Electronics industry hopefully starts to glow after not so good year 2012. It’s safe to say that 2012 has been a wild ride for all of us. The global semiconductor industry has demonstrated impressive resilience in year 2012, despite operating in a challenging global macroeconomic environment. Many have already ratcheted back their expectations for 2013. Beyond 2012, the industry is expected to grow steadily and moderately across all regions, according to the WSTS forecast. So we should see moderate growth in 2013 and 2014. I hope this happens.
The non-volatile memory market is growing rapidly. Underlying technologies for non-volatile memories article tells that non-volatile memory applications can be divided into standalone and embedded system solutions. Standalone applications tend to be driven primarily by costs is dominated by NAND FLASH technology. The embedded market relies mainly on NOR Flash for critical applications and NAND for less critical data storage. Planar CT NAND and 3D NAND could fast become commercially viable this year or in few years. MRAM, PCRAM, and RRAM will need more time and new material innovation to become major technologies.
Multicore CPU architectures are a little like hybrid vehicles: Once seen as anomalies, both are now encountered on a regular basis and are widely accepted as possible solutions to challenging problems. Multi-core architectures will find their application but likely won’t force the extinction of single-core MCUs anytime soon. Within the embedded community, a few applications now seem to be almost exclusively multicore, but in many others multicore remains rare. There are concerns over the complexity and uncertainty about the benefits.
FPGAs as the vanishing foundation article tells that we are entering a new environment in which the FPGA has faded into the wallpaper – not because it is obsolete, but because it is both necessary and ubiquitous. After displacing most functions of ASICs, DSPs, and a few varieties of microcontrollers, it’s fair to ask if there is any realm of electronic products where use of the FPGA is not automatically assumed. Chances are, in the next few years, the very term “FPGA” might be replaced by “that ARM-based system on a chip” from Xilinx, Altera, Lattice, or other vendor.
Are products owned when bought? The trend in recent decades has been an increase in the dependence of the buyer on the seller.
More than 5 billion wireless connectivity chips will ship in 2013, according to market research firm ABI Research. This category includes standalone chips for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, satellite positioning, near-field communications and ZigBee as well as so called “combo” chips that combine multiple standards. Broadcom seen retaining lead in connectivity chips. Bluetooth Smart, WiGig and NFC are all are seeing increased adoption in fitness, automotive and retail applications. Combo chips are also a growing opportunity based on the popularity of smart phones, tablet computers and smart televisions.
Signal integrity issues are on the rise as both design complexity and speed increase all the time. The analog world is moving faster than ever. Learning curves are sharper, design cycles are shorter, and systems more complex. Add to all this the multidisciplinary, analog/digital nature of today’s designs, and your job just gets more complicated.
High-speed I/O: On the road to disintegration? article tells that increases in data rates driven by a need for higher bandwidth (10Gbps, 40Gbps, 100Gbps networking) means the demands on system-level and chip-to-chip interconnects are increasingly challenging design and manufacturing capabilities. For current and future high-performance, high-speed serial interfaces featuring equalization could well be the norm and high levels of SoC integration may no longer be the best solution.
For a long time, the Consumer Electronics Show, which began in 1967, was the Super Bowl of new technology, but now consumer electronics show as a concept is changing and maybe fading out in some way. The social web has replaced the trade show as a platform for showcasing and distributing products and concepts and ideas.
NFC, or near-field communications, has been around for 10 years, battling its own version of the chicken-and-egg question: Which comes first, the enabled devices or the applications? Near-field communications to go far in 2013 article expects that this is the year for NFC. NFC is going to go down many different paths, not just mobile wallet.
3-D printing was hot last year and is still hot. We will be seeing much more on this technology in 2013.
Inexpensive tablets and e-readers will find their users. Sub-$100 tablets and e-readers will offer more alternatives to pricey iPads and Kindles. Also sub-$200 higher performance tablet group is selling well.
User interfaces will evolve. Capacitive sensing—Integrating multiple interfaces and Human-machine interfaces enter the third dimension. Ubiquitous sensors meet the most natural interface–speech.
Electronic systems in the automotive industry is accelerating at a furious pace. The automotive industry in the United States is steadily recovering and nowadays electronics run pretty much everything in a vehicle. Automotive electronics systems trends impact test and measurement companies Of course, with new technologies come new challenges: faster transport buses, more wireless applications, higher switching power and sheer amount and density of electronics in modern vehicles.
Next Round: GaN versus Si article tells that the wide-band gap (WBG) power devices have shown up as Gallium Nitride (GaN) and Silicon Carbide (SiC). These devices provide low RDSON with higher breakdown voltage.
Energy harvesting was talked quite much in 2012 and I expect that it will find more and more applications this year. Four main ambient energy sources are present in our environment: mechanical energy (vibrations, deformations), thermal energy (temperature gradients or variations), radiant energy (sun, infrared, RF) and chemical energy (chemistry, biochemistry). Peel-and-stick solar cells are coming.
Wireless charging of mobile devices is get getting some popularity. Wireless charging for Qi technology is becoming the industry standard as Nokia, HTC and some other companies use that. There is a competing AW4P wireless charging standard pushed by Samsung ja Qualcomm.
In recent years, ‘Low-carbon Green Growth’ has emerged as a very important issue in selling new products. LED lighting industry analysis and market forecast article tells that ‘Low-carbon Green Growth’ is a global trend. LED lighting is becoming the most important axis of ‘Low-carbon Green Growth’ industry. The expectations for industry productivity and job creation are very large.
A record number of dangerous electrical equipment has been pulled from market by Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency’s control. Poor equipment design have been found in a lot, especially in LED light bulbs. Almost 260 items were taken from the market and very many of them were LED lights. With high enthusiasm we went to the new technology and then forgotten the basic electrical engineering. CE marking is not in itself guarantee that the product is safe.
The “higher density,” “higher dynamic” trend also is challenging traditional power distribution technologies within systems. Some new concepts are being explored today. AC vs DC power in data center discussion is going strong. Redundant power supplies are asked for in many demanding applications.
According to IHS, global advanced meter shipments are expected to remain stable from 2012 through 2014. Smart electricity meters seen doubling by 2016 (to about 35 percent penetration). In the long term, IHS said it anticipates that the global smart meter market will depend on developing economies such as China, Brazil and India. What’s next after smart power meter? How about some power backup for the home?
Energy is going digital article claims that graphical system design changes how we manipulate, move, and store energy. What defines the transition from analog to digital and how can we tell when energy has made the jump? First, the digital control of energy, in the form of electricity, requires smart sensors. Second, digital energy systems must be networked and field reconfigurable to send data that makes continuous improvements and bug fixes possible. Third, the system must be modeled and simulated with high accuracy and speed. When an analog technology goes digital, it becomes an information technology — a software problem. The digital energy revolution is enabled by powerful software tools.
