and a thin wire connects to the head mounted display (HMD). That is, the audio headsets that we use today will slowly be replaced by audio/video HMD. This will enable any consumer to experience VR or AR,” noted Bouwer. “A similar trend is happening in PC VR. Today the PC connects to the HMD via two cables – a USB cable and an HDMI cable. Of course the Full-Featured USB Type-C cable offers the same functionality and therefore it makes sense to replace two cables with one USB-C cable.”

At CES 2017, the company announced their SlimPort ANX753x/7580 family of VR/AR head-mounted display controllers, the first DisplayPort to Quad MIPI-DSI controllers supporting up to 120 frames per second (FPS), leveraging Analogix’s long history of products and technology development in low-power, high-speed Serializer/Deserializer (SERDES). The ANX753x/7580 product family can be used in USB Type-C and non-USB Type-C applications and can manipulate a variety of video scan modes giving headset manufacturers the flexibility to differentiate their products by offering the most optimized performance for the markets they serve, whether that is gaming, 360 degree and 3D movies, or AR productivity.

With SlimPort, the phone’s architecture stays optimized and smart, and Analogix is prepared to support new market opportunities in VR display hardware, peripherals, and content capture.

Analogix’shigh-performance mixed-signal semiconductors applications expand beyond that however. The company’s innovative mobile display controllers in the form of specialized timing controllers (TCONs)combine performance and reliability with low power and low cost for multiple display applications, using proprietary technologies such as: Ÿ RapidLink delivers instantaneous clock recovery allowing for instant wake-up of the mobile device screen by eliminating the need for link training; Ÿ QuietLink reduces DisplayPort voltage swing which minimizes power consumption and reduces ElectroMagnetic Interference (EMI); Ÿ WideEye provides improved DisplayPort signal recovery which ensures that the panel can work with the full range of DisplayPort sources in the market; Ÿ Gapless architecture minimizes the power consumption of high-resolution mobile displays, while providing continuous flow of video to the display, regardless of the state of the CPU, GPU, battery or other components in the system.

Analogix’s TCON technology strengths include expertise in DisplayPort, High Bit Rate 2 (HBR2), Panel Self Refresh (PSR), Media Buffer Optimization (MBO), Adaptive Sync, LCD Overdrive, and Assertive Display (a trademark of Apical), allowing manufacturers to build lower-power, higher-resolution products that provide an immersive entertainment experience, such as the world’s highest resolution monitors -4Kx2K and 5Kx3K - powered by Analogix TCONs.

A third area of expertise is Intellectual Property (IP).Analogix offers a wide range of video transmitter and receiver IP cores supporting DisplayPort, HDMI, MIPI standards, as well as comprehensive USB-C Power Delivery/Port Controller, VESA Display Stream Compression (DSC), and Video DRM security solutions. Compatible with a variety of silicon geometries and processes down to 16nm FinFet, Analogix IP are used in over 1 billion systemon-chip (SoC) products in mobile, consumer and computing applications.

In May 2016 Analogix announced a technology licensing agreement with LG Electronics for Analogix’s full function USB-C technology IP and most recently, in October 2016, the company announced its collaboration with MediaTek Inc., combining MediaTek’s advanced, feature-rich Systemon-Chip (SoC) and Analogix’s DisplayPort technology for best-in-class multimedia solutions.

Services Devices with USB-C ports can achieve transmission of data, video and power over a single connector. However, products from various manufacturers might not be compatible with each other.

The beautiful thing about USB-C is that so much functionality is possible while still remaining backward compatible with a basic level of USB functionality.

Notebook computers are adding more than one USB-C connector. For example, a particular notebook might have three USB-C ports, one of which supports DisplayPort over USB-C, and the other two are data only. A similar comment is true of power charging. Some ports will support battery charging through the USB-C connector, while other ports are data only. All the possibilities will exist for the near future. This may result in confusion when PC users do not know which port is the right one for the function they are trying to perform. Different manufacturers are taking different strategies to deal with this. The USB Forum recommends the use of logos, such as a DisplayPort logo, to indicate the functionalities of each port.

Smart phones are a different story, since there is only room for one connector. In this case the question becomes which phones support DisplayPort and which don’t. There is never going to be space for a logo on the phone.

Analogix has created the SlimPort Adopters Program (SAP) to answer the question of compatibility between devices.

The company is committed to buying every device that supports DisplayPort over USB-C and testing them with each other. The SAP test includes both protocol compliance and device interoperability. In the near future the results will be posted on www.slimport.com as devices become available so that consumers can be educated about the capabilities of the products they are considering buying.

What’s in the future for Analogix?

“Our market position is good. It’s definitely a direction of growth and we’ll continue to develop innovative technology and look beyond what people see as the future today,” noted Andre Bouwer.

Scigazette | 18 | March, 2017

Technology

Monica Rozenfeld

Monica Rozenfeld is the associate editor of The Institute.

