Here is my list of electronics industry trends and predictions for 2016:
There was a huge set of mega mergers in electronics industry announced in 2015. In 2016 we will see less mergers and how well the existing mergers went. Not all of the major acquisitions will succeed. Probably the the biggest challenge in these mega-mergers is “creating merging cultures or–better yet–creating new ones”.
Makers and open hardware will boost innovation in 2016. Open source has worked well in the software community, and it is coming more to hardware side. Maker culture encourages people be creators of technology rather than just consumers of it. A combination of the maker movement and robotics is preparing children for a future in which innovation and creativity will be more important than ever: robotics is an effective way for children as young as four years old to get experience in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, mathematics as well as programming and computer science. The maker movement is inspiring children to tinker-to-learn. Popular DIY electronics platforms include Arduino, Lego Mindstorms, Raspberry Pi, Phiro and LittleBits. Some of those DIY electronics platforms like Arduino and Raspberry Pi are finding their ways into commercial products for example in 3D printing, industrial automation and Internet of Things application fields.
Open source processors core gains more traction in 2016. RISC-V is on the march as an open source alternative to ARM and Mips. Fifteen sponsors, including a handful of high tech giants, are queuing up to be the first members of its new trade group for RISC-V. Currently RISC-V runs Linux and NetBSD, but not Android, Windows or any major embedded RTOSes. Support for other operating systems is expected in 2016. For other open source processor designs, take a look at OpenCores.org, the world’s largest site/community for development of hardware IP cores as open source.
GaN will be more widely used and talked about in 2016. Gallium nitride (GaN) is a binary III/V direct bandgap semiconductor commonly used in bright light-emitting diodes since the 1990s. It has special properties for applications in optoelectronic, high-power and high-frequency devices. You will see more GaN power electronics components because GaN – in comparison to the best silicon alternative – will enable higher power density through the ability to switch at high frequencies. You can get GaN devices for example from GaN Systems, Infineon, Macom, and Texas Instruments. The emergence of GaN as the next leap forward in power transistors gives new life to Moore’s Law in power.
Power electronics is becoming more digital and connected in 2016. Software-defined power brings to bear critical need in modern power systems. Digital Power was the beginning of software-defined power using a microcontroller or a DSP. Software-defined power takes this to another level. Connectivity is the key to success for software-defined power and the PMBus will enable the efficient communication and connection between all power devices in computer systems. It seems that power architectures to become software defined, which will take advantage of digital power adaptability and introduce software control to manage the power continuously as operating conditions change. For example adaptive voltage scaling (AVS) is supported by the AVSBus is contained in the newest PMBus standard V 1.3. The use of power-optimization software algorithms and the concept of the Software Defined Power Architecture (SDPA) are all being seen as part of a brave new future for advanced board-power management.
Nanowires and new forms of memory like RRAM (resistive random access memory) and spintronics are also being researched, and could help scale down chips. Many “exotic” memory technologies are in the lab, and some are even in shipping product: Ferroelectric RAM (FRAM), Resistive RAM (ReRAM), Magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM), Nano-RAM (NRAM).
Nanotube research has been ongoing since 1991, but there has been long road to get practical nanotube transistor. It seems that we almost have the necessary parts of the puzzle in 2016. In 2015 IBM reported a successful auto-alligment method for placing them across the source and drain. Texas Instruments is now capable of growing wafer scale graphene and the Chinese have taken the lead in developing both graphene and nanotubes according to Lux Research.
While nanotubes provide the fastest channel material available today, III-V materials like gallium arsenide (GaAs) and indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) are all being explored by IBM, Intel, Imec and Samsung as transistor channels on silicon substrates. Dozen of researchers worldwide are experimenting with black phosphorus as an alternative to nanotubes and graphene for the next generation of semiconductors. Black phosphorus has the advantage of having a bandgap and works well alongside silicon photonics device. 3-Molybdenum disulphide MoS2 is also a contender for the next generation of semiconductors, due to its novel stacking properties.
Graphene has many fantastic properties and there has been new finding in it. I think it would be a good idea to follow development around magnetized graphene. Researchers make graphene magnetic, clearing the way for faster everything. I don’t expect practical products in 2016, but maybe something in next few years.
Optical communications is integrating deep into chips finally. There are many new contenders on the horizon for the true “next-generation” of optical communications with promising technologies in development in labs and research departments around the world. Silicon photonics is the study and application of photonic systems which use silicon as an optical medium. Silicon photonic devices can be made using existing semiconductor fabrication. Now we start to have technology to build optoelectronic microprocessors built using existing chip manufacturing. Engineers demo first processor that uses light for ultrafast communications. Optical communication could also potentially reduce chips’ power consumption on inter-chip-links and enable easily longer very fast links between ICs where needed. Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), which may enable engineers to exceed the properties of silicon in terms of energy efficiency and speed, moving researchers toward 2D on-chip optoelectronics for high-performance applications in optical communications and computing. To build practical systems with those ICs, we need to figure out how make easily fiber-to-chip coupling or how to manufacture practical optical printed circuit board (O-PCB).
Look development at self-directed assembly.Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and IBM have discovered a trenching capability that could be harnessed for building devices through self-directed assembly. The capability could potentially be used to integrate lasers, sensors, wave guides and other optical components into so called “lab-on-a-chip” devices.
Smaller chip geometries are come to mainstream in 2016. Chip advancements and cost savings slowed down with the current 14-nanometer process, which is used to make its latest PC, server and mobile chips. Other manufacturers are catching to 14 nm and beyond. GlobalFoundries start producing a central processing chip as well as a graphics processing chip using 14nm technology. After a lapse, Intel looks to catch up with Moore’s Law again with with upcoming 10-nanometer and 7-nm processes. Samsung revealed that it will soon begin production of a 10nm FinFET node, and that the chip will be in full production by the end of 2016. This is expected to be at around the same time as rival TSMC. TSMC 10nm process will require triple patterning. For mass marker products it seems that 10nm node, is still at least a year away. Intel delayed plans for 10nm processors while TSMC is stepping on the gas, hoping to attract business from the likes of Apple. The first Intel 10-nm chips, code-named Cannonlake, will ship in 2017.
Looks like Moore’s Law has some life in it yet, though for IBM creating a 7nm chip required exotic techniques and materials. IBM Research showed in 2015 a 7nm chip will hold 20 billion transistors manufactured by perfecting EUV lithography and using silicon-germanium channels for its finned field-effect transistors (FinFETs). Also Intel revealed that the end of the road for Silicon is nearing as alternative materials will be required for the 7nm node and beyond. Scaling Silicon transistors down has become increasingly difficult and expensive and at around 7nm it will prove to be downright impossible. IBM development partner Samsung is in a race to catch up with Intel by 2018 when the first 7nm products are expected. Expect Silicon Alternatives Coming By 2020. One very promising short-term Silicon alternative is III-V semiconductor based on two compounds: Indium gallium arsenide ( InGaAs ) and indium phosphide (InP). Intel’s future mobile chips may have some components based on gallium nitride (GaN), which is also an exotic III-V material.
Silicon and traditional technologies continue to be still pushed forward in 2016 successfully. It seems that the extension of 193nm immersion to 7nm and beyond is possible, yet it would require octuple patterning and other steps that would increase production costs. IBM Research earlier this year beat Intel to the 7nm node by perfecting EUV lithography and using silicon-germanium channels for its finned field-effect transistors (FinFETs). Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world’s largest foundry, said it has started work on a 5nm process to push ahead its most advanced technology. TSMC’s initial development work at 5nm may be yet another indication that EUV has been set back as an eventual replacement for immersion lithography.
It seems that 2016 could be the year for mass-adoption of 3D ICs and 3D memory. For over a decade, the terms 3D ICs and 3D memory have been used to refer to various technologies. 2016 could see some real advances and traction in the field as some truly 3D products are already shipping and more are promised to come soon. The most popular 3D category is that of 3D NAND flash memory: Samsung, Toshiba, Sandisk, Intel and Micron have all announced or started shipping flash that uses 3D silicon structure (we are currently seeing 128Gb-384Gb parts). Micron’s Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC) uses stacked DRAM die and through-silicon vias (TSVs) to create a high-bandwidth RAM subsystem with an abstracted interface (think DRAM with PCIe). Intel and Micron have announced production of a 3D crosspoint architecture high-endurance (1,000× NAND flash) nonvolatile memory.
The success of Apple’s portable computers, smartphones and tablets will lead to the fact that the company will buy as much as 25 per cent of world production of mobile DRAMs in 2016. In 2015 Apple bought 16.5 per cent of mobile DRAM.
After COP21 climate change summit reaches deal in Paris environmental compliance 2016 will become stronger business driver. Increasingly, electronics OEMs are realizing that environmental compliance goes beyond being a good corporate citizen. On the agenda for these businesses: climate change, water safety, waste management, and environmental compliance. Keep in mindenvironmental compliance requirements that include the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive, Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive 2002/95/EC (RoHS 1), and Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH). It’s a legal situation: If you do not comply with regulatory aspects of business, you are out of business. Some companies are leading the parade toward environmental compliance or learning as they go.