Cloud is talked a lot in both as design tool and service where connected devices connect to. The cloud means many things to many people, but irrespective of how you define it, there are opportunities for engineers to innovate. EDA companies put their hope on Accelerating embedded design with cloud-enabled development platforms. They say that The Future of Design is Cloudy. M2M companies are competing in developing solutions for easily connecting embedded devices to cloud.
Trend articles worth to check out:
13 Things That Went Obsolete In 2012
Five Technologies to Watch in 2013
Hot technologies: Looking ahead to 2013
Hot technologies: Looking ahead to 2013
Technology predictions for 2013
Prediction for 2013 – Technology
Slideshow: Top Technologies of 2013
10 hot consumer trends for 2013
Popular designer articles from last year that could give hints what to expect:
Top 10 Communications Design Articles of 2012
Top 10 smart energy articles of 2012
Slideshow: The Top 10 Industrial Control Articles of 2012
Looking at Developer’s Activities – a 2012 Retrospective
626 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cyborg Cockroach Sparks Ethics Debate
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/13/10/07/2240200/cyborg-cockroach-sparks-ethics-debate
“A do-it-yourself neuroscience experiment that allows students to create their own ‘cyborg’ insects is sparking controversy amongst scienitsts and ethicists. RoboRoach #12 is a real cockroach that a company called BackyardBrains ships to school students. The students fit the insect with a tiny backpack, which contains electrodes that feed into its antennae and receive signals by remote control — via the Bluetooth signals emitted by smartphones.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cyborg Cockroach Sparks Ethics Debate
http://news.sciencemag.org/brain-behavior/2013/10/cyborg-cockroach-sparks-ethics-debate
At the TEDx conference in Detroit last week, RoboRoach #12 scuttled across the exhibition floor, pursued not by an exterminator but by a gaggle of fascinated onlookers. Wearing a tiny backpack of microelectronics on its shell, the cockroach—a member of the Blaptica dubia species—zigzagged along the corridor in a twitchy fashion, its direction controlled by the brush of a finger against an iPhone touch screen
RoboRoach #12 and its brethren are billed as a do-it-yourself neuroscience experiment that allows students to create their own “cyborg” insects. The roach was the main feature of the TEDx talk by Greg Gage and Tim Marzullo, co-founders of an educational company called Backyard Brains. After a summer Kickstarter campaign raised enough money to let them hone their insect creation, the pair used the Detroit presentation to show it off and announce that starting in November, the company will, for $99, begin shipping live cockroaches across the nation, accompanied by a microelectronic hardware and surgical kits geared toward students as young as 10 years old.
That news, however, hasn’t been greeted warmly by everyone. Gage and Marzullo, both trained as neuroscientists and engineers, say that the purpose of the project is to spur a “neuro-revolution” by inspiring more kids to join the fields when they grow up, but some critics say the project is sending the wrong message. “They encourage amateurs to operate invasively on living organisms” and “encourage thinking of complex living organisms as mere machines or tools,” says Michael Allen Fox, a professor of philosophy at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada.
The roaches’ movements to the right or left are controlled by electrodes that feed into their antennae and receive signals by remote control—via the Bluetooth signals emitted by smartphones. To attach the device to the insect, students are instructed to douse the insect in ice water to “anesthetize” it, sand a patch of shell on its head so that the superglue and electrodes will stick, and then insert a groundwire into the insect’s thorax. Next, they must carefully trim the insect’s antennae, and insert silver electrodes into them. Ultimately, these wires receive electrical impulses from a circuit affixed to the insect’s back.
Gage says the roaches feel little pain from the stimulation, to which they quickly adapt. But the notion that the insects aren’t seriously harmed by having body parts cut off is “disingenuous,”
The RoboRoach “gives you a way of playing with living things,” like a short-lived version of the forbidden “Imperius Curse” in the Harry Potter novels
Tomi Engdahl says:
Littelfuse Intrinsically Safe Fuses
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=268483&cid=nl.dn14
In harsh industrial environments, the presence of gases, airborne dust, and petroleum products can be highly explosive when a spark or high temperatures are affecting the surrounding environment. Underwriters Laboratories (UL) and other standards bodies had to step in to minimize these potential hazards to protect life and property.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fast-charging a supercapacitor from energy harvesters
http://www.edn.com/design/power-management/4422103/Fast-charging-a-supercapacitor-from-energy-harvesters
Supercapacitors are an essential energy storage mechanism in self-powered systems. Their high-energy capacities combined with their ability to provide high-power output make them ideal for ultra-low power wireless sensor node systems. Supercapacitors, however, discharge significantly during periods of low-energy harvesting input.
Energy harvesting ICs used to charge supercapacitors suffer from low efficiency during the initial charging stages until the supercapacitor reaches a nominal voltage. This causes a long wait for the supercapacitor to charge up to usable levels each time the system comes back up from a deep-sleep state, significantly hindering the widespread adoption of supercapacitors. This article describes ways to speed-up charging of a supercapacitor by more than 20 times when compared to existing systems. The solutions presented in this article use a solar cell as the energy harvester. These solutions are equally applicable to other energy harvesting sources as well.
Tomi Engdahl says:
RF measurements: the modular tipping point
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/test-cafe/4422213/RF-measurements–the-modular-tipping-point
Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, describes the tipping point as “ the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point”. I think we are reaching a tipping point in test and measurement.
We are at a similar point with modular instrumentation. Open modular standards, such as VXI, PXI, or AXIe, represent approximately 15 percent of the automation market. That market is defined anywhere a computer is connected to a set of instruments, but excludes the semiconductor test market (for now, but watch out!). However, look at the history. Driven by PXI this past decade, modular systems have outgrown their traditional box counterparts by ten percentage points nearly every year. Starting in data acquisition, modular systems have been adopted by customers in multiple industries, segment by segment, and are now knocking on the door of the industry’s largest macro segment: RF (radio frequency).
While the size, speed, and cost of test advantages of modular instruments are the attractions to users, it is the competitive instincts of the vendors that will irrevocably “tip” this market towards modular solutions. With blazing RF speed breakthroughs recently announced by NI and Agilent, and vendor offerings literally from A (Aeroflex) to Z (ZTEC), no vendor dares to release their hand from full throttle. An entire new market is up for grabs, and anyone who chooses not to participate – loses. The incentive, if anything, is to invest more. This market is tipping.
There are many more reasons why automated RF systems will be principally modular in a few years. I recently was a panelist in a Test to RF Standards webinar that covered LTE-A, 802.11ac, and Wi-Gig. These emerging standards all will be using MIMO or beamforming.
These multi-channel applications are naturally modular.
Finally, the flexibility of modular systems, such as programmable FPGAs, allows users to adapt their equipment as the standards evolve.
As the RF measurement segment shifts, its pure size will cause other segments to shift as well. The modular disruption is not unique to traditional automation.