She covers the gamut of IEEE's fields of interest, including cybersecurity, wearables, and smart homes. Monica oversees a new channel on startups, spotlighting IEEE members who have launched their own ventures, as well as The Institute's blog IEEE Roundup and social media networks on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo: MIT Sloan Fintech Shoar

How Emerging Technology Will Disrupt the Financial Industry

Antoinette Schoar, a professor of entrepreneurial finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management, showed several logos of some 1,800 so-called fintech startups that have launched in the past few years.

Professionals from the finance and technology sectors convened in New York City on 16 September to learn about how recent technology innovations are transforming banking and the stock market as well as credit cards, loans, and other financial products and services. The theme of the event, hosted by MIT Sloan, was “FinTech (Financial Technology) and the Disruption of Finance.” The speakers made it clear that machine learning and other new technologies are certain to bring big changes to the financial industry.

Personalized Products and Services Traditional financial institutions increased their partnerships with startup companies last year to help them innovate; otherwise they risked being left behind. In her “Mastering FinTech for a Changing World” presentation, Antoinette Schoar, a professor of entrepreneurial finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management, showed logos of some 1,800 so-called fintech startups that have launched in the past few years to fill gaps left by traditional institutions. Banks and credit card companies are going to have to adopt emerging technologies, like big data tools, to keep up with the startups, Schoar says.

Big data could be used to help tailor credit cards to individuals, for example. Currently, banks and credit card companies send offers to people based on their education level. Some offer cards with a 0 percent interest rate to those with a high school education but charge them a high fee for late payments, for example. Customers who have a master’s degree or Ph.D. get offered perks, like earning airline miles with purchases. Some credit card companies are going to rely on data analysis of recent purchases and overall finances to better understand customers’ spending habits and recommend credit cards based on that information, Schoar says. Services such as Mint, an online and mobile personal finance manager, already recommend cards based on their users’ information.

Big data also can be used to generate real-time credit scores. Currently, credit scores, which measure the risk associated with lending money to a consumer, can be based on factors such as late payments, including ones made years ago. Real-time scores put more emphasis on recent activities—which could make it easier for people to get loans or increase their lines of credit.

Robo-Advisors Would you trust software to handle your investments?

Robo-advisor services are on the rise. Philip Riese, president of Riese & Others, a venture capital firm that deals with fintech startups, says his company is attacking

Scigazette | 19 | March, 2017

Technology

the problem of “lazy money.”

Many people keep their money in savings accounts, which are yielding less than 1 percent interest annually. Some are paying a high interest rate on a loan and not bothering to switch to one with a lower rate. One of Riese’s startups, Betterment, uses machine learning to automatically move users’ money around based on the best rates available at any given time. Betterment also can help with investments.

If you have funds in a mutual fund retirement account that is yielding below-average returns, for example, Betterment can automatically move the money to a mutual fund that has been getting higher returns. To make such decisions, the service takes into consideration the investor’s age, income, and risk tolerance.

Riese invests in startups that offer “massive disruption of consumer expectations,” he says—similar to how many people react the first time they use Uber and realize it’s a better way to get around.

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has funded the startup FutureAdvisor. After you sync all your financial accounts to the service, the robo-advisor provides free investment advice and a plan personalized to your financial goals. Ben Golub, chief risk officer at BlackRock, says that because of such services, stockbrokers will have to prove their merit to earn their fees. Surveys have shown that people prefer robo-advisors to people because they are more convenient, and their processes are transparent.

Millennials especially seem to trust technology more than people, even with their money, Golub says.

However, Andrew W. Lo, professor of finance at MIT Sloan, disagrees. Customers still want to talk to real people when they lose money, he says, adding that he doesn’t believe stockbrokers are going away anytime soon. Brokers, though, can benefit from technology, he says, such as using analytics to help them make investment decisions.

But first, he says, “data needs to represent how people behave, not how we think they ought to behave.” He calls this concept “artificial humanity,” not “artificial intelligence.” For example, analytics might better predict when people will “freak out” and take their money out of the market based on previous investment behaviors—which could help brokers decide when to buy and when to sell.

“We need better technologies to match human behaviors and emotions,” Lo says.

In the panel "Fintech: Beyond the Startup," leaders in the space discuss how new ventures are reinventing financial services for customers.

Photo: MIT Sloan Fintech Panel

global economics and management at MIT Sloan: “Blockchain is big, and it really demands your attention.”

Blockchain technology supports digital currency systems, like Bitcoin. It allows for transparent and decentralized operations, meaning everyone using the system can see what’s going on.

Its very nature is counter to how banks operate, because their systems are private and centralized. And with blockchain technology, banks could be held accountable for any wrongdoing, since customers could easily view all activities on the platform.

Although banks have been resistant to the technology’s adoption, it will save them a lot of money in the long run because it can automate much of their manual work and add a layer of security, says Brad Peterson, the CIO of NASDAQ. The technology is just as disruptive as automated teller machines were decades ago, Peterson says, adding: “Before then, you had to plan your weekends based on the money you had in your wallet.”

For customers, blockchain technology provides users with a digital signature and secure identification. Moreover, audits of transactions would be unnecessary, because the system provides a record of every payment made.

Peterson predicts a high-tech company will emerge to fill the need for the technology as it becomes more in demand—akin to a “Google for blockchain,” he says.