Connectivity is proliferating everything from cars to homes, realigning diverse markets. It needs to be done easily for user, reliably, efficiently and securely.It is being reported that communications technologies are responsible for about 2-4% of all of carbon footprint generated by human activity. The needs for communications and faster speeds is increasing in this every day more and more connected world – penetration of smart devices there was a tremendous increase in the amount of mobile data traffic from 2010 to 2014.Wi-Fi has become so ubiquitous in homes in so many parts of the world that you can now really start tapping into that by having additional devices. When IoT is forecasted to be 50 billion connections by 2020, with the current technologies this would increase power consumption considerably. The coming explosion of the Internet of Things (IoT) will also need more efficient data centers that will be taxed to their limits.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is enabling increased automation on the factory floor and throughout the supply chain, 3D printing is changing how we think about making components, and the cloud and big data are enabling new applications that provide an end-to-end view from the factory floor to the retail store. With all of these technological options converging, it will be hard for CIOs, IT executives, and manufacturing leaders keep up. IoT will also be hard for R&D.Internet of Things (IoT) designs mesh together several design domains in order to successfully develop a product. Individually, these design domains are challenging. Bringing them all together to create an IoT product can place extreme pressure on design teams. It’s still pretty darn tedious to get all these things connected, and there’s all these standards battles coming on. The rise of the Internet of Things and Web services is driving new design principles as Web services from companies such as Amazon, Facebook and Uber are setting new standards for user experiences. Designers should think about building their products so they can learn more about their users and be flexible in creating new ways to satisfy them – but in such way that the user’s don’t feel that they are spied on what they do.
Subthreshold Transistors and MCUs will be hot in 2016 because Internet of Things will be hot in 2016 and it needs very low power chips. The technology is not new as cheap digital watches use FETs operating in the subthreshold region, but decades digital designers have ignored this operating region, because FETs are hard to characterize there. Now subthreshold has invaded the embedded space thanks to Ambiq’s new Apollo MCU. PsiKick Inc. has designed a proof-of-concept wireless sensor node system-chip using conventional EDA tools and a 130nm mixed-signal CMOS that operates with sub-threshold voltages and opening up the prospect of self-powering Internet of Things (IoT) systems. I expect also other sub-threshold designs to emerge. ARM Holdings plc (Cambridge, England) is also working at sub- and near-threshold operation of ICs. TSMC has developed a series of processes characterized down to near threshold voltages (ULP family for ultra low power are processes). Intel will focus on its IoT strategy and next-generation low voltage mobile processors.
FPGAs in various forms are coming to be more widely use use in 2016 in many applications. They are not no longer limited to high-end aerospace, defense, and high-end industrial applications. There are different ways people use FPGA. Barrier of entry to FPGA development have lowered so that even home makers can use easily FPGAs with cheap FPGA development boards, free tools and open IP cores. There was already lots of interest in 2015 for using FPGA for accelerating computations as the next step after GPU. Intel bought Altera in 2015 and plans in 2016 to begin selling products with a Xeon chip and an Altera FPGA in a single package – possibly available in early 2016. Examples of applications that would be well-suited for use of ARM-based FPGAs, including industrial robots, pumps for medical devices, electric motor controllers, imaging systems, and machine vision systems. Examples of ARM-based FPGAs are such as Xilinx’s Zynq-7000 and Altera’s Cyclone V intertwine. Some Internet of Things (IoT) application could start to test ARM-based field programmable gate array (FPGA) technology, enabling the hardware to be adaptable to market and consumer demands – software updates on such systems become hardware updates. Other potential benefits would be design re-use, code portability, and security.
The trend towards module consolidation is applicable in many industries as the complexity of communication, data rates, data exchanges and networks increases. Consolidating ECU in vehicles is has already been big trend for several years, but the concept in applicable to many markets including medical, industrial and aerospace.
It seems to be that AXIe nears the tipping point in 2016. AXIe is a modular instrument standard similar to PXI in many respects, but utilizing a larger board format that allows higher power instruments and greater rack density. It relies chiefly on the same PCI Express fabric for data communication as PXI. AXIe-1 is the uber high end modular standard and there is also compatible AXIe-0 that aims at being a low cost alternative. Popular measurement standard AXIe, IVI, LXI, PXI, and VXI have two things in common: They each manage standards for the test and measurement industry, and each of those standards is ruled by a private consortium. Why is this? Right or wrong, it comes down to speed of execution.
These days, a hardware emulator is a stylish, sleek box with fewer cables to manage. The “Big Three” EDA vendors offer hardware emulators in their product portfolios, each with a distinct architecture to give development teams more options. For some offerings emulation has become a datacenter resource through a transaction-based emulation mode or acceleration mode.
LED lighting is expected to become more intelligent, more beautiful, more affordable in 2016. Everyone agrees that the market for LED lighting will continue to enjoy dramatic year-on-year growth for at least the next few years. LED Lighting Market to Reach US$30.5 Billion in 2016 and Professional Lighting Markets to See Explosive Growth. Some companies will win on this growth, but there are also losers. Due currency fluctuations and price slide in 2015, end market demands in different countries have been much lower than expected, so smaller LED companies are facing financial loss pressures. The history of the solar industry to get a good sense of some of the challenges the LED industry will face. Next bankruptcy wave in the LED industry is possible. The LED incandescent replacement bulb market represents only a portion of a much larger market but, in many ways, it is the cutting edge of the industry, currently dealing with many of the challenges other market segments will have to face a few years from now. IoT features are coming to LED lighting, but it seem that one can only hope for interoperability
Other electronics trends articles to look:
Hot technologies: Looking ahead to 2016 (EDN)
CES Unveiled NY: What consumer electronics will 2016 bring?
Analysts Predict CES 2016 Trends
LEDinside: Top 10 LED Market Trends in 2016
961 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Low-profile infrared LEDs enable precise eye tracking in mobile devices
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/led-zone/4441242/Low-profile-infrared-LEDs-enable-precise-eye-tracking-in-mobile-devices-?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160126&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160126&elq=7ddbc7199b6649ef829a8083570d479f&elqCampaignId=26680&elqaid=30513&elqat=1&elqTrackId=2dc5c0dcfc59418db2ba5074e4dd935f
With the ability to illuminate a face with 1200mW of infrared light, the SFH 4770S from Osram Opto Semiconductors is well-suited for facial recognition and eye-tracking systems. The emitter’s broad, even emission characteristics make it possible for eye-tracking systems to reliably activate applications in response to eye blinking instead of the usual double-click. Its low height is especially important in smartphones and tablets where every millimeter of thickness is at a premium.
Osram’s SFH 4770S is based on a 1 mm2 emitter chip with a wavelength of 850 nm in which two emission centers are epitaxially stacked in one chip. It delivers a typical optical output of 1200 mW at a current of 1A at an emission angle of 120°. This wide angle ensures that the target area is evenly illuminated with a typical radiant intensity of 375 mW per steradian (mW/sr). This makes the IRED ideal for facial recognition, eye-tracking systems, and other applications where the user’s face must be brightly and uniformly illuminated.
Tomi Engdahl says:
China’s Chip Jackpot Teases
The view from SMIC
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1328720&
What does China’s Big Fund to grow a national semiconductor industry and Powerball have in common?
China’s Big Fund to grow a national semiconductor industry is like the Powerball. A lot of money is at stake so everybody wants to play, but no one knows how to win.
China’s largest native foundry, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), provides a good example of the issues. It licensed 65 and 45nm process technology to get to market quickly but lacked the rights to modify the processes to create value-added services. So, it co-developed 28nm technology with IBM, gaining flexibility but losing time-to-market.
SMIC’s lead customer, Qualcomm, started using its 28nm polysilicon process last year. But the foundry won’t start production of the higher value high-k metal gate version until late this year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Consolidation Redrawing Microcontroller Landscape
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1328742&
Microchip’s proposed acquisition of Atmel would shake up the top three microcontroller vendors for the second time in a matter of months.
An unprecedented level of merger and acquisition activity over the past two years has dramatically redrawn the competitive landscape of the semiconductor industry. Perhaps nowhere has this upheaval been more acute than in microcontrollers, where another proposed acquisition would result in the second shakeup of the top three vendors in a matter of months.
Microchip Technology Inc.’s pending $3.8 billion acquisition of Atmel Corp. would move Microchip into the No. 3 position among microcontroller vendors less than two months after NXP Semiconductors NV moved into the No. 2 spot with the acquisition of Freescale Semiconductor Inc.
”We see a compelling financial and strategic rational to acquire Atmel,” said Steve Sanghi, Microchip’s chairman, president and CEO, in a conference call earlier this week. “ The combination of Microchip and Atmel will create an MCU powerhouse and move Microchip from the No. 4 to the No. 3 position in microcontrollers based on the most recent Gartner marketshare data.”
According to market research firm IHS Global Inc., a rival to Gartner, Microchip is currently the fifth-leading microcontroller vendor. An acquisition of Atmel—which is expected to close in the second quarter—would enable Microchip to leapfrog both Infineon AG and STMicroelectronics NV into the No. 3 position, trailing market leader Renesas Electronics Corp. and NXP.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sony To Use FD-SOI in Stacked Image Sensors
Samsung goes for FD-SOI mass production
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328744&
For chip designers pondering the next-node choices for their new SoCs, the FD-SOI Forum held here Thursday (Jan. 21) yielded news they could use.
Key developments were:
The mass production capacity of Samsung’s 28nm FD-SOI technology has matured.
RF integration in FD-SOI chips is fast becoming a reality, as Samsung is offering a production version of its process development kit (PDK) for RF in the second quarter of this year.