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘Brain’ chips for phones and robots developed
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/360177,brain-chips-for-phones-and-robots-developed.aspx
Qualcomm is developing new computer circuits that mimic neural structures and how the brain processes information, the company said at the EmTech Massachusetts Institute of Technology conference in the United States earlier today.
Qualcomm chief technology officer Matt Grob said by next year, the company and its partners would design and manufacture neural processing units (NPUs) which function in a completely different manner to current processors.
These would be used for a range of different applications, from artificial vision sensors to robot controllers, and possibly brain implants.
NPUs are envisioned to work more like the brain, processing large amounts of information in parallel while being very power efficient, unlike the current sequential Von Neumann computer architecture.
Grob said Qualcomm has worked on recreating neurons with associated software tools to create the chips, and now has a suite ready for commercial design and development.
The chips have been used to build a four-wheeled robot with neurons implemented in hardware that can be trained to learn navigation with simple “good robot!” and “bad robot” commands to teach it where to go and which areas to avoid, instead of complex coding to map out the path.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Meters That Measure Magnetics
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1319755&
Tomi Engdahl says:
Weaponized Robots Could Take Point In Future Military Ops
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/10/13/1211222/weaponized-robots-could-take-point-in-future-military-ops
“This past week at Ft. Benning, weaponized robot prototypes from four robotics companies — Northrop Grumman, HDT Robotics, iRobot Corp. and QinetiQ — demonstrated their abilities to traverse rugged terrain, fire machine guns and take out pop-up targets from a distance of 150 meters. ‘They’re not just tools, but members of the squad. That’s the goal,’”
Tomi Engdahl says:
MIT’s ‘Kinect of the future’ looks through walls with X-ray like vision
Using simple radio signals, MIT researchers can pinpoint someone’s location — through a wall — with near exact precision
http://www.itworld.com/hardware/378242/mits-kinect-future-looks-through-walls-x-ray-vision
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have developed a device that can see through walls and pinpoint a person with incredible accuracy. They call it the “Kinect of the future,” after Microsoft’s Xbox 360 motion sensing camera.
Shown publicly this week for the first time the project from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Laboratory (CSAIL) used three radio antennas spaced about a meter apart and pointed at a wall. A desk cluttered with wires and circuits generated and interpreted the radio waves. On the other side of the wall a single person walked around the room and the system represented that person as a red dot on a computer screen. The system tracked the movements with an accuracy of plus or minus 10 centimeters, which is about the width of an adult hand.
“What we’re doing here is localization through a wall without requiring you to hold any transmitter or receiver [and] simply by using reflections off a human body,” he said. “What is impressive is that our accuracy is higher than even state of the art Wi-Fi localization.”
He said that he hopes further iterations of the project will offer a real-time silhouette rather than just a red dot.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Perfect iPad Add-On for Engineers Uses MEMS
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1319765&
The Kickstarter crowdfunding site has helped launch a startup leveraging micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) chips to create the perfect iPad add-on for engineers — a cover that allows pen-and-paper schematics to be digitized in real time.
Launched by a Kickstarter program that raised its goal of $35,000 in just 11 hours, and ultimately reached $346,127, the iSketchnote digitizing iPad cover will be available commercially in July 2014 at a price of $189.
Using an array of MEMS magnetometers from STMicroelectronics, users can draw on any sheet of plain paper laid on the inside flap of the open cover to digitize their schematics in realtime, which appear on the iPad screen as they draw. Passive pens with embedded ring magnets are tracked by the magnetometers to reproduce the drawings on the iPad screen with sub-millimeter accuracy, according to ISKN.
“ISKN has developed algorithms that can very precisely locate the position of the pen’s tip, from the location of the magnet in the pen body, using the three-axis magnetometers from STMicroelectronics,”
Walsh plans to use the iSketchnote to draw electronic schematics for his classes when it becomes available next year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Protect Circuits From ESD
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/the-emc-blog/4422551/Protect-Circuits-From-ESD
ESD discharges are one of those nasty things that can wreak havoc on portable and other electronic products. Manufacturers must build in protection against current from these high-voltage pulse discharges. This is especially important for I/O and power connectors.
There are a number of methods for either blocking the ESD current pulse or diverting it to earth through the product’s grounding system. Series-connected devices such as ferrite beads, common-mode chokes, and small-value series resistors can block or reduce the current pulse. Parallel-connected devices like capacitors; back-biased (or back-to-back, depending on the application) diodes; spark gaps; or gas-discharge devises (neon bulbs, for instance) may be connected across data lines and will divert ESD currents to ground. All the above have issues, primarily in the parasitic capacitance they also add to your circuit.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to comply with the RoHS 2 Directive
http://www.edn.com/design/pc-board/4422484/Using-Standards-for-Compliance-to-the-RoHS-2-Directive
Joe Langton breaks down RoHS 2 Directive and explains what standards to use and what testing needs to be done for materials compliance.
As new environmental regulations continue to emerge around the world, environmental compliance is a moving target and will remain a major challenge for the electrical and electronics equipment (EEE) industry.
The recast of the EU Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive 2011/65/EU (RoHS 2) has introduced new obligations for conformity assessment, declaration, and marking of EEE. RoHS 2 has become a CE marking directive, meaning that the CE mark on the EEE product will be a declaration by the producer that the product is RoHS 2 compliant. The recast Directive identifies specific obligations for manufacturers, importers, and distributors.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Measure Efficiency Quickly in Switching Power Supplies
http://www.designnews.com/document.asp?doc_id=268583&cid=nl.dn14&dfpPParams=ind_184,aid_268583&dfpLayout=article
As product performance demands continue to rise, designers building power-supply prototypes need test procedures that allow them to evaluate their designs’ efficiency quickly. We will look at two relatively simple approaches to accomplish this task — a method that uses a wattmeter to measure input power, and one that uses two multimeters. While neither of these techniques follows all the required steps for energy standards compliance testing, they both offer effective ways to perform a quick, internal evaluation.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Researchers Create Brain-to-Brain Interface in Rats
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=268665&cid=nl.dn14
As ludicrous as it may seem, researchers from Duke University have done something similar. They’ve developed a system that allows rats to think together over an electronic connection, thereby increasing their intelligence.
The researchers took a pair of rats, implanted an array of super-small electrodes directly into each one’s primary motor cortex (which is responsible for processing movement), and connected the implants with a small wire. The implants translated the neural signals of movement from one rat into electrical impulses, which were converted back into neural patterns for the receiving rat. The connection allowed the rats to pool their resources to solve challenges. The researchers developed the process through individual testing of the rodents to solve a series of challenges. The rats were rewarded when the challenges were accomplished correctly.
Tests were also conducted over the Internet; rats separated by a few thousand miles produced the same results. The researchers hope the technology will be used one day to help restore motor control to paralyzed humans.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Silicon Motion Releases Controllers for USB 3.0 Flash Drives
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1319777&
the new SM3267 device.