“The first time I looked at the Internet in 1993 and saw a video of a cat giving advice, I thought this technology is not going to have much impact,” Johnson says. “That’s where blockchain is today.”

Banks and The Blockchain In the words of speaker Simon Johnson, a professor of Scigazette | 20 | March, 2017

Design

Signal-Generation Advances Support Electronic Warfare's Evolution As electronic threats grow and the electronic-warfare environment becomes more complex, new methods of generating and controlling EW signals are needed to maintain a modern war-force.

MODERN ELECTRONIC WARFARE (EW) makes use of the latest RF/microwave technologies to attack, defend, and enhance strategic operations. To enable these applications, highly complex and integrated computer/radio systems are needed to keep the military on the cutting edge. This advance¬ment comes with the price of even more advanced methods of testing and signal generation, which cali¬brate, refine, and verify the operation of these highly capable radio weapons, armor, and tools.

If the military could deploy EW instead of kinetic weapons, the cost of engagements could be dramatically lowered. The necessary supply lines to sup¬port the ammunition required in a traditional engagement also could be cut. For example, the U.S. military Toma¬hawk (which The Economist claims cost $1.5 million per missile) and the Hellfire air-to-ground rocket (estimated at a cost of $115,000 per rocket) can now be used in large numbers during engagements. On September 23 of this year, the Washington Post reported that 47 Tomahawk missiles were fired overnight between two U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. Other examples can be found in the defense of U.S. assets—for example, the $70 billion price tag on the F-22 Raptor fighter air¬craft program.

Obviously, the use of such assets could be greatly reduced if it were possible to instead eliminate an opponent’s ability to coordinate and communicate between forces while maintaining our forces’ communications capability.

Substituting EW weapons and techniques could enable the military

sce¬narios is an opportu¬nity to implement RF EW with units that incur predomi¬nantly up-front expenses. For exam¬ple, an activeelectronically-steered-array (AESA)based jammer may cost hundreds of millions of dollars initially to develop and millions more to deploy. Yet the resid¬ual costs may be minimal in

Fig 1: Any electronic or electromagnetic device/equipment on the battlefield, including military/industrial infrastruc¬ture, is subject to disruption and even elimination by EW attack.

(Courtesy of the Department of the Army)

to do the following: effec¬tively eliminate a target through electrical attack, reduce/eliminate the effective¬ness of an opponent’s attack, or strategi¬cally outmaneu¬ver an opponent through superior communication or resource denial (Fig. 1). Within each of these Scigazette | 21 | March, 2017

comparison to current kineticweapons technology.

The U.S. Navy and other branches are investing heavily in technology to provide electronic attack, protection, and warfare support (Fig. 2). To enable these tech¬nologies, software-

Design

defined radios (SDRs), cognitive network¬ing, and radars based upon antenna arrays are being imple¬mented. These technologies have begun to utilize more costeffective commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technology. They also take advantage of the latest highperforming materi¬als, such as gallium nitride (GaN). These new technologies raise per¬formance while adding a wide range of capabilities.

conditions. An example of this is Northrop Grumman’s Combat Electromagnetic Environ¬ment Simulator (CEESIM). Although it is a highly capable instrument, the CEESIM is not within the budget or footprint requirements of many radar test scenarios and therefore can¬not be applied to most real-world tests.

Recent technology advances, such as direct digital synthesis (DDS)/direct carrier generation (DCG) of RF signals, have enabled the emulation of highly

Fig 2: To modernize a military with EW capability, forces will need to be equipped with offensive, defensive, and strategic EW devices and techniques. (Courtesy of the Department of the Army)

To take greatest advantage of these benefits, however, these devices require more advanced signalgen¬eration technology. “The modern spectral threat environment contains thousands of emitters—radios, wire¬less devices, and tens to hundreds of radar threats—producing millions of radar pulses per second amidst background signals and noise,” says Shawn McCann, EW Business Development Manager for Keysight Technologies. “Recreating this environment in the laboratory is a major challenge, often involving a number of different types of signalgeneration tools.”

Traditionally, large, complex rackmount cabins would be necessary to present a large enough number of RF sourc¬es to emulate true-to-war

complex radar signatures in more compact and cost-effective forms (Fig. 3).

DDS leverages the capability of modern circuitry to oper¬ate at sampling rates that have reached RF frequencies. With an ideal arbitrary waveform generator (AWG), a signal up to half of the sampling rate can be produced with sufficient accuracy to enable directly generated, modulated RF. In the past, low spurious-freedynamic-range (SFDR) and sam¬pling rates prevented AWGs from producing greater than a few gigahertz.

With the latest AWG technologies, however, there are signal generators capable of 20 GHz and even 40 GHz and band¬widths from 160 MHz to 14 GHz from companies like Rohde & Scigazette | 22 | March, 2017

Schwarz, Tektronix, and Keysight.

Many of these signal generators are capable of complex modulation including mul¬tiple-input/multipleoutput (MIMO), phased array, and rapid switching between modes in as little as nanoseconds. McCann notes, “Advancements in DDS source technology with a lower spurious and noise floor have enabled the latest EW signal-generation technologies.