Globalfoundries’ 22nm FD-SOI platform, called 22nm FDX, offers ultra-lower power consumption with 0.4 volt operation.
Globalfoundries now says that its 22nm FDX will be ready for high volume production in mid-2017.
But the biggest FD-SOI news, which surfaced as chatter and whispering during coffee breaks at the Forum (rather than on the formal agenda), is that Sony is looking to use FD-SOI for the image signal processor (ISP) on stacked CMOS Image Sensors (CIS).
Although this buzz was also confirmed outside the Forum, neither Globalfoundries nor Sony is talking.
Three industry sources, however, independently told EE Times that chip stack CIS will open FD-SOI’s much needed, genuine volume market. Sony, today, is the world’s largest CIS supplier.
Why FD-SOI?
During his keynote, Babu Mandava, CEO of Ineda Systems and formerly a co-founder of Beceem Communications (acquired by Broadcom), summed up why FD-SOI is necessary for his company’s “hierarchical computing architecture,” dubbed as IoT 2.0 platform.
In order to monetize IoT, in which applications can be a mile-wide and an inch-deep, Mandava believes the world needs a single SoC platform that can “do different things in slightly different ways—but efficiently.” In short, he said, “You need a platform that can scale.”
To meet that goal, Ineda Systems designed a “hierarchical computing architecture” consisting of multiple master CPUs providing multi-tier performance, power and memory. Because such an IoT SoC needs contextual computing, low power connectivity, processor integration and always-on sensing, it can pose conflicting process requirements. It must offer the lowest always-on sensing power, lowest power RF and high-performance on demand, he explained.
Rather than choosing between two divergent paths—lower power or higher performance—often presented in bulk CMOS processes, “we want both lower power and higher performance,” said Mandava.
“For IoT, connectivity is a must. I need to be connected without burning batteries,”
Ineda Systems, which used a 40nm CMOS process from TSMC for one of its products and 28nm CMOS from Globalfoundries for another, plans to go with Globalfoundries’ 22nm FDX for the next node, said Mandava.
Tomi Engdahl says:
EUV Improves But Not Ready
Progress in light source, throughput cited
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328737&
Extreme ultraviolet lithography is making slow progress, re-kindling hopes it could be ready for production use in the 7nm node. The semiconductor industry has placed multi-billion dollar bets the technology will someday help make smaller, cheaper chips but critics are still skeptical.
So far, EUV lacks a powerful and reliable enough light source to produce the number of wafers per day today’s chip plants require. ASML, which makes the systems, gave a progress report at the Industry Strategy Symposium last week and one of its customers, TSMC, is expected to provide more data in a talk in late February.
Prototype systems installed at commercial fabs such as TSMC now use an 85W light source, soon to be upgraded to 125W. ASML recently demoed an 185W capability and promises it will hit 250W before the end of the year.
Systems are running as much as 70% of the time, putting out 500-600 wafers/day. That’s a big step from where EUV was a year ago, but still far from the throughput of today’s machines using less refined immersion technology.
“We are a factor of 2-3 out from where we need to be,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Will Xilinx Join the M&A Party?
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328758&
Could market-leading programmable logic vendor Xilinx Inc. be positioning itself as an acquisition target?
On Wednesday (Jan. 20), Xilinx made a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission amending its agreements with CEO Moshe Gavrielov and four other senior executives to provide them with more benefits in the event of change of ownership of the company, fueling speculation that the FPGA leader is preparing to be acquired.
Last week, financial news trade publication DealReporter stoked speculation that Xilinx would be acquired by chip vendor Qualcomm Inc. The two companies have been collaborating closely in recent times, announcing last year a deal to work together on heterogeneous computing technology.
Christopher Rolland, an analyst at FBR Capital, wrote in a report Wednesday that the SEC filing by Xilinx increases the chances that Xilinx will be acquired. The filing is similar to one made by Altera Corp. about six months before Intel Corp. initially offered to acquire the company, Rolland said. He added that the filing perhaps lends credence to the DealReporter story.
A takeover of Xilinx (San Jose, Calif.) by Qualcomm (San Diego) would be notable against the backdrop of massive consolidation which is taking place in the semiconductor industry. Last year, total value of semiconductor industry acquisitions announced topped $105 billion, more than eight times the average annual value of acquisitions by semiconductor companies over the previous five years, according to market research firm IC Insights Inc.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Embedded Board Standards Reach for the Sky, and Beyond
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328756&
he VME Industrial Trade Association (VITA), which manages a variety of open standards for embedded computing systems, held its annual Embedded Technology Trends (ETT) conference this week just across the street from NASA headquarters. The overall theme of this year’s ETT was “Houston, We Have a Problem.” Not because VITA or its members are in trouble, however, but because of steps they are taking to expand the role of standards-based board architectures in solving airborne and space-bound design challenges. Conference topics included discussion of the emerging VITA 48.4 standard for air-cooling of small VPX modules as well as progress in the definition of a space-qualified variation of the Compact PCI modular standard. Marketers also pointed out that the products developed to these standards could serve not just aerospace but wherever ruggedized systems with reduced size, weight, and power are important design requirements, including industrial robotics and transportation systems.
One of the most-frequently mentioned modular standards was VPX, a replacement for the venerable VME bus standard that replace parallel connections with high-speed serial ones, and its SpaceVPX (ANSI/VITA 78.00-2015) variation that added features essential for spacecraft design. (SpaceVPX received final certification as a standard in April last year.) Ken Grob, director of embedded technology at Elma, for instance, discussed the market forces driving VPX. Grob indicated that increasing use of 10G Ethernet and PCIexpress Gen. 3 on the data plane were stimulating new product offerings, as was growing interest in the IEEE 1508 precision time protocol. In addition, SoC FPGAs and high-performance single board computers (SBCs) for these standards were on the rise. Aitech Defense Systems, for instance, announced a new line of ruggedized 3U VPX products that use a 5th-generation Intel Core i7 processor.
Grob also expected that systems based on the VPX standard would continue to grow in capability. “The good thing about VPX is that it was designed to change,” Grob said. He pointed out that there were now ten types of serial interfaces available for VPX backplane connections, including optical. One such optical interface from Reflex Photonics saw introduction at the conference. The LightABLE 40G SR4 is a four-lane duplex optical transceiver that operates at 10 Gpbs over a full -40V to +85C temperature range.
Tomi Engdahl says:
VPX was not the only modular standard in evidence at ETT, though. Companies such as Artesyn discussed its work with Advanced TCA (ATCA) and Aitech introduced a new line of video and graphics PMC (PCI Mezzanine Card) modules. For safety critical systems design, MEN Micro released a CPU board based on VITA 59 Rugged COM Express. ‘
Source: http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328756&
Tomi Engdahl says:
Multiphase Power Supplies: Not Just For High Current
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1328725&
Power supplies with multiple phases have been traditionally used in applications such as servers, desktop personal computers and laptop computers. These systems require very high current, low-voltage supplies to power core processors. The currents in these applications can be in the hundreds of amperes. In recent years, designers of high-end audio systems have started to take advantage of the multiphase approach as well.
The main benefits of multiphase converters are ripple current cancellation and lower per-phase currents. These conditions can lead to a number secondary improvements such as lower output voltage ripple, smaller size, higher efficiency, lower thermal dissipation and better transient performance. Usually multiphase converters are not considered for lower power systems because of cost and complexity. However, there are a number of devices that are pushing the multiphase converter power levels to lower and lower levels.
A power amplifier in an automotive application takes the car battery and boosts it to a higher voltage. Some audio systems have peak powers in the thousands of watts. These systems benefit from a multiphase approach as it helps to reduce stress on the components.
The ripple current cancellation of multiphase designs can be useful to reduce the stress on input/output capacitors.
Based on the design examples shown above, the two-phase design offers advantages in size without sacrificing too much efficiency. Also, smaller components will be lower in cost. Note that the magnetics for this design dominate the surface area and volume. The main drawbacks of this approach are increased complexity and the need for a second inductor, both of which drive up cost. However, the cost delta should still be fairly low.
In the past, multiphase designs have been used exclusively in high-current applications. However, by integrating control and power devices you can make a case for lower current applications as well. The design examples show a volume and surface area reduction of nearly 50%.
Tomi Engdahl says:
HTU21D(F) RH/T Sensor IC
Relative Humidity and Temperature Digital Output, I²C interface
https://www.arrow.com/en/products/hpp845e031r5/te-connectivity-ltd?utm_source=eewebcom&utm_medium=email&utm_content=amcr.gi00.39243q&utm_campaign=amca.sm00.384n12#page-1
TSYS02D
Digital Temperature Sensor
https://www.arrow.com/en/products/g-nimo-003/te-connectivity-ltd?utm_source=eewebcom&utm_medium=email&utm_content=amcr.gi00.3922j3&utm_campaign=amca.sm00.384n12#page-1
Tomi Engdahl says:
Digital Sensors, the Path Forward
https://www.arrow.com/en/research-and-events/articles/te-digital-sensors-the-path-forward?utm_source=eewebcom&utm_medium=email&utm_content=amcr.gi00.392qd4&utm_campaign=amca.sm00.384n12
For years, the sensor products industry has been primarily analog focused. Sensors operated using analog circuits and components, due in part to the analog front ends found in almost all electronic measurement devices. Analog sensors have been fairly straightforward devices, sometimes providing basic analog outputs, and in some cases adding amplification or gain, and signal conditioning before the output is sent to a measurement or control system. Today, these systems are becoming more sophisticated, and as a result, demand additional signal processing to achieve the desired system performance.