Silicon Motion claims that the controller enables an “industry-leading” data transfer rate of up to 160MB/s read, which is a 30 percent to 50 percent improvement from most single-channel USB 3.0 flash drive controllers in the market today. (The controller is also specified with a 60MB/s write rate.)
The company backs up its claim to cost effectiveness with integration. Specifically, Fan says this integration includes a crystal oscillator, a 5V to 3.3V low dropout oscillator (LDO) and a 5V to 1.2V DC-DC converter. Though he wouldn’t reveal the controller’s cost, Fan said “the integration of the above components enable customers to save 15 percent to 20 percent of their BOM cost.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
All new not-so-agile Intel: 14nm Broadwell chip delayed to 2014
Mixed messages from King Krzanich
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/16/intel_seeks_faster_product_deployment_but_delays_14nm_broadwell_chip/
One of the biggest tasks Intel CEO Brian Krzanich has set himself is reconfiguring the company so that it’s quicker to build and deploy new products.
So it’s a pity he has had to delay the rollout of 14-nanometer Broadwell processor chips until the first quarter of next year due to problems with quality control.
“It’s simply a defect density issue,” Krzanich said of the silicon issues. “As we develop these technologies, what you do is continually improve the defect densities and they result in the yield, the number of dies per wafer.
In a call to analysts after the release of the firm’s latest quarterly results Krzanich said he wanted to speed up Intel’s production and design responsiveness so that the company could react faster to changing market conditions, potentially making changes in products up to three months before they ship without harming quality.
Intel was responding well to the changes he said, but the company was still a year or 18 months away from where Chipzilla has that kind of flexibility, according to Krzanich.
With regards to the market in general Krzanich and Intel’s CFO Stacy Smith reported that overall the signs for Intel were good,
Chipzilla’s “cloud revenues” (their words) are up 40 per cent on the previous quarter; high-performance computing was up 27 per cent; storage was up 20 per cent; and embedded systems revenues are up 21 per cent.
As for its traditional PC business Smith predicted that consumer sales in Europe and North America have bottomed out
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tiny Pacemaker Can Be Installed Via Catheter
http://science.slashdot.org/story/13/10/16/171210/tiny-pacemaker-can-be-installed-via-cathete
“About four million people around the world have pacemakers implanted in their bodies, and those devices all got there the same way: surgeons sliced open their patients’ shoulders and inserted the pulse-generating devices in the flesh near the heart, then attached tiny wires to the heart muscle. … A device that just received approval in the EU seems to solve those problems. This tiny pacemaker is the first that doesn’t require wires to bring the electrical signal to the heart muscle, because it’s implanted inside the heart itself”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Does test equipment really need knobs and displays?
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/test-cafe/4422762/Does-test-equipment-really-need-knobs-and-displays-
Frequent readers of Test Cafe are familiar with my predictions regarding the “coming modular disruption”- that open modular standards such as PXI and AXIe will become the principal form factors for automated test. This is driven by size, speed, and flexibility advantages over their traditional counterparts.
While I am convinced this disruption has reached the tipping point for automated systems, that is, any system where a computer is connected to one or more instruments, what about manual bench instruments?
Here the future is less than clear. I’m certain that handheld instruments would retain their embedded displays due to portability and ease of use.
I was glad to reach for a Red Bull traditional handheld voltmeter to check for power. I didn’t have an extra hand to hold my iPhone even if I could have the results shown via an app.
FieldFox iOS app points at some great examples where separating the display from the instrument is actually an advantage for the user.
The Agilent FieldFox analyzer is on the right, while the iOS app that acts as a remote front panel is on the left. It appears to be an effective substitute for the real thing. Could this be the future of all bench instrumentation?
Here’s one big advantage. There is no law of engineering that says that wherever your connectors are is exactly the location you want the display and front panel to be. In fact, the opposite. As speeds and frequency increase, you want your connectors close by the DUT (Device Under Test). Ever see a logic analyzer tucked back in a lab bench with dozens of cables sprouting from it, enveloping the DUT? Why would you want to force your knobs and displays to be in that rat’s nest? Add in oscilloscopes and microwave equipment, and how exactly are you supposed to get everything close to the DUT, and at the same time with convenient displays for the user?
Ah, dear readers, you wouldn’t have to worry about it if the displays were remote. Put your tablet wherever you wish. Or remote the display to your laptop that is supporting some humungous monitor.
Will engineers accept the remote display concept? Or are they wedded to physical knobs and dials that come from the Flash Gordon days? For those that think that engineers will never change, I suggest looking at the smartphone industry.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel’s 14nm Broadwell Delayed Because of Low Yield
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/13/10/17/1933258/intels-14nm-broadwell-delayed-because-of-low-yield
“Intel has put back the delivery of its 14nm Broadwell desktop chip by a quarter because of a manufacturing issue that leaves it with too high a density of defects.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
AMD makes money for a change, market says ‘meh’
Increase in desktop CPU revenue and console boost can’t excite Wall Street
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/18/amd_makes_money_for_a_change_market_says_meh/
Perennial chip challenger Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has posted a profit for 2013′s third quarter, a turnaround that has failed to excite investors.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Printable Smart Labels Tell You When the Milk’s Gone Bad
http://science.slashdot.org/story/13/10/17/2247249/printable-smart-labels-tell-you-when-the-milks-gone-bad
“Security Ledger brings news that the Norwegian firm, ThinFilm has successfully tested a printable electronics component that it claims is the first, fully-functional ‘smart’ label. The company claims its disposable Smart Sensor Label can track the temperature of perishable goods and is a ‘complete closed system built from printed and organic electronics.’ Smart Sensor is being marketed to pharmaceutical makers as a way to keep temperature-sensitive drugs and to food wholesaler”
Tomi Engdahl says:
DDR4 You Can Use Now
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1319818&
After seven years of development, JEDEC released the DDR4 DRAM standard (JESD79-4) last fall. The standards committee recognized the ever-increasing performance demands placed on memory and knew that a simple update wouldn’t be enough.
The DDR4 architecture represents a major departure from that of previous DRAM standards, affording significant performance improvement, dramatic reductions in power demand, and compatibility with 3D architectures. Typically, a couple of years elapses between the release of a standard and broad availability of product.
Given the rapid evolution of the technology, however, DDR4 is expected to mature quite a bit more rapidly than its predecessors, with broad deployment hitting in 2014. Indeed, at the recent Intel Developers Forum (IDF), companies demonstrated working systems
Tomi Engdahl says:
Brain Implants Near Milestone
FDA about to give green light
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1319819&
The product Steve Archer started work on 14 years ago is just about to hit the market — he hopes.
The NeuroPace RNS is the first implant to listen to brain waves and autonomously decide when to apply a therapy to prevent an epileptic seizure. It was developed by a company with a staff of less than 90 people, only about 30 on the core electronic, mechanical, and software engineering teams.