Modern digital interfaces for effi¬cient EW threat environments support the need for millions of pulse descriptor words (PDWs) per second.

Wider instan¬taneous bandwidths are required for the generation of complex spectral scenarios. In addition, multiple synchronized chan¬nels are needed to simulate signals for systems using multiple or phased-array antenna systems.”

Although material developments have increased circuitry performance, clever techniques are still being developed to sig-nificantly enhance the present technology for signal generation. An example of an advanced DDS technique is Tektronix’s AWG70001 dual-DAC architecture, which enables extended AWG range using two matched digital-to-analog converters (DACs) (Fig. 4). The first DAC has the odd samples delivered to it, while the sec¬ond DAC has the even samples applied. A delay of half of the sampling period must be applied to the second DAC in order to cancel the images from each DAC. This approach prevents those images from appearing in the second Nyquist band. According to Tektronix, this approach enhances a DDS structure to run at two times the sampling rate instead of half the sampling rate of a single DAC architecture.

Yet there are limitations to DDS tech¬nology. The record length (RL) of a radar signal limits a time window in inverse proportion to the sampling rate. For higher sampling rates, the RL time win¬dow is therefore shortened.

Yet the RL remains critical for

Design

simulating real-world and diverse radar signals and environmental factors. With a long RL, for example, the effects of physical vibration, accel¬eration, echo characteristics, frequency-hopping pattern, and staggered pulse sequences can all be included in simulation. The result is more effective radar calibration.

interfaces, simulator angle-of-attack calibration/verification methods, and threat reactivity based on behavioral models.”

Cognitive-networking technologies also may be applied to the modern battle space. According to Exelis, for instance, its Disruptor SRx, which uses cognitive EW technology, can respond in real time to an array of previously unknown waveforms and adapt to new operating modes. This tech¬nology is designed for use cases ranging from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to combat aircraft. It uses a systems-of-systems (SoS) approach.

With digital RF memory, DSP, and a digital receiver incorporated into the same module, the Disruptor SRx may be capable of using traditional threat libraries in addition to classifying Fig 3: The direct digital synthesis of RF/microwave signals for EW applications has the potential to unknown signals and generating generate highly complex EW signals in a cost and form factor that is significantly reduced when jamming using advanced machine compared to traditional technologies. (Courtesy of Keysight Technologies) learning in real time. Such methods can remove the human-manipulation aspect Other advances also have pushed the boundar¬ies of EW from the character¬ization of EW signals. With the benefit signal generation. “With EW systems, the main technology of an intelligence node, they also can enable EW systems advancements have been modern digi¬tal signal processing to react without hesitation in virtually any battlespace (DSP), higher-performance analog¬to-digital condition, regardless of disrupted communications. converters/DACs, and software-defined sys¬tem architectures,” says McCann. “On the EW-simulator side, As many of the world’s militaries move to electronic advancements have been enabled by core DAC war¬fare as a means of reducing cost and casualties, and per¬formance, nano-field-effect-transistor switching, 40increas¬ing response time, the investment in highGHz agile attenuators, real-time pulse generation, Ethernet performing/agile signal-generation technologies will continue to scale. The testing of modern EW devices is scaling with this increas¬ing complexity.

This trend is further driving the demand for increased frequency, modulation capability, bandwidth, and sig¬nal fidelity from test-equipment waveform generators. Inevitably, hardware-in-theloop and automated test¬ing techniques using highly integrated and computerized software-defined systems will be crucial to the proper design and “training” of the latest radars, jammers, and support networks.

Fig. 4: Using a slightly phase-shifted dual DAC architecture can artificially increase the sampling rate and replicate signals of much higher frequencies while reducing images. (Courtesy of Tektronix)

Scigazette | 23 | March, 2017

Technology

Does your business needs an

AP Controller for better mobility?

It's a Wireless Extension of Your Wired Network providing users with advanced mobility services in just one device.

Sanjay Joshi Country Manager Edimax Technology

Scigazette | 24 | March, 2017

Technology

Wi-Fi connectivity has become an important requirement for customers and employees of various businesses, but the owners of those businesses are frequently challenged to offer reliable, business-grade networks within the limited budget. In today's networking environment having an AP Controller is a must for seamless coverage throughout your network.

Wireless AP Controllers can provide reachable enterprisegrade functionality to SMBs&Enterprise.It helps indelivering fast, consistent and reliable broadband Wi-Fi to engage guests via their IT devices and ensuring easy access to them. This enhances the productivity of a growing IT staff, without the need for a large IT infrastructure, and helps to protect the IT investment. In any business astherequirement for workforce increases, the business organisation can easily plug in more Wi-Fi access points leading to enhancement of performance without requiring re-configuring the network.

AnAP Controller is used in combination with the Lightweight APs Protocol to manage light-weight APs in large quantities by the network operation centres or through administrators. Wireless AP controllers are generally designed for small to largebusinesses which generally support from2 to100+ wireless Aps. In order to increase productivity and mobility for your business, here are some important reasons which will help you to connect to valuable network resources from a variety of locations across your workplace: 1. High Speed Interface High-speedAPload balancing can be used to connect a user to multiple access points for better coverage and data rates.

graphical zone plan with Google Maps integration for: • Easy custom AP deployment simulation • Planning • Live monitoring • Batch Configuration.