In the past, sensor system engineers were reluctant to move to digital products due to the challenges presented by adding digitization to existing analog sensor signal paths. The R&D costs of making these changes were out of reach for many small sensor companies that focused on single product types, applications, and markets. Over the past couple decades, a few digital sensors have entered the market, but the lack of any standard interface or communication protocols made the effort expensive and risky. Needless to say, digital adoption was slow.
Due to the increased availability of low cost electronic components that can process and convert analog signals to digital formats, the migration of analog sensors into the digital world is now underway in earnest. Over the past few years, sensor manufacturers have been starting to integrate sensor elements, A/D conversion, processing capability, memory, power management, and digital communications capability into just a few chips that easily fit into the sensor package. In addition, the proliferation of standard communication protocols like I2C and SPI have made it easy to integrate sensors fitted with these capabilities into electronic monitoring and control systems.
The digitization of sensor products has benefits far beyond the ability to easily communicate with digital control systems. As an example, most digital sensors include a “sleep mode” feature that turns the sensor off when it’s not needed for system functions. By reducing the power required, the battery life improves for remote and mobile systems that rely on energy harvesting or battery power.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sensor board promotes 96Boards CE
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4441284/Sensor-board-promotes-96Boards-CE?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_consumerelectronics_20160127&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_consumerelectronics_20160127&elq=d0775e13f06d49f79fb287153ca03348&elqCampaignId=26686&elqaid=30525&elqat=1&elqTrackId=4b80a5b33a5b461cb0b12271d04f2791
Among the first on the market, STMicroelectronics’ B-F446E-96B01A STM32-based mezzanine board meets the 96Boards Consumer Edition (CE) open-platform specification for the ARM ecosystem. The board is outfitted with embedded sensors for movement, pressure, and sound, aiming to simplify the development of low-cost, context-aware smart mobile, embedded, and digital-home devices.
The B-F446E-96B01A plugs directly on top of a 96Boards CE board. It is powered by a 180-MHz STM32F446 microcontroller with an ARM Cortex-M4F core and smart peripherals, along with an onboard MEMS 9-axis accelerometer, magnetometer, gyroscope, pressure sensor, and microphone. Arduino Uno and Seeedstudio Grove connectors allow expansion using boards and modules from either ecosystem. Developers also have access to the same ecosystem as ST’s STM32 Nucleo boards.
Open Platform Specifications and
Reference Software for the ARM ecosystem
For software developers ● For the maker community ● For embedded OEMs
http://www.96boards.org/
Tomi Engdahl says:
EMI filters work with DC/DC converters
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4441265/EMI-filters-work-with-DC-DC-converters?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160127&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160127&elq=e6183e7ffe7e410e837fd80581ca8993&elqCampaignId=26694&elqaid=30532&elqat=1&elqTrackId=cdca037deeb642d7a8159f2aacf88eed
Rated at 10 A, board-mount EMI filters in the iDQ series from TDK-Lambda reduce emissions from high-frequency DC/DC converters. Their high onboard capacitance minimizes the need for additional external components and provides good differential mode filtering.
The iDQ filters can be used with voltages of up to 75 VDC (100 VDC for 100 ms). Differential mode attenuation at 300 kHz is 63 dB with a 50-Ω source and load impedance.
Tomi Engdahl says:
PCB products and talks at DesignCon 2016
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/all-aboard-/4441288/PCB-products-and-talks-at-DesignCon-2016?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160127&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160127&elq=e6183e7ffe7e410e837fd80581ca8993&elqCampaignId=26694&elqaid=30532&elqat=1&elqTrackId=0387e0d072524f2a82654bc9528d1610
Another year, another fantastic week of DesignCon. This is truly the place to be if you’re working with high-speed electronics, and it doesn’t have to be 56Gb/s either. Even the slow stuff (like 5Gb/s) is on the menu.
PI (power integrity) was a definite theme this year. Gone are the days when simply throwing enough decoupling caps on your board results in good performance.
CAD company Altium has recently purchased Ciiva and incorporated their parts management software. I was impressed by what I saw: software that integrates library and design management, CAD models, procurement, etc. Integration with platforms other than Altium is planned too.
Ventec showed their refreshed lineup of PCB materials, and how they relate to other manufacturers’ products.
SPISim makes a wide range of SI/PI and simulation tools, including a free SPILite version. Kudos to them for making it multi-platform (Linux, OS X, Win).
http://www.spisim.com/products/spilite-free-si-snp-ibis-tool/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Top 6 modular instrument predictions for 2016
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/other/4441203/Top-6-modular-instrument-predictions-for-2016?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160127&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160127&elq=e6183e7ffe7e410e837fd80581ca8993&elqCampaignId=26694&elqaid=30532&elqat=1&elqTrackId=bc8246814b9148ba93ae525981c74e8f
#1. Slow growth of test and measurement market continues.
#2. Expect double digit growth from modular instruments
#3. Expanding RF and microwave modular product offerings to address MIMO, 5G, and mil/aero
#4. User-defined FPGA software becomes more prevalent
#5. Very wide bandwidth (>10GByte/sec) streaming solutions appear
#6. One more vendor surprises us with a modular offering
Tomi Engdahl says:
India Preps RISC-V Processors
Two 64-bit projects run in parallel
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328790&
An R&D division of the Indian government is in line to receive about $45 million before June to fund the development of its first 64-bit microprocessor. The project would become the second in India to design a CPU based on the RISC-V instruction set, following the Shakti designs in the works at the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras.
The projects show the increasing sophistication of India’s semiconductor sector. However it’s not clear if either effort will result in commercially deployed products, and both face challenges retaining skilled chip designers at a time when engineering salaries in India are rising and job hopping is common.
If funding is released as expected, the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), a branch of India’s Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, could tape out a 64-bit RISC-V processor in about 30 months
The team consists of about 70 engineers who have designed a wide variety of 8- to 32-bit processors and SoC blocks.
The VLSI team plans to design a quad-core processor running at up to 2 GHz. “This is more complex than any other processor we have designed, we have not taped out anything beyond a 32-bit processor to date,” said Oommen.
Separately a team of about 30 designers at IIT Madras has been working for more than two years on a family of 32- and 64-bit open source processors based on RISC-V. The work started about five years ago under the name Shakti which means power because the chips originally used IBM Power cores.
The Shakti project now includes plans for at least six microprocessor designs as well as associated fabrics and an accelerator chip. A significant amount of code for at least two of the RISC-V parts is now available, a high-end out-of order design and a simpler three-stage processor geared for IoT.
“We focus on IoT devices partly because that’s a buzzword, there’s a requirement in India for them and most volumes are there, be we also have a five-stage pipeline design for higher end embedded stuff,”
The team hopes to have Linux up and running on one of the cores in an FPGA implementation this summer. The design is still in an early phase such that “you wouldn’t want to tape it out,” he said.
Researchers in Madras and Purdue University have scoped out a concept for a neuromorphic accelerator that does not use the RISC-V ISA but would use a custom open source core and use one of the RISC-V processors as its host.
Among other microprocessor efforts in India, funding of about $50 million for research on neuromorphic cores is said to be coming together for academics in Bangalore. In another effort, researchers at IIT Bombay are said to be at work on a smaller Sparc V8-based processor design.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sony to Acquire Altair Semi For $212 Million
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328780&
Japan’s Sony Corp. said it would acquire privately held Israeli LTE chipset vendor Altair Semiconductor for roughly $212 million after reaching an agreement with the company and its major shareholders.
The deal is expected to close next month, Sony (Tokyo) said.
Altair markets LTE chipsets that the company claims are in millions of LTE connected devices all over the world. The company has also maneuvered to capture more of the growing Internet of Things market by offering chips for connected devices that leverage LTE.
Tomi Engdahl says:
UMC Raises 2016 Capex to $2.2 Billion on Improving Outlook
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328805&
TAIPEI —United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), the world’s third-largest foundry, has raised its expected capital expenditure for 2016 to about $2.2 billion on expectations that the chip industry will emerge from a downturn around the second quarter of this year.
The company will increase its capex from $1.8 billion last year as it predicted that demand for chips made with its most advanced 0.28nm process technology will steadily increase with each quarter this year. UMC and its larger competitor Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) have the lion’s share of the 0.28nm business while foundry rivals are still ramping up the process.
UMC said 28nm demand, fueled by communication chip customers, accounted for 10 percent of its revenue in 2015, compared with about 3 percent in 2014.
“We have introduced refined 28nm process variations,” UMC CEO Po Wen Yen, said during a conference call with analysts following the company’s announcement of fourth-quarter results for 2015. “UMC will continue to strengthen our 28nm technology roadmap with enhanced processes that raise chip performance while lowering power consumption.”
Utilization slump
The company’s utilization rate in the fourth quarter of 2015 was 83 percent, down from 93 percent in the same period of 2014. UMC said its utilization will remain in the low 80 percent-digit range during the first quarter this year as customers are still responding to an inventory correction.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ST Exits Set-Top Box Chip Biz, Plans Layoffs
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328795&
LONDON—STMicroelectronics NV has said it will stop developing products for the set-top box and home gateway markets and plans to lay off up to 1,400 workers out of its total headcount of more than 43,000.