Maintaining a lean staff was a conscious decision of managers who have raised $215 million to date and knew the project would take a long time to pass regulatory approvals. “The joke is we have been two years away from an FDA clearance for about a decade,” said Archer.
The FDA now says the company is very close to getting a green light, though it is not giving any specific dates.
“No one else is recording ambulatory brain wave activities from epileptic patients to the extent we are,” Archer said. “We have the world’s largest library of such recordings and that’s a tremendous resource for all sorts of research — the opportunity is huge,” he said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Zero Gecko MCU aims for world’s lowest power for IoT
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4422721/Zero-Gecko-MCU-aims-for-world-s-lowest-power-for-IoT
Silicon Labs has launched its long awaited Zero Gecko ultra low power microcontroller, aiming for the crown of the industry’s most energy-friendly 32-bit device.
The 49¢ EFM32 Zero Gecko MCU family is based around ARM’s ‘Flycatcher’ M0+ core and is designed to achieve the lowest system energy consumption for a wide range of battery-powered applications such as mobile health and fitness products, smart watches, activity trackers, smart meters, security systems and wireless sensor nodes, as well as battery-less systems powered by harvested energy for the IoT (Internet of Things).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Growing Need for Optimization, Simulation in Design Process
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=268622&cid=nl.dn14
A major theme at the 2013 Americas Altair Technology Conference was the growth of the need for using simulation and optimization tools during product design.
Both the products that engineers design, and the design and development process for manufacturing those products, are changing, said Dagg. Optimization is influencing the esthetics as well as the structure of products, which can be seen in the design of robotics and aerospace components, as well as more typical examples such as cars. Consumers are also expecting a much better user experience from all products, due mostly to the success of Apple’s products. “Apple changed our expectations of all products, not just electronics,” he said. In cars, every aspect of a vehicle is now engineered, which requires a lot of simulation. Safety and simplicity are now more important. So is sustainability. All of these constraints require simulation and optimization, so engineering is becoming extremely complex.
In the design process, the use of optimization can help develop the concept of a product and inspire entirely new products, by showing what is and isn’t possible, and the best shapes or other features.
The growth of additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, is timely, since it combines well with the increase in optimization, said Dagg. This is because 3D printing and additive manufacturing are often used to create designs with complex shapes that can’t be manufactured by traditional subtractive processes. “The two technologies were made for each other,” he said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bud Industries’ Board-Ganizer Dev Kit Keeps Wires in Check
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=268830&cid=nl.dn14&dfpPParams=ind_184,aid_268830&dfpLayout=blog
Developing and prototyping new projects can be a daunting task, especially if you’re stuck using the older stripboards for electronic designs instead of the solder-less breadboards found in the market today. Combine that problem with using multiple boards and SBCs and the project can quickly become overwhelming even for the best of engineers and hobbyists. A rat’s nest of wiring, multiple board layouts, and a mess of electronic components often leads to confusion, which is detrimental to project development.
To combat these issues, Bud Industries has released an ingenious solution with its Board-Ganizer multi-development board enclosure kit. The enclosure allows users to layout and assemble up to three PCBs/SBCs and shields along with a single breadboard, which are attached with adhesive-backed rubber pads. This is done when the enclosure is laid out in its flat mode, allowing users to maintain an organized assembly area, which lessens the overall confusion while sorting out the project’s wiring.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DRAMs Back in Black
Profits highest in three years
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1319829&
The dynamic random access memory (DRAM) market is back in the black and rising fast, recording its highest profits in nearly three years, according to IHS.
After years of PCs dominating DRAM sales, they consumed less than 50 percent of manufactured DRAMs in 2012 for the first time in 30 years, according to IHS. In this post-PC era, many devices — especially mobile — are using less DRAM per unit, which is slowing the overall growth of the market.
To keep margins healthy in this post-PC era, suppliers have had to tighten their belts and refrain from the over-production woes
“Due to industry consolidation behind three major players — Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, which owns Elipida — they are better able to coordinate production, bringing stability to a market going through a major transition away from PCs,” says Robinson.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Slideshow: Imec Tours Nanoscale Horizon
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1319855&
Research in semiconductor technology promises advances in fields spanning medical electronics, communications, displays, cameras, and more. That was the broad landscape that researchers at the Imec research institute here painted in a recent update on their work. The following pages provide a glimpse into some of the latest work.
R&D spending in electronics continues to rise
But an increasing share of the advanced research portion of that work is going on at external organizations around the globe, such as Imec.
Tomi Engdahl says:
China’s SMIC Responds to Soaring 3D IC Market
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1319851&
In hopes of getting a piece of action in the rapidly growing thru-silicon-via technology-based 2.5D and 3D IC market, China’s leading foundry, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), announced Monday that it has formed an R&D and manufacturing center dedicated to vision, sensors, and 3D IC.
At a time when its industry rivals — TSMC and GlobalFoundries — are fiercely competing for the advanced digital logic sector, SMIC is trying to carve out marketshare in selected differentiated technologies, such as embedded nonvolatile memory, CMOS image sensors, and power management ICs. By rolling out a center dedicated to vision, sensors, and 3D IC, SMIC is hoping to let the world know of its ability to extend its manufacturing and R&D capabilities from CMOS front-end services to middle-end wafer process technologies.
Consequently, SMIC is putting a stake in the ground as a leading foundry partner for those in need of delivering advanced CMOS image sensors, MEMS sensors, 3D stacked devices, and high-performance TSV-based 2.5D and 3D systems-in-package.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lattice launches ultra-low-density iCE40 into sensor applications for handhelds, clothing
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/fpga-gurus/4423113/Lattice-launches-ultra-low-density-iCE40-into-sensor-applications-for-handhelds–clothing
Lattice Semiconductor Corp has envisioned a new context-aware mobility market for low-power FPGAs ever since acquiring the SiliconBlue Technologies Inc iCE40 product line in 2011. In mid-October, Lattice introduced an ultra-low-density FPGA measuring as small as 1.4×1.48×0.45 mm, with a 0.35-mm pitch. Product line manager Joy Wrigley quipped that a few such devices packaged in 16 WLCSP had to be given up for lost when dropped on a plush gray carpet.
The iCE40 devices are designed to be integrated into small IrDA transceivers, barcode emulators, and similar handheld systems requiring sensor-based contextual information. Lattice offers hard IP for strobe generators and I2C and SPI interfaces. The FPGAs combine power dissipation of less than a milliwatt with near-zero latency for transferring sensor data. Two versions are offered: the iCE40LP infrared subsystem for IrDA and LED driver applications, and the iCE40LM sensor management system for sensor hubs.