4. Robust Security A Wireless AP controller can strengthen your network security by enforcing security policies on each AP and preventing unauthorized accesses to your wireless network.

Some AP has built-in RADIUS (AAA) which supports authentication &authorization for up to 512 user accounts.

5. Guest Access and Captive Portal AP Controllers helps to secure solution to manage temporary-user guest network access with different user authority levels including free, service level agreement, static and dynamics users.

Temporary accounts are issued printable, customizable tickets with time-limited access and guest management systems allow simple, time-saving batch account generation. Guest bandwidth management can be set according to SSID with functionality to monitor and log account usage metrics.

AP Controllers support:• User name & password-based authentication with independent guest network settings for bandwidth rates (upload/download) • IP filtering • Duration of use/account expiry • Easy Front Desk System for account generation and ticketing.

Some Wireless AP Controllers support: • Gigabit LAN/WAN ports

6. Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

• USB 3.0.

2. Easy Centralized Management AP Controllers provide easy, remote web-based interface, map vision, traffic information and wireless client list for network-wide remote administration.

Through Wireless AP Controller- Group AP management, RADIUS settings, access control, captive portal, guest network settings and firmware upgrades can all be managed centrally from a single location to reduce:

By Installing AP Controllers, no license fees, cloud-access fees or extra hidden costs would be charged. Working standalone and managing AP Controller networks locally doesn’t require any additional servers, special staff or any kind of software installation.

• TCO per wireless network deployment with effectiveAP Controller impresses even the most cost-restricted organizations.

• Provides unmatched ROI.

• Network downtime • Aid troubleshooting • Optimize network performance.

3. RF Management AP Controllers can handle different power levels and have Scigazette | 25 | March, 2017

Research

Particles from outer space are wreaking low-grade havoc on personal electronics You may not realize it but alien subatomic particles raining down from outer space are wreaking low-grade havoc on your smartphones, computers and other personal electronic devices.

When your computer crashes and you get the dreaded blue screen or your smartphone freezes and you have to go through the time-consuming process of a reset, most likely you blame the manufacturer: Microsoft or Apple or Samsung. In many instances, however, these operational failures may be caused by the impact of electrically charged particles generated by cosmic rays that originate outside the solar system.

"This is a really big problem, but it is mostly invisible to the public," said Bharat Bhuva, professor of electrical engineering at Vanderbilt University, in a presentation at a session titled "Cloudy with a Chance of Solar Flares: Quantifying the Risk of Space Weather" at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston.

When cosmic rays traveling at fractions of the speed of light strike the Earth's atmosphere they create cascades of secondary particles including energetic neutrons, muons,

pions and alpha particles. Millions of these particles strike your body each second.

Despite their numbers, this subatomic torrent is imperceptible and has no known harmful effects on living organisms. However, a fraction of these particles carry enough energy to interfere with the operation of microelectronic circuitry. When they interact with integrated circuits, they may alter individual bits of data stored in memory. This is called a single-event upset or SEU. Since it is difficult to know when and where these particles will strike and they do not do any physical damage, the malfunctions they cause are very difficult to characterize.

As a result, determining the prevalence of SEUs is not easy or straightforward. "When you have a single bit flip, it could have any number of causes. It could be a software bug or a hardware flaw, for example. The only way you can determine that it is a single-event upset is by eliminating all the other possible causes," Bhuva explained.

Quantum machine learning extended to infinite dimensions Physicists have developed a quantum machine learning algorithm that can handle infinite dimensions—that is, it works with continuous variables (which have an infinite number of possible values on a closed interval) instead of the typically used discrete variables (which have only a finite number of values).

As the physicists explain, quantum machine learning is a new subfield within the field of quantum information that combines the speed of quantum computing with the ability to learn and adapt, as offered by machine learning.

One of the biggest advantages of having a quantum machine learning algorithm for continuous variables is that it can theoretically operate much faster than classical algorithms. Since many science and engineering models involve continuous variables, applying quantum machine learning to these problems could potentially have farreaching applications.

"Our work demonstrates the ability to take advantage of photonics to perform machine learning tasks on a quantum computer that could far exceed the speed of any conventional computer," said co-author George Siopsis at the University of Tennessee. "Quantum machine learning also offers potential advantages such as lower energy

requirements owing to the ability to store more information per qubit, and a very low cost per qubit compared to other technologies."

Most quantum machine learning algorithms developed so far work only with problems involving discrete variables.

Applying quantum machine learning to continuous-variable problems requires a very different approach.

To do this, the physicists had to develop a new set of tools that work with continuous variables. This involves replacing the logic gates that are used for discrete-variable states with physical gates, which work for continuous-variable states. Building up from these basic building blocks of the algorithm, the scientists then developed new methods that power the quantum machine learning problems, called subroutines, which are represented by matrices and vectors.