In 2016 that workforce “re-alignment” is expected to affect about 1,000 employees of which about 150 are based in France. Going forward ST intends to focus on automotive and industrial applications and the Internet of Things including such areas as smart home and smart city applications.
Although ST has eliminated its digital products group and is exiting STB and home gateway it is continuing with its digital ASICs and imaging business, which have been moved into the new microcontrollers and automotive groups.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jon Russell / TechCrunch:
Sony Posts $1B Profit For Q3 2015 But Feels Pinch From Slowing Mobile Market
http://techcrunch.com/2016/01/28/sony-posts-1b-profit-for-q3-2015-but-feels-pinch-from-slowing-mobile-market/
Another quarter of promise for Sony. The Japanese tech giant just released its Q3 2015 financial results, posting net income of 120.1 billion JPY ($1 billion) on total revenue 2,580.8 billion JPY ($21.5 billion) — those figures are up 33.5 percent and 0.5 percent year-on-year. Operating income came in at 202.1 billion JPY ($1.7 billion), an 11 percent rise on a year previous.
Those figures surpassed analyst expectations
Tomi Engdahl says:
FPGA maker Xilinx will tell you that it has moved in the main districts, namely programmable Virtex Ultrascale + chips in the production of 16-nanometer finfet process. This means more speed, faster connections and from lower power consumption.
Earlier TSMC’s 16-nanometer FF + processes had moved Xilinx Kintex Zynq- and series circuits.
16-nanometer FF + ‘process circuits manufactured in 193 nanometer laser, as in the past. Compared to the 28-nanometer process viivanleveyteen denser brings 65 percent more speed, two times denser transistor structure and 80 percent less power consumption. Compared to 20 nanometers speed will be 40 per cent more, while the power consumption drops to 60 per cent lower.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3916:lisaa-tehoa-suuriin-fpga-piireihin&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
The new method for thinned integrated circuits
MIT ie the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a new method, which may revolutionize the manufacture of integrated circuits have been developed. The researchers succeeded for the first time to plant the circuit in the same layer structure of two very different types of material.
Fabrication of researchers will work on any materials that combine materials from elemental 6 (chromium, molybdenum and tungsten) and 16 (for example, selenium ‘and telerium). Many of these materials are semiconductors and can be used in very thin film electronics.
If you get in the process produced the so-called tunnel transistor constructions, to circuits produced, which would be fewer and thinner semiconductor layers. The electron tunneling does not cause heat, which is the biggest problem in today’s transistors.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3917:uusi-menetelma-ohentaa-mikropiirit&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
The US Sandia National Laboratories scientists have developed filter technology, which combines light and sound waves in the same structure. It is expected to better detect radar and communication frequencies.
Phononic filter to revolutionize
Articles and reports
- 01/28/2016
The US Sandia National Laboratories scientists have developed filter technology, which combines light and sound waves in the same structure. It is expected to better detect radar and communication frequencies. Sandiaradiosuodin
New kinds of ultra-thin filter structures are still in the laboratory stage and they take advantage of relatively new photon / phonon concept -kytkeytymisen.
“We have developed an efficient signal filtering technology that can revolutionize today based purely conventional electronics, signal processing systems,” says Sandia National Laboratories Patrick Chu.
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2016/01/28/fononinen-suodatin-mullistaa/
More:
Technology could revolutionize signal processing systems
http://www.sandia.gov/news/publications/labnews/articles/2016/08-01/phononic_filter.html#.Vo7wDcHHpaU.twitter
A unique filtering technology that combines light and sound waves on a single chip is expected to better detect radar and communications frequencies.
“We have developed a powerful signal-filtering technology that could revolutionize signal processing systems that rely solely on conventional electronics,” says manager Patrick Chu.
The radio frequency (RF) filters, which promise both high-bandwidth and wide functional flexibility, would form the basis for spectrometers that would let users “see” energies placed in various frequency bands across a wide spectral range.
The novel, very thin filter structures are still in the laboratory stage. A system demonstration — complete with lasers, modulators, detectors, and battery — should be a bit larger than a computer hard drive, weigh only a few pounds, and is expected to be available in three to five years.
Photon-to-phonon conversion
The filter uses a relatively new concept called photon/phonon coupling. This technique enables the hybrid device to temporarily change RF signals propagating as photons (light) into phonons (sound), enabling efficient analog manipulation of those slower-moving signals.
With this hybrid approach, also known as nano-optomechanical coupling, the researchers were able to combine the high bandwidth offered by light — demonstrated at frequencies up to 20 gigahertz and easily extended to 100 gigahertz — with the linearity and sharp resonances provided by phononic filters.
The photonic-phononic devices also could be incorporated with on-chip photodetectors and other electronics.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Home> Systems-design Design Center > How To Article
Avoid these common MEMS failure mechanisms
http://www.edn.com/design/systems-design/4441255/Avoid-these-common-MEMS-failure-mechanisms?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160128&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160128&elq=e5858a189bd94e7b8345d21577d319fc&elqCampaignId=26715&elqaid=30559&elqat=1&elqTrackId=1e703dda8b364835a4df365eefeb0767
Demand for micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology is on the rise. To service that demand with reliable products, both developers and users of MEMS devices need to know about likely failure mechanisms and how to avoid them. Stiction, electrostatic discharge (ESD), micro-contamination, and mechanical shock are key reliability failure mechanisms to understand.
An important driver for the demand of MEMS is, and will continue to be, the Internet of Things (IoT). MEMS and sensors are being used increasingly in healthcare, consumer electronics, low power applications, security, asset tracking, automotive technologies, and smart homes, to name a few, with MEMS marketing and industry analysts predicting tens of billions of shipments within the next decade. With so many interacting MEMS and sensors in the field, up-time is important and reliability is critical.
The first step in ensuring MEMS reliability is to avoid common pitfalls during the design and process development phase to assure a stronger and more reliable part-upon-marketplace introduction. And the time to market for MEMS is fast. Upon product launch, the part must meet all its datasheet specifications as well as storage, shipping, and operational environment reliability tolerances. One of the first things to be prepared to deal with is stiction.
The term stiction comes from “static friction” and it has been a factor for years in a wide variety of technologies, including suspension linkages for cars, polished glass, hard disk drives, and precision gage blocks. It occurs when two objects are initially brought into contact (Figure 1). In a MEMS device, objects that could come in contact include elements such as actuators, proof masses, and sensing fingers. Such contact may occur as part of the device’s normal operation, or may unintentionally occur as the result of an external force such as a mechanical shock. Either way, however, once contact has occurred the device needs a reliable way to ensure that it can separate the surfaces again in order to keep functioning properly.
Release from stiction is only possible if the release forces, also called restoring forces, exceed the forces that allow the surfaces to stay in contact
Along with the mechanical problems of stiction, MEMS are susceptible to electrical problems, such as ESD (electrostatic discharge).
ESD can also cause failure for some MEMS. If your MEMS device is electrostatically actuated, for instance, then ESD is a likely failure mechanism for your part. ESD could cause the actuator to move beyond its intended range, possibly resulting in contact and stiction.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Economist:
How China is spending $100-150B to build its own world-class semiconductor industry by 2030
Chips on their shoulders
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21688871-china-wants-become-superpower-semiconductors-and-plans-spend-colossal-sums
China wants to become a superpower in semiconductors, and plans to spend colossal sums to achieve this
THE Chinese government has been trying, on and off, since the 1970s to build an indigenous semiconductor industry. But its ambitions have never been as high, nor its budgets so big, as they are now. In an earlier big push, in the second half of the 1990s, the government spent less than $1 billion, reckons Morgan Stanley, an American bank. This time, under a grand plan announced in 2014, the government will muster $100 billion-$150 billion in public and private funds.
The aim is to catch up technologically with the world’s leading firms by 2030, in the design, fabrication and packaging of chips of all types, so as to cease being dependent on foreign supplies. In 2015 the government added a further target: within ten years it wants to be producing 70% of the chips consumed by Chinese industry.
It has a long way to go. Last year China’s manufacturers, both domestic and foreign-owned, consumed $145 billion-worth of microchips of all kinds
But the output of China’s domestic chip industry was only one-tenth of that value. And in some types of high-value semiconductor—the processor chips that are the brains of computers, and the rugged and durable chips that are embedded in cars—virtually all of China’s consumption is imported.
To help them achieve their dream, the authorities realise that they must buy as much foreign expertise as they can lay their hands on. In recent months, state-owned firms and various arms of government have been rushing to buy, invest in or do deals with overseas microchip firms.
Officials argue that developing a home-grown semiconductor industry is a strategic imperative, given the country’s excessive reliance on foreign technology.
China’s microchip trade gap is, by some estimates, only around half of what the raw figures suggest, since a sizeable proportion of the imported chips that Chinese factories consume go into gadgets, such as Apple’s iPhones and Lenovo’s laptops, that are then exported. Even so, a policy of promoting semiconductors fits with the government’s broader policy of moving from labour-intensive manufacturing to higher-added-value, cleaner industries.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The use of cadmium in relays ends
The relays must not be use cadmium from summer 2016. Cadmium has been for long time material that has been used for relay contacts for quite long time, but RoHS directive (Restriction of Hazardous Substances directive) banned that material.