While Microsemi Inc integrates its FPGAs with mixed-signal blocks, and Xilinx and Altera are looking at new IP options on the low end, Lattice appears to be out front with designs specifically aimed at sensor-based mobility.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Measure two resistive sensors or multiple switches with a single Schmitt
http://www.edn.com/design/sensors/4422744/Measure-two-resistive-sensors-or-multiple-switches-with-a-single-Schmitt
Many of the sensors capturing information from the world around us are resistive. A few examples are NTC, PTC, LDR, & contact sensors. If we convert the resistance of the sensors into frequency or pulse duration, these parameters can be measured by most MCUs, without needing an ADC.
Figure 1 is showing how a single inverter with Schmitt trigger (xxxx14 or 40106) is serving two resistive sensors, Rs1 and Rs2. One of the sensors is controlling the low time TL of the output pulses and the second sensor is controlling the high time
Tomi Engdahl says:
Inside 23andMe founder Anne Wojcicki’s $99 DNA Revolution
http://www.fastcompany.com/3018598/for-99-this-ceo-can-tell-you-what-might-kill-you-inside-23andme-founder-anne-wojcickis-dna-r
The $126 million genetic-testing company can tell you how to live smarter, better, and longer. It can also tell you what might kill you.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Oracle Laser Lights Way to Silicon Photonics
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1319871&
Oracle Labs is developing a low-power laser it hopes will be a key enabler for silicon photonics. The computer company could announce the status of its work within a few months.
Oracle says silicon photonics will soon be used to link chips in high-end server cards and racks at 25 Gbit/s. It envisions a macrochip, a wafer-scale server motherboard where all major chips on the card are linked via silicon photonics. The technology is critical for plans to get power consumption on petaflop supercomputers down from 556 KW today to about 85 KW.
“Over the next five years, all [server] links will become exclusively photonic at 25G or perhaps slightly faster,” A.V. Krishnamoorthy, a chief technologist for photonics at Oracle, said in a keynote at a server design event
VCSELs are widely used today and will continue to be used, particularly in active optical cables, but “in the end, it will all be silicon photonics simply because of the need for integration and density.”
Oracle worked closely with the component providers Kotura (now part of Mellanox) and Luxtera in a DARPA program on silicon photonics. Over multiple generaitons of designs, it got all the silicon photonics down to a target of 0.7 picojoule/bit, except for the laser, which consumed 1.4 pj/bit by itself
“We are really focused now on getting more efficient silicon-assisted lasers,”
Intel has been developing silicon photonics in its labs for a decade. This year, it said it will soon deliver 100G links for computer servers. Cisco Systems is also in the hunt. It has acquired a silicon photonics startup and has discussed using 2.5-D chip stacks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Researchers tout electricity storage technology that could recharge devices in minutes
Silicon-based supercapacitor could change way electricity is stored
http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/researchers-tout-electricity-storage-technology-could-recharge-devices-minutes
Vanderbilt University researchers say they have come up with a way to store electricity on a silicon-based supercapacitor that would let mobile phones recharge in seconds and let them continue to operate for weeks without recharging.
The researchers said in a paper that instead of storing energy in chemical reactions the way batteries do, silicon supercapacitors store electricity by assembling ions on the surface of a porous material. As a result, they tend to charge and discharge in minutes, instead of hours, and operate for a few million cycles, instead of a few thousand cycles like batteries, the researchers stated.
The Vanderbilt team said they used porous silicon — a material with a controllable and well-defined nanostructure made by electrochemically etching the surface of a silicon wafer. This let them create surfaces with optimal nanostructures for supercapacitor electrodes, but it left them with a major problem: Silicon is generally considered unsuitable for use in supercapacitors because it reacts readily with some of chemicals in the electrolytes that provide the ions that store the electrical charge, the researchers said
Tomi Engdahl says:
Next-Gen GPU Progress Slowing As It Aims for 20 nm and Beyond
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/10/23/211234/next-gen-gpu-progress-slowing-as-it-aims-for-20-nm-and-beyond
“AMD may be releasing a new 28-nm Hawaii chip in the next few days, but it is still based on the same 28-nm process that the original HD 7970 debuted on nearly two years ago. Quick and easy (relative terms) process node transitions are probably a thing of the past. 20-nm lines applicable to large ASICs are not being opened until mid-2014.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Synthetic Biology Ramps Semiconductors
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1319874&
Marrying two different electron flows, biology’s with electronics’, could bring on the next revolution of small and power-efficient processors.
With the aim of creating hybrid bio-semiconductor systems that advance the frontiers of information and communications technologies, the Semiconductor Synthetic Biology (SemiSynBio, SSB) program was launched today by Semiconductor Research Corp.
“The SemiSynBio program is about bringing electronics and biochemistry together,” said MIT professor Rahul Sarpeshkar in an interview with EE Times. “Semiconductors are about the long-range motion of electrons in wires, and bio-chemistry is about the short-range motion of electrons between molecules in chemical reactions. So when semiconductors get all the way to the bottom of the size scale, they have to deal with chemistry, and that’s what living cells do best.”
Synthetic biology will be used to re-engineer biological materials for useful purposes in the fabrication of advanced semiconductors — in the short-term, engineering special DNA strands that aid in the self-assembly of chip features that are beyond the reach of traditional lithography. However, the long-term goal of the multidisciplinary effort is nothing less than inventing new types of living cells that can be integrated into hybrid biological semiconductors. Along the way the SSB program aspires to discover new properties, methodologies, and applications for hybrid bio-semiconductors.
“Cells compute with chemistry and semiconductors compute with transistors — but both are about the controlled flow of electrons,” says Sarpeshkar. “That insight leads from being an semiconductor designer to being a DNA circuit designer.”
Low-hanging fruit
The low-hanging fruit in the program will explore molecular-scale additive-chip fabrication processes that achieve sub-five nanometer design features using techniques derived from biology. For instance, DNA will be explored as a template material for guiding the self-assembly of nanometer-scale chip features — an alternative to the subtractive lithographic methods used today.
A second area of research is called cytomorphic-semiconductor circuit design, which applies recent understanding of cell biology to new ultra-low-power microchip architectures.
Bio-electric sensors
A third area of research will explore new bio-electric sensors, actuators, and energy sources that integrate biological materials, including re-engineered living cells, onto CMOS chips to create hybrid bio-semiconductors with higher sensitivity and lower-power operation than is possible with electronics alone.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel on Europe: The Internet of Things could SAVE US ALL
Apply clever tech to lift economic gloom, says chip giant labs chief
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/25/intel_smart_cities_and_internet_of_things/
How will Europe lift itself out of current and future economic woes – and help save the planet while it’s about it? According to chip giant Intel, with hi-tech carrots rather than government sticks.
So said the head of Intel’s European R&D operation, Martin Curley, this week at the chip company’s European Research and Innovation Conference – Eric to its friends.
But for once the old notion that the only thing that can solve the world’s problems is technology – on which theme Intel’s “Plan C”, as Curley calls it, is a variation – comes with some positive preliminary results to back it up.
Two of Intel Labs’ key endeavours highlight the way forward, in the company’s view: the move to connect every device into a single, networked data source – the so-called Internet of Things – and the development of the exascale, 1018 floating point operations per second computing capability that’s going to be needed to crunch the many numbers all these devices will generate.