Scigazette | 26 | March, 2017

Research

A SOI wafer is a suitable substrate for gallium nitride crystals In cooperation with Okmetic Oy and the Polish ITME, researchers at Aalto University have studied the application of SOI (Silicon On Insulator) wafers, which are used as a platform for manufacturing different microelectronics components, as a substrate for producing gallium nitride crystals.

The researchers compared the characteristics of gallium nitride (GaN) layers grown on SOI wafers to those grown on silicon substrates more commonly used for the process. In addition to high-performance silicon wafers, Okmetic also manufactures SOI wafers, in which a layer of silicon dioxide insulator is sandwiched between two silicon layers. The objective of the SOI technology is to improve the capacitive and insulating characteristics of the wafer.

"We used a standardised manufacturing process for comparing the wafer characteristics. GaN growth on SOI wafers produced a higher crystalline quality layer than on silicon wafers. In addition, the insulating layer in the SOI wafer improves breakdown characteristics, enabling the use of clearly higher voltages in power electronics. Similarly, in high frequency applications, the losses and crosstalk can be reduced", explains Jori Lemettinen, a doctoral candidate from the Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering.

The researchers used Micronova's cleanrooms and, in particular, a reactor designed for gallium nitride manufacturing. The image shows a sixinch substrate in the MOVPE reactor before manufacturing.

'GaN based components are becoming more common in power electronics and radio applications. The performance of GaN based devices can be improved by using a SOI wafer as the substrate', adds Academy Research Fellow Sami Suihkonen.

Tweaking electrolyte makes better lithium-metal batteries Scientists have found adding a pinch of something new to a battery's electrolyte gives the energy storage devices more juice per charge than today's commonly used rechargeable batteries.

This is an artist's illustration shows how PNNL's addition of the chemical lithium hexafluorophosphate to a dual-salt, carbonate solvent-based electrolyte makes rechargeable lithium-metal batteries stable, charge quickly, have a high voltage, and go long

New, early-stage research shows adding a small amount of the

chemical lithium hexafluorophosphate to a dual-salt, carbonate solventbased electrolyte can make rechargeable lithium-metal batteries stable, charge quickly and have a high voltage.

"A good lithium-metal battery will have the same lifespan as the lithiumion batteries that power today's electric cars and consumer electric devices, but also store more energy so we can drive longer in between charges," said chemist Wu Xu of the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Battery basics Most of the rechargeable batteries used today are lithium-ion batteries, which have two electrodes: one that's positively charged and contains lithium, and another negative one that's typically made of graphite.

Electricity is generated when electrons flow through a wire that Scigazette | 27 | March, 2017

connects the two.

To control the electrons, positively charged lithium atoms shuttle from one electrode to the other through another path, the electrolyte solution in which the electrodes sit. But graphite can't store much energy, limiting the amount of energy a lithium-ion battery can provide smart phones and electric vehicles.

When lithium-based rechargeable batteries were first developed in the 1970s, researchers used lithium metal for the negative electrode, called an anode. Lithium was chosen because it has ten times more energy storage capacity than graphite. Problem was, the lithium-carrying electrolyte reacted with the lithium anode. This caused microscopic lithium nanoparticles and branches called dendrites to grow on the anode surface, and led the early batteries to fail.

New Products

High-Speed CMOS Mobile Low-Power DDR3 (LPDDR3) SDRAM Alliance Memory today introduced a new high-speed CMOS mobile lowpower DDR3 (LPDDR3) SDRAM designed to extend battery life in compact portable devices. Featuring low voltage operation of 1.2V/1.8V and a number of power-saving features, the 16Gb AS4C512M32MD3 is offered in the 11.0mm by 11.5mm 178-ball FBGA package.

With each new product generation, designers of mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, and virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) headsets are tasked with providing

more functionality in less space while using less power. To meet this demand, the LPDDR3 device released today features auto temperaturecompensated self-refresh (TCSR) to minimize power consumption at lower ambient temperatures “At the same time, the number of suppliers for these devices is decreasing. Alliance Memory is offering designers a new alternative and shorter lead times for the low power consumption they require.

Devices such as our new 16Gb AS4C512M32MD3 provide reliable

Square Body GDTs from Littelfuse Littelfuse has introduced the smallest (5.0×5.0×4.2mm) squared Gas Discharge Tube (GDT) with a 5kA surge capability and a ≤0.7pF off-state capacitance value available in the market today. The SH Series GDT is designed to provide high levels of protection against fastrising transients caused by lightning disturbances. Its low off-state capacitance is compatible with high bandwidth applications and this capacitance loading value does not vary if the signal voltage across the GDT changes. It was specifically designed for protection of electrical, multimedia, and communication equipment against overvoltage transients.

Typical applications for SH Series Gas Discharge Tubes include G.fast, xDSL, 10GbE, and 10/100/1000 Base-T Ethernet port protection for the telecom/datacom market; coaxial cable protection in satellite, CATV equipment and set top boxes for consumer products; industrial automation interfaces such as Ethernet, RS-485, RS-232, etc. for the industrial market; and AC power line protection in power inverter/Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) for the renewable energy market.

drop-in, pin-for-pin-compatible replacements for a number of similar solutions in high-bandwidth, highperformance memory system applications.”