RoHS directive issued once widely used material for relay contact cadmium extra time that ends in summer 2016. So you need to select to use some other contact material instead.
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2016/01/29/kadmiumin-kaytto-releissa-loppuu/
Hongfa recommendations for relay contact materials
http://www.perel.fi/files/1011/Hongfa_materiaali.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Russians’ Report Memristors
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328806&
Russian and Italian scientists, led by Vyacheslav Demin at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and the National Research Center Kurchatov Institute (Moscow) have described a perceptron in detail in a paper by Demin and his collaborators titled Hardware elementary perceptron based on polyaniline memristive devices.
The most exciting element of their perceptron was the polymer-memristor they constructed from organic polyaniline (PANI)—a highly conductive polymer that has been used as the active electronic component in experimental non-volatile memories
“The physical realization of an elementary perceptron demonstrates the ability to form the hardware-based neuromorphic networks with the use of organic memristive devices,” said Demin’s team in their abstract. “The results provide a great promise toward new approaches for very compact, low-volatile and high-performance neurochips that could be made for a huge number of intellectual products and applications.”
The scientists aim to use their polymeric memristors in multi-layer perceptron—called deep-learning neural networks or just neuromorphic networks—in applications ranging from machine vision, hearing, and other sensory modes, for intelligent control systems and autonomous robots.
Hardware elementary perceptron based on polyaniline memristive devices
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1566119915002633
Elementary perceptron is an artificial neural network with a single layer of adaptive links and one output neuron that can solve simple linearly separable tasks such as invariant pattern recognition, linear approximation, prediction and others. We report on the hardware realization of the elementary perceptron with the use of polyaniline-based memristive devices as the analog link weights.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung, Apple Top Chip Buyers Again
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328817&
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Apple Inc. ranked first and second among global semiconductor consumers for the fifth consecutive year, together accounting for nearly 18% of chips in 2015, according to a new report by market research firm Gartner Inc.
The two electronics giants combined to consume about $59 billion worth of chips in 2015, up $800 million from 2014, Gartner (Stamford, Conn.) said.
“Samsung Electronics and Apple have topped the semiconductor consumption table for five consecutive years, but the growth of Samsung’s design total available market (TAM) was lower than the total semiconductor market in 2014 and 2015,” said Masatsune Yamaji, principal research analyst at Gartner, in a statement.
Tomi Engdahl says:
FDSOI Carries on Despite ST Re-org, Says COO
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328810&
STMicroelectronics’ withdrawal from the set-top-box business and the transfer of engineers to microcontroller and digital automotive work will not stop the adoption of fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FDSOI) manufacturing process, according to Jean-Marc Chery, ST’s chief operating officer.
Set-top box and home gateway are application areas where STMicroelectronics has already designed ICs for implementation in the FDSOI process that it has championed in the industry, albeit with limited take-up so far.
However, the news that ST is withdrawing from those markets (see ST exits STB chip business, plans lay-offs) and will make no further designs for that sector should not be seen as a blow to prospects for FDSOI, Chery told EE Times Europe. Indeed Chery says ST is preparing to make microcontrollers on 28nm FDSOI with options on an embedded non-volatile memory still open, but with phase-change memory as a leading contender.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ISSCC Focuses on Image Processors for Autonomous Cars
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1328704&
Upcoming International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) turns 63 and still promises never-before-seen silicon. Yet the boundaries between a one-off laboratory animal and a full commercial product release can be impressively small.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mini sensor touts fast laser-assisted autofocus
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4441223/Mini-sensor-touts-fast-laser-assisted-autofocus?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_review_20160129&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_review_20160129&elq=9aa1a2d10af1445db6c1a14ff8965e74&elqCampaignId=26738&elqaid=30593&elqat=1&elqTrackId=60a78b65e0ad47ada1d94a669ed74339
STMicroelectronics’ FlightSense VL53L0 time-of-flight sensor brings improved autofocus to smart-phone cameras, robotic equipment, and IoT devices. This second-generation laser-ranging module can range faster over longer distances and more accurately than its predecessors. It measures absolute distances beyond 2 m, independent of target reflectance, in less than 30 ms.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Slideshow
16 Insights on ICs
Good news and bad for 2016
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328819
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rumors of Xilinx Sale Abound
http://hackaday.com/2016/02/01/rumors-of-xilinx-sale-abound/
The companies that design and build the chips we all use – Atmel, Texas Instruments, Microchip, NXP, Freescale, Intel, Altera, Avago, Broadcom, and On Semi are all buying each other, merging, and slowly becoming two or three gigantic semiconductor companies. The question on everyone’s mind is, ‘which company will be next?’ The answer might be Xilinx, inventors of the FPGA and designers of some really cool parts.
The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s reported a few regulatory filings from Xilinx last week. This could signal an acquisition or merger of the company When this could happen is anyone’s guess, but rumors are flooding the Internet over who would buy Xilinx.
Until recently, Xilinx’s largest competitor in the FPGA market was Altera. That is, until Intel came by with a check for $16.7 Billion. The revenue, size, and market cap of both Xilinx and Altera aren’t too different, leading the question of who would have the money to buy Xilinx and isn’t Intel. Aren’t rumors fun?
Xilinx’s portfolio include high performance, mid-range and low-cost FPGAs as well as interesting hybrid devices. One such hybrid is Zynq, an FPGA and fast ARM Cortex A9 processor in the same package.
Tomi Engdahl says:
PCB signal integrity analysis for multi-gigabit interfaces
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4441276/PCB-signal-integrity-analysis-for-multi-gigabit-interfaces?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160128&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160128&elq=161907a687234e9885955bae863f7fb7&elqCampaignId=26711&elqaid=30554&elqat=1&elqTrackId=44923cae0eb240cfad3718e2e18c50a9
inShare
Save Follow
PRINT
PDF
EMAIL
Cadence Design Systems’ Sigrity 2016 technology portfolio can, the company says, improve product creation time with an enhanced PCB design and analysis methodology that is suitable for for multi-gigabit interfaces.
To speed up the qualification of a physical design for the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) compliance test, the Cadence Sigrity technology portfolio includes automated support for IBIS-AMI model creation, fast and accurate channel model extraction using multiple field solvers, and an automated power-aware signal integrity analysis report to validate a virtual USB 3.1 channel. These technologies, when used together, can save weeks in a design process.
Previously, IBIS-AMI model creation has been a manual process. The Sigrity 2016 technology portfolio now makes use of validated equalisation algorithms used by the Cadence Design IP SerDes PHY team and provides an automated methodology for combining, paramaterising and compiling the algorithms into an executable model. This can increase the pool of engineers capable of efficiently developing SerDes I/O models.
Sigrity 2016 Portfolio Improves Product Creation Time with PCB Design and Analysis Methodology for Multi-Gigabit Interfaces
http://www.cadence.com/products/sigrity/Pages/whatsnew.aspx?CMP=pr012016_Sigrity
Tomi Engdahl says:
Understanding isolator standards and certification to meet safety requirements
http://www.edn.com/design/analog/4441292/Understanding-isolator-safety-standards-and-certification-rules-enable-you-to-meet-safety-requirements?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160128&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160128&elq=161907a687234e9885955bae863f7fb7&elqCampaignId=26711&elqaid=30554&elqat=1&elqTrackId=daf47c0c330749fabf9f45edea266ec5
Electrical products use numerous components, some of which are important for protection of the product user. Isolator components are commonly used to protect/separate product users from dangerous voltages, but knowing how to select the correct isolator for safety protection can be confusing. Is it the isolation voltage, the working voltage, the standard, the certification, or … what’s most important? This article will clear up the confusion surrounding the selection of isolators for safety applications in situations where hazardous voltage circuits need to be isolated from product users.
Non-hazardous voltage circuits, +/-3.3Vdc, 5Vdc, and 12Vdc, are typically user-touchable and must be isolated from hazardous voltages, > 30Vrms/42.4Vpeak/60Vdc, to protect the user from dangerous voltages! Safety isolation is the separation of a section of non-touchable hazardous voltage circuits (> 30Vrms/42.4Vpeak/60Vdc) from user- touchable circuits (≤ 30Vrms/42.4Vpeak/60Vdc). There are several levels of safety insulation: Basic, Double, and Reinforced. Reinforced insulation is required between hazardous voltage and user-touchable circuits.
Tomi Engdahl says:
MediaTek’s 4G Market Share Gains to Slow in 2016
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328831&
MediaTek, Qualcomm’s largest competitor in the smartphone silicon business, reiterated expectations that its market-share gains in the 4G business may slow this year after soaring in 2015.
“We’re still looking to extend our 4G market share,” said MediaTek Senior Vice President David Ku on a conference call to announce the company’s fourth-quarter 2015 results. “Our 4G growth rate should be higher than the industry end-market growth.”
MediaTek expects the global 4G market this year to grow within a range of 5 percent to 10 percent from 1.4 billion units in 2015. Last year, the company shipped about 150 million long-term evolution (LTE) chips in the high end of the 4G segment. Overall, MediaTek shipped about 400 million smartphone chips in 2015 as it entered the business in competition with Qualcomm.
