Current sensor ICs with internal galvanic isolation

Allegro MicroSystems is offering bidirectional ±5A or unidirectional 10A sensor ICs which have internal galvanic isolation

Designed for AC or DC current sensing for motor control, switched-mode power supplies and solar invertors, the devices have a low-offset, linear Hall sensor circuit with a copper conduction path located near the surface of the die.

Applied current flowing through the copper conduction path generates a magnetic field which is sensed by the integrated Hall device and converted into a proportional voltage. Device accuracy is optimised through the close proximity of the magnetic field to the Hall transducer.

Allegro

Output voltage versus sensed current

A proportional voltage is provided by the low-offset, chopper-stabilised BiCMOS Hall IC, which is programmed for accuracy after packaging.

The output of the device has a positive slope when an increasing current flows through the primary copper conduction path, which is the path used for current sensing. The internal resistance of this conductive path is typically 0.65mΩ, providing low power loss.

The terminals of the conductive path are electrically isolated from the sensor leads. This allows the ACS722 and ACS723 current sensor ICs to be used in high-side current sense applications without the use of high-side differential amplifiers or other costly isolation techniques.

The devices are certified to 2400 V RMS isolation, and can be used in AC line tied applications.

The two devices are differentiated by the supply voltage: 3.3 V for the ACS722 and 5 V for the ACS723. This means that the ACS723 has higher sensitivity than the ACS722 for the same current range. For example, the ACS723LLCTR-05AB-T has a sensitivity of 400 mV/A as compared with 264 mV/A for the ACS722LLCTR-05AB-T.

 

richard wilson

Glocal Unichip makes cost-effective, low-power server ASIC

GUC President Jim Lai

GUC President Jim Lai

Global Unichip, TSMC’s design arm, has made a remote management controller ASIC for server and desktop virtualization by adopting the first DDR3/4 PHY targeting TSMC’s 40LP process technology.

“The complexity of today’s server market is absolutely astounding. Performance was once king but today server SoC’s must also provide cost-effective performance. The innovation required to achieve this sweet spot, particularly at a 40nm manufacturing node requires real technical and business creativity and collaboration,” says GUC CEO Jim Lai.

GUC’s DDR 3/4 PHY is the first to be manufactured in 40nm process technology and provides low power, high performance and cost-effectiveness. GUC offers DDR3/4 PHY and controller production-proven turnkey solutions for all of TSMC’s most advanced process nodes including 40nm LP, 28nmHPM and 16nmFF+.

During the design and production process, engineers from both companies faced performance and time-to-market challenges. On the design side, the new device, the ASPEED’s AST2500 server SoC series and AST3200 Desktop Virtualization SoC had to achieve world- class performance on a cost-effective technology.

Key to success was designing to the performance sweet spot of GUC’s DDR3/4 high speed interface IP, a condensed package substrate, and a PCB through a precise DDR system simulation flow and measurement correlation.

The GUC IGADDRS03A DDR3/4 PHY high speed interface IP was implemented with a multiple oxide memory I/O design that capitalized on the combo DDR3 and DDR4 low power and high speed operation. The IP supports user-friendly PHY self training that shortens first system boot up time and reduces engineering resources. The IGADDRS03A integrates with both third party and GUC’s DDR3/DDR4 memory controllers.

“GUC brought in-depth IP, process technology and packaging know-how to the challenge of providing cost-efficient performance to a 40nm SoC. Collaboration was key to leveraging these skills across our two companies’ engineering team,” says ASPEED Technology CEO Chris Lin.

david manners

Manchester LED firm raising Indiegogo cash

Gigateq of Manchester, the smart LED specialist, seeks to raise $1000 on crowd-funding site Indiegogo by September 10 to begin production of its EasyBulb Plus which can be controlled from a smartphone or tablet app.

EasyBulb Plus can be changed to any colours, brightened or dimmed.

“The colour wheel on the app lets you easily match your lighting to your mood,” said Gigateq’s Henry Ofodieze. “Or, instead of using the color wheel, you can simply speak to your device to tell the app what color you want.”

EasyBulb Plus has proximity setting, signalling for lights to turn on upon arrival at home and turn off upon departure and can be synced with any music source, including iTunes, to integrate music and lights together and can give phone call and message alerts with a blinking green and white light.

EasyBulb plus on IndieGoGo

EasyBulb plus on IndieGoGo

EasyBulb Plus Has a 9 watt LED bulb and a lifespan of 50,000 hours (approximately 25 years of average use), the EasyBulb Plus is also compatible in every country. It is installed by replacing an existing bulb, downloading the app on any smart device, and connecting the EasyBulb Plus Wi-Fi box.

Low heat technology ensures EasyBulb will not burn skin, and lights can still be operated by a physical light switch as well.

There are two types of EasyBulb Plus. The first is the RGBW, which has the option of the full spectrum of color, including pure white. The second is the EasyBulb Plus White Light Only, which produces only white light but can be altered from warm to cool white according to preference. Access to lighting – either one bulb at a time or groups of lights – is completely secure with EasyBulb Plus’ built-in WPA2 encryption, so no unauthorized users can control the lights.