NI Releases NI-RFmx 2.2 Measurement Software for 4.5G Test NI, the provider of platformbased systems, today announced NIRFmx 2.2, the latest version of its advanced measurement software for PXI RF test systems.

When used with the second-generation PXI Vector Signal Transceiver (VST), engineers can test 4.5G and 5G RF components such as transceivers and amplifiers using a wide range of carrier aggregation schemes, even as the 5G standard is still being defined. With the second-generation VST, engineers can simultaneously generate and measure up to 32 LTE carriers, each with 20 MHz of bandwidth, and use the software to specify a variety of carrier spacing schemes.

The latest release of NI-RFmx also features algorithm improvements for reduced measurement time. Engineers performing modulation quality and spectral measurements for wireless technologies such as UMTS/HSPA+ and LTE/LTE-Advanced Pro can experience EVM measurement time reductions of up to 33 percent by installing the latest version of the software. The measurement speed improvements in NI-RFmx are part of NI’s continued efforts to help customers lower their cost of test with faster measurements.

Scigazette | 28 | February, 2017

New Products

Maxim's Defibrillation and ESD Protection with 100x Less Leakage Current Targeting medical equipment such as defibrillators as well as ECG diagnostics and monitoring systems, the MAX30034 defibrillation protection device from Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. protects against defibrillation pulses and electrostatic discharge (ESD).

Compared to existing approaches and components, it simplifies design, provides >75% space savings, and trims the bill of materials, all while significantly improving performance.

Designers of defibrillators and ECG

monitors face a challenge, as their ECG input amplifiers must withstand high-voltage pulses for cardiac resuscitation. These pulses can easily damage the sensitive electronic circuitry which captures the millivolt level heart signals. Preventing this damage has required a three-layer, multi-component approach combining a per-channel gasdischarge tube (GDT)and/or transientvoltage suppression(TVS) device, as well as ESD-protection diodes.

Further, leakage current (a critical parameter) is relatively high, at about

1-2nA. Maxim’s four-channel MAX30034 defibrillation protection device uses an innovative topology from an advanced semiconductor process to absorb and harmlessly redirect these high-energy pulses away from sensitive circuitry.

Innovative Modular Automotive Imaging Platform ON Semiconductor has introduced the Modular Automotive Reference System (MARS) that gives system and software developers a ready-to-use camera for research and development activities. The leading-edge MARS platform enables users to reconfigure cameras with different lenses, image sensors, image signal processors (ISPs) and communications options for rapid prototyping and experimentation. The system is so flexible that it can be used for the full spectrum of automotive camera applications including advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), surround and rear viewing systems, in-cabin cameras (for

gesture recognition, driver eye monitoring, or light level inspection purposes), and autonomous driving.

MARS enables shorter design cycles, reduced engineering costs, and assists automotive design teams in the implementation of imaging systems by providing them with a unique mixand-match solution. Through it, various items of hardware can be combined in a robust and highly adaptable system with a compact form-factor. Due to the many different boards available, engineers have access to ON Semiconductor’s broad portfolio of image sensors and coprocessors, plus various automotive

communications protocols from a select group of third party supply partners.

Ametherm's New 30 A Circuit Protection Thermistor Ametherm has released a new ULapproved circuit protection thermistor that helps to conserve power, save space, and lower costs for a wide variety of applications with industrybest hot resistance, current handling, and energy ratings.

The new SL32 0R230 released today is the only UL-approved circuit protection thermistor on the market with a maximum continuous current rating of 30 A and “hot” resistance on the order of just 6 mΩ. This capability

minimizes voltage drop to a range of 0.18 V to 0.30 V, which helps to maximize battery life and conserve power in applications such as inverters and motor drives.

Until now, designers typically needed to run two 50 mΩ thermistors in parallel to achieve a comparable level of power efficiency. The SL32 0R230, with 20 mΩ resistance at 50% of maximum current, allows designers to reduce component count while limiting excess circuit board heat, Scigazette | 29 | February, 2017

thanks to the device’s low resistance and low I²R power consumption/loss.

New Products

Ultra-Reliable High-Density Resistor Networks for Critical Applications TT Electronics has launched the QSOP-C and SOIC-C high-density resistor networks that combine high precision with stability and reliability. By using a ceramic substrate and a relatively large feature size, they offer better crosstalk performance than types based on silicon substrates.

With target markets in the aerospace, medical and industrial areas, the parts are aimed at designers of analogue circuits such as amplifiers and ADCs requiring accurate gain and threshold

levels defined by resistance ratios, where the operating temperature range is wide, humidity levels may be high, reliability level is paramount and periodic recalibration is not possible.

TT Electronics’ QSOP-C and SOIC-C series resistor networks are particularly beneficial for use in aerospace and high reliability signal

processing applications, as the parts are optionally available with thermal shock screening. Specific applications include flight computers, medical monitors and critical process monitors.

Factors driving the demand for these types of components are the use of COTs passive devices in the aerospace sector, and rising operating frequencies making low crosstalk a more important feature.