Companies in the smartphone business may need to adjust to slower sales after market research firm International Data Corporation (IDG) reported that shipment growth in 2015 slowed to 9.8 percent last year, ending years of double-digit increases on an annual basis.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tektronix Turns 70, Unveils New Look & Strategy
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328832&
On the eve of its 70th birthday, Tektronix revealed a new logo, the first in 24 years and only the third in the company’s history. More important than a logo, the company announced a new brand strategy, one focused on applications.
In a phone conversation from his office in Beaverton the day after he spoke at DesignCon 2016, Tektronix President Pat Byrne told me that the company is shifting gears to be more application focused rather than being so hardware focused. This is a general trend I’m seeing in not only the test industry, but in others as well. That doesn’t mean the Tektronix is moving away from its test instrument hardware, but it will be increasing its emphasis on software and applications for specific measurements.
Based on the new strategy, you can expect to see more specific measurement options for Tektronix test equipment, particularly in oscilloscopes and RF spectrum analyzers. Measurements that are “triggering” software specific applications include power, signal integrity (jitter and PAM4), and wireless RF (cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and others).
Byrne explained, “Many engineers are not measurement specialists. They don’t have time to learn the ins and outs of test equipment.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
DesignCon 2016: 4 unexpected things
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/rowe-s-and-columns/4441285/DesignCon-2016–4-unexpected-things?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_funfriday_20160129&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_funfriday_20160129&elq=93dda9770a364146bc2280522ba0a5d8&elqCampaignId=26721&elqaid=30565&elqat=1&elqTrackId=11bd57340d9e49b6bf1d8759c5f3bc7e
The Rigol booth featured this bench DMM (top) and power supply in addition to its oscilloscopes and spectrum analyzers.
DesignCon is a conference and exhibition primarily for design, verification, and characterization engineers. Automated device handlers are common at manufacturing shows, but that didn’t stop Chroma ATE.
IC programming cables
Although many high-speed serial streams are generated from FPGAs, you don’t see device programmers at DesignCon. Like the handler, device programmers are more often seen in production. Of course, engineering prototype FPGA’s do need programming. While no programmers were seen at DesignCon 2016, that didn’t prevent Tag Connect from exhibiting its connectors and cables for programming devices on boards.
I didn’t expect to see EMC consultant Doug Smith this year.
Smith is never one to turn down an opportunity to educate a fellow engineer.
Other DesignCon coverage
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/rowe-s-and-columns/4441297/New-test-products-at-DesignCon-2016
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/rowe-s-and-columns/4441270/PAM4-challenges-at-DesignCon-2016
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/rowe-s-and-columns/4441251/DesignCon-Panel-Highlights-25G–PAM4
Tomi Engdahl says:
Taiwan Pursues White LED
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328851&
To make a white light emitting diode (LED) today, engineers either must use a white phosphor coated package illuminated by a single color LED or mix red, green and blue LEDs together. However, if researchers at National Taiwan University are successful, they will be able to produce white light from a single tiered-column LED producing white light at a single pixel.
The work at NTU is being headed by professor Chih-Chung Yang at the Institute of Photonics and Optoelectronics. It is based on the idea of embedding quantum wells inside gallium nitride (GaN) and indium gallium nitride (InGaN) nano-rods grown very close to one another from the same substrate.
“We can grow multi-section nano-rods of different cross-sectional sizes, and demonstrate a broader mission spectrum compared to single-section nano-rods,” Yang told EE Times in an exclusive interview. “Our development of these multi-section nano-rod LEDs targets the implementation of phosphor-free white-light emission,” he said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lithium-ion batteries prohibits in air cargo
There are several cases where the transported in the hold of aircraft lithium-ion batteries have overheated up to the fire. Now, the UN panel recommends ban on air cargo batteries completely.
Only in October the United Nations opposed the total ban on the carriage.
It is a long-standing dispute. As early as last March, representing the major aircraft manufacturers association announced that the lithium-ion batteries for transport pose a risk, which is not acceptable to aviation. Manufacturers that one battery can ignite flammable entire cargo into the fire, which of course would lead to a major disaster.
In 2014, the world was prepared from 5.4 billion lithium-ion battery. Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO, about 30 per cent of these were transported by air.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3933:litiumioniakkujen-lentorahdit-kielletaan&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wearables becames a billon-dollar industry
Wearable electronics has been talked about for years to come. The term referred to in the past, above all, the so-called. smart clothing. Only last year, largely of Apple’s Watch wearable thanks, wearables became a billion-dollar business. All in all, wearable devices sold 232 million copies.
According to Gartner, one in eight sold last year was the so-called wearable electronic devices was smart watch, since they were sold 30.3 million pieces together. This year, wearable going to sell 50 million units next year and already 67 million.
Wearable is still not the most popular wearable electronic device, not even close. Blutooth headsets were sold last year to 116.3 million units. Headphones sales continue to grow, but the rate has already been clearly slowing.
What about the original smart garment? Last year, they sold 60 000 copies. This year is achieved, according to Gartner million units of clothing, and next year by 5.3 million.
Research estimates that wearable devices sold this year, a total of 275 million copies. Next year, the rate is almost 323 million.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3937:puettavista-tuli-miljardibisnes&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Prototype circuit allows multiple gigabit connections
If you want to take a very high-speed wireless connections over short stem what, will probably need to use the high millimeter range of the spectrum. Belgian researchers have developed a prototype receiver, which indicates that these frequencies it is possible to develop a small and inexpensive radios.
Micro-electronics research institute IMEC and situated in vibrant Brussels, Vrije University (VUB, Vrije Universiteit Brussel) researchers presented the ISSCC conference in San Francisco carried out in 28-nanometer process, the receiver, which was able to handle the incoming signal from the antenna of the four 60-gigahertz range. This kind of circuit can be used, for example, routers or mobile networks, wireless return channels of very small wireless cells.
The fact that the receiver is made of 28-nanometer CMOS process, is a real breakthrough. It allows for low-cost mass production of radio circuits.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3935:protopiiri-mahdollistaa-useiden-gigabittien-yhteydet&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
TSMC’s 300mm Chinese Wafer Fab Wins Approval
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328860&
The Taiwanese government has given foundry chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Hsinchu, Taiwan) approval to build a 300mm wafer fab in China, according to reports that reference the Investment Commission of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
TSMC already operates one fab in China, but until the latest ruling the Taiwan government forbade Taiwanese companies from owning and operating fabs that process the more cost efficient larger wafer size.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cars drive SoC design at ISSCC
Renesas designs leapfrog MediaTek, AMD
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1328845&
Automotive SoCs at ISSCC showed designs that were more aggressive in some ways than their counterparts for mobile phones and notebook computers.
Two SoCs for cars were the most interesting, bleeding-edge client computing chips in the digital processor session at this year’s International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC). They packed more cores using more aggressive process technology than the latest smartphone and PC processors described by Mediatek and Advanced Micro Devices.
Renesas designed both chips for a 16nm FinFET process. A car safety chip implementing the ISO26262 standard packed eight ARMv8 cores, two ARM R7 cores and three Imagination GPU cores. A video processor for infotainment and driver assistance used 17 video processors of six different types.
“In the past the tech drivers were smartphone applications processors, but that has been changing,” Seiji Mochizuki, a senior Renesas engineer who helped design the video SoC told me in an interview. Given the demands of infotainment and driver-assistance systems, “auto SoCs will need much, much more performance than a smartphone and in the future automotive SoCs must be developed using the newest technologies,” he said.
“It’s a market requirement, because we need to handle a lot of data,” added Chikafumi Takahashi, a Renesas engineer behind the car safety SoC.
“The slowing of mobile phone market means everyone looking for the next big opportunity and clearly the data center is one where Intel is dominant, but automotive has a lot of green field opportunities where people such as Nvidia can differentiate,” he said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to Market to Young Engineers
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1328839&
Today’s young engineers consume information differently than their elders. Learn how to reach the millennials.
Engineers strive to solve problems by innovating beyond our imagination to create solutions. They wield a unique set of skills, with deliberate precision, an obsessive focus, and often a playful intuition, as they make one generation’s impossible the next generation’s ordinary.
Part of what makes engineers who they are is their stubbornness as they plow forward towards their goals in spite of what others say. The other side of this coin, however, means that engineers may not fall in line with the accepted standards of the day. In an ever-changing world, this makes it quite a challenge for businesses to constantly adapt their marketing strategies as they cater to today’s engineers.
At Analog Arts, we are still learning about marketing strategies, especially to younger engineers. We’d like to share some of what we’ve learned, which could only be the tip of the iceberg.
Understand the Digital World
Engineers in their twenties and thirties grew up in a digital generation. There are more than three billion internet users in the world, which will further grow by an additional billion in just five years. Millennial engineers are a vibrant part of this community, relying on it as their primary source of information. A survey of engineers reveals that this group is constantly connected, whether it is on their computer during the day or on their phone while on the move.
To reach these young engineers, you must maintain a strong online presence. Updating your web site regularly, making it mobile friendly, applying SEO tactics, strategizing images, choosing an appealing title, and researching key words are absolute musts for any online presence. It is also vital to get the point to this group fast. An average internet user spends only 15 seconds before they x-out of a page.
Harness social media
Thirty years ago, engineers had to read hundreds of paper articles, go through tons of vendors’ data books, and collect shelves of technical texts to stay at the forefront of the field. Today, all these information is only one click away. Sifting through a sea of web pages to find the right article or product now becomes the main challenge for the young engineer. Instead, many turn to social media where they develop communities of experts.
today’s generation relies on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and hundreds of other platforms to exchange ideas.