It’s this kind of technology that will enable what Intel calls “Sustainable Intelligent Systems”, setups able to measure the digital consequences of all our lives and able to act upon it intelligently for our benefit and that of the environment. They will operate within the home and the community.
Smart city = sustainable city?
If there’s a sense of “what’s good for Intel is good for Europe” about Curley’s programme, that’s because that is partly what the plan is all about. Intel is in the business of selling processors, and we’re going to need a lot more of them if we’re to equip so many, many more gadgets with the ability to record and transmit data, not to mention to process that data once it’s collected.
Intel’s vision isn’t entirely fuelled by hubris, or by the desire to sell more microprocessors. Curley believes that digital technology can make the world a better place – and not simply by giving the population of rich and developing nations more shiny toys to play with. The application of SISes to establish closed-loop control systems can have a very positive impact on the environment (in its broad sense) in which we live.
Work has already begun exploring how the Internet of Things and Exascale Computing are going to benefit not just society but the individuals who make it up too.
Tomi says:
Weightless, the Internet of Things Chip, Becomes Less Vaporware
http://hackaday.com/2013/10/25/weightless-the-internet-of-things-chip-becomes-less-vaporware/
Several months ago, we caught wind of Weightless, a $2 chip that will run for 10 years on a AA battery and communicate to a Weightless base station 10 Km away. Yes, this is the fabled Internet of Things chip that will allow sensors of every type to communicate with servers around the world. It looks like Weightless is becoming less and less vaporware, as evidenced by the Weightless SIG hardware roadmap; Weightless modules might be in the hands of makers and designers in just a few short months.
Weightless is an extremely low-cost wireless module that operates in the radio spectrum previously occupied by analog broadcast television. This is a great place for the Internet of Things, as signals in this spectrum have a lot of range and the ability to go through walls.
Weightless is designed for sensors that only transmit a kilobyte or so a day – medical sensors, irrigation control, and other relatively boring things.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Thinfilm Offers Printed-Electronics Standalone Sensor System
http://www.designnews.com/document.asp?doc_id=269241&cid=nl.dn14
A Norwegian company claims it’s built the first standalone smart-label sensor from printed electronics, a battery-driven system that can be used to provide temperature management for perishable goods.
Thinfilm Electronics, based in Oslo, will begin offering next year a low-power smart temperature-tracking label that uses a built-in sensor that can be used to gauge whether goods like meat, fish, or vegetables have been kept at the appropriate temperature as they travel from supplier to stores, Heidi Arnesen, communications manager for Thinfilm, told Design News in an interview.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The RoHS Initiative Had a Big Effect on Product Quality
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1365&doc_id=269174&cid=nl.dn14
Surface-mounted device (SMD) technology became the soldering standard in the 1980s. Printed-circuit board assemblies were produced by printing a paste-solution of wet solder onto an unpopulated board, using a matching stencil.
While complicated, SMD process technology was mastered by many OEMs, and proved to be an effective and profitable method of solder-assembly for nearly 20 years. Then, the RoHS initiative hit the manufacturing sector very hard.
RoHS identified six bad substances, with lead (Pb) being named as public enemy number one. Lead was the main element in solder and has a relatively low melting point. Removing it from solder was not trivial, and would require higher temperatures in every refined process in electronics manufacturing.
This phenomenon had a monumental impact on connector companies like Molex, Berg, and Amp, who faced a redesign of virtually every connector in their portfolios, to eliminate both beryllium from the metal leads (also banned by RoHS) and to increase the plastic connector body’s thermal tolerance for new, higher temperatures.
The result was RoHS solder not making the full phase-change from paste to liquid (reflow) before its cool-down. Subsequently, strong joints didn’t occur.
This occurrence of cold-solder-joints is clearly visible when examined under a microscope. Solder joints appear as rough, grey, semi-flattened spheres, instead of the bright shiny filleted bonds that they should be.
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Trends in Counterfeit Components
http://www.integra-tech.com/counterfeit-detection.html
Over the past several years the electronics industry has seen a marked increase in the prevalence of counterfeit electronic components. Counterfeiters have attacked every commodity of electronics, from simple components such as capacitors, to complex integrated circuits such as microprocessors. Inexpensive commercial devices, as well as high cost military components, have seen counterfeiting. Today the problem continues with no indication of improvement. Today’s counterfeit components are demonstrating that the counterfeiters are continuing to improve their techniques.
Non-functional counterfeit parts have, in recent years, been the most common type. These were the first major wave of counterfeit parts that primarily came out of China, recovered from salvaged electronics waste. This type of counterfeit device has only the appearance of the correct device, often with the wrong die internally and a remarked package. The counterfeiter’s process is board removal, sanding, blacktopping and remarking followed by a detailed cleanup of solder and the package to make it look new. Today these parts are typically caught early on by a careful visual inspection with industry methods such as those documented in the IDEA standard 1010. On the occasions that they are not visually detected, then package de-cap or very basic tests such as a curve trace will identify the units.
The more difficult class is the functional counterfeit devices. These functional counterfeit devices are becoming more prevalent since counterfeiters are now being caught more often
Refurbished devices are one of the greatest problems. These parts are often the correct device and may even still have the original marking on the package. These refurbished units are a great risk since they are often subjected to excessive heat during removal and may have been introduced to harsh chemicals during the refurbishment process. Counterfeiters have become masters of reworking a package and the solder on the leads. They can make a board pull look new and unused.
Often related to refurbished parts are new remarking techniques. The old method of black-topping has been replaced by newer improved remarking techniques. Methods have been developed by counterfeiters to completely remove ink marking.
Another method available to counterfeiters is die salvaging from packages with subsequent die reusage in newly manufactured packages.
tomi says:
The Hidden Dangers of Chop-Shop Electronics
http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/processors/the-hidden-dangers-of-chopshop-electronics
Clever counterfeiters sell old components as new, threatening both military and commercial systems
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel to Fab Altera FPGAs with ARM IP
by Jarred Walton on October 30, 2013 3:11 PM EST
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7473/intel-to-fab-altera-fpgas-with-arm-ip
In a story posted today on EETimes, Altera announced at the ARM Developers Conference that they have entered into a partnership with Intel to have their next generation 64-bit ARM chips produced at Intel’s fabs. According to the report, Altera will be using Intel’s upcoming 14nm FinFET process technology to manufacture a Cortex-A53 quad-core SoC, which will be surrounded by FPGA logic.
The Intel/Altera partnership was first announced back in February 2013, and it’s worth noting that FPGAs are not an area where Intel currently competes. Even though ARM logic will be on the new chips, this likely won’t lead to direct competition with Intel’s own chips. The bigger deal of course is that while Intel’s 22nm process would give anyone willing to pay Intel’s price a leg up on the competition, 14nm is a full step ahead of the competition.