Top-View IR Receivers for IR remote control applications from Vishay Vishay Intertechnology has broadened its optoelectronics portfolio with the introduction of two new series of miniature infrared (IR) receiver modules for IR remote control applications. To save space in consumer products, the Vishay Semiconductors TSOP39xxx and TSOP59xxx series devices are the industry’s first native top-view IR receivers in a through-hole package.

To accommodate applications requiring top-view IR receivers, side-

view packages are typically modified with a 90° lead bend. By eliminating the need for a lead bend, the devices released today reduce the PCB space

requirement in products such as settop boxes, air conditioners, and highend audio systems. Featuring a twolens design for high sensitivity, the TSOP39xxx and TSOP59xxx offer typical irradiance down to 0.08 mW/m² and 0.20 mW/m², respectively.

To simplify designs, the IR receivers feature a photodetector, preamplifier circuit, and IR filter in a single 4-pin epoxy package.

ON Semiconductor Expands Automotive Sensing Portfolio with Radar Technology ON Semiconductor is acquiring and licensing mmWave technology for automotive radar applications developed by IBM’s Haifa research team.

The acquisition positions ON Semiconductor to extend its leadership in automotive image sensors into the broader automotive sensing market. Radar is highly complementary to sensing cameras as it excels at measuring distance and object velocity even in poor visibility necessary for next-generation autonomous driving.

The combination of these technologies also enables ON Semiconductor uniquely to address the growing trend of sensor fusion where multiple sensing technologies are used to improve accuracy and automotive safety.

“The team and its technologies accelerates ON Semiconductor’s strategy to grow our automotive sensing business even faster than the robust growth from increasing camera attach rates,”said Taner Ozcelik, senior vice president and general manager Image Scigazette | 30 | February, 2017

Sensor Group. “We look forward to delivering a wider range of sensing products and technology to meet our customers’ needs for next-generation ADAS and fully autonomous driving solutions.”

New Products

NFC Technology for Secure Contactless Payments and IoT Applications by STMicro STMicroelectronics has announced availability of its latest-generation NFC devices for contactless payments and data exchange. The new devices include the ST21NFCD NFC controller featuring the market-proven booster technology ST has recently acquired, and two new members in the ST54 System-in-Package (SiP) family that integrate the Company's latest Secure Element technology.

The ST21NFCD chip features active load modulation for faster, smoother transactions over longer distances, delivering better user experiences in

mobiles, wearables, or IoT devices. It supports card emulation, reader/writer and peer-to-peer communication modes, and contains eFlash to permit full firmware update.

It supports the NFC Forum's NCI 2.0 specification, which simplifies software development for interacting with NFC tags and supports batching and autonomous exchanges to minimize communication overheads.

The IC also meets NFC Forum type 1-5 tag specifications, ISO/IEC 18092 NFC Interface and Protocol (NFCIP), and payment standards including EMVCo

latest revisions. It is pre-certified in accordance with the Global Certification Forum (GCF) and PTCRB for integration in mobile devices, and can enable handsets to read MIFARE Classic encrypted tags.

For further information please visit http://www.st.com/en/secure-mcus/securenfc.html

Telit Unveils Bluetooth 5 Module at Mobile World Congress 2017 Telit has introduced the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) BlueMod+S50 single mode module. This marks the industry’s first introduction of a standalone and certified, Bluetooth® 5 compliant module with a compelling mix of future-proof features designed to extend product lifecycles.

Building on the success of the Telit BlueMod family of Bluetooth modules and complete integrated set of IoT Products and services, the BlueMod+S50 is key to bringing low power, “c and services to market

quickly.

The new BlueMod+S50 module from Telit marks an industry milestone.

Now, developers can adopt this cutting-edge technology into use cases not possible with previous generations of Bluetooth, such as full in-building connections.

The latest Bluetooth 5 specification offers significant updates with quadruple range and speeds that are twice as fast, while increasing the capacity of connectionless data broadcasts by 800%. Always a step

ahead, Telit incorporated additional features such as secure, integrated NFC (Near Field Communication) capability and support for most GATT based Client and Server profiles.

For more information visit: http://info.telit.com/bluemods50

Ultra-Reliable High-Density Resistor Networks for Critical Applications TT Electronics has launched the QSOP-C and SOIC-C high-density resistor networks that combine high precision with stability and reliability.

By using a ceramic substrate and a relatively large feature size, they offer better cross-talk performance than types based on silicon substrates.

With target markets in the aerospace, medical and industrial areas, the parts are aimed at designers of analogue circuits such as amplifiers and ADCs requiring accurate gain and threshold levels defined by resistance ratios,

where the operating temperature range is wide, humidity levels may be high, reliability level is paramount and periodic recalibration is not possible.

TT Electronics’ QSOP-C and SOIC-C series resistor networks are particularly beneficial for use in aerospace and high reliability signal processing applications, as the parts are optionally available with thermal shock screening. Specific applications include flight computers, medical monitors and critical process Scigazette | 31 | February, 2017

monitors.

Factors driving the demand for these types of components are the use of COTs passive devices in the aerospace sector, and rising operating frequencies making low crosstalk a more important feature.

For further information visit www.ttelectronics.com/resistors/