Maintaining an active presence at these podiums is quite time consuming. Larger companies often devote a whole department to social media.
Shifting Paradigms: Read and talk vs. watch and blog The previous generation of engineers was used to “read and talk.” They would read articles or newsletters on their own, and then gather together to discuss key ideas. The younger generation has started to find an alternative, “watch and blog.”
For example, a technical video on the internet could easily get tens of thousands of views in a short period of time. Making an appealing technical or demo video has become an art in itself.
Think Outside the Box
Finding distinctive means to attract customers may sound like a cliché, but the age-old advice remains true with today’s engineers. It requires understanding your target demographic well and finding ways uncommon to the market that could work well for you. Giving incentives to special groups, learning about your customers’ needs by analyzing their inquiries, educating your audience with data and information that is relevant to them, taking a proactive response to their problems, and using visual language to communicate with engineers (graphs, charts, tables, etc.) often appeal to the young engineer. At the same time, the young engineer doesn’t like to be approached like his predecessors with simple slick advertisements. He is much more resistant to traditional tactics. Don’t be afraid to think outside of the box as you develop your marketing strategy.
Young engineers are a subset of college-educated personas. To market to them, you must have a clear view of the demographic.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The IoT Library: Sensor Design & Fusion in the Age of Smart
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=31&doc_id=1328850&
IoT designers need to learn how to integrate entire databases of “perceptual information” from data-rich sensors into future products.
Smart sensors, widely distributed throughout our network of devices, are becoming the eyes and ears of the Internet of Things: Connected devices that measure monitor, transmit, and control vast amounts of vital data, wirelessly, in an always-on mode.
So designers will be happy to know that an A-team of researchers, Grenoble-based authors James L Crowley and Yves Demazeau, recently published an authoritative, forward-looking paper that addresses all of these issues and topics: Principles and Techniques for Sensor Data Fusion.
The paper presents perception “as a process of dynamically maintaining a model of the local external environment,” noting that sensor fusion and the “fusion of perceptual information is at the heart of this process.”
So what, exactly, is sensor fusion?
According to the comprehensive overview article Smarter Sensors Save Space and Power, sensor fusion combines the outputs of multiple sensors in a system to monitor complex or rapid movements accurately for purposes such as gesture controls or body-motion capture for gaming or research purposes.
Depending on the application, sensor fusion may be best performed in the main processor, or an external sensor hub, or in the sensor itself.
Principles and Techniques for Sensor Data Fusion
http://www-prima.imag.fr/Prima/jlc/papers/SigProc-Fusion.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Scenes from the desktop manufacturing revolution, part 2
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/diy-zone/4441264/Scenes-from-the-desktop-manufacturing-revolution–part-2?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160202&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160202&elq=ad0381294d1549d19ec8a243473ff60d&elqCampaignId=26790&elqaid=30634&elqat=1&elqTrackId=657cdab2c3ef4f31bc365af1272c3f27
Although desktop manufacturing technology is still relatively immature, it’s already enabling enterprising makers to quickly prototype their designs and, in some cases, support low-volume in-house production. The milling machine featured in part 1 of this series lets designers translate moderately-complex circuit designs into a raw PCB in a matter of minutes, but there’s still the matter of placing and soldering dozens, or even hundreds of tiny ICs, connectors, resistors, and other components.
In high-volume PCB assembly environments, a silk-screen-type stencil is used to apply a dot of solder paste to the raw PCB wherever it will contact a surface-mounted component’s lead. Next, high-speed robotic “pick-and-place” machines plop down the components onto the appropriate blobs of paste. The boards are then whisked into a “reflow oven” where the solder paste is heated just long enough to form secure connections between leads and circuit traces. In maker spaces and startups, a modified toaster oven often substitutes for a commercial unit but, until recently, the absence of an affordable alternative to commercial pick-and-place machines ($50K-$500K) meant that component placement was often painstakingly done by hand. If you are building complex prototypes with a few hundred components, this can be especially challenging because it’s hard to put down much more than 100 components per hour by hand and the solder paste typically has a maximum working life of three or four hours.
This frustrating situation is changing, however, as a growing number of determined hobbyists and business-minded tinkerers adapt many of the technologies already being successfully used in 3D printers to the challenges of creating an affordable pick-and-place machine. While neither as fast nor as capable as their commercial counterparts, these maker-class machines provide all of the basic functions needed to perform in-house PCB assembly for a small fraction of the cost of a commercially-sourced machine.
Scenes from the desktop manufacturing revolution, part 1
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/diy-zone/4440655/Scenes-from-the-desktop-manufacturing-revolution–part-1-
Tomi Engdahl says:
LTC Design Note: Robust high voltage Over-the-Top op-amps maintain high input impedance with inputs driven apart or when powered down
http://www.edn.com/design/analog/4441314/LTC-Design-Note–Robust-high-voltage-Over-the-Top-op-amps-maintain-high-input-impedance-with-inputs-driven-apart-or-when-powered-down?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_designideas_20160202&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_designideas_20160202&elq=5f7e7ba4efb140c18402e37e0f220b12&elqCampaignId=26785&elqaid=30629&elqat=1&elqTrackId=339f4345ea6e4b0aa7a7d54f52d19aa0
Linear Technology’s Over-The-Top op-amps have an input stage topology that allows them to operate closed loop well above the positive supply rail. The inputs remain high impedance when split apart in voltage and also when shut down or with complete loss of power supply. They are indispensable in robust systems, where reliability is required in the face of uncertain power sequencing. The LT6015, LT6016 and LT6017 extend the op amp operational input voltage capability to 76V, and improve precision with trimmed offset voltage of 350μV (max) over all common mode input voltages and over temperature.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Find the settings and open the eyes
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/rowe-s-and-columns/4441305/Find-the-settings-and-open-the-eyes?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20160201&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20160201&elq=1dc5411723d04ac98f896df88f964546&elqCampaignId=26777&elqaid=30619&elqat=1&elqTrackId=9e390ae8116f4a69857a68ce6bd95f9d
Serial data streams running at 28 Gbps and higher suffer from channel losses. To compensate for those losses, transmitters and receivers use equalization and error correction techniques. A board may have hundreds of such high-speed links and systems can have thousands, with each pair needing its own settings.
Because each link’s transmission path is often unique, engineers need to find the optimum Tx (transmitter) and Rx (receiver) settings to maximize signal integrity and eye-diagram openings. But, with thousands of settings at each end, where do you begin?
OptimEye from Signal Integrity Software (SiSoft) can take the pain out of what is often a tedious, iterative process for finding the best settings. It eliminates the “blind sweeps” often used to find the settings for each Tx and Rx pair.
“Transmitters and receivers start by connecting at low bit rates as they begin to negotiate settings,” said SiSoft’s Todd Westerhoff in a phone call. “With millions of possible settings per link, optimizing a board or system using this iterative process is impractical.”
http://www.sisoft.com/products/quantum-channel-designer/optimeye.html%22target=%22_blank%22
What is OptimEye™?
OptimEye is 3rd generation co-optimization technology from SiSoft that automatically adjusts TX & RX equalization settings to maximize RX eye height. OptimEye replaces the “blind sweeps” of TX settings customers have traditionally used to find optimal settings with an automated process that is performed by the simulator. Instead of performing large sweeps and using manual methods or scripts to look for the best settings, OptimEye provides the best answer directly.
How does it work?
OptimEye uses unique co-optimization algorithms tailored for AMI analysis and built right into QCD’s simulation engine. It uses information contained in special optimization control files to understand the capabilities of a particular TX/RX combination and predict what the best combination of settings will be. OptimEye then uses additional information in the optimization control files to simulate the TX/RX models with what it expects are the best TX/RX settings. If the actual simulation matches expected results, both the simulation results and TX/RX settings are reported. If the actual simulation results vary substantially from what OptimEye predicted, OptimEye updates its prediction and the process iterates until it converges.
Tomi Engdahl says:
PCB signal integrity analysis for multi-gigabit interfaces
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4441276/PCB-signal-integrity-analysis-for-multi-gigabit-interfaces?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20160201&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20160201&elq=1dc5411723d04ac98f896df88f964546&elqCampaignId=26777&elqaid=30619&elqat=1&elqTrackId=936d143101a744cf93d579a815fd475a
Cadence Design Systems’ Sigrity 2016 technology portfolio can, the company says, improve product creation time with an enhanced PCB design and analysis methodology that is suitable for for multi-gigabit interfaces.
To speed up the qualification of a physical design for the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) compliance test, the Cadence Sigrity technology portfolio includes automated support for IBIS-AMI model creation, fast and accurate channel model extraction using multiple field solvers, and an automated power-aware signal integrity analysis report to validate a virtual USB 3.1 channel. These technologies, when used together, can save weeks in a design process.
Previously, IBIS-AMI model creation has been a manual process. The Sigrity 2016 technology portfolio now makes use of validated equalisation algorithms used by the Cadence Design IP SerDes PHY team and provides an automated methodology for combining, paramaterising and compiling the algorithms into an executable model. This can increase the pool of engineers capable of efficiently developing SerDes I/O models.
The new “cut and stitch” technology features the ability to create accurate channel models ten times faster by using a mix of hybrid and 3D full-wave field solvers.