Intel has apparently inked deals with other companies as well.
If we take things back another step, the reality of the semiconductor business is that fabs are expensive to build and maintain. Then they need to be updated every couple of years to the latest technology, or at least new fabs need to be built to stay competitive. If you can’t run your fabs more or less at capacity, you start to fall behind on all fronts. If Intel can more than utilize all of their fabrication assets, it’s a different story, but that era appears to be coming to a close.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Electronics in the body to improve health
In the future, people with weakened senses can be planted to strengthen the body by means of electronic implants. They can also be used to repair damage, cure disease and remove the pain without drugs. The first commercial devices are already available.
The integration of development thanks to the increasing complexity of systems capable of being packaged in a small enough space so that they can be easily planted in the human body. At the same time have succeeded in developing a safe surface materials, which are placed in the tissues cause rejection. This is particularly important for those parts of the device, which are placed in sensitive organs such as the eye, the inner ear or the brain.
Retina renovations
Impaired or non-existent vision can be corrected in many cases, an implant with good results.
German Retina Implant AG has developed retinal implant, which has a size of about 3 × 3 mm
According to the company implantable chip allows the patient to recover about 12 degree field of vision, and the vision of the original sharpness can be reached in about one-tenth.
Signals from the inner ear
The deaf or severely hearing impaired person can be your ears in many cases to improve the application of the inner ear, the cochlea be placed in an electronic implant. Hearing correction is possible by this procedure in patients with cochlear contained in the sensory hairs are damaged.
Get rid of the epilepsy
Neuropace American-based company has developed a nerve-based electronic implant to treat epilepsy.
Help apnea
Sleep apnea is a breathing disorder that causes interruptions in breathing during sleep and loud snoring.
ImThera Medical, the company has developed an electronic device to treat obstructive sleep apnea, which wrapped up in the language of the neurostimulator to the hypoglossal nerve around.
Channel data transfer from the body
Consolidating the micro-controller known as Microchip has developed a BodyCom system that allows the human body to make use of a communication channel. Wireless methods of utilizing the body as compared to the data transmission features in low-power consumption, security, and a stronger two-way authentication. Because the technology is not used at all rf antennas, circuit-level design is simple and cost effective.
Source: http://www.tietokone.fi/artikkeli/uutiset/elektroniikka_elimistossa_parantaa
Tomi Engdahl says:
Three-dimensional structure of the processor cooling runs into problems
The processor technology to reach more and more narrow line width. When the line narrowing, the processor clock frequency can be increased, whereby its computing power increases. Alternatively, you can enhance memory, or reduce the power consumption.
Laboratories have now reached 14 nm. Commercial processor technology will be sooner than next year. Here the line width can still be cut in half to seven nanometers, but then come to the limits of physics. One must look for other materials such as carbon nanotubes – or designed processors in a whole new way.
IBM ‘s technology expertise Teppo Seesto considers it likely that at least 10 nm up to cope with silicon.
Seven-nanometer might succeed, but it is not certain. Five nanometers is not likely to get. The assumption is that you go in carbon nanotubes.
Use silicon has a diameter of about 0.11 nm and the crystalline silicon atoms interval is 0.54 nm. In theory, therefore, comprises three silicon atoms occupy space 1.2 nanometers. In practice, the atoms in the crystal are slightly staggered. Seven nanometers can accommodate about 14 to five, and ten o’clock nm silicon atoms side by side. This narrow line to remain intact is getting very difficult.
Critical issues in chip design are the energy and cooling.
IBM has shown, however, that the nanotube-based microchip can be accomplished by methods which are suitable for connection to the current lithography. If not, the introduction of new technologies would be really expensive.
The world after the silicon can be achieved, for example, technology that makes use of the electron spin, or DNA molecules.
- Time will tell which technique to win and in which area – it is likely that the winner of a number of techniques, and applied in different areas. One technique made memories and other communication components, Seesto says.
Nanotube works – Demo
The line-width narrowing, in principle, reduced demand for energy, but the energy consumption of the chip get more and more concentrated to small areas. For this reason, the cooling of growing importance.
Size of silicon wafers is a well established to 300 mm. Higher been tried, but if the surface area is increased, the yield begins to decrease and production generates too many bad chips.
The three-dimensional structure of the heat is, however, an even greater challenge. Air cooling system is not enough.
- The need for the liquid that flows in the structures. Fluid channels while a lot of space. This is yet another separate optimization of the various elements of space required between
- Three-dimensional chips are made as demos, but the production version is not to be yet, at least not next year.
Coolant, have been tried with water, but the water difficult due to the characteristics of the solution is likely to be some other chemical.
The design also calls for how the electricity is such a “chock-a chip”.
Seesto considers it possible that both the power supply and cooling are exported to the same channel and power transfer occurs over a range of oxidation-reduction reactions
Cutting-edge electronics chips are developed mainly in two companies, Intel and IBM. If the top of the staircase descends to the performance of lower, along comes a number of other manufacturers. Universities develop new transistor types.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/uutisia/kolmiulotteinen+prosessorirakenne+tormaa+jaahdytysongelmiin++mista+verisuonisto+mikrosirulle/a944905
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung: Get ready to BEND OVER – foldable fondleslabs ‘by 2016′…
… but first, we’ll need to penetrate ‘technology barriers’
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/06/samsung_foldable_display_timeline/
Samsung has stuck a timeline on its introduction of foldable screens on phones and tablets at its Analyst Day in Korea today, aiming to bring the tech out in late 2015 or early 2016.
The electronics firm had already teased its vision for foldable phones in a rather terrible advert it aired at CES earlier this year
Samsung has already brought out its first curved display with the début of the Galaxy Round last month and according to the slide, bending displays should come around sometime next year. The Korean chaebol has pegged foldable screens for 2015 to 2016, although it does have a little sticker labelled “Technology Barriers” standing in the way of that.
Just exactly what those roadblocks could be isn’t detailed, but there is the not insignificant problem that foldable displays don’t necessarily mean foldable fondleslabs. To be able to roll up or fold up, your mobile device requires foldable and bendable batteries, processors, memory and other bits, not just flexible screens.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Design Tools in the Cloud Are Here & They’re Ready to Go
http://www.designnews.com/document.asp?doc_id=269228&cid=nl.dn14
I’ll let you in on a secret: The things that keep designers and engineers and manufacturers up at night have not changed all that dramatically over the past 10 years. People have always strived to improve product quality, improve collaboration, reduce costs, improve efficiency, and so on. What has changed over the past 10 years is the emergence of the cloud as a viable technology that can facilitate a new way of working and help designers accomplish these goals more effectively.
The technology is here, it’s real, and it works. Companies across various disciplines are working with design tools in the cloud to analyze multiple designs, perform powerful simulations, and better manage their data and business processes. As a result, they’re positioning themselves for ongoing success in the marketplace.