Those contributing to the crowdfunding campaign will receive special discounts on their EasyBulb Plus, which should be ready for shipment in November 2014. Those contributing $62 will receive one EasyBulb Plus with white or grey base with their choice of either RGBW or White Light Only.

A contribution of $99 will get a choice of two, $150 for a choice of three, $180 for a choice of four, and $240 for a choice of six. For contributors that want different color bases, they can get four EasyBulb Plus lights in either RGBW or White Light Only in the base color of their choosing for $220 or six in the base color of their choosing for $270.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzeh3BtJvNk

david manners

NI CompactRIO controller runs Linux RTOS on Intel Atom

NI-CompactRIONI’s latest CompactRIO controller is supported by LabVIEW 2014 and NI Linux real-time for applications in harsh, industrial environments.

This software-design controller provides data processing, custom timing and triggering, and data transfer from modular C Series I/O.

The controller has an Intel Atom processor and a Kintex-7 FPGA for implementing complex filtering and control algorithms.

The Linux real-time OS brings with it a community of applications and IP and the controller’s embedded UI will implement a local HMI device and use the control system to handle HMI tasks.

Vision IP can be used to run vision processing on the FPGA.

 

 

 

richard wilson

Cambridge VC fund makes first three investments

CICCambridge Innovation Capital (CIC) has completed its first investments from a £50 million fund, backing three companies that address cloud-based video archiving, grid-scale energy management and generative music composition.

CIC aims to build leading businesses by removing the pressure to deliver the quick flips associated with a traditional venture capital model.

“The companies provide an excellent snapshot of the breadth of activity and quality of entrepreneurs in the Cambridge Cluster,” says CIC CEO Peter Keen, “we look forward to working with these teams.”

Cambridge Imaging Systems

Leading off CIC’s first investments is £1.5 million in growth funding for Cambridge Imaging Systems, which is developing cloud-based and on-premise software that enables owners of video to archive, deliver and bill for content.

Cambridge Imaging Systems has been at the forefront of media asset management for 20 years, developing technology used by corporate and government clients including the Ministry of Defence, IMG Sports, the BBC, the Imperial War Museum, the British Library and more than 60 universities. The investment from CIC allows Cambridge Imaging Systems to accelerate the market availability of its “ImagenCloud” technology, which offers highly secure video content hosting with managed access for staff and customers on any internet-enabled device.

Origami Energy

CIC provided £1.25 million in funding to grid-scale energy management developer Origami Energy as part of a £3.5 million round alongside Octopus Investments and two angel investors. Origami’s technology allows renewable energy generators, storage providers and energy users to trade with each other at a micro-grid level and maximise the value of their assets, creating a real-time marketplace for the distributed energy world.

Using its software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, Origami intelligently manages the flows of energy and capacity between physical sites with power generation, energy demand and electricity storage by bringing them all on-line with Origami’s technology platform. The new investment enables the company to accelerate its growth.

Jukedeck

CIC has also invested £100,000 in University of Cambridge spin-out Jukedeck, which is developing innovative software that allows users to generate their own original music for videos, online games and many other applications where real-time, responsive music is desired without copyright limitations. The investment was made alongside £400,000 in seed funding from Cambridge Enterprise, the commercialisation arm of the University of Cambridge, and the University EIS Fund managed by Parkwalk Advisors.

“Cambridge Innovation Capital was established with to provide long-term, follow-on capital to companies originating in the Cambridge Cluster. Jukedeck is the first of many spin-outs and we look forward to being a supportive partner as it grows,” says CIC’s Victor Christou.

david manners

Intel sets 2015 date for first 14nm processors

Intel-Core-M Intel has given first details of its processor architecture for 14nm manufacturing processing technology.

To be called Intel Core M processor, it is Intel’s first 14nm processor. It will use second-generation Tri-gate (FinFET) transistors.

According to Mark Bohr, Intel senior fellow, technology and manufacturing group, and director, process architecture and integration: “Intel’s investments and commitment to Moore’s law is at the heart of what our teams have been able to accomplish with this new process.”

Procesors will be available to OEMs in the first half of 2015.

Further products based on the Broadwell microarchitecture and 14nm process technology will be introduced in the coming months.

 

 

richard wilson

Dev kit for TI one-chip IoT W-Fi node

CC3200 LaunchPad is an internet-of-things (IoT) development kit for Texas Instruments’ CC3200 one-chip Wi-Fi microcontroller+baseband.

TI CC3200 Wi-Fi MPUThe chip has two ARM cores: One within a Wi-Fi network processor for running a 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi stack (see below), which leaves the second, an 80MHz Cortex-M4, available for application processing.

To this, the kit adds temperature sensors, a 3-axis accelerometer, LEDs and push-buttons, and it comes with driver support and an software development kit (SDK) with 40 applications for Wi-Fi protocols, internet applications and MCU peripheral examples, together with user guides, design files and API guides.

For those wishing to put a Wi-Fi network processor on their own microcontroller, CC3100 BoosterPack is available.

TI CC3200 Wi-Fi MPU software“It can run on two AA batteries for over a year which, for the first time, brings embedded Wi-Fi capabilities to battery-operated end-equipment,” said Farnell, which is stocking both development kits.

An emulation accessory – CC31XXEMUBOOST – is a board for flashing updates to the CC3100BOOST.

CC3200 network processor

As well as aan ARM core, this includes an 802.11b/g/n radio, baseband, and MAC with a crypto engine256bit encryption.

CC3200 supports Station, Access Point, and Wi-Fi Direct modes, as well as WPA2 personal and enterprise security and WPS 2.0.

TCP/IP and TLS/SSL stacks, HTTP server, and multiple Internet protocols are embedded.

power management sub-system includes integrated dc-dc converters, and enables low-power modes such as ‘hibernate with RTC’ requiring less than 4μA.

steve bush

MEMS sound great, but can it last?

Knowles MEMS microphone

Knowles MEMS microphone

The MEMS (microelectromechanical system) market is starting to motor. It grew at just over 10% last year and is likely to grow even faster this year.

This is good news for the ‘newest’ semiconductor device market. But can it continue to grow at this rate?

Market analyst Yole Développement has already warned of price pressures pegging back revenue growth over the next few years.

According to Yole, price pressure will limit market growth and from 2013-2019 consumer market revenue will only grow modestly at 13%.

But MEMS suppliers have a bigger worry. The market is growing largely because of a single product type – the MEMS microphone.

Even more worrying, apart from sales (a few 100,000s a year) for specialist products such hearing aids, the MEMS  microphone market is overly dependent on the smartphone and one customer in particular - Apple.

Two years ago, the adoption of MEMS microphones in smartphones, offering both small size and audio quality benefits, has injected the fledgling MEMS market with steroids.

According to IHS, just two suppliers Knowles and Infineon Technologies dominate the market for MEMS microphones.

According to IHS, Infineon’s MEMS sales grew by 50% between 2012 and 2013.

But as with such things, the question is how long can it last?

It is never good for a semiconductor market to be too dependent on a single product type.

The hand that so easily giveth can just as easily take away.

The smartphone market is an exacting place to operate if you are a component supplier. Ask flash memory suppliers and look what decimation has happened in the mobile chipset market.

Only the big and powerful survive. And have the MEMS microphone suppliers the strength to stand up to the likes of Apple and Samsung when margins are being squeezed.

MEMS is still a young technology, which means it may not see the cost reduction benefits of maturity fast enough for the smartphone makers.

“The MEMS microphone supply chain must overestimate component supplies in order to ensure it can meet Apple’s demand,” said Marwan Boustany, senior analyst for MEMS and sensors at IHS. “This, in turn, leads to microphone inventory being accumulated at every point in the supply chain.

One answer to the cost of production issue is the fabless model. It has happened in the chipset market and there is every likelihood it will come to dominate the MEMS market before much longer.

If you cannot rely on the comparative luxury of specialist device markets such as mil-aero, medical and high-rel, then you cannot absorb those extra few dollars a part when fabbing your MEMS microphones.

Consumer markets are unforgiving of cost-inefficiency, and the smartphone market is the most unforgiving market of them all.

richard wilson

Bristol University to extend software-defined networking

Professor Dimitra Simeonidou

Professor Dimitra Simeonidou

Software defined networking (SDN) is the key to network convergence, claims the University of Bristol, part of a £12m consortium developing it.

The project, ‘Towards Ultimate Convergence of All Networks’ (‘Toucan’), involves a technology agnostic architecture that which will “facilitate optimal interconnection of any network technology domains, networked devices and data sets with high flexibility, resource and energy efficiency, and will aim to satisfy the full range of quality of service [QoS] and quality of experience [QoE] requirements”, said the University.

Toucan will add to SDN what Bristol describes as technology-specific interfacing and resource description followed by infrastructure resource abstraction, virtualisation and programmability.

Such a network, devices are programmable and interoperable.

“Toucan will revolutionise the way we build and operate communication networks in a similar way that computer networks and more recently mobile terminals were transformed from platform-oriented to platform-agnostic solutions, for example through Linux and Android, and will drive towards commoditisation of network devices,” said project lead Professor Dimitra Simeonidou.

“In that sense, Toucan will deliver a ‘network technology USB’ which will make any networked technology and device discoverable, describable and interoperable within any network infrastructure. Any new technology generation, regardless of whether it is wired or wireless, will connect to the Toucan network in a plug-and-play fashion.”

£6m over five years comes from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

Project partners include: Professor Dimitra Simeonidou and Professor Mark Beach – University of Bristol; Professor Harald Haas – University of Edinburgh; Professor Steve McLaughlin – Heriot-Watt University; Professor David Hutchison – Lancaster University.

 

External consortium partners are: Bristol City Council, Broadcom UK, BT, Janet UK, NEC, Plextek, Samsung, and the Technology Strategy Board, who collectively are committing over £3.6m. Another £2.4m will be contributed by the participating institution through PhD studentships and research equipment funding.

steve bush

Part Marking Options

The wave of automotive recalls this year underscores the importance of putting identification codes on products. Without such codes, consumers would not know if their vehicles were safe, and automakers would not know where or when problem parts